The pheasant, with steam rising from it, looked incredibly delicious at a glance.
Moreover, Jin Geum-ryeon was eating it with gusto, blowing on it to cool it down, so Ak Mujin couldn’t help but feel hungry.
Eventually, he approached Jin Geum-ryeon and sat down next to him, picking up a piece of meat and bringing it to his mouth. Jin Geum-ryeon said nothing. As Ak Mujin savored the pheasant, it was indeed savory and mild, very delicious even without seasoning.
And it was roasted so perfectly, moderately fatty, so even though he was eating the breast meat, the texture was not dry at all. Ak Mujin quickly devoured one chunk and accepted another piece of meat that Jin Geum-ryeon offered.
Becoming a hungry Socrates was out of the question.
“Your cooking skills are quite something.”
“It was hard learning on my own.”
Ak Mujin knew everything there was to know about Mae-yeong, but he asked, thinking Jin Geum-ryeon might be bored.
“I guess your master can’t cook.”
“It’s terrible. So at first, I thought you sent me to my master to torment me.”
Jin Geum-ryeon said with a smile.
Then, after chewing on a piece of meat, he suddenly looked at Ak Mujin’s face.
“Last time too, you seem to know our master? My master said that no one knows his residence.”
Ak Mujin blinked, with meat in his mouth.
He had only thought that if he were to meet Jin Geum-ryeon again, he would die by his hand, so he didn’t worry about the aftermath and brought him to Mae-yeong. He hadn’t even imagined that Jin Geum-ryeon would have such a good memory.
Ak Mujin hesitated, his mouth moving awkwardly as he chewed what was in it.
“Well…”
As Ak Mujin was searching for an excuse, Jin Geum-ryeon quietly watched him. He ran out of excuses and began to sweat.
“Well…”
“Shh—”
At that moment, Jin Geum-ryeon placed his hand on the hilt of the sword he was wearing at his waist, silencing Ak Mujin. The bushes rustled, and then a dark man revealed his large frame. Judging by his appearance and attire, he looked like a bandit from this mountain. Behind the man, four or five more dark men followed.
“Camping in our territory, you’ve got guts.”
His thick, low voice burst out with a vile laugh. Jin Geum-ryeon looked at him and slowly rose from his seat. Ak Mujin did the same.
“Oh, is this the Green Forest King’s territory? There wasn’t even a sign, so I had no idea.”
Jin Geum-ryeon flattered the bandit, feigning a polite tone. The bandit’s face became even more ferocious at those words, and he immediately pulled out a club.
“You little brat! You’re not even dry behind the ears, and you’re being insolent!”
Jin Geum-ryeon simply smiled leisurely and stared straight at the bandit. The bandit was about to swing his club when he suddenly noticed Ak Mujin standing next to Jin Geum-ryeon. He narrowed his brow for a moment, then his eyes widened, and he lowered the club.
“Oh, you’re going around with a Yin Person.”
Ak Mujin was shocked that the man recognized him as a Yin Person as soon as he saw him. Jin Geum-ryeon was just as surprised.
“Hand over that Yin Person. Then I’ll turn a blind eye this time.”
The bandit grinned, revealing his yellow teeth. Then the bandit gang behind him chuckled unpleasantly.
What is this? What is this situation?
Ak Mujin looked at Jin Geum-ryeon in astonishment. He couldn’t understand why this kind of BL-esque situation was suddenly happening, but…
Yes, he knew. This was a BL story.
Ak Mujin sighed inwardly.
‘You wouldn’t, would you? You’re the protagonist. You have to take me to the Martial Alliance.’
Ak Mujin looked at Jin Geum-ryeon pleadingly.
“How do you know this person is a Yin Person?”
“Isn’t it obvious at a glance? That face, that waist. It’s clear as day that he’s a Yin Person!”
Ak Mujin had always lived with this face and this waist. The bandit was spouting nonsense. Jin Geum-ryeon thought so too, so he snorted.
“I have business with this person, so it’s difficult to hand him over right now. If he’s proven innocent after I go to the Martial Alliance, then I’ll hand him over.”
“What!”
Ak Mujin breathed a sigh of relief inwardly.
The bandit glared again, as the situation was not going his way. This time, he didn’t hold back and raised his club high.
“Boys, turn this insolent bastard into mincemeat!”
“Yes!”
The five bandits rushed at Jin Geum-ryeon all at once.
Jin Geum-ryeon smiled and waited for them to approach, then began to beat them with his scabbard. As the bandit who seemed to be the leader swung his club, Jin Geum-ryeon parried it with his scabbard.
The club snapped and shattered with a crack.
The bandit was very flustered.
“Y-you bastard!”
