WeTried Translations

Translator/Editor: Oblivious

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◈ Murim in my Hometown ◈

Chapter 60: Assassin

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Jin Seokman did not open his mouth easily.

He feared me, but he still hesitated to mention the Black Night Gang’s internal structure.

Naturally. If he revealed all the information he had painstakingly gathered while delivering liquor, he would become useless.

Then they might no longer let him join in on looting the Black Night Gang.

Since he had made up his mind that way, pressuring him would not work.

“I have a chance to enter the Black Night Gang this time. I need to know its internal layout if I’m going to scout it or do anything else.”

Jin Seokman blinked in surprise as he stopped chewing his grilled rice cake.

“...Really?”

“Master Won and I are planning to get over the wall soon. I worked hard to make this opportunity, so I thought I should learn about the inside of the Black Night Gang beforehand.”

As I gently coaxed him, I slid two taels of silver onto the table. Jin Seokman deliberated for a moment before taking the silver.

For a mere gang in a rural village, the Black Night Gang was quite large.

Wolong Hall, where the Gang Leader resided. Three five-story pavilions, each occupied by a Squad Leader. More than ten miscellaneous buildings and warehouses.

With so many buildings, the passageways between them were complicated as well.

The information Jin Seokman provided included the building layouts, passageways, patrol routes, and schedules. As for the Gang Leader’s residence, he knew only what building it was connected to.

I asked again and again, mapping out escape routes in my head.

There were plenty of gaps and uncertainties in an explanation alone, but I memorized every piece of information for now.

A few days after sending Jin Seokman away, I visited the Wandering Swordsman Inn. A familiar Black Night Gang member was waiting for me.

“Squad Leader Bok says he will uphold his promise.”

“When?”

“Come here tomorrow at sundown.”

“...All right.”

I answered calmly and turned away. My breath trembled without my realizing it.

At last... I would see Jeok Chuyeong.

Suppressing the swelling excitement and anticipation within me, I carefully considered everything.

They say a plan goes wrong from the moment you begin preparing it.

I had seen more than once or twice how matters could turn into a mess because of everyone’s separate interests, even when people were united by goodwill and kindness. That went double for the stronghold of the Black Path.

I could not trust Bok Hagyu completely, and since there was tension between the Squad Leaders, a sword fight might break out inside at any moment.

After returning home, I spread out a cotton cloth and picked up a brush. I carefully reviewed the internal layout and escape routes I had learned from Jin Seokman.

If the passageways were blocked both ahead and behind me, leaving me unable to move, I would have to get over the wall.

I went out into the yard and stood before the wall. It was at least two heads taller than me.

If I stretched out my arms and grabbed the top, I could climb it easily enough, but I would not have time to do that inside the Black Night Gang.

As I looked up at the wall, I raised internal energy from my dantian.

Thanks to all my diligent training, I could circulate internal energy a little faster now. It steadily flowed along the qi-circulation pathway through my body and spread to my limbs.

The instant I felt internal energy gathering faintly in the soles of my feet through my legs, I kicked off the ground.

Bang! Thud.

I landed atop the wall without difficulty.

Using internal energy enhanced one’s physical abilities. My mastery of internal energy was still shallow, but I could handle this much.

Of course, it was too early to be satisfied.

According to Jin Seokman, the outer wall was around two jang tall. He said the interior passageways were lower than that. I did not know what it would be like around the Gang Leader’s residence.

I climbed down from the wall and stood before the eaves this time.

The properly built tiled house stood well over two jang high.

Circulating internal energy with the maximum amount I could use at once, eight threads of silk, I crouched low before leaping with all my strength.

My body shot straight upward like an arrow released from a bowstring.

It was the first time in my life I had felt such a thrilling sensation of ascent, enough to make my hair stand on end.

It felt as if I had grown wings. I felt like I could keep soaring into the sky and grab the clouds.

But in reality, my elbows had merely reached the edge of the eaves.

I pulled myself up by the eaves with both hands and climbed onto the roof.

Even after using my precious internal energy without holding back, I had not cleared two jang. My internal energy lacked density and efficiency.

Could Do Hoengil leap straight onto a roof in a single bound?

Come to think of it, I had seen such a monster once long ago.

Mok Saryong, the Explosive Heat Fist Demon.

After blowing apart everyone in the gambling den with the Explosive Heat Fist and setting it on fire, Mok Saryong had effortlessly leaped onto the roofs of the shops.

