Chapter 29
Chapter 29
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Translator: True Detective
Chapter: 29
Chapter Title: Ronin Band
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“...Not quite at the level of a master?”
Cheon-kyeong couldn’t believe what Ja-seong had just said.
A guy who had single-handedly wiped out three squads of the Ronin Band—if that wasn’t master level, then what the hell was?
From Cheon-kyeong’s perspective, it sounded like nothing short of an insult to the Ronin Band.
And apparently, he wasn’t the only one who felt that way. The first and second squads of the Ronin Band behind him began radiating a menacing aura in unison.
Dozens of warriors who had cultivated internal energy.
The waves of qi surging from their intense emotions spread out in all directions.
“Ugh...”
The escort chief and escorts, their faces pale from the overwhelming pressure.
Yet Ja-seong, seemingly unaffected by the Ronin Band’s aura, calmly opened his mouth with a composed expression.
“So, what’s the reason your boss sent you to fetch his daughter?”
“...Sigh.”
Cheon-kyeong let out a small sigh as he looked at Ja-seong, whose expression hadn’t changed a bit, and replied.
“Simple. His daughter, who’s about to get married soon, ran off on her own.”
“...Huh?”
Ja-seong’s face twisted into a bizarre expression at the response.
*
...What the hell is this guy saying?
The attempted kidnappers in front of me—the escort chief called them the Ronin Band earlier, right?
Anyway, the answer from the one who seemed to be their leader was damn hard to comprehend.
His daughter, on the verge of marriage, ran away?
So, that meant Seol Sojeo had run away from home?
Running away right before marriage usually meant not wanting to get married, didn’t it?
But Seol Sojeo had even hired an escort service to head to Hebi, where her fiancé from the Nangong Family was.
No matter how I thought about it, the pieces didn’t fit.
How was I supposed to make sense of this?
Unable to grasp it, I tossed out another question.
“...So, you’re saying Seol Sojeo ran away because she wants to break off her engagement with the Nangong Family?”
But the response I got was something I hadn’t expected at all.
“Who said anything about marrying into the Nangong Family? That engagement was broken off ages ago.”
“...!?”
The engagement... broken off?
My eyes widened at the news I was hearing for the first time.
Seol Sojeo hadn’t mentioned anything like that.
The leader smirked, lifting the corner of his mouth as he watched me tilt my head.
“That wench must not have told you. Well, she came all the way here to Hebi, to the city with her ex-fiancé, so she probably doesn’t accept the breakup.”
With that, I could roughly piece together Seol Sojeo’s situation.
Broken engagement.
That explained everything about her circumstances.
Traveling to Hebi without her family’s guards and hiring an escort service on her own. Even her father, the family head, hiring these Ronin Band thugs to drag her back.
Wow, refusing to accept the breakup and coming all the way to Hebi herself. She was bolder than she looked.
As I silently admired Seol Sojeo in my mind, the leader grinned for some reason.
“Now you get it? We’re not here to kidnap her—we’re just bringing the runaway lady back home. Hand her over now that you know.”
“No thanks.”
“...What?”
The leader looked baffled at my curt reply.
“Did you even hear what I said? We’re here on her father’s orders.”
“I heard. So what?”
I could feel the Ronin Band growing visibly flustered.
I had no idea why they were panicking, though.
“You’re saying just hand her over because her dad wants to drag her back by force? Should I go, ‘Oh, sure, here you go,’ and hand her over? Sorry, but no.”
The leader licked his lips at my response and spoke again.
“...Looks like you haven’t grasped the situation yet. This isn’t something to take lightly. You’ll make enemies not just of our Ronin Band, but of the Seol Family too. No matter how strong you are, you think you can take on a major martial clan alone?”
I snorted at the leader’s threat.
“You talk too much. Did you bring all those guys just to yap and leave?”
“Ha...”
Realizing I had no intention of handing Seol Sojeo over, the leader dismounted with a short sigh.
Dozens of Ronin Band members followed suit, stepping forward from their horses.
“If you’re rejecting the toast and insisting on the penalty drink, then there’s no helping it.”
Oh, the toast and penalty drink line.
A classic from martial arts novels.
Hearing it firsthand, for some reason, it put me in a cheerful mood despite the situation.
Irritated by my chuckling, the dozens of Ronin Band members who had stepped forward drew their weapons in unison.
Most wielded crude sabers like broadsword, but some had strange, exotic weapons.
“Y-Young Master Goon...”
The escort chief called out to me in a tense voice.
I smiled reassuringly at his worried face.
“Don’t worry too much. Just step back.”
