Chapter 66
Chapter 66
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Translator: uly
Chapter: 66
Chapter Title: A Line Crossed
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"That's strange."
"Pardon? What do you mean, sir?"
Ssa tilted his head at Hwan-in's sudden remark.
The breeze blowing in was cool, the clouds hung high, and the sky was a brilliant blue. The straw ques were in top condition, the wagon was fine, and the beast attacks had even provided a bit of extra income.
The journey had been perfectly peaceful without a single issue, so what could be strange about it?
Ssa suddenly realized Hwan-in was staring up at the sky and looked up himself, but...
'Nothing out of the ordinary.'
It was a clear day without a single wisp of cloud.
"Emergency Ration seems confused. I've never seen it act like this before."
"...Oh. Yeah, it does look all flustered."
Whenever beasts had ambushed them on the road, Emergency Ration had always warned them ahead of time. Thanks to that, dealing with them had been easy, so Ssa had been thinking that rare ques were indeed something special.
If even Emergency Ration was this flustered...
"Brillit!"
Ssa slowed the wagon to half speed and called out to Brillit, who was scouting a bit ahead.
"Looks like bandits are lying in wait nearby. Mind scouting it out?"
"Dinte and I will take point."
"Everyone else, grab your weapons."
As the group moved efficiently at Ssa's command, Hwan-in felt a complicated mix of emotions.
'So there are bandits after all.'
That would explain Emergency Ration's confusion.
Up until now, Emergency Ration had only seen good-hearted people. All their fights had been against beasts or monsters, so having to fight humans now would naturally throw it off.
The problem was killing people.
It wasn't as if his heart was pounding like he was about to commit some unforgivable sin. He just wondered how he himself might change after killing someone.
Hwan-in crossed his arms and let out a small hum.
What was the difference, really, between actually killing someone and ruining them socially?
A matter of morality?
Including his military service and all the way through university, Hwan-in had experienced human malice several times during his school days.
Among them were extortion, beatings, and group bullying that went far beyond any acceptable limit, even by his standards.
He endured the first two times, but not the third.
Hwan-in gathered the bullies' personal info, family details, and all their past misdeeds, embellished it a bit to paint them as utter villains, and spread it indiscriminately throughout their parents' workplaces, the schools their siblings attended, academies, and everywhere else in their daily lives.
Of course, he didn't hold back on physical terror against their homes either.
He was careful not to show up on CCTV or dashcams, and if his tracks were ever traced, he'd make it look like the work of other victims—that went without saying.
He hid his traces perfectly and delivered small homemade bombs at the level of fireworks, smashed windows with rocks when people were home, or personally dropped off dead animal carcasses pretending to be couriers.
He considered tossing Molotov cocktails too, but held off, figuring the police investigation would get too intense.
The bullies' parents tried commissioning police investigations and even hiring fixers, but nothing worked. They withered away in exhaustion and eventually moved far away.
Hwan-in didn't stop after they moved.
He kept up the retaliation whenever he had time, and eventually, the family fell apart under the extreme stress. He heard the main bully had committed suicide one day.
He confirmed it was true and stopped his revenge from that point on.
—Dad, Mom. This is what happened.
His parents, learning the full story late from their son's confession, didn't scold or berate Hwan-in harshly. Instead, they were deeply saddened.
They took him on a trip to a quiet countryside spot with beautiful scenery and spent time explaining human decency and morality in the simplest terms possible.
They made him realize that his actions were murder and crime in their own right, as they contributed to the suicide. Afterward, they went to the police to confess his crimes and tried to take responsibility as his parents, but...
For some reason, the police didn't take the case seriously.
Hwan-in was young, looked nothing like someone who'd do such horrible things, had a spotless school record with no ties to crime, and was trusted by his teachers...
Combined with all that and Hwan-in's perfect cover-up, the case ended with no charges.
In fact, plenty of families came to the police for similar reasons—or the exact opposite—and most reports were based on false info, so Hwan-in's was treated as just another one. Neither he nor his parents knew that.
In any case, from then on, Hwan-in handled his retaliations even more discreetly and quietly—that's another story.
"...".
After pondering the permission and method of killing for a moment, Hwan-in decided to keep it simple.
He'd classify all killings in this world as retaliation.
He wouldn't commit any evil acts first, per his parents' wishes, but he had no intention of showing the mercy they preached to bandits who attacked them.
With that thought, the complicated feelings lingering in a corner of his heart vanished cleanly.
No one knew how he'd feel after actually killing, so he'd think about it then.
Around that time, Brillit and Dinte returned from scouting on que-back with grim expressions.
