At my words, the marauder in my grip recoiled in terror and began to plead.
“P-Please spare me.”
“Why are you asking me? We could have slipped in safely without anyone noticing. You're the one who shouted at the top of your lungs and brought them all running.”
“…”
“So even if an arrow hits you, that will be your own fault, not mine.”
His face crumpled at my reply.
The truth was, I had expected him to shout and summon someone. That was part of the reason I'd deliberately left his mouth uncovered.
If he wanted to call everyone together for me, so much the better.
Just then, someone shouted from above us.
“Who the hell are you?”
“Are you the leader of these marauders?”
“No, I'm not the leader. The boss is…”
The man I was holding shouted before he could finish.
“The boss is dead! This man cut his head off!”
“What?”
“That's why I'm in this state! Now open the gate! Don't try to fight him. Just open the damned gate!”
At that very moment…
An arrow hissed through the air toward the head of the marauder in my grip.
I shifted his body, and the arrow struck his shoulder with a solid thud.
“Aaaaaagh!”
He screamed in pain.
“Hey! You bastard! What the hell do you think you're doing?”
“You said the boss was dead, didn't you? Then I'm the new boss now.”
“I see.”
So we had a new leader, did we?
With a broad grin, I spoke to the Escort Guards beside me.
“He says he's the leader.”
“So he does. What shall we do?”
“Let's take care of him.”
The moment I spoke, Escort Guard Seo Wu, Escort Guard Jin Yu, and Escort Guard Yeo Eung-am rushed toward him.
Arrows whistled through the air, raining down on the three Escort Guards.
There weren't very many arrows, though, and they posed no threat to three Escort Guards who had all reached the Peak realm or higher.
The three Escort Guards kept advancing, dodging the arrows or knocking them aside.
Escort Guard Jin Yu was the first to reach the man who had declared himself leader, and he cut the man's head off.
And so, less than fifteen minutes after announcing that he was the leader, the man lost his life.
He might well have been one of the shortest-serving leaders of all time.
With his death, the arrows stopped flying and a commotion broke out inside.
Then the gate opened. Apparently, they had gotten scared.
We made our way into the camp.
Of course, it might still be a trap. I kept the marauder in my grip in front of me as a shield and didn't let down my guard.
The people inside watched us with eyes full of fear.
I spoke to them.
“I've come here to recover what you stole from the Gwangjun Merchant Group. If you return it willingly, I won't take your lives.”
“…”
“What will you do?”
At my question, the marauder suffering from the arrow in his shoulder let out a shrill shout.
“Move! Get it out of the storehouse! These men are ruthless! If you don't do what he says, we're all going to die! Most of the men who went out hunting were killed by them!”
He must have been one of the stronger members of the band. At his orders, the people inside hurried to obey.
Well, in a place like this, the strong ones would usually all be out on a raid.
There seemed to be hardly any fighting men among those who remained here now.
That would explain why so few arrows had come at us earlier.
As those thoughts passed through my mind, goods began piling up in front of us.
There were saddles and ornaments.
These were things that would fetch a fair amount of money.
How bitter it must have been for the Gwangjun Merchant Group to lose all of them.
An old man stepped forward from among the others and spoke cautiously.
“This is everything we still have here.”
“You haven't brought everything yet.”
“Pardon?”
“From what I've heard, you brought some of the merchant group's people here as slaves, and you're still holding them…”
Looking at him, I added another remark.
“Come to think of it, you look as though you've met me before, old sir.”
The old man trembled, plainly frightened by my words.
His reaction left me in no doubt.
He remembered me.
To be more precise, he probably remembered me as the man who had traveled with Young Palace Lord Bing Hae-rin of the North Sea Ice Palace.
Here in Liaoning, the North Sea Ice Palace inspired as much fear as the emperor himself.
“I'm on my way to the North Sea Ice Palace at the moment. I've been wondering what I should tell the Palace Lord when I arrive.”
At that, the old man hurriedly dropped to his knees and begged.
“I-I'm sorry. Please give us just one more chance!”
“Don't disappoint me.”
My warning sent him scrambling to issue instructions to the others. The people who had been tied up inside were brought out.
There were about thirty of them.
They looked to be merchant group employees, including Supervisors, as well as the porters who had carried their goods.
That must mean everyone who had learned martial arts had been killed.
“Ah!”
One of them caught sight of me and cried out.
“Deputy Merchant Lord Eun!”
“It's good to see you. Are you Supervisor Oh, by any chance?”
“Yes, I am!”
