58. Ruins (2)
Ruins (2)
58. Ruins (2)
"Young Miss Cho-ryeong! I made a grass flute! If you blow it right, it sounds incredible!"
"Young Miss Lee Eun-ha! A wild boar! I brought a wild boar. I even cleaned and butchered it, so can we look forward to dinner tonight?"
"Chief! I picked some fruit!"
Cho-ryeong and Lee Eun-ha had somehow become wildly popular. And so had our master. Jeong-hyang was a peerless beauty anyone could tell was hard to approach, so even they backed off, and Son Yeong was still lost in some kind of deep contemplation.
"Hey! You crazy bastard! Is the Sect Leader a bandit or something?! What do you mean 'Chief'?!"
Ban Ho-jeong delivered a splendid kick. Her high kick, landing flush on the back of his head, no longer just looked bizarre—it now inspired a certain pity, showing just how much hell she'd been through all this time.
"Is it not the same? Honestly, Vice-Fortress Leader, do you not like Yeongsan Sect far more than White Tiger Fortress?"
"You crazy son of a bitch! We're not guests, we're hostages!!"
Our Yeongsan Sect disciples just quietly drank their tea, as if they'd all grown accustomed to this by now.
"I'm sorry, Sect Leader. They're nothing but ignorant brutes. You must have been quite startled."
Ban Ho-jeong quietly approached our master and apologized.
"Not at all. It's been enjoyable, thanks to you. If it had been only us left in a sect reduced to ashes, everyone would have been so gloomy. We've been able to laugh a lot thanks to you people from White Tiger Fortress."
"You're... so kind."
Ban Ho-jeong clutched Master's hand with tears in her eyes, deeply moved. By then, we'd already made use of most of the men's camping skills, so we simply watched them with amusement as though they were a troupe of clowns.
"I've always wanted to join a sect like this. The Sect Leader and all the young ladies are so kind and beautiful. I could never have imagined such a place at White Tiger Fortress, where there were only men."
Ban Ho-jeong was genuinely overwhelmed by our master's gentle kindness. Since I was the sole man among women, I could somewhat understand the hardships of the reverse situation, so I could see why she wore that expression.
"Now, Vice-Fortress Leader! Were you not the one who told us not to harass anyone? How dare you secretly hold our Sect Leader's hand? Just because you're neither a eunuch nor interested in men, does that mean you may harass a woman?"
"What? 'Our' Sect Leader? Since when is the Sect Leader yours?"
The comedy started all over again. By now, even Cho-ryeong could no longer suppress her laughter at their antics. And right then, the bandits from White Tiger Fortress finally arrived at Yeongsan Sect, each hauling a huge bundle over their shoulders.
"Hyung! This Byeok-geum has returned, having looted the place clean without leaving a single speck of dust!"
The chief bastard's booming voice. I was the one who'd ordered it, but hearing a report like this made me feel like a real bandit chief.
"You're late. How did you find your way to Yeongsan Sect?"
Ban Ho-jeong greeted him with a grumbling tone.
"Went to the village and they told us."
Fucking hell. A massive horde of bandit bastards swarming the village to ask for directions to Yeongsan Sect. We were definitely going to be getting a lot of suspicious side-eye from the villagers for a while. Following Ban Ho-jeong's gesture, the bandits unloaded their bundles one by one into the storage shed built as a hut.
"The gold comes to ninety-eight taels. Less than I expected."
Ninety-eight? I'd never expected so little. I was sure a sect founded by Heuk Cheon-gyeon would hold at least five hundred taels. Worse, the ninety-eight probably included the ten taels I'd given Master, and despair already set in.
"The rest is a banknote. Damn it. It's from Geum Banking House and worth one thousand taels of gold."
"A thousand taels?"
The jackpot had hit. It was an enormous sum, twice what I'd expected. Right. Heuk Cheon-gyeon had ceded the position of next Black Heaven Association Leader to his young junior brother before leaving. That junior brother must have shown his sincerity, just as Dan-yeong had.
