Chapter 123 : Chapter 123

Chapter 123. Discussion on Chivalry (3)

Anui in Jiangxi Province.

A small thatched house.

There, a boy was reading a book.

After a long time immersed in his studies.

Perhaps because he had been sitting still, his whole body felt stiff.

To loosen his stiff body, the boy got up.

The place the boy headed to was the marketplace.

Because at this time of day, his father was always there.

The boy’s face crumpled as he arrived at the marketplace.

Because he had witnessed ruffians harassing the commoners.

“You scoundrels!!”

The shout of a much younger boy.

The ruffians who were in the middle of exploiting the commoners of the marketplace let out a hollow laugh.

“What did you just say?”

“The young brat is dying to die.”

Despite their threatening attitude as they swaggered, the boy didn't even blink an eye.

“How can you harass the powerless in broad daylight!”

At the boy’s shout, the ruffians sneered.

“Did you say harassing~”

“Oh, so scary.”

“Kiddo. Do you think we’ll run away just because you say that?”

“Go drink some more of your mommy’s milk and come back.”

“Kuhahahahaha.”

After finishing their sneers, they approached the boy.

“H-Hyeon!?”

His father, who was doing business in the marketplace, only then realized his son’s crisis and rushed over.

The father protected the boy and had to be beaten up by those ruffians instead.

On the way home with his battered father.

The boy said with tears in his eyes.

“Th-The bad ones are them, so why…”

It was clearly written so in the books he studied.

That one must live by observing benevolence, righteousness, propriety, and wisdom.

That those who could not were no different from beasts.

But those beast-like people had harmed his father.

At this, the father forced a smile with his pained face.

“This father is fine, Hyeon. So, focus on your studies. When you become a high-ranking person someday, you can help people like this father, can’t you?”

The boy wiped his tears with his fist and answered.

“I will do so, father.”

It was written so in the book he was reading.

That a gentleman's revenge is not too late even after ten years.

If he just became an official, he could punish such ruffians.

A gentleman should naturally look at the more distant future and move forward.

“Hahaha. Yes. Our Hyeon-i is smart, so you can surely do it. Become a high-ranking official and become a fine official who helps people like this father. Hahaha.”

The father laughed happily.

His son had been smart since he was young. To the point where he could willingly dedicate his life for his son's studies.

Thus, the years flowed by.

The boy, planning for the day he would become an official, devoted himself to his studies tenaciously.

The father also worked his fingers to the bone to help his son's studies.

Even while being consistently extorted for money by the ruffians, he would somehow manage to buy brushes, ink, inkstones, paper, and books.

The boy, who had been devoted only to his studies, had become a young man before he knew it.

And the father who had dedicated himself to his son had become emaciated in a few years.

Perhaps the places where he had been beaten by the ruffians that day had become chronic ailments.

“Father, the notice for the preliminary examination has been posted. I will somehow pass and let you live in comfort.”

“Hahahaha. Cough. This father is content as long as Hyeon-i becomes an official.”

The son who had said his goodbyes to his father packed his things and left the village.

He was anxious about leaving his sick father, but he tried to steady his heart.

All he had to do was pass the examination.

He would let his father live in comfort, and he would help those who were struggling like his father.

With that mindset, he headed for the examination hall.

Was it because he was as smart as his father expected? Or was it because he had studied so tenaciously all this time?

The preliminary examination was too easy for the young man.

He wrote down his answers with a single stroke of his brush.

And after staying there and waiting for the results for a few days, a shocking result came out.

The young man's name was not on the list of successful candidates.

How long had he been staring blankly at the notice board with a dazed expression?

A strange conversation pierced his ears.

“Tsk. I don’t know what’s the point of an exam where the successful candidates are already decided.”

“Watch your mouth. Are you trying to get into trouble?”

The young man hastily approached them and asked.

“The successful candidates are already decided? What do you mean by that?”

