Eunak (Silver Peak).
The downfall of this city, once famous for its silver mines, had been instantaneous.
Roads that had once seen vast amounts of goods passing through were now in worse condition than rural paths.
The carriage swayed endlessly from side to side, to the point that it made one feel sick.
If this had still been the most important road in the country just ten years ago, then just how bad must the state of the city be now?
As I was worrying about that, Sanghyeok spoke up.
"So the Immortal really gave you actual leave?"
"Of course he did. You just became a lord, so you have to handle the handover and appoint a new acting lord before coming back."
"No, I mean you and Arin. I get why you're going, but why is Arin coming along too?"
Arin was looking outside, letting the wind brush against her face.
She looked like a painting come to life.
Her hair fluttered in the wind, her sharp jawline, her eyes filled with quiet melancholy. I stared at Arin for a long moment before answering.
"It's still dangerous."
The Eunwol Order would likely still be targeting Arin.
Since the Baekdu Sword Demon had once infiltrated the Seongmu Academy, I judged it safer to keep her by my side.
Kang Museong couldn't stay glued to Arin all day, after all.
And since she would also need the assistance of Huam as her escort, it was better for her to come along.
'We should arrive in about a day, right?'
There were two things that needed to be done in Eunak.
Vigo aside, the first priority was stabilizing the city.
To do that, a trustworthy person had to be placed in the position of acting lord.
'First, I'll have to deal with the acting lord appointed by Unseong.'
Removing an acting lord was simple.
But if I just dismissed him outright, he would take all the funds he had siphoned off from Eunak and bring them back to Unseong.
'He must have embezzled a ridiculous amount.'
Eunak's decline had been far too rapid.
They say even a ruined rich family lasts three generations, yet Eunak had become the poorest city in just ten years.
That would have been impossible without corruption on the part of the acting lord.
'I can't let him take it back to Unseong.'
Preparations to deal with the acting lord were already complete.
I had already asked Jeong Doyun to find out exactly how much money he had embezzled and where he had hidden it.
'Once the acting lord is dealt with, next comes Vigo.'
Unfortunately, in the records I saw before my regression, Vigo's exact location wasn't written down.
But there were a few clues.
'They said a woman who used to be a squad leader devised the escape plan.'
That was what the senior warrior who discovered Vigo had definitely said.
A female squad leader.
Considering that most miners were men, it shouldn't be that difficult to find her.
'And since she should still be active now, it'll be even easier.'
If things went according to plan, it wouldn't be that hard.
'By the way…'
I looked toward the tall cliff by the roadside.
Quite a number of people were following us.
Not only could I hear them, but they occasionally revealed themselves as well, making it obvious they didn't even understand the basics of an ambush.
I'd heard that bandits had been popping up all around Eunak, and it seemed that was true.
They simply followed us for a long while, waiting for the right moment, without making any real move.
How long were they planning to just keep following us?
It was starting to get annoying.
"Could you stop up ahead for a moment? Let's take a short break."
"Yes, young master."
If they weren't going to attack while waiting for the right time, then I'd just create that opportunity for them.
Yang Miyoung, the leader of the bandit group, was looking down at the new lord from atop the cliff.
Taller than most men, with thick, powerful limbs.
The middle-aged woman was not only the bandit leader but also a figure akin to the head of the miners.
Eyeing the cart loaded with valuables, Yang Miyoung spoke.
"They're bringing quite a lot with them."
"Still, I don't know if it's really right to attack a lord."
A fifteen-year-old kid who had become a lord after winning the Seongmu Tournament.
She didn't know why he had wanted to become the lord of Eunak, but nothing would change anyway.
The people of Eunak had already hit rock bottom.
"Why wouldn't it be? We don't have to kill him. There's no escort, so it won't be hard."
"But isn't he from the Seongmu Academy? If something goes wrong…"
"There are only three of them."
They had already confirmed the numbers.
Excluding the drivers, there were only three people.
No guards.
"And we've got people who learned martial arts too."
"That's right, Father."
A young man said, slinging an arm around the worried man's shoulders.
"Even if I didn't pass the military exam, there's no way I lose to a fifteen-year-old. I've got real combat experience."
"Right? They're just kids in the end, aren't they?"
"As long as we don't kill them, it won't turn into a big problem."
Eunak had no hope.
With heavy taxes, everyone struggled just to survive from day to day, and even eating three meals a day was difficult.
If one family member got sick?
More often than not, they died without ever receiving treatment.
That was how the people of Eunak became bandits.
"Let's go."
Yang Miyoung stood up, gripping her pickaxe.
She didn't want to steal.
But what choice did she have?
This was the only way left to survive.
As soon as the carriage stopped in the open clearing, Sanghyeok approached me.
"What are you planning to do about the ones following us?"
Sanghyeok had also figured out that they were bandits.
Honestly, it would've been stranger not to notice, given how blatantly they were following us.
"We'll teach them a lesson. But absolutely no killing."
If the bandits were citizens of Eunak, killing even one of them would make it impossible to win over public sentiment.
No matter who started the trouble, people wouldn't follow someone who killed their family, neighbors, or comrades.
But if we captured them all alive and tried to talk instead, it would be much easier to gain the citizens' support.
A merciful new lord, and all that.
"Let's capture them with as few injuries as possible. It doesn't look like there are any high-level warriors."
If there were, they wouldn't be chasing us so openly.
As Arin wrapped cloth around her wrists and ankles, she spoke.
"Then you can't really use weapons, right? If you fight with real blades, one or two people will die."
"True. Are you going to fight barehanded, Arin?"
"Yeah. I started learning the Hwagang Divine Art from my father."
