WeTried Translations
Translator/Editor: Haruto
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◈ The Martial Alliance Rulebook Archives ◈
Chapter 67: Tales of Astronomy and Geography (2)
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I slipped into the crowd of Ceremonial Affairs Department members, who looked ready to collapse from soaring blood pressure. Perhaps everyone was too worked up to notice the arrival of a stranger.
‘Wow. This is a violent conversation.’
Calling it a conversation between Zhuge Yeong and the Ceremonial Affairs Department members did not feel right at all. Most of what Zhuge Yeong said boiled down to, “I will not explain it, but do it anyway.”
It would have been far more accurate to say that Zhuge Yeong was issuing orders to the Ceremonial Affairs Department.
The department's scholars did their best to listen.
‘Is she already wielding her clan's influence as a weapon?’
The terrifying part was that she probably did not even think of this as throwing her influence around. She had likely lived and acted this way her entire life.
In a way, it was the spoiled tantrum of a flower raised in a greenhouse. Still, I had not the slightest desire to teach that greenhouse flower a lesson.
In the martial world, the phrase "flower raised in a greenhouse" was only permitted for those who possessed both a family powerful enough to provide that greenhouse and the ruthlessness to clear away every weed around them.
Some people clutched the backs of their necks at Zhuge Yeong's intellectual tyranny, yet did not dare argue with her. The sight naturally stirred one's sympathy.
The Martial Alliance members of the Ceremonial Affairs Department might not have been invited directly to the gathering, but they still took pride in being scholars. They had often been called prodigies or geniuses back home.
Even to them, the Zhuge Clan was a heaven beyond heaven. It was only natural to feel resentful when a careless remark earned them a response like, "Yes, this is the limit of ordinary people," and left them treated as dullards.
The only thing I could do was pray for this one-sided conversation to end quickly. I did not dare insert a word into the scholars' verbal sparring.
‘I was only dispatched to make an appearance...’
From my perspective, the Zhuge Clan and the Ceremonial Affairs Department members were both brilliant people I could never hope to match. Whatever they discussed, all I had to do was nod along as if I understood.
I felt more like a spectator than anything. I was nodding along mindlessly when it happened.
“You there. Who are you?”
Zhuge Yeong suddenly singled me out.
“I am Yeok Cheonmyeong of the Formation Array Research Department's Spell Verification Unit.”
I kept my introduction brief. I expected the Ceremonial Affairs Department to respond with little more than, “Was someone like that here?”
“Huh...!”
Yet the reactions around me were strange.
“Is this really all right?”
It was far from the response I had expected. Wondering what this was about, I concentrated my internal energy in my ears.
Quiet whispers reached me.
[Isn't that person... the one connected to the Chivalric Path Troublemaker? To the Peng Clan?]
[That's right. Quite a few people saw the two of them going around restaurants near the main headquarters.]
[Ugh. I don't want to get dragged into a battle of pride between great clans.]
A battle of pride?
Zhuge Yeong's next words answered my question.
“So you're a friend of Senior Peng, who shattered my worthless elder brother's jaw.”
What the special physician had said last night flashed through my mind.
‘If the Zhuge Clan tries to elegantly screw Peng Juhyeok over, he's the sort to shove a challenge letter in their face, declare the duel started, and beat them flat.’
That had not been a figure of speech. It had actually happened?
‘Damn it. Why doesn't our Records Office have a Peng Juhyeok rulebook?’
I recalled the list of ceremonial rulebooks shelved in the Rites Department Preservation Archive.
Even among all those volumes, there had been no rulebook for the Eccentric Physician or Peng Juhyeok. There was even one for the Alliance Leader!
Was this the Records Office's way of protecting its own?
Zhuge Yeong stared at me for a moment, then asked in an even, emotionless voice.
“So, Alliance Member Yeok. What do you think of the matter discussed so far?”
There had not been much to what I had heard. A powerful person had simply been making a scene during the process of gathering opinions before an advance inspection of the candidate location for the Discourse on Heaven and Earth.
I did not know enough to say anything meaningful, so I pieced together an appropriate response.
“It is an honor simply to accompany you here. How could an ordinary person like me fathom the ingenious calculations of Divine Strategist Zhuge? Please proceed as you see fit.”
It was my way of saying that I had no intention of commenting on Peng's past connection with the Zhuge Clan and only wanted to slip through this quietly.
Apparently pleased by my active attempt at a peace agreement, Zhuge Yeong's lips curled up faintly.
“Good. The others should follow Alliance Member Yeok's example.”
Since I had already started, I added another flattering remark. Zhuge Yeong would be the true authority of the group for the duration of the Discourse on Heaven and Earth, so there was no harm in making a good impression.
“Doesn't it say that if one ceases learning, one is free of worry? I can follow without worry, so I can only be glad.”
I had quoted something I had picked up somewhere because this was a gathering of scholars, and I wanted to match the mood. To avoid any misunderstanding, I made my meaning clear in what followed.
I would do as I was told, so please spare me.
Zhuge Yeong's expression twisted slightly.
“Cease learning and be free of worries?”
Had I said something wrong? The voices of the Ceremonial Affairs Department members reached my ears, enhanced by internal energy.
[This is driving me mad. How did the Chivalric Path Troublemaker find a junior exactly like himself?]
