Okcheon Escort Agency - 2
The combination was perfect in theory.
I run, Dang Hwarin shoots. If this had been a mecha show, they would have opened a whole wiki page under Hwarin-go / Controversies and Criticism just for the broken power balance. In theory, it was flawless.
In theory.
“I’m out of hidden weapons!”
“I’m out of internal energy too!”
Damn it. Of course insufficient armament and fuel would be the problem.
I had never learned light footwork, so all I knew were the qi-guzzling rapid-acceleration steps, and Dang Hwarin ran dry of throwing weapons the instant we linked up.
I really didn’t want to learn, right here in the field, why the hero units in robot anime always run on nuclear reactors or some mystery power source and use beam weapons for ranged combat.
The moment we stopped attacking, the Green Forest bandits began slowly tightening the encirclement.
“Shit. If only we’d had a little more time and budget.”
A hundred years’ worth of internal energy and enough cash for infinite magazines of hidden weapons, and we would have been gone already!
“I… fuck. It’s my fault.”
Dang Hwarin blamed herself in a voice thick with guilt, as if the entire mess were her doing.
If we were being precise, it was neither her fault nor mine—it was the escort agency’s and the Green Forest’s. Why was she taking the blame for that?
“Grab those bastards!”
“Yes sir!”
Before I could even try to console her, the Green Forest bandits charged as one and subdued us in the blink of an eye.
With us as the final piece, the entire Okcheon Escort Agency fell under the control of Heokho Fort.
How many dead?
Looking around, I saw the corpses of the porters who had been hauling cargo. In a situation like this, men who knew no martial arts or whose skill was pitiful were as fragile as flies.
Didn’t feel like someone else’s problem. Not long ago, that would have been me.
What about the escort guards? Were they still alive?
No matter how I scanned the area, I saw no dead bodies of the guards. They were wounded and groaning in pain, but none of them looked dead.
Plenty of bandits had died, yet none of the escorts had. Had they deliberately only subdued them?
Including us, the Okcheon Escort Agency’s guards were bound and left waiting for the Green Forest’s judgment.
“You fucking bitch! Do you have any idea how many of our boys died because of you?”
A greasy-haired, green-haired Green Forest officer who looked like a cadre snarled at Dang Hwarin.
“……”
She gave no answer, only glared at him with eyes full of suppressed fury. From the way things were being cleaned up, it was clear we had inflicted the heaviest casualties.
Those Okcheon bastards. We came as guests and even gave them a no-death carry, and we still lost? What the hell is Okcheon Escort Agency’s tier supposed to be?
“Not talking? You leper bitch!”
The officer raised the blade in his hand high, ready to cut Dang Hwarin down then and there.
What the hell is that bastard doing?! Startled, I opened my mouth in a rush.
“You cur! How dare you run your mouth so freely in front of her!”
I bellowed in the voice of a proud household servant from some high minister’s mansion who had just possessed me.
“What the—who are you?”
At my shout, the other Green Forest men around Dang Hwarin all turned toward me at once.
All of them field workers who ate by the blade—faces like murder. Smile a little, guys.
Maybe they looked even more murderous because so many of their comrades had died to her. Time to dump emergency coolant on their rage.
“How dare you speak so insolently to the precious jewel of the great Sichuan Dang Clan! The disciple of the famous Master Dang Geoho himself! A genius of medicine who receives the full attention of the clan’s elders! To Young Lady Dang Hwarin!”
Hard to put the emphasis on every syllable, but I roared it loud enough to shake the mountains. Everyone heard.
“What? S-S-Sichuan Dang Clan?”
The green-haired officer who had just raised his sword went deathly pale and lowered the blade at once.
“What? There’s someone from the Sichuan Dang Clan here?”
“Branch Leader!”
At my voice the Branch Leader of Heokho Fort appeared in front of us, still clutching the Okcheon Escort Leader by the collar. Escort Leader, you okay? He’s breathing, but he looks like hell.
“Purple hair and green eyes? Hey. Are you really from the Sichuan Dang Clan?”
“……Tch.”
Dang Hwarin clicked her tongue as if he weren’t even worth answering and deliberately looked away.
“That sharp tongue sure fits a Dang bitch. Hey, Ok Escort Leader. Is this woman really from the Sichuan Dang Clan? Answer me!”
The Branch Leader began shaking the Escort Leader the way a man shakes a broken vending machine hoping a drink will drop out.
You turn a man into pulp and then demand answers?
“U-ugh… Yes. She is a guest of the Okcheon Escort Agency.”
The Escort Leader managed to confirm Dang Hwarin’s status.
“Ha. Fuck. Why did it have to be the Sichuan Dang Clan.”
The Branch Leader looked at her face once, then turned his head to the sky and sighed in pure despair.
He had every right to. The Green Forest were not desperate mountain bandits. They built forts in prime locations and collected tolls like a highway checkpoint.
Right now the Branch Leader was running a lot of calculations while staring at Dang Hwarin.
If this were a normal grudge, he could kill her. The problem was that she had simply been a customer caught in the middle of their routine toll-collection work.
If word got out that a daughter of the Sichuan Dang Clan had died at the hands of bandits—not even over a personal feud—and in Hubei Province right next to Sichuan?
The Sichuan Dang Clan never forgets.
That clan maxim would be ringing in the Branch Leader’s head right now, along with the mental image of Dang Clan killers flooding in and destroying his entire business.
