In a One-Against-Many Fight, Silence the Loudmouth First
In a battle of one against many, take down the loudmouth first.
Rumble, rattle.
Before long, the wagon began rolling onto a rugged, stony path. With the sun creeping toward its zenith, the blinding midday glare forced me to squeeze my eyes shut as I grumbled at Gawol.
"Hey... How much further do we have to go? And what's the big rush to get there before noon anyway?"
"...The very reason you are complaining right now is my answer."
"What?"
My eyes were already stinging and my temper was fraying, yet here he was, spouting riddles again.
Gawol pointed a forefinger up at the sky. "The sky. Or more specifically, the sun. If we don't reach the mountains before noon, you and I won't be the only ones suffering—Daeseong will collapse from the heat, too."
"Ah..."
Fair point. If it felt this sweltering even sitting in the shade of the canopy, poor Daeseong, hauling the heavy load under the blazing sun, had to be roasting alive. Considering I hadn't known the mare for very long, the name rolled off my tongue surprisingly easily. Maybe Gawol actually had a knack for naming things after all...
"So our priority is reaching the cooler, shaded mountain trails—"
"Uh-oh."
Crack!
Neigh-h-h-h-ing!
"W-What gives?!"
Gawol violently snapped the reins, bringing the wagon to a screeching halt. The cargo had been secured beforehand, so thankfully nothing went flying, but—
"Gaaah—!"
Holy hell. I was inches away from planting a passionate kiss crown-first into the dirt road.
"Hey! What did you stop for all of a sudden?"
"Hold on a second."
Ignoring my outburst completely, Gawol shouted down the trail. "Hey, you lot! When a wagon comes down a narrow road, you're supposed to make way! What do you think you're doing?"
Huh? Someone's blocking the road? Righting myself from my near-fatal tilt, I followed his gaze.
"Ha..."
Two men built roughly like Gawol, and one shrimp of a fellow. If they had anything in common, it was the blades at their waists and their sheer, unadulterated ugliness. Even after rubbing my eyes to look again—setting aside Gawol next to me—their mugs were considerably more pulverized than practically anyone I'd laid eyes on across two lifetimes. And when I say pulverized, I mean their faces looked like they'd literally been ground in a mortar and pestle. Look, I speak the truth; I don't insult a person's dignity without cold, hard facts.
"...Hey. Those guys—"
"Save your breath. Clear as day they're mountain bandits... or rather, field bandits, given the terrain. Regardless, waiting to pounce the moment we stepped outside Jungno's jurisdiction means they at least have half a brain."
"Right. Otherwise..."
Gawol nodded in agreement. "Indeed. The local magistrate would have their heads."
Makes sense. People claimed the rate of unsolved crimes in Jungno bordered on zero. Of course, things might be different if you paid a hefty enough bribe to the magistrate's office or settled privately with the victim, but a bunch of petty mountain... er, field bandits definitely wouldn't have that kind of coin.
Just then, one of them piped up.
"Hey there, gents! Now that you've got the picture, why don't you leave the goods behind and run along?"
That was the burliest of the three.
"Yeah! Unlike those other thugs, we're generous enough to spare your horse and ride!"
And that was the shrimp. Loud mouth on that little rat.
"......"
Shring.
The third man remained silent, quietly drawing a polearm that looked like a short-handled podao. Clearly, they had no intention of letting us off easy.
I leaned slightly toward Gawol and muttered under my breath. "...Hey. You don't intend to hand over the cargo, right?"
"...Right."
"Guess that means it's time for me to earn my keep?"
"Seems that way."
"Phew..."
How great would it be if he yelled something like, 'Go, Choryeon—no, Siun-mon! I choose you!' in times like this? Sadly, reality wasn't so kind, but duty called. Besides, it had been a while since someone picked a fight with me.
I hopped down from the carriage and landed lightly on the road. Huh? What was the fuss about almost falling off earlier if I could just jump down like this? Unfortunately, I'm not a cat. Twisting midair to land on my feet after getting unexpectedly launched? No idea how to do that, thank you very much. Terrifying stuff. First, brush off the dust...
