novelraw Chapter 96 : Chapter 96
Chapter 96 : Chapter 96
Chapter 96 Gold Clothes Sect (1)
“Four adults. Is that correct?”
“Yes.”
After paying the fee, I scanned the carriage we were to ride.
The carriage operated by the merchant group was poorer than expected, but it was quite large.
It was a simple structure without a roof, with eight seats on each side, totaling sixteen seats.
This carriage, built solely for the purpose of transporting people, was said to be operated by the Ak-yang Merchant Group, which monopolized the commercial rights throughout Hunan Province.
There was a party that appeared to be a family, another that looked like a couple or lovers, and even men who looked like laborers.
The carriage was already filled with customers, and all seats were taken except for the four for our party.
Ice Rakshasa, Ban Cheol-hwi, and then I climbed onto the carriage in that order, and finally, Mad Dragon, who climbed on last, took a seat next to me.
Mad Dragon, having taken his seat, untied the long saber wrapped tightly in cloth from his waist, stood it between his legs, yawned loudly, and leaned back against the seat.
Since we were on our way to confirm the traces of the Blood Cult, which was operating in secret, we were in a situation where we had no choice but to take a transport carriage used by ordinary civilians rather than a conspicuous carriage of the Sado Alliance.
Since Ban Cheol-hwi, who knew no martial arts at all, was in our party, we chose a carriage instead of using lightfoot techniques, but in fact, moving this way was also the best way to enter the Chimju region while avoiding the eyes of the Blood Cult.
The distance to the Chimju region of Hunan, where the Gold Clothes Sect was located, was about four to five days by transport carriage.
Even during that short period, the party wore shabby clothing to avoid attention as much as possible and wrapped all their weapons in cloth.
Hoping to arrive in the Chimju region as quickly as possible without any disturbance, I scanned the carriage with my eyes once more.
“We shall depart.”
The coachman, who had confirmed that everyone had boarded, moved to the front, and before long, the carriage began to move with a rattle.
As the carriage departed, Ban Cheol-hwi rummaged through his belongings, pulled out a book, and opened it.
The blowing wind was cool, and the noise of the rattling carriage gave a strange sense of comfort.
After enjoying the quiet silence for a while, I turned my head at a voice heard from the front along with a rustling sound.
“Hey there. Brother.”
A man sitting opposite me smiled broadly and spoke to me.
“Yes.”
As I replied, the men held out something they had pulled from their luggage toward me.
“Would you like some of this?”
The men, whose bodies were filled with muscle, appeared to be laborers.
Looking at the man who held out a piece of hard, dried jerky, I bowed my head slightly in gratitude.
As I accepted the jerky, the men also tore a piece of jerky into small bits and shared it among themselves.
“We did not get to eat dinner…… heh. Even so, it felt a bit embarrassing for just us to eat.”
They were simple people.
Dried jerky was still somewhat expensive, yet they were generous enough to take out a piece and offer it to me without hesitation.
Having handed a piece of jerky to me like that, they began to tear the remaining piece and share it.
I turned my head to look at Ice Rakshasa, who was wearing a face veil.
Then, Ice Rakshasa smiled broadly and pulled out a small wine bottle from her luggage.
“We will eat it well. This is a gift from us.”
The wine Ice Rakshasa pulled out was a traditional famous wine of Ak-yang called Chwi-ah-hong.
Since it was an expensive wine that commoners could not easily afford to buy and drink, the laborer who received the wine bottle without thinking flinched and looked at Ice Rakshasa.
“Ah. This is a wine that is a bit burdensome to just accept.”
The man, who whispered something among themselves for a moment, soon held out the wine bottle toward Ice Rakshasa.
“We will accept only the sentiment. Please just take this back.”
Ice Rakshasa firmly pressed the wine bottle back into the man's hand.
“It is fine. Please drink. We were about to have a drink, but it felt embarrassing for just us to drink.”
When Ice Rakshasa gave a smile and forced the wine bottle into his hand, the laborers who reluctantly accepted the wine bottle did not know what to do.
