“No matter if you are a commander holding the military tally, oppressing innocent commoners goes against proper principle—”
At the Kim nuisance’s prattling, I tilted my head and asked back.
“Innocent?”
Really?
When I looked back and forth at the two ruffians who had been grappling with Chun-hyang, the bastard who had been struck on the back of the head by my folding fan earlier spoke as if wronged.
“That bit...... no, that person struck first!”
The way he pretended to be polite only before someone with power sounded like a man who had been around for a while. They said rich bastards employed former Special Military Officers as ruffians, and it seemed this nuisance was exactly that sort.
“Special Military Officer Seong.”
When I called Chun-hyang, a calm voice answered.
“I merely obeyed the Lord Magistrate’s order and guarded the Chief’s corpse so no one could approach it carelessly.”
Her voice was calm, but she must have been quite furious, because I saw the fist clenched tightly between the folds of her skirt trembling.
“—So she says?”
When I looked back toward the ruffians as if I knew nothing, the nuisance bastard cut in.
“H-however, matters concerning the handling of Dire Species have customarily been entrusted to our Wansang Merchants—”
“Military Clerk?”
I did not even want to hear more, so I called the Military Clerk. The Military Clerk, who had been doing nothing but breathing in a corner, startled and shouted loudly.
“Hiiik, yes, yes, my lord.”
“Is what he said true?”
“Th-that is......”
For a moment, the Military Clerk only rolled his eyes as if searching for words. Then, as if something had occurred to him, he suddenly shouted.
“Special Military Officer Woo! It was an agreement made by Special Military Officer Woo. Yes, that is right. Is that not so, Elder Scholar?”
“Military Cleeeerk!!! Do you call that an answer!”
The Kim nuisance roared, veins standing out in his neck.
But the Military Clerk looked at me and poured out his words quickly, as if he could not hear Scholar Kim’s voice at all.
“I know nothing of it. As you know as well, my lord, matters concerning Dire Species were entirely under the authority of the Special Military Officer, were they not? What this lowly one does is merely manage the supervision of those listed in the military rolls here and the grain payments. Everything concerning Dire Gates or Dire Species was handled by Special Military Officer Woo. I know nothing of it.”
Oh, what a splendid tail-cutting.
I would believe him if he told me he had been a lizard in his previous life.
“—So he says?”
Admiring the Military Clerk’s quick maneuvering inwardly, I turned toward the nuisance. The Kim nuisance’s finely trimmed beard trembled as he spoke.
“I-if that is so, then we need only ask Special Military Officer Woo, do we not? If it is Special Military Officer Woo, he will surely—”
“Did you not hear?”
I cut him off and asked.
“Hear what?”
“About Woo Hoe-jung. He was beaten with eighty strokes of the cudgel yesterday and dismissed. Did you still not hear?”
“Y-you—!”
“He will not be able to walk properly for a while, so he should be at home. If you are curious, go ask him. Ah, but since he has already been dismissed, you probably do not need to attach ‘Special Military Officer’ to his name anymore.”
At my words, the nuisance trembled and burst out in fury.
“Th-that! To privately dismiss a Special Military Officer appointed by His Majesty, and not only that, to seat a woman you covet in his place. Are you not ashamed before heaven? As a member of the Namwon Confucian literati, I absolutely will not sit by and watch this matter!”
“What, are you going to impeach me?”
“Do not take a scholar’s spirit lightly!”
“A scholar? Who? You?”
Strange. No matter how I looked at him, he did not seem like a scholar.
When I looked him up and down again and muttered as if to myself, he trembled and shouted.
“I will absolutely not forgive this insult!”
“I feel like that is my line.”
I wiped away the smile I had kept on my face until now and looked at him again.
“I have been listening quietly for a while, and you seem to be throwing out any words that come to mind. Keep it within reason, will you?”
At the changed atmosphere, the nuisance flinched for a moment, then opened his mouth again.
“H-hmph. If you think to threaten me—”
“Threaten? What a frightening thing to say.”
Smiling brightly again, I turned my head and looked around.
Oh, there it is.
I strode over to where the Chief’s corpse lay.
