I Became the Hidden Chapter 5

Baek Sowol had her eyes squeezed shut.

The first thing that came to Baek Sowol's mind was regret.

Regret for disobeying her master's words and coming down the mountain with a light heart.

And regret for getting caught by the bandits due to absurd carelessness.

And regret for not being able to properly utilize the martial arts she possessed, turning a chance for a one-shot reversal into a crisis.

'If only I had controlled my internal energy a little more delicately...'

It wouldn't have shown such an absurdly strong effect as it did now, but it would have been enough to create an opening in the enemy right in front of her.

But it was already in the past.

Slice.

The result of her bravado so far reached her ears.

A small but chilling cutting sound.

But there was no pain.

She couldn't figure out if it was because of the regret that filled her heart or if she had lost her sense of pain because it was so excruciating.

The absence of pain touching her body made her fear grow even more.

Just as fear was about to consume her mind to the point of going insane.

Pat.

A warm touch, like a spring breeze, caressed her head.

Baek Sowol slowly opened her eyes.

In front of her.

"Ma... Master?"

Baek Yoonjun was smiling a slightly bitter smile.

Baek Sowol was relieved, but at the same time, crushed by guilt.

Now that her master had come, this situation would end safely, but the fact that she had secretly come down from the mountain weighed heavily on her mind.

"Master, I'm sor..."

"Let's deal with the current situation first and talk later."

At Baek Yoonjun's words, Baek Sowol's gaze turned to behind Baek Yoonjun's back.

There, a bandit holding a saber that had been split in half was staring at Baek Yoonjun's back with wide eyes.

Showing one's back to an opponent was a good way to get stabbed, but from Baek Sowol's perspective, it didn't seem to apply to her master at all.

The opponent, too, must have felt that he was a master who could subdue him, as he was unable to do anything but hold up his half-saber and stiffly hold his posture on the spot.

As Baek Yoonjun slowly turned around, the bandit immediately flinched and made some distance.

Watching the scene, Baek Sowol hung her head low with a complicated heart.

Just one person.

When Baek Yoonjun appeared, everything was sorted out.

It wasn't sorted out right away, but Baek Sowol was certain in her heart.

That's how overwhelming Baek Yoonjun's presence was.

Baek Yoonjun, the only being who could move in this place, moved.

Baek Yoonjun's hand began to lightly swing the fishing rod he was holding.

The bandit in front of Baek Yoonjun, who saw that, was seized with fear.

Because his saber had just been cut in half by that fishing rod.

"W-wait...!!"

The bandit urgently shouted something, but it was not followed through.

Thwack!

"Keoheok!! C-calm down... Keoheok!"

The fishing rod, which was clearly being swung slowly, had at some point, as if it were natural, struck the top of the bandit's head.

To be relieved that the fishing rod that had cut the saber in half had just struck him was to feel an unbearable, excruciating pain rising from the top of his head where he was hit.

The fishing rod touched the bandit's body at a speed that felt slow and even gentle, but he couldn't avoid or block the blow at all.

"Keok! Keoheok!! St-stop!"

All he could do was let out screams mixed with pain.

"Keoheok..."

The bandit, who had been beaten for a while, collapsed to the floor as if crumbling, and Baek Yoonjun's gaze turned to the other bandits.

"!!"

The bandits, who had been unable to move a muscle under Baek Yoonjun's aura until now, held their breath.

They looked like herbivores cornered in a dead end, chased by a carnivore.

Baek Yoonjun's figure blurred and appeared among the bandits.

Thwack!

After that, Baek Yoonjun's fishing rod began to beat those bandits.

It wasn't a battle or anything of the sort.

A common beating.

What was in Baek Yoonjun's hand was a fishing rod, but now it felt like a club optimized for beating people up, no matter how you looked at it.

The merchants and Baek Sowol stared blankly at the wondrous beating with dazed eyes.

To the merchants, it just looked like a scene of a common beating, not martial arts or anything, but in the eyes of Baek Sowol, who had learned martial arts under Baek Yoonjun, the form of martial arts was beginning to be visible to some extent.

It was a club-like martial art that felt like beating a mad dog trying to bite a person, not a person.

Because it was displayed in Baek Yoonjun's hands, it looked graceful, but a picture formed in Baek Sowol's mind of what it would look like if someone else performed that martial art.

It was a picture of a large group of beggars beating up beast-like humans who were worse than dogs with clubs.

"Dog Beating Staff Technique."

[That's a good name.]

