The Orchard Runs Red
He blocked it?
Ga Un-seok could not hide his surprise at the completely unexpected movement. The opponent was nothing more than a farmer, a greenhorn who looked as if he had never set foot on a real battlefield in his life. He had not poured everything into the strike, holding some strength in reserve for Sun U-gi, yet even so it was not an attack a mere farmer should have been able to stop.
Yet Yoo Eunhyeon held fast to Ga Un-seok’s wrist as if to make a point of it. The flustered Ga Un-seok tried to follow up, but Sun U-gi was not the sort to let an opening slip away.
“You think I’ll just leave you like that?!”
Sun U-gi stepped in as though shielding Yoo Eunhyeon and unleashed a vicious sword strike. “Keuk?!” It was a razor-sharp attack that would have been difficult to handle even in perfect condition. Caught off-balance by Yoo Eunhyeon’s interference, Ga Un-seok could not respond properly; he let out a short cry and staggered back.
Sun U-gi’s furious assault continued without pause. In the end Ga Un-seok failed to achieve anything he wanted and was forced to keep giving ground.
As I thought—he’s no ordinary farmer. Orders like these would never have come down otherwise.
Sun U-gi had already half-expected as much from So Biwon’s command, so the surprise was not overwhelming. He even nodded to himself in acceptance.
Whatever the two of them thought, however, the man caught between them was having the worst time of all.
If you’re going to fight, just fight each other! Why do you keep dragging me into it?! This is driving me insane!!
Ga Un-seok’s earlier strike had startled Yoo Eunhyeon more than he cared to admit. He had simply thrust out a hand because he felt he absolutely must not get hit—never imagining he would catch the wrist so easily. Whatever the reason, that month of training seemed to have done some good.
Watching the two carefully, Yoo Eunhyeon quietly edged a step backward.
“Eek!”
The instant he tried to slip away, Ga Un-seok and Sun U-gi moved as one and sealed his escape route. Both men clearly shared the same resolve: they would not allow Yoo Eunhyeon to flee.
At this rate it’ll never end…
Sun U-gi and Ga Un-seok were too busy watching each other to notice much else. Even if he tried to vanish without a sound, they would stop him at once. He needed another way.
In that moment a single brilliant thought flashed through Yoo Eunhyeon’s mind.
Why didn’t I think of this sooner?
The two were focused solely on each other; neither seemed to regard Yoo Eunhyeon as any real threat. That meant they would not be ready for whatever he did. An actual attack was unlikely to land, but if he could just startle them for a heartbeat he would buy all the time he needed.
With that plan fixed in his head, Yoo Eunhyeon watched for the slightest opening. The moment he spotted one he stepped back as if bolting for safety—
Tadat!
They reacted exactly as expected. Ga Un-seok and Sun U-gi charged together to cut off his retreat. Ga Un-seok was the faster of the two; his hand would reach first.
Knowing that, Yoo Eunhyeon did not dodge. He simply stood his ground.
“Hmm?”
Seeing him refuse to move for the first time, Ga Un-seok looked mildly surprised. There was no time for deeper thought. Assuming the farmer’s strength had finally given out and he was trying to run, Ga Un-seok reached straight for him.
Yoo Eunhyeon had been waiting for precisely that. He poured half the inner energy he had been secretly gathering into his fist and drove it forward.
“What?!”
Ga Un-seok’s arm was knocked aside; shock flooded his face and a huge opening appeared. Yoo Eunhyeon crowed inwardly and funneled the remaining energy into his other fist, ready to launch it at Sun U-gi—
“Keok?!”
Suddenly Ga Un-seok screamed and blood sprayed from his mouth. Yoo Eunhyeon glanced over and saw a sword buried deep in the center of the man’s abdomen. The instant that fatal opening had shown itself, Sun U-gi’s instincts had taken over; he had struck without thinking and delivered a mortal wound.
It had all happened so fast that even Sun U-gi stood blank-faced for a moment, still trying to understand what he had just done.
“Keok!”
That moment did not last. A sudden impact slammed into Sun U-gi’s side; he grimaced and cried out. Yoo Eunhyeon, still not fully grasping the situation, had simply continued his charge and smashed a fist into the man’s ribs. Completely unexpected and backed by no small amount of power, the blow staggered Sun U-gi hard. He could not stay on his feet and dropped to the ground.
“?!”
A shadow fell across him. Ga Un-seok, not yet dead, had wrung the last of his strength and stepped in front of Sun U-gi. The moment Sun U-gi sensed the danger and looked up, Ga Un-seok’s saber flashed. In one stroke he half-severed the other man’s neck.
Thud.
Blood fountained upward. The two of them slowly toppled and lay still. They were finished.
“Uh… uh?”
