WeTried Translations

Translator/Editor: HidingTurtle

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◈ Raised by a Ruthless Swordsman ◈

Chapter 6: Wailing Song

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Splatter.

Blood spraying from Yu Sam's neck soaked the ground. The man who had shouted Yu Sam's name stared at the sight in despair.

As Yu Sam's body collapsed, the bandit who had been hidden behind him came into view. The sabre in his hand hung at his side, still in the position from which he had swung it.

He must have been the one who cut Yu Sam's throat.

The bandit raised his sabre again, aiming for the dazed man's neck.

I seized the man's shoulder and yanked him back. He screamed as he rolled across the dirt.

The bandit's sabre barely sliced through empty air before striking the ground. I did not miss the opening. Drawing my sword, I cut off his head. The vibration of steel tearing through flesh traveled straight into my palm.

The bandit's head separated from his body and flew into the air. His face, glaring at me with clenched teeth, looked so vivid that he seemed still alive.

I twisted my wrist and spun the sword as it crossed the air. Using the force of the turn, I cut off the left arm of the bandit beside me, who was staring at me in shock, from the shoulder.

Blood gushed wildly from the severed arm. Hot, sticky liquid struck my face.

My vision was covered for a moment. The sharp stench of blood made my stomach churn.

I quickly wiped my face with my left hand. Only then did I see the bandit staggering after losing his arm.

I kicked his body away, then used the recoil to turn and thrust my sword to the right.

The blade plunged into the side of a bandit who was repeatedly striking down at a fallen villager.

That dealt with all the enemies nearby. During the brief respite, I tried to steady my ragged breathing from the run and quickly swept my gaze around.

Two bandits remained to the left, one to the right, and another five or six stood farther back, unable to enter the passage yet.

Even then, the ceaseless shouts and clang of weapons from both sides muddled my thoughts.

"Aaargh!"

A desperate scream rang out from the left. Turning toward it, I saw two bandits wildly hacking at a fallen young man with their sabres.

Beside them lay two more villagers. Their upper bodies had been torn to pieces, and their breath had already stopped.

The scream soon ceased. Even so, the bandits did not stop bringing down their sabres.

The sight was so brutal that it held my gaze for a moment.

Whoosh.

Something rushed toward me from the side.

Startled, I instinctively stepped back. A sabre passed an inch before me. The bandit who had cut through empty air hurriedly tried to pull his sabre back.

I thrust my sword into his exposed body. The blade went shunk through his chest and burst out his back. The bandit dropped his sabre, briefly felt at his chest with one hand, then slumped to the ground.

I pulled my sword free.

When I turned, the two bandits on the left were awkwardly looking around. It seemed they had only just grasped the situation.

The same fear appeared on both their faces as they looked at me. Grimacing, they slowly backed away.

Then a harsh curse burst out from ahead.

"You damned bastards! You managed to hire a martial artist somewhere!"

Looking over, I saw a large, broad-shouldered man who appeared to be their leader.

"Fall back! We abandon this place!"

At those words, the two hesitant bandits turned and hurriedly rejoined their group. The rest also faced me as they slowly widened the distance between us.

Once they were more than ten steps away, they suddenly turned as one and began to flee. The large man who had kept glaring at me was the last to turn.

I watched them as I caught my breath.

What would happen if I let them go like this? I counted the fleeing bandits.

Eight remained. I had killed four.

Though three-tenths of their group had died, judging from what I had seen, they still had enough men to raid this village.

And I would not be here then.

When that time came, Jang Sam would likely be lying in tatters at the village entrance.

I vividly pictured sabres coming down upon Jang Sam's three children as they lay in the yard before their home. Before that horrible sight, Jang Sam's wailing wife would be violated.

I took a deep breath. My breathing had recovered considerably.

I poured Inner Energy into my feet and kicked off the ground.

* * *

Hwang Jeoksam was deeply flustered.

According to the subordinate who had gone to scout the place, half the village's men had gone into the city to sell grain.

In truth, it would not have mattered even if every man in the village had been there. They were men who had farmed their whole lives. The only things their hands knew were hand hoes and mattocks.

It was not easy to grow accustomed to the intent to kill another person. Before someone who had killed a few people, an ordinary person would instinctively shrink back.

That was why Hwang Jeoksam had been certain they would sweep the village aside with ease.

He had thought the same when his men struck down the two guards standing watch over the village. Even when several more men rushed out behind them with sickles and hoes, that certainty had not wavered in the slightest.

He had even rubbed at his crotch as he thought of the women he would have his way with soon.

Then one man suddenly appeared, and everything began to go wrong.

The bastard who had appeared out of nowhere cut down Hwang Jeoksam's second-best man as though he were a scarecrow. The two subordinates beside Hwang Jeoksam had also fallen in an instant.

A human body did not cut apart that easily. Hwang Jeoksam knew that fact very well. Even he, who had been strong from birth, had never cut through people so easily.

If a sabre lodged incorrectly even once, Hwang Jeoksam had to hold the corpse with one hand and wrench the sabre free with the other.

But that bastard had made no such movements.

He cut human bodies into pieces as smoothly as though he were slicing tofu.

The stranger had to be one of the martial artists Hwang Jeoksam had only heard about. Madmen who spent their entire lives swinging blades and thinking of ways to kill people.

Why would someone like that be in such a small mountain village? Hwang Jeoksam could only guess that the villagers had pooled their money and hired him in Geonnyeong.