“Then I remembered you correctly. Please look over your companions. Of the people who were brought here with you, is anyone missing from this group?”
At my question, he looked over the others who had been brought out with him, then shook his head.
“No one is missing.”
“Fortunately, they haven't tried to play any tricks.”
I spoke to Escort Guard Lee Pil and Escort Guard Myeong Jong.
“Please untie them.”
“Yes, my lord.”
Then I pointed to the goods that had been piled up earlier and addressed the rescued people.
“Take these with you and leave this place. And you two, please show these people the way out.”
“Understood.”
“Warrior Ma and Escort Guard Chang Un, please go with them as well.”
They escorted the Gwangjun Merchant Group's people out of the camp.
Now, perhaps it was time for the rest of us to make our exit, too.
I addressed the man I had been holding.
“Our time together was brief, but I enjoyed it.”
“Damn you!”
I gave him a light shove, and he pitched forward, landing face-first on the ground.
Then I looked at the people gathered in the camp.
Most were elderly or too frail to fend for themselves.
If I simply left them here, they would become easy prey for another band of marauders.
But… there were quite a few more women among them than I had expected.
“Is there anyone here who wasn't originally a marauder?”
“…”
Escort Guard Seo Wu spoke from beside me.
“Don't hesitate to answer. Our lord is the man known as the Handsome Young Hero. He won't harm anyone without a reason.”
At that, most of them raised their hands.
The old man stepped forward to speak on their behalf.
“We weren't marauders to begin with. We were driven from our farmland and became refugees, wandering from place to place. Then marauders captured us. We had no choice but to live as marauders ourselves.”
I looked at the old man.
“As I recall, you were with that band of marauders the last time, too.”
“Yes. I won't deny what I've done. They captured me when I was young. If I hadn't joined them, they would have killed me. What else could I do?”
He was right about that.
Some people became marauders of their own accord to make a living, but plenty of others were forced into it by someone else.
For the marauders, it was a way to build up the strength of their band. They would also raise others to take over the raiding when they themselves grew old and could no longer do it, ensuring that someone would support them in their old age.
That was the chain tying one generation to the next. I found it disgusting, and at the same time, terribly sad.
These families probably hadn't wanted to become marauders, either.
And that was why I couldn't simply leave them here and go.
I let out a sigh. Why did I insist on going out of my way to make life harder for myself…?
I spoke to them again.
“Does anyone here know how to farm?”
At my question, they looked to the old man. He nodded as he answered.
“More than half the people here know how to farm.”
“If I provide you with land, can you swear that you'll settle there and devote yourselves honestly to farming?”
“That would be no hardship. The reason we became refugees in the first place was that we were driven away from the land we farmed.”
Well, the poor harvests of the past few years had indeed driven a great many people into a wandering life like theirs.
“If we could farm again and make a living from it, what more could we ask for? It's just… I don't understand what you have in mind, offering us something like this.”
“What I have in mind? There's no hidden motive.”
“Pardon?”
“If we simply walk away and leave you here, do you think the other marauders will leave you alone?”
“…”
“And even if they do, you'll starve to death.”
Their faces darkened at my words.
“I don't spare anyone who bares their claws at me. But if they don't, I'm willing to make some allowance for their circumstances. That's why I'm offering.”
I continued.
“I'll arrange for some land nearby where you can grow crops. You can farm there.”
“Can you really do that? No, I mean… is that truly all we would have to do?”
“In return, you'll have to work for me without pay for the next ten years. I ought to recover at least the cost of the land, don't you think? After that, well, we'll decide when the time comes.”
The old man nodded solemnly.
“We'll do as you say. To be honest, even if you killed every one of us right here, we would have no grounds to complain. We broke the greatest taboo in this land.”
As he said, the greatest taboo in Liaoning was to harm anyone connected to the North Sea Ice Palace.
That made me wonder why they had attacked us anyway.
“Why on earth did you break that taboo?”
When I asked, the old man answered without trying to hide anything.
“The truth is, the man who recently became our leader was skeptical of the old customs.”
So that was it. Just as I'd thought.
Some customs were indeed hopelessly outdated or no longer suited to reality. But that wasn't true of every custom.
There were some you absolutely had to observe.
“Even so, you're letting us live. We are grateful for your kindness.”
“What are you thanking me for? I'm an unscrupulous employer who's going to work you for ten years without paying you a thing.”
“A truly unscrupulous employer would tell us what a merciful employer he was.”
“…”
“Then should we begin preparing to leave this place at once?”
“Go ahead.”
