Episode 32: Even a Thorny Path is Worth Walking When Alive (1)
Light Novel: Volume 2 Episode 32
Manhwa: Chapter 32-33
Chapter 3 Episode 32. Even a Thorny Path is Worth Walking When Alive (1)
By the time morning came, the only survivors were Bang Jin-bo and the merchants trapped inside the cages. Not a single bandit had made it out alive.
Though they had survived, fear was etched into the merchants’ faces. They didn’t even dare to breathe loudly as they stared at Dam-ho, who stood alone in the center of the clearing.
He stood there, alone, on land soaked in death.
The bodies of the bandits were scattered around him. That was the only way to describe it.
None of those who had been struck by Dam-ho’s fists retained anything resembling a proper form. Some had exploded as if struck by thunderbolts, others had their bones and flesh ripped apart in a single blow.
These merchants prided themselves on having seen all manner of danger and disaster but even they had never witnessed anything like this.
“Ah… a demon…”
Someone muttered unconsciously, then quickly clamped his hand over his mouth. He looked down, worried that Dam-ho might have heard him.
But contrary to his fears, Dam-ho didn’t so much as flinch. He simply stood there in the clearing.
His gaze was sunken, hollow.
This was the carnage he had created. Over a hundred people had died gruesomely by his hands. Despite this, not a ripple of emotion stirred in his heart.
Dam-ho closed his eyes for a moment. Only then did he begin to realize what was wrong with him.
‘Is this what I lost?’
Twelve years spent underground had clearly stripped away his ability to feel like a normal human being.
The corpses littering the ground beneath his feet were proof enough of that.
Dam-ho opened his eyes and looked at the merchants locked in the cages. All of them averted their eyes in terror when he met their gaze.
Dam-ho began breaking open the cage doors one by one. Though they were now free, the merchants didn’t step out right away. They were too overwhelmed by the sheer weight of Dam-ho’s presence.
After breaking open all the cages, Dam-ho approached Bang Jin-bo. Up until that moment, Bang Jin-bo had stood frozen, dazed, as if his soul had left his body.
Dam-ho placed a hand on Bang Jin-bo’s shoulder. Only then did Bang Jin-bo look up at him.
His bloodshot eyes welled with tears, and soon those tears began to fall uncontrollably.
“Uwaaaah! Brother!”
Bang Jin-bo burst into a full-blown sob.
Dam-ho silently watched him.
He was a boy who had lost his father. Dam-ho couldn’t begin to fathom the depth of loss and sorrow the child must be feeling.
All he could do was stand there and let it happen.
Meanwhile, the other merchants who had been locked in the cages began to cautiously step out one by one.
Once they regained their freedom, they too began to cry, likely moved by Bang Jin-bo’s sorrow.
“Uwaaaah!”
In an instant, the entire clearing was filled with the wails of people in mourning.
It took a long time before the sobbing finally subsided. Eventually, a few began to rise and move about.
They started loading the looted goods that had been taken by the bandits back onto the carts and organized them. Seeing that, the rest of the merchants joined in, forming a silent procession of recovery.
It was an eerie, surreal scene. But Dam-ho simply stood in silence, watching.
At last, when everything had been packed back into the wagons, one of the merchants stepped forward and bowed to Dam-ho.
“On behalf of all the merchants here, I would like to thank you for saving our lives, Master.”
“Hm.”
“We owe you our lives. Please, how can we possibly repay you?”
“I don’t need anything.”
“But still—”
“I didn’t come here to save you. I came for that child.”
Dam-ho’s gaze was still fixed on Bang Jin-bo, who was still crying.
“So don’t worry about it.”
“Hoo… Understand.”
When Dam-ho spoke so firmly, the merchant could say nothing more. Part of him even felt relieved.
The merchant was the eldest among those present. Now that Cho Soo-kwang, the captain of the merchant group was dead, he was now in charge.
It was now his responsibility and duty to take the survivors to the Central Plains. He had no time for sentiment or lingering emotions.
He had to take control of the situation quickly and take responsibility not only for the living but also for the families of the dead. That was how he—and all merchants—survived.
