Abolition of the Wicked - Chapter 44

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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#Episode 44

White smoke rose from the center of a pathless forest.
In this downpour, smoke rising meant at least someone had lit a fire under shelter, didn’t it?
The five of them hurried toward the source of the smoke.
A small hut stood wedged between thick trees. It was hardly large, but one could tell at a glance that it hadn’t been built by any skilled carpenter—the construction was remarkably crude.
Still, it seemed they could escape the rain, so Do Pyeong-su rapped on the door.
“Who is it?”
A woman’s voice.
“Just travelers passing through. We were hoping to shelter from the rain for a moment……”
The door swung open, revealing a woman with unusually pale skin. She was in her mid-twenties and, despite wearing no cosmetics whatsoever, possessed a beauty that made one want to look again.
The wariness that flickered across her eyes at the sight of Do Pyeong-su melted away the moment they fell on Geom U-bin and Yeon Geum-hong.
“Please, come in.”
The woman who stepped aside retrieved a clean towel.
“The rain came so suddenly and hard—though it looks like you’ve barely gotten wet?”
By the time they’d entered the hut and drawn in their martial force, they’d only caught a few scattered drops from beneath the eaves.
“We sheltered under a large tree,” Geom U-bin replied, and only then did she notice the woman’s swollen belly. While the woman heated water and prepared tea, the group took in their surroundings.
The hut was so small that one could survey the entire interior without taking more than a single step.
Despite its crudely constructed exterior, the inside was tidy.
A single bed, two chairs, a small table that doubled as a dining surface. Everything in the kitchen area was either carved from wood or chipped porcelain.
In one corner hung a bow, a sword, and traps.
From these, one could deduce that the hut’s owner was a hunter. Though the woman hardly looked the part.
“My husband will be back soon,” the woman said.
As she set down the tea, Yeon Geum-hong asked, “How far along are you?”
The woman smiled faintly, stroking her belly. “Six months.”
The tea wasn’t comparable to what Eun Bi-yeon would have prepared, but sipped in a rainy hut in the wilderness, it carried an unexpected charm.
Drip. Drip.
Water fell in drops from the roof near the kitchen.
“That bungler, always fixing things half-heartedly. There’s nothing he does properly, I swear.”
The woman placed a bucket beneath the leak with practiced ease. As she straightened, the careless husband returned.
He was a man in his mid-thirties with a thick, unkempt beard and one ear missing the lobe. The rain-soaked hunter carried three rabbits in his grip.
Upon spotting the strangers, the man’s steps faltered, and his free hand drifted toward his back.
“These are travelers who came to shelter from the rain for a bit,” the woman said.
His sharp gaze, fixed on Geom U-bin’s group, suddenly softened as it turned to the woman—as if petals were being scattered before her.
The woman fetched dry clothes and a towel, tutting as she spoke. “I told you not to go out today because rain was coming. What if you catch cold……?”
Even as she scolded him, the man’s tender gaze never wavered.
“I gathered some herbs and mushrooms too.”
The man handed the woman a pouch from his belt.
“We’ll need the table for a moment.”
Since there was only one table, Geom U-bin’s group had to set down their teacups. The mushrooms and herbs the man had gathered spilled across the surface.
“Hmm! This one’s definitely safe to eat, but this one I’ve never seen before……. From the smell, it seems all right, and this mushroom doesn’t have bright coloring, so it doesn’t look poisonous.”
This was quite an inept hunting couple.
The woman began sorting the items into two piles—edible and not. Unable to watch further, Jang Man-dok sighed and mixed them all together again.
“Why did you do that?” the woman asked, puzzled.
Geom U-bin offered an awkward smile. “Our uncle here knows quite a bit about mushrooms and wild plants.”
Jang Man-dok’s hands moved with surprising speed, sorting the mushrooms and herbs with expert precision. One pile grew thick with edible vegetables, the other with mushrooms.
“All these mushrooms are poisonous, you see. Even if they lack bright coloring, that doesn’t mean they’re all safe to eat.”
Of the mushrooms the man had gathered, only a single one was edible. The woman picked up one of the poisonous ones.
“This one looks exactly the same as the one that’s safe to eat, doesn’t it?”
Geom U-bin flipped a mushroom over.
“Look at the gills here—see how they run? The edible ones have vertical grooves, but the poisonous ones spiral around.”

