Schemes
"Hahaha! It’s been a long time since anyone came by, and you were all here cooking up some little scheme, weren’t you? Hahaha! Did you think gathering in a group would somehow change anything?"
The shout rang out from far away, so thunderous that it reached us as clearly as if the speaker were right beside us.
At the sound, Paeng Jeon-ho nodded once and immediately drew the greatsword strapped across his back.
Wow. I was honestly impressed. So that was the kind of thing you could actually swing around like that.
Seeing Paeng Jeon-ho like that, I almost felt sorry for the bandits I still hadn’t even seen properly.
What on earth must they have been thinking when they saw him?
Following Paeng Jeon-ho, Moyong Jua and I hurried after him.
As expected, Moyong Jua had already drawn her sword. The moment she did, the atmosphere around her changed completely from the chatty girl she was a moment ago.
And soon we found the bandits ahead, threatening the merchants.
There were seven of them, just as the peddler had said.
But then a question suddenly came to mind. How had they known there were seven bandits?
While I was wondering about that, Paeng Jeon-ho suddenly launched himself forward and swung his massive greatsword.
"Huh!? Wha—!?"
The man who seemed to be the bandit chief hurriedly raised his own greatsword to meet him.
There was a resounding clang of impact.
But the bandit’s blade split cleanly in two, and the chief went tumbling to the ground in a heap.
At the same time, Moyong Jua neatly disarmed another bandit, batting aside the sickles and axes in their hands.
Paeng Jeon-ho glanced at the fallen leader, then immediately smashed the others with the flat of his blade, and before long the seven bandits had all been stripped of their weapons and were rolling around on the dirt.
The seven bandits had been dealt with in an instant. And yet, neither of them let down their guard.
Fwish!
In that same instant, arrows flew in from both sides of the forest, and Paeng Jeon-ho lifted his greatsword to block every single one.
"Thanks! Jeon-ho!"
Moyong Jua grinned as if she’d been counting on him all along. Then the two of them shot off toward the woods on either side.
A moment later came the sounds of thud, crack, smack, followed by shrieks of "Aagh! Ngh! Argh!"
Wow. Well, I guess there wasn’t really anything for me to do here. This was way too one-sided.
What kind of nerve did bandits like these need to go out and commit banditry?
Then again, they were probably the sort of people who cared the most about keeping up appearances.
If someone like Paeng Jeon-ho had been leading the group from the start, they wouldn’t have even shown their faces.
Thinking about it that way, it was fair to say Paeng Jeon-ho had been smart to let the merchants go ahead.
As expected. Experience mattered in everything. And so did a few dirty tricks.
Paeng Jeon-ho came back dragging two unconscious bandits by one hand.
"Jeon-ho! Over here too!"
And Moyong Jua called out casually from the other side.
Meanwhile, I kept an eye on the merchants just in case.
The question I’d had earlier still hadn’t been answered.
Still, I really hoped I was worrying over nothing. Please let me be worrying over nothing.
"Great hero! We’ll help!"
The merchants rummaged through their baggage, pulled out a length of cotton cloth, and tore it into strips to make ropes.
Then they approached Paeng Jeon-ho, who was gathering the bandits in one place.
Paeng Jeon-ho drove his greatsword deep into the ground and glared at the bandits with fierce, unblinking eyes.
While he did that, the merchants tied the bandits up carefully.
Then the peddler who had first come over to us at the inn beamed from ear to ear and said to Paeng Jeon-ho, "Great hero, what do you plan to do with them? Are you going to drag them to the authorities?"
At that, Paeng Jeon-ho looked at the bandits in silence for a moment.
"You’ve gone to so much trouble on the road already, sir. Would you mind handling that yourselves? We couldn’t possibly ask you to go to any more trouble."
"Hmm... Are you sure?"
"Have we not tied them up tight? And taken all their weapons as well? At this point, they’re nothing but a bunch of thugs with big shoulders, aren’t they? Hahaha!"
With that, the merchant kicked the bandit chief squarely in the side.
The chief scowled and snarled, but with a gag stuffed in his mouth, it was hard to make out what he was saying.
"Then, if you don’t mind the trouble, I’d be grateful."
"Of course! Don’t mention it! Ah—pardon me, I’m so flustered I still haven’t even asked for your honorable names. Please, tell me. I must repay you properly!"
"There’s no need to be so formal. You’ve already repaid us enough. I’m Paeng Jeon-ho of the Hebei Paeng Clan. That one is Moyong Jua of the Moyong Clan. And that person’s identity is confidential for personal reasons."
"Ohhh! Just as I thought! The Hebei Paeng Clan! The Moyong Clan! Truly! Their reputations are no empty boast! This humble merchant has had his eyes opened today!"
The merchant praised him lavishly, and even the otherwise stoic-looking Paeng Jeon-ho grew a little awkward.
Seeing that, the peddler only kept piling on the compliments, and in the end the faintest trace of embarrassment showed on Paeng Jeon-ho’s face as he said, "Then we’ll be on our way. Please, take care of the rest."
"Absolutely! Please travel safely!"
The merchant and the others bowed to us again and again.
So Paeng Jeon-ho and Moyong Jua quickly left the spot, and I followed after them.
