The request I received was [Protection of Okga Textile Shop].
Instead of the reward or request details, I was more curious about how the merchants who dislike the Sacheon Outcasts would treat them.
“You’re late!”
This Okga Textile Shop was one I was quite familiar with. It’s one of the largest shops in Sacheon City, standing out among single-store establishments.
As soon as the middle-aged man, who appeared to be the shop owner, saw me, he yelled at me.
“Oh dear, Father. Didn’t you come before the shop opened?”
Then, a young man in his twenties, who seemed to be the shop owner’s son, chided his father while glaring at me.
“Who knows when those punks will show up? You should have come earlier!”
Seeing the shop owner glaring at me in discontent made me finally feel the essence of Sacheon, and a sigh of relief escaped me.
This is the spicy flavor of Sacheon, indeed.
“Father! I’ll handle the Outcast, so hurry up and prepare for business!”
“Ugh… what a time to be alive!”
The shop owner grumbled and disappeared, and the young man bowed to me in apology.
“I’m sorry. I was rude.”
“That’s alright.”
Honestly, I felt more uncomfortable with the young man bowing to me repeatedly than with the disappearing shop owner, who threw a tantrum.
Walking the streets of Sacheon dressed as an Outcast, it’s normal to hear curses being shouted and feel the stares piercing my back.
I wanted to question why this young man, clearly a local of Sacheon, was treating an Outcast so politely, but I held back. I wouldn’t want to appear as a Sacheon Outcast stating such things anyway.
Let’s focus on the job first and later find an opportunity to ask indirectly.
“Exactly how should I protect your shop and the owner?”
The young man’s expression darkened.
“These days, the White Tiger Faction and the Black Sand Faction are fighting over our shop.”
“Ah.”
“I’d like you to protect the shop from their antics. You have checked the contract terms, right?”
“Indeed, I have.”
It seems like they only want to avoid damage, regardless of how it gets done. Quite a reasonable request for a protection mission.
“I’d like you to stand in front of the shop, if possible, but if it’s too much for you, you don’t have to.”
However, the request was a bit surprising. To think they would want an Outcast to stand guard like a gatekeeper. I don’t know how Sacheon has changed, but the Outcasts I recall were like totems driving people away.
But regardless, it’s the request from the client, so I have to comply.
“Very well.”
The young man’s face brightened and he bowed deeply in gratitude.
Anyway, having taken on the role of a gatekeeper I always met while delivering martial arts pamphlets, I stood in front of the shop. The gazes from people walking down the street were noticeable, but receiving this level of attention is part and parcel of being an Outcast.
Soon, the Okga Textile Shop opened its doors, and customers began to flock in.
“Three rolls of cotton fabric, please!”
“I’m here for silks embroidered with silver thread!”
“How much for this outfit?”
To my surprise, the textile shop was thriving, and my presence didn’t seem to deter customers at all.
The thought that I might scare them off had been unfounded; rather it seemed to work in reverse.
People were likely thinking, ‘The Sacheon Outcast is guarding the shop; maybe I should check it out.’
Seeing customers going inside made me feel slightly confused.
Could it be that the Unknown Elder’s formation misfired and I ended up in a different reality?
Just as I was lost in thought, I sensed a growing commotion around me.
Seeing the terrified faces of passing people hastening their steps, I finally realized that it was time for me to act.
“Bwahahaha!”
“Wahaha!”
The laughter of the members of the Evil Faction rang out as they appeared. Their swaggering gait came to a halt right in front of the Okga Textile Shop. It seemed they had not expected to find an Outcast standing guard here.
I quickly assessed their levels and numbers.
There were seven in total, with two peaks among them, and the rest were elite or below.
As the one who appeared to be their leader gestured, two members spread out left and right. They seemed keen on checking for an ambush.
“Comrade, what brings you here?”
“…Comrade?”
“We have come to uphold Jeong Cheol’s will and set right the law in Sacheon, so aren’t we comrades with the Outcasts?”
“Hmm.”
These guys were really good at spouting nonsense. Let’s see what they have to say first.
As I stood silently, the chatterbox continued, pointing a finger at the crowd of spectators behind the textile shop.
“Look at these shameless bastards! Weren’t they the ones hurling insults and spitting on the Outcasts?! What honor is there in protecting such scum?!”
His public defamation clouded the atmosphere, but no curses came pouring out from the crowd.
I was rather taken aback by the crowd’s reaction.
Sacheon residents, known for their fiery temperament and pride, were silent in response to such comments?
“You bastards! You miserable wretches!”
“Father!”
