Chapter 853: If You’re Going to Kill One Person, Dig Two Graves (11)

The trembling left Jong Munun’s body.

Was there really someone in the world this dependable?

Someone who felt like they were telling you, whenever—I’m on your side.

Jong Munun’s words finally came.

It was calmer than he expected his own question to be.

“Uncle, you were good to me. You played with me a lot, too. Was all of that a lie? Because you were afraid of upsetting my father?”

“No. I only... hoped you wouldn’t become like your father. And your father thought so too—that if a child grew up loved, the madness wouldn’t break out. Your grandfather was cruel even to his own child.”

“You meant it? You really meant it?”

“If it hadn’t turned out like this—if your father hadn’t fallen into madness until your sister-in-law gave birth to my child—then you would’ve cherished a younger sibling who didn’t resemble you. And I would’ve remained your good uncle forever.”

“Then why... why did you drive us out...”

“After I became a father, I couldn’t let even a small possibility pass. You’re smart—you would question an unnatural death, and I feared what would happen later when the truth was revealed. My child came before my nephew. I’m sorry I did something unforgivable to you.”

The Chief Steward continued, calm.

“Yes. I’m also a horrific criminal no different from your grandfather and your father. I procured people for your grandfather and father to kill, and I cleaned up after. So execute me. Cut me into pieces, hang them on the gate, and let people spit on them.”

“......”

“But your mother is different. She’s a pitiful woman. Pity her. She was only deceived into marriage for the crime of catching your father’s eye, and after that there wasn’t a single day bruises weren’t blooming on her body. Even if she slept with this wretch, she’s still a miserable woman who would’ve taken her own life long ago if she hadn’t.”

“Brother-in-law! No, th—that’s not—Young Master, I was wrong. Just once—just once, please forgive me. Please? I was wrong...”

Lady Lee clutched his trouser leg, sobbing as she begged forgiveness.

Jong Munun clenched his fist tight.

“I...”

Jong Munun squeezed his eyes shut.

His head was nothing but stories he didn’t want to believe.

His gentle father had in truth been a killing wraith who murdered people in madness.

The uncle he trusted had slept with his stepmother and tried to drive him and his brother into death.

And yet his uncle and stepmother, too, must have suffered for a long time because of his father...

But what wrong had I done?

Me, fine—but Munyeok, my little brother, that child—what wrong did he ever do?

If Benefactor hadn’t helped us, even now my brother might not be alive.

That was when it happened.

The cool hand squeezing his shoulder.

In Jong Munun’s mind, that beautiful smile—white with laughter, the most beautiful in the world—rose up huge and struck itself into place.

Right.

Because Benefactor was here.

He didn’t want to forgive them.

But they’d nearly died—and didn’t die—so perhaps they didn’t need to die, either.

He wouldn’t ask for the price of killing Father, either.

No—he didn’t want to ask.

Not because his father’s true nature was a shameful killing wraith, but because if he were to demand payment and seek revenge, wouldn’t he have to inherit that sin as well?

Even for the sake of the Benefactor who saved him, he couldn’t do that.

He and his brother had to remain innocent.

Even just to be able to face Benefactor without shame.

“You two should... just leave.”

The strength slid from Jong Munun’s shoulders.

His expression grew lighter too—like he’d put down a huge weight.

With a motion as refreshed as if he’d exhaled everything, he turned in a clean circle, bowed to Jihyeon, and—

“Prefectural Magistrate Jihyeon: it is right that a child atones for a father’s sins, but this small one dares to refuse the inheritance so that I will not receive those sins either. Therefore, as Merchant Jong’s son, I cannot demand responsibility for Father’s death, and I have no standing to petition for punishment of the culprits.”

I won’t accept the inheritance—meaning I’ll hand the merchant house over to the authorities—so treat it as severing ties.

Jihyeon’s expression brightened a little.

He couldn’t brighten openly, because the Royal Censor was still right there—he couldn’t just be happy.

Qing was a little surprised.

Jong Munun looked like a brat a bit over ten, so Qing had assumed he was around that age.

What is this—since when could he talk like this?

She knew he was precocious, but was he some kind of genius?

How unfair—my daughter can’t do anything special besides eat, sleep, and poop, seriously.

Of course, Jayeo was way cuter, though.

Yeah. If she’s cute, that’s enough. Right. Being healthy is good, yeah—why do I feel like I’m about to cry?

“And the ones who tried to harm me and my brother ultimately failed to achieve their intent, and now, as unrelated strangers, I pity their miserable circumstances—so I will forgive them.”

Honestly, it was a bit of a letdown for Qing.

