A Tale Of A Scribe Who Retires To The Countryside [EN]: Chapter 379

379. Unfamiliar City

The warriors who had suddenly appeared in the village scanned their surroundings with gleaming eyes from atop their horses.

The rich cloths wrapped around their heads were adorned with flamboyant decorations, and their neatly tailored clothes were clearly of high quality. Even the scabbards of the swords at their waists were intricately crafted.

“All strangers in this village, come forward!”

The warrior on horseback placed a hand on his hip and shouted loudly. The villagers hurried out and bowed before the warrior.

However, the warrior frowned, glanced at them dismissively, and completely ignored the villagers.

“What are you doing! Why don’t you come out!”

The shouting warrior’s eyes locked onto Son Bin. The warrior lightly spurred his horse and approached Son Bin.

Clatter, clatter.

Son Bin subtly nudged the girl, Parsha, beside him. Parsha stepped aside, and Sa Su-yeon also moved forward, as if to shield the girls.

As Son Bin confirmed that Dang Wol-ah was quietly approaching from behind him, he suddenly met Seo-rin’s gaze in the bushes.

‘No.’

Seeing Seo-rin pretending to punch someone with her fist, Son Bin shook his head slightly. He signaled her to hide with a look.

Seo-rin nodded and disappeared into the bushes with the children without a sound.

Clatter, clatter.

Meanwhile, the warrior who had approached Son Bin looked down at him from his horse. The warrior from Tianzhu [ancient Chinese name for India], seen up close, had distinct facial features, deep-set eyes, and dark skin, giving him a very intense impression.

“Are you the stranger who came to this village?”

Son Bin could roughly understand him, but he turned to Sa Su-yeon for confirmation. The warrior’s eyebrows twitched at this.

Seeing Sa Su-yeon nod, Son Bin spoke in clumsy Tianzhu language, but as politely as possible.

“Yes, I am.”

His girlish tone was due to learning the language from Parsha. He himself was not aware of it.

The warrior raised his head and looked at Sa Su-yeon and Dang Wol-ah. Then he asked Son Bin again.

“Are you the only ones? I heard there were more?”

Son Bin could roughly understand the meaning, but he feigned a puzzled expression.

“I’m sorry. I don’t speak Tianzhu very well.”

“Tsk.”

The warrior clicked his tongue at Son Bin’s inappropriate tone. But as if he couldn’t help it, he glanced around once, checking if there were any other strangers.

‘Huh?’

At that moment, Son Bin noticed something strange.

The easiest way to confirm if Son Bin’s group was the only one was to ask the villagers—to ask how many strangers had come to this village.

However, the warrior did not speak to the villagers at all. He didn’t even make eye contact with them, as if no one was there.

Son Bin checked to see if Parsha had hidden well. Parsha was standing at a distance with the other children, looking at Son Bin with anxious eyes.

Meanwhile, the warrior, unable to find any other strangers, spoke to the warriors behind him.

“Tie them up! Take them away.”

As the order was given, three or four warriors dismounted. They approached Son Bin with thick ropes.

“What is this?”

Son Bin frowned, stepping back. He actually wanted to shout, ‘What are you doing?’ but this was the only phrase he knew.

At the same time, Sa Su-yeon and Dang Wol-ah also placed their hands on the hilts of their swords. The mounted warrior’s expression turned fierce at their clear sign of resistance.

“You fools! Dare you defy the lord’s command!”

He shouted, but Son Bin didn’t understand what he was saying and frowned.

“What is he saying?”

“It seems to be the order of the lord of this area.”

Dang Wol-ah replied. She spoke in a low voice, also with her hand on her sword, So-wol.

‘Lord? Why…….’

Son Bin was puzzled. But in fact, the more closed-off a society is, the more conspicuous foreign elements become. The rumor that strangers had come to the untouchable village quickly spread to the surrounding villages.

Normally, it wouldn’t be a problem, but now was a time of turmoil and ominous rumors from all directions.

In the end, the lord of this area ordered the unidentified strangers staying in the untouchable village to be interrogated directly.

“We are travelers,” Sa Su-yeon said. She looked straight at the mounted warrior and continued in a firm voice. “Why are you trying to take us away?”

It was fairly accurate Tianzhu language. However, the warrior frowned as if displeased and turned his gaze to Son Bin.

“Why do you allow a woman to speak freely with other men? You chose your second wife well, but your first wife lacks manners.”

It was too difficult for Son Bin to understand. But Sa Su-yeon and Dang Wol-ah had complicated expressions. They were dumbfounded, angry, and embarrassed at the same time.

Son Bin, wondering what he meant, asked Sa Su-yeon with a puzzled expression.

“What is he saying?”

Neither Sa Su-yeon nor Dang Wol-ah answered. Meanwhile, the warrior ordered again.