After offering a respectful fist salute to Dam-ho, the merchant approached Bang Jin-bo.
“Jin-bo, it’s time to go now.”
He tried to comfort the boy, but Bang Jin-bo wouldn’t stop crying. Even when he reached to pull him up by the hand, Bang Jin-bo didn’t budge, as if he had turned to stone.
In the end, the merchant gave up on coaxing Bang Jin-bo and returned to his companions. After a long discussion with the group, he came back to where Dam-ho and Bang Jin-bo were.
“Master, we must be going soon. And so I ask, would you be willing to escort us back to the Central Plains? We will, of course, compensate you generously.”
“I refuse.”
“Master…?”
A troubled look appeared on the merchant’s face. But after seeing the unyielding look in Dam-ho’s eyes, he didn’t dare press further.
He may have seemed calm now looking just like any other ordinary person, but this was the same man who had just slaughtered over a hundred living bandits. If he wanted to, he could probably kill the merchant and all his companions in the time it took to eat a meal.
The merchant changed his mind.
“I apologize for asking you for such a difficult favor, Master. Then, we will make the journey to the Central Plains on our own.”
His plan was simple.
He would return to Turpan from here and hire more escort warriors and mercenaries. Fortunately, most of the goods had been recovered, and there were still over a hundred horses left behind by the bandits. They had more than enough resources to afford the extra protection.
The merchant once again approached Bang Jin-bo and asked him to come with them. But Bang Jin-bo still didn’t move, and the merchant showed a troubled expression.
They couldn’t afford to waste time like this forever.
“If you keep this up, we’ll have no choice but to leave you behind. Are you okay with that?”
“I–I… uwaaaah!”
Bang Jin-bo burst into tears again.
At that moment, Dam-ho stepped forward.
“I will take Jin-bo with me.”
“You will, Master?”
The merchant looked at Dam-ho with a surprised expression. But that was only for a moment, and he quickly bowed his head in agreement.
“Understood. Then we’ll leave Jin-bo in your care.”
“And one more thing…”
“Please, go ahead.”
“Leave one horse behind.”
“Of course.”
The merchant agreed without asking for a reason. There were over a hundred horses left from the bandits. Even if he gave one of them away, he would still have plenty of profit left.
Besides, Bang Woo-gwang, Bang Jin-bo’s father, was dead. Bringing a child without a guardian all the way back to the Central Plains was a heavy burden.
Even after returning to the the Central Plains, they would still encounter problems. They would have to compensate him and find a place for him to live. It would be far too costly to care for Bang Jin-bo, who was now no longer connected to their merchant group.
In that case, handing Bang Jin-bo over to Dam-ho might actually be for the best.
“Jin-bo, go with the Master. He’ll take good care of you.”
He took out a few silver coins and placed them into the still-crying Bang Jin-bo’s hand. It was nothing more than a token gesture, but he felt that he would have been unable to live with himself if he hadn’t done even that.
Without waiting for Bang Jin-bo’s response, the merchant hastily returned to his group.
Then, without delay, they left that hellish place.
The merchants driving the wagons didn’t look back even once. In an instant, dozens of wagons and horses disappeared from Dam-ho and Bang Jin-bo’s sight.
Dam-ho made no move to stop them.
Snort!
Black Ghost, who was nearby, approached Dam-ho and rubbed its head against Dam-ho’s cheek. Dam-ho gently stroked the horse’s neck.
Bang Jin-bo cried so hard that he eventually collapsed from exhaustion.
Dam-ho loaded Bang Jin-bo onto one of the horses left behind by the merchants. Even then, perhaps out of fear or guilt, the merchants had left the best horse behind for Dam-ho.
Mounting Black Ghost, Dam-ho took hold of the reins of the horse carrying Bang Jin-bo and left the clearing. What remained in the clearing was only an eerie, desolate silence.
Soon after, wolves, attracted by the stench of corpses, began to emerge in the open space. The wolves began to devour the corpses voraciously.
After the wolves came the crows. The corpses of the bandits became nothing more than a feast for the beasts.