The middle-aged men, who were making troubled faces, carefully told the young man the truth.

The fact that the results of the preliminary examination were decided by bribes.

“…”

The young man stood still like a stone statue.

The effort he had put in all this time was in vain.

No, the life of his father who had sacrificed for him was in vain.

Above all, he couldn't tell his father the truth.

- I failed the exam because I didn't have enough money to pay the bribe.

What kind of reaction would his father show when he heard these words?

- This father is lacking, I'm sorry. I'm sorry I couldn't earn more money for you, Hyeon.

That scene was clearly drawn in his mind.

So, the young man who had returned to his hometown lied.

“Father, it seems I was a frog in a well. The exam was so difficult that I couldn't solve a single question.”

That it would be impossible to pass the examination no matter how much he studied.

So he would help with his father’s work.

For a moment, a look of disappointment appeared on his father's face, but he soon smiled.

“Hahaha. Yes. It’s enough to just live a good life even if you don’t become an official. Cough.”

A few months of nursing his sick father and doing his father's work instead.

Countless thoughts passed through the young man's mind.

‘The world is wrong.’

A hellfire of wanting to burn down the entire world flared up in his heart.

But every time, his father’s face would come to mind.

- When you become a high-ranking person someday, you can help people like this father, can’t you.

Yes. He wanted to become someone who helps people like his father.

But the path to a high position was blocked.

While he was contemplating what to do about this, his father continued to grow thinner.

And a few months later.

“I’m… sorry… This father is lacking… I only made… our fine son… suffer…”

His father passed away with his last words being ‘I’m sorry’.

Perhaps he had already guessed the reason why he had failed the preliminary examination.

After holding his father’s funeral alone, the young man headed for the village marketplace.

In the marketplace, the sight of ruffians harassing people like his father entered his eyes.

He wanted to help people like his father. He also wanted to help people like himself.

“You scoundrels!!”

The young man, Sama Hyeon’s shout, made the ruffians turn their heads and look at him.

“You’ve been quiet for a while. Did you eat something wrong?”

“This time, the son wants to end up like his father. Hahaha.”

At their sneers, Sama Hyeon willingly stepped forward.

He had been enduring it all this time because of his sick father.

“Yes. Go ahead and beat me up! Instead of those innocent people, beat me!”

He had long since given up on becoming an official.

If so, by what means could he benefit the world?

“Ten years from now! I will become a man who punishes people like you!”

He would punish those who harassed people like his father with martial arts.

“And I will bestow what I have learned to those who could not learn because of people like you!”

He would teach literature to children who were in the same situation as him.

What did it matter if an official position was decided by bribes?

If everyone in the world learned benevolence, righteousness, propriety, and wisdom and lived by caring for each other, people like him, people like his father, would no longer be born.

This was the conclusion he had reached while nursing his father.

“This bastard has gone completely crazy.”

“Alright. We’ll make you a cripple today.”

With his heart pounding as if it would burst, Sama Hyeon took a step towards them.

He had not yet learned a single martial art.

He knew that he would be defeated.

It was because he knew that he had acted this way.

It was said that a gentleman's revenge is not too late even after ten years.

He would engrave the humiliation of being beaten by them today deep in his heart and return after training for ten years.

Furthermore, he would travel all over the world.

He would help the pitiful commoners and raise people with will.

As he was thinking of that vow and was about to approach the ruffians, a loud laugh erupted from somewhere.

“Hahahahaha!”

The heads of Sama Hyeon and the ruffians turned.

A group of nine people was standing there.

The man in the center, a young man who looked to be around the same age as Sama Hyeon, was bursting with laughter as if his stomach would split.

To the point where he was about to shed tears.

“…Young Hero Jin, what’s wrong?”

“H-brother, what’s wrong?”

“Haa. This madman’s madness has flared up again.”

The worried reactions of the people around.

“What’s with that madman?”