“Tie them up!”

Son Bin could understand that because the warriors were approaching with ropes.

Son Bin said firmly in the Tianzhu language he had learned from Parsha.

“No!”

The warrior chuckled involuntarily at the girlish expression, but the laughter didn’t last long. Suddenly, an enormous force poured out towards the warriors.

Whoo-oong.

The force was emanating from Sa Su-yeon and Dang Wol-ah.

Sa Su-yeon’s eyes, as beautiful as a painting, were as eerie as the eyes of a wild beast. Moreover, the slow fluttering of Dang Wol-ah’s collar behind her was clearly not just because of the wind.

“Y-you guys…….”

Clatter.

At the same time as the mounted warrior involuntarily leaned back, his horse stepped back. The warriors who were about to approach with ropes also turned pale and hesitated.

‘Oh no…….’

Son Bin gave a bitter smile and glanced around.

Sure enough, the villagers were looking at them with anxious expressions.

But what caught his eye even more were the helpless black eyes of the children.

After letting out a soft sigh, Son Bin said to the warriors with pale faces.

“I will go with you.”

It was a girlish tone, but the warrior could no longer laugh.

“But that is not allowed,” Son Bin said, looking at the ropes. In other words, he meant that he would not be tied up.

The warrior hesitated for a moment. The force of the two women was intimidating, but in fact, the existence of the woman wearing the veil, Dang Wol-ah, had been bothering him from the start.

“Are you a believer in the great god?”

It was a question of whether she was a Muslim. But Dang Wol-ah said nothing, and that was the natural attitude for Muslim women to take. How could a woman talk to an unknown man?

If she was a Muslim, the problem was very different. The other party’s resistance and the possibility that she might be a Muslim made the warrior take a step back.

“Understood.”

The mounted warrior gestured for the other warriors to step back. At the sight, Sa Su-yeon and Dang Wol-ah slowly withdrew their force.

“Is it necessary to follow these people?”

Sa Su-yeon asked Son Bin, unable to hide her displeasure towards the warriors. They had been arrogant from the start. She naturally didn’t like following their orders.

In fact, Son Bin felt the same way, but he gave a bitter smile and replied, “Because the villagers and children might be harmed.”

Sa Su-yeon also sighed softly. Then she looked at the eyes of the children trembling with anxiety in the corner.

It is easy to defeat these warriors here, but then she doesn’t know what harm might come to this village, especially to the children.

Son Bin must be worried about that too.

“Bring your horses,” the mounted warrior, who had been talking to the other warriors, said. He was still arrogant, but anyone could tell that his momentum had subsided.

“I will make a special allowance for you to ride horses.”

It was a great improvement compared to being tied up and dragged along, but that didn’t make Sa Su-yeon or Dang Wol-ah feel any better.

Sa Su-yeon said to the children, “Will you bring our horses?”

A few quick-witted girls ran off. Those smart children would surely bring only three horses.

Meanwhile, Son Bin bowed politely to the villagers who were looking at him.

“Thank you.”

The villagers’ anxious expressions still hadn’t disappeared. The children’s worried eyes were still there.

Son Bin looked at Parsha. Towards those black eyes that looked like they were about to burst into tears, Son Bin gave a soft smile and waved his hand slightly, with a heart full of gratitude and apology, and wishing them to be safe and well.

* * *

Son Bin, Sa Su-yeon, and Dang Wol-ah rode their horses and followed behind the warriors. The warrior who seemed to be in charge of them kept looking back at Son Bin’s group, not letting his guard down.

In fact, it was a meaningless act since Son Bin’s group could have run away at any time if they had wanted to.

On the other hand, Son Bin hadn’t just left the village.

Through Dang Wol-ah and Sa Su-yeon, Son Bin had told Seo-rin a few things. He hoped that she would find Elder Noh and Merchant Hwang to resolve the situation, and he didn’t forget to ask her to leave some gifts for the villagers and children.

Clatter, clatter.

The warriors rode south at a fairly fast pace. They didn’t even rest, worried that Son Bin’s group might change their minds.

After riding for half a day, Son Bin’s group was able to reach a large city to the south.

“Wasn’t it a three-day journey?”

“I guess that was at the pace of the villagers.”

As he replied to Sa Su-yeon, Son Bin couldn’t take his eyes off the scenery of the large city.

The city, located by the river, was quite large. White buildings stood here and there, and a fortress with a proper shape was also built on one side of the city.

Clatter, clatter.

As they entered the city, the group moved noticeably slower. No, they had no choice but to move slowly because the streets were full of people.

Amid the loud noises and smells, people in colorful clothes were busily moving about between the smoke of something burning. Carts and horses carrying luggage, as well as children with dark skin, were running around in groups.

In the midst of all this, even merchants with stalls were setting up shop in the middle of the street, so it was nothing short of a chaotic scene reminiscent of a marketplace.

