Chapter 140. I Tried Hard to Remember.
I watched from beginning to end as the bandits beat Stockade Chief Deng to death.
Stockade Chief Deng was naturally stronger than his subordinates. But he could not withstand the fists and feet of dozens of men. In particular, the strong ones grabbed him first, so he could not even fight back properly before he was beaten to death.
I sat back down in the grand chair and looked the bandits over carefully.
“……”
When I shut my mouth, only the cries of birds and insects could be heard.
Only then did I realize that we were surrounded by mountains with fine scenery.
At last, I looked around the main stronghold of the Namak Alliance, swept my gaze over the surrounding landscape, then studied the bandits again.
To remember a face, one had to look for a long time, and to read a physiognomy, one had to look closely.
I spent about fifteen minutes looking over the bandits without saying a word, then spoke.
“When you were facing off against the Murim Alliance, what made you so confident that you laughed at us? A thousand against a hundred. Something would work out. If you fought, you would win. Did you think that? There is no need to be afraid. Those who want to speak may answer freely. Stockade Chief Deng is dead, so I am thinking of having a conversation with you.”
Silence continued for a long while before one man replied.
“We trusted Alliance Leader Yelu.”
“How could you trust Alliance Leader Yelu? The Murim Alliance Leader himself came here. Do you not know who Alliance Leader Im Sobaek is?”
This time, another man replied.
“When we fought earlier, the Guigu Sect Master was with us too.”
“And?”
“At one stroke from Alliance Leader Im, his blade broke and he died on the spot. We did not expect that.”
“Did that Guigu Sect Master boast to Alliance Leader Yelu that if they joined forces, they could win? Was he perhaps that scrawny fellow earlier? The one who appeared with your alliance leader.”
“Yes.”
The bandits were truly ignorant.
How could a man who was the master of the Guigu Sect possibly be a match for the Murim Alliance Leader?
It seemed what they had seen and heard in the mountains had been limited.
Perhaps the man they feared most was not Alliance Leader Im Sobaek, but Alliance Leader Yelu.
“Then earlier, when I created that sphere with my consummate technique, the fellow who jumped into it was not from the Green Forest Alliance either?”
“Yes, he belonged to the Guigu Sect.”
“Good. I roughly understand the situation. In any case, those Guigu Sect bastards must have had a grudge against the Murim Alliance?”
“That is what I understand.”
There were many masters of the unorthodox factions who held grudges against the Murim Alliance. It was likely because their masters or martial brothers had been killed.
I nodded, then said to the bandits.
“But why are all of you so ignorant? Is it because you shut yourselves up in the mountains? You really are ignorant beyond measure.”
“……”
“Ignorance itself. This is not a matter of whether you learned to read or not. Your very lives are ignorant. Why would that be? If your Alliance Leader Yelu was that strong, would he not have been active in the Black Path or the Murim Alliance instead of the Green Forest?”
One man replied with emotion mixed into his voice.
“We are bandits because we are ignorant.”
“Good. That was an extremely ignorant remark, but I will not kill you. Stand up. Who are you?”
One man hesitantly stood up, and at a glance, he looked ignorant.
“Sit down. You look ignorant, so I will let it pass.”
“Yes.”
I let out a sigh, glared at the bandits, and continued speaking.
“In truth, being ignorant and being a bandit have nothing to do with each other. That is an insult to ignorance. You are lower than merely ignorant. Because not all ignorant people in the world become bandits like you. What you do is mainly threaten merchants crossing mountain passes with blades to extort money, abduct women, and oppress the few with your numbers. Since you have your own strategies and use your heads, it does not fit to call you ignorant. It would be more accurate to say you are moronic bastards who do strategically idiotic things. I do not know if you understood what I said. Hey, you. What did I say?”
The man I pointed at replied.
“You said we are morons who do strategically idiotic things.”
“That is you.”
“……”
“Then what is ignorance?”
“Originally, being ignorant means one has not seen something, has not heard of it, or has not properly learned about a field. This is not a sin, nor is it something to be ashamed of. It is simply ignorance. Not knowing how strong the Murim Alliance Leader is can be called ignorance. It is somewhat different from being a bandit.”
