My Dad Is the Strongest Under Heaven
Chapter 43
Chapter 43
43화. The World of the Small and the Forgotten
Dan Heeyoung, the matriarch of the Hebei Peng Clan, was having tea with her daughter, Peng Seoyeon.
Yul-i, who had been running around energetically until just a while ago, was now fast asleep, nestled in Seoyeon’s arms.
“…Are you worried?”
After sharing tea in quiet companionship for a time, Dan Heeyoung asked her daughter, whose face kept clouding over with intermittent concern.
Seoyeon had tried her best to hide it, but concealing such feelings from her own mother was never an easy task.
Having her inner turmoil laid bare, Peng Seoyeon instinctively shook her head.
“N-no, Mother.”
“You do not have to hide such things before your mother.”
At Dan Heeyoung’s gentle words, Seoyeon let out a heavy sigh and gave a slight nod.
Before long, the worry she had been suppressing became plainly visible across her countenance.
“Sigh… Honestly, I am. I know this is routine work for the Peng Clan’s warriors, but he isn’t like them.”
“That is true. But as you know, even if the White Wolf Troop causes their fair share of trouble, they are more righteous than anyone. Their martial prowess is exceptional as well, so they will surely assist him well. So do not worry so much.”
“…Yes.”
She understood. Peng Seoyeon tried her best to believe that everything would go just as Dan Heeyoung said.
Yet human anxiety is never something that ceases simply because one wills it away.
A bandit subjugation, of all things.
Even for someone who had trained in the martial arts for years, it was a perilous endeavor that warranted serious concern.
It was by no means a light undertaking.
What was more, until very recently, her husband was a scholar who had spent his days reading and teaching books in a small rural village.
To send such a man to……
Haa.
The more she dwelled on it, the only thing that came was another heavy sigh.
Dan Heeyoung reached out and grasped her daughter’s hand tightly.
In truth, though Dan Heeyoung comforted her daughter with words, telling her not to worry and that nothing would go wrong, she too was barely suppressing the fury boiling inside her.
Dan Heeyoung had only learned that Yeo Woonhwi was assigned to lead the White Wolf Troop after he had already departed with them on the subjugation mission.
To handle her request in such a reckless manner……
No wonder he had agreed to her plea with such unusual compliance that day.
Ha, really.
At times, even though he was her husband, Dan Heeyoung could not help but think him utterly eccentric.
She genuinely wanted to sit him down and ask about his line of reasoning—how her modest, simple request to assign him a minor administrative post had somehow mutated into making him the Captain of the White Wolf Troop.
Regardless, the sheer absurdity of it nearly drew a dry laugh.
Naturally, she could not help but be enraged.
However, for now, she resolved to unleash her anger only after her son-in-law concluded this matter safely and returned.
As long as he came back unharmed, she intended to give her husband such an earful that he would wonder if a person could truly breathe fire from their mouth.
Meanwhile, Peng Seoyeon was also harboring a deep resentment toward her father today for blindly saddling her husband with the White Wolf Troop.
She could not fathom what on earth he had been thinking.
And she felt that she would never, for the rest of her life, understand that decision.
When she had first heard the news, she had gone out of her way to seek him out, protesting that this made no sense and was utterly impossible, pleading for the order to be rescinded. Yet why her husband had willingly chosen to follow that directive at that very moment was equally beyond her comprehension.
Her father and her husband.
These two men were giving Peng Seoyeon a throbbing headache.
Now that things had come to this, she resolved to urge her husband to learn martial arts, even if it was late, as soon as he returned.
No, not merely urge—she would outright force him.
Of course, she knew very well that expecting any grand achievement at his age was unreasonable.
Unless one was an extraordinary prodigy, it was difficult to even reach the caliber of an ordinary warrior.
Still, it would be far better than knowing nothing at all.
Hmm.
Peng Seoyeon turned her head and gazed up at the sky.
The weather was wonderfully clear.
As if completely indifferent to the turmoil in her heart.
At any rate, right now, her sole wish above all else was for him to return safely.
“Oh heavens! Thank you, thank you so very much, honored warriors!”
“To think we will never have to lay eyes on those beastly bandits again… You have saved our lives. Thank you! Truly, thank you!”
“Sob… I do not know how we can ever repay this boundless grace.”
“Are you hungry? Please, at least have some of these potatoes.”
“We have corn here as well!”
“I-I have some too……”
The village was in a boisterous uproar.
The grim, suffocating atmosphere that had hung over the village for so long had completely dissipated.
Some wept openly with tears streaming down their cheeks, while others beamed brightly as they crowded around the White Wolf Troop, each offering whatever provisions they could carry.
Surrounded by such earnest gratitude, the warriors of the White Wolf Troop could only exchange awkward, sheepish smiles.
Having just eradicated the bandit stronghold, the White Wolf Troop had returned to the village that had originally requested the subjugation.
The villagers had initially stared with blank, stunned expressions at the sight of the White Wolf Troop returning—limping, barely supporting one another.
And when they heard the full account of what had happened, every single one of them was struck with utter astonishment.
“Y-you completely wiped out the bandit fortress? And the Extreme Evil Laughing Demon… No, what on earth……?”
