WeTried Translations

Translator/Editor: Satori

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◈ Wanderer of the Martial World ◈

Chapter 4

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I left the alley with Seoryeong and entered the market.

Even though the sun was gradually setting, the market was still crowded.

Amid the bustling noise, I walked slowly alongside her.

Our sleeves brushed, and sometimes I held her shoulder so she would not bump into anyone.

Among the many smells of the market, a floral scent drifted past my nose.

I knew that scent well.

Seoryeong’s body scent.

Having slept together several times, I had grown accustomed to it.

I knew she washed with ash to save on household expenses, so how did she smell so sweet?

The scent that came from her alone stirred something strange in me.

“Ahem...”

Perhaps she had grown awkward from my holding her shoulder for so long, Seoryeong cleared her throat.

Her lowered face and reddened ears were quite cute.

For that moment, the woman in her mid-twenties seemed like a young girl.

I smiled faintly and removed my hand from her shoulder.

With her face still flushed, Seoryeong looked elsewhere and tucked a loose strand of hair behind her ear.

We arrived at a grain shop.

“One geun of coarse rice, please.”

“Yes, ma’am.”

Coarse rice was, put simply, poor-quality rice.

It had a distinctive stale smell and was poorly milled, with bran and husks still mixed in.

Many people in the slums ate that kind of rice as their staple food.

“No. Give us white rice instead.”

I cut in and changed the order.

The grain seller’s expression brightened slightly.

“It’s all right.”

“I want to do this.”

After paying, we went to pick up Gyeong.

The basket in my hand now held not only rice, but also several ingredients, including meat and vegetables.

Seoryeong looked a little burdened, but I felt good.

Considering Seoryeong’s income alone, she did not need to live so frugally.

I was not talking about her earnings from odd jobs.

The money I paid her for sleeping with her alone exceeded an ordinary household’s monthly income.

But the problem was the martial arts academy Gyeong attended.

More precisely, its tuition and all the additional expenses.

Since it taught the most precious skills in the martial world, I knew every last bit of what I paid Seoryeong went there.

It probably did not teach anything remarkable, but after years of attending and training, students could at least learn a basic inner-energy method and swordsmanship.

That basic inner-energy method was especially valuable.

In an age when inner-energy methods were hard to find, it was only a basic one, and even training in it for a lifetime would make it difficult to overcome the wall of the first-rate. Even so, it had considerable value.

That was why I had said I was lucky.

The inner-energy method I had received for almost nothing from an old man who claimed he had nearly become the greatest under heaven had allowed me to cultivate internal energy.

When we arrived in front of the academy, I saw a signboard bearing the exceedingly common name Azure Wind Martial Arts Academy.

If one searched the whole martial world, there were probably at least several thousand places called Azure Wind Martial Arts Academy.

I knew a little about this academy too.

Before I learned the inner-energy method from that old man, I had planned to save money and attend this place.

It was also somewhere aspiring wandering martial artists occasionally went.

“Mom! Oh, Mister!”

Gyeong, who had been waiting by the main gate, spotted us and came running over excitedly.

“Gyeong. You should greet him.”

“Ah! Hello!”

I patted Gyeong’s head as he bowed.

“Good. Did you train well?”

“Yes! Hehe!”

The little boy’s bright laughter eased the slightly awkward atmosphere.

“How about we eat out tonight?”

I could see Seoryeong become a little flustered at my words.

“No, it’s all right...”

“Yes!”

Gyeong shouted, raising his arm high.

“Haha. Let’s go.”

I took Gyeong’s hand and started walking. As if she had no choice, Seoryeong followed and took his other hand.

It felt like a family.

Since I had never married in my previous life, it gave me a feeling I had never known before.

It was as though a faint warmth lingered in my cold heart, which had been rigidly frozen.

As we walked, I spotted a stall selling candied fruit.

“Do you want some candied fruit?”

“Yes! Yes! Yes!”

Gyeong answered with sparkling eyes.

I handed him one, then took another and gave it to Seoryeong.

Then I picked one for myself and paid.

“You really don’t have to...”

“I’m doing it because I want to.”

I answered her firmly.

Seoryeong lowered her head slightly with a guilty expression.

“Go on. Try it.”

“...Yes.”

As she took a small bite of the candied fruit, her eyes widened and began to shine.

Sweet flavors were uncommon in this age.

Whether one was a child or an old person, the pleasure of tasting something sweet was bound to be immense.

I was no different.

It was like when I enlisted in the military and found Choco Pies, which I normally would not even eat, more delicious than any food in the world. That was what this candied fruit was like now.

We headed to the inn.

Before long, we arrived at Jin Pal’s inn.

As always, it was crowded and lively.

The food was good and the prices were reasonable, so many people came here.

“Welcome! Oh, Brother!”

When we entered, Gu Deok greeted us.

“Huh? But who is this?”

“Do you have a table?”

Rather than answer, I asked whether there were any vacant seats.

“Ah! One just opened up. It’s in that corner, though.”

“Good. Bring us red-braised pork, steamed fish, stir-fried chicken, dumplings, and baijiu.”

“Oh! All right.”

After ordering from Gu Deok, I sat across from Seoryeong at the empty table.

“I think you ordered too much.”

Seoryeong spoke with slightly worried eyes.

