With a sudden gunshot that rang out of nowhere, one wolf from the Wolf Pack collapsed.
Before the other wolves could even react properly, more gunshots followed in succession.
Bang! Bang! Bang!
The gunshots rang out continuously, and a wolf fell with every report.
Finally realizing the situation, the wolves turned around and fled fiercely.
As the wolves began to retreat, I did not miss the opportunity.
I quickly pulled out the gun that had been placed on my horse’s back for easy access and fired at them.
Now that gunshots had already been heard, it was better to show that we also possessed the ability to defend ourselves.
Bang!
Bang!
Bang!
Bang!
Since my gun was a single-shot rifle, I had to remove the casing and reload after every shot.
Therefore, while loading the first round into the gun, I tucked three extra bullets between the fingers of my left hand and fired in rapid succession.
I fired a total of four shots, and four wolves collapsed.
Since this was before the appearance of Smokeless Powder, my gun naturally used Black Powder.
The thick, characteristic smoke momentarily obscured my vision, but it did not last long.
Having used all the bullets I had held between my fingers, I pulled four more from my pocket, loaded one into the gun, and tucked the remaining three between my fingers again.
The wolves fled quickly and hid in the distant forest, but three wolves remained that had not yet reached the trees.
These were the ones I had struck with my spear earlier; their legs were injured, and they lagged behind, unable to escape properly.
Bang!
Bang!
Bang!
Three gunshots rang out, and the three that couldn’t escape collapsed one after another.
However, I didn’t fire all of them.
I had only fired one shot; the other two were fired by people approaching from a distance.
Starting with Taeseok, the seven companions who had crossed the border with me looked shocked by my marksmanship, but I was the one surprised by the skill of the person approaching from over there.
Naturally, my marksmanship was an ability I received through my regression, whereas that person possessed pure, natural skill.
The man who approached us scanned our group and spoke.
“Kareisky (Koryo-saram)?”
There were many Chinese people in this area, but there were also quite a few Joseon people, so most could distinguish between them just by their clothing.
Taeseok and the others were too intimidated to speak, so I stepped forward, nodded, and answered.
“Yes, we are Koryo-saram.”
“There are Koryo-saram in our village too, so I can tell just by your clothes. Was it you who shot the wolves just now?”
“Yes, I shot them.”
The man looked to be in his mid-thirties.
He looked me up and down again and spoke.
“You still look young. Where did you learn to shoot?”
“I learned by following my Father. He used to cross the Tuman River to do business, and I learned various things while following him.”
In Joseon, crossing the Tuman River for trade was illegal, and my father’s profession was nothing more than a Smuggler, but on Russian soil, he was simply a merchant.
No Russian person considered it illegal or a bad thing.
“You speak Russian very well. Did you learn that by following your Father as well?”
“Yes, I naturally learned Russian because I frequently met Russian people while following my Father since I was a child.”
While we were talking, a man who seemed to be a companion of the man I was speaking with slowly rode his horse over and shouted.
“Mikhail Ivanovich, was it true that people were being attacked?”
The man named Mikhail, who had been speaking to me, replied.
“Yuliy Ivanovich, why don’t you come here and see for yourself? Something truly amazing has happened, so tell the Skipper to get over here quickly too.”
For reference, Ivanovich is not a last name; it is a Russian patronymic meaning “son of Ivan.”
Therefore, even though the two were both called Ivanovich, it did not mean they were brothers or relatives.
The man called Yuliy Ivanovich said.
“The Skipper isn’t on horseback like us; he’s driving a wagon, so he can’t move that quickly.”
“Skipper” was not a name but a term for the captain of a small boat, a nickname usually given to someone who had spent their life working on the water.
Sure enough, another person appeared behind Yuliy Ivanovich, driving a wagon pulled by three horses.
In the meantime, the other people aside from me gathered the wolf carcasses scattered about.
They asked how to handle the six wolves killed by Mikhail Ivanovich, excluding the five I had taken down.
