WeTried Translations

Translator/Editor: Haruto

Discord: https://dsc.gg/wetried

◈ The Martial Alliance Rulebook Archives ◈

Chapter 9: Moving (1)

──────

The first assignment I received after my transfer of affiliation to the Anomaly Records Office became certain...

"Gather your personal belongings and come to the Ceremonial Affairs Department. You're moving quarters."

It was a move.

It was not a task that required much effort. The White Sword Squad was a group of wandering martial artists, and though our quarters were somewhat removed from the Martial Alliance's main headquarters, I had never owned many possessions to begin with.

It was rather sad that this was less because I was naturally austere and more because poverty had forced me into that state.

"Ah, damn."

While packing, I realized something was missing. After thinking it over, I remembered my cowhide vest.

Worn beneath an outer robe, that leather armor was sturdy enough to save my life once in a fight between third-rate martial artists.

The problem was that the shadow bastard that had emerged from Soul-Severing Mountain Villa had been far beyond third-rate. I had only barely entered the Second-rate realm, so that thing, which had outclassed me by several levels, had been at least First-rate.

Judging by the precision of its techniques alone, it might even have reached the Peak realm. At least its internal energy had still been weak.

'If it had eaten me, replenished some of its internal energy, and escaped into the world, it could have easily reached the Peak realm.'

The vest had surely been torn apart during my brawl with it. Or perhaps it had stuck to my body because of the scabs, and the Medical Hall had removed it.

That would have been unavoidable if they needed to examine me properly. Either way, it had saved my life, so though it pained me, I decided to let it go.

I swept my belongings into a leather sack and was about to leave when I spotted a familiar face.

"What are you doing?"

The White Sword Squad's captain had a striking feature: short-cropped red hair. It was hard to imagine someone with such a delicate face, and even harder to believe that someone with such profound internal energy belonged among a group of wandering martial artists.

I had heard that the red hair had changed under the influence of a blazing yang art.

"Captain Jaksu? What brings you here?"

"What do you think? All the other White Sword Squad members dragged off as menials for the demonic practitioner hunt died, and you're the one who returned. As captain, shouldn't I hear what happened?"

Captain Jaksu shook the basket in his hand. It appeared to be a get-well gift.

"I heard an elder physician was treating you personally, so I thought you'd be easy to find. But you weren't in your sickbed. I thought you'd already died and been sent for an autopsy..."

Captain Jaksu looked me over from head to toe, then tilted his head as though something were strange.

"Is your bearing higher, the same, or lower? Don't tell me you've attained return to natural simplicity... No, that cannot be it."

I had always thought Jaksu was too skilled to be an ordinary wandering martial artist, but his discernment was beyond my expectations.

He had seen through the tangled state of my internal energy, created by the simultaneous depletion of True Origin Qi and replenishment from Anomalies.

"That's fascinating. Was Captain Jaksu perhaps a disciple of some prestigious sect, secretly dispatched by the Martial Alliance?"

"What?"

I shrugged. We had never been close enough to speak so personally, but I was about to move to another department.

It was fine to speak a little more freely to someone I would likely never see again.

"Your martial art is a powerful blazing yang art, the sort difficult to find even in a respectable sect. And from time to time, you display knowledge that would be difficult for a wandering martial artist to possess. I've long suspected you were an inspector planted by the Martial Alliance to keep an eye on the White Sword Squad's caliber."

After all, a group of wandering martial artists hired by the Martial Alliance made the perfect place for other organizations to infiltrate.

That was why I thought Jaksu served as the first filter to weed out spies from outside forces.

"I suppose you could see it that way..."

Jaksu muttered in disbelief. Unlike his usual low, slightly husky voice, his pitch was somewhat higher.

Captain Jaksu gave his head a lazy shake, then spoke clearly.

"I don't have anyone backing me. I came from the same wandering martial artist background as you."

'Then he learned that blazing yang art on his own?'

To think he could reach such a realm through solitary training, perhaps after finding the secret manual of some hermit master in a cave somewhere. What enviable talent.

"No, that's not the point. What are you doing now?"

"I received a transfer order, so I was packing my belongings."

Jaksu looked as though this was the first he had heard of it, so I invited him to sit down. The quarters had originally been shared by four people, and with everyone but me gone, there were plenty of empty spaces.

"No one told you, Captain? Hm. This is what the higher-ups are like."

I blamed Byeolui inwardly. Hadn't he said the Anomaly Records Office would handle all the administrative procedures needed to transfer my affiliation?

