Woo Hoe-jung opened his mouth with an arrogant face.
“My lord, Special Military Officers are officials appointed personally by His Majesty after passing the Special Military Exam. Even if my post is lower than yours by office, you cannot speak of beating me as a private matter!”
His eyes openly swept me up and down. His attitude seemed to say, What right does some mere civil official have to order a Special Military Officer around?
Well, it was not as if I could not understand it.
The rut of antagonism dug between the civil branch and the military branch had only grown deeper after Special Military Officers began to be placed in important positions following the Dire Gate crisis. The civil branch despised the military branch for throwing its weight around on nothing but strength, and the military branch loathed the civil branch for having no strength yet meddling in the affairs of the nation with nothing but their mouths.
If the shape of central politics was already like that, what more needed to be said about the provinces?
The core of local administration was the local magistrate, a civil official, but the Special Military Officer in charge of defending against Dire Species and Dire Gates, matters directly tied to people’s life and death, was naturally a military official.
In the end, by rank, the local magistrate, the official charged with serving as the region’s parent to the people, was clearly the one with authority to command the Special Military Officer. Yet in most cases, the local magistrate’s influence did not reach as far as the Special Military Unit outside the government office.
‘So the reason that bastard is acting so insolent is because he thinks I’m some mere civil official who has never held anything but a brush in my life.’
Stupid bastard. If he had even the brains to weigh the situation before and after, he would not act so rashly.
Did that fool think the Dire Gate had closed all by itself?
I swallowed the sigh that threatened to burst out and spoke shortly.
“Protect the Nation and Guard the People.”
At those words, Woo Hoe-jung’s eyebrow twitched.
“I thought you had forgotten it completely, but it seems you do remember somehow?”
At my blatant sarcasm, Woo Hoe-jung’s face twisted.
It was only natural.
Those were the words engraved on the horn plaque His Majesty bestowed upon a Special Military Officer.
“Protecting the nation and the common people from the threat of Dire Gates. That is the one command His Majesty gave to those who wear the office of Special Military Officer. Special Military Officer Woo, can you claim with confidence that you have not been negligent in the slightest while carrying out the command His Majesty gave you?”
At my words, a heavy silence settled over everyone gathered.
Because it was something everyone knew, yet no one had dared say openly to Special Military Officer Woo.
He had not even appeared on the scene until powerless commoners had been forced to push weaker neighbors into human sacrifice. At the rebuke directed at him, Woo Hoe-jung opened his mouth as if he felt wronged.
“However, according to custom—”
“Custom? Does that stand above the command of your sovereign?”
At my question, Woo Hoe-jung pressed his mouth shut in resentment.
No matter how far royal authority had fallen in this world, he would not have the courage to openly nod at that question.
“Can one who neither handles Dire Gates nor protects commoners truly be qualified as a Special Military Officer?”
When I added a mocking remark, Woo Hoe-jung flared up and shouted.
“Th-then what do you intend to do? Are you saying you will install someone else as a Special Military Officer!”
Wow, how did he know?
He was smarter than he looked.
I suppressed the exclamation that burst out inwardly and answered calmly.
“There is no reason I cannot.”
“Th-that is. Who would that be? There is no way such a person exists around he—”
!!!!!
When I shrugged and pointed with my chin toward Chun-hyang, who was standing behind me, Woo Hoe-jung’s face distorted.
“......My lord, you cannot be serious.”
At his words, I tilted my head and asked back.
“Why? Is there a problem?”
“Are you saying you will remove me, third-grade Special Military Officer Woo Hoe-jung, and seat that woman in my place?”
“One showed me her skill, and one showed me nothing but negligence. Which way do you think my judgment will lean?”
As I lifted the folding fan in my hand and pointed at Chun-hyang and him in turn, answering calmly, the people gathered began to stir. Their reaction said they had not expected me to openly take Chun-hyang’s side like this.
Meanwhile, when the eyes around her focused on her, Chun-hyang frowned as if uncomfortable, and Woo Hoe-jung’s face flushed red with anger as he watched it.
“Ha, they said the newly arrived magistrate was mad for women, but it seems even his madness is extraordinary. To think you would go so far as to hand out an official post privately just to keep her at your side—”
SWISH—!
THWACK!
I did not listen any further and threw the folding fan in my hand. The folding fan cut through the air and struck the bastard squarely in the mouth.
“Keugh—”
“Just because there is a hole in your face does not mean you may spit out any words you like.”
As Confucius said, do not listen to words that are no words.
As one who reads books, one must always put the teachings of the sages into practice.
I looked down at the bastard crouching while clutching his mouth and said a word, and then I felt him draw up his energy.
“Ha.”
How absurd.
Was he really this unable to judge the situation?
“Yooouuuu!!!!!”
Seeing him charge toward me, the people scattered backward in terror.
