WeTried Translations

Translator/Editor: Alyo

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◈ Memoir of a Regressor ◈

Chapter 20: Assassin

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Sang Myeong-gil of the Sang-un Trading Company sat comfortably in his office, sipping tea.

It was Snow Spirit Tea, brought all the way from the distant Northern Sea.

The tea was extremely rare, known for calming the body and mind while sharpening one's thoughts.

Only the Sang-un Trading Company could afford to drink it so freely.

The matter of all the valuables bound for the Yan Kingdom burning up had yet to be resolved, but he had dealt with every other problem.

He had received a letter earlier.

It was from his eldest daughter, who had married into the Yi Clan.

The letter said they would begin at the Hour of the Dog, but that hour had passed long ago.

Which meant the Yi Clan was as good as already in the Sang-un Trading Company's hands.

The plans ahead were simple.

First, they would name the Yi Clan's second son as the culprit, then swallow up the Yun Clan as well.

The Sang-un Trading Company had been the entrenched local power in the backwater of Suju County for long enough. It was time to move on to the next stage.

They would seize all of Jangnyeong County, beginning with the Yi Clan, and expand their influence.

He had already devised a way to eliminate anything that stood in his way.

First was Yi Do, the third son.

He had put out a hit on the brat.

The reward was a full hundred taels of gold.

It was a top-tier commission.

Today or tomorrow, that third son with such incredible talent for martial arts would die without fail.

The Sang-un Trading Company was closely connected to Suju County's government office. They could establish ties with the government office in Jangnyeong County as well and prepare for any armed opposition.

This was a golden future.

Not some distant future, but one that was almost within reach.

He could not stop smiling.

Still.

He should have heard by now that they had completely swallowed the Yi Clan. Why had no news arrived?

Was it simply taking a little longer?

As if that worry had been needless, the door burst open.

“Company Head... Company Head!”

The man looked like a bandit.

His hair was unkempt, his beard thick and wild, and he had a large build.

This man was Wang Jin-hon, deputy leader of the Sang-un Trading Company.

Thinking the news he had been waiting for had arrived, Sang Myeong-gil soon noticed that Wang Jin-hon's expression was far from normal.

That was the look he wore when something had gone terribly wrong.

“Outside... outside...”

“Outside what? Speak properly!”

“Outside... people from the Yi Clan have arrived.”

“...What?”

“They have also brought warriors from the Yun Clan. There are over two hundred of them...”

Cold sweat ran down his forehead.

There was only one possibility.

Failure.

Sang Myeong-gil quickly composed himself.

After issuing a summons to all the martial artists, he went outside.

The first person he saw stood at the very front.

Drenched in blood from head to toe, the man stood with his eyes closed and a sword planted in the ground. The sight was overwhelmingly imposing.

He slowly opened his eyes.

The moment their gazes met, Sang Myeong-gil flinched and took a step back.

What was this absurd aura?

“Are you Sang Myeong-gil of the Sang-un Trading Company?”

“...I am. Who are you?”

“You don't need to know that. A rebellion broke out in the Yi Clan today. Sang Hwa-yeong told me you ordered her to assassinate the Yi Clan Head with Soul-Severing Demonic Poison.”

Sang Hwa-yeong was Lady Sang's real name.

At the mention of his daughter's name, Sang Myeong-gil swallowed hard.

Still, this was not his first day running a trading company.

He quickly regained his composure.

“What nonsense is this? Soul-Severing Demonic Poison? I've never even heard of such a thing. And even if I had ordered it, why would my eldest daughter try to assassinate the head of the clan she married into?”

“I don't know about that. But the result is already clear. The Yi Clan Head is currently unconscious, and Sang Hwa-yeong and that bitch's son, Yi Jeong, gathered martial artists to overthrow the clan.”

His fist trembled.

Wang Jin-hon, the deputy leader standing beside him, whispered in a low voice.

“...That is the Yi Clan's third son.”

Sang Myeong-gil was shocked.

“...That idiot? Him?”

“Yes.”

He had changed so much that Sang Myeong-gil had not recognized him. His body had grown larger overall, and his hair was shorter than before.

Sang Myeong-gil spoke firmly.

“I understand why you are angry as the Yi Clan's third son, but how can you act this way without confirming the facts? Boy, even if we aren't related by blood, we are practically family. Come inside first. Wouldn't it be right to discuss the outcome after we have properly established the facts?”

“...”

“I have Snow Spirit Tea prepared. It is an exceedingly rare tea brought from the Northern Sea. Come inside.”

