The Childish Princess’s Unauthorized Outing (3)

After the village was completed, Neung Je-gang went back to the Shinsu Medical House to report the news, then went on to the Regional Military Command in Hangju where Nam Yeong was staying.

“You came at just the right time. I was about to send someone to fetch you, and you show up on your own.”

Nam Yeong greeted him with a bright, relieved smile. Neung Je-gang suddenly felt uneasy. His master only smiled like that when he had something for him to do.

“Why, Master? Is something the matter?”

“It seems the Eastern Depot means to bother me now that they’ve given me an official post.”

“Sorry?”

“They’re telling me to come to Beijing.”

“What? Why?”

“Apparently there’s some problem in the Eastern Depot, but they don’t care to explain the details.”

“So what are you going to do?”

“I decided not to go. At my age, the idea of strutting around Beijing is ridiculous, and nothing here has been neatly wrapped up yet—why would I go to that noisy capital?”

“You did well. It’s easiest on the heart not to get tangled up with them in the first place.”

“All of this is happening because you brought this Censor-Inspector post back in my name, you brat!”

“How was I supposed to know this would happen?”

Neung Je-gang sounded aggrieved. Who could predict the future? The ones at fault were the Eastern Depot bastards who went looking for the old Nam Yeong instead of solving their own problems.

“In any case, that’s why I want you to go.”

“Sir? Wait, what do you mean by that?”

Neung Je-gang practically jumped. After everything that had happened, how could he willingly walk back into the Eastern Depot?

“It’s about time you settled what happened to you there, don’t you think?”

Nam Yeong spoke in a quiet, persuasive tone.

“Mm…”

Neung Je-gang frowned, letting out a low sound.

Gye-yu. The enemy who had used schemes to kill his younger brother and drag him down into ruin. Resolving that matter was, indeed, something he needed to do one day.

But not yet. The way he had envisioned his revenge was this: once Gye-yu had climbed all the way to the peak he desired, he would mercilessly drag him down and kill him in utter disgrace.

“I know what you’re thinking—but if he really ends up in a very high position, you might not be able to lay a hand on him. Power and rank have that kind of strength.”

“……”

“It looks like nothing, but that’s exactly why people throw their lives at it. Because power is that overwhelmingly powerful. So isn’t this a fine opportunity? If, this time, you help the Eastern Depot and block what he’s trying to seize, that too can become one method of revenge.”

Nam Yeong’s words shook Neung Je-gang’s resolve.

He already knew what Gye-yu wanted: advancement. Specifically, he wanted the position of branch director of the Beijing branch, the gateway to success within the Eastern Depot.

For all he knew, Gye-yu might already be close to that seat. A man like Gye-yu, who knew how to weave schemes, would have laid every possible stepping stone for promotion, fair or foul.

“I had no intention of stopping his promotion. I left him alone because I could take his head whenever I wished. I only planned to let him sit where he wanted so that he wouldn’t have long to enjoy that happiness before he died.”

“That’s the kind of revenge you were thinking of?”

Nam Yeong nodded. That, too, was not a bad way to take revenge.

“But I think your method is even more satisfying, Master. Cutting off the path to success for a man obsessed with advancement sounds delightful.”

Neung Je-gang decided to return to Antang Mountain and then set out for Beijing with Majil and Cheong Yeon. The official letter the Eastern Depot had sent to Nam Yeong was tucked deep inside his robe.

“I’m sorry, my only disciple, for using you like this. But what can I do? If I don’t send you, I’ll have to give up this Censor-Inspector post. I’ve only just gotten the so-called generals here to work properly—should I give that up already? Don’t you agree, my disciple?”

After Neung Je-gang left, Nam Yeong watched his departing back and muttered with a slightly guilty expression.

Neung Je-gang never realized he was always getting taken in by Nam Yeong’s schemes. Still, if the result turned out well, ignorance was hardly a problem…

“Did you say the Eastern Depot, Boss? Are you in your right mind?”

“Beijing? Have you gone crazy, Boss?”

For the first time in a very long while, Cheong Yeon and Majil’s opinions were perfectly aligned.

But by then, Neung Je-gang had already made up his mind to head to Beijing.

“Of course, I’m not happy about helping the Eastern Depot, but I still have to take revenge on Gye-yu. I plan to use this opportunity to settle that.”

“Is that so? Understood. Gye-yu sold me off like a slave—I have no intention of forgiving him either. If that’s what you’ve decided, I’ll follow.”

Thus, Cheong Yeon was persuaded.

The problem was Majil. He had once been notorious in Beijing, so there was a good chance some people would still recognize him. And if his identity was exposed, the fact that the Golden Thunder carriage had broken would come to light as well, which made it difficult to take him along.

“I was going to leave you here anyway.”

“B-Boss, are you abandoning me?”

