I Became the Crown Prince of a Ruined Country

64 – In Qi

With a roar like the roar of an enraged tiger, Yeo Hongseong rushed at the bandits.

Even when the bandits saw Yeo Hong-seong running toward them, they did not run away in fear, but calmly took out her weapon and held her own. Hardened by long bandits, they took up positions as if they were regular troops.

As if he had caught at least one powerful individual like Yeo Hong-seong through a lot of violence, the big guy was put in front, and the long ones with long swords were falling back. It was quite smooth.

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But they didn’t know.

Yeo Hongseong is a different being from the other knights they have hunted so far.

Quaang—!

The roar of the mace striking the leather-lined shield against the tree shook the mountain. Indeed, it was the kind of violence that made one want to be able to do it with human power.

And with sound, the result of the mace was not only auditory, but also visually aroused fear of ruthless violence.

The bandit’s body was completely shattered and crushed with the shield thrown forward.

The arm holding the shield was so crumbly that it was hard to believe that it was really a human part, and the upper body beyond that was slashed by the mace, completely sinking from the shoulder to the chest.

Those who cannot accept the reality even though they have clearly observed not only the results but also the process. The gang of bandits muttered something in a voice I couldn’t hear very well, all shaking their heads with bewildered faces.

Yeo Hong-seong was no different from a wild boar that rushed at him without hesitation. If the boar had molars, she had maces.

Whether the bandit was unconscious or not, her mace ripped through the atmosphere, raving for the blood of her second victim.

Kwajik!

Unlike the huge roar of the past, a short and small sound.

However, the result is not much different from the previous one.

The mace struck her on the top of her head, crushing her skull as it tucked her neck vertebrae under her spine. The mace shattered the bandits’ lives ever since. The process of feeling no mercy was more like watching a one-sided slaughter than a battle.

It wasn’t until the mace swung two more times in Yeo Hong-seong’s hand that the bandits came to their senses and responded.

“Calm down! There’s only one of them anyway! Get back into position!”

The bandits, who were just staring at Yeo Hong-seong in a daze at the bandit’s shout, moved hurriedly like those who had just woken up from sleep.

But it was too late.

Her gangsters’ actions were stiff due to the intimidation of Yeo Hong-seong, who had subjugated her entire area to her own domain, and such a petty counterattack did not pose any threat to her to Yeo Hong-seong.

“You idiots…! A group of people holding shields, holding onto their limbs and holding on to their arms…”

“It’s noisy.”

The bandit leader, who continued to give orders, broke his body to the floor with a scream of pain. No matter when it was picked up and thrown, blood flowed from the forehead of the bandit leader who was hit by Yeo Hong-seong’s sling.

The final resistance of the bandits who lost their pivot was disorganized. Yeo Hongseong did not let them go.

For those who lost their reason and rushed at them, they fed them with a mace and dumped them into porridge, and threw a slingshot at the back of the head of those who ran away in fright, shattering their heads.

It was the scene of a merciless massacre.

Corpses bearing the marks of a mace, as if a bear’s front paw had swung through them, and humans scattered on the floor, clutching their broken heads, as if hailstones had fallen.

The spectacle of punishment was horrific.

Surely that would be the right judgment. Those bandits go beyond killing people and robbing private property, and are less than beasts who trample on human dignity and devour human flesh.

Such a miserable death is suitable for such people.

Hongseong Yeo would not be a blood-crazed pleasure killer, but rather an executioner who would eliminate future victims caused by them and appease the victims who had been abused by them in the past.

But even though I clearly understand in my head that those guys are cheap even if they are beaten to death.

The vivid slaughter unfolding in front of my eyes did not convey any sense of exhilaration or victory.

Rather, what entered my heart was the frustration and shock of witnessing death.

There were no cool and flashy battles and deaths seen in the movies of my previous life. All that was there was a desperate struggle to survive somehow and a terrible death that seemed to have no human value.

I thought in my heart that I had gotten used to death. Throughout my past and present lives, I have witnessed many deaths of people around me, and even experienced death myself.

But it is wrong. The death I suffered was a peaceful and clean death. The death I saw was actually what kept me after I died.

Because of that, I was afraid of the slaughter that Yeo Hong-seong was carrying out. Even though he knew that Yeo Hong-seong was right, he was repulsed by that brutal murder.

Nausea rose. I had thought that I had fought a fierce struggle for life in Handan, but it turned out how safe Handan was. Isn’t Handan the closest land to peace in this era, at least by being able to find a solution through dialogue?

I did not take my eyes off Yeo Hong-seong even in the face of all kinds of remorse and emotions. I couldn’t, but it might be closer.

