Chapter 76
Chapter 76
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Translator: uly
Chapter: 76
Chapter Title: The Surviving Friend
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If you don't talk to people for a long time, mold grows in your mouth.
Joo Ryeong-ryeong knew that feeling better than anyone.
"......"
She closed her eyes. Felt the blowing wind.
It was cool. But that was all. There was no warmth.
All around her were shadows. This gloomy place was shaded from the sun to begin with, and there weren't even similar houses nearby, so of course it was.
Looking back was the same. The half-built house she'd made was less a "house" and more a rickety pile of logs.
But what could she do?
She didn't know how to build a house.
Her body was sturdy to begin with. She could endure anything.
Whether sleeping on the bare ground or a bed, as long as she could open her eyes in the morning, wasn't that enough?
That's what she thought.
...That's what she thought.
"Haaaaah..."
Her sighs grew deeper with each passing day. Her mouth itched.
To begin with, she wasn't the quiet type. She loved to chatter away.
She preferred talking over silence. She liked playing pranks, mixing serious talk with half-jokes.
But she couldn't. No one to talk to made it impossible.
She knew the reason herself, so she endured...
"......."
Something bubbled up inside her.
Like it was about to burst.
Still, Joo Ryeong-ryeong worked hard to keep those emotions from spilling out. Believing she'd one day escape this stifling valley, she kept her hands moving.
Time passed. The martial arts she'd learned after being kidnapped slowly grew familiar in her hands.
But its traces lingered in her body. The vile demonic art called Nine Yin White Bone Claw kept circling around her.
She hadn't learned it willingly, yet it devoured her entire life.
Because of it, she had to hole up in this valley, dreaming of some uncertain future.
"......"
Her parched mouth craved something other than wild game.
But to prepare for the worst, she couldn't even set foot near the village.
She knew how vicious the yin energy of the Nine Yin White Bone Claw was.
She knew that if she didn't control this evil claw technique, she'd inevitably crave blood.
"Ah, hello. Sister."
Then she met her.
".......?"
The first person in four years...
to approach her side.
"Th-this..."
The tiny figure, small compared to her, held something in her hand. Joo Ryeong-ryeong flinched involuntarily at the sudden offering.
In that little hand was fruit. Dried fruit, at that.
"W-would you like some...?"
"For me?"
"Y-yes."
Joo Ryeong-ryeong kept her distance, just in case. There was a flicker of murderous intent, but distance helped control it somewhat.
"Why?"
"W-well..."
She stared intently.
The hesitating girl squeezed her eyes shut.
"Y-you don't have friends, right, sister?!"
"What?"
"I-I don't have friends either!"
".......?"
Joo Ryeong-ryeong blinked. Then she laughed belatedly.
Her voice, bursting out after so long, felt strangely awkward.
But...
"What the hell. That's it."
It made her incredibly happy.
...
Torn luggage scattered. Liquids leaked, soaking the deck.
Screams of people. But she didn't look back. The warrior who'd introduced himself as Nameless was the same.
Honestly, the time spent with him had been enjoyable.
He'd treated her, suspicious as she was, without a care.
But what could she do? Everyone had their own business. There was only one reason she'd boarded this ship.
"Don't follow me."
Keep me from killing you.
"I'll tear apart anyone who gets in my way."
People swarmed. Her eyes met a nearly shirtless bandit.
"Wh-what..."
She swung her hand.
The technique she'd forcibly practiced hundreds of times ignited at her fingertips.
Nine Yin White Bone Claw
Blood Acupoint Shadow Wing
---Kwaduduk!!
With a gruesome sound, the bandit's head flew. Joo Ryeong-ryeong pressed forward without hesitation.
"Come out, Ansa Sugwi."
She tore through the blocking bandits. When swords swung down, she crushed them like iron.
Even this hated technique shone in this moment. When the qi wrapping her hands struck down, everything substantial crumbled.
"The successor of the White Bone Death God has come for your neck."
She shattered an attacker's waist entirely. Ripped off his head and shoved it into his gut.
She burst the dantian of one sneaking from behind. Grabbed his shoulder and tore him in two.
"Kuaaaah!!!!"
"Y-you crazy witch!!!"
As painfully as possible.
As cruelly as possible.
