The Wizard Who Endured the World of Murim - Chapter 13

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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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Surviving in the Martial Realm as a Mage: Episode 13
“The tribute is pathetic.”
“It was the same last time.”
“Hmm, have we been too lenient? The children have grown careless?”
“It was like this the time before that too!”
“Sigh, they say you shouldn’t raise dark-haired beasts. Why do ordinary mortals lose their minds the moment you treat them kindly?”
“It’ll probably be the same next time?”
“Fine, we’ve been too permissive. I think it’s time we taught them a lesson, don’t you? Master would approve.”
“Let’s teach them! Let’s teach them!”
The office of the Pyeong Family in Giyang County.
Seated at the head of the table were a young boy and girl with snow-white hair.
Both wore blue robes and black caps adorned with golden patterns on their heads.
Both their appearance and attire.
Made the boy and girl seem extraordinary and utterly mysterious.
Before them.
A middle-aged man prostrated like a criminal trembled before finally opening his mouth.
“The son who was responsible for preparing the tribute suddenly went missing, which delayed the procurement by several days. But if you would grant me just ten more days! The tribute will be fully prepared, and I humbly beg your immortal selves to show mercy!”
Pyeong Mun-hwa, the Family Head of the Pyeong Family, pleaded from his office with a terrified expression.
Yet the boy and girl still spoke with sullen faces.
“You’re asking us to wait ten days? Do we look like we have nothing to do?”
“Do we look like we have nothing to do?”
When the girl spoke, the expressionless boy parroted her words like a parrot.
As the girl frowned, the boy simultaneously frowned slightly as well.
At first glance, it seemed endearing.
But for some reason, Pyeong Mun-hwa continued stammering while completely frozen in fear.
“I-I’ve dispatched the family’s warriors to quickly procure a hundred young boys and girls. We’ve already gathered nearly half, so with ten days we can surely complete the rest. Please, just grant us time—”
“No. I won’t give you time. You’ve already broken your promise.”
“Broken it!”
The girl finished speaking.
And suddenly pulled a small bell from her sleeve.
The moment Pyeong Mun-hwa saw it, pure terror flooded his face.
“Immortal! Please, show mercy!”
“Pyeong Mun-hwa, Family Head of the Pyeong Family. I must now reclaim what I gave you.”
“That cannot be! I truly did my utmost! Even now the family is mobilizing all its resources to procure the children!”
“Enough. No more excuses.”
The girl scoffed and gently shook the bell in her hand as she spoke.
Ding—
“By the authority of the Mansizong Enforcement Proxy, I command you. Return now to your original form.”
“No!”
The bell rang once more.
Pyeong Mun-hwa, who had been desperately reaching out in a prone position, remained frozen in that exact state.
As if his very soul had departed from his body, his pupils turned a murky gray, and his body temperature plummeted rapidly.
In a single instant, he had become a jiangshi.
“Siou.”
“Yes, yes! Sister!”
“It’s a toy. But since it’s old and might break soon, you need to handle it carefully, okay?”
“Understood!”
The expressionless white-haired Young Boy clapped his palms together and bounced excitedly in place.
Watching her younger brother, the white-haired Young Girl gently stroked his head and smiled contentedly as she spoke.
“Later, when the other ones return to the family, I’ll turn them into toys too, so let’s wait just a bit longer.”
“Yes, yes!”
The white-haired Young Girl and Young Boy dispatched from Mansizong had thus.
turned most of the Pyeong Family’s masters into jiangshi.
This entire event had unfolded in merely half a day.
* * *
After establishing a 1st Circle in his heart, Ilhyang’s mood had improved considerably.
‘There’s actually a certain satisfaction to nurturing something new.’
A path he had walked long ago, just once in passing.
Now he was treading it again.
Yet far from growing tedious, it proved unexpectedly enjoyable.
Moreover, having already established the 1st Circle, reaching the 3rd Circle would be swift.
Thus, brimming with confidence, Ilhyang made his way to the Ronin Guild.
And there.
“A child abduction case, is it…”
Ilhyang narrowed his eyes as he examined the Quest Board listing the commissions.
