WeTried Translations
Translator/Editor: Asakusa
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◈ A Wandering Warrior's Survival Guide ◈
Chapter 23: More Than a Mere Escort's Level (1)
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Early morning.
More than a dozen carts stood in a long line along the main road. Covered cargo carts, horses, rain-soaked flags, escort guards, and wanderers tying down loads were all mixed together.
A flag embroidered with blue clouds fluttered limply in the rain.
“Did you see those Blood Serpent Gang bastards yesterday?”
A wanderer in a bamboo hat muttered beside a cart. They appeared to have been hired as an escort guard.
“See them? I heard the Cheongmok Pharmacy lot was reduced to ashes. The Wandering Warrior Hall was half wrecked too.”
“Those Blood Serpent Gang bastards have completely lost their minds.”
“I heard their Gang Leader moved personally.”
“Maybe they don't care if they become public enemies of the Martial World.”
“The truly crazy ones were the Cheongmok Pharmacy lot. They announced they'd gather people to take a first-rate master's head, so they paid the price. Even if they're Black Path rabble with only their Gang Leader to rely on... a first-rate master is still a first-rate master.”
“Shh. Watch what you say. There might be survivors from Cheongmok Pharmacy.”
“What could they do even if they survived? It's over now.”
More than a dozen heavily laden carts stretched across the muddy road, soaked by last night's downpour.
The escort guards preparing to depart and the wanderers assigned to guard duty gathered in small groups, whispering among themselves. Last night's dreadful massacre, which had painted Changchun in blood, was naturally the main subject of conversation.
Though Changchun was a frontier city beyond the passes, it was still one of Jilin's foremost cities. The shock left by a first-rate master sweeping through it would not fade easily.
Azure Cloud Escort Agency's flag, heavy with rainwater, fluttered in the gray morning wind.
“Tsk. There were more than one or two wanderers who got caught up in it and died for nothing.”
Amid the lamenting voices, heavy footsteps approached, splashing through the mud.
Several people in the noisy crowd naturally turned to look.
A young man wearing an old, oversized bamboo hat pulled low over his face.
An old longsword hung at his waist, while a modest bundle rested on his back. Peach fuzz still lingered along the jaw visible beneath his rain-soaked, dull garments, and his entire body was covered in wounds.
As he walked straight toward the carts, an escort guard with thick sideburns, who had been directing the caravan, frowned and blocked his path.
“Hey, brat. This isn't a place for drifters to loiter around. Get lost.”
He had just faced a first-rate master.
The presence of this third-rate fellow before him, who might generously be called second-rate, did not feel threatening in the slightest. Now he understood, at least a little, why the strong could afford to be so relaxed.
Really, there was not the slightest threat. He felt no reason to deal with them.
Despite the escort guard's fierce order to leave, Cheon Hwi simply strode past.
The guard glared, about to stop him for so openly ignoring them, but held back. Partly because the boy's bearing was unusual, and partly because the chief escort guard was approaching from afar.
Chief Escort Guard Gwak Myeong-ho stepped forward.
“I am the B-rank wanderer Cheon Hwi. My name should be on the list. Please check it.”
“B-rank? You?”
“Yes. Yi Mu-gwang and I agreed to take work as hired escort guards. Please confirm it.”
His tone was calm. If anything, that made his words carry more weight.
The people around them widened their eyes.
But knowing that not all B-ranks were equal, the escort guard remained unimpressed. They had seen more than one or two B-ranks at the Wanderer Market who were not even as good as C-ranks.
“B-rank, huh... Where's that slippery Yi Mu-gwang, and why have you come in his place, you green little brat?”
The hired escort guards nearby snorted at the mention of B-rank, but Gwak Myeong-ho remained calm.
Cheon Hwi slightly lifted his head. A cold gleam flashed beneath the brim of his hat.
“He is recovering from serious injuries.”
A short, dry answer.
Yet something weighty in those words instantly wiped the laughter from their faces. Cheon Hwi spoke again.
“This is the token issued to me by the Wandering Warrior Hall along with the advance payment.”