Baek Sowol muttered to herself without realizing it and was startled by Baek Yoonjun's reply.

She looked around, but her master was far away, beating the bandits like he was beating a dog.

"H-how?"

[It's a method of making your vocal cords vibrate with internal energy and circulating it to transmit your voice to a distant opponent. I didn't expect it, but it has the effect of not being heard by those around you. It's quite useful, so I'll teach you the method later.]

Baek Sowol nodded at her master's words, which sounded like they were echoing in her head.

'Come to think of it, there was a story about a similar technique in the martial families. It wasn't something I could use, though.'

It was a technique mentioned even in the martial families she had been acquainted with in the past, so it was Baek Sowol's own logic that her master, who used powerful martial arts, could use it.

To say it was a comfortable thought, Baek Sowol had seen too much from Baek Yoonjun so far, so her thoughts about the technique just now ended there.

At the same time as Baek Sowol finished her thoughts, the situation was already over.

In the first place, it was a group of bandits who had been frozen, unable to lift a hand or foot, from the moment Baek Yoonjun appeared.

In such a situation, when Baek Yoonjun took action, the situation was bound to end quickly.

The sight of Baek Yoonjun, who had finished everything and was quietly examining his fishing rod, looked to the people around him like nothing but the leisure of an unidentified absolute master who had appeared from somewhere.

But Baek Yoonjun, the person in question, was not at ease.

'Phew, that was a close call.'

Baek Yoonjun was relieved inwardly and checked if there were any broken parts on his fishing rod.

'It's a good thing the saber broke at the right timing.'

Baek Yoonjun had blocked the saber with his fishing rod not because he was confident.

It was because his disciple, Baek Sowol, was in danger of being cut by the saber, so he had put forward what was in his hand at the moment.

He thought it would be a relief if he could just buy some time and swung the fishing rod like a sword, but what do you know, the saber broke into two pieces.

'The bandits must have been lazy with their weapon maintenance. How old must the saber be to break in two just by hitting a fishing rod? I was lucky.'

Baek Yoonjun concluded that the fact that the bandit's saber that had aimed for Baek Sowol had broken in two was luck.

After that, seeing all the bandits frozen, Baek Yoonjun thought he was lucky again.

'Well, I cut a man-sized saber in two with a fishing rod, so in their eyes, I must have looked like some absolute master.'

Baek Yoonjun looked down at the bandits groaning at his feet.

In Baek Yoonjun's eyes, all of them, including the bandit who had aimed for Baek Sowol, looked like third-rate thugs.

Normally, he would have just cut them down before they could approach.

'Of all things, I had to leave my sword behind.'

But Baek Yoonjun without his sword was in a state where his confidence was reduced by about 80%.

Baek Yoonjun thought it was a relief that the bandits had mistaken him for an absolute master and frozen.

After that, it was just a very easy task of beating them with a fishing rod until they couldn't move.

'Even if they were third-rate thugs, it would have been a bit scary if they had come at me with swords in a sword fight.'

Baek Yoonjun recalled the situation just now and spread his senses to check if there were any other bandit groups.

Fortunately, the only things caught in his senses were Baek Sowol and the group of merchants.

'Phew, thank goodness.'

Baek Yoonjun was completely relieved.

As his mind calmed down, he remembered beating the bandits with the fishing rod just now.

'It felt pretty good in my hand. The name Dog Beating Staff Technique that Sowol gave it also suits it well.'

Baek Yoonjun decided to call the beating-like martial art he had just displayed with his fishing rod the Dog Beating Staff Technique.

Thinking that he could protect himself by picking up a club lying around if he didn't have a sword, Baek Yoonjun felt even more relieved.

Of course, since it was an internal tremor, to the people around him, it just looked like Baek Yoonjun was being leisurely.

In that not-so-peaceful place, an ironically peaceful silence continued for about the time it takes to eat a meal.

"Ma-master."

Among the remaining people, Baek Sowol, who had the highest martial arts and had lived with Baek Yoonjun, was the first to come to her senses and approach him.

At those words, Baek Yoonjun woke up from his thoughts about the Dog Beating Staff Technique and turned his head.

There was Baek Sowol, with her head hung low, floundering in guilt as if she would crawl into the ground at any moment.

'Is she dispirited because she got caught coming out secretly?'

Baek Yoonjun chuckled at the sight.

He unconsciously and gently stroked Baek Sowol's head.

"Let's deal with those people who don't seem to have grasped the situation yet, and talk later."

"Yes..."

