Episode 29: Neither Grace nor Grudges are Forgotten (1)
Light Novel: Volume 2 Episode 29
Manhwa: Chapter 28-29
Chapter 2 Episode 29. Neither Grace nor Grudges are Forgotten (1)
The next day, Dam-ho left the guest house early at dawn.
Neigh!
Black Ghost, who had been alone in the stable, neighed as if to express its joy. After placing the saddle on Black Ghost’s back, Dam-ho led it outside.
Turpan was still cloaked in darkness.
After briefly gauging his direction, Dam-ho mounted Black Ghost.
As if trying to vent its long-held frustration of being trapped in the stable, Black Ghost galloped like mad.
‘You were frustrated too. Just like me.’
Dam-ho understood how Black Ghost felt.
How stifling must it have been for a creature that once roamed freely across vast plains to be locked inside a narrow stable?
Black Ghost became a black wind. Dam-ho became one with Black Ghost.
The landscape around them quickly grew closer then fell away. A desolate wilderness emerged, and the mountains in the distance rapidly drew closer.
Dam-ho allowed the Black Ghost to run until it became tired. It would stop on its own when exhausted.
He entrusted his body to Black Ghost and simply felt the wind.
It was the warm light and breeze he felt for the first time in twelve years. He wanted to savor this moment.
Dam-ho forgot the flow of time.
How long did they run like that?
Suddenly, Dam-ho sensed the speed drop significantly. Black Ghost was finally tired.
“Alright, let’s take a little rest.”
Dam-ho looked around for a place to rest.
Just then, a large boulder came into view in the distance. Shade was cast beneath the boulder.
Dam-ho steered Black Ghost toward the boulder.
But as he neared it, Dam-ho frowned slightly. He could smell the foul scent of blood on the tip of his nose.
As Dam-ho drew closer to the boulder, the scent of blood grew stronger. Beneath the shadow of the rock, dozens of corpses lay scattered. Enough time had passed that the bodies were already decomposing, reeking with stench.
Dam-ho dismounted from Black Ghost and approached the corpses. A gruesome sight unfolded before his eyes— enough to make one gag.
The bodies had been hacked to such a degree they were unrecognizable. Wounds gaped open like fish gills all over their bodies.
Dam-ho closely examined the wounds on one of the corpses.
“They played with them.”
There wasn’t a single wound deep enough to cause instant death.
The ones who killed these people had slashed them all over the body, like a cat toying with a mouse. And they had watched as their victims slowly died in agony.
Suddenly, the inn servant’s words resurfaced in his mind.
“Could it have been mountain bandits?”
Dam-ho was about to stand up.
It was tragic that these people had been killed by bandits, but it had nothing to do with him.
But just then—
“Ugh…!”
A faint groan came from amidst the corpses.
Dam-ho pushed aside the other bodies and pulled out the groaning man. The moment he saw the man’s face, Dam-ho’s expression turned cold and heavy.
The man, groaning with a long gash stretching from his chest down to his stomach, was someone he recognized well.
Bang Woo-gwang. He was none other than Bang Jin-bo’s father.
Despite suffering a horrifying wound that exposed his internal organs, Bang Woo-gwang was still clinging to life. But Dam-ho knew. He didn’t have much time left. The fact that he had survived until now was nothing short of miraculous.
Only then did Dam-ho take a closer look at the faces of the corpses strewn around him.
He recognized several of them.
They were members of the Silver Lotus Merchant Group. Dam-ho realized what had happened.
Dam-ho began channeling his internal energy into Bang Woo-gwang. A bit of color returned to the man’s face, if only briefly.
Bang Woo-gwang barely opened his eyes.
He seemed to recognize Dam-ho’s face and slowly parted his lips.
“Y-you are…?”
“Any last words?”
“What…?”
“You know it. That you don’t have much time left.”
“Ghk!”
Tears suddenly streamed down Bang Woo-gwang’s cheek. Dam-ho remained silent as he watched him.
