WeTried Translations

Translator/Editor: ZERO_SUGAR

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Chapter 3: The Sword Speaks (1)

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“Blood Cult? What kind of bullshit is that?”

“Y-yeah. Bullshit.”

“Hey! Stop copying me! Anyway, the Blood Cult was defeated by the martial artists' alliance long ago and scattered to the winds!”

That was what the public knew about the Blood Cult.

Over twenty years ago, the Blood Cult had been defeated in the War Between Justice and Evil by an alliance of the martial artists' alliance and Peerless Castle. When their leader, the Blood Demon lord, died, the cult fell apart.

Yet because of their countless atrocities, even now martial artists shuddered with fear at the mere mention of the Blood Cult.

“And how do you know those sounds outside are from the Blood Cult?”

Of course I knew.

I had already experienced this once.

Still, from their perspective, I probably sounded as though I were talking nonsense.

“Aaargh!”

“Urk!”

Song JwaBaek's face stiffened as he protested that he did not believe me.

The screams coming from outside suggested that, Blood Cult or not, something terrible was happening.

Bang!

The doors on the second floor flew open, and the people staying in the rooms rushed out.

They must have heard the screams too.

Realizing something had happened nearby, they hurried down the stairs.

I did not have time to stay here either.

“Ah-song. Follow me!”

“Y-yes, Young Master.”

Ah-song, who had been frozen by the screams, followed me.

But I was not heading for the inn's exit.

Song JwaBaek shouted.

“Hey! Colt! What are you planning to do by going that way?”

They would not believe me even if I explained, so I said nothing and headed for the inn's back door.

“Idiot. You'll get yourself killed.”

Song JwaBaek sneered at me, then left with his younger brother, Song WooHyun, following the people who had come out of the inn rooms.

There was no time to look after anyone in this situation.

Everyone had to survive on their own.

“Young Master, shouldn't we be heading outside if we're running away?”

Ah-song asked as he followed, apparently puzzled.

I shook my head.

“It's too late. They've surrounded the entire village. How do you expect us to escape?”

The odds were extremely low that I, with my dantian damaged since childhood, or Ah-song, who had never learned Martial Arts, could escape so many Blood Cult warriors.

If I had regressed even half a two-hour period earlier, our chances of survival would have been better, but now it was impossible.

“T-then what are you going to do?”

“Hide.”

“Where? The back yard only has a privy and a stable.”

I did not answer.

Ah-song muttered with a twisted expression.

“Ah... damn it.”

Unfortunately, Ah-song's ominous guess was right.

I was heading for the privy.

The back yard contained both a privy and a stable, and it reeked of every foul odor imaginable.

“Young Master, surely not.”

“I hate to say it, but this is our only option.”

I was certain that, against vicious Blood Cult members who had learned Martial Arts, the only way to hide and survive was inside the filthy privy.

They were human too. They would naturally avoid filth.

Creak.

Ah-song opened the privy door and stared inside with despairing eyes.

It must have felt like looking into a living hell.

“Y-Young Master, the sewage looks pretty deep. Do we really have to hide in there? What if we die because we can't breathe?”

At Ah-song's question, I looked around.

I spotted a bundle of bamboo, perhaps meant for making liquor.

I grabbed the axe hanging on the wall and cut off a piece.

Then I handed it to Ah-song.

“Hold this in your mouth and breathe through it. You'll be able to endure it.”

“W-what? This thing is so thick!”

The bamboo was rather thick.

He would have to open his mouth wide to bite it.

“Is this the time to be picky? Haven't you heard that a field of dog shit is better than the underworld? Ah-song, you clearly don't know how cruel the Blood Cult bastards are. They'll cut off all four of your limbs and...”

“Eek!”

Terrified by my words, Ah-song said he would go in.

It would be filthy and difficult, but this was the only way for him to live.

Ah-song entered the privy.

“What if I get dung poisoning?”

“I've been in there too. Crush some amaranth greens and apply them. It'll clear right up, so don't worry and get in.”

“What? You've been in a cesspit before, Young Master?”

Had I merely been in one?

I had nearly died of dung poisoning after enduring for more than half a two-hour period.

But there was no more time to answer. I needed to hide too.

“Ah-song. Endure no matter what. That's how you'll live.”

“Y-yes? Gah!”

Smack!

I shoved Ah-song straight into the privy hole.

“Young Master!”

Splash!

I quickly stepped back.

Black sewage splashed up from the hole.

‘Sorry, Ah-song.’

If I wanted to save you, who died in my previous life, there was no better way.

Do not resent me. I was going in too.

Into the privy beside yours...

“Damn it.”

What was this?

The cesspit in the neighboring privy had been almost emptied.

