“You… bastard… How dare you ambush me… Ho-Gwang the sleeping dragon…”
THUMP
Ho-Gwang was glaring at Dokgo Hoo with red eyes, but he collapsed after losing consciousness.
As he spat toward Ho-Gwang, Dokgo Hoo said,
“What did you say? You retard.”
The two servants of Ho-Gwang drew their swords at an instant and stepped forward. Dokgo Hoo looked at them with a relaxed gaze.
“What. Are you going to jump me?”
“So are you going to fight me?”
“You sons of bitches… So, I’m asking you. Are you going to come at me?”
Dokgo Hoo stood there like a giant mountain.
The two were about First-Rate levels.
However, they could not just step back like this.
Although he wasn’t the kind to kill without a reason, if they ran in this situation, they would not be able to avoid death.
“H… HUUUAAAP!”
“Wait!”
By someone’s shouting, the two servants stopped their movements. One of the servants was shocked in fear as he realized that Dokgo Hoo’s blade was already at his throat.
‘When did he…!’
A thin stream of blood was flowing down from his neck. The man could not do anything.
There was Folken, who is one of The Six and also the captain of the patrol, walking toward this way with three patrol members.
His gaze stopped once at Ho-Gwang who was laying the ground, and his gaze moved to his servants. Folken said with a stern voice toward the two servants who winched in light of his gaze,
“Take him and get lost.”
“I received a call, and I came here after figuring out what’s going on here, so how about you just get going? That is, before I arrest you all.”
“… Yes.”
The two carried Ho-Gwang on their backs and quickly disappeared.
Folken shouted in a loud voice after looking at the spectators, Vulcan and Dokgo Hoo, who were murmuring by themselves,
“From now on, if anyone doesn’t accept defeat and throws a tantrum over the result of a duel, I am not going to go easy on you. Got that?! Everyone, get lost!”
Jake’s residence was on of multi-level buildings in Beloong City. To avoid people’s eyes, Jake brought Vulcan and Dokgo Hoo to his home and started to scold Dokgo Hoo.
“You. Just why are you like that?”
“What.”
Dokgo Hoo poked at his ear with a look on his face as if he had no idea what Jake was talking about. Seeing him like that made Jake furious. Forgetting Dokgo Hoo’s level or personality, Jake yelled at him in a loud voice,
“I told you! He is the son of the Order of Virtue’s leader! After being humiliated like that, do you think the Order of Virtue is going to just let it slide? They have several thousand members and a hundred Zenith-Rate warriors! Just what were you thinking?”
“Nothing much. All I did was disciplining a runt who was throwing a tantrum. What’s the big deal here?”
By Dokgo Hoo’s lax attitude, Jake asked out of pure curiosity,
“You, do you have two lives or something? Or do you just not have any sense of fear? How could you act so casual?”
Looking displeased, Dokgo Hoo stared at Jake for moment and said,
“For a bandit…”
“For a bandit, one’s pride is his life.”
“A bandit has to have pride! If you are going to ask me to ignore a runt like him who was yapping away, I rather die.”
Neither Vulcan nor Jake could say a word.
Dokgo Hoo asked Vulcan,
“Why? Do I look weird to you too?”
“You don’t know much about a mountain bandit, do you? You rascal, a true bandit is…”
Dokgo Hoo slammed the desk hard enough to make a loud noise and said,
“If a bandit doesn’t have pride, he is instantly treated as just a garbage to be taken advantage of. You got it? Once a rumor like that spreads, then that would be the day when my career ends. If a bandit doesn’t have pride or guts, who is going to be crazy enough to pay the passage toll?”
“Silly?”
Dokgo Hoo interrupted Jake and continued on with more force in his voice,
“As a leader of 108 green mountains, I lived like this through my entire life. The moment I lose my pride, my title as the greatest sword in the green mountains is also over. If that’s how it is going to be, I might as well just go belly up.”
“Especially, when that runt who isn’t even worth a piece of shit was causing ruckus, if I held in even for a moment longer, I would have died from frustration.”
As Vulcan listened to Dokgo Hoo’s words, he felt rather refreshed.
It sounded a little retarded, but Vulcan thought Dokgo Hoo was being a cool retard, and it made Vulcan say ‘Big Brother’ effortlessly,
“Big brother, although I don’t want to admit it, your thoughts have a point.”
“That’s right! My little brother, you do know something, don’t you?! HaHa!”
Jake, who had been leading a peaceful life for 50 years after leaving his lower dimension, could not agree to Dokgo Hoo’s words.
Moreover, it was already a spilled milk. It was also pointless to carefully go over and assign faults.
“Ugh. I don’t know anymore. It is not even my business. It is ridiculous that I’m agonizing over this so much and getting headache.”
Jake took out a cigarette and held it on his mouth. Vulcan snapped his finger and lit up his cigarette.
“Ah, thanks.”
“Yeah. You have something you want to ask?”
“You sure have a lot of questions. Well, is it because you are half a mage?”
Jake breathed out to blow out the smoke and said,
“Ho-Gwang is a son that the Order of Virtue's leader, Blade King Ho-Gyung, had when he was in the lower dimension. From the bloodline alone, Ho-Gwang overflows with talent. I heard that Ho-Gwang arrived by the time Ho-Gyung became the strongest in the Beloong City. It is an incredible coincidence.”
“Most of the warriors that reach Asgard feel defeated and lose their sense of pride after seeing other powerful warriors who are beyond themselves. However, in case of Ho-Gwang, from the start, he had a tremendous support called Blade King Ho-Gyung. Through his entire life, he had been riding on Ho-Gyung’s care, so it is no wonder his personality is shit.”
As if he understood, Vulcan nodded. He then asked,
“I see. I wondered if he got married here and then Ho-Gwang was born or something.”