The time of slaughter is finally over. All living and breathing people around Yeo Hongseong disappeared, and only her bloodied woman stood with her mace tainted with her flesh and bodily fluids hanging down.

On her face, unlike me, who was distorted by suffering, it was revealed that she felt relieved.

I quickly looked around at the others. Their expressions were not very different.

The relief of living, the thrill of the death of the bandits who were threatening them, the thrill of the powerlessness of Yeo Hong-seong, who seems to be slightly out of touch with humans…….

I could see countless emotions on their faces, but none of them felt the same way as I did.

The ground I was standing on was unfamiliar, different from before. In the feeling that I was alone in the other world, I realized that I was mistaken about something.

I was misunderstanding the nature of the world. It was like a blind man who only understood with his head and couldn’t truly experience it.

An era in which people eat people and countries destroy countries.

An era in which a good evaluation leads to who kills more people and how many more people steal foreign lands.

An era in which the law collapsed, morality was trampled on, and humanity lost its value.

This is where I am standing.

It was just such an age of lawlessness.

§

I stayed alone all the way to Ureung, not talking to anyone. Yeo Hong-seong came up to me and tried to add her words, but I, who was still in shock, did not respond.

And Yeo Hong-seong didn’t really have time to talk to me either. It is because her top members, who watched her great performance from beginning to end, clung to her to talk with her somehow.

A situation where each other’s position is completely different from before.

While actively sharing her words with her, I shut her mouth tightly, and people who distanced themselves from her female nature do their best to reconnect with her female character. No one knows what human life will be like, but it was pretty ironic.

Thanks to that, however, I was able to have time alone, and I was able to reflect on the memories of my current life and contemplate to my heart what kind of world the world I am living in is now.

Looking back, I was still influenced by the sensibilities of modern people. It was purely because of my morality that I reaped affection, even if it was unreasonable, and it was because of my conscience that I agonized over the promise with Pyeongwon-gun and groaned alone.

Like many people living in this era, if I thought that promises were something I could throw away like devotions for my own benefit, and that petty moral concepts were useless that only I could lose, then I wouldn’t have suffered.

Until I entered Wuling, my struggles continued.

And I came up with a self-reflection about whether I should abandon my morals and conscience in order to live in this world.

I can’t.

Ironically, I survived with the notion of a past life that doesn’t fit this era. With the help of Pyeongwon-gun, he managed the Yan-Jo war with the seal he received thanks to his promise to him, and saved his life from the bandits’ threat by saving Yeo Hong-seong.

Even if it wasn’t for this result, I wasn’t the type of person who could simply disregard conscience and all that, kill people, laugh and betray.

Then there is only one thing given to me.

Now that you have known me, it is time to know the world.

If I don’t even know the present I’m living on, what kind of future path will I find?

First of all, now. You need to know what kind of place this land you are standing on and what the lives of those living around you are like.

What is the use of Jihakgung? Even if I met them, to me who didn’t know the world at all, any wise Geumgwaokjo would be like a tabletop discussion.

‘I wonder if this was the reason why Ambassador Wonhyo stopped studying abroad and went back.’

Compared to the deep realization of Great Master Wonhyo, the realization I have gained may be insignificant, but the resulting actions will be similar.

I made up my mind to stop going to Linchi and return to the Yan capital.

First of all, I will see, hear, and learn the place given to me there and the kind of place I will live in. It is not too late to seek the wise man’s advice, whether he visits the direct palace or another sage.

Finally, having declared myself the vote, I boldly opened the door and walked out with a feeling of relief. Then, facing the stranger who was waiting right in front of the door, he tilted his head.

“Who…?”

“hahahaha! Have you forgotten me in a while? It’s Yeo Hong-seong, Yeo Hong-seong!”

Clean clothes, clean skin. Yeo Hong-seong, who came into Ureung and was dressed up, was more beautiful than I could have imagined.

A neutral beauty with a slightly masculine feel. At first glance, you might think he’s a handsome guy because of his short hair, but if you look closely, his feminine charm is also fully blooming.

Not only the appearance that would have been popular with both men and women, but also the dark skin full of healthy beauty was also a fresh charm.

But the admiration was short-lived. I quickly came to my senses. Having seen a beautiful woman like Shinneung-gun for a long time, I was able to establish my own immunity to beautiful people.

Having regained my composure, I asked Yeo Hong-seong.

“You said you would escort me to any destination, right?”

“Well, I did.”

“I originally intended to go to jail, but I changed my mind. Would you still follow me?”

Yeo Hongseong smiled as if asking if I had to ask that, and then nodded her head coolly.

“Of course. Where is the destination?”

“I’m going to the gye.”

Capital of the Yan Dynasty.

The place where this body was born.

As the starting point of this life.