Chapter 92. The Entire World is My Home (13)
When Woo-Moon and the others added up all of the personal wealth of the Distinguished Swords, they found that they could only gather about ten taels.
If this was any other time, they would have been able to gather much more than this. However, the elders, following the secret plan they had crafted, hadn’t given much money to each of their grandchildren.
Woo-Moon still had another “ten taels,” and twenty taels wasn’t a small amount of money.[1] However, it was barely—no, it wasn’t really enough for eleven people and a tiger to be able to stay in an inn and eat.
Seeing as things ended up in this manner, Woo-Moon decided to just fully embrace the shameless route.
“Isn’t the romance of gangho sleeping under the stars and hunting for your food? Catching corrupt officials, helping people in need, and being given food out of gratitude. Now, now. They even say that the Baek Family’s founder, Invincible Iron Sword Baek San, lived like this during his days as a wanderer!”
Baek Ryeong, who had slowly warmed up to him, pouted in response.
“You really do speak well, don’t you?!”
“Of course, of course. Isn’t it a quality you need to have?”
“Tsk, you bad uncle!!”
As Baek Ryeong raised her fist and made to hit him, Woo-Moon quickly dodged and ran away.
They walked for hours and hours.
Gurgle!
Eventually, one of the Distinguished Swords grumbled.
“Uncle, I’m hungry.”
Woo-Moon looked around.
“There aren’t any villages around, and we have to save money anyway. Let’s hunt for our dinner!”
“Eh~~~??!!!!!!”
The Distinguished Swords didn’t react well to his words.
“Then what, do you want to starve? That’s pretty much the alternative.”
Woo-Moon ordered several of them to gather tree branches, make a fire, and prepare other necessary items while he sent the others to go hunting.
“Catch alone.”
Curt as usual, Ma-Ra went into the forest by herself.
After a while, everyone who had split off into groups of two or three to go hunting returned. They had caught eight rabbits, as well as five fish from the nearby river. In addition...
“Did Ma-Ra catch all of this?”
Ma-Ra nodded while gesturing to the Silver Moon Discs and wrist bows.
“Yes.”
There were nineteen birds in the pile, hunted by Ma-Ra and Ma-Ra alone. Moreover, her skill in hunting was so great that all of the birds had been decapitated right at the base of their skulls without any other injuries.
Woo-Moon scratched his head.
He thought he had saved face by catching five rabbits but had overlooked Ma-Ra’s terrifying ability to always have a relevant skill in her arsenal.
‘Should I have tried harder?’
Well, the important thing now was to cook and eat well. Woo-Moon knew he was unrivaled in this area, at the very least.
As the saying goes, anyone would learn the prayers if they lived in a temple for three years. Due to helping at an inn while growing up, Woo-Moon had already mastered the basics of butchery and cooking.
Sizzle~
As the rabbit, bird, and fish skewers were cooking, a delicious smell wafted around.
Gulp!
“Hehehe.”
Baek Yo, the little imp, swallowed her saliva and smiled cutely.
“It’s cooked! Let’s eat!”
“Yay!”
This was obviously not the Distinguished Swords’ first trip to the gangho. However, they had always stayed at an inn and bought the best local foods during all of those trips. This was the first time they had ever experienced hunting and cooking like this.
The food was seasoned perfectly with the salt that Ma-Ra had brought.
“Wow! It’s incredible!”
Although Woo-Moon had only added salt, the Distinguished Swords were shocked. For some reason, the food tasted better than anything they had ever eaten.
“See? None of you ever had this kind of experience. I actually gave So Geom-Rok all of our money just to let you have this experience. What do you think?”
“Ah, you really do know how to talk to people. Did you really?”
As Baek Yo failed in her struggle to hold back her laughter at Woo-Moon’s obvious lie, Woo-Moon also burst into exaggerated laughter.
“Hoho. Either way, fewer questions, more eating!”
“Pfft!”
***
Baek Ryeong was in a strange mood lately. It had already been four days since they had departed for the Justice Coalition. To use a cliché phrase, it was a long time for some and a short time for some others.
As someone who had a one-sided crush on her older cousin, Heon-Won, she couldn’t help but to hate Woo-Moon, who had crushed him so cruelly.[2]
However, a lot of things changed during her time with Woo-Moon.
