Chapter 8

He could barely remember how they had managed to retreat.

He had shouted until his throat bled, but the soldiers had been overwhelmed by the evil spirit’s power and terror, frozen in place like stone.

Dam Yun tore away the nameless, clinging shadows with every last ounce of strength he possessed. He even resorted to the Jugeum Arts techniques he had never expected to use pouring everything into them, yet all he could accomplish was dragging himself out of the blood cavern.^1 After that, he stood alone against the fiendish instrument, struggling to pull even one more person to safety.

The first person he rescued was Miseol.

From then on, he chose who to save according to priority, dragging them out one by one. Realising that assembling his unit from the most ruthless criminals had, at least in this moment, proven to be a farsighted decision made bile rise in his throat.

Total annihilation.

As an ordinary soldier, he had witnessed it often. But since becoming a Bangryeong, this was the first time. And no matter how many times one experienced such slaughter, it could never become familiar.

In the end, he failed to save as many as he had wanted. Dam Yun forced himself to remember his master’s words that when swept away by a great flood, one must survive without guilt but they offered no comfort whatsoever.

That was how he crawled out of the cave.

He seized the collars of those stumbling through despair and forced them to flee. Some would not move even when dragged by brute force, as though their souls had been left behind inside the cavern. The warhorses abandoned within cried out in agony. The Ghost Valley echoed farther and farther behind them. Snowflakes began to fall before they had even reached the fortress.

When they finally returned to the military camp, trudging through the accumulating snow while supporting and dragging one another…

The few who had survived the wasteland were greeted by a suffocating silence.

Only the heavy snowfall, now pouring relentlessly from the sky, filled the stillness.

“Is… this everyone?”

Someone asked through the swirling snow.

One of the survivors answered instead with a hollow laugh.

“Heh… hehehe…”

When the laughter faded, the camp sank into an even deeper silence.

Beneath the endlessly falling snow, everything seemed frozen in place. Those who had been waiting, along with those who had come after hearing the news, stood petrified like stone statues.

The survivors from the wasteland could walk no farther. One after another, they collapsed before the fortress gates. Their condition was horrific, and they did not amount to even a tenth of those who had originally marched out.

Many had already died to the evil spirits before today.

But today’s tragedy surpassed them all.

“…”

Those who still clung to hope looked toward Heavenly Noble Dam Yun.

Yet Dam Yun could not utter a single word.

He leaned the maddened soldier he had dragged back against the base of the watchtower, then staggered a few paces away before collapsing onto the ground himself.

A crushing silence settled over the camp.

The enormous spear shaft resting against Dam Yun’s left shoulder seemed, today more than ever, to dig into his flesh.

Leaving the speechless soldiers behind, Dam Yun replayed the battlefield of carnage over and over in his mind.

Was this truly the right thing to do?

He had obeyed only half of General Tae’s orders, yet the result had been catastrophic.

He no longer cared for his position and wished only to leave the battlefield as soon as possible.

But this…

This meaningless massacre was never what he had wanted.

Dam Yun looked at the small group he had barely managed to save from that living hell.

Overwhelming responsibility, guilt, and confusion tangled together, crushing his heart beneath their weight.

Two sijin earlier.

The moment they emerged from the cavern, Dam Yun slapped each soldier across the face, forcing them back to their senses.

Then he said,

“Go.”

Meeting each pair of vacant eyes, he shouted,

“Get out. Desert! I’ll report that any deserters died in the valley. If you stay here, you’ll only become sacrifices for the evil spirits. Wolseok isn’t coming. Go. That’s the better choice.”

Some left.

Others refused to budge.

Those who remained were the very people who had now returned with him.

Miseol was among them.

“Bangryeong, General Tae wishes to see you.”

General Tae’s adjutant appeared without warning.

After a moment’s hesitation, he stepped closer and asked,

“…What happened?”

Curiosity was plain in his voice.

Dam Yun merely wiped the dried mud from his cheek without saying a word.

The adjutant eventually gave up waiting for an answer.

“Please make haste. If you delay any longer, the General will not look kindly upon it.”