Yi Do stared at Sang Myeong-gil for a moment, then lightly gestured behind him.

Yeom Gil-seong, a Yi Clan servant standing in the rear, approached carrying two boxes and placed them before Yi Do.

“Company Head. Before we talk, I prepared two gifts for you. How about you look at them first?”

“...Gifts?”

Yi Do lightly nudged one of the boxes with his foot.

The box opened.

The instant Sang Myeong-gil saw what was inside, his eyes turned bloodshot.

“You... son... of a bitch...”

It was a natural reaction.

One box contained Sang Hwa-yeong's head.

“Didn't I say there were two?”

Yi Do nudged the other box with his foot.

It opened.

Yi Jeong's head was inside.

Sang Myeong-gil's body trembled. The heads of his beloved daughter and grandson were right there before him.

That bastard. That damned bastard.

Yi Do spoke calmly.

“If you tried to take everything, shouldn't you have been prepared to lose everything as well?”

“...”

“I can't hear you. Why is the voice of the great head of the Sang-un Trading Company crawling along the ground like that?”

Sang Myeong-gil shouted.

“Now! Catch him and beat him to death!”

A gentle smile bloomed on Yi Do's lips.

“Yes, that is how the master of a trading company should act.”

“Kill him! Kill him, I said! Kill that son of a bitch! Now!”

At Sang Myeong-gil's frantic command, the Sang-un Trading Company's martial artists rushed forward all at once.

Yi Do drew his sword.

“We have no need for prisoners. Today, the Yi Clan will take the Sang-un Trading Company.”

The Yi Clan martial artists behind him also drew their weapons.

Yi Do continued.

“If the workforce needed to run the company shrinks, will you fill those positions from outside, or from within?”

Greed filled everyone's eyes.

“The more you kill, the greater the rewards you will receive. So put your lives on the line and kill them.”

“Yes!”

And so, the martial artists of the two sides clashed.

* * *

Once you start something, you have to see it through to the end.

This was a place thick with the stench of blood.

A place where you could not know who would stab you in the back, or even properly tell friend from foe.

That was the true martial world.

I swung my sword hard.

Slice!

The neck of a Sang-un Trading Company martial artist rushing toward me was severed.

I kicked off the ground.

The Heavenly Mechanism Divine Steps flashed across the ground. I thrust my sword forward.

Thud.

It pierced a martial artist's throat.

At the same time as I kicked the martial artist's body away, I threw my head back. A sword skimmed beneath my chin.

I spun and swung my sword wide.

Two swords were knocked aside, and one neck was severed.

I shifted into a reverse grip and twisted my body sideways. The sword of a martial artist thrusting at me from behind passed my side by a hairbreadth.

I swung the reverse-gripped sword with all my strength.

Slice!

A martial artist's head flew into the air.

Sang Myeong-gil stood directly before me.

The distance was around ten zhang.

Even if I had to let the others go, I had to kill Sang Myeong-gil today.

I had to kill him today.

I kicked off the ground.

Two martial artists blocked my way. One swung horizontally while the other thrust forward.

I stepped down.

The Heavenly Mechanism Divine Steps unfolded.

I deflected the thrusting sword to the side and ducked beneath the horizontal swing.

In an instant, I was behind both martial artists.

They turned their heads.

Strength filled the hand gripping my sword. Internal energy surged from my middle dantian.

Using the compressed muscles of my shoulder, I swung hard.

From upper left to lower right.

Rumble.

A faint peal of thunder sounded.

Slice!

The two men split cleanly in half.

Five-Thunder Demon-Burning Sword Art.

This was a sword art that used thunder qi, one of nature's energies. From what I understood of its principles, once it reached great mastery, it would call down five bolts of lightning with a single swing.

My level was still lacking, so all I could summon was a single streak of lightning, and even that merely had lightning's outward form.

Even so, it was more than enough to deal with this many people.

I turned my head.

Eight zhang remained.

I kicked off again.

A martial artist swung a sword at me.

It was obvious he had swung without thinking. I could see the sword's path clearly.

I kicked.

Bang!

With a deafening crash, the martial artist's sword flew into the air.

I immediately drove a dagger down.

Crunch!

Beyond the dagger buried deep in the martial artist's forehead, another martial artist was rushing toward me.

His features were rugged.

I did not know who he was. Still, I could tell that he was a master who had reached Twin Sun Manifestation.

He reached out.

I threw the sword I had been holding.

Boom!

The sword was knocked aside.