Ice Rakshasa, who pulled another bottle of wine from her luggage, handed it to Mad Dragon, and Mad Dragon, who glanced at the wine bottle, uncorked it and began to pour the wine into his mouth with a glug-glug.
At the sweet fragrance that spread all around, the laborers also watched for a moment before uncorking their wine bottle.
“Heh. To be honest, this is the first time in my life I am tasting Chwi-ah-hong.”
The man, who kept the wine in his mouth for a while to savor the taste, said with an ecstatic expression while nodding his head.
“I am called Chu Pal, and I live in Ak-yang. These fellows are friends who work at the same labor office. Thank you for letting us taste good wine.”
The men, who each took a sip of Chwi-ah-hong, bowed their heads and offered their greetings.
“We are on our way because they say labor is a bit short in the Chimju area, but for what business are you all heading that way?”
“Ah, we are on our way to attend a 60th birthday banquet for an acquaintance in Chimju.”
The laborers nodded at the excuse I made up and then took turns bringing the wine bottle to their mouths again.
For a while, while enjoying the jerky and wine, Chu Pal's party continued a small conversation with my party.
Dumplings came out of Chu Pal's luggage, and another bottle of Chwi-ah-hong was pulled from Ice Rakshasa's luggage.
By the time the second bottle of Chwi-ah-hong revealed its bottom with stories and dumplings as snacks, the carriage stopped at a small inn built along the roadside.
****
A repetition of movement and rest.
Days that were almost monotonous continued to flow.
Sometimes stories blossomed, and sometimes time was spent looking at the surrounding scenery.
Ban Cheol-hwi focused on his book from beginning to end, and I rearranged the martial arts I had learned in my head whenever I had the chance.
There were occasional visits from the Green Forest, but they received the tolls handed over by the Ak-yang Merchant Group and left without much trouble.
It was a fairly peaceful day-to-day life.
When about two days had passed in that manner, an incident occurred.
Just as usual, the Green Forest bandits blocked the road, and it was when the Ak-yang Merchant Group was briefly talking with the leader of the Green Forest to negotiate the toll.
One of the Green Forest bandits, who had been fiddling with an axe while standing beside the carriage, began to slowly walk toward the carriage as if the prolonged toll negotiation was boring.
“Ah, please do not come and just stay there.”
As Ice Rakshasa muttered while looking at the approaching bandit, Ban Cheol-hwi raised his head, frowned, and let out a small sigh.
The bandit, who approached closely with a swagger, plopped his axe onto his shoulder.
The man, who had an appearance perfectly suited for a Green Forest bandit, looked through the people inside the carriage with a smirk.
Everyone inside the carriage either bowed their heads or turned away to avoid the man's gaze.
The man, who walked around tapping here and there on the carriage for no reason, turned his gaze toward Mad Dragon, who was sitting at the very end.
“Hey.”
The man called out to Mad Dragon. Mad Dragon, who had his eyes closed, opened them and slowly turned his head toward the man.
“You there. What is that thing you are holding?”
The man asked while pointing to the cloth-wrapped saber between Mad Dragon's legs.
“It is a decorative saber to be given as a gift for an acquaintance's 60th birthday banquet.”
As I quickly replied from the side, the man tilted his head and then slowly approached Mad Dragon.
“A decorative saber. I am bored, so let us take a look. Unfold it.”
I, who tightly grabbed Mad Dragon's wrist, whispered quietly.
“We will handle it. Please just stay still…….”
At my dissuasion, Mad Dragon let out a small sigh and was about to close his eyes again when, at that moment, the man reached his hand out toward Mad Dragon's saber.
In an instant, a flash of light erupted.
─ SLICE
The man's head rose into the air and then fell to the ground, and with a THUD, the headless body fell backward.
Blood that gushed out from the man's neck began to soak the ground.
“KYAAAAAAAH!”
“UWAAAAAH!”
