Episode 45. Gamblers’ Wrists

The ones in front advanced, the ones in the middle split left and right, and the ones at the very back moved their heads this way and that as they prepared hidden weapons.

I classified them by their arms.

I dealt with them not as people I was fighting, but as three-pointed sabers, straight sabers, longswords, judge’s pens, and the like surging in to kill me.

As I deflected weapon after weapon, I naturally had no choice but to retreat.

Even amid that, long harpoons, hooked sickle spears, and wolf-tooth clubs came rushing at me, cutting through the air, while the hidden weapons that failed to hit me embedded themselves in the ground and walls.

I was driven all the way to the doors of the main hall, then kicked them open with the foot I had extended behind me and retreated outside.

I found myself thinking, anew, that the air outside was pleasant, and drew in a deep breath. In the main hall, the stench exuded by greedy old men and bastards like Dokgo Saeng had mixed together, making every breath unpleasant.

With my sword in hand, I looked around.

The common folk of this strange land were gathering to watch the fight, but they did not look particularly excited.

‘A fight, after all this time?’

That was about the expression they all wore.

But when the officers of Heukseonbo appeared all at once, weapons gripped upright in their hands, everyone’s eyes finally widened.

In an instant, the officers surrounded me in a square formation.

The Fort Master of Heukseonbo walked out and said,

“Officers, he is an expert, so do not be careless. Squad leaders, do not rashly interfere. Those who die or are injured will be settled here and now.”

I examined the hands of the officers gripping their weapons. Most of them were missing several fingers.

Suddenly, I remembered something my grandfather used to mutter now and then.

‘Gamblers should have their wrists cut off.’

He had never explained in detail why they had to be cut off, or which bastard had made him say such a thing.

Only, whenever talk of gambling came up at the inn, he would sometimes say that.

All at once, Grandfather’s words circled in my ears.

* * *

When the fight resumed, I handled it with the insights of cockfighting.

If I saw an opening, I stabbed into it; if I judged it a trick, I did not take the bait. Honest attacks I knocked aside, and irregular attacks I dealt with selectively. The officers’ offensive grew fiercer and fiercer.

Suddenly, poisonous salt flew toward my eyes.

The number of hidden weapons flying at me also increased.

The screams gradually multiplied as well.

Hidden weapons that failed to hit me flew on and lodged in the necks of spectators.

One fellow, the moment he was covered in poisonous salt, screamed and ran off somewhere. I deliberately moved my body often, taking in the situation in every direction.

Though twenty men launched a fierce assault, when I held firm and blocked them, impatience finally entered the officers’ eyes.

The moment I detected that change in their minds, I reduced the weight I placed on defense and went on the attack.

The instant I switched to offense, my mouth opened as if by reflex.

“Gamblers should have their wrists cut off.”

I moved more lightly and swiftly than when I had been defending, then seized the middle of an incoming harpoon with my left hand and swung my sword, cutting off the officer’s wrist.

Puak!

I had no leisure to check the pained expression on the bastard’s face. As I dodged a straight saber and a wolf-tooth club, I sent a finger wind into the eye of the man thrusting out a three-pointed saber.

The instant his head snapped back, I cut the wrist connected to the three-pointed saber and moved on.

Before my eyes, one judge’s pen traced a stroke in the shape of 乙, while another came driving in as a single point (一點).

The 乙-shaped stroke was a feint, and the single point was the killing move.

I shot upward, escaping the range of both the feint and the killing move, then, with my body inverted, struck the bastard’s acupoint with the Wooden Rooster Finger Art and descended.

The man holding the two judge’s pens stiffened rigidly and protected my back for a moment.

In that instant, hidden weapons like fishhooks poured down in great numbers. Even if dodged, they were the kind of hidden weapon that would scatter across the ground and pierce one’s feet.

I grabbed the nape of the stiffened bastard’s neck, turned him around, and set him up in front of me like a shield.

With a bababababak— the fishhooks embedded themselves. Some bounced off and rolled across the ground in every direction.

Meanwhile, a weapon from behind came falling toward my shoulder.

I thrust the sword in my right hand through the space beneath my left armpit and poured out blade qi.

With a puuk— the blade qi pierced through the neck of the bastard who had been raising a straight saber.

“Keoheok!”

I looked around again and assessed the state of the battle.

While the Fort Master of Heukseonbo remained still like a king on a chessboard, five or six bastards had died or been injured, and the rest still maintained their fighting spirit.