[Did he just insult a member of the Zhuge Clan as a pretentious fool?]
Why would they interpret it that way?
I struggled to maintain a blank expression as I looked at Zhuge Yeong. She was silent for a moment before speaking.
“Yes. Lao Dan, another name for Laozi, was not wrong. Not everyone can understand all things by the same standard as us. It will cost us some time, but I shall explain.”
Did that “us” refer to members of the Zhuge Clan, or had she placed me in the same category as herself?
I prayed it was the former.
* * *
Zhuge Yeong's explanation was calm.
That only referred to her tone. The more I listened to the content, the less I understood it.
The area a Ceremonial Affairs Department member had called an accursed land, and which Zhuge Yeong had insisted on using as the location for the Discourse on Heaven and Earth, had once been a fairly prosperous village.
Then one day, a bloodbath had occurred there. The tragedy had been so horrific that it became a land even beasts would not dare trespass upon carelessly.
‘Has she gone mad from being too smart?’
The more I heard about the accursed land, the more I understood the Ceremonial Affairs Department member's attitude. Did it not sound like the sort of place where ghosts could leap out at any moment?
In Records Office terms, it was the sort of place an Anomaly might visit.
Why choose a place like that of all places?
“The greatest advantage of designating this place as the venue for the Discourse on Heaven and Earth is that the exact cause of the bloodbath was never made public.”
“Ah!”
“I see!”
As the discussion continued, the scholars' reactions became the complete opposite of mine.
“At the last Discourse on Heaven and Earth, the Alliance was somewhat... outmatched. But if we make questions about that location the subject of the contest, we will not lose!”
“Lose? The Zhuge Clan did not lose. It was my elder brother who was defeated, not the Zhuge name.”
“I misspoke, Radiant Phoenix. I cannot help but admire this brilliant plan to repay the tricks of those Black Lotus Society bastards from last time!”
I assembled the scattered clues from the conversations around me.
Zhuge Yeong's elder brother had led the previous Discourse on Heaven and Earth, but he had lost a battle of pride against the Black Lotus Society's Sima Clan.
It seemed the topic of the contest of wits that led to his defeat had been a riddle connected to the gathering's location at the time. Apparently, it was customary for the Discourse on Heaven and Earth to include at least one contest related to the venue.
Using a similar method, Zhuge Yeong intended to avenge that defeat by inviting the Sima Clan to that accursed land...
“We will propose a contest where each side presents its theory on the exact cause and course of the bloodbath, then persuades the other side. With the Radiant Phoenix's exquisite hypothesis, the Sima Clan bastards will have no choice but to admit defeat!”
“Precisely.”
Zhuge Yeong nodded with a satisfied expression at the flattery around her.
“It is certainly a contest that favors us. The Wudang Sect put an end to the Cheongyeong Town bloodbath, after all. The Radiant Phoenix must have already heard the truth of the incident from the Wudang Sect!”
“I was unable to hear the details because the method of executing the demonic practitioner was deeply tied to a secret art of the Wudang Sect, but I heard enough to grasp its essence.”
I was about to wonder whether starting after already seeing the answers was not a little too petty for a pillar of the orthodox sects.
Then a name surfaced in my mind.
Cheongyeong Town?
An uneasy feeling brushed past me.
I felt as though I had heard the name of the abandoned village chosen as the venue somewhere before.
I searched my memory. Muun? No. The village where the White Bone Claw had caused a bloodbath was Azurewater Village.
Still, it had something in common with this place: demonic arts and a bloodbath. My memories traveled further back.
That name had appeared in the story the special physician had casually mentioned.
I barely suppressed the curse rising in my throat.
“It is truly a strange existence. No one knows where it comes from or where it goes. We can only assume it appears where and when it wishes.”
That place was where the Heavenly Demon had descended.
* * *
A wave of foreboding rose within me, and I tried to object. Yet the Martial Alliance's scholars were so thrilled by the Radiant Phoenix's petty, small-minded scheme that they rushed headlong into action.
Before I could utter the first word of protest, they displayed excessive loyalty by saying things like, “We will immediately gather personnel and build a debate hall in Cheongyeong Town!” Then they got to work at once.
‘Damn it.’
I tried to stop those preparing to leave and carefully warn them that it might be dangerous, but not a single person listened properly.
They said the bloodbath had happened years ago, the demonic practitioner had been subjugated, and the place was an empty wasteland with nothing for bandits to target.
Despite all those reasonable explanations, my instincts kept sounding the alarm. I needed a countermeasure.
The thought of going somewhere touched by the gaze of a Heavenly-grade Anomaly without any preparation made me unbearably uneasy.
“...Ah. So that's why you came to find me?”
“Yes, Brother Peng.”
What else could I do?
I had to bring along my immediate senior colleague, at least.
Author's Note (Afterword)
“There should be a volume somewhere on that shelf called the Cheongyeong Town Human Gu Incident. It compiles the incident from back then. It was hard for us to believe as well, but yes. There was nothing noteworthy at the time except the rain.”
A bloody battle that engulfed the entire village. And at its end, a demonic practitioner was born. That was the special physician's brief explanation of the incident, one in which an entire Martial Alliance combat unit had been wiped out and which only ended when a Wudang elder stepped in.
-Chapter 21, Rulebook Writing Practice (1)
Footnotes:
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