Well, thanks to this, things would be easy.
I grinned and drew up my energy.
***
THWACK—!
“Keugh. S-stop, p-plea......”
The surroundings were silent. The only sounds were the impacts made by the one doing the beating and the groans of the one being beaten.
Jeong Yu-bong blinked his widened eyes once more, unable to believe what was happening before him.
Byeon Hak-do was beating someone in front of him.
No, the fact that Byeon Hak-do was beating someone was not especially surprising. Byeon Hak-do had always beaten people. That man beat people himself when he disliked them, ordered his underlings to beat them, and sometimes did both at once.
However, that had only ever applied to people it was safe to beat.
The expression “people it was safe to beat” felt rather unpleasant, but that was the reality. Byeon Hak-do had used violence against weak people who could not climb over him, all to show off his own power.
In other words, he was a typical piece of human garbage. And Jeong Yu-bong himself, who had served such garbage as his superior and catered to his moods, was no different from garbage......
No, that was not what mattered right now.
‘What I mean is, I’ve never seen that bastard act like this before—’
Jeong Yu-bong’s eyes examined Byeon Hak-do before him anew.
He had once made farmers kneel in the courtyard and whipped them until his anger cooled because a poor harvest and an epidemic had overlapped and they failed to meet the fixed tax quota. But he was absolutely not the sort of man who would kick a Special Military Officer because the man had left a Dire Gate unattended and forced commoners into human sacrifice......
In any case, contrary to his filthy temperament, Byeon Hak-do’s handsome face was so calm even at that moment that not a single drop of sweat flowed, annoyingly enough. His movements were so relaxed and composed that anyone watching might think he was dancing in high spirits.
By contrast, third-grade Special Military Officer Woo Hoe-jung, who was facing him, was in a terrible state. His nose, which had burst bleeding after being struck by the folding fan Byeon Hak-do had thrown, had swollen grotesquely as if broken, and his black military robe, the symbol of a Special Military Officer, was covered in dirt and dust from rolling across the ground under Byeon Hak-do’s kicks.
By all rights, Byeon Hak-do, a desk-bound scholar, should not have been any match for third-grade Special Military Officer Woo Hoe-jung......
The situation unfolding before their eyes completely overturned the expectations of everyone gathered here, including Clerk Jeong.
‘This makes no sense......’
The moment Jeong Yu-bong muttered inwardly, Byeon Hak-do raised one leg again.
It was fast, far too fast, and Woo Hoe-jung, who had already been beaten for quite some time and completely lost his will to fight, had no chance to dodge before he was struck by Byeon Hak-do’s kick once more.
CRACK!
“Keuk, cough. Cough.”
With the sound of something properly breaking somewhere, Woo Hoe-jung coughed, and Jeong Yu-bong flinched his shoulders without realizing it.
A moment later, Byeon Hak-do’s voice rang out.
“A Special Military Officer, who ought to obey His Majesty’s command and Protect the Nation and Guard the People, was not merely negligent. He insulted the superior who pointed it out and disturbed public morals, so his crime is grave.”
His voice was level, without rise or fall, yet it somehow chilled the hearts and livers of all who heard it.
Jeong Yu-bong trembled before he realized it. It was a voice he had heard to the point of weariness, yet this was the first time he had ever felt such pressure from words spoken by Byeon Hak-do.
“Furthermore, he tried to use an ability that ought to be used for the eradication of Dire Species and Dire Gates for private purposes, and to harm his superior at that. Originally, it would be proper to behead him here and now, but I will punish him before all gathered here today and make an example of him.”
“Th-that is...... I-I am wronged, wronge—”
Before Woo Hoe-jung could finish speaking, Byeon Hak-do turned sharply away from him and looked around as if searching for something.
“Normally, I should take him to the government office and administer a heavy flogging, but with the situation as it is, there is no helping it.”
Byeon Hak-do muttered as if to himself and strode toward the place where the corpse of the Dire Species he had thrown down before returning from the Dire Gate lay.
No, that was different from a mere Dire Species. Judging by its size, which was about as large as a thatched house with only a little exaggeration, it was clearly the leader of the Dire Species, a Chief.
While everyone, including Clerk Jeong, tilted their heads at Byeon Hak-do’s sudden movement, Byeon Hak-do reached out and tore off one of the Chief’s arms.
CRUNCH—
“!!!”
“Mother!!!”
At the savage sound of flesh and hide being forcibly torn away, everyone gathered there, even Woo Hoe-jung lying sprawled on the ground, drew in a sharp breath.
Ignoring them, Byeon Hak-do calmly tore the Chief’s hand away with another crunch, leaving only one forearm. This time, blue flames burst from his hand.
WHOOSH—
“!!!!!”
“Hiiik!!!!”
