WeTried Translations

Translator/Editor: Haruto

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◈ The Martial Alliance Rulebook Archives ◈

Chapter 59: Shadow of the Clan…? (2)

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On the way to the dining district, I spotted Chef Hong's dumpling shop, the place where the Human-Skin Chef had once worked as the cook.

More precisely, I should call it the place that had once been a dumpling shop. Its doors were shut, while large cauldrons, tables, and other furnishings lay scattered outside. It looked like a new owner had moved in and was renovating the place.

It seemed the Human-Skin Chef had faithfully kept the promise to leave afterward. There was no trace of a martial arts expert having hidden nearby.

That was a little disappointing. The Human-Skin Chef was a skilled agent too, so perhaps I could have set the Human-Skin Chef against the unidentified group following me.

After considering the possibility, I shook my head.

Their trailing was easy enough for even me to notice. The Human-Skin Chef would easily figure out who they were and drive them off.

The problem was what the Human-Skin Chef might think of me for bringing such troublesome people along.

I was probably already on the Human-Skin Chef's bad side because of the Eccentric Physician. There was no need to do something that might seem like further provocation.

I tried once more to guess the identities of those following me. Put simply, their martial prowess was not threatening.

If they had been professional killers or assassins, they would have used martial arts such as the Breath-Hiding Grand Method or Stealth Art even while tailing someone.

Yet if they possessed that level of professional concealment, I should not have noticed them at all. In other words, they were complete novices when it came to advanced techniques for concealing their qi.

At the same time, they were excellent at staying out of sight. They naturally concealed themselves by using the blind spots inherent to human vision, along with the terrain and surrounding structures.

I had easily detected their tail because of my sense of smell, but ordinarily, even a highly skilled expert would have struggled to notice them.

It was a strange combination. They had no mastery of assassins' martial arts, yet they were skilled at avoiding people's notice.

‘Are they thugs who specialize in following people?’

By the time I finished speculating, I had reached my destination.

It was a place I had often visited for its low prices since my days in the White Sword Squad. It was Jaksu's regular inn. He stayed inside the Martial Alliance, but whenever he ate outside, he always came here.

Their knife-shaved noodles were superb. The chef used an unusual blade that looked more like a scraper than a kitchen knife, shaving the dough into noodles with quick strokes.

‘He used to say it would still be worth coming here if they doubled the prices...’

Among the White Sword Squad, there was a running joke that the chef probably had a deeper understanding of swordsmanship than any of us. Even Jaksu, who rarely spoke unless it concerned official business, would play along with that joke.

We said that comparing one White Sword Squad member against the chef was not enough. You would need to put five against the chef before you could tell whether they stood a chance.

The scent lingering around me was quite bold. It had entered the inn before I did.

I opened the door and looked around. I had been trying to find the faces of those tailing me, but I happened to spot someone familiar instead.

“Hmm? Cheonmyeong?”

“Greetings, Captain Jaksu.”

Jaksu was eating a bowl of knife-shaved noodles. After taking in the scents of the people following me, I clicked my tongue inwardly.

They seemed to have gone up to somewhere on the second floor rather than staying on the dining floor. That would make it difficult to eat in peace.

“It's well past lunchtime. Have you been busy?”

“It's my day off. I was lazing around until I finally felt like coming out.”

Jaksu gestured with his chin toward the chair across from him. The inn had plenty of open seats now that the busiest hours had passed, but since he had invited me to sit with him, there was no reason to refuse.

I had something to ask him too.

[What happened with the conversation you had with Steel-Severing Leg Iljik?]

Jaksu slightly furrowed his brow as he ate, then nodded.

[Iljik did not know much. Still, Iljik seemed to have some vague idea why my master wanted to join the White Sword Squad.]

Apparently, Jaksu's master had sought a promotion to the main headquarters in order to find something in the Martial Alliance's Scripture Repository.

It was common for ordinary wandering martial artists to fantasize about the so-called “authentic orthodox martial arts” stored by the Martial Alliance.

But the martial arts Jaksu's lineage possessed were already too profound for its members to be regarded as ordinary wandering martial artists. The Blazing Sun Palm he had displayed in his fight against the Lamp-Extinguishing Executioner had been fierce enough to scorch the darkness of night and burn full-grown trees.

It felt strange that someone who had learned such martial arts would obsess over other arts rather than the martial arts of their own school.

“How have things been for you lately? They are not pushing you around because you are a wandering martial artist, are they?”

It was a question with two meanings. I was asking whether the Martial Alliance's original members were hazing Jaksu, but I was also worried they might be assigning Jaksu to life-threatening work.

“Uh... I haven't felt anything like that.”

I could not claim, even as an empty courtesy, that Anomaly Records Office work was safe. The Anomalies we encountered were dangerous, and the people we encountered were even more dangerous.

Jaksu's brow twitched again.

Seeing that expression, I made light of it. Martial artists' work was dangerous by nature, I said.

“Our last mission was like that, wasn't it? It wasn't supposed to be so dangerous.”

Jaksu considered it for a moment, then nodded with a resolute look, as if reaching a decision.

“After you eat, could you wait for a bit if you have time?”

“Hm?”

