The Hunting Dog of the Prestigious Family Has Returned Chapter 57

The Northeast Frontier.

There were many reasons this place, situated at the northernmost edge of Joseon, was called the land of death.

The contaminated zones formed around the Great Rift of Manchuria, and the swarms of monsters that ran rampant within them.

Environments where one could not even breathe properly without the protection of a city’s defensive walls, and the contempt of being born Joseon citizens yet not treated as such.

There were countless reasons, but among them, the greatest was a single one.

The Northeast Frontier today was, in the most literal sense, a wasteland with nothing in it.

The vast majority of Joseon’s population was concentrated in the major cities of Hanseong, Busan, and Incheon, and most provincial settlements were nothing more than unmanned factory zones, nuclear fusion power plants, or solar panel arrays, none of them reaching even fifty thousand in population.

And yet even that degree of development was limited to the southern half of the Korean peninsula.

The “unmanned zone” stretching north of Gangwon Province greeted travelers with nothing but the scars of the Great War fought hundreds of years ago, with every trace of civilization long gone.

Grey ruins made from the remains of reinforced concrete and apartment blocks.

Scattered atop those ruins like snowflakes: the wreckage of tanks, worn-out rifles, artillery shells, mechanical parts.

A snowfield of concrete and steel, pressing heavily down upon the head of Joseon.

The brilliant scenery seen in Hanseong felt like a lie, so desolate was the sight.

This was, perhaps, the bare face of the nation called Joseon.

Those who had concentrated all the nation’s strength into the major cities, then prided themselves that this small world of theirs was paradise.

A world of blind men who never even thought to venture outward, who clutched at what had been built long ago and still believed themselves to be the pinnacle.

And what was I doing in a place like that, you ask….

Rat-tat-tat-tat!

Pouring fire from the machine gun mounted on the armored vehicle, and praying that today would not be the day I died.

“Kahahaha! Walked straight into trouble right at the entrance to the Northeast Frontier! Your luck is absolutely rotten, sir!”

“Shut up and watch the front, the front! They’ve come around the other side!”

Screeeeech!

With a shriek of grinding tires, one armored vehicle slid onto a deteriorated road.

The sharp turn had nearly thrown me off, and I barely managed to hold on.

“You lunatic, I almost fell off——!”

Boom!

The instant I was about to curse at the one driving the armored vehicle, a massive explosion erupted right where the vehicle had been a moment before.

Retract the curse.

If it hadn’t dodged in time, that was enough force to flip the armored vehicle clean over.

“Tch, it missed. Captain.”

“Enough to herd them. Gagai! Circle around and block the entry road! Kuwashan and Angir, follow behind me!”

“We’ve almost got them all cornered! Move!”

“Kill them all!”

Vroom!

With a wailing engine, the roughly twenty motorcycles that had been trailing us vanished from sight.

Those lunatics riding in on clouds of dust were the Jurchen, entrenched in the north. (+) ^[1] TLN: Jurchen is the historical people who later founded the Jin dynasty and were ancestors of the Manchu.

Nomads who roamed the wasteland stretching across the Central Plains and the north of the Korean peninsula, scavenging for scrap.

“You said the unofficial route was safe! Why are these people suddenly coming out of nowhere?!”

“Anyone passing through to and from the Northeast Frontier who looks worth taking gets targeted like this! You passed through the Cheollyeong checkpoint about three hours ago, right? Looks like word leaked from there!”

“The quarantine officer is selling information to the Jurchen?!”

I felt my spirit drain away at the explanation from the traveling merchant in the driver’s seat.

I had known.

The armored vehicle we were riding was a valuable weapon, and we inside it were precious hostages for whom a ransom could be demanded from Joseon.

From the perspective of the Jurchen living on the outskirts of Joseon, we were a tempting prize.

What I had not anticipated was that the one who had sold our information was the quarantine officer stationed at the checkpoint.

I had assumed there would be plenty of corruption in an isolated outpost like this, but I had not expected it to be quite this bad.

“At this rate I’ll be dead before I even make contact with the Iron Tiger Army…!”

Watching the Jurchen dodging bullets in every direction, I felt my temper flare up on its own.

“Damn it, seriously!”

I shoved the mounted machine gun aside and called out to Mooyoung, waiting inside.

“Mooyoung! Hand me my bow! Hurry!”

