The Villain and the Righteous
"Damn it. We rode that bastard’s boat all the way here, and…."
"You too, brother!? Me too! This is just… gives me the creeps! To think that bastard was such a shameless wretch! Damn it!"
The boat reached the riverbank.
With their legs soaked through, the two peddlers unloaded all their luggage and spat on the boatman lying sprawled on the ground as they talked.
The boatman’s arms and legs were all shattered, and from him came little choking groans.
The two men looked at him, kicked him once each for good measure, then turned to me.
"Thanks to you, young lady, we managed to survive that vicious bastard! My name is Ma Yong, and I usually travel around the Hubei area! I’ll definitely repay this kindness someday!"
"Same here! I may just be a humble peddler now, but someday I’ll repay this debt for sure! Call me Jeon Chil-woong!"
"I only stopped because I couldn’t stand by and watch a villain go unpunished. In any case, I have something I’d like to ask the two of you. Is there somewhere nearby where I can hand this man over?"
The atmosphere was becoming all about introductions, but I couldn’t casually reveal my name. I had to make it sound like I’d come from the North Sea Ice Palace.
So I hedged around the issue.
Besides, in Murim it was perfectly normal not to reveal your sect or name unless the situation required it. So they’d understand, right?
"In that case… ah! Yes! There’s a place called the Taekyung Clan in Wuyang County! Luckily, it isn’t very far!"
"How far is it?"
"About twenty li, I’d say."
Twenty li. That was about eight kilometers.
If I dragged this boatman along, it’d take about two hours—roughly one shichen.
"Understood. Then I’ll have to drag him there."
"You will!? Then we’ll come with you! Once we get there, someone needs to explain exactly what happened to us!"
As they said that, they gathered up their own luggage, as well as the dead merchant’s belongings from earlier.
From what I’d heard before, they were apparently delivering those goods to the merchant’s family.
Was that some sort of merchant’s code of honor? I had no idea. They’d probably handle it just fine.
And so a rather bizarre journey began.
I walked along, dragging the bastard by the legs, while the two peddlers followed behind me.
As a result, our little procession attracted quite a lot of attention.
More and more people gathered around. A few would glance at us, then quickly look away.
After we walked a bit farther, we reached a road that saw heavier traffic.
Once there were more people around, some of them started edging over and carefully asking the peddlers behind me what on earth had happened.
The two of them told those people everything they had seen.
They spoke of the merchant’s death, of how they had nearly died as well, and of course they didn’t leave my role out of it.
But even in the space of a single shichen, the story had already grown frighteningly exaggerated.
Maybe it was because they were peddlers, but the two men had a real gift for storytelling.
Unfortunately, being too good at it seemed to be a problem too.
They were so drunk on their own tale that they’d gone completely overboard.
By the time we reached the Taekyung Clan, my level of skill had somehow become that of a Hwajeong master.
According to the story, I had hurled out a mighty palm strike laced with terrifying cold qi, and the boatman had simply collapsed on the spot.
People listened with their mouths hanging open, sneaking glances at me from the corners of their eyes.
Since I wasn’t wearing a bamboo hat or face veil, those looks felt especially sharp.
It was pretty uncomfortable.
Honestly, I wasn’t even sure this wasn’t going to become a problem.
No, seriously. Why did they have to mix bragging and exaggeration into something they hadn’t even done themselves?
They said they’d tell it in detail, right? Where was the detail in this?
Anyway, by the time we arrived at the Taekyung Clan and left the boatman at the main gate, one of the peddlers had gone inside, and soon an elderly man came out with him.
The old man looked down at the collapsed boatman, let out a low groan, and muttered in disbelief.
"Heh. I myself used that man’s boat several times…."
"Elder! We’re the same! How were we to know he was such a shameless bastard!?"
With many people watching, the old man called the elder came over to me and bowed politely.
"I am Ham Daewon, elder of the Taekyung Clan. I am told you were the one who subdued this man."
"I was only fortunate enough to do so."
"Heh. How modest. I have heard the story, so we will handle this man here at our clan. Ah! Might I ask your sect and your name?"
"I’m sorry. I have circumstances that prevent me from revealing them carelessly. Please forgive me."
As I said that, I heard people around us whispering, "It’s the North Sea Ice Palace. It has to be the North Sea Ice Palace."
The elder must have heard it too, because he gave a small nod and said with an understanding expression, "Heh. That may be so. Don’t trouble yourself over it. Even if you don’t reveal your name, everyone will know of such a righteous deed. Very well! Leave this matter to us!"
"Thank you, Elder."
Just as I was finishing the courtesy and about to leave, one of the onlookers had been studying the sprawled boatman closely. Then he suddenly rushed forward, looked at the man’s face in alarm, and shouted, "What!? This man!!? Isn’t he Jeoksen Ilgoe!?"
