WeTried Translations
Translator: ZERO_SUGAR
Editor: Abstract
Discord: https://dsc.gg/wetried
Chapter 72: The Variable (1)
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-Thud!
Mumu landed on top of a Northern Heaven Residence.
The tremendous wind pressure had not only extinguished the flames. It had also crushed part of the roof, shattering tiles everywhere and leaving it in a mess. Fortunately, the building itself had not collapsed.
Still...
"Ugh..."
Hae Ryang had been flattened by the wind pressure and was too dazed to move properly.
Then he spotted Mumu and could not hide his shock.
The muscles all over Mumu's body had swollen, making him seem far larger than before. Vapor poured from his reddened skin. He looked like a fighting god straight out of a myth.
"M-Mumu, young master?"
"Hae Ryang. Are you okay?"
Hae Ryang nodded, astonished.
Then he suddenly remembered Jin-hyeok, who had been hanging from the roof tiles.
"Ah! J-Jin-hyeok, young master?"
Hae Ryang rushed to where Jin-hyeok had been.
Jin-hyeok was nowhere in sight.
Thinking he might have been unable to withstand the wind pressure and fallen, Hae Ryang looked down.
"Damn it... Mumu..."
Jin-hyeok was somehow clinging beneath the roof tiles.
He had nearly fallen, but he had barely managed to slip under the tiles. Looking below, Jin-hyeok saw soot on the outer wall, but it had otherwise held together fairly well.
"Jin-hyeok, I'll pull you up."
"No!"
"What?"
"Can you do that somewhere else too, Mumu?"
Jin-hyeok had plenty of questions about how Mumu had extinguished the fire with one punch and what had happened to his body, but the other burning dormitories were more urgent.
Looking down at the masked figures below, Jin-hyeok said, "Hae Ryang and I will chase them, so put out the fires at the other dormitories."
"Them?"
"They set the dormitories on fire."
Mumu looked between the masked figures and the places where smoke rose.
Just as Jin-hyeok had said, the flames around Southern Blade Residence and Eastern River Residence had grown much larger than before. Those fires had started sooner than the one at Northern Heaven Residence. If they were not stopped quickly, a terrible disaster could unfold.
"Call me if anything happens."
"Just go already!"
Mumu nodded.
-Kwaang!
He immediately launched himself toward the other dormitories.
The moment Mumu kicked off, though, the roof tiles completely gave way.
"Argh!"
Jin-hyeok, who had been hanging beneath them, fell.
Fortunately, each floor had tiled ledges like railings. Otherwise, it would have been difficult for him to use a movement skill.
'That bastard could at least say something before jumping.'
Irritation surged through him for a moment, but this was not the time.
Looking down, he saw the flustered masked figures using movement skills to flee somewhere.
They had to be caught at once.
* * *
At around the same time, in the Vice-Master's office in the main building.
Though it was late at night, Dan Pil-hu was working overtime to deal with various matters.
It was certainly admirable for someone running the academy to work so diligently. Still, when he worked late, his direct retainers had no choice but to do the same.
The assistants in his office had deep shadows beneath their eyes.
'I want to go home...'
'Please, just let us sleep.'
"Whew."
Vice-Master Dan Pil-hu stretched and rose from his seat.
The assistants watched him with hopeful eyes.
But after loosening his stiff body, he sat back down and urged them on.
"You should all stand and stretch a little too. Otherwise, you'll ruin your health."
"...Ah. Yes, sir."
Their hopes vanished.
Dan Pil-hu smiled and joked, "Working through the night like this, you all feel more like family than my wife. Ha ha ha."
'Family, my ass.'
Dan Pil-hu deliberately ignored their resentful stares.
"Ahem."
There was no helping the overtime these past few days.
The Academy Director and several masters had attended an annual imperial event, leaving a gap that had placed an overwhelming workload on the Vice-Master's office.
It was not as though Dan Pil-hu wanted to work himself to death.
'My head hurts.'
The workload was bad enough, but there were too many other matters requiring his attention.
There was Mumu, who kept causing trouble, and Sa Mu-heo of the Six Stars of Heaven, whose recent movements had been suspicious. It was enough to give anyone a headache.
'At least there is roll call.'
Roll call allowed the academy to keep its cadets under control.
Even Mumu, that troublesome brat, had to remain in his dormitory after roll call. That alone made things easier.
Except for one person.
'I warned him, but he isn't the type to sit still.'
Despite his outward appearance, Sa Mu-heo had something rotten beneath the surface.
