The Legend of Red Cloud - Chapter 26

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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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Chapter 26. The Difference Between Resemblance and Replica
The point thirty li to the south that Ryu had mentioned before parting ways was the Maengeuidan Garrison.
Which meant Ryu had been telling Dongpil to return to the Maengeuidan.
But then.
Approaching the Maengeuidan Garrison quietly, unlike his usual manner, to finish the last task, Ryu couldn’t hide his bewildered expression.
Dongpil and the other members, whom he’d assumed would have already returned, were waiting at the crossroads.
Moreover, they’d brought along an unexpected companion.
Looking at them, Ryu asked.
“What’s all this?”
“The Hyeol-gwi lot left us alone and rushed off after the captain, so we had some time on our hands.”
“Just as Dongpil said. We had time, and it felt wrong to just sit idle, so we thought—why not bring out the person we’d been meaning to anyway? Something like that.”
Dongpil flashed a sly grin, while Jwaryang offered an awkward smile.
They spoke as if it were nothing, but it was far from simple.
What Ryu was doing now was defection—no way to excuse or justify it.
Merely overlooking such actions could shatter the Danjeon itself, ensuring a lifetime spent away from sunlight.
And they’d gone one step further, actually extracting a prisoner.
If discovered, they’d be branded as active defectors—a crime punishable by swift execution.
Yet they were grinning so brightly despite committing such an act.
He couldn’t thank them either. If he did, they’d think nothing of risking even more in the future.
“You’ve done something unnecessary.”
Ryu’s eyes burned red as he spoke in his usual cold voice, tossing the words out before moving past them.
Neither Jwaryang nor Dongpil missed it—they simply laughed.
Isong approached the two of them and asked.
“How did you know?”
“Found out later. Dongpil here remembered. Once I heard the story, I realized how clueless I’d been from the start.”
From Jwaryang’s answer, Isong understood they’d only belatedly recognized that Moyong Jieun was Ryu’s sibling.
“I suppose Moyong’s resemblance to the captain could be explained by her face, but how did you know about this beforehand?”
Dongpil answered Isong’s question.
“Obvious, isn’t it? Once the captain took Moyong away, he wasn’t about to let her go.”
Jwaryang picked up from there.
“Then her brother—stuck in captivity—would be caught in the trap. To keep Moyong from being held again, he’d have to extract him and send him back.”
“Do you understand the weight of what you’ve done?”
“Defection?”
After saying it, the two of them grinned, and Isong asked.
“It’s not something to laugh about.”
“We couldn’t let the captain bear it alone, though. He showed no signs of stopping.”
Jwaryang nodded at Dongpil’s words.
Isong could only smile bitterly, watching these two men chuckle as if they hadn’t just committed something enormous.
Because he understood their hearts perfectly.
After all, he was little different himself.
Dongpil spoke quietly to Isong, as if Ryu shouldn’t hear.
“That fellow—once you clean him up a bit—he looks like someone.”
“Like who?”
“The captain’s mother. Couldn’t tell before, all covered in blood, but seeing Moyong… he does look like her.”
At those words, Isong glanced at Moyong Changwun, who was facing Ryu, and nodded.
He couldn’t deny what Dongpil said.
Then one thought occurred to him.
“So when Ryu brought him out alive back then… was it because…?”
Jwaryang nodded at Isong’s question.
“Perhaps.”
He’d suspected all along that Ryu had broken the unspoken rule of Jeogmyeoldae—never bringing the living out—for a reason.
“If I’d known, I should’ve left him like that one who was critically wounded.”
Isong nodded at Jwaryang’s complaint.
If so, the present situation would never have arisen.
Dongpil spoke to Isong, glancing nervously at Jwaryang.
“But doesn’t it make sense that he looks like the captain’s mother?”
“Tch! We’ll talk about that after everything’s over!”
Dongpil groaned at Jwaryang’s displeased tone.
“I’m just worried we’re doing something wrong.”
At Dongpil’s words, Isong’s face grew tense.
His concern was far from groundless.
Yet Isong did not hastily voice the matter aloud.
According to Jwaryang, it was something to be discussed only after everything had concluded.
There was no profit in raising it while events were still unfolding.
So Isong spoke in a grave tone.
“Let’s wait and see for now.”
As those watching nodded at Isong’s words, a man called Ryu was conversing with Moyong Changwun.
“It’s been a long time.”
Ryu inclined his head to the greeting Moyong Changwun offered him.
“You don’t look well.”
“I haven’t looked well since the day you captured me.”
