Side Story 8. Baek Sang-ye (3)

Anyone could tell that Geum Yang-bae had never raised an animal before.

“You little thing! You little thiiing!”

He held the piglet in his arms and stroked its head.
Judging from the description alone, it might have sounded like a heartwarming scene, but the reality was different.
Rather than holding it in his arms, it looked more like he was choking it, and the way he stroked its head looked like desperate flailing to keep it from biting his hand.

“You cute little thiiing!”
“Squeeeeal!”

The piglet roared as it tried to bite Geum Yang-bae’s hand.
It was a very ridiculous sight.

“Puhuhu.”

Baek Sang-ye burst out laughing, and even the merchant guild members and So-ryu laughed as well.
Geum Yang-bae noticed and made an awkward face.
That must have made his arms lose strength.
The struggling piglet dropped to the ground with a thud.
The thing that had not even thought of running away a moment ago now hurriedly fled.
It seemed Geum Yang-bae was just that frightening to it.

“It ran off. Haha.”

Geum Yang-bae let out a hearty laugh.
The mood warmed a little.
But they soon came across the piglet again.
The piglet had nowhere to run either.

“T-the road’s blocked.”

Perhaps because of last night’s downpour.
The official road leading to Chaesang County had been cut off.
The slope beside the road had collapsed because of the rain.

“There’s no way a carriage can get through this.”

If it were only the piled-up dirt, they could probably clear it enough to pass.
But that was not possible, because a large tree had fallen there.

“I think we’ll have to move that tree.”

The tree, which looked old enough to have lived a hundred years, must have grown on the slope, because its trunk was twisted and its branches stuck out like thorns.
Its uprooted roots were a problem as well. They stretched out in such bizarre ways that it was dangerous even to climb over them with one’s bare body.

“We’ll have to split the tree apart and push it down the slope to the side.”

Warrior Jang muttered.
As if that were not enough, a drizzle had started falling again.
There was no proper way back either, so they had to put in the effort and clear the road.
For a merchant guild that valued time so much, it might have been better to run into bandits instead.

“Axes, get the axes!”
“Yessir.”

A merchant guild traveling mountain roads naturally carried all kinds of tools.
Several guild members took up axes and shovels and began clearing the road.
Warrior Jang directed them himself.
As for what Geum Yang-bae, the vice guild master, did during that time.

“Oh dear, it’s raining…… Miss!”

The moment it began to rain, he darted into the carriage faster than anyone else.
Then he sat in that cramped passenger space and beckoned to Baek Sang-ye.

“Please come in here.”
“…….”

That space was cramped enough even for a single person.
So if two people got in, they would practically have to sit pressed against each other.
Baek Sang-ye knew it, So-ryu knew it, and even Geum Yang-bae himself surely knew it.

“It’s a bit cramped, but if you stay out there in the rain like that, you’ll catch a cold. Hurry. Hurry.”

His voice was greasy as though it had been oiled.
His hair had been slicked back with spit, and his face was flushed bright red.
His intentions were plain to see.
Moreover, with So-ryu standing proudly at Baek Sang-ye’s side, it was no different from ignoring her outright.

So-ryu saw Geum Yang-bae’s nostrils flaring.

“That bastard……”

A curse slipped out of her mouth before she knew it.
Baek Sang-ye also looked displeased.
But surely even Baek Sang-ye had not expected her elder sister to draw her sword.

Srrrng-

So-ryu drew her sword very slowly.
The aura of a swordsman who had reached a higher realm was like a sword itself.
The falling raindrops seemed to halt for an instant.
The blade, distinctly darker than an ordinary sword, was clearly made of eternal cold iron. It was undoubtedly a treasured sword.
And So-ryu was clearly a swordsman worthy of wielding such a blade.

For a brief moment, a blade-like killing aura turned toward Geum Yang-bae.

“H-huuuh!”

Geum Yang-bae recoiled inside the carriage.
Crash. He curled himself up.

“Sis.”

Baek Sang-ye called to So-ryu in concern, but So-ryu didn’t answer.
Was she truly about to cut Geum Yang-bae down and kill him?
No one there doubted that blood would soon be spilled.

But that was not the case.
So-ryu didn’t cut Geum Yang-bae down.
Instead, she walked toward Warrior Jang and the merchant guild workers.

Sensing the atmosphere, Warrior Jang hurriedly reached for the saber at his waist.

“S-step back……!”

