WeTried Translations

Translator/Editor: Haruto

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◈ The Martial Alliance Rulebook Archives ◈

Chapter 5: Anomaly Records Office (1)

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‘Anomaly?’

It was a word I had never heard before. I tried to recall whether the word had ever appeared in Black and White Martial Heroes Chronicle.

The only use that came to mind was as a modifier, as in calling someone’s martial arts anomalous. The Anomaly I knew was not a term used for systematic classifications like spiritual creatures or outsiders.

The internet ghost stories I’d read during my time on Earth came to mind. Wasn’t Anomaly a word better suited to fictional ghost stories than a martial arts world?

“What is an Anomaly?”

“Do you know the saying, ‘The Master did not speak of strange things, feats of strength, disorder, or spirits’?”

“I believe it’s from the Analects. At any rate, it’s a saying of an ancient sage.”

As I remembered it, Confucius had not discussed anomalies, feats of strength, rebellion, or ghosts. I had not expected to hear a passage from the Analects in the Martial Alliance.

“You know it well. Aren’t martial artists those who possess the feats of strength mentioned there? If one exists, why wouldn’t the other three?”

“I’ve heard there have been quite a few cases of rebellion too.”

I recalled the dubious martial arts groups I’d heard about through gossip. Every so often, strange people would appear, claiming they would overturn the current imperial court like the Yellow Turbans from Romance of the Three Kingdoms, only to be suppressed.

“Say such things carelessly, and the imperial court might come looking for you.”

I could not tell whether that was a joke, but I kept my mouth shut.

As was often the case in martial arts novels, the government offices in Black and White Martial Heroes Chronicle were the sort that became endlessly entangled with you once you got involved with them, whether it was the Eastern Depot or the Embroidered Uniform Guard.

There probably were not any government ears around a Second-rate martial artist as insignificant as me, but there was no need to invite trouble.

“I don’t know where to begin explaining this.”

The White-Robed Miracle Physician looked me up and down as if gauging my energy.

“You’re still Second-rate, correct?”

“Yes.”

“Then it’ll be quicker to show you. Follow me.”

He turned and began walking away again. Though I tilted my head in confusion, I had no choice but to follow.

A question naturally rose in my mind.

‘I’ve never heard of either Anomalies or the Anomaly Records Office.’

I might have been at the bottom of the hierarchy, but I still belonged to the Martial Alliance. If these names were unfamiliar even to me, the Anomaly Records Office had to be a secret organization.

A hidden organization large enough to be called an office.

Even with my knowledge of Black and White Martial Heroes Chronicle, it was difficult to guess what it did.

The game had never contained concepts such as rulebooks or an Anomaly Records Office in the first place.

Something unknown, something I had never encountered in either the game or reality, was approaching. I wondered where the path Byeolui led me down would end.

* * *

The place we reached was thick with the scent of ink. Martial Alliance members who looked more like scholars than martial artists diligently reviewed documents.

“The Ceremonial Affairs Department...?”

It was the department that organized events such as martial arts tournaments. It handled complex administrative procedures, from reserving venues and clearing people away to cooperating with government offices.

“Hm? Didn’t you see it in the rulebook?”

“The rulebook? I was already overwhelmed trying to memorize how to deal with anomalous phenomena.”

“It says on the back cover, ‘Rulebook Anomaly Records Office, under the Martial Alliance Ceremonial Affairs Department.’”

“No. Why is a secret organization attached to the Ceremonial Affairs Department?”

Ceremonies sounded grand at first glance, but the Ceremonial Affairs Department’s main work was protocol.

The Martial Alliance Leader had to be received a certain way when making an appearance, and during inspection ceremonies, the order of precedence beneath the Alliance Leader began with the Chief Strategist. Trivial procedures like that.

Wasn’t this place far too ordinary to hide a secret organization that had to be concealed even from other Martial Alliance members?

“Which organization in the Martial Alliance do you think consults rulebooks most often?”

“Ah.”

The Martial Alliance contained all kinds of martial artists. There were elders from prestigious great sects like the Nine Sects and One Gang or the Five Great Clans, as well as local powers from minor sects who still strutted around their regions with their heads held high.

There were also wandering heroes who stood out like awls in bags, with no backing but exceptional skill.

The treatment the Martial Alliance had to afford each of them changed constantly.

If the Third Young Master of the Namgung Clan and the first-generation disciple of the Mount Hua Sect attended a Martial Alliance meeting, who should be called first, and who should be seated in the place of honor?

When a banquet was held to celebrate the suppression of a mountain stronghold, who should be its main guest: the head of the local sect that handled supplies for the campaign, or the commander of the martial force who personally cut off the bandit chief’s head?

A Chief Strategist of the Alliance could instantly grasp complicated precedents and the current balance of power in the martial world, then select the most suitable protocol. Most Martial Alliance members assigned to the Ceremonial Affairs Department, however, did not possess such wondrous minds.

That was why the Ceremonial Affairs Department kept rulebooks, or work manuals in Earth terms, close at hand.

“Not every rulebook handled by the Anomaly Records Office concerns Anomalies. There are far more ordinary ones, like the rulebook for receiving the Martial Alliance Leader.”