Then he had crossed from roof to roof and vanished in an instant.

At the time, I had only thought he was a monster, but looking back, he had clearly used internal energy.

How much training and how many spirit herbs would it take to reach that level? I sighed, shook my head, and turned away.

The roof was still damp from the rain that had fallen the previous day. With nowhere to sit, I remained standing as I looked over the surrounding landscape.

The night wind blowing over the darkened fields was chilling enough to make me shrink back.

Seochon’s nightscape, brightly lit with lamps, looked warm as a dream.

It felt as though someone would open a door and welcome me if I could reach that place right away, but that could not be true.

Where had Jeok Chuyeong taken Soso and her family, along with the villagers?

I would find out when I met him directly.

Even if he was too ill to speak, as long as he was alive, Bok Hagyu would find some way to get him on his feet.

You could roughly judge what kind of person a superior was by looking at their subordinates.

Bok Hagyu was a man ill-suited to the Black Path.

Then Jeok Chuyeong, whom he served with such loyalty, would probably be different from the vile and cruel alias of Black Slaughter Sword as well.

What I had heard from Jin Seokman offered a little hope, too.

Jeok Chuyeong had not threatened the villagers or forced them into carriages. He had taken his time and calmly persuaded them, telling them there was somewhere new to relocate. This was not the Black Path’s way.

If he had deceived Soso and her family and sold them off somewhere...

Jeok Chuyeong would pay the price.

Even if I had to exhaust every bit of internal energy I possessed, I would make sure to...

* * *

The next day, around the time the western mountains were dyed by the sunset, I strapped on my long saber and headed for the Wandering Swordsman Inn.

As I sat by the window chewing jerky, Bok Hagyu appeared with his subordinates.

“Let’s go.”

With three Black Night Gang members leading the way, Bok Hagyu and I walked side by side.

“Why did you come yourself instead of sending your subordinates?”

“You wouldn’t trust it unless I came, would you?”

Something felt strange.

At first glance, it seemed he had come resolutely to keep his promise, but it also looked as though he wanted to earn my trust.

It was true that I had helped Bok Hagyu in various ways. My martial ability was no trifling matter, and I was not tied down anywhere.

Did he want me to lend a hand in his disputes with the other Squad Leaders?

Come to think of it, he had brought only three subordinates.

“Isn’t that too small an escort?”

“Who in Seochon would dare touch the Black Night Gang?”

Bok Hagyu sounded unconcerned and confident.

Where had the dozens of subordinates who had sealed off the Wandering Swordsman Inn so tightly gone?

I had not heard that a fight had broken out, so they were probably busy taking over the establishments managed by the Blood History Gang.

“If I enter, won’t Im Jageon and Seondo Mu make a move?”

Bok Hagyu looked at me and gave a faint laugh.

“Why? Are you scared now that you’re actually entering the Black Night Gang?”

“I am scared. I’m worried some rabble will block me from seeing Gang Leader Jeok.”

“Don’t worry. Our people guard the Gang Leader’s residence. No matter how short-handed we are, we do not pull anyone from there.”

So Im Jageon and Seondo Mu might be targeting Gang Leader Jeok.

I clicked my tongue inwardly and shook my head.

Just like Black Path scum with black hearts...

I knew the Black Night Gang’s front gate. On my first day back in Seochon, Gusam had shown me the area.

Bok Hagyu’s group entered an unfamiliar back alley almost on the opposite side. It was a strange alley, but it also led to the Black Night Gang.

It was the route Jin Seokman took while pulling a cart to deliver liquor to the Black Night Gang.

After passing through this alley, turning left, and going in for a while, the Black Night Gang’s back gate would appear.

It seemed we were heading for the back gate instead of the front to avoid prying eyes.

As we went farther into the alley, I spotted a group of more than twenty beggars. Every one of them was a small child.

When armed adults appeared, the ragged children flinched and held their breath.

As we drew closer, one child cautiously stepped out from among the beggars, who had been watching us.

“Excuse me, masters. Please give us just one coin!”

He seemed to be their leader, and the other beggars rushed forward as if they had been waiting for this. They competed to hold out their begging bowls to the Black Night Gang members and Bok Hagyu.

“We haven’t eaten for three days! Just one coin!”

“Give alms and go to paradise!”

“Master...”

Bok Hagyu and his subordinates did not draw their swords.

They were little children who barely reached an adult’s waist.

