WeTried Translations
Translator/Editor: Haruto
Discord: https://dsc.gg/wetried
◈ The Martial Alliance Rulebook Archives ◈
Chapter 71: Madmen (1)
──────
Most of Yeok Cheonmyeong's guesses had been correct.
The Life-and-Death Gambler was the only person dispatched by the Anomaly Destruction Hall. She had admitted as much herself.
Still, the Black Lotus Society would have assigned others to work alongside her.
That, too, was correct. The Anomaly Destruction Hall was accustomed to speaking with blades in the field, but it had no suitable candidate for contests of right and wrong between people, or for swaying opponents with words.
It was not that they could not speak. The problem was that any conclusion reached through conversation was more likely to lead to a great catastrophe that burned everyone around them than to the outcome the Black Lotus Society desired.
Had Soso Soso been sent to oversee this matter, all six participants in the Discourse on Heaven and Earth would have ended up dead, smiling as they stabbed one another in the throat. Had the Life-and-Death Gambler been in charge, only half would have left alive, regardless of whether they belonged to the Orthodox Path or Unorthodox Path.
The Human-Skin Chef was at least capable of reasonable conversation, but that was precisely why it was better to keep them within the Black Lotus Society.
The Black Lotus Society Leader had put it this way.
“A good blade is used sparingly.”
Not a sharp blade. Most members of the Anomaly Destruction Hall were sharp blades. What could they not kill if they could kill Anomalies with such skill?
They were simply too sharp, sharp enough to cut through their own sheaths if handled carelessly. Their edge was so fierce that one might wish to wear it down through reckless use.
That was why the Life-and-Death Gambler had been assigned to provide combat force only in emergencies. The Infiltration Warfare Office was in charge.
Yeok Cheonmyeong had predicted that the third debater, the youngest participant assigned to questions related to human harmony, would belong to the Infiltration Warfare Office.
That was also correct.
The only thing he had gotten wrong was the number of people involved.
Yeok Cheonmyeong had assumed that, like the Anomaly Destruction Hall, the Infiltration Warfare Office would send only one person. Yet the office had not missed this opportunity to thoroughly analyze the traces left in Cheongyeong Town.
All three Black Lotus Society participants in the Discourse on Heaven and Earth belonged to the Infiltration Warfare Office.
Sima Gwa, the Changing Sparrow, would face Zhuge Yeong in the heavenly patterns division as the Black Lotus Society's representative.
Sima Chu, who would face Zhuge Byeok in the geography division, was a collateral relative but an experienced strategist who had long handled practical work for the Infiltration Warfare Office.
Finally, Sima Ye would face Yeok Cheonmyeong in the human harmony division. Every one of them belonged to the Infiltration Warfare Office.
Ordinarily, it would not have been easy for a member of the Sima Clan to openly approach Cheongyeong Town. This land, where traces of the Heavenly Demon remained, was under the Martial Alliance's discreet watch.
Any member of the Sima Clan who approached Cheongyeong Town openly would draw suspicion.
Even the Infiltration Warfare Office's plans had been proceeding cautiously, using proxies of proxies.
But this was different.
The Zhuge Clan had selected the location, and it was only natural for the Sima Clan to participate in the Discourse on Heaven and Earth.
For the Infiltration Warfare Office, the outcome of the gathering was almost less important than being able to analyze Cheongyeong Town's traces through the Sima Clan.
“...Still, I have no intention of losing.”
Sima Gwa looked around. She was fiercely proud, especially when Zhuge Yeong was her opponent.
The sparrow in her epithet was considered a step beneath Zhuge Yeong's Radiant Phoenix, and Sima Gwa intended to shatter that perception with this opportunity.
“At the Discourse on Heaven and Earth, it is customary for the side that lost the previous round to prepare the first question. The Radiant Phoenix will surely make ‘Who was responsible for the Cheongyeong Town bloodbath?’ the subject of debate.”
In truth, since the incident had occurred in a single village, it might have suited the geography division better than the heavenly patterns division.
But picking at such a detail would show a lack of a strategist's empathy. With a suitable excuse, such as claiming that only the Ziwei Star in the heavens knew the truth of that night, there was no reason it could not be made into a question for the heavenly patterns division.
