Ko Jeong, the Autumn Breeze Fort Leader.
That ambitious man had a fearsome appearance.
He was a full head bigger than the other bandits.
His shaved scalp was carved over with worm-like scars.
He wore as a coat the hide of a tiger he had hunted himself.
At his waist was, likewise, there was a great saber suited to his size.
It was easy to see why his epithet was Autumn Breeze Great Saber.
Of course, Cheongho had never heard of an epithet like Autumn Breeze Great Saber.
And Ko Jeong’s fearsome human appearance didn’t really affect him either.
Had he not seen all kinds of monsters while traveling with Yi-gang?
Cheongho, who had been waiting for Jang Man-chun in front of the fire, merely glanced at Ko Jeong when he appeared.
Cheongho was a model student who acted as he had been taught.
Which also meant that he didn’t do what he hadn’t been taught.
As Cheongho had learned, anyone who bared their teeth had to be thoroughly beaten down.
So yesterday he cut down a tiger that bared its teeth.
Today he beat up bandits who had threatened him while swinging axes.
He had not beaten Jang Man-chun because the man said he would treat him to a meal.
He did not know that those words were indirect speech and hid another meaning.
And when Ko Jeong appeared.
Ko Jeong didn’t bark, What’s with this little brat? What the hell are you, you bastard!
“What brings a young master I have never seen before?”
And then he smiled with that vicious face of his.
Because of the scar across his face and his fierce features, when Ko Jeong smiled, people flinched instead.
Ko Jeong was the kind of man who knew the essence of intimidation.
Rather than openly brutal men, it was when someone like this showed even an outward kindness that people became more wary.
When a vicious man like him smiled like this while tearing someone to death, only then did his subordinates truly tremble in fear and offer loyalty.
It was merely that habit showing itself as usual.
“Jang Man-chun said he’d give me food.”
Cheongho didn’t tremble in fear.
No matter how frightening a person looked, how could they look scarier than a yokai? In Cheongho’s eyes, Ko Jeong was only a bald man who smiled a lot.
“Man-chun did?”
“I ran into him on the road a little while ago.”
Cheongho had poor manners of speech.
The reason he blurted out casual speech anywhere and everywhere was probably because he lacked manners.
But to Ko Jeong, it was something remarkably fresh.
In front of him, even bent old men used the highest honorifics, let alone Cheongho.
“You are an interesting young master.”
Ko Jeong smiled faintly.
Did fondness for this strange young warrior spring up in his heart?
Of course not.
What rose instead was murderous intent.
How should he tear him apart and kill him?
He wanted to see that vacant-eyed brat trembling in terror.
That was what he thought.
He had just come out in person to fetch liquor for the ‘guest’ from the main fort.
Would it not be fine so long as he did not dirty his clothes?
What interrupted Ko Jeong as he was wondering how to cut Cheongho down was Jang Man-chun returning.
“L-Leader!”
Yes, that was how it happened.
Jang Man-chun brought meat skewered on a stick.
Ko Jeong seated the frozen Jang Man-chun beside him and personally planted the meat skewer next to the fire.
Holding one in his own hand.
“Well then, Man-chun.”
“Yes, y-yes!”
Jang Man-chun had no idea how much the Fort Leader knew, so he was stiff with fear.
The fort leader kindly took Jang Man-chun’s right hand gently.
“What kind of stupid stunt is this?”
Then he pierced Jang Man-chun’s hand with the tip of the skewer.
It was quite astonishing that a mere wooden stick could pierce a man’s hand.
Jang Man-chun felt a pain sharp enough to force his eyes wide open.
“Ggghhk!”
Yet he could not scream.
It was to avoid provoking the fort leader’s anger even further.
“Heo heo, why are you making such a face? You haven’t done anything wrong to me, have you?”
Smirking, he pierced Jang Man-chun’s palm one more time with the skewer.
Two bean-sized holes appeared.
“Aaaagh!”
In the end, Jang Man-chun could not bear it and screamed.
At that, Ko Jeong burst into booming laughter.
All the while, Cheongho simply watched blankly as Ko Jeong did this.
He had no understanding of what was going on.
It was then.
Someone came running in from the direction Ko Jeong had appeared from.
He was looking for Ko Jeong, the fort leader.
“Leader, huff, huff. S-so you were here!”
“What is it?”
