Two weeks after getting injured, Baek Woo Jin finally regained the use of his arm from the bandages and splint. The first thing he needed to do was complete the mission to earn his last remaining contribution points.
“Oh, there’s no place like home.”
He felt reluctant to leave the dormitory that now felt like home, but he had no choice.
However, the real problem was something else.
“Wo Jin-ah! Hurry up!”
“Yo-Young master Baek…”
Down below the dormitory, Shin Ye Hwa shouted energetically while Jegal Yeon Ji’s voice trailed off.
The issue was that these two were once again accompanying him on this mission.
This mission this time wasn’t a particularly difficult one. They had to defeat a group of Underworld Bandits who were occupying a small village and extorting protection fees. These bandits were no more than third-rate thugs who would harass street vendors in a small neighborhood.
But despite their low strength, their numbers were large enough to classify the mission as an intermediate one.
“Oh, my luck.”
Although Baek Woo Jin said that he would be going alone, Shin Ye Hwa was adamant.
She was worried about him getting hurt every time, so she insisted on accompanying him just this once. She promised that if nothing happened, she would never interfere again. Baek Woo Jin had no choice but to accept her company.
As for Jegal Yeon Ji…. She made an offer he couldn’t refuse. She promised to give him the Jegal clan’s hangover remedy that he had tasted the day they embarked on their first mission together, and he accepted immediately.
“Totally worth it.”
Baek Woo Jin still couldn’t forget the relief he felt back then.
He wore a black uniform that didn’t show stains easily and he carried a gourd on one side of his waist and a sword on the other. He set out from the dormitory with a bundle on his back that contained essentials for camping like a tent, food, bandages, and a wound ointment.
“Why exactly are you coming along, Miss Jegal?”
“I can say the same about you, Miss Shin…”
He cut off their conversation which was sparking small flames with a serious look on his face.
Baek Woo Jin shifted his gaze between them and issued a warning.
“I’m making it clear. My word is law on this mission.”
If you’re not going to follow my orders, turn back now.
Though his slightly drunken demeanor undermined any sense of authority, fortunately, both of them nodded their heads in agreement.
“Then let’s go.”
It felt like going on an outing with two chicks trailing after their mother.
The village that requested the mission was called Suyang Village of Wonyeong County. It was located a week’s walk from the academy.
The three people who arrived at the entrance of the village after four days using their movement techniques were taken aback by the unexpected size of the village.
“It’s big.”
“Very big…”
They originally thought it would be a village with at most a hundred to two hundred households, but it looked several times larger than that.
“Wow.”
If the Underworld Bandits had swallowed up a village of this size, their organization must be much larger than they anticipated.
“We’ve stepped into it.”
They should have given more thought to why this request was still available at this time of the semester.
“Hmm…”
The village was bustling with many people coming and going.
There were even two large inns and many shops and stalls looking for customers.
Watching this scene, Baek Woo Jin stroked his chin and went into deep thought.
With the size of this village, the governor of this place must collect quite a bit of tax…
The more migrants and residents there are, the higher the taxes collected will be proportionally.
Usually, a place that gives away a lot of taxes would be able to exert some influence on the county governor to arrest the Underworld Bandits or at least maintain control over them. The fact that this wasn’t happening here meant…
The village is either thoroughly controlled by the bandits, or the governor is in cahoots with the Underworld Bandits.
The latter was more likely. Even if the Underworld Bandits could control the residents, they couldn’t control all the travelers passing through the village.
“This is troublesome.”
If the governor was working with them, things would be more complicated than he expected.
With the village’s size, if they tried to carelessly apprehend the bandits, the governor might disguise them as innocent citizens and accuse them of assault.
“What should we do…?”
Shin Ye Hwa asked in a worried tone.
There was no point in thinking about the solution at the village entrance.
“Let’s go in for now.”
To determine their next course of action, they needed accurate information, not just plausible guesses from their heads.
The three of them entered the first inn they saw.
“Welcome!”
A young boy who looked about fifteen years old greeted them with a smile.
“Do you have three single rooms?”
“Of course. Each room costs one nyang per day.”
Baek Woo Jin took a silver coin from his money pouch and placed it in the boy’s hand.
“Five days for now. The rest will be for food.”
