The Genius Warrior Who Remembers Everything Chapter 75

Chapter 75. The Black Flame Dragon Who Leaps over the Trial (3)

First, in order to handle the introductory respects I had mentioned to the bandits of Fire Curtain Stronghold, I requested help from Hao Gate through a Messenger Hawk.

Two days later, as I had ordered, a traveling party of carriages loaded with dozens of wooden barrels entered the village, and when I saw the person leading it, I could not hide my surprise.

“Are you not supposed to be in Yueyang?”

The person chuckling was Yang Gun-baek, the owner of Yueyang’s Black Shop and the eleventh disciple of the Hao Gate Master.

“Somehow, things turned out this way. Still, thanks to that, I am endlessly pleased to see you again after so long, Young Master So-un.”

Yang Gun-baek’s attitude was exceedingly warm.

Even including the fact that my position, unlike in Yueyang, was now that of a “Guest Retainer” of Hao Gate, it was excessive enough to make me uncomfortable.

‘In a sense, it was because of me that he lost the position of Hao Gate Master. Does he know that?’

Whether he knew that or not, Yang Gun-baek still had a smiling face.

“Did you bring what I asked for?”

Yang Gun-baek nodded.

In one corner of the carriage he guided me to, four boxes were lined up side by side.

When the first and second boxes were opened, fifty gold coins were inside.

“Usually, about twenty gold taels are used for the introductory respects of a merchant guild or an Escort Agency. Is there a reason you prepared this much?”

When the third and fourth boxes were opened, each contained twenty Gold Ingots.

Each box contained money worth one thousand gold taels.

“I heard that the villagers were taken to Mount Tianmu.”

“Ah…… Surely……”

Realizing my intention, worry deepened on his face.

“……I am sure you have a plan, Young Master So-un, but I cannot help worrying.”

I wondered what he was thinking.

“The two men who newly rose to the position of Stronghold Master on Mount Tianmu, Golden-Faced Buddha Saber and One-Eyed Blood Axe, are brutal and greedy people. Even if you rescue the hostages, they will probably commit atrocities again after only a few days.”

“Please continue.”

“Moreover, Twin Curtain Stronghold is twice as large as the other Seventy-Two Green Forest Strongholds, and its numbers reach roughly a thousand. Would it not be better to look for another mountain stronghold even now?”

He was looking at me as if he were looking at his own younger brother being dragged to a battlefield.

“I have already accepted a request.”

“A request?”

“Yes. Village Chief Heo’s grandson made a request.”

“If it is a request, does that mean you have already received the payment? Just how much was it?”

“One silver tael.”

“Pardon?”

Yang Gun-baek could no longer continue speaking and looked at me with complicated feelings.

“This must also be connected to the matter you asked me to handle, yes?”

“Yes.”

“……Please, I hope you are not hurt.”

Moved by his concern, I took out the five-thousand-gold-tael promissory note I had kept inside my robe.

It was an amount that included the gold, the wine, and the cost of hiring people.

“…….”

Yang Gun-baek looked at the promissory note for a moment, then shook his head and pushed it back.

“Is it perhaps too little?”

“No. It is more than enough.”

“Then why?”

“Because I would like this matter to be my gift to you, Young Master So-un.”

“Pardon?”

Even if I had become Hao Gate’s Guest Retainer, Hao Gate was thorough when it came to transactions.

Why was he saying he would not accept money?

“Senior Sister Hae-ryeong is someone who has cared for me like my own mother since I was young.”

“Ah.”

“When misfortune after misfortune fell upon such a senior sister, my feelings were beyond words.”

Yang Gun-baek took out the hand he had hidden inside his sleeve and politely clasped his hands in greeting.

“Thank you very much for saving Senior Sister.”

Unlike when I had seen him in Yueyang, Yang Gun-baek now looked sincere, with his feelings laid bare.

“Brother Geum-pyo, just what is Eldest Senior Brother thinking?”

“Who knows? More importantly, are you not putting in proper strength?”

“From the start, this kind of work should be done by the people who brought the wine.”

Geum-pyo, Eun-ho, and Dong-ryong were pushing a cart loaded with a large barrel with all their strength.

“Ughhh, I think Eldest Senior Brother must have something in mind.”

“Dong-ryong, you would believe Eldest Senior Brother even if he said he could make soybean paste out of red beans.”

“Is that not true?”

“Damn it, both of you put in proper strength, seriously, before I let go too.”

“Damn it! Just what is that human called Eldest Senior Brother thinking, with mere oil like this……”

Eun-ho was grumbling like that beside me.

“You are saying that so I can hear, right?”

“Huh? Eldest Senior Brother? When did you get here?”

“Hmph.”

I discreetly sent out Finger Wind and broke one of the wheel’s fasteners.