Ordinarily, he should have reported to the General immediately upon returning.

His hands still throbbed from dragging soldiers to safety.

His throat ached from shouting until he could taste blood.

Yet he had to go.

If nothing else, he needed to ask whether this horrifying outcome was truly what General Tae had intended.

Following the adjutant, Dam Yun made his way forward.

“General, I have brought Bangryeong Dam.”

The door to the command tent’s inner chamber opened.

The instant Dam Yun stepped inside, fury surged through him.

When had they taken her?

Kneeling before General Tae was Miseol, still wearing her military uniform, not even given the chance to straighten it.

In General Tae’s hand…

…was a whip.

 

“What are you doing?”

Dam Yun’s voice came out razor-sharp before he even realised it.

Despite swallowing back a cough from his injured throat, he did not avert his steely gaze. Even though he restrained himself, killing intent seeped from him.

Not only the adjutant, but even General Tae a veteran who had commanded countless battlefields flinched in fear.

Only for a moment.

“Why are they all still alive?”

A hollow laugh escaped Dam Yun.

Why are they all still alive?

So the General truly had intended for every single soldier to die.

No longer bothering to disguise his intentions, General Tae continued,

“This commander gave a solemn order, yet you, a Bangryeong, ignored it! I merely exact punishment from your concubine in your place! I ordered you to deploy all five hundred of my soldiers! Why did you take only half and bring about this disaster?”

“I’ve wanted to ask you something for a long time.”

Dam Yun recalled the words of Elder Bok.

The Malevolent Calamity God had long since disappeared, but throughout the vast world there still existed evil gods and monstrous creatures that were appeased through human sacrifice.

Yet human sacrifice was nothing more than a temporary expedient. Offering lives merely nourished those wicked beings, making them even stronger. He had been taught that one should never rely on such desperate measures that confronting them head-on was the only true solution.

At that moment, General Tae’s whip sliced through the air.

It was aimed squarely at the innocent Miseol.

Before entering the command office, Dam Yun had handed over Paegeuk to the adjutant.

Without a moment’s hesitation, he lifted a heavy wooden table weighing several geun and hurled it forward.

Crash!

The whip struck the table at the exact same instant.

A deafening crack echoed as the wood splintered into pieces.

By then, Dam Yun had already wrapped an arm around Miseol and retreated toward the entrance.

“Stop right there!”

Confident he could deal with General Tae even without Paegeuk, Dam Yun ignored the command entirely.

The instant his eyes met Miseol’s kneeling figure, a fire had ignited inside him.

Her gaunt face, thinned from weeks of barely eating, overlapped with the countless innocent people he had failed to rescue from the wasteland.

No matter how hard he had tried to fill the army with only ruthless criminals, there simply had not been enough of them.

Anger and self-reproach boiled together within him.

Before Dam Yun could even step out into the corridor, General Tae emerged in pursuit, gripping the whip once more.

Having been ignored one time too many, the General sneered at Dam Yun’s back.

“Don’t pretend you’re the only righteous man here! You and I are no different! If losing soldiers pains you so much, why didn’t you die in their place? In the end, weren’t you the one who came back alive?”

Dam Yun’s eyes turned icy.

General Tae smirked.

“Ah… if you couldn’t die in place of your soldiers…”

“…could you die in place of your little concubine?”

Miseol’s shoulders visibly trembled.

Dam Yun froze as well.

The distance between the three of them narrowed.

Seizing the opportunity, General Tae shouted,

“Bangryeong Dam! Let me make you a proposal! Every time you disobey my orders from now on, your precious concubine won’t remain unharmed! Ah and that sickly old man of the Bok family as well! But if you pay the price for your defiance here and now, they’ll all remain safe… for the time being.”

General Tae’s sunken eyes gleamed with naked amusement and malice.

Dam Yun frowned.

He had always known the man was the type to hide a dagger behind a smile, but he had never imagined such deep-seated hatred.

It was obvious this grudge had been festering for years.

Since when had he despised me this much?

And why?

“Bangryeong… I’ll be fine.”