They cleared out their things from inside the palisade more quickly than I had expected.
This had only been a temporary place to stay, after all. They were people accustomed to constantly moving from one place to another.
With them in tow, we headed back to the place where the rest of our party was waiting.
“Deputy Merchant Lord! You're back already.”
“But who are all those people?”
I nodded and explained.
“They're people who were living with that band of marauders.”
“What?”
“Why would you bring people like that…?”
“They say we should hate the sin but not the person. We killed the marauders to defend ourselves, but we can't lay their crimes at the feet of these people as well, can we?”
At my words, the merchant group's people looked deeply moved.
“Ah, our Deputy Merchant Lord really is too kindhearted.”
I was kindhearted?
I felt a stare prickling at the back of my head. When I turned, I found Palgap watching me.
His expression said, 'What on earth are those people talking about?'
What was that look supposed to mean?
.
.
.
Several days later…
At last, we reached the vicinity of the Gwangjun Merchant Group's headquarters.
After having the marauders' families and our own caravan make camp nearby, I took only the rescued Gwangjun Merchant Group members with me and went to see the merchant group.
The gatekeeper saw us, gave a start, and came running.
“Aren't you the Eunhae Merchant Group's Deputy Merchant Lord? And… Supervisor Oh? Wait! Supervisor Geum is here, too… But I heard you had been abducted!”
“The Eunhae Merchant Group's Deputy Merchant Lord here rescued us.”
At that, the gatekeeper cupped his fist in greeting.
“Thank you! Thank you so very much!”
“Is Deputy Merchant Lord Bok Yun here?”
“Ah, yes! I'll fetch him right away.”
He rang the bell in front of the gate, and soon people came streaming out.
“What's happened?”
“What's going on? Why the Gap-rank alarm… Ah!”
They stared at the people I had rescued, their faces filled with astonishment.
They looked as though they were seeing the dead return to life.
Well, in just a few more years, hardly any of those people would have still been alive.
Then Deputy Merchant Lord Bok Yun spotted me. His face brightened, and he hurried over.
“Deputy Merchant Lord Eun!”
“Deputy Merchant Lord Bok!”
“What in the world happened?”
I explained the entire story to him.
I began with the marauders' attack on us along the road and told him how we had gone on to rescue his people.
“The truth is, we'd just found the bodies of the people the marauders killed. We were asking around, trying to learn enough to rescue the people they'd taken captive. And now you've rescued them for us and even recovered the valuables they stole! I don't know what we could possibly do to repay you for such a kindness.”
I smiled as I answered.
“Repay me? What need is there to talk about repayment between us? Aren't I your true friend, Deputy Merchant Lord Bok?”
“You are. You're my true friend.”
“True friends don't keep accounts of things like that.”
“Even so, I'm grateful, and I can't help being grateful.”
“If you insist, then do me one favor.”
“What is it? Just say the word.”
“Please find out whether there's any farmland nearby that I could buy.”
“What? Why farmland?”
“I'd like to provide land for the families left behind by the marauders who attacked us, so they can farm it.”
“What?”
He looked startled.
And no wonder. People didn't ordinarily do something as crazy as what I was doing.
“The marauders tried to kill us, so they had to answer for their crimes. But their families haven't done anything wrong. Do you think they became marauders because they wanted to? They were driven from their farmland and ended up that way after wandering from place to place.”
I went on.
“And hatred breeds more hatred. I'd like to put an end to that hatred, even if all I can do is something like this.”
However prettily I dressed it up, the fact remained that we had killed members of their families.
The business of a merchant caravan was to travel throughout the empire in pursuit of profit. In the course of doing that, we inevitably made enemies, sometimes without even realizing that we had done so.
Wouldn't it be better, then, to turn things around and make them indebted to us for a kindness? If it meant reducing the number of blades aimed at us by even one, surely that was worth doing.
That was how I honestly felt about it.
Perhaps it was a deception. Even if it was, I wanted to protect myself and the Eunhae Merchant Group, and I was willing to do it by a means like this.
Those were the selfish considerations behind my actions, and yet people called me the Handsome Young Hero. With a name like that being bestowed on someone like me, I could hardly help feeling terribly embarrassed.
—Kui?
Yes… Thank you for trying to comfort me.
–TL Notes–
Tired of seeing Ads? Then please support me on Patreon! Any tier of subscription will make it so you won't get any ads!
If you want to support me or give me feedback, you can do it at patreon.com/InsanityTheGame
Join my Discord! https://discord.gg/BWaP3AHHpt