I could not hide my body in there.

‘Should I force myself in?’

I considered squeezing into the cesspit where Ah-song had gone, but it was too cramped.

Trying to save him first had put me in a difficult position.

‘What do I do?’

As I looked around, I noticed the stable.

Neigh!

One of the horses in the stable grew wary when I approached.

Everyone must have been in a hurry. Most of the guests had fled with their horses, yet someone had abandoned such a valuable animal.

I quickly untied it and sent it outside.

If there was no horse here, the Blood Cult warriors would not even take an interest in the stable.

The feed trough was piled high with hay.

‘This should be enough to cover me.’

I prayed that no masters would come to the inn.

I did not know about third-rate or second-rate martial artists, but an Advanced master had keen hearing and exceptional Ki sense. One wrong move and I would be discovered.

I hoped what happened before would not happen again.

After climbing into the trough and covering myself with hay, I felt the cloth-wrapped Short Sword tucked inside my clothes.

I hesitated.

If I were discovered, should I not resist at least?

But the chilling scream I had heard when touching the Short Sword earlier troubled me.

Still, with my life at stake, it was absurd to be afraid of such a thing and refuse to use the weapon I had.

After much deliberation, I unwrapped the Short Sword.

The instant I touched it,

Screeeeech!

‘Damn it. What the hell is that sound?’

As I struggled not to flinch,

“Don't touch me. I really hate it.”

‘!?’

For a moment, I doubted my ears.

The voice that had been making those terrible screams told me not to touch it.

‘Surely... that sound did not come from this Short Sword?’

As I stood there in shock, the voice suddenly spoke again.

“Can you hear my voice?”

The Short Sword was truly speaking.

More precisely, the sound was not reaching my ears. It echoed inside my head.

It was like a hallucination.

‘...How can this be happening?’

As I stared in disbelief, the voice spoke again.

“This makes no sense. How can this be happening...”

The Short Sword itself sounded astonished.

“A human can hear me!”

This was driving me mad.

That was what I wanted to say.

How could a Short Sword that was not even alive speak?

“What? Is there some law saying Short Swords cannot talk? Good heavens. Do only long swords get to speak?”

Now it was getting irritated.

My mind became a mess.

Had my tension become so extreme that I was imagining voices?

“Wow... turning a perfectly normal Short Sword into a hallucination.”

The grumbling voice left my mind blank.

I did not know how to accept something so bizarre, something I had never experienced before.

Then it happened.

Step.

I heard footsteps.

I held my breath and sighed inwardly in relief.

If I could hear the footsteps, the person was not a master.

“Hey. Hey. Answer me.”

I felt irritation surge at the voice echoing in my head.

I was already tense enough to die. This was maddening.

‘It's a hallucination. A hallucination. Begone, distracting thoughts. Shoo. Shoo.’

“...Have you lost your mind? Are you treating me like some wandering ghost?”

‘Ha!’

By this point, I knew for certain.

This could not be a hallucination.

Then an ominous sound reached my ears.

Step. Step.

My mouth went dry.

Contrary to what I had hoped, the footsteps were drawing closer.

I thought the empty stable would not draw attention, but I had been wrong.

‘Damn it.’

“Your heartbeat is getting louder. You must be scared.”

‘Shut up.’

My mind was already in turmoil, and its chattering only made it harder to focus.

The footsteps came closer and closer to the stable.

My grip tightened around the Short Sword.

If they started digging through the hay, I would have to stab them in the throat before they could make a sound.

Step.

The enemy's footsteps stopped right in front of me.

The instant I heard the hay being disturbed,

Smack!

I sprang out of the haystack.

The first thing I saw was a masked man.

“Gah!”

The masked man tried to retreat in surprise at my sudden appearance, but it was already too late.

Expecting that, I launched myself forward like a spring and drove the Short Sword into his throat.

Thud!

“Urk!”

With a final cry, the masked man died on the spot.

It would not be an exaggeration to say that the ambush skills I had developed through years as a Spy were exceptional.

It had only been possible because this man was merely a third-rate warrior.

“Not bad. I thought you were just some brat who drank all day like a wastrel, but you're decent. It's been a while since I tasted blood.”

The Short Sword's voice echoed in my head.

I grabbed the collapsing masked man's collar.

I had to make as little noise as possible.

If this man had come here, there was a high chance that other Blood Cult warriors were inside the inn.

Warriors with third-rate skill or lower traveled in groups of at least three.

‘Haa.’

My plan had fallen apart.

Rather than being abducted by the Blood Cult, I might die here.

If that happened, I would have no choice but to risk my life trying to escape.

Scrape, scrape.