Having gotten to know him, she realized that not only did he have many outstanding qualities, but he was easy-going and didn’t show off. He was certainly smarter than a lot of people gave him credit for, but he could also be a bit clumsy at times, making those around him laugh and relax.
Of course, it was impossible for Baek Ryeong to see Woo-Moon as a real man just yet.
It was just that her feelings for him as a person and their relationship as niece and uncle were growing.
“Ugh.”
Thinking about her change of heart, Baek Ryeong suddenly sighed.
Right at that moment, Woo-Moon spoke nonchalantly from the back of the group as if he was just passing a tree or something.
“Ah, there we go again. Everyone, there are uninvited guests!”
Jeong-Woo’s expression crumbled when he heard Woo-Moon.
“I just can’t understand why the hell there are so many bandits. The emperor is supposed to be taking care of his people!”
The further they went from Guandu, the more and more they ran into bandits.
Most bandits would decide against robbing a group whose every member wore a sword, on the off chance that they were martial artists. However, possibly because some of the bandits were simply that stupid, or maybe because their group was very small, there were still quite a few groups of bandits that saw them as prey and tried to rob them.
“It was fun once or twice, but this has just gotten boring and annoying.”
Jeong-Woo suddenly noticed that the sun was gradually setting and slapped his forehead with his palm.
“Uncle! I have an idea!”
“Oh, what would that idea be?”
Jeong-Woo laughed out loud as he counted the number of bandits approaching.
“Considering the size of their group, don’t you think they would have a mountain hideout? It’s too much of a hassle to build camp again. What do you think about spending the night in their hideout to stay warm?”
“Hmm....”
While he thought it was a good idea, there was still a part of him that didn’t like it.
Woo-Moon had inherited his grandfather’s morality and hated any and all kinds of bandits. He was reluctant to spend the night in the den of such animals when he was tasked to protect his younger relatives.
Still, his nieces and nephews were clearly tired of spending the night in the wilderness. Seeing their exhaustion, Woo-Moon couldn’t easily refuse. He found it even harder to do so when he saw the others’ gazes shine with anticipation the moment Jeong-Woo brought up the suggestion.
‘I guess we can’t help it.’
Woo-Moon pushed his reluctance to the side, forcing himself to smile.
“Ah, I see. Well, why not? Might as well go for it.”
Seeing Jeong-Woo and Woo-Moon look at each other with evil smirks on their faces, Baek Ryeong sighed.
“Aaand... that’s why you should have chosen your prey wisely, poor bandits...”
The moment she finished speaking, a group of people came out of the forest.
“Haha! The Mountain Tigers have arrived, you little greenhorn babies!”
Although the bandit leader’s voice rang loudly, Woo-Moon just spoke with a simple whisper.
“Jeong-Woo, go!”
“Yes, sir~~”
With a teasing answer, Jeong-Woo rushed toward the bandits.
From the perspective of the bandits, who were barely Third Class, Jeong-Woo was like a meteor that was impossible to avoid even if they kept their eyes open!
The martial skills of Baek Jeong-Woo, a younger generation talent of the Iron Sword Baek Family, one of the Eight Great Ancient Families and one of the Three Great Sword Families, were an insurmountable wall for them.
Thwack, pow!
Jeong-Woo turned into a white flash as he disarmed about fifty bandits while running around to his heart’s content.
Kya!
Eun-Ah, who was watching, trembled and cried as she raised her claws and scratched at the dirt.
“Do you want to fight, too? It’s fine, you go too!”
Kya!
As soon as Woo-Moon gave permission, Eun-ah bounced her small body and flew low to the ground to attack the bandits together with Jeong-Woo.
Moreover, after a while, the bandits were all taken care of.
“I-I’m so sorry, great ones! We hadn’t recognized your majesty and offended you.”
“Enough of that. I don’t need your brown-nosing. Tell me where your hideout is! We’ll be staying there for the night.”
The bandit leader's expression suddenly changed at the completely unexpected words.
***
“Hahaha! These young heroes really are friendly! Hey, you, bring us more alcohol!”
Even a dog would bark louder in its own home.
It had been half an hour since they had started to drink at a mountain hideout located deep within a nearby mountain valley. The boss of the Lonely Bandit Fortress, Mr. Lonely, was now rather drunk, and his voice was gradually getting louder.
