“Father! Please open your eyes, Father!”
Baek Cheon stared blankly at the back of the middle-aged man sobbing.
‘Father?’
That village elder, the old man of that guy?
The father of the man who a mont ago had called that old fool’s life worthless?
“P-physician! Physician! Please save my father! Please! Please, I’m begging you like this!”
“C-calm down. You’re getting in the way if you keep like this!”
Tang Soso also looked clearly startled and flustered.
“The wound isn’t deep; if he holds on he can live. So please calm down first.”
“Thank you. Really... thank you so much.”
The man repeatedly struck his head against the ground.
“This person...”
He hesitated once as if afraid to ask, then managed with difficulty to force the next words out.
“...Is this your father?”
The man flinched and then nodded. His face was already soaked with tears. It was hard to believe it was the sa face that a mont ago had sneered and laughed disdainfully while calling him ‘that old man’.
“Y-yes... he is my father.”
“T-then how...”
But how could he speak like that?
How could he belittle his own father and beg grovelingly in front of the villain who cut him with a sword?
He felt instinctively it was a question he shouldn’t ask. But Baek Cheon couldn’t help but ask.
The man answered the question while wailing.
“Then... what would I do... then...”
The man wept as he looked down at his unconscious father. The guilt in his eyes stabbed Baek Cheon’s heart.
“If it were up to I’d tear him to pieces a thousand, no, ten thousand ways and kill him! I’d want to bite him to make him spit out my father’s life! I’m human too, how could I not feel that!”
“...”
“But what would that change? All the rest of us would just be killed too, wouldn’t we? All of us!”
The man gripped his father’s hand.
“The living... you’ve got to save the living sohow. If I had power I wouldn’t hold back. If I had strength I wouldn’t have begged that enemy grovelingly. But what can I do? I have no strength. A powerless man, to live, to save even one more person, has to lick the enemy’s feet, what else can he do! What else!”
A desperate voice burst out. It was rage and also deep grievance.
“The ignorant must live like that... endure what’s done to them, swallow their injustices... just pretend not to know and live like that. If you don’t... if you don’t...”
The man could say no more and broke into uncontrollable sobs.
Baek Cheon bit his lip hard.
He felt like tearing out his own tongue that had just a mont ago criticized that man.
What right did he have to judge soone when he couldn’t fathom the feeling with which that man bowed to his enemy?
“Kuh...”
After a long bout of sobbing, the man rubbed his face with his sleeve and bowed deeply to Baek Cheon again.
“Thank you.”
“P-please don’t do this.”
“No. You stepped forward for country bumpkins like us even though you knew they were the Four Sects Alliance, how could I not be grateful to you? Thanks to you... thanks to you this stubborn life can hang on a little longer. He can eke out a little more life. Truly... thank you. I thank you on behalf of the village.”
Baek Cheon’s eyes trembled.
He wanted to say it wasn’t like that. He wanted to shout that he’d been calculating the price of your lives until just now.
He wanted to scream that he’d weighed these dozens of lives against the dangers that would befall them on a scale.
But Baek Cheon couldn’t bring himself to say those words.
Behind him, those who had beaten the Evil Sect scoundrels to a pulp ca up slowly. Their expressions were heavy and dark, perhaps having caught sight of what had happened over their shoulders.
“Dare I... may I dare to ask your honorable positions?”
“We are...”
Baek Cheon, about to say sothing, shook his head.
“Don’t ask.”
“...”
“If, by any chance, sothing happens, that will be better.”
The man understood the aning and nodded without asking further.
“Thank you... really... thank you.”
The man prostrated himself and bowed his head to the ground. Baek Cheon couldn’t bear to look at him and turned his head away.
At that mont, Chung Myung’s sowhat indifferent voice was heard.
“How’s the old man?”
“...He’s a bit serious. The wounds aren’t deep, but he’s very old so I’m worried if his strength will hold.”
“Hey, Big bro Tang.”
“...Yes?”
“You have the Highest Grade Pill, right?”
“We do. But this is...”
“Don’t say useless things, give one. Those who hoarded Highest Grade Pill always ended up dying before they could finish it. They’d say ‘If I’d known I’d have used it all.’”
“...Understood.”
Tang Pae, who nodded, took out a small pill and handed it to Tang Soso. Tang Soso nodded and took the pill.
It’s a precious dicine made by the Tang Family’s secret technique, so it will greatly help the village elder recover from his wounds.
“And one more thing.”
“Yes, Taoist.”
Namgung Do-Wei, having realized he was being called, answered with a stern face.
“What about those bastards?”
“...We’ve subdued them for now.”
He ant they hadn’t been killed. Chung Myung said calmly in a slightly low voice.
“Break their dantian and sever the ridians in their limbs. Even if they survive, make them useless as people.”
“...Yes?”
“Why? Can’t you do it?”
