Good-Bye, My Friends (5)
"P-please spare us!"
"We’re sorry!"
"If you let us live, we’ll do anything!"
Baek Cheon tilted his head.
"What are they saying?"
"They say they’ll do anything if we spare them," Jo Gul replied.
Baek Cheon frowned.
"Didn’t I tell you not to hit them in the face?"
"No, but they were resisting."
"…."
Normally, people who resist don’t get their jaws kicked off, my dear martial nephew.
At last, Baek Cheon shook his head back and forth.
Jo Gul’s hopeless too.
How had every single one of them started to resemble Chung Myung? If they were going to end up like that, then maybe they should’ve stopped badmouthing him all the time in the first place.
He let out a long sigh and looked at the bandits kneeling in a row before them.
Pitiable, really.
But when he thought about it, there was no room for sympathy here.
These men preyed on honest commoners and merchants.
According to Gwak Gyeong, people died to bandits on this road all the time, so the odds were high that these bastards were nothing but garbage who murdered innocent people for profit.
And yet, knowing all that—
"Hehehehehe."
"…."
With Chung Myung standing behind him, drooling like a fool, Baek Cheon found his sympathy rising against his will.
Right then, Chung Myung, who had been grinning wickedly all this time, sidled over.
"So what now?"
"What do you mean, what now?"
Chung Myung smiled with obvious satisfaction as he looked at the bandits.
"I wonder if these guys know how to eat fodder. They need to eat well if they’re gonna have the strength to pull the carts properly."
"…."
Just kill me, you bastard.
* * *
Gwak Gyeong rubbed his eyes.
But no matter how hard he did it, the sight before him didn’t change.
The horses that should have been straining to pull the carts were now walking lightly beside them, their hooves clicking briskly along the road.
And what was pulling the freight carts in place of the merchants’ horses was, incredibly, human beings.
"Grrrrrrrrr—"
"Grrrrrrrrrrr!"
Bandits with faces beaten so badly they looked like swollen melons were trembling all over as they hauled the carts.
"…."
What the hell do people even eat to think of making humans pull freight carts?
Was this really something a sane person would come up with?
Even more astonishing was the fact that the carts drawn by people were moving at least three times faster than when the horses had been pulling them.
If humans could become such excellent draft animals, then why had people ever bothered using horses instead of human beings in the first place… No. Wait. That wasn’t the issue here!
The Taoist seated on the driver’s bench of the cart—Chung Myung, if Gwak Gyeong remembered correctly—used the scabbard in his hand to thwack the bandits on the head.
"Slacking off, are we? Your legs feel tired already?"
"N-no, sir!"
"You should count yourselves lucky. I’m not the sort of guy who usually leaves bandits and mountain thieves alive. I only spared you because you were useful, and now you’re trying to stop being useful?"
"No, sir! Absolutely not!"
The carts immediately started moving even faster. Now the bandits walking around them had to break into a run just to keep pace.
The poor bandits—if they could even still be called that—dragged the carts with every ounce of strength they had, tears streaming down their faces, too terrified to even think about resisting.
Gwak Gyeong gaped at the utterly absurd scene, one he had never in his life imagined he would witness. That was when the escort captain quietly approached him and said in a low voice,
"Manager."
"Yes, Captain."
"Those men pulling the carts now."
"Yes. Well, it’s ridiculous, I know. I’m sorry. It may be difficult for you to understand, but those people over there…."
"No, no. It’s not that."
"Pardon?"
The escort captain’s face was slightly pale as he said,
"Those bastards are stronger than me."
"What?"
"I said they’re stronger than me."
"…What?"
Gwak Gyeong looked at him with a face that showed he understood none of it.
The man serving as escort captain for this merchant caravan was named Sa Ma-huai. His byname was Lightning Hands.
He was a fairly well-known figure in Sichuan. The road heading toward Yunnan was so rough and dangerous that the Hua-pyeong Merchant Group had hired him at great expense to lead their escort.
In Sichuan, it was hard to find anyone with a bit of experience who hadn’t at least heard of the name Lightning Hands.
And yet this man was weaker than a mere band of mountain thieves?
"So… you mean those bastards are…?"
"The bandits pulling the carts right now. I’m saying they’re stronger than me."