“Ah!”
“Poisonous mushrooms are deadly if eaten. How have you survived all this time?”
“I haven’t eaten them. This is my first time with mushrooms. Hehe!”
The man gathered up the inedible items and tossed them out the window before heading to the kitchen.
A look of resignation crossed his face as he gazed up at the leaking ceiling.
“Can you fix it?”
The man nodded, and the woman nodded in return.
“This makes the twelfth time you’ve promised. I think I’ve heard this same assurance about eleven times before.”
The man simply scratched his cheek. The rain had stopped in the meantime. It had been a passing shower, after all.
“Now that the rain’s cleared, I should be on my way. Thank you for giving us shelter. The tea was delicious too.”
As Yeon Geum-hong offered her thanks, Geom U-bin withdrew a porcelain jar of sake from his pack and set it on the table.
“When you have your child, the two of you should share a cup in celebration. Or if you prefer, you could sell it in town. If you take it to one of the larger establishments or taverns, you’d fetch a decent price for it.”
He brought out the sake rather than silver coins, finding the latter awkward to offer.
“It seems to be fine liquor, but I’m not certain we should accept it.”
“The tea you served us was fine as well. And since we’re the ones who make this sake, you needn’t hesitate.”
Throughout their departure, the man had barely opened his mouth except for those first words.
“You’d studied Martial Arts?”
At Do Pyeong-su’s question, Seo Seok-san nodded.
“Well enough to be useful.”
“There are many people in this world with their own stories. He must be hiding out to escape something.”
“If someone with that level of skill is still in hiding, his enemies must be formidable. Wait—”
“What?”
Do Pyeong-su shook his head, lost in thought.
“Never mind. On second thought, it’s not him. I wondered for a moment if he might be an old enemy of mine.”
“Clean matters should be settled on the spot, without dragging lingering grudges around.”
Seo Seok-san, who had been reproaching Do Pyeong-su, slowed his pace.
“Senior, wait a moment.”
Geom U-bin also halted his Lightness Technique at Yeon Geum-hong’s signal.
“What is it?”
Only after Geom U-bin finished speaking did he sense the presence approaching from ahead.
Passing through the pathless forest, these arrivals moved with remarkable speed—the kind that marked them as masters among the Murim martial artists.
The five of them stood motionless, suppressing their presence.
Because the forest was so thick, the twelve pursuers passed within thirty paces to the right without noticing them, vanishing into the distance.
“They’re headed toward…”
Even without Seo Seok-san finishing his sentence, it was clear they were making for the hut where they had sheltered from the rain.
“A coincidence?”
A lone hut standing in the mountains.
Its owner was a Murim master hiding from someone’s gaze, and twelve other masters were now rushing toward that same hut.
“It’s not our concern.”
At Do Pyeong-su’s words, Geom U-bin turned his body away from the hut.
“We owe him a debt.”
“I thought we settled that with the sake?”
Geom U-bin scratched his head in contemplation before continuing.
“Actually, thinking about it, that was payment for the tea. We still haven’t paid for the use of the roof, have we?”