“……”
“But no matter how ignorant people are, if they have an upright heart, they do not beat up merchants crossing mountain roads to take their money, or kill them and bury them somewhere. This is clearly different from ignorance. In summary, it is shamelessness.”
“What is shamelessness?”
“It means not knowing shame.”
A fellow with a rather unpleasant face replied like this.
“What do you mean, shame? Is it not the same whether we beat the weak or the Murim Alliance kills us?”
I looked at the man who had replied.
“Do I look like I am trying to debate with you right now? Are you trying to play word games with me? If I refute you with logic, you are the kind of bastard who will counter with a similar case. It is because you do not know shame. When someone is ignorant and even shameless, they generally do not know how to admit anything. I suppose I look like some scholar who attended an academy and merely read books. You ridiculous bastard. You have misjudged me.”
I rose from the grand chair.
“You must be desperate to die.”
When the man who had been playing word games suddenly tried to flee, a large man beside him grabbed his arm.
“Let go!”
A man who looked like a bandit vice-chief grabbed the fleeing fellow by the scruff of the neck and lightly threw him toward me. I drew Black Cat Fang toward the man flailing in midair, saw blood burst forth, then sheathed Black Cat Fang again.
With a splattering sound, the corpse split in half and fell to the ground.
The bandits’ faces turned pale again.
I clicked my tongue and sat back down in the grand chair.
“You misjudged me, you bastards. Anyway, I heard you attacked the Zhang Family Merchant Guild? The Murim Alliance Leader likely had no connection to the Zhang Family Merchant Guild at all. Alliance Leader Im was enraged, gathered the righteous path forces at the Hengshan branch, then personally walked through the night, chewing on hard jerky and enduring his drowsiness to come here. The position of alliance leader is one where he can enjoy honor and wealth simply by staying still in the Murim Alliance, so why would he come all this way to kill idiotic bastards like you? It is not that he came to kill you, but that he made the journey to protect merchants. You bandit bastards, do not try to challenge me with logic. You cannot beat me with swords, and you cannot beat me with logic. Got it?”
“Yes.”
“The reason you torment the weak is to take their money. The reason a highly skilled alliance leader wants to kill you is to protect those weaker than you. Do not misunderstand. That was an extremely insulting remark. And look at me.”
“……”
“I am different from Alliance Leader Im. Different from you as well. Watching your mouths is how you will survive. Anyway, does anyone know why I have been running my mouth like this?”
The large man who had grabbed the fellow trying to flee earlier replied.
“Is it not because you are trying to distinguish the ones you will spare from the ones you will kill?”
I stared wide-eyed at the man who looked like a bandit vice-chief.
“Hey, you’re sharp. Come here.”
The hulking brute stood up, came before me, and knelt again.
I studied the brute’s face carefully.
“How old are you, exactly?”
“Nineteen.”
“Damn. Why do you look so weathered?”
“I’ve been like this since birth.”
“You must have been born a strongman.”
“Yes.”
Every so often, there’s a man like this. He must have inherited an unusually robust physique from his parents. He looked well over thirty at a glance, so I was taken aback when he said he was nineteen.
“What’s your name?”
“Zhang Shan.”
“Zhang Shan, what do you think about shame?”
The kneeling giant answered respectfully.
“No one here spoke of shame. I don’t know either.”
“Then I’ll teach you.”
“Yes.”
“You are a strongman of exceptional strength at nineteen. That you have been stuck here for a year or two is the greater scheme of fate, something unavoidable. But let’s say you spend ten years watching the Green Forest Alliance’s deeds here. Let’s say you’ve hit twenty-nine. If at that time you are still living as a twenty-nine-year-old bandit who mindlessly torments the weak, beats merchants, and steals their goods, that is not fate—it is because you are a shameless bastard.”
“Yes.”
“Or say that for ten years you trained fiercely in martial arts, beat the Green Forest Alliance Leader to death with your own hands, seized control of this place, and then sought a livelihood other than banditry. What should you be called then?”
“I wouldn’t know.”
“To that extent, you are worthy of being called a man. A man who determines the direction of his own life and independently seeks a way to survive—that is a true man.”
I said to Zhang Shan, narrowing my eyes.
“Being strong like you doesn’t make you a man.”
“Is that so?”
“Why? Were you planning to stick around here doing banditry in ten years, too?”
