Chapter 37

Chapter 37

* * *

The teahouse was located a little away from the market street. Since it was a relatively famous house in Yueyang and even its size was large, it had settled in a quiet place.

Because that way, they could decorate the surroundings in a slightly more luxurious manner and it was also a way to attract wealthy people.

In fact, it was Dan So-mi's first time going to a teahouse.

Therefore, she moved with a fluttering heart.

At that moment.

“Umm?”

“What's wrong?”

Dan So-mi, who stopped not far from the teahouse, tilted her head. A stable built near the teahouse, which seemed to be set up for customers, had piles of straw that were seen rustling.

“Over there…”

She pointed at that place with her finger.

It could simply be a stray dog or a cat. Because it was no exaggeration to say that such things were scattered here and there. But the rustling was unusual, and even a faint groan was heard.

“Is there something?”

Hong Jin-rang snorted and asked. He did not see or hear anything.

Thus, he thought that there was no way Dan So-mi, who did not even know martial arts, could notice anything.

But Ji-yak was not like that.

Although it hadn't been long since she met Dan So-mi, she knew her well.

In Ji-yak's view, this child was a blessed child.

Even while playing at the academy, she would pick up an iron coin from somewhere, and sometimes when other kids shot slingshots to tease her, a sudden wind would blow and strike another guy's head.

At that time, it hit Hong Jin-rang's head, and the guy who shot the slingshot got beaten to a pulp.

Even when a flock of birds flew by and pooped countless times, not a single drop got on Dan So-mi's body, so where else could there be a child this lucky?

Ji-yak smiled awkwardly.

“Shall we go see?”

Dan So-mi nodded her head slightly.

As Ji-yak glanced at Hong Jin-rang, Jin-rang sighed helplessly and headed toward the stable. He picked up a wooden stick, held it in his hand, and dug around the area.

“Heh?!”

“Ack!”

Soon, startled groans burst from the mouths of the three children. Through the straw, a man was seen.

Covered in blood all over his body, he was groaning.

As if he lacked the energy to move a single finger, let alone open his eyes, he stared at the three children with a hazy gaze.

“I-it's a person!”

“Is he a martial artist?”

“What a surprise…”

Hong Jin-rang recognized at once that this man was a martial artist. Because there were two short sabers beside him.

Dan So-mi was surprised that it was a person rather than a dog or a cat, and Ji-yak turned pale because it was her first time seeing someone in such a terrible state.

“Uuuugh…!”

“He's dying? What should we do? Should we call the constables?”

“It's useless even if we call them. It looks like martial artists fought each other, and the government doesn't step in for such matters.”

At Hong Jin-rang's words, Ji-yak nodded, saying, "Ah, I see!"

Ever since the imperial family failed several times in the past to subjugate the Jianghu, the government and the Martial World did not encroach on each other's domains.

At that moment, Dan So-mi trotted over to the fallen man.

She was a fearless child.

Even though they didn't know what the man might do.

The moment Ji-yak was startled and tried to stop her, So-mi spoke quietly even faster.

“Mister, are you okay?”

“Ugh…”

“Does he look okay to you? He doesn't look okay to me at all.”

Hong Jin-rang asked bluntly.

Just by looking, his condition was not good. It was clear that he would die if he did not receive treatment immediately. Still, it wasn't as if they could do anything about it.

Because the children here were merely young kids around seven or eight years old, and they had not learned medicine.

“So… So-mi, let's go quickly. I think something bad will happen if we stay.”

Ji-yak stammered with an anxious gaze. It was her first time seeing a person in such a miserable state before her eyes, and she was terrified that she might even see a corpse.

However, So-mi shook her head.

“I want to save him.”

“What? Are you crazy? How can we save this person?”

“So-mi! No matter how much I think about it, Jin-rang is right. What can we do…”

Dan So-mi clenched her fists.

Looking at the man covered in blood, a certain sight came to her mind.

The sight of her dying parents, the scene where they were pierced by countless swords and spears while shielding her and died miserably.

Clearly, there was nothing she could do.

However, shouldn't she at least try?

Furthermore.

‘I… was like this too…’

Dan So-mi clenched her fists tightly. The memory of the day she first met Dan Woo-hyun came back vividly. In fact, Dan So-mi had not been as miserable as this man, but she had realized what death was.

The one who shed a ray of light in that darkness was none other than Dan Woo-hyun, and it seemed that no one but Dan So-mi herself could give hope to this man now.

“Umm! First…!”

“Are you really going to do it? We'd better tell the people in the teahouse…”

Seeing Dan So-mi worrying about what to do, Jin-rang tried to run to the teahouse. Because he believed this was not something that could be resolved by children's hands.

However, Dan So-mi soon grabbed his wrist.

“No! The people there will definitely throw him away.”

“What? Throwing away a dying person? Does that make sense?”

Hong Jin-rang and Ji-yak showed bewildered expressions, but Dan So-mi knew such things better than anyone. Because no one wanted a corpse to come out of their home or business.

From their perspective, they would rather have the dying person die elsewhere. Just before she met Dan Woo-hyun, someone had abandoned the beaten and battered Dan So-mi in that alley.

At that moment, So-mi let out a short exclamation, "Ah!"

“There's that!”

“W-what is it?”

“Blood-stopping herb!”

Once, when she went up the mountain with Dan Woo-hyun, Dan Woo-hyun had taught her about it. That if she used this, she could at least stop the bleeding, so she must remember it.

So-mi repeated it several times and engraved it in her mind.

“I… I'll be back shortly, so watch him! Promise! You must not tell anyone else!”

“U-huh…”

“Uh-huh…”

The two children blankly watched Dan So-mi run off in a flurry. Having no idea what she was trying to do, Hong Jin-rang scratched his head.