The abduction of a boy and girl.
This was the very incident he had heard about from the Inn Server yesterday.
Truth be told, he had paid it little mind at the time.
But seeing it formally listed on the Ronin Guild’s commission board suggested the case was of considerable magnitude.
The reward amount was substantial as well.
‘Five hundred silver taels in silver currency?’
This was certainly an astonishing sum.
Moreover, with no particular restrictions, even Ronin of the Wooden Token rank could participate in this public bounty commission.
What was truly surprising was that the requester was none other than the County Magistrate of Giyang County himself.
In any world, officials were known for their reluctance to act.
Yet here one was, stepping into the public eye to issue a commission?
There was clearly an untold story lurking beneath the surface.
“I heard that over a hundred children have disappeared so far.”
“Hmm, I’ve heard that too. And apparently they’re only abducting children around ten years old?”
“Yeah, I heard about it too. Isn’t it that they’re only kidnapping children around ten years old or so?”
“I heard they kidnapped someone and performed a human sacrifice somewhere.”
“Really? But didn’t the County Magistrate’s illegitimate son get kidnapped too? Could it be true?”
“Ha! That bastard son born from a concubine? No wonder that old fool has been spending large sums of money lately.”
It was while Ilhyang overheard the ronins huddled together gossiping amongst themselves.
Someone sat in the corner, staring intently at Ilhyang.
And then.
“That’s the Kid, right?”
“Yes, Hak Dae-hyeop.”
“Something seems odd. Judging by his clothes, he appears to be a young nobleman. Why is he working as a ronin?”
“Hak Dae-hyeop. We don’t need to know that much, do we? We just take the money and move on, right?”
“…That’s true.”
There were four ronins sitting in the corner.
Each of them wore different colored robes.
Among them, the one draped in blue silk garments—
Despite his fierce appearance, this ronin maintained a surprisingly neat appearance as he examined Ilhyang from head to toe, nodding continuously.
“He fits the conditions perfectly.”
“Then shall we proceed as planned? Hak Dae-hyeop?”
“Yes.”
“But I heard that this Kid received a completion stamp from that madman Pyeong So-byeok. Despite appearances, he seems to have some nerve. Can Yu Geosa persuade him well?”
Then the middle-aged man in scholar’s robes who had been crouching in the corner sipping tea scratched his cheek and answered.
“What can I do? I’ll have to try persuading him and bringing him along.”
The ronin called Yu Geosa.
A middle-aged man of small stature, wearing a black scholar’s cap on his head.
With an awkward expression, he fingered his sleeve once, took a deep breath, and abruptly stood up from his seat.
Then he slowly approached Ilhyang.
Ilhyang had already overheard their hushed whispers.
But he pretended to know nothing.
He was feigning close examination of the Commission Board.
The middle-aged man in scholar’s robes approached him and spoke cautiously.
“Ahem. Young associate. Are you very busy at the moment?”
“Hm?”
The ronin called Yu Geosa in scholar’s robes.
He seemed to be quite shy.
He avoided eye contact, looking off into empty space as he attempted conversation.
“What is it you need?”
When Ilhyang asked, the ronin opened his mouth with an awkward expression.
“Ah, well… My name is Yu Jeong-ui.”
“So you’re Yu Geosa. I’m Ilhyang. But what brings you here?”
“Young associate Ilhyang. If you have time, would you like to go over there and have a cup of tea with me?”
Yu Jeong-ui, unfamiliar with such conversations, spoke with a consistently awkward expression.
Ilhyang turned his head in the direction the man indicated, and his vision filled with Ronin Guild members wearing expressions just as awkward as Yu Jeong-ui’s.
“Actually, we were thinking of attempting a joint commission this time, and we wanted to see if your small guild would be willing to have a discussion about it….”
Yu Jeong-ui.
The middle-aged man dressed as a scholar maintained a cautious demeanor throughout the conversation.
Whether this stemmed from severe shyness.
Or if there was some other reason, I couldn’t tell.
