Myst, Might, Mayhem (Novel) - Chapter 200 - Water Ghost (1)

Chapter 200 – Water Ghost (1)

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Translated by Jinmu

Read it only at Novelbyu.com & Utoon.net

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“Then there should be no real problem continuing the mission now.”

‘T-this is bad!’

In that instant, Mong Mu-yak’s expression froze.

Just moments ago, he had been inwardly overjoyed that sensation had returned to his severed arm.

But there was something he had forgotten.

If things were like this, then he would be forced to continue the covert mission together with Mok Gyeong-un.

‘Damn it!’

He had meant to use his injury as an excuse to return at once to the Heaven and Earth Society and report this bastard’s danger to his father, the Vice Society Leader.

Now that entire plan had collapsed.

As Mong Mu-yak stood there flustered, Mok Gyeong-un suddenly said as though he had just remembered something,

“Ah, and I have one more gift to give you.”

‘A gift?’

In the middle of such unease, hearing that Mok Gyeong-un intended to give him something made Mong Mu-yak look at him with a face full of suspicion.

Mok Gyeong-un then drew something from inside his robes.

It was a bracelet made of chains.

‘Hm?’

Was he really giving him a present?

At the baffled Mong Mu-yak, Mok Gyeong-un curled his lips into a faintly sinister smile and said,

“It is nothing much. I would simply like you to wear this.”

* * *

Sshaaaaa.

Late afternoon under pouring rain.

A court guard with a bristling mustache was leading someone through a dense forest.

That someone wore a bamboo rain cape and a bamboo hat, and in one hand he carried a black sword that looked as though it had been charred.

Casting glances at this mysterious man, the court guard clicked his tongue.

They had been trudging through muddy mountain paths under torrential rain for over an hour, yet the man did not show the slightest sign of fatigue.

‘Martial artists really are different.’

“Haa… haa…”

By contrast, the guard, though he was a native of the area, was already breathing heavily from exhaustion.

The weather was cold too, so every breath came out white.

Climbing the mountain on a day like this was no different from madness, but that cursed money had been too tempting.

‘Silver coins. So many of them.’

The silver visible in the pouch the man had shown him was too much to count.

A lowly court guard’s stipend barely kept food in his mouth, so of course his eyes had lit up.

Put simply, it had been too much money to refuse.

Besides,

‘All I’m doing is showing him one place, so why shouldn’t I take the money?’

After heading deeper into the forest for about another fifteen minutes, the guard spotted strips of red cloth tied to several trees and said,

“This is the place, sir.”

He pointed to a clearing between the marked trees where not even a blade of grass grew.

It was a truly strange spot.

The earth had a dark reddish tint, and the whole place felt eerie.

He had been here before daylight faded, but this was the first time he had come when it was dark enough for rain like this.

Perhaps because of that, a chill ran down his spine.

Then the man said,

“Dig.”

“Pardon? Dig?”

“That is right.”

“Well now, I was only meant to bring you to the place where the dead prisoners were buried…”

“I will pay you more.”

At those words, the guard looked down at the ground, wet with rain and packed like mud.

Wet ground was harder to dig than dry.

Besides, there was something distasteful about digging up a burial ground alone.

Even so,

‘Ah, to hell with it.’

The lure of silver was too hard to resist.

So for nearly another hour, the guard dug.

Since this was the place designated by the magistrate’s office for burying prisoners’ corpses, there were things like pickaxes nearby, so at least he did not have to do it with bare hands.

‘Damn it.’

This really was too much.

He had agreed because of the silver, but he had assumed that since doing it alone would take forever, the man would at least help a little.

Instead, all the fellow did was stand there with folded arms and watch.

In the end, the guard had done everything himself.

Thud.

‘Ah!’

The guard swallowed dryly.

That strike had not hit earth.

Before long, several corpses came into view.

“Urk.”

He felt like vomiting.

With the rain falling on top of everything, the stench of rotting corpses was even stronger.

‘No, if they are this rotten, can anyone even tell what they are looking at?’

As he thought that, the man in the bamboo hat who had been standing there with folded arms approached and examined the rotting bodies.

If they had been in coffins, the decay would have been less severe, but because they were merely buried in earth as common prisoners, they had decayed to the point that identification was difficult.

“Hmm.”

Even so, the man kept examining the corpses.

Then he stopped at one particular body.

Unlike the others, it was a corpse consisting only of a head.

Its face too had rotted away beyond recognition.

