WeTried Translations
Translator/Editor: Haruto
Discord: https://dsc.gg/wetried
◈ The Martial Alliance Rulebook Archives ◈
Chapter 60: Each One's Shadow (1)
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There was simply someone there.
Could that even happen?
No. It could. This was not a clean, bright, happy modern age with electronic civil administration. This was the martial world's Chaotic World, where Anomalies and martial prowess intertwined.
Since it was difficult to maintain household records strictly, bringing one or two illegitimate children from outside a family into it without anyone noticing would have been simple.
Unless that family was the Murong Clan, one of the Five Great Clans.
A great clan was great because it wielded influence. And where there was influence, people's eyes naturally followed.
If someone who had never been seen before suddenly appeared, public attention would naturally focus on them.
"...Were there no clues left from a birth celebration or a zhuazhou, the Chinese first-birthday custom?"
The innkeeper's expression turned a little odd, as though caught between unease and interest.
"You're an interesting person. Most people would first say something like, 'How could that happen?'"
"I told you. Among the White Sword Squad, this fellow had the broadest knowledge and the quickest mind. If you make him a trading partner of the Calamity-Averting and Disaster-Escaping Office, Green Rain Secret Keeper, you'll be the one who benefits."
Jaksu stepped in to defend me.
Green Rain Secret Keeper.
The inn's name was the Green Rain Traveller’s Inn. It was quite a straightforward alias. The Green Rain Secret Keeper nodded several times before slowly speaking.
"First, aren't most of the Five Great Clans known to lean toward the orthodox sects?"
I nodded.
"The Zhuge Clan has practically claimed the Martial Alliance's Formation Array Research Department and strategist positions, while the Sichuan Tang Clan is sometimes considered to stand between the orthodox and unorthodox sects. Still, they call themselves chivalrous warriors. I know that much."
If the Five Great Clans were arranged by their ties with the Martial Alliance, the Zhuge Clan, Hebei Peng Clan, and Murong Clan would come first, while the Namgung Clan and Tang Clan would compete for fourth and fifth place.
There was a difference between the Namgung Clan and the Tang Clan, though.
The Sichuan Tang Clan used poison. It was bound to leave a poor impression in the martial world. Naturally, people avoided members of the Tang Clan, and the Tang Clan actively tried to draw closer to the Martial Alliance to wash away that prejudice...
The Namgung Clan had no desire to associate with the Martial Alliance. Their pride was far too high and unyielding.
When the Martial Alliance held a grand meeting and invited them, they would occasionally show their faces, saying, "Ahem, other than the revered Shaolin of the north and honored Wudang of the south, if there is anyone fit to discuss the affairs of the martial world with us, it is the Namgung Clan."
I had spent several years scraping by as a wandering martial artist, yet even then, I had rarely seen anyone from the Namgung Clan.
It was strange that the Sichuan Tang Clan, which desperately tried to befriend the Martial Alliance, and the Namgung Clan, which quietly looked down on the Martial Alliance as a pack of philistines, had roughly equal ties to it.
‘Should I feel sorry for the Tang Clan...?’
It was ridiculous for a wandering martial artist like me to pity one of the Five Great Clans, but still.
"The Tang Clan must feel wronged. Whenever someone is poisoned in the martial world, they're the first suspects."
The Green Rain Secret Keeper gave a small smile, apparently amused by my thoughtless remark.
"That's true. But in over forty percent of cases, the person who used poison really is from the Tang Clan."
I did not bother asking for the source. It was surely the Hao Clan's own investigation.
‘They actually use poison, yet they insist they've been wronged...?!’
After instilling a fear of the Tang Clan in me, the Green Rain Secret Keeper calmly continued.
"Though there are differences in how much they are acknowledged by the martial world, all Five Great Clans support the orthodox sects. Wouldn't that be deeply irritating to the Black Lotus Society?"
"Do you mean it is rare for those clans to send children outside the family?"
The Green Rain Secret Keeper nodded and explained in detail. First, they were raised alongside the maidservants' children. They were given insignificant childhood names to conceal their identities.
The Murong Clan did not reveal the names of its direct descendants until the age of setting one's heart on learning, fifteen.
Before the clan's official announcement, one could barely learn that they had even been born.
For that reason, it was difficult to know which of the three young masters had suddenly appeared. So the Hao Clan had adopted the following method.
"We trace back the people who formed ties with the young masters."
"One of the three young masters suddenly entered the picture, so compared to the other two, his connections would inevitably be much shallower. Since you cannot infiltrate the clan, that is the most efficient method."
Even if the mysterious young master who had suddenly appeared possessed extraordinary social skills and built a vast network, it did not matter.