After a moment, as if regaining a bit of clarity, Bang Woo-gwang looked straight at Dam-ho. In his gaze was a desperate plea. A deep, earnest wish to protect what mattered most to him, even if it meant giving everything he had.
“Jin-bo was taken by the mountain bandits… Please, save Jin-bo… my son…”
“……”
“Master, please… I… that child…”
With bloodied hands, Bang Woo-gwang grabbed Dam-ho’s hand. The grip of a dying man carried unexpected weight.
That desperation traveled through his hand, and into Dam-ho.
His lips quivered like a fish gasping for air.
“Master… please…”
And Dam-ho remembered.
He remembered seeing that look in his eyes once before.
Long ago, when his village had been raided, his own father had looked at him with the same gaze as Bang Woo-gwang now did.
The only difference was that back then, the taoists of the Mount Hua Sect had come after his father had died. But for Bang Woo-gwang, he had met Dam-ho before his final breath.
From Dam-ho’s lips came a rough and hoarse voice.
“If he’s alive.”
“Th-thank you… please…”
Bang Woo-gwang’s voice began to fade. And just like his voice, his body grew colder.
The life slowly drained from his eyes as he looked at Dam-ho. Yet that desperate plea remained in them.
Dam-ho reached out and gently closed Bang Woo-gwang’s eyes. Then he stood up and looked around. Not far off, he saw another pile of corpses tangled together.
In the midst of it all, Dam-ho recognized another familiar face.
“Oh Ki-oh.”
The chief escort warrior of the Silver Lotus Merchant Group and the man who had included him in the merchant group’s procession. Lying beside him was Cho Soo-kwang, the owner of the Silver Lotus Merchant Group, dead with his tongue hanging out.
Their grudge must have been unbearable. Even in death, they couldn’t close their eyes.
Dam-ho stared into the lightless eyes of the dead for a long while.
Though they could no longer speak, their extinguished eyes said more than words ever could.
Dam-ho silently gazed into their hollow eyes, as if conversing with them.
After some time had passed, he gently closed their eyes and stood up.
Dam-ho climbed onto Black Ghost’s back.
Perhaps because it had rested for a while, Black Ghost neighed powerfully once more. There was no trace of fatigue in its movements.
“Let’s go.”
As if it had been waiting for the command, Black Ghost shot forward.
* * *
Bang Jin-bo’s eyes were stained with tears.
He couldn’t believe what was happening to him now. He couldn’t understand why he had to be in such a place.
He was trapped inside a small wooden cage. It looked like the kind of pen used to trap animals.
And Bang Jin-bo was not the only one imprisoned. Among the merchants of the Silver Lotus Merchant Group, the younger ones shared his fate. There were as many as fifty of them.
The rest were all dead. Even Cho Soo-kwang, the captain of the merchant group, and Bang Jin-bo’s father.
Cho Soo-kwang, fearing a bandit raid, had set out with another merchant group. Two groups combined—over 150 people strong—he had believed that even mountain bandits wouldn’t dare to attack such a force.
But he was wrong.
The bandits had attacked without hesitation, even against the two united merchant groups.
The escort warriors led by Oh Ki-oh fought valiantly, but they couldn’t match the over one hundred bandits.
In the end, the escort warriors were all slaughtered, and countless merchants were killed.
Bang Jin-bo had witnessed it all with his own eyes.
Now, the bandits were gathered around a large bonfire in the center of the clearing, enjoying themselves. On one side of the ground lay a heap of goods plundered from the merchant group.
A large man sat in front of the bonfire. He was holding up a Cat’s Eye Stone, the size of a child’s fist, to the firelight.
“Heh heh! What incredible luck. A Cat’s Eye Stone of this quality.”
Even if the entire goods plundered from the merchants were combined, it wouldn’t be worth even a tenth of these Cat’s Eye Stones.
Today was the greatest day since he had started raiding this region.
