STVS 30

Chapter 30

I hurriedly looked around.

Perhaps because it was an awkward hour for meals, there weren’t many people inside the inn. Even those who were there were all watching the situation cautiously, wary of the rumor lord.

He clearly looked like the scion of a wealthy family, after all. If they got involved carelessly, they could end up suffering retaliation instead.

Yet even at this moment, the woman was crying and begging.

“Please, don’t do this. This young woman is not worth being taken by you, Young Master. Moreover, I already have a fiancé to whom I’ve pledged my future. I beg of you—please…”

“What’s a fiancé worth, anyway? I am the great rumor lord of the No.1 Azure Blade Sect of Gwangju! I’m a far greater man than your fiancé could ever be. Wouldn’t it be better for you to be embraced by someone like me?”

“No, I can’t betray my fiancé. Please, please show mercy just this once—”

“And who knows? If you satisfy me, perhaps you could even enter my household as a concubine. Now stop resisting and lift your head. I want to taste those cherry-like lips of yours.”

“No—no, please—! Sob… hic…!”

That rutting bastard!

Since no one seemed willing to step in, I quickly grabbed the edge of a table. After offering a silent apology to the innkeeper, I flipped it over with all my strength.

Crash—bang!

In an instant, everyone’s attention turned toward me.

“Ow, my stomach! My stomach—aaah!”

“What the—what’s going on?!”

“Innkeeper! Innkeeepper! What did you put in the noodles?! I heard your noodles were good, so I ran ten li just to eat them, and now my stomach hurts like crazy! Agh, I’m dying! I’m really dying!”

As I clutched my stomach and rolled around on the floor, the inn—so tense just moments ago—descended into chaos. The innkeeper and even the cook rushed out to check on me.

“Sir, are you all right? Where exactly does it hurt…?”

“What, are you a physician? You think you’d know just by asking?! It feels like my insides are being scorched by fire, like someone’s wringing my guts out like a wet rag! Got it? No?!”

“Uh… I’m not sure, but if we call a doctor right now—”

“And what if I die before the doctor gets here, huh?! What then?! You’ll take responsibility?! Will you take responsibility?! Do you even know who I am?!”

Of course you don’t. My apologies.

While shouting at the top of my lungs, I subtly glanced toward where the rumor lord was.

With the inn in total disarray, he could no longer harass the woman. In that moment, she slipped out of his grasp.

Good. This should be enough for her to escape. Just as I was about to stop my act—

“Cough… huh? My stomach suddenly doesn’t hurt as much? Was it not the noodles after all? Oh dear, I have a chronic condition, you see. This kind of thing happens sometimes. Innkeeper, I must have misunderstood—sor—”

“Huh? That guy—wait a second.”

I turned my head.

A large figure was already standing right beside me.

“You—aren’t you the servant from the So family?”

“Pardon?”

“Ha! It is you! It’s definitely him! Rumor Lord, that’s the one! That guy!”

It was him.

The servant who had been slapped ten times by our young lady and knocked unconscious.

I hurriedly spoke politely.

“You must be mistaken. You have the wrong person.”

“Mistaken? Wrong person? With that flat face, that hooked nose, and that ugly goby-like look, it’s obviously you! And you say I’m mistaken?”

You bastard—your face looks like a flounder.

“On top of that, you’re wearing the So family servant’s clothes and pretending not to know me? Do you think I’m an idiot?!”

Damn it.

I glanced down at my clothes and flinched. Sure enough, I was still wearing servant attire.

Damn it. I’d even flipped a table to hide myself, and yet…

No choice. I’ll survive this somehow.

I quickly clasped my hands together and spoke obsequiously.

“Oh my~! Isn’t this the dignified and imposing hero who stood beside Lord Rumor~?!”

“What?”

“Oh my, what brings you here today? I merely stopped by for a meal, and to encounter the two of you here—what an incredible coincidence! Please, don’t mind a lowly fellow like me and continue your meal—”

“Hah. Look at this guy.”

The servant let out a hollow laugh.

“Do you have any idea what I went through because of you? My face was smashed, I lost teeth, and I became a laughingstock! For days, I couldn’t even chew properly—do you know how miserable that was?!”