Miseol rarely raised her voice, but now she did as she tugged on Dam Yun’s sleeve.

“Just leave me… Please go.”

At that very instant, General Tae raised the iron-studded whip high overhead.

The thick leather embedded with metal shrieked as it tore through the air.

“If you dare defy military orders again… one day I’ll beat that male prostitute to death!”

The whip lashed out like a striking snake.

“Bangryeong!”

Miseol screamed.

But Dam Yun did not dodge.

Crack!

The leather tore across his forearm.

Fresh blood dripped onto the ground.

Only then did General Tae’s adjutant rush into the corridor.

He involuntarily gasped.

The hero who had earned glory throughout the realm…

…had been made to bleed.

Who would not be horrified?

Yet in the very next instant everything was reversed.

Dam Yun lunged at General Tae with the speed of lightning.

“…!”

It happened in the blink of an eye.

He seized the wrist holding the whip, twisted it violently, and stepped in.

The tip of his foot traced a smooth, elegant arc.

Despite the graceful movement

Thud!

The sickening sound of flesh and bone separating echoed through the corridor.

General Tae’s upper body folded violently.

“Ghk!”

The second blow was even more merciless.

Dam Yun’s foot shot upward and smashed into the General’s jaw.

General Tae bit through his own tongue, and his eyes rolled back.

After that, Barely using his injured left arm, Dam Yun relied only on concise, efficient movements.

Even so…

He beat General Tae senselessly.

A relentless, persistent shocking act of insubordination.

The adjutant remained rooted to the spot, unable to move even a single step.

Foam mixed with blood spilled from General Tae’s mouth before, at last, he collapsed to his knees.

Dam Yun looked down at his superior, who hovered on the brink of unconsciousness.

Then he picked up the whip lying on the floor.

“Go ahead.”

“Threaten me again.”

With a casual flick of his wrist 

Crack!

The whip exploded through the air, splitting the wooden floor of the corridor.

“I’m curious myself.”

“The next time…”

“…I wonder what I’ll strike instead of the floorboards.”

 

With a casual flick of his wrist, Dam Yun tossed the whip beside General Tae’s face.

Then, without looking back, he took hold of Miseol and walked out of the command office.

“Th-that bastard…!”

“Throw him in prison…! Throw him in…!”

General Tae roared.

Even as blood streamed from where he had bitten through his own tongue, he continued shouting through slurred words.

But the trembling in his voice carried less authority than the desperate howling of a terrified beast.

“I said arrest him…!”

Perhaps because he had been so utterly humiliated before his own adjutant, rage lent General Tae the courage to continue.

“You…! You’ve grown fearless because you have the Crown Prince backing you!”

“You’ve been abandoned!”

Blood vessels burst across General Tae’s eyes.

Bloody foam clung to the corners of his mouth.

“You’re no different from that male whore you keep by your side! Stop pretending you’re some noble hero!”

“You’re a male whore yourself!”

“Wasn’t it you who ultimately offered those soldiers to that evil spirit as sacrifices?”

“Unlike you, who clings to His Highness the Crown Prince by relying on nothing but that pretty face of yours…”

“…weren’t the soldiers the ones who all died instead?”

Dam Yun stopped walking.

Miseol quietly urged him onward, but he did not move.

Mistaking his silence for weakness, General Tae grew even more emboldened, laughing mockingly.

“Did a lowborn wretch like you really think you could keep playing the hero forever?”

“Your name…”

“Your achievements…”

“Your position…”

“None of them were ever yours to begin with.”

“They’re all returning to their rightful owner now.”

“To your younger brother.”

“You were nothing but a stand-in.”

“And His Highness the Crown Prince approved it.”

A chill spread through Dam Yun’s chest.

Noticing the sudden change in his expression, General Tae grinned broadly, exposing blood-soaked teeth.

Footnotes

1. Paegeuk (패극) – Dam Yun’s massive signature weapon.
2. Geun (근) – A traditional Korean unit of weight; one geun is approximately 600 g (1.3 lbs).
3. Sijin (시진) – A traditional Korean unit of time equal to approximately two hours.