Servant.
Those who, unable to make ends meet, had no choice but to board at another's house and serve at the beck and call of their employer. Simply put, a servant.
Though the relationship between servant and employer was bound by contract, most contracts were useless or rather became the beginnings of shackles. This was because the contracts were managed not by the authorities but by the employers themselves. Employers could tear up and rewrite contracts at will as it suited them. In particular, servants belonging to martial arts sects were closer to slaves than servants. According to the principle of non-interference between government and martial arts, the authorities remained indifferent to the servants of martial arts sects unless something extraordinary occurred.
They knew these people were being exploited, but it was already beyond the government's domain.
***
Sosam was a groom for the Danri Family.
He had originally been the third son of an impoverished slash-and-burn farmer. Though not affluent, those had been happy times. Then one day, when he was five years old, a typhoon struck, killing his entire family and leaving him the sole survivor.
Afterward, Sosam lived as a wandering beggar without a household registration. Then, simply because he had knocked on the Danri Family's gate to beg, he became a servant of the Danri Family.
For over ten years now, he had been tending the family's horses.
Naturally, as a servant, he was stuck doing all the dirty work within the Danri Family. Not to mention cleaning throughout the estate, he sometimes did kitchen chores and occasionally even had to clean the latrines. He was a groom in name only—the only times Sosam actually felt like a groom were when he walked the horses morning and evening, and when he slept. His bed was the stable.
Living in the stable, his body naturally became permeated with the distinctive rank smell of horses, rotting hay piles, and horse manure. Combined with his lowly status, this stench made even other lowly people avoid him.
For these various reasons, the people within the estate called him not by his real name Sosam, but Horse Dung Sam.
Horse from groom, Dung meaning he smelled of horse manure, and Sam from Sosam.
These three combined to make Horse Dung Sam. To Sosam—no, Horse Dung Sam—the Danri Family was home, but on the other hand, it was also hell.
***
As usual, Horse Dung Sam was having another grueling day today.
Machil, one of the weapon servants, had mobilized Horse Dung Sam for his personal errands—a frequent occurrence made possible because no one paid any attention to Horse Dung Sam. Among the rock-bottom servants, Horse Dung Sam occupied the very lowest position.
The two had now come to a weapons shop in Bongyang to receive custom-made weapons ordered for the Danri Family's warriors.
"Is that Machil?"
The shop owner came out and greeted Machil first. Since the Danri Family was Bongyang's largest sect, they were the number one customer at any weapons shop in Bongyang. Naturally, this weapons shop owner also supplied many weapons to the Danri Family and was well acquainted with Machil, a weapon servant of the Danri Family.
"I've come to collect all the spears, halberds, swords, sabers, and maces ordered a month ago."
"Ah, perfect timing. I barely slept these past months and only finished yesterday."
The shop owner made the usual merchant's complaints while bringing out the finished products. The quantity was enormous, so the owner had to go back and forth to the storage several times before he could place all the weapons before Machil.
Machil gave them a cursory glance and paid. It wasn't like he'd be using them anyway—as long as they looked decent on the outside, it didn't matter to him.
"But did just the two of you come? I don't see a cart either—will you two be able to carry everything to the Danri Family? It's quite far."
"What's there to worry about? I have this excellent horse right here."
Machil grinned crookedly and struck the chest of Horse Dung Sam standing beside him hard.
Thwack.
Scrawny Horse Dung Sam, who was nothing but skin and bones, collapsed helplessly onto the weapons shop floor from Machil's punch.
Despite witnessing this, the shop owner merely shook his head and turned away. Even if he said something, they wouldn't listen anyway, and it was an internal matter of the Danri Family. No one in Bongyang didn't know of Horse Dung Sam's circumstances, but no one stepped forward for him either. People in such circumstances existed everywhere in the Central Plains.
"Hey, Horse Dung Sam. What are you doing? Get up right now and carry the weapons. Unless you want to die in that position."
"..."
Horse Dung Sam got up without a word of complaint and shouldered as many weapons as he could carry. Today would probably be entirely spent just moving these weapons into the estate.
"I have business at Bongyang Inn, so I'll be there. Come there when you're done moving everything. Got it?"
"..."
Horse Dung Sam merely nodded without answering. It was his way of conserving energy to speak, given his poor nutritional state. But not answering was not an excellent survival tactic.
Thwack.
Machil punched Horse Dung Sam's face. Horse Dung Sam collapsed to the floor again. Blood faintly stained the corner of his mouth—his lip must have split.
"Hey, you bastard. Answer me, answer. Are you disrespecting me because we share the surname Ma?"
"N-no, sir..."
Finally, Horse Dung Sam's mouth opened. Like his emaciated body, his voice was as dry and poor as parched sand, and as he spoke, blood trickled out of his mouth. Not just his lip but his tongue and the roof of his mouth inside had torn badly as well.