There, the Chief-brand heavy flogging rod that had turned Woo Hoe-jung into a bloody mess yesterday was also lying. When I reached out and lifted it, I liked the heavy weight that traveled through my palm, just as expected.
“Military Clerk.”
“Yes, yes, my lord.”
“How many strokes did Woo Hoe-jung receive yesterday?”
“E-eighty strokes, my lord.”
“Then in the Military Clerk’s view, about how many strokes should these men receive?”
At my words, the Military Clerk looked back and forth between me and the Kim nuisance with a deathly pale face and answered.
“......!!!! H-how, how could this lowly one possibly—!”
“This is absurd!! A Magistrate privately flogging commoners? What world-shaking tyranny is this! I will submit a memorial at once and—”
CRASH—!
When I drove the heavy flogging rod I held straight into the ground, a huge roar rang out. The sound echoed so loudly that even the people gathered to watch flinched and stepped backward.
The Military Clerk sank straight to the ground, and the two ruffians the Kim nuisance had brought drew their weapons and quickly blocked the space between me and the Kim nuisance.
“Interesting. So, men who once fed on the state’s salary dare draw weapons against this magistrate in a situation like this?”
At my words, the two ruffians twisted their faces uncomfortably.
Of course they would.
Whatever they were now, if they had once been Special Military Officers, they should at least know what they were doing.
Not only had they dared cause a disturbance in the barracks, they had drawn weapons against a Senior Third Rank court official. Under military law in a wartime system, it was a grave crime more than enough to send their heads flying at once.
When I stepped forward once more, one of the ruffians, who had edged backward to widen the distance, spoke stiffly.
“If you come any closer than this, I will not stand still.”
“What are bandits like you even saying?”
I looked one by one at the angry nuisance and the ruffians, then opened my mouth.
“Listen, criminals. You arbitrarily intruded into the barracks, disturbed military law, and damaged the morale of the soldiers. Not only that, you tried to take the state’s property as you pleased. Every one of these charges is grave, so I cannot ignore them.”
As the nuisance opened his mouth as if to protest, I raised one hand to stop him and continued.
“Originally, I should cut off your heads and let all under heaven know the strictness of military law, but considering the virtue accumulated by your ancestors, I will show leniency.”
Then I turned my head toward the Military Clerk hiding in the corner and said,
“Military Clerk, count.”
At the same time, I charged at the nuisance.
WHOOOSH—
CRACK!
Before the ruffians could catch me, the heavy flogging rod struck one side of the nuisance’s cheek. Even though I swung it as lightly as possible, the nuisance could not endure the impact and toppled straight to the ground.
“Hiiik, o-one.”
I heard the terrified Military Clerk’s voice.
At that sound, one of the ruffians, who had been frozen in surprise, moved.
“Where do you think you are going?”
I stuck close to the ruffian trying to widen the gap and kicked him in the solar plexus, and his large body toppled backward as it was.
“Keugh—”
Through the ruffian’s crushed groan, I heard the Military Clerk’s trembling voice.
“D-does this count too?”
“Use your judgment.”
After answering shortly, I swung the heavy flogging rod toward the other man charging at me.
WHOOOSH—
CLANG!
The ruffian’s blade, which collided with the heavy flogging rod, snapped cleanly in two.
“H-how!”
“This bastard’s bone is just that hard.”
I turned my body as it was and aimed for the opponent’s side.
WHOOOSH—
CRACK!
“Keugh—”
“T-two.”
The two ruffian bastards, each having tasted the heavy flogging rod once in turn, lay sprawled on the ground and exchanged looks.
Judge carefully.
If you back down, I will go easy on you, but if not—
However, the two clueless bastards drew up their energy sharply and charged at me at the same time.
“Tsk, if you insist.”
I muttered low and adjusted my grip on the heavy flogging rod.
***
THWACK!
“F-fiiftyyy—”
In the silence around us, quiet as a dead mouse, the Military Clerk’s completely hoarse voice rang out.
“Guuuuugh.”
The two ruffians who had charged in with such vigor were now rolling on the ground in a state similar to Woo Hoe-jung yesterday.
