WeTried Translations

Translator/Editor: Haruto

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◈ The Martial Alliance Rulebook Archives ◈

Chapter 81: Confidential (1)

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I had covered Peng Juhyeok's mouth quickly, but it was not enough to fool a master's hearing. Having heard Peng Juhyeok's words, Jegalui stroked his beard and fell into thought.

‘Is he calculating how badly he needs to beat us so there will be no conflict between the Anomaly Records Office and the Formation Array Research Department?’

After careful consideration, Jegalui spoke.

“To some extent.”

“Pardon?”

“Did the Chivalric Path Troublemaker not ask whether I intended to send Zhuge Byeok to the Anomaly Records Office to improve the efficiency of the Formation Array Ceremonial Department? Upon reconsidering my thoughts, I find that intention accounted for about twenty percent of them as well.”

‘Ah.’

I thought I could finally understand the temperament of the Zhuge Clan.

Other than Zhuge Byeok, whom Jegalui himself said had “strayed from the path,” it seemed easiest to think of them as machines into which one fed questions and received answers.

Their standards for recognizing something as a “question” were extremely broad, so they occasionally drove people mad by correcting facts nobody had asked about. Still, they were all-purpose boxes that answered questions properly enough.

‘The problem is that “properly” only means properly by their standards. There’s no guarantee ordinary people like us can understand the explanation.’

At least Jegalui explained things within the range people could understand. He was clearly far more socialized than his daughter, Zhuge Yeong.

“First, I shall wake Zhuge Byeok. Let the Anomaly Records Office handle the detailed explanation.”

“Pardon?”

Ignoring my question, Jegalui approached Zhuge Byeok. He took out something like a small gourd, opened its lid, and held it near Zhuge Byeok's philtrum.

A few breaths later, Zhuge Byeok's eyelids slowly began to rise. It seemed to be an antidote for the inferior version of the Formless Poison.

He blinked, then murmured weakly.

“Father...? Hmm. Is this a dream?”

“That was a reasonable assessment. But this is reality.”

“No. Surely, you've come to eliminate all witnesses...!”

“Regrettably, that is the wrong answer.”

Listening to their contextless conversation gave me a headache. Why was a conversation between father and son like this...?

Tap.

As I pondered the Zhuge Clan's family affairs, Peng Juhyeok tapped my shoulder.

“What is it?”

“No, explain why they are having that conversation.”

“Me?”

“Brother Yeok mentioned eliminating all witnesses too, did you not? That means your intellect has reached the same realm as the Zhuge Clan's!”

“Over just that?”

It felt as though I had been slandered a great deal lately. My innocent question to Sima Ye had been distorted into a threat, and now a rational deduction was being placed on the same level as the Zhuge Clan's bizarre conversations.

Shaking my head, I spoke casually.

“Young Master Zhuge first thought it was a dream because he is treated coldly by his clan. Just look at his conflict with Zhuge Yeong. There’s no reason for his father to suddenly visit him, so seeing him before his eyes naturally led him to think he was dreaming.”

“Then is this not a father visiting his son after a long time? Why would he speak of eliminating all witnesses?”

“Young Master Zhuge does not know exactly what the Ghost Valley Master is, but with Brother Peng's help, he knew he had driven something away. And through this incident, he learned that the Ghost Valley Master is an existence that must not become known, did he not?”

The best way to prevent information from spreading was to reduce the number of people who knew it. And the surest way to reduce the number of people was, of course, to kill them and keep their mouths shut.

Peng Juhyeok wore a complicated expression as he asked back.

“Even so, that is his father.”

“Given the circumstances, Clear Sight of Heavenly Principles must have known about the Ghost Valley Master before Young Master Zhuge.”

“Right? Sima Gwa knew, so there’s no way an elder of the Zhuge Clan would not.”

“Then let us look at the present situation again.”

I pointed to the Zhuge Clan retainers lying beside us.

“He heard information he should not have heard. Then he looked around and saw people who had heard it with him gathered in one place, lying there as though dead. Meanwhile, only the two of us, who belong to the suspicious organization called the Anomaly Records Office and already knew about the Ghost Valley Master, stand a step away and watch this suspicious situation.”

“Are we really that suspicious...?”

I ignored Peng Juhyeok's grumbling. From his perspective, as long as someone bore the label of an orthodox sect, no eccentric behavior would seem all that suspicious.

“Then his father, who holds an important post in the Martial Alliance, comes to see a son who departed from the clan's path. What else could this look like but an attempt to eliminate all witnesses?”

“I understand more or less. But why did he say it was regrettable?”

To be honest, most of what I had said before was forced together. This analysis, however, was simple.

“If he eliminates Martial Alliance personnel, would the responsibility not fall upon the Black Lotus Society?”

