The Strongest in Our Neighborhood - Chapter 9

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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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The Neighborhood’s Strongest (9)
Gaanna asked her colleague Hosimulren what had happened, but Hosimulren too had a gag stuffed in his mouth and couldn’t answer.
“M-Mr. Jang Gaein! If Sabel Tiger has shown up, it must definitely be you!”
It was a child named Puaring who spoke then.
“Mph, mmmph, gag, mmmph…….”
When asked how he’d gotten the gag off, Puaring brought his mouth close to his own face, bit down on the gag, and yanked it free.
“Phew! Ah, how did you manage that, you clever thing?”
“Oh! Whenever the hunters weren’t looking, I rubbed Binston’s face against mine to work the gag loose.”
“Good. Now let’s get the gags off everyone else too.”
“Yes.”
While Puaring worked at freeing his friend’s gag, Gaanna used her teeth to work at Hosimulren’s bonds—both the cloth in his mouth and the rope binding his hands.
As they worked to free each other’s gags and bindings, the Sabel Tiger that had chased off the hunter reappeared.
Grrrrrowl…….
“Oh! Teacher, the Sabel Tiger’s back!”
“Blast it, my hands still aren’t free—I can’t cast Spirit Magic yet.”
Hearing Hosimulren’s words, Gaanna bit at the rope with desperate fury, nearly cracking her teeth in the effort.
But the knots the hunters had tied in their peculiar way wouldn’t come loose easily.
The Sabel Tiger drew closer and closer, and with each step her panic only deepened.
“Sabel! It’s me! Binston—I’m the one who healed your wounds! Don’t you remember me?”
When Binston called out to the Sabel Tiger, everyone except Puaring’s eyes widened in surprise.
“B-Binston, what’s this? Did you… heal that Sabel Tiger’s wounds too?”
The teachers already knew he treated injured animals around the village.
“Puaring, this is that Sabel I healed, right? The man from earlier—he’s Jang Gaein.”
“It was too dark to see clearly, but looking at the leather clothes he was wearing, I think so.”
Grrrrrowl…….
As they spoke, the Sabel Tiger approached and wagged its tail at Binston and Puaring.
Since there was a clear difference between coming to devour them and showing affection, Binston called out to the Sabel Tiger again.
“Sabel! You’re that Sabel, aren’t you? Did you come to rescue us?”
Grrrowl.
There was not a trace of hostility in the Sabel Tiger’s cry.
“That’s right! You’re Sabel!”
Leap.
Wail.
Suddenly the Sabel Tiger sprang up and let out a mournful cry.
Moments later, a man in beast-hide clothing appeared and seized the Sabel Tiger by the ear, his brow furrowed.
“You wretch, didn’t I tell you not to eat people? What? You didn’t eat anyone? Then what are those scraps of flesh stuck between your teeth?”
Whine, whimper, whimper, whimper…….
The Sabel Tiger shrank back, shoulders hunched, and pressed itself flat against the ground in submission.
“You try eating another person and I swear on my life, Spirit Beast or not, you’re done for!”
“Mr. Jang Gaein!”
When Binston called out, Jang Gaein—who had been scolding the Sabel Tiger—turned his head.
“Binston, Puaring. Ah, thank goodness I wasn’t too late. Sabel, you go lie down over there and reflect on your misdeeds.”
At Jang Gaein’s command, the Sabel Tiger trudged dejectedly to a large tree stump and lay down.
“Mr. Jang Gaein, did you come to rescue us?”
“Yes. Let me get these bindings off you first.”
Slice, slice, slice…….
As Jang Gaein swung his blade, the ropes and gags binding the teachers and children’s hands and feet came away as easily as thread.
“Thank you so much, Mr. Jang Gaein. We thought we were done for, trapped by those hunters with no way out. We owe you our lives.”
“I heard that young ones like you had been abducted by human hunters, and I grew quite worried. Fortunately, I arrived in time.”
“You heard we’d been abducted? From whom?”
“Ah, well, I stayed in the Birch Forest for several days…….”
Jang Gaein recounted everything from the moment Eldom’s siblings brought Elena to that point.
* * *
When Elena and Malata heard screams in the distance, they summoned a wind spirit and ran at full speed.
They moved so fast that the others in their party couldn’t keep up, but their urgency left them no thought to spare for that.
After running for some twenty minutes, they reached the place where the screams had come from. Around a campfire lay scattered corpses, and they could see the missing teachers and children washing themselves in a stream.
“Teacher Gaanna, Teacher Hosimulren!”
“The Elder!”
“Puaring, Binston, Teoran, Bazilen, Seupning, Optagon. Everyone’s safe!”
“Sob, Elder. We thought we were going to die.”
“Oh my goodness, my children—are any of you hurt?”
“We’re fine, but our teachers were struck by arrows in the shoulder and legs.”
“Good, don’t worry. I brought potions.”
While Elder Elena tended to the two wounded teachers, Elder Malata helped the children wash up, then set about arranging the bodies scattered around the campfire.
‘Hmm, this one’s neck was severed clean through, and that one’s skull is crushed. What did he use? Could he have smashed the head with a stone? This shield’s shattered from being struck by a stone. That one looks like it was raked by Sabel Tiger’s front paws….’
As Elder Malata inspected the corpses of those who’d been slain while fleeing, he found himself whistling low without realizing it.
He’d heard that Jang Gaein was a powerful man, but the hunters were themselves formidable warriors—strong enough to breach the barrier around Dekana Lake.
Yet they had been slaughtered one-sidedly.
‘Unbelievable. I see it with my own eyes and still can’t believe it. Could it really be this one-sided? At this level, he must be an Expert of the highest tier—perhaps even the very pinnacle.’
An Expert of that caliber could command a knight captain or vice-captain in any nearby county of the Smed Kingdom.