While the wild animals were still feasting on human remains—
Shhhik!
Screeeech!
A chilling sonic slash tore through the air, followed by the mournful howl of a wolf. Startled, the wolves scattered in every direction, and the crows took flight in a flurry of wings.
A group of martial artists had arrived at the scene.
The martial artists each exuded an unmistakably fierce aura. Their eyes narrowed at the horrific scene before them, brows furrowed in silence.
They all dismounted from their horses at once.
The eyes of the man who seemed to be their leader shone coldly. The man, who appeared to be in his late thirties, exuded such an intense aura enough to make anyone instinctively tense up.
Around his waist hung a fearsome blade scabbard marked with a sinister ghostly emblem.
The leader stood in front of what appeared to be Dong Ja-chu’s body. His gaze gleamed with a menacing glint.
“So this is where Dong Ja-chu met his end.”
One of his subordinates stepped up beside him.
“The entire Blood Wolf Battalion has been wiped out.”
“What about the goods?”
The subordinate shook his head. The expression on the leader’s face grew even colder.
“How many were there?”
“The beasts have damaged the corpses so severely it’s difficult to estimate.”
“Track them down no matter what.”
“Understood!”
With that, the subordinate dashed back toward the area strewn with the bandits’ corpses and began examining them closely.
In the meantime, the leader knelt down on one knee beside Dong Ja-chu’s body.
“He was a useful hunting dog… what a shame. This will disrupt the mountain manor’s plans.”
Though Dong Ja-chu himself had never realized it, he had been quite an important figure. Thanks to him taking on all the dirty work, things had proceeded smoothly until now.
As the leader looked down at Dong Ja-chu’s body, a flicker passed through his eyes. Something shiny caught his attention beneath the sash around Dong Ja-chu’s waist.
The leader reached out and picked up the glinting object.
“Is this… a Cat’s Eye Stone?”
His voice wavered slightly. For someone known for his ruthlessness and composure, the Cat’s Eye Stone was rare enough to make even him falter.
His gaze returned to Dong Ja-chu.
A Cat’s Eye Stone wasn’t something someone like Dong Ja-chu should have possessed. Which meant he must have stolen it from someone after ambushing them.
“Perhaps he messed with the wrong person.”
To carry something like a Cat’s Eye Stone meant the victim could have been someone powerful, someone not to be trifled with.
In this world, there were people one must never provoke. Perhaps Dong Ja-chu had done just that.
“Even if that is the case, I cannot forgive them for killing my hunting dog.”
The leader stood up.
His name was Kyung Cheon-saeng, and he was a man with such a cruel disposition that had earned the nickname Ghost Blade Blood Demon.
His eyes gleamed with murderous intent.
* * *
Dam-ho had brought Bang Jin-bo to a large boulder, near where Bang Woo-gwang’s corpse lay.
At the sight of his father’s body, Bang Jin-bo’s legs gave out.
“Ah! F-Father…! Hic…”
Bang Jin-bo collapsed over his father’s body, sobbing uncontrollably. Dam-ho simply stood by and watched Bang Jin-bo silently.
He had to face the reality of his grief head-on and overcome it. If he turned away from it now because it was too painful to see, it would only cause him greater pain later.
Bang Jin-bo spent the night by his father’s side.
As dawn began to break again, Dam-ho finally moved.
“It’s time to let your father go.”
“Brother?”
“We have to let him rest now.”
“But still—”
“He deserves to rest.”
There was an odd persuasiveness in Dam-ho’s words, and without realizing it, Bang Jin-bo nodded.
Staggering slightly, Bang Jin-bo stood up. After gazing at Bang Woo-gwang’s body for a moment, he began picking up stones from nearby and piling them over his father’s corpse.
His palms split and bled, his fingernails bent and loosened. But Bang Jin-bo didn’t utter a single word of complaint as he built his father’s grave with his own hands.
Watching him, Dam-ho murmured quietly,
“You’re still lucky. At least you get to build your father’s grave with your own hands.”
SoundlessWind21’s Notes:
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