His name was Dong Ja-chu, and he was the leader of the Blood Wolf Battalion, a bandit group known for preying on merchants traveling between the Western Region and the Central Plains.
The Blood Wolf Battalion was composed of Han Chinese, Hui, and various other ethnic groups. What they had in common was their formidable martial prowess and the fact that they never stayed in one place.
They roamed the Turpan region, looting as they went. They killed people, stole goods, and sold them off. With the money they made, they drank, bought women, and indulged in pleasures.
After fiddling with the Cat’s Eye Stone for a while, Dong Ja-chu asked a subordinate beside him,
“What about them?”
“We’ve sent the signal. They’ll be heading this way soon. Should arrive within two or three hours.”
“Yeah? Then what should we do until then?”
Dong Ja-chu’s eyes glinted dangerously in the firelight.
Suddenly, his gaze turned toward the people imprisoned in the cages.
“Drag those bastards out.”
“Why?”
Cho Bok, the vice-leader whose face resembled an owl, looked puzzled. Then Dong Ja-chu grinned slyly.
“I’m bored.”
“Ah!”
Understanding dawned on Cho Bok’s face, and he flashed a lecherous smile.
He rushed over to the cage and swept his gaze over the prisoners. Those who met his gaze quickly lowered their heads.
“Why are you doing this to us?”
“You already took everything! Can’t you just let us go?”
Several of the prisoners pleaded, but Cho Bok ignored them and said,
“Take this one and that one.”
“Yes, sir!”
The subordinates dragged out the ones Cho Bok had pointed out of the cage. One was Jang Han, a man in his early thirties, and the other, a young man in his early twenties.
Cho Bok and his men flung Jang Han and the youth to the ground in front of Dong Ja-chu.
The two collapsed before him, not knowing what was happening. Dong Ja-chu looked down at the two and grinned wickedly.
“Do you know your fate?”
“Wh-what?”
Jang Han jerked his head up. He was a merchant who had traveled with the Silver Lotus Merchant Group.
The young man beside him, who looked weak and timid, couldn’t even lift his head—he just trembled uncontrollably. Into his ears came Dong Ja-chu’s voice.
“Soon, some people will arrive, and I intend to sell you two as slaves to them.”
“N-No!”
Jang Han and the youth’s faces turned pale. Dong Ja-chu took great pleasure in the terror on their faces.
“The moment you two are sold as slaves, you’ll never see sunlight again. Because none of the people they took ever came back alive. So I’ve decided to give you a chance.”
As soon as Dong Ja-chu finished speaking, Cho Bok, standing nearby, tossed a sword to each of the two men.
The two, clueless as to what was going on, simply blinked in confusion.
“Fight. Whoever wins goes free. Heh heh!”
“Hehehe!”
Laughter erupted from all around.
The eyes of the Blood Wolf bandits gleamed with bloodlust.
This was their form of entertainment.
Watching others fight to the death for freedom was one of their greatest thrills.
The fights between ordinary people, those who had never even held a sword in their life, were fierce in their own way, and provided a very different kind of enjoyment from duels between trained warriors.
Jang Han snapped his head up and looked at Dong Ja-chu.
“Do you mean it?”
“Of course. If you win, I’ll set you free. Conversely, if you lose, the other guy gets freed.
How about it? Isn’t that a good enough reason to fight?”
A gleam of conflict appeared in Jang Han’s eyes.
‘For freedom? I don’t want to live the rest of my life as a slave.’
He had a wife and children waiting for him at home.
No matter what, he had to return to them.
Jang Han gripped the sword tightly. A fierce determination surged in his eyes. The young man, on the other hand, was trembling.
“I- I can’t do this!”
“Heh! Then you die now.”
“No, please…!”
Bead-like tears streamed down the youth’s cheeks.
Clang!
Cho Bok drew his sword and pressed it to the young man’s neck.
“Pick up the sword, you coward.”
SoundlessWind21’s Notes:
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