“I have prepared an answer for that.”
They could not openly bring up matters such as the Heavenly Demon.
Still, they had prepared a sure path to victory.
Sima Gwa had obtained the answer Zhuge Yeong had prepared, the answer Daoist Heosong of the Wudang Sect had been spreading publicly.
“If I recite Zhuge Yeong's answer before she does, they are certain to lose. Even if they somehow try to alter it, the best they can manage is a draw, and that would require a great deal of sophistry.”
Sima Gwa's gaze fell upon Sima Chu and Sima Ye. It was a cold gaze, like that of a butcher looking over livestock.
“Are you two prepared?”
Sima Chu nodded, hiding their expression behind a fan.
“I have more than enough methods to leave Zhuge Byeok, that hot-blooded young man, utterly bewildered.”
Sima Ye swallowed.
Sima Gwa was only six years older than her, yet she was a talent treated as a leading figure within the Infiltration Warfare Office.
Whenever Sima Ye stood before her older half-sister, it felt as if she could plainly see the desires burning brightly beneath those eyes.
Still, she could not show that she was overwhelmed. It was not a matter of pride. If she recoiled from pressure of this level, she would be branded worthless.
“I...”
She had prepared a scheme that would secure victory in the Discourse on Heaven and Earth while accomplishing the Infiltration Warfare Office's goal.
It was a plan clever enough that even Sima Gwa, who rarely acknowledged others, nodded with an unusually satisfied expression.
“Then we shall proceed as planned.”
“But what about the Mad Blade Fiend?”
At Sima Chu's question, Sima Gwa shook her head.
“His blade is sharp, but his wits are dull. There is no chance he will notice our scheme. Since the subject of the Discourse on Heaven and Earth is the Cheongyeong Town bloodbath itself, no one will find it strange if he looks around the area.”
And if the unlikely happened...
“We need not worry about the Mad Blade Fiend's blade taking our heads. We have the Life-and-Death Gambler on our side.”
One madman on this side would stop the madman on the other.
* * *
The Zhuge Clan's atmosphere was grim.
Sima Gwa had answered Zhuge Yeong's boldly presented question, “Who was responsible for the Cheongyeong Town bloodbath?” as though it were nothing.
With precisely the answer Zhuge Yeong had prepared.
‘Something this easy? They fell victim to the evil arts of Soul-Reaving Radiance.’
Soul-Reaving Radiance was a major figure of the previous era's underworld, an eccentric who excelled in the Soul-Binding Art, just as the epithet suggested.
Sima Gwa's answer was that the Cheongyeong Town bloodbath had occurred because Soul-Reaving Radiance had forced people's minds, compelling children to kill parents and disciples to kill masters in order to perform a sinister ritual.
It was also the answer Zhuge Yeong had prepared. Yet Sima Gwa had said it the moment she heard the question, so no matter what Zhuge Yeong said, it would seem as though she had copied Sima Gwa's answer.
In quiet anger, Zhuge Yeong summoned Zhuge Byeok.
“You again?”
“I do not know what you mean, little sister.”
“I thought it was none of my concern that you had become entranced by the Changing Sparrow. Even the elders of the clan have given up on you. But you should not have betrayed the clan.”
“Truly, I know nothing of this! Of course, I do wish to grow closer to Gwa, but...”
“If it was not you, who leaked our answer?”
“...Think again. You never expected much of me to begin with, so you did not even share the answer with me.”
Zhuge Yeong glared at Zhuge Byeok before telling him that if he did not win the next day's contest, she would consider him a true traitor.
Zhuge Byeok scratched his head, then raised his voice.
“Fine, little sister. I may never become your pride, but I cannot become your burden. I will prove my ability.”
* * *
“Well, that is what I heard happened.”
The people from the Martial Alliance seemed especially cold today, so I casually asked Peng Juhyeok. That was the answer I received.
Even while dressed in a strange outfit with bandages wrapped around his entire body, he had apparently mingled smoothly with servants and Alliance members alike to gather the rumors going around.
“Your ability to get along with people is impressive.”