The flames that began in Byeon Hak-do’s hand burned away the Chief’s flesh in an instant, and after the acrid smoke cleared, all that remained in his hand was a thick black bone about the height of a child.
Jeong Yu-bong was so shocked he felt faint. The terrible, vivid sight was enough that he even heard some of the weaker-stomached onlookers vomiting.
‘Wh-when did he become capable of that?’
He had noticed long ago that Byeon Hak-do was an Awakened. He also knew Byeon Hak-do had separately siphoned off Mana Crystals and hidden them inside the wall closet.
However, he had thought that Byeon Hak-do, who had already established himself as a civil official, had no reason to train an ability at this late stage......
While Jeong Yu-bong rolled his eyes in confusion, Byeon Hak-do’s voice rang out.
“Are there any penal clerks here?”
At those words, two penal clerks who had been mixed in among the onlookers timidly stepped forward.
“K-Kim Man-deuk, p-penal clerk of Namwon Protectorate, greets the Lord Magistrate.”
“J-Jang Sun-dol greets the Lord Magistrate.”
Looking at their faces, they clearly wanted nothing more than to stay still and pretend not to know anything. But if they did that, they might become the next victims of those kicks, so they had no choice but to step forward.
Meanwhile, after confirming their faces, Byeon Hak-do threw them the Chief’s bone he was holding.
“O-oh dear.”
Unlike Byeon Hak-do, who had thrown it lightly, Kim Man-deuk staggered, unable to withstand the weight of the bone he had caught.
“Strike him with that.”
At Byeon Hak-do’s words, the two penal clerks and everyone gathered there opened their eyes wide and looked at him.
“P-pardon?”
“It may be a little short, but it should serve well enough in place of a flogging rod. The sentence is eighty strokes. The charges are work slowdown, negligence, accepting bribes, obstruction of official duties, disturbing public morals, and disobeying orders.”
“!!!!!”
‘That madman is going to administer a heavy flogging with a Chief’s bone!’
Jeong Yu-bong stared at Byeon Hak-do with a sickened face, and Woo Hoe-jung, as if he had belatedly grasped the situation, shouted with his swollen face.
“I-I am wronged, wrong—”
Before Woo Hoe-jung could finish speaking, Byeon Hak-do approached him, bent down, and met his eyes. Then Byeon Hak-do spoke to Woo Hoe-jung, who had frozen in tension.
“It seems you still do not understand the situation, so I will explain it again. This magistrate is kind, after all.”
“......”
‘If he is kind twice, there will be no bones left to gather.’
While Jeong Yu-bong muttered inwardly, Byeon Hak-do straightened and looked around as he spoke.
“Criminal Woo Hoe-jung, listen. Originally, you ought to be beheaded on the spot, but in order to proclaim that such a thing will never again be repeated anywhere in Namwon’s lands, I will show leniency. Instead of beheading, I will punish you with eighty strokes of the cudgel.”
It was truly a judge-like voice, but everyone gathered was wrapped in heavy silence.
He would hold a negligent Special Military Officer accountable for his crimes......
If one neglected one’s duties, it was only natural to be held accountable. Yet those natural words were also words they had heard for the first time since Dire Gates began to open.
Jeong Yu-bong, and everyone else gathered here, stared blankly at Byeon Hak-do as if they could not believe it.
“What are you doing? Strike him.”
At Byeon Hak-do’s urging, the penal clerks snapped back to their senses and moved busily.
Penal Clerk Jang quickly dragged Woo Hoe-jung, who seemed to be staring into space, and draped him over the pile of Dire Species corpses. Then Penal Clerk Kim raised the bone high and brought it down.
THWACK—!
Unlike an ordinary flogging rod, which was about the height of an adult man, the Chief’s bone was only about half that length. But perhaps its hardness exceeded that of willow wood, because the impact sound of the blow was no ordinary thing.
“Keugh—”
“O-one stroke......!”
As Penal Clerk Jang counted with a deathly pale face, Penal Clerk Kim swung the bone again.
THWACK—!
“Two strokes......!”
“I-I am wronged. I said I am wronged—”
Perhaps he had belatedly come to his senses, because Woo Hoe-jung began struggling. Penal Clerk Jang tried his best to hold him down, but there was no way an ordinary person could restrain a Special Military Officer in the first place. And just as Woo Hoe-jung shook off Penal Clerk Jang’s arm and tried to rise—
A chilling voice rang out.
“If you move even the slightest bit from there, I will behead you. If you wish to die, try moving.”
It was Byeon Hak-do.
The pathetic face that chased women’s skirts day after day was nowhere to be found.
Instead, the cold light in his clean-cut features gleamed sharply, as if he would cut off the criminal’s head at any moment.
Now, he had to admit it.
Byeon Hak-do had changed.
Jeong Yu-bong looked at him and swallowed dryly.