WeTried Translations

Translator/Editor: ZERO_SUGAR

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Chapter 107: Secret Independence Society 【Cross Society】 (1)

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Rewind to the morning of November 8, 1933.

Chuncheon, Han's Dakgalbi.

Han San had just returned after express-delivering two Baekbaekgyo followers, Driver Kim, and the beggar children to Sawada. He was immediately met with a barrage of questions.

"Sajang! Why are you so late!?"

"W-What happened, sajang...?"

The Han's Myriad Commerce employees all had bloodshot eyes, as if none of them had slept. The footprints around the shop made it clear they had spent the whole night pacing outside.

Han San grinned.

"Nothing happened. Delivering the gifts just took a little longer."

"Gifts? What do you mean...? What happened to those bastards in white?"

"They're doing fine. They're probably getting a very warm welcome right about now."

After smiling and patting the employees on the shoulders, Han San looked around the back of the shop.

The beggar children were there, the same children who had eaten chicken porridge the night before. He had told them to feed the children and give them a place to sleep for a day, but that day had passed and they still had nowhere to go.

"Before anything else, let's do something about these kids. We should see the job through to the end."

With a deep sigh, Han San rolled up his sleeves.

'So then.'

With the beggar children before him, the sajang of Han's Myriad Commerce and lord of Middle Hamlet sank into thought.

'How can I make the best use of these little brats?'

He had considered it once before the Baekbaekgyo followers arrived, but he reached the same conclusion as before. For now, they were difficult to use as labor.

In a world without culture, people were no more than animals capable of making cries that sounded like speech.

'But culture can be taught...'

After resuming his chicken business, Han San made time to visit Lower Hamlet.

"What? A beggar gang? What kind of nonsense is that? You're asking how to turn a beggar gang into people?"

Pi Sun-dae wore his usual smile, the kind that wrinkled his entire face, and thought it over.

"Hoho, well. I wasn't from a beggar gang myself. Let's see, someone who was from one..."

Before he could finish, Gomchi came running over, panting.

"You called for me, hyung?"

"Called you for what...? No, that's right. Gomchi, you came from a beggar gang, didn't you? Hey, Gomchi! How'd you end up becoming such a proper person?"

"Ah, that's all thanks to Brother Sundae's kindness."

"Quit your bullshit... Hey, what are you standing around for? Hurry up and clear up Sajang San's question! If it were you, how would you turn a beggar gang into people?"

"Ahem. That's simple."

Gomchi thumped his chest.

"You just need to get a firm hold on one boss. Once the leader steps up, the group follows on its own. Isn't that right?"

If the problem was that they were a pack of animals, then all he had to do was use the same method used to tame a pack of animals.

Han San clicked his tongue.

'Come to think of it, it's what I've always done.'

That was how he had tamed Kim Tae-yang. It was how he had tamed the Chuk Brothers. Middle Hamlet's Husband Youth Corps, Go Tae-chon, even this Lower Hamlet gang of thugs, none of them were any different.

'There's no need to try something new when the old method works so well.'

Han San smiled.

"Uncle Gomchi, if you have time, would you come to Chuncheon and help me out?"

Gomchi scratched his cheek.

"I've got nothing but time to spare. But... Sajang San, you remember I go to church, right?"

"Of course I remember. How could I forget the man who put a cross on an ancestral offering table?"

Even if he had a third life, that would probably stay with him.

Gomchi grinned, then his face darkened.

"These days, the church doors have been shut all the time. The Inje Methodist Church, I mean. Pastor Nam Cheon-u hasn't been around either... Sajang San, do you know anything?"

Han San raised an eyebrow.

"Well... How would I know? I've been busy getting the business running ever since I got to Chuncheon. Besides, I'm not a believer."

That was what he said, but Han San had an idea of what it might be.

'Mogok School.'

That incident Ayame had told him about.

It was clear that the matter, which he had confirmed in the November 7, 1933 evening edition of the Dong-A Ilbo after arriving in Chuncheon, had spread all the way to Inje.

