It is damn nice to see you. (1)
Boooom!
The dog-beating staffs of the Beggars Sect’s members blocked the demonic cultists’ path. Internal energy collided with internal energy. Swinging their staffs with such vigor that they seemed to have no room to retreat, the beggars let out roars as if to spur one another on.
“Ah…….”
Just as the tension left Jwa Gohak and he faltered, someone grabbed him by the shoulder and pulled him away.
“There’s no time to hesitate. We won’t be able to hold them for long!”
Those words snapped Jwa Gohak back to his senses. He had no idea how the Beggars Sect had learned what was happening and rushed all the way here, but just as the man had said, there was no time to hesitate.
“Hurry and flee…..”
Jwa Gohak hurriedly turned his head to urge the people onward, only for his mouth to close of its own accord. A crowd of beggars had swarmed around the refugees’ carts and were lifting them up to carry them away.
“Move aside. No, get out of the way! Come on!”
“Are you out of your mind and trying to get yourself killed? No one’s going to steal your cart! Get out of the way!”
Their words could not have been rougher, but their intentions were unmistakable. These members of the Beggars Sect had come all the way here not to fight the Demonic Cult, but to evacuate the people of Beijing.
Jwa Gohak bit down hard on his lip.
Those who occupied the very highest ranks in the Central Plains had abandoned the people and fled to save their own lives. Yet those most despised in the Central Plains had risked their lives and rushed all the way here to save them.
Then who is the noble one, and who is the lowly one?
“Hey!”
The rough voice struck Jwa Gohak’s ears once again.
“You can think later! Get out of here now! I told you we can’t hold them much longer!”
“Understood!”
Jwa Gohak answered without looking back.
He knew it as well. The courage of the beggars who had just arrived deserved the highest praise, but courage alone could not solve everything.
Moreover, these men, who were not even among the Beggars Sect’s elite, could not possibly stand against the demonic cultists. At most, all they could do was throw away their lives to buy some time. Whether such a deed could truly be dismissed as ‘at most’ was another matter entirely.
“Sahyeong!”
“Help the refugees! We’re getting out of here!”
“B-But……!”
“Did you not hear me!”
The startled officials turned and ran towards the refugees. Jwa Gohak also moved towards them without looking back. The urge to glance behind him again and again tormented him, but looking back at the Beggars Sect’s members now would not be a show of respect.
Getting every last civilian out of the city even a moment – no, even an instant – faster. That was the only way to save even one more of the beggars’ lives.
“Hah, that young fellow’s got a good head on his shoulders.”
Jang Jae [장재(張宰)], known as the Slow Bear Beggar [만웅개(慢熊丐) – Man-Ung Gae] and chief of the Beggars Sect’s Hebei Branch, let out a faint chuckle.
Then again, only a man like that would stay behind in Beijing everyone else had abandoned, struggling to save the people.
“No, wait. Does that make him an idiot?”
Well…… what did it matter either way.
Man-Ung Gae stared ahead. He could see the demonic cultists mercilessly tearing the beggars apart. He had heard that the martial prowess of individual demonic cultists was nothing extraordinary, but judging from what he saw now, that had apparently been complete nonsense.
Or perhaps the Demonic Cult had changed over the past hundred years.
Whichever it was, it changed nothing. There was only one fate left awaiting him.
“Tsk. Why did I have to come here?”
He could simply have pretended not to hear. He could have brushed it off by claiming the command had gotten garbled, and even his superiors would have found it difficult to blame him too harshly. If the Beggars Sect punished a man for ignoring an order to go off and die, what kind of Beggars Sect would that be? The Demonic Cult, perhaps.
And yet Man-Ung Gae was here. Completely unlike the man everyone usually called the Slow Bear. Faster than anyone else in the world, he had rushed here without a moment’s delay.
Perhaps this was why he was a beggar. When the time came to look after his own interests, he was never quick enough. Yet when it came to throwing himself into a losing cause, no one moved faster than he did.
“Uwaaaaaaah!”
Man-Ung Gae charged forward without any hesitation.
“I’ve lived long enough!”
He was a branch chief [지부장(支部長)] of the Beggars Sect. A rank higher than a branch leader*. Having risen to a position held by only a handful of men beneath the heavens, what more could he ask for?
Even if he clung desperately to life while looking after his own interests, he would never shake the guilt lodged in a corner of his heart, not until the moment he died. If that was how it would be, he would rather die proudly here and now.
