I Decided to Give the Contract to the Male Vassal - Chapter 1

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Team. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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Chapter 1

Chapter 0. Baekah

A desolate wind blew across the cliff.

At its edge, a young boy who had not yet fully matured knelt with his snow-white face stained crimson with blood.

Torn clothes. A body covered in blood.

The boy, precious to me as my own heart, trembled with his injured body while gazing at me desperately, shaking his head as if telling me not to approach.

“Master….”

His trembling voice carried an unavoidable fear.

A black shadow blocked my path toward him, letting out a sneer. Just from their eyes alone, I could tell who they were.

“Former Heavenly Sect Leader Chung-rin.”

Assassins raised in the shadows of the Heavenly Tiger Alliance, the Righteous Faction Alliance I once belonged to.

“If you return quietly to the alliance, we won’t kill you alone.”

Though they said that, it seemed they had no intention of letting either of us live.

A voice full of cold mockery threatened me.

“You wouldn’t be thinking of facing us as a martial arts cripple, would you?”

❖ ❖ ❖

I, Chung-rin, am a martial arts cripple.

I was once the youngest leader of an information-handling organization, and there was nothing in the martial world I didn’t know about.

Having lost my martial arts as the price for failing to protect what I should have protected, I had to put everything down and step back.

And at twenty-one years old, while wandering the Central Plains.

I met that child.

It was a night when the sky was particularly dark.

On that day when I had gone to sleep early due to unusual fatigue, the inn where I was staying caught fire.

“Fire!”

“There’s a guest inside!”

People’s shouts woke me up.

Because I had been staying in a deep corner room, when I opened my eyes, escape was already not easy.

When I opened the guest room door and came out, flames were lurking everywhere. The smoke made my throat burn and my head feel dizzy.

A fallen wooden beam blocked the path forward diagonally. Just as I was wondering whether I should draw my sword and find another way out, the wooden beam was pushed aside and a young boy entered into the flames.

“Are you alright?!”

From his clothes, he seemed like a child who ran errands at this inn.

He must have been about thirteen.

His round face, which still retained a childish air, had remarkably white and clear skin despite being covered in soot. Especially his vivid eyes beneath gently curved eye lines reminded me of the surface of a calm lake.

The boy’s clothes were completely soaked as if he had been doused with water.

When I coughed in the smoke, the boy handed me a wet towel.

“I was worried because you weren’t among the guests who escaped. Please hold onto my shoulder.”

This meant he had deliberately entered the flames to save me.

The boy began walking while supporting my staggering form.

“Be careful.”

He kept one hand stretched high above me, albeit clumsily, to prevent sparks from falling on my head.

The corridor was more serious than expected.

But surprisingly, the boy was naturally avoiding the flames. It was as if he could see the flow of fire and predict where things would collapse from the flames in advance.

Beyond simple instinct, his movements were as precise as someone trained.

The boy checked on my condition from time to time. As if I were someone he had to protect before his own life.

I finally recalled an emotion I had long forgotten.

The feeling of being protected.

Strangely… it hurt.

Perhaps that’s why.

The moment the falling roof was about to crush the boy, my body moved first.

A burning beam struck down hard on my left arm.

In that instant, I was a little surprised.

The instinctive desire not to lose the boy had moved me.

The boy’s eyes looking at me shook greatly.

“I’m fine.”

I endured the pain and drew my sword.

“I’ll secure a path, so let’s go out together.”

I secured a path using only techniques I could use without internal energy.

As soon as we came outside, the inn completely collapsed.

Only then did the boy breathe a sigh of relief. Watching him, I remembered that I hadn’t greeted him yet.

“Thank you for helping me.”

It wasn’t just a simple greeting but sincere gratitude.

Since I couldn’t imagine anyone would come to save a wanderer like me, the boy’s kindness felt especially meaningful.

“Help? I’m the one who received help.”

The boy scratched his cheek, darkened with soot, as if embarrassed.

“What’s your name?”

“…It’s Sobaek.”

When I offered to take him to his family, he said he had no family and lived by running errands at the inn.

I handed him my money pouch. I added that he should live on that for a while since he had lost his workplace.

However, Sobaek didn’t accept it.

“Instead, could you teach me swordsmanship?”

It was an unexpected request.

Below his gaunt face, his particularly clear eyes caught my attention.

From his movements in the flames alone, I could tell Sobaek had martial arts talent, but… I wasn’t such a shameless person.

“I’m a martial arts cripple, so I’m not in a position to teach others.”

Yet the moment I met that child’s eyes, something inside me surged up silently.

It was something like a longing to trust someone, which I thought I had lost long ago.

Then, Sobaek knelt before me.

Eyes that held summer wind fixed on me.

“Master!”

That one desperate word.

Though I should have firmly refused, I was caught by those words.

My heart, which I thought had died, began to beat. My dried breath moistened my chest.

For the first time, someone reached out their hand to me, saying they would trust me, when I had merely been existing.

A boy who called me, who had lost my martial arts, master and came running to me.

“Just 2 years.”

I answered that way because my heart had moved first.

“After learning all the basics for 2 years, you must leave me and find a real master.”

That was the last line I had to maintain.

Sobaek nodded without hesitation.

“My name is Chung-rin.”

He carefully repeated my name as if savoring it.

“From now on, I’ll call you Baekah.”

The moment he heard those words, the boy smiled brightly.

Thus Baekah became my first disciple.

Afterward, I settled with Baekah in a small village in Seomseo.

The martial arts I taught were only the basics.

Since I couldn’t demonstrate, my method was slow and strict, but Baekah silently followed along.

After martial arts training, with hands too delicate to hold a sword, he would prepare meals for me and heat bath water.

“Stop doing such things and train more instead.”

Even when I said that, he would just smile.

