Well, well. Looks like the real deal has finally arrived. (1)
“Oh. He won.”
“Honestly, this guy…”
The disciples of Hwasan sighed as they watched Chung Myung hold the broken blade against So Yeonshin’s throat.
“Does he really have to make such a fuss over a mere duel to the death?”
“Are you sure ‘mere’ and ‘duel to the death’ are words that belong in the same sentence?”
“Just go with it.”
“Yes.”
Baek Cheon let out another sigh of relief.
If anyone was fond of saying that a master craftsman never blames his tools, he would have liked to show them what had just happened.
Relying too heavily on equipment was no way for a martial artist to conduct themselves, but neither was dismissing its importance.
A suitable weapon that allowed one to put their skills to full use was essential to a martial artist.
‘That must be why they went to such lengths to stockpile weapons.’
After all, the quality of their troops would vary enormously depending on whether they could secure proper weapons. In that sense, they had done nothing particularly wrong. If they had made any mistake, perhaps it was running into the natural disaster that was Chung Myung.
So Yeonshin, completely unaware that he was the object of Baek Cheon’s sympathetic gaze, kept his eyes closed and spoke roughly.
“Kill me.”
His words were laden with grim resolve. But even at that, Chung Myung merely replied in his usual cheeky tone.
“Oh, come on, I told you I’m not going to kill you.”
“Do you mean to humiliate me?”
“Yes.”
“…What?”
So Yeonshin slowly opened his eyes.
“That’s what I was planning to do.”
“…..Hmm?”
A look of bewilderment appeared on So Yeonshin’s face.
“W-What are you going to do? Even in defeat, an enemy commander is owed a modicum of courtesy under the laws of the battlefield. Give me a clean death. I am prepared to die!”
“Battlefield, my foot. What kind of naive crap is this old fool spouting?”
“…Naive?”
So Yeonshin blinked. Naive? Him? So Yeonshin?
“What? Courtesy? You’re holding swords, intent on killing each other – what the hell kind of ‘courtesy’ are you talking about?
“…”
“If you get captured after losing a sword fight, you should at least be prepared to get stabbed in a few places, be dragged around as a hostage, and then get sold off to a slave ship! Now that’s what I call being prepared! What? Prepared to die? What kind of preparation is that?!”
“Y-You lunatic.”
So Yeonshin’s eyes trembled violently. Surely people weren’t usually expected to prepare themselves for all that?
“Now then, with that settled.”
Chung Myung grabbed So Yeonshin by the collar and hauled him to his feet in one swift motion. Then, rubbing the blade he held against his face mask, he said.
“How about you start by pulling back all the men you brought?”
“…What nonsense. Do you think I would do such a thing?”
“No. Didn’t think you would.”
“Hm?”
“But well, your refusal won’t really change anything.”
Chung Myung spun So Yeonshin around, stepped behind him, and pressed the blade to his throat.
“Y-You bastard!”
“General!”
At the sight, the Red Banner Army soldiers who had followed So Yeonshin into the forest raised their weapons in fury. They looked ready to charge at Chung Myung at any moment.
“Whoa, whoa. Let’s not do that.”
But at that moment, the blade in Chung Myung’s hand began emitting menacing sword energy.
“Ugh….“
“Back off. Or your precious general will be drenched in red?”
“You…. You bastaaaard!“
“Ehehehehehehe! What can you do besides glare at me like that! Wahahahahaha!”
At the sight, Hwasan’s disciples all hung their heads.
“So who is the villain here…?”
“Well, it’s definitely not them.”
“Does he have to do that? Even if he is pretending to be a villain, he should have some dignity… Why does he have to act like a third-rate bandit?”
“…Probably because he isn’t pretending.“
“Ah…….”
Meanwhile, Chung Myung was busy waving his blade around in a threatening manner.
“Whoops!”
Just then, the sword energy Chung Myung released nicked So Yeonshin’s neck.