Placing a hand on my hip, I puffed out my chest and called out in the most swaggering voice I could muster. "Hey! Let us pass right now, and I'll let you off with a warning this once."
See that? Where else are you going to find a bodyguard this humane? Hey, Gawol, did you see that?
Gawol shook his head as if finding me completely hopeless, though he didn't step in to stop me.
"Hah... That's what I hired you for. Handle it however you see fit."
"You got it."
That's right, leave it to the professional.
At that, the scrawniest bandit barked out a laugh. "You serious? Hey, pal! You're sending out a little runt like that instead of fighting yourself?"
Twitch.
Whoa, hold on a second.
"...What did you just call me?"
"Listen here, runt. We might be field bandits, but we've got standards! How're we supposed to draw steel against a little kid?"
"...Haah."
Wait, did that idiot just seriously call himself a 'field bandit' out loud? So that's actually a thing...
"Pfft—!"
I was ready to blow my top, but hearing him call himself that with a straight face turned my anger into a snort of laughter.
"Come on, then."
Click.
I gripped my sword still sheathed in its scabbard. Left hand over the grip, right hand supporting the base—a balanced stance. Since there was no need to take their heads, I raised the sheathed blade vertically. Being left-handed really was a hassle sometimes.
There was no need for drawing or sheathing flourishes. If I needed an edge, I could just coat the scabbard in qi, and against the vast majority who weren't even worth that much effort, the wooden sheath alone was more than enough.
"W-What? You're serious? You're not even gonna draw your sword?"
"Ha... In the time you spent flapping your gums, you should've honed your own edge."
Why waste internal qi on guys who weren't even 6-Geom?
If they weren't going to come at me...
Without channeling a shred of qi into my body or my sword, I lifted my right foot and sprang lightly off the tip of my left toes. Gotta meet them at eye level, right? Forming an invisible foothold of qi in midair, I kicked off—
Clang!
And brought the scabbard crashing down onto his crown. A sharp ring of iron echoed.
"Dammit—!"
Oh... He actually blocked it?
The instant my feet touched the dirt, I whipped the scabbard behind my neck and swung it horizontally into his flank.
Thwack!
"Aaaargh!"
"Whew... Physical size disparity really is annoying..."
Still, when the goal was merely subduing an opponent, being short had its perks. His waist was positioned at the perfect striking height for me.
"Groooan..."
Taking the hit clean, the loudmouth collapsed, writhing in the dirt.
"Y-You little brat—!"
"You're next?"
As if someone swinging wildly with zero fundamentals could ever deflect my blade. Parrying his slash diagonally from low right to high left, I drove the butt of my scabbard straight into his gut.
Crack!
"Ke-heck!"
Just cracked a couple of his ribs; he'd live. Boring. That made two down.
"Hey, you should've all charged at once from the start."
"Ugh..."
"And what about you over there? Aren't you going to try something?"
The silent man holding the polearm twitched his lips before speaking.
"...There is no chance of victory. Even setting aside internal energy, your martial skill is at least at the 5-Geom level."
Aha... So you were the strongest of the bunch.
Click.
I slid the scabbard back into its carry position.
"Phew... Boring. Hey, do you guys have bounties on your heads?"
Might as well collect what I could.
"...We do."
"Jackpot."
I turned and hollered back toward the wagon where Gawol was watching. "Hey!"
"...Pardon? Ah... Are you talking to me?"
Dazed, are we? What, was I that cool?
"Yeah, you! Just wait here for a bit. Two hours, tops."
Can you do that?
"Well... yes. I can wait by the foot of the mountain over there. But what are you planning to do...?"
"Turn these clowns in to the magistrate's office and collect the bounty."
That was how I usually covered travel expenses, after all.
"Ah... Is that so. But can you really manage that in two hours? We've been riding this wagon for nearly four hours. Making a round trip on foot in just two..."
"Just you wait."
It's not like qi stacks up if you hoard it anyway. When else was I supposed to use it?
"Whew..."
Thud. Thud. Thud.
I chopped the side of my hand into their necks one by one.
"Knocked out cold. Hey, got any spare rope?"
"Yes, here..."
Whoosh.
I caught the coil Gawol tossed and bound the three together. Looked like harness rope for the wagon, so it ought to be sturdy enough.