The shop owner burst through, ignoring his son’s restraint.
“Where are you spouting such nonsense from? You bandits, hungry for my wealth!”
His face flushed red, he trembled with rage, and pointed a shaking finger at the Evil Faction. The leader of the group burst into laughter at the sight.
“Hahaha! You! People from your generation are the very ones who shaped Sacheon! Spreading ridiculous rumors just because the Outcasts defeated the masters of Sacheon! Weren’t you the ones who looked down on the Outcasts protecting Jeong Cheol?”
“This…! This..!”
The shop owner seemed to have a retort in mind but couldn’t get it out.
He kept glancing my way, perhaps feeling he was outmatched.
Well, what those members of the Evil Faction said was true. Back then, the excessive pride of the people of Sacheon and the longing for invulnerability from Sacheon masters had created the distinction between Jeong Cheol and the current Outcasts.
The shop owner couldn’t voice his thoughts, and the leader escalated his mockery.
“Did you really think you could live well after such disgraceful acts? Not reflecting on those misdeeds and disrespecting the heroes? Look at you now, throwing accusations like a bandit!”
“What you’re doing is bandit-like, isn’t it?!”
“We are heroes and heroines striving to restore the fallen laws of Sacheon! Even the divine laws have been broken, and still, you continue to remain oblivious to it, tsk tsk.”
“Y-you…!”
I understood the shop owner’s despair as he grasped his neck, about to collapse.
Seeing these Evil Faction members spewing words while looking like heroes made me shudder like a third party just witnessing the absurdity.
At that moment, the two who had split from the group returned, whispering in their leader’s ear.
Confirming that there was no ambush, he turned to me with a sneer and spoke.
“So, Outcast? If you withdraw now, we’ll let you leave in peace.”
“Sorry, but we have business here, so I can’t do that.”
“Ha, blinded by money, it seems you have forgotten the true spirit of the Outcasts!”
Who were you to talk about the spirit of the Outcasts, you leader? He pulled out his weapon and shouted.
“Back off now, or you will taste suffering as well!”
Losing patience, I let out a deep sigh, looking at their bravado.
“Leave.”
“Brother, it seems this one is still not sober!”
They laughed derisively at me.
Well… I can understand their overconfidence. It’s common knowledge that there are no peak experts among the Outcasts. With the source confirmed absent, they must think they can crush me easily with sheer numbers.
“You’ll taste suffering…”
Whack!
A smack landed squarely on the leader’s cheek. A well-placed open-palmed slap mixed with momentum must have made him see stars and lose consciousness in an instant.
Thud!
He completed three spins in the air before crashing into the ground.
“You…!”
Before he could say anything else, I slapped another peak expert, knocking out his teeth in the process.
Smash!
The area around the shop fell quiet. In a flash, two peak experts were subdued, leaving the other members of the Evil Faction and the crowd of witnesses utterly bewildered.
“Leave.”
“Yes!”
The remaining thugs hurriedly carried the two fallen members away as I breathed a sigh and returned to my original position.
The shop owner only glanced at me in disbelief before quickly looking away, not uttering a single word.
Returning to my gatekeeper stance, the murmurs from the crowd naturally dispersed.
…Or at least that’s what I thought, but the onlookers’ eyes were burning with curiosity. Did I display such overwhelming martial skill that was hard to see in Sacheon?
Watching people whispering among themselves surrounding me made me focus intently on their hushed tones.
[Could that Outcast be the one?]
[The one from the rumors?]
[Certainly, their martial skill is exceptional…]
Since when did that manner of speech become trendy in Sacheon?
I caught snippets of their conversation but remained frustrated as no one would specify what they meant by “that Outcast” in concrete terms.
Come on, one of you spill the beans!
As I strained to eavesdrop, the young man who had been urging his father approached hesitantly.
“Would you care for a meal if it’s not too much trouble…?”
Suddenly realizing it was midday, I looked up at the sky.
…When did time pass so quickly?
I had been so engrossed in uncovering the truth behind the rumors of the widow from the Jang family that I lost track of time.
“Hmm, thank you.”
The young man escorted me to a corner of the room. We sat down to eat a meal that seemed more thought out than a typical lunch.
“You’ve done well, Outcast.”
“It’s nothing special; I was just getting the job done.”
“Ah, I forgot to introduce myself. I’m Ok Gyeong-sang.”
“Nice to meet you. Are members like those from earlier common around here?”
Ok Gyeong-sang smiled wryly at my question.
“Yes, my father is an executive in the Sacheon Merchant’s Association.”
