Even the Sword God Needs Paternity Leave

Chapter 15: Picked Up Along the Way

The key content from the Divine Physician's letter was as follows:

[Go to Oga Pharmacy in Songshan County, buy beef and have your wife eat it, breastfeeding can prevent Taebok's Fifty-Day Illness. Additionally, it has excellent efficacy for postpartum care.]

I nodded at the letter's contents.

Of course preventing the illness was important, but postpartum care was truly important too.

When a mother loses her health, it affects the entire family afterward.

Especially, babies are directly affected in their early development. Naturally, since the quality and quantity of breast milk change immediately. Also, all the responses of making eye contact with the baby, smiling, and speaking could only be sufficiently provided when healthy.

In other words, postpartum care was both the mother taking care of herself and simultaneously taking care of the family and baby.

As soon as I entered the house and saw Jayeong, I spoke.

"Beef with such good meat quality that both the chewing texture and melting sensation are alive simultaneously."

"?"

"Don't you want to eat such meat?"

Jayeong had a bewildered expression.

"Taebok can't eat anything yet, so why meat?"

Right now she was pouring all her attention into Taebok's health.

This wouldn't do. Time like this had accumulated and caused her, a master, to become ill.

I would take good care from now on. Starting with eating.

"The Divine Physician contacted me. He says a place called Oga Pharmacy sells beef. That meat helps Taebok's recovery and is good for your postpartum care too."

"Really? A pharmacy sells beef?"

"Since it's the Divine Physician's words, it must be correct."

"Yes, that's true."

Jayeong nodded.

"Imagine it. Beef recommended by the Divine Physician. What would it be like when you put it in your mouth?"

After staring into space for a moment, Jayeong answered.

"Well, I don't have an appetite yet, but..."

"You'd better wipe your drool."

"Slurp."

It was decided.

Immediate departure.

"Since I took childcare leave, let's stay together and eat lots of healthy things. Starting with this beef. I'll go buy it right away."

I was quickly preparing when.

"Honey, just a moment."

"?"

"Be careful."

"Haha, what could happen to me?"

"Still, you never know. The area around Luoyang has been unsettled lately. You could even run into Black Path people on the road."

"No, that's a bit—"

"And now you're Taebok's father."

"Mm."

I agreed with those words.

Now my body was even more not just my own.

***

And on the road, I met a Black Path person.

"There really is one."

I doubted my eyes.

On the road to Songshan County where Oga Pharmacy was located, one Black Path person was running ahead of me.

"He's right out in the open."

With an unusually small height, running with not very excellent movement arts.

However, the necklace the Black Path person wore caught my eye.

Human fingers between bead decorations.

Walking around proudly with such a grotesque necklace?

As a White Path martial artist, I couldn't just let pass someone who carelessly cut off people's fingers.

I increased my speed further. Soon the guy seemed to sense my presence and looked back.

Seeing that face, my brows furrowed automatically.

"Haah..."

He looked far too young.

He didn't even look of age yet. No, he looked even younger.

If not for the necklace, he would just look like a neighborhood kid.

Even his face was extremely ordinary except for looking a bit horse-like.

The guy looked at me and asked.

"Who are you? Am I not the last one?"

It was a voice rather mimicking an adult.

I answered his question simply.

"White Path. Stop."

"Damn it!"

There was no way this Black Path sprout would stop.

The guy moved his legs even faster.

"I said stop."

Running was futile.

For his young age his martial arts were decent, but he couldn't shake me off.

When I caught up close enough to hear his breathing, the sprout spun backward and struck out with his right palm.

"Take this!"

I didn't bother to meet him head-on.

Using the Xun Trigram Technique to accelerate in an instant, I approached his side and extended my fingers.

"Wh-what?"

I pressed his acupoints to paralyze his entire body.

"Huh, huh? What is this—"

I pressed his mute point to block his mouth too.

"..."

There, caught simply.

Earlier this guy had said "Am I not the last one?"

That meant Black Path people were gathering in groups.

First I dragged the sprout into the surrounding brush.

The guy rolled his eyes confusedly back and forth.

"Listen, Black Path kid, I'm going to ask you questions now. I'll only release your mute point, but if you scream, you'll face a rough time."

The sprout took a big breath and puffed out his chest. The momentum to shout as soon as released. I tried releasing it as a test.

"Someone help me! Help—"

I pressed the mute point again.

Right. If he listened well, he wouldn't be Black Path.

On the other hand, for a Black Path person to call for people to be saved was just...

"Then what should I do?"

I had threatened he'd face a rough time.

Actually, I had almost never directly used my hands in such cases. Should I say there had been no need to do anything besides combat. At times like this, an Alliance member in charge of interrogation would appear from somewhere.

It was awkward to carry this guy to the branch since I had my own things to do.

But it also felt unsettling to just leave him and go.

"Right, new learning for a new life."

"?"

Doubt rose in the guy's eyes.

"I'll inflict pain through acupoint pressing. I don't know if I'll do well, but everything has a first time."

"!"

This guy already hung people's fingers around his neck. No mercy.

"Still, since you're young, I won't go too hard. When you feel like saying anything, nod your head."

After the warning, I pressed an acupoint.

He would feel his entire body being thoroughly shaken.

"..."

Mm. A gutsy guy.

Though his eyes became bloodshot, there was no sign of nodding.

