The Outcast Writer of a Martial Arts Visual Novel - Chapter 103: Okcheon Express Agency (5)

“Do you want to receive a drink from me?”

The leader of the Black Tiger Gang raised one corner of his mouth in a smirk and said to me with a look of amusement, as if saying ‘Look at this guy.’

“Yes! In this Black Tiger Gang, a gathering place for the heroes of the mountains like the Band of the Hawk! I would be honored to receive a drink poured by the Gang Leader, the hero among heroes!”

I knelt on one knee and lifted my cup with both hands.

“Kuhuhu. You black-haired brat! You’re really trying to get out of this, you barbarian! If you don’t want your skull smashed after drinking, then speak the truth!”

The gang leader stroked his beard, looking at me with a testing gaze, but he couldn’t hide the smile on his lips.

It’s blatantly sycophantic, but it’s a situation that ensured that he couldn’t help but feel good.

It’s amateurish to outright beg for release here. This was when you should act a bit more cunning.

“Haha. Then I will boast to the King of Hell himself that I’ve received a drink from a true hero!”

“Really. You want to drink the liquor I pour so much that you’d give up that gold? Kuhuhu. You’re really funny. Alright! I’ll pour you a drink! Hey! Bring over the best liquor!”

Pleased with my response, the gang leader smiled contentedly and poured a generous amount of liquor from a newly brought bottle into my cup.

“This liquor, more precious than gold and jewels! I will drink it with gratitude!”

I bowed to the gang leader with a sincerely grateful expression, then followed the traditional Korean drinking etiquette by turning my head away and drinking.

“Why are you turning your head away to drink?”

“Although I am a barbarian, I know from my elementary learning that one should not drink liquor in front of an elder. How could I dare to drink in front of the greatest elder of the Black Tiger Gang, the Gang Leader.”

“Kuhuhu. This guy, this guy is really interesting.”

The gang leader laughed, looking at me with an amused face.

“Gang Leader! You don’t have any liquor in your cup right now, so please allow me the honor of pouring it for you.”

I deliberately held the liquor bottle with a bow, making it difficult for him to refuse.

“Treating a barbarian too well too often can lead to bad habits.”

“Haha. Where else would you find a barbarian as courteous as me? Having received the honor of you pouring liquor for me, it would be a lifelong honor to have the chance to pour in return.”

“Kuhuhu. Alright, pour it!”

I carefully poured the liquor into the Black Tiger Gang Leader’s cup with both hands.

“Kuh. Sweet! Sweet! You guys should learn from this barbarian! I said I’d smash your skulls if you can’t tell an interesting story! Your balls must’ve shrunk!”

“……”

The members of the Black Tiger Gang were dumbfounded, unable to respond, just watching the scene.

Gentlemen. I understand. It’s for this reason I also hated company dinners. You could eat tasty food at home without having to listen to unpleasant things and end up with indigestion.

But what could you do if you wanted to survive in society? Internally curse while smiling on the outside, sharing many drinks with the boss and the manager.

After pouring the drink and bowing to the Black Tiger Gang Leader, I quietly stepped back.

Now, here comes the problem.

As I stepped back, the bandit who had dragged me here approached me.

‘Could it be that I’m being dragged back to jail just like that?’

You’re taking me away after I caught the Gang Leader’s fancy? Sure, I had eaten and drunk, but it felt too unsatisfactory to end it here.

“Hey! You guys! Quickly prepare a separate feast for the hard-working barbarian! What are you doing! Do I need to spell out everything for you to understand!”

The gang leader yelled at his subordinates, looking at me as if I was about to be dragged away.

“Yes, yes! Understood!”

“These idiots. Damn. There’s no talent. No talent.”

The bandit who was about to drag me away quickly left to prepare the feast after being scolded by the gang leader.

Fortunately, it seemed I wouldn’t be sent back after all.

I began to eat slowly at the feast laid out before me, this time without the concern of anyone watching me.

My act of receiving and pouring drinks for the Gang Leader wasn’t just to curry favor with him.

It’s a tradition of hospitality.

Being treated by the host, whether in the East or West, creates an unspoken agreement between the host and the guest not to harm one another.

“Brothers! Please, accept my drink too!”

Pretending to be drunk and fearless, I grinned and stood before the bandits with a bottle in my hand.

“You barbarian! Go ahead and pour one!”

“My cup is empty too! Fill it up!”

“Hey! There’s a hierarchy even for water! I’ll start with the green-haired brother here!”

“Heh! That’s right! This guy knows his place!”

Having shared drinks with the Black Tiger Gang Leader, the bandits were implicitly bound not to harm me carelessly.

I seized the opportunity, eagerly offering drinks to the bandits with green hair or those transitioning towards green, in an effort to gain their favor.

“Ugh! I’m drunk! The feast is over, so I’ll be heading to that jail over there! Which brother has the key?”

Stumbling as I walked, I pointed towards the jail. Guys, I’m going. You’re not really going to send me, right?

Then, two bandits from the Black Tiger Gang, looking surprised, grabbed my shoulders and exclaimed.

“Are you crazy! What jail for a guest storyteller!”

“This guy is trying to get us scolded by the Gang Leader! We’ll prepare a bed for you. Just keep telling those Band of the Hawk stories and go to sleep!”

The bandits acted like managers coaxing a hesitant junior to a second round, encouraging me to stay.

“If that’s the case, there’s still much I haven’t shared about the Band of the Hawk, so I’ll continue until everyone falls asleep.”

“Good!”