A sudden curiosity arose in me. Though I was a Martial Alliance member, I had never seen the Alliance Leader up close.

“What does the rulebook for receiving the Martial Alliance Leader say?”

“Greet him properly.”

“What?”

“Really greet him properly. Even at my age, I have to bow before that stiff old man.”

Judging by appearance alone, the White-Robed Miracle Physician truly possessed the air of an immortal sage. His white hair and long beard made him look at least seventy years old.

Yet even someone like him had to bow every time he saw the Alliance Leader.

Was the Alliance Leader temperamental?

“He isn’t a bad person, aside from being excessively obsessed with etiquette. Hm, he’s not a bad person.”

It sounded as though there was some hidden meaning to those words. Byeolui walked deeper into the Ceremonial Affairs Department, passing Martial Alliance members who wielded their brushes without even raising their heads.

Farther in, where even the sound of pages turning could no longer be heard, stood a door beneath a plaque that read Archives Pavilion.

When he opened the lacquered double doors beneath it, a sea of shelves densely packed with books appeared.

Each shelf bore a sign: Namgung, Zhuge, Wudang, Shaolin, and others.

They seemed to contain registers and protocol rules for each clan and sect.

The manuals filled a space the size of a decent building. A sigh escaped me at the sheer scale.

“Do the members of the Ceremonial Affairs Department have to memorize all this...?”

Byeolui answered my mutter.

“Ah, this is the Preservation Archive. It has grown this large because records of people from several generations ago are kept as reference material. The material current staff must memorize is in the center of the Ceremonial Affairs Department, not somewhere as remote as this.”

He stopped before a shelf pressed against the wall in a corner of the Archives Pavilion.

Then he lifted several books in sequence. A click sounded.

With a low creak, the bookshelf began sliding aside like a door.

Beyond it was a staircase leading deep underground. Night-luminous pearls embedded in the walls shimmered mysteriously.

A mechanism formation...!

A martial world mechanism formation, something I had seen only through a monitor or lines of text, stood before my eyes. I swallowed involuntarily, caught between excitement and tension.

“Come down quickly. They complain that if this stays open too long, the celestial silkworm thread sags and loses its tension.”

The feeling of everyday life washed over me in an instant. I nodded weakly and went down.

* * *

“This is the Anomaly Records Office.”

The underground space at the bottom of the stairs felt like a modern library. Walls lined with shelves, and a long table in the center of a vast hall.

It was easy to imagine people selecting books from the shelves, immediately sitting down, and beginning to read.

Yet there was no one at the Anomaly Records Office’s table. There were only books and brushes.

Despite the absence of people, the brushes floated in the air and wrote. The contents of rulebooks were being inscribed onto blank pages.

I examined the book nearest to me.

『Wish-Seeking Treasure Map, Human-grade Gui-class Anomaly.

A blank sheet of paper that transforms into a treasure map concealing something its owner desires. The map’s destination is presumed to be randomly determined.

The shallower the owner’s cultivation, and the stronger their longing, the stronger the urge to claim the treasure becomes.

In most cases, however, the treasure does not exist.

As a result, upon reaching the destination, the owner enters a state of extreme rage due to the gap between belief and reality, and the likelihood of qi deviation also rises.

In the case of the previous owner, Rock-Cleaving Sword Jeok Haeung, the Jeok Family Manor was set as the treasure map’s destination, resulting in an incident where the owner slaughtered their own family...』

When I turned toward another book, the words 『Killer-Shaped Snow Ginseng』 had just begun to appear.

The handwriting was the same.

Under the suffocating pressure, I opened my mouth.

“What in the world is this...?”

“They’re drafts of the rulebooks. We condense the key points and turn them into complete rulebooks.”

“I’m not talking about the books’ contents. I mean whoever is writing this.”

Once again, I looked at the brushes moving through the air. The countless brushes recording rulebook drafts each described a different Anomaly, but their writing was uniformly neat.

The same intent was imbued in every brush.

“Who is using such terrifying remote object manipulation?”

Byeolui smiled.

“You have quite a sharp sense for energy. Most people who come here after hearing the word ‘Anomaly’ imagine some Anomaly that writes rulebooks for them.”

Good heavens. Was this really the work of one person’s remote object manipulation?

How could anyone control so many brushes with such precision? For remote object manipulation this advanced, it would have to be something like the Tang Clan’s Myriad Heavenly Flowers.

“But I can’t tell you yet. It’s a secret authorized only to Records Officers of the Anomaly Records Office.”

Byeolui approached the corner of the table, casually pushed aside the book resting there, and took the seat.

As if annoyed, the brush that had been writing stained Byeolui’s white hemp sleeve with ink, then followed the displaced book.

“Ha, that old man. What a temperament.”

Clicking his tongue at his blackened sleeve, the White-Robed Miracle Physician offered me the seat across from him.

“Come, sit here.”

As I sat down, I asked, “Can I hear what an Anomaly is now?”

“Of course. I’ll tell you about Anomalies.”

Smiling broadly, Byeolui added one more thing.

“And about you as well.”

Footnotes:

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