Chapter 65
Chapter 65
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Translator: True Detective
Chapter: 65
Chapter Title: Encounter
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“Master Ko, isn’t it? You’ve been coming around quite often lately.”
A middle-aged beauty who must have had plenty of suitors in her youth greeted Ko Hyung warmly.
Ko Hyung, clearly familiar with her, returned the greeting cheerfully.
“Madam Yeo, I’m here to see Madam Sung. Is she inside?”
“Oh, she’s here, but she’s meeting an important guest right now. I’ll give you a room—would you mind waiting a bit?”
Ko Hyung brightened at Madam Yeo’s suggestion.
“Sure, that works for me.”
This guy?
I was about to chew him out for treating this like a casual outing.
But before I could, Ko Hyung shoved my back, pushing me into the brothel.
“Come on, let’s head in.”
“Ah, wait a second...!”
By the time I gathered my wits after stumbling along, I found myself sitting in one of the brothel’s rooms with Ko Hyung.
I let out a hollow laugh at having unwittingly become a ne’er-do-well lounging in a brothel in broad daylight.
Whether he sensed my feelings or not, Ko Hyung grinned and offered me a bottle of liquor.
“You strike me as the uptight type deep down. You need moments like this now and then. Don’t be so stiff. Here, have a drink.”
I politely declined the liquor.
“I’m not much for alcohol...”
“What, you’ve never even had a single drink at your age? You’re a total bookworm, huh?”
“...No, it’s not that. I just have some bad memories with booze...”
Shaking my head as childhood drinking mishaps came to mind, a sharp scream pierced the air from somewhere nearby.
-Kyaack!
“...? What was that?”
A scream laced with urgency and despair.
I channeled inner energy to my ears to sharpen my hearing and traced the scream’s source through the brothel’s cacophony of noises.
-N-No, please don’t...!
-You bitch...! How dare a mere whore act so high and mighty!
-Aaack!
“...Things keep popping up today.”
I shot to my feet.
Ko Hyung looked up at me in bewilderment.
“Young hero? What’s wrong?”
“Wait here a moment.”
The situation sounded dire, so I rushed out without a proper explanation.
Ko Hyung immediately followed, insisting on coming along.
As we headed toward the screams, Madam Yeo came dashing toward us in a panic.
“Madam Yeo, is something—”
“Sorry—!”
She blew past Ko Hyung’s question without answering and bounded up the stairs.
It seemed related to that earlier scream.
Leaving Ko Hyung staring blankly after her, I took off first.
-Stop... please stop—!
-Ugh!? You bitch...!
The moment we reached the room in chaos, a slender figure burst through the door, toppling it over.
“H-Help me—!”
The courtesan in disheveled robes shouted atop the wrecked door, its paper panels torn to shreds.
She frantically pulled her clothes together, clear signs of someone trying to strip her by force.
Her face was a mess of smeared makeup from a flood of tears.
One cheek was already swollen from a blow.
Her trembling eyes, wide with fear, fixed on someone rising inside the room.
“You damn bitch...!”
The man, staggering like he’d downed a fortune in liquor by midday, wore a gray martial robe stained and filthy.
He must have been doused when the woman shoved him into the table of drinks and snacks.
I noted the two characters “Tyrant Heaven” visible amid the grime of his robe.
“You lowly slut, knowing your place—!”
The unidentified Tyrant Heaven Fortress warrior, glaring murderously at the courtesan who’d rejected him, drew his sword as if to truly kill her and advanced.
“Hic, hngh...!”
Seeing fresh tears spill from her terror-stricken eyes, I stepped forward to block the space between them.
“Huh? And who the hell are you?”
The Tyrant Heaven warrior tilted his head at me barring his path.
He smirked upon recognizing my face, then leveled his sharp blade at my throat.
“Some kid playing hero? Don’t get in over your head. Step aside—I’ve got business with that bitch.”
“Sniff...!”
-Her small hand clutched my sleeve, trembling violently.
I silently stared down at the sword aimed at my throat.
Drunk or not, pointing a blade at someone so casually.
This clearly wasn’t his first time pulling something like this.
If so, he had no grounds to complain if he caught a sword somewhere and dropped dead.
