Martial Wild West

Chapter 03

Even though he looked like he wanted to run away after having his money and jade ring taken away, Yang Gweng sat down in front of Zhang Qian while eating his noodles and talked to him like nothing had happened.

“Brother Zhang, you shouldn’t be eating noodles right now.”

Qian just kept eating his noodles without answering. The way he was chewing with puffed cheeks after sucking in a bunch of noodles really made them look delicious.

Yang Gweng swallowed his saliva and continued, “Hey, Brother Zhang. I’m telling you right now because we’ve eaten and played with tiles together before, but you’d better leave this tavern right now.”

Zhang Qian didn’t respond. Instead, he kept nibbling his noodles before drinking the soup. Qian then put down the bowl and finished swallowing everything inside his mouth before taking a sip of the tea placed next to him. It was only after he had finished that he finally looked at Yang Gweng.

“Why?”

“…Do you remember the guy who ran away earlier?”

“Jin YangSuk?”

Yang Gweng scratched his chin, “You didn’t look like the type, but you remembered him perfectly. Anyway, that dude is a pretty dangerous guy.”

“Even though he was losing money to a scammer like you?”

Yang Gweng cleared his throat upon hearing Zhang Qian’s slander, “That’s too harsh, can’t you call me by something better than a scammer?”

“I’ll call you a thief if you don’t like that.”

“Come on! Don’t you remember what I told you earlier? I’ve already paid the bounty from the Martial Alliance.”

“That doesn’t make your victims disappear.”

Yang Gweng shrugged his shoulders, raising both of his hands, “A portion of the bounty is supposed to be used to compensate them. That should be enough since I’ve never taken anything from the poor and innocent people.”

“Who do you think you are, Hong Gil Dong?”

“…Who is Hong Gil Dong?”

“The master of Chivalrous Robbers,” Zhang Qian responded while bringing his cup of tea to his mouth.

“…Chivalrous Robbers?”

#Hong Gil Dong of Chivalrous Robbers is a famous Korean story about a righteous thief during 15th century. This suggests Zhang Qian has the memory of a korean person living after 15th century.

“Do you think you could recognize him if I told you in more detail?”

Yang Gweng smiled slightly, “No, I don’t, I’m not too educated.”

Zhang Qian stared at Yang Gweng for a while without saying anything; then opened his mouth, “So why is he dangerous?”

Yang Gweng picked up a cup of tea placed upside down at the corner of the table, and then poured the tea into it and started speaking, “Jin Yang Suk is nothing special. He didn’t learn any martial arts, and he isn’t rich, either. Moreover, he isn’t even smart since he didn’t receive much education, so he is just a doormat.”

“So, how is the doormat dangerous?” Qian asked.

Gweng took a sip of the tea he’d just poured, “The doormat is just a doormat. However, the problem is the fact that the doormat has an older brother, and a pretty skilled one at that.”

Upon hearing Yang Gweng’s words, Zhang Qian snickered and picked up his chopsticks once again, “I’m pretty good at martial arts too.”

“Ah, I’m well aware of that. There’s nobody in Hermit Valley who doesn’t know how painful your punches are. Everyone used to say your sword had to be a decoration before they saw you drawing it.”

Zhang Qian put down his hand that was holding the chopsticks upon hearing that, “What’s the problem, then? Stop beating around the bush and tell me already, shithead.”

“…The doormat’s skilled older brother is a problem, but the sect he belongs to is even more problematic—it’s an evil sect called the Dogma Sect.”

Zhang Qian wrinkled his eyes, “Didn’t you tell me there was a Martial Alliance’s branch office around here? How can an evil sect even exist?”

Yang Gweng responded with a silly snicker, “Are you curious?”

Zhang Qian also snickered. He showed Gweng his clenched left fist. Yang Gweng’s face became slightly white upon seeing his fist.

* * *

Translator – Kyangi

Proofreader – ilafy

* * *

“Uh, well. I’ll tell you, so put down that fist. Of course, they aren’t an evil sect on the outside. They aren’t a bunch of homeless vagrants, after all. Apparently, there’s some connection between their boss and the Martial Alliance’s branch manager, which is why they won’t interfere with them as long as they don’t cross the line. The doormat’s older brother, Jin ChungSuk, is the most skilled person there.”