At least I’d be lying down properly instead of sitting in jail.

“Wait. Where are you planning to sleep, this barbarian?”

As I was happily speaking, suddenly the green-haired bandits appeared behind me with serious faces.

These guys, don’t tell me they’re going to cause trouble.

“Ha ha. That’s not what I meant… I was saying we’re taking him to the jail.”

Wow. A quicker change of stance than Hong Gil-dong’s transformation. Was it because a superior appeared? The bandits immediately switched their tone.

Did these bandits not know anything about the custom of hospitality? Things were turning sour.

The officer, seeing the bandits all tensed up, smiled and spoke up.

“You guys are too tense. Why bring him to your cramped quarters? Hey! Guest storyteller! Our officer’s quarters are spacious. Come stay with us.”

The bandits gestured for me to come over.

“Ha ha. Thank you!”

Wow. Suddenly upgraded from economy to business class.

“Yeah. We have beds in our quarters. Stay in the officer’s quarters and tell us more about the

Band of the Hawk.”

“No! That’s too much, officer! We want to hear the Band of the Hawk stories too!”

The bandits complained to the green-haired officers with a look of injustice.

“You were going to send him to jail, weren’t you?”

Right. A man of the Central Plains, not a barbarian, should speak the truth and act according to the principles of honesty and integrity.

You shouldn’t change your words just because a superior said something.

“No, you were listening the whole time.”

“Enough. You guys will hear it next time! Let’s go!”

I followed the officer into the quarters.

The officer’s quarters were indeed spacious and comfortable for sleeping, thanks to a massive forced retirement to the netherworld that happened recently.

I found myself in a situation where I was neither a guest nor a prisoner.

In such a situation, becoming a burden would surely mean a trip back to jail. This was the time to continue asserting my usefulness.

“No! Brothers, if you’re going to reinforce the fence, you should do it properly. How can you dig like that? Give it here! Digging is done like this!”

I demonstrated my skillful digging, putting my weight into the shovel.

“Wow. You’re pretty good at that?”

“Before I became a storyteller, I was a prized apprentice of a master carpenter.”

I boasted with a proud expression on my face.

“Kid, you’re lying. Who’s the master carpenter, some dog’s name?”

“You don’t believe me? I was so favored by the master carpenter that I even held the line for him on the opposite side when he was marking with a chalk line on the wood.”

Though I didn’t do much beyond menial tasks, in these situations, even a small experience, if spoken of with enough confidence, is half accepted.

“Kid, there’s a certain way you handle the shovel. Alright, help us out for now.”

In situations like this, it’s best to look for any work available and offer help.

Thus, I naturally began to participate in the work site, transitioning from being neither a guest nor a prisoner to a needed talent within the Black Tiger Gang.

And my role wasn’t limited to just labor.

“A young boy, who wanted to become a member of the Band of the Hawk, was watching his father, unable to pay the rent, being beaten by the landlord’s men, tears streaming down his face…”

“What happened next?”

During lunch and rest, as I sat in the clearing telling stories of the Band of the Hawk, the bandits of the Black Tiger Gang gathered around me, engrossed in the tale as if it were from the Adventures of Hong Gildong.

“Hong Gildong wrapped his arm around the boy’s shoulder and exclaimed, ‘Who dares to make the future of the great Band of the Hawk cry!’ And just like that, the Band of the Hawk appeared out of nowhere like clouds!”

“Wow, that’s cool.”

“How did the boy find the Band of the Hawk?”

“Idiot. They use magic to find everyone! Hong Gildong, who can appear instantly from east to west, wouldn’t be able to do that?”

“That makes sense. I also want to join the Band of the Hawk.”

“Me too. I’d rather be a righteous outlaw than a common bandit.”

The bandits of the Black Tiger Gang seemed to dreamily imagine themselves as members of the Band of the Hawk.

This was an opportunity.

An opportunity for tailored moral education for the bandits.

“Brothers! What’s the Band of the Hawk! Aren’t all of you here heroes and warriors just like them! Becoming a righteous outlaw isn’t hard! Just like Hong Gildong, don’t kill the poor! Rob those who look wealthy! And distribute some of your surplus to the village! Isn’t that what being a righteous outlaw is all about?”

Especially if there’s a poor man among them who came from a noble family in Joseon, lost his childhood friend early on, saw his bosom friend die, and ended up doing storyteller work in a twist of fate.

You know you shouldn’t kill such a pitiable man, even if he couldn’t pay the ransom, right?

“Is that all it takes to be part of the Band of the Hawk?”

“Can you really become a righteous outlaw with just that?”

“Yes! You can! Why not! Just live by the principle of goodness!”

Make sure I was included in that principle of goodness. Or else, let me out of the Black Tiger Gang’s moral compass.

I began to give the bandits a crash course on how to become a member of the Band of the Hawk, driven by a desperate will to live.

“If we do as the messenger says, becoming a righteous outlaw seems easy!”

“Being a righteous outlaw isn’t much!”

“Can we really be respected like the Band of the Hawk by doing just that?”

The bandits of the Black Tiger Gang clenched their fists in realization and joy.

‘That might be a bit too enthusiastic.’

The mood had inadvertently become overly charged. I had only intended a simple moral lesson.

I didn’t expect the bandits to listen so intently, thinking they would ignore half of what I said.

I brushed it off, attributing their proper understanding of moral lessons to a deep resonance with the story of Hong Gildong.

That was until I realized something had gone awry, all because of the stories of Hong Gildong and lessons on being a righteous outlaw.