“It is an essential skill for investigating Anomalies. But I am more curious about you. You attended the Discourse on Heaven and Earth, so how did you not know about this?”
“The meeting ended too quickly. Zhuge Yeong wrote the subject down in one flowing stroke, and as soon as the scroll was opened, Sima Gwa began her argument.”
By the time it ended, Zhuge Yeong's expression had gone beyond pale, nearing something bleached white. Her face was blank, but anger could be felt beneath it.
Sima Gwa had left after saying, “I shall await the Zhuge Clan's ingenious answer for half an hour,” a sentence filled with both humility and mockery. Zhuge Yeong had remained seated there for a long time before rising with only one sentence.
“I lost.”
After something like that, how could the mood be good?
“Why are you out here again?”
“Zhuge Byeok presented today's subject. They are going to choose an area and determine the winner by who can identify more accurately how many people died there and how they died. There is no reason for me to follow along.”
“What a shame. If you had taken part, Brother Yeok, you might have won.”
“You flatter me. I may be familiar with such matters, but I cannot be more familiar with them than the Zhuge Clan.”
Though I shook my head, I expected to return to the Martial Alliance soon enough. As I had thought before, Zhuge Byeok was likely to lose the Discourse on Heaven and Earth.
Once they had a record of zero wins and two losses, they would decide to withdraw without needing me to participate.
As I anticipated an ordinary defeat, cheers from the Ceremonial Affairs Department rose behind me.
“Oh, as expected of Young Master Zhuge Byeok! They say he easily refuted Sima Chu!”
“Ha ha! Did you see Sima Chu clinging on because they could not accept defeat? Sima Chu, with Chu meaning ‘draw,’ does not suit them. Sima Chu, with Chu meaning ‘ugly,’ would be better!”
“...What?”
He won?
* * *
At last, the day to compete over human harmony arrived.
Since the Sima Clan had lost the previous round, the Sima Clan would present the subject as well. I felt like sighing.
‘Of all times, I have to be the final contestant with one win and one loss between us.’
What kind of situation was this?
On the way to the meeting hall, Zhuge Byeok spoke to me with an easy smile.
“There is no need to feel burdened. Those people use all sorts of underhanded tricks. The people of the Martial Alliance will understand.”
“Uh... Thank you.”
Regardless of how he had acted as if he would give Sima Gwa anything, he seemed personally easygoing.
Most people in the Ceremonial Affairs Department were wary of me simply because I was close to Peng Juhyeok. Yet Zhuge Byeok, whose jaw Peng Juhyeok had broken, only treated me with a kindly smile.
Zhuge Yeong only met my eyes without saying anything. She seemed to want to urge me to win, but since she had been defeated first, she could not bring herself to say it.
‘Her competitive spirit must be intense.’
It looked as though flames might rise from her eyes. Was it because she bore the clan's honor?
Following the Zhuge siblings, I entered the meeting hall, built by renovating the garden of the Cheongyeong Town village chief's home. It was small, but shaped like a pavilion, with a paulownia table at its center.
The three members of the Sima Clan were already seated. When Zhuge Byeok raised a hand to greet Sima Gwa, Zhuge Yeong firmly pressed down on her older brother's foot.
Sima Gwa looked at us with eyes containing a faint sneer, then spoke.
“Then, Ye, tell them about the contest you have devised.”
Sima Ye.
Honestly, it was a name I was hearing for the first time. From what I had overheard from the Ceremonial Affairs Department, she was only sixteen, remarkably young even among rising talents.
She had only just passed the age of setting one's heart on learning, fifteen, so it was astonishing that she possessed enough brilliance to represent her clan.
“Yes. Though our conflict is called a war of words, is it not still a war in every sense? Yet the contests so far have lacked the tension befitting war.”
A bad feeling was already rising within me. I recalled the martial world's saying that one should beware women, children, and the elderly.
“Then, to create tension worthy of war, we must stake our lives.”
Good heavens.
It appeared that madmen could emerge anywhere in the martial world, regardless of age or sex.
“On the first day, we debated the culprit of the bloodbath. On the second, we debated its victims. Lastly, I wish to debate the method of the bloodbath.”
