WeTried Translations

Translator/Editor: Haruto

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◈ The Martial Alliance Rulebook Archives ◈

Chapter 41: Among Us (1)

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The corpse was clean.

If not for the bloodless face and unmoving chest, it could have been mistaken for someone asleep.

Only the area around the groin was damp. It smelled of urine.

It was a familiar occurrence. When a person dies, their muscles relax, so waste is naturally expelled.

"...What happened?"

Jaksu seized the person who had found the body first and questioned him. The man had been trying to sleep beside the deceased. He said he woke because of an awful smell.

At first, he had thought, That bastard finally opened the liquor he’d been hiding and made a mess! But the man would not wake no matter how much he shook him. His body was completely cold, so he immediately called for the Captain.

As I listened, I thought about the dead White Sword Squad member. Like most of those accompanying this transport mission, Daebok was someone I knew.

He was often teased for having such an old-fashioned name. Still, Daebok would mutter that he liked it because his father had named him Daebok, meaning great fortune, in the hope that he would grow up blessed.

Daebok had also been the one chiming in during stories about making the rounds for the Nine Sects One Gang’s Purification Rites a few days ago...

"Huff, huff... What happened here?"

An unfamiliar voice came from behind us. The Lamp-Extinguishing Executioner, the nominal person in charge of this procession.

Jaksu explained what he had learned so far. The cause of death had not yet been confirmed, and he himself had only rushed over after receiving a report that someone had woken to find the person beside them dead.

The Lamp-Extinguishing Executioner rubbed their chin, then spoke with a grim expression.

"First, strip him."

"To clean up the filth?"

Jaksu asked. The Lamp-Extinguishing Executioner answered calmly.

"That too, but I want to check for livor mortis."

Livor mortis was the purplish discoloration that appeared as a corpse’s blood circulation ceased. I had learned the term myself while reading reports used to prepare rulebooks in the records room.

"Supervisor Lamp-Extinguishing Executioner, were you once a coroner?"

It was reassuring to have someone nearby with such specialized knowledge.

"I wouldn’t go so far as to say that. Martial artists get caught up in all sorts of incidents, don’t they? We’re often falsely accused, so I learned a few things to defend myself."

After removing Daebok’s clothes, the Lamp-Extinguishing Executioner turned the corpse over. Unlike the pale front, the back was mottled with purplish patches.

"It looks like he’s been dead for several hours..."

I examined the corpse as well. There were no visible external injuries.

"Poison?"

Jaksu spat out the question. The Lamp-Extinguishing Executioner shook their head, saying they could not be certain yet. After feeling Daebok’s chest a few times, they called the others over.

"I hate to say this about a corpse, but come and feel his chest."

I approached first and placed my hand on Daebok’s chest.

"Now press down firmly."

My hand sank in with astonishing ease, without resistance.

It went deeper than it should have, past the point where it ought to have struck his ribs.

"His ribs are already all broken."

"That’s right. The force was applied only internally, turning his organs to mush without damaging the skin."

Techniques like a palm strike through the air and Penetrating Force came to mind. Strictly speaking, there were slight differences between them, but both projected force precisely at a chosen point beyond an obstruction.

"A Peak realm expert could do this. ...Tch."

The Lamp-Extinguishing Executioner clicked their tongue. There was a Peak realm expert nearby who might target us.

"You think Iron-Headed Fire Axe used this method?"

Jaksu, however, voiced his doubts. From what was known, Iron-Headed Fire Axe had a violent, rough disposition. Even if they had successfully infiltrated the camp, they were more likely to attempt a large-scale slaughter than such a subtle scheme.

More importantly.

"None of those on night watch could have failed to notice an expert like that approaching. An expert’s killing intent would give them away."

"Hmm, that’s true, but..."

If Iron-Headed Fire Axe were an assassin skilled in Stealth Art, it would not have been impossible to deceive Jaksu, an expert of equal standing, and infiltrate the camp.

But as the axe in the epithet suggested, Iron-Headed Fire Axe excelled in direct combat. Assassins were quietly shunned in the Green Forest to begin with, making it difficult for one to become a Stronghold Chief.

"Then do you believe Iron-Headed Fire Axe, driven into a corner, hired an expert from an assassin guild?"

"That possibility..."

While Jaksu and the Lamp-Extinguishing Executioner exchanged opinions, I took action on my own. I gathered the White Sword Squad members and began questioning them.

Having read the Anomaly Records Office’s casebook on Anomaly investigations, I already understood the basics of an inquiry.

Even drawing out the first words from the people being questioned, the hardest part of an investigation, was simple for me.