Their faces, stripped of all baby fat from hunger, were black with grime because they had not washed properly. Even the begging bowls they held in cloth-wrapped hands against the cold were half broken.

Anyone would have thought they were nothing but young beggars.

“Move aside!”

The subordinates waved their hands, driving the beggars back. Even so, the beggars did not retreat.

“Master, just one coin...”

Whoosh!

Three or four young beggars approaching me were knocked down by the broadsword I swung, sheath and all. I glared at them and gave them a stern warning.

“Do not come within sword range.”

I did not want to do this even to children, but from the moment I entered this alley, my nerves had been strangely on edge.

The sharp energy clinging thickly in the air felt wrong.

More than ten beggars clung to the Black Night Gang members, blocking the road.

“Let go. Stop clinging to us. Get lost!”

“Hah! Have these little beggars gone mad from hunger? Get lost!”

Even as the Black Night Gang members glared, kicked them cruelly, and struck their heads, the young beggars clung on tenaciously.

Pulling out a money pouch here would only make things worse. Coldly driving them away was the best option.

While we stood there awkwardly halted, Bok Hagyu and his subordinates became completely mixed in with the young beggars.

They were too close together. Had they thought these brats were merely annoying and posed no danger?

At least, that was what Bok Hagyu and his subordinates believed. They soon paid the price.

“Urgh!”

Bok Hagyu suddenly staggered and struck the leader’s face.

A bloodied blade was tied to the hand of the young beggar, who had been flung aside and slammed into the wall.

“Eat!”

At the leader’s shout, the noisy cries begging for a single coin vanished at once.

In the chilling silence, the young beggars threw away their bowls and revealed blue-tinged blades.

They were not simply holding them. The weapons had been tightly wrapped to their hands with leather cords, then hidden beneath cotton cloth so they could not be dropped.

“Food! Food!”

The young beggars, their eyes crazed, madly stabbed the adults standing directly before them with their blades.

The three Black Night Gang members surrounded by the beggars were mercilessly carved apart in an instant.

“Argh!”

Small knives repeatedly plunged into their lower bellies, thighs, and waists, drawing streams of blood. Without even getting a hand on their sword hilts, all three collapsed in vain.

Bok Hagyu, who had taken a blade to the leg, savagely swung his scabbard like a club as he retreated.

...So that unpleasant feeling had been killing intent.

Because I had kept an appropriate distance, I escaped the ambush.

The young beggars on either side of me rushed in a beat late with daggers in hand.

No matter how young they were, I could not simply let them stab me.

I struck the face of one charging at me with a dagger, using my scabbard.

His head snapped aside, blood burst from his nose, and several broken teeth scattered through the air. Eating would be difficult for him from now on, but it was still better than dying.

I kicked one down and swung my scabbard again.

After that much, they should have been frightened enough to retreat, but their eyes were crazed as they charged wildly.

These were not children. They were starving wildcats. Ruthless killing intent, sharpened by hunger, blazed in their eyes. It was as if they wanted to kill me and tear off my flesh to eat.

I understood why the leader had ordered them to “eat” rather than “kill.”

They were not beggars. They were assassins, and of the most goddamn awful kind: Child Assassins.

Even people who would cut down the elderly and women without mercy could not help hesitating before children.

In a real fight, that brief hesitation and uncertainty could cost them their lives.

People did not stay especially wary when children approached them as closely as these had. They thought there was no way they could be harmed by mere children.

As far as I knew, the Assassins’ League was the only place that kidnapped children and raised them as Child Assassins for that purpose.

If even a weakling charged in prepared to throw away their life, they could at least tear the clothes of an expert.

It was becoming increasingly troublesome to handle the blades of the Child Assassins charging like starving monsters without holding back, using only my scabbard.

After kicking and striking several more of them, I examined the wall. It was higher than the wall at home, but it looked manageable.

I gripped my broadsword to create some distance, but another group of beggars came rushing in from the far end of the alley.

They were bigger than the children here, but they were still children.

One of them had a familiar face. He wore rags like a beggar and had smeared charcoal over his face, but not enough that I could not recognize him.

Pung Obok froze when our eyes met. His eyes shook violently.

Only now did I think I understood what he had tried to tell me yesterday.

Pung Obok clenched his teeth. Before he had a chance to say anything, he threw the dagger in his right hand.

The dagger’s gleaming white blade flew straight at me.

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