At the words that the punishment was separate, the magistrate forgot even his pain and backed away.
“Doo youuu thiink you’ll get away with thiiis...?”
“You’re asking if I think I’ll be fine after this? Yeah. I think I’ll be fine.”
“Youu have now attaacked an official who eats the couuntry’s grain...”
“You’re saying I just attacked an official who serves the country?”
The magistrate nodded.
“It’s fine. I’m an official who serves the country too.”
At Jeok Wigang’s words, the magistrate’s pupils widened.
“Thaat... thaat caaan’t...”
“What do you mean, it can’t? His Majesty even gave me the Imperial Command Tablet so I could properly deal with bastards like you.”
“Impeeerial... Cooommand Tablet?”
The magistrate stared at him with eyes full of disbelief, and Jeok Wigang held out the Imperial Command Tablet in front of him.
The moment the magistrate saw the tablet, he fell backward and began trembling all over.
“Huh? You saw the Imperial Command Tablet and still aren’t bowing? Are you harboring treasonous thoughts?”
At the word treason, the magistrate scrambled upright and threw himself flat to the floor.
He had long since forgotten the pain of having his tongue torn out.
The terror of the word treason was enough to make one forget pain.
It was a word that could mean the extermination of at least three generations, and as many as nine.
“Loong liiive! Loong liiive! Looong liiiiive!”
He kept bowing before the Imperial Command Tablet and crying out in acclamation.
Jeok Wigang asked,
“You’re the magistrate, so decide your own punishment.”
At those words, the magistrate’s body trembled.
His charges were accepting bribes to conceal a crime and distorting a trial.
Both were crimes of great treason and immorality, and the lightest punishment among them was exile.
“Should I tell you? You took a bribe and concealed a criminal’s crime, so that’s accepting bribes to conceal a crime. You deliberately distorted a trial, ignored evidence, and sided with a criminal, so that’s distorting a trial. You disobeyed your superior’s command and shielded a criminal, so that’s plotting rebellion against a superior. Three charges in all. Right?”
At the words plotting rebellion against a superior, the magistrate started violently and shook his head wildly.
“No? Why not? His Majesty must have ordered you to resolve the people’s grievances fairly and impartially, but you disobeyed that order, didn’t you? Am I wrong?”
The magistrate’s pupils shook violently.
“There are three punishments for that. Beheading, death by slicing, or extermination of three generations. I’ll give you the chance to choose one.”
All of them were punishments he could not choose.
The least painful among them was still beheading.
With trembling pupils, the magistrate looked at Jeok Wigang desperately.
“Have you chosen? Sorry, but I’m not letting you off.”
Shaking with despair in his eyes, the magistrate raised one finger.
“You chose beheading?”
The magistrate nodded with difficulty.
“In your next life, be born as a fair and impartial person.”
SPOT—
Jeok Wigang’s hand swept past, and the magistrate’s body and head separated.
Thud, thud— roll—
The head fell to the floor and rolled in front of Im Baekmun, and when Im Baekmun saw it, his soul nearly fled his body. He bolted outside.
The soldiers watching this were horrified too.
But no one stepped forward.
They had realized Jeok Wigang’s identity.
A man who had come bearing the imperial order.
Who would dare touch him?
Jeok Wigang’s voice rang out.
“Put his body and head together properly and give him a funeral.”
“Yes! Understood!”
The soldiers hurriedly collected the magistrate’s corpse.
When Jeok Wigang approached, Mok Yonggi and Mok Hwaran hastily threw themselves flat.
“P-Please forgive us for failing to recognize you, my lord!”
“No. I hid my identity, so of course you wouldn’t recognize me.”
“Thank you truly for resolving this humble one’s and my granddaughter’s injustice!”
“I only did what had to be done.”
Jeok Wigang looked at Mok Hwaran and said,
“The wound... may not disappear. But for your grandfather’s sake, find strength.”
“Yes, my lord. Just having my injustice resolved has already given this girl strength. Thank you truly.”
“H-Hwaran! You’re s-speaking?”