But Woo-Moon didn’t pay much attention. He just poured the bamboo wine placed in front of him into his glass and drank it.
Compared to the Gongju liquor[3] that Mr. Lonely and Woo-Moon’s immature nieces and nephews were drinking right now, he had the much more luxurious and strong Bamboo Leaf Wine in front of him.
As he poured another glass of alcohol down his throat, a white hand holding a glass suddenly appeared in front of him.
“Give it.”
It was Ma-Ra. Smiling, Woo-Moon poured some bamboo leaf wine for Ma-Ra, and the two of them had a drinking party of their own, giving and receiving the wine.
Grrrr....
Eun-Ah was intoxicated by the scent of the bamboo leaf wine, and she fell asleep next to Woo-Moon, groaning weakly.
All of this chaos started when Jeong-Woo suddenly said he wanted to drink.
At first, the others wondered how they, as children of a prestigious family, could drink with bandits. But soon, they found themselves having a blast with Mr. Lonely.
Suddenly, Baek Ryeong, who had walked off saying she was too young to drink, came back with an angry expression on her face.
“You dirty bastards!” she shouted the moment she saw the bandits.
“What? What’s going on? Are you okay?”
Hearing Jeong-Woo jump up immediately, Woo-Moon also turned toward his niece.
“What’s going on?”
Eyes red with tears, Baek Ryeong glared at the bandits.
“While I was walking outside, their guards kept trying to prevent me from going near a certain place. They were guarding it pretty closely. So, I was curious and tried to push my way in. But they kept stopping me, so I eventually knocked them out and went in anyway. I found about twenty naked men and women. They were all dead.”
Woo-Moon’s eyes widened and suddenly shone with a cold light. Meanwhile, the bandits felt sweat flowing down their backs as they realized that what they had been trying to hide had now come to light.
Woo-Moon turned to the Distinguished Swords, who were using their qi to shake off the alcohol after hearing Baek Ryeong’s words.
“Go wait outside.”
One of them, who had yet to properly catch on to Woo-Moon’s mood, spoke without thinking.
“Huh?”
“I said, get out!”
Hearing Woo-Moon’s angry reply, the rest of the Distinguished Swords quickly ran outside the hall. Woo-Moon called out to the still remaining Baek Ryeong.
“You go out too. Go and tell the others to surround the hideout from all sides so not a single one of these rats can escape.”
Baek Ryeong nodded sharply, having guessed what Woo-Moon planned to do.
“Understood!”
The rest of the bandits looked at him in a state of extreme tension, as if they had forgotten to breathe under the terrifying aura and bloodlust that Woo-Moon was giving off.
After Baek Ryeong left, Woo-Moon took another sip of the bamboo leaf wine.
“I guess you sent someone to kill them all before we arrived out of fear that we might find them or hear them call for help, no? They were people you kidnapped from nearby villages to be your slaves, right?”
Woo-Moon’s words were so accurate that the bandits were dumbfounded.
The bandits suddenly realized something strange. Woo-Moon’s right hand, which had definitely been fiddling with his wine glass, was suddenly holding onto the hilt of his sword, which had also definitely been sheathed at his waist.
Then something even more surprising happened.
The head of the bandit sitting right next to Woo-Moon suddenly slid forward at an odd angle.
The severed head fell to the floor as blood spewed out like a fountain from the severed neck.
Woo-Moon deployed a bit of his qi to keep himself, Ma-Ra, and even the sleeping Eun-Ah from getting splattered with blood.
“As expected, my grandfather was right. I had my suspicions anyway because I could smell the scent of blood on your hands. I was going to check later anyway, but I should’ve done it from the get-go. I was foolish to believe you when you said you’re not the kind to kill people.”
When he had finished his words, the bandits discovered that the position of Woo-Moon's hand had changed again.
As they saw the five fingers stretched out before them, they had an ominous premonition.
Squelch!
The heads of five bandits exploded at the same time.
1. In today’s money, it’s close to 50,000 USD. ☜
2. This sounds the Alabama kind of weird, but remember that with the number of branches that a major clan like this has, they’re probably fifth cousins thrice removed, so even with all the talk about blood relatives, they are very loosely related. ☜
3. A distilled beverage made from rice and chestnuts, specific to the Gongju region in Korea. ☜