'This is dangerous. If I leave it alone and time passes until Kim Bok-dong's diary is found...'

The regressor had once heard from his younger brother that the [Mugunghwa Incident] would raise its 【standing】 by one level into the [Cross Society Incident], becoming a blaze that swept across all of Gangwon.

'But honestly... It's not as if I'm some hero meant to save the world.'

The Cross Society Incident.

Han San was prepared to draw a line in his heart and call it unfortunate but beyond his power to change.

Part of him wondered whether he was worthy of interfering in such a historical event. Another part thought that, since he had never even known it happened in his previous life, the blaze clearly had not spread as far as Sebeom Valley.

'The problem is that Gomchi goes to the Inje Methodist Church.'

He was a half-baked believer who did not even know the difference between Methodism and other churches, but he had said he was baptized.

Unlike in his previous life, the Lower Hamlet gang Gomchi belonged to was also involved in escorting Han's Myriad Commerce carts.

'If the incident grows, it could spread through Uncle Gomchi and set all of Han's Myriad Commerce on fire...'

Han San smacked his lips and looked at Gomchi.

'I need to put it out before it starts.'

Having made that decision, Han San still smiled as if he knew nothing and held up one finger.

"How about this, Uncle Gomchi? Come to Chuncheon first and teach the kids. While you're there, you can look into it too. It'll be easier to get information in Chuncheon, right? I'll keep my ears open whenever I can as well."

Gomchi broke into a wide smile.

"Ah, you're right. Understood, Sajang San!"

That was how Han San returned to Chuncheon with an outside instructor.

"Hey, you little bastards! When you see an adult, bow your heads and greet them first! You eat with spoons and chopsticks, not with your hands!"

He was practically teaching them how to use an outhouse, but it worked remarkably well.

"Wash your hands and feet whenever you come back from somewhere! That isn't how you wear clothes. Button them properly! How many times do I have to tell you?"

Once the ragged, filthy beggar children had been taught, washed, and dressed, they finally began to look like actual children.

Han San whistled.

"Wow. Uncle Gomchi, you're really good at this!"

Gomchi grinned and scratched the back of his head.

"Well, it brings back memories. I climbed all the way to boss when I was in a beggar gang."

"Figures. You were experienced."

Even as they spoke, Han San had not forgotten why he had brought Gomchi to Chuncheon.

'Put it out before it starts...'

Just then, word came from Inje.

"Sajang! Someone named Tendo contacted us!"

"Ah. Sawada's adjutant."

The witness questioning of those beggar children had ended. As promised, they would all be handed over to the Han's Myriad Commerce Inje office.

Han San immediately headed for Inje, taking Gomchi with him.

Eight children were crouched in the Inje office courtyard. They no longer chanted that three-syllable spell, but their eyes were still empty.

Then those empty eyes found Han San.

The children who had been brainwashed by Baekbaekgyo and charged at him that night with cheap weapons recognized the man who had subdued them without suffering so much as a scratch, and without hurting them either.

"Mister..."

"Hyung..."

One after another, the children murmured. Then they burst into tears.

Han San scratched the back of his head.

"Why are you crying, you brats? It's not like that bastard Sawada has enough free time to beat children... Anyway."

"Sajang San, you really draw attention wherever you go."

"What are you talking about? Enough. Uncle Gomchi, watch these kids for me."

"Where are you going, sajang?"

"I have something to take care of."

He handed the children clinging to him over to Gomchi, then went to find Sawada.

"Commander. Could I ask you a favor in exchange for giving up a little of the credit I'll receive?"

"A favor?"

"Yes. I've been looking after some beggar children. I don't know if the adjutant told you, but I plan to take in those eight children who came as witnesses too..."

The timing was good.

The bodies of President Choi and his family had just been found, and a report was being filed as the Baekbaekgyo situation expanded.