"…."
Not the Mount Hua disciples who had subdued the bandits, but those bandits themselves were stronger than Lightning Hands?
"You little bastards! Can’t you see your feet right now?"
The young man kicking one of the bandits?
"And it’s not just one of them. Every single one of them is stronger than me."
"…All ten?"
"Yes. Not one of them is weaker."
"…."
The escort captain glanced at the bandits with a stunned expression.
"Didn’t they say last night that they were from Jangho Fort?"
"…I think I heard something like that."
"If it’s the Jangho Fort I know, they’ve got a fearsome reputation around here. I heard they’re a rising force that gathered up the bandits roaming this area in one shot."
"I think I heard that too…."
By this point, there was only one question left.
"Just what are those people?"
"W-well. About that, I’m not entirely…."
Gwak Gyeong hadn’t received much of an explanation from Tang Gun-ak regarding the Mount Hua disciples. He had only been told that they were his guests and that they should be treated well.
There was only one thing he had heard.
"I was told they were disciples of Mount Hua."
"Mount Hua? You said Mount Hua? Do you mean the Mount Hua in Shaanxi?"
"Yes. As far as I know…."
"I’d heard that Mount Hua was starting to recover its old glory lately, and it seems that was true after all…."
The escort captain shuddered all over.
No matter how one looked at it, this was excessive, wasn’t it?
Those young bandits from Jangho Fort had been beaten down in an instant.
And it wasn’t even like everyone had piled on together.
One of the younger-looking ones had simply walked out with a lazy expression, and in the blink of an eye, he had pounded those terrifying bandits like they were dogs.
Lord Tang said to take good care of them.
Maybe that hadn’t meant, “They’re my guests, so be polite to them for my sake,” but rather, “If you don’t take good care of them, your head might come off, so be careful”?
Gwak Gyeong coughed loudly.
Since everything had been so absurd, and since it had all happened like a storm, he had left it alone until now—but it was time to sort things out.
"Um…."
"Yes?"
Until now, Gwak Gyeong had only spoken through Baek Cheon, but his eyes were now fixed on Chung Myung. Seeing the way he handled the bandits like livestock, he felt this was the person he needed to talk to.
"I-Is this really all right?"
"What is?"
Chung Myung turned to him with a bright face, clearly in a good mood now that the caravan was moving faster.
"Is it okay to enter Yunnan like this?"
"Huh? Why wouldn’t it be?"
No, damn it!
No matter how you look at it, this is weird! Humans are pulling freight carts!
"Ah, you mean these guys?"
"Yes. They’re impossible to ignore. And there’s also the matter of numbers. If anyone asks who they are, how do we explain it?"
"Just say they’re bandits."
"Pardon?"
"If you say we captured the bandits who attacked us and made them work, who’s going to complain? There’s no need to lie, is there?"
"…."
Well, no, that was true, but….
Chung Myung smiled brightly.
"They won’t count the bandits we picked up along the way as part of the caravan, will they? They’re not that stupid. The Beasts Palace people are humans too."
"And if they ask how we subdued them…."
"Then say the escort men beat them all up and, as punishment, made them pull carts instead of horses. Everybody will love that. It’s a good deed, after all."
"…."
Would they really love it?
Come to think of it, maybe there wasn’t any reason to hate it either.
"Isn’t it great? They pull the carts for you instead of horses, and at night they’ll even help set up camp. If there’s anything else you need done, use them however you like."
"Th-That’s allowed?"
"Sure. Wouldn’t they prefer that over dying?"
"…Pardon?"
"If the manager really can’t agree, then we’ll just bury them somewhere appropriate and move on. We can’t let them go, or they’ll just go back to banditry."
At Chung Myung’s words, the bandits tied to the carts like horses shrieked through tears and snot.
"We’ll pull them like dogs! No—like oxen! We’ll work hard!"
"Please let us work! We’ll do anything you tell us to do!"
"Please don’t abandon us! We can pull these carts much better than those weak horses! Please!"
"…."
A beautiful sight full of enthusiasm for work… as if. It was a desperate scene where life and death hung in the balance. The cries went on and on in a frantic attempt to move Gwak Gyeong’s heart.
"Manager!"
"Brother!"
"Buddha!"
