Chapter 33. Interfere and You Die.
Small underworld factions were often mixed in among clusters of shops, but the Black Rabbit Gang was not like that. It stood a little away from the commercial district, like the mansion of some high-ranking noble.
I looked at the main gate of the Black Rabbit Gang and said to So Gunpyeong,
“You wait here for a bit.”
“Wouldn’t it be better if I went in with you? We’ll end up fighting anyway.”
I looked at So Gunpyeong.
“Like you said, the Black Rabbit Gang Leader will probably order them to kill us both right away. If that happens, there’s nothing I can do either. I’ll have no choice but to kill every bastard who comes at me. So for now, let’s do it my way. If I gently scrape at the gang leader’s pride, I’ll be able to force a one-on-one duel. If that falls apart, or when the right moment comes, that’s when you step in. Understood?”
Since So Gunpyeong had already experienced my verbal abuse and provocation firsthand, he more or less understood how I operated.
“Understood.”
So Gunpyeong moved toward the wall first, and I, with the great axe resting on my shoulder, strode confidently forward and pounded roughly on the Black Rabbit Gang’s front gate.
The central part of the wooden gate opened with a thud, and a pair of human eyes appeared in the small rectangular opening.
“Who are you?”
“I am I Jaha of Ilyang County.”
The man’s eyes examined my face.
“And who is I Jaha?”
I let out a short sigh and replied,
“Don’t ask questions. Open the gate. Before I smash it down.”
“What a joke.”
The gatekeeper snorted, then shouted loudly toward the inside.
“A cocky, ill-mannered, green young bastard named I Jaha from Ilyang County is here. Does anyone know him?”
I almost sighed again, but in any case, it was an adequate introduction. However, I did not possess the patience to wait until the gate opened.
Holding the great axe, I sprang lightly upward and landed on top of the main gate.
The fairly spacious grounds of the Black Rabbit Gang came into view at a glance.
Regardless of faction, whenever I got the sense that a place belonged to the wealthy, my stomach twisted in a strange way.
“Living well, aren’t you. Living very well……”
No matter how I looked at it, the house had a structure unsuited to be the headquarters of an underworld faction. But if I thought of it as a house they had stolen from someone else long ago, it was hardly surprising.
As I stood atop the gate with a huge axe on my shoulder, the bastards who spotted me either shouted or approached with their faces twisted in anger.
For a moment, I listened to the curses being poured over me for the first time in quite a while.
I became the offspring of animals, such as a son of a bitch and a son of an ox, followed by threats like, Where do you want me to break you, shall I gut you…
Well, it was the underworld. What else could I expect?
After eating my fill of curses, I jumped down and walked along the broad central path of the outer courtyard.
I picked up a chair sitting forlornly beside the central path, carried it with me, set it down in the exact center of the outer courtyard, planted the great axe upside down in front of it, and sat.
My expression and bearing.
The act of strolling in leisurely with a massive axe over my shoulder and taking a seat in the center.
And my silence—if these had not been effective, the riffraff glaring at me right now would have charged at once.
But all these actions became a presence in themselves, and for a while, I exchanged gazes with the Black Rabbit Gang’s rabble without being disturbed.
In the meantime, the officers appeared one by one. They arrived in order at the raised platform toward the inner courtyard, and the subordinates who had been waiting spread out as if forming an encirclement.
The old man who arrived last asked me,
“Are you I Jaha of Ilyang County?”
I looked at the old man, who seemed to have rotted in the underworld for a long time, and nodded.
“That’s me.”
“Surely you did not come here alone?”
“Old man, I didn’t come here to trade words with you. Tell that rabbit bastard to come out already.”
Just then, a subdued voice came from inside.
“Who did you say came?”
“I Jaha, the one who killed the Golden Dragon Pavilion Master, has come in person.”
From the path the officers created by parting to the left and right, a man wearing a rabbit mask walked out.
I first examined the Black Rabbit Gang Leader’s posture and aura. His physique was ordinary, and I couldn’t sense anything special about his presence either.
That Black Rabbit Gang Leader looked down at me and said,
“Are you that waiter?”
When engaging in a battle of nerves, it is the way of the martial world to answer a question with a question.
“Are you that slave rabbit of the Great Rakshasa, famous for being an old crippled bastard?”
“……”
“Was it not slave rabbit but rabbit slave? Whatever.”
The officers’ eyes widened, and a quiet silence descended. Because of the mask, I could not enjoy seeing the gang leader’s expression.
Before the Black Rabbit Gang Leader could choose what to say, I continued.
