Chapter 93
“Good grief, somebody save me!”
I crouched down right where I was, covering my face with both hands like a frightened person. A sword passed over my head, slicing through my scarf and sending it flying.
I secretly stuck out my tongue.
‘I knew it, you bastard.’
In fact, I had noticed quite some time ago that one of them was approaching me. How impressive could an ordinary bandit really be at concealing his presence?
I was confident I could dodge even if he ambushed me, so I had simply left him alone. And I could guess the reason, too.
‘He’s planning to use me as a hostage, isn’t he?’
Now that his companions had suddenly begun losing ground, it was obvious he intended to take me hostage and threaten the two young masters into submission.
Of course, since I was supposed to be a scholar who knew nothing, I had to pretend I didn’t know anything. I trembled and asked in bewilderment,
“Wh-why are you doing this? I’m just an innocent bystander!”
“If you’re an innocent bystander, why are you still here? If you really had nothing to do with this, you would’ve run away already. You were hiding because you’re their accomplice, weren’t you?!”
‘This bastard’s pretty sharp.’
I wasn’t their accomplice, but it was true that I had been helping them.
“No, no! It’s just that watching that great hero swing his sword was so impressive that I thought I’d watch for a little while, but then… Aaaagh!”
In the end, the bandit didn’t even wait for me to finish before bringing his sword down again.
I screamed at the top of my lungs and rolled around on the ground. Once again, the bandit’s sword missed. Taking advantage of the opportunity, I sprang to my feet and began running away in a panic.
The bandit chased after me, shouting,
“You rat! Stop right there!”
‘Would you stop if you were me?’
I snickered inwardly and glanced toward the young masters. Perhaps my loud screaming had paid off, because they noticed my situation and shouted,
“Brother Peng, someone’s being chased! We have to save him!”
“I know! You handle the last one.”
While the Zhuge young master dealt with the remaining bandit, the Peng young master ran toward me.
However, there was some distance between the Peng young master and me. In other words, I was close enough that the bandit chasing me might catch me before Peng could reach me.
‘That won’t do.’
The bandit was already right behind me. In that split second, I gauged the distance between myself, the bandit, and the approaching Peng young master.
At the same time, the bandit reached out to grab me. His fingertips were just about to touch my collar. As he curled his hand to seize the back of my neck…
‘Now.’
“Aaaagh!”
I immediately pretended to trip over a rock and fall flat on my face. At the same time, I slyly kicked a pebble backward.
The pebble flew swiftly and struck the bandit in the tip of his foot. He lost his balance and fell flat on the ground just like I had. From a distance, it looked as though he, too, had simply tripped over a rock.
The bandit cursed as he got back up. But then his eyes inevitably widened. The Peng young master, who had arrived without him noticing, was bringing his great saber down.
BANG!
“Ugh!”
The bandit miraculously managed to raise his weapon and block it. However, perhaps because the force of the strike was so tremendous, he dropped his weapon. In the end, Peng kicked him in the abdomen, knocking him unconscious.
Only then did I raise my head.
“Haa, haah…”
Peng was breathing heavily, evidently from how quickly he had run over. Just then, the Zhuge young master came running over as well, apparently having finished things on his end.
I looked at the dependable figure standing before me and grinned. Then I gave him a thumbs-up and said,
“Ten out of ten.”
***
“Thank you so much for saving me!”
I bowed deeply before the two young masters. Peng merely folded his arms and glared at me with fierce eyes. Instead, the Zhuge young master stepped forward and replied with a friendly smile.
“Not at all. If anything, I’m embarrassed that I wasn’t able to do much.”
“What are you saying? If it weren’t for you two, this Jin fellow would not have survived. Might I ask for the honorable names of the two heroes? I will surely repay your kindness someday.”
“There’s no need for that. My name is…”
And so I learned that their names were Zhuge Ye and Peng… something.
It wasn’t actually that his name was ‘Peng.’ When I asked his name, he simply told me, ‘Someone like you doesn’t need to know,’ and said I could just call him Peng.
‘Quite a personality.’
I had suspected as much from the way he’d barked at the bandits, but apparently he really did have quite a temper.
Even his appearance suited it. He was tall, with a muscular build. His thick neck and broad shoulders gave him an imposing presence, and his hands and feet were large. Above all… His chest was huge.
‘Gasp, what a chest.’
I gazed in pure admiration at the martial uniform stretched taut over his generously developed chest.
His face, at least, was fairly handsome, but even that was marred by the wrinkles between his brows and his thick eyebrows, which arched upward like seagulls, giving him a fierce appearance.