“The way you’re sitting——”
“His lumbar muscles were severed. The Gyuchaljo went too far.”
At Jang Minsu’s words, Ryu turned to regard him.
He stood beside Bong Jin, who slept leaning against the same tree that supported a reclining Moyong Changwun.
……
Though he spoke nothing, Jang Minsu could read the apology in Ryu’s silence.
“We chose this ourselves. You have nothing to apologize for, Commander.”
At Jang Minsu’s words, Ryu’s faint smile nonetheless carried an unmistakable glimmer of remorse.
To him, Jang Minsu gestured toward Moyong Changwun with his eyes and spoke.
“He’s determined to die rather than talk. Judging from the way he won’t open his mouth even to us, the man has quite the stubborn streak.”
Looking at Moyong Changwun again in light of Jang Minsu’s words, Ryu asked,
“So he hasn’t spoken at all, then.”
“Only when we ask questions he can’t answer.”
At Moyong Changwun’s reply, Dongpil, watching from a distance, let out a grumble.
“Creepy bastard. We asked him straight if he was really Moyong Changwun, and he refused to answer even under threat of death.”
“So he’s realized we’re using deception to try and get him to speak.”
Dongpil nodded at Isong’s observation.
“The man’s got plenty of suspicion in him too. Which is why he held out until he got to this state. But those Gyuchaljo bastards—they’re too much. Even if he’s an enemy, why slice out the lumbar muscles like that?”
At Dongpil’s grumbling, Isong spoke.
“It’s called the Jahk-hyeong. It’s a method used when all other forms of torture fail to work. Naturally, the pain surpasses anything else.”
“How exactly is it done?”
“They use a torture implement shaped like a blunt pair of shears and gnaw away the living flesh at the waist.”
“Gnaw… away?”
“The blade is dull. So instead of cutting, the flesh is crushed and ground. That’s why it’s called gnawing.”
“Then the severed lumbar muscles——?”
“When it closes fully, everything caught in it is crushed. Muscle’s no exception.”
At Isong’s explanation, Dongpil’s tongue recoiled.
He thought that to endure such torture, death would be preferable.
As Dongpil shook his head in horror, the conversation between Ryu and Moyong Changwun continued.
“But may I ask why you pulled me out? They kept saying someone would come to answer my questions… and now I’m fairly certain that someone is you.”
Ryu smiled faintly at Moyong Changwun’s words, and after a brief glance at Jwaryang and Dongpil, he replied,
“Moyong Jieun.”
Watching Moyong Changwun flinch at the mere name, Ryu continued,
“I promised to let you live.”
“What does that woman have to do with me?”
At Moyong Changwun’s words, Dongpil spoke as if to say, ‘See what I mean.’
“This is the kind of man he is.”
At Dongpil’s grumbling, Isong let out a wry laugh.
Only then did Ryu realize that Moyong Changwun did not trust them in the slightest, and he opened his mouth.
“The dragon of the Cloud-Awaiting Inn awaits the clouds.”
At those words from Ryu, Moyong Changwun’s eyes flew wide with shock.
“How… how did you know that phrase!”
“Dan Lihyeon told me. He said if I spoke those words, you’d believe me.”
“Dan Lihyeon! Where did you meet him, and how——?”
“We crossed paths. With Moyong Jieun, your… sister.”
The members of Jeoksajjo noted the hesitation Ryu showed at the word ‘your,’ and their expressions darkened.
Unaware of the Jeoksajjo members’ reaction, Moyong Changwun was left bewildered by the successive shocks.
“You really met my sister? Where?”
The moment he answered, confirming that Moyong Jieun was his sister, he had admitted his true identity as Moyong Changwun.
Even as flesh tore and his waist muscles snapped in his right mind, his refusal to reveal his identity then made this confession seem hollow by comparison.
But such emptiness, such worry—the other man paid them no mind.
“We met. Just briefly.”
“Where? How? What do you mean we met?”
Moyong Changwun’s voice wavered with deep unease as he pressed the question.
It was difficult to imagine Moyong Jieun encountering the Jeoksajjo, their enemy.
But explaining the whole sequence of events would take too long.
And there was another matter—why he himself had let Moyong Jieun go and then saved Moyong Changwun, which he would have to account for.
Ryu had no desire to lay those reasons bare.
“I saved him. I’m not in the mood to explain the circumstances.”
With those words, he lifted Moyong Changwun into his arms, drawing a startled sound from the man.
“What—what are you doing?”