Without a word, the chief escort guard inspected Cheon Hwi's wooden token. It was genuine, but the Cheon Hwi before them was someone they had never seen before.
When selecting hired escort guards, trustworthiness came first and second. It mattered even more than martial skill.
The first rule when selecting hired escort guards was never to hire someone unknown, unless someone could vouch for them.
Yi Mu-gwang was one of Gwak Myeong-ho's well-known friends, but they had never heard Cheon Hwi's name from him.
“What is your relationship with Yi Mu-gwang?”
“For a time, he traveled with me and acted as my master.”
“Master? That bastard?”
Gwak Myeong-ho looked Cheon Hwi over from head to toe with an expression that said Yi Mu-gwang was not the sort to do such a thing.
The Wandering Warrior Hall employee who should have checked the name on the list was also absent because of yesterday's incident.
“Draw your sword.”
Everyone looked at Gwak Myeong-ho in surprise.
“Chief Escort Guard?”
“No one from the Wandering Warrior Hall came, so I've already sent many people away. It would be troublesome if Yi Mu-gwang's place were left empty too. If you're his disciple, I'll vouch for you. But only if you have the ability.”
Cheon Hwi cupped his fists and bowed.
“Thank you.”
“Don't thank me yet. At the very least, you need to be able to stand beside a cargo cart and take a blade for it. I'll see for myself what sort of person you are.”
Instead of drawing the sword at their waist, Gwak Myeong-ho casually pulled a wooden staff from a cargo cart.
They extended it one-handed toward Cheon Hwi.
“Draw your sword. Use a real blade.”
Cheon Hwi quietly drew his sword.
One wanderer laughed upon seeing the blade.
“What kind of sword is that? It looks worse than a kitchen knife.”
But Gwak Myeong-ho did not laugh.
The moment Cheon Hwi took hold of his sword, his stance changed. It felt as though the air surrounding his entire body had transformed.
‘For a wanderer, are his fundamentals this solid?’
Seeing Cheon Hwi's stance, Gwak Myeong-ho sensed the refined bearing of a well-trained Three Powers Sword.
His sword rose toward Heaven.
His lower body stood rooted firmly on Earth, without a gap.
His body, Human, was compact and supple, as though it could spring forth at any moment.
Yet his presence seemed to carry the bloody stench of an assassin. The sort of scent that would cling to someone from the Black Path, stained black with blood beyond even the unorthodox, or trained as an assassin.
‘A pure, unadorned presence as though he learned orthodox sect martial arts, but a body that says otherwise.’
“What are you?”
“...A wanderer.”
Gwak Myeong-ho narrowed their eyes.
Yi Mu-gwang was a wanderer they knew. That was why they had accepted him as a hired escort guard in the first place.
He was usually someone who traveled alone, so Gwak Myeong-ho had wondered why he would come with another person. Still uncertain, they lightly spun the staff.
Whoosh, whoosh.
The staff's spinning drove the nearby escort guards back, clearing space around them.
Before their words had even finished, Gwak Myeong-ho's foot kicked off the mud.
Whoosh!
The first move.
The wooden staff split the air and shot straight at Cheon Hwi's face. The sound it made cutting through the air was heavy.
It was an attack he could easily evade and let pass by taking only one step back.
But behind Cheon Hwi stood a sensitive packhorse that had only just been tied to a cart.
Startled by the force of the clashing weapons, the horse whinnied and raised its forelegs, about to step backward.
An ordinary martial artist would have focused solely on dodging or blocking Gwak Myeong-ho's staff.
Instead, Cheon Hwi stepped half a pace forward and pressed the side of the wooden staff at an angle with the flat of his old sword.
To Cheon Hwi, who had faced the murderous soft sword of a first-rate master last night, difficult to read, this staff seemed slow.
At the same time, Cheon Hwi's heel slid backward and firmly pinned the rein near the packhorse's front hoof, stopping it from backing away.
The horse's restless movement ceased at once, and the thrust of the wooden staff passed by Cheon Hwi's shoulder.