Ko Jeong, still gripping Jang Man-chun’s wrist, frowned.
The bandit who arrived flinched when he saw Jang Man-chun and Cheongho beside Ko Jeong.
Then he awkwardly came closer and whispered in Ko Jeong’s ear.
“What?”
Ko Jeong’s expression changed by the second.
Jang Man-chun’s body trembled in fear.
‘I’ve been found out.’
The bandits who had gotten smashed to pieces by Cheongho had returned to the main lodge.
He should have just left Cheongho alone and run as far away from the fort as possible.
“Uheu, euheohuhuh!”
Ko Jeong burst out laughing.
His vicious nature exploded. Killing intent streamed off him.
“You bastards have gone insane.”
Both Jang Man-chun and Cheongho were now as good as dead.
Ko Jeong rose from his seat and bit into the meat skewer in his hand.
He chewed and swallowed the meat, then flung the skewer away.
Then he drew his Autumn Breeze Great Saber.
Srrrng-
Slowly, cruelly.
“You looked down on your fort leader like some fucking dog, didn’t you?”
The bandit shifted his eyes nervously.
Cheongho still looked blank.
Jang Man-chun closed his eyes and waited for death.
And when his neck was not cut, he cracked one eye open.
“Huh……?”
Ko Jeong’s face had turned bright red.
Jang Man-chun first thought it was from rage, but something was strange.
The fallen meat skewer came into Jang Man-chun’s view.
It was the very one onto which he himself had shaken out all his poison.
The fort leader had torn off and eaten that meat.
“Guh, kehek!”
Blood burst from Ko Jeong’s mouth.
He was poisoned. There was no doubt about it.
“Po, poi, poi.”
He was trying to say poison.
The bandit who had brought the news to Ko Jeong could not grasp the situation and panicked.
Jang Man-chun blurted something out at once.
It was truly the height of quick-witted scheming.
“Qi, Qi Deviation!”
“Guh!”
Just then Ko Jeong coughed up blood, so with the veins bulging all over him, he truly looked as though his Qi and blood had twisted out of order.
In a fury, Ko Jeong swung his great saber.
No Saber Qi rose from it, but it was more than enough to cut off Jang Man-chun’s neck.
For an instant, Jang Man-chun saw his life flash before his eyes.
Fortunately, his life didn’t end.
“Keohuk!”
Ko Jeong rolled across the ground, spraying blood.
The one who had hit him with a flying side kick was none other than Cheongho.
Cheongho saved Jang Man-chun.
Only Cheongho himself could have known the reason.
At any rate, the fort leader went flying, coughing blood from a kick that could hardly even be called a proper kicking art.
Seeing that, a bandit shouted almost like a scream.
“It’s an intrudeeer!”
In truth, it was what Jang Man-chun, who had brought Cheongho here, should have shouted much earlier.
“T-the intruder is attacking the Leader!”
The bandit shouted that and ran.
He must have been terrified of Cheongho, who had knocked down a Peak Realm fort leader in a single blow.
Jang Man-chun thought they ought to catch that bastard, but Cheongho himself stood still.
“Wh-what, what do we do?”
Panicked, Jang Man-chun first checked the fort leader’s condition.
If it became known that he was the one who had poisoned the fort leader, he would surely die.
“Ja, Jang Man-chuun. Y-you poisoned me……. Guh!”
Ko Jeong seemed to have realized it long ago.
Even though he had been poisoned, he still had not died. That meant Ko Jeong’s internal energy was by no means weak.
“You traitor, guh, bastard. You think, the lot of you, will get away……”
Ko Jeong cursed them with a face that had now turned purple.
“Do you even know who came from the main fort, kehek, heh, hehehe……!”
And then Ko Jeong lost consciousness.
Jang Man-chun tried to run even now, but the sound of people rushing in was already loud.
Bandits came swarming in with weapons in hand.
“That’s him!”
“He’s the one who brought down the Fort Leader!”
“Chieeef!”
Since when had they become so loyal? They cried out for their fort leader and wept.
‘Why are those crazy bastards…….’
As Jang Man-chun hurried to get away from Cheongho and Ko Jeong, the bandit who had fled earlier shouted out.
“That bastard Jang Man-chun looks suspicious toooo!”
“Fuck!”
But there were already many eyes glaring at him.
And Cheongho drew his saber.
Jang Man-chun nearly fainted in shock.