“Of course it would.”

“That would cause a major conflict between the Martial Alliance and the Black Lotus Society. If he also buried the Black Lotus Society personnel, the possibility of open war would decrease, but that would go against the Martial Alliance's principles.”

I recalled what I had heard about the Alliance Leader's temperament. The special physician had said that he was not bad, except for being excessively obsessed with propriety. The Life-and-Death Gambler had judged him to be “a scholar-like man who somehow remains in the Martial Alliance.”

This suggested that the Alliance Leader would avoid underhanded measures like eliminating all witnesses.

The Alliance Leader's will had not thoroughly seeped into every corner of the Alliance, but at least the Anomaly Records Office and the Formation Array Research Department were places where his will fully reached.

In an incident involving the Anomaly Records Office, no one would be killed simply to cover it up.

“You must have found it regrettable that, although he could have reached the same deduction by calmly considering the information he had heard, he came to a conclusion somewhat hastily.”

“Rational!”

I nodded proudly at Peng Juhyeok's admiration. He immediately added one more thing.

“Then why did you say nonsense about eliminating all witnesses earlier?”

I turned my head.

“Ho.”

...And met the gaze of Clear Sight of Heavenly Principles, who was looking at me with great satisfaction.

“Zhuge Byeok. You heard that well, did you not? The Anomaly Records Office now has someone with whom one can communicate, at least to some extent.”

“Pardon?”

Zhuge Byeok looked thoroughly bewildered, as though he had no idea what a new recruit in a confidential department of the Martial Alliance had to do with him.

“However, there are still far too many people in the Records Office with whom proper communication is impossible. I have felt the need to increase the number of personnel capable of communication.”

“Pardon?”

“Go.”

“...Yes!”

* * *

“So that is what happened.”

I explained the situation from that day to the White-Robed Miracle Physician, who was stroking his beard. He eventually rubbed his temples and spoke.

“Was the feeling in that last ‘yes’ really conviction? Not a question like the first two?”

“I think it was.”

After the Discourse on Heaven and Earth was hastily concluded, Jegalui seemed to have truly begun moving to assign Zhuge Byeok to the Anomaly Records Office.

The special physician developed a headache at the thought of a great clan's direct heir suddenly entering the Records Office, so he sought me out.

More precisely, he had sought both Peng Juhyeok and me. But Peng Juhyeok fled under the excuse of investigating Anomalies as soon as he sensed complicated administrative procedures approaching.

I gave him my impression exactly as I had felt it.

“Hmm. It seems Young Master Zhuge gained some confidence after realizing that his father had not given up on him. Rather, his father had simply chosen not to interfere because he was walking a different path. He seems to think the Records Office is the place where he can make the best use of a path different from the Zhuge Clan's main line.”

“If your sense for people says so, then that must be it. Damn it. That Clear Sight of Heavenly Principles has a habit of saying one thing and expecting you to understand ten...”

“He seemed to speak rather well when Senior Tang Sosik was present.”

“That? Sosik is his friend, that is why. It is rare for him to explain things so kindly in front of others.”

Two questions came to mind. The first was, ‘That counted as a kind explanation?’

The second was:

“When does he properly explain things, even if rarely?”

“When the Alliance Leader is laying down discipline.”

“Ah.”

One had to be polite before one's superior. I nodded, newly reminded that even an elder of a great clan could not defy the majesty of a workplace superior.

“Come to think of it, I did not know there was another member of the Five Great Clans in the Records Office besides Brother Peng.”

“Sosik? Hah. With your sense for people, I thought you would have noticed long ago.”

“Pardon?”

“Why, I once brought Sichuan Tang Clan poison for the purpose of training your sense of smell.”

That memory came back to me. Peng Juhyeok and the Eccentric Physician had tested my sense of smell with an anesthetic poison that was difficult to detect even while circulating inner qi, laced with my Feathered-Human Gu.

“Do not tell me that poison was the concentrated Formless Poison used by the Records Office to put people to sleep?”

“Would that not be far too dangerous? It was not the concentrate, merely something like an ingredient.”

The back of my neck suddenly felt stiff. So I had buried my nose in something that dangerous. Rubbing my neck, I brought up the real reason I had come to see the Eccentric Physician today.

“I heard strange words from the Ghost Valley Master.”

“What words?”

“Red County Divine Continent. Greater Nine Provinces.”

Terms suggesting regions beyond the Central Plains as I knew it. Even after becoming a member of the Records Office, I had never heard of such concepts.

Still, I could guess what sort of situation they were connected to.

“This is a question that follows from the situation where one must not climb the stairs, which I asked about before.”

The Eccentric Physician looked at me with sunken eyes that made it difficult to tell what he was thinking.

“...Is there a world within our martial world that I do not know?”

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