From Dan Pil-hu's long career as an auditor for the Martial World Association, he knew that the more someone concealed their past actions, the more likely they were to cause problems later.
He had assigned the retainer most skilled in stealth to watch Sa Mu-heo. If he observed for a while, the truth would reveal itself.
'But the report should be here by now.'
Dan Pil-hu asked one of the assistants, "Has Secret Agent No. 1's report not arrived yet?"
"No, sir. Not yet."
"That is late."
Reports came every half a two-hour period, but this one was delayed.
It had only been a quarter of a quarter-hour, but a delay in reporting from someone assigned to surveillance was never something to take lightly...
-Thud!
At that moment, someone urgently threw open the office door.
"V-Vice-Master! There is a serious problem!"
It was one of the warriors directly under the Vice-Master.
Dan Pil-hu asked, puzzled, "What is it?"
"P-Please look at this."
The warrior opened the west-facing window in the office.
When the window opened, faint firelight and black smoke could be seen rising in the distance.
It was the direction of the four dormitories.
'What is this?'
There was considerable distance between the main building and the dormitory grounds, with hills in between. At night, an ordinary fire would not be large enough for its flames or smoke to be visible from here.
For it to be visible like that, the fire had to be enormous.
His guess was right.
"It appears the dormitory buildings are on fire!"
At the report, Vice-Master Dan Pil-hu shot to his feet and shouted, "What are the warriors guarding the dormitories and the dorm parents doing while such a fire rages?"
"We do not know. We sent several people to investigate, and they will soon..."
"Is this the time for that? Activate the Special Emergency Protocol immediately. Summon every master in the academy, wake the off-duty warriors, and have them put out the fire."
"Y-yes, sir!"
It was an emergency.
A fire had broken out in the dormitories, of all places.
If this had happened during the day, it would have been different. But every cadet was supposed to be asleep. A massive disaster could occur.
'Why the dormitories, at a time like this?'
Something was wrong.
Vice-Master Dan Pil-hu hurried outside to head for the dormitories, then stopped.
Something felt strange.
There were dorm parents and warriors guarding the area. For a fire to grow large enough that smoke could be seen from the main building did not sit right with him.
And, by coincidence, Secret Agent No. 1's report on Sa Mu-heo was delayed at this very moment.
'Could it be?'
Dan Pil-hu turned away from the dormitories.
* * *
North of Changcheon Martial Academy's main building stood the Changcheon Martial Archive.
The tower of the Changcheon Martial Archive was taller than any other building within Changcheon Martial Academy, even the main building, giving it a clearer view of the surroundings.
Someone sat atop that tower, wiping something with a cloth.
It was a saber drenched in blood.
As the man wiped the blood from its blade, he muttered, "Growing old is truly frightening. To see someone once called one of the Twelve Masters of the Force of Justice fall so helplessly."
Once every trace of blood had been wiped from the saber, the man stood.
-Daeng! Daeng! Daeng!
The bells of the Special Emergency Protocol rang out from the main building.
As their sound spread in all directions, torches lit up throughout the academy grounds and people gathered. The torches quickly headed toward the dormitories.
'They should hurry. If all the cadets die in the fire, they will not be able to deal with the consequences.'
The academy did not only have children of martial artists.
Some were children of government officials.
If even a few of them died, there was no telling what would happen afterward.
'Old Master, I understand why you enjoyed sitting here and drinking. I too want to have a drink and leisurely watch this sight.'
The academy's great disaster would mark the beginning of the great scheme.
This was the beginning of vengeance.
Starting today, Changcheon Martial Academy, known as the heart of martial learning for the force of justice, would fall into uncontrollable chaos.
'Burn. Burn brightly, and consume everything.'
Let every new flower those who had taken everything from them under the pretense of justice were trying to make bloom be burned away, and let them taste despair.
Then, from that despair, an endless feast of suffering would spread.
A bloody tragedy beyond anything they had seen before would come for them...
'!?'
The shadow-shrouded man frowned.
The torches had not even reached the dormitories yet, but the flames and smoke rising from the northern dormitory had suddenly vanished.
'...What is this?'
Come to think of it, smoke should have been rising from all four locations.
But after the smoke in the north disappeared, only two places remained aflame.
He could not understand why.
'The dormitories should have been completely under control.'
They had used every bit of the JaHyeonPowder painstakingly produced in the Valley of White Death.
Even if it had failed on a few people by some one-in-ten-thousand chance, there was no way the fire could suddenly go out.
That meant...
'A variable?'
There was no doubt that something unforeseen had happened.