The Zhuge young master, Zhuge Ye, gave the exact opposite impression. With his hair tied up and a jade crown on his head, Zhuge Ye was unmistakably an elegant young master.
His handsome face wore a gentle smile, and his restrained, proper manner of conduct gave him an almost delicate impression. Nevertheless, his body was well-balanced, befitting a martial artist.
As I examined the two with interest, Zhuge Ye suddenly asked,
“But Brother Jin, why were you there?”
“Ah, that…”
I smoothly recited the story I had prepared.
“Actually, I was on my way to Changsha in Hunan Province to visit an elderly relative. I stopped by Guangxi Province for a while, but while crossing over into Hunan, I got lost and wandered into the mountains…”
“I see.”
“Were the two of you on a heroic mission? Did you come here to wipe out the Yongcheok Stronghold?”
“No, it’s not that…”
Zhuge Ye and Peng exchanged glances.
When I found their exchange strange, Zhuge Ye answered,
“We came here on behalf of the Martial Alliance.”
“The Martial Alliance?”
When I asked in confusion, the two of them didn’t say anything more. Apparently, it was difficult for them to answer in detail.
I mulled over Zhuge Ye’s words, and suddenly remembered something.
“…That’s why people say the Inspection Unit is like the Dragon-Phoenix Unit of the past.”
Back then, the man at the inn had definitely said so.
The Martial Alliance Leader had asked the Nine Great Sects and Five Great Families for help in capturing demonic cultists, and each faction had sent their promising young disciples.
The promising young disciples under the Martial Alliance, and the Hebei Peng Family and Zhuge Family, were both among the Five Great Families.
Which meant these two were…
‘The Inspection Unit.’
A chill ran down the back of my neck.
Just as that man and his companion had discussed, the Inspection Unit and Enforcement Hall were famous throughout the current martial world.
Organizations established to oppose the Demonic Cult.
Whenever they detected even the slightest hint of anything related to the Demonic Cult, they would rush there, and once someone was confirmed to be a demonic cultist, they punished them without mercy. Thanks to their activities, the number of Demonic Cult members running rampant throughout the Central Plains had visibly decreased… That was all a lie.
‘When exactly did we run rampant?’
The Guangjin Cult, once known as the Demonic Cult, had already disappeared long ago.
Now, barely retaining its name, a small number of people were living in hiding. What power did we have to run rampant and cause trouble?
In fact, once, when things seemed especially strange, I had even gone to see a demonic cultist they had personally captured. But he wasn’t a demonic cultist.
To be precise, he wasn’t one of our ‘Guangjin Cult’ members. He didn’t know about the ‘tokens’ or ‘signals’ that any cult member would know. Just in case, I had checked with Eom Papa, and she said she had never heard of the man.
‘Then who had they captured?’
…I didn’t know that either.
Why they had arrested someone who wasn’t actually a Guangjin Cult member, why they had gone around boasting that they had captured a demonic cultist, and whether there was perhaps another ‘Demonic Cult’ out there.
I knew none of it.
One thing, however, was certain: from the Guangjin Cult’s perspective, the Inspection Unit and Enforcement Hall were deeply troublesome existences.
The more they ran rampant, and the more they captured nonexistent demonic cultists and spread stories about the Demonic Cult’s brutality, the narrower the position of our Guangjin Cult would become.
“Brother Jin? Is something wrong?”
“Ah, no. It’s just…”
I’m regretting it, you moron.
‘Damn it, should I have bothered saving them?’
Why had I gone out of my way to save righteous-path bastards who already rejected our sect? I should have just left them to take care of themselves, whether they lived or died… No. Thinking about it again, perhaps…
‘This might be an opportunity.’
I steeled myself and smiled brightly.
“I was just surprised. I don’t know much about martial affairs, but I do know that the Martial Alliance works day and night for the peace of the Central Plains. And besides, the two of you are quite young, aren’t you?”
“Pardon? Yes. That’s true, but…”
“Wow, that’s truly amazing! I heard that only the most outstanding martial artists among the righteous path can enter the Martial Alliance, and yet the two people standing before me are precisely those outstanding experts. I suspected as much when you saved me, but I’m truly in awe!”
“Haha, no, it’s not quite that…”
Zhuge Ye blushed, not knowing what to do, though he was clearly pleased inwardly. As expected, praise worked regardless of whether one belonged to the orthodox, unorthodox, or demonic path.
“So, with that in mind…”
Only then did I reveal my true intentions.
“Would it be all right if I traveled with the two of you?”
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