A warning that came too late.
But So-ryu didn’t stop.
Warrior Jang’s hand twitched for quite some time, but in the end he could not draw his saber.
No one could blame him for that.
Rather, So-ryu inwardly revised her assessment of Warrior Jang.
At least he had some eye for people, seeing that drawing his saber would be useless.

So-ryu raised her sword.
She had never intended to cut a person in the first place.

Sgeong-

As lightly as if she were slicing a radish.
She swung it once, then once more.
She was not displaying some grand sword art. The uprooted dead tree had no thought of dodging.
It was simply that branches which would have required dozens of axe blows were cut through with ease.

“N-no way.”

Warrior Jang exclaimed in admiration.
He too was a martial artist, so he knew what it was that coiled around So-ryu’s sword.

“Sword Aura!”

Sword Aura.
A cluster of stars wrapped around the sword.
The Sword Aura, a symbol of a Transcendent master, was wrapped around So-ryu’s blade.
Even if she had been the imperial princess’s martial arts instructor.
Even if this outing was a secretive journey under false identities.
The reason only So-ryu had been assigned as the imperial princess’s escort.
It was because So-ryu was a Transcendent master.

Tudududuk-

The dead tree was instantly chopped into pieces like ingredients for cooking.
Not a single wood chip clung to the sword.
Upon sheathing her sword, So-ryu spoke.

“Clear it away.”

It was an order, but no one felt any resistance to it.
So-ryu had displayed an inhuman divine might and dealt with the most troublesome obstacle, the tree.

‘Was that too much?’

Of course, she had done it to reveal her strength.
So-ryu regretted it slightly.
In any case, the effect was good.
Warrior Jang and the guild members silently threw the chopped logs down below the road.

When So-ryu turned around, Baek Sang-ye was smiling brightly.
Geum Yang-bae was still huddled inside the carriage, trembling.
A moment ago, he had likely felt as though he had come face to face with a tiger.

Baek Sang-ye whispered into So-ryu’s ear.

“That was so much fun.”

Her voice was full of delight.
Knowing the personality of the girl once called the imperial family’s troublemaker, So-ryu also gave a bitter smile.

“He won’t try anything reckless now. That must have scared him straight.”

That was probably true.
Chaesang County was not far now.
Even moving slowly, they would arrive this afternoon.

Not long after, the guild members cleared the road.
It was when the road had been cleaned enough for the carriage to pass.

“Squeeeak!”

The piglet that had disappeared was now among the guild members.

“This……”

Warrior Jang scratched his head.
He could now see why the piglet would not leave the people’s side.

“It looks like its mother was crushed to death when the landslide happened.”

A large wild boar was half-buried in the mound of earth.
It seemed to be the piglet’s mother, because the piglet squealed helplessly in front of it.

“……Move it to the side.”

Warrior Jang gave the order.
The guild members uneasily moved the boar to the roadside, and the piglet still squealed helplessly.

“Oh dear……”

Baek Sang-ye looked pained.
But there was nothing they could do.
They were not going to take the piglet along and raise it, nor were they going to dig a grave for its dead mother.

The carriage set off again.
Baek Sang-ye lagged behind the most out of the group.
At the very back, she watched until the very end as the piglet nudged its mother with its snout.
She left a little of the dry rations she had on hand beside it, so once the piglet gave up, it would probably eat them.

“I was rude earlier.”

Geum Yang-bae approached her.
His complexion was deathly pale. The formless pressure of a Transcendent master must have been that terrifying.

“I think I was rude.”
“No, it’s all right.”

Seeing that he still apologized, he did not seem to be the worst sort of person.
Baek Sang-ye accepted Geum Yang-bae’s apology.
He let out a sigh of relief.

“Hoo.”
“Grrrr.”

It was not Baek Sang-ye who growled at Geum Yang-bae’s sigh.
Baek Sang-ye had long since been looking at something other than Geum Yang-bae.

“Ah?”

Her eyes widened in surprise.
Naturally so.
The mother boar that had clearly lain there dead had risen to its feet.
The piglet ran around it in circles, rejoicing at its mother’s return, but to Baek Sang-ye it did not look like such a heartwarming sight.

“H-hiiik!”

Geum Yang-bae screamed.
The mother boar had certainly died.
Its mouth, with all its teeth broken out, hung open with its tongue lolling, and from it dripped a mixture of blood and white slime.
Above all, one of its eyes was missing.
The one remaining eye was a strange gray-white.
A jiangshi?
A yokai?
Whatever it was, a dead animal was clearly moving.