Those were small but happy days.

When I went out and bought jeon-byeong from the market, Baekah would always split it in half and share it with me.

“It tastes much better when we eat together than eating alone.”

Watching him smile with his eyes wide and round, my heart also gradually became rounder.

On rainy days, he would cover my shoulders with a blanket and silently offer me a teacup, and he tended the herb garden, saying he would cure my frequent coughing.

Every morning, he never forgot to tidy my bedding and greet me warmly.

During my time with Baekah, I learned things I couldn’t learn at Sangteon-dang.

I came to understand better than anyone how fulfilling it was to live with a disciple in the forest, by the lake, in the rain and wind.

I was happy that I could still be of help to someone, and my disciple’s achievements brought me more joy than my own work.

Two years passed in an instant.

By the time the herb garden in front of the house grew lush, Baekah’s sword had become much sharper, and his fundamentals had become perfect.

I was twenty-three, and Baekah was sixteen.

Though we didn’t speak of it to each other, we both knew that parting was approaching.

It had been a short time.

It would be a lie to say I felt no regret about the separation, but I had taught him all the fundamentals I could, so for Baekah’s sake, it was time to let him go.

Instead, I decided to find him a real master.

The day I went out alone from the hermitage to send a letter about Baekah to an old acquaintance.

That day when the sky was particularly overcast.

My disciple, Baekah, was kidnapped.

❖ ❖ ❖

“Baekah.”

His eyes turned toward me. Fear reflected in those clear eyes.

“Master, you shouldn’t have come…”

As if my death was more frightening to him than his own, his voice trembled desperately.

I don’t mind dying.

But not my disciple.

“I’ll make sure you get to go home.”

After smiling at him, I took out a special needle from my sleeve.

The only means to temporarily restore part of my martial arts from my prime to my body that had lost its internal energy. Using my vital essence would shorten my life, but I didn’t care.

Half a moment (7 minutes).

I had to finish within that time.

Sizzle.

The moment the needle pierced the pressure point, my energy spread like ripples.

“So you’re refusing the return order. In that case… I’ll have to kill you.”

At the leader’s gesture, assassins rushed in from all directions.

I took a breath.

And charged forward.

I used footwork to change direction and scattered deadly energy.

Energy sharp as a blade grazed my neck, and sword strikes poured down mercilessly.

I dodged their combined attack and counterattacked with killing intent.

With the sound of bones breaking, three men fell. The remaining one, the leader, had his chest split by my sword strike without a moment to catch his breath.

“…Guk!”

The man who had been staggering until the end collapsed.

I approached Baekah, breathing heavily.

The moment I cut the bonds stained with red blood.

My chest twisted.

Cough.

Blood that burst forth filled my mouth.

My knees buckled and the world tilted.

It was the price for using my last bit of vital energy.

“Master!”

Baekah rushed over urgently and caught my body.

His roughly trembling breath proved that he was alive.

Only then did I breathe a sigh of relief.

Now I just needed to return home with Baekah.

But my vision kept blurring.

My eyelids grew heavy, and my senses disappeared one by one.

“Master… you have to live.”

Baekah’s voice was gradually growing distant.

The moment I tried to focus on Baekah to keep my wits about me.

The leader, who I thought had fallen, squeezed out his remaining strength and thrust his sword one last time.

The blade came rushing toward me.

Then, Baekah pushed me away.

Thunk!

The cold blade pierced through Baekah’s chest and emerged.

Blood splattered as Baekah’s body swayed.

Baekah had taken the sword in my place.

“Baekah!”

I reached out my hand, but it was too late.

The light slowly faded from Baekah’s eyes.

His lips moved with difficulty.

Though no voice came out, I could tell from the shape of his mouth.

‘I’m sorry.’

Soon his body was collapsing.

“No!”

I also threw my body forward and embraced Baekah.

At the same time, both Baekah and I fell off the cliff.

The fierce current swallowed us.

As we sank into the dark blue water, my strength gave out and I lost hold of Baekah’s body.

My vision turned red.

It was because of the blood Baekah had shed.

Baekah’s clear eyes, growing more distant, seemed particularly red because of that blood.

‘Baekah!’

My fingertips reaching toward Baekah cut through empty air and flailed uselessly.

I tried to call out to Baekah, but only air bubbles escaped from my mouth.

The emotions I had suppressed surged up.

The current cruelly separated Baekah and me.

Cold water penetrated deep into my lungs.

‘I can’t… let him go like this.’

My body, having exhausted all its vital energy, was heavy and dull.

In the red world where blood and water mingled, I sank into deeper darkness.

‘Baekah… I’m sorry.’

That child had thrown away his life to save me, but I ultimately failed to protect him.

‘I promised I would let you go home…’

In the lung-tearing regret, only Baekah’s face, always smiling whenever our eyes met, came to mind.

Those clear eyes that seemed crafted from gathering all the purest things in the world.

The calloused hands that used to offer me teacups.

His gradually deepening voice and his arms and legs that grew pleasingly longer.

All the memories I had shared with Baekah over the past two years flashed by.

I could accept my own death, but Baekah’s death was unjust.

He was a child who should not have died like that.

My heart ached as if it were being torn apart.

Even if my flesh were ripped and my organs torn out, it wouldn’t hurt this much.

‘If I survive this….’

I clenched my hand with the last of my strength.

‘I will claim your blood. I will make those involved in your death pay the price….’

At that moment.

My body, which had been sinking helplessly, came to a stop.

In the dim darkness, two red glowing eyes were piercing through me.

‘Baekah?’

No. It wasn’t Baekah.

Vivid red pupils were approaching me.

I desperately reached out toward him to survive….

And finally caught hold.

My body was helplessly sucked into the spray of water that man had created.

That was my last memory as Chung-rin.

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