Those Who Live in the Mountains (Mount Taeo)
Bandits were waiting for us on the mountain path below.
This was their territory, and the ambush looked meticulously prepared.
“Haa… haa… About thirty of them. Perfect for a morning workout!”
“Huu… huup. Want to bet on who takes down more, Sakaha?”
“You’re on!”
Raha and Sakaha burned with fighting spirit, but their condition was poor.
Their breathing was ragged and they were drenched in sweat.
It had to be the drug the innkeeper had slipped into their drinks.
“Don’t get reckless. The enemy will keep reinforcing while we fight. It looks like we’ve woken up right in the middle of their camp.”
Yunia stepped in to restrain the pair, who looked ready to charge at any moment.
She analyzed the situation with cold precision and offered a solution.
“We have to carve a path and break through. It won’t be easy, but it’s our only option.”
I agreed with Yunia’s assessment.
To find a way out, I attempted to speak with the enemy group’s leader.
“I am Park Yeon. Who speaks for your side?”
“Second of the Taeo Five Bandits. Yu Pyo.”
The man had a snake-like, oily face.
I got straight to the point and pulled out a pouch filled with gold coins.
“Can you see it? This pouch is full of gold. Let us go, and I’ll leave it behind. How about it?”
“Heh heh heh. No need to brag about money. The clothes you’re wearing, your valuables, and even the women. After we kill you, we’ll enjoy them all.”
Yu Pyo’s eyes gleamed with vulgar lust as he scanned my companions.
Convincing the leader seemed impossible, so I switched targets.
“You bastards! What the hell are you doing?”
“Can’t you see? I’m throwing away gold coins.”
“These sons of bitches! Pay attention! If we take that guy down, everything he has becomes ours! Don’t you want to hold those fairy-like women in your arms?”
I scattered the gold coins in every direction.
With gold lying all over the ground, how many bandits could possibly stay focused on the fight?
If they had that kind of discipline, they wouldn’t be living as outlaws in a remote mountain like this.
“Break through!”
The effect was better than I had imagined.
More than half the bandits snatched up the fallen coins and fled, while the remaining half kept their eyes glued to the gold and showed no interest in fighting.
A path had opened. We couldn’t waste this chance.
I cut through the front while Sakaha guarded the rear as we crossed the enemy lines.
“Damn it! You worthless pieces of shit!! How dare you betray Mount Taeo in the middle of battle!”
Instead of chasing us, Yu Pyo was too busy raging at the men who had fled with the gold and hunting them down.
“Incredible, Hero!”
The plan had worked perfectly.
I had used every last coin, but once I recovered my strength I could earn as many as I needed.
We ran without stopping, descending the mountain.
As expected, the inn had been at the very edge of the mountain’s foothills.
“A building! That must be the city down there!”
At last, a city where people lived came into view.
The elevation difference was significant, but if we hurried it looked like we could escape the mountain in thirty minutes.
“Thirty minutes…”
My body had fallen to the level of an ordinary person.
Yet my sixth sense, premonition, or whatever one called it, was still functioning clearly.
Since waking in the middle of the night, I had felt nothing but unease.
And now. My intuition was screaming its sharpest warning yet.
“Run.”
“What? Hero, what did you say?”
“Run right now! Toward that visible village. Sprint. Now!”
-BOOM!
I thought a bomb had gone off.
The thing that had sent up a massive cloud of dust slowly rose and took on a human shape.
“Is that… really a person?”
Shaggy fur. An overwhelmingly massive body. Muscles that looked hard as steel. The man resembled a bear given human form.
“Excellent. To make me come out personally. I am the Mountain King of Mount Taeo, Mu Hogang. And you?”
“Park Yeon.”
“No alias?”
“What is an alias?”
“Heh heh heh. You lot really do seem like you fell straight out of another world. Did a celestial maiden and angel truly descend from the upper realms? Kkklkl. Of course not!”
Mu Hogang asked and answered his own questions.
The man who had been laughing like a madman suddenly turned serious and continued.
“An alias is a title that symbolizes a person instead of their name. I am the king of this Mount Taeo. That is why I am called the Mountain King.”
“In that case, my alias would be something like Hero.”
“Kkklkl. Yes. You are a man worthy of that title. But why are you in such a state?”
“Think of it as the aftereffects of descending from the upper realm you mentioned.”
“For someone with such a boring face, you have quite the tongue. Well then. Enough talk. Now die.”
Mu Hogang raised his aura.
A completed warrior could gauge an opponent’s skill level just by facing them.
The Mu Hogang I assessed was… strong.
He fell just short of the strongest knight in a kingdom.
In my current condition, even crossing swords with him would shatter me.
But even if I broke, there were things I had to protect.
“I’ll buy time no matter what it takes, so run. A city that large is bound to have experts the bandit wouldn’t dare touch. You’ll be safe once you reach the base of the mountain.”
My companions understood my intention and will.
