Though something odd had gotten mixed in along the way, thanks to it he could grasp the situation.

Noh-sam scratched his head, embarrassed by the women’s praise.

Gyo-ha’s gaze toward Noh-sam changed.

The more he heard, the more curious he grew about Noh-sam’s skills.

But thanks to it, the misunderstanding was resolved.

Nodding, Gyo-ha rose to his feet.

“Was there anyone else forced to work like Uncle Noh-sam?”

At his question, the women shook their heads.

That was enough.

He turned and started walking, then stopped before the bandit who had cut in while they were talking.

“Just what…….”

Noh-sam’s words did not continue.

Because Gyo-ha stepped on the bandit’s foot.

“Gaaah!”

The bandit screamed.

One of his feet was bent out of shape. Leaving the thrashing bandit, Gyo-ha moved on to the next.

And he did the same again.

Along the way he broke both feet of the bandit boss, and for the rest he fairly broke just one.

Noh-sam frowned at the cruelty of it, but the women watched Gyo-ha without so much as a twitch of a brow.

Having finished, Gyo-ha returned.

“If you wish, you can do more.”

When the women hesitated, Gyo-ha raised his fist.

“If it’s hard for you sisters to do it yourselves, I can do it for you.”

Considering what the bandits had done, killing them would have been fine.

There was no hesitation. They were no longer people.

The reason Gyo-ha didn’t was because it wasn’t his decision to make.

“…No. It’s enough.”

“Thank you, benefactor.”

“Thank you.”

The women bowed their heads to Gyo-ha.

Only then could Noh-sam understand Gyo-ha’s actions.

It was for the women.

They had gone through the unimaginable.

Their resentment could only run deep. He had vented it in their stead.

At times, life could be harsher than death.

Now those men would not walk properly for life.

It was no different from a sentence.

Gyo-ha scratched the back of his head at their thanks, then spoke.

“Then, shall we go home?”

“Yes.”

“Okay!”

Noh-sam and the women answered as stoutly as they could.

Unlike Noh-sam, the women weren’t from this village.

Their families, husbands, and friends had already died at the bandits’ hands. They couldn’t return home in such a state.

That didn’t mean nothing was left.

Their hands on the way to the village were full of the loot the bandits had stolen.

---

Even as dusk fell, the old woman had no thought of coming down from the hill.

Unable to bear it, the villagers approached her.

“Hey now, how long are you going to sit there?”

“…Leave me. I’ll go back on my own.”

“You’ll ruin your health. If you’re going to wait for your boy, you need to stay well.”

“That’s right, granny. I’ll keep watch here, so please rest.”

The young man who’d come along chimed in.

The old woman pressed her lips tight. It was because worry filled the villagers’ faces.

She was not someone who didn’t know the reason.

If she remained, their hearts would be ill at ease.

In the end, the old woman stood.

“Wise choice. We’ll take turns keeping watch, so don’t worry.”

At the youth’s words, the villagers nodded.

As if they themselves were not sad.

Though it had been long since Noh-sam left, they’d played together as children.

“Huh?”

Just then, a child’s voice sounded behind them.

“D-dad!”

At the sudden shout, the villagers turned to see a boy blinking.

A middle-aged man, seeing the boy, flushed.

“I told you to stay home, why did you follow me here!”

“N-no, it’s not that, over there!”

The boy pointed.

Toward the direction the old woman had been staring.

The adults turned with him, and their eyes widened.

“T-that there! Isn’t that the young man from before?”

Even in the dark, that huge build was unmistakable.

But—

“He’s not alone?”

“Women?”

The villagers squinted to see better.

Then the old woman began to run.

“G-granny!”

Unlike the others, she wasn’t looking at Gyo-ha or the women.

Her eyes saw only one person.

Dark as it was, she could not fail to recognize him.

And belatedly the child recognized the man beside Gyo-ha.

“Huh? Uncle Noh-sam is there too!”

“What?”

Only then did the villagers start running after the old woman.

---

Before the party reached the village, the villagers came out.

At their head, the old woman went straight for one man.

“Ya, You brat. Who told you to go to a place like that!”

Smack, her palm struck the man.

“Mother, I’m sorry. But I found it.”

The man, Noh-sam, lifted the bundle he’d brought.

“What’s money worth, anyway.”

“Still, it was brother’s inheritance.”

At her glare, Noh-sam furtively turned his head.

Then she noticed Noh-sam’s leg.

“What’s with your leg?”

“I just twisted it a little.”

“Twisted, my foot. Did those bastards do it?”

“Ugh. Rotten scum!”

“May heaven strike them down!”

The villagers cursed the bandits.

Noh-sam could only give them an awkward smile.

Because it was Gyo-ha who had made him that way.

He’d been hit by Gyo-ha and was slammed on to a rock, and it had gone wrong there. But he bore no grudge.

The other bandits’ legs weren’t just broken, they were shattered. Without the women’s help, he would have been the same.

As the old woman looked at her youngest son, Gyo-ha came into view.

“Thank you.”

“No need. I should at least pay for the candy.”

Saying that much, Gyo-ha looked sheepish and scratched his cheek.

“You went to the trouble to give me clothes, and I tore them. Sorry.”

Only then did she look at the clothes he wore.

They were a mess, torn here and there.

Her throat tightened.

She figured he’d fought until his clothes were in tatters.

She wasn’t far off the mark.

It was just that, they’d torn while he delivered the one-sided beating.

They’d been small to begin with. There was no way they could’ve withstood Gyo-ha’s movements in the first place.

“It’s fine. There are more clothes. No—I’ll weave you a new set.”