Still spattered with blood and unable to process what had just happened, Yoo Eunhyeon let out a dazed sound. He had completely forgotten his original plan to flee the place. Of course, with both men dead there was no longer any urgent need to run—but that did not stop the shock.
“I… I didn’t do that…”
Though no one was listening, he muttered the words as if making an excuse to someone. In truth he had done almost nothing. The two had simply killed each other. Yet facing the result, guilt still rose in him the way it would in any ordinary person.
Staggering backward, Yoo Eunhyeon turned and fled the spot as if the dead might rise and chase him.
The sun had already slipped below the horizon; only the last red of sunset remained. The fight had taken longer than he realized, and the mountain around him was quiet—so quiet it felt almost serene, as though the earlier chaos had never happened.
Yoo Eunhyeon was heading back toward the peach orchard where the Cheonhwang Paeundae and Jeongeumdae had faced each other when he suddenly stopped dead.
“Ugh…”
The crimson light stabbed at eyes that had not yet adjusted. But that was not what froze him. A far thicker scent of blood was clawing at his nose—so dense it might as well have been a blood mist, assaulting every one of his senses.
It was not the first time he had smelled blood. Beast blood he knew well enough. This, however, was unmistakably human, and far more concentrated.
“Ah…”
At last he found the source and let out a small, broken sigh. Most of the fields the Yoo family had spent years cultivating were utterly devastated. Trees lay broken or torn from the earth, roots exposed where the soil had been overturned. That sight alone was enough to steal the breath from him—yet something worse still waited among the rows.
It looked as though a rain of blood had fallen. The peach trees that once bore beautiful blossoms and sweet fruit were completely drenched in red. Corpses scattered between the trunks made it all too clear where the blood had come from.
Whatever guilt he had felt moments earlier vanished. The scene was enough to turn anyone’s stomach, yet instead of retching Yoo Eunhyeon simply shook his head and ran. He still had the other fields to check.
“No…”
The mountain slopes were vast; not every plot had been ruined. But the largest and finest fields had all been reduced to chaos. Looking at the homestead he had tended for years now lying in ruins, Yoo Eunhyeon could only murmur hollowly.
For a long while he said nothing more. At last he turned his steps toward the thatched cottage near the summit. It stood in a more remote spot; perhaps that one place, at least, had been spared.
“…!”
Halfway there he stopped again. Gu Jung-ho was coming slowly down the narrow mountain path—or rather, crawling. One eye socket was empty and still weeping blood; his left arm had been cleanly severed at the shoulder. With the hand that still held a sword he clutched his belly, where things that should never have been visible were faintly showing. One leg remained usable; the other was twisted at a grotesque angle. He dragged it behind him, limping and lurching.
“A-are you oka—”
Anger at the ruined fields had been rising hot inside Yoo Eunhyeon, yet the sight of a man so thoroughly broken forced the question out first.
Gu Jung-ho noticed him late. The corner of his mouth twitched upward.
“Target… found…”
He spat the words along with a mouthful of blood and collapsed. There was no need to check; he was already dead. Yoo Eunhyeon stumbled backward on trembling legs.
An ordinary farmer had watched three men die in a single day. The shock was crushing. Despair at the ruined fields, rage at not understanding why any of this was happening, and even a thin thread of relief that he himself still lived—all of it whirled together inside him.
He laughed once, hollowly, then poured every emotion into a raw scream.
“Aaaaaaah!”
Only the empty air answered him with an echo.
For the next several days Yoo Eunhyeon shut himself inside the house and did not come out. In truth the fury over the devastated fields had already begun to settle. This was not the first time the land had been laid waste. Ten years earlier a typhoon had left it looking much the same.
Back then the boy Yoo Eunhyeon had cursed the heavens and raged. The seasoned farmers Yoo Dong-gi and Yoo Pyo-gyeong had only laughed it off. When he asked if they were not angry, their answer never changed.
“No farmer can withstand the whims of heaven. Getting angry over things beyond human power is nothing but a waste of time. Far better to use that time thinking about what comes next—and then doing it. Isn’t that right, Father?”
“My son speaks truly. In fact it’s a stroke of luck. The typhoon swept away the rock that was blocking the waterway. How about we open a new field over there this time?”
Yoo Dong-gi and Yoo Pyo-gyeong had set off almost cheerfully to survey the slopes they had long eyed. Young Yoo Eunhyeon, realizing that sitting still and seething was useless, had followed them.
In a way, this is no different.
From the start the whole disaster had been beyond his control—a storm that no amount of skill on his part could have stopped. Just as his father and grandfather had done, Yoo Eunhyeon chose to look forward rather than burn with useless anger.
He sat cross-legged in a quiet corner of the house, closed his eyes, and began to circulate his inner energy. Around him, strangely calm, a new and different power began to spread.