Chapter 101
After feeling the joy of victory for a brief moment, we immediately set out to clean up the aftermath.
Those who were uninjured gathered the wounded in one place, and the Haomun Leader immediately sent a carrier pigeon to call for more physicians to tend to the injured.
Around the time we started tending to the wounded, the Youngest returned leading the Reserve Forces.
“Elder brothers… I should have arrived a little earlier…”
“It’s fine. It’s fine, so you guys go clean up those jiangshi corpses over there. Don’t think about throwing them away just anywhere; gather them in one place and burn them. Ah, there are more jiangshi if you head west from here.”
At my Command, the Reserve Forces diligently cleaned up the jiangshi. It seemed to be out of guilt that they hadn’t been able to participate in the battle.
“At this rate… the cleanup will be done soon…”
After checking one by one that things were returning to normal, I immediately headed to the Haomun Leader’s Quarters.
In that place, which was currently being used as a Temporary Infirmary, she was…
“How is it?”
“Ah, Leader. Not yet…”
…in the middle of treating Bang Sam-i, who had suffered a more severe injury than anyone else.
As I stepped inside, the Executives, including Dongryong-i, were waiting in front of the Quarters.
“It’s been half a shichen since she went in to treat him, and she still hasn’t come out?”
“…Yes, that’s right.”
Dongryong-i answered my question with a despondent look.
I couldn’t Understand it.
Bang Sam-i’s condition was certainly Serious when I arrived. He had been stabbed in the side by a jiangshi, and poison had spread inside his body.
But I had immediately removed the Poisonous Qi inside Bang Sam-i’s body using Unknown Sword-Breaking…
I thought we only needed to stop the bleeding, but was that not the case?
Like the other Subordinates, I wore an anxious expression and waited for Bang Sam-i’s treatment to finish.
And not long after.
Slide-.
The Haomun Leader stepped out the door with a slightly tired expression.
“Haomun Leader!”
“Haomun Leader!”
We immediately rushed over to her, asking about Bang Sam-i’s condition.
“H-how is it? Bang Sam-i is…”
“…”
She looked at me first, wordlessly.
“Huh?”
I couldn’t help but feel a sense of unease at that gaze, because the eyes of the Haomun Leader looking at me right now were filled with negative emotions.
A sense of loss, helplessness, guilt.
She only twitched her lips, as if it were too difficult to bring herself to speak.
Tap-.
I placed a hand on her shoulder and spoke slowly.
“I know you tried your best.”
“Great Hero…”
“There’s no one here to interrogate you, so hurry up and tell us.”
“That is… I’m sorry.”
The Haomun Leader bowed her head deeply and continued.
“I did my best, but… the hand the jiangshi stabbed him with pierced through his side and reached his dantian.”
“…”
The jiangshi’s hand had reached his dantian… I wasn’t ignorant of what this meant.
At my momentarily stiffened expression, the Haomun Leader shrank back and continued speaking.
“At first, Great Hero Bangsam’s condition was such that the poison had seeped into his dantian and spread throughout his entire body. Although you detoxified it, Great Hero, … the shattered dantian could not be restored.”
“Then… Bang Sam-i is…”
“I’m afraid…”
Right before she spat out her final words, we were so tense we couldn’t even breathe properly.
And the moment her mouth finally opened…
“…With his current physical condition, he will not be able to handle Martial Arts for the rest of his life.”
…All that remained in this place was a cold, chilling silence.
* * *
He wouldn’t be able to handle Martial Arts for the rest of his life. In other words, he had become a cripple.
We were bandits, but at the same time, we were Martial Artists.
There was no one who didn’t know what the words “became a cripple” meant to a Martial Artist.
Something perhaps more terrible than dying had happened to Bang Sam-i.
“T-this makes no sense… Bang Sam-i…”
The first to react to this was Dongryong-i.
Dongryong-i agonized as if he were the one who had become a cripple, and then…
“Because of me…, (choked back a sob)!”
…he burst into tears and ran off somewhere.
Everyone could guess how Dongryong-i felt.
Finding out that a comrade had thrown his body in your place and become a cripple would be more agonizing than anything else.
While everyone was dumbfounded by the sudden news, I was at least the first to regain my composure and ask the Haomun Leader.
“So, has Bang Sam-i… regained consciousness?”
“No, not yet… He will probably sleep until tomorrow.”
“Can I at least see his face for a moment?”
“…Yes.”
At her words, I went inside alone.
When I opened the door, a metallic scent of blood wafted into my nose along with the bitter smell of medicine.
Step-.
As I got closer, I saw Bang Sam-i lying on the bed.
With his side wrapped in bandages, Bang Sam-i had his eyes closed with a peaceful expression, as if he felt no pain.
But this was only temporary.
If he opened his eyes, Bang Sam-i would have to hear the shocking news.
“You foolish Bastard… Why did you do it?”
Bang Sam-i always seemed to be grumbling and acting aloof. But there was no one in the Green Forest who didn’t know that his inner heart was warmer than anyone else’s.
It was probably the same this time. When he saw Dongryong-i in a Desperate Situation, his body probably moved first.