The people inside the carriage, who confirmed the situation late, screamed with pale faces.
“Wh-what?”
The Green Forest bandits, who had been watching from afar, ran toward the carriage with flustered expressions.
The bandits looked back and forth between the people in the carriage and their comrade lying on the ground without a head, but among them, there was no one with the skill to properly grasp the situation.
The only people here who even faintly felt Mad Dragon's movement were Ice Rakshasa and me.
To other people's eyes, it appeared as if Mad Dragon had just been bowing his head without any movement, so the bandits, unable to find the cause, were only flustered.
“What in the world is this!”
The leader of the Green Forest, who had been negotiating the toll and ran over late, crouched beside his fallen comrade and checked the cross-section of the severed neck.
As some time passed, the leader's face turned white as a sheet.
“Ev-everyone, draw your weapons!”
At the leader's words, the Green Forest bandits pulled out their weapons all at once.
“Such a clean cut is only possible by using a blade…….”
The leader, who was confused by the incomprehensible situation, scanned his comrade's neck once more.
“D-damn it. That is why I said we should not move for a while! Two mountain fortresses have disappeared recently. There is definitely someone targeting only our Green Forest?!”
“Are you talking about that Green Forest Blood Ghost or whatever? I have heard of it too……. Could it be that fellow has come here?”
As the Green Forest bandits stepped back hesitantly, the leader hurriedly approached the Ak-yang Merchant Group representative, received the toll, and shouted.
“What are you doing, you bastards! We got the toll, so everyone run!”
At the leader's words, the remaining Green Forest bandits left the scene in an instant, and before long, only silence filled the mountain path.
****
That evening.
I approached the side of Mad Dragon, who was sitting on the ground in front of the inn, staring blankly up at the sky.
“What is it? Do not bother me and go away.”
“Lord Mad Dragon. Why did you kill that Green Forest bandit earlier?”
At my words, Mad Dragon looked at me with inquisitive eyes.
“Is it not obvious that he did something worthy of death?”
Mad Dragon looked up at the sky with bored eyes.
“He dared to speak to this old man, and not satisfied with that, he tried to lay hands on my saber at his own whim, so he must pay the proper price.”
“It was something I could have blocked. Did you not clearly say you would leave everything to us and just observe? And yet you suddenly took a person's life. Although that bandit made a mistake, it was not to the extent of being killed for it.”
As I continued the conversation with an expression of incomprehension, Mad Dragon burst into a chuckle.
“Heh. You are certainly a half-breed. A Murim Alliance fellow would not consider those Green Forest bastards as human, and a proper Sado Alliance fellow would not ask for a reason for the weak dying to the strong.”
“It is not as if that man recognized you, Lord Mad Dragon. He did not cause any great harm and merely took an interest in the saber……”
“How bothersome. Be quiet and just withdraw. I have never cared about another person's situation, and I have no intention of doing so. If it is annoying, I kill. That is the way I have lived.”
I, who looked at Mad Dragon with a grim expression, shook my head left and right.
“……If you intend to act this way, I do not think it will be possible to be with you, Lord Mad Dragon. Please return to the Sado Alliance tomorrow.”
Hearing my words, Mad Dragon cracked his neck with a thud as if it were absurd.
“Crazy bastard. Do you think I do not matter because you are under the Alliance Leader's protection?”
A fierce wind began to blow around Mad Dragon's body.
“If I set my mind to it, cutting you bastards down is nothing. I might get into a bit of trouble with the Alliance Leader, but do you think I would care about such a thing?”
Mad Dragon bared his teeth and growled at me.
“Rather than that, it seems you should pay attention to something else.”
“What kind of nonsense are you talking about——”
“Mad Demon's Rotation Scripture.”
Hearing my words, Mad Dragon's body froze in an instant.
“The Alliance Leader and you, Lord Mad Dragon. Both of you seem to be practicing the martial arts of the Demonic Cult, am I wrong?”
Mad Dragon slowly turned his head with startled eyes and looked at me.