“They are people I’ve never seen before. It seems they are outsiders.”

The conversation the ruffians were having with frowned brows.

As if none of it mattered, Jin Yuseong continued to laugh.

“Hahahahaha.”

Then, Jin Yuseong, who had barely managed to hold back his laughter, wiped the tears that had come out from laughing and looked at Sama Hyeon.

“It’s a pleasure to meet you. You’re truly consistent.”

Consistent? What did that mean?

“…Do you know me?”

As Sama Hyeon asked back with a bewildered expression, Jin Yuseong smiled lightly instead of the loud laughter from before.

“It seems it would be better to talk after cleaning up the trash.”

Soon after, Jin Yuseong’s face turned towards the ruffians.

A smile was still on Jin Yuseong’s face.

But for some reason, a shiver ran down Sama Hyeon’s spine.

It was a completely different feeling from the smile he had given him.

“Today is a good day. So, I’ll kill you cleanly.”

Right after his declaration ended, a fountain of blood raged there.

Slice!

Sama Hyeon, with a dazed expression, also had a drop of blood splattered on his face.

The eighteen years of Sama Hyeon’s life.

In that short time, it was the first time he had seen such overwhelming violence.

Right after wiping out the ruffians in an instant, Jin Yuseong approached Sama Hyeon.

Sama Hyeon swallowed dryly, but he did not run away.

His gaze was on the surrounding commoners.

It was a young man who seemed dozens of times more dangerous than the ruffians from a moment ago.

If he ran away and left him, the commoners here would be in danger.

Of course, he had no way of stopping that young man, but he intended to buy even a little time.

At that moment, the young man who was approaching Sama Hyeon turned his head.

Towards the surrounding commoners that Sama Hyeon was looking at.

The moment Sama Hyeon was about to stop the young man, the young man opened his mouth in a very polite tone.

“J-Just a moment.”

“I’m sorry, but may I ask you something?”

It was a politeness unbecoming of the young man who had just committed a massacre.

“Y-Yes. J-Just say the word.”

At the startled reply of the commoners, the young man asked.

“Those guys just now, were they the ones who usually harassed you like this?”

“Th-That’s right!”

“I-It’s already been at least f-five years!”

The young man nodded and then asked Sama Hyeon.

“Then would you guide me to where the rest of the trash is?”

Sama Hyeon felt as if he had been possessed by a ghost.

Half dazed, he guided the young man and his group.

A manor with a plaque that said [Azure Silver Gang].

A place that had reigned here for five years, a place that was no different from a nightmare for the commoners here.

“They are trash who have exploited the commoners for five years. Don’t leave a single one alive.”

“G-Got it, brother!”

“I will do so, Great Hero Jin!”

“That bastard seems particularly excited today. Phew.”

A nightmarish reality befell the ruffians there.

Slice!

Cutting sounds and screams raged, and a storm of blood raged everywhere.

It took less than a moment for dozens of ruffians to all become corpses.

At the scene, which was no different from a hellscape, Sama Hyeon’s face turned pale.

At that moment, the young man who had slaughtered the most people approached Sama Hyeon again.

“I’m sorry for the late introduction. The cleaning took longer than I thought.”

“Cl-Cleaning, you say?”

As Sama Hyeon asked back hesitantly, the young man smiled and performed a clasped hands greeting.

“My family name is Jin, and my given name is Yuseong.”

“M-My name is Sama Hyeon.”

“So you were Brother Sama.”

Despite it being their first meeting, it was a strangely friendly tone.

“When I heard Brother Sama’s shout a while ago, I felt a sense of relief as if my blocked insides had been cleared.”

“W-Was that so?”

“Hahaha. So, something came to mind that I wanted to ask Brother Sama.”

“P-Please ask.”

As soon as Sama Hyeon’s permission was given, Jin Yuseong asked with a very serious expression.

“Brother Sama, what are your thoughts on chivalry?”

It was a truly random question.