Chapter 60: Geoncheon-dong [1] "I never thought I'd live to see the day I held a memorial for a dog."
Makbong, the very culprit responsible for killing so many dogs, muttered that under his breath.
He had just finished bowing before the dogs' grave and standing back up.
Kanghyeok patted Makbong on the back.
"You didn't have to bow."
"Oh, is that so?"
"I just observed a moment of silence."
With a faint sense of guilt, Kanghyeok turned to look at the stele.
It was packed with the names the dogs had used while alive.
Most of them were lazy names like Gaeddong or Meongmeongi.
Still, every single character had been written with care.
"Young master, your handwriting improves by the day."
Yeoju spoke with an expression of admiration.
Had Kanghyeok not always been interested enough in calligraphy to join a calligraphy club?
Since he was dealing with writing every day, his skill really had improved somewhat.
"Really? Thanks. I put a bit of effort into this."
"So have you finished making the medicine?"
"Yes. Thanks to them, I did."
He had managed to find the perfect dosage: one that made them lose consciousness without suppressing their breathing.
Every dog that had survived up to now had been anesthetized with that dosage and then awakened again.
Some of them still had stitches here and there, because he had performed procedures on them to confirm whether the anesthesia really worked.
The result was completely satisfying.
"So this is all I need to do. Write it down in the book too."
"Yes, Young master."
Yeoju took the scrap papers Kanghyeok handed her.
Since he had scribbled these down quickly during each round of experiments, the handwriting was a mess.
Arabic numerals and English words were mixed in throughout, so Yeoju had a hard time making sense of it.
"You mean I should organize this and write it out properly?"
"Yes. Add drawings too. You watched some of the seomsu extraction, right?"
"I already drew that."
"As expected. You really are amazing."
She had always been passionate about drawing, but after Changgwon died like that, she had become even more diligent.
She often said she wanted to help reduce the number of people who died after being wounded like her father.
Whatever her reasons, it worked out well for Kanghyeok.
A top-quality medical text was being completed for free.
"By the way, Yeoni."
"Yes, Young master."
"Did you find a place to perform in Hanyang?"
"Yes, we found one... but there's a bit of friction with the local troupe there."
"Really?"
"Since it's their turf. Don't worry."
If it came down to a fight, it felt impossible that this side would lose.
As for anyone else, who knew.
But Yeoni and Makbong were people who fell into the category of masters.
The number of Japanese raiders who had died at their hands was not small.
Even the Busa had been envious.
'The people under you are quite useful.'
Kanghyeok still remembered him laughing heartily as he said it.
Still, not everything in life could be solved with physical strength alone.
"If you need help, say so."
Kanghyeok's backing was not weak, after all.
Especially once the Busa became Ijo Panseo, he would be able to throw some weight around in Hanyang too.
Though it was hard to know exactly when that would happen.
"No, Young master. I won't trouble you."
"What trouble? It's not hard just to say the word."
"But when are you planning to leave, Young master?"
"Me?"
In truth, he could leave whenever he wanted.
There was nothing on Suwon soil that could truly keep Kanghyeok tied down.
Ah... that old man's making an even bigger fuss because of the Busa.
Even Seungmun, his only family, seemed to quietly want him to go to Hanyang.
It looked like the Busa had already tattled that Kanghyeok had no intention of seeking office.
Most likely, he was hoping that if Kanghyeok went to Hanyang and stayed there a while, his mind might change.
After all, he knew well enough by now that Kanghyeok was the sort of man who would never listen to words alone.
"As for me, I'll go whenever I feel like it. When can you all leave?"
"It seems we can move soon as well. The performances are winding down."
"You really are performing?"
Makbong was a man who swung on ropes, so that was one thing.
But Yeoni? Was she not an irreplaceable eoreumsani?
Kanghyeok was curious what sort of performance they were even putting on without her.
"Ah... yes, of course. Makbong and I are mostly on the running-around side, and the others can act a bit."