It was the same for Ji-yak.

She wondered why she was trying to save a dying person instead of just leaving, but then let out a short sigh, "Phew."

Though, indeed, that kind of heart was what made her likeable.

* * *

Dan Woo-hyun, who entered Yueyang to pick up Dan So-mi, felt puzzled when So-mi, who should have been at the market street, was not seen.

Normally, it would be normal for her to be out here at this time.

“Where did she go?”

He stealthily looked around.

When there were children of similar age, his gaze naturally drifted to them. But they were only similar, and none of them was So-mi who would run and hug him, crying, "Dad!"

He frowned.

Since this had never happened while she attended the academy, an ominous thought arose that perhaps something had happened.

First, he grabbed the person selling sugar candy.

The merchant, whose neck was suddenly grabbed, flinched and shrunk his shoulders. It was because he realized Dan Woo-hyun was no ordinary person.

“He… hehe, h-hello, sir?”

“Have you seen So-mi?”

“Y-yes, I did.”

She was a child who came to eat sugar candy without missing a single day. Connection with a friend or Dan Woo-hyun naturally made him familiar with her face.

“The dumpling shop…”

“Yes, she headed that way.”

Watching the merchant bow and leave, Dan Woo-hyun headed toward the dumpling shop. However, he could not hear anything useful there either.

Although the children had murmured something, because there were so many people, he could not clearly catch those words. Frowning, Dan Woo-hyun let out a sigh.

“A boy and… the child named Ji-yak, making three in total.”

The boy was probably Hong Jin-rang.

Because the appearance described by the dumpling shop merchant matched what he had seen last time. If so, it did not seem like she was being bullied by other children.

But where on earth did these children go?

Swallowing a groan for a moment, Dan Woo-hyun let out a sigh and examined his surroundings. If there were footprints, he would chase them, but since many people had already come and gone, even the traces did not remain properly.

Still, even that had not completely disappeared.

He squatted there and examined the footprints one by one.

Since they said it was about one shijin ago, he just had to find a few small and slightly older footprints among these.

“This is it.”

He found them.

Although the traces did not even remain properly anymore, they were faintly visible. He saw those few footprints moving toward the east.

“East?”

If one went to the easternmost end of the market street, there was a red-light district. But since the three children would have no reason to go there, they must have headed somewhere else in the end.

What else was there?

“The teahouse…”

He let out a short laugh, "Haha."

It seemed the children had gone to the teahouse. It was amusing to have that thought linger in his mind. Probably the girl named Ji-yak had led them. Because just by looking, she was not an ordinary child.

He walked slowly toward that place.

Thinking about what the three children would be doing at the teahouse, this also unfurled a rather amusing wing of imagination in his mind.

Would they be mimicking adults and drinking tea?

Or were they chatting over a single cup of cheap tea? Since that teahouse was by no means a cheap place, it would cost a fair amount of money.

Dan Woo-hyun walked toward the teahouse rather leisurely.

Finally, the moment he arrived at the teahouse.

He frowned and turned his head.

“D-dad?”

A startled Dan So-mi was seen. Bright red blood was smeared on her hands, and the two children nearby had turned pale as if they were terrified.

“What is the matter?”

Dan Woo-hyun hastily approached Dan So-mi. He quickly reached out and grabbed her tiny hand. Fortunately, as if it was not blood from a cut on her hand, no wound was visible.

His gaze naturally turned to the side.

“…And this man?”

A man visible among the straw. Whether the children had torn his clothes, his upper body was bare.

Although there were traces of using blood-stopping herb obtained from somewhere to plug wounds here and there, because hidden weapons were embedded in his back, they apparently could not bring themselves to strip it entirely.

He could understand why the children's faces had turned so pale.

“Did you try to save him?”

So-mi nodded, her eyes welling with tears. No matter what she did, she could not save this dying man. She had applied all the blood-stopping herbs she hurriedly picked from the mountain, but it was nothing more than stopping the blood slightly.

His complexion did not return, and he still could not speak.

“Why?”

“Pardon?”

“I asked why you tried to save this man.”

Ji-yak and Hong Jin-rang also had the same question. Dan So-mi was too desperate.

Even while touching the blood and wounds all over his body with her hands, she did not stop although they told her several times not to.

Why was that?

Dan So-mi tightly grabbed the hem of Dan Woo-hyun's clothes.

“But… he is so pitiful. So-mi was saved too, sniff… So-mi was saved, and I hate people dying like Dad and Mom now, uwaaaah!”

Embracing Dan So-mi who finally burst into tears, Dan Woo-hyun let out a sigh. The reason this child was so desperate about life was due to the shock of having her parents murdered right before her eyes.

Therefore, she must have wanted to save the man dying in front of her as well.

Dan Woo-hyun patted the crying Dan So-mi.

“You children went through a lot.”

“N-no, we just watched…”

Ji-yak murmured with a still pale complexion. Her hands were also stained red with blood. It was because she had touched him to strip off his clothes.

Of course, after stripping them, she did not even dare to touch him.

Conversely, Hong Jin-rang was in a state that was, if anything, worse than Dan So-mi's. His entire body was drenched in blood. Whether he had received quite a shock, his complexion was not very good.

It seemed that since he was the only boy among the girls, he had stepped forward to do it himself.

Dan Woo-hyun smirked.

“Thank you. Go inside the teahouse and wash yourselves. I will look after this man.”

“Really?”

“Yes.”

Ji-yak nodded and hurriedly led Dan So-mi. Although a teahouse was not an inn, if they handed over a few coins, using water was no big deal.

Once the three children disappeared, Dan Woo-hyun looked at the man.

“Did they call you Gwon Mu-jin? You have truly been touched by heaven's luck.”