WeTried Translations

Translator/Editor: ZERO_SUGAR

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Chapter 84: Buy a Boat (1)

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Thus Han San, having successfully pulled off the sort of thing that popular media would probably call "scumbag behavior," namely obtaining an official post through influence, smiled with a truly innocent and wholesome face.

"Thank you, Commander!"

"Naturally, there won't be any salary."

"Oh, of course."

It was not as if he were short on money. He was fully confident that, from here on out, he would keep earning more than enough.

"And don't try to test my patience just because you've gotten a little title."

"Of course, of course. I'll make absolutely sure I never cause you any trouble, Commander."

Han San swallowed down even that warning not to cross the line without complaint. There was work piled up all over the place already. Even spending time on a clash of wills felt wasteful.

At that, Sawada clicked his tongue once more and added,

"There is one condition."

"A condition?"

"There have been some rabble running wild lately."

Krrrk!

With the sound of steel balls grinding against each other, Sawada began to speak of those [rabble running wild].

"First, the reds."

Sawada raised one finger.

"Some group calling itself the Gyeongseong Troika is leading factory strikes. There aren't many factories around here, true enough, but one mustn't underestimate the breeding power of reds."

"The Gyeongseong Troika..."

Han San fell into thought. Ma Jong-sung of Cheonbo Pharmacy had mentioned this organization in passing as well, and Han San had heard the name in his past life too.

'Wasn't it some man called Yi Jae-yu who formed it and led solidarity strikes? With the overthrow of Japanese imperialism as its foremost banner.'

Which meant...

'Hyeongpyeongsa must have dropped a little on the ranking of reds that need watching.'

Administrative power was a limited resource. If a supernova organization called the Gyeongseong Troika was drawing attention, then the Chuk brothers had become that much safer.

He was pleased.

"Second, the Inwang Gang."

Sawada raised another finger.

"They're a band of robbers active in this area, wearing headbands or armbands with the character 'In' written on them. I hear they claim to carry the blood of your primitive old dynasty."

At that instant, a light flashed on in Han San's memory.

One came from this life.

[On the way... if anyone with this character written on their headbands blocks your path, give them my name.]

Han San had not forgotten what his father said on the first day of his return, during the badger meat feast.

The other came from his past life.

[A band of robbers active around Gangwon under the character 'In'... rumors say remnants of armed groups from the Righteous Army era are mixed in... large-scale opium poppy cultivation... a secret harbor near Sokcho... dealings with reds from Primorye...]

This too was a memory that had surfaced that same first day of his return, during the badger meat feast.

Before liberation, Han San had picked up those scattered fragments of information over the years from [a certain Japanese bastard with whom he had a bad history].

And whether it was coincidence or simply inevitable...

That [certain Japanese bastard with whom he had a bad history], the one who had stayed entangled with him until before liberation, was of course this viper bastard standing right in front of him!

'Honestly... what a connection...'

Han San parted his lips slightly. The first person he had ever met again across an entire lifetime and heard the same thing from was this bastard.

"What is it?"

"Uh... no, well. I just found it a little absurd that they'd claim to be descendants of the Joseon dynasty."

Sawada gave a derisive snort.

"Hmph. You Joseon natives, unable to accept civilization and enlightenment, reflexively drop to your knees before authority and superstition, whether king or god. Seeing them exploit that primitive habit of yours, I suppose one has to admit they're robbers with some brains."

"I see... But Commander, I'm just curious, what sort of person is His Majesty the Emperor?"

"Hmph... mind yourself. He is not someone a Joseon native like you may speak of so carelessly. Still, if you ask with the heart of one seeking light in the darkness, then His Majesty the Emperor is a living god."

"Yep."

"Hm? In any case, those Inwang Gang bastards are armed with guns. That puts them among the highest-risk robber bands. They move quickly and secretly, so I couldn't tell you how many times they've already escaped subjugation."

Having finished, Sawada took a sip of water.

After waiting a moment, Han San tilted his head.

'Huh, that's it?'

Why had he not mentioned the information Han San had heard in his past life, things like remnants of armed groups from the Righteous Army era being mixed in, large-scale opium poppy cultivation, a secret harbor near Sokcho, and dealings with reds from Primorye?

'Not that this guy would hide information from me...'

If Sawada had wanted to hide it, he would sooner have hidden it from the Han San of his past life, who had been no more than a chess piece. Now that their relationship was far healthier than back then, there was no reason for Sawada to conceal information for nothing.

