WeTried Translations
Translator/Editor: ZERO_SUGAR
Discord: https://dsc.gg/wetried
Episode 20: True Intentions (2)
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“There’s an opening in your group over there.”
The boys were dumbfounded by Mok GyeongUn’s mocking words.
Who could have predicted that someone would throw a stone and kill one of their members in such a pressing situation?
Mok GyeongUn spoke again.
“What will you do?”
“...”
The boys were left speechless.
Only about half an hour remained until dawn.
If they were lucky and someone appeared, that person could replace the dead boy. But if no one came...
“Damn it.”
“What do we do?”
The boys whispered among themselves.
They were furious that a boy who had shared life and death with them had died, but they had to judge the situation rationally.
It was hard to blame that bastard. He had made what he considered the right decision.
“We still have half an hour.”
“That’s true, but what if no one comes?”
“...”
“He’s right. Let’s just take him.”
“But...”
“I don’t think that bastard will give up.”
“Even so, we shared everything with this guy. There should at least be some loyalty between us...”
At that moment, they saw Mok GyeongUn pick up another stone.
He was not picking up just one. He was grabbing every stone within reach.
The boy who had been speaking swallowed hard.
“...Let’s take him. That bastard picked up stones.”
“That lunatic.”
If they refused, it seemed likely that he would throw stones at the rest of them as well.
In the end, they had no choice but to accept Mok GyeongUn as a member of their group.
Mok GyeongUn smiled as though nothing had happened.
“Thank you, everyone. You’re all so kind.”
‘Son of a bitch.’
They all cursed Mok GyeongUn inwardly.
If he had not appeared, they could have all reached a satisfying outcome.
They had united and learned the meaning of cooperation.
But now, to pass the gate, they had no choice but to accept this lunatic through gritted teeth.
Rustle!
Mok GyeongUn placed his hand on the flagpole.
One of the boys spoke while trying his best to suppress his emotions.
“Be careful. Even if only half an hour remains, the flag has to stay intact.”
“I know.”
“If you know, then don’t touch it.”
Despite the boy’s words, Mok GyeongUn did not stop touching the flag.
The boy was angry, but could not bring himself to say anything more.
After seeing Mok GyeongUn’s strength during the iron bead contest, and the stone that had nearly punched through someone’s face earlier, he lacked the confidence to pick a fight.
‘...Just wait until the Golden Gate Locks are removed.’
According to the information he had gathered, the Golden Gate Locks would be removed once they passed the early stages of the gate.
When that happened, he would find a way to deal with this bastard.
As he thought that, Mok GyeongUn spoke.
“Have you found any flags besides this one?”
“Another flag?”
The boy shook his head.
They had been fortunate. After finding this flag, two groups had challenged them, but they had defended it to the end.
“We protected this without losing once.”
The boy spoke proudly.
Mok GyeongUn let out a sigh.
“Hoo.”
“What was that sigh for? You lost your companions without even finding a flag.”
Unable to endure any longer, one of the boys protested.
Mok GyeongUn shook his head, then walked over to him.
The boy flinched, but soon stood his ground.
“What? What are you going to do? Did that upset you? But it’s true. We had no choice but to accept you, but if we all want to pass, then fighting is unnecessary...”
Crack!
His neck twisted.
Before he could finish speaking, the boy stopped breathing and collapsed.
‘!!!!!’
The other boys could not hide their shock.
“I-is this bastard really insane?”
“No matter what, how can you kill a fellow group member just because your feelings were hurt? Dawn is almost here. Are you out of your...”
Thud! Crack!
Mok GyeongUn struck the shouting boy’s neck with a knife hand.
With the sound of muscles and bones snapping, the boy’s neck bent in an arc. He let out a final groan and died.
Two boys had already been killed.
The others could not conceal their bewilderment.
‘H-he’s insane.’
‘What is he doing?’
Did he truly have no intention of passing the gate?
As they thought that, Mok GyeongUn reached toward another of them.
Whoosh!
“Eek!”
One boy failed to dodge and was caught.
The other boys’ minds went blank.
They no longer cared about passing the gate. They only thought of escaping to survive.
So they fled without helping the boy who had been caught.
Mok GyeongUn hurled a stone with all his strength at one of the fleeing boys.
Thud!
“Urk!”
The flying stone pierced through the back of the boy’s head.
Naturally, the boy who had been struck in the back of the head collapsed face-first, apparently dead.
