Chapter 11 : Jangho

Chapter 11: Jangho

Dong Bong-su ultimately decided not to kill them. That thought could have changed again, but at least for now, he judged that there was no particular need to kill them.

Whether Dopaldu and the thugs knew or not that their lives had gone to the very threshold of the afterlife and then came back, they kept walking forward.

They led Dong Bong-su all the way to the end of the alley, to a completely secluded corner. This was a place people had rarely visited, even in the past. Much less would anyone come to a place like this in the current atmosphere.

Slap.

Certain now that there was no one around, Dopaldu abruptly swung his hand and struck Dong Bong-su across the face.

The bastard’s palm was large and broad, like the paw of a beast. Unless one was a martial artist, there was no way to endure a blow from a palm like that.

With a crisp sound of flesh colliding, Dong Bong-su’s body stretched out long as he fell straight onto the ground.

It was the customary beating that the thugs always carried out before taking someone’s money. To bottom-rung punks, acts of violence like this were one of life’s pleasures, no less than stealing and spending money.

To lives stuck at the bottom, preying on and tormenting basement-dwellers was a strand of amusement in their foul-smelling existence.

For those on the receiving end, it was something that made them shed tears of blood, but to human trash like them, violence?

It was the vitality of everyday life.

Thud, thump thump.

Dong Bong-su silently endured the group beating from Dopaldu and the other thugs. However, even as he lay face-down against the ground, his eyes were shining white. Had Dopaldu seen those eyes, he would have either pissed himself or never again thought of extorting money from Dong Bong-su.

Those were not human eyes. Nor were they the murderous eyes of a carnivorous predator at the top of the food chain, like a lion or a tiger.

They were simply emptiness, eyes devoid of any emotion.

People who think, “Why would emotionless eyes be frightening?” can only say that because they have never encountered such eyes.

All living beings have emotions. They are especially sensitive to the emotion of pain. Yet Dong Bong-su looked like someone who felt no emotion at all, particularly the emotion called pain.

Imagine eyes that showed no agitation whatsoever while blood poured down. There would be very few people who could face such eyes and remain unfazed.

Thud, thump....

The violence of the thug gang seemed as though it would never end. Their kicking finally stopped only after a certain voice was heard.

“What do you think you’re doing right now?”

It was a heavy voice. Still lying face-down, Dong Bong-su lifted his head and looked toward where the voice had come from. A single man stood there, looking to be in his thirties, dressed in black—Jang Han. Judging by his solid build, at a glance he looked like just another thug.

“Now then, Brother Jangho!”

“I asked what you think you’re doing right now.”

But that had been Dong Bong-su’s mistake.

Jangho was, in fact, a member of the Black Snake Society, one of the three Black Divisions that controlled the back alleys of Bongyang. The thugs might live by acting like street punks, but even among that underworld, they were bottom-tier lives.

All thugs had to pay tribute to the Black Divisions, who operated more insidiously from higher and darker places than they did. The Black Divisions had mastered basic martial arts such as the Three Talents Sword Art, making them beings far stronger than back-alley thugs like these—so much so that, at times, thugs were dragged off to the authorities to take the blame for crimes committed by Black Division members.

Although Jangho was nothing more than a low-ranking member of the Black Snake Society, he was not even remotely comparable to Dopaldu, the boss of the thug gang. Even if Jangho were to kill Dopaldu, no one in Bongyang would care. The same went for Dopaldu’s subordinates.

Dong Bong-su realized that things were unfolding differently from what he had expected. Even so, he still did not feel any particular need to eliminate them just yet.

Quietly spitting out the blood pooled in his mouth, he straightened his waist. Maintaining that posture, he gripped the reins of Yeoro, which hung limply downward, and carefully observed the situation.

“Ah, ah, it’s just that this bastard talked back, so I was making an example out of him....”

Jangho said nothing as he glanced once at Dong Bong-su, then turned his gaze to Yeoro.

“....”

A glint of unusual light overlaid his eyes.

Dong Bong-su’s pupils, by contrast, sank deeply inward. He had read the flicker of greed in Jangho’s gaze.

Tap. Tap.

Jangho turned his body and slowly approached Dopaldu.

Sensing that the atmosphere had turned ominous, Dopaldu staggered backward.

“H-hyungnim! Wh-why are you like th—!”

Crack.

Jangho suddenly lunged at Dopaldu, grabbed his arm, and twisted it sharply behind his back.

“Gyaaaah!”

“Isn’t it the same for you, daring to act up in front of me?”

Judging by how Dopaldu’s arm had been grotesquely bent in the opposite direction, it was clear that he had become crippled in that arm. From now on, he would probably have to live the rest of his life as a left-hander. With that, his position as boss of the thug gang was over as well. One of the other subordinates, now retreating and trembling behind him, would likely become the new boss. Of course, that assumed they survived today.