"He could have left it in gold coins. What good is a promissory note?"
Byeok-geum grumbled even at a thousand-tael promissory note.
"What's wrong with a promissory note?"
"Would Geum Banking House even deal with us? We'd have to go through the Golden Crow Association and lose thirty percent in fees."
"Why wouldn't Geum Banking House deal with us? And the Golden Crow Association? Aren't they an unorthodox faction?"
"Ah, right. You're from the orthodox faction, aren't you, Hyung? It's a habit to calculate by our standards, you see. Those unorthodox bastards are real sons of bitches. They know perfectly well it's a pain to exchange, so they gouge us for a full thirty percent as a fee."
Byeok-geum said this while scratching his head. That homo bastard from earlier and now these guys—they were gradually starting to treat our Yeongsan Sect like one of the Eighteen Green Forest Strongholds.
"Surprisingly, there were no spirit pills. Ah, we didn't skim anything; there really were none. All we found were four One-Heart Pills, two Red Blood Pills, and ten Black Moon Pills of the kind you took then. We did gather every medicinal ingredient that looked useful, though."
"Was there no Pill Manufacturing Secret Manual?"
"No. We sold the tables, bedding, and the Black Swordsmen's swords to a fence. He agreed to send another eleven taels of gold by the first of next month."
A specialist truly was a specialist. They seemed to have swept the place clean without leaving so much as a speck of dust. The total loot came to nearly eleven hundred taels of gold. Even if Yeongsan Sect spent ten taels a year, we could survive for a hundred years.
"And we found the Black Heaven Association's Heavenly Astral Internal Art and the manual for Heuk Cheon-gyeon's signature martial art, the Blood Wolf Sword... Are we truly allowed to keep these?"
"I told you to keep them. You worked hard. I didn't lay a finger on Ban Ho-jeong, so return to White Tiger Fortress. Let's avoid meeting again if possible."
I'd expected cheers at those words, but the bastard just slyly glanced at me.
"Uh... Hyung."
"What? I said go."
"Well, the thing is... aren't we useful in our own way?"
"You are useful, I'll grant you that, but we've got enough money now, so I don't need your help."
A creeping feeling of unease. Strangely, my bad premonitions were almost never wrong.
"Why say something so hurtful? Is White Tiger Sect not Yeongsan Sect's foremost subordinate force?"
"What the hell are you talking about?"
"The rule is, a younger brother serves his hyung from close by. Our White Tiger Sect also intends to settle in this area. Just say the word whenever you have orders."
The bandit bastard put on a greasy, nauseating smile.
"Hey! You crazy bastard! We might not have entered the Martial Alliance, but we're the descendants of the Maoshan Sect and a legitimate orthodox sect! Does it make any sense for us to keep company with bandit bastards?!"
"We're not an unorthodox faction anymore. Since we're a subordinate force of Yeongsan Sect, we're now an orthodox faction too."
"Whoa! We're orthodox now too?"
"This is great! I didn't even want to go back to White Tiger Fortress anyway!"
The homo duo was delighted by their chief's words.
"No! Since when are you our subordinate force?! Get lost. Get the hell back to White Tiger Fortress right now!"
"The thing is... we truly can't go back. The Green Forest Chief has already sent new subordinates to White Tiger Fortress. If we return now, we'll just be killed. Hyung, you're a Daoist, so you know about that thing called karmic ties, do you not? Since you have already spared our lives, please let us keep living a little longer."
"Hey! Karmic ties are a Buddhist concept! Yeongsan Sect has no intention of raising subordinate forces, so get the hell out—White Tiger Fortress or anywhere else!"
At last, a frustration close to madness, just like Ban Ho-jeong in the morning, exploded out of me. These bastards had no intention of listening at all.
"And why are you the one deciding this, Hyung? You're not the boss."
With that, the lunatic strode right up to our master, slammed his forehead to the floor with a thud, and bellowed loudly.