"It's a bandit gang. About twenty of them—six with bows, the rest armed with spears. We spotted three professionals. They're demanding a toll to pass."
"They weren't on any wanted posters. They moved with trained precision, like regulars. Probably fugitives who fled here from somewhere else."
Hwan-in noted from their report that they called aura users "professionals."
'Professionals... Seems related to why they call me a soul shaman. But I don't have any aura...'
After some back-and-forth discussion, Ssa turned to Hwan-in with a serious tone.
"What do you think we should do, Soul Shaman?"
"You're the leader, Mr. Ssa. And I don't know enough to chime in."
"Hmm... How about this, then?"
Ssa explained his plan in detail and asked for Hwan-in's cooperation. Finding it reasonable, Hwan-in nodded in agreement.
"Even if their faith wavers and it fails..."
"It'll turn into a melee, which might actually reduce casualties."
"Exactly."
As they slowly advanced toward the bandits, Hwan-in called Emergency Ration back.
To keep the ques from panicking at its cries and to shield it from stray arrows.
He warned it not to fly off and stuffed it into the cargo hold, then drove his straw que closer to Brillit, who was approaching.
She looked like she had something to say.
"Something on your mind?"
As if waiting for him to ask, Brillit spoke in a low voice.
"Soul Shaman, if fighting breaks out, don't clash weapons with any professionals wielding melee arms."
"...?"
"I think your martial skills surpass mine. But skill gets nullified by overwhelming power. I'm telling you this because you don't seem familiar with awakenings and professions."
"Thanks for the advice. But that 'overwhelming power'... Is the difference that big?"
Brillit glanced ahead and explained quickly.
"The moment you gain a melee profession, your physical abilities skyrocket. Same principle as how shamanic, Taoist, or spell professions boost your presence enormously."
She gestured to Hyusuk in the cargo hold, took a short iron bar as thick as an adult's arm, and bent it effortlessly without straining.
"...!"
She straightened it back out, handed it to Hyusuk, and said,
"My profession is Spear Warrior. You get it now, right?"
"...Yeah."
Hwan-in was more than a little shocked.
Even on Earth, plenty of people could bend a 10cm-diameter iron bar.
But they were usually hulking muscleheads who turned red-faced with effort. No one with Brillit's slender build could bend it like a pretzel so casually.
Since it was out, Hwan-in took the bar from Hyusuk and tried bending it himself.
"...".
It bent slightly, but that was it.
This time, he used his lowest-tier Spirit Possession, sucked in his breath, and applied force. With a creak, it finally started bend.
He handed the bent bar to a wide-eyed Hyusuk and turned his gaze to Brillit's back as she rode ahead.
'Huge physical gap with melee professionals.'
Another question about professions popped into Hwan-in's mind.
Was "Spear Warrior" self-proclaimed, or an official classification?
'Do they channel special power when holding a spear, like I do with souls?'
That would explain wounding Grenier's hide with a normal spear. Did it enhance the weapon's sharpness? Or ignore part of the enemy's defense?
As these thoughts swirled, the bandit group Brillit mentioned came into view.
A gang of twelve men and women blocking a natural path about five meters wide. Eight more in the grass on either side aiming bows.
The men had heads mixing dog and cat beast features—lions, tigers, pumas, wolves, coyotes, foxes, raccoons, and such.
The women wore leather helmets, hiding their types.
He didn't need to guess who the professionals were.
The woman at the front of the blockers and the two behind her were cloaked in faint auras.
Moreover, these "professionals" wore hammered plate breastplates, unlike the other leather-clad bandits...
"...".
Especially the leader woman casually slinging a two-handed sword as tall as herself over one shoulder.
She had the vibe of the bandit boss.
No wonder Brillit warned against clashing with her directly. Hwan-in chuckled inwardly at the sword stuck to her shoulder.
'The flow's on Ssa's side.'
The distance shrank to twenty meters, the wagon halted, and Brillit and Dinte drew spears to guard its flanks.
As the grass-hidden bandits nocked arrows, the three loaders and Hyusuk in the cargo drew bows and crossbows, aiming back.
A tense standoff. One stray shot or swung weapon, and battle would erupt.
Yet the brown-haired woman who seemed their leader calmly slammed her greatsword into the ground with a thud! and spoke.
"Not running? Smart choice. Our scouts would've chased you down anyway."
"We figured. Blocking the road so boldly means you have backup."
"Oho~ A sharp merchant, huh?"
"Can't make a living as a trader without this much sense. Are you the bandit leader?"
"That's right. Name's Isilite, head of the Isilite Bandits."
"A thief using the name of the southern plains' great hero? The 8th-class tigerkin Wiurt will rip you apart."
