Abolition of the Wicked - Chapter 233

—————
This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
—————

#233

“Oh? The supervisors are here too?”
Kang Chan-sik, who had been walking with the bearing of a provincial governor, spotted Hang Ju-sa-ung and hurried over.
“Are you feeling better?”
Kang Chan-sik, who had eaten the medicine Jang Man-dok gave him and lived to tell the tale, waved his hand dismissively.
“I won’t take any more medicine from you, Lord.”
“As if you have a choice in the matter. But at least thanks to that medicine, you don’t have to worry about being poisoned to death anymore.”
“Who would try to kill me here in Hangju?”
“That’s the thing about life—you never know. And there’s no guarantee you’ll stay in Hangju forever.”
“After traveling, I’ve come to think Hangju is the best. Even if they offered me a post in Beijing, I wouldn’t go. Home is truly the finest place.”
He had just finished paying his respects to Ban Dong-gwang and exchanging pleasantries about how they’d been, when a cry cut through the crowd calling out to Hang Ju-sa-ung.
“Supervisors! Supervisors!”
It was a laborer who worked at Oseong Jang-won.
“What is it?”
The laborer, gasping for breath, let out a choked, rasping sound.
“G-great trouble! Oseong Jang-won is collapsing!”
“What do you mean by that?”
“Someone came to call, and Madam Silver and she suddenly started fighting, and….”
There was no need to hear the rest.
Only the Bloodwind Saja could visit Oseong Jang-won now, and only she could fight with Eun Bi-yeon.
“Governor Kang! We’ll talk later!”
“Be careful!”
Pushing their Lightness Technique to its limits, they reached Oseong Jang-won in moments. A thunderous roar echoed from a distance, and clouds of dust rose into the air.
Fortunately, all the laborers had already evacuated outside the estate.
Still, Se-hwa checked just to be sure there were no injuries.
“Chef prepared everyone to evacuate the moment the fight began, so no one was hurt.”
Despite the chaos, Ji-u slept soundly in Go Shin-ji’s arms, breathing softly.
“Where is Nam-jae?”
At Gal Ma-pyeong’s question, Go Shin-ji pointed with her chin toward Oseong Jang-won.
“He and Miss Jeon went inside—probably watching the fight.”
“Watching?”
Hang Ju-sa-ung rushed to vault over the wall when—Bang!—a deafening crash erupted and roof tiles came flying.
As they hastily swatted the tiles away, they saw a building collapsing right before their eyes.
“That’s the steward’s quarters!”
As they rounded the building, they found Sang Nam-jae and Jeon Mi-ryeo standing there with their mouths gaping open.
“What are you doing here?”
Go Seo-bang’s question was answered by Sang Nam-jae.
“Watching the fight.”
“You should be stopping it, not just standing here watching!”
“Are you asking me to kill myself?”
When Eun Bi-yeon unleashed her Jang-ryeok, a thick frost descended across a radius of five zhang around her.
Remarkable as that Jang-ryeok was, the martial skill of the Bloodwind Saja, wielding an awl-like sword to parry it, was equally extraordinary.
With every collision, walls crumbled and stone lanterns placed as ornaments shattered into fragments, scattering like pebbles.
Even as Hang Ju-sa-ung watched, another building came down.
Only two structures remained standing.
If he had to get through the night dew, he had to at least protect those two buildings.
“Steward, you said you’d take responsibility, didn’t you?”
“What? M-me?”
“That’s exactly what you said!”
O Tong-su added his voice to Go Seo-bang’s reproach.
“I wasn’t expecting a situation like this!”
Bang!
An enormous tree, shattered to pieces, split into shards that flew toward them like daggers.
“Aaaah!”
Gal Ma-pyeong drew up his Ho-shin Gang-gi and batted the fragments away, crying out.
“If you don’t want to sleep rough, you need to stop this fight right now! Dajeo! Hurry!”
Se-hwa regretted her bold proclamation, but if she backed down now, her standing as a dajeo would crumble in an instant.
‘Surely she won’t actually kill me.’
It wasn’t a particularly strong conviction. But the name “dajeo to Hang Ju-sa-ung” held enough weight to stake her life on, and so she threw herself into the fray.
“Stop!”
She’d rushed in blindly, and it happened to be the moment Eun Bi-yeon was extending her Jang-ryeok.
A chill swept over her as though her bones were turning to ice.
Se-hwa hastily drew up her martial force and unleashed her own Jang-ryeok to meet it.
Compared to Eun Bi-yeon’s, her martial arts were meager, but at least she wouldn’t freeze where she stood.
Bang!
She flew backward as though her arm had been torn from its socket. She’d braced for a rough tumble, but unexpectedly, Se-hwa landed lightly on the ground.
Hyeolpung Saja, standing behind her, had caught her with his martial force and set her down gently.
In any case, Se-hwa’s self-sacrifice brought their fight to an abrupt halt.
Her stomach churned and her entire sleeve had shattered into ice powder, though she had no serious injuries.
It was thanks to Eun Bi-yeon holding back at the last moment.
“Do you have a death wish?”
Had Eun Bi-yeon’s restraint come even a moment later, Se-hwa might have become ice powder herself.
“I was trying to protect both of you.”
“Protect us? You were protecting that fool!”
Hyeolpung Saja, singled out by Eun Bi-yeon’s words, bellowed in outrage.
“Hmph! I could go on fighting for four days and nights like this!”
But he could scarcely have lasted a double hour without Se-hwa’s intervention, let alone four days.
Blood showed between tears in his clothes in several places, and his whiskers had turned to ice and shattered.
If Eun Bi-yeon hadn’t shown such restraint in her strikes, the thing that would have shattered wouldn’t have been the building—it would have been Hyeolpung Saja.
“And here you are, alive, after unlawfully breaching the estate!”
