The Life-Seizing Wanderer swaggered up to me and said,
“You’d better step it up. Unless you want to lose to me and have your epithet stolen.”
“Haa.”
I let out a sigh.
Well, whatever. As long as he was happy.
He’d realize soon enough that he’d made a fool of himself. There was no need to spell it out for him now.
Even if I explained it until I was blue in the face, would any of it actually get through to him?
“Hahaha. Looks like I’m late. In that case, would you mind if I joined you for a bite?”
“Be my guest.”
Besides, if I shattered that ridiculous fantasy now, I’d miss out on a free meal.
I might have plenty of money, but when a willing sucker offered to buy me dinner with no strings attached, I wasn’t about to turn it down.
The next morning.
We went down to the first-floor dining hall for breakfast.
“Did you sleep well?”
“Yes. The bedding here really is comfortable.”
“That’s one of our inn’s proudest features. Hahaha.”
At that moment, the Life-Seizing Wanderer came downstairs with a cloth wrapped around his head.
The ends of his hair had turned blue because of the martial art he practiced, so he kept them covered to hide his identity.
The Life-Seizing Wanderer was fairly famous, after all.
Thanks to the head wrap, none of the inn’s guests recognized him.
“Good morning.”
“Morning.”
The previous evening, he’d ended up paying quite a lot for dinner. There hadn’t been just one or two people who took advantage of his offer.
Our group had been among them.
“Let’s sit over there.”
We took a table behind a partition, mostly hidden from view.
It cost a little extra, but a whole group of people carrying swords tended to make everyone else uneasy.
While we waited for our food, voices drifted over from behind us.
“Now, that was a fine meal last night.”
“You can say that again. Never thought I’d get to eat something that expensive for free. I ate so much I don’t even want breakfast.”
“Then why’d you come down? You should’ve slept in.”
“Still have to eat something in the morning if I want to make it through the day.”
“Fair enough.”
“By the way, didn’t I hear that fellow was holding some kind of contest–or maybe training–to rack up chivalrous deeds?”
“Oh, so that’s why he bought everyone dinner?”
“Seems like it.”
“Should’ve ordered more, then.”
“Still, we ate well thanks to that idiot, didn’t we?”
“And he looked so pleased with himself, thinking he’d done something chivalrous.”
“What? Good grief!”
As he listened, the Life-Seizing Wanderer’s expression rapidly darkened. Few people could stay composed while listening to others call them an idiot.
Looks like he’d realized he’d made a fool of himself sooner than I’d expected.
“You bought dinner last night, so breakfast is on me.”
At my words, he bit his lip before asking,
“What did I do wrong?”
Oh…
Maybe he wasn’t quite as stupid as I’d thought.
He was asking me, after all.
So I gave him a straight answer.
“To me, a chivalrous act has to answer a desperate need. Of all the people who came to this inn yesterday, was a single one of them going hungry?”
“…”
The Life-Seizing Wanderer couldn’t answer.
The inn where we were staying had excellent facilities, and its prices matched.
Anyone who had to worry about missing meals wouldn’t even dream of staying at a place like this.
“That’s why I’m saying your effort was wasted.”
“Then why didn’t you tell me yesterday?”
“Even advice a person truly needs is nothing but noise if they aren’t ready to hear it. It only makes them defensive. Had I said this yesterday, you probably would have dismissed it as childish spite born of jealousy.”
“…”
Just then, the porridge we’d ordered arrived, and our conversation ended there.
I turned and briefly looked over the people who had been gossiping about the Life-Seizing Wanderer.
Their behavior was hardly admirable, but I had no intention of confronting them.
People naturally loved getting things for free.
But they needed to remember that nothing in this world was ever truly free.
Even the faintest sense of indebtedness would linger, and sooner or later, that debt would affect them somehow.
That was also why I was buying the Life-Seizing Wanderer breakfast.
And breakfast was cheaper than dinner.
.
.
.
We set out again.
The fastest route to Crouching Dragon Mountain, where the Zhuge Clan was located, was to cross the river at Gaebong and continue overland.
Gaebong was a prosperous city, so the main roads were well maintained.
As we followed the road, we saw a crowd gathered in one place, murmuring among themselves.
What was going on?
We approached them.
“Did something happen?”
One of them answered,
“A carriage traveling ahead of us rolled over the cliff.”
“What?”
The road we had to take had been carved into the side of a mountain.
Even so, it was wide enough for two carriages to pass each other comfortably.
“The horse suddenly bolted and sent it over the edge.”
