Chapter 53
The Youngest Son of the Silver Sea Trading Company Chapter 53
Chapter 53. Rumors Like These (3)
I saw the bodyguards.
They shook their heads at me.
“Our top priority is your safety, young master.”
“I know.”
But how can I ignore the voice of a child begging for his life and just walk away?
It's not like I don't have the ability to help him.
“I still want to save the child.”
They nodded in response to my earnest request.
“We understand.”
“Please think of your own safety first, young master. We will save the child.”
“I have a good idea.”
I told them my plan. The two warriors thought about it for a moment, then nodded.
“That seems like the best plan.”
“The Captain said that your martial arts skills are second to none, so we will do as you say, but please don't take any unnecessary risks.”
“I understand.”
Soon, we headed toward the place where the child's voice was coming from and came face to face with a group of people.
“It's a group of Black Daoists.”
It was the Black Daoists, as I had expected.
I felt nauseous, but it was bearable compared to before.
Come to think of it, my Master said that it would get better as my inner arts improved.
There were four Black Daoists.
However, none of them seemed particularly strong.
Then it was worth a try.
A child who looked about eight or nine years old was resisting their attempts to grab him.
“No! Where are you taking me?”
“We're taking you to a very good place.”
“No! Please let me go! Please let me go!”
“Hehehe, no one will hear you even if you scream like that. This is a place where no one comes.”
That was true.
That's why I came here on purpose.
At that moment, I had a question.
From his tone of voice and appearance, he seemed to be a well-educated child from a wealthy family.
Why was such a child wearing clothes made of linen, which were worn by commoners?
Judging from the condition of his clothes, they did not seem to have been forced upon him.
And how did a child of that age come to this deep forest alone?
At that moment, the warrior Yeong-eung whispered to me in a low voice.
“There's a woman lying dead over there.”
When I looked where he was pointing, I saw a woman lying on the ground.
She appeared to have been stabbed in the back, but unlike the child, she was dressed in expensive clothes.
They finally managed to subdue the child and tied him up tightly with a rope made of tough-looking cloth.
“I wish we had some paralyzing powder or sleeping potion.”
“What can we do? They say the child's constitution is such that it doesn't work on him.”
“Never mind. Let's go.”
“Hurry up. If we're late, those bastards will cause trouble.”
“Those guys are really something. Working with people like us.”
“How can we kidnap someone in broad daylight?”
“But then again, this is what we do.”
“Still, they said they'd pay us well if we kept our mouths shut, so let's hope for the best.”
They turned their heads and looked at the dead woman.
“Let's get rid of her first.”
“After all, thanks to her, we were able to get our hands on that young master easily.”
They dug a hole, dragged the dead woman's body over, and cut her clothes with their swords.
Seeing what they were doing, I realized that they were indeed Black Dao.
I couldn't bear to watch any longer, so I turned my head, only to find that the two warriors next to me were staring at me with even colder eyes.
They were waiting for an opportunity.
After all, to survive in the martial arts world, one must be cold-blooded.
When the black-clad men were distracted, they took action.
Shush!
Shush!
First, the martial artist Lee Pil injured them with hidden weapons.
The hidden weapons struck their necks and wrists with precision. Their skill with hidden weapons was better than I had expected.
“Damn it!”
“They caught us?”
“The Tang family must have noticed us!”
But their reaction to the hidden weapons was strange.
The Tang family? Why would the Tang family be here?
Anyway, that was our signal.
The two warriors rushed toward them, and soon the sound of cold weapons clashing could be heard.
I took advantage of the opportunity and quickly ran to the carriage with Pal-gap.
My plan was to rescue the child while the warriors distracted the black-clad men.
Pal-gap quickly picked up the child and ran to safety.
In the meantime, the two bodyguards subdued all four black-clad men before I could even join them.
They are more skilled than I thought.
That's why the team leader told me to take them with us.
“It's over.”
“Thank you for granting my unreasonable request.”
“Don't mention it.”
“To be honest, we couldn't just ignore you.”
I turned my head and looked at the child. Pal-gap was unwrapping the cloth and gag that had been wrapped around the child.
“Are you okay?”
The child asked me.
“Who are you? And what is your relationship with them?”
As I thought.
From the way he spoke, it was obvious that he was the precious child of a wealthy family.
“My name is Eun Seo-ho. I work for a company called Eunhae Trading Company. And my relationship with them...?”
I looked back at the black-clad men tied to the trees, still unconscious, and smiled wryly.
“The person who beat them up. Is that enough of an answer?”
“So you saved me?”
“That's right. You were screaming for help. I heard you.”
Hearing my words, the boy clasped his hands together in a dignified manner.
“If what you say is true, I am truly grateful for saving my life. My family will repay you.”
I chuckled at his words.
“That's not necessary. I didn't do it for that. I just thought you had been kidnapped, so I saved you.”
“What?”
“When someone is in danger, if you have the ability to save them, you should do so.”
“Um...”
The child seemed confused by my words.
“But you should repay me...”
“If you really want to repay me, when you grow up and see someone in danger, if you have the ability to save them, don't turn away. That would be your repayment.”
At my words, the child looked at me with sparkling eyes.
What is it?
Why is he looking at me like that all of a sudden?
“Anyway, I have to inform the authorities.”
At that moment, the child walked slowly toward something. He stopped in front of a woman's dead body.
The child stood in front of the woman's body for a moment in silence.
I waited and then asked him.
“Do you know her?”
“She was my nanny. She killed my nanny in front of me.”
“....”
“Today, you told me to experience the life of a commoner, so you dressed me in these clothes, and this is what happened.”
I thought I understood what had happened.
Those black-clad men had ordered the child's nanny to dress him in inconspicuous clothes and bring him to them.