“Grandfather! I can speak now!”
“That is good! Truly good!”
Watching the two embrace and cry, Jeok Wigang smiled with satisfaction.
At that moment, Ye Yahyeon came in holding Im Baekmun.
“This bastard tried to run, so I caught him.”
Im Baekmun was writhing, struggling to escape Ye Yahyeon’s grasp.
“Let him go. We’ll end up going the same way anyway.”
“Understood.”
Freed from Ye Yahyeon’s hand, Im Baekmun ran out like a madman.
“Let’s go too.”
*****
Cloud-Sea Fortress, military governor’s office.
Military Governor Jang Unbyeok listened to the report with a pathetic look on his face.
“So... you’re saying that bastard Im Baekmun is running all over town right now, telling everyone what he did?”
“That is correct.”
“What were you bastards doing? Why didn’t you stop him?”
“We tried to stop him. But because his martial arts are stronger than the soldiers’, we could not catch him.”
“You should have subdued him by force if you had to.”
“We apologize.”
“So where is he now?”
“He ran into the government office.”
“He’s doing every last thing he can to disgrace this household. And you just came back?”
“We told the magistrate to handle him properly and returned.”
“Is that so? If it’s Magistrate Ji, he’ll deal with it properly, so there’s no need to worry. In any case, did you find out why that bastard suddenly started acting that way?”
“We do not know. According to the soldiers who saw him, he seemed to have lost his mind...”
“Lost his mind?”
“Yes. They said he looked almost like... a criminal who had come out after being tortured.”
“Like a criminal who had come out after being tortured? Hah... Then are you saying Son-in-law Im was tortured by someone somewhere?”
“That is not certain. They said he looked perfectly fine on the outside.”
“Aigo. My head... I took him as a son-in-law because of the Bohai Merchant Company’s money, but I never knew he would give me this much of a headache.”
He was pressing a hand to his forehead and shaking his head when a commotion arose outside.
“What is that noise? Go find out.”
“Yes!”
A short while later, the subordinate who returned spoke urgently.
“They say it is the sound of your son-in-law causing a disturbance.”
“That bastard Son-in-law Im?”
“That is correct.”
“That damned bastard... Let’s go.”
“Yes!”
*****
When he came outside, Im Baekmun was trembling like a madman and rummaging through everything in sight.
At that sight, Jang Unbyeok frowned and said,
“What are you all doing? Catch him at once.”
“Yes!”
The soldiers rushed in to seize Im Baekmun, but instead they were beaten by his martial arts and sent flying.
“Pathetic...”
With an irritated face, Jang Unbyeok stepped forward himself.
WHOOOOM—
CRACK—
“Guh!”
THUD—
Im Baekmun was subdued in an instant by Jang Unbyeok’s palm strike and collapsed to the ground.
Jang Unbyeok looked at him and sighed.
“This really...”
He was furious and irritated, but the man was his son-in-law, so he could not do anything about him. It was enough to drive him mad.
At that moment, Jeok Wigang and Ye Yahyeon entered after him.
“What now? Why are so many people coming to see me today?”
The soldier who had guided Jeok Wigang and Ye Yahyeon spoke cautiously.
“They say they came from Dark Dragon Fortress.”
“Dark Dragon Fortress?”
Jang Unbyeok looked at Jeok Wigang and Ye Yahyeon, then sighed again.
“Why have you come? I sent all the grain you asked for, didn’t I?”
“Yes. The grain arrived well. The problem is that all of it was rotten.”
“That cannot be. You must have seen it wrong.”
“We brought it because we thought you wouldn’t believe us.”
“What?”
Carts began entering in a line through the gate.
“What is all that?”
“It is the grain you sent to Dark Dragon Fortress, Military Governor.”
“You must have full bellies. To bring back grain that was sent to you.”
“It is not because our bellies are full. We brought it because we cannot eat it even if we are starving.”
“Hmph! That is what it means to have full bellies.”
When Jeok Wigang gave a look, Ye Yahyeon removed the covering.