"True. But they're in the south, and I'm in the central."
Hwan-in eyed the self-proclaimed Isilite while listening to the verbal sparring between Ssa and the bandit boss.
Compared to other women, her lower abdomen and heart warmth were nearly double. Maybe that's why she looked so different from typical women in this world.
All the women Hwan-in had seen so far were the roughly 120 from Yukam Village.
Regardless of age, they were all slender and delicate. Even covered in field dirt, they struck him as pretty. Body types varied between slender and glamorous, or fattened with age, but all had feminine curves.
But the bandit boss before him felt boyish in several ways.
Taller than average women, solidly built. Her chest-compressing armor, slightly thick facial lines, short hair—if she wore men's clothes, she'd pass as a slim guy or a boyish girl.
'More warmth means more masculine looks, as expected.'
Awakening didn't seem tied to warmth amount. Brillit was average.
While Hwan-in examined Isilite and the other bandits, the ten-minute verbal joust ended with the bandits on the losing side.
The boss, who'd been trading barbs like hidden blades, grimaced in annoyance—like 'Can't win with words'—and swung her greatsword, which looked to weigh over 10kg, one-handed in threat.
"Like I told that que rider, we don't want much. Just thirty percent of your goods and cargo, plus one straw que. Hand 'em over, and not a hair on your heads gets touched."
"A trader's ques are more precious than life. And you want cargo too? Isn't that excessive?"
"Think of it as life insurance. You can earn more money while alive. Besides, traders like you between villages won't have any contracted trade goods."
Even if they did, she claimed her gang had the flexibility not to touch them.
Hwan-in nodded inwardly.
Setting aside whether they'd honor the deal, if you couldn't fight them off, giving up thirty percent of goods and pocket money was the rational, wise choice.
"I take pride in my name, Isilite. I always keep my word."
So, pay the toll with some cargo or fight—that was the ultimatum.
Ssa stared at her, then smiled ambiguously.
"Sorry, but we have a distinguished guest who's temporarily joined our caravan. I can spare my cargo, but your demands would include his belongings too, right? That won't fly."
"Hmm~?"
The boss's gaze shifted to him, but Hwan-in kept his face blank under the deep gray hood, arms crossed, legs folded as he sat.
Her eyes lit up at his hooded, aloof posture. She smirked and said,
"Hey, distinguished guest. Mind taking off that hood for a sec?"
"That'll cost you. Willing to pay?"
At Hwan-in's low voice, bandit boss Isilite felt a chill and stiffened.
She'd spilled plenty of blood herself. Experience told her such emotionless tones belonged to one of two types.
An immature blood-mad killer...
Or a perfected blood-mad hero.
Swallowing subtly, Isilite feigned calm.
"Heh. So the distinguished one wants something from a lowly thief wench like me? Fancy a taste of my innards maybe?"
She patted her belly and chuckled. Laughter rippled through the bandits.
"But alas, even a thief wench has her chastity. Can't help you there."
"I don't make a habit of bedding women who hold grudges. Pass."
"...?"
As Isilite blinked in confusion at the non sequitur, Ssa looked at Hwan-in in shock.
"You mean that literally?"
"Yes. She'll die soon. Her and all who follow her."
Hearing Hwan-in's reply, Ssa shot Isilite a 'whoa~' look, then started chuckling.
Already irritated by Hwan-in's presence, and now the merchant too—Isilite scowled furiously and slammed her greatsword down.
Thud!
"What bullshit is this?! If you won't cough up the goods, we'll slaughter you all right here!"
As the bandits raised weapons at her shout, Ssa held up both hands to calm them.
"Whoa, whoa, easy now. Easy. We'll fight if you want—we're ready—but looks like neither side has a sex worker. Casualties would suck for both, no? If we talk it out, I'm fine handing over cargo. Calm down."
Isilite itched to smash that smug face, but with her gang just taking over the area, losses would hurt. She gritted her teeth.
'Damn it.'
Shed racked her brain during the verbal war with the merchant, but his escorts were solid.
Not just the que rider woman matching her aura—the unemployed que rider guy looked no pushover, and the four in cargo peeking out with crossbows were annoying as hell.
A frontal clash would definitely cost her some men.
'Hear them out a bit more?'
She hesitated briefly, but regretted it as the talk continued.
"By the way, you sure you're okay with that? Having a woman cursed by hybrid taboo as your boss."
"Wh-what the hell?!"
"Hey now, calling it bullshit? You dare spout off in front of the Soul Shaman? Don't you know you'll curse your own souls?!"
Murmurs spread through the bandits at Ssa's bellow.