Looking at it, the man in the bamboo hat asked,

“Why is this one only a head?”

“Ah…”

The guard hesitated over what to do.

That corpse was one the magistrate had ordered kept secret.

The task he had been hired for was only to guide the man here and dig up the ground, so he had no obligation to reveal a secret that had been ordered suppressed.

“Forgive me, but I don’t really know that either.”

“You don’t know? It hasn’t even been years. Barely more than a month has passed. And you claim you can’t remember?”

“I truly don’t know. I am only a lowly court guard…”

Shhk.

“Gah!”

Before he could finish, the black sword had come to rest at his throat.

Just the slightest push and it would open a hole in his neck.

Startled, the guard hurriedly said,

“Wh-what are you doing?”

“Have you ever had a hole opened in your throat?”

“Th-the magistrate said we were not to speak of it.”

“I see. But I need to hear it, so speak.”

“Threatening an official of the court like this…”

“If one more corpse were mixed among these dead prisoners, I don’t think it would cause any problem.”

Those words came with a killing intent that flowed from him.

‘Eek!’

Terror-stricken, the guard at last told the truth.

“I-I will speak.”

“Then do so.”

“Among the condemned there was a vicious bastard known as the Sickle-Killing Ghost.”

At those words, the corners of the bamboo-hatted man’s lips rose faintly.

At last, he had found it.

A trace of that bastard.

He had wasted a fair amount of time searching for a court guard who had no close relatives and could be bribed.

The bamboo-hatted man said,

“And then?”

“The night before the execution was to be carried out, an incident took place in the forbidden prison.”

“An incident?”

“Yes.”

“What kind of incident?”

“Apparently it was the work of someone bearing a grudge against that Sickle-Killing Ghost bastard. During the night, he was found dead with his throat cut.”

“…Found dead?”

“Yes, but at the time, apart from the head, the body had vanished without a trace.”

At that, the man’s eyes narrowed.

Someone had entered the official prison and killed a condemned prisoner.

And yet except for the prisoner’s head, the body had disappeared?

That was not something one could casually overlook.

“Then why did the magistrate’s office simply let the matter pass?”

“W-well, he was a condemned man anyway, and if this had become known…”

“Ah.”

The bamboo-hatted man waved a hand.

There was no need to hear more.

It would have put the magistrate in a difficult position.

That was why he must have ordered the matter silenced, hiding the fact that someone had infiltrated the prison and done such a thing.

In any case, that information meant nothing to him.

What mattered was this.

‘They did not take the head. They took the body. Which means…’

There was now more than enough reason for suspicion.

If he investigated Yeon Mok Sword Manor next, the answer to this doubt would appear.

Then the frightened court guard spoke cautiously.

“Y-you can just give me the silver you promised at first, so please…”

“Ah. You mean your pay?”

“Yes.”

“Of course. I’ll give it.”

“Ah!”

The court guard’s face brightened.

He had been worried that the man might simply leave without paying him, so this was a relief.

But then,

Thud.

“Kuhk!”

The black sword pierced the court guard’s throat.

When the blade was pulled out after that brief death cry, the staggering guard, his face full of agony, collapsed into the pit he himself had dug.

Splash.

The pit was already filled with muddy rainwater, and before long it was stained red.

“I’ll at least give you travel money for the road to the underworld.”

Ting.

The bamboo-hatted man flicked a single silver coin into the pit.

Then he turned and left.

* * *

Sshaaaaa.

The rain was so heavy it was difficult to see ahead.

It was truly a torrential downpour.

Three men were moving north through that wall of rain.

They were Mok Gyeong-un, Seop Chun, Third Guard Captain of the Heaven and Earth Society’s main hall, and Mong Mu-yak, the Vice Society Leader’s son.

The rain that had begun falling the day before yesterday had now continued for three full days.

Even for martial masters, moving through a downpour like this was no easy thing.

Bringing up the rear, Mong Mu-yak glanced at the splinted left arm hanging at his side.

Sensation was gradually returning, and his fingers were moving properly again.

‘Whew.’

And yet that no longer brought him any joy.

In a sense, it was a case of being given the disease and then the medicine. Once the severed arm was healed, he had no choice but to continue the mission.

‘Damn it.’

Perhaps it would have been better if the arm had simply remained severed.

Then he could have gone back and reported everything to his father, the Vice Society Leader.

This bastard was more frightening than any human being Mong Mu-yak had ever seen.