Well, I’m not entirely sure what that entails, but it seems he holds some sway in this area. That also makes him a target for the Evil Faction.
As I engaged in light conversation with Ok Gyeong-sang, I thought I might as well ask about the rumors now that he had been friendly to me.
Gleaning some detailed gossip about a young widow sneaking off with another man was indeed intriguing and stimulating, but what caught my attention was that the way people spoke of rumors was as if they were avoiding some major taboo without making any decisive statements.
Asking about the rumors shouldn’t be a big deal.
It’s quite possible there could be a Sacheon Outcast somewhat oblivious to the buzz around their own kind.
“Hmm. People are talking about that Outcast and the accompanying rumors—do you know anything?”
At my inquiry, Ok Gyeong-sang paused mid-bite. He stared at me with the intensity of someone attempting to see inside a black rib.
“Well, as you know, there’s been a rise of the Evil Faction following Jeong Cheol’s declaration, causing unrest in Sacheon.”
“Hmm.”
“Afterward, merchants, as well as residents of Sacheon, suffered through their abuse. As you may have heard this morning… they began rampaging, claiming punishments for everything.”
Ok Gyeong-sang wore a weary smile.
“The residents of Sacheon finally understood the events leading to the conflicts experienced with the Outcasts and Jeong Cheol decades ago. Even my generation now realizes how the people of Sacheon treated the Outcasts back then. What we thought to be mere arrogance was a complex narrative with its own consequences.”
I hadn’t expected such insights to come out in this conversation.
“I was doubly shocked. The atrocities inflicted by the Evil Faction are on entirely different levels compared to the actions of the Outcasts in the past. They had no qualms about taking lives and truly sought to strip people of everything. Experiencing their reign of terror firsthand led me to question the actual nature of the Outcasts whom we had labelled as merely lawless.”
Following that, he recalled stories I had anticipated.
“However, there was little time to leisurely uncover the truth. The schemes of the Evil Faction targeting the textile shop were vile and required all of our resources to fend off the threats we had never faced before.”
As he sipped his tea, continuing his tale, I simply listened.
“Then there was a manifesto released by Jeong Cheol, which took the world by storm. For a while, we worried that more members of the Evil Faction would flood into Sacheon because of it. That manifesto significantly impacted the Sacheon community.”
I remained silent, attentively taking in Ok Gyeong-sang’s observations.
“It was a rebuttal to allegations of assassination by the Tang Clan. The manifesto contained insights into the circumstances at the time of the attack on Jeong Cheol.”
…No way.
“And within that manuscript was an unexpectedly shocking statement.”
I couldn’t curb the urge to cover my face in shame.
“It spoke of an Outcast who claimed to pursue the righteous path while honing their martial skills, stating that they were proud to be an Outcast.”
My return to Sacheon had revealed that I couldn’t fathom why the Outcasts thrived back then while remaining oblivious to their past struggles.
At that moment, both the Outcasts and Yu Sa-yeon must have guessed I had yet to hear the rumors surrounding me.
Thus, they opted to keep mum and join forces in a playful conspiracy that had somehow led to this request.
“After reading the manifesto, I recalled how the once-peaceful Outcasts had retreated in the aftermath of the personal martial arts tournaments. Indeed, they truly seemed to desire the righteous path if it weren’t for the current surge of Evil Faction members rampaging in Sacheon. Had they not faced the true nature of cruelty previously, I doubt I would have lent an ear to an Outcast’s proclamation in the manifesto.”
“Yet now I understand. I finally grasp just how malicious the Evil Faction can be. Living as an Outcast, receiving treatment worse than these scum, gives us a glimpse of what it means to forsake humanity. Perhaps, those Outcasts truly are the ones pursuing righteousness. This is what I’ve come to believe.”
Hey you guys!
You thought you handled it all by banding together to tackle the Evil Faction, but I was the one causing the changes!
“People looked into the manifesto hoping to verify if the rumors were true. And it was discovered that, uniquely among the Outcasts, only the Sacheon Outcast No. 28 had not appeared at the recent martial arts tournament.”
Ok Gyeong-sang seemed to believe now that I was indeed No. 28 and an adversary to Jeong Cheol.
…Of course, the others would remain hidden in Sacheon while the word of my deeds hadn’t traveled back to any other Outcasts.
“If you happen to meet that Outcast No. 28, would you mind relaying this message? Despite facing disdain and scorn, I want to express my gratitude for their efforts to protect the land of Sacheon without harboring hatred toward the Sacheon people.”
I was at a loss for words.
Ok Gyeong-sang simply smiled warmly, continuing with his meal.
