Chapter 3. My In-Laws Are Kind of a Big Deal (2)
About a month and a half had passed since Wolyeong and I spent our first night together.
During that time, she did not bring up her family, and I did not ask.
How should I put it?
Maybe we had silently begun trusting that we would tell each other when the time came.
And although it was not exactly an exchange, she had also never asked me about my past.
In a way, the relationship between Wolyeong and me was quite strange.
We knew almost nothing about each other's backgrounds or pasts, yet we had promised to become husband and wife.
If I went to live with her family, would we hold a formal wedding according to the Four Rites?
Or perhaps they would refuse to accept some wild man of unknown origin as their son-in-law and throw me out.
Well, I could deal with that when it happened.
For now, there was a more immediate problem.
[I haven’t had much of an appetite lately.]
When Wolyeong told me that in the morning, it felt as though lightning had struck me from a clear sky.
No appetite?
The woman who could devour a week's worth of my food in one meal had no appetite?
Even if the sun rose in the west, I would not be this shocked.
Maybe I needed to travel all the way to a city and find a physician.
But before that...
[Could you catch some rabbits for me? I suddenly feel like eating rabbit meat.]
If my lady wanted rabbit meat, then naturally I should catch ten of them.
Come to think of it, I remembered seeing a rabbit den near the upstream area.
Maybe I should go all the way there for the first time in a while.
It had been a long time since I traveled to the upstream riverbank.
The last time was when I found Wolyeong.
Back then, I had tossed a coin to decide whether to save her.
If it had landed on tails, I would have regretted leaving her for the rest of my life...
Wait.
What is that?
“Is this the place?”
“Yes. I am certain.”
As I approached the upper river, I heard unfamiliar voices.
I immediately hid myself and looked over.
An elderly man dressed like a scholar and five armored soldiers were searching the area.
“She was attacked on the bridge upstream. If she fell from the carriage, she should have been carried by the river to somewhere around here.”
“She must have been seriously injured. Perhaps...”
“Enough. Search every corner for other traces. If the worst has happened, we must at least recover her body.”
“As you command!”
At the scholar-like old man's command, the soldiers scattered in every direction.
Judging from their words and behavior, they seemed to be looking for Wolyeong.
As far as I knew, she was the only person who had been seriously injured around here.
The problem was that I could not immediately tell whether these people were Wolyeong's allies or enemies.
[You probably won’t be able to tell whether the people searching for me are allies or enemies. If anyone like that appears, please tell me first.]
Master once said there was nothing to lose by listening to one's wife.
Of course, that man had never married.
Anyway, I needed to return and tell Wolyeong first...
“Who are you, watching us from the shadows?”
What the hell?
The scholar-like old man was suddenly standing right in front of me.
I had completely hidden my presence.
Yet after I looked away for a single moment, he noticed me and approached.
He was clearly no ordinary master.
“This old man has several questions for you. Think carefully before answering. Why were you spying on us?”
“I am only a hunter who came here to hunt rabbits. I saw unusual people and became curious. If that offended you, I apologize.”
Whether these people were Wolyeong's allies or enemies, fighting them was the worst possible choice.
For now, I needed to get away and meet Wolyeong.
“Nonsense. You managed to hide your presence even briefly from this old man's senses, and you expect me to believe you are merely a hunter? Are you not a skilled assassin?”
Damn it.
This old man was annoyingly sharp.
“Tell me everything you know. Have you seen a woman slightly over twenty years old around here?”
“No. I don’t recall seeing anyone.”
“You do not wish to speak? Fine. I have suddenly become curious how long you can endure torture personally performed by this old man.”
A sinister smile spread across his face.
“For your information, it will be extremely painful. Painful enough that you will wish you had gone to hell instead.”
The old man struck with his palm.
The energy gathered around his hand was visible to the naked eye.
He was at least a master of the Peak Realm.
Damn it.
Back when I was active, maybe I could have handled him.
Now that my senses have rusted this badly, he’s troublesome.
I should have continued training even after my sect was destroyed.
But what could I do?
I still had to fight.
“Don’t blame me if you get hurt, old man. You started this fight.”
First Technique of the Bow of No Homeland, Three-Life Seizure.
It was a very simple technique that fired three arrows in rapid succession.
However, the speed at which I fired those arrows was not simple at all.
“Y, you bastard!”
As expected, this old man was not ordinary either.
He dodged the first two arrows and caught the third one.
Three-Life Seizure failed to kill him.
If Master saw this, he would be furious.
“As I thought, you are no ordinary man!”
Boom!
The old man threw aside the arrow and struck with his palm.
The palm force grazed my face and shattered an innocent boulder behind me.
If I had dodged even slightly later, my skull would have exploded instead.
“You look rather old, but it is good to see you’re still so healthy.”
“This old man will personally tear that loose mouth from your face!”
If I had my chain-sickle or spear, things might be different.
Fighting him head-on with only a bow would be suicide.
First, I needed distance.
“Do you think I’ll let you escape?!”
The old man rushed to catch me, but I was about half a step faster.
After creating some distance, I looked back.
His face had turned red and blue with rage.
“Old man! Stop chasing me while I’m asking nicely! I don’t particularly want to kill you!”
“Everyone, gather here!”
Damn it.
He completely ignored my warning and called his subordinates.
A very clear declaration that he had no intention of letting me escape.
Such intense attention from another man is rather uncomfortable.
The scholar-like old man and the soldiers might be Wolyeong's allies.
Or they might be her enemies.
If they were her allies, naturally I could not carelessly kill them.
But if they were her enemies, I absolutely could not lead them back to Wolyeong.
What should I do?
Either way is troublesome.
I could not subdue that old man while holding back.
But if I simply ran, I was not confident I could completely shake him off.
No choice.
At times like this, there was always one good solution.
“Old man, do you prefer heads or tails?”
“What kind of bullshit are you suddenly talking about?”
“You don’t want to choose? Fine. Then I’ll say you chose heads.”
Spin.
Tap.
The coin landed on the back of my hand.
Tails.
“What a shame. If it had landed on heads, I was planning to leave you alive. Since it landed on tails, there’s nothing I can do.”
I placed three arrows on the bowstring.
“Old man, sorry about this. I’m going to have to kill you.”
“Of all the people I have seen recently, you are by far the most arrogant. You dare speak about taking this old man's life?”
Boom!
The old man's aura erupted.