But if he had a nanny, wouldn't he have bodyguards?
“Where are the bodyguards?”
The child shook his head in response to my question.
“I don't know.”
I sighed and approached the four black-clad warriors.
Then I raised my foot and kicked one of them in the stomach.
“Guh!”
“Are you okay?”
“Who are you?”
“You don't know who I am, but I have something to ask you.”
I saved the child, but I didn't know what dangers still remained, so I couldn't just let him go alone.
I had to make sure he was safe until the very end.
“Hmph! As if I would answer you...”
At that moment, Yeo-eung-am drew his sword and stabbed the man in the thigh in an instant.
Puuu!
“Ugh!”
Yoo Eung-am smiled brightly.
“A whip is the best remedy for a guy like him.”
The knife must have worked because the black-clad man broke out in a cold sweat and said to me.
“Tell me anything.”
“How did you bribe the child's nanny?”
“Well... We kidnapped the nanny's child... Ugh!”
Yoo-Eung-Am twisted the knife, which he had not yet pulled out.
Actually, I wanted to do that...
“Well done.”
I praised him and asked the black-clad warrior, or rather, the kidnapper, again.
“Then how did you get rid of the child's bodyguard?”
“Those guys deliberately caused trouble...”
“You mean you acted as a decoy to distract the bodyguard?”
“That's right. Hehehe. Now that you have all the answers, please take this sword...”
“One last question.”
“Anything you want to know.”
“Who ordered you to do this?”
“What?”
“It seems like you were ordered to do this by someone...”
He couldn't answer my question and only broke out in a cold sweat.
“I need to see a little more blood.”
When he didn't answer, Yeo-eung-am mercilessly twisted the sword stuck in his thigh.
“Aaaah!”
Unable to bear the pain, he finally confessed.
“Hyeong-in-mun...”
What?
Hyeong-in-mun?
That name rings a bell.
To be sure, I asked the child.
“Are you a child of the Sichuan Tang Clan?”
The child answered my question with a slight wariness.
“Yes, I am. How did you know?”
“It's easy to figure out if you think about it.”
In Sichuan, Tang means Sichuan Tang Clan.
They are unrivaled in hidden weapons.
This is why Lee Pil said, “They must have noticed,” when Lee Pil threw his hidden weapon.
It was just a guess.
There was another weapon that represented the Sichuan Tang Clan, and that was poison.
The west, where the Sichuan Tang Clan was based, was a dense primeval forest.
Thanks to this, they learned how to collect and analyze poisonous substances and poisonous herbs and use them.
As a result, they were famous for their extremely poisonous poison, such as Sambodan, which would kill a person before they could take three steps.
That is why they could not use something like a paralyzing drug or a sleeping pill on the child.
The basic premise of using poison is that you do not poison yourself, only your opponent.
To that end, they had cultivated a resistance to poison from a young age, so there was no way it would be effective.
If I used enough to be effective, it would endanger the child's life, which would be problematic.
However, the child was still suspicious.
As expected of a child from a prestigious martial arts family.
I remembered what Jaegal Yu-ga had told me before.
He said that they were taught not to doubt anything.
Suddenly, I remembered something I knew.
The children of prestigious families have a mark engraved on the inside of their arms when they are very young.
This is so that they can be identified as family members if something happens to them in the future.
“I saw it when I saved you earlier. You have a tattoo on the inside of your arm. That means you're from the Sichuan Tang Sect, doesn't it?”
“Uh...”
“That's why I was sure.”
Only then did the child lower his head, his suspicions dispelled.
“I see. I'm sorry for doubting you.”
“No, you're right to be suspicious.”
Meanwhile, I sighed inwardly.
It was now confirmed that the child in front of me was indeed a member of the Sichuan Tang Clan.
Kidnapping.
The Sichuan Tang Clan.
And the Jang-in-mun.
With these three pieces of information, I was certain that I had stumbled upon a case I knew about.
One day, the Sichuan Tang Clan's precious child went missing.
The missing child was none other than the youngest son of the Clan Head of the Sichuan Tang Clan.
The Sichuan Tang Clan searched all over the Central Plains and sent requests for assistance to all the trading companies.
That's how I learned about the disappearance.
Five years passed.
The child was not found, and just when everyone was growing weary, the Martial Alliance raided a sect called the Jiongin.
The reason was that they were involved in human trafficking.
They were a sect established by black-clad men disguised as white-clad men, and they had committed numerous crimes, including human trafficking.
The Martial Alliance found the Sichuan Tang Clan's missing youngest son there.
They had kidnapped him.
In order to return the kidnapped son and restore the financial resources spent on finding him, the Sichuan Tang Clan was given various privileges.
It was only natural that the Sichuan Tang Clan became ardent supporters of the Martial Alliance.
However, it turned out that Hyung In Moon was actually a faction created by the Martial Alliance.
Later, while competing with the Baekcheon Trading Company, I investigated them.
That's when I found out for sure.
The Baekcheon Trading Company and Hyung In Moon were connected.
In other words, Hyeong-in Mun was a sect secretly established by the Martial Alliance.
So this kidnapping was a plot by the Martial Alliance to gain the support of the Sichuan Tang Clan.
Then I prevented their plot from succeeding?
For some reason, I feel very satisfied.
I decided to take the child home myself.
I was going to leave him at the government office, but now that I know that the Martial Alliance is behind this, I can't let my guard down.
If they find out that the kidnapping failed, they will try again.
I can't let that happen.
So I thought I should take him home myself.
The fact that they threatened the child's nanny to do this means that they have not yet taken control of the Sichuan Tang Clan.
So at least his house is safe.
It's on my way anyway.
I looked at the child of the Sichuan Tang Clan and said,
“Let's go home now.”