"Now then..."
White qi billowed up from my dantian. Instead of wrapping it around my sword, I concentrated it down into my legs.
"Hup—!"
Lifting them over my shoulder didn't even require qi. Hmm... The concept I envisioned was speed—explosive leg power to leap vast distances in a single bound. In my lower body, tasked with withstanding the tremendous strain, I shaped my qi into a firm yet elastic spring.
"Be right back, alright?"
Whoosh!
"R-Right... And there she goes..."
"Bounty: ten taels of silver per head."
"Thank you kindly! Well then—"
Dash!
"Whoa... How on earth did she bag them? Small-time crooks or not, they've been giving us headaches for months... And she's already gone."
The second the bounty was in my hand, I launched myself into the air. Sorry for rushing off, but my employer is waiting... With my qi active, stepping onto roofs would leave dents in the tiles, so running across rooftops was out of the question. No romance in that at all.
"Haaah... It's hot."
Turns out the guy was right. Just like Gawol warned, the swelter was ramping up, and sweat was beginning to cling to the inside of my clothes.
Clink.
Still, the heavy jingle of a loaded pouch felt immensely satisfying after so long.
"Heh, not bad."
How could I cover that distance in two hours? Simple: compared to a horse hauling a heavy wagon while being mindful of cargo, I was roughly four times faster. Without cargo, maybe twice as fast... Well, in short bursts, even faster than that.
Bounding along at full throttle, the entrance to the mountain pass finally came into view in the distance.
"Heyyy—!"
Thud!
"Oof..."
Normally, I would have used qi to bleed off the momentum and land gracefully, but I didn't have enough juice left in the tank for that.
"I'm... back."
Clatter.
"Heheh... Thirty taels of silver. Pretty amazing, huh?"
I wiped the sweat from my brow. Gawol looked at me as if staring at some bizarre alien creature.
"...You actually made that trip at that speed and lived to tell the tale."
Even as he spoke, his hand snatched up the pouch.
"I'll take custody of this. I trust you have no objections?"
"Mmh-mmh."
It was all going toward my debt anyway. To say I felt zero regret would be a lie, but it couldn't be helped.
"Hmm... You."
"Yeah...? Whaddya want..." I groaned, dead tired.
"...When we reach the Northeast, I'll buy you a bowl of whole pheasant soup. A two-person portion."
"Huh?"
Life surged back into my limbs instantly.
"For real?"
"Of course. As I said before, a merchant... you know the rest, right?"
Nod, nod.
My head bobbed up and down on its own.
"Yeah, yeah. You don't bullshit."
Right?
"What in the world is 'bullshit' supposed to... Hah, I presume you mean lying."
"Heh..."
Quick on the uptake, aren't you?
"Oh, and."
Now what?
"Good work. Well... had I fought them myself, I likely would have been grievously injured."
"Yep. You would've been one hundred percent... well, you'd almost certainly have lost all your cargo, or ended up dead."
"Yes... quite possibly."
Ahem, see?
"So! What was your review?"
"...Review of what?"
"My swordsmanship! You were completely spellbound watching me back there!"
"Ah, that..."
"That...?"
Come on, out with it! Aside from family, this was the first time I'd ever asked someone else for a review of my skills.
"It was too fast for me to see anything. My apologies."
"......"
Seriously? You didn't see a single thing...?
"Haaah... This won't do. We need to train your dynamic visual acuity first."
"Excuse me? Why would I need to do that when I don't even wield a sword—"
"Hush. Next time, give me a proper review."
"...On second thought, perhaps pheasant soup is too grand. Quail soup might be more appropriate."
"Wait, hey! You can't just change the deal like that—"
"Tsk, sparrow broth."
"...I'm sorry."
Cruel bastard.
Gurgle—
Having burned through so much energy, my stomach chimed in with a rumbling protest. Hey, belly, I'm the one who's suffering here! Pipe down!
"Bear with it for now. I'll honor my promise of pheasant soup."
"Hmph—"
Gurgle-gurgle—
"Would you... care for some jerky?"
"......Yeah."
Just one piece, please.
"Here."
"......"
Hey, did you really have to take 'just one' so literally?