Jangho showed not the slightest interest in the fact that Dopaldu’s arm had been ruined. After pressing his foot down firmly on Dopaldu’s head as he writhed on the ground in agony, he walked back toward Dong Bong-su.

“You speak nicely. What breed is it?”

Jangho asked as he carefully stroked Yeoro’s mane.

Dong Bong-su knew that Jangho was asking him a question, but he did not answer. Wasn’t he known as a mute right now? It wasn’t that he couldn’t answer, but the moment he did, he would have to kill everyone present here. And to do that, he first needed to be certain about his opponent. Dopaldu and the thug gang had already been fully assessed, so he was confident he could deal with them without issue, but....

The problem was Jangho, who was pressing him from right in front of him.

Dong Bong-su had met him for the first time today. Needless to say, he knew nothing about Jangho. That was what made him hesitate.

“I asked you what breed this horse is.”

Jangho’s voice grew even heavier.

Dong Bong-su read the killing intent secretly embedded deep within that voice.

‘Is he targeting me?’

Dong Bong-su became convinced of it. He did not know the exact reason, but the man in front of him was trying to kill him.

Just as he thought, Jangho had appeared here from the beginning with Dong Bong-su as his target. No, to be more precise, his target was Yeoro.

Bang Po-yeom, the leader of the Black Snake Society, was a man who went mad for fine horses. He had coveted Yeoro, the horse belonging to Dan Ri Cheon-u, for a long time.

However, he knew very well that if he mishandled Yeoro, the Black Snake Society could be wiped off the map of Bongyang.

But could human greed really be so easily resolved just by trying to suppress it?

For a long time, he had ordered Jangho to observe Yeoro—or more precisely, the Horse Stable Hirelings who managed Yeoro. Then recently, he heard that a dumb fool named Sosam, who could not speak, had begun taking care of Yeoro.

Thinking that the time had finally come, he ordered Jangho to steal Yeoro. Jangho had been waiting for the perfect opportunity to carry out Bang Po-yeom’s command, and he believed that moment was now.

If Sosam, Dopaldu, and all of his gang were killed on the spot, and only Dopaldu’s corpse was disposed of, all the blame would fall on Dopaldu.

Crack, creak.

Jangho lightly cracked the joints of both his fingers as he slowly drew killing intent up from his body.

There was no longer any room for choice.

‘I have to fight.’

Feeling the killing intent creeping up from Jangho’s body, Dong Bong-su smiled inwardly. And unlike before, he felt certain now.

Certain that he could take Jangho.

There was nothing more foolish than openly giving off dense killing intent in front of one’s prey. Had anyone ever seen a tiger or a lion reveal its killing intent before the hunt succeeded? Never. Not once.

A true hunter did not reveal killing intent until the moment he bit into the prey’s throat. It must not be revealed. If one stirred up killing intent before the hunt and the prey fled, then he lacked the qualities of a hunter.

Much less so—

He himself was not such an ordinary prey.

Jangho had misjudged his target.

Step.

With one hand placed on a knee.

Dong Bong-su slowly rose from where he was. His head was still angled toward the ground, and to anyone watching, he looked exactly like someone cowering in fear.

“I won’t ask three times.”

Saying that, Jangho grabbed Dong Bong-su’s arm.

That was the moment.

“Then kill me. Why bother asking three times?”

It was a voice without inflection. If a voice could have highs and lows, then this voice was one where every pitch was the same. Unless one was a machine, who could produce such a voice? Other than Dong Bong-su, no one could.

Those words were the first he had spoken to someone since coming to the murim. And they were utterly like him. Not only the content of those words, but also the result that followed was just as fitting.

“Huh!? You can talk?”

Jangho was slightly flustered when Sosam, whom he had believed to be mute, suddenly spoke. It seemed like nothing much, but that tiny opening was more than enough for Dong Bong-su. Dong Bong-su swiftly lifted his head.

Thud.

When had it happened?

A blade was wedged between Dong Bong-su’s teeth.

“H-how....”

The blade pierced completely through one side of Jangho’s neck, digging into the flesh, and the tip of the sharp dagger protruded grotesquely from the opposite side of his neck, glinting together with blood.

Crack.

Grabbing Jangho’s neck as he answered how, Dong Bong-su snapped it cleanly.

“I don’t know either.”

Even as he lost his life, Jangho kept making gurgling sounds and spewing bloody foam from his mouth, as though something still troubled him. His eyes seemed to be asking how one could hold a knife in one’s mouth and do such a thing.

There was no blade in Dong Bong-su’s mouth anymore. It was already inside his inventory.

“It just worked, somehow.”