Man-Ung Gae’s dog-beating staff began to dance, leaving jade-green trails in its wake.
⠀
“We did it!”
A cheer erupted from the officials as they shoved the last cart through the city gates. It was not as though no lives had been lost. But every survivor had been sent outside the walls.
“Lead them and keep moving! Right now!”
“Yes, Sahyeong!”
The carts that had fallen behind rolled forward, sending clouds of dust billowing into the air.
Jwa Gohak wanted to say that it was finally over, but he knew that was not true. The demonic cultists’ target was not the city, but its people. Naturally, they would give chase, and at this rate, it would not be long before they caught up from behind.
“Hey, Mister Official.”
Just then, a voice tinged with laughter came from behind him.
“Quit getting foolish ideas and get going.”
“…You people……”
“Well, you already know, don’t you? Those devilish bastards aren’t going to stand by and watch after the people they were chasing have escaped the city. So someone has to hold the rear.”
It was not that Jwa Gohak had hesitated because he did not understand that. What he could not accept was why the Beggars Sect’s members had to take on that role.
“Better for an important official like you to survive than a bunch of beggars, don’t you think? You look like a pretty high-ranking fellow. You’ve probably still got plenty of work left to do.”
“But…”
“Now, stop wasting time and go.”
The beggar who had spoken to him spat on the ground, then grinned broadly.
“And don’t worry about us. We’ve got rotten luck – that’s why we’re beggars. We were destined to freeze to death on the roadside anyway. If we die fighting like this instead, that’s a good death.”
“What do you mean, ‘a good death’?”
“It means dying in a decent way, you ignorant beggar bastard!”
“You’re the ignorant one. How can there be such a thing as dying ‘a good death’? Death is bad no matter how you put it.”
“Hah…..”
Leaving the beggars at the rear to bicker among themselves, those who had been carrying the carts began barricading the city gates. As though they would not allow a single demonic cultist beyond the walls until every last one of them was dead.
“Even so, I cannot leave this entirely to you. This is…”
As Jwa Gohak tried to object once more, the beggar who had been joking around suddenly lashed out, raised his foot abruptly and kicked at Jwa Gohak’s solar plexus.
“W-Wait! What are you doing?”
Having evaded the attack, Jwa Gohak stared at the beggar in bewilderment. The beggar’s expression grew rigid as he snapped in a cold voice.
“Has this young official bastard lost his damn mind? You think we’re doing all this just to save your worthless hide?”
“…”
“We’re sending you away because more of the common folk are likely to survive with you lot leading them than with us. Otherwise, who would give a damn whether some official bastard like you lived or died?”
Jwa Gohak bit down hard on his lip.
“If you understand it, then get the hell out of here. Stop clinging to that pointless pride and go do your duty.”
Having said his piece, the beggar turned away as though there were nothing more to discuss.
Jwa Gohak stared silently at that unyielding back, then cupped his fist in a salute and bowed. With perfect form. With every ounce of respect he could possibly convey.
“I will never forget this.”
“I said get lost already.”
The only reply was that curt, heartless voice. Yet Jwa Gohak kept his head bowed for a long moment. Then, the instant he finally raised it, he sprinted with all his strength after the fleeing civilians.
“What a strange fellow. Especially for an official.”
“There ought to be officials like him. Otherwise, the country would’ve collapsed long ago.”
“That’s true.”
The beggars chuckled as they trudged towards the city gates.
“Think anyone would notice if one or two of us slipped away from the back?”
“Then run. I won’t stop you.”
“I’m just saying, that’s all.”
Drawing their dog-beating staffs, the beggars stood their ground, their eyes blazing fiercely. This road would not open before every last one of them had breathed their last.
⠀
“Hmm.”
Heavenly Executioner surveyed the scene before him with a peculiar look in his eyes.
The beggar bastards who had appeared from nowhere were confronting the cultists. No, ‘confronting’ was hardly the right word for what was happening. They were quite literally throwing their lives away before the cultists.
Even though they knew perfectly well they would die, and knew perfectly well they could not stop them.
“How strange.”
It was certainly true that those beggars had repeatedly hindered the Cult during the Great War of the past. There had been no way to escape the eyes of the beggars scattered throughout the realm, and because of them, the Cult’s routes of advance had inevitably been laid bare.
But that had been fundamentally different from this.
The beggars of the past had merely been a nuisance. They had never tried to block the way by throwing away their own lives as they were doing now.