At the same time, Sawada had just heard from the Chuncheon military police headquarters that Baekbaekgyo had been conducting a street-cleansing operation.

In other words, Han San had walked into exactly the right situation to make a request about the beggar children.

Sawada stroked his chin.

"Looking after beggars. Tell me exactly what you want."

"My heart's in the right place, but I'm not exactly an expert at caring for children... You know, things like relief work and helping the poor go faster when you work with religious people, don't they?"

With the same face and voice he had used when requesting the contracted assistant forest warden post, Han San rubbed his palms together and bowed his head.

"Those people from Mogok School, could I bring them in and put them to work?"

Sawada slowly rolled the metal ball in his hand with a clack.

'Mogok School is that bastard Corporal Ishihara's case.'

And was that Corporal Ishihara not an arrogant bastard who, as a mere corporal, had tried to measure himself against Sawada, a sergeant major?

'Wouldn't it make for a fine picture if I stirred up the achievements that bastard reported?'

Sawada had always despised political tricks like this. A warrior speaks with his sword.

Yet he had already taken a photograph with this Joseon man and submitted it to his superiors.

That photograph had earned Sawada more praise than capturing Ginsei ever had. He could not help but think.

That was right.

The upright samurai Sawada, who had lived alone and pure, untouched by bribes, flattery, or sucking up to others, though not by his own choice, had unknowingly begun to absorb Han San's influence!

To repeat, Sawada himself had no idea. There were already many things this man did not know, so it would not have caused much trouble even if he continued living that way.

'What would Lord Oda Nobunaga have done?'

As always, Sawada invoked the name of Toyotomi Hideyoshi's springboard to elevate his own thoughts.

The answer was not difficult.

"Wait here."

Sawada went to the Chuncheon military police headquarters.

As Han San heard it, the general opinion among the higher-ups was as follows.

[ Rose of Sharon... Annoying as hell, but they didn't kill anyone, did they? They definitely didn't kill civilians. ]

[ Compared to what those Baekbaekgyo bastards did, they look like angels. ]

[ The sajang of Han's Myriad Commerce? He takes good photographs, he's good at business, the baron praised him, and seeing how he gets along with you, he doesn't seem like much trouble... More importantly, I heard that fellow sparked this incident too? ]

[ He's got ability. ]

In other words, they were offloading an unwanted burden.

And this was the almost magical gap created by power.

The profit Yi Gyeong-deuk, Baekbaekgyo's second-in-command and do-yusa, had seen as a honey pot was no more than a stinking bin of food waste to the people who truly held power over Chuncheon security.

Of course, the real power holders knew there were many people who saw food waste as a meal.

That was why they made a basic effort to choose whom to hand it to. This time, Han San's tip had given him enough 【standing】 to pass that selection with room to spare.

"Two conditions are attached."

The first condition was for Namgung Eok and the people connected to Mogok School.

[ They must write a pledge that they will not plant roses of Sharon from now on and will devote themselves loyally to the Empire. ]

The second condition was for Sawada.

The battalion commander had patted Sawada on the shoulder and said:

[ Company Commander! You've got a good eye, right? Go take a thorough look and make sure nothing's been overlooked. ]

The operations chief standing beside him had looked annoyed the entire time, but he agreed with the battalion commander's words.

[ That's right, you bastard. If you don't see a major problem, Sawada, then there probably isn't one. Isn't that right? ]

As Sawada recounted what had happened at the Chuncheon military police headquarters, he never rolled the metal ball once.

His superiors trusted him, even if only in a very limited area.

If anyone had seen how happy that made this man, who could never get ahead, they would have pitied him.

They said those near ink turned black.

The unwillingly upright samurai was already becoming more and more addicted to an opium called Han San. It was a truth that both Sawada and Han San himself would have found deeply unpleasant if they had known it.

"So."

Sawada gave a light cough.

"They told me to inspect the Mogok School people's homes."

Han San clenched his fist. Only inwardly, of course.

"May I come too?"

"Hm."

