WeTried Translations

Translator/Editor: Chen

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◈ The Martial Genius who Remembers Everything ◈

Chapter 230: Tomorrow's Fortune (5)

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Long trails of blood stretched across the room.

The stench of blood stung my nose.

It was a gruesome murder scene, yet no one dared move rashly.

‘So this is how it ends?’

I had expected something like this from the moment Ak Byeongbi started making a scene in the great hall.

In the end, our delegation would be used as the opening shot of a war...

“Cough...”

Huh?

What? Why was he still alive?

Judging by the amount of blood around him, his injuries were severe enough to have killed him at least twice.

Maybe huge men had tougher bodies too.

“Wait.”

I caught Ilmyeong by the shoulder as he tried to approach.

“Let's leave this to Senior Dang for now.”

If we all rushed in at once, we would contaminate the scene.

Ilmyeong understood what I meant and nodded.

Dang Seohui stepped lightly around the bloodstains and examined Ak Byeongbi's wounds.

“His condition is not good.”

“What injured him?”

“The wounds are rough... Like they were caused by a saw-toothed weapon?”

Dang Seohui pressed one hand over Ak Byeongbi's wound. With the other, she took out a long acupuncture needle, inserted it into his abdomen, then pulled it out to inspect it.

“There is no poison.”

“Was he attacked?”

I examined the room again.

Comparing it against my memory of when we left, I searched for anything that had changed.

Judging by the long trail of blood, Ak Byeongbi seemed to have fought back. Yet strangely, there was no broken furniture or anything similar inside.

What was more, this intruder had brazenly left through the door.

No matter how bold the Black Alliance was, I hadn't thought they would openly cause something like this.

...Or should I assume that someone else inside had acted on their own?

There were too many things to consider. My head felt ready to burst.

“...Treatment must come first. He won't die immediately, but we can't leave him like this.”

Dang Seohui had given him first aid, but the bleeding had not stopped.

Still, it was impressive in its own way that he hadn't died after losing this much blood.

Even a bull would probably die from this much blood loss.

If he needed emergency treatment right away, we would have to entrust him to people within the Black Alliance.

Would that be all right?

“There is no time to consider another option.”

If Dang Seohui said so, we had no choice.

“Let's call someone.”

At my words, Ilmyeong nodded and hurried over.

He threw open the door and stepped outside, only to back away again.

No, he was forced back.

Rumble-

A group of men surged in, pushing Ilmyeong back.

At their center stood a particularly conspicuous giant clad in iron armor.

Looking straight at him, I asked, “What brings you here?”

Hwang Busik looked down at Ak Byeongbi with the same blank eyes he had worn when we first met at the Four Emperors Association.

Following his gaze, I pressed him.

“You came at the right time. You should explain what is going on here.”

He still wouldn't look at me, so I warned him.

“Otherwise, you should prepare for war with the Martial Alliance.”

“...”

Hwang Busik had been staring down at Ak Byeongbi with emotionless eyes. Just as he turned toward me and was about to speak...

Crash.

A commotion broke out outside, and a group of people rushed in like madmen.

Hwang Busik looked behind him and spoke briefly.

“Stop them.”

“Yes.”

The armored warriors who had come with Hwang Busik blocked the newcomers, and vicious shouts erupted.

“Move, you bastards!”

“You're in league with those bastards too!”

“If you don't move, we'll beat you to death!”

Hwang Busik spoke coldly to the uninvited guests.

“If you do not restrain yourselves, I will arrest every one of you.”

The intruders had drawn their swords and stormed in menacingly, but they hesitated before Hwang Busik's icy presence.

“Those who should be arrested are not us, but them.”

A man stepped forward through the crowd.

It was a face I had seen only moments ago.

“Those bastards... They dared murder our Sect Leader!”

Gal Jeongi of the Yellow Sand Sect.

Grinding his teeth, he shouted, “How dare a disciple of a White Path sect launch a sneak attack!”

“Restrain yourselves! This is not the Yellow Sand Sect. This is the Black Alliance!”

Hwang Busik released his internal energy and shouted thunderously. The Yellow Sand Sect martial artists causing the disturbance all stopped moving.

It didn't seem as though they were afraid, though. They had merely reined in their excitement to prepare for a real fight.

Hwang Busik let out a small sigh and turned to me.

“Do you understand the situation now?”

“...”

Then, loud enough for everyone around us to hear, he declared, “I am placing delegation leader Ak Byeongbi under arrest on suspicion of murdering the Yellow Sand Sect Leader.”

“...”

I looked at Ak Byeongbi, who was still lying on the floor.

Ah, so he hadn't been ambushed. He had gone out to launch a sneak attack?

Impressive.

#

“You will have to submit to an investigation first.”

At Hwang Busik's words, the armored warriors tried to enter the room all at once.

Shhhk!

I dragged the Black Dragon Sword across the floor, carving a line into it.

“If you cross this line, I cannot guarantee your survival.”

Hwang Busik frowned deeply.

“...What are you doing?”

“We are a delegation, after all. Unless you truly intend to declare war, you cannot forcibly detain a delegation.”

“If the charges are certain, we can.”