Jin Geum-ryeon aimed for the leader’s collarbone as he charged again, roughly stabbing him with the tip of his scabbard. The leader’s bone broke, and he was thrown far away.
“Kugh…!”
The bandits were also flustered when the leader fell.
They realized that Jin Geum-ryeon’s swordsmanship was considerable and no longer wanted to attack. Jin Geum-ryeon now dodged the axes and blades flying from all directions with ease, stabbing them in the back, side, and thigh with his scabbard, knocking them down one by one.
Ak Mujin simply admired the protagonist’s movements with his mouth open. Just when he thought he had almost finished them off, the leader, who had been lying far away, regained consciousness. He was so angry and frustrated that he had been defeated so easily by a youngster that he endured the pain and ambushed Jin Geum-ryeon from behind.
Thwack—
“Cough!”
Jin Geum-ryeon, holding the scabbard with both hands, strongly struck the leader’s abdomen. The leader flew away again and fainted.
During this commotion, Jin Geum-ryeon was not even scratched by the bandits, so his appearance was no different from before the fight began. The remaining bandits grabbed their injured areas and began to slowly back away.
“Take your leader with you!”
Jin Geum-ryeon shouted, and the underlings supported their leader and hurriedly left the place.
“…I knew there would be bandits, but it’s annoying to actually encounter them.”
Jin Geum-ryeon said, putting his scabbard back on his waist.
He put out the fire and cleaned up the leftover bones.
And just as he was about to lie down, he blinked, a thought suddenly occurring to him.
“Am I really a Yin Person?”
“What? Of course not.”
Ak Mujin lied without realizing it, even though there was no reason to hide it. At those words, Jin Geum-ryeon nodded and lay down again to sleep. He didn’t know what would happen in the future.
*
They moved again at dawn to cross the mountain.
As they walked for a while, they occasionally saw some strange traces, and Ak Mujin realized that they were traces of Demonic Art only after encountering them for the third time.
He saw several trees along the road that had been roughly cut by a sword. And at the end of it, there was a rabbit lying dead, bleeding. Ak Mujin frowned and squatted in front of the rabbit, picking up its corpse. He looked around, wondering if he should bury it.
Jin Geum-ryeon walked silently, and when he no longer heard the sound of Ak Mujin following him, he turned around to check Ak Mujin’s location. Ak Mujin was digging in the ground with his bare hands beyond the bushes. He wondered what he was doing and approached, only to see him burying a dead rabbit in it.
“Just leave it. Other animals will eat it.”
“It’s unfair enough that it died, it would be even more unfair to leave it like that.”
Ak Mujin silently buried the rabbit in the ground and covered it with dirt, making it flat.
“Then you should bury it deeper so that animals can’t dig it up.”
That made sense. Ak Mujin was about to dig again. Jin Geum-ryeon stopped his arm. But Ak Mujin shook off Jin Geum-ryeon and dug again. His strength was surprisingly weak, but Jin Geum-ryeon simply let go of his arm.
Ak Mujin wasn’t just burying the rabbit.
He was also burying the countless innocent lives he had seen while working for the Demonic Cult.
It was cowardly to not have stood up for them back then and to try to comfort himself with this act, but Ak Mujin wanted to do it anyway. He dug in the ground for a long time and buried the rabbit deeply, then stood up from his spot, covered in dirt. Jin Geum-ryeon silently watched him.
“It seems like your people passed by here.”
“It seems so.”
“Why did they kill the rabbit?”
“They must have killed it for fun, because they were bored.”
Killing living things was nothing to them, so killing a rabbit was no big deal. Of course, Jin Geum-ryeon had caught a pheasant, but there was a clear difference between that killing and this killing. Ak Mujin’s expression naturally soured as his life in the Demonic Cult came back to his mind.
“It seems like you weren’t joking about leaving the Demonic Cult.”
Ak Mujin didn’t answer and began to walk past Jin Geum-ryeon. Now, Ak Mujin was in the lead, and Jin Geum-ryeon was following behind.
“I told you, I’m not going back.”
“Why did you start hating it? Betrayal? Internal strife?”
Jin Geum-ryeon quickened his pace to catch up with Ak Mujin and stood next to him. The sound of the leaves rustling in the wind was strangely peaceful.
“Neither. I just hated the Demonic Cult from the beginning.”
“Then why did you join the Demonic Cult?”
“Did you ever choose to become your master’s disciple?”
“Hmm.”
“It’s the same principle.”
Ak Mujin said that and sighed, discovering another dead rabbit in the distance.
“It’ll be more troublesome if we run into the Demonic Cult, so let’s hurry down.”
“I think that would be best.”
Jin Geum-ryeon surprisingly agreed.
They changed direction to avoid the traces of Demonic Art and began to descend the mountain.