Sawada's one eye, the viper's eye that his superiors had praised as having a good eye, swept over Han San once.

"Why?"

"Well... I'm the one who asked for those people. I'll be paying them too. Shouldn't I see what sort of people they are and what their homes look like?"

Even as he said it, Han San waved his hands in case Sawada found him suspicious.

"Of course, if it's difficult for you, Commander, that's fine. I'll just stay near you until you're finished..."

But he had been far too cautious.

"I don't mind."

Sawada did not suspect Han San.

That Han San might have coaxed him in order to find out the Mogok School people's names.

That he might learn someone's address from that list.

That he might sneak into that address and take something.

That if Sawada refused to let him come along, he might simply retreat, steal the list, sneak in ahead of them, and do it anyway.

Sawada did not suspect any of those possibilities in the slightest. Not one bit.

After all...

'Look at everything this Joseon man has done so far.'

He ran the Dipper Tavern and emptied his countrymen's pockets, while groveling before Sawada and the baron...

That was not all.

He stuck himself to the wealthy Hajama family, pretending to be close and sucking up to them. He privately executed the Misiryeong Pass bandits, fellow Koreans, and buried them in secret...

That was not all.

He took insolent photographs that earned endless praise from the higher-ups. He demanded the assistant forest warden post, a public position even if it was contracted, through the back door. He was obsessed with nothing but making money...

That was still not all!

Sawada could have gone on all day!

'What did the world call such a Joseon man?'

A pro-Japanese collaborator!

A traitor who sold out his country!

A national betrayer!

'What could a monkey like this, who knows the times so well that not even scraps of integrity remain, possibly do? Obviously, his only purpose is to gain the [standing] of having followed at the side of me, ruler of all under heaven, and to borrow a tiger's might like a fox.'

Kim Gang-cheol... was too unusual a kind of Joseon person to count, but Sawada had dealt with enough Joseon police constables and assistants to believe he understood this Joseon man's shallow mind completely.

'If he does anything suspicious, I'll subdue him on the spot.'

With such astonishing insight, how could he possibly miss this Joseon man's [suspicious behavior]?

More than that, this fellow was a hunter and merchant. He might offer a perspective different from Sawada's as a military policeman.

"Follow me."

The search took two days.

The homes of the Mogok School people were all much the same. A few books, plain cotton blankets, a measure of rice. No matter how thoroughly they searched, poverty was all they found.

"Nothing much here."

The next house.

"Nothing here either."

The next house.

"Commander, did you find anything?"

Another house...

After several houses, they finally reached Kim Bok-dong's home.

While Sawada went to inspect the kitchen, Han San's eyes swept around the room.

The eyes of a seventy-four-year-old hunter, the eye for detail of Han's Myriad Commerce's sajang, who had built and torn down countless homes after Typhoon 3383, noticed that one side of the desk stood tilted by approximately a quarter of a finger joint.

'Bingo.'

One floorboard beneath the desk leg did not fit with the others. When he lifted it, an old notebook lay below.

A diary written in tiny letters.

[ We are the sons and daughters of Joseon, sparing neither body nor devotion. The meaning of learning day after day is that we wish to see Joseon again... ]

Beginning with the lyrics of a song titled 【Meaning】, it contained things such as [a greeting used to recognize members bearing the same cross].

'Hm.'

At that moment, Han San was the only person in the world who knew what a massive bomb this was.

"Did you find something?"

"Not at all. There's nothing much here either."

Han San quickly hid Kim Bok-dong's diary as he answered.

Sawada, a man of astonishing insight, nodded.

"Let's go to the next house."

"Yes."

The two left Kim Bok-dong's home.

'Preemptive firefighting complete!'

In the history of his previous life, the [Secret Society Cross Society Incident] had shaken all of Gangwon. Now, it would fail to fully ignite, becoming only the [Mogok School Mugunghwa Incident], a disturbance around Chuncheon, Hongcheon, and Inje.

Footnotes:

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