“Move! Get out of the way!”

The warrior frowned and shouted. The already crowded street was filled with people, horses, and carts, and on one side there was even a herd of cows moving slowly.

The people quickly stepped aside at the sight of the warrior, but the animals would not give way to anyone.

“Ugh! These frustrating things!”

The mounted warrior poked the cows with his riding crop, but the herd didn’t budge. Then suddenly, one of them started peeing with a loud noise.

Splash, splash.

Son Bin’s eyes widened. The cow peed with tremendous force. Moreover, another cow next to it also started pouring out urine.

“Eiii!”

The mounted warrior frowned as the cow urine flowed onto the street. Son Bin couldn’t help but frown as well. It wasn’t because the cow urine was dirty, but because children were running barefoot on that very street.

“It seems like they don’t have owners?”

Sa Su-yeon said, looking at the cows. She was also looking at the herd with interest.

“In the Tianzhu religion, cows are considered sacred, so no one eats them or puts rings in their noses.”

“Is that so?”

Sa Su-yeon tilted her head when he told her what he had heard from Merchant Hwang.

“But for something that is considered sacred, it’s a bit…….”

It was natural for Sa Su-yeon to trail off. Other people were ignoring the cows and busy going their own way, and the skinny cows were moving leisurely in indifference.

It seemed more accurate to say that they were just ignoring each other rather than considering them sacred. Moreover, that warrior, although he didn’t hit the cows, was openly annoyed by them. He was also swearing at them in a language they couldn’t understand.

‘Is it because he’s a Muslim?’

As Son Bin was thinking that, Dang Wol-ah suddenly stared at something and said, “Monkey.”

“Yes?”

Son Bin turned his head, asking back, and saw an amazing sight. A monkey was munching on something in a corner of the street.

“Oh my, a monkey!”

Sa Su-yeon also said with surprised eyes, but it seemed that Son Bin’s group was the only one surprised, as people were walking along the street as if nothing was wrong.

The monkey was munching on something in its hand, glanced at Son Bin, and then disappeared over the wall.

“There too,” Dang Wol-ah said. There was another monkey. Monkeys that hadn’t been in the village, and that he hadn’t seen in the wild, were naturally living in this city, picking up trash and eating it.

Not only monkeys but also skinny dogs were wandering around, and their flickering eyes gave him an eerie feeling.

‘What is this place…….’

Son Bin had a blank expression for a moment at the unfamiliar sight. In the village, it was just that the people were different, but coming to this city made him strongly realize that they were in Tianzhu.

Meanwhile, the warrior who had been struggling since earlier finally succeeded in getting the cows out of the way.

“Let’s go!”

The warrior said to Son Bin’s group with annoyance. Surrounded by the gazes of the black-eyed children who had gathered around, Son Bin’s group slowly followed the warriors, newly aware that they had come to a strange country.

How long had they been walking through the noisy and crowded streets? Before they knew it, a large fortress was revealing its imposing appearance in front of them.

* * *

The entrance to the fortress was as crowded as the street. All kinds of people, including horses, carts, warriors, and merchants, were coming in and out of the fortress.

“What are those people?”

Sa Su-yeon suddenly asked. Son Bin also tilted his head. People were sitting or lying down next to the fortress. Moreover, it wasn’t just one person, but men, women, and even children.

“I don’t know?”

Son Bin had no answer. It didn’t seem like they were there to beg because there were children begging from the passing warriors and merchants separately.

But it was hard to see them as being on an outing because their clothes were shabby and worn, and they had blankets and bowls, so it was clear that they had been living there for a long time. Some people were eating something next to them, and a woman was even breastfeeding her child.

‘Surely this isn’t their home?’

There were many such people, but the warriors guarding the fortress didn’t seem to care much. Just as Son Bin was unable to take his eyes off them, wondering if they really lived on this street,

“Rupee! Rupee!”

Son Bin turned his head at the children’s voices. Barefoot, dark-skinned children wearing only their bottoms were already all around them.

“Rupee!”

The children fearlessly reached out to Son Bin, Sa Su-yeon, and Dang Wol-ah, who were riding horses. It didn’t seem to matter to them at all that they were different strangers.

‘Rupee is the money here…….’

The white palms contrasted with the black arms of the children reaching out to Son Bin were particularly striking.

“Get out of the way!”

The children ran away in an instant as the warrior swung his riding crop. There were big children, small children, and even girls running with short steps.

“Let’s go.”

The warrior, who had chased away the children, said to Son Bin and drove his horse into the fortress with a somewhat arrogant air. Son Bin’s group also slowly entered the fortress, captivated by the unfamiliar scenery.

(Author’s words)

If you want to see another world, go to India.

Not the car ^^;;;(Dad joke)