“I came because I was told to come! If anyone’s at fault, it’s my senior who struck without warning!”
Maeng Mang-do was certain that Eun Bi-yeon was Yeon Geum-hong.
He believed there was no other female master in the world capable of pressing him so relentlessly except Yeon Geum-hong.
“Isn’t it you who’s giving off this strange aura?”
“When my senior raised her martial force, I instinctively raised mine as well!”
“If you want to live, suppress your instincts! And why do you keep calling me by that epithet?”
“How else would I address the person with that epithet?”
“I’m not Geum-hong!”
“Who said you were?”
“You just called me Geum-hong!”
“I said the epithet!”
“So that’s Geum-hong!”
“Your martial arts are high, but are your ears broken? It’s the epithet, not Geum-hong!”
“Right, Geum-hong!”
“The epithet!”
Se-hwa suddenly cried out, unable to tell who was being more infuriating.
“Enough! My master’s name is Yeon Geum-hong, and she has the epithet you’re referring to! And this person isn’t our master—she’s our master’s betrothed!”
Maeng Mang-do blinked with a bewildered expression and asked.
“Not the epithetized one, but the epithetized one’s betrothed?”
“Who’s engaged to Geum-hong, you blasted old crone!”
Se-hwa cried out urgently to Eun Bi-yeon, who was drawing up her martial force again.
“If you destroy any more of the pavilions, the Lord will be angry!”
As always, Geom U-bin proved to be the one sedative that worked on both Hyeolpung Saja and Eun Bi-yeon.
“And Hyeolpung Saja, if you came as a guest, then behave like one! If you cause any more trouble, you won’t be able to stay at Oseong Jang-won! Though there’s nowhere left to stay anyway, already.”
The threat of expulsion made Maeng Mang-do flinch.
His situation was such that anywhere but Oseong Jang-won would be a bed of thorns.
Though even Oseong Jang-won, with Hyeolpung Saja present, was hardly a comfortable place.
“I’ll stay quiet if you just leave me alone.”
“It’s already too late for that. The Lord won’t let this pass quietly.”
Hyeolpung Saja had destroyed so many buildings that Geom U-bin had issued a strict order forbidding further destruction.
“Se-hwa, Steward.”
Eun Bi-yeon’s voice as she called Se-hwa was filled with cold, and the force of her approach was ominous.
Se-hwa instinctively stepped back and asked.
“W-what is it?”
“Should I not inform the Lord? I can rebuild the broken pavilions no matter what it takes.”
“Is that even possible?”
“We’ll find a way. If the Lord gets angry, I won’t be the only one suffering.”
“That’s true. The masters are already upset, and the rest of us will be in for it too.”
“So let’s handle this quietly.”
Maeng Mang-do, listening to their conversation, tilted his head in confusion.
‘Who is this Lord that has a woman with martial prowess rivaling the Hyeolpung Saja so frightened of him?’
Se-hwa turned to Maeng Mang-do and asked.
“Have you met the senior master by any chance?”
“The senior master, you mean… the one called the Lord?”
“Yes, he’s the eldest brother of the lords.”
“The lords being the Hyeolpung Saja?”
“Yes.”
“The Hyeolpung Saja has a senior brother?”
“Are you just going to keep asking questions?”
Maeng Mang-do shook his head.
The gesture conveyed both that he would stop questioning and that he had never met Geom U-bin.
“He’s the person you need to be most careful about in the Oseong Jang-won. Of course, he’s endlessly kind, but that’s precisely what makes him terrifying.”
A man whom even the Hyeolpung Saja dared not defy was certainly someone to fear.
“I’ll be careful.”
Se-hwa gazed at the ruined buildings and sighed.
“This is going to cost a fortune. The Lady’s funds will be depleted.”
Eun Bi-yeon waved her hand dismissively.
“Spend whatever you need. But won’t it be insufficient?”
Since Eun Bi-yeon’s tea was fetching such a high price, she had actually saved enough money to rebuild five estates in the Oseong Jang-won.
“If it’s not enough, I’ll loan you money. With interest, of course. And…”
Se-hwa’s gaze shifted to Maeng Mang-do.
“Do you have any money?”
Maeng Mang-do rummaged through his pockets and produced one silver coin and thirty copper coins in his palm.
“Surely that’s not your entire fortune?”
“Isn’t that a considerable sum? I can live for three months on this.”
“That won’t even cover a single pillar!”
“Then what should I do? Go out and earn some money?”
“Do you have any way to earn money?”
“Well… if I rob a bandit camp or two…”
“If you try something like that, the senior master will come down on you with fury!”
“Surely the senior brother of the Hyeolpung Saja won’t scold me for such a trifle.”
“Our senior master is a knight-errant.”
A laugh burst out.
A knight-errant as the senior brother of the Hyeolpung Saja? A passing cow would laugh at that. And in place of the cow, Maeng Mang-do did. Yet looking at the faces of those around him, it didn’t seem like a lie.
“Is the Lord really a knight-errant?”
“Once you become part of the Oseong Jang-won, even if you earned the notorious epithet of Hyeolpung Saja, don’t ever dream of committing misdeeds. Do you understand?”
“That’s fine by me. I was never a bad person to begin with.”
“Hyeolpung Saja? There’s no way such an epithet would attach to someone who isn’t a bad person.”
“No, it’s just that I was falsely accused…”
Se-hwa cut him off.
“In any case, if you have no money, you’ll have to pay with your labor. While I go into town to meet with builders, clear away all this rubble.”
Watching Se-hwa bark orders at Eun Bi-yeon and Maeng Mang-do, Gang Seo Samak smiled with satisfaction.
‘She’s sharp, that one. Any steward worth his salt ought to be at least that capable.’
While harboring such thoughts, Maeng Mang-do sidled up to him.
“Haven’t we met somewhere before?”
Gang Seo Samak and his companions cried out in unison.
“Absolutely not!”

