Episode 171. Don’t you think my talents could be of use?
Second day.
The ten horsemen waited for Yeonjeokha in a more tense state than the first day.
After harassing me for a whole day, I knew he would come this time.
But somehow, the tip of the nose that was about to fall was not seen until the sun went down.
Unable to bear it any longer, Eumsan-gwi asked Chaeju-in, the married woman, Imoojin, as if he were interrogating her.
“Is Yeonjeokha coming? I’m saying he went somewhere else.”
“There is still an old man named Simtong and his carriage in Seoha Village. They say Yeonjeokha is around here. He must be watching us from somewhere.”
To that, Doksimgwi and Yangsoran agreed.
“That’s right. If there were a heart and a carriage, Yeonjeokha wouldn’t have left. He would be hiding somewhere, waiting for us to get tired. In this kind of fight, the one who is exposed is at a disadvantage.”
“So does that mean I have to just wait like this?”
“Is there any other way? If I fall asleep, I’ll be beheaded, and if I split up, I’ll be defeated one by one.”
Eumsangui was left speechless by Yangsoran’s sharp remark.
Meanwhile, the sun had completely set and it was pitch black.
The debt collector, Guiyeongsaldo Yeonpagang, ran around with his subordinates and lit fires everywhere.
A sigh escaped from Imoojin’s mouth as he looked at the firewood piled up like a mountain.
If I keep doing the same thing I did yesterday all night, my whole body starts to hurt.
He was tired physically and mentally, but he knew it.
You never know when a troublemaker might come knocking.
“Come on, let’s not disperse and stay on guard as much as possible. If we let our guard down, it’ll end without us having time to regret it.”
At Imoojin’s words, the ten horse soldiers gathered their wits about to fall apart again.
***
A person who is as frustrated as the twelve horsemen is a lover.
I spent the whole day looking for sulfuric acid, but I couldn’t find a single one.
This was the result of Daebyeolsanchae’s recent excessive pillaging of the villages around Hwangsan.
As the sun set, the couple wandered around looking for a place to sleep.
At that moment, a plump, fat boar jumped out of the forest.
He ran like a gusting wind and caught her in one breath.
Because I had only eaten tree fruit up until then, I was turned off by the sight of a wild boar.
But when I actually held it and thought about it, I had no idea how to cook it.
He started a fire with the flint that Namgungcheon had given him and put in his bosom, telling him to always carry it with him.
Then they gathered dead trees from around and made the fire bigger.
Up until this point, I just followed what Simtong and Seolchasu did.
The problem comes next.
The huge wild boar that I had been living with for a long time was too much of a burden.
“Ah, I don’t know.”
Finally, he threw the boar into the campfire and shook his hands.
I never thought about taking out the intestines.
About half an hour had passed like that?
A savory smell vibrated as the flesh and fat burned.
I discarded the charred, blackened parts and ate only the flesh inside.
I threw away a lot more than I put in my mouth, but I didn’t care. I had to move somewhere else when the sun rose anyway.
It was bland because there was no salt, but it was still filling because it was meat.
After a while he cut off a branch with soft leaves and spread it on the ground.
And I lay down for a long time and looked up at the sky.
Suddenly, I thought of Hwayongdoksim Namgung Yeon.
Where could she have gone?
What should I do when I go to Jeongju?
Maybe because we broke up after living together for more than half a year, I felt more lonely than before.
***
Food.
Ham Jeong-jin.
A multi-purpose restaurant.
Around drinking time (7pm-9pm).
Three men and two women are sitting by the window chatting.
Namgungcheon, Namgungyeon, and Seolchasu are drinking tea after dinner. Since they have the same destination, the five of them are moving together.
Yoo Geun-sik, who was looking out the window, said absentmindedly.
“By now, Yeon So-hyeop and Sim No-seonbae must be heading to Mt. Obong, right?”
“Of course. Why would Yeon So-hyeop talk nonsense?”
Jin Seol-ha tilted her head slightly at Seol Cha-su’s words.
“But Seol Sa-hyeong. The Daebyeol Mountain Range is deep and has many mountains. Yeon So-hyeop seems to have a poor sense of direction. I wonder if you found it well?”
“You can’t see the road well?”
“Yes, when I stopped by Janghojin a few months ago. We were walking along the riverside and playing water rafts together, but he didn’t know the way.”
“You don’t know your way around in that tiny village? Does that make sense?”
“You really didn’t know. That’s why I went ahead?”
“Hey! No way. Even if you call it a village, there aren’t even fifty households. No matter how bad your eyesight is, that’s not true. He must have been trying to make fun of you.”
Seol Cha-su dismissed Jin Seol-ha’s words.
I’m not stupid. Who would get lost in a town so small that there aren’t even any inns?
“is it?”
When Seol Cha-su took a strong stance, Jin Seol-ha agreed.
It’s hard to believe that a master like Yeonjeokha doesn’t know that easy thing.
That night.
Namgung Yeon quietly got up from bed.
Since I always met Yeonjeokha separately at this time, I couldn’t sleep well.
At that moment, Jin Seol-ha, who was tossing and turning, spoke.
“Can’t sleep?”
“That’s a little bit.”
“Me too. Should I go and have a cup of tea?”
“great.”
Namgung Yeon and Jin Seol-ha, who had been on good terms for a while, went down to the restaurant.
The moonlight was bright and bright even without turning on the lights.
The two people who had decided to drink tea came out of the kitchen with bottles of alcohol.
And they calmly filled each other’s glasses.
Jin Seol-ha spoke first.
“Are you worried about the Yeon So-hyeop?”
“little bit.”
“You’ll do great. You know it.”
“I believe so.”
“Young lady.”