I waved my hand and sent Zhang Shan back to his place. Looking at his face as he stood up and returned, it had turned bright red before I knew it. It meant he knew a degree of shame.
“Saved one…….”
Leaning back in the armchair, I looked at the bandits and spoke frankly.
“You probably want to kill me, and I feel the same. Understand my heart. I want to beat every one of you to death, too. That would be easier for me.”
Zhang Shan answered.
“From what I saw earlier, you killed the most of our Green Forest Alliance, young master. It seems to contradict what you just said.”
“Good. Well pointed out. I killed the most indeed. Your brothers, your superiors, your subordinates, good bandits, wretched bandits…… I annihilated them all without a trace. But suppose I hadn’t overwhelmingly slaughtered a hundred of you. Suppose a hundred Murim Alliance warriors had fought your thousand on equal footing. You still wouldn’t have won anyway. What if, perchance, one or two alliance warriors had died in the fight earlier?”
“…….”
I voiced the truth from my past life exactly as it had happened.
“You thousand pathetic bastards would have all died to Alliance Leader Im before the sun set today. Im Sobaek is that kind of man. He has a great sense of responsibility toward the alliance members. After I killed a hundred men mercilessly, how many of you survived?”
“Most surrendered.”
I looked at Zhang Shan and nodded.
“That was my intention. Whether you believe it or not…….”
I looked around the mountain stronghold and said in a bitter tone.
“Namyak is not yours. Your lives are not mine, either. I spoke to Alliance Leader Im and was put in charge of this place for a while, but in truth, I lack both the skill and the character to take all of you under my wing. Since the Murim Alliance has left, I’ll stop killing now, too. As for you, those who want to leave, stand up now and get down from Namyak. I’ll let you live, so try living a different life than the one you have now. My patience ends here. Get up before I change my mind.”
I looked at the bandits kneeling from the armchair.
Maybe because fear of me still lingered, no one stood up.
“You don’t believe I’ll spare you?”
Answers came from here and there.
“Yes.”
“I understand. But looking at your faces disgusts me.”
“…….”
“I’m not talking about the beauty or ugliness of your features. Your thoughts show too clearly on your faces. Reading those thoughts every time disgusts me. I simply don’t want to see it, so leave. I am a man who speaks inconsistently, but I am a man who keeps his promises. If you don’t leave now, there won’t be another chance.”
After a moment, one or two stood up, gauged my reaction, and bowed their heads.
I spoke, waving my hand.
“Don’t do banditry. If Alliance Leader Im gets angry, other Green Forest forces will be attacked as well.”
From these words, bandits here and there began to stand up, gathered in small groups, gauged the mood, and quietly disappeared from the main hall of the Green Forest Alliance.
For some reason, those who remained were more numerous.
I spoke to those who remained.
“Sit comfortably.”
Only then did the bandits who had been kneeling sit down on the floor. I had the bandits gather close and spoke.
“One by one, look at me and tell me your names.”
I was bound to forget them all later anyway, but I tried hard to memorize the bandits’ names. Starting with the bandits on the left, they spoke their names while looking at me.
Looking at the bandits, I memorized the names with the same intense focus as when learning martial arts.
When the round of name-telling had ended.
I looked at the bandits and said, “Jeon Son, U Munsu, Hu Ung, Deung Ik, Yeom Irak, Zhang Shan, Yeom Wongi, Do Daesam, Gu Jun, Gu Pyeong. Are you two brothers?”
Gu Jun and Gu Pyeong answered simultaneously.
“Yes.”
“That’s right. Jong Sachan, Gwa Uchun, Po Chunga, Yang Ho, Jang Sonrak, Nam Jugyeong, I Chan, Jo Gaseong, Wi Gwang…….”
I recited all the names I was memorizing. Whenever I slipped up along the way, the bandits corrected me. Finally, I called every bandit by name once, then let out a deep breath. Even though it was nothing much, I was winded.
The one called Jo Gaseong asked me.
“How did you memorize all of that?”
“Don’t be surprised. I’ll forget it all soon.”
I looked around at the bandits whose names I had called and said, “Anyway…… you’re lucky I’m not killing you.”
After that, I introduced myself to the bandits.
“I am Haomunju I Jaha.”