I’m Not Asking for Your Opinion Right Now
Episode 4
I trudged into the village.
Jinwan Village.
As far as the surrounding area was concerned, it was a fairly large, lively place.
It was practically big enough to be called a city.
Now that I’d come this far, there was only one thing left for me to do.
I’ll start looking right away…
As I turned down an alley, a familiar female voice slipped into my ear.
“S-Sojin, sir? You’re alive…!”
A woman with chestnut-brown hair that fell to her shoulders and decent-quality clothes hurried over.
Her eyes and mouth were both wide open in shock.
One of the vagabonds I’d taken in.
Sumi.
From the look of her, it seemed she was doing well for herself at a high-end tavern.
“Sumi. Have you been well?”
“Ah… right.”
I greeted her warmly, but Sumi couldn’t meet my eyes and kept staring at the ground instead.
An awkward silence stretched on.
She kept scraping the dirt with the toe of her shoe, as if trying to dig her way into the earth.
What was she thinking?
I had a pretty good idea, but I didn’t ask.
Time would give me the answer on its own.
Before long, she finally opened her mouth.
“Sojin-nim… Please leave this village right away…! I don’t know about the others, but I… I think you should….”
After agonizing over it, that was what she chose to say, and I found it more satisfying than I’d expected.
I knew better than anyone that the martial world was a place where you could get your nose cut off while it was still on your face, but this was also a world where people like her had to survive.
“Thank you, Sumi.”
“Pardon?”
Apparently she hadn’t expected to be thanked.
Sumi’s eyes flew wide open as she lifted her head.
“N-No… someone like me doesn’t deserve to receive thanks from Sojin-nim….”
She fidgeted, shifting from foot to foot.
She was definitely anxious.
She hadn’t said it out loud, but I could guess why.
Just as I thought, someone came walking up behind her.
A black-haired woman looked at me with startled eyes.
“S-Sojin-nim? H-How?”
“Chiri, was it? Have you been well?”
“……”
I greeted her pleasantly, but Chiri didn’t say a word.
How rude. Not even a response.
After a long silence, Chiri finally put on a smile and came over.
“Sojin-nim! I’m truly relieved you’re safe. You have no idea how worried I was.”
The bright smile on her face was one of those obvious customer-service smiles.
And I wasn’t inexperienced enough to miss it.
Still, I put on a face that looked happy to see her.
“Chiri, I missed you too. Wow… you look healthy. That’s a relief.”
“It’s all thanks to you, Sojin-nim. Instead of standing around like this, how about some drinks to celebrate our reunion?”
“Sounds good, Chiri. Let’s go.”
“Really? Wow—your momentum is incredible!”
Chiri naturally slipped her arm through mine.
“J-Just a moment. Sojin-nim….”
Just as the two of us were about to leave the alley, Sumi stopped me.
She looked at me with worried eyes.
“Sumi. Come with us.”
“Huh? Ah… I, I mean….”
“No, no. Sumi’s been busy with work at the tavern lately, so she needs to get back quickly. Right, Sumi?”
With the hesitant girl standing right there, Chiri cut into the conversation.
That was a bad habit.
“I, I….”
Sumi glanced at Chiri and twisted her fingers together, unable to speak easily.
That counted as trying, at least.
“It’s fine.”
“Pardon?”
“I said it’s fine, Sumi. Let’s see each other next time.”
“Come on already! Sojin-nim!”
I waved slowly and stepped out of the alley.
Even at the very end, she was still watching me with worried eyes.
Following Chiri, I entered a dingy tavern.
It was old in places and poorly lit.
“Welcome!”
“This building is way too run-down.”
“Sojin-nim, the best places are always like this.”
“It does have a rustic feel. Must make the liquor taste better.”
“Hehe… exactly, right?”
If they’d really intended to run a proper business, they wouldn’t have built in a place like this.
It was obviously being used as a base.
It was the smallest tavern in the village, but there were still quite a few people in the common room.
Of course, none of them looked like decent folk.
Chiri said she needed to use the latrine and stepped out for a moment.
As I walked deeper inside, I could feel the gazes of the loud, boisterous patrons turning toward me.
How annoying.
They were probably looking at the sword at my hip rather than at me.
I took a seat nearby and called to the waiter.
“Two bowls of noodles and a bottle of zhuyeqing, please.”
“Right away.”
“Wait a minute.”
“Sir, did you want to order something else?”
I took the silver ingots I’d received from the merchants out of my robe.
“Take these.”
“Silver ingots… don’t tell me…?”
I said nothing, only nodded.
The instant I finished speaking, the waiter shot into the kitchen.
I couldn’t tell whether he was normally that quick on his feet, or whether he’d sensed something.
As soon as the waiter disappeared, the rough-looking men who had been standing by closed in around me as if to surround me.
They all looked like they could handle themselves in a fight.
“Heh heh heh….”
“Mister, that’s a face I haven’t seen around here before. First time in this area today, maybe?”
The burly man who looked like the leader shoved his filthy face toward me.
He made sure to show off the blade at his waist while he was at it.
“Get lost. I won’t say it twice.”
There was no need to be polite to scum like this.
They’d just look down on me for it.
At my completely different tone from the way I’d spoken to the waiter, the hulking man flinched and took a step back.