Her voice was still dispirited, but she seemed to have relaxed a little at Baek Yoonjun's gentle demeanor.

After checking on Baek Sowol, Baek Yoonjun this time approached the merchant caravan.

The caravan leader, who was leading this trade among the merchants who saw Baek Yoonjun approaching, quickly came to his senses and bowed his head politely towards Baek Yoonjun.

"Thank you for saving our lives, great hero."

Baek Yoonjun flinched inwardly at the caravan leader's polite greeting.

"Thank you! Great hero!"

"We're alive thanks to you! Great hero!!"

At the continuing thanks from the merchants, Baek Yoonjun broke out in a cold sweat inwardly.

'There are too many people?'

Baek Yoonjun had not holed himself up in the mountains just because he was afraid of martial artists.

The temperament of a homebody enthusiast that had continued from his previous life.

He was uncomfortable with people in the first place.

At least children were fine, but Baek Yoonjun was particularly uncomfortable with people who looked older than his own appearance.

'It's more comfortable to just cut down evil people.'

It was to the point where he was more comfortable swinging his sword at evil people than talking to people.

His head aching from the thank yous that echoed through the forest, Baek Yoonjun opened his mouth to quickly sort out the situation.

"I have only done what is right as a human being."

Baek Yoonjun was inwardly proud of himself for speaking clearly in front of so many people.

'Haa, my heart is pounding. But I spoke well, right? I've improved a lot!'

While Baek Yoonjun was praising his improved self in his heart, the merchants' eyes were sparkling at his words.

'How can he be so humble even after performing such a great act of justice!'

'Such humility in this chaotic era! He is a true knight-errant!'

In the merchants' hearts, Baek Yoonjun was the very hero of a chaotic era that would only appear in stories.

The reason they couldn't say it directly was because of Baek Yoonjun's mysterious atmosphere and aura, and the noble martial arts they had witnessed with their own eyes.

"Thank you for your grace! Great hero!"

All they could do was admire him with their eyes and utter words of thanks with their mouths.

Naturally, for Baek Yoonjun, who was constantly timid on the inside, it was a very burdensome gaze.

"Then I have finished my work, so I will be on my way."

Baek Yoonjun decided to leave the place quickly.

"Gr-great hero! Just a moment...!!"

"Please allow us to repay you for saving our lives!!"

But the merchants who heard those words quickly held Baek Yoonjun back with their words.

'No, I saved you, so please just leave me alone!'

For Baek Yoonjun, it was just embarrassing.

He glanced at the merchants' expressions and saw that they looked like they would beat the ground and wail if he left like this, so Baek Yoonjun couldn't do anything and racked his brain.

'It seems it will be difficult to just leave... Ah! Since they are merchants, they must have a lot of things. Let's just receive something as a reward and end it there.'

Having finished his thought, Baek Yoonjun immediately put his thought into action.

"Seeing as you are merchants, if you have any good items among the goods you handle, I would like to receive that as a reward and end this matter with that."

The caravan leader who heard Baek Yoonjun's words fell into thought, but soon made up his mind and strode towards the cargo wagon.

'To repay the grace of saving our lives, it can't be a light item!'

After rummaging through the luggage for a long time, the caravan leader took out a very luxurious wooden chest.

"L-leader, that is!"

"Say no more. And isn't it the right use for such an item to go to such a great hero?"

The merchants were astonished at the item the caravan leader took out, but they nodded their heads as if they were convinced by the caravan leader's following words.

The caravan leader carefully approached Baek Yoonjun and politely held out the chest.

"It is small compared to the grace of saving our lives, but it is the most precious item in our caravan."

"I will accept it with gratitude."

Normally, he would have refused and uttered words of humility, but Baek Yoonjun, who wanted to leave the place one way or another, accepted the chest the caravan leader held out without refusal and glanced at it, opening it slightly.

As he opened the chest, a fragrant scent spread in all directions.

The caravan leader's nose was tickled by the scent, and the contents of the chest came to his mind.

'A thousand-year-old fleeceflower root. It was said to be a peerless spiritual medicine that martial artists would want to get their hands on even if it meant causing a bloodbath.'

The caravan leader was proud that such a peerless spiritual medicine had returned to its rightful owner.

On the other hand, Baek Yoonjun was very disappointed after checking the contents of the chest.

'It really is small. This is all over my backyard, isn't it?'

Baek Yoonjun thought hard about why such a reward had come back to him and came to a conclusion.

'They must be a poor merchant caravan.'

Then he looked over the merchants with a distant look in his eyes.

(End of Chapter)