Thump!
Mok GyeongUn picked up another stone, but the remaining three had scattered into the brush.
‘Getting them all will be difficult. Then...’
“Take care of just two.”
With those words, Mok GyeongUn hurled a stone into the brush with all his strength.
A muffled scream came from within, followed by the sound of something falling.
It seemed to have hit properly.
The boy in Mok GyeongUn’s grasp trembled in terror.
“W-why are you doing this? You know what happens if we fail to pass the gate. If you kill our group members...”
“You will not pass anyway.”
“What?”
“I said you will not pass.”
“W-what nonsense is that? If you hadn’t done this...”
“You were so focused on protecting it that you never even properly examined the flag.”
“What are you talking...”
Smack!
Mok GyeongUn gripped the confused boy’s head with both hands.
The boy begged in terror.
“P-please, spare...”
Crack!
Without changing his expression, Mok GyeongUn snapped his neck.
Then he grasped the shaft of the flag planted beside him and crushed it in one hand.
Screeech!
“This has become a little urgent.”
Half an hour remained.
He had to find another type of flag within that time.
The verse formula inscribed on this flag was identical to the one Mok GyeongUn had memorized.
* * *
At the same time, halfway up the mountain.
With dawn close at hand, two groups were facing each other in battle.
“Pant... Pant...”
Everyone seemed exhausted, and ragged breathing could be heard everywhere.
Strangely, this standoff was unlike the other Flag Defense Battles.
Both sides possessed a flag.
One side had planted its flag firmly against a rock wall and formed a semicircular formation to defend it. The other had apparently carried its flag around. Two boys guarded it, while the other six targeted the side holding the semicircular formation.
‘This is bad.’
Among the defenders were Mo Ha-rang, the short-haired girl from the Flower Hat House, and Mok YuCheon, the youngest son of Yeonmok Sword Manor.
Mo Ha-rang had been searching for a new flag when she somehow joined Mok YuCheon’s group. They had defended the flag together until now.
Judging by how bright the sky had become, dawn was near.
They had just begun to feel relieved when these opponents appeared.
“How long do you think you can hold out?”
A bare-chested boy held a stone axe he had made himself.
The boy, whose body was covered in strange patterns, was Yeom Ga of Scarlet Slaughter Valley.
‘Damn it.’
Mok YuCheon glared at him and cursed inwardly.
He did not understand why they were targeting the flag.
One of the boys guarding their flag had another flag with a broken shaft tied to his waistband.
That meant...
‘They found both types. So why are they doing this?’
He could not understand it at all.
If even one companion was taken down in this fight, they would fail the gate.
Were they really willing to take that risk just to eliminate more competitors?
It seemed like a truly foolish decision.
Mok YuCheon spoke quietly to the boys beside him and Mo Ha-rang.
“Just hold on a little longer.”
Mo Ha-rang and the other boys nodded.
Once dawn came, this would all become meaningless.
However, Yeom Ga of Scarlet Slaughter Valley sneered at their strategy.
‘Do they think they only need to hold out?’
If so, they were mistaken.
His group had a strategy that guaranteed victory.
They had already wiped out three groups with it, so it had been proven effective.
Yeom Ga raised his left hand.
Then,
“Aaaaaah!”
“Yaaaaah!”
The two boys guarding the flag suddenly began shouting loudly.
Not only them, but the boys fighting also raised their voices and shouted at the top of their lungs.
‘What?’
‘Damn it! Why are they suddenly doing that?’
The defenders could not understand their behavior.
They were shouting far too loudly.
Their cries echoed through the mountainside.
‘What are they plotting?’
Mo Ha-rang glared at Yeom Ga of Scarlet Slaughter Valley, who was sneering.
The moment that sly bastard raised his hand, they started doing this.
There was no way they would act like that without a reason.
‘...’
In the end, she decided she could not simply leave them alone.
Defending the flag was not enough. She needed to kill at least one or two of them.
Only then would they retreat.
She tightly gripped her sharpened stone Short Sword and spoke in a low voice.
“You must not leave the semicircular formation.”
“What? Don’t tell me you...”
Mok YuCheon hurriedly tried to stop her, but,
Whoosh!
Mo Ha-rang had already launched herself toward one of the boys.
Her ki gateways were sealed, but everyone knew she possessed exceptional Short Sword skill.
As soon as she moved in earnest, the opponents retreated.