Cheonjin-daek said to me.
“We are going to skin the ones you caught. Can you ask if we can skin the ones he caught as well? And do those people eat wolf meat?”
“Wolf meat smells worse than dog meat and won’t taste good. Do you really want to eat it?”
“Then should we just throw away something this precious?”
People from Hamgyeong-do generally had more opportunities to hunt wild animals than people from southern Joseon, so they ate meat quite often.
While wolf meat had a strong smell and tasted poor, it wasn’t inedible.
I nodded and said to Mikhail Ivanovich.
“Shall we skin the wolves you caught for you, Sir? And if you don’t happen to eat wolf meat, would it be alright if we kept it?”
Mikhail Ivanovich nodded.
“I would be grateful if you skinned them. And we don’t eat wolf meat, so you may do as you wish with it.”
Wolf skins are sold at the lowest price among wild animal pelts, but they aren’t completely worthless.
We could sell them, or if they didn’t sell, we could use them ourselves.
Once permission was granted, the three women—Cheonjin-daek, Jeong-sun, and Seon-hui—started skinning the wolves with great joy.
All three women were well-versed in such tasks, so skinning was no trouble at all.
Of course, the men didn’t just stand by and watch; they helped by hanging the skinned wolves from trees to drain the blood or by fetching water from a nearby stream to wash them.
Meanwhile, Yuliy Ivanovich and the man called Skipper approached.
The man driving the wagon, called Skipper, looked to be about forty, five or six years older than Mikhail Ivanovich.
The man called Yuliy Ivanovich looked slightly under thirty, five or six years younger than Mikhail Ivanovich.
The Skipper spoke.
“Ho, did you catch eleven of them in that short moment? I knew your marksmanship was good, Mikhail Ivanovich, but this is truly impressive.”
Mikhail Ivanovich shook his head and pointed at me.
“No, I only caught six. This kid caught the other five.”
The faces of the Skipper and Yuliy Ivanovich were filled with astonishment.
Yuliy Ivanovich had not seen me shooting.
Thus, even though I was holding a gun taller than myself, he simply thought I was holding it for the others while they were skinning and butchering the wolves because I was so young.
However, upon hearing from Mikhail Ivanovich that I had personally shot the wolves, he looked at me with disbelief and asked.
“Did you really kill five of those wolves?”
“Yes, I killed them.”
The Skipper on the wagon asked.
“If you have such skill, why didn’t you shoot the gun sooner to drive the wolves away?”
I repeated what I had told my companions.
“I thought something bad might happen if the Russian soldiers found out I had a gun, and above all, I couldn’t shoot because I was afraid the Honghuzi might hear us.”
The three men listening to me nodded simultaneously.
To be honest, the Russian soldiers dispatched to the Far East were of poor quality, and the Honghuzi Ma-jeok were several times more vicious than those soldiers.
The Skipper continued to ask.
“You look like Koryo-saram. How did you end up here? Are you on your way to Vladivostok?”
In this area, it was the Russian soldiers one had to watch out for, not the ordinary Russian citizens.
Feeling relieved, I explained our situation.
“We have just crossed the border and are on our way to find the Koryo-saram village in Yanchihe.”
Yanchihe was the local pronunciation for Yeonchu.
When they heard that we were on our way to Yeonchu, all three of them showed pitying expressions.
Seeing their faces, I instinctively felt that something was wrong.
Yuliy Ivanovich stepped in and pointed west with his hand.
“If you’re going to Yanchihe, you’ve taken the wrong path. Yanchihe is over that way. If you crossed the border, you’ve been going the wrong way for a long time. You’ve come nearly a day’s journey in the wrong direction.”
I had visited Yeonchu a few times following my Father, so I had tried to find the way using those memories, but I must have taken a wrong turn somewhere.
Seeing me look like I had made a huge mistake, the three of them whispered among themselves before Mikhail Ivanovich spoke.
