WeTried Translations
Translator: Joy
Editor: Joy
Discord: https://dsc.gg/wetried
◈ Damned Transmigration ◈
Chapter 51: Panteleon!
──────
The corridor was lit by vivid red lights reminiscent of a butcher shop.
The old corridor creaked unpleasantly with every step, while even louder creaks and mechanical moans seeped through the gaps beneath the doors lining its walls.
“…”
This was one of the brothels scattered throughout Panteleon’s outer districts, an establishment managed by Haomun.
“Yuri.”
Amid the mingled creaks and moans, Haryeong spoke. Walking ahead, she glanced back at Yuri.
“Anyone would be suspicious if they saw a healthy man entering a place like this alone.”
“…”
“Do you know how flustered I was when I first stood outside this place? I wondered what you could have experienced over the past two years, and what change of heart had brought you to a place like this in broad daylight.”
As she spoke, Haryeong stared fixedly at Yuri’s face. Yuri let out a deep sigh beneath her gaze and grumbled.
“Didn’t you come here knowing everything?”
“What do you mean?”
“That this is a Haomun establishment.”
“I knew that, but I never expected to find you meeting alone with a one-eyed, ugly geezer instead of a cheap prostitute.”
Not every brothel in the world belonged to Haomun, but cheap, shabby-looking brothels had a high chance of being theirs.
“I was too embarrassed to go inside, so I climbed the wall. Do you know how surprised I was when I saw you through the window? I thought the past two years had twisted your tastes.”
“Uh, could we keep walking first?”
Since turning around, Haryeong had remained stopped in the middle of the corridor. Even now, creaks and moans echoed around them. She stared at Yuri’s embarrassed face before slowly shrugging.
“I thought you wanted to hear more.”
“Stop talking nonsense. Have you eaten?”
“Not yet.”
“Then let’s go eat.”
“Suddenly? Listening to these endless sounds of reproduction has stirred your appetite?”
“I told you to stop talking nonsense.”
Yuri grumbled as he passed Haryeong. She stared at his back as he walked ahead, then clapped twice.
“It seems your build has improved over the past two years. You are taller, your shoulders are broader, and your back, wow.”
“What do you mean, wow…”
“I am not someone who makes things up.”
Yuri had not neglected his internal and external training over the past two years. As a result, he had not become a hulking giant like Bakerd, but his build was far better than it had been in Rutlan.
After leaving the old brothel, they arrived at a restaurant. As though it were the most natural thing in the world, a bloodied person lay sprawled in a corner.
They seemed to be the source of the scream from earlier. They were not dead, but most of their teeth had been shattered, and blood streamed from their mouth.
“Your sense for choosing restaurants is truly dreadful.”
“Would you like to choose one, Haryeong?”
“The restaurants around here are probably all about the same. I am not such a shameless assassin that I would complain about food someone else is buying.”
Her answer contained two things Yuri wanted to ask about. Yuri found a seat on his own without being shown one, let out a deep sigh, and raised two fingers.
“First, do I have to pay?”
“You are the one who brought me to this restaurant.”
“I have no money.”
“You do look like it.”
Haryeong naturally sat across from him, resting her chin on her hand as she looked at Yuri.
“Have you been so poor these past two years that you could not even change your clothes once?”
“What bullshit are you talking about?”
“The robe you are wearing. You bought it in Rutlan two years ago.”
Back then, it had looked brand-new, glossy and gleaming. Now, it was not ragged enough to be called rags, but it was old enough to look worn.
“I wear it because it is convenient.”
“Certainly. It seems you change your other clothes properly. This robe does not smell, so you must wash it well. Hmm, or perhaps not? Does that robe have a self-cleaning spell on it?”
“Second.”
Yuri raised his other finger without listening any further.
“Are you still an assassin, Haryeong?”
Wondering what he meant, Haryeong quickly finished ordering from the employee who sauntered over, then turned back to Yuri.