Had anyone else heard this claim, they would have assumed the warriors were boasting wildly to gullible villagers.
Yet the villagers had no choice but to believe it.
Anyone who laid eyes on the White Wolf Troop would have done the same.
The severe wounds marring their bodies bore undeniable proof of a catastrophic clash, and above all, their eyes were not the eyes of men who bragged or spun falsehoods.
Furthermore, having witnessed the severed head of the Extreme Evil Laughing Demon brought back by the White Wolf Troop, doubt was impossible.
Indeed.
Just as the warriors said, the bandits that had terrorized the village were finally gone for good.
At that revelation, the villagers had all poured out into the open to express their deepest thanks.
Their hands were filled with whatever food they could muster—ears of corn, potatoes, and simple fare.
Of course, it was by no means because they had abundance to spare.
Even just yesterday, they were fretting over whether their meager rations would last them through the week.
Yet right now, none of that mattered.
For standing before them were benefactors who had granted them a salvation they could never repay in a lifetime.
To be frank, the villagers had never dreamed in their wildest imaginations that the White Wolf Troop would go to such lengths for them.
At most, they had expected the warriors to chase the bandits off once, take all the credit, and leave.
In truth, they had reason to expect nothing more.
Constantly tormented by bandits, the village had desperately needed help.
Yet whenever they begged for aid, they were usually ignored. Even when they managed to pool their money to hire martial artists, those warriors would frequently put on a brief show, take their coin, and depart.
And the situation never changed in the slightest.
After that cycle repeated several times, any hope of their plight improving had vanished entirely from the villagers’ hearts.
Even while the village chief and a few others refused to give up, desperately seeking aid across the region and struggling by any means necessary, the entire village had remained cloaked in despair for that very reason.
Because they could no longer harbor hope.
That was why the villagers had shown no sign of welcome when the White Wolf Troop first arrived.
They had believed that all these newcomers would bring was another round of disappointment and an unchanging reality.
They were weary of clinging to fragile hopes only to end up hurt and disillusioned once more.
Yet beyond all belief, the White Wolf Troop was entirely different from anyone they had ever encountered.
They had cut down every bandit who came to extort tribute from the village, tracked down the mountain fortress itself, and wiped them all out.
On top of that, they accomplished the unbelievable feat of beheading the Extreme Evil Laughing Demon, one of the Absolute Great Evils entrenched within.
How, then, could they not be profoundly grateful!
Even those living in such a remote mountain village knew the name of the Extreme Evil Laughing Demon.
There was no one who did not know what a terrifying master and monstrous slaughterer he was.
The realization that such an arch-fiend had taken root in the stronghold, manipulating the bandits from the shadows, sent chills down the villagers’ spines.
Had the White Wolf Troop not claimed the villain’s head today, the villagers would have faced horrific slaughter at the demon’s hands in the near future.
What if they had done nothing, listening to those who claimed no one would help them and that requesting aid from the Hebei Peng Clan was futile?
Their blood ran cold at the thought.
In the end, it was the White Wolf Troop who had prevented that worst-case catastrophe from coming to pass.
The villagers had eyes, and they could see.
The warriors, who had looked completely whole when they first arrived, had returned battered and bloodied.
Cuts, slashes, and torn flesh covered them from head to toe, their faces and clothes drenched in crimson.
Even at a glance, gaping wounds that looked agonizing to bear were scattered across their bodies.
Yet they were smiling.
Reassuring everyone that the bandits were gone, and that they could finally rest in peace.
At this point, it was almost incomprehensible.
Why had they gone so far for a poor, insignificant village that could never offer them any grand reward?
For what purpose, truly?
They did not know. No matter how much they thought about it, they could not fathom why.
Yet a surge of overwhelming emotion welled up within the villagers’ chests at such sheer benevolence.
Reaching that realization, they could not simply stand by.
The villagers wanted to bring out every scrap of food and whatever else they had hidden away in their homes to offer them.
Yet the White Wolf Troop went one step further.
They distributed the wealth from the bandit fortress—including rice and provisions—among the villagers and the surrounding settlements.
They stated as if it were only natural, saying that since all of this had been taken from the people in the first place, it was only right that it returned to its rightful owners.
Yet the villagers did not take it for granted.
Even if the troop had kept the spoils after risking their lives to save them from a living hell, no one would have dared utter a word of complaint.
No, even if one or two people did, it could have easily been dismissed.
For no one in the world would have blamed them.
If anything, people would have criticized the villagers for being overly greedy.
Yet they had returned every single bit as though it were the most natural thing in the world.
“Thank you. Thank you so much.”
Those words poured endlessly from the lips of the villagers.
Coming straight from the depths of their hearts, the gratitude could not be easily halted.
Thus, smiles returned to the faces of those who had languished so long in deep despair that they had forgotten the very notions of hope and happiness.
And,
“Heroes… They are true heroes.”
The village chief murmured as he watched the departing backs of the White Wolf Troop, who smiled and waved to the villagers before quietly continuing on their way without claiming any credit.
Every villager nodded in agreement at his words.
How could anyone deny it?
If saving the realm is what makes a hero, then they had saved the world of these small, forgotten people.
To them, without a doubt, these men were true heroes.