“Here!”

Mooyoung, who had been firing a rifle through the gun port, passed the bow over to me.

“Would it not be better for me to go out directly? If I stepped outside and engaged in close combat——!”

“No!”

I cut him off flatly as I took the bow from his hands.

“You’ve got nothing but close-range weapons right now! If you step out of the armored vehicle, they’ll keep swarming. How do you expect to hold that off?”

“W, well——!”

Hearing my words, a flustered expression crossed Mooyoung’s face.

Understandable.

A phase power user at the peak of his abilities.

He probably believed that if he went out himself, he could sweep aside thugs like these without any trouble.

It wasn’t that I doubted Mooyoung’s skill. But this was a problem that came before skill.

“This isn’t Hanseong. This is a wasteland where there’s nothing, not even food for tomorrow! If you step out of the armored vehicle here and end up isolated, we’ll all be stranded!”

The Jurchen were tearing through in every direction, driving at speeds well over one hundred, two hundred kilometers per hour.

Charging at them with a sword would only be playing into their hands.

Far better to keep our distance, wait for them to tire, and then cut them down.

Crack!

I leaned my upper body fully out of the armored vehicle and drew back the string of the specially crafted bow.

Right. The feeling is different from the moment you fire a gun.

A strange sensation, as if time itself had stopped.

Bullets grazed past my shoulder and around my face in the intervals, but thanks to the specially treated ballistic durumagi, I could set aside at least a fraction of my worries about dying.

“Hoo.”

After steadying my breath, at the edge of my field of vision, the face of a large figure charging through the center of the dust cloud came into view.

The one leading the pack, directing the Jurchen under his command.

Which meant, in short, this was the tribe’s leader.

Thwack!

When I released the bowstring, a tungsten arrow flew in a straight line toward the head of the Jurchen riding at the front of the formation.

The head was covered in all manner of machinery and armored plating, but that didn’t matter.

The bow in my hands was a monster that could pierce even tank armor.

Crack!

The instant metal met metal, with a single flash of sparks, the leader’s face shattered into pieces.

“Ugh…?!”

“Aihan! What the——?!”

“The captain’s down! If this happens the formation…! Waaah?!”

The moment the motorcycle at the front flipped over, the shockwave proved too much, and chain collisions began to erupt.

“What, did you actually hit that?! With a bow at that?! Kahahaha! Unbelievable! I was sure we were dead meat out here!”

With the ones following behind now dealt with, the traveling merchant at the wheel began laughing like a man possessed.

What remained was ahead.

The detachment unit waiting on the bypass route.

“The ones trailing us are handled! I’ve done my part, so deal with the rest yourselves!”

“Of course. Gotta earn my pay! We’re going straight through! Buckle your seatbelts!”

“This vehicle doesn’t have seatbelts, you bastard!”

I screamed the words and grabbed the seat with both arms.

Seeing the armored vehicle bearing down on them at full speed, the Jurchen fell into disarray and fired wildly.

A few could be seen scrambling onto their motorcycles, but it was far too late now.

Crash!

“Aaaaaah!”

The moment the armored vehicle shuddered violently, the bodies of dozens of Jurchen went flying in all directions as lumps of meat.

The few who had managed to dodge the vehicle opened fire with pistols, but weapons like those were never going to stop this armored vehicle.

“See that, you sons of bitches! Kahahaha! Ahahaha!”

The traveling merchant, still riding the rush of battle, began bellowing victory cries loud enough to rattle the vehicle.

The chassis rocked without pause over the unmaintained road.

After some time passed like that, a voice came through the recognition device installed on one side of the armored vehicle.

“Iron Tiger Fortress checkpoint. Armored vehicle approaching, please present your identification number.”

“Identification number Ga-399746. This is traveling merchant Gwak Cheolgon, scheduled to arrive at two o’clock.”

“You’re running a bit late this time. What’s on the cargo manifest?”

“One ton of precision mechanical parts as ordered, sixteen boxes of processed food. Two boxes of cosmetics, and…”

The traveling merchant sitting in the driver’s seat turned to look at me and Mooyoung.

“Two tourists. That’s all.”

“…Tourist, what?”

A voice that questioned back in bewilderment, as though it had heard something it couldn’t quite make sense of.

Hearing that, Mooyoung and I, utterly drained, collapsed on top of the bags piled inside the armored vehicle.