“Since things have turned out this way, there's someone I'd like to introduce you to.”

* * *

Once the meal was over, I was led to a private room on the inn's second floor.

Chef Hong, who cut the knife-shaved noodles so well, was there, along with the innkeeper, who was said to be his wife.

“Captain Jaksu, who is this?”

The innkeeper raised a brow. Jaksu answered in his usual calm tone.

“Someone who once saved my life. This person was also a wandering martial artist and received a suspicious recommendation that earned them a transfer to the Martial Alliance's main headquarters.”

Were these two the friends Jaksu wanted to introduce me to? But why did he want me to meet them...?

“This is someone we can trust with information from the Hao Clan's Calamity-Averting and Disaster-Escaping Office.”

What?

The Hao Clan?

* * *

The unexpected name left me dumbfounded. I had thought Jaksu visited this inn too often.

So Jaksu had not been visiting solely because of an extraordinary love of knife-shaved noodles...?

‘Jaksu had been coming here so often to contact the Hao Clan. The purpose must have been to investigate the killer who murdered his master.’

Then had the joke about needing five White Sword Squad members to face Chef Hong been true?

As I blinked, the innkeeper turned her gaze toward me.

“Young hero, your face is familiar to me as well. I remember you as someone who served under Captain Jaksu. ...And you visited the Drifting Leaf Trading Company today.”

“It was you?”

I asked reflexively. Had the watchful eyes I had felt since leaving the trading company's branch belonged to Hao Clan agents?

That explained it.

It explained why they had entered the inn's second floor and never come back down.

It even explained the imbalance in their skills. They had little mastery of concealment as a martial art, but they were proficient in the practical methods of staying out of people's sight.

That unease had come from them being Hao Clan members. It was difficult to find anyone in the Hao Clan with exceptional martial arts, but all of them were first-rate at blending into everyday life.

“Wait. Why were you following this person?”

Jaksu's eyes sharpened. The innkeeper explained in an even tone.

“We were not following this person. We were simply watching everyone who made contact with the young masters of the Murong Clan.”

“Because of the succession dispute?”

A rough picture formed in my head.

If it became known among the orthodox sects that the Murong Clan's young masters were investigating one another to eliminate their rivals, they would completely lose face. They could not ask the Beggars' Sect to investigate for them.

The Hao Clan stood between the orthodox and unorthodox factions. They had wide connections, but few powerful experts, leaving them weak as a faction.

That made them suitable for using once and then cutting ties with.

So they must have hired the Hao Clan to uncover their rivals' weaknesses. If they discovered that a rival had let something slip at one of the Hao Clan's courtesan houses, that would be a lucky break.

Even if not, simply knowing where their other brothers were and what they were doing would grant them a major advantage in an information war.

But the innkeeper had said “young masters.”

That would mean the Hao Clan had accepted commissions from all three young masters and tripled the advance payments. It was a fitting method for a group that pursued practical gain over reputation or righteousness.

“But this time, you wasted your manpower. I wasn't involved in the succession dispute. I only sent a letter of thanks because of the connection we formed during the last Martial Alliance mission.”

It was only half the truth. The innkeeper stared at me for a moment before speaking.

“That isn't why.”

“What do you mean, that isn't why? Then why would the Hao Clan have a reason to watch the young masters of the Murong Clan?”

“To be exact, this surveillance isn't being carried out by the Hao Clan, but by the Hao Clan's Calamity-Averting and Disaster-Escaping Office.”

Calamity-averting and disaster-escaping. It meant avoiding misfortune and evading disaster.

For some reason, the name felt familiar. The impression those words gave me...

‘It resembles the Anomaly Records Office and its rulebooks.’

Jaksu nodded and spoke.

“It seems this friend needs to hear what this involves. I'll vouch for this person's identity. Tell them.”

Silence settled between the two.

Chef Hong sat with a grave expression, but the veins standing out on his forearms showed how tense he had become.

Just as I wondered whether I should prepare to draw my sword...

“Just this once.”

The innkeeper began speaking.

“For the sake of Captain Jaksu's master, I'll indulge this unreasonable request. But you shouldn't make such reckless guarantees.”

“It isn't reckless. This person is truly someone you can trust.”

Their exchange somehow felt like a much older sister worrying over her younger brother.

The innkeeper shook her head, met my eyes, and began with something I had never expected.

“The Murong Clan originally had two young masters.”

“What do you mean?”

Stories about the Murong Clan's succession dispute had already spread throughout the martial world. Rumors tied to the brothers' conflict circulated everywhere.

Yet among all those rumors, none claimed that one of the brothers was illegitimate.

“Yes. I understand your confusion. The Murong Clan speaks so naturally of having three young masters. But...”

Until ten years ago, Hao Clan records showed that the Murong Clan had only two young masters.

“At some point, people began speaking of a third young master. No one knew how this new young master had appeared, whether the clan had formally accepted an illegitimate child or taken in an orphan because of their martial talent.”

When a new heir suddenly appeared, a distinguished clan was bound to be thrown into turmoil. Yet there had been no such signs from the Murong Clan.

“The third young master was simply... there.”

A bead of sweat ran down my cheek.

Footnotes:

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