It seemed the Military Clerk had a lot built up against them. Still, they were commoners by status, and judging by the mood, they had a powerful local notable backing them, so I had intended to go a little easy. But because the Military Clerk kept starting the count over, I ended up beating each of the two ruffian bastards more than fifty times.
‘See? This is why reputation is so important.’
I was not sure I, as Byeon Hak-do, was in any position to say that, but anyway.
A little distance from where the ruffians were rolling around, the Kim nuisance, whose teeth had been blown out in large numbers by a single blow from the heavy flogging rod, was looking this way while clutching his swollen face.
It seemed he had finally grasped the situation.
That the one who had entered the Dire Gate yesterday, beheaded the Chief, and turned Woo Hoe-jung into a bloody mess really was this new Magistrate standing before his eyes.
Meeting the eyes of the Kim nuisance, which were now a mess of shock, terror, and confusion, I spoke to him.
“Tell your higher-ups clearly. The era of getting a free ride is over, so if they want to make a deal, they should come back with conditions to match.”
“Yesh, yesh.”
The Kim nuisance began slowly stepping backward, trembling as if he were about to sneak away.
“I did not tell you to leave yet.”
“Hiiik, cough.”
At the startled nuisance as he froze in place, I tilted my head and asked,
“If you make this much of a mess and simply leave, who will clean up afterward?”
“Th-then, wh-what should I do?”
The nuisance’s shoulders were stiff with tension as he looked at me, as if asking what more I wanted.
“Fifty Mana Crystals.”
Top-grade, of course.
When I added that, the Kim nuisance jumped and shouted.
“......!!!!! Th-that!”
“If you made this magistrate personally swing the heavy flogging rod, should you not pay a corresponding price?”
I answered calmly and shook the heavy flogging rod in one hand.
If I wanted to fill an empty granary, the fastest way was to make the bastards who had taken from it spit it back out. Besides, even fifty Mana Crystals would be only a drop in the bucket compared to what they had eaten up so far.
“Do not tell me you are saying this magistrate is worth less than fifty Mana Crystals right now?”
It was logic close to coercion, but there was no way he had the nerve to argue with me right now.
The nuisance reluctantly lowered his head and mumbled.
“......I-I will obey your command.”
“I will give you two days. Bring them directly to the East Hall.”
“......A-as you command, my lord.”
The Kim nuisance reluctantly lowered his head and answered.
Somehow, it looked as if he clenched his molars at the very end, but that must have been my imagination.
He should not have any molars left to clench, after all.
The Kim nuisance urged his servants to shoulder the two ruffians sprawled on the ground, then pushed through the gathered onlookers and disappeared as if fleeing.
Once the ones who had caused the commotion vanished, the onlookers who had gathered all the way beyond the wall also began leaving one by one, reading the mood.
I turned my head and looked at Chun-hyang. Then my heart dropped at the sight of Chun-hyang staring only at the tips of her feet with a grave face.
It was an expression I had seen to the point of exhaustion in my previous life.
Before Chun-hyang could say anything, I hurriedly opened my mouth.
“Aaaah—do not say you are quitting. Today was just a coincidence, was it not? I will quickly clean up garbage like that from now on, so—”
“Please teach me.”
Eh?
“Wh-what did you just say?”
“I ask for your instruction.”
“What instruction?”
“The technique to beat those bastards down, hm. The hand-to-hand technique you showed a moment ago.”
Ah, she was not saying she would quit?
And what? She wanted to learn hand-to-hand combat?
“Goo—”
“Pardon?”
“Goooood, good. Very good!”
That passion.
I like it, rookie.
Smiling broadly at the excellent attitude of my rookie, I took one step forward, and Chun-hyang stiffened her face and stepped two steps back.
At the same time, I froze without realizing it at the shocking sight that appeared before my eyes.
‘No, wait. Why?! You’re the one who asked me to teach you!!!’
Beyond the unconcealable wariness and disgust in Chun-hyang’s eyes, one petal of my eighth Mindscape Flower withered rapidly, then soon fell with a soft pluck.