Still, decapitating him outright would cause a huge scene in the brothel.
The madam here was handling things for Jo Woon-chil, and I’d heard she was close with Ko Hyung—no need to cause trouble.
No choice, then. Maybe smack him around a bit and lure him outside?
He’d probably fly into a rage after getting hit by some “kid playing hero” and chase after me.
Finishing my calculations, I swung the sword in my left hand—still in its sheath—to knock his blade away.
-Clang!
“Huh...?”
His sword slipped powerless from his grip and clattered to the floor.
As I reared back to slap his dumbfounded face for losing hold of the hilt so suddenly, something else beat me to it and flew at him.
-Thwack-!
“Argh!?”
It was a liquor bottle.
The bottle arced through the air, smashed against the warrior’s head, and showered him with its contents.
Already soiled by snacks, now drenched in booze as well.
To top it off, the impact tore his skin, blood trickling down.
The warrior clutched the wound, bellowing.
“Uwaaaah—! Which bastard are you!? Show yourself!”
No way someone would actually step up after that shout...
“Over here. What’re you gonna do about it?”
He actually came out?
I blinked in surprise at the young man who boldly stepped forward—the apparent bottle-thrower.
He strode right up to the warrior and immediately began berating him.
“I was having a nice drink, and you come along ruining the mood with your whining.”
“W-What?”
The warrior, bleeding from his head and now getting scolded to boot, wore an incredulous expression.
The young man eyed him askance.
His first impression?
Like a textbook rich young master straight out of a painting.
The ornate embroidery on his robe and sash screamed money—no cheap knockoff.
His handsome, well-defined features practically shouted he’d never known hardship.
He had an air of someone extraordinary.
His face was flushed, likely from daytime drinking.
Onlookers murmured that some rich kid had stepped into a fatal spot in his cups.
“You little shit...!”
Infuriated further by the young master’s brazenness, the Tyrant Heaven warrior shoved his reddened face right up to him.
“Do you know who I am, you punk!?”
“And do you know who I am, that you dare raise your voice at me?”
The young master grinned as if amused, facing the warrior who growled like he’d swing any second.
It was obvious he was toying with him.
Finally losing it, the warrior swung at the young master.
“Uwaaa—!”
For a so-called warrior, it was a fairly fierce punch.
But I wasn’t worried.
That young master was far stronger than him.
-Smack.
“Huh...?”
As expected, the warrior’s fist was casually blocked by the young master’s hand.
His face went slack, never expecting it to be stopped.
Then a crisp slap landed on that slack face.
-Smack-!
“Wow.”
I couldn’t help admiring the resounding crack.
A perfect ten-out-of-ten backhand.
I wanted to clap in applause, but the courtesan hiding behind me clung desperately to my sleeve, making it impossible.
“Grgh...!”
The warrior clutched his slapped cheek, glaring daggers at the young master.
The young master followed up with merciless kicks.
-Thud! Thwack! Thud!
“Try acting up again, huh? Go on, try it.”
A barrage of brutal kicks rained on the warrior’s body.
It looked just like street thugs beating a debtor.
“......”
“......”
The onlookers, who’d been watching the commotion, all wore suddenly chilled expressions.
Not hard to understand.
The dashing young master who’d just disciplined a brutish martial artist had turned into a total thug in an instant.
But I saw something different from the crowd.
His eyes.
His outward actions screamed thug, but his gaze was coldly settled.
Noticing that, I could sense it naturally.
How contrived his behavior was.
Was he deliberately playing the wastrel? Why?
“Phew... that feels better now.”
Only after stomping the warrior thoroughly did the young master stop.
Still flushed with drink, he flashed a refreshingly bright smile—then his gaze shifted to me.
“Ah, you’re the young hero who stepped up before me. That was impressive. Especially how you didn’t flinch even with a sword at your throat—impressive even for another man to see.”
“...You flatter me.”
He kept grinning at my awkward reply, then turned his eyes to the courtesan still hiding behind me.
The cold glint in his gaze softened into gentle crescents.
“You got tangled with a brute and suffered. I’ve stomped that scoundrel flat, so rest easy now.”