Then, realizing he’d unconsciously retreated, his face turned red.
“You punk! I was trying to talk nice, but I guess that won’t work!!”
“Hey now—what’s this bastard getting so cocky about? You some kind of martial arts expert?”
“Kukuk… You’re dead now. Don’t you see the knife?”
“Must’ve got more guts than brains.”
Laughter came from the surrounding crowd.
“Looks like he won’t come to his senses unless something gets broken! We’ll be happy to oblige!”
A sigh escaped me.
They said even dogs don’t get kicked while someone’s eating…
I didn’t even need to draw my sword.
For trash like this, a little boxing and kicking was more than enough.
Thud!
The hulking man who threw the first punch went flying straight into the wall.
With a sickening crack, he collapsed and lost consciousness on the spot.
I’m not supposed to push myself yet.
“W-What the hell! That punch just now—!!”
“This bastard’s insane! Get the others! Hurry!”
“Rush him!”
Shing—
Sshhing—
The remaining five all drew their blades at once.
Not only that, but about ten more underlings who had appeared from somewhere also brandished their swords and surrounded me.
Creaaak.
Click.
At the same time, Chiri locked the tavern door.
She curled one corner of her mouth into a sly smile.
They were moving exactly as expected, and I couldn’t help but snort.
“Laughing? You’ve got the nerve to laugh in a situation like this?”
“Think you can take on this many?”
“Kukuk… so the situation’s finally sinking in, huh?”
“This bastard’s scared stiff. He can’t even talk.”
“What a pathetic bastard… You made a mistake coming here.”
They were grinning, trusting only in their numbers.
“All of you here?”
“What?”
There’s no such thing as one against many in this world.
“I asked if everyone’s here.”
“Is this bastard crazy?”
“Hey, can you not tell what situation you’re in right now—”
Pow!
He couldn’t finish.
By common sense, two swords were stronger than one, and two fists were stronger than one.
“Kill him!”
“Cut off his arms and legs!!”
Of course, that only applied when the level of the fighters was even.
Pow!
Crack!!
For mad dogs like these, a beating was medicine.
“And have you ever seen anyone lose a tavern gang fight?”
*
Gulp!
Glug.
Gulp-gulp!! Ahh!
Grrrgh…
Somewhere, I could hear someone swallowing hard.
Of course, it wouldn’t be the owner of that sound.
“If none of you came running even after everything got smashed, then I guess making a big scene isn’t a problem. Right?”
Given how tucked away this place was, there wasn’t much room for consideration anyway.
I ate my noodles while staring at the floor.
Chiri was lying flat on the ground in nothing but her underwear.
Even though she was hungry enough to keep swallowing her spit, she still didn’t dare lift her head.
Her whole body trembled like a leaf in the wind.
She hadn’t been told to do this, so if she was acting like this on her own...
She must’ve done a lot of bad things in her time, no?
“Chiri. The noodles are going to get soggy. Come sit here.”
“N-No… how could someone like me sit at the same table as Sojin-nim….”
Chiri pressed her forehead into the floor and shook violently.
“Chiri.”
“Y-Yes…?”
“Lift your head.”
As she raised her head, she naturally covered her chest with a hand.
That irritated me all of a sudden.
“Who told you to take your hand off the floor?”
“H-Hiiik… I-I’m sorry!”
Chiri hurriedly planted her hands on the floor and pushed herself up.
That was the right posture.
“Do you happen to know where Menma is?”
At this point, I needed to find the woman who’d claimed I’d violated her as soon as possible.
“M-Menma? I….”
The confusion that rose in Chiri’s eyes told me everything I needed to know.
She didn’t know.
Then I’d just have to ask the others.
“Bring me Jin-ta, Gu-ryang, An-roo, and Ma-jin. All four of them.”
The vagabonds who’d stabbed me in the back.
They had to know.
“I know Sojin-nim has gotten stronger, but those guys have people backing them….”
I set my chopsticks down with a sharp tap.
The noodles were tastier than I’d expected.
“Hiiik…!”
Every tiny motion I made seemed to jolt her.
This was kind of fun.
“Chiri, cheer up a little. Why are you so hunched over? You were completely different when you locked the door just now.”
Chiri rolled her eyes around and broke out in a cold sweat.
I could practically hear the gears turning in her head.
“That was… a mistake….”
A mistake?
Was there really such a thing as accidentally locking the door?
Still, this was the time to show a little mercy.
She was still useful.
“It’s fine. People do stab others in the back from time to time in life, don’t they?”
“H-Hiiik! N-No, sob… I-I’m so sorry… Sojin-nim, please, just my life….”
“Do I look like some lunatic who kills people at random?”
Tears welled in Chiri’s eyes.
I pointed around the room with a finger.
There were men sprawled out everywhere, one with blood running from his head, another bent at an absurd angle, and so on.
There were plenty who’d been broken, but not a single corpse.
That was only because I’d controlled my strength.
There was an unwritten rule in tavern brawls: no one died when it was one against many.
Traditional martial arts really were a strange thing.
She nodded up and down like a madwoman.
“No….”
“And.”
I paused, letting out a slow breath.
“I’m not asking for your opinion right now. Go tell them I’m here.”
##