Snap.

“Uh-oh!”

“G-Get back!”

“Dodge!!”

The wheel came off, and with a CRASH, the cart broke apart.

At the same time, the barrels loaded on the cart rolled down, broke open, and spilled the liquid that had filled them in every direction.

Fortunately, since the cart the Gold, Silver, and Bronze brothers had been pulling was at the very rear, no one was injured.

“Tsk, tsk. You cannot even pull that one thing properly?”

“If we had not been using Moving Circulation, we could have moved it as much as we wanted.”

“Then there would be no meaning to the training, would there?”

While I was bickering with my junior brothers like that, Bang Du-chil approached.

“Do you really think you can save the hostages with this?”

Bang Du-chil’s subordinates were already moving the carts up Mount Tianmu along with the Escorts.

A magnificent sight unfolded, with as many as thirty carts climbing up a single road.

“If Twin Curtain Stronghold is not actually subjugated, all of this will become meaningless.”

“In any case, is it not better to have no hostages?”

“…….”

When the traveling party loaded with wine finally reached the end of the road on Mount Tianmu, bandits appeared and blocked the path.

“Stop!”

They were the same bandits who had raided the village a few days earlier.

“Greetings.”

“You are someone who does not keep his appointed time.”

Because I had sent someone ahead to say I would pay introductory respects, the bandit already knew we were coming.

“My apologies. As you can see, there are many goods to deliver, so we were a little late.”

The bandit looked fairly satisfied as he saw the carts piled high with meat and wine barrels.

“It makes no difference to us, but the Stronghold Masters of Twin Curtain Stronghold will not let it pass so easily.”

“I prepared separate gifts for those honored persons, so you need not worry.”

“From here on, we will move the goods.”

“Yes.”

At the bandit’s words, hundreds of figures suddenly burst out from the bushes.

“Waaaaaaaah!”

Appearing with thunderous shouts, they began carrying away the goods loaded on the carts with lightning speed, almost as if they were doing banditry.

“Wait.”

I blocked the hand of a bandit who was trying to touch the box in front of me with the Black Dragon Sword.

“What!”

“This is something I will personally deliver to the Stronghold Masters.”

“That kind of bullshit is—!”

Smack.

When I struck his hand away with my scabbard, the bandit clutched his hand and looked ready to draw his saber at any moment.

“Stop. Do not recklessly touch the Stronghold Masters’ belongings.”

When the person I had been speaking with said that, the bandit who had been about to draw his saber soon turned his gaze elsewhere.

“Follow me.”

There was a hill between the two enormous peaks that formed Mount Tianmu.

Whenever Twin Curtain Stronghold held a major event, they would gather on this hill and throw a feast.

“Waaaaaaaah!”

“Waaaaaaaah!”

When roughly a thousand people shouted inside the hill, the air rang thunderously.

The number was overwhelming enough that not only the Gold, Silver, and Bronze brothers and Bang Du-chil’s subordinates, but even Bang Du-chil, who had lived as if he alone was honored above and below the heavens, turned slightly pale.

“Senior Brother, is this really all right?”

Geum-pyo could not hide his anxiety.

Although their clothing and weapons were not uniform, if one considered that each and every one of them was an expert who had learned martial arts, Twin Curtain Stronghold was already equal to a mid-level sect even compared to the sects of the One Hundred Eight Peaks.

“Silence!”

When a thunderous Lion’s Roar crossed the hill, the bandits who had been cheering stopped moving and looked at the two people sitting in the seats of honor.

“Jin So-un of the Taeul Sect, you say?”

A large chair had been placed atop tiger skin, and beside that chair leaned a gigantic saber that seemed two palms wide.

It was Golden-Faced Buddha Saber Song Go-ak.

“This insignificant junior of the murim, Jin So-un, greets the seniors.”

Strictly speaking, it made no sense to use a title like “seniors” for mere Black Path riffraff, but I was a chivalrous hero who showed courtesy even to villains.

Kukuk.

“If it is Black Flame Dragon, then the title of senior does not sound too strange.”

The one-eyed man sitting on a bear skin beside him was One-Eyed Blood Axe, the Stronghold Master of Gold Curtain Stronghold.

“So, Junior Black Flame Dragon, what brings you to a place where bandit riffraff live? And you even called all of Twin Curtain Stronghold into one place?”

“Could it be that you called us to take the Murim Regular Exam?”

“Kahahahahaha.”

“Kahahahahaha.”

At One-Eyed Blood Axe’s words, the hill rang thunderously.

Though they knew perfectly well why I had asked them to gather, they were pretending otherwise as a trick to raise their own price.

“As the seniors know well, how could the Taeul Sect possibly be suitable for the Murim Academy Regular Exam? As I told you at first, I have come to pay introductory respects.”

