I watched from start to finish as the bandits beat the back chaser to death.

The back chaser should naturally have been stronger than his subordinates. However, he couldn't fend off the dozens of fists and kicks. Especially since the stronger ones grabbed him first, he couldn't counterattack properly and was beaten to death, his breath cut off.

I sat back down on the leader's seat and looked closely at the bandits.

"......"

When I closed my mouth, all I could hear was the sound of birds and insects.

The beautifully scenic mountain surrounded us.

Only then did I take a look around at the main body of the Namak Gang and observed the surroundings before focusing back on the bandits.

To remember their faces, you have to look at them for a while, and to examine their features, you need to pay close attention.

I quietly scanned the bandits for a moment before speaking.

"When we were facing off against the Martial Arts Alliance, what kind of confidence did you have to laugh at us? A thousand against a hundred. You thought, 'It'll be fine. We’ll win as we fight,' right? You weren’t scared, were you? If you want to speak, speak freely. Now that the back chaser is dead, I thought I’d have a talk with you."

After a long silence, one of them replied.

"We believed in Master Yalwol."

"How could you believe in Master Yalwol? The leader of the Martial Arts Alliance himself came! You don't even know who Master Lim Sobaek is?"

Another one replied.

"When we fought earlier, the Lord of the Ghost Valley was there too."

"And?"

"Master Lim's sword broke when he clashed with his blade, and he died instantly. It was unexpected."

"Did the Lord of the Ghost Valley brag that if he combined forces with Master Yalwol, they could win? Was he the thin one who appeared with your leader earlier?"

"Yes."

The bandits were truly ignorant.

How could the man from Ghost Valley, who was said to be the Lord, possibly be a match for the leader of the Martial Arts Alliance?

It seemed that they had limited knowledge of what was going on outside.

Perhaps the man they feared the most was not Master Lim Sobaek, but Master Yalwol.

"Then, when I created the sphere earlier with my technique, the one who jumped into it wasn’t from the Green Forest Gang?"

"Yes, he's from Ghost Valley."

"Good. I roughly understand the situation now. Anyway, the people from Ghost Valley must have had a grudge against the Martial Arts Alliance, right?"

"Yes, that's what we know."

Many of the martial artists from the unorthodox sects harbor grudges against the Martial Arts Alliance. Likely because their masters or senior brothers died because of it.

I nodded and then said to the bandits.

"Then why are all of you so ignorant? Is it because you’ve been holed up in the mountains? You really are dumb."

"......"

"You are the very definition of ignorance. This isn’t about whether you learned to read or not. Your entire life is ignorant. Why do you think that is? If your Master Yalwol was that strong, wouldn’t he have been active in the Black Path or Martial Arts Alliance instead of in the Green Forest?"

One of them responded, lacing his words with emotion.

"We're ignorant, so we're bandits."

"Good. That was a pretty ignorant remark, but I won’t kill you. Get up. Who’s next?"

One of them stood up timidly, and he looked plainly ignorant.

"Sit down. You look so ignorant, I’ll let you off."

"Yes."

I sighed, glaring at the bandits and continued speaking.

"In fact, ignorance and being a bandit are unrelated. That would be an insult to ignorance. You are not just ignorant; you’re low-level. Not all ignorant people become bandits. What you do is threaten merchants crossing the mountain roads, extort money, kidnap women, and oppress the weak in numbers. You have your own strategies and you think, which is why calling you ignorant doesn’t fit. It’s more accurate to say you're a bunch of morons, doing stupid things strategically. Do you understand what I'm saying? Hey, you. What did I just say?"

The one I pointed to answered.

"You said we’re morons doing stupid things strategically."

"That’s you."

"......"

"So what is ignorance, then?"

"Originally, ignorance means not having seen something, not having heard something, or not having learned properly about a subject. It’s neither a crime nor something to be ashamed of. It’s just ignorance. Not knowing how strong the Martial Arts Alliance’s leader is can be called ignorance. It’s a little different from banditry."

"......"