"That figures. One more spot."

Second acupoint pressing.

Is the pain doubled? No. It's not the amount of pain but the quality that changes.

"..."

Still the guy endured firmly.

What is this? Does he fear what's behind him?

"One more spot."

Third acupoint pressing.

Tears, snot, and drool flowed over. An amazing tough one. Now the pain must be tremendous.

Not just his head but his entire body remained stiffly upright.

Such a rigid posture was when receiving acupoint pressing or...

"Ah? Did I release his neck acupoint?"

"..."

The guy's bloodshot eyes were full of resentment.

Mm...

It's because I've never done interrogation. When a person tries to do something they haven't done, such basic mistakes occur.

Of course it's fine. The Black Path person was just a bit more pained, wasn't he? He'll talk more smoothly now.

I released all his acupoints completely.

The sprout's head moved up and down crazily—bobbing frantically.

"I'll talk! I'll talk!"

Mm.

Excellent effectiveness.

"Don't feel wronged. Originally when three Black Path people gather, White Path appears."

"White Path? You torture people like this?"

The sprout looked at me with suspicious eyes.

"I'm called the Ink Sword Hero Jin Yeomyeong."

"What? Ink Sword Hero?"

"You know me?"

"Yes, I've heard of you. They say you're a hero doing well these days."

Is there such a thing as a hero doing well among heroes?

I felt briefly dizzy at the guy's word choice.

"What's your neighborhood?"

"Bangga Village."

"Are you a Bang?"

"I'm a Yang though."

"..."

I'm strangely irritated.

I crouched in front of the necklace face and looked into the guy's eyes.

The unique quality of the unorthodox path...

"You have no killing intent."

"What? Huh?"

"Never mind. Just explain that necklace."

Too young and no killing intent. It didn't match the grotesque necklace.

"..."

He didn't answer and mumbled.

"If you can't explain properly, you could die here."

"What? Die? Suddenly?"

"Does death announce itself before coming in the jianghu?"

To scare him more, I even drew Mukheun.

"Those aren't real fingers! I bought them!"

"?"

I didn't understand for a moment and asked again.

"You bought them?"

"Yes."

"Where?"

"I bought them at the black market."

The black market was the Black Path's marketplace. It specialized in such ominous items.

"You went to the black market yourself?"

"An older brother I met in the city bought them for me."

An older brother.

The story becomes strange.

"Don't lie."

"I'm not lying!"

"The black market has expensive prices. There are no normal items. Sometimes stolen goods come out cheap, but this necklace isn't such an item either. You look young—what money do you have to buy this?"

The necklace guy hesitated to answer, then closed his eyes tight and answered.

"I bought it with my mother's money."

What.

"Mother's money? You stole it?"

"Borrowed..."

"After telling her?"

"No."

The moment I heard the answer, tremendous anger rose from my chest. Different from the murderous anger toward the Demonic Cult.

This was, yes, audacity.

Unable to hold back, I smacked the kid's head.

I was startled by the crisp striking sound myself.

Then suddenly realized I had wanted to do this from earlier.

"Ow!"

"Did you buy it to look cool?"

"No."

"Then?"

"To look tough."

Smack, smack, I hit him repeatedly.

If our Taebok grew up like this.

Suddenly my eyes went dark.

"They said to do Black Path you need to look tough, so I bought it. Since this looks completely real, if I wear it even though I'm young, they said people won't mess with me."

"Who said?"

"The older brothers I befriended in the city."

"Ah... Right, you really look tough. But do you know this isn't just real-looking but actually real?"

"What? Hey, don't lie."

He chuckled.

Soon seeing my expression, he seemed to realize the truth, and his complexion turned pale.

"Ugh..."

"Don't throw up. Who did you learn martial arts from?"

"I learned from my mother."

"You do such things with martial arts learned from your mother?"

I couldn't stop my hand. Every answer from his mouth summoned a beating.

"Then this must be your first time in the jianghu. What's the reason for coming here? What was that 'last one' you mentioned earlier?"

Actually I asked without much expectation. The level of people this kind of kid would meet was obvious.

"Some Black Path person said they were gathering people. They said they'd pay good money too."

"Who?"

"I don't really know."

"Did they accept you?"

"I showed some skills, heh."

I couldn't help but hit him once more.

I believe this kid's mother would understand even if I hit him like this.

"..."

Anyway.

Separate from this kid.

They say Black Path is gathering people.

They probably weren't gathering people to do good deeds.

"Where were you headed?"

"To the inn in Songshan County, the intermediate gathering point. They might have all left since I'm late though."

"..."

This kid definitely didn't properly know what Black Path was like.

Jumping into work without even knowing who the employer was when he wasn't even an assassin. The reason for sending such a young and naive kid was obvious. They had found someone to take the sword in their place.

I stared piercingly into the sprout's eyes.

"You don't even look of age yet—how old are you?"

"Fifteen."

"Ambiguous."

"What?"

"An ambiguous age for whether to kill or let live."

"Hiik!"

Of course I was just scaring him.

Since he hadn't committed evil deeds.

Not a Black Path sprout.

But a little kid who left home not even knowing what Black Path was.

"Guide me."

"What?"

"I'm heading that way anyway. I'll show you. What happens when you follow Black Path."

And why Songshan County of all places?

It weighed on my mind.