Thwack.
Seeing Horse Dung Sam bleeding, Machil kicked him in the face again. This time the impact must have been greater—Horse Dung Sam rolled all the way to the corner of the weapons shop and slammed into it.
Though he had no strength, he lifted his head with all his might to look at Machil. His eyes, bloodshot with burst capillaries, seemed to be saying:
Why? Why? Why...?
"Ah, because of that bastard, blood splattered all over the weapons. Unlucky bastard. Always useless no matter what he does."
Just because of that...?
Horse Dung Sam—no, Sosam—was truly miserable. Each day was too hard to live, and he just wanted to die. But even finding the courage to die wasn't easy. Every time he tried to die, he got scared and gave up.
Each time, he resolved to live diligently again with the courage it took to die... but soon the desire to die returned. As this cycle repeated, even the courage to live had dwindled away.
Unable to die, yet difficult to live....
Sosam hated himself so much for being such a coward, neither one thing nor the other.
He groped along the wall and barely managed to stand.
Stumble stumble.
Though staggering, he approached Machil.
Tap tap, Machil lightly pushed his forehead with his fingers. Followed by his contemptuous tone.
"Move all the weapons and wipe off all the splattered blood too. I'll check later, and if there's even one drop of blood left, be prepared to spill a bucket of blood from your mouth for each drop. Got it?"
"Yes..."
With that threat, Machil left the weapons shop. As he'd said earlier, he was heading to Bongyang Inn.
Sosam knew well why he was going there. Nine times out of ten, he was going to meet a courtesan. Machil would spend his time there fondling the courtesan's flesh until Sosam finished moving all the weapons.
Swipe swipe.
With the scrap of cloth the shop owner handed him, Sosam wiped the blood from his mouth. It was the only help the shop owner could offer. It was truly nothing, but tears welled up in Sosam's eyes. Within the Danri Family, no one did even this much for him. He was merely the most useless, smelly servant in the estate, worth less than a bug.
He handed the bloodied cloth scrap back to the shop owner with thanks. Then he laboriously shouldered two spears and left the weapons shop.
***
Huff huff.
Rough breaths poured out, and
Drip drip.
Hot sweat flowed endlessly.
By evening, utterly exhausted, Sosam finally finished moving all the weapons. Seeing him, the shop owner said:
"Why don't you rest a bit? Your complexion doesn't look good. Like..."
The shop owner swallowed the rest—that he looked like someone about to die. He felt that if he said something so inauspicious, it might actually come true.
"I'm fine..."
Sosam said this and moved his body again. Every bone in his body creaked, and his muscles cried out for rest, but he had to move.
Leaving behind the shop owner's pitying gaze, Sosam exited the weapons shop.
Though staggering as if about to die, he proceeded step by step toward Bongyang Inn. Perhaps from overexertion, his breathing had become dangerously rough and sweat poured down. If he pushed himself even a little more in this state, he might really die.
Nevertheless, he managed not to collapse and reached Bongyang Inn.
"Stop."
"Why... are you stopping me?"
"Why? You fucker. Would you let someone like you inside if you were me?"
"..."
The inn's server, having looked Sosam's filthy body up and down, pinched his nose with two fingers and refused him entry. Though he was dirty to begin with, Sosam's appearance right now was truly appalling. The blood he'd shed from being beaten by Machil and the sweat from moving weapons had mixed with grime to make him a complete mess. In the end, he asked the server to tell Machil that the work was finished, then turned around.
He'd obviously be questioned later by Machil about why he didn't deliver the message personally and had the server do it, but Sosam had no choice. If he didn't hurry back and rest, he felt like he might really die.
"...It's hard. I just... want to rest..."
Though his heart was racing toward the Danri Family stable—that shabby but personal sanctuary—his body wouldn't obey. He was so exhausted he wanted to lie down right there in the street. At this point, it might be easier to just collapse from exhaustion and die.
Damn it, damn it.
Contrary to such thoughts, even in this state he apparently wanted to live.
Though staggering even more than before, his two feet crossed Bongyang's main street dyed red by the setting sun, heading toward the estate.
Kuk... kukuk.
Without meaning to, a twisted laugh leaked through his torn lips. Sosam... Sosam, do you want to prolong this bug-like life even in this way? He asked himself.
"Yeah... Yes. Even like this..."
I don't want to die.
Let's live. Yes, let's live. If I keep living, someday good days will come.
"Hey, Horse Dung Sam."
Someone was calling when he was dying of exhaustion.
Sosam lifted his heavy eyelids to identify the voice's owner. His vision was blurred so he couldn't easily identify who it was, but he lifted his head fully.
Thud.
He felt himself bump into someone he thought was the voice's owner.