There was no one here who would waste time with a pointless “But…”
They trusted me and ran toward the foot of the mountain.
Mu Hogang, who had been watching with leisure, asked in apparent surprise.
“What? The saintess isn’t running?”
Sakaha had not fled. She remained at my side, sword drawn, ready to fight with me.
“Running would be pointless.”
“Kkklkl. Don’t you trust the man in front of you?”
“No. I believe in him. The Hero will definitely protect us.”
“Your words and actions contradict each other. If you believed, you should have run.”
“I’m not finished. The Hero will protect us, and I will fight alongside him until the very last moment. We swore that to each other a very long time ago.”
“How beautiful. But what difference will it make if you alone remain?”
“More than you think.”
“I see. I’m truly curious what face you’ll make when that expectation is crushed.”
The conversation ended there.
The longer talk had slightly increased the chance my companions could escape. That was fortunate.
“Then… let’s begin.”
Sakaha and I raised our swords, prepared for death.
***
The outcome of the battle was already decided.
What mattered in this fight was whether Park Yeon and Sakaha could buy enough time for their companions to flee.
Mu Hogang found the man and woman blocking his path utterly laughable.
Their appearance was noble and their spirit extraordinary, that much was clear.
Yet for some unknown reason they could not use their neigong, so they could never be his match.
He had planned to subdue the pair before him with ease and then retrieve the women who had run.
But… his ankles were caught.
“Truly impressive. A man truly worthy of the name Hero. Rest now.”
Even while Park Yeon’s companions fled toward the city, Mu Hogang could not subdue him.
He had severed his arms, cut off his legs, driven a blade into his heart, yet the man rose again and again to block the way.
The tenacity and ferocious will made Mu Hogang feel something he had not felt in a very long time: fear.
So he killed him more thoroughly.
He severed the neck, dismembered the limbs, tore out the heart and crushed it beneath his foot.
“You shed no tears? You really are strong. Now I want you even more.”
The man named Park Yeon had been magnificent, but this red-haired woman was no less impressive.
Even as her comrade’s corpse was being violated before her eyes, she never showed a single sign of weakness.
“Kugh. Just kill me.”
“That won’t do. Sakaha, was it? You must become my woman.”
The woman before him was beautiful.
Hair red as crimson. The world’s finest silk could not compare to those locks.
She was so pure and beautiful one could believe she was a celestial maiden descended from heaven.
Yet Mu Hogang’s desire went beyond simply wanting to embrace a beautiful woman.
For the first time in his life, he wanted something that did not exist.
The loyalty she had shown. The devotion. And the love.
All of it had been directed toward Park Yeon, but it was so beautiful.
That was why he wanted it too. He did not know how to obtain it, but nevertheless.
Mu Hogang took Sakaha as his trophy and returned to his kingdom.
He did not forget to order his subordinates to recover Park Yeon’s belongings and to sprinkle salt on the corpse.
Deep within the vast basin of Mount Taeo lay a gigantic mountain fortress.
Thanks to land wide enough to feed thousands through self-sufficiency and the enormous income from plunder and protection fees, Mu Hogang ruled this place like the king of a small country.
At the center of the Mount Taeo basin, inside the splendid building Mu Hogang had named his main palace, he and Sakaha stared at each other.
The difference in their positions was obvious.
Mu Hogang sat upon a throne fashioned to resemble one covered in tiger skin and the head of a massive yokai, while Sakaha knelt with a gag in her mouth and her entire body bound.
The excitement of battle had long since cooled.
Mu Hogang had the gag removed from Sakaha’s mouth and calmly demanded what he desired.
“Serve me as your husband. If you do, I will treat you with the respect due a celestial maiden descended from heaven and support you in every possible way.”
“Ha. We fought a battle with our lives on the line, and I lost. Stop humiliating the defeated and just kill me already.”
“Is that the rule in the world you came from? It means nothing here. This land has no such laws, so the defeated must obediently listen to the victor.”
“You don’t understand when spoken to nicely. I’m saying I would rather choose death than marry a beast like you.”
“You’re the one who doesn’t understand. In this land, you can neither live nor die as you please. The answer is already decided, so any resistance will only bring you pain.”
The two glared at each other.
Mu Hogang wanted Sakaha’s heart, but he did not know how to obtain it.
In truth, he was not even particularly interested in what it truly was.
“I will ask one last time. Will you serve me, Mu Hogang, as your husband?”
“Go fuck yourself.”
“If you volunteer to drink poison, I can hardly stop you. You there. Send this woman to the Gonggongbang for three days.”
The bandits who had been silently watching from the surroundings burst into cheers.
“Long live the boss!”
“Long live! Long live! Long live!”
The Gonggongbang.
Sakaha did not know what kind of place it was, but everyone except her understood perfectly.
It was a room shared by every bandit in the fortress.
A sexual toilet where captured women taken as spoils were freely passed around and devoured.