“So there is a woman in this dimension. I have not seen any so far.”
“There are only ten women, so it is very hard to even get a glimpse of them. On top of that, three of them are Ho-Gyung’s wives. The other five are members of the Holy Denomination of War, and I heard that they are battle maniacs who stay in the hunting grounds for 20 hours a day.”
Jake came next to Vulcan and quietly whispered to him in his ear,
“The other two are masters of sexual techniques who can rejuvenate themselves by absorbing sexual energies from men. If it is a top-notch warrior like you, I think they will treat you, so let me know if you are interested.”
Vulcan was stunned for a while, but he regained his senses by Dokgo Hoo’s roar.
“WHAT! 19990 men are suffering because they don’t have a mate, but that guy has three wives? This bastard is totally a thug!”
“… I understand how you feel, but what can we do? Women say they like him. He is the strongest in the Beloong City, and he also one of the most influential man here. They must have been attracted to him.”
Jake shook his head, indicating that the conversation went off the tangent. Jake continued,
“Anyway, this incident is bigger than what you think. After Ho-Gyung came to Asgard, he wasn’t expecting to be able to see his son ever again, but they were miraculously re-united. Also, his son has tremendous talent. If you were Ho-Gyung, how would that make you feel?”
“Ho-Gwang has an incredible talent, enough to satisfy Ho-Gyung’s expectations. Ho-Gwang is an asshole, but he is skilled enough to act the way he does. It hasn’t even been a 100 years since Ho-Gwang came to Asgard, but he is already at Zenith-Rate. If we excluded you two, he is more than qualified to be called the best talent in the Beloong City. From Ho-Gyung’s perspective, Ho-Gwang is a precious son that wouldn’t hurt even if he poked Ho-Gyung in the eyes.”
Having explained this far, Jake sighed big enough to make the ground sink. With eyes full of sympathy, Jake looked at Vulcan and said,
“To someone like that, you didn’t just fight him a little, but instead, you totally humiliated him in front of everyone. I can see massive storm clouds up ahead of you all.”
Vulcan was quietly listening to what Jake had to say, but he suddenly tilted his head to the side. It was because something was odd about Jake’s explanation. It felt like Jake was including Vulcan in to the explanation as the subject.
“Excuse me. I’m asking because I’m really curious.”
“Why are you including me as well?”
“The one that smacked the back of Ho-Gwang was the big brother Dokgo Hoo. It was not me.”
Jake’s face was saying to Vulcan that he could not believe how clueless Vulcan was. Jake gave an additional explanation.
“From the start, all this happened starting with you, didn’t it? From Ho-Gwang’s perspective, when the duel wasn’t even over yet, ‘your big brother’ Dokgo Hoo interfered and embarrassed him. How can you say this is just Dokgo Hoo’s problem? It is also your problem.”
“…”
Having heard what Jake said, Vulcan froze like a statue without thoughts for any movement.
For 10 ~ 20 seconds, with unfocused eyes, Vulcan stared at empty space, and then he suddenly got up and pointed a finger at Dokgo Hoo.
“You god damn old man! Just look at what you have done!”
“Big brother? Like hell it is! Just follow me outside right now! Let’s just have the duel that we didn’t get to!”
“Where are you going to have the duel?”
The two were growling at each other, but then they both turned their heads toward Jake.
“To have a duel, you both need to go to outside of the city, but the moment you do step outside the city, people from the Order of Virtue will probably come at you. When it comes to things happening outside the city, even Folken or the patrol don’t make a move without being notified.”
“I told you earlier, didn’t I? There are 100 of Zenith-Rate warriors in the Order of Virtue. If you have the confidence for surviving these warriors who are hell bent on killing you until the patrol arrives, then by all means go outside the city. Otherwise, for the time being, keep your heads down and stay within the city.”
“The Six does not interfere in matters that are out of their assigned jurisdictions. It seems that they have a rule among themselves that they follow. Even though The Six is one of the three factions, when it comes to this faction… to explain it in a way that would be easiest for you to understand, they are like non-player-characters. Don’t expect getting help from them.”
“… Ugh.”
Vulcan put his hand on his forehead and tossed his body to the sofa as if he was collapsing.
“UUUAAAAAAAA!”
After screaming out loud, Vulcan spat out murmurs in a weak voice,
“I’m trying to lead a quiet life here, but why does incidents and troubles never end…”
“… I will think hard with you all to figure out a way to get through this.”
Jake said with a sympathetic face.
“Thank you.”
Vulcan expressed his gratitude and closed his eyes quietly.
The night was especially dark with even the moon blocked by clouds. In middle of the night, the two men met.
The man with short blonde hair and fierce eyes, Horune spoke,
“Just what business do you have with me?”
“…”
The other man only smiled big.
Horune, in an agitated state that was more so than the usual, put more strength to his voice and said,
“I don’t know what kind of bull crap scheme you are trying to pull here. If you have nothing to say, then I’m going back.”
As if he was trying to show he was not just saying that, Horune turned his body right away and started to walk. Before he went three steps, the other man’s voice could be heard,
“It looked like a request was made to the Holy Denomination of War. Is that right?”
To Horune, who came to a stop, the man continued,
“It seems the end result was not very good…”
“If you are here to belittle me, then why don’t you stop it here?”
Horune rapidly, and roughly, turned around toward the man, fast enough to make his clothes flap in the air. Horune glared right at the man’s eyes and said to the man as if he was chewing and spitting out the words,
“Go straight to the point and make it brief. Otherwise, I’m going to leave. Lee Jung-Yup.”
“I got it. Oh my, you really don’t know how to relax.”
Lee Jung-Yup smiled big with his white teeth showing.