At once, a foul stench spread in all directions.
“Urgh! Wh-What is that smell!”
“I didn’t want to know either, but apparently grain gives off this smell when it rots.”
“G-Get rid of it at once!”
“You have confirmed it, so please exchange it for new grain.”
“I definitely sent proper grain! Are you blaming me now because you failed to manage it properly and let it rot? Take that damned grain and get out of here at once. If you do not, I will punish you severely under military law!”
“Military law? What military law? If you sent the wrong grain, shouldn’t the first thing you do be apologize?”
“Y-You... what are you doing right now?”
“Why?”
“D-Do you know who I am, speaking down to me like that? Have you gone mad too?”
“Ah, right. Your son-in-law went mad, didn’t he? I’m the one who made him like that.”
Jeok Wigang jerked his chin toward Im Baekmun and grinned.
Jang Unbyeok’s eyelids trembled, and one eye twitched shut and open.
“What... what are you saying right now?”
“Your son-in-law did so many filthy things to the people that I gave him some education. What do you think? Grateful, aren’t you? He’ll never do something like that again.”
“You damned son of a bitch. It seems you don’t want to die peacefully. Fine. I’ll capture you and make you experience every torture that exists in this world. I’ll make you spend day after day begging and begging for me to please kill you.”
As Jang Unbyeok trembled with rage, Im Baekmun ran in front of him.
“F-Father-in-law! Y-You must not! Th-That man is a demon! You must not do this!”
“Move.”
“Father-in-law! You must not!”
“You damned bastard!”
SHING—
SHAAK—
Im Baekmun, who had thrown himself in front and desperately tried to stop him, had his neck cut by his father-in-law’s hand.
His head fell to the floor with an empty expression on its face.
Jang Unbyeok grimaced and said to the soldiers,
“Remove him. Preserve the corpse intact. Still, I cannot show my daughter a hideous-looking body.”
“Yes!”
Jang Unbyeok’s rage began turning fully toward Jeok Wigang.
“Because of you, I killed even my son-in-law with my own hands. You know you have now crossed a river you cannot return from, don’t you?”
“Yeah.”
“What are you all doing! Bind that bastard at once and bring him before me!”
The instant the military governor’s order fell, soldiers poured out from every direction and surrounded Jeok Wigang and Ye Yahyeon.
Even though they were surrounded by countless soldiers, the two men showed no sign of tension at all.
“Big Brother. Should I handle them?”
“Go ahead.”
“May {N•o•v•e•l•i•g•h•t} I kill them?”
“No. That would be pitiful.”
“Tch! Understood.”
At that moment, as the soldiers charged all at once, Ye Yahyeon plunged into them like lightning.
The soldiers could do nothing against Ye Yahyeon and fell like leaves in an autumn wind.
“He’s using martial arts! Deploy the True Qi Return Formation!”
They reacted to the order immediately and began forming the formation.
At the same time, archers who had been hiding throughout the area appeared and aimed at Jeok Wigang and Ye Yahyeon.
“Fire!”
It was to buy time while the formation was completed.
BANG—
The sound of bowstrings snapping at once filled the area, and countless arrows approached like black storm clouds.
SWIIIIISH—
The arrows poured down like a sudden shower with a chilling sound.
Zzzzzng—
A transparent barrier formed around Ye Yahyeon and deflected the countless arrows flying toward him.
By contrast, Jeok Wigang was standing still, yet every arrow was veering away from him.
Watching that sight, Jang Unbyeok tilted his head, wondering what sort of phenomenon it was.
But Ye Yahyeon knew what that phenomenon was, and it horrified him.
Right now, Jeok Wigang was striking away every single arrow flying toward him with his hands.
His speed was so fast it could not be seen by human eyes, so it only looked as though the arrows were veering away on their own.
At some point, the rain of arrows vanished.
Between the arrows covering the ground, the two men stood and exchanged words.
“Wouldn’t it be fine to just let them hit you?”
“That would be easier, but then my clothes would get torn. When my clothes get torn, it looks unsightly.”