The young masters' oldest connections.
In other words, if they contacted even the maidservants' children who had grown up with the young masters, they could identify the false young master.
It would not be easy to contact members of the clan directly, so they intended to reach them by using the young masters' outside connections as stepping stones.
I inwardly admired the Hao Clan's thorough method. The phrase standing between the orthodox and unorthodox sects sounded profound, but those without strength were bound to be looked down upon by the orthodox sects and squeezed dry by the unorthodox sects.
Still, these people seemed truly capable of moving between the orthodox and unorthodox sects to maximize their gains.
Jaksu glanced at me as I nodded in amazement, then lightly jabbed my side.
"What are you so impressed by?"
"It's a way to uncover the truth while minimizing direct contact with the Murong Clan. You narrow down the connections, then trace them all the way back to the maidservants' children who grew up with the young masters... It's clear and efficient."
Jaksu blinked silently before speaking.
"...Did she say that?"
It was the Green Rain Secret Keeper, not me, who answered Jaksu.
"I did not put it into such definite words."
The Green Rain Secret Keeper began by saying, "Now I see why Captain Jaksu praised you so highly."
"Then can you also guess how we would act after learning the identity of the false young master?"
At that moment, a guideline from an Anomaly Records Office rulebook flashed through my mind.
The words telling me to exercise a martial artist's right.
As a result, the words that slipped from my mouth sounded very much like something from the Records Office.
"Beat the false young master down..."
The Green Rain Secret Keeper said nothing, but her eyes spoke for her.
‘What in the world are you talking about?’
This was all the Anomaly Records Office's fault.
I had grown far too accustomed to the Anomaly Records Office's atmosphere, where if things went wrong, you fought to win, and if you lost, you died...!
* * *
"...is presumably not what you intend. Are you going to interfere in the succession dispute by supporting one of the other two young masters instead of the false one?"
I quickly changed course. It was clear that spending time with reckless people like the Eccentric Physician and Peng Juhyeok had rubbed off on me.
"That is closer to the truth than what you first intended to say, but it is still not correct."
The Green Rain Secret Keeper told me to consider the name of the Hao Clan's Calamity-Averting and Disaster-Escaping Office again.
As I rubbed my chin, Jaksu cut in.
"You don't need to make it difficult. Avert calamity and escape disaster. It's a way of getting by that suits the Hao Clan, isn't it?"
"Ah."
It was simple.
The Hao Clan was a sect skilled enough to assert its presence between the orthodox and unorthodox sects, but it was not in a position to confront great sects such as the Nine Sects One Gang head-on.
"Just as the name says. Are you seeking to avoid the suspicious events occurring in the Murong Clan?"
Their objective was different from the Anomaly Records Office's. The Anomaly Records Office used rulebooks to establish ways of escaping Anomalies.
Yet such avoidance was not the objective, but a process. By stopping Anomalies from feeding on people's Essence, Qi, and Spirit, they could halt their growth and eventually neutralize them.
For the Hao Clan's Calamity-Averting and Disaster-Escaping Office, though, that avoidance itself was the objective.
"Strange events that cannot be handled by the strength of a few people often occur in the martial world."
Martial artists were far stronger and sturdier than ordinary people, but they were still human. Before sudden misfortune and disaster, even they were helpless, the Green Rain Secret Keeper said.
"That is even truer for people like us, who drift like duckweed. The Calamity-Averting and Disaster-Escaping Office aims to avoid, as much as possible, strange events that people cannot handle."
There was no need to uncover the truth behind those strange events. It was enough to know which actions caused Anomalies to bring harm upon those who took them, then not cross that line.
That was likely the Hao Clan's way of survival.
"Hm? Wait."
"Please, go on."
"Wasn't the root of this conversation Captain Jaksu's introduction?"
After I was promoted to the Martial Alliance, Jaksu had wanted to introduce me to the Calamity-Averting and Disaster-Escaping Office because I seemed to be dragged into dangerous matters.
Which meant...
"Are there duties within the Martial Alliance that will lead to a violent death if one is careless? Duties that must be avoided at all costs?"
"Of course. Otherwise, my master would not have died."
Jaksu answered bitterly, and the Green Rain Secret Keeper gestured to the chef, who had sat silently all this time.
The chef rose and returned with a thin booklet from somewhere.
Its title read:
『Martial Alliance Underground Survival Rules』
It was a title that gave me an intense sense of familiarity.
Because the Anomaly Records Office was underground.
Author's Note
The Green Rain Traveller’s Inn uses an unusual character pronounced rok, meaning foothills, and another pronounced u, meaning rain shower.
They broke again when I inserted them into the text, so I moved them to the afterword.
Footnotes:
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