‘Now I understand why Sabel Tiger is so subdued.’
Growwwl…
While Malata examined the bodies, he spotted Sabel Tiger approaching from across the clearing, corpses heaped upon its back, with Jang Gaein beside it, arms laden with hunters’ weapons.
“Jang Gaein, we are grateful that you saved our children and teachers.”
As Elder Malata bowed respectfully, Jang Gaein returned the courtesy with a slight nod.
“I apologize for not sending word—the beast suddenly bolted with me and I had no chance to notify you.”
“We understood as much. We simply followed the tracks Sabel Tiger left behind.”
“I confess I’m relieved you came, Elder. I wasn’t confident I could bring the wounded teachers and children back to the village alone on a night like this.”
“Yes, that does make sense. But tell me—why are you gathering the hunters’ corpses?”
“If we leave them here, wild beasts will feed on them. I mean to collect them and burn the bodies.”
“Burn them, you say?”
Crack.
Jang Gaein swatted Sabel Tiger on the back of the head mid-sentence.
“Otherwise creatures like this one will devour them.”
Whimper, whimper…
Sabel Tiger whined submissively, and Jang Gaein turned back to face Elder Malata.
“Forgive me. This creature refuses to stop eating people, so I’m educating it somewhat forcefully.”
Gulp.
Elder Malata swallowed hard without thinking.
He had seen the corpses—some torn to shreds, others mangled beyond recognition by Sabel Tiger’s fangs—and knew full well how terrifying this monster could be. Yet this man handled it as if it were a tame house cat.
“Quite right, sir. A perfectly sound course of action.”
As Jang Gaein dragged the beast away by its ear, Elder Malata quickly stepped aside and forced a smile.
‘Burning them so the beasts won’t feed on them, he said…’
The druids performed Sky Burial to return the dead to nature itself, so cremation had never been a funeral rite they’d considered.
Yet he felt no inclination to impose such customs upon someone like Jang Gaein.
* * *
The Kairin siblings stood frozen, mouths agape, when they arrived at Jang Gaein’s location.
“You truly are an extraordinary practitioner, Jang Gaein.”
She had spoken informally at first when Jang Gaein had relaxed his speech, but seeing the elders maintain formal register meant she couldn’t drop it again.
“Didn’t you see my abilities when Sabel captured that Spirit Beast?”
“We did witness it then, but human hunters are another matter entirely.”
“Well, neither presented much difficulty for me. Finding the hunters in the first place—that was the real challenge.”
“Now that I think of it, how exactly did you find them? You disappeared so suddenly we were quite startled.”
“To be honest, I owe much of the credit to this one. All I did was ride on its back.”
Jang Gaein stroked Sabel Tiger’s head, then gripped its neck and met its eyes.
“Which is why I’m letting this slide today. Catch you trying to eat people one more time, and I’ll skin you alive. Got it?”
“Sir, Sabel Tigers are monsters by nature—eating humans is what they do.”
“I know that. But I don’t like watching this one do it, so.”
“A monster’s nature doesn’t change so easily. What will you do if it refuses to listen in the end?”
“Well then, I’ll kill it, extract its Inner Core, and sell the hide once it’s properly cured. An Inner Core of this caliber should help me increase my Internal Energy somewhat.”
At those words, Sabel Tiger trembled as if struck by a cold wind.
“So don’t eat people, understood? Otherwise run far away where I can’t find you.”
Whimper, whimper.
Sabel Tiger nuzzled Jang Gaein’s thigh affectionately, seeking forgiveness.
As the four continued talking, they arrived at a place where hunters’ belongings were piled high.
Swords, spears, bows, armor of all kinds, bottles containing liquid of unknown purpose, leather pouches—everything lay in heaps.
Eldom asked.
“Jang Gaein, why did you gather all this?”
“I’ll use a few of the weapons myself. The rest I mean to sell.”
“Use weapons like those? A master of your caliber doesn’t seem suited to such arms, does he?”
“I have no immediate use for them. Besides, if I sell all of these, I should be able to afford a decent weapon.”
“Well, that’s true enough.”
“Oh, that’s right—this was found in the hunters’ possession. Do you happen to know what it is?”
When Jang Gaein held up the bronze badge, the eyes of all three widened.
“This… this looks like an Identity Badge from the merchants we trade with… Wait. Elder! Elena!”
“What is it?”
“This Identity Badge—it looks like it belongs to the Coannon Merchant Guild. Please take a look and verify.”
“What! The Coannon Merchant Guild?”
Elena and Malata rushed over as though struck, examining the badge in Eldom’s hands.
“This is indeed a Coannon Merchant Guild Identity Badge. Where did it come from?”
“Kaein said he found it on the dead hunters. But the Coannon Merchant Guild—they’re the ones who trade with our village, aren’t they?”
“Yes.”
Elena’s brow furrowed.
“What do you make of this, Elder Malata?”
Malata’s expression was plainly troubled.
“It appears the merchants we traded with also fell victim to these hunters.”
Eldom spoke gravely.
“Then could the hunters have extracted information from the merchants during the process, using it to abduct the children?”
“It’s not something to dismiss so lightly.”
Elena spoke with a tight expression.
“We’ve dealt with them for a long time, but we’ve never revealed the children’s training grounds to anyone.”
“Still, if they made the effort to search for a place rich in Spirit power near the village, they could certainly find one.”
Malata added carefully.
“That may be so. The concern runs deep. There’s no guarantee such an incident won’t happen again, so once we return to the village, we’ll need to devise countermeasures.”
“A prudent assessment.”
The two elders exchanged words, casting sidelong glances at Jang Gaein.
At this juncture, the best countermeasure was Jang Gaein himself. Yet their dilemma deepened, for they didn’t know what price they would have to pay for his aid.

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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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