Mo Ha-rang chased after them, determined not to let them escape.
That was the moment.
‘I’ve been waiting!’
Yeom Ga of Scarlet Slaughter Valley seized the opening and charged at the boys holding the semicircular formation.
Mo Ha-rang immediately changed direction.
‘Just as I thought.’
She had expected this as well.
She was the strongest fighter among them.
She had assumed Yeom Ga would lure her away before targeting the semicircular formation.
Whoosh!
Mo Ha-rang threw her sharpened stone Short Sword at Yeom Ga’s back.
One of Yeom Ga’s group members leaped forward to block it.
Thunk!
“Urk!”
The stone Short Sword lodged between the boy’s left shoulder and chest.
However, this allowed Yeom Ga of Scarlet Slaughter Valley to swing his stone axe down at the head of one of the boys in the semicircular formation.
“No!”
At that moment, Mok YuCheon slid forward and targeted Yeom Ga’s legs.
Yeom Ga smirked, leaped aside, and threw the stone axe.
‘What?’
Yeom Ga’s target was none other than...
‘Damn it!’
The flag they were protecting.
His true target had not been the boys.
The spinning stone axe flew toward the flagpole.
Clang!
Was it heaven-sent luck?
The axe struck the flagpole at an angle and bounced away.
It left a small mark, but the pole had not broken.
The boys sighed in relief.
“Haa.”
If it had broken, they would have had to abandon the defense battle and somehow seize a flag from their opponents instead.
‘I’ll kill him!’
Whoosh! Tap tap tap tap!
Mo Ha-rang charged toward Yeom Ga.
The others were troublesome too, but killing him now would be best.
He was more troublesome than anyone because he used every trick he could think of.
“Flower Hat House. You want to take me on?”
After throwing the axe, Yeom Ga rolled across the ground with his Breakfall Technique and rose, taking an opening stance toward Mo Ha-rang as she rushed at him.
Regardless of her being a girl, she was one of the opponents he most wanted to face.
Then,
Squeal! Squeal!
A strange cry sounded from somewhere.
The two people rushing toward each other stopped.
The other boys from both groups, who had been locked in battle, did the same.
Thud! Thud!
The ground trembled.
Something massive was approaching.
Since the sky had grown considerably brighter, they could see a huge shadow forming behind the brush.
Then the boys on Yeom Ga’s side moved as though they had been waiting for it.
They ran as if seeking refuge toward the two boys holding their flag.
Rustle...
Something huge appeared behind them.
‘!!!!!!’
Everyone’s faces stiffened.
Drip...
Something emerged, drool streaming from its jaws.
It had bluish fur on its head, sharply pointed ears, and hooked, razor-sharp claws.
It resembled a wolf, but its size...
“W-what is that?”
“What the hell is this?”
It appeared nearly three times larger than an ordinary wolf.
It was a monster wolf with such overwhelming presence that it seemed capable of devouring even an ox in a single bite.
Mok YuCheon broke out in a cold sweat.
‘It got... bigger.’
He had encountered that monster while struggling through the mountain.
He had been lucky to survive then, but it was far larger than it had been at the time.
What had happened to it in the meantime?
“T-that’s the monster wolf.”
Another boy in Mok YuCheon’s group spoke in a voice full of fear.
Two members of their group had fallen victim to it, so they understood its danger better than anyone.
Tap tap tap tap!
Yeom Ga ran to where his group’s flag stood.
The boys with Mo Ha-rang, who had been holding the semicircular formation, looked puzzled.
The monster wolf was closer to Yeom Ga’s group than to them.
They should have abandoned their flag and fled, yet they instead moved closer to it as though determined to defend it.
‘What is this?’
As they wondered, the monster wolf, which they expected to attack Yeom Ga’s group first, moved around them.
Then it headed toward Mok YuCheon and the boys forming the semicircular formation before the rock wall.
‘What?’
‘Why?’
They could not understand why.
Why would the monster wolf pass those people and target them?
Did it choose its victims?
‘The flag?’
However, someone had a rough idea of what was happening.
It was Mo Ha-rang.
She found it strange that, rather than taking up a defensive position when such a monster appeared, Yeom Ga’s group moved closer to their flag.
So, on a hunch, she shouted,
“Get close to the flag!”
The others hesitated over what to do, then backed toward the flag.
They were not thoughtless. Hearing Mo Ha-rang’s shout, they noticed what Yeom Ga’s group was doing.