This wasn’t the way we’d originally intended to go, so we circled back to the path. Once we were a little distance from the merchants, I finally spoke.
"You two are amazing."
"Hehe. Jeon-ho really is amazing, isn’t he? I still can’t believe how that huge body moves so lightly. Every time I see him, I’m impressed all over again."
Moyong Jua said that with obvious pride, while Paeng Jeon-ho tried his best to look like it didn’t bother him.
"Still... I’m sorry to say this, but could we go back and check on them for a moment?"
At my words, the two of them looked at me in confusion.
"Huh? Miss Baek? Did something happen? Did you forget something?"
"Let’s go take a look. We’ll check just for a moment, and if nothing’s wrong, we can come right back."
Moyong Jua still looked puzzled, but Paeng Jeon-ho immediately turned around and started back the way we’d come.
So Moyong Jua and I followed him, keeping hidden so we wouldn’t be noticed, and returned to the place we’d just left.
And what we saw there was the merchants untying the bandits.
There it was. That bad feeling had been right after all.
The merchants were laughing as they freed the bandits, and the bandits were saying things like, "Whew, that was close!" while looking at them.
Watching that, I turned my head toward Paeng Jeon-ho. His expression had gone cold as ice.
He looked like he might charge in and kill them all at once.
Man, that was a terrifying face.
"Looks like we should’ve broken at least one of their legs."
Even Moyong Jua’s usual sunny expression was gone; her face had turned sharp and cold.
Well, that made sense.
They’d been fooled to the highest degree. If they weren’t angry, that would be the abnormal thing.
"Miss Baek. Thank you."
"I’m just as disappointed that it came to this."
After hearing my answer, Paeng Jeon-ho picked up his greatsword and started striding toward them.
Moyong Jua followed behind him, wearing the same grim expression as before.
I figured I’d better join in this time too, so I hurried after them.
"Eek!"
Finally noticing us, the bandit gang jumped in fright and grabbed their weapons.
The ones who had been pretending to be merchants pulled blades and other weapons from their baggage one by one, readying themselves for battle.
Still, they didn’t run. After getting beaten that badly earlier, they were still here?
Did they think they might actually have a chance because those fake merchants were among them?
And my guess was right.
The bandits’ actual fighting skills still weren’t all that impressive.
But the ones pretending to be merchants were at least able to block one attack each from Paeng Jeon-ho and Moyong Jua, however barely, while two or three others moved in skillfully to surround them.
And this time, one merchant-looking man and three bandits came at me too.
I didn’t want this dragging on, so I quietly gathered my inner energy as I watched one of the bandits approach.
It wasn’t much, but it was still better than having none at all.
Gathering it in my palm, I shoved straight through the man who was raising a club to strike me.
Ice Soul Divine Palm.
The power was still pitiful, but against bandits like these, it might as well have been an unparalleled divine art.
With a thunderous boom, his club snapped in two and he was sent flying backward.
The sound was so loud that even Paeng Jeon-ho and Moyong Jua, who had been fighting the others, glanced over here.
Ignoring that, I sent palm strike after palm strike into the men who had rushed me.
One of them swung a club at my shoulder, but I didn’t even bother dodging. I took it head-on.
I’d been irritated that only the ones with clubs and not blades had come after me.
Their intent was obvious. They didn’t actually want to hurt me too badly.
Even then, that was all these scum could think about.
Disgusting.
So I struck their bodies with Ice Soul Divine Palm without hesitation.
They went rolling and crashing to the ground with the sound of someone pounding a drum over and over.
By then, Paeng Jeon-ho and Moyong Jua had also brought down all the others, and Paeng Jeon-ho in particular was stomping on the fallen bandits’ legs, crunching them underfoot.
"Miss Baek! Are you hurt!? I thought I saw one hit your shoulder earlier!"
"I’m fine. What about you two?"
"As you can see!"
Moyong Jua struck a neat little pose, as if to prove she was perfectly all right.
Then she checked my shoulder, her face turning worried as if to ask, Are you really sure you’re okay?
"Jua. Go back to the village with Miss Baek for a bit. Call for a cart and some people to load these things."
"Huh? Got it! I will! Miss Baek, let’s go!"
So Moyong Jua and I returned to the village, gathered some people, hitched up a cart, and went back to where the bandits were.
By then, the bandits looked like they’d been chewed up and spit out, thanks to Paeng Jeon-ho, who still hadn’t cooled down.
The villagers loaded them onto the cart, and with us, they headed back to the village.
This time, we handed the bandits over to the real villagers and prepared to leave, but Paeng Jeon-ho still looked uneasy and glanced back two or three times.
Then he looked at me, clasped his hands in a formal fist salute, and said, "Thanks to you, Miss Baek, I learned a great deal today. I am grateful."
"Me too! Miss Baek!"
Moyong Jua also brought her hands together and bowed.
Good grief. Why were they acting like this all of a sudden? It was making me embarrassed.
"It’s only because I’m a little more suspicious than most people, that’s all. Though I do feel a bit sorry that it ended up this way."
At my response, the two of them gave wry smiles of their own.
Still, it was a relief. At least it had ended with nothing worse than this.
So we relaxed our expressions, looked at one another, and set off once more toward the road we still had to follow.
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