“And you were extorting his brother.”

Yang Gweng shrugged his shoulders once again, “I told you, they won’t cross the line. What happened earlier also happened yesterday, and it would’ve happened again tomorrow if Brother Zhang wasn’t here.”

“The Martial Alliance is really doing a great job.”

“It looks like the residents here agree with you. They seem to have a lot of complaints since they easily talked to me all about them even though I’m just an outsider.”

Zhang Qian looked away from Yang Gweng and took his chopsticks, “Then stop talking to me and go chat with some more residents.”

“…That would be troublesome.”

Zhang Qian wondered what Gweng was going on about, then realized the situation after looking at the table Yang Gweng had been sitting at. The people who had been happily gambling with Yang Gweng were glaring at him as if they wanted to kill him—it must’ve been because he had provoked Jin YangSuk and used some dirty tricks.

Moreover, a few residents were leaving the tavern in fear. As Zhang Qian watched them while nibbling on the remaining noodles, the tavern’s owner came up to him with a smile and spoke to him.

“Dear guest…”

Zhang Qian looked up at the owner. When he looked closely, the owner’s expression wasn’t just stiff, he was also shivering.

“I’ll refund the cost of the noodles and lodging, so please leave my tavern.”

Upon seeing that, Yang Gweng seemed to be thinking that it couldn’t be helped as he smiled, “Well, since it came to this, let’s leave before the Dogma Sect guys get here, We’ll both end up dead if they show up”

However, Zhang Qian finished eating his noodles and lifted the bowl to drink the soup despite having heard his words. After gulping the soup down completely, Qian put the empty bowl on the table and burped, “I think we will be okay.”

“…Do you think you are a master from the Imperial Forces or something? There are apparently about twenty people in the Dogma Sect. What can you even do?”

“You should’ve run away already instead of talking to me if you were planning on running. It’s already too late.”

The tavern’s owner became dumbfounded upon hearing that, and a low and deep voice could be heard from the other side of the curtain covering the tavern’s door.

“That’s right, it’s already too late to run away.”

It felt like the sound of blood leaving the bodies of Yang Gweng and the tavern’s owner could be heard, and the owner of the voice entered the tavern. The tavern’s floor started making a cracking sound as the tough-looking man’s heavy body stepped on it.

Upon entering the tavern, the tough-looking man looked at Qian after taking a glance at the tavern’s owner and Gweng. After staring at Qian, who was calmly drinking his tea, for a moment, he looked around, “Is that them?”

“Eh… That’s right, brother. They tricked me to take my money and then broke my nose like this when I complained. Please punish them.”

“…Your money?”

Jin YangSuk, who came up from behind the man, hurriedly corrected himself.

“Eh, they were taking people’s money, and my money was just a small portion of it.”

The tough-looking man stared at YangSuk, who was pathetically stuttering, then looked back at Gweng and Qian.

“Everyone, leave.”

Qian could tell the man wasn’t talking to him as everyone in the tavern hurriedly ran outside. The tavern’s owner, who was about to follow the people, hesitated upon reaching the man’s side, “Err, I bought a new table recently…”

The man glared silently at the tavern’s owner, and the owner hurriedly ran through the curtain in surprise.

Gweng, who looked anxious, secretly stood up, trying to mix himself into the crowd to leave.

“Sit down if you don’t want to be the first one to die.”

Upon hearing Zhang Qian’s dry voice, Gweng sat down like nothing had happened and responded while lifting his cup of tea, “Hmm? What are you talking about, Brother Zhang? I’m still sitting here.”

Zhang Qian just snickered while meeting the man’s eyes. As soon as everyone left the tavern, seven or eight menacing men entered the tavern at once and surrounded Qian and Gweng, who were sitting in a corner.

The man who was still glaring at Zhang Qian started speaking while walking up to him slowly, “Nice to meet you, friends. My name is Jin ChungSuk. I’m a humble troubleshooter of this village, although there’s not much work for me in this peaceful town, so I’ve been just enjoying my idleness.”

He stopped in front of the table where Zhang Qian and Yang Gweng were sitting.

“However, it looks like I finally got to work today.”