When would the king move?

I could not tell.

Perhaps he intended to wait until the very end in order to keep playing the king.

I flicked the blood from my sword once, then looked at the man standing behind me. With the hand that had lost its weapon, he was trying to staunch the blood flowing from his neck.

I kicked him in the abdomen to block the incoming hidden weapons, then spun backward and poured out a long strand of blade qi.

Swaeeeeng!

The three men approaching with harpoons in hand tried to block the blade qi and toppled backward at the same time. The officers were gradually running out of stamina, and their internal energy had also been consumed, so they could no longer receive the blade qi unscathed.

Beyond them, my eyes briefly met those of Dokgo Saeng, who stood with his arms crossed.

In the middle of all this, Dokgo Saeng shifted his gaze to the Fort Master of Heukseonbo, who was waiting motionlessly.

“……”

Even as the officers were dying like this, the Fort Master of Heukseonbo gave no particular orders to the other squad leaders.

‘Does he intend to have us fight each other to the death?’

As I guessed at the Fort Master of Heukseonbo’s thoughts, I cut off the remaining officers’ wrists without much difficulty. Since twenty men had attacked me together, I had focused on defense, but once half of them had been gravely wounded or killed, the tide of battle shifted drastically.

For the most part, I chased them down, knocked aside their weapons once or twice, and cut off their wrists. In the end, after cutting off every last wrist of the remaining officers, I looked at the Fort Master of Heukseonbo.

Here and there, the pain-filled howls of Heukseonbo’s elders mingled together.

* * *

The Fort Master of Heukseonbo, who had been watching the officers’ defeat intently, opened his mouth.

“……You have worked hard.”

I could not tell whether he was speaking to the officers or to me.

But the moment I saw the Fort Master of Heukseonbo’s expression, I realized he was saying it to everyone.

Gripping a broad saber in each hand, the Fort Master of Heukseonbo charged toward me and poured out blade wind in the shape of o (乄).

I canceled out the oncoming blade wind with my own, then knocked away the Fort Master of Heukseonbo’s broad sabers as he arrived, stirring up a violent gust.

It was a savage, forceful attack, enough that he could have treated the officers like personal servants. As I knocked away the broad sabers, this thought occurred to me.

That this old man too must have been no less of a piece of trash than Dokgo Saeng in his youth.

By the time our blades had clashed some twenty times, Dokgo Saeng’s sword that I was wielding was losing more and more of its edge.

In terms of lifespan, it was in an even older state than the Fort Master of Heukseonbo.

The Fort Master of Heukseonbo’s broad sabers, unlike their crude appearance, were as solid as a young man’s muscles.

In the midst of the fight, my old blade was the first to finally break.

In that instant, I kicked off the ground with my right foot and retreated as if sliding, hovering low in the air.

The Lord of Heukseonbo warned those around us.

“Anyone who hands Lee Jaha another weapon….”

I stretched both hands out to either side and unleashed the Absorbing Star Great Art. With the sound of small whirlwinds whipping up, two weapons were sucked into my hands.

A wolf-tooth club in my right hand.

A Judge’s Brush in my left.

I shook my head slightly.

‘This is a bit much.’

I should have checked what was there before pulling them in.

I had never heard of a jianghu man who wielded a Judge’s Brush and a wolf-tooth club at the same time. It lacked class, it looked ridiculous, humans repeat their mistakes, and ah, fuck.

The Lord of Heukseonbo charged again without giving me any opening to change weapons.

Even with all my experience, I had never fought with the combination of a wolf-tooth club and a Judge’s Brush, but things were rather urgent right now.

My opponent was an old jianghu veteran in his sixties.

Ordinary people who were not of the jianghu would, around the age of sixty, suffer from aching joints, chronic illnesses, “oh, my back,” presbyopia, waning virility, and the like. But jianghu men in their sixties, who had spent their lives in the martial world, had accumulated internal energy even if they had those minor pains.

Sparks burst each time the wolf-tooth club and the broad sabers clashed.

The Judge’s Brush I thrust out like a kitchen knife was also blocked by the broad sabers every time.

In short, the Lord of Heukseonbo fought well.

It felt as though a bastard like Dokgo Saeng had trained in saber arts for about forty years.

He wielded his twin blades with astonishing skill, and his footwork was natural as well. His offense and defense were balanced, he did not recklessly throw out childish feints, and though he swung his blades bravely from beginning to end, he never lost his dignity.