“Once an assassin, always an assassin.”
“What is this, the Marines?”
“The Marines, what?”
“It is a thing.”
“My. Now that your identity as a transmigrator has been exposed, you speak freely about anything, do you not?”
“Did you come to kill me?”
If Yuri answered every one of Haryeong’s absurd remarks, the conversation would wander far off course. He had known that for two years.
So he forcibly turned the conversation back.
“Hmm.”
Haryeong’s previously expressionless face shifted slightly. Her eyes opened just a little wider than usual as she stared at Yuri.
“Why do you think that?”
“There seem to be plenty of reasons.”
“Well, I suppose there are. But if I had come to kill you as an assassin, I would not be sitting across from you and waiting for a meal like this.”
Haryeong tilted her head.
“Hmm, I retract that statement. If I had come alone to kill you as an assassin, I think I would choose a method like this rather than a straightforward assassination.”
“To lower my guard?”
“Correct. Be pleased, Yuri. The fact that I would choose this method means I judged that killing you through a simple assassination would be difficult.”
Haryeong had said earlier that she was not someone who made things up, but that was not always true. When necessary, she could smoothly mix in lies and invent things that did not exist.
But she had not lied in this case. Without deception or exaggeration, Haryeong had judged that it would be difficult to kill Yuri as he was now through a simple assassination.
Haryeong had been assessing Yuri from outside the brothel window. Without leaking even the slightest unnecessary killing intent, she considered the possibility of assassinating him here.
Honestly, she did not consider the odds high.
A high-tier martial fighter was far harder to kill than a martial artist of the same tier, but Yuri showed no openings. She did not know what sort of life he had lived over the past two years, but it was certain that he had lived a life wary of assassination.
“This may sound less credible after what I just said about luring you into lowering your guard, but I did not come to kill you.”
“You said once an assassin, always an assassin.”
“Do you think every assassin wants to kill you? You think too highly of yourself.”
Haryeong tilted her head again.
“I have answered two questions in a row, so now I will ask one. Why were you not very surprised to see me?”
“I was surprised.”
“But not very surprised. Your reaction was too subdued for someone who suddenly saw me appear.”
“I thought you would come someday. I just did not expect it to be today.”
“Why did you think that?”
Seeing is believing.
Instead of answering, Yuri pulled Black Fang from his lower back and drove it into the table.
“…”
The employee arrived with their food just then and glared back and forth between Black Fang embedded in the table and Yuri.
“What the fuck are you looking at?”
Yuri glared back as he spoke.
The employee lost the brief staring contest, muttered under their breath, set down the food, and left.
“Why are you taking your temper out on an innocent employee? You are the one who drove a dagger into a table meant for eating.”
“Just look at the shitty state of this food. That bastard might be innocent now, but the moment I eat this food, they will become guilty.”
Haryeong picked up a fork and tried a piece of sliced meat.
“Death sentence.”
After swiftly passing judgment, she flicked a finger toward the employee’s ankle. A tiny bead, too small to see clearly, flew out from somewhere and struck their ankle.
“Argh!”
The employee fell over with a scream. Haryeong ignored them and glared at Yuri.
“You are also guilty for bringing me somewhere like this to eat.”
“You are getting a free meal from a pauper who could not even buy a new robe for two years, so accept it gratefully.”
Though she had said the food was bad, Haryeong put another piece of meat in her mouth and chewed.
“By the way, why did you suddenly take out Black Fang? Were you planning to cut your meat with it?”
Yuri did not answer and only stared at Haryeong.
Even under his gaze, Haryeong steadily chewed the meat, then stubbornly put exactly one more piece into her mouth.
Gulp.
Only after swallowing the meat and elegantly wiping her mouth with a handkerchief did Haryeong speak.
“So that is how you knew. I see.”
This was an oversight, Haryeong thought as she set down her handkerchief.
“Does that game also have Twin Fangs?”
