The Hwangbo Clan’s Beloved Live-In Son-in-Law - Chapter 63

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

Chapter 63

“Waah…”

Cheers were about to burst from the soldiers’ mouths but stopped short.

Only exclamations of admiration escaped involuntarily.

The cavalry formation collapsed in an instant.

No one could deny that it was remarkable.

“…Damn.”

Even Wang Yong.

Having already returned to the main force, he bit his lips.

Nothing else mattered. Once that damned captain took those cursed bastards away…

“Huh?”

“Over there!”

However, things rarely went as Wang Yong expected.

Behind Xie Baowei who had turned his horse around, movement stirred from the direction of Seonggok Village.

“Huh? What?”

Voices full of confusion flowed from the soldiers who had been maintaining formation.

Wasn’t it supposed to be just a village militia of two or three hundred at most?

Those villagers were certainly still standing there stupidly, but behind them, new forces writhed and poured out.

Their numbers alone were already close to three hundred, and their level was clearly different at a glance.

“G-General!”

The panicked Baekho’s eyes turned toward Wang Yong.

This isn’t what we were told, is it?

Wang Yong burst into anger.

“What are you all doing! Reform the battle lines! It’s only a few hundred!”

Wang Yong, biting his lips, raised his sword high and shouted.

His subordinate Baekho, with expressions like they were chewing bitter persimmons, encouraged their soldiers below.

Several rushed forward to reorganize the three hundred soldiers who had advanced first and returned.

“Song Gyu, Jo Gil.”

“Yes.”

The enemy forces from Seonggok Village weren’t exactly disciplined either. However, their momentum was fierce.

Despite their uneven formation, there was no fear in their advancing steps.

Wang Yong watched that sight quietly with a frown.

Those lawless bastards are determined to eliminate the source of trouble.

Soon he called two close Baekho and whispered in their ears.

Then they led their subordinate soldiers and spread out to both sides.

“It seems like they’re targeting us.”

“Hmm.”

Once again, Hahee and her group were left alone in between.

The enemy’s direction was straight.

Behind them, the Imperial Army was reforming their lines, and soldiers surrounded them on both sides.

“Looks like we’re surrounded?”

They wouldn’t attack like before, but it didn’t seem like they’d let them go easily either.

“Has everyone’s internal energy returned?”

“Only a little.”

“Don’t you have more medicine?”

“If I had any, I would have taken it first.”

“You didn’t take it all by yourself, did you?”

“Lady Peng.”

“Never mind then. Why are you glaring like that?”

If they charged at one point, they might be able to break through the encirclement.

But whether they could shake off the pursuit was uncertain.

Moreover, there were many wounded here…

“Miss Ha? Miss Ha!”

And mentally, some weren’t entirely sound either.

“Hee. Are you okay?”

“Sister?”

Even when Dang Cheongi waved his hand in front of her eyes, even when Namgung Bin and Namgung Seol called her name and shook her body, there was no response, just a blank stare.

Those eyes only followed Xie Baowei, who stood mounted between them and the enemy forces.

Smack.

“…Sorry. You seemed too out of it.”

Only after Hwangbo Yeonghil lightly slapped her cheek did her gaze turn.

Hwangbo Yeonghil shrank endlessly under her fiery glare.

“Why isn’t he coming?”

“…Right.”

The enemy forces from Seonggok Village kept approaching, but Xie Baowei showed no intention of moving.

Hahee twitched as if she might rush out at any moment.

“You rascal! Yeonhwa! Why are you here!”

“Brother Cheongi!!”

Just then, one of the horses that had been rescued by Xie Baowei reached them.

A girl and an even smaller child tumbled off the horse as if falling.

“You! Why! Here! You! …Don’t tell me. Did you run away from home?”

“…Waaah! I thought I was going to die!”

At Dang Cheongi’s words, the girl who had been happily running to embrace her cousin brother changed her expression.

“I really had a hard time!”

“You crazy! Hey! You insane girl! Do you know where this is!”

They seemed quite close as their noisy greetings continued endlessly.

Hahee watched with envious eyes for a moment, then her gaze turned to the child standing blankly.

A somewhat unfamiliar face.

“Yingying! Are you okay?”

Namgung Seol hurriedly approached and examined the child.

Hahee watched that scene with somewhat strange feelings.

“Sister.”

Hwangbo Yeonghil called out to Hahee.

His face was as stiff as his voice.

“…My lord!”

Xie Baowei was approaching the enemy formation.

***

Xie Baowei slowly urged his horse forward.

Chun-gil puffed light breath and served as his legs.

Clatter, clatter.

The sounds of luggage, daggers, hand axes, swords, and other items swaying and clashing on the horse’s back, along with the rhythmic sound of hoofbeats, echoed regularly.

Slowly, with his spear extended long.

“It was only a year ago. Yet it feels like ancient times.”

Xie Baowei wasn’t the type to avoid fights. He didn’t fear blood or hesitate to kill.

He was simply tired of the meaninglessness at the end of it all.

Xie Baowei glanced back briefly, then steeled his resolve again.

When there’s something to protect, one must not be choosy about means and methods.

-To obtain something, one must fight.

The faces of the advancing enemy soldiers came into view at once.

Dark skin, black hair, solid and thick builds, broad faces, large eyes, wide mouths.

The faces that had grown weary from killing with my own hands came back to life just as they were.

The only difference was that instead of the desperation of rushing forward with tears, they were filled with arrogance.

They were truly different people.

Even so, I couldn’t help but see the overlap with those I had killed with my own hands before.

-If we could win without fighting, that would be good for our reputation. Ah, and we could secure more alcohol and meat too.

General Guo Weilong was a respectable person, except for his love of people and talking as much as he loved alcohol and meat.

