Chapter 327
Chapter 327
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Translator: Ryuma
Chapter: 327
Chapter Title: Treasure Hunt (6)
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“What brings you here?”
Baek Mu-gang approached with a bright smile.
The rusty iron sword in his hand swayed gently like a tail.
Oh-jin concealed his unease and answered in a calm voice.
“I came looking for you, sir.”
“Hmm? Me?”
Baek Mu-gang's eyes widened as he tilted his head.
“How did you find me?”
“I used the compass you gave me last time.”
“A compass…? Ah! Right, I did give you that!”
Baek Mu-gang clapped his hands as if he had completely forgotten.
Still clapping enthusiastically, Baek Mu-gang extended a hand to Oh-jin.
“It's good to see you again! Uh, let's see... What was your name, nice person?”
*He even forgot my name?*
“It's Oh-jin.”
“Ah, right! Oh-jin! Hehe. I remembered!”
Baek Mu-gang's eyes sparkled as if asking for praise.
For a moment, a doubt crossed Oh-jin's mind: was asking for Baek Mu-gang's cooperation after helping him find his treasure really a good idea?
“Kugh…”
Jackal, who had been kneeling and observing the situation, groaned and pushed himself up.
Using his broken spear as a cane, Jackal got to his feet and started running without a backward glance.
Just as Oh-jin frowned and was about to pursue Jackal.
“Wait a minute.”
Baek Mu-gang took a step forward.
*Shhhhhhhk!*
A sheet of ice instantly formed from the tips of his toes.
Baek Mu-gang's body glided forward as if he were skating.
“You can't run away.”
Instantly catching up to the fleeing Jackal, Baek Mu-gang slashed his shin with the sword.
His leg severed, Jackal tumbled to the ground.
Baek Mu-gang approached the fallen Jackal and pointed his sword at his throat.
“Where did you hide my treasure?”
“Wh-what in the world is this treasure you're talking about?!”
“Treasure is treasure.”
“Y-you crazy bastard!”
Jackal looked up at Baek Mu-gang, his face pale with terror.
“A bad person stole my treasure. Treasure is precious.”
The veins on Baek Mu-gang's hand bulged as he gripped the sword.
Baek Mu-gang glared at Jackal with eyes that seemed to burn.
“Where is the bad person now?”
“…Are you talking about Lord Deimos?”
He didn't know what treasure the old demon was looking for.
But he could vaguely guess that the 'bad person' he was talking about was Deimos.
Deimos's greed for valuable treasures was famous, after all.
“I don't know the name. But he stole my treasure. I have to get it back.”
“Ha. Are you asking me where Lord Deimos is?”
Jackal scoffed and clutched his broken spear.
Asking him, a knight of Deimos of all Manin, for his whereabouts.
“Glory to the gold.”
Jackal stabbed himself in the neck with the broken spear.
*Cough.*
Spitting blood, Jackal's body slowly collapsed.
“Aah!”
Baek Mu-gang screamed and rushed to the fallen Jackal, but he was already dead.
“Again, I couldn't hear it again!”
Baek Mu-gang stomped his foot in frustration.
*A Manin committing suicide.*
Oh-jin was just as surprised.
He never expected a Manin to possess such loyalty as to kill themselves for the master they served.
*I guess not all Manin are the same.*
Oh-jin, who was looking down at Jackal's corpse with a complicated expression, turned his head toward Baek Mu-gang.
“Were you catching Manin here to find your treasure?”
“Yeah. The bad person is here. But they won't tell me where.”
*So that's why he's been indiscriminately catching and roughing up the Manin to find Deimos.*
Now he understood why Deimos's knights were so terrified of a human.
“Would it be all right if I helped you find your treasure?”
He had briefly debated whether or not to ask for Baek Mu-gang's cooperation.
But seeing Baek Mu-gang's skill in instantly chasing down and cutting off Jackal's leg, he leaned toward helping him find the treasure.
“Y-you'll help me find my treasure?”
“Yes. However, once you find it, I'd like you to…”
“Wow! You really are a nice person! Oh-jin is a nice person!”
Without even listening to the rest of the sentence, Baek Mu-gang clapped his hands and jumped up and down like a child.
Oh-jin swallowed a groan and turned around.
“Let's head back and make a plan first.”
“Yeah! Okay!”
Hehe, Baek Mu-gang nodded with an innocent smile.
“Ah, could you wait here for a moment?”
“Hmm? Why?”
“I have something to take care of. It will only take ten minutes.”
Right now, Ha-eun and Isabella were wearing nothing but towels.
Bringing Baek Mu-gang back suddenly would create a rather awkward situation.
“Umm… Okay! I'll wait here!”
Baek Mu-gang plopped down on the ground.
Oh-jin nodded and returned to where Ha-eun and Isabella were.
“Did you catch the guy who ran off?”
“We've finished up here.”
When he returned, Ha-eun and Isabella, who had been waiting for him, approached.
“What about Riak and Vega?”
“Riak went back to the Sanctuary because of his injury, and Vega went with him to take care of him.”
“Is that so?”
*Makes sense.*
Although Riak had the upper hand in the fight, the burn on his cheek was not an injury to be taken lightly.
“More importantly, there's something I need to talk to you about.”
“Huh? What is it?”
Oh-jin told the two women about his encounter with Baek Mu-gang.
“You met that weird old man?”
“Yeah. So I was thinking of bringing him over so we can plan our next move together, but…”
He continued, glancing at the two women's exposed shoulders and legs.