“Interesting.”
What was particularly interesting was that they had anticipated Heavenly Executioner’s movements and come to reinforce Beijing. Had they been like those of the past, they would not have attempted to impede the Cult until after it entered Hubei.
Someone had seen through his movements.
That fact filled Heavenly Executioner with boundless displeasure, yet at the same time gave him a strange sense of enjoyment.
“But in the end, it changes nothing.”
In the past, this might have been enough to make him sick with frustration. But the Heavenly Executioner of today was kind of satisfied. No matter how far events strayed from his intentions, how could they compare to the days when he had waited in that hellish land for a tomorrow that might never come?
And so he was generous now. Generous enough to stand back and watch the filthy beggars who had suddenly blocked his path.
“Oooooooooh!”
At that moment, a tremendous roar erupted behind Heavenly Executioner. Turning around, he saw that the Imperial Army had finally descended from the city walls. Whether they had broken through the cultists or found another route, they were now charging toward this place.
“Where do you think you’re looking, you damned devil.”
“…”
A beggar covered in wounds stepped forward to face Heavenly Executioner. One of his legs hung by little more than a thread, as though it might be torn off at any moment. His entire body was shredded with countless injuries. Yet the fighting spirit radiating from him had not diminished in the slightest.
“Before my life runs out, you will not take a single step. Even if I cannot kill you here, you will not be able to lay so much as a finger on those who have gone out through the gate.”
In Heavenly Executioner’s eyes appeared the cultists entangled with the beggars, and beyond them, the sight of the beggars blocking the city gate with their own bodies.
“Why are they doing that?”
“…Can’t you tell just by looking? To stop you.”
“To stop me?”
Heavenly Executioner let out a low chuckle. This was what made the Central Plains interesting. Things happened here that one could not even imagine in that barren land.
“Did I not tell you! You will not take a single step unless you kill every last one of us first.”
“Is that so?”
Heavenly Executioner replied calmly, as though it were of no particular consequence.
“Then it is simply a matter of doing it.”
“What?”
Booooooooooom!
In that instant, demonic energy burst violently from Heavenly Executioner’s body. The surging torrent of demonic energy, which had been bursting outward as though it would explode, suddenly began to rotate, whirling around him like a colossal vortex.
The swirling demonic energy gathered around Heavenly Executioner’s hand. Realizing instinctively what was about to happen, Man-Ung Gae turned his head around sharply.
“N-No.”
“Try and stop it, if you can.”
“Nooooooooooooo!”
Heavenly Executioner thrust his hand forward. At the same moment, the vortex of demonic energy shot out, grazing Man-Ung Gae and flying towards the city gates. Devouring everything between him and the gate. The power of the demonic energy crushed beggars, cultists, even the abandoned carts without distinction, and in an instant swept away the Beggars Sect’s members who had been blocking the gates as well.
Booooooooom!
The city wall shook as though it would collapse. And then, when the remnants of the demonic energy finally faded, all that Man-Ung Gae saw was a world dyed red.
Nothing remained. Nothing at all.
The Beggars Sect’s members he had led here had been annihilated by a single move. Just one. They had not even left behind a single trace that they had ever lived in this world, but had simply been ‘erased.’
Could this truly be martial arts? Could this truly be the work of a human being?
“Ah….”
Man-Ung Gae collapsed where he stood.
“Did you say I would not be able to lay so much as a finger on them?”
He stared at Heavenly Executioner with eyes devoid of light. His world was turning gray.
“I promise you. Not a single one of them will survive. And it will all be because of those meaningless words you uttered.”
“Ugh…”
Filled with rage, Man-Ung Gae tried to scream. But that desperate sound never escaped his lips.
For one whose head has been severed can say nothing at all.
Thud.
Heavenly Executioner silently looked down at Man-Ung Gae’s head where it had fallen to the ground, then gestured forward with his chin.
“After them.”
The cultists charged through the city gates like wild beasts.
After watching them for a moment, Heavenly Executioner slowly turned and looked at the imperial troops, who had come to a halt before he knew it. As they faltered, Heavenly Executioner spoke leisurely.
“There is no need to worry. I have no intention of leaving you behind.”
A devilish smile spread across his lips.
________
*Jibujang (the branch chief) is some who oversees the whole region of Hebei (in this case). While Buntaju (the branch leader) oversees their own territory within the province, usually connected to a big city.
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