WeTried Translations
Translator/Editor: Order
Discord: https://dsc.gg/wetried
◈ The Heaven-Slaying Sword ◈
Chapter 23: Chapter Four - Anhui (4)
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Dang Hwa-seo dragged Mok Ri-won out of the inn.
A short distance behind them, Jegal San followed with a broad grin.
Dang Hwa-seo walked in silence until her expression suddenly twisted.
“Get lost. Stop following us.”
“I’m not following you. I happen to be going this way too.”
“Then go ahead.”
“Come now, why go separately? You wound me, Sister.”
Dang Hwa-seo turned toward Jegal San.
Her face was so fierce that Mok Ri-won was utterly terrified, but Jegal San still wore that smiling expression.
“M-Miss... please let go first...”
“Young Hero Mok, stay still! I’ll give you a proper scolding when we get back!”
Mok Ri-won looked ready to cry.
Watching their comic exchange, Jegal San barely held back another snicker.
‘What a pair.’
At first, he had wondered if they were lovers, but that did not seem to be the case.
If he had to put it another way...
‘Yes. This is exactly what a mother and son would be like.’
How had they ended up with such a relationship?
Why were they traveling together, and why was Dang Hwa-seo, who did not suit the role at all, acting as Mok Ri-won’s caretaker?
Countless questions flashed through his mind.
Yet amid all that curiosity, one impression remained firmly in place.
‘Mother and son...’
Dang Hwa-seo stopped and tugged Mok Ri-won by the ear.
As she continued lecturing him in the middle of the road, growing more heated by the moment, Mok Ri-won’s face darkened.
The sight brought back a voice Jegal San dearly missed.
“San! Haven’t I told you to stop going to the outhouse so much? Why won’t you listen to your mother?”
It was a voice he could no longer hear, one he had tried not to remember. Jegal San smiled bitterly.
Then he quickly composed himself and said teasingly, “You’re awfully strict with Hero Mok. He’s a grown man, isn’t he? What will you do if you crush his spirit like that?”
“Y-Young Master Jegal!”
Mok Ri-won hurriedly tried to stop him.
He knew all too well what happened whenever someone argued back while Dang Hwa-seo was lecturing them.
“P-Please stop...”
“Hero Mok should make his own views clear. If Sister told you to jump off a cliff, would you?”
Mok Ri-won blinked.
‘Well, if Miss said it, there must be a reason.’
As Mok Ri-won began seriously considering it, Jegal San let out a hollow laugh.
Dang Hwa-seo snorted and spoke to Jegal San again.
“You certainly care a lot about other people’s business. Why don’t you go on your way?”
Mok Ri-won had taken her side, which had clearly lifted Dang Hwa-seo’s spirits.
‘So I don’t have anyone on my side.’
Jegal San chuckled at the absurd situation and shrugged.
“Fine. I’ll be going, then. Hero Mok, I’ll see you tomorrow.”
Jegal San gave a cupped-fist salute.
Mok Ri-won cautiously watched Dang Hwa-seo’s reaction before returning the salute.
Jegal San might have made his life difficult, but it was still right to exchange greetings.
“See you tomo...”
“Don’t you dare.”
Mok Ri-won clamped his mouth shut.
Dang Hwa-seo glared murderously at Jegal San’s retreating back.
* * *
Unfortunately for Mok Ri-won, Dang Hwa-seo did not forget to scold him.
As her lecture drained the life from him, Mok Ri-won thought:
‘S-Soul-Seizing Art. This is Soul-Seizing Art!’
It had to be some vile technique that destroyed a person’s soul.
Otherwise, how could every single word pierce so deeply into his chest?
“Do you understand? Jegal San will absolutely be a bad influence on you, Young Hero Mok! I don’t want you turning into a loafer like him!”
Mok Ri-won flinched, his fingertips trembling.
‘A loafer...’
He thought of Jegal San.
The man had a weasel-like look and spoke with shameless ease, but “loafer” did not suit him.
Mok Ri-won voiced his honest opinion.
“I-I don’t think that’s right.”
“What did you say?!”
“Young Master Jegal isn’t a loafer...”
Dang Hwa-seo was dumbfounded.
Naturally, she knew far more about Jegal San than Mok Ri-won did, so his words made her feel stifled.