Everyone turned to stare at him, and he said in a voice full of conviction, "I am Choi Wi-ryang, a disciple of the Cheongsu Clan in Hunan! I swear on my name, this man is Gwak So-hwan, the former vice-chief of the Pasu Bandit Band, Jeoksen Ilgoe!"
"Heh. Young hero. Are you sure? The Jiangsu water bandits?"
When the Taekyung Clan elder asked that, Choi Wi-ryang nodded and continued, "I’m certain! I took part in the raid on that bandit stronghold myself, so there’s no way I’d be mistaken! About four years ago, the sects of Hunan banded together and wiped out several Jiangsu river bandit forts! This man was definitely Gwak So-hwan, the vice-chief of Pasu Fort! That bastard… so he really did escape and end up doing this kind of thing in a place like this!"
"Heh. Hold on… wasn’t this man a boatman from around that time onward?"
At the elder’s words, one of the peddlers who had come with me began counting on his fingers, then clapped his hands and exclaimed, "That’s right! It must have been around then!"
"Could it be… then was the boatman Huangga before him also this same man…?"
The elder muttered as though something had clicked into place, and in the meantime Choi Wi-ryang looked between me and the elder and said, "This man even has a bounty on his head! If you take his head to the magistrate in Wuchang, you can get a hundred taels of silver!"
At that, everyone was shocked. The elder, of course, and the crowd around us as well.
A hundred taels of silver. That was a ridiculous amount of money.
By my rough estimate, one tael of silver here was worth about 150,000 won.
That meant inns and guesthouses didn’t even use whole taels—they used silver split into smaller pieces.
So a bounty of a hundred taels came to about 15 million won.
Whoa. For a mere vice-chief of a river bandit fort, why was the bounty so high?
Just how much evil had he done?
"Seems he was a pretty vicious bastard, then?"
"You can say that again! If it weren’t for the fact that the orthodox sects banded together to wipe them out, this would never have happened!"
Once the matter of the bounty came up, the elder looked at me with a slightly awkward expression.
Probably because it wasn’t a small sum.
"I’ve already entrusted this man’s disposal to the Taekyung Clan. So there’s no need to ask my opinion, Elder."
As I cut in and said that, the elder started and replied, "No, no! We couldn’t possibly! A hundred taels of silver isn’t money that falls from the sky! If our clan were to accept it for doing nothing at all, all the fellow heroes of the jianghu would point fingers at us!"
"That isn’t necessary, Elder. I don’t have the strength to carry this man’s head all the way to the magistrate myself. And I don’t want to, either. So please, handle it here at the Taekyung Clan."
There were several reasons why I wasn’t about to lug around that 15-million-won head.
First, keeping him alive and dragging him there would be a pain.
Taking only his head was impossible too. Ugh. How could I even do something like that? It was horrifying.
That would be hard enough even with companions, so doing it alone was absolutely out of the question.
Besides, all these people had already heard just how valuable that bastard’s head was.
And they’d heard what had happened here, too.
So if I carried the man off or took his head with me, I’d basically be turning myself into a treasure goblin.
It would become, "What? A hundred taels of silver and a stunning beauty!? Let’s go now!"
No doubt a whole pack of trash from the area would come swarming once they heard about it.
"No, no, no! Young lady, no matter how indifferent martial artists may be toward money, that isn’t how you do the accounting. Very well! How about this? We’ll take responsibility for him here and send him to Wuchang. So when you pass through here next time, please be sure to stop by our clan. Then we’ll hand over the bounty to you at that time."
"Then the Taekyung Clan would just be doing all the hard work."
"Heh. What hardship is there? This is all about setting the order of the jianghu right! For something like that, this much effort can hardly be called hardship!"
As the elder said that, people around us let out appreciative sounds, and some even clapped.
Hmm. That was surprising. I’d expected them all to be nothing but thugs.
Was this because they were part of the orthodox faction? Or because so many eyes were on them?
Still, by saying things like that in a place like this, the Taekyung Clan’s name would rise a little higher.
If you thought of it as advertising, it wasn’t such a bad deal.
Ah. Was I being too cynical?
Maybe they really were doing it for justice and righteousness.
"Understood. Since you’ve gone that far, Elder, I’ll be sure to stop by the Taekyung Clan the next time I pass through here."
"Ha-ha! Please do! Young lady, the Taekyung Clan always keeps its doors open to the righteous!"
The elder shouted with easy confidence, and once again the crowd cheered.
Well, that kind of thing didn’t look bad. Honestly, it was almost pleasant to watch.
Where there were bad people, there were bound to be good people too.
I’d spent the past few days staying at an inn with a nagging sense of unease, and today I’d suddenly run into a lunatic who killed people for no reason.
So seeing that there were people like this in the world was strangely comforting.
It meant I didn’t have to look at everything in life with suspicion.
---