“I wouldn’t come a second time. Wouldn’t you agree, Mooyoung.”

“I agree completely, Young Master.”

This was Joseon’s harshest, most frigid desert, the front line holding back the monster invasions.

The entrance to Iron Tiger Fortress, the Iron Tiger Army’s garrison.

And the place that would become the heart of the revolution.

---

“Quarantine procedures complete. You may remove your masks now.”

“Cough, cough! Good grief. I thought I was going to suffocate.”

At the quarantine officer’s instruction, I removed the mask I had been wearing throughout the examination.

Perhaps because we were near the contaminated zones where monsters ran rampant, it had been impossible to breathe outside the city limits without a respiratory support device.

“I’ve seen it in footage and data many times, but… seeing it in person is something else.”

Inside the building, where air purification systems hummed.

Looking out the window at the scenery of Iron Tiger Fortress, it was nothing short of spectacular.

A massive steel wall blocking off the north side of the fortress.

That thing, emanating a black light, was the structure King Gwangjo Yi Cheolheon had erected with his own hands hundreds of years ago.

The absolute line of defense protecting Joseon from the monsters’ invasion.

And the Iron Tiger Army that guarded this line of defense, along with the people of the Northeast Frontier who lived under their protection.

Iron Tiger Fortress had been built like that.

On this barren land that was little better than a wasteland, the fortress had become the only place where conditions for human habitation had been created.

“Well then, my part ends here. Young Master.”

Traveling merchant Gwak Cheolgon, who had completed the quarantine procedures as though it were routine, stretched and walked over to me.

A peddler who carried precision mechanical parts and various luxury goods available in Hanseong down to Iron Tiger Fortress to sell for a profit.

He had a large pipe clenched between his teeth, and when I asked about it, he said he was smoking it to celebrate surviving death.

“I pride myself on having faced countless near-death situations going back and forth between Iron Tiger Fortress and Hanseong, but… honestly, it would have been rough this time without you, Young Master. Thank you.”

“Is that so? If you’re that grateful, how about knocking a bit off the fee?”

“Absolutely not. Kahahaha!”

Tradesmen never change when it comes to that.

After accepting the handshake Cheolgon offered and parting ways, the next to come my way was a group of military officers.

And standing at the center of them was a female staff member from the entry checkpoint.

“We’ll need to confirm your identity. From Hanseong, Kim… Changhwan? Is that correct?”

“Yes. That’s right.”

The same voice as the one I had spoken with over the intercom just now.

Since I was, in name, a secret royal inspector, I couldn’t very well use my real name, and I had thought I might as well try the feeling of traveling incognito for once, so I had used an alias.

“…….”

The moment I answered with a smile, the female staff member cast a glance in my direction and asked again.

“A young master from an aristocrat family in Hanseong… what exactly brings you here?”

A gaze that was not merely cold but carried an edge of frost.

The two steel giants flanking her on either side made their metal clank in a way that seemed intended to be heard.

‘My, quite the hostile atmosphere.’

Judging from their formal military uniforms, they were clearly the military officers responsible for defending Iron Tiger Fortress, but looking at their faces, the Jurchen I had just encountered seemed downright civil by comparison.

I kept my characteristic smile in place and spoke.

“I told you, didn’t I? I’m here as a tourist.”

“A tourist? With all the places to go across the eight provinces of Joseon, a noble from the gleaming capital Hanseong has come to the Northeast Frontier?”

“My tastes run a little unusual.”

“I heard you were even attacked by Jurchen on the way here. And you still came instead of turning back?”

“Indeed. The thought of turning back already makes my legs go weak. Perhaps I should just lay down a mat and settle in here.”

“Well, I wonder how that would go.”

Ha ha ha. Ho ho ho.

The female staff member responded to my slippery manner with an equally plastic smile that overflowed with insincerity.

But only for a moment.

Click.

“Headquarters, this is Staff Officer Ju Seohyeon at Checkpoint 3. Suspicious individual detected. Will secure the suspect and send to the interrogation room.”

“Ah.”

Approximately twelve minutes since arriving in the Northeast Frontier.

Mooyoung and I, both of us with hands bound, were led off toward the interrogation room in the grip of the fearsome steel giants.

• 1. TLN: Jurchen is the historical people who later founded the Jin dynasty and were ancestors of the Manchu.