Chapter 27

“Fifteen-minute break.”

The reconnaissance squad members dropped to the ground with a sound like the air going out of them.

They looked exhausted, but I wasn’t particularly worried about those guys. From what I’d seen, they had solid basic stamina, and they’d done nothing but stand around and watch during the battle.

The other two were the problem…

“Are you all right?”

“Huff. I’m fine. I’m fine.”

Socheon answered between ragged breaths. He didn’t look like he was about to collapse just yet, but if he kept moving at this pace, he would hit his limit before long.

Stubborn little brat.

Earlier, I had offered to carry him along with his sister. He had flatly refused.

“If it gets too hard, tell me. I can handle carrying both of you.”

“Huff. I’m fine like this. This is enough.”

Doesn’t look like it.

“I’m saying this for everyone’s sake. Don’t answer so lightly.”

“Understood.”

His eyes hardened as he answered. I placed the peacefully sleeping Soyul in his arms and turned around.

“Great Hero Gong.”

The pale-faced man raised his head.

“…Young Master Jin.”

His voice sounded ready to give out at any moment. His condition was worse than I’d thought. The question Are you all right? lingered on the tip of my tongue before fading away.

“How long can you hold out?”

“I don’t know.”

His answer was honest—and serious.

“What about the fasting pills?”

I had given him several of my remaining fasting pills, but Gong Yacheong shook his head.

“They weren’t much help. Some quack must have made them. All they did was ruin my appetite. Hahaha.”

“…Was that supposed to make me laugh?”

“Wasn’t it funny?”

“No. Not at all.”

“That’s a shame… Cough!”

A sudden cough.

Drops of blood fell onto the white snow.

Damn it.

Worried someone might see, I hurriedly stepped in front of Gong Yacheong.

“What’s going on? You weren’t this bad before.”

His condition had deteriorated rapidly in half a day. Gong Yacheong no longer looked merely exhausted. He looked unmistakably like a sick man.

“It was inevitable.”

The calm look in his eyes made it even more ominous. I brushed aside the hand trying to stop me and pulled up the front of his robe.

“Ah.”

His body was covered in all kinds of wounds. But what shocked me were the dark blue veins standing out as they spread from his lower abdomen.

“What is this…? Don’t tell me…”

Gong Yacheong weakly fastened his robe again. He seemed worried that someone else—especially Socheon and Soyul—might see.

“Those wolf-like bastards coated their weapons with poison.”

Now I understood why Gong Yacheong hadn’t recovered even after taking the fasting pills. They could only stave off hunger and replenish his strength. They had no detoxifying effect whatsoever.

“You should’ve told me sooner!”

“Those bastards must have been short on money. They used cheap poison. Its potency was so weak that I didn’t notice until last night. By then, it was too late.”

Gong Yacheong’s stamina had already been at rock bottom when he was poisoned. Then he had continued forcing himself through this weather…

“Isn’t there anything we can do?”

“There is.”

“Tell me.”

“But time won’t allow it. You can’t waste such precious time because of me alone.”

He was right.

But still…

“We have to try.”

“Young Master.”

“Everyone is exhausted. If we rest for one shichen¹—no, just half a shichen—and try the method, that should be enough.”

“Hahaha.”

“Please don’t laugh. I was planning to stop and rest around here anyway…”

I didn’t know what I was saying anymore. As Gong Yacheong watched me ramble, a faint smile appeared at the corner of his mouth.

“Go.”

“…”

“You know it too, don’t you? If we waste time here, we’ll be held back.”

I fell silent.

He was right. I had been considering this possibility since I saw his precarious complexion and the blood he coughed up. Perhaps I had been thinking about it since last night.

So this is how it ends?

I had to leave Gong Yacheong behind. If I took him with us, he might survive for now, but everyone’s pace would slow.

What if I carried him myself?

Even with the System’s help, I was still human. I had spent two days at the front, clearing a path as we marched, and the fatigue had piled up.

Two fasting pills left.

Even the thirty fasting pills I’d had were almost gone. Could I escape their clutches while carrying Gong Yacheong with only two pills remaining?