If a man isn’t ruthless, he isn’t a real man—she’d expected him to ask for a blade, but he just... forgave them.

They say the greatest revenge is forgiveness.

That’s bullshit—when people say it about other people’s business.

But when the one doing the forgiving says it... it isn’t entirely wrong.

Revenge is something you do to live—to calm that burning sense of injustice, to settle the insides that feel ready to burst from wronged rage.

But if your heart can become at ease through forgiveness, then for that person, that can become the best revenge.

“AHEM. If your will is truly so...”

Jihyeon glanced sideways at Qing.

When Qing nodded, Jihyeon’s expression turned utterly solemn.

“This concludes the judgment! From this day forward, the Jong children must not suffer any disadvantage for their father’s conduct! And I exempt the crimes of the merchant house’s Chief Steward and Lady Lee—however, they are to leave the village at once!”

WAAAAAH!!

The county folk—who’d gotten a good show—gladly rode the mood that felt like it demanded cheering and shouted.

“Y-Young Master... th-thank you. Thank you! Thank you! Hngh... thank you...”

In the middle of it, Lady Lee wept as she gave thanks, and the Chief Steward only threw himself into a deep bow beside her, showing the crown of his head.

Some of the county folk even wiped tears, unable to hide their emotion.

Qing felt... a little ambiguous.

Mm. Is this really the kind of thing to be moved by?

The Chief Steward and Lady Lee slipped out with their hands clasped tight.

They were two people driven out empty-handed, but the looks they gave each other were tender, and their steps held no fear—steady.

And so—

The Jong Merchant House incident, concluded.

*****

...For someone, it wasn’t concluded.

“Kh... I’ll kill— I’ll kill them.”

He was a man in a wretched state.

Hair so greasy it looked like it poured oil, wild and matted—who knew when he’d last washed it.

Clothes that were rags beyond rags, blackened with grime, and the exposed skin was no cleaner.

But that in itself wasn’t surprising.

Because if someone saw him, they’d say this:

Ugh. A beggar bastard.

However, this beggar had one thing that set him apart from other beggars.

He was missing one arm.

Though in the Central Plains, beggars survive by their own means more than by begging, so—

Sadly, being one-armed didn’t really help him collect alms.

“I’ll kill them...”

And he kept chanting KILL, KILL, like a mantra.

If it was like this, even someone who might have tossed him a coin because he was pitiful—beggar plus one arm—would get scared and just clutch their money and hurry past.

But the beggar didn’t care about alms.

He only burned with limitless hatred.

Hatred and revenge toward the ones who’d made him into this—into a one-armed cripple.

Still, even revenge had parts that were possible and parts that were impossible.

The one who’d made him one-armed was a terrifying master of the martial world.

So from the beginning, the beggar hadn’t even included that martial master in the scope of revenge.

You could call it selective revenge.

But to a powerless beggar, a martial artist was like a natural disaster.

No one hates a flood or a drought and decides to take revenge on it.

So his targets were different.

Those damn little brats.

But the ones he hated even more were those dog-like cheating trash at the Jong Merchant House.

What—no guilt?

Pitiable circumstances?

Exempted?

No crime?

Those people?

Then what about me?

I only did what they told me to do—and I ended up in a misery like this!

In the Central Plains, where there were no antibiotics, if your arm gets cut off, your life is in danger even with a good Therapist beside you.

They’d only managed to stop the bleeding by binding it tight.

So the wound was rotting, yellow pus oozing in streams, fever boiling through his whole body, pain so vicious he couldn’t sleep even a little.

In a world where he couldn’t tell if it was a dream or waking life, in nothing but pain, pain, and more pain—

Those underlings who used to wag their tongues in his mouth when he reigned as the boss beggar of Jinping County had changed their faces completely.

They only kicked him, beat him, and cackled as they mocked him.

And yet hatred moved the beggar.

I won’t be the only one ending like this.

So those two—those dog trash—who told me to kill that brat, who caused this, who made me this—

I have to confirm their end.

And in this very moment, in one corner among the common people cheering and wiping tears in emotion—

In the beggar’s eyes, hatred at its peak swelled into madness, glimmering with a dangerous sheen.

Now, those horrible enemies were clasping hands and leaving, weren’t they?

That can’t happen.

It can’t.

No one paid attention to a single beggar slipping out of the crowd.

No—if anything, they felt relieved that the crazy beggar who stank of rot and muttered about killing had retreated.

So—

Who would care about the fact that the beggar had a weapon tucked into his clothes—rusted all over, but with a blade so bright-blue from sharpening—

And that, carrying an intense killing intent, he vanished as he followed the exiled man and woman.