***

With exceptionally sharp eyes, they could see the Oseong Jang-won clearly even from a mountain three hundred paces away.
“Why does the Oseong Jang-won look like that?”
Of the buildings they could remember, only two remained intact; the rest stood as mere skeletons.
“There are many laborers about, so it seems they’re rebuilding the structures.”
Geom U-bin spoke, then exhaled a long, weary sigh.
“With the disciples gone, the state of the estate tells us that Senior Eun and Hyeolpung Saja must have had quite a fight.”
“You’re telling me this wretch Hyeolpung Saja caused trouble the moment he arrived?”
Do Pyeong-su shot a glance at Jang Man-dok and flared up.
“What? You need two hands clapping to make a sound? So you’re saying Bi-yeon was wrong? Well… I can’t say there was no fault on her part, but regardless, the greater fault lies with that bastard Hyeolpung Saja! There’s no need to know the details! He’s simply the one at fault! I’m going to— this punk—”
Do Pyeong-su bolted toward the estate. But before he could confront Hyeolpung Saja, he had to face Eun Bi-yeon first.
The welcoming expression on Do Pyeong-su’s face gradually hardened. It was the chill radiating from Eun Bi-yeon’s entire body.
“You seem displeased. Is it because of that wretch Hyeolpung Saja?”
“Why would I be displeased because of Hyeolpung Saja?”
“Because you two fought so hard you nearly destroyed the entire Oseong Jang-won.”
“That fight is already finished. What I must attend to now is a new battle.”

—————
This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
—————