“If by chance I had arrived earlier…”
If I had chosen to use the Peaceful Death Flowing Sword sooner, would Bang Sam-i not have had to get hurt?
It was a meaningless imagination, but it was hard for me to stop negative thoughts from entering my mind.
I continued my vague imaginations next to Bang Sam-i before stepping outside.
* * *
After briefly finishing the corpse retrieval and cleaning the Mountain Path, we decided to leave the remaining work for tomorrow and have an early bedtime.
It was a consideration for the Subordinates who must have been drained of energy from the fierce battle.
Soon after, the snoring sounds of the burly Bandit Bastards echoed through the Mountain Stronghold…, but that didn’t mean everyone fell asleep easily.
That was the case for me.
Even after lying in bed, I couldn’t fall asleep at all, so I wandered outside.
Then, I found a spot under a tree somewhere and lay down.
Whoosh-.
My mind was so complicated that I thought I might get some sleep if I felt the cool night breeze…, but as expected, sleep didn’t come easily outside either.
It was, of course, because of Bang Sam-i.
“Fuck…”
Continuous self-blame and regret.
Until now, I had thought such things were foolish.
What was the use of regret? It was far more constructive to quickly forget the past and devise countermeasures.
But when push came to shove, it wasn’t easy to simply forget what had happened.
“Please, let me sleep…”
Even though I knew I had to fall asleep quickly and Wake up early to handle the remaining work, sleep eluded me.
When I closed my eyes, I instead felt negative emotions sprouting in my heart.
“Should I just go inside?”
Just as I was thinking that I had come out for nothing since sleep wasn’t coming even as time passed…
Rustle-.
“…?”
…a certain presence began to reach my ears.
Rustle, rustle-.
Hearing a presence quite loudly in the quiet forest, I initially thought it was a wild animal, but soon I realized that the presence was quite Familiar.
Rustle, rustle, rustle-.
Eventually… when that presence gradually approached me and I opened my eyes…
“…What are you doing?”
…As expected, the Imugi was staring at me with wide, unblinking eyes.
“…Why did you come all the way down here instead of sleeping in your Cave…, huh? Wait a minute, you!”
I was about to give her a stern word for wandering around pointlessly at night, but I noticed something and asked.
“…Why are you back to being a child?”
Her body type had definitely changed from a child to an adult, but hadn’t she become young again now?
Could it be… that she regressed because she lacked enlightenment…
“Ah, this?”
But it didn’t seem to be anything Serious, as the Imugi reacted nonchalantly.
And then…
Swoosh-.
“…Huh?”
…she showed me the miracle of her body growing in real time.
“Just like my main body can adjust its size, I can now adjust my human form too. Like this! Like this!”
Swoosh-, swoosh!
The Imugi alternated between the appearance of a child and an adult as if playing a prank.
“…That actually works.”
As I stared in amazement, the Imugi smiled and asked me.
“Child or adult? Which appearance do you like better? Which one should I stay as?”
“Do whatever you want.”
“I’m curious about your thoughts. I’ll do as you say.”
“Hmm…”
It was, after all, the dead of night. Rather than being with an adult woman in a compromising situation, it would be better to be with a little girl.
“Just stay in your original form.”
“Okay.”
Swoosh-.
At my words, the Imugi immediately returned to the appearance of a child. And then…
Plop-.
…she suddenly sat down right next to me.
“No, but why are you sitting here? You must be tired, so hurry back to your Cave and sleep.”
“I… can’t sleep, so can’t we sleep together?”
“Hah… jeez. Yeah, do whatever you want.”
“Hehe.”
When I let out a sigh and lay down, the Imugi immediately lay down next to me as well.
“…”
“…”
I worried that the Imugi might do something weird, but her goal seemed to be sleeping as well, as she just lay next to me and closed her eyes.
The silence meant for falling asleep continued like that…, until a youthful voice rang out, as if the speaker had something to say after all.
“If it were the old days, I would have fallen asleep easily.”
“…”
I just listened to her words without answering.
“Mere humans… I wouldn’t have cared how many died or how many got hurt. But… today, I can’t sleep.”
The Imugi I first met was closer to a Beast, no matter how long she had lived. But, was the evolved(?) Imugi somehow different?
Her words carried a profoundness that couldn’t be found before, along with her gloomy emotions.
“If I hadn’t come here, would your Subordinates not have had to die? Maybe your Subordinates wouldn’t have had to get hurt? If it weren’t for me…”
I tried to sleep, but eventually couldn’t hold back and spoke up.
“It’s not your fault.”
Then, an answer quickly returned.
“It’s not your fault either.”
“…”
Slip-.
Before I could say anything more, I felt small arms wrap around my neck.
“So let’s hurry up and sleep.”
“…”
…Wicked girl. You came looking for me at night just to say this.
I felt like letting out a chuckle, but I couldn’t.
When the Imugi wrapped her arms around me, an inexplicable wave of drowsiness rushed in.
With the Imugi’s words to hurry up and sleep as the last thing I heard…, I surrendered my body to the drowsiness.
It was a rather peaceful night.