When fighting under him, I felt such loyalty that I was determined to bury my bones at the border.

“I am.”

The distance to the enemy soldiers was now about ten steps. A distance that could be covered in one breath if I spurred my horse.

Xie Baowei opened his mouth to the enemy soldiers who had stopped walking in front of him.

His voice was loud enough to be heard beyond them, to the village and even the Imperial Army.

“I am Xie Baowei.”

“Ha. Who?”

“Who’s that supposed to be?”

“Did anyone ask that idiot who he was?”

Giggling and cackling laughter filled the air.

Even soldiers who knew his rank chuckled at the sudden self-introduction.

What good would it do to boast about one’s position in front of bandits who were already prepared to antagonize the Imperial Army?

However, Wang Yongman, who led those soldiers, could not laugh.

Soon, the others became the same way.

“Under Shaanxi-Gansu Governor’s command at Shuzhou’s Jingtianhao, I rendered meritorious service to the court and served as vanguard of the Xiao Qi Battalion under the former Guizhou Pacification Army.”

The laughter completely disappeared.

The mighty reputation of General Guo Weilong, who had defeated 200,000 Northern Barbarian troops, had resounded throughout the Central Plains.

The infamy of the Guizhou Pacification Army was the same.

And the Xiao Qi Battalion?

That assault unit that the Crown Prince personally led?

“…Nacha Cavalry.”

A silence so deep that no one could even breathe settled over them.

In that silence, Xie Baowei spurred his horse.

Clatter. Clatter.

Like the sea parting, the bandits parted.

Xie Baowei slowly walked through them, holding only the reins with his chin raised high.

No armor, no helmet.

Just military clothes and a single sword.

But no one thought to touch him.

Devils of the battlefield, demons, ghosts.

Even when all those curses were hurled at them, they neither died nor disappeared, becoming Nacha instead.

These men were cowards who couldn’t even enter that battlefield, and leeches who sucked the blood of those who managed to survive.

So they knew.

The fear of the host whose blood they had been sucking was real.

“…When Nacha comes, death comes.”

When Nacha comes, death comes.

It cannot be avoided or escaped.

At the end of that,

“The Crown Prince comes.”

Heaven would come.

The bandits kept looking around nervously, fearing that the Crown Prince’s soldiers might surround them from all sides and raise war cries.

Meanwhile, Xie Baowei passed through them and headed toward Chenggu.

Chenggu was different from the bandits.

With legs trembling from fear carved into their bodies, urine leaking out, teeth chattering endlessly, and hands shaking like aspen leaves that they had to hold with both hands.

Yet in their eyes, bloodshot and glaring, the spirit of the village residents was fierce. No, it was desperate and pitiful.

“Time seems to have passed after all.”

Xie Baowei stood before them and spoke.

“How dare there be those who raise their heads and look straight at me.”

In places where the Guizhou Pacification Army had passed, no one could raise their heads.

Soon, the dark faces turned into dark hair.

The ominous atmosphere also disappeared as if washed away.

All that remained was fear.

“If there is a leader, come out.”

Xie Baowei raised his head and shouted.

But no one stepped forward.

The fat pigs only looked at each other.

“…Uh, where did Master Zhang go?”

“He, he was here just a moment ago?”

Men covered in grease looked around at each other and tilted their heads.

They avoided eye contact and pushed each other’s backs as if to say it wasn’t them.

It wasn’t that there were no people with spirit…

Xie Baowei nodded.

Still the same.

“If you know your wrongs, disperse. The Crown Prince will look upon you with mercy.”

Not His Majesty, but the Crown Prince.

Even as Xie Baowei said those words, he felt bitter.

Still, they should have understood by now.

It was time to turn his horse around.

“What is wrong with this?”

A thick voice blocked his steps.

“Survivors trying to make a small settlement for themselves.”

When Xie Baowei turned his head, a sturdy man walked out from among the greasy fellows.

Xie Baowei didn’t know, but from far away, someone would be shouting “Cheoljin!”

“Isn’t this someone else’s settlement?”

Xie Baowei gestured with his chin toward those who appeared to be original Sichuan residents.

“My settlement burned down.”

“You can rebuild it.”

“Ha! How truly simple.”

How truly simple.

Ha Cheoljin scratched his neck and laughed.

His eyes became bloodshot.

“After destroying everything, scattering all the people, and placing greedy pigs in positions above!”

Rebuild it?

For what purpose.

For whose sake.

Those who should be protected were all dead, and the land that should be protected was destroyed.

“All the culprits who caused the rebellion are dead. Don’t you know this?”

“I know. I know well! But aren’t there more than just one or two bandits in this nation! Even if you kill them, the nation just gets filled with more bandits!”

The Guizhou rebellion wasn’t something that happened because some madman suddenly started a rebellion.

It was a combination of long exploitation, contempt and disregard for the people of Guizhou, and misunderstanding.

It wasn’t only the people of Guizhou who died in the rebellion.

The heads of local officials who caused the rebellion also hung in rows on the castle walls.

However…

“…There are too many bandits in this nation.”

“Uhaha! So then, who would dare call us bandits?”

Xie Baowei also knew this well, so he had no intention of exchanging more words.

Not engaging in losing battles was also an iron rule that General Guo had personally instilled in him.

“Come. I’ll accept your venting if that’s what you want.”

“Try to handle them all. If you can’t manage it, those young masters from the great families will have to handle it instead.”

Iron Axe, Ha Cheoljin of Gonakryeong stepped forward with his great axe.

Behind him, dozens of guards came walking out in a rush.

“…Usually don’t these things come as danjon (single combat)?”

“Wasn’t this a battle between armies?”

Ha Cheoljin smiled broadly.

Murderous intent soared to the heavens.

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