"Oh, so you put on plays?"
"Yes. We perform plays."
It sounded like they were just muddling through somehow.
Then again, it probably did not matter much whether they performed or not.
Kanghyeok was giving the whole troupe enough wealth to live comfortably.
Especially after the vast amount of money sent from Chiljangsa, where Kanghyeok had been hailed as a divine physician.
It was far more than fair wages for employing Yeoni and Makbong, and their loyalty could only keep rising.
"So when do we leave? I have to go with you two. Hanyang isn't exactly the next village over."
"Of course we'll escort you. Lately there have been ugly rumors on that road too."
Joseon had gone more than two hundred years without any major war.
Of course, there had been disturbances like the Eulmyo Japanese Invasion along the way, but on the whole, the country had remained peaceful.
On the surface, that should have meant it was a fine place to live.
But in truth, that was not the case.
The yangban bastards had lived well, but the common people's lives had been nothing but hard.
Because of that, bands of robbers were boiling up here and there.
Im Kkeokjeong was around this time too, wasn't he?
And besides famous bandits like that, there were large and small robber bands spread all over the country.
The road from Suwon to Hanyang was no exception.
There were even rumors that some yangban on his way to greet the Busa had been stripped clean.
"I heard that too. If I get caught, I'm in real danger."
Had he not already looked like an expensive nobleman from head to toe?
Everything he carried looked out of the ordinary too.
Even Dolseok, his servant, was fanning him.
That said enough.
"With us here, you don't need to worry."
Yeoni smiled as she showed the sword she had taken from the war.
It was something the Busa had bestowed on her as both a gift and a reward.
Had she not earned a great merit by killing the masked Japanese raider?
"Good. Then let's go once you're ready."
"Yes, Young master."
Yeoni and Makbong hurried back to the market.
That left only Kanghyeok, Dolseok, and Yeoju.
What was left for three people to do in front of a dog's gravestone?
"Let's go. Why is it so cold here?"
At Kanghyeok's words, all of them headed home.
Going to Hanyang was on an entirely different level from going to Gwanggyosan.
They might end up staying there for quite some time.
There was a lot to bring.
"Dolseok, pack the medicinal herbs and the rice."
"Yes, Young master."
"Ah, and fans too. I should give Brother Sun-sin and Heo Seonsaeng a gift."
"Yes."
All Kanghyeok had to do was sit there and order Dolseok around.
Yeoju was completely occupied with gathering her drawing tools.
Yeoni and Makbong also packed their own belongings into bundles.
"That's a lot of baggage."
Even with each of them carrying a bundle, the ox cart was still piled high.
Rice, medicinal herbs, fans, all sorts of leather goods, even dried preserved meat.
It was enough to make one worry about the ox pulling it.
"Young master, we'll be all right, won't we?"
Showing once again that a coward was a coward, Dolseok asked with a frightened face.
In front of the soldiers, when he was wagging his tongue, he had looked like Guan Yu or Zhang Fei themselves.
Now he looked worse than Liu Shan.
"Of course we'll be all right. Don't you trust Yeoni and Makbong?"
"I do trust them..."
"Then let's just go. It's quiet. There's nothing around. Why are you so scared?"
"Isn't it exactly when it's quiet that bandits show up?"
When Kanghyeok thought about it, that did sound plausible.
A dim mountain road with barely any people.
It had exactly the sort of atmosphere where anything strange might appear.
Then Yeoni suddenly stopped walking.
"Shh. Something's wrong. There are no insect sounds."
"That does seem off, doesn't it?"
Makbong even drew his sword.
As the atmosphere turned serious, Kanghyeok immediately started scolding.
"See, you little bastard. This is because you kept running your mouth."
"What does me running my mouth have to do with this?"
"Want me rolled up in a straw mat here?"
"No, no. I'm sorry."
While they were bickering, several figures blocked the road ahead.