And if we still ended up running into them, would I be able to fight them while exhausted? Would I be able to face Jopil, One Question, One Kill, a Peak master?

The answer had been clear for a long time.

We both knew it.

“Please take care of the children.”

The moment Gong Yacheong spoke, the System notification rang.

Ding.

System

Quest

Gong Yacheong’s Last Request

He wants only one thing now. See that the surviving children make it back safely.

Grade: None

Limit: Jin Taekyung

Task: Socheon and Soyul’s safe return (Incomplete)

Reward: None

• Would you like to accept the Quest?

No reward.

It was the most shameless Quest I’d ever received.

I’m busy trying to stay alive myself, old man.

But I nodded.

If accepting it could ease even a little of the guilt sitting in the corner of my heart, I was willing to do it.

“Let’s do that.”

Gong Yacheong smiled with satisfaction.

“You’re saying we’re leaving Great Hero Gong behind?”

Han Yeop muttered with a shocked expression. Hyuk Mujin said nothing, as though he was lost in thought, while the other reconnaissance squad members were busy watching one another’s faces.

“Yes.”

“That makes no sense!”

“Keep your voice down.”

Nothing good would come of Socheon finding out. He was exactly the kind of kid who would insist on staying behind with Gong Yacheong.

“B-but this…”

“It was Great Hero Gong’s decision. I agree with him.”

That was when Hyuk Mujin abruptly spoke up.

“What’s the reason?”

Has this bastard not been beaten enough?

I glared at him, but Hyuk Mujin neither flinched nor backed down. My clenched fist slowly relaxed.

“His condition is serious. At this rate, the rest of us will be in danger too.”

“Is that all?”

“Yes.”

Han Yeop cut in, his face flushed.

“No. We can’t.”

“It’s an order.”

“Then I’ll disobey.”

Everyone stared at Han Yeop in surprise.

I hadn’t expected the boy who had declared himself my ardent follower from the very first time we met to use the word disobey, either.

“That won’t change anything.”

“We can’t leave him behind like this.”

“And if we can’t?”

Fatigue suddenly swept over me. I rubbed at the gritty corners of my eyes.

“Are you going to carry him?”

“Yes. I’ll carry him.”

“And you’ll get tired soon.”

If Han Yeop got tired, someone else would step forward to help him. Then they would grow tired one by one, our pace would slow, and the enemy would catch up.

“Our opponents are battle-hardened wandering martial artists led by a Peak master. Do you think we’ll survive?”

Han Yeop lowered his head without answering. The other reconnaissance squad members avoided my gaze as well.

Only one person kept looking me in the eye.

“Number One. Do you still have something to say?”

Hyuk Mujin, who had been silent for a long time, bowed his head.

“I’ll follow your orders, Squad Leader.”

We began moving again.

Just before we left, Gong Yacheong gently stroked Socheon and Soyul’s heads, his expression peaceful.

“I’ll see you soon.”

Socheon nodded bravely. Soyul, still half-asleep, whimpered and nestled into my arms.

Every time I heard her soft breathing, a corner of my chest grew uncomfortable.

Has he left by now?

Gong Yacheong hadn’t wanted the children to know he was gone. That was why he had told me he would quietly slip away along the way.

Socheon was in the middle of the formation, so the reconnaissance squad members would block his view. He wouldn’t see Gong Yacheong leave.

How long has it been since we started moving?

A sikyeong? Half a shichen?

I couldn’t tell. In the dead of night, with darkness swallowing everything around us, even the passage of time was impossible to feel.

With every step, one thought refused to leave my mind.

He must have left by now.

It was only natural. Gong Yacheong and I both knew it, and every member of the reconnaissance squad except Han Yeop had accepted it.

Most importantly…

I had a family waiting for me. There was a reality I would face once I got out.

Then why does this feel so damn awful?

My feet felt heavy.

Not just because snow had piled up to my calves. Not because grass and branches blocked the path ahead.

A mere NPC named Gong Yacheong kept weighing on my mind.