In any case, this man spoke in a quiet voice and avoided meeting my eyes, which made me instinctively distrust him.
But.
“Well, it’s not as though conversation costs anything. Should we head over there?”
“Ah! Yes, that’s right. This way.”
Ilhyang moved toward the table where Yu Jeong-ui and his companions had taken their seats.
And.
‘Ah! Now I understand why this fellow came as the representative.’
After Ilhyang sat at the table.
He could roughly discern the reason why someone as timid as Yu Jeong-ui had come forward as the representative.
Everyone except Yu Jeong-ui.
The man in the blue silk robe sitting at the head of the table was missing one eye.
The fellow next to him, who looked like a mountain bandit in a red ceremonial robe, was missing several fingers on his left hand.
The remaining man bore a long sword scar across his face.
And this one was even missing his left ear.
‘They’ve all got something wrong with them.’
Moreover, all three of them possessed expressions that were excessively fierce and intimidating.
When Ilhyang’s gaze swept across them once.
The hairy man with one eye missing, dressed in a blue silk robe, spoke first.
“I’m called Hak In-bo of the Dongpae Ronin Guild.”
“It’s a pleasure to meet you. I’m Ilhyang.”
Ilhyang sat in an empty chair and simply introduced himself.
The one-eared fellow next to him laughed and immediately spoke up.
“I’m Go An-jeok of the Dongpae Ronin Guild. Pleased to meet you.”
“Yes. Pleased to meet you, Go.”
Finally, the large, mountain-bandit-like man missing two fingers on his left hand answered.
“I’m called Gyeong Hap-gi. Like them, I’m with the Dongpae Ronin Guild.”
It was something I learned upon arriving at this gathering.
The timid-looking, scholarly middle-aged man who had first sought me out—Yu Jeong-ui—was surprisingly also a member of the Dongpae Ronin Guild.
‘All four of them are from the Dongpae Ronin Guild?’
As far as Ilhyang knew, all members of the Dongpae Ronin Guild were first-rate masters.
First-rate masters were the sort who could walk around with their shoulders held high anywhere in this world.
“We’ve gathered to try and resolve a case involving the abduction of a young man and woman from the southeast.”
The one-eyed man.
The business at hand immediately spilled from the lips of Hak In-bo, dressed in the blue silk robe.
This was exactly as Ilhyang had vaguely suspected.
They had gathered to resolve a commission worth five hundred silver taels.
But then.
“Would I be of any help?”
There were as many as four first-rate masters present.
With that level of martial prowess, there shouldn’t be any commission they couldn’t resolve in a remote region like this.
So why were they insisting on bringing me along?
Yu Jeong-ui watched Ilhyang’s bewildered expression quietly.
The taciturn old man who had been quietly sipping tea until then answered carefully.
“Actually, the role of the Small Guild in this commission is the most critical.”
“…Pardon?”
Ilhyang was startled, though only for a brief moment.
Critical? That was strange.
Something didn’t add up.
‘I’ve definitely hidden the fact that I’m a mage, haven’t I?’
A mage’s true power shouldn’t be discernible on the surface.
How could they possibly know?
As Ilhyang’s eyes began to narrow.
Hak In-bo, who was subtly acting as the leader of this group, spoke.
“We need bait to lure out the kidnappers. That’s why we thought you’d be perfect for this job.”
“Ah, I see.”
Bait.
Ilhyang nodded with a look of quick understanding.
And then smiled slightly.
‘Quite clever.’
A ten-year-old kid who could serve as bait.
Moreover, as a Ronin, I would know how to protect myself to some degree.
From that perspective, they had found exactly the right person.
“You’ll split the compensation fairly, correct?”
“Of course. I plan to divide it equally five ways.”
Five hundred silver taels divided by five meant each person would receive one hundred silver taels.
A considerable sum for a single commission.
“You must have a concrete plan. I’d like to hear it.”
When Ilhyang expressed his willingness to participate with an eager attitude.
Hak In-bo turned his remaining eye to survey the bustling Ronin Guild, then opened his mouth in a quiet, low voice.
“Then let’s move to a quieter place.”

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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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