Nearby, people who appeared to be traveling with the carriage were sobbing or pacing helplessly.
“Then shouldn’t we hurry down and rescue them?”
“The cliff is far too steep.”
I glanced over the edge.
Sure enough…
It looked almost impossible to descend unless you were a highly skilled martial artist.
As I examined the drop, I heard the people nearby talking.
“No one could survive a fall from this height.”
“That’s true.”
“Tsk. What a tragedy.”
Huh? Wait.
I flinched at the faint trace of Qi I could sense from below.
Someone was alive.
The others couldn’t feel it, but the Supreme Yin Ice Sea Divine Art had made me extraordinarily sensitive to Qi.
There was no mistaking it. That was a person’s Qi.
Human Qi was fundamentally different from an animal’s.
“Someone’s alive.”
“What? What do you mean?”
“There is a survivor.”
At those words, the men who looked like Escort Guards stared at me in shock.
“I–is that really true?”
“Yes.”
I immediately took off my outer robe and handed it to Palgap.
“What?! You’re going down that cliff right now?”
I nodded at Palgap’s question.
“Yeah.”
“That’s dangerous!”
“Of course it is. But if there’s someone we can save, shouldn’t we save them?”
At my words, Escort Guard Myeong Jong stepped forward.
“I’ll go with you.”
“Are you sure?”
“I still have the skills I honed climbing Heartbreak Cliff at Mount Hua.”
“Then I’ll be counting on you.”
“We’ll go as well.”
I shook my head at the others.
“Only Escort Guard Myeong Jong and Escort Guard Jin Yu will come with me. Everyone else, stay here.”
“Understood.”
Those who appeared to belong to the fallen carriage’s party approached me with desperate expressions.
“Please.”
“Please save them!”
At that moment, the Life-Seizing Wanderer spoke.
“Regrettable as it is, I shall yield this turn to you.”
What the hell was he talking about?
Yield? He was yielding a chance to save someone’s life?
This bastard really knew how to piss me off.
I spoke to him coldly.
“Get your priorities straight.”
Then I started down the cliff.
The Life-Seizing Wanderer watched Eun Seo-ho descend the cliff.
He had decided to let Eun Seo-ho have this turn.
Eun Seo-ho had given him advice that morning, and besides, wasn’t it only fair to take turns when opportunities came along?
But when he announced that he would yield, Eun Seo-ho’s expression hardened.
In that instant, the Life-Seizing Wanderer felt a fear so intense it seemed his entire body might freeze.
The pressure radiating from Eun Seo-ho was something he’d only ever felt from his late master.
Then Eun Seo-ho said in an icy voice,
— Get your priorities straight.
The moment he heard those words, his mind went blank.
Saving a life came first. Their contest came second.
Only then did he understand the mistake he’d made.
He had become so consumed by the contest that he’d forgotten what truly mattered.
The words his late master had once spoken suddenly came back to him.
— When you have a goal, your ability to focus on achieving it is exceptional. But that same focus blinds you to everything around you. No matter how important your goal may be, never let it make you overlook what truly matters. If you do, you will surely regret it.
Once again, he’d made the same mistake.
He was ashamed.
Tap.
I landed lightly.
At last, I’d reached the spot where the carriage had fallen.
Escort Guard Jin Yu and Escort Guard Myeong Jong descended the cliff behind me.
The first thing I saw was the coachman’s corpse.
Even in death, his hands were clenched tightly around the reins. It looked as though his neck had snapped, killing him instantly.
The horse was already dead as well. A shard of the carriage had pierced its neck, and it had bled out.
I hurriedly searched for the place where I had sensed the survivor’s Qi.
“Inside the carriage! Clear away the wreckage!”
“Yes!”
We quickly pulled away the shattered remains of the carriage. Beneath them, we found the bodies of a man and a woman.
The impact had been tremendous, leaving both of them covered in blood.
Yet they were still locked tightly in each other’s arms, their bodies pressed together despite the violence of the fall.
Between them, I caught sight of something.
A scrap of clothing in a color different from theirs.
“I found the survivor.”
Had they somehow heard me?
The dead couple’s embrace loosened, revealing a child hidden between them.
It was a little boy, perhaps two years old.
Then those two must have been his parents.
Honestly, when a carriage went tumbling down a cliff, there was nothing an ordinary person could do.
Only someone with training could act in a situation like that.
Yet in those desperate moments as the carriage rolled, the child’s parents had moved on pure instinct, using their own bodies to save him.
“The child isn’t breathing.”