***

In two years on this mountain, he had finally received a visitor.
“What’s on your mind?”
“Hmm? Oh! I was wondering how to repair this roof.”
“You’ve been staring at that hole for ages without doing anything. It’s only going to get bigger.”
Sang Nam-jae leaped down in front of Go Shin-ji.
“Should we move our shelter?”
“Why?”
“Just. I’m getting tired of this place.”
“If this is because of those people just now, forget it. If you keep trying to hide deeper and deeper like this, eventually you’ll have to live underground.”
“If fleeing Salbang is only possible that way, then so be it.”
“It’s been three years now. They’ve probably forgotten about us by now.”
Sang Nam-jae shook his head, releasing a weary sigh.
“Salbang never forgets a traitor. Even a hundred years from now, they’ll still be looking for us.”
“Then come back in a hundred years. If we’re still alive by then, well, we’ll gladly let you kill us. By that point we’ll be suffering from neuralgia and arthritis anyway—we’d be grateful.”
Sang Nam-jae always felt it: Go Shin-ji’s nerve was ten times his own.
It had been the same on that night he’d gone to kill her.
“You came to kill me because of this necklace, didn’t you?”
She pulled a necklace of gold and jewels from a drawer and fastened it around her neck. It was too large to slip over her head, so she had to reach both hands behind her neck and thread the clasp through the loop.
“I promised Mother I’d wear it until the day I died. Looks like I can keep that promise.”
With both hands behind her neck, she fumbled with it for a long moment.
“How embarrassing—my hands are shaking so much I can’t get the clasp through. I didn’t want to show fear in front of some lowly assassin.”
Go Shin-ji turned around.
“Fasten it for me, would you? It’s the last request of a woman about to die—surely you can grant me that?”
Sang Nam-jae fastened her necklace as if possessed.
He could have driven his sword between her shoulder blades and ended it then. But he didn’t.
As he stood behind her, fingers working the clasp, he fell in love with her.
He who had lived as an assassin for twelve years.
He didn’t believe he still had a heart capable of love, and he’d never once dreamed—not even in sleep—of falling for someone at first sight.
Yet it happened.
He took Go Shin-ji and fled that same night.
“To patch the roof leak, clay would be best—”
Sang Nam-jae’s movement halted mid-turn.
He’d never told Go Shin-ji, but he’d kept up his martial training all this time.
His senses, honed sharper than an insect’s antennae, caught the presence of intruders.
‘A visitor twice in one day?’
But within moments he realized these newcomers were unlike the earlier ones—not mere passersby.
Their movements cloaked, their killing intent barely contained—they were assassins.
“Beloved.”
“What is it?”
Go Shin-ji’s face hardened just as his had.
“Get ready. We’re leaving.”
She hadn’t sensed the intruders, but she could read Sang Nam-jae’s expression better than anyone.
“Too late.”
Go Shin-ji’s footstep faltered and stopped.
The presences Sang Nam-jae sensed surrounded not just the front, but the entire hut.
“Stay by my side. Don’t move away from me.”
Sang Nam-jae drew his sword from behind his waist—a Medium Sword, about two feet in length.
Three figures materialized before him like ghosts.
At a distance of thirty feet, they were all familiar faces, though he hadn’t seen them in years.
“Well hidden indeed, Master of the House.”
“Apparently not well enough, if you found me.”
“But that sword… do you intend to fight us?”
Sang Nam-jae looked down at the blade in his hand, then sheathed it again.
“I was hasty.”
“Come with us for now. It’s foolish to turn a father figure like the Sect Master and brothers like us into enemies over a woman.”
“Since you mention brotherhood, then grant me this one request—won’t you just turn back?”
“Go to the Sect and beg the Sect Master’s mercy.”
A bitter smile twisted Sang Nam-jae’s mouth.
“The Sect Master is not a man to forgive anyone.”
From what he knew, Ryeong Seo-mok was the most merciless person in the world. As Sect Master of the Salbang, it was only natural.
“Still, isn’t that more hopeful than fighting us here?”
He’d detected them all.
‘Twelve.’
Twelve ordinary assassins of the Salbang, and he could slit their throats in his sleep. But these men sent to capture him were all seasoned squad leaders or higher.
These twelve surrounding him and his wife could cut down Sect Master Ryeong Seo-mok himself.
And besides, Sang Nam-jae had someone he needed to protect.
It was a fight with no chance of victory.
“We don’t wish to fight you, Master of the House.”
As Jang Cheol-je finished speaking, O Pil-yang beside him let out a cold voice.
“If you kneel and beg, we might consider it.”
“Squad Leader O!”
“When else will we ever see the legendary master of shadows kneel? This may be our only chance.”
O Pil-yang’s words—those of a man who loved treachery and lies—carried no weight. Yet desperate times called for even desperate hopes, and Sang Nam-jae was desperate.
He did not fear death at all.
Death had stalked him like a shadow since the day he first walked the path of an assassin.
But there was someone more precious to him than life itself—Go Shin-ji.
When a person you must protect becomes that urgent, pride and stubbornness crumble easily.
As his legs gave way and his body began to collapse, Go Shin-ji’s voice rang out.
“Don’t kneel!”

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