“There are three of us, so it isn’t too much. And we can pack up what remains, so don’t worry.”

At that, she nodded as if she had no choice.

It was not actually that much food, but she was probably saying that because she always lived frugally.

Before long, Hunan-style spicy stir-fried pork, steamed fish, and stir-fried chicken were placed on the table.

“Oh! It’s delicious!”

Gyeong alternated between the pork and dumplings, then cried out in delight.

“Though it’s a little spicy.”

He hurriedly drank some water.

Hunan cuisine was famous for being spicy.

Was it not said that Hunan people were not afraid of spicy food?

As a Korean with some expertise in spicy flavors, I welcomed it. Still, it was a little disappointing that it did not have the heat of Cheongyang peppers.

We talked as we ate.

Nothing particularly deep was said, but a warm and friendly atmosphere formed.

That pleasant feeling bloomed in my heart again.

After we had eaten our fill, we packed up the leftovers in the basket and rose from our seats.

When I went over to Gu Deok to pay, Gu Deok was looking at me with a sly expression.

“Brother! Who is she? When are you going to introduce her? When’s the wedding?”

How far ahead had this kid already imagined?

“We’re not involved like that yet.”

“Hehehe. Yet?”

“Ahem.”

A little embarrassment washed over me, so I paid quickly and went outside.

It was night, but the clear sky kept it from being very dark.

As we walked together through the streets, we soon arrived home.

“Thank you for today.”

Seoryeong bowed, and Gyeong bowed along with her.

“No. I enjoyed myself too. Go on inside first.”

I watched the two of them enter the house, then turned around.

“Come out.”

A fierce-looking giant appeared from the alley we had passed through.

“Heh heh.”

The giant who emerged with a vile smile was the man I had gotten into an argument with at the inn yesterday.

“The more I think about it, ptooey! I just can’t believe a young bastard like you is second-rate.”

Had he followed me all the way here to ask that?

Even from a fair distance away, the smell of alcohol coming off him felt filthy.

“I’m thinking you might be one of those empty-qi frauds.”

“An empty-qi fraud...”

When a person’s life was in danger, they could sometimes display strength beyond their usual limits.

Among those who had experienced that, a few instinctively realized how to summon that monstrous strength again.

Almost no wandering martial artist was foolish enough to allow another person’s qi into their body, so there were limits to verifying whether a wandering martial artist was second-rate. Such people could pass the examination and become second-rate.

Most of them ended up sickly and dying.

After all, the monstrous strength they displayed came from using the innate qi within their bodies.

They consumed the innate qi that sustained their lives, so they died that way.

It was foolish, but not entirely incomprehensible.

Even in the modern world, plenty of people risked their lives to preserve their pride.

“Hmm...”

I checked for signs of anyone nearby.

Fortunately, I sensed no movement.

“Are you alone?”

“...I’m still unmarried.”

A small laugh slipped out at his answer, which entirely missed the point.

A familiar line from a familiar situation had crossed my mind.

“Eek!”

Had he seen me laugh?

The bastard suddenly flew into a rage, drew his broad saber, and charged.

“Die!”

I had not yet drawn my straight saber.

As his broad saber came diagonally for my head, I leaned slightly in that direction and drew my straight saber.

Clang!

When I struck the side of his broad saber with the pommel of my straight saber, its path shifted.

I slipped out of its trajectory, gripped the end of the hilt, and spun the saber quickly.

The blade swept across his neck, slicing away about a third of it.

A move in which defense and attack flowed together as one.

Crack!

With a splitting sound, he stared at me with blank eyes.

“Uh... gurk...”

Thud.

He collapsed.

I looked at the corpse as blood seeped out and considered the move I had just used.

It was a kind of delayed preemptive strike.

I felt rather proud that I had maintained the most fundamental element of it: distance.

A distance that allowed me to react was the foundation of a delayed preemptive strike.

No one had taught it to me, but the technique I had developed through my own thinking had worked properly. It seemed my training until now had not been in vain.

I stabbed him several times to make certain he was dead, then searched his clothes, found a money pouch, and put it inside my own.

Next was the broad saber.

After confirming it was an ordinary broad saber commonly used by wandering martial artists, I tossed it into my house.

If I sold it at the blacksmith tomorrow, I could at least get the price of scrap iron.

Then I lifted the corpse and slung it over my shoulder.

He was a giant at least twice my size, but with internal energy being expended, my body did not strain.

I walked deeper into the slums.

The farther in I went, the more eyes I could feel watching me.

Filth overflowed through the streets, and an indescribable stench began to sting my nose.

Squelch. Squelch.

Something sticky seemed to grasp at the soles of my feet, but I showed no sign of it and kept walking.

I carried myself as confidently as possible.

The deeper I entered the slums, the stronger the pressure of feeling as though I were walking into a hungry ghost’s maw became.

The people here were not merely poor people.

Those people lived not far from my house.

The people here, in the end, were mostly those who had been abandoned and denied even the treatment due a human being.

I could defeat the men hiding and watching me through force, but the peculiar chill hastened my steps.

Thud.

I placed the corpse in the middle of a narrow, filthy path.

Then I immediately turned around and began leaving the slums.

I could feel the hungry ghosts deep within the slums focusing on the corpse I had left behind.

The corpse would disappear like that.

Not only his clothes, but his blood and flesh as well.

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