Her swinging hands were dyed in blood. Her clothes were the same.
The deck turned red. Everywhere her eyes reached was the same. Even the escorts backed away, trembling.
"...Lady Joo."
A voice called. A voice she'd grown used to.
But Joo Ryeong-ryeong didn't turn. She severed the neck of the last remaining bandit on the blood-soaked deck.
Ripped it out and tossed it into the sea. Spat on it.
She'd dismembered over twenty alive, but strength still remained in her hands. The fierce qi that met no real resistance still surged wildly.
The ones she'd torn apart were all small fry. No Ansa Sugwi among the dead. The one who ruled this vast waterway wouldn't mix with such rabble.
So that single approaching ship must be...
Ansa Sugwi's.
"Hoo..."
A voice rang out. Joo Ryeong-ryeong looked up. Someone stood on the strangely shaped ship.
Neatly trimmed beard. Mad eyes. Below them, honed muscles asserted their presence.
The unhidden aura rippled behind him. The water coiling along his hands did the same.
She knew instinctively. That dog was Ansa Sugwi.
Joo Ryeong-ryeong cracked her knuckles. But the ship halted before drawing near.
"Who might you be, to grind up my poor subordinates?"
"Your mother."
"My mother wasn't as pretty as you. Fat and ugly. Not great parents either. Beat me every day. Haha! You seem to know who I am, so I'll skip that... Mind telling me why you're here?"
Ansa Sugwi shrugged.
"I've got too many stories to easily guess why you came. Not well-educated, you see. Explain it simply for an ignorant fool like me. Did you kill my mother? If so... I'll apologize."
"How did you kill So-hye?"
"So-hye...? So-hye..."
Ansa Sugwi pondered.
"You're asking seriously, but who's that?"
"The woman you killed! You fucking bastard!"
"Women I killed... Well, I don't remember every fish a fisherman catches, right? If they look valuable, I usually release them for money... Someone like you must be from a rich family... I don't kill rich kids carelessly."
"So-hye was a poor girl from Baekmi... You damn bastard...!"
"So-hye. So-hye. Shh. Wait. Ah, something's coming to mind... So-hye... Let me see. No way..."
Ansa Sugwi's gaze swept over Joo Ryeong-ryeong.
"Ah! Right! So-hye! Her sister? Lives in the valley? Haha! What luck! You're no girl anymore, huh? Way too old. Explain properly. So..."
Ansa Sugwi laughed.
"You're Joo Ryeong-ryeong, right? Yeah? So-hye's one and only sister."
"You fucking son of a bitch!!!"
---Kuuung!!!
The ship tilted under her stomped foot. People screamed.
Ansa Sugwi didn't stop laughing. Far from afraid, he licked his lips and whispered.
"Calm down, miss. No, really. Such a temper. But cranky women are usually pretty. Makes me curious about the face behind that veil."
"I'll tear you apart...!"
"Don't get mad, listen. I definitely remember that So-hye. Funny thing-she's still alive."
"...What?"
"Didn't hear? I said she's alive. Haha! Fate connects like this! That no-name escort who couldn't even give her name right is connected to a master like you! Who'd believe it?"
The halted ship began to move.
Not forward, but backward.
Ansa Sugwi's ship slowly retreated upriver.
"I'll send a ferry at night. Too dangerous to take you aboard now. We need our preparations too. We'll wait over there. So-hye. If you're curious about her, come alone later."
"You...!"
"Shh. We need to bring So-hye too, right? We'll finish the overdue talk tonight. Haha! Laughing my lifetime quota today! If you want to laugh too, board the ship I send later."
"You think I'll believe you bastards?!"
"A sane person wouldn't..."
Ansa Sugwi's ship pulled away completely.
"But a woman dragging up a story from years ago can't be sane, right?"
Joo Ryeong-ryeong's expression crumbled.
So-hye was alive? How?
I heard she'd died...
What's going on?
...
Night deepened. The escorts kept silent, maintaining distance from Joo Ryeong-ryeong.
The woman who'd rampaged like a madwoman now sat on the deck, staring endlessly at the river.
Her back told of deep entanglements with bandits. Escort Yang Do-hyeon came to me and muttered.
"Do you know her?"
"Just talked a bit here."
After a brief background check, the escorts stopped approaching me. They were just waiting for her to disembark.