How far are you going to take this, you bastards?
Gwak Gyeong squeezed his eyes shut.
"I-Is this really all right? Taking bandits with us seems… a little dangerous."
"Dangerous?"
Chung Myung cocked his head.
He gave the bound bandits’ asses a couple of kicks and snorted.
"These guys?"
"…."
"Ah, I suppose from the manager’s point of view, that might be worrying. Then let me think…."
Chung Myung made a thoughtful expression.
"Hmm. Then… they still need their legs to pull the carts, so no. Should I just break both arms?"
The bandits stared at Gwak Gyeong with the most desperate expressions in the world.
Seeing them shake their heads so violently stirred up sympathy in Gwak Gyeong that hadn’t even existed a moment ago.
"Then I’ll take your silence as permission and break their arms so you won’t have to worry!"
"N-no! Young hero! Wait! Wait a moment! No matter what, you can’t just do that to people’s arms!"
"Ah, come on. What kind of people are these guys? They kill people for money. If we weren’t here, everyone here would’ve been dead already."
"W-Well, that’s true, but…."
"We already spared lives that were supposed to be forfeit and made them work for us. They should at least accept broken arms as part of the bargain. Personally, I’d like to leave them with only one leg, but we’ve got a long road ahead. Hng."
As Chung Myung rose from the driver’s seat with the scabbard in hand, Gwak Gyeong’s voice grew even more urgent.
"P-please, calm down! Calm down, young hero! I’m fine! I won’t be troubled at all! Just tell them with words and they’ll understand!"
"Huh?"
Then the bandits hurriedly shouted,
"We understand! We really understand, young hero!"
"We need our arms if we’re going to work harder! I can dig holes, and I can cook too! Please let us work!"
"If anyone in the caravan so much as touches you, I’ll go—I'll go to hell!"
"Please spare us!"
Chung Myung tilted his head.
"You really say it with words and they understand?"
"Yes!"
"Absolutely."
Chung Myung’s eyes flashed.
"Then why the hell were you bandits in the first place, if you can understand words, you bastards!"
THWACK!
A heavy blow came down hard on a bandit’s head, scabbard and all—the broken Plum Blossom Sword had been replaced by a steel sword stolen from Tang Gun-ak!
"You bastards! You’ve got all your limbs intact, you’ve even learned martial arts, and the best thing you could think of was banditry? I even beat down the Green Forest King, for crying out loud! And you have the nerve to bandit in front of me like you’ve got no manners? You want to die that badly?"
THWACK! THWACK! THWACK!
Every single bandit pulling a cart looked pitiful.
But the most miserable of all was the one tied to the freight cart Chung Myung himself was riding.
"Until we get to Yunnan, don’t even think about being treated like people! I’m a horse, and I’m an ox! I’ll drag you and drag you until you reach the state of horse-me, I-am-one-with-the-horse! I’ll teach you what the Dao is!"
As Chung Myung started glaring like a madman, Gwak Gyeong quietly turned to Baek Cheon.
Baek Cheon responded with a cheerful smile that only made his handsome face more radiant.
"Give up. Nobody can stop him."
"…."
Then the martial siblings chimed in one after another.
"Wow, Sasuk. But Chung Myung has really become a lot kinder. In the old days, he would’ve broken their arms and legs first, then complained that it was a shame they had to pull the carts because they’d made a mistake."
"No, he would’ve broken their arms and legs, then told them to pull the carts."
"Ah. Right."
At that moment, Yu I-seol spoke in a low voice.
"Heads."
"Pardon?"
"He didn’t smash their heads. He’s kind."
"…."
"Don’t worry. At any rate, thanks to this, the road ahead will be much easier. And those bandits may even reform themselves while they’re at it."
"Reform themselves?"
If they don’t reform, they’ll die. Could they even refuse?
Watching Baek Cheon mutter to himself, Gwak Gyeong found himself smiling without meaning to.
I don’t know anymore.
Whatever. Let it all go to hell!
And so the caravan heading to Yunnan began to race forward at a pace several times faster than expected, without any trouble at all.
Without any trouble… trouble….
"What kind of horse-crazy bastards are you! Eat fodder, you damn fools!"
There was a little trouble.
A minor one. A very minor one.
