Nine days after departing from the Sunwoo Clan, we were finally able to arrive at Gokjeong, the entrance to Yunnan Province.
Since it was already evening when we arrived, we decided to stay for one night at an inn here and part ways with the ronin tomorrow.
This was because the front was just beyond two mountain passes from here.
Standing in front of the inn and looking at the entrance, the ronin muttered with emotional expressions.
“To think it actually took nine days to get here.”
“It also took nine days until we could stay in a proper inn.”
“I’m moved right now. I feel like tears are going to come out.”
As the culprit behind all of this, I couldn't overcome the embarrassment and spoke to them.
“Now, now. Let’s head inside. Since today is the last day, let’s have a drink. I’ll treat everyone.”
“Ohhh! As expected of Young Master Sunwoo! I believed in you!”
“The children of prestigious families truly are generous!”
Seeing them brighten up as if they had been waiting, I wondered if I had been played.
We had become quite close as we reached the end of the journey.
Partly because these men were very reliable and decent people for ronin, and since I wasn't someone who cared much about status, we had come to open our hearts to each other without hesitation.
It was quite bittersweet that I felt more affection for these men I had spent only nine days with than for the members of the clan I had lived with for twenty years.
We roughly unpacked our things in our rooms and were all gathered at a table on the first floor, waiting for the food.
“Warrior Gong, are you returning home for good once this job is finished?”
At my question, Warrior Gong, who had a gentle impression, answered with a smile. He was the one who had said before that he only went home at night because his wife couldn't cook.
“That is so. Since I have a wife and child, it seems I won't be able to live by the blade anymore.”
Then, Warrior Lee, who grumbled about everything and was easily provoked, spoke up.
“Eing, that’s why I kept telling you that a ronin shouldn't make a wife and child!”
At those words, the affable Warrior Yang, who was beside him, asked with a playful face.
“But why do you have an envious expression?”
“Me? Hmph! No way! You’re the one who looks that way because you’re envious, aren't you?”
“Look at this. He’s getting worked up again. I told you, when you’re hit in a sore spot, you get worked up like that and can't lie.”
“I-I said I’m not!”
While the taciturn and mild-mannered Warrior Jong was laughing at them, Warrior Jang, who was the leader, called for attention and spoke.
“Now, now, since today is the last day with Young Master Sunwoo, let’s drink until our noses turn crooked!”
“Good! Owner! Bring the alcohol out first!”
They said that these five, centered around Warrior Jang Gang-seong, had been traveling together for quite a long time.
Among them, it seemed that Warrior Gong, who had a wife and child, would be leaving the group after this final job.
Since it was a remote place, we were the only ones on the first floor; it was while we were chatting boisterously as if we had rented out the entire floor.
Suddenly, the door of the inn burst open and a person stepped inside.
“Oh my! Welcome! A beautiful young lady has arrived!”
At the waiter’s (jeom-so-i) fuss, we naturally turned our gazes that way.
Then, everyone’s eyes turned to those of surprise.
“Huh?”
“Is that young lady the one from back then?”
She was the young lady named Cheong-yeon, who had been at the Sunwoo Clan until recently.
There was no way we wouldn't recognize her, with her unique appearance and her bangs lowered to the front of her nose.
At that moment, her gaze, which was scanning the inside of the inn, also fixed upon us.
A moment of silence hung in the air as we stared at each other awkwardly, and Warrior Jang whispered to me.
“She’s someone you know, so why don't you invite her to join us?”
“Pardon? Ah, yes. I will. Young Lady Cheong-yeon! To think we’d meet here!”
Running into a woman I knew at an inn—this kind of situation was a first across two lives, so it was very awkward.
However, as soon as I spoke to her, she began walking toward me as if it were nothing.
“Haha! If you don't mind, please come this way and join us for a—you’ve already sat down, ahaha.”
As I had felt before, she was a young lady whose actions were very unrestrained.
I even felt that, perhaps because her eyes were covered, she didn't look at the gazes of those around her at all.
The ronin spoke to her in a friendly manner, as if trying to dispel the awkwardness.
“Welcome, Young Lady. Somehow we’ve met again here.”
“We’re planning to have a drink; how about ordering some food first?”
To their questions, she answered in a flat, monotone voice.
However, the content was not flat at all.
“I’m planning to volunteer for the front as well. I’ll order the food a little later.”