“...I’m sorry. I wish you good fortune in battle.”
I glanced at the escort chief leading his men away, then stood in the middle of the road, facing the Ronin Band.
The leader scowled at me.
“...Arrogant fool. You think you can take us all on alone?”
“Can’t you tell by watching? No need for anyone else when dealing with shameless kidnappers.”
“We’re not kidnappers!”
Like hell you’re not.
“Don’t you know what kidnapping means? Forcibly taking someone away against their will. You wanna brag about being that ignorant?”
“...Attack!”
-Waaah!
At the leader’s command, his face twisted in genuine fury from my words, the dozens of Ronin Band members charged with a unified roar.
I drew my sword and rushed toward the oncoming horde.
*
“W-What do we do?”
Yakbing, peeking at the situation from behind the carriage curtain, was at a loss seeing Ja-seong facing off alone against dozens of Ronin Band members.
‘I never imagined things would escalate like this...!’
No matter how much he wanted to bring her back, she hadn’t dreamed he’d hire the infamous Ronin Band.
‘...Father. Is this really necessary?’
Yakbing thought of her father, Seol Family head Seol Se-woong.
She’d known since childhood how ambitious he was.
Hadn’t he betrothed his daughter—who was not yet ten—to the Nangong Family to leverage their prestige?
And just a fortnight ago, when crisis struck the Nangong Family, he’d coldly discarded them and unilaterally announced the engagement’s end.
‘...Young Master.’
Yakbing thought of Nangong Hyun, her former fiancé.
The gentle young man with an unparalleled passion for the sword.
How had he felt upon hearing the breakup notice?
What would he say when she showed up at the Nangong Family estate?
Would he condemn her? Call her a shameless wench?
-Attack!
-Waaah!
A massive roar reached Yakbing’s ears as her mind tangled in a mess of thoughts.
Snapping back to reality, she saw Ja-seong charging into dozens of Ronin Band members.
“R-Re reckless! Even if Young Master Goon is a master, that number...!”
It was more than double yesterday’s attackers at a glance.
Having been inside the carriage, Yakbing hadn’t seen Ja-seong fight properly, so he looked utterly reckless to her.
“I-I have to help him now...!”
Yakbing grabbed her sword and tried to step out of the carriage.
But her companions remained utterly still.
A fellow traveler in peril, yet they sat there so calmly, anyone would think they were strangers.
“Seol Sojeo, don’t worry too much.”
Hwayeon, seated at the driver’s perch, spoke to the bewildered Yakbing.
“H-How can I not worry? It’s because of me he’s in that danger... Huh?”
As Yakbing turned her gaze back to Ja-seong, she doubted her own eyes.
An unbelievable sight unfolded before her.
-Kuak!?
-Khek!
In the midst of the charging Ronin Band, Ja-seong rampaged like a divine general.
Leaping this way and that to dodge their swinging blades, he struck east and west in the blink of an eye, toppling the Ronin Band members one by one.
His movements were so ethereal, he seemed less like a man and more like a ghost.
“Wow...”
“See? I told you.”
Yakbing stared, mouth agape.
When Hwayeon asked, she nodded dazedly.
Then, coming to her senses belatedly, she fired a question at Hwayeon.
“W-Wait, Sojeo. What’s Young Master Goon’s real deal? Is he a disciple of the Nine Great Sects or something...?”
“......”
Hwayeon fell silent at Yakbing’s question.
Nine Great Sects? No way.
Ja-seong had been a country bumpkin who didn’t even know what Paecheongseong was until she told him.
Plus, he had no special encounters or master.
The only thing he’d learned was the Three Talents Internal Art taught by Aunt Yeo.
When teaching Ja-seong, Aunt Yeo had praised his talent highly.
She’d lamented that it was a pity she could only teach him the Three Talents Internal Art, as he knew nothing else outside his clan’s unique arts.
But Ja-seong didn’t need peerless supreme techniques.
With a third-rate art like the Three Talents Internal Art, he’d obtained that movement, that power.
“...There are people in this world who defy common sense. People whose thinking and talents are anything but ordinary.”
There’s a term for such people.
Ghostly Genius.
Ones born with talents like those of a ghost.
Those who could seize power on their own without proper instruction.
Ones fated to upend the world.
That was Ja-seong.
-Kuaaaak!
The last of the dozens of Ronin Band members, toyed with one-sidedly by Ja-seong, collapsed to the ground.
Standing alone amid the groaning pile of fallen Ronin Band members, Ja-seong grinned and said,
“Alright, who’s next?”