Ballad of the Mountain Fox

제 8 장: The Servant's Lament

Won Soo cowered in the bushes by the side of the road, listening anxiously for the sound of his master’s voice.  Despite Won Soo’s protests, Young Min had ridden off to the rescue when they had heard the cries for help, ordering his loyal servant to wait for his return.

But what if the thieves Young Min had gone to fight had overpowered the young master?  What if, because Won Soo had failed in preventing Young Min from once again playing the noble hero, Minister Park’s son was now lying in a ditch somewhere up ahead, never to reach his uncle’s home in Miryang?  After all, the young master had been seemingly ill as of late, although he had done his best to conceal it.  But every now and then, Won Soo would catch the grimace of pain that would briefly flit across Young Min’s face.

As the minutes wore on, Won Soo began to panic.  There was no sign of Young Min, and he began to fear that his master was dead!  And it was all his fault.  Minister Park would have his head for failing to look after his only son!  Won Soo knew he shouldn’t have let Young Min go off by himself when he wasn’t feeling well—

Something nudged Won Soo’s shoulder, and the terrified servant let out a muffled scream and nearly fell over in fear, only to come face-to-face with his horse.

Trying to compose himself, the servant closed his eyes and took a deep breath. Now that his fearful mental ramblings had been interrupted, he tried to think clearly.  If his master didn’t call for him soon, he would have to prepare himself, as no doubt he would be retrieving a body full of arrows…

“Won Soo!”

The servant nearly jumped out of his skin at the voice.

“Won Soo!  You can come out now!  Where are you?”

“Young Master!”  The servant jumped up from his hiding place and took his horse by the reins.  Never had he been so happy to hear the scholar’s voice than at that moment.

Leading his horse up the road, Won Soo soon met up with Young Min and the pile of dead thieves he had confronted.

“Young master!” Won Soo cried out again.  “I’m so relieved!  I couldn’t hear anything and I was so worried you were—”  He fell silent, finally noticing that they weren’t alone.  “Who’s that?”

Young Min looked at the scrawny boy to his left.  “Oh, uh.  I found him hiding in the bushes after the attack.  I think he might have been hoping to get some of the merchants’ valuables as well.”

“I was not!” the scrawny boy protested, and Won Soo blinked in surprise at how high-pitched his voice was.  “I wasn’t going to do anything.  Please, let me go.  The rope is hurting my wrists.”

“Goodness, he sounds like a girl!” Won Soo exclaimed, oblivious to the way both the suspected thief and his master tensed at the comment.  “How old are you, boy?”

The boy cleared his throat and looked down at the ground, answering in a slightly deeper voice, “Uh…nineteen.”

“And what’s a boy like you doing here, anyway?” Won Soo asked.  “Don’t you have a farm or something to attend to?  A family to look after?”

The boy merely fixed him with a glare.

Won Soo refused to let on that he was intimidated by the glower, and instead turned to Young Min.  “It’s a good thing you caught him, young master,” he appraised.  “With such a scruffy appearance and no familial obligations, the boy is obviously up to no good.”

Young Min gave a tight-lipped smile.  “Thank you for that assessment, Won Soo, but I think we’ll just let the local magistrate decide—”

“I was just trying to get to Busan,” the boy growled.