“Yes! Right away!”
The three of them followed the boy to their rooms, placed their luggage down, and then gathered at a table downstairs.
“First, let’s gather some information.”
“Information?”
“The location of the Underworld Bandits, how many members they have, how much money they extort, things like that.”
Knowing nothing and knowing something make a huge difference. They needed to have essential information to plan their next move.
“What would you like to eat?”
“Your best dishes, please.”
“Hehe, got it.”
As the boy turned to leave after taking their order, Baek Woo Jin grabbed his arm.
“I have a question.”
“Yes?”
The boy looked a bit flustered, so Baek Woo Jin flicked another silver coin towards him. The boy’s expression changed instantly.
“Ask me anything!”
He seemed ready to count every spoon and chopstick in his house and report back.
“I heard there are some nasty Underworld Bandit members around here.”
“Ah~, you mean the White Snake Bandits.”
The White Snake Bandits was the name of the Underworld Bandits that had settled in this area.
The waiter glanced around cautiously, then leaned toward Baek Woo Jin and whispered in a low voice.
“They’re very vicious. They collect protection fees under every pretext almost every day, and they lend money to people who need money urgently and charge a huge amount of interest.”
The necessary information flowed easily from the waiter’s mouth.
He said as if he was seething with anger, that they were even running illegal gambling and betting dens, that they were luring locals and travelers to gamble and raking in money by the handful.
“Have you tried reporting them to the governor?”
When Baek Woo Jin asked indirectly, the waiter waved his hands vigorously, as if to say not to even mention it.
“Don’t even talk about it! The governor is in cahoots with them.”
He explained that they had gone to the governor several times in the past to report the White Snake Bandits’ misdeeds, but every investigation ended with the gang members being acquitted, and those who reported them were instead captured and severely interrogated.
“Anyway, it’s fortunate that you three seem to be martial artists, but please be careful just in case.”
Baek Woo Jin felt puzzled by his words.
“Why is it fortunate that we are martial artists?”
“You have no idea how cunning the White Snake Bandits are. Whenever an expert stops by the village, they bow deeply to win their favor, and as soon as these expert leaves, they go back to their wicked ways.”
This might be even more difficult.
Baek Woo Jin’s expression gradually hardened.
There are few opponents as difficult as those who understand their own limitations objectively.
Considering that they have taken over a village to this extent, they must be on a different level from ordinary street thugs, yet seeing how they bow without hesitation to the experts shows they are not ordinary people.
“But do those experts just go away after being treated kindly by the bandits?”
“Yes, they do.”
I don’t know about the past since I haven’t lived through it, but how many people can truly be called chivalrous heroes these days?
“Those types of people have probably never stopped by our village.”
It was both amusing and revealing of the current state of the Moorim world to hear such a young man, who was barely in his early teens, speak as if he had wisdom beyond his years.
The Jeongmu Academy is the problem.
In the past, it had been an era where people who were fully armed with righteousness and chivalry did not tolerate injustice unfolding around them and fought against it to earn a splendid title and fame, but that was no longer the case.
Young warriors who were brimming with youthful vigor used to set off into the martial world, but now their main goal was to enter the Jeongmu Academy. Instead of pursuing righteousness, they undertook missions to earn contribution points.
Of course, it was true that many problems, large and small, were solved thanks to the students who carried out these missions instead of the “young heroes”. However, because missions were carefully selected, places like this one did not receive those benefits.
This place could be seen as an example of the Jeongmu Academy’s dysfunction.
The young waiter rushed off in response to another customer’s call, and Shin Ye Hwa and Jegal Yeon Ji sighed.
“It seems to be a bigger issue than we thought…”
“Th-That’s right.”
Shin Ye Hwa and Jegal Yeon Ji wore deeply worried expressions.
It didn’t seem like a request that three mere first-year students of the Jeongmu Academy could handle.
“What if we just go back now…?”
When Shin Ye Hwa spoke those words carefully, Jegal Yeon Ji was looking at her with sad eyes, as if agreeing with her words.
Their concerns were entirely understandable and reasonable.
However, Baek Woo Jin had learned something in this world.
“If it can’t be done, make it happen.”
“How?”
“By doing it well.”
He was already thinking of how to find the answer.
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