Majil spoke in a heartrending tone, but there was no way Neung Je-gang could take him to Beijing.

“What if someone in Beijing recognizes you? Do you understand how huge the fallout would be if they found out the Golden Thunder prison broke? You and I, of course, but also your master and my master—we’d all become capital offenders and be dragged to the execution ground.”

“But what am I supposed to do here without you?”

“You can cultivate your internal arts. Take this chance to get stronger and help me later. Tell your master to come here too.”

“Y-you think that’ll work?”

“It will. If you two research together, you might grow stronger even faster.”

“Fine. Then I’ll stay here and train while I wait for you, Boss. But how long will you be gone?”

“Hard to say. In any case, I’ll try not to take long. You just focus on getting stronger. And, just in case, don’t go starting fires—stay in the hideout and train.”

Inside the hideout there was nothing but water and stone, which made it perfect for Majil to cultivate his Yihwa Jinggi technique.

After spending one more day on Antang Mountain, Neung Je-gang and Cheong Yeon set out for Beijing. Both of them felt a strange emotion. They were returning to Beijing, the city they had once left as criminals.

“Aaaahhh!”

A sharp scream made them both stop in their tracks.

“This sounds like one of those scenes you only hear about in old stories.”

“Maybe not. I’ve never heard of bandits in this area.”

“Well, the terrain is too ordinary for bandits, and Beijing is too close. But do people desperate enough to become bandits really have the luxury to care about that? Unless they’re part of a proper Green Forest band, they’d set up shop anywhere.”

Neung Je-gang flew toward the direction of the scream. Cheong Yeon followed quietly behind.

“Aaaahhh! Aaaahh!”

Cheng, chae-aeng!

When they reached the scene where the woman’s screams rang out, both of them froze on the spot.

Blood spattered everywhere, and severed limbs flew through the air. Dozens of men who looked like bandits were besieging a single woman.

In the face of their attacks, the woman flailed about, swinging what looked like a sword she had been carrying for self-defense.

Every time her sword swept through the air, the bandits’ limbs were sliced off and sent flying as they collapsed to the ground, blood gushing.

“What on earth are we looking at?”

“I’ve no idea.”

“Aaaahhh! Aaaahh!”

The woman’s screams meant that yet another arm or leg would soon be hovering in midair.

“Hey, you crazy bitch! Stop it already!”

“Aaaahhh!”

“Please! I said stop, you ghost-like hag!”

The man who looked like the bandit chief begged her at last as he watched his men fall, bleeding, every time she screamed.

He chased behind her, trying to protect his men somehow, while the woman pursued the fleeing bandits instead, swinging her sword. And all the while, she kept shrieking at the top of her lungs.

Thanks to that, the cries that ought to have been coming from the bandits themselves could barely be heard.

“Is that some kind of sound-based martial art?”

“I don’t think so. It’s probably just a habit—like screaming whenever she sees blood…”

The two of them could not figure out whom they were supposed to save, so they hesitated and kept out of it. If they wanted to save people, they ought to stop the woman, but then she might turn on them and swing her sword at them instead. On the other hand, they had no desire to help her and cut down the poor bandits either.

“Help us! Someone help! She’s insane, insane!”

One of the bandits must have spotted them, because he shouted at them. The bandit chief’s gaze and the woman’s gaze both turned toward Neung Je-gang and Cheong Yeon.

At that moment, Neung Je-gang caught a flash in the woman’s eyes. It somehow felt like delight. And her face did not look entirely unfamiliar to him.

“Is she someone you know?”

Cheong Yeon had also felt the woman’s gaze, so he asked Neung Je-gang.

“I don’t remember her, but the fact that she doesn’t seem unfamiliar means I might have seen her somewhere… Ah!”

He thought hard about where he might have seen her and suddenly recalled a certain woman. Now that he thought about it, the strange woman before him did resemble the woman in his memory.

But he was not certain. The woman in his memory had been dressed as a man.

“Did you remember something?”

“I thought of someone she resembles… but it’s probably not her. No way that woman would be in a place like this, swinging a sword at bandits all alone.”

Even as he said so, he could not be sure. But if, by some chance, this woman was that woman… she was not someone he would be happy to see.

“Let’s go.”

Neung Je-gang turned away and quickly left the scene.

“Help us…!”

As soon as they turned their backs, a bandit who had been watching them cried out for help in a pitiful voice.

But once the two disappeared, the one who grew more desperate was not the bandits—it was the woman.

“Aaaahhh! Wait for me!”

She delivered one last slash, then leaped away in the direction where Neung Je-gang had vanished. For her, chasing after him was more urgent than teaching the bandits a lesson.

With the woman gone, only the moans of the bandits filled the small mountain pass. The bandit chief could only stare blankly at his now-crippled men.

Today had been the first day of their “business.”