Still, it would be more accurate to say that Dang Hwa-seo’s prejudice was clouding her judgment.
The one speaking more truthfully now was Mok Ri-won, who knew nothing about Jegal San and could view him without bias.
“Young Master Jegal is diligent. The calluses on his hands, the way he walks... even the reactions he showed when using martial arts, none of that could come without steady training.”
“He was probably forced to train. Do you think someone who loves wandering around like that properly trained after leaving home?”
“He did.”
“...?”
“He trained even this morning. No, he trained until just before he met us. I can tell.”
Mok Ri-won was a martial talent.
When it came to the human body and martial arts, his senses picked up on details far more sharply than most people’s.
That was why he knew.
Jegal San’s breathing, the movements of his muscles, and the tremor evident in his gait all proved that he had trained desperately until this very day.
“His taste may certainly be terrible, but I don’t think he’s a loafer.”
Mok Ri-won said this with a satisfied smile.
Just as Jegal San had said, he had voiced his opinion like a proper grown man.
Dang Hwa-seo silently looked at Mok Ri-won and considered his words.
‘Come to think of it...’
Even after hearing about all of Jegal San’s behavior, Mok Ri-won had not thought poorly of him.
No, he even seemed to hold some affection for him despite all the trouble Jegal San had caused him.
This was Mok Ri-won, who burned with anger whenever he encountered a villain.
The only thing Mok Ri-won had disliked was Jegal San’s past proposal to a married woman.
Even then, he had objected solely on moral grounds.
‘Was I...’
wrong about him?
Dang Hwa-seo continued thinking.
One of her strengths was her ability to recognize her own flaws through another person’s words or advice.
“...Perhaps he isn’t a loafer.”
Dang Hwa-seo soon admitted that she might have been wrong.
Perhaps he was diligent when it came to training.
But still.
“It’s certain that he’ll be a bad influence on you, Young Hero Mok.”
“Umm...?”
“I don’t want you becoming someone who drools over married women on the street.”
“W-What? I’m not such a shameless man!”
“You made a lecherous face when I said we would sleep in the same room, and you can still say that?”
Dang Hwa-seo glared at him, and Mok Ri-won lowered his head in embarrassment.
“T-That was easy to misunderstand...!”
“Oh, I’m sure it was.”
Mok Ri-won truly felt wronged.
After all, if a beauty like Dang Hwa-seo said she would sleep in the same room as someone, anybody would naturally imagine such things.
He was even certain that the eminent monks of Shaolin Temple would clutch their hearts if she deliberately tried to seduce them.
He felt so wronged that his chest tightened.
Irritation rose in him, along with the urge to prove his innocence.
Mok Ri-won did not hide those feelings.
“It’s M-Miss’s fault for being so beautiful!”
“Oh, yes, of cou... What?”
Dang Hwa-seo’s face went blank.
“I had those thoughts because Miss is too beautiful! I did nothing wrong! Anyone in the world would have reacted just as I did!”
What was this man saying?
Dang Hwa-seo’s mind could not process the sudden outburst.
“No, w-wait...”
“This is Miss’s fault! You said something that could be misunderstood!”
Thump!
Mok Ri-won stepped forward.
Dang Hwa-seo staggered backward, her eyes trembling as if an earthquake had struck.
‘W-What is this...?’
A ridiculous thought passed through her mind.
Was he acting cute because he did not want to be scolded?
‘No.’
Mok Ri-won was not perceptive enough for that.
Which meant that what he was saying now was...
‘S-Sincere...’
The moment she realized it, heat rushed to the top of her head.
For some reason, her cheeks burned as though they had been pressed to a flame.
Mok Ri-won kept coming closer.
“Admit it! I did nothing wrong! It was Miss’s fault for not explaining beforehand!”
“A-All right, so stop...!”
“Don’t run away!”
Tap!
Their toes collided.
With a wall at her back and nowhere left to retreat, Dang Hwa-seo’s mind went blank as Mok Ri-won’s face loomed inches before hers.
‘C-Crazy...!’
He was so handsome that a gasp nearly escaped her throat.
With his face set so sternly, his usual foolish expression faded, making his handsome features stand out all the more.
She had heard he had lived a hard life in the mountains, yet his skin was fair and flawless, with no trace of sunburn.