I thought of his final smile. The cheap Quest without a single reward.

I thought of Han Yeop defying my order, and Hyuk Mujin’s calm gaze pricked at my chest like a thorn.

It’s only natural. So why?

Because it was a game.

Because it was only a game.

If I didn’t leave him behind, everyone would die. I’d die, too! You fucking bastards!

“Fuuuck…”

The profanity that had been caught in my throat spilled out.

Soyul stirred from her light sleep and mumbled something as she wrapped her arms around my neck.

Her adorably tiny hands were cold. The sensation was so vivid it raised goose bumps across my skin. Too real to believe this was a game.

Real enough to make me feel guilty for abandoning a single NPC.

“…What a fucked-up game.”

I turned around.

“Where are you going?”

I strode back the way we had come. Neither Socheon nor the faces of the reconnaissance squad members registered.

That was why I didn’t notice the fleeting smile that crossed Hyuk Mujin’s face when he asked where I was going.

Or that Han Yeop, who should have been at the very rear, was nowhere to be seen.

“Huff. Huuuff.”

I raced across the snow like the wind.

And then I found him.

Below the hill, Han Yeop was gritting his teeth and forcing one foot in front of the other even as he gasped for breath.

Gong Yacheong, unconscious, was on his back.

“You…”

I didn’t know what to say. With a sigh, I grabbed Han Yeop’s hand and pulled him up.

“Th-thank you.”

Shit…

I don’t know anymore, either.

This was a hidden retreat reserved for one person.

Since becoming its owner thirty years ago, he had barred everyone else from entering. Over time, that had hardened into an unbreakable rule, and the others thought of it the same way.

“How are things going?”

The air trembled faintly as the two shadows conversed through Sound Transmission.

“Smoothly. And on your end?”

“Do you even need to ask?”

“I wouldn’t expect otherwise.”

“The Blood Wolf Sword. For a man with such an epithet, he’s surprisingly fond of his family.”

“A wolf can still love its own blood. So?”

“The vanguard alone numbers two hundred. A madman named Jopil is running wild as he pleases, but… it should be fine.”

“Jopil, One Question, One Kill? The Blood Wolf Sword chose well.”

“The wastrel young master is being chased all over the place. It wasn’t part of the plan, but this isn’t bad either.”

“Hahahaha.”

“Could it be…?”

“That’s right. I sent him. Once the Lesser Family Head sees the severed head of the youngest brother he cherishes so dearly, he’ll change his mind.”

“Whew. A heart as cold as poison, without blood or tears. You have my respect.”

“Are you one to talk?”

“I merely took one hopeless life.”

“And thanks to that, a bloody storm will sweep across Shanxi?”

“Isn’t that what you wanted?”

“I can’t deny it. Yes. I’ve waited far too long.”

“The fruit will be all the sweeter.”

“I hope so.”

“Ah, one more thing. The Lower District Sect has gotten involved.”

“The Lower District Sect? How did they?”

“The new Branch Leader has a sharp nose. Once this matter is settled, I plan to get rid of him.”

“Be careful. No matter how formidable Heaven may be, you must never let your guard down…”

At that moment, the wind stopped.

The air quivered.

“…I misspoke.”

A long while passed before another Sound Transmission arrived.

“You would do well to watch your words and actions.”

The voice was as soft as a cat’s paw.

But the listener could feel the razor-sharp blade hidden beneath it.

“Let me apologize once more.”

“Let’s end here for today. If any problems arise, I’ll visit you again in a few days.”

The conversation ended there.

The other person vanished without a sound or trace.

They’re like ghosts.

Sometimes, he wondered what their true identities were. How strong were they? Who were their members?

But he soon shook his head.

That would only shorten my life.

He had endured years of hardship to reap the fruit. He couldn’t let mere curiosity ruin his great undertaking.

It truly has been a long time.

The shadow reached a hand toward the moon. Faint moonlight slipping between his fingers illuminated a silver beard.

Soon… everything will return to its proper place.

The Head Elder smiled with pleasure.