The Heaven-Slaying Sword - Chapter 27

WeTried Translations

Translator/Editor: Order

Discord: https://dsc.gg/wetried

◈ The Heaven-Slaying Sword ◈

Chapter 27: Chapter Four - Anhui (8)

──────

“Then I’ll leave it to you.”

With those words, Jegal San vaulted over the broken wall.

The elder, who had stood there dumbly, finally came to his senses. His face twisted into something ferocious.

“C-chase them! Go and bring them back...!”

“You can’t.”

Everyone who had been about to move froze.

Mok Ri-won smiled faintly and continued.

“You cannot pursue them, because I am here.”

It was a chilling declaration.

Though he had not put a trace of inner energy into his words, everyone present felt an irresistible pressure behind them.

Having lost his prey right before his eyes, the elder felt as though his insides were rotting away.

“Do you know what you’re doing right now...?!”

“I don’t.”

“Then get out of the way...!”

“But.”

Mok Ri-won added that one word as he swept his gaze over the surroundings.

“I do not consider one who judges people by their background to be righteous. I do not consider one who obeys such an order to be righteous. Nor do I consider one who persecutes a grieving woman to be righteous.”

With every sentence, Mok Ri-won’s presence sharpened.

“For those reasons, I see you as evil scum.”

The elder ground his teeth and trembled as if seized by a fit.

Nothing was going as he wished.

Then there was the meddler before him.

All of it mixed with the anger rising inside him, slowly forming a fairly plausible guess.

Of course, it was plausible only by his own standards.

“Bullshit! Righteousness, my ass! You were in league with them too! No, you must be! Did you think I wouldn’t recognize you as one of that merchant guild’s damned dogs?!!!”

Even as he pointed at Mok Ri-won, the elder’s shout was nothing but pathetic self-justification.

Mok Ri-won furrowed his brow.

“Merchant guild?”

“Don’t pretend you don’t know! That wretched bitch, that big-mouthed bastard, and you! Aren’t you all bootlickers of the All-Heaven Merchant Guild?!!!”

“What are you...?”

“Graaah!”

The elder’s cheeks quivered.

Mok Ri-won could read the hatred in his twisted expression.

‘All-Heaven Merchant Guild.’

He knew that merchant guild as well.

How could he not? It had been the very guild that had bought up every horse at the stable in the village just before the Valley of Meager Blood.

This made twice since he had entered the Martial World.

After being caught up in unpleasant incidents involving them one after another, Mok Ri-won was beginning to feel an unreasonable aversion toward the guild.

“You damned merchant guild bastard. How much more do you need before you’re satisfied? Huh? How much greed will it take before you’ve had enough?!”

“I’m not affiliated with them...”

Mok Ri-won stopped himself.

‘...No, there’s no need to reveal who I am.’

He was not a fool.

He knew there was no reason to explain himself when his opponent was willing to misunderstand.

“Think what you like.”

At last, the elder gave a cackling laugh, delight spreading across his face.

“I knew it! I knew it! This was all a scheme by those merchant guild bastards!”

His smile looked almost mad.

“Attack!”

At the elder’s shout, the martial artists surged forward.

Mok Ri-won let out a quiet breath and drew up the inner energy in his dantian.

Crack!

He struck down the three swordsmen thrusting at him from three directions in a single blow. Slipping free from the encirclement and breaking apart their flank, Mok Ri-won thought,

‘There’s no need to draw my sword.’

Martial artists so weak that even their Killing Intent wavered.

A raving toad who could only be called a senile old man.

To Mok Ri-won, they were petty people unworthy even of being called evil scum.

* * *

Jegal San ran for a long time with the woman on his back.

His steps were no longer supported by inner energy, and his breathing had long since grown ragged, yet he never stopped.

Mok Ri-won had created this chance by charging into that mass of martial artists.

Jegal San had no time to spare for glancing back in anxiety or resting in relief.

The scenery changed.

From Zhang Family Estate to the streets, then from one street to another.

Until they reached the city’s most rundown corner.