At least I had been given a model answer for when someone pressed me about where exactly in the Martial Alliance I was moving.

"What happened?"

"While we were evacuating the residents in preparation for a demonic practitioner's attack, we became trapped in a formation array laid out by an unidentified person."

The story that followed was closer to a dry report, stripped of much of what had actually happened.

I left out all the strange details, such as the forest modeled after the Eight Trigrams Furnace that consumed human vitality, and the shadow born within the villa.

"By chance, through good luck, I was able to escape that formation array. But it seems the Martial Alliance's Formation Research Department believed I had a talent for breaking formation arrays."

That was the explanation supplied by the Anomaly Records Office.

The Martial Alliance's Formation Research Department certainly existed, but it rarely went outside because it spent its time creating and dismantling all manner of formation arrays.

I had heard that during development periods, when they tested formation arrays themselves and corrected their flaws, they often could not show their faces outside the department for months at a time. Even if people inside the Alliance did not see me for a while, they would not find it strange.

...That had been the White-Robed Miracle Physician's explanation.

'That man confidently said all the administrative work was already finished, yet it seems the captain hasn't heard a thing.'

Worried that Byeolui's explanation might be nonsense, I made light of it.

Being caught in a formation array had certainly been unfortunate, but it had earned me a promotion, so perhaps I had some luck after all.

"...Ha."

Jaksu let out a low sigh.

"For now, congratulations."

"Thank you. I don't know why word hasn't reached you yet, Captain. I'll ask once I move to the Formation Research Department."

"Well, it's obvious what those Martial Alliance headquarters types are thinking."

[Hey, Cheonmyeong.]

I flinched.

Jaksu was clearly speaking aloud, yet a different sentence reached my ears.

"Those wandering martial artists live one day and die the next. They probably figured no one would care if one of them disappeared. Forget it. Just don't get branded a nuisance in your new department for no reason."

[Just nod along and listen.]

"Hm, hearing that does make me worried. What if they throw me into newly made formation arrays just to test them?"

"That could happen. Watch yourself."

[Don't trust the Martial Alliance.]

Don't trust the Martial Alliance? What was that supposed to mean?

Was Jaksu actually a spy for the Black Lotus Society?

I stared at Jaksu in bewilderment. Jaksu was serving as the White Sword Squad's captain.

"I'm telling you this because you saved my life. When people say to hide thirty percent of your abilities, they don't just mean martial skill. It includes diligence. If you work too efficiently, later on they'll scold you for being lazy even when you're working as you normally do."

[My master died because of the Martial Alliance. Be careful.]

"...I'll remember that."

* * *

It was an unsettling warning, but I did not reverse my decision to join the Anomaly Records Office.

The first reason was that I had no way of knowing why Jaksu's master had died, or whether the Martial Alliance had truly been responsible.

Jaksu likely became captain of the White Sword Squad to investigate what had happened, since Jaksu did not know how the master had died.

There might have been a secret Jaksu's master had hidden even from Jaksu. Or perhaps Jaksu's master had simply lost an ordinary power struggle.

Or else...

'It's not impossible that a demonic practitioner infiltrated the Martial Alliance and devoured Jaksu's master.'

Yet all of that was only conjecture.

Until I understood the full circumstances behind those debts and grudges, I could not judge the situation on that basis.

All the more so when they were someone else's debts and grudges, not my own.

The second reason was far simpler.

What else could I do when I would die if I did not eat Anomalies?

No matter how suspicious the Martial Alliance might be, the Anomaly Records Office was the only place that could identify the whereabouts of Anomaly feed capable of replacing my leaking True Origin Qi and teach me how to deal with it properly.

I slung the leather sack over my shoulder and headed to the Preservation Archive in a corner of the Ceremonial Affairs Department.

The White-Robed Miracle Physician, who had been examining something on a desk in the archive, waved at me.

"Oh, you're here early."

"A wandering martial artist's belongings are always modest."

Byeolui nodded and held out a sheet of Yellowed Locust Paper. Its edges were densely inscribed with complicated characters, while the very center was blank.

"What's this?"

"A talisman you'll need whenever you go on an investigation."

As I tilted my head, Byeolui placed a brush and a small carving knife in my hand.

"Here. Smear your blood on the empty space and sign it."

Perhaps because of Jaksu's voice transmission, I began to wonder whether this was preparation for some wicked art.

'Is this really right?'

Footnotes:

Join our discord at https://dsc.gg/wetried