Just as Escort Guard Jin Yu had said, the unconscious boy’s face had turned blue because he couldn’t breathe.
Thanks to his parents, he had no visible injuries, but the violent fall must have sent a severe shock through his body.
I quickly gathered the child into my arms and channeled the Supreme Yin Ice Sea Divine Art’s Qi into him, forcing his stagnant Qi and blood to circulate again.
Because he was so young, I thought he’d feel safer in my arms than lying on the ground.
And then, at last…
“Waaaaah!”
The child regained consciousness and burst into tears.
He was alive.
The people above must have heard him crying, because cheers erupted from the top of the cliff.
“He should be safe now.”
“Thank goodness.”
I looked at the wreckage and the corpses, bitterness clouding my face.
What kind of future awaited a child who had just lost both parents?
But I soon shook my head.
Trying to predict his future was pointless.
Losing his parents did not mean he was destined for misery.
Perhaps their desperate wish to save their child had been what drew me here.
If the boy endured this tragedy and grew up bright and happy, surely those two would be happy in heaven.
This was a child I had saved.
I would make sure he lived that kind of life, even if I had to force fate’s hand.
“There are things here you shouldn’t have to see, so I’m going to cover your eyes. It might feel a little uncomfortable, but I’ll take it off soon.”
The child nodded at my words.
I took out a handkerchief and covered his eyes. Then I turned to the Escort Guards.
“Let’s recover the bodies.”
“Yes.”
I sent a Voice Transmission to Escort Guard Seo Wu.
Soon, a sack tied to a rope was lowered from the top of the cliff.
We placed the coachman and the couple’s bodies inside, secured the sack tightly, and had it pulled back up.
Then we searched the carriage for any belongings worth recovering. Once we’d gathered everything, I secured the child firmly against my body and climbed back up the cliff.
Tap.
When I finally reached the top, someone extended a hand toward me.
I looked up and saw the Life-Seizing Wanderer.
“Take my hand.”
I accepted it and let him pull me up.
Truthfully, I didn’t need any help, but refusing when he was trying to lend a hand would have been needlessly awkward.
Just then, a woman came rushing over to me, sobbing uncontrollably.
“Thank you so much for saving our Young Master.”
“Are you his nanny?”
She wiped away her tears and nodded.
“Yes. We belong to Beijing’s Se-eul-gyeong Clan. The deceased were our Second Young Lord and his wife.”
“I see.”
I loosened the bindings, wrapped the child in my jacket, and held him out to her.
He was shivering, so he must have been cold.
“Here, take him.”
“Thank you. Truly.”
She bowed to me again and again.
I removed the blindfold. The moment the child saw his nanny, he burst into tears and clung to her.
The others also came forward one after another to thank me.
“Thanks to you, we were able to recover our Young Lord’s body and his wife’s.”
“Thank you for recovering my brother’s body as well.”
“…?”
“The coachman was my brother.”
“I see. He never let go of the reins, even at the very end. He fulfilled his duty to the last. You have every right to be proud of him.”
“Kgh…!”
At that moment, someone asked me,
“Are you perhaps the Eunhae Merchant Group’s Deputy Merchant Lord Eun Seo-ho?”
“Yes, I am.”
The people around us immediately began praising me in unison.
“As expected! Now I understand why they call you the Handsome Young Hero!”
Ugh!
I knew that name was going to come up sooner or later.
“Young Master! You need to put your jacket back on.”
“Thanks.”
I quickly put on my jacket, then my outer robe.
I gave them a cupped-fist salute to hide my embarrassment and tried to leave.
“Then I’ll be on my way.”
But one of the Escort Guards stopped me.
“Please wait. Our family will be sending people here shortly. Please allow us to reward you.”
“No.”
I shook my head and declined.
“We have a long road ahead of us, and we’re in a hurry. Besides, seeing that child grow up happy and well would be the greatest reward I could receive.”
“…”
“Even as the carriage fell, his father and mother held him tightly in their arms, determined to save him at any cost.”
At my words, they burst into tears again.
I continued,
“If you ever see him struggling with guilt or feeling indebted because he survived alone, tell him this: His survival is proof of how deeply his parents loved him. All he has to do is let that love become the soil from which he grows into a good man.”
I looked at the child as I spoke.
“Just as a tree isn’t to blame when wind and rain batter it, the child isn’t to blame for what happened.”
Then I grinned.
“And if he still doesn’t understand after that, send him to me.”
I mounted my horse, only to find the Life-Seizing Wanderer staring at me with burning intensity.
What was with that look?
It was creepy.
–TL Notes–
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