"But no matter how ignorant people are, if they have the right heart, they won’t rob merchants or beat them to death, or bury them somewhere. This is clearly different from ignorance. In short, it's lack of shame."

"What’s lack of shame?"

"Not knowing shame."

One of the bandits with a particularly unpleasant face replied.

"What’s this talk about shame? In the end, beating the weak, whether it’s us or the Martial Arts Alliance, isn’t it the same thing?"

I stared at the one who replied.

"Do you think I’m trying to argue with you? Are you messing with me? If I counter you with logic, you’d come back with a similar example, right? You don't know shame. When you’re ignorant and have no shame, you generally don’t know how to acknowledge things. Do I look like someone who studied in a scholar's school, reading books? You ridiculous fool. You got the wrong person."

I stood up from the leader's seat.

"You’re all out of your minds, aren’t you?"

When the bandit who had tried to run earlier tried to flee again, the large one beside him grabbed his arm.

"Let go!"

The bandit, looking like a deputy leader, grabbed the fleeing one by the neck and lightly threw him towards me. I pulled out the Black Rabbit Fang sword, saw the burst of blood, and then sheathed it again.

With a splatter—his body fell in half to the ground.

The bandits’ faces turned pale once more.

I clicked my tongue and sat back down on the leader's seat.

"You fools. Anyway, didn’t you guys raid the Jangga Trading Company? The Martial Arts Alliance had nothing to do with Jangga. Master Lim was furious and called on the Bai Dao faction at the Hyeongsan branch, then walked all the way here overnight, chewing on tough jerky, holding back his sleep, and arrived here. The position of leader is one where he could have enjoyed honor and wealth just by staying at the Martial Arts Alliance. Why did he come all the way here to kill idiots like you? He didn’t come to kill you, he came to protect the merchants. Bandits, don’t try to mess with me using logic. You can’t win in sword fights, and you can’t win in logic either. Got it?"

"Yes."

"What you’re doing is bullying the weak to steal their money. But a leader with strong martial arts is trying to kill you to protect those weaker than you. Don’t get it twisted. What you said was insulting. And look at me."

"......"

"I’m different from Master Lim, and I’m different from you. Watch your mouth if you want to survive. By the way, does anyone know why I’m talking so much?"

The large bandit who had grabbed the fleeing one earlier spoke.

"Are you trying to decide who you’ll spare and who you’ll kill?"

I widened my eyes and looked at the bandit who looked like the deputy leader.

"Wow, you’re smart. Come here."

The bulky man stood up and came over to kneel in front of me again.

I closely examined his face.

"How old are you?"

"Nineteen."

"Surprising. Why do you look so old?"

"I’ve looked this way since I was born."

"You were born a warrior, I see."

"Yes."

Sometimes there are people like that. They must have inherited a particularly strong physique from their parents. He looked easily over thirty, yet he said he was only nineteen, which was surprising.

"What's your name?"

"Jang San."

"Jang San, what do you think about shame?"

The bulky man, kneeling, answered politely.

"No one here has spoken about shame. I don’t know about it either."

"Then I’ll teach you."

"Yes."

"You’re nineteen now and a mighty warrior. It’s inevitable that you’ve spent the last two years here because of your fate. But if you had watched the Green Forest Gang for ten years and then you’re still a bandit at twenty-nine, bullying the weak, hitting merchants, and stealing goods, then that’s not fate—it’s because you’re a fool who doesn’t know shame."

"Yes."

"Or, if you had spent ten years intensely training your martial arts, killed the leader of the Green Forest Gang with your own hands, and taken over this place, then sought a different path in life instead of being a bandit, what would you be called then?"

"I don't know."

"At that point, you’d be worthy of being called a man. A man who chose his own direction in life and sought his own way, becoming independent. That’s a true man."

I narrowed my eyes and spoke to Jang San.

"Just being strong like you doesn’t make you a man."

"Is that so?"

"Why? Were you planning to keep doing banditry here even after ten years?"

I waved my hand, sending Jang San back to his spot. As he stood up and turned, I noticed his face had turned red. It meant that he was at least aware of some level of shame.