“First, let's get properly dressed.”
“Ah, right.”
“R-Right.”
The two women nodded and hurried back to the tent.
After they changed, he returned with them to where Baek Mu-gang was waiting.
“You're back! I kept my promise!”
Baek Mu-gang, who had been waiting patiently without shifting his posture, shot to his feet.
“Long time no see, gramps.”
“Have you been well?”
“Mootari? What's a mootari?”
Watching Baek Mu-gang suck his thumb and tilt his head like a child, Isabella gave an awkward smile.
“It means, 'Have you been doing okay without any trouble?'”
“Yeah! I've been doing great!”
Baek Mu-gang nodded brightly.
“That's a relief.”
“Hehe.”
His back was bent like a hunchback, and his face was covered in liver spots, an ugly sight.
But the innocent smile on his wrinkled lips felt beautiful somehow.
“The tent is over there. Let's go together.”
“Okay!”
Oh-jin led Baek Mu-gang back to where they had set up the tent.
Seeing the tent, Baek Mu-gang's eyes sparkled.
“A house! It's a house! Do you live here, Oh-jin?”
“No, this isn't a house, it's a tent.”
“A tent?”
“…”
Oh-jin continued, his voice tinged with weariness.
“It's like a portable house.”
“Wow, they have things like that.”
“How do you usually sleep, sir?”
“Me? I lie down and sleep. Like this.”
Baek Mu-gang flopped down on the bare ground.
He had vaguely expected it, but it seemed Baek Mu-gang had been wandering the Magyeong all alone, without any proper equipment.
*Is the treasure so precious that he'd go to such lengths to find it?*
No matter how much high-ranking Awakeners were superhumans who transcended humanity, they were still fundamentally 'human'.
Sleeping on the bare ground with the starlight as a blanket is one thing for a day or two, but after several days, it would cause extreme mental stress.
For a human who had lived in a civilized society, sleeping rough was an act that elicited an instinctive aversion.
Even though he had dementia, Baek Mu-gang was still human.
Yet he had been wandering this distant land of Magyeong, sleeping on the bare ground.
For years.
To find his lost 'treasure'.
“Sir. What is the treasure you're looking for?”
“Huh? Treasure is treasure.”
*That answer again.*
“I mean, if you could just give a simple description of what it looks like…”
“Treasure is something precious.”
Cutting Oh-jin off, Baek Mu-gang grinned.
“I have to find it.”
“…”
It seemed it would be difficult to find out what treasure he was looking for right now.
*Phew.*
As he sighed, wondering what to do with this unpredictable old man.
*Grrrrrrumble.*
A sound like thunder rumbled from Baek Mu-gang's stomach.
“Are you hungry?”
“Yeah, I'm hungry. There's no food here.”
“How long has it been since you've eaten?”
“Since I last ate… ten nights! Ten nights have passed!”
“…Let's get you something to eat first.”
Starving for ten days was hard to endure, even for a high-ranking Awakener.
“Oh-jin. Um… we went straight to the hot spring earlier, so we haven't done any prep…”
Isabella trailed off with an embarrassed expression.
“Then let's just have some instant food.”
“Will that be okay?”
“He said he's been starving for ten days.”
He'd be hungry enough to chew on steel bars.
“Let's see then… Ah, I brought some frozen dumplings. Should we have these?”
Rummaging through her backpack, Ha-eun took out a large pack of frozen dumplings.
The backpack Kim Si-hoo had given them also had an insulation function, so the frozen dumplings were still rock-solid, just as they were when packed.
“That's fine.”
“Okay, I'll boil some water right away.”
Ha-eun tore open the package of frozen dumplings slightly and dropped it into the bubbling water.
After about five minutes, appetizing, steaming dumplings were ready.
“Dumplings? Are these dumplings?”
“Yes. There's plenty, so please let me know if you'd like more.”
Isabella placed the dumplings on a plate and offered it to Baek Mu-gang.
“Here are some chopsticks…”
“Wow! Dumplings! I love dumplings!”
Before he even took the chopsticks, Baek Mu-gang grabbed the hot dumplings with his bare hands and stuffed them into his mouth.
“Hehe.”
A blissful smile spread across his wrinkled lips.
Isabella took out another pack of frozen dumplings, put them in the pot, and asked in a gentle voice.
“Did you like dumplings?”
“Yeah! My old woman used to make them for me a lot!”
Baek Mu-gang, his cheeks puffed out with dumplings, nodded vigorously.
“It sounds like your wife took good care of you.”
“Yeah. My old woman is a good person.”
“Then where is your wife now…?”
“She's dead.”
*Flinch.* Isabella's shoulders trembled.
“A bad person killed my old woman.”
“Ah…”
She let out a soft gasp and averted her gaze.
“…I'm sorry.”
“Huh? For what?”
Baek Mu-gang tilted his head as if he didn't understand why she was apologizing.
Ha-eun, who had been listening quietly to their conversation, carefully spoke up.
“That bad person… did Deimos kill her?”
It wasn't just that he stole the treasure.
He had killed Baek Mu-gang's wife as well?
“My old woman?”
“…Yeah.”
“No.”
Baek Mu-gang shook his head vigorously, a faint smile on his lips.
“I killed her.”
“…What?”
“My old woman.”
A smile different from before, one filled with sorrow, like dark clouds covering a clear sky.
“I killed her.”
As if searching for a star hidden by the dark clouds.
The old man's eyes wandered lonely across the night sky.