Namgung Do-Wei stared at Chung Myung for a mont, then nodded with a darkened face.
“I will.”
He drew his sword and moved toward the fallen n. Watching him, Chung Myung tightened his mouth.
This was why he didn’t treat mbers of the Evil Sect like people.
If the Evil Sect had only killed among themselves, Chung Myung might not have viewed them as evil. At least that would have been a mutual agreent.
But the Evil Sect’s blade made no distinction between the powerful and the powerless.
Uncontrolled force can beco a disaster soone can’t even respond to.
To push back a greater evil, to avoid danger. Small evils left unattended by countless excuses can at so point destroy soone’s life entirely.
The ruined person is soone’s parent, soone’s child, soone’s kin.
‘I’m such an idiot.’
Chung Myung bit his lip hard.
If he were his old self, he’d have leapt out and cut that damned man down before he could strike the old man. But he hesitated for a mont, and that hesitation produced this result.
Excuses? Of course there are so.
No matter how much protecting civilians was Chung Myung’s duty as a swordsman, these weren’t the only ones he had to protect. That’s why he had to hesitate.
But if Chung Myung hesitated in that mont too, if he restrained himself for his own life and the other things he had to protect, then who would protect these lives?
Chung Myung examined the expressions of the Heavenly Friends Alliance mbers looking at the village elder. They had done a righteous thing, but a heavy feeling, not pride, had settled deeply on everyone’s faces.
They too might feel similar to Chung Myung, ashad of their hesitation until the last mont.
“Are we staying up all night?”
At Chung Myung’s words, everyone snapped their heads up and looked at him.
“Treat those who can be treated, and sort out the rest here. There’s no ti to waste.”
“Yes, Taoist.”
“Leave the cart sowhere down the mountain and erase all wheel tracks. Leave no trace that anyone ca into this village.”
“Yes.”
“What do we do with those guys?”
Chung Myung glanced at the unconscious Evil Sect n and ground his teeth a little. Then he turned his head to look at the middle-aged man.
“Is there a cave nearby?”
“A-a cave?”
“Any cave that has nothing inside will do.”
“...Caves are abundant. This is a mountain village...”
“Assign soone suitable to guide us. Sahyung.”
“Alright.”
“Lock those bastards in a cave and seal the entrance.”
“Then they’ll die.”
“Whether they die or not, it doesn’t matter.”
“...Understood.”
Yoon Jong and Jo Gul moved with others to handle the cleanup.
Watching that, Chung Myung turned his gaze to the fallen village elder. The Tang Family’s pill seed to have taken effect; the pale face was regaining so color.
“Sasuk.”
“...Yes.”
“We have to do what must be done.”
Baek Cheon nodded silently.
Chung Myung, knowing how he must be feeling, did not add any more words. He too had been shocked in a similar way when he left Mount Hua and faced the reality of the common people.
You must help the common people. Chivalry is for the powerless.
It’s a phrase heard and learned countless tis, but most people don’t truly understand what it ans.
Only when they properly confront the reality of commoners who must endure injustice because they lack power do they finally learn what they’ve been told until it was drilled into their ears.
When you realize your small hesitation and reluctance can beco utter despair for soone, hesitation is no longer an option.
When Baek Cheon turned his gaze, he saw people who still couldn’t bring themselves to co closer. Even though the situation had been sorted to this point, they couldn’t approach the Heavenly Friends Alliance mbers’ vicinity.
In their dirt-streaked faces, fear was plainly visible.
A sigh escaped Baek Cheon’s lips.
To perform chivalry, he had thought one would be revered for that alone. He didn’t do it for that praise, but he had assud such attention would naturally follow.
But even now, though they had clearly acted chivalrously, [N O V E L I G H T] the looks returned were still full of fear and concern.
It wasn’t unpleasant. It was simply pitiful.
It’s not that they don’t know there’s no malice. They know, yet they are helpless.
It’s an instinctive fear of those who can decide others’ lives on a whim. They will have to live with that fear their whole lives.
“Chung Myung.”
“What is it?”
“Honestly, I still don’t know if I did the right thing.”
Baek Cheon watched those who were busily erasing traces.
Considering all the circumstances, the probability of causing great danger might not be large, but it’s hard to compare it to not intervening at all.
“If this causes us to fail this mission, or if soone here gets hurt because of it, I may never forgive myself for the rest of my life.”
“...”
“But you know.”
He sighed briefly and continued.
“Even knowing all that, if I faced the sa situation again... I’d probably rush out then too.”
Chung Myung gave a small, crooked smile.
“Good.”
“...”
“That’s enough.”
Perhaps people live their whole lives doubting their choices.
They want not to waver but cannot help it. What such people need is a steady signpost.
“That’s enough.”
It was the mont a straight, clear signpost was etched into Baek Cheon’s heart.
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