Unveiled Secrets
Seo Jun paused for a moment to organize his thoughts. “How many are there in total?”
“Thirty-two, my lord.”
“Are they all men?”
“Yes… that is correct.”
The old man’s voice faltered slightly as he answered the question about their gender. A flicker of suspicion appeared in Seo Jun’s eyes. Every person kneeling before him clearly appeared to be male. So why had the elder hesitated?
“What is your name?”
“Great Warrior, this one is called Chogaeje.”
“And what about those people covering their faces?”
At Seo Jun’s unexpected question, he saw Chogaeje’s body twitch. With each passing moment, Seo Jun grew more certain that the old man was hiding something from him. If he was going to accept these people as his own, he could not tolerate any secrets between them.
“Those individuals have suffered severe facial wounds or pockmarks that make them unsightly, so the Qiang forced them to cover their faces. They have lived that way ever since.”
“I see. Tell them all to remove their coverings.”
“G-Great Warrior! You will find it most unpleasant to look upon!”
Sweat trickled down Chogaeje’s cheek, clearly visible to Seo Jun. The old man continued trying to dissuade him, desperate to prevent him from seeing what lay beneath, but Seo Jun’s decision had been firm from the start.
I need to see their faces to understand exactly what he’s trying to hide.
“Lower your masks.”
Judging that he could not change Seo Jun’s mind, Chogaeje turned and gave the order to those wearing coverings. A dozen people hesitated briefly. Only after Chogaeje nodded once more in confirmation did they finally pull the fabric down.
Seo Jun examined each revealed face carefully. Some bore terrible scars of unknown origin, while others carried the pitted marks left by smallpox. Then his gaze stopped on one man whose build was noticeably smaller than the rest. The man’s face appeared scarred and dirty, but upon closer inspection, Seo Jun realized it was artificial—dried animal flesh and makeup applied to create the illusion of disfigurement.
As Seo Jun continued staring without moving, cold sweat broke out on Chogaeje’s face and his eyes began to tremble visibly. The others shifted their gazes anxiously, watching Seo Jun’s reaction. There was no doubt this was the person Chogaeje had tried to conceal.
“Haa… It seems we cannot hide it any longer.”
The man who had been kneeling with his head raised crawled forward on his knees until he was two steps closer to Seo Jun. What was astonishing was how his voice had completely changed. It was now a woman’s voice.
“Great Warrior, please forgive us. We had no choice but to deceive you. I beg you to show mercy just this once.”
Chogaeje crawled forward on his knees and threw himself flat on the ground before Seo Jun. For a moment, Seo Jun simply looked at the old man and the woman disguised as a man. They clearly had their reasons. And hiding one person’s gender wasn’t something that would cause him any real problems.
“Speak. This is the last chance I will give you. Tell me the whole truth, in detail.”
“The thing is…”
“Elder Cho, please wait. I will speak to the warrior myself.”
“Sorengju…”
The person disguised as a man grabbed their sleeve and began vigorously rubbing their face, as if trying to wipe away the makeup. Once the disguise was removed, the face that emerged was quite different from what Seo Jun had imagined.
Before him stood a beautiful young woman of similar age to himself, possessing an exotic charm that mysteriously blended Western and Eastern features typical of Arab descent. She had deep, dark eyes, a straight nose, and a delicate jawline.
She’s beautiful.
She possessed a beauty unlike any of the beautiful women he had encountered before—a completely different kind of allure.
“Great Warrior, I am a woman of the Takya Yuezhi clan. My father is the chieftain of the Takya Yuezhi. Our clan was completely shattered by the Qiang invasion. Some of us were taken captive like this, while others were scattered across many regions. That is why…”
The woman explained that the Takya Yuezhi had once held a position similar to the ruling clan among the Lesser Yuezhi tribes. Even though their own tribe had been destroyed, she and a few others had concealed their identities, traveling between regions. They deliberately allowed themselves to be captured as slaves in order to infiltrate Qiang settlements, where they connected with other captured or scattered members of the Yuezhi, helping them escape.
In this way, they were gradually gathering their people once more, working to restore the Yuezhi as an independent power.
In short, they’re independence fighters.
Having learned about Korea’s own independence movement, Seo Jun understood how grueling and difficult such work truly was. He found their efforts admirable.
“Then why not simply leave? Why do you want to follow me?”
From what they had told him, they could simply depart when he released them. They could continue infiltrating places where their kin were held, rebuild their network, and help them escape. Yet here they were, asking to follow him instead.
“The truth is, that method has reached its limit. The situation has grown too difficult to continue this way. The Qiang seem to have learned of our existence. Now when they take prisoners, they no longer leave them with any freedom. They lock them up and keep them under strict watch, just as you saw with us earlier.”
“So we were searching for a new approach when we witnessed you fighting earlier, Great Warrior. We realized you were someone destined for greatness, and thus we wished to entrust ourselves to you while seeking another path.”
“A difficult situation, you say?”
“It has already been nearly a hundred years since the Yuezhi split into many branches. The sacred artifact that symbolized our clan’s primacy as the ruling tribe disappeared during the chaos twenty years ago. Now the other tribes no longer recognize the authority of our branch. They simply wish to live comfortably in the current state without any troublesome changes.”
“It has been quite some time. People change, so it makes sense they would feel that way.”
“Yes, that is correct.”
When they had first asked to be accepted, Seo Jun had been strongly inclined to take them in. But the more he heard, the more he felt that accepting them would only drag him into troublesome affairs.
“Hmm…”
Seo Jun let out a deep sigh as he fell into thought. He glanced around. Between searching for his father Seo Jeong and uncle Seo Pyeong’s bodies and speaking with these people, quite a bit of time had passed. The sun was gradually sinking toward the western mountains.
Even if we leave now, we’ll only end up camping soon anyway.
It seemed impossible to depart this place today.
“We’ll have to stay here for the night. I’ll take more time tonight to carefully consider what to do with all of you. Now that I know your circumstances, I cannot make a hasty decision to accept you.”
At Seo Jun’s answer, the Yuezhi people’s expressions darkened considerably. They were only human, and they had grown exhausted from a situation that refused to change. Continuing this work with no one to help or even care was an incredibly difficult path that required immense resolve and a willingness to sacrifice one’s entire life.
After delivering those final words, Seo Jun headed toward the well that the fortress soldiers had used. He removed his armor and clothing. While speaking with them he hadn’t noticed, but now that the conversation had ended, his entire body felt sticky and itchy, almost unbearable. The sensation of dried blood crusts pulling at his skin suddenly filled him with irritation.
Splash!
He filled a water ladle to the brim and poured it over his head in one go. Red-tinted water flowed down his body and spilled across the ground. The sorrow of his family’s death and the sticky irritation that had clung to his heart seemed to wash away, at least a little.
Inside one of the few buildings in the fortress that had not burned, Seo Jun sat on a bed. Since he had washed all his bloodstained armor and clothes, he now wore only his undergarments as he examined his body. The countless wounds on his arms and legs had all healed, leaving only thin, straight scars. In time, even most of those smaller scars would vanish without a trace.
Fighting God Body really is overpowered.
“I will enter now.”
The voice belonged to the woman who had introduced herself as Sorengju.