Han San quickly grasped the situation.

'Ah, I see. I didn't become involved with Sawada in my past life until several years later. And it was several more years after that that I heard about the Inwang Gang. In short...'

Everything he knew about the Inwang Gang right now was [future knowledge] that Sawada Kazuo, the military police detachment commander of Inje, had not yet uncovered.

Nothing came immediately to mind about what to do with that knowledge, but he did like the fact that he held an information advantage over the viper bastard in front of him.

He was very pleased.

"...Why do you keep making that irritating expression?"

"Huh? No, nothing like that... It's just, Commander, you're giving me such very, very important information, and I'm sitting here thinking, ah, how am I ever supposed to repay such a kindness, isn't this simply the outward expression of my heartfelt gratitude?"

Sawada looked as if he wanted to kick him full force. Fortunately, he did not actually do it. Instead, he took a deep breath, then raised a third finger.

"Third, Baekbaekgyo."

The moment he heard that name, Han San felt the hair rise along his spine.

'Baekbaekgyo.'

This one he remembered.

'It was such a huge case.'

In his past life, it happened four years from now, in 1937.

A man named Yu Gon-ryong came barging into the Dongdaemun Wangsimni police constable post, gasping for breath. The signs of having just fought for his life were obvious, and his face was covered in blood.

"I have come from fighting a devil," Yu Gon-ryong said, trembling.

That devil was Jeon Yong-hae, the leader of Baekbaekgyo, who had taken all of Yu Gon-ryong's property and brainwashed his younger sister.

The Imperial police responded to the accusation. They moved, and they found them.

Corpses!

So many corpses!

In Dongducheon, in Yangpyeong, in Yangju, in Yeoncheon, wherever the police set foot, bodies turned up!

Men who no longer had any wealth left to squeeze out of them, women who were no longer any fun to toy with, all had been buried carelessly, and the officially confirmed number alone reached as high as 346 bodies!

Jeon Yong-hae fled, and several days later was found as a corpse. But there were few who knew the cult leader's face, and that corpse's face too had been mangled by animal teeth, leaving heavy doubt as to whether it was really the cult leader at all.

Still, it seemed the Government-General had wanted to wrap the case up quickly. And so all the senior figures were put to death, and the so-called [cult leader's head] was pickled in formalin and made into a specimen...

'Whenever people talked about fake religions, those bastards always came up.'

But that was four years in the future.

Now, in 1933, Sawada Kazuo defined those highly dangerous bastards as follows:

"They're clownish fools who go about in white clothes spreading doomsday nonsense. Judgment by fire, judgment by water, and whatnot..."

"......"

"Pathetic idiots like that probably can't do much of anything, but it's true enough that they're disturbing public order."

Even as he said that, ever since bringing up the Gyeongseong Troika, Sawada's one eye had been gleaming. It was the gaze of a viper looking over its prey.

'Well, chasing clear-cut results like this probably suits his temperament better than posing for photographs and falling into line.'

Thinking that, Han San smacked his lips. He was just about to give Sawada a look that showed a little renewed respect for that attitude, one specialized more in solving real problems than in political maneuvering.

Then Sawada slowly swept that one eye over him.

"But you Joseon bastards all look alike."

Han San clicked his tongue. Dealing with someone who thought he was handsome was irritating enough to begin with, but in this era, whether it was Imperial Japan with its Leaving Asia, Entering Europe line or Aryan Germany, that sort of nonsense was being carried out as national policy.

Rather than argue with a lunatic, Han San moved the conversation along.

"In other words, Commander means..."

"If you get wind of any information on the ones I mentioned, bring it to me. You're Joseon, so you'll find it easier to mix in among them."

In short, Sawada was asking him to become a Joseon informant.

'Why does it feel like I'm becoming more and more like human trash...'

Here he was, the grand red who sheltered reds, who was on brotherly terms with the grand patriarch of gamblers on Mount Seorak, and now he was even going to be a Joseon informant for the Imperial military police. You would not even see a third-rate villain like this in General Ddoli.

'Won't the Independence Army or America get in touch with me somewhere along the way? I'd like to balance things out a bit.'

Feeling fed up, Han San rose from his seat. Somehow it all felt deeply unfair.

Anyway.

After that, Han San received a badge at the township office reading [Contract Assistant Forest Warden], and Han's Myriad Commerce packed up and set out for Sokcho.

