Memoir of a Regressor - Chapter 44

WeTried Translations

Translator/Editor: Alyo

◈ Memoir of a Regressor ◈

Chapter 44: At This Point, You Really Should Leave

──────

Yi Do and Myeong-hyeon were still in Ahyeon Town, Yan Kingdom.

At an inn there, they ordered two bowls of noodles and some Bamboo Leaf Green wine. Yet strangely, neither man touched the food before them.

Myeong-hyeon wore a complicated expression.

“Um... Protector, may I ask you something?”

“Go ahead.”

“You haven’t forgotten that we’re in Yan Kingdom, have you?”

“Do I look like I have?”

“I only asked just in case. So you knew and still acted as you did... You have no intention of letting this matter lie, do you?”

Yi Do let out a dry laugh.

“Let it lie? Would that change anything?”

“...It might change how many people die.”

“How can one speak of death in the Martial World? We are bound by debts and grudges. Favor for favor, grudge for grudge.”

“...”

“Even if I stop, they will not. We have reached that point. Now, only one thing remains. Either I die, or they do.”

“...You really are thorough. Very thorough.”

Yi Do silently looked at Myeong-hyeon, who quietly looked back.

Why were these two men sitting here?

Why had they ordered food without touching any of it?

There was a clear reason.

Yi Do glanced to the side and beckoned. The attendant waiting in the corner hurried over.

With a businesslike smile, the attendant asked, “Yes, sir. Is there anything else you need?”

Yi Do said something the attendant had not expected.

“Take a bite of these noodles.”

“...Pardon?”

“I said, take a bite.”

“...I’m only an attendant. How could I lay a hand on a customer’s food...?”

Yi Do nodded as if he understood. The attendant was about to turn away again when Yi Do grabbed the bowl full of noodles and smashed it straight into the attendant’s head.

BOOM-!

It was only a bowl, yet it sounded as though a person had burst.

That was exactly what had happened. The attendant’s head had just exploded.

What happened next was unexpected. The instant the noodle broth mixed with the attendant’s corpse, bubbles began rising from it.

It was poison.

Still seated, Myeong-hyeon held his head.

“...The Ahyeon branch of Assassin Fortress... Haa...”

That was right.

This was the Ahyeon branch of the very Assassin Fortress with which Yi Do had formed debts and grudges in Jeok Nation.

Ambitious to expand into Yan Kingdom, Assassin Fortress had established three branches there. One of them was here in Ahyeon Town.

Yi Do drew the Cloud Dragon Sword from his waist.

Dozens of attendants, no, assassins rushed at him.

Some had been hiding. Some had been in the kitchen. Some had been on the ceiling.

They had come from everywhere.

Myeong-hyeon watched for a moment before finally drawing the sword at his waist.

...He was a difficult man.

After muttering inwardly, Myeong-hyeon launched himself at the assassins.

That day, the Ahyeon branch of Assassin Fortress fell.

* * *

His fury boiled over.

The Master of Assassin Fortress, the Black Slaughter Ghost King Mun Hu-do, slammed his fist down on a table.

The table collapsed, but it did not satisfy him. He punched the wall. It crumbled. There was a bookshelf behind it. He punched again. The bookshelf and even the wall beyond it collapsed.

His anger would not subside.

He slammed his fist into the floor.

BOOM, BOOM.

The ground caved in, revealing Mun Hu-do’s secret vault beneath it. He was about to destroy that too before suddenly coming to his senses.

How much wealth was inside?

Huffing harshly, he raised his head.

His eyes, soaked in killing intent, glared at the one intact wall as if they would shatter it.

“Yi Do... You dog bastard!!”

Something irreversible had happened.

Not in Jeok Nation, but in Yan Kingdom, a branch of Assassin Fortress had fallen.

The money spent hiring martial artists was one thing, but how many assassins had already died at the hands of that bastard Yi Do?

More would undoubtedly die in the future.

He wanted to move at once and kill the bastard, but it was not that simple.

Where was Yi Do now?

He was in the Asura Sword Sect.

At the recommendation of Great Elder Myo Man-ri, the Flying Dragon Great Hero, he had become a Protector directly under the Great Elder.

It did not matter whether Yi Do was a newcomer or had spent years in the Asura Sword Sect.

What mattered was that he was Myo Man-ri’s Protector. To touch Yi Do was to touch Myo Man-ri, and that meant touching the Asura Sword Sect.

Assassin Fortress was not the greatest assassin organization under heaven, but it stood foremost among the assassin organizations aspiring to that title. That was why it could judge the situation calmly.

They could not touch Yi Do.

Yet Yi Do could touch them.

That absurd situation was why Mun Hu-do was enraged.

“Bastard... Damned bastard. Even chewing you up would not satisfy me... You maggot of a demonic fiend.”

Perhaps Assassin Fortress had been given the chance to stop first.

When Yi Do destroyed the Assassin Fortress branch in Suju County, it had two options.

The first was to go to Yi Do directly and settle their debts and grudges through conversation or whatever else was needed. The second was to settle them by killing Yi Do.

Given Assassin Fortress’s reputation, the first option had made no sense. So it chose the second.

This was the result.

It could not continue being dragged around like this.

It had to turn this situation around, having gone from hunter to hunted.

“Black Hand.”

At Mun Hu-do’s call, the door opened and a man entered.