“No.”
“What? Then how did you know?”
“I found out while looking at the magic placed on Black Fang.”
Haryeong’s eyes opened wide at the answer. She stared at Black Fang, still embedded in the table, then slowly tilted her head.
“Magic is not something you can see, is it?”
“In my case, I can see it if I concentrate.”
Perhaps because it was an assassination dagger, the magic placed on Black Fang was so subtle that Yuri could not see it at first.
But after using it repeatedly, he became familiar with the magic imbued in Black Fang. As Haryeong had said two years ago, Black Fang was a convenient dagger. Its blade was sharp enough to cut most things as easily as paper even without infusing it with inner power, and it required no maintenance.
What was especially convenient was that Black Fang remained accurate even when thrown carelessly. Yuri had not understood what that meant when Haryeong first told him, but he understood the moment he tried it. If he thought about where he wanted to hit and threw it somewhere nearby, Black Fang would move on its own and pierce the target he had selected.
As he put it to good use, Yuri became interested in the magic imbued in Black Fang.
If he could properly understand and copy the formula, would he be able to enchant other daggers as well?
The result was failure. The formula seemed to have been custom-made for Black Fang, making it difficult to reproduce with magic. Yuri had never received specialized training in enchanting objects, and enchanting an object was impossible for him.
However, while analyzing the magic, he found one enchantment he could not decipher.
“You could not decipher the magic itself?”
“Yes.”
“How could this be? I fell for such an obvious leading question.”
“I was still certain. You emphasized over and over that I should never throw it away.”
Yuri grumbled as he pulled Black Fang from the table.
“I even wondered whether you told me to keep it so you could find me later as an assassin.”
“Why did you not throw it away?”
Haryeong’s eyes narrowed.
“If you suspected that, you should have thrown Black Fang away. Why did you keep it and let me find you?”
“You are the one who told me not to throw it away, Haryeong.”
“I did say that, but…”
“Black Fang was useful, and I thought throwing it away might cause problems.”
“Did you not think you could handle me, an assassin?”
“I am not that arrogant.”
“Well, you did well in the end. If you had thrown away something I so earnestly told you not to discard, I would have become a cruel assassin and found you. Since it would be difficult to find you alone, I might have sought help here and there.”
“Help? Who were you going to ask? Do you have many friends?”
“I have few friends, but I know experts at finding and catching people. They are not friends, though.”
Haryeong grumbled as she set down her fork.
“So, why did you come to Panteleon? This is not a place worth sightseeing.”
“It is not like I came here for sightseeing.”
“I heard that you are seeking an entry pass for District 4, but why do you want to go somewhere so dangerous?”
“Do I have to tell you about my circumstances?”
“How upsetting. Your words truly hurt me.”
“Why?”
“Did I not say earlier that I have few friends?”
“So what?”
“I thought you were one of those few friends. Was I mistaken again?”
“I still have not heard why you came here.”
Yuri tilted his head.
“Did someone send you?”
“You think too highly of yourself.”
The corner of Haryeong’s lips moved slightly.
“I came here of my own will, not on anyone’s orders. So put aside any hope that Lady Elena might be looking for you.”
Yuri frowned and glared at Haryeong. The crooked curve of her lips deepened beneath his gaze.
“It seems you really were hoping.”
“So why did you come?”
“There is no particular reason.”
Maintaining that lopsided smile, Haryeong continued.
“After we parted two years ago, I was curious about what you had been doing. I wondered whether you had changed your name, but you had not.”
“At first, I considered changing it, but I thought that would stand out even more.”
Yuri had considered abandoning his name ever since he first transmigrated, but he had ultimately not done so.
He thought the name Yuri had value.
“If someone with no known history or name suddenly appears and makes a spectacle of themselves, anyone would suspect they were a transmigrator.”
“You did well. If you had created a false identity and run around busily, you might not have met me today.”