Naturally, the old pass road over Misiryeong Pass from Inje to Sokcho had been smashed to pieces by the typhoon.

"Good thing we packed the cart light, just like sajang said."

"Sure is. At least we can still get through somehow. It'll take a good many trips up and down before this road gets properly beaten back into shape."

With the road being such a complete mess, there were no mountain bandits lying in ambush either. The Misiryeong Pass bandits, who had already been driven to the brink of extinction by being hunted down by Han's Myriad Commerce escort service, had effectively taken the killing blow from the typhoon.

The Chuk brothers smacked their lips.

"Looks like we'll have to put escort work on hold for a while."

"Well, that's a good thing. The new fellow looks soft-hearted at a glance."

Im Baechil wore a puzzled look, but the Chuk brothers did not particularly explain.

And Han San, well, he had felt a chill run down his spine remembering that Baekbaekgyo had murdered and buried hundreds of people, but when he thought about it, he himself had killed quite a few enemy soldiers and robbers across both his past life and this one. But that was... well, no, it did not matter.

'If someone criticizes me, then I'll take the criticism...'

Han San let out a sigh and turned to the Chuk brothers.

"It won't last long."

In the hands of men who had lost their livelihoods to disaster, clubs were bound to appear sooner or later. Once they formed up in groups and left their villages, the world would be welcoming a new robber band by that very day.

"Misiryeong is where the terrain is rough and the location is good, so that's where the professional robbers gathered. Right now, though, every easy route, the Yangyang road and the rest, will probably have half-baked robber gangs camped out on them."

Some among them would mend their ways.

Some would lose their lives.

And some would lose their hearts.

Those few would become professional robbers, crawl their way up to Misiryeong for a bigger score, and thus the robber ecosystem under colonial rule would complete one full cycle.

The Chuk brothers' faces twisted as though they had bitten straight into a raw ginkgo nut.

"Fucking hell..."

"Life..."

In that bitter atmosphere, the members of Han's Myriad Commerce arrived in Sokcho.

Since Sokcho was on the coast, naturally the typhoon damage there had been all the worse, and the place looked every bit like a region that had spent the last month too busy just surviving to care about five-day markets or anything else. Broken pieces of ships were strewn across the shore like reefs.

But not every place was like that.

North of Sokcho, in this area where Broker Jang's influence was strongest, things had at least been put back in order. There were also far more boats afloat out on the water.

"Broker Jang. How have things been holding up?"

The instant Broker Jang saw Han San, he froze, then ran over and seized his wrist.

"San... this time, we truly lived thanks to you!"

Even now, a month later, Broker Jang's hands trembled as if merely recalling that time made the hair stand on end.

"At the time, you said... you had a bad feeling, and told me to buy up a great many goods in advance, move them into the sturdy warehouses farther inland, and tie the boats down securely in calm waters. At first, I thought, what is this, isn't he making too much of it, but you were so serious when you said it that I kept agonizing over it until the very end, and then all at once I got scared and did just that. And then... Truly, truly, we lived thanks to you!"

His steps had felt heavy ever since Misiryeong Pass, but this was good news at least.

Han San smiled faintly.

"That's a real relief. I heard there's that sort of spiritual knack somewhere among my distant relatives. Sometimes, when it'd almost be better if it missed, that kind of premonition lands right on the mark..."

It was of course a lie, but at times what mattered more than whether something was true or not was how plausible it sounded.

Broker Jang immediately put on a face that showed he understood everything.

"From now on, if you ever get some sort of premonition, let me know. Or I may ask from time to time myself. Of course, I don't mean I'll be hearing it for free. I'll see to it that I provide you with something or other by way of a fortune-teller's fee..."

"Ah. It's not exactly something that comes right when I want it to... Still, understood. I'll do what I can."

And so he quietly laid the bait for the idea that [that young fellow's got a gift]. If that rumor spread widely, then when he profited off future knowledge, it would not draw too many eyes.

'And with that rumor, I might be able to stir up a little wind too...'

Turning over a few vague plans in his mind, Han San brought his hands together.

"By the way, Broker Jang. Since you mentioned taking care of me, what happened with the thing I asked for the last time we met...?"

"Mm!"

Broker Jang nodded, as though he had been waiting for exactly that.

"You asked me to find you a boat, didn't you?"

That was right.

The first scheme Han San had prepared to break through his stagnant-profit stretch was this very thing, becoming a boat owner!

Footnotes:

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