Huh? What did she say?
After blinking our eyes for a moment, we asked again.
“…What did you just say?”
“You’re volunteering for the front, Young Lady?”
“No, why on earth?”
It was quite shocking.
Usually, even people in the martial world didn't know much about the reality of the front, but they knew that the mortality rate was incredibly high.
Because of that, even heroes with high reputations were reluctant to go to the front these days; if not for that, why would the Murim Alliance have gone so far as to send mandatory conscription notices to the clans of Guizhou Province?
‘But she’s going to volunteer to go there herself? And a woman alone at that?’
As someone who knew the reality of that place too well, it was something I couldn't understand.
I even worried that she might be doing something she would regret out of a half-baked sense of heroism.
Out of concern, I asked her.
“Um, Young Lady. Why on earth are you volunteering for that place?”
However, she did not answer my question, but instead stared at me intently and asked.
“You’ve… lost a lot of weight?”
“Pardon? Ah! Hahaha! Well, since I’m planning to live at the front, I lost some weight! It seems it’s to the point that even you can recognize it, Young Lady.”
“Yes, you’ve become very slim.”
“Ahahaha! You flatter me! It’s not quite that much.”
Hearing that I had lost weight was a thrill no matter when I heard it.
Feeling good, I naturally let the fact that she hadn't answered my previous question slide.
Then, the ronin who were listening also praised me in turn.
“Young Master Sunwoo made a truly relentless effort! It was truly amazing. It was a precious time that made us realize there is nothing in the world that cannot be achieved!”
“I didn't know because we were always together, but now that you’ve lost weight, your features are standing out, Young Master! You’ve become quite a handsome man!”
“Wahahaha! I have heard that I have some features once I lose weight!”
At that moment, Young Lady Cheong-yeon slowly stood up from her seat, left one word, and walked outside.
“I’ll be out for a bit.”
I thought she looked strangely lacking in energy, but as a man who didn't know women well, it was beyond me to guess what the matter was.
Soon, the alcohol arrived, and I pushed thoughts of her to the back of my mind.
Hae Cheong-yeon stepped outside the inn where Sunwoo Jin and the ronin were chatting boisterously.
The sky was already dark, and the dense forests visible nearby looked like black shadows.
She suddenly thought of the time she left the Sunwoo Clan.
When she said she would volunteer for the front, her friend Jegal Seo-yul had screamed in horror.
‘Whaaaat?! That’s nonsense! Are you crazy?! No matter how much I like you, I can't follow you there! What are you going to do if the Great Hero Hae finds out?!’
‘Father will understand.’
‘It won't be understanding, it’ll be giving up!’
‘Anyway.’
Because her tastes and actions were so unique and she was the type to go through fire and water once she was fixated on something, it was true that her father and family had given up on her until now, regardless of what she did.
However, she also knew well that going to the front was not such a simple matter.
That if she were caught this time, she might truly be confined at home.
But,
She couldn't help it.
“Huuu.”
Letting out a long sigh, she recalled the first time she saw Sunwoo Jin.
She had been truly shocked.
How could a living person look so much like her handmade doll, ‘Mandu’ (Dumpling)?
The appearance like a doll(?), the single move he showed that seemed like a coincidence, and his past that she learned after investigating. All of it had stimulated her curiosity like nothing else.
And the moment he began to run, saying he would run all the way to Yunnan, Hae Cheong-yeon, who was watching him out of curiosity, almost lost her mind.
That cute, waddling appearance.
Even the unrealistic physical strength that made him collapse before even going half a gok.
She simply couldn't tolerate it.
How could she leave someone that cute to be murdered by the demons of the Blood Cult!
She could never accept such a horrific fact.
Therefore, she had to protect him.
This was her duty as a pioneer who had witnessed a cuteness hidden from the world.
That was why she had followed him all the way here….
But here, the ‘Mandu’ doll she knew was no longer there.
He was still a little bit cute, but he was just a common martial artist one could see anywhere.
It even seemed he had defeated bandits himself.
She didn't quite understand it then, but seeing him now, it seemed it could be so.
Therefore, Hae Cheong-yeon, who had been burning with the thought that she had discovered a target for her passion for the first time in a long while, could only feel frustrated.
She let out a deep sigh and muttered.
“Should I go back?”