"Sect Leader! I, Byeok-geum, may have lived in the Green Forest, but your character has moved me, and I wish to serve beneath you. From now on, your orders will be heaven's commands, and I'll personally split the skull of any bastard who disobeys. Please think of it as saving one life—no, thirty-two lives—and accept us!"
The shout echoed thunderously. Our master, suddenly bowed to out of the blue, was so flustered she didn't know what to do. These bastards were really pissing me off. Our master was incredibly weak when it came to sudden situations!
What? Smitten by our master's character? When did you ever see her?
"Sect Leader! I beg the same, alongside them. As you've seen with your own eyes, they may be idiots, but they're not rotten to the core. I'll manage them well, so please, just use us like servants!"
As if seizing the opportunity, Ban Ho-jeong swiftly threw herself down and pleaded as well.
"Tho... Those from the Green Forest are... difficult!"
Our master, you're amazing! She barely managed to voice her refusal.
"We will never do banditry again. No, even if we wanted to, we can't. Excommunicated by the Grand Chief, we can no longer do banditry."
"Sect Leader. We know nothing but banditry. So that we may no longer be a blight on the world, please, show us the wise way to live from here on."
The ignorant Byeok-geum's request and Ban Ho-jeong's earnest plea. And right after, the entire White Tiger Fortress crew prostrated themselves toward our master. Damn it. Our master's heart was already swayed.
"I... I won't allow any bad deeds."
"THANK YOU!!!"
A multitude of cheers filled the empty grounds of Yeongsan Sect.
Good grief. Yeongsan Sect had made a brilliant debut by destroying the Heavenly Wolf Sect, only to accept the remnants of a bandit fortress as subordinates immediately afterward.
"Ho-jeong unni. Is that true? You're not going home and can stay with us now?"
Cho-ryeong, not understanding the situation at all and simply overjoyed that she wouldn't have to part with the first outsider she'd ever grown close to—Ban Ho-jeong.
"Yes, Young Miss."
Ban Ho-jeong's face broke into a brilliantly bright smile. She'd been shouldering the responsibility of providing for these troublemakers all this time, and now that she'd dumped that burden onto me, her expression was one of profound relief.
"Whew. I was worried the meat would go to waste since the boar was so huge, but I guess that concern has disappeared for now."
Lee Eun-ha sliced up the massive chunks of meat and handed them out to the White Tiger Fortress bandits. Having tasted a piece or two, the bandits cheered and celebrated as if at a festival. They plopped down right on the ground and started eating the meat along with the liquor they'd brought. I couldn't just blame my master, as I was equally weak in the face of sudden situations. Helplessly swept along by the atmosphere, by the time I came to my senses, I too was sitting among them, accepting the drink they were handing me.
"Kyah!! This is heavenly skill. Now that I think about it, you bastards, while we were suffering, I bet you stuffed yourselves silly with this supreme cooking, huh?"
Byeok-geum said joyfully, pointing at the four hostage-bearers who had carried the palanquin.
"Boss! I'm the one who caught this boar!"
"Well done, Song-il! Since banditry is off the table for us now, this sort of thing is all we know. From now on, send game to Yeongsan Sect every day. On my way here, I spotted a stream, so let's catch them fish and deliver those too, and while we're at it, we'll draw water for them as well!"
"For a mountain man who's spent his whole life in the hills, that's easy, isn't it?"
The eunuch puffed out his chest and replied with a confident face.
"Oh my. Then I'll gratefully accept. In return, I'll cook the meat I brought and share it with everyone."
A kitchen became a joyful place when ingredients were abundant. Lee Eun-ha, who loved to cook, opened her heart to the bandits in that way as well.
The cardinal rule was to invest at the bottom. I still lacked a reputation, but having obtained the Flame Emperor, my glorious future was guaranteed, and these bastards had latched onto me tightly from the very beginning. Bandits I'd once taken for fools. But more than anyone, they were men desperate to survive; the very moment the Green Forest Chief abandoned them, these bastards instantly grabbed onto me as a new lifeline.
And so, a subordinate force and neighboring sect was born within Yeongsan Sect: White Tiger Sect.