Only when Jegal San arrived at a shabby street lined with rough plank shacks did he finally stop.

“...We’re here.”

“...”

The woman bit her lip as she looked down the street.

It was a dark alley, yet it was still her home.

The place where she had been born and raised, where her only family remained.

It was strange.

She did not have a single good memory of this place, but standing before it now, she felt something that could only be called comfort.

“Th... ank...”

Only then did the woman truly realize it.

The gazes colder than biting winter no longer existed.

That bone-deep loneliness of having no one by her side no longer existed.

She had returned to a place that might not have been splendid, but still held warmth.

“Th-thank...”

“It’s too soon to thank me.”

Jegal San pretended not to notice the tears falling onto the back of his neck and smiled.

“Come. Your younger sibling is waiting.”

He slowly lowered her to the ground.

The woman staggered for a moment as she found her balance, then leaned on the arm Jegal San offered and began walking slowly.

* * *

“Big Sister!”

“Chang!”

The siblings embraced.

The young man she called Chang still had a boyish air about him. The moment he saw her, he sprang up in shock and pulled her into his arms.

At the sight of him running toward her, the woman could no longer hold back her tears. Her face red, she clung to him.

“No, Big Sister. How did you get here... Ah, Great Hero!”

“It’s been three days, hasn’t it?”

“Then the fact that you’re here means...”

“I went to Zhang Family Estate. I went to see your sister, as you asked, but she did not seem to be living well. So I took it upon myself to do this.”

The young man’s eyes widened.

He looked back and forth between Jegal San and his sister. Only then did he understand what Jegal San meant, and a sigh escaped him.

He pulled his sister even closer.

“...Big Sister, you’ve suffered so much.”

“Sniff...”

“Great Hero, thank...”

“That’s enough. I only did what I felt like doing. More importantly, do something about your sister. If she keeps crying like that, her eyes will be swollen shut tomorrow.”

Jegal San said it teasingly.

The young man finally burst into laughter and nodded.

“There, there, Big Sister. Please stop crying. The Great Hero is telling you to stop.”

“Sniff...”

The woman could not stop crying so easily.

There was still too much longing left to pour out. As though she meant to release every grievance she had held back, she continued to weep.

She only stopped after the young man’s clothes had been thoroughly dirtied by her tears and snot.

* * *

Inside a plank shack that looked as though one punch might bring down its walls, Jegal San sat before the siblings.

“Looking at you now, you truly do resemble each other. Anyone could tell you’re siblings.”

The young man smiled at that, while the woman lowered her head.

She had belatedly realized how disgracefully she had behaved.

“I’m sorry you had to see me like this...”

“Why are you apologizing again? This is a happy day.”

The woman gave a small laugh.

‘A happy day...’

She could think of no better way to describe this moment.

After all, was it not true?

What truly made people happy was not a lavish table or expensive treasures, but the warm family who stayed by their side.

“What will you do now?”

At Jegal San’s question, the woman smiled and placed a hand over her lower belly.

“I will leave here before dawn. I want to go somewhere other than Anhui and build a new life.”

The young man’s eyes went round when he saw her stroking her stomach.

The woman noticed his gaze and smiled.

“Chang, you’re going to be an uncle.”

“This...”

“Come with me. From now on, we’ll truly be able to live well without going hungry.”

“...Big Sister, but what can we do? We haven’t learned anything.”

“What about opening a fabric shop?”

“Pardon?”

“A fabric shop. I learned enough about judging silk while I lived there, so don’t worry.”

Jegal San simply watched the flustered young man and the woman who was finally smiling brightly.

Then he smiled to himself.

‘As I thought...’

She was beautiful.

Far more beautiful when she smiled.

“I should be going now.”

Jegal San rose.

The siblings jumped up in surprise as though to stand with him, but Jegal San waved them back.

“There’s no need. Catch up with each other instead. It makes me happy to see siblings together like this.”

“But...”

“I said it’s fine.”

Jegal San chuckled, and the woman pressed her lips together.

Then, as though she had no choice, she smiled.

“Thank you.”