I had revealed her identity on purpose. If you have a broken bloodline, you use it.
“Boss! This bitch killed more than a few of our men! Let’s just kill her here!”
One Green Forest man whose hair was still a messy mix of green and other colors—looking like he hadn’t finished converging evolution yet—spoke up to the Branch Leader.
“You fucking idiot! Who the hell are you trying to screw over with that idea? You someone’s snitch for the Fort Master?”
“N-no, sir.”
Yeah, that one clearly hadn’t evolved enough to think.
“Shut up. Drag every useful one of them along. Anyone who looks like they’ll die on the way—send them to the afterlife right now.”
“Yes, sir!”
“Gyaaah!”
“P-please spare me!”
“Mother……”
Bound hand and foot, we started the march toward their mountain fort while listening in silence to the sound of people we had walked beside only moments earlier having their lives snuffed out.
One day after we were dragged into Heokho Fort’s mountain stronghold and locked in a prison that looked just like us.
The Branch Leader came looking for the Okcheon Escort Leader.
“Ok Escort Leader. You kicked up a useless ruckus and now look at the state of things.”
“Shut your mouth! You’re the one who demanded ten times the usual toll and caused this mess—how dare you dodge responsibility!”
“Hahahaha! If I say ten times, do you really think I meant ten times? I open high so we can negotiate. What kind of escort leader draws steel the second the number is spoken?”
Wait, what? They didn’t even try to negotiate before drawing swords?
The rest of the escorts and I all turned to stare at the Escort Leader with the same dumbfounded expression.
“Th-that was us offering to negotiate by drawing steel! Who charged the moment the blades came out, huh?”
I didn’t buy it. Judging by the looks on the other escorts’ faces, neither did they—they wore the expression of men thinking, “Yeah, that tracks for him.”
“Heheh! It’s because you can’t control that temper of yours and draw your sword every single time that Okcheon Escort Agency is famous for late deliveries. Send it in spring, get it next spring. I heard people call you Okcheon Drift instead of Okcheon Escort.”
“Who was blocking the road in the first place?”
The Escort Leader protested as if he were the wronged party.
“Whatever. We won’t touch the cargo. When someone from Okcheon Escort Agency shows up, we’ll negotiate, take the money, and send you home.”
“Okcheon Escort Agency does not negotiate hostages with Green Forest ban—”
“Then that day becomes the day of the entire Okcheon Escort Agency’s memorial rites.”
The Branch Leader wiped the smile from his face and let killing intent roll out so no one could mistake it for an empty threat.
Gulp. At that single sentence the Escort Leader swallowed dryly, and every escort’s face turned grim.
“Heheheh. See you next time.”
Satisfied with the frozen atmosphere, the Branch Leader laughed and left.
“Escort Leader. You should have kept your temper in check.”
An old escort with a wounded arm snapped at him in a tone of pure lament.
“What?”
“The Agency Master warned you over and over, and you still drew steel in haste—what were you thinking?”
“If the escort agency lets the Green Forest look down on us, we’re finished! They looked down on us and demanded more toll! I couldn’t just take that!”
“It was a large convoy. We could have paid that much without trouble.”
“Ahem. The agency’s been struggling lately……”
“And whose fault is that if not yours, Escort Leader, for causing accidents every other day? People don’t call you Okcheon Hollowman for nothing these days.”
“You little—!”
The nickname was clearly his Achilles’ heel; even injured, the Escort Leader tried to rise and swing a fist at the old escort.
“Escort Leader, restrain yourself! You—apologize right now!”
“What’s the point of that? The Escort Leader works himself to the bone just for our treatment!”
The escorts blocked the fuming Escort Leader while the old man refused to back down, looking as if he had done nothing wrong and saw no reason to apologize.
What a circus.
I let out a quiet sigh and moved to the opposite corner so I wouldn’t get dragged into their brawl.
Okcheon Escort Agency. The name already sounded like something that, once entrusted, would drift forever around the Hubei triangle until the goods rotted. Turns out their bad reputation was famous even here. Famous as Okcheon Drift and Okcheon Hollowman, of all things.
I can’t just sit still trusting these people.
In my heart they had already become the living symbol of unreliability. Waiting patiently for Okcheon Escort Agency was no longer an option.
How do we get out of here? Even if we luck into an escape, there’s another problem.
I looked across the distance at Dang Hwarin locked in her own cage.
The wound on her thigh was pretty deep.
She lay face-down without the slightest movement. I couldn’t see clearly, but blood had soaked through around her thigh.
They’d said they would treat her separately because a Dang Clan death would be a disaster—but escape was a different matter entirely.
If the wound wasn’t going to heal in a day or two, I would have to carry her out, and that raised the odds of getting caught again dramatically.
If the negotiation fails, I need an escape plan ready.
Break out of this cage, rescue Dang Hwarin, and get clear of the mountain fort. Just thinking about it already felt like Mission Impossible.
Do I just sit here staring into space?
“Waaah! Escort Leader, I was wrong!”
“Hic… Yeah… This isn’t the time for us to fight among ourselves! Let’s get our heads straight!”
I had been lost in thought when I glanced at the Okcheon Escort Agency’s unimpressive reconciliation—too ridiculous to call comedy, too undignified to call tragedy—and let out another small sigh.
Yeah. I need to think of an escape method myself.
Rather than trust Okcheon Escort Agency and stay trapped in the Heokho Fort triangle, I would find my own way out.