If so, that monster would not stay long. If Hwang Jeoksam returned after about half a month, the man would be gone.

When that time came, Hwang Jeoksam vowed to hack the village men to pieces and throw them to the pigs. He could violate all the women, then sell them to another village for a tidy profit.

If the young girls were even a little pretty, they could fetch as much as five taels of silver.

Hwang Jeoksam ground his teeth. He was not the sort of person who let anyone wrong him and lived with it.

The shadows flickering in the torchlight seemed to reflect the turmoil boiling inside him.

Then wind rushed in from behind. The sweat from his run cooled against his skin.

Sensing something strange, Hwang Jeoksam instinctively tried to sweep his sabre behind him and turn his head.

Yet, strangely, his body would not move. Horror appeared on the faces of his subordinates as they glanced back.

He wanted to ask what was wrong, but his mouth would not open.

The world before him suddenly shook.

The ground drew closer.

Sky. Ground. Sky. Ground.

It should have been the sky's turn again, but instead, he saw a face.

In the moonlight, he could vaguely make out a face covered in blood. Long hair hung loose, and an overgrown beard covered it. Both eyes shone fiercely beneath the moon.

Those eyes silently looked down at him through the darkness.

That was the last sight reflected in Hwang Jeoksam's eyes.

* * *

I silently stared at the head that had fallen to the ground. Fear was deeply etched across its face, as though it had seen something it should never have seen.

I grabbed it by the hair and threw it at the men standing blankly before me.

One of them caught it without thinking, then dropped it to the ground in shock.

Could they truly live without becoming bandits again?

After a brief thought, I carefully studied the way each of them held their sabres beyond the flickering torchlight.

Three men held their sabres with the ease of those who had used them for more than a year or two. The other four looked more awkward. They resembled villagers holding hoes more than they did men holding sabres.

I used footwork against the three men. Before long, their faces froze with expressions much like the one their leader had worn.

I turned toward the other four, who remained still and trembled, and spoke.

"Never take up a sabre again."

"Y-yes."

Their whole bodies shook so hard that they could barely answer properly. As I had said, they would likely never be able to hold a sabre again.

I wanted to believe that.

Leaving behind the sound of their hurried footsteps, I walked toward the village. In the distance, people had gathered at its entrance.

* * *

The closer I came to the village, the clearer the scene became.

A man sat against the mud wall, blood seeping from his left arm and leg. Before him, a woman with a face wet with tears tore her skirt and bound his leg.

The man had his eyes closed. I could not tell whether he was dead or alive.

Beyond them, three corpses lay on the dirt. One was Yu Sam. I did not know the other two. Several people knelt beside them and wailed.

The rest wore stiff expressions as they comforted them or kept watch ahead.

The bandits' corpses lay scattered among them. Some had lost their heads. Some had been cut in half. Some lay facedown in the dirt, their arms severed from the shoulder.

A little farther away, I could also see the body with its left arm cut off.

All of it was my doing. I could not believe it.

I took one step closer to that scene.

The smell of blood churned my stomach, and the sight of sabres coming down made me dizzy.

Yet I had not hesitated even once when killing people.

My hands had not trembled once.

I took another step forward. The scene came a little closer.

Had the ten years in the mountains broken me? Or had I broken when I drove my sword into Hyeonam's chest?

Or had I always been broken? Was that why Hyeonam had taken me from that fishing village yard?

I could not know any of it. The person I could have asked already lay dead in the mountains.

I took another step forward.

Hearing my footsteps, the villagers raised their heads toward me as I walked out of the darkness.

One person slowly turned while holding a torch. I felt the light fall across my face.

The first to recognize me was a woman standing nearby. Relief at having survived spread across her face first. Her mouth opened as though to say something. Perhaps she meant to thank me.

But her mouth froze half-open before she could finish. Before the relief had even faded, something else covered it.

The two emotions tangled on her face for a moment, but in the end, only the latter remained.

The person beside her stiffened at the sight of her face.

Then the person beside them, and the one beside that person.

Recognition of who those footsteps belonged to slowly spread through the crowd. Some froze when they saw me, while others froze only after seeing the people beside them.

One man even took a step forward. He held a sickle awkwardly in his hand. Whether he meant to help or stop me, I could not tell.

Perhaps even he did not know. It was likely an instinctive act. But then he saw the bandit corpses scattered at his feet. His gaze passed over those without heads and those cut in half, and he froze where he stood.

Only a few people, overwhelmed by grief before their dead family members and unable to spare a thought for the footsteps, continued to wail without pause.

I searched for a familiar face.

Jang Sam slowly lowered the hand holding his torch. His lips moved, but no sound came out.

It was not that I could not understand how he felt. It was only natural. It was not that he felt no gratitude. Of course he knew I had saved them.

But cutting people down without hesitation, severing heads, cutting off arms. These were things they could never have imagined. I had been the same.

So what they felt was only natural. It was natural for them to be afraid.

That was how I accepted it. Even so, my mouth felt rough and dry.

I turned toward the outside of the mud wall. It was the road I had planned to take today anyway. If I circled the wall, there would be a road leading to the entrance on the other side.

I saw Jang Sam start to step forward, only for someone beside him to hold him back. Taking what comfort I could from that sight, I moved once more along the dark mud wall.

The wailing gradually faded behind me.

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