They were armed with iron Dorikkaes and clubs, but at a glance they looked clumsy beyond belief.
"Y-you bastards! Drop what you have and get lost!"
Even the man holding the Dorikkae had a trembling voice.
"Urk."
"Oh, sorry, sorry."
The way he was waving it around to look threatening, he nearly struck the companion next to him.
It was enough of a spectacle to inspire courage even in timid Dolseok.
"This is ridiculous, isn't it?"
"Exactly."
From the look of it, they were scared, but since the group's baggage looked so plentiful, they had come out anyway.
If this had been a mediocre group, they might really have been robbed.
Unfortunately, Kanghyeok's party was very far from mediocre.
"What should we do with these bastards?"
In the blink of an eye, the bandits had all been forced to their knees.
They had been struck here and there with the flat of swords, so there were not many of them left unharmed.
"Please spare us."
The man who had been making a scene with the Dorikkae rubbed his hands together and begged.
Come to think of it, he had contributed the most.
The moment the fight started, he had smashed his own bandit comrades apart with that Dorikkae.
Kanghyeok laughed heartily and met the man's eyes.
"Hey."
"Yes, sir."
"Is this your first time?"
"Yes, sir. Please spare me. I've committed a crime worthy of death."
If you wanted to live, maybe you should leave off the part about committing a crime worthy of death.
He was saying he deserved death while begging to be spared.
It was so absurd that Kanghyeok could not help laughing.
That laugh only made him seem more frightening.
"Why would I kill you? Until you pay back the treatment fee, you won't be able to die even if you want to."
"What?"
A field clinic was set up right there in the mountains, and the bandits received rough emergency treatment.
In exchange, everything they had on them was taken away.
Absolutely everything.
"Let's go now."
"Yes, Young master."
After they had gone a while like that, the bandits came chasing after them from behind.
They looked utterly desperate.
"Sir, sir."
"What, what is it?"
"If you just leave us like this, what are we supposed to do?"
"What else? Carve yourselves new clubs and go back to banditry."
At Kanghyeok's indifferent answer, the bandits trembled like aspen leaves.
Not figuratively either. It was literally so.
"While naked?"
"You should've picked your targets better."
Kanghyeok turned his head with an almost insultingly easy smile.
At this point, the bandits were pitiable enough to stir sympathy.
At least to Yeoju and Dolseok, they were.
"Young master, those fellows look like complete novices. Maybe you should show them some mercy..."
"Yes, I think so too."
"Mercy for what? They're bandits."
Kanghyeok's attitude was firm.
But Dolseok knew something.
His master was not actually that hard-hearted.
"Come on now... Ah, right. Once we get there, won't you need servants to work for you for a while anyway?"
"Servants? What am I, some kind of gang boss? Using bandits as servants?"
"Do you think they were born bandits? We can educate them."
"And who's going to do that?"
"Them."
Dolseok pointed, of course, at Yeoni and Makbong.
The moment the bandits looked at the two of them, they shrank back.
It seemed the places where they had been struck earlier had started hurting again.
"Hmm. I suppose I still haven't gotten enough treatment fees out of them."
"Exactly, right?"
"All right. We'll work them without pay. On the condition that if they don't listen, they get beaten. And those two really do know how to roll people in straw mats."
"Yes, yes. Very good."
This was surely not the sort of salvation the bandits had hoped for.
But it was already decided. They had no choice but to gather up their clothes, put them back on, and trail behind the group.
With their numbers increased, no one else dared attack them.
Thanks to that, they reached Hanyang without incident.
"This is the place, wasn't it?"
Kanghyeok stood lingering at the entrance to Geoncheon-dong.
Then someone came toward him with a delighted smile.
It was Sun-sin.
"You made it."
"Ah, Brother."
"There are rather more people than you mentioned."
"There were various circumstances."
"Right. Come inside first. I told you before, didn't I, that there was someone here who needed your touch?"
"Yes."
"He said he would be coming soon."
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