“Yes, Master.”

“How many assassins can we mobilize right now?”

“...If it must be immediate, we can mobilize one hundred waiting here in Jangyeon City.”

“If we relocate to Jung-su County?”

“...If you give us time, we can gather every Assassin Fortress assassin scattered across the Jeok Martial World. There are 687 in total. Even assuming some who have just begun assassination assignments fail and lose their lives, we can gather at least six hundred.”

Six hundred.

Not bad.

Black Hand watched Mun Hu-do’s strange smile, and his heart sank.

“Master...?”

“We can no longer live under the same sky. I will kill the Cruel Demonic Way.”

“...But he is in the Asura Sword Sect. To touch him is to touch the Asura Sword Sect...”

Black Hand trailed off as a thought suddenly occurred to him.

He realized why Mun Hu-do was smiling like that.

“Surely you do not intend to relocate to Yan Kingdom?”

“I do.”

Black Hand’s mouth fell open.

People often misunderstood something.

The place where martial artists lived was certainly the Martial World.

But the Martial World was not one whole. Strictly speaking, it was divided.

The Martial World of Yan Kingdom, the Martial World of Jeok Nation, and the Martial World of Wi Kingdom.

Taking the first character of each, they were called the Yan Martial World, the Jeok Martial World, and the Wi Martial World.

The Jeok Martial World had the Eight Great Sects. The Yan Martial World had the Five Great Schools, while the Wi Martial World had One Manor, Three Gates, and Two Sects.

“I will contact the Heaven-Breaking Fist Sect. They are not on good terms with the Asura Sword Sect, so if we join hands with them, killing the Cruel Demonic Way should be relatively easy.”

The Heaven-Breaking Fist Sect had a long history.

It was located in Yan Kingdom now, but that land had once belonged to Jeok Nation. Given the Fist Sect’s unusual position, even Jung-su County, where it stood, was counted as part of the Jeok Martial World.

It was a complete mess of a region, and many had no desire to involve themselves in a conflict between the two sects. For nearly two hundred years, treating Jung-su County as part of the Jeok Martial World had become something of a tradition.

Mun Hu-do intended to join hands with the Heaven-Breaking Fist Sect. The Fist Sect would surely want to belong to the Yan Martial World rather than the Jeok Martial World. If, with the relocated Assassin Fortress at its center, they could exert influence over the Yan Martial World, it would greatly help reshape the balance of power.

“The Heaven-Breaking Fist Sect’s Sect Leader, the Invincible Fist Emperor Gong Wi-ryang, is a man who can be reasoned with. I will make a deal with him.”

“...Master...”

“Enough. I have decided. Organize the resources in every branch and tell the assassins who share my will to gather in Jung-su County, Yan Kingdom.”

The master of Assassin Fortress had made his decision.

That settled it.

Assassin Fortress had operated in the Jeok Martial World for a long time, but the wall called [Assassin Gate] was simply too high. They had to acknowledge what needed acknowledging.

No matter how much time passed, as long as [Dark Venerable], the master of Assassin Gate, remained alive and well, Assassin Fortress could not surpass Assassin Gate.

How could Mun Hu-do, who was only at the initial stage of the Creation Realm, surpass Dark Venerable, the greatest assassin who had already reached the Divine Entrance Realm?

Even if Mun Hu-do did nothing but eat and train like a madman, Dark Venerable would not spend that time idling around.

Dark Venerable was currently in closed-door seclusion, striving to enter the ranks of the Ten Greatest Masters Under Heaven.

Relocation was the right choice. If it recruited a powerful ally while relocating, then destroyed the Asura Sword Sect alongside that ally...

Assassin Fortress would surely grow larger from that point onward.

Yi Do’s debts and grudges with Assassin Fortress had begun to grow in a slightly different direction than expected.

* * *

I was camping with Myeong-hyeon on a mountain near the border between Yan Kingdom and Jeok Nation.

When someone moved without rest, problems were bound to arise. You had to rest when it was time to rest.

With the campfire between us, Myeong-hyeon and I ate a rabbit we had just caught.

After sitting quietly for a while, I asked him a question.

“Do you have anyone you’re seeing?”

Myeong-hyeon gave an awkward smile, as if wondering why I was asking something so sudden.

“I do not.”

There was no way that was true. As Myeong-hyeon, perhaps he had no one. As Yaksha, though, he did.

“Do you have no intention of leaving the life of a martial artist?”

Myeong-hyeon looked at me as though I was very strange, then trailed off.

“...Is that really as easy as it sounds?”

Honestly, it was not easy.

The Martial World was not simply a matter of its size. It was a matter of debts and grudges. A matter of those who were bound, and those who would not let them go.

“Yaksha.”

“...?”

“I’ll give you a chance. Leave now.”

Myeong-hyeon looked deeply puzzled, as if wondering what I was talking about.

That was how you had to act if you wanted to play dumb. Convincing, wasn’t it?

“...What do you mean...?”

Even the rise and fall of his voice was perfect. It was the voice of someone who had not understood a word I said.

Ignoring him, I continued calmly.

“I am doing this to keep a promise I wished to keep before but could not. Do not give it any meaning beyond that.”

“...”

“The Sword Emperor will not let you go easily, so go beyond the frontier and live there. In other words, run.”

“...”