“Generaaaal!”
“Stop it! You son of a bitch!”
“You wretch – you’re not even worth as much as a monkey!”
Seeing blood spurt from So Yeonshin’s neck, the Red Banner Army soliders cried out in horror.
Chung Myung shook his head as he listened to the colorful assortment of insults.
“Wow, you’re bringing up every animal under the sun. If you’re going to insult me, couldn’t you at least use something like a qilin or an Azure Dragon?”
“Cut the bullshit.”
“Oh? Still got some strength left?”
So Yeonshin spat out his words through clenched teeth.
“This is futile. Do you even know what sort of men serve in the Red Banner Army? They will not halt their advance for the sake of my life alone.”
“Of course they wouldn’t.”
“And yet you still….“
“If we were in the north.”
“…What?”
So Yeonshin’s eyes wavered briefly. He was no fool himself, and had immediately grasped what Chung Myung meant.
“Would things really go the way you say? If we were in the north, dying as an enemy captive would be an honorable thing. You’d have done your duty as a soldier, after all. And the same would be true if we were on the walls of the Imperial Capital. You’d have died faithfully following orders, too. Whatever that says about your loyalty to the country, you could at least say you’d remained loyal to your superior.”
“You bastard…“
“But here?”
Chung Myung grinned and glanced around, his eyes gleaming.
“We’re not in the north, or even in the Imperial Capital, but in some nameless forest on the way there. And who is your opponent? My goodness… some masked brat who came out of nowhere?”
“…”
“Would getting killed by someone like that really be honorable? If a general who’d devoted his whole life to serving his country in the north died like that, I’d think he’d be too bitter to even close his eyes in death?”
“S-Shut your mouth! You bastard!”
He denied it vehemently, but the very force of his denial only proved that Chung Myung was right.
This place could not be called a battlefield. That fact would never change. And for So Yeonshin, who had spent his entire life as a soldier, there was no death more shameful than losing his head to some nobody who was not even an enemy soldier.
Everyone knew this.
Had it been any army other than the Red Banner Army, the capture of a single general who was merely a deputy commander would not have made the army withdraw. But the Red Banner Army was no ordinary army.
They had steadfastly defended the north even after being all but abandoned by the central government. The bonds between them were so strong that those of other armies could not even begin to compare.
Precisely because they were such men, they could not stand by and let So Yeonshin meet a dishonorable death in a place like this.
Reading that resolve in his subordinates’ eyes as they looked at him, So Yeonshin thrashed wildly.
“Damn it! You son of a bitch! I said kill me!”
“Ugh. Good grief, you’re damn strong for an old man!”
Chung Myung put his forearm around So Yeonshin’s neck.
Then he thrust the blade in his hand towards the Red Banner Army soldiers before him.
“I said back off? From this moment on, I’m not just making threats.”
Chung Myung’s voice grew a little lower. Sensing the threat lurking in his tone, the Red Banner Army soldiers let out low groans and retreated one step at a time.
“Stop! What are you doing?! That’s an order! Kill this bastard! Forget about me and kill him!”
So Yeonshin screamed at the top of his lungs, but not a single Red Banner Army soldier obeyed his command. At the sight, he bit his lip until it bled.
‘Damn it!’
They must not retreat. Timing was crucial to every part of the Grand General’s plan. With every passing moment of delay, the number of casualties would multiply. If they were held up in a place like this, the time they lost here could lead to the annihilation of the entire Red Banner Army.
‘What an act of disloyalty this is?’
The Grand General’s plan would come to nothing because of his own rashness and misjudgment? And worse still, the entire Red Banner Army would fall? He would never be able to close his eyes even in death. This was no time to concern themselves with something as trivial as his dishonor.
Then why! Why wouldn’t those stubborn fools listen to him!
“I said kill this bastard! If you cannot do that, then kill me instead! Right now!”