Since starting to learn the Shinro Mind Method and the Immovable Mind Method, Arin had been training in her family's martial art, the Hwagang Divine Art, whenever she had spare time.
Either way, Arin was right.
No matter how careful we were, using real blades would inevitably result in casualties or serious injuries.
"Guess we'll need wooden swords. You brought the training ones, right?"
"Of course. I took them out already."
The moment I caught the wooden sword Sanghyeok tossed me, the waiting bandits appeared.
"Surround them!"
A triumphant voice, as if they believed they had executed a perfect ambush.
Masked figures rushed in from all sides, encircling us.
Among them were several young men who clearly had some martial arts training.
Then the bandit leader stepped forward and spoke.
"Leave the carriage behind and go, and I'll spare your lives."
The bandit leader was a woman.
A coincidence?
The squad leader I was looking for was also a woman.
'Oh?'
This was turning out better than expected.
I immediately said to Arin and Sanghyeok.
"Don't touch the leader. She must not be hurt."
Just in case, it would be best to handle this carefully.
The two nodded, and I stepped forward, saying,
"Then let's begin—"
At that moment, Arin shot forward and drove her knee into the face of the young man at the front.
A graceful figure, like a celestial maiden descending from the heavens.
A body flying through the air.
Blood spraying from a nose.
Everyone froze, their gazes locked onto Arin as she looked down at the unconscious man and said,
"This counts as capturing him unharmed, right?"
Everyone stared stiffly at Arin, and Sanghyeok said,
"He looks dead."
"No, he's twitching."
"That could be postmortem spasms."
"…Don't say unlucky things."
I looked at Arin.
A face completely free of malice.
Still, I should tell her to go a bit easier.
"Just a little weaker."
"I'll try."
"You little—!"
The bandit leader gritted her teeth and shouted,
"Subdue them!"
I struck the charging young man's jaw.
With a loud crack, he collapsed, and I looked down at him.
"..."
That one wasn't dead either, right?
The fight didn't last long.
Sanghyeok and I already possessed strength in the upper ranks even among low-level warriors.
On the other hand, no matter how generously you judged them, the enemies were barely at the level of maybe passing the military exam.
I drove my fist into the stomach of an oncoming young man.
I didn't even need the wooden sword.
The young men were subdued in an instant.
The bandit leader's eyes widened in shock, but that was only natural.
Even first-year students of the Seongmu Academy were considered competitive enough to take the military exam immediately.
And Sanghyeok and Arin were talents counted among the best in the academy's history—warriors who couldn't even pass the exam were no match for them.
But why did I feel such empathy for those fallen youths?
These talent monsters.
I suddenly started feeling depressed.
"…Retreat! Fall back!"
The bandit leader shouted, but the bandits, already in chaos, didn't listen.
The pot-bellied middle-aged men had lost their reason and were charging while screaming.
"You bastards! Our Geunu!"
"Dieeeee!"
Overly agitated people.
But those who hadn't learned martial arts posed no threat at all.
After knocking out people one by one by striking their necks, Arin turned to me and asked,
"This is gentle enough, right?"
"You're doing great."
She'd finally learned what moderation was.
Still, if the bandits scattered in all directions, things would get annoying.
No matter what, it wasn't easy for just three people to capture bandits fleeing in all directions.
But my worries were short-lived, as Huam's agents sprang out from all sides and began binding the bandits.
As if they understood my intentions, they did so without inflicting a single wound.
"Ugh!"
Huam removed all the bandits' masks and separately bound the injured ones.
In an instant, the bandit group was subdued, and I walked up to the bandit leader and spoke.
"Let's start with introductions. I'm Lee Seoha of Cheongsin. You can think of me as acting lord on behalf of my friend Han Sanghyeok. Your name?"
"..."
But the leader didn't answer.
Attacking a lord was a grave crime worthy of beheading.
No, if all that happened was losing your head, you'd be lucky.
Usually, even family members who hadn't participated were purged or sold into slavery, so it was natural that she didn't want to reveal her identity.
Some of the bandits were already crying, as if they had anticipated their fate.
"Your name?"
"…Why do you need my name? You're just going to kill us anyway."
"Well. If you're from Eunak, things might be different. My friend isn't the kind of lord who starts his first day by executing his people. Right, Sanghyeok?"
"That's right. I want to be a good lord."
Sanghyeok quickly played along.
At least he wasn't completely stupid.
The bandit leader hesitated.
In other words, my words meant that if they weren't from the city, they would be killed.
Reluctantly, the leader spoke.
"My name is Yang Miyoung. I am from Eunak."
"Sister! If you say that…"
"Be quiet!"
Yang Miyoung continued.
"This may sound like an excuse, but we cannot survive without doing things like this. Everyone here has elderly parents, grandchildren, and children to feed, yet if we fail to pay taxes even for a month, we are beaten with clubs. This attack was solely for the sake of survival—we never intended to take the lives of the lord or his companions. I beg you to forgive us, even if it costs me my life."
Yang Miyoung lowered her head.
A fitting 모습 for a leader.
The reason leaders exist is to take responsibility like this.
She bowed her head in resignation, and after thinking for a moment, I said,
"Nope."
"..."
"I'm not cutting off your head either. There's something you all need to do for me."
"What?"
Yang Miyoung asked blankly.
You needed to find Vigo for me—what good would killing you do?
I addressed the tense bandits.
"I understand your circumstances. I'll change Eunak. Now then, shall we start by treating the injured?"
Everyone stared at me with bewildered expressions.
They had been bracing for punishment, so being told they would be treated instead was understandably confusing.
Might as well brag a little about myself here.
"What? I'm Yakseon's disciple. No need to worry."
Now then, shall I show some mercy to the people who would be working for me from now on?