“Hmm.”

“Our Taeul Sect recently acquired a large merchant guild, and I expect we will have many occasions to travel to Hangzhou and Suzhou from now on. So I prepared some modest gifts.”

Geum-pyo and Eun-ho each carried a small box and walked forward.

Golden-Faced Buddha Saber and One-Eyed Blood Axe looked at the boxes, which contained twice the amount used for ordinary introductory respects, with indifferent expressions.

“Junior, I am grateful that you showed sincerity by bringing wine and meat for your introductory respects, but gathering all of us into one place for merely this has put me in a rather foul mood.”

I readily nodded.

After all, when I had asked for all the bandits of Fire Curtain Stronghold and Gold Curtain Stronghold to be gathered in one place, the other party’s reaction had been the same.

“In truth, there is a separate proposal I truly wished to make.”

Geum-pyo and Eun-ho opened the large boxes again.

The boxes, each containing twenty Gold Ingots, caught the sunlight shining over the hill and scattered radiance in every direction.

Even the thousand or so bandits chattering all around became as silent as mutes in that instant, drooling with their eyes wide open.

“While visiting the villages nearby, I heard that the villagers are working here.”

THUD.

When Golden-Faced Buddha Saber stomped his foot, the aftermath traveled faintly all the way to me.

“So?”

“Our sect has a maxim: ‘Benefit people far and wide.’ Because of that, I could not bear to simply overlook it. If it is acceptable, please permit me to take away the people who are here.”

I offered a clasped hands greeting, but the other party gave no answer.

“Kuku. What an amusing fellow.”

One-Eyed Blood Axe picked up his red axe and stroked the blade.

“To dare propose a transaction against Twin Curtain Stronghold.”

“Is there not a transaction to be made for most things in this world?”

“However, hurting the other party’s pride is not something that can be made into a transaction. You may have to offer up your neck here as the price.”

“Since ancient times, it has been said that only fools kill the goose that lays the golden eggs.”

“What!”

One-Eyed Blood Axe shot to his feet.

The bandits sitting on the right side of the hill also rose along with him and drew their weapons.

Geum-pyo, Eun-ho, Dong-ryong, and Bang Du-chil’s subordinates were startled by that momentum and tried to draw their own weapons as well.

“I do not know whether you have heard, but the Taeul Sect acquired the Namgung Clan’s Azure Sky Merchant Guild without even having a single martial art worth mentioning. It is impossible to predict how much greater we will become from now on. To miss such a good trading partner and have your eyes stolen by momentary greed is something only fools do.”

“Haha, do you have three lives or something?”

“I am certain that people who are the Stronghold Masters of Twin Curtain Stronghold would not make a foolish choice.”

“What a bold fellow.”

One-Eyed Blood Axe said this as he spun his axe, but his gaze still showed no sign of leaving the boxes.

Even if he was the Stronghold Master of Gold Curtain Stronghold, there was no way he could avoid being easily shaken before one thousand gold taels.

“As you say, I can release the people along with taking that money. However, I cannot guarantee that they will not come here again.”

He was saying that he would take the money as money, then catch the released people again.

‘As if anyone would forget they are thieves.’

I readily nodded.

“What happens afterward is not my concern.”

“What?”

“Hm?”

At my words, our party, One-Eyed Blood Axe, and Golden-Faced Buddha Saber all stared at me with rabbit eyes.

“We merely do good. It is not as if we can prevent calamity from descending again, is it?”

One-Eyed Blood Axe, who had been staring blankly like a mute who had eaten honey, threw his head back and roared with laughter.

“Kahahahahaha.”

“Kahahahahaha!”

Then, at the same time, the bandits who had drawn their weapons on the right side all burst into laughter together as if they were One-Eyed Blood Axe’s shadows.

“What an amusing fellow. They said a Black Path rising star wearing the skin of the Orthodox Path had appeared, and indeed, you are just as the rumors say.”

No.

How dare he compare me to them?

“Good. Take them. But!”

One-Eyed Blood Axe paused for a moment.

“Have them prepare the food for the feast before you take them away!”

“Waaaaaaaah!”

At the word feast, the bandits who had smelled the wine shouted from every direction.

-Do you think this resolves everything?

At that moment, a thunderous Sound Transmission struck my eardrums, and I almost covered my ears in surprise.

When I turned my head, Bang Du-chil was moving his lips.

Just like his ridiculous inner arts, he could not control his Sound Transmission either.

-Have we not rescued them for now?

-Thanks to you, we lost the chance to launch a surprise attack.

-You were thinking of launching a surprise attack? Against a thousand people?

Was a stupid head one of the traits of the Heavenly Dipper Limitless Body?

Why could his head not keep up with even half of his body?

-…….

-Just stay quiet and watch. Everything has already been prepared.