It kicked aside the piglet fussing around next to it.
The piglet squealed as it was flung away.

“Kweeeek!”

The thing, no longer recognizing even its own child, charged forward with open hostility.
It was heading straight for Baek Sang-ye and Geum Yang-bae.
In that terrifying situation, Geum Yang-bae showed a surprising reaction.
Instead of cowering and trembling or running away, he stepped in front of Baek Sang-ye.

“Run!”

In Geum Yang-bae’s twenty years of life, perhaps this was his finest moment.
But his noble choice did not meet with a glorious ending.
Baek Sang-ye grabbed his shoulder and pulled him back.
There was quite a difference in their size, yet Geum Yang-bae flew backward like a paper doll.

She lightly stepped forward.
A giant undead boar was charging at her, yet she seemed to know no fear.
She seized the weapon hanging at her waist.
It was not a sword.
It was an iron staff made from nothing but a heavy mass of metal.
When she lowered the end of the iron staff to the ground.

Koong!

It gave off a great heavy sound, revealing its weight.
This five-hundred-pound iron staff was Baek Sang-ye’s weapon.
An ordinary strong man would not even dare swing it, yet Baek Sang-ye wielded it with absurd ease.
From below to above.
Precisely toward the charging boar’s jaw.

Tteoeoong!

An unbelievable sound rang out, and something even more unbelievable happened.
The house-sized boar flew through the air.
Bwoong, it was sent flying far away and rolled down the slope.
The boar only stopped after slamming into a tree far below.
It moved no more.
Its neck had broken, so it died instantly.
Even a monster that had died once and come back would not rise again after that.

“Are you all right?”

At some point, So-ryu had come over.
She did not look especially worried.
She knew Baek Sang-ye’s martial arts better than anyone.

“That startled me. Haha.”

The imperial princess, who had crossed the line between life and death many times, laughed at ease.
She didn’t panic even in front of a monster.
Was this not that sort of world?
The world had been saved from destruction once, but its traces had begun to bloom like mold.
It had long since been the case that yokai had begun appearing deep in the mountains, and among them were quite a few that could threaten even masters.

“But still, it was nothing much.”

The reason only So-ryu had been assigned as the imperial princess’s escort.
Part of it was because So-ryu was a Transcendent master.

“No matter how strong your internal energy is, you cannot defeat a real master fighting like that.”
“But a boar is not a master.”
“Hoo.”

Another part was that Baek Sang-ye herself was the greatest master among the imperial family.
Since the days when the emperor had still been King Gye-yeong, she had been fed every kind of spiritual medicine there was.
That was why, at least in terms of accumulated internal energy, she was at the level of a Transcendent master.

Baek Sang-ye turned and looked at Geum Yang-bae.

“Thank you for earlier.”
“N-not at all.”
“Shall I help you up?”
“I-I’ll get up myself.”

His legs had apparently given out, and he could not get up right away.
So-ryu and Baek Sang-ye did not pay much attention to him.

“A yokai that comes back after dying.”
“Is there really such a thing? I’ve never heard of it.”
“Same here. Still, perhaps there really are monsters like that.”
“What about that little one? I feel bad just leaving it behind. And I did kill its mother.”
“……Let’s take it to Chaesang County first.”
“Thank you, Sis.”

The piglet had, in a sudden twist of fate, lost its mother twice.
Baek Sang-ye picked up the piglet, but it did not even struggle, perhaps because it had become so dejected.
Geum Yang-bae could not get back up even by the time the two of them left.
In the end, Warrior Jang came over.

“Young Master, are you all right? ……Oh dear.”
“……”

Geum Yang-bae’s face turned red.

“……I pissed myself a little.”

He had wet his pants.

“That was not a little.”
“Shut up and give me something to cover it with.”
“Yes, sir.”

Geum Yang-bae felt like he was about to cry.

After that, nothing else happened.
Chaesang County, when they finally arrived, was bright and sunny as though by a lie.
Under the blazing sunlight, the party arrived in front of Nam Family Manor.

To their surprise, the Lord of Nam Family Manor himself had come out barefoot to greet them.
Wondering if he had really been waiting so eagerly for the Golden Measure Merchant Guild, Geum Yang-bae stepped forward.

“I have been waiting for you. Please, come in at once!”

The people to whom the Lord of Nam Family Manor offered a fist-clasp salute were none other than So-ryu and Baek Sang-ye.