“Seeing as you’re looking for Yanchihe, it’s true that you’ve crossed the border because you want to settle here, right?”
I nodded.
“Do you happen to know a place called Sidimi?”
Sidimi was a place name I knew as well.
When I nodded, Mikhail Ivanovich spoke in a suggestive tone.
“We live in Sidimi, and there are about 20 to 30 Koryo-saram living there as well. Would you like to come to Sidimi with us? It will be faster to go to Sidimi with us than to try and find Yanchihe from here. Unless you have relatives living in Yanchihe, it shouldn’t matter where you settle. Besides, from Sidimi, it’s a quick trip to Vladivostok by boat, so there are many more conveniences than in Yanchihe.”
“I will discuss it with my companions and give you an answer.”
I went back to my companions and told them of their offer.
Taeseok asked.
“Where is this place called Sidimi?”
“It’s a coastal area to the east of here. It’s close to Vladivostok if you go by boat, so it’s very convenient, and there are a few Joseon people living there.”
Jeong-sun asked.
“Could those people be trying to sell us off or something?”
Given the reality of trying to settle in an unknown country, I understood Jeong-sun’s fear-filled concern, but I shook my head.
“White people don’t do things like that. The soldiers are a bit rough, but they don’t sell people or anything like that.”
Hong-i asked.
“But why do they want to take us with them?”
“Most likely because having more people makes it safer. This is a place where wild beasts like bears and tigers, or Chinese Ma-jeok, run rampant, so the more people, the better. Besides, he must have taken an interest after seeing my marksmanship.”
The others had only heard rumors of my shooting skills, but after seeing them in person, their eyes were wide with surprise as well.
Taeseok said.
“To be honest, we have no idea what to do, so it would be best if you decide, Myeong-jin. We will follow your judgment.”
Everyone else nodded in agreement with Taeseok.
“I think it’s better to go to Sidimi. From there, Vladivostok is right across the sea. Seeing as they call the man sitting on the wagon ‘Skipper,’ he must have a boat, so it will be much easier to get supplies than in Yeonchu.”
Seon-hui said.
“We’ll follow whatever you choose. It seems best to trust your choice here.”
Everyone else nodded, agreeing with Seon-hui’s opinion.
I approached Mikhail Ivanovich and told him our decision.
“We have all agreed to go to Sidimi.”
Mikhail Ivanovich spoke with a smile.
“Sidimi is not lacking in comparison to Yanchihe at all, so you will have no trouble settling there. Now, let me introduce us.”
Then he began to introduce himself and all his companions.
“I am Mikhail Ivanovich Yankovsky. As you can tell by my name, I am originally Polish, but I ended up drifting all the way here. And the gentleman sitting on the wagon is our employer, Skipper Gek; his name is Fridolf Kirillovich Gek. He is originally Swedish and managed a gold mine on Askold Island, but he decided to hand it over to someone else and move to Sidimi. He even has a boat, so it’s very convenient to go to Vladivostok. And this young fellow here is Yuliy Ivanovich Bryner; he’s originally Swiss, but somehow he ended up here with us.”
I introduced my name as well.
“I am Lee Myeong-jin. I can introduce my companions’ names as well, but our names might be difficult for you to memorize.”
Mikhail Yankovsky nodded.
“Koryo-saram names are indeed difficult for us to remember. So you don’t have to say them. But do you happen to have a Russian name?”
I shook my head.
“Even though I frequented Russia, I was just following my Father, so I don’t have a Russian name yet.”
“Since your name is difficult for us to call, how would you like it if I gave you a name? It’s a name that just came to mind after seeing your marksmanship; how about the name Viktor?”
In the Russian style, it was Viktor; in English, it would be Victor. It felt like a good name that would be fine anywhere I went in the future.
“Thank you, Mikhail Ivanovich. From now on, my Russian name will be Viktor.”
Viktor Lee—this was now my new name.
***
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