He wanted to confirm what was happening, but the dormitories were too far away, and the night was too dark. No matter how much he focused his eyesight, he could not see clearly.
Then...
'Again?'
This time, the flames in the east abruptly died down.
The smoke vanished in an instant.
'What in the world is happening?'
* * *
-Whoooosh!
Flames raced down the corridor.
"Haa... haa..."
Hong Hye-ryeong, her scarlet hair disheveled, hastily covered her mouth and nose with cloth again.
'The flames are stronger.'
This situation had caught Hong Hye-ryeong completely off guard.
Not long after getting an outing pass and returning from the training hall, her body had suddenly lost all strength and an overwhelming drowsiness had swept over her. Sensing something was wrong, she had entered ki circulation.
The Hong Clan's secret Cultivation technique, passed down to her by her father, the Southern Blade Imperial Uncle, differed from other techniques. Its ki circulation path flowed in reverse.
As a result, even though she had not learned Poison Art, she possessed strong resistance to poison and anything attempting to invade her body.
While she was deeply focused on purging the foreign substance from her body, the surroundings had begun to grow warm, then hot.
She tried to open the window, only to find flames burning their way inside.
The sudden situation startled her, but she quickly calmed down. Slinging the cadet who shared her room over her shoulder, she stepped into the corridor.
-Whoooosh!
But flames had already begun spreading from the end of the corridor.
It was a difficult situation.
The drowsiness had faded, but there still seemed to be foreign matter in her body. Her hands and feet trembled, and her strength kept failing.
'My internal energy will not gather properly.'
If she completely lost her strength, even she could be in danger.
Still, Hong Hye-ryeong did not hesitate.
-Bang!
She smashed through an unburned wall, soaked the surrounding area with water, carried the cadet from her room outside, then went back in.
How the fire had started did not matter.
As long as her body allowed it, she had to save as many people as she could.
But...
"Haa... haa..."
She had inhaled too much smoke, and her vision gradually grew hazy.
She tried to rescue more people, covering her mouth and nose with a wet cloth whenever she could, but she had reached her limit.
The fire was spreading too quickly.
'I only... carried out... eight people...'
If her body had been in better shape, she could have saved more.
There was no helping it now.
She had to at least save the two people on her shoulders.
Hong Hye-ryeong struggled toward the hole she had made in the wall.
Then...
-Whoosh!
She had soaked the wall with water, so she had expected the flames to slow at least a little. Instead, fire spreading around it had blocked the path deeper inside.
If she passed through that, burns would cover her face and skin.
'...Burns? Who cares about something like that!'
Gritting her teeth, she threw herself into the flames.
At that instant...
-Swaaaaa!
An immense wind pressure rushed through the hole in the wall, instantly extinguishing the flames blocking her way.
'Now!'
She did not miss the chance and ran.
Just as she was about to pass through the hole in the wall...
'Ah!'
Dizziness robbed her legs of their strength.
She had barely held on until then, but she had finally reached her limit.
Hong Hye-ryeong pitched forward, falling straight from the third floor with the two cadets on her shoulders.
Just as she thought this was the end...
-Bang! Kruuuumble!
With a thunderous roar from above, someone drove a hand into the outer wall and slid down it, then caught Hong Hye-ryeong and the two female cadets she carried.
Feeling the enormous muscles of the person holding them, she widened her eyes and looked at their face.
"You?"
The one who had saved them was none other than Mumu.
Mumu smiled broadly, as though he was deeply relieved.
"Are you hurt anywhere?"
"N-No, but it looks like your body got bigger..."
"We can talk about that later."
-Pak!
Mumu released his grip on the wall and landed on the ground while holding all three of them.
Then he gently set Hong Hye-ryeong and the cadets down.
Hong Hye-ryeong, her legs too weak to stand, dropped to one knee and looked at Southern Blade Residence.
'Ah!'
Every flame along the outer walls of Southern Blade Residence had gone out.
She had no idea what had happened.
Still, flames continued to burn inside the building, so Southern Blade Residence remained in danger.
"The fire spread inside too. Wait here."
"What?"
-Bang!
Mumu leaped all the way to the fourth floor in one bound and tore away the wall with one hand.
-Krraaack!
Then he stood at the end of the corridor, spread both arms wide, and brought them together in front of him.
Like a tremendous clap.
-Paaaaang!
The flames burning inside instantly died down beneath the wind pressure.
Hong Hye-ryeong stared blankly at the sight and muttered, "...So you can put out fire like that too."
Footnotes:
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