Sima Ye spoke of a mad proposal.
Based on the Sima Clan's analysis of the bloodbath so far, it seemed the people of Cheongyeong Town had used something akin to martial arts.
It was not something I could easily dismiss. If my thoughts were correct, the martial arts used by the people of Cheongyeong Town would be demonic arts.
“To be exact, they were the techniques of Soul-Reaving Star. We have succeeded in analyzing, to some extent, the martial arts performed by the people he controlled.”
Tsk, perhaps not?
She was being so direct that I was starting to doubt myself.
Did they truly believe they had reconstructed the martial arts of someone named Soul-Reaving Star?
For now, the Sima Clan had successfully reconstructed six forms from the site.
“We will have a skilled martial artist brought by our clan learn those forms. Please devise methods to counter them.”
While I stood there dumbfounded, Zhuge Yeong questioned her.
“...You want us to devise counter-techniques for Soul-Reaving Star's martial arts? Since you said lives would be at stake, Young Hero Yeok would have to learn the counter-techniques himself and retaliate against the forms.”
“No. That would mean only Young Hero Yeok was risking his life. I will test the counter-techniques myself.”
The Sima Clan would reconstruct forms based on the traces left throughout Cheongyeong Town. We would establish methods to counter those forms.
“If the counter-techniques are incomplete and I die, I only ask that Young Hero Yeok be buried alongside this young lady.”
She began to lay out this absurd proposal in greater detail.
The Sima Clan claimed it had discovered the forms in different areas of Cheongyeong Town.
“We will divide the areas into six, labeled A through F. At the Xu hour tonight, between 7 and 9 p.m., I will have the form from Area A demonstrated against my body. At the Xu hour tomorrow, the form from Area B will be demonstrated.”
The Discourse on Heaven and Earth took place after lunch. That meant roughly five hours remained until the Xu hour.
She wanted us to understand the forms and prepare counter-techniques within five hours?
It was practically impossible.
“On the first day, everyone became acquainted and recovered from their journey. We have competed in wisdom over the past days, and today is the fourth day.”
If six bouts were held beginning tonight, the Discourse on Heaven and Earth could end on the tenth day.
“Is that not a perfectly fitting number? Of course, if something unfortunate happens in the middle, it will end before reaching ten.”
Was this brinkmanship, with both sides staking their lives? As I analyzed Sima Ye's words, I noticed something strange.
“Please ensure that the sinister art which killed the people of Cheongyeong Town does not harm me. Young Hero, this young lady is terribly afraid.”
It seemed Sima Ye had overlooked something.
Out of pure curiosity, I cautiously raised my hand. To avoid provoking her, I selected my words as gently as possible in my head.
* * *
The man who had sat silently until now raised his hand and asked to speak.
She had heard that this Yeok Cheonmyeong, her opponent, was a new member of the Anomaly Records Office. Yet he looked quite scholarly and frail.
If not for the scars on his face, he would have looked like a pale scholar who spent all day reading in a room.
‘A Records Officer, so he must have some courage.’
But did he have the nerve to accept a wager that so openly demanded his life?
Sima Ye thought she could hear laughter by her ear. It resembled the Life-and-Death Gambler's cackling so much that it sent a chilling cold through her rather than the warmth of encouragement.
“I have a question.”
“Please, speak.”
What kind of question would he ask? If he said he could not accept such a proposal because his life was too precious, she could use that to pressure him into admitting defeat.
“To summarize, you will have yourself attacked with the martial arts the people of Cheongyeong Town used to harm one another, and you are asking me to stop it. Is that correct?”
“You understand exactly.”
“If you die in a manner other than what happened in Cheongyeong Town, what happens to me?”
“...Pardon?”
Sima Ye looked into the man's eyes. Familiar muddy currents swirled within those pitch-black pupils, like Sima Gwa's eyes and the Life-and-Death Gambler's eyes. Something ordinary people could not understand.
“For example, this is only a simple example, but if someone other than the martial artist you prepared...”
“For instance, if I attacked you, that would not be the method used in Cheongyeong Town, would it?”
Footnotes:
Join our discord at https://dsc.gg/wetried