'Saved one...'

I leaned back in the leader's seat, looking at the bandits, and spoke honestly.

"You probably want to kill me, but I feel the same way. Understand my feelings. I also want to beat each one of you to death. It would be easier for me that way."

Jang San responded.

"I saw earlier that the noble one killed the most of our Green Forest Gang."

"Good. You’re observant. Yes, I killed the most of you. Your brothers, your superiors, your subordinates, the good bandits, the bad bandits... I wiped them all out without leaving a trace. But let’s assume, instead of me killing a hundred of you overwhelmingly, that a hundred of the Martial Arts Alliance faced off with your thousand. You still wouldn’t win. Let’s say, just for the sake of argument, that a few of the Martial Arts Alliance members died in the fight earlier."

"......"

I spoke the truth of what had happened in my past life.

"Your thousand idiotic men would have all been dead by the time the sun set. Master Lim Sobaek is that kind of man. He has a great sense of responsibility toward his members. After I ruthlessly killed a hundred, how many of you think survived?"

Jang San, looking somewhat shocked, answered.

"Most surrendered."

I nodded while looking at Jang San.

"That’s exactly what I wanted. Believe it or not..."

I glanced around at the mountain landscape and spoke in a bitter tone.

"Namak is not yours. Your lives are not mine either. I told Master Lim that I would temporarily take charge here, but honestly, I don’t have the strength or the character to lead all of you. Now that the Martial Arts Alliance is gone, I’ll stop killing you. If any of you want to leave, you may stand up and leave Namak. I’ll let you live, and you can try to live a different life. My patience ends here. Stand up before you change your mind."

I looked at the bandits kneeling in front of me.

Perhaps because of the fear of me, none of them stood up.

"Don’t believe that I’ll let you live?"

From all directions, they responded to me.

"Yes."

"I understand. But looking at your faces disgusts me."

"......"

"I’m not talking about your physical appearance, beautiful or ugly. It’s your expressions that reveal your thoughts too clearly. Reading those thoughts every time is disgusting. I just don’t want to see it, so leave. I may be a man whose words fluctuate, but I always keep my promises. If you don’t leave now, there will be no chance left."

After a while, one or two bandits stood up, looked around cautiously, and bowed their heads.

I waved my hand.

"Don’t do banditry anymore. If Master Lim gets angry, the other Green Forest forces will soon come after you."

With that, some bandits stood up and gathered together, looking around cautiously before quietly disappearing from the Green Forest Gang’s headquarters.

For some reason, there were still more left.

I spoke to the remaining bandits.

"Sit comfortably."

At that, the bandits, who had been kneeling, finally sat down on the ground. I gathered them closer and spoke again.

"One by one, look at me and say your name."

Even though I knew I would forget them later, I made an effort to memorize the bandits’ names. The bandits on the left began to speak their names, looking at me.

I concentrated as if I were learning martial arts and memorized their names.

When the round of name-calling ended,

I looked at the bandits and said,

"Jeonson, Umunsoo, Hoong, Deungik, Yeomirak, Jangsan, Yeomwonki, Dodaesam, Gojun, Gupyung. Are you ★ 𝐍𝐨𝐯𝐞𝐥𝐢𝐠𝐡𝐭 ★ two brothers?"

Gojun and Gupyung answered in unison.

"Yes."

"Good. Jongchachan, Gwauchun, Pochunga, Yangho, Jangsonrak, Namjukyung, Ichan, Joga, Wikwang..."

I listed all the names, and whenever I made a mistake, the bandits corrected me. After repeating each name, I took a deep breath. It wasn’t a big deal, but it left me breathless.

One of the bandits, named Joga, asked me,

"How did you memorize all of that?"

"Don’t be surprised. I’ll forget it all soon."

I looked around at the bandits whose names I had called and said,

"Anyway... it’s lucky for you that I didn’t kill you."

Then, I introduced myself to the bandits.

"I am the leader of Haomun, Yi Zaha."