Suddenly Jin Seol-ha saw Namgung Yeon.
“yes?”
“Do you like Yeon So-hyeop?”
“… … .”
Namgung Yeon did not answer.
Of course I like it.
But for some reason, I couldn’t give that simple answer easily.
Jin Seol-ha, who had been quietly staring into Namgung Yeon’s eyes, spoke in a calm tone.
“Who said that a cough and love cannot be hidden?”
“is that so.”
“When Yeon So-hyeop said that Eun-wol had been rejected, I could feel the young lady’s happiness. That’s when I knew. They weren’t just close!”
For a moment, Namgung Yeon’s expression slightly hardened.
I was shocked that he looked so happy.
The famous church fell into ruin, and his mother died.
How can you be happy and leisurely in a dark situation where even your father’s life or death is unknown?
Seeing the sudden change in appearance of Namgung Yeon, Jin Seol-seo realized that he had made a mistake and quickly apologized.
“I’m sorry if that sounded offensive. I guess I was the only one who thought that way.”
“No. If it looked like that, then I did something wrong.”
There was sincerity in Namgung Yeon’s words.
It’s natural that he thought it wasn’t time for him to pursue happiness yet.
Jin Seol-ha bowed his head deeply when he saw that sight.
After all, she is not an ordinary person.
I couldn’t help but feel ashamed of my own frivolity in interpreting everything as something between a man and a woman.
***
Sulfuric acid.
Daebyeolsanchae.
third day.
As the morning sun rose, six letters burst out from the mouths of the ten horsemen.
“This bastard is worse than a dog!”
“You son of a bitch! Where are you! Get out of here!”
“I know you’re watching me from the shadows! If you’re human, come out!”
“Come out, you little punk!”
They are the ten horse soldiers who used to roll around in Sapa, so they have long since thrown away things like pride.
Even for a martial arts master, it wasn’t easy to stay alert for two days. Even sitting still made me feel dizzy.
As a headache came over him, Imoojin pressed his temples with both hands.
Now the blood is dry, but I cannot back down.
As the saying goes, “riding a tiger”, the ten-headed cavalry has already mounted the tiger. If they stop here, they will definitely be eaten by it.
It gives me goosebumps to think that ‘Yeonjeokha is crouching outside that door like a hungry tiger.’
The other twelve horsemen seemed to be thinking the same thing, their eyes sparkling with murder and madness.
Yang So-ran muttered with a haggard face.
“He is truly a devil. He knows that he must not lose his energy, but he cannot stand still… … .”
No matter how tired they were, the ten horse soldiers could not close their eyes.
Sleep was a luxury in a situation where you never knew when Yeon-jeok-ha would sneak in and cut your throat.
***
It was around noon (12:00 PM) on the third day that Yeonjeok-ha, who had been wandering around, discovered the village.
But somehow the entrance to the village looked familiar.
Yeonjeokha’s eyes widened as she walked through the downtown area.
“Why would that be?”
A sign for Muhakaekjan was visible in front.
It seems like he got lost and wandered around and ended up back in Seoha Village.
I went into the guest house just in case, and, as expected, the familiar owner greeted me warmly.
“Welcome. You said you’d be home soon, but I guess you’ve had a lot of work to do.”
“Uh, a little?”
Yeonjeok, who had been hesitating, ordered the dish he had not been able to eat for a while and sat down.
At that moment, Gucheonnodo Simtong, who had come out to eat, came running in a hurry.
“Oh my! Your Majesty, why are you so late?”
He diligently checked the top and bottom of Yeonjeokha to see if there were any injuries.
“Oh, well, somehow… … .”
“But what is that charcoal stain on your face?”
I tried to wipe my face by rubbing it here and there with my dirty hands.
But because my hands were dirty, the black charcoal soot only spread further.
When Simtong saw that, he chuckled inwardly and quickly changed the subject.
“But what happened to that guy named Imoojin?”
“I haven’t met him yet.”
“Yes? Then what about the other twelve horsemen?”
“They didn’t see it either. They couldn’t see where the sulfuric acid had gone.”
“Where did Hwangsan go? Did he get lost?”
“Oh, it’s okay. I had fun even eating wild boars.”
“Huh! I heard that if you go up half a mile northeast from Seoha Village, you’ll reach Hwangsan. Couldn’t you find it?”
“When I went there, there were a lot of mountains. Even old man Sim wouldn’t have been able to find them just by listening to them.”
“No, then why don’t you come back right away and give me directions?”
“That’s what a mountain is. It looks completely different when you go up and when you go down. But since I didn’t go to a strange place and came back to Seoha Village, I think I can use my talents a little bit, don’t you think?”
“Huh! You call it talent? An ordinary person would have come back in an hour. I thought something terrible had happened, but this is fortunate. What are you going to do with Daebyeolsanchae? Why don’t you just fold up and go to Obongsan?”
“Then it won’t work. I’ll hire a villager and go look for him again.”
“I don’t think it’s necessary to do that. I don’t think the CEO will say anything either.”
“If you make a promise, you have to keep it. Why is that so hard to avoid?”
“It must have been difficult if you had to work hard for three days.”
“Oh, why is that so hard? I raised a wild boar in the wild.”
While the two were bickering, Jeomsoi brought out the food.
After three days of eating properly, Yeon-jeok ate like a possessed person.
Simtong kept telling him not to go throughout the meal.
There is no reason to force yourself to go to Daebyeolsanchae where the Ten Horsemen are obviously waiting.
But he did not give up his stubbornness.
If things continued like this, it was obvious that Simtong would tease him, saying, “I got lost and couldn’t go.”
Rather than keep hearing that, it would have been better to just go and come back once.
Wuxia,