“If sitting is difficult, walking will be worse.”
So he would carry him instead.
Understanding this, Moyong Changwun’s eyes grew uncomfortable.
Carrying him, Ryu turned to address his comrades.
“I’ll be back within the next half day.”
“You’ll take him somewhere?”
At Dongpil’s question, Ryu nodded slightly.
“I’ve left a few of those Hyeolhyeol-gwi dogs prowling Sajagwan. I’ll leave him in a place they’re sure to spot him.”
Past Dongpil, who shrugged in understanding at his words, Ryu vanished into the mountainous depths of Sajagwan.
Still cradling Moyong Changwun in his arms.
Once Ryu had gone, Isong voiced something that had been nagging at him.
“By the way—what’s going on with Bong Jin over there?”
At Isong’s question, Dongpil turned his gaze toward the base of a tree the man was looking at and grinned widely.
“I’m worried that if he sees what we’re doing, his blood pressure will only spike. Even if he is a squad leader, we should cooperate with his health management.”
At that, Isong could only laugh bitterly.
This happened two hours after dawn, the night Jwaryang and Dongpil had extracted Moyong Changwun.
***
Before Commander I Hwan and Adviser Gong Chan, Bong Jin explained the mission’s course, his face etched not so much with dejection at failure as with anger toward someone.
After hearing the full account, Gong Chan asked his question.
“So what you’re saying is the Jeoksajjo intentionally let her go, is that it?”
“Yes, Adviser.”
At Bong Jin’s confident answer, Gong Chan pressed further.
“But you didn’t directly witness that moment yourself?”
“That is… yes. Because our unit split into separate groups… But even so, it’s clear they did it deliberately—splitting her and me apart, Adviser.”
Gong Chan nodded slowly at this, then glanced sidelong at Commander I Hwan before addressing Bong Jin.
“Understood. Submit the details in your mission report, then go rest.”
“But shouldn’t we first search for her brother, the one said to have been taken prisoner?”
Rather than leave, Bong Jin pressed closer, as if his work were only beginning. Gong Chan’s expression turned troubled as he asked.
“The prisoner—you mean the one who may have been born with the essence of Cheonmyeongseong?”
“Yes, Adviser.”
“We hold but one prisoner. By your account, that would be Moyong Changwun, which would mean…”
“Exactly. He must be Moyong Changwun, the one called Cheonmyeongseong or Okmaryong. If you summon him for questioning at once—”
“He’s no longer in our custody.”
“I beg your pardon?”
Bong Jin’s expression clouded with confusion. Gong Chan elaborated.
“He escaped yesterday.”
“Escaped!”
The moment those words reached him, the faces of the Jeoksajjo members who had returned with him surfaced in his mind.
They had seemed off somehow, always avoiding his gaze…
He’d thought it was because Ryu said they’d lost Moyong Jieun and Dan Lihyeon, but that wasn’t all of it.
“It must have been the Jeoksajjo!”
“But weren’t the Jeoksajjo with you as you moved?”
“Some were, but not all—I’ve already told you that, haven’t I?”
“So it was the ones separated from you who did this?”
“Undoubtedly. Otherwise, such a perfectly timed incident couldn’t occur, could it?”
“But there’s no evidence—”
“Then we interrogate them. Break their bones, flay their flesh if we must—we question them, again and again. We must uncover the truth, no matter what!”
Gong Chan spent some time soothing the trembling, furious Bong Jin before sending him out, then turned to regard I Hwan, the commander.
“What would you have me do?”
“What’s the official report from the Jeoksajjo?”
“The steed that was in the process of defecting was extracted by Dan Lihyeon during the chaos and fled, sir.”
I Hwan nodded at Gong Chan’s answer and fingered the Paechals laid out before him.
“Five from the Hyuggwi alone, thirty from the Mil-gwi, and the Hyeolhyeol-gwi’s are too numerous to count.”
These were the spoils the Jeoksajjo had submitted—tokens from those they had cut down during the operation.
Of course, it was not the full measure of their accomplishments.
They had collected and submitted only what could be revealed to the outside world, just barely crossing that threshold, nothing more.
And they would never have done even that, had it not been for the matter concerning Dan Lihyeon and Moyong Jieun.
The other units had long proven their merits through such methods, but this was the first time the Jeoksajjo had done so.
Until now, the Jeoksajjo had proven their accomplishments by completing their missions, never by offering evidence of how many they had slain; this was unprecedented for them.
Gazing at the Paechals that had been submitted, Gong Chan spoke.

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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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