So Yeonshin’s cry sounded as though he were coughing up blood, but the Red Banner Army soldiers merely shook their heads.
“We cannot do that.”
“…..What?”
So Yeonshin’s gaze wavered violently.
“Why should you have to die in a place like this, General? We cannot understand it!”
“I told you these are the Grand General’s orders!”
“…Even the Grand General could not have foreseen this situation. He would never throw your life away.”
“Y-You….”
To the Red Banner Army, Grand General Hwangbo Ung was as good as a God. The absolute conviction that he would always find a way out, no matter how unfavorable the circumstances. That unwavering faith, almost akin to religious devotion.
That very faith was making the situation worse. They believed Hwangbo Ung would find a way to resolve this, even if they withdrew.
“You fools! You should be easing the Grand General’s burden, so what do you hope to accomplish by adding to it instead!”
His words made the Red Banner Army soldiers flinch, but they still showed no sign of changing their minds.
“Even now…”
“Enough.”
Chung Myung casually covered So Yeonshin’s mouth with his hand.
“You can save your arguments for when you’re among yourselves. So, what is it going to be?”
When Chung Myung brought the blade to So Yeonshin’s throat again, the Red Banner Army soldiers squeezed their eyes shut and began to retreat.
“That’s it, that’s it. Good boys”
“Ugh….”
“Keep quiet. I’m only showing you this much respect because you seem like an old soldier who’s worked hard all his life.”
“You call this respect?”
“If you were some Sapa bastard, I’d have shoved a rock down your throat first to shut you up.”
So Yeonshin turned to stare blankly at Chung Myung. Even he, who had spent his entire life on savage battlefields, had never considered anything so brutal.
“Wouldn’t you normally cut out someone’s tongue or something?”
“Turns out they can still scream.”
“…Have you tried it?”
“Hm?”
Chung Myung tilted his head.
“Should I say I have, or should I say I haven’t. The answer changes a little depending on how you look at it. Ugh, this is complicated.”
“…”
This bastard was insane.
He might not have known much, but of one thing he was certain: there was definitely something fundamentally wrong with this bastard.
“Do you think this will make me stop?”
“Doesn’t really matter if it doesn’t. If you still won’t listen after this, I can just put a hole in your side next.”
“What…?”
“If I leave you like that without stopping the bleeding, you’ll be dead in a quarter of an hour [1 gak] for sure. If they still won’t back off after seeing that, well… hmm, then I’m not the one who killed you. I only wounded you, and they’re the ones who refused to retreat. Right?”
The longer Chung Myung went on, the more So Yeonshin’s eyes wavered.
‘What kind of bastard is this…….’
The most troublesome opponent on the battlefield was neither the reckless one, nor the skilled one, nor the clever one. It was the unpredictable one.
And that was precisely the sort of man this was. It was not merely that he could not fathom what this man intended to do, he could not even tell what he would do next.
‘Perhaps we’ve met the wrong opponent.’
To think that he, who had spent his whole life on battlefields, would find himself thinking such a thing about this young brat…
‘What am I to do?’
He could find no answer.
It happened just as So Yeonshin was trembling with profound despair.
Boooooom!
With a thunderous blast, a huge cloud of dust rose behind the Red Banner Army soldiers.
“W-What was that?”
Startled by the sudden explosion, Chung Myung looked ahead.
“So this is why you were taking so long.”
And at that moment, a voice of unyielding strength reached Chung Myung’s ears. To call it merely commanding would hardly suffice, for it carried the heavy weight of long years and a spirit tempered through countless trials.
The owner of that voice slowly emerged from the dust.
“What an interesting sight.”
“G-Grand General!”
At the sight of Hwangbo Ung, those present immediately prostrated themselves.
“Hmm.”
Looking at the towering old man standing before him, Chung Myung curled the corners of his mouth upward.
“Well, well. Looks like the real deal has finally arrived.”
For a brief moment, the two men’s gazes met in midair.
________
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