Not only was there something inhuman about him, but he had also mastered all kinds of mysterious skills beyond martial arts, which made him even more terrifying.

The clearest example was this.

Shhk.

The chain bracelet on his right wrist.

[Since you have decided to swear loyalty, I would like you to put this chain on your arm and make your oath to me with it.]

At the time he had found it slightly unsettling, but thought that wearing one bracelet could hardly matter, so he had obeyed.

Only afterward had he realized the truth.

He had become unable to refuse anything Mok Gyeong-un said.

At one point he had considered making a run for it, but the instant he formed that thought, the chain bit into his flesh so deeply that he had almost lost his right arm.

Because of that, Mong Mu-yak could no longer even entertain disloyal thoughts.

Now he was no different from this bastard’s slave.

‘Damned bastard.’

All that came out of him now were curses.

It was while he was inwardly grumbling and lamenting his situation like that that it happened.

Mok Gyeong-un and Seop Chun, who had been leading the way through the rain, suddenly stopped.

Mong Mu-yak looked ahead to see why.

“Ah!”

A startled exclamation escaped him.

Because before them appeared a river swollen by the torrential rain.

Sshaaaaa. Kwarrrrr.

Seop Chun spoke in a troubled tone.

“This… crossing the river will not be easy.”

Looking at the current, this was not a river one could swim across, no matter how skilled in martial arts one might be.

To begin with, the distance itself was beyond swimming.

The river was not as vast as the Yangtze, so if not for the flood from the downpour, it would normally have been something they could cross by hiring a ferry or raft.

But now the current was so violent that an accident seemed almost guaranteed if they tried.

“I was worried because there has been so much rain, but it looks impossible to cross immediately.”

“It does.”

Mok Gyeong-un nodded in agreement.

Before the order of nature, even great martial masters were still only human.

“My lord, for now I think we should rest in that nearby village and wait for the rain to ease.”

At Seop Chun’s suggestion, Mong Mu-yak cut in.

“Have you forgotten already?”

“Hm?”

“The most important thing in this mission is reaching the rendezvous point on time. If we delay even a single day, it will be difficult to make the deadline.”

At those words, Seop Chun sighed.

“That may be true, but how exactly do you intend to cross a flooded river?”

A flood or a swollen river was a natural disaster, not something caused by men.

It was not the sort of thing that could be overcome by human effort.

Even so,

“…We need to find a way across.”

Mong Mu-yak was stubborn.

And for good reason.

They had been given ten days to reach Anrak in Henan Province.

Ordinary people could never make the journey in ten days, but for masters of supreme or greater rank, if they used lightness skill diligently and rested only minimally, it was just barely possible.

“And how do you propose to do that?”

“Well, that…”

Shhk.

Mong Mu-yak turned his gaze toward the nearby village not far from the riverbank.

People who lived in villages along the river usually made their living from the river.

Staring that way, Mok Gyeong-un said,

“I can see ferry boats moored at the edge of the village. And that boat over there…”

A large vessel was moored along the flooded riverbank.

It was no mere ferry.

“It looks fairly large. With a boat of that size, couldn’t we cross the river?”

“Ah. That might actually work.”

Mong Mu-yak nodded in agreement.

The current was too fierce for any small ferry or raft to succeed, but a vessel of that size looked as though it might at least be able to drift along the current and make the crossing downstream.

There was, however, another problem.

Seop Chun was the one to raise it.

“But, my lord, a boat that large probably can’t be handled without boatmen and laborers.”

If it were an ordinary raft, then even if they were no match for actual boatmen, they could still row it across.

But that ship looked beyond their ability to control.

In the end, they would need the help of the owner and the boatmen.

“In this weather, I don’t know whether the owner will agree to put it in the water.”

“He surely keeps a boat like that to make money. If we pay him enough, he’ll agree.”

“Maybe.”

Seop Chun replied listlessly to Mong Mu-yak.

They had brought enough travel money, so there was no problem paying the fare.

But the rain was so violent and the current so strong that with bad luck the boat could overturn and be wrecked.

“No matter how much one loves money, would a man so easily gamble with his life?”

At Seop Chun’s doubt, Mok Gyeong-un smiled faintly and said,

“He will.”

“Pardon?”

Why is my lord so certain?

As Seop Chun was wondering that,

“Because it would still be better than refusing and having his throat cut. He’ll launch the boat.”

He had already decided to force the matter by threat.