"Yeok, what the hell happened?"

"I don’t know either. Captain Jaksu says maybe a professional assassin from an assassin guild was involved... Does anyone know what Daebok did last night?"

I knew most of the White Sword Squad members.

* * *

"Daebok was on night watch yesterday. They say he finished his shift and was relieved around the hour of the Ox, between three and five in the morning, and was alive until then."

There was no doubt about it. I had verified it with both the watchman before Daebok and the one after him.

The Lamp-Extinguishing Executioner rubbed their chin.

"Why Daebok? I, Researcher Yeok, or Captain Jaksu would have been more effective targets than an ordinary White Sword Squad member."

For a moment, I wondered about the word researcher, then recalled that my public identity was as a member of the Formation Array Research Department.

I nodded along before it became too late.

Supervisor Lamp-Extinguishing Executioner’s observation is quite sharp.

Why had the killer chosen an ordinary squad member? Had they assessed Jaksu’s martial ability and decided an assassination attempt would be too burdensome?

If so, the culprit’s goal was not to wipe out the White Sword Squad. It was to stop the supply transport mission.

They were probably trying to pressure the squad members with fear by reducing their numbers and force them to abandon the mission.

Jaksu seemed to have realized this as well, because he asked the supervisor directly.

"What happens to the mission?"

"...There are only a few days left until we reach the place where the Murong Clan is stationed. Three days at most. First, we’ll bury Daebok’s body and mark the spot, then continue the transport. We’ll collect his body on the way back and return."

Jaksu started to say something, then closed his mouth. He rarely expressed it aloud, but he had a deep sense of responsibility toward the White Sword Squad members.

At the same time, no one understood better than he did the standards demanded of the Martial Alliance’s armed forces.

They could not abandon the mission just because they had lost one squad member.

"Understood. But I’ll increase the night watch."

Until now, two people had stayed awake to keep watch over the surroundings. Jaksu proposed increasing each watch to four people, with himself permanently taking one of the positions.

"Will you be all right? That’ll be quite a burden."

"That’s what a Captain does."

* * *

The next day, another person died.

His name was Jang Sam, and he was my friend.

* * *

I caught a glimpse of the fury burning in Jaksu’s eyes.

"You didn’t sense an intruder?"

"...No."

Jaksu nodded with difficulty. As expected of a Peak realm expert, he did not seem physically tired despite staying awake all night, but physical and mental fatigue were different matters.

"Anything noteworthy happen?"

"Nothing unusual. While we were patrolling, Jang Sam’s lamp went out because of the wind. He relit it immediately, and the person patrolling with him still had their lamp on, so there was never a point where they lost visibility. He was fine until the patrol ended."

"Who moved around during the night?"

"A few people got up to relieve themselves. Seven, including the supervisor. But no one was away from their place for longer than one quarter-hour."

I nodded. It matched exactly what I had seen.

"Actually, I stayed awake too."

I had pretended to sleep while watching the surroundings throughout the night. My qi sense was not that sharp, but there was another Peak realm expert here.

Neither Jaksu nor I had sensed an outside intrusion. I had two hypotheses.

First, the unknown killer had reached the Transcendent Peak realm, beyond the senses of lowly Peak realm experts like us.

But if a Transcendent Peak realm assassin had truly come, there would have been no need for this troublesome approach. They could have simply slaughtered us all.

If, by some chance, the culprit truly possessed exceptional martial arts but was the sort of lunatic who killed only according to rules they had set for themselves...

I still had a way to respond.

Second, it was the work of an Anomaly.

But I immediately discarded that hypothesis. There had been no delicious scent around here at all.

At best, there was the smell of potatoes I had eaten while standing the first night watch.

The third possibility.

[There is a killer among us.]

Using the voice transmission Jaksu had taught me, I conveyed my thoughts. Jaksu nodded heavily once, then replied through voice transmission as well.

[You think so too?]

The problem was that we had no idea who the killer might be. We could not feel safe even around White Sword Squad members we knew.

This martial world had human-skin masks and the Bone-Shrinking Art. It was not impossible for a completely different person to disguise even their physique perfectly.

But.

[Captain Jaksu. I’ll take the night watch today. Please rig the drawing of lots appropriately.]

I had my suspicions, not only about the standard the culprit used to choose victims, but their identity as well.

Through voice transmission, I requested several measures from Jaksu. There were many possibilities, but the key was one thing. If anything happened around me after I finished the night watch, he was to attack immediately.

The intuition honed by the rulebooks I had devoured at the Anomaly Records Office whispered to me.

Tonight, the culprit would reveal their identity.

Footnotes:

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