“How is that my fault—”

“Shut up! Today, I’ll repay this humiliation. First, I’ll break every last one of your teeth so you’ll never wag that mouth again!”

“Wait, just a moment—!”

I desperately looked around for someone—anyone—to help. Then my eyes met those of the rumor lord sitting far away.

With one corner of his mouth lifted, he said,

“Just don’t kill him.”

“Yes!”

I’m done for.

I hurriedly raised my arms to block the incoming kick—

“Aaagh!”

…Wait, I hadn’t screamed yet.

Confused, I opened my eyes. A foot had stopped right in front of me.

More precisely, a foot with a chopstick stuck straight into the top of it.

“My—my foot! My fooooot!”

Now the servant was rolling on the floor just like I had earlier. The chopstick was embedded so deeply that blood soaked through his shoe.

Startled, I scrambled backward on my rear.

Then, a flat, emotionless voice rang out.

“I can hear the sound of a pig being slaughtered all the way over here.”

I turned toward the voice.

There sat a man dressed shabbily.

He was eating the inn’s common noodles, his face hidden beneath a deeply pulled-down bamboo hat. But seeing that one chopstick was missing, it was obvious who had thrown it.

Veins bulged on the servant’s forehead.

“You—how dare you—!”

“Oh? You can still move?”

In the next instant, the servant drew his sword and charged. I nearly screamed. But the man merely laughed heartily and sidestepped the blade.

Crash—clang!

Noodles spilled across the floor as people screamed and fled the inn.

Ignoring the chaos, the man moved lightly, hands clasped behind his back. A slight shift of his body, a diagonal step forward, half a step back—he evaded the blade by the narrowest margins.

For a moment, it seemed like his body vanished—then suddenly he was right in front of the servant.

He stomped down hard on the foot with the embedded chopstick.

“Aaagh!”

The servant dropped his sword.

Seizing the moment, the man twisted his wrist in reverse and caught the servant’s arm, wrenching it behind his back and slamming him face-first onto a table.

By now, the man was holding the remaining chopstick.

He pinned the servant’s hand to the table—

Then drove the chopstick straight into the back of it.

“AAAAAAAH!”

The scream echoed endlessly.

At last, the servant foamed at the mouth and lost consciousness.

Honestly, I wanted to pass out too.

Watching the man casually shake his hands and chuckle, I felt it instinctively.

A master.

A real martial arts master.

Perhaps sensing my trembling, the man turned his gaze toward me.

As I swallowed hard—

He spoke.

“So, you’re a servant of the So family?”

* * *

Contrary to my fear, the man turned out to be unexpectedly polite.

“Innkeeper, I apologize for causing trouble unintentionally. I don’t know if this will suffice as compensation, but please accept it.”

After the commotion ended, the man slung the unconscious servant over his shoulder and tossed him outside. He then righted the overturned tables and chairs and formally apologized to the innkeeper.

I also helped clean up and added my own apology.

“I’m truly sorry as well. If my disturbance causes any issues with your business later, I’ll find a way to repay you.”

The innkeeper looked dazed. Understandably so. Anyone would wonder what kind of people we were.

But the silver ingot the man handed over worked wonders. The innkeeper’s lifeless eyes regained color, and he even saw us off cheerfully as if nothing had happened.

Before I knew it, the man and I were leaving the inn together.

The rumor lord had long since fled.

When the man’s gaze turned to me, I bowed deeply.

“Thank you for saving me, benefactor! Without you, I might already be dead. I don’t know how I could ever repay this great kindness—if there’s anything you wish me to do—”

“So where are you affiliated?”

“…Pardon?”

Didn’t you say you worked for the So family? Where exactly? The kitchen? The guest hall?”

“Ah, no…”

After hesitating, I finally asked,

“Benefactor, who are you to be asking such things?”

“Me?”

The man spoke as if utterly incredulous.

“You don’t know who I am? Me?”

“…No, sir. This humble one is ignorant, so if you would kindly tell me your esteemed name—”

“Hah! Honestly! Have you only just entered the So family? Or are you simply ignorant of the world? Tsk, tsk. I’ll have to tell Steward Jeok to redo servant training!”

“…What?”

“I am—”

The man grinned broadly and declared with confidence,

“I am Namgung Jeong, the young lord of the Great Namgung Clan.”