“What are you thinking? Get on your knees and beg right now!”
Jang Man-chun begged Cheongho like that, but Cheongho acted as though he had not heard.
“Look how many of them there are! Are you thinking of breaking through them all?”
He had hoped Cheongho would just kneel down quietly, but Cheongho showed no sign of intending to do that.
He had gotten mixed up with a lunatic. Jang Man-chun’s legs gave out.
But the bandits didn’t charge all at once.
Instead, one among them stepped forward.
He was a very large man.
He looked even taller than Ko Jeong, and wore light green clothes with a scarf wrapped over his face.
“Leader Ko, is he really dead?”
It was a younger voice than expected.
Yet he spoke casually to a fort leader.
The ‘guest from the main fort’ came to Jang Man-chun’s mind.
Who was he, to speak so casually?
“Well, I had planned to stay quiet and leave.”
Leaving the bandits behind, he walked forward at an easy pace.
The bandits watched only his back with eyes full of admiration.
“Still, I ought to avenge my fort leader.”
The man removed his scarf.
It was a face Jang Man-chun had never seen before.
He was younger than expected. Perhaps around thirty.
He was the kind of man who could be called a broad-spirited young hero, with a short beard and a bright smile that suited him well.
The gigantic axe strapped to his back stood out.
‘No way…….’
Jang Man-chun swallowed hard.
It was hard to believe, but seeing that man brought one person to mind.
As if there was no need to use the axe.
The young man loosened his fists.
Cheongho bent one knee as though tensing up.
It was the first time he had shown such a reaction since stepping out into Kangho.
He raised his saber and bared his fangs with a growl like a beast.
For a moment, blue sparks seemed to flash in his eyes.
And the green-clad young man.
“Hup!”
At the same instant he shouted, his face turned bright red and his hair shot upward.
His standing figure vanished.
There was no one there who could follow his movement with their eyes.
Cheongho was no exception.
Leaving not even an afterimage, the young man came within arm’s reach of Cheongho in an instant.
Kwaang!
The sound came after that.
The young man threw a punch, and Cheongho was blasted away, crashing through several trees.
A single punch too fast to see.
Anyone could tell it was a superhuman realm.
And there was the distinctive mark of that martial art, the reddening face and surging hair.
The bandits shouted.
“Green Blood Demonic Art!”
The Green Forest Alliance Leader who used the Green Blood Demonic Art.
“ Chief Leader!”
“Alliaaance Leadeeer!”
Gal Dong-tak, the Chief Leader of the Green Forest Alliance.
He had appeared here.
“Uwaaaah!”
“Aaaah!”
The bandits erupted in cheers.
The young Chief Leader was the boss of all bandits, and one of the greatest masters in Murim.
Gal Dong-tak, who in his youth had been obese and dull due to a chronic illness, was now a proud heroic figure and the master of the Green Forest Alliance.
“Hahaha. You’re sturdy. I didn’t think you’d actually withstand that.”
Gal Dong-tak, now transformed beyond recognition, laughed like that toward Cheongho, who had been blown away.
He had held back his strength, but he still had not expected Cheongho to endure it.
For some reason, a sense of familiarity made Gal Dong-tak tilt his head.
“Where did you learn your martial arts?”
And then Cheongho walked out.
He was no longer growling.
Blue lightning crackled around his body, but his face wore a dazed expression.
Seeing that, Gal Dong-tak also stiffened.
“Huh?”
A brief silence hung in the air.
The one who spoke was Cheongho.
“……Fatty?”
Fatty.
Back when Gal Dong-tak and Cheongho used to travel together often.
Gal Dong-tak had weighed nearly three times what he did now.
The bandits could not possibly know what their Alliance Leader had looked like in the past, so they could not understand what Cheongho was talking about.
“No way, no way…….”
But Gal Dong-tak had no choice but to go rigid.
It was hard to believe, but one person, no, one beast came to mind.
That little fox who used to scamper around beside Yi-gang and Dam Hyun…….
“……Are you the fox?”
Gal Dong-tak remembered the blue fox from back then.
“Yeah.”
“R-really?!”
Cheongho nodded.
At that moment, vengeance for Ko Jeong, Fort Leader of Autumn Breeze Fort, became impossible.
‘What are those two even talking about.’
Jang Man-chun muttered inwardly.
The other bandits felt the same.