I wiped the blood from the Short Sword on the dead masked man's clothes.

The Short Sword was rusted, apparently from having gone unmaintained for so long.

‘As expected.’

The blade and tip had become dull, so I had needed to put considerable force into stabbing him.

It would be difficult to use unless I sharpened it.

“And knowing that, you've left me neglected all this time?”

The Short Sword chattered away.

But I had no time to speak with it.

‘Tch.’

A black silhouette approached from the inn's back door.

He was probably in the same group as the dead man.

I gently lowered the masked man whose collar I held, then slipped out of the stable in a crouch. Keeping my presence to a minimum, I pressed myself against the wall beside the inn's back door.

‘Idiot. I made a mistake.’

I should have searched the dead man and taken another weapon, but I was too tense over the approaching enemy to think of it.

I had no choice but to use this damned, possessed Short Sword.

“Again! Again!”

‘Quiet.’

It would be better to kill whoever came out now and take their weapon.

I pressed myself as close to the wall as possible and focused.

“Hey. Did anything turn up in the back yard?”

‘Now!’

The instant I saw a leg through the doorway, I kicked it with all my strength.

Something unexpected happened.

The right leg I meant to strike slipped back.

‘Ah!’

Then the opponent kicked my leg instead.

Thwack!

Pain exploded through my leg, and my body rolled to the side.

“Urgh!”

“I was wondering why someone was hiding beside the door. So I was right.”

A masked man came through the back door, speaking in a relaxed voice.

‘Damn...’

I could not help but be startled.

I had naturally assumed this masked man would be another low-rank warrior like the one I had killed first.

But this one was not a low-rank warrior.

‘A chestnut-colored sash.’

The chestnut-colored sash around his waist marked him as a mid-rank Blood Cult warrior.

Unlike third-rate warriors who could only use external energy, he had learned internal energy as well.

Even with the body I would develop through future training, this was not an opponent I could face head-on without an ambush.

‘What do I do?’

As I hesitated, he muttered.

“From the looks of it, you haven't even learned internal energy, yet you've got some nerve. You know enough to look around for a way to survive.”

I was not grateful for that praise at all.

Being born into a martial family yet never learning internal energy even once had been a lifelong regret, even during my years as a Spy.

“You should be usable as a mid-grade product.”

‘Mid-grade product?’

Those words reminded me of the past.

They had graded me when I was abducted then too.

At the time, they had judged me to be the lowest-grade product.

I had crawled across the ground, begging for my life and trying to flee without even using Martial Arts. In their eyes, I must have looked lower than vermin.

“I'll give you a chance. You can't escape this place anyway. If you want to live, surrender quietly.”

“You weren't planning to kill me anyway.”

“How do you know whether you'll die or not?”

“Then there'd be no reason to grade me.”

The fact that they had graded me meant they intended to abduct me.

“You're smart for a brat. If your body worked as well as your brain, you could have been upper-mid to high-grade.”

Murderous intent flashed in his eyes. I must have offended him.

Whoosh!

Apparently unwilling to speak further, he lunged at me.

There was no other choice now.

If I did not want to be abducted, I had to fight, whether I lived or died.

Smack!

He kicked toward my head.

Unable to rise, I rolled aside in desperation, however pathetic it looked.

Smack!

“Fitting, isn't it?”

The masked man sneered and swung his saber at me as though toying with me.

He was not merely offended. He seemed genuinely intent on killing me.

‘Damn it.’

Then a voice echoed in my head.

“Twist your upper body slightly to the left, then stab his arm.”

Without time to think, I twisted my body slightly and avoided the saber.

Then, from that position, I stabbed the right arm holding the saber with all my strength.

“Huh?”

The masked man tried to avoid it, but the Short Sword still grazed him.

The blade was dull, so it did not pierce properly.

“What are you doing? Get up.”

I quickly rose, gripping the Short Sword and taking a guarded form.

“You bastard!”

The masked man hastily swung his saber at me.

“One big step left with your left foot.”

I spread my left leg wide as instructed.

Swish!

The masked man's saber barely brushed past my back.

I had evaded the attack with the smallest possible movement.

“What?”

“Stab his thigh!”

I stabbed his thigh from that position.

This time, I put proper force into it, and the Short Sword sank into his thigh.

Thud!

“Aaargh!”

“Ram him with your body!”

I slammed my body into him, and the masked man lost his balance and fell backward.

After that, I did not need instructions.

I drove the Short Sword into the fallen masked man's head.

“Ghk!”

The masked man's body trembled violently as the blade pierced his face, then he went still.

I had merely done as instructed, but the absurd result left me speechless.

Then the Short Sword's triumphant voice echoed in my head.

“You properly owe me your life.”

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