“Because of the Sect of War?”
Haryeong nodded at his immediate answer.
“You have learned quite a lot over the past two years.”
The Sect of War was hostile to transmigrators. Aside from powerful figures like Chuk-sin-doo or the other experts among the Four Warnings, it would not be an exaggeration to say that most transmigrators hid their identities because they feared being hunted by the Sect of War.
Decades ago, when the Sect of Order was expelled from Union for supposedly protecting transmigrators, the Sect of War had led the destruction of the Sect of Order’s buildings. Even now, it remained hostile enough to transmigrators to scour the continent for the reclusive Sect of Order.
The Sect of War did not summarily or publicly execute transmigrators, but countless transmigrators had been captured by the Sect of War over the decades. No one knew what became of the many transmigrators taken to the sect.
“Your relationship with Fist Wolf. The martial talent personally guaranteed by Heavenly Thunder and Moonlit Reveller. On top of that, the potential of Namgung Yuri.”
“You always have to mix in one bit of nonsense.”
“Would you prefer that I call you Thunder Cloud instead of Yuri?”
“Call me by my name.”
“Thunder Cloud. Our Yuri has grown enough to earn an alias. Even I, a cold and ruthless assassin, feel tears coming to my eyes.”
“That is why I asked why you came.”
“There is no particular reason. I thought I might become a little closer with you.”
Was she sincere? Or was this another empty joke like before? Yuri quietly looked into Haryeong’s eyes, but just as before, he could not see through her thoughts.
“What would getting closer accomplish?”
“Let us become close friends.”
“Is there something you want from me?”
“What could there be between friends? We help each other when things are difficult. I will help you too, so it will not be a loss. Just earlier, I saved you from getting swindled by that Haomun raccoon geezer.”
“Ugh.”
A deep sigh escaped Yuri.
She clearly intended to hear his reason no matter what. Besides, it was not a reason he had to desperately hide.
“I am looking for something.”
“What is it?”
“Heretics.”
Yuri lowered his voice. Haryeong also lowered herself slightly and leaned close to the table.
Panteleon’s outer districts were lawless places where the city’s laws did not apply. Wanted criminals, wanderers from all regions, and other people with less-than-honorable backgrounds mixed together there.
No one could call it a moral place, not even as an empty compliment. Even in the rural backwater of Oldor where Yuri had lived, people often died over trivial disputes. Panteleon’s outer districts were far worse.
District 4 was the most miserable and chaotic place among them. Heretics who worshipped the Evil God made their nests there. Like the name of the god they served, they stirred chaos throughout the world.
“Hmm, heretics.”
Should I say they are alike?
Haryeong crossed her arms as she thought.
“I will catch wanted criminals while I am at it.”
“Are you doing it for money?”
“I am trying to get stronger.”
“Your wallet?”
“My martial arts.”
“What tier are you now?”
“It is a secret.”
“When did you reach the 5th tier?”
“About half a year ago.”
Their rapid-fire back-and-forth finally connected. Haryeong let out a hollow laugh and shook her head.
Estor Orsia, the Sword Dragon hailed as a heaven-sent genius in martial arts, had reached the 5th tier at the age of twenty-one. Yuri was only slightly later than Estor, displaying talent that rivaled the Sword Dragon born from the Orsia Family bloodline.
“Yuri. The truth is, I have a secret I must take to my grave.”
“What is this all of a sudden?”
“I have never told anyone else, and even if someone grabbed my limbs and threatened to tear them off, I would not tell them. I am not a weak assassin whose resolve would break under something as trivial as torture.”
“What is this all of a sudden?”
“But I think I can tell you. Keeping my mouth shut forever just because it is a secret might instead damage the trust between us.”
“No, I mean…”
[Could you perhaps be the Young Cult Leader of the Demonic Cult?]
A Voice Transmission abruptly came through.
Footnotes:
Join our discord at https://dsc.gg/wetried
