Chapter 87: What happened to Yunsung
Hwang's henchmen had put a bandage over Yunsung's eyes in order to misguide him. When they removed it, Yunsung could see that he had been taken into the forest, probably to be killed without witnesses. Furthermore, they had tied his hands at his back.
Hwang hadn't followed them. He had probably gone to the village to find Mi-na.
Yunsung didn't know what was worse: that Mi-na could have left without him or that she could be still waiting for him and Hwang reached her.
Anyway, Yunsung was about to be executed, so both possibilities were useless to him.
One of Hwang's men grabbed Yunsung's neck.
- Any last words, boy?
Yunsung replied spitting at his face.
The henchman, furious, unsheathed his saber and was about to slice Yunsung's neck when the other one grabbed his arm and stopped him.
- Wait, wait! Don't you think this is going too far?
- Too far? What is going too far?
- Do you really want to kill this boy? Months ago he was just a pupil at the dojo.
- Yes, that was months ago. Now he's just a deserter who ran away along with the master's daughter.
- Is that reason enough to kill him?
- Be it or not, those are the master's orders. We can't disobey them.
- Are you sure about that?
- What?
- How do you know that Hwang didn't make it up? He hates the boy.
- Hwang's not that kind of person. – replied the other henchman, although he didn't seem very convinced of it. – So, if you don't want to kill him, I'll do it myself.
- Don't do it. We're not killers. Our job is to protect the dojo, not to kill pupils.
- By killing him we're protecting the master's daughter, who is much more important than the dojo.
- Protecting her? – complained Yunsung. – She's fine with me. In fact, I'm with her because I don't want her to travel on her own. I came to protect her!
- Shut up or I'll cut your tongue off! – yelled the man who wanted to kill him.
- Why don't we just…abandon him? – suggested the henchman who wanted to save his life. – He's confused. He doesn't know how to get back to the village. Hwang will reach Mi-na much sooner than him.
The other man thought about it for a few seconds, but he finally said:
- That's not what we were ordered to do.
After saying that, he approached Yunsung and raised his saber.
Yunsung closed his eyes in order not to see the blow which would finish his life, but then he listened a war cry and, when he opened his eyes again, he saw the two henchmen struggling.
It seemed as if the man who wanted to save his life had jumped onto the other one.
The saber of the man who wanted to kill him had fallen to the ground, near Yunsung. Meanwhile, the two henchmen were fighting about the other man's saber.
Yunsung hurried to approach the fallen saber walking on his knees.
Once there, he turned around and used the weapon's sharp edge to set himself free.
He picked up the saber (because Hwang had taken his) and dashed out as fast as he could.
Short after, he felt that he was being chased, so he supposed that the man who wanted to kill him had overpowered the other one, and maybe even killed him.
Unfortunately, Yunsung was running in the middle of the forest, and he soon stumbled over a tree's root and fell.
He dropped his saber, and when he went back to pick it up again, his pursuer reached him.
- Here you are.
Yunsung grabbed the saber and confronted the henchman. He had decided that running would be useless.
- So you're fighting, huh? Do you really think that a brat like you can beat a man who has been trained for years?
- We'll have to check it.
The henchman didn'd say any more words and he attacked Yunsung.
The youngster reacted moving away, so the man just hit the air.
For some minutes, they were exchanging blows but they didn't manage to inflict the other one more than a scratch.
Suddenly, Yunsung's foe made a movement which surprised him, kicking his arm and sending his saber flying.
- Now there's nobody here to save you. – said the henchman.
Yunsung started walking backwards to move away from him without losing sight of him, until his back hit a tree's trunk.
The henchman followed him and he quickly delivered a blow to Yunsung with his saber.
However, the youngster managed to avoid it and the saber got stuck to the trunk.
The henchman didn't manage to pull it out, so Yunsung took advantage of his opportunity and punched his face, making him fall to the ground.
The two men, now both disarmed, struggled on the floor and rolled over it.
Finally, they came across the saber which Yunsung had first lost.
The henchman was the first to notice it, so he picked it up and tried to stab the youngster with it, but Yunsung managed to seize his arms and prevent him from doing so.
Then, Yunsung hit the henchman's hand and the saber was sent flying again.
The boy, instead of keeping on struggling, got rid of his foe and ran towards the weapon.
The henchman ran after him, but he had already lost the battle.
When he reached Yunsung, the youngster had already picked the saber up, which he used to surprisingly slice the other man's neck.
The henchman fell to the ground, lifeless, and his blood was spattered all over Yunsung's saber and hands.
The youngster, who was horrified about having killed a man, dropped the murder weapon and dashed away at full speed.
Then, he wandered through the forest the rest of the day and part of the following, picking up fruit, until Kilik found him.