Qian didn’t respond—he just stared at Jin ChungSuk with displeased eyes and drank his tea. ChungSuk’s eyebrows squirmed, and Gweng, who was watching them, stood up quickly and put his hands together in greeting.

“Ha, haha. I think there was some misunderstanding. Nice to meet you, my name is Yang Gweng. I arrived in this village a few days ago, and I’ve already heard countless rumors about your righteousness, so I’ve been dying to meet you, the warrior of justice. The way we happened to meet here must have been destiny! Ah, and this person here is Brother Zhang, and he only recently arrived in this town…”

However, Gweng stopped talking as ChungSuk pointed at him with his right index finger. While he was flustered by the sudden finger-pointing, ChungSuk opened his mouth.

“Swindler.”

“P-pardon? S-swindler?”

The index finger then moved to point at Zhang Qian.

“Thug.”

Jin ChungSuk lowered his hand, then put his hands on his waist and arrogantly started speaking, “You suddenly appeared in this peaceful village to extort the poor and innocent people. My younger brother was unable to ignore the situation and complained to you, yet you responded to him with your fists. You are truly the worst of the ruffians. As a righteous man, I can’t overlook this situation, therefore, I’ll arrest you and take you to the Martial Alliance’s branch office. Since resistance will only result in you getting hurt, please do not resist.”

His confident attitude and speech declaring them as guilty like a judge left Gweng speechless, as he could only distort his eyebrows. The men surrounding them drew their thick clubs as soon as ChungSuk finished talking and approached them.

Gweng’s face turned pale. He unconsciously swore, “god damn it…”

“At least you aren’t immediately trying to kill us or something.”

The men narrowing their encirclement flinched upon hearing Zhang Qian’s sudden voice. They instinctively looked at ChungSuk, as they didn’t know what to do. ChunkSuk twisted his eyebrows in displeasure and glared at Qian.

“How could I kill people in a tavern in broad daylight?”

“Does that mean it’s okay to bring a group to oppress people like this?”

ChungSuk approached one step closer to the table Qian was sitting at, “This is for the sake of arresting a thug threatening the village, so fellow residents of the martial arts world will also understand it.”

“But you scoundrels are the only fellow residents of the martial arts world here. Your ego is too huge.”

Upon hearing Qian’s sarcasm, ChungSuk came one step closer and spoke in a low voice, “You must be really seeking death to keep talking back like that. I’m going to rip that mouth apart before handing you over to the Martial Alliance if you don’t stop now.”

Qian just smirked, facing his threat, “So you aren’t going to leave me uninjured, huh?”

“You shouldn’t think you can leave the village unscathed after doing that to my little brother’s face. I’m going to at least take your arm or your leg. Well, I can forgive you with the thing between your legs, if you want.”

The scoundrels surrounding them smirked, finding ChungSuk’s last words funny somehow—one of them was even giggling and tapping on his own thigh with his club. Poor Gweng unconsciously narrowed his legs and gathered his hands upon seeing that.

And Qian just stared at the pathetic scoundrels ChungSuk and Jin, who was smiling like a fool, and eventually started speaking, “Don’t people usually start being careful in this kind of situation in murim stories? Because I might be hiding something, you know. Maybe I’m from the Imperial Forces, or I could be a hidden master. Aren’t you worried about that at all?”

ChungSuk’s face turned stiff upon hearing that.

“Pardon? Imperial Forces? Are you from the Imperial Forces?”

Qian responded with a blank expression.

“No, that’s not the case.”

“…What’s wrong with this crazy bastard? Are you kidding me? You must be really seeking death if you are pretending to be from the Imperial Forces…”

At that instant, Qian bounced up from his chair without any sign, placed his hand on the table to jump over the table and kicked ChungSuk in the face.”

Jin ChungSuk was knocked to the tavern’s entrance despite his tough and huge build—the kick must’ve contained a tremendous amount of strength. In his fainted state, his eyes had no focus, and his top and bottom front teeth were all broken with blood flowing in between, making him unsightly. The scoundrels inside the tavern and Yang Gweng looked at ChungSuk and Qian one after another with dumbfounded expressions.

Bouncing off from kicking ChungSuk, Qian made a clean landing on the spot and faced their gazes with crooked eyes.

“Do you think the warriors of the Imperial Forces are the only experts out there?”

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