Whether this bastard was insane or not, when he fought, he was the king of Heukseonbo. Rather, when I responded with various methods I had not shown the officers, the Lord of Heukseonbo looked even more flustered.

While I clashed fiercely with him, I cut down on idle thoughts. As I focused all my nerves on the fight, the unnecessary sounds around me were erased.

“……!”

I could clearly hear the Lord of Heukseonbo’s footsteps, the fluttering of his clothes, the sounds made by our weapons, and the breathing of the two of us.

The moment I heard his breathing, I recalled the smoke of the Mangucho that Dokgo Saeng had been exhaling, and soon realized that this bastard, too, was suffering from a lung disease. In the midst of battle, phlegm churned in his chest.

I deliberately fought three or four exchanges loosely and retreated.

At that moment, the Lord of Heukseonbo spat out the phlegm filling his throat as if by habit.

“Ptoo!”

Before that yellow phlegm even reached the ground, I hurled the Judge’s Brush.

When the sound of the broad saber and the Judge’s Brush colliding rang out—

Clang!

I soared into the air, closed the distance, poured internal energy into the wolf-tooth club, and brought it down ferociously.

The Lord of Heukseonbo realized my attack was no ordinary strike and crossed his broad sabers to block the descending wolf-tooth club.

Booooom!

Amid the thunderous roar….

I drew the Judge’s Brush that had fallen nearby back toward me with the Absorbing Star Great Art, and when it came close, I turned my wrist and struck it with palm force. Its direction changed, and the force driving it forward grew even stronger.

Thuk!

“Ghk!”

Where had it lodged?

Only after swinging the wolf-tooth club again did I confirm that the Judge’s Brush I had knocked away with palm force was embedded in the Lord of Heukseonbo’s chest.

I chased after the staggering Lord of Heukseonbo and continued bringing the wolf-tooth club straight down.

I kept his hands and feet busy so he could not pull out the Judge’s Brush lodged in his chest. After blocking three strikes, the Lord of Heukseonbo finally lost hold of his two broad sabers and fell on his backside.

It seemed his qi and blood had been thrown into disorder after he forced himself to draw up internal energy while injured.

Soon, blood sprayed from the Lord of Heukseonbo’s mouth.

Holding the wolf-tooth club, I approached and looked down at the Lord of Heukseonbo.

“Fort Lord, can’t you get up?”

The Lord of Heukseonbo nodded with an exhausted look, then spoke in a commanding tone.

“……Stop.”

Just how long had he played king that he would speak to me in a commanding tone even in this situation?

“I’m not your slave. What’s with that tone?”

A man who points out the tone of even a dying bastard—that, too, is me.

The Lord of Heukseonbo laughed, baring bloodstained teeth.

“If you let my subordinates treat me, I’ll appoint you as the next fort lord. You won’t lose anything. You’ll have everything in Heukseonbo.”

His voice was so quiet I could barely hear him, but that was roughly what he meant.

I did not accept the Lord of Heukseonbo’s offer.

“I refuse.”

“Refuse…? They are all foolish bastards. Foolish bastards who can’t even look after themselves unless they receive orders. Take them in and use them.”

Was this the perspective of someone who had lived his life commanding slaves? Since the Lord of Heukseonbo looked as though he would die like this, I asked for his last words.

“Fort Lord, say something before you die.”

The Lord of Heukseonbo barely lifted his head and left these words to the people of Heukseonbo.

“You foolish bastards, you’ve been through a lot.”

As he let out a strange laugh like the scraping of metal, I smashed the Lord of Heukseonbo’s skull with the wolf-tooth club I had raised.

Thud!

“Running your mouth to the very end.”

On behalf of the slaves sold off for money, I struck the shattered place again.

Thinking of the foolish bastards who fell into gambling and stole and squandered their household money, borrowed money, their family’s money, their friends’ money, even the money of the old lady next door to some distant in-law, I brought the wolf-tooth club down again.

Thinking that even so, you must have eaten well, slept comfortably, and stayed warm, I brought the wolf-tooth club down.

Blood and bits of flesh that splashed up as it was pulverized stuck all over my face. Since he was already dead, I thought striking him one more time with the wolf-tooth club would not deepen my sin, so I put my feelings into it and brought it down once more. This time the wolf-tooth club hit the ground, and the sound was even more violent.

Booooooom!

With my face covered in blood, I looked around Heukseonbo.

“…….”