So they decided to move close to it first.
But then,
Thud thud thud thud!
The monster wolf charged toward them with incredible speed, completely unsuited to its massive body.
“Aaah!”
“Eek!”
“D-dodge!”
The monster wolf rushed at them regardless of their proximity to the flag, and everyone scattered in panic.
However, one boy was trampled beneath it.
Thud!
“Argh!”
Blood burst from the boy’s mouth.
Its immense weight was bad enough, but its hooked claws had dug into his back and torn apart his organs.
“Damn it!”
Mok YuCheon stopped fleeing and turned around.
Every instinct urged his legs to run, but that boy had accepted him into the group, and they had endured life and death together.
He could not simply abandon him and flee.
Whoosh!
Mok YuCheon picked up a stone from the ground and threw it at the creature’s face.
Thud!
The monster wolf turned its head sharply after being struck.
Squeal! Squeal!
The moment he heard its pig-like cry, goosebumps rose all over his body.
The monster wolf fixed its gaze precisely on Mok YuCheon.
‘Damn it.’
Had he done something pointless?
Should he have just run away?
As he thought that,
Whoosh!
Someone leaped high into the air, stepped on the monster wolf’s back, climbed onto its neck, and tried to drive a sharpened stone Short Sword into its eye.
It was Mo Ha-rang.
However,
Whoosh!
“Gasp!”
Before Mo Ha-rang’s Short Sword could pierce its eye, the monster wolf violently swept above its head with its opposite forepaw.
She jumped away to avoid it, but its claws grazed her back.
The hooked claws tore away flesh, and blood immediately spread across her back.
Then,
Crash!
She rolled across the ground several times.
“Ha-rang!”
After rolling to a stop, Mo Ha-rang tried to stagger to her feet.
However, after suffering such an injury with her ki gateways sealed and only her bare body to rely on, she could not rise easily.
Thud!
One of her knees dropped to the ground.
Watching her, Yeom Ga’s group members gathered around their flag and sneered excitedly.
Was this what they called killing with a borrowed knife?
They had already fed three groups to the monster wolf this way.
‘Do not feel too wronged, Flower Hat House girl.’
Yeom Ga of Scarlet Slaughter Valley curled his lips into a cruel smile.
There was no such thing as fair and square here.
The true winner was whoever survived to the end and eliminated rivals by any means necessary.
Squeal! Squeal!
The monster wolf bared its teeth as it walked toward her.
It was not an ordinary beast.
As though trying to terrify her, it approached one slow step at a time.
“Pant... Pant...”
‘Dawn is almost here.’
Mo Ha-rang looked at the sky and bit down hard on her lower lip.
Only a quarter hour remained. Was she going to fail the gate and lose her life like this?
The bleeding from her back was making her vision blur.
Thud!
Thud!
Thud!
The monster wolf came right up to her.
Mok YuCheon and another boy shouted as they desperately tried to draw its attention, but it was already too late.
The monster wolf’s next meal was her.
‘Do I... look delicious...?’
Grit!
Mo Ha-rang clenched her teeth and tried to rise.
Even if she died, she wanted to stab at least a piece of the monster wolf’s flesh before dying, so she would not feel wronged.
At that moment, the monster wolf launched itself at her as though it had been waiting.
Whoosh!
‘Come!’
Then,
Jolt!
The monster wolf’s body suddenly stopped in midair.
‘!?’
It did not seem to have stopped on its own. It was frozen with both forepaws raised, as though something had bound it.
“What is that?”
“Why is it doing that?”
Everyone was puzzled, but Mo Ha-rang’s fading eyes saw something bizarre.
Countless chains had risen from the ground and bound the monster wolf’s entire body.
Clang! Clang!
Squeal!
The monster wolf roared and tried to break free, but the chains tightened around it and restrained it more firmly.
‘What?’
What were these chains?
Then a voice came from somewhere.
“Ah, what a relief. Everything I need is gathered here.”
Mo Ha-rang turned toward the voice.
Someone was walking over with the corners of his mouth raised.
‘That bastard is...’
It was Mok GyeongUn.
But what was that transparent, hazy shape beside him?
Flinch!
It was a girl with half-white hair, chains wrapped around her entire body. The moment their eyes met, goosebumps rose all over Mo Ha-rang’s body.
End of Episode 20: True Intentions (2)
© Han Jung-wol-ya
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