“That phrase is starting to wear out my ears.”

“Still, thank you.”

“Enough...”

“...Hong Seon.”

Jegal San stopped at the woman’s words.

Hong Seon looked at Jegal San as he finally turned to face her. With a bright smile, she continued.

“My name is Hong Seon. My younger brother is Hong Chang. Will you remember our names?”

Hong Seon.

Hong Chang.

Jegal San engraved those names in his heart.

Yet as he always had, he would bury them deep within and never bring them out again.

He was not someone with the time to stop and reminisce over those he had saved in the past.

He would simply bury them and move forward.

That was the kind of person he was.

“They’re fine names. I’ll be sure to remember them.”

Jegal San turned his back.

The siblings watched him leave with regret, then asked one final question.

“Do you truly need no reward?”

They knew that what had come to them was a stroke of fortune some people would never experience even once in their lives.

They asked because they wanted to repay him somehow, but Jegal San remained stubborn.

No, this time he added a touch of wit to that stubbornness.

“Then.”

Jegal San turned only his head to look at them.

With a grin, he said,

“Be a good mother. I think that will be enough for me.”

With those words, Jegal San stepped out into the street.

* * *

Dawn broke.

It was the dawn when a pair of siblings slipped out of the city under cover of night. The dawn when tears clung to the corners of the eyes of two men who had brought a smile to a grieving woman’s lips.

“You two did something quite impressive, didn’t you?”

Inside an inn that had only just opened for business, the two men kneeling on the floor bowed their heads deeply at Dang Hwa-seo’s chilly voice.

Mok Ri-won’s cheeks were red with pinch marks, while a swollen bump rose from the crown of Jegal San’s head.

“Are you both mute? Why can’t you speak?”

Dang Hwa-seo sat with her legs crossed, tapping her foot as she pressed them.

Mok Ri-won cautiously offered his opinion.

“W-we went to put Chivalry into practice...”

“Do you call lying an act of Chivalry, Young Hero Mok?”

Mok Ri-won’s mouth snapped shut.

She was right.

He had gone into his room claiming he would sleep early, only to sneak out. Even if he had ten mouths, he would have had nothing to say to her.

The fact that no secret lasted forever was deeply unfortunate for the two men at that moment.

“You two are incredible. Do you know what is happening outside at this early hour? A mysterious assailant supposedly broke into Zhang Family Estate. The martial artists and elders of Zhang Family Estate were badly beaten by the assailant and left suffering.”

Pointing outside the inn with her index finger, Dang Hwa-seo continued.

“There are inspections at the city gates. The Zhang Family Estate martial artists are causing a huge commotion, determined to find the assailants. They’re all wearing splints, too.”

The two men flinched.

Dang Hwa-seo felt a headache coming on at the sight and sighed.

“...Well, since Young Hero Mok did it, I know it cannot have been a bad thing. But if you were going to cause trouble, you should have thought about cleaning up afterward.”

“Sorry...”

“If you’re only going to apologize, keep your mouth shut.”

“...”

Dang Hwa-seo pressed a hand to her increasingly throbbing forehead.

‘Damn inspections.’

This was troublesome.

Zhang Family Estate was the largest estate in the city, and its influence over the city was immense.

With herself and Jegal San present, they could get through the inspections using their Noble Clan identities. Yet thinking of the conflict that would cause and the mess afterward already made her stomach turn.

“Ugh... I won’t die of old age at this rate.”

Mok Ri-won only lowered his head deeper at her near-lament, while Jegal San carefully watched her expression.

Then he spoke.

“Um... Sister?”

“If you say anything stupid, I’ll rip your mouth apart this time.”

“...It’s not stupid. I just happen to have a good idea.”

Dang Hwa-seo turned her gaze toward Jegal San.

Her bloodshot eyes carried the air of someone ready to carve up a person at any moment.

Jegal San swallowed dryly and grew tenser.

‘If I mess this up, I’ll really die.’

She might soak him in poison and make him suffer the most painful death in the world.

So he needed to use this one chance well if he wanted to live.