‘Oh?’
Gwak Myeong-ho was surprised by the movement. Cheon Hwi had dodged, yes, but it was the way he calmed the horse that surprised them.
The wanderers who had been mocking him fell silent.
“Oh.”
Interest entered Gwak Myeong-ho's eyes. They immediately twisted their wrist and launched the second move.
Whum!
This time, the wooden staff swung viciously upward from below. A high attack more than capable of crushing Cheon Hwi's jaw and chest.
The staff technique's characteristic strikes exploded as the two trajectories, a thrust driving in and a strike rising from below, intertwined.
Dodging was the proper response. But if Cheon Hwi moved aside, Gwak Myeong-ho's wooden staff would continue into the cart behind him and tear its waterproof tarp.
Cheon Hwi read the trajectory.
‘A test.’
Gwak Myeong-ho was testing whether he had the qualities of a hired escort guard.
An escort guard had to block what they could evade in order to protect the cargo, and throw their body forward to protect what they could not block. Was that the lesson?
‘If I dodge, the cargo will be damaged. Then...’
Cheon Hwi bent his knees deeply and lowered his upper body. At the same time, he lightly pushed the upward-swinging staff aside as if wrapping around its path.
As he struck and pushed the staff away at precisely the right moment, its force rose diagonally away.
Tap!
With a crisp scraping sound, the wooden staff's force scattered uselessly into the air.
The cart behind him was not harmed in the slightest.
‘Oh. He redirected the force?’
Gwak Myeong-ho swallowed their admiration.
But the test was not over.
Thud!
The third move.
Using the rebound of the staff that had been sent flying into the air, Gwak Myeong-ho spun like a top. After one fierce turn, the wooden staff, carrying centrifugal force, snapped toward Cheon Hwi like a whip.
‘This is a test too.’
Cheon Hwi realized at once that the attack was not aimed only at his body.
If he did not dodge or deflect it, it would strike the face of another wanderer standing at the end of its path.
The scarred wanderer who had been mocking and hazing Cheon Hwi all along was about to have their face smashed in.
“Uh, ah!”
Realizing the trajectory too late, the scarred wanderer cried out and raised both arms. But they were far too slow to defend.
At that moment, Cheon Hwi pivoted on his foot and spun halfway around.
The staff and sword rotated together, like spinning tops.
Clang!
The back of Cheon Hwi's old longsword struck the flying wooden staff with perfect accuracy, twisting its trajectory.
At the same time, Cheon Hwi's left hand grabbed the scarred wanderer by the collar. The wanderer, who had been about to stumble backward into the mud, barely avoided falling as Cheon Hwi steadied them.
Silence.
Only the morning rain filled the main road as the scarred wanderer gasped, staring blankly up at Cheon Hwi.
Cheon Hwi let go of their collar.
The wanderer regained their balance, still dazed.
It was not simply that Cheon Hwi handled a sword well.
Even while receiving the enemy's killing intent, he could calm a packhorse, protect the cargo, and even watch over the safety of another escort guard he found unpleasant.
Gwak Myeong-ho slowly lowered the wooden staff. A smile spread across their weathered face.
“I thought you only had a convincing stance, but you've got proper eyes too. You might even be better than Yi Mu-gwang. Come along with us.”
Gwak Myeong-ho tossed the wooden staff toward the cart, then called loudly to the wanderers.
“Get back to work!”
Those who had seen Cheon Hwi's swordsmanship seemed to realize he was no greenhorn, and no one objected.
If anything, the chief escort guard remembered the faces of those who looked inclined to protest.
Soon after, the escort banner at the very front of the Azure Cloud Escort Agency's procession began to move.
“We're departing!”
Rumble, clatter!
The cart wheels slowly began to roll, crushing the mud beneath them.
Changchun's gates, stained by blazing red flames and the stench of blood, gradually receded behind Cheon Hwi.
The road leading away from the barren frontier and toward the true Martial World.
The road that left Changchun behind and headed for the Central Plains.
Cheon Hwi's world was gradually growing wider.
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