He was unharmed. Seeing the internal energy heavily condensed in his arm, there was no doubt he had reached Twin Sun Manifestation.

He pushed off the ground forcefully and reached for my throat with his other hand.

With a thud, his hand clamped around my throat.

My body was pushed back.

“Bastard! You seem confident in your martial strength, but you are only at the Circulation Realm...!”

I reached out with my other hand and grabbed his solar plexus.

Then I clenched down hard.

Cloud Dragon Grappling Art.

“Ugh...!”

I poured internal energy into my hand and twisted hard.

His body spun through the air with it.

The ground was above him, and the sky below.

I glared into his eyes and drove my elbow forward.

Crunch!

It struck his lower abdomen as he hung upside down in the air.

To others, it might have sounded like nothing more than a simple impact.

But not to either of us.

His dantian had just shattered.

“Cough!”

He fell face-down in an awkward sprawl.

I stomped down on his neck.

Crack!

His neck shattered.

I raised my head.

The distance to Sang Myeong-gil was still eight zhang.

The difference from before was that almost no one remained who wanted to stop me.

I walked forward without a word.

Corpses littered the ground in every direction.

Sang Myeong-gil backed away.

A martial artist approached from the side.

I leaned my head back and reached out.

Cloud Dragon Grappling Art.

This was not a simple grappling technique. It was a supreme art even among grappling arts, one that turned an opponent's strength against them while placing them in an inescapable shackle.

I grabbed his face and twisted.

His upper body remained in place while only his neck spun three or four times.

The martial artist collapsed.

I snatched up a sword lying on the ground.

Then I walked slowly.

Sang Myeong-gil, who had been backing away, fell onto his backside.

The bandit-looking man beside him turned and began to flee.

I threw the sword.

Thud!

It buried itself in his neck.

Sang Myeong-gil began to hiccup as he watched the body collapse.

He turned his head.

I stood before him.

“S-Save me. Please...”

I spoke calmly.

“Didn't I say it? If you try something to gain everything, you must also be prepared to lose everything when you fail.”

“But... isn't this too much?!”

A hollow laugh escaped me.

“I will put the Sang-un Trading Company to good use.”

I kicked forward.

Crunch!

Sang Myeong-gil's head burst, and fragments scattered everywhere.

I straightened up and caught my breath.

It was over.

Just as the tension in my body began to fade, I saw something strange.

Sang Myeong-gil had been at the very rear.

Who had reached him first?

No one but me.

Then how many people had I killed after approaching Sang Myeong-gil?

Two in total, Sang Myeong-gil and that bandit-looking man over there.

But then.

Why was there another corpse here?

The tension snapped taut again as the corpse leaped to its feet and lunged at me.

His movements were extraordinarily swift.

Twin Sun Manifestation?

No.

He had definitely reached Five Dragons Honoring the Sage. Otherwise, this speed could not be explained.

My eyes flashed.

Thud!

A dagger buried itself in my abdomen.

I neither stepped back nor cried out.

I reached out with my right hand and grabbed the man's face.

“...Assassin Fortress?”

“...Kgh... You monster...”

I tightened my grip.

The bastard also pressed harder on the dagger.

It sank deeper and deeper.

It did not matter.

Pain?

I was used to it.

I recited the formula.

Red Dragon Divine Technique.

Whoosh.

Fire qi suffused my entire body.

The flames that rose along my body and arm spread to the assassin's body.

The bastard tried to retreat in horror, but that was impossible.

He had been caught by the Cloud Dragon Grappling Art.

I would not be pushed back, nor did I intend to be.

Before long, the man engulfed in flames screamed.

I tightened my hand and clamped his mouth shut.

I straightened my other hand and chopped down.

The assassin tried to react too late, but that was impossible.

Crunch!

My knife-hand struck the assassin's neck.

I had tried to break it, but it had not broken.

Then I only had to strike until it did.

I struck again.

Crunch!

Once more.

Crunch!

“Kh... Stop... stop it...”

I ignored him.

Once more.

Crack!

The assassin with the shattered neck collapsed.

I looked down at him.

The pain rising from my abdomen was quite irritating, but I did not show it.

Assassin Fortress.

I intended to collect the price for this pain soon enough.

I turned my head.

At some point, the fighting had stopped.

The Sang-un Trading Company's martial artists slowly fell to their knees.

It was a clear sign of surrender.

The surviving Yi Clan martial artists also knelt.

I spoke briefly.

“You did well.”

Today, the Sang-un Trading Company was absorbed by the Yi Clan.

Footnotes:

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