“For a slave playing boss of some backwater village faction to send assassins after me. If you run for your life from here right now and all your men charge at me, do you think your escape will succeed or fail? You black rabbit bastard who doesn’t know his place. Now then, open your mouth.”
Someone beside the Black Rabbit Gang Leader gave this assessment of me.
“He’s no ordinary madman.”
I spoke clearly, deliberately, and with force.
“Black Rabbit Gang, listen. If your gang leader steps forward now and says he will deal with me personally, then regardless of his skill, he is a fairly decent leader. But if, while already having some idea of my abilities, he orders all of you to attack me first, then that bastard is underworld trash unworthy of being served as a leader, an underworld worm, an underworld coward……”
So Gunpyeong, who had been listening near the wall, shook his head.
“……a slave of the Great Rakshasa, a useless cripple who has no skill and only puts on airs, a rat hiding behind a mask, a worthless bastard who controls you by leaning on the Great Rakshasa’s insignificant reputation. A pathetic fool.”
As the denunciations poured down like a storm, a silence settled over the place again, this time of an entirely different sort from before.
“……”
In the midst of it, the gazes of some subordinates subtly drifted toward the Black Rabbit Gang Leader. In truth, if one removed the curses, what I said was correct, so an atmosphere had formed in which they hoped the Black Rabbit Gang Leader would step forward and deal with me himself.
I stretched out a hand toward the Black Rabbit Gang Leader.
“Do you not understand the meaning of this silence? A man like that is not of the underworld. He is a crippled fool. And whose words are these? They are the words of Ilyang County’s waiter, the sect leader of the Hao Sect, a hidden master in this region who would be hard-pressed to find an equal. The common saying that the martial world is vast and experts are many was made for me, so keep that in mind.”
As soon as I finished speaking, I let out a low laugh.
The Black Rabbit Gang Leader finally opened his mouth.
“Who are you to define the underworld? If told to lick, you lick. If told to attack, you attack. If told to bark, you bark. That is the underworld.”
“Is that so?”
“That is what the underworld has always been.”
“You must have received the wrong early education. Seems the Great Rakshasa raised you that way since you were little. Like a dog……. No wonder you turned out like this.”
For an instant, several officers nearly burst out laughing, only to hurriedly manage their expressions. When the enraged Black Rabbit Gang Leader looked around at the faces of his subordinates, they were already wearing stiff expressions.
I laughed, my shoulders shaking, at the farce the gang leader and his subordinates were putting on.
“Ah, this is why the jianghu is such a funny place. Subordinates cannot even laugh as they please.”
It was true that the jianghu was a place where one could die for laughing. There was nowhere in all the world more ridiculous than this.
The leader of the Black Rabbit Gang said,
“To summarize, you are saying we should fight one-on-one. Do you think there is a sect leader who would so easily fall for such a provocation? Your thoughts are as childish as your face. Your schemes are as short as your thinking. Is it because you are a bumpkin waiter?”
Listen to this bastard’s rhythm.
Suddenly, the leader of the Black Rabbit Gang looked around at his subordinates and realized that even they seemed to want him to step forward and fight one-on-one. It was enough to make him sigh.
The leader of the Black Rabbit Gang looked at me with furious eyes.
“I will accept that one-on-one duel.”
“Oh……”
“However, those who make the wrong choice today about who will win shall all die here. Those who think I will lose, move behind the waiter. Waiter, this will make it more entertaining, will it not?”
The leader of the Black Rabbit Gang said as he looked around.
“Do not mind me. Move as you please. What worse could happen than dying?”
Naturally, no one moved yet.
After all, if a waiter from Ilyang County fought the leader of the Black Rabbit Gang, it was only natural to assume the latter would win.
The leader of the Black Rabbit Gang looked at me and sneered.
“Waiter, this is your reality. Do you understand?”
At that moment, a man shot up from the top of the wall and landed lightly in the outer courtyard.
Everyone’s gaze turned at once toward the man who had appeared so suddenly. Brief exclamations, filled with all sorts of emotions, burst out here and there.
“Ah.”
“Huh?”
Of course, it was So Gunpyeong, the Golden Dragon Pavilion Master of the Black Rabbit Gang and the man who would become the Hao Sect’s Three Hundred Jiazi.
At So Gunpyeong’s unexpected appearance, the leader of the Black Rabbit Gang snorted.
“Pavilion Master So, how are you still alive and well? I am certain I told you to kill yourself if you failed. Did you beg for your life?”
Having decided the direction of his life from the Black Rabbit Gang leader’s answer, So Gunpyeong replied in an indifferent tone.