The moment the promised ferry arrived, they'd raise anchor and leave. Obvious, so I stood.
Stepping through blood and chunks of flesh, I stood behind her.
"Lady Joo."
"...What? Here to call me a killer demon?"
"I won't judge lightly without knowing the story. Calling you a killer demon outright ignores what I've seen of you. Just over ten days, but I don't think it was fake."
I looked down the river with her.
"When the ferry comes and you board, this escort ship will leave immediately."
"Obviously. I dragged you into this. Sorry for making you see that mess."
"See? You're no killer demon."
"Saying that after I killed so many is kinda funny."
Joo Ryeong-ryeong propped her chin on her hand.
"Hey, Nameless. They say So-hye's alive. Is that... possible?"
"......."
"So-hye, she's my friend. Age gap was there, but we were friends. When I first learned this art, I couldn't control the killing intent, so I lived alone. Funny, right? I didn't choose to learn it, but once I did, my life revolved around it. Still, I endured. Didn't want senseless killing. Eating and laughing together, then waking to a corpse? Better to live alone than deal with that filth."
"You've carried a heavy burden."
"Heavy? Dunno. Honestly... I shouldn't have gotten greedy back then. Met So-hye around then. The only one who approached me in my loneliness. We got close. Felt like what a little sister would be. Hey, learned to dry fruit from her?"
Joo Ryeong-ryeong murmured.
"Got soft dealing with a kid seven years younger. Taught her bits from practicing Nine Yin White Bone Claw. No, she got beat up a lot. So just enough to defend, without side effects. She had talent, followed well. Always praised me as the best... Funny. Felt good. Gave meaning to learning martial arts first time."
"......."
"Planned to stop there. Self-defense only. But So-hye thought different. Admired me, wanted to be a famous warrior too. Warned her not to several times, she stayed away awhile. Stubborn as hell? Then months later, shows up saying she's an apprentice escort. Not this bureau, another. I froze, she peeked nervously. So-hye was always like that. Deer eyes. Couldn't say anything looking up."
Joo Ryeong-ryeong chuckled.
"What should I have said? Broken her legs?"
"Then she got tangled with Ansa Sugwi?"
"Yeah. Her Birang Escort Bureau got wiped out. Cargo stolen, ship sunk, everyone drowned. Learned that three years later. Tracked traces, wrecked other bandits late... One I ripped arm off said it wasn't them. Ansa Sugwi framed weaklings like him after doing it. Thought So-hye was busy working. Turns out she couldn't come. Even if she learned from me... wasn't deep enough to beat Ansa Sugwi."
"......"
"No, Nameless. Doesn't add up? Finally mastered controlling killing intent, went to friend first, and she's dead! Fuck! Because of me! If I hadn't taught her, she wouldn't be escort! Puked my guts out. Really. Stomach acid burning, couldn't speak. Didn't cry, just puked everything. All the dried fruit I'd eaten."
"...Lady Joo."
"That's why I'm here. To beat Ansa Sugwi dead. Grind every damn bandit to drink. But... but she's alive? Heard everyone drowned...?"
I looked at the distant ship.
A small boat cut through the current toward us.
I lowered my voice.
"Lady Joo. Could be a trap."
"It's fine. I'm strong."
"Might not solve with raw strength."
"Still gotta go. Won't believe without seeing myself... I'd regret it forever."
Joo Ryeong-ryeong turned to me.
"Thanks. For treating me well. Made these days fun. First long talk besides So-hye. Head to Aekmin. Follow the escorts."
"......"
"Jerky was great. Delicious. Really. So..."
Joo Ryeong-ryeong chuckled.
"Fleeting ties stay fleeting. That's right. Bye, Nameless."
She jumped down. The ferry rocked like it might capsize.
The boat carrying her sped away. Escorts shouted.
"Raise anchor!"
"Set sail! Now!"
On the hurriedly moving ship, I stared at Ansa Sugwi's vessel.
Ghost Sword Baekya wailed. First time it spoke without my prompting.
My chest felt stuffy.
Like the dried fruits I'd eaten stuck in my throat.
"...Hoo."
This was right. I was in a hurry to Aekmin.
...But.
Ghost Sword Baekya hummed low.
I recalled our short, chatty journey.
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