WeTried Translations

Translator: ZERO_SUGAR

Editor: Abstract

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◈ Invincible Mumu

Chapter 6

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The Exile Ends (2)

Yu Yeop-kyung wiped the thick beads of sweat from his forehead with his sleeve.

Panting, he kept turning over the soil to scrub away the bloodstains.

However much stamina his years in exile had built up, digging and overturning the earth like this was no easy work.

'I was never born to be a farmer. That Mumu makes it look so simple.'

The boy would have finished this in no time. No, he would have wrapped it up without breaking a single drop of sweat.

Then again, comparing his own stamina to that boy's was like setting a bear against an ant.

'Still not back, though?'

The sun was already sinking. Before long the sky would turn deep orange and dusk would settle in. Evening was not far off now.

The peddler caravan always came in the late afternoon, and today it seemed later than usual, which left him uneasy.

'And why is the boy so late too?'

His adopted son ran around even while hauling an A-frame loaded with firewood. So just how far had he gone that he still wasn't back? It worried him.

It was then.

Clop, clop! Clop, clop!

The sound of horse hooves reached his ears.

Yu Yeop-kyung looked toward the edge of the yard, tense. Just then a familiar face appeared, parting the brush with a set of reins in hand.

'Ah, ah, ah!'

It was Oh Ji-gang, the head of the peddler caravan, the very man he had been waiting for so desperately. Behind Oh Ji-gang trailed a procession of pack horses laden with goods.

The moment he spotted Oh Ji-gang, Yu Yeop-kyung rushed toward him.

"Brigade leader Oh!"

"Master Yeo, Scholar."

Oh Ji-gang called back to him with a glad face as well. Then he saw the man drenched in sweat and limping, and his brow creased.

"What is this? My lord, what happened to your leg?"

The thigh of Yu Yeop-kyung's trousers was soaked with blood.

Oh Ji-gang had arrived in high spirits, looking forward to seeing Yu Yeop-kyung and his adopted son after so long, and now he could not help but be alarmed.

"What on earth happened here?"

"Brigade leader Oh, please help me. Something terrible has happened."

"My lord, don't work yourself up. Tell me slowly. How did your leg end up like that?"

Just then someone standing at the back stepped forward.

He was a mustachioed middle-aged man with a longsword at his waist. He knelt, examined the wound near Yu Yeop-kyung's thigh and the cloth knotted around it, and asked, "From the way it's been bound to stop the bleeding, it looks like you were stabbed by something sharp. Is that right?"

"That is so, but who might you be?"

Yu Yeop-kyung knew most of the caravan's procession, yet this man's face was unfamiliar.

"Your color is poor and you seem to have lost a fair amount of blood. May this humble one take a look at the wound for a moment?"

"That, that is less urgent than..."

"Forgive me, but this seems the more pressing matter."

Riiip!

There was no time to stop him. The middle-aged man tore Yu Yeop-kyung's trousers wide open. Everything below was left bare, save for the cloth bound tight above the wound. Yu Yeop-kyung flushed and grew flustered.

"Now, this is hardly proper on first meeting..."

"My word... It looks like you were struck by a dagger."

"How could you tell?"

Yu Yeop-kyung asked, eyes wide.

At that the middle-aged man fetched what looked like a gourd flask from the horse's back and poured it over the wound.

"Ugh."

"Metal poisoning could set in, so I disinfected it lightly with strong liquor."

Then he drew a small container from inside his robes and opened the lid. Inside was a yellow powder. The middle-aged man pinched some up, sprinkled it over the wound, and said, "This will hurt a great deal."

"Nngh."

The wound burned as if it were being seared with fire. For a moment he nearly cried out, but Yu Yeop-kyung had his dignity, so he gritted his teeth. Before long, though, the wound began to feel oddly soothing.

"This is wound-healing salve. This humble one has a spare supply, so keep this with you, my lord, and apply it morning, noon, and night."

"Th, thank you."

In a daze, Yu Yeop-kyung took the wound-healing salve.

The middle-aged man looked at the cloth tied above the wound and said, "Why was it bound so tightly?"

The blood had been cut off, and below the knot the flesh, except around the wound itself, had turned white and discolored to a shade of purple.

Yu Yeop-kyung started to say, 'It's because my son is strong,' but simply held his tongue. Then he turned to Oh Ji-gang and pleaded with him.

"Brigade leader Oh, please help me. My son and I are about to lose our lives."

"Lose your lives? What do you mean by that? And my lord, where is the boy Mumu?"

"He has gone to hide the bandits' bodies."

"Bandits? What do you mean, bandits?"

At this Yu Yeop-kyung explained everything that had happened, from the bandits appearing out of nowhere to how he and his adopted son had somehow joined forces and killed them. In truth Mumu had killed most of them, but he deliberately left that part out.

A groan escaped Oh Ji-gang's lips when he heard the tale.

"Goodness. To think bandits would turn up even here, a place the state has forbidden anyone to enter."

"In all my long time here, this is a first for me as well. Brigade leader Oh, for the sake of our years of acquaintance, lend me some aid. Go to the local magistrate's office and ask for help."

"To the office, you say?"

"And if it's at all possible, please take my son with you."

"My lord?"

"There is nothing I can do, since I am in the middle of my exile, but I cannot just leave that young boy here to die beside me, can I?"

At these words Oh Ji-gang glanced at the middle-aged man holding the longsword, then scratched his head as if at a loss.

Yu Yeop-kyung grew anxious inside, wondering whether his request was hard to grant because he was a criminal in exile.

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