“Begging, my ass. Gang Leader, from now on, my life is mine to handle. What deep affection or loyalty ever passed between us that you keep telling me to die or not die? I do not think we had such a close relationship.”
I cut into their conversation with a brief remark.
“That is true.”
The Black Rabbit Gang leader’s gaze fixed on me.
“Why did you leave that bastard alive?”
I immediately answered the Black Rabbit Gang leader’s question.
“Am I you, you idiot? So Gunpyeong and I are close enough to have shared pork bones together. Right?”
When I suddenly mentioned pork bones and looked at So Gunpyeong, he nodded with a slightly dazed expression.
“Ah, that is true.”
So Gunpyeong looked around at the Black Rabbit Gang and tried to turn the mood around.
“In any case…… you two should have a manly one-on-one duel. My position will be decided according to the result. Golden Dragon Pavilion, come over to my side. I will stake my life on the victory of the Hao Sect Leader of Ilyang County.”
Depending on his subordinates’ choice, So Gunpyeong thought he would learn whether he had lived properly until now or not.
The leader of the Black Rabbit Gang said in a mocking tone,
“……As if anyone would.”
At that moment, one of the martial artists of Golden Dragon Pavilion spoke to the Black Rabbit Gang leader.
“Gang Leader, farewell. I will be going over there.”
The young swordsman headed straight toward So Gunpyeong and asked,
“Pavilion Master, what happened to your face?”
So Gunpyeong welcomed his subordinate from Golden Dragon Pavilion with a broad grin.
“What do you think happened? I got beaten up, so it looks like this.”
“It is enough that you are alive. Even that ugly beaten face is good to see.”
The leader of the Black Rabbit Gang could not help but feel displeased.
“Only one.”
As soon as the gang leader finished speaking, another martial artist of Golden Dragon Pavilion opened his mouth.
“Only two.”
With those words, he walked toward So Gunpyeong. This time, five or six men moved one after another at the same time.
When one of them drew his blade, So Gunpyeong stopped him.
“Put away your blade. As I said, it is one-on-one.”
“Is that so? Understood.”
So Gunpyeong showed no particular expression, but inwardly he was overjoyed. In any case, the subordinates with whom he had shared joy and hardship under the name Golden Dragon Pavilion were all coming over to his side without exception.
So Gunpyeong asked me as I sat in my chair.
“Sect Leader, are you confident? If you lose, it looks like all of Golden Dragon Pavilion will die.”
“Confident about what?”
“Obviously……”
“Be quiet.”
I gripped the axe and then stood up.
“The duel is a one-on-one between me and that rabbit bastard. I do not care if anyone interferes. However, I promise that anyone who does will certainly die……”
Before I could even finish speaking, something cut through the wind from my left and flew toward my temple.
Whizz!
Without even having time to identify the hidden weapon, I swiftly leaned my head back. A flashing concealed weapon shot past before my eyes like a gale and embedded itself in the wall.
“……!”
Everyone closed their mouths with startled eyes. Someone had launched a surprise attack before the Black Rabbit Gang leader and I had even clashed. It was so blatant that even the executives of the Black Rabbit Gang frowned and spoke up one by one.
“To do something this despicable……”
“Who was it? Who did something no one ordered?”
Out of the corner of my eye, I immediately spotted the man whose motion had grown large from throwing the hidden weapon.
I did not know whose order he had followed in throwing it. Perhaps he had judged for himself and launched the ambush on his own.
In such cases, even I had no words to say.
I gathered the internal energy throughout my body and drove it into the great axe, then hurled it at the man who had thrown the hidden weapon as though unleashing a thunderbolt.
Whoooooosh!
The body of the man who had thrown the hidden weapon was struck squarely by the enormous axe and was horribly split left and right.
Splash!
As blood sprayed high and long into the air, the great axe flew on with ferocious force and embedded itself in the wall with a thunderous boom.
Since I had acted according to my temper, the axe that Dragon Head Iron Workshop had so kindly prepared for me left my hand in an instant. But as I had slightly feared, the Dragon Head handle and the blade embedded in the wall had futilely separated, leaving it broken in two. Since I had only been using the axe to set the mood anyway, I did not feel much about it.
While everyone stared at the corpse that had been torn apart in a gruesome manner, I spoke in a subdued tone.
“I said you would die if you interfered. I do not know why people treat their precious lives so carelessly. Is this what the black path is?”
As the atmosphere sank heavily, So Gunpyeong said in a solemn tone,
“Do not interfere again. The executives as well…… I ask you.”
So Gunpyeong knew better than anyone that my words were not false.
If no one stopped me at the proper moment……
That today, the entire Black Cat Gang could die.