“That’s right. We can’t put used clothes on a benefactor. We have some cloth left from the last trip to the capital. Use that.”

“Oh? Brother, you wouldn’t spare me any when I asked.”

“Pah. You think you’re the same as our benefactor?”

People laughed at their exchange.

The heavy mood lightened. But the villagers weren’t the only ones here.

“And those women?”

Someone opened his mouth and closed it.

From afar it hadn’t shown, but up close the women were in no normal state.

They wore leather over them, but underneath was plainly exposed.

Even the leather draped over them didn’t fit.

That was only natural as they’d taken what the bandits wore.

And above all, fear still lingered in their eyes.

No one could speak easily.

At that moment.

“Are you going to leave them standing here all day? If guests have come, we should welcome them.”

The old woman stingingly snapped.

Then she addressed the villagers.

“Men, tidy up some empty houses. Womenfolk, heat some water. They haven’t even been able to wash properly.”

“Yes, granny.”

At her words, the villagers bustled to work.

“Gwak family, slaughter three chickens, and I’ll pay you tomorrow.”

“Oh, forget it. They’re guests of the village, how could I take money? And what’s three chickens to anyone? We’ll slaughter a pig as well.”

As the villagers dispersed, the old woman also moved.

Then she yelled at the women staring blankly at her.

“What are you doing? Planning to spend the night out there?”

“N-no.”

The women hurried after her.

Seeing Gyo-ha look on as if it were fascinating, Noh-sam beside him spoke.

“Although she may be my mother, she’s truly a formidable woman.”

Pride tinged Noh-sam’s voice.

Gyo-ha found himself nodding.

---

The village fires burned late into the night.

More popular than the returned Noh-sam was Gyo-ha.

Everyone brought him food.

He didn’t refuse and kept stuffing it into his mouth without pause. Most of it was gratitude, but some brought it out of curiosity to see how much he could eat.

And the villagers asked the women nothing.

They simply prepared places for them to stay.

Of what they’d brought, aside from their inheritance, they distributed the things to the villagers.

The villagers took only a portion and yielded the rest for the women.

Naturally the rights to the goods had first fallen to Gyo-ha, but he waved them off as unnecessary.

Since he took the lead, the villagers yielded to one another as well.

As the feast wound down, the old woman watched Noh-sam with worried eyes.

Noh-sam walked with a limp.

He forced a smile, but it was clear he wasn’t well.

Noticing her gaze, a village youth spoke.

“There’s a herbalist up in the next village—they say he’s quite skilled. I’ll bring him at first light.”

The old woman nodded without refusing.

Night passed, and around midday the herbalist arrived.

He was an old man, hair gone completely white.

“Tsk. A little later and it would’ve festered from the inside.”

“R-really?”

At the unexpected words, Noh-sam asked again, and the herbalist’s brows rose.

“If you can’t believe it, forget it.”

“N-no, I didn’t mean I don’t believe…”

Just as the startled Noh-sam opened his mouth at the curt reply, the herbalist tore open the wound.

“……!”

Noh-sam’s eyes widened at the sudden pain.

But the old man’s hands didn’t falter.

He cleaned the area with a fresh-washed cloth, then stuffed in some unknown herbs.

Then he bound it again with cloth.

His motions flowed like water, so no one doubted his skill.

Clicking his tongue at the late tears in Noh-sam’s eyes, he said,

“A grown man, making a fuss.”

“It’s not a…….”

Smack.

The herbalist’s palm slapped his thigh.

“Ugh! That’s the wound…….”

“All right. Go on out. I’ve others to see.”

Grumbling, Noh-sam shut his mouth at that.

The herbalist looked over the onlookers outside.

“You women there. Come in order.”

Eyes turned to the youth who’d brought him.

As if to ask whether he’d told him of last night.

Flustered, the youth shook his head quickly.

“As a rule, what you don’t see is more dangerous than obvious wounds like this one.”

Then he glared at Noh-sam.

Meaning, why aren’t you out already.

Getting up, Noh-sam muttered,

“Phew, it’s like I’m looking at my mother.”

This stranger of an old man smelled like his mother.

Having been scolded all night as it was, he gave a shiver.

Even with Noh-sam gone, the people didn’t easily come inside.

“What is it?”

A middle-aged man who knew why the women hesitated asked cautiously on their behalf.

“Um… how much should we pay?”

By now the villagers had realized the old man wasn’t an ordinary herbalist.

Herbalists didn’t examine people like that.

The man before them was a physician.

And a physician’s visit was costly.

They had the goods taken from the bandits, but the women would need them to live going forward.

Unlike Noh-sam, the women didn’t seem badly wounded.

“Forget it. We’ll call it even by examining that fellow later.”

The man he pointed to was Gyo-ha.

At being suddenly named, Gyo-ha—stuffing the candy the old woman gave him into his mouth—tilted his head.

“…I’m not hurt, though.”

To show how healthy he was, he rolled his shoulders broadly.

With his cheeks puffed out, it looked rather comical.

“I know.”

He understood even less.

Was it just a pretext to treat the villagers?

But the herbalist wasn’t finished.

“I’m just curious—to think that someone who should’ve died long ago is walking around healthy.”

“……!”

The people’s eyes went wide.

But soon they turned to anger.

“…Elder, that’s going too far.”

“This hero is our village’s benefactor. If you speak so carelessly…”

The herbalist chuckled at their reaction, then looked at Gyo-ha.

Gyo-ha himself didn’t look upset.

On the contrary.

“Oh! How did you know? Even my master only realized it after feeling me?”