His eyelashes were so long that they cast a delicate shadow over his eyes. His beautifully raised nose and the line leading down to his lips formed an almost bewitching shape.
Dang Hwa-seo’s head spun.
Faced directly with the face she had deliberately refused to acknowledge until now, she could not think straight.
No matter how much she struggled, she was still a woman.
Before a handsome man, she was helpless.
With her reason clouded, Dang Hwa-seo made a decision thoroughly fitting for a martial artist.
“S-Stay back!”
Crack!
“Guh...!”
Dang Hwa-seo’s desperate punch landed squarely in Mok Ri-won’s solar plexus.
Mok Ri-won stared at her in disbelief, his face like the world had just collapsed.
‘Oh no...!’
Only then did Dang Hwa-seo realize that she had made a mistake and apologize to Mok Ri-won.
As a result, Mok Ri-won received permission to befriend Jegal San.
* * *
“So! That is how I, Mok Ri-won, came to be allowed to speak with Young Master Jegal!”
“Hah...”
At the inn where they had met the day before, Jegal San had once again come to see Mok Ri-won while Dang Hwa-seo was away.
Though Mok Ri-won did not seem aware of it, Jegal San had realized one fact from his story.
‘His face.’
His face was a weapon.
A truly absurd weapon.
Dang Hwa-seo had not even batted an eye when she saw Namgung Jin-cheon in the past.
That was why Jegal San had thought she had no interest in men, but...
‘Even Elder Brother Namgung was not enough!’
He could not even begin to imagine how high Dang Hwa-seo’s standards were.
No, he finally understood them.
It took a man like the one before him to capture Poison Phoenix’s heart.
‘Unbelievable.’
It was far too interesting.
Jegal San snickered.
Mok Ri-won had no idea why he was laughing, but laughed along with him anyway.
“A-Anyway! I did not bring this up for no reason!”
“Hmm?”
“The fortuitous encounter! What was the fortuitous encounter you said you had?”
Mok Ri-won’s eyes brimmed with eager anticipation.
Jegal San shook his head at the sight, visibly amused.
“Just call me Elder Brother Jegal. I turned twenty this year, so wouldn’t that be easier?”
“Elder Brother...!”
Mok Ri-won felt his heart race.
“Does that mean you want us to become sworn brothers?”
To Mok Ri-won, there was only one kind of relationship where men called each other elder brother and younger brother.
The bond between Mok Seon-o and Ma Il-seok.
The kind of relationship that traveled through the Martial World together and accomplished countless chivalrous deeds.
Excitement swelled inside him at the thought that he had finally found such a friend. When he asked, Jegal San blinked before bursting into laughter.
“Of course! Why not? Then from now on, I’ll call you Younger Brother Mok!”
“All right! Then I’ll call you Elder Brother Jegal!”
Mok Ri-won hurriedly brought over two cups and poured Bamboo Leaf Green.
Then he handed one to Jegal San.
“To commemorate it! Elder Brother Jegal, have a drink!”
“Good. Very good. But before that...”
Jegal San grinned and moved to sit beside Mok Ri-won.
Then, as he had the day before, he slung an arm around Mok Ri-won’s shoulders and continued.
“Younger Brother Mok. Since it is the day we became sworn brothers, shouldn’t we do something to commemorate it?”
“Hmm? Something we should do?”
“A chivalrous deed.”
Thump!
Mok Ri-won’s heart gave a tremendous thud.
His face filled with overwhelming emotion.
“A-A chivalrous deed...!”
“Yes, a chivalrous deed.”
“Let’s go! We have to go! Right now!”
Mok Ri-won sprang to his feet.
Jegal San burst out laughing and gave Mok Ri-won’s shoulder several hearty pats.
“Yes! Let’s go at once!”
With his arm still around Mok Ri-won’s shoulders, he led him out of the inn.
“Where are we going?”
Mok Ri-won’s question was full of anticipation.
Jegal San licked his lips and said, “Somewhere good.”
Mok Ri-won did not know.
At the end of that road stood the largest estate in the city, and within it lived the widow Jegal San had mentioned the day before.
Strange Dragon Jegal San was a persistent man who always accomplished whatever he set out to do.
Footnotes:
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