Coming all the way here and just going back was a bit embarrassing, even for her, who didn't care about the gazes of others.
However, entering the front when the reason had disappeared seemed even more wrong.
She also had to think of her family, who would worry.
“Yes, let’s go back tomorrow.”
She finally made up her mind.
And it was just as she was about to enter the inn again.
Suddenly, a scream was heard.
“Kyaaa!”
“Aaak! Help…! Uaaagh!”
What was that?
It was a close distance.
It seemed to be a house just beyond the dense thicket she had seen when she entered earlier.
Furthermore, the second scream had even cut off in mid-sentence.
Just now, it seemed people had been attacked by someone, or something.
Hae Cheong-yeon immediately vaulted her body toward that direction.
“Who is it?!”
It was while she was vaulting her body and shouting to alert the opponent.
Through the thicket, that something was springing out toward her.
Hwa-ak!
It was a sudden, soundless ambush, but Hae Cheong-yeon did not panic.
“Ha-ap!”
The sword light she swung flashed as it sliced through the air like a spiderweb in the darkness.
Shu-hak!
The opponent was a person, not a beast.
Furthermore, it was a man with bare hands, who hadn't even taken a defensive stance.
So, when she thought she could turn him into pieces of meat with a single form, the sound and sensation that reached Hae Cheong-yeon were entirely different from her expectations.
Kka-kka-kka-kkang! Kkang! Kkang!
She had clearly sliced the opponent’s body, yet the sword bounced off with a metallic sound.
Unbelievably, the opponent was pouncing on her while deflecting her sword with his bare body.
“What?!”
Flustered, Hae Cheong-yeon barely managed to block by bringing her sword against the arm the opponent was swinging.
Kwang!
“Augh!”
Although a human arm and a sword had collided, an impact as if she had struck an iron club was delivered.
Hae Cheong-yeon’s body was sent flying backward helplessly.
Hwi-ik!
She immediately regained her posture in the air and landed.
The opponent had also landed on the ground from the reaction of striking her sword; only now could Hae Cheong-yeon see the opponent’s appearance in some detail amidst the darkness.
Then, she was shocked—a rarity for her.
“A pervert?!”
The man was naked.
A perverted man who was hideously exposing his massive 'thing'; it was a horrific sight that would make any ordinary woman scream and close her eyes just from his appearance alone.
However, Hae Cheong-yeon was no ordinary woman, and now was not the time for that.
The fellow was pouncing again immediately.
“Kyaaaaa!”
It was a beast-like cry, and also beast-like movements.
“Ha-ap!”
Hae Cheong-yeon began to swing her sword, focusing all her senses. Streaks of Sword Qi, which had reached the highest level of the first-class realm, were stretching out.
Shu-ha-a-a-ak!
But the result was no different from before.
Kka-kkang! Kkang! Kka-ga-gang! Kkang!
The fellow’s bare body was deflecting not only her Sword Qi but even her sword.
“This can't be!”
Shocked, she had to hurriedly retreat.
At that moment, a shout was heard from the side.
“Who are you?! Ha-ap!”
It was a ronin who had been with Sunwoo Jin inside the inn.
The man who had looked exceptionally affable.
He was swinging his saber as he lunged at the monster.
Startled, Hae Cheong-yeon shouted.
“No! That fellow is!”
But it was already too late.
Kkang! Pu-uk!
“Ke-eok!”
The monster, who had easily taken the saber with its head, had its hand pierce through his chest.
It was instant death.
It felt as if her blood were rising in reverse.
In the vision of the girl who rarely lost her composure, only the fellow’s wide-open nape was visible.
Losing her reason, she struck the fellow’s nape with all her might.
“Ha-ap!”
Kka-a-ang!
However, its neck was still not sliced.
Only her hands throbbed from the strong vibration.
“Uugh!”
It was then.
The fellow reached his hand behind his neck and firmly grabbed her sword.
Then, he turned his head and looked toward her.
For some reason, his eyes were tightly closed, but the fellow’s mouth seemed to be smiling.
“N-no! Eek!”
Shocked, Hae Cheong-yeon pulled her sword with all her might, but it didn't budge at all.
As the fellow aimed the hand he had pulled from the ronin’s chest toward her, a light of despair filled her eyes.
“Aaaa….”
The fellow’s hand, which had pierced the ronin’s chest, was now flying toward her chest.
Shu-hak!