“...”

I didn't know why, but not only the Yellow Sand Sect bastards, even Hwang Busik seemed certain that Ak Byeongbi had launched a sneak attack.

Why? How?

“Do you have evidence?”

Hwang Busik answered at once.

“I can show you the wounds on the body.”

Irrefutable evidence, then?

Even so, I had no intention of backing down easily.

“For someone who supposedly launched a sneak attack, our side suffered considerable damage too.”

Gal Jeongi answered in Hwang Busik's place.

“Fuck! Of course they did! With the White Path bastards' skill, even launching a sneak attack would have been a struggle!”

Still, when I considered the long bloodstain in the room and the lack of broken furniture, it did seem more likely that Ak Byeongbi had launched a sneak attack and returned injured than that he had been ambushed.

I asked Hwang Busik, “He needs treatment urgently. Will you treat him?”

“...We must question him, so I will assign the best physician.”

“Then one of our people will accompany him.”

Instead of answering, Hwang Busik nodded.

The armored warriors took Ak Byeongbi and Dang Seohui out of the inner chamber. Gal Jeongi rolled his eyes and foamed at the mouth.

“Fuck! What are you doing? Don't you know those bastards are in league with him? Why aren't you arresting them too?”

“Nothing has been proven yet. And they still hold the status of a delegation.”

“That is supposed to be an answer...!”

I offered a comforting word to the aggrieved Gal Jeongi.

“You idiot, we were with you. Of course we're excluded from suspicion. Try using the thing on top of your neck to think for once.”

“...”

Perhaps because he had lost a revered elder of his sect, Gal Jeongi's expression did not improve.

“You damned Jin Sowoon! I will kill you myself!”

I had tried to comfort him, and all I got back was a death threat.

Tch. This was why I hated even talking to vicious Black Path bastards.

#

“How could this have happened?”

Ilmyeong let out a long sigh.

“Well, even if they have excluded us from suspicion, they probably don't think we're innocent. That's why they're trying to watch us under the excuse of guarding us...”

“Benefactor Jin... I know that much.”

I knew that wasn't what Ilmyeong had meant by the question.

I sounded like a madman, but if I didn't make jokes even in an atmosphere like this, I couldn't endure it.

It was a habit I had developed during my time in the Sojeong Unit.

The more desperate the situation, the deeper my anxiety became if I didn't joke around.

That was why inappropriate jokes slipped out before I knew it.

This situation was desperate enough to rival anything I had faced during my time in the Sojeong Unit.

Ilmyeong's face had gone pale to the scalp as he muttered, “Did the captain finally... cause this incident?”

“He is the sort of person who might.”

“Benefactor Jin...”

“All right.”

This was why sheltered flowers were no good.

I couldn't say anything around them.

Then again, there was no way I had an answer in a situation like this.

Even though we hadn't been in the same place while Ak Byeongbi caused this incident, that did not prove our innocence.

For all I knew, every bastard here was desperate to take our heads and drawing lots over who would do it.

We had given them a pretext.

What was more, Shanxi Province was a place where the Martial Alliance's influence was weak.

To escape the Black Alliance's reach, we would have to flee as far as Henan Province at the very least.

“Henan Province is quite far...”

“Benefactor Jin... Surely you are not thinking of running away?”

Ilmyeong overheard my muttering and couldn't hide his surprise.

Putting escape aside for now, the most important question was whether Ak Byeongbi had truly killed Gu Gyeak.

“Senior Ilmyeong, can you be certain that the captain did not kill him?”

“...”

See? He couldn't answer.

I desperately hoped he hadn't, but I couldn't honestly say with certainty that he hadn't.

Even Ilmyeong, who had mastered the unmoving mind, couldn't easily say that he would not seek revenge in the same situation.

Much less Ak Byeongbi, a man who despised Black Path martial artists.

He might have let the resentment he had nurtured in his heart all this time explode.

Either way, what we had to decide now was who would lead the delegation from here on.

It might not seem important, but it was more important than one would think.

If we made the wrong decision here, not only Ak Byeongbi but all of us would die.

The captain had been taken away on a murder charge, so by order of succession, Ilmyeong should lead us.

“What will you do if the captain truly killed him?”

“Benefactor Jin... That cannot be...”

I firmly shook my head.

“We must account for the worst-case scenario. If we only expect things to go well, we will all die here.”

I understood Ak Byeongbi's desire for revenge, but I didn't want to throw away my life for him.

Dang Seohui and Ilmyeong probably felt the same.

After thinking for a long time, Ilmyeong finally nodded.

“...I will follow your judgment, Benefactor Jin.”

And so, I came to lead the delegation.

Procedurally, I should have Dang Seohui's approval too, but she did not seem particularly interested in becoming the delegation leader to begin with.

If she got upset, I could let her play at being a heroic martial artist once on the way back.

Of course, that was only if we made it back alive.

#

The signs of the guards outside our door did not disappear throughout the night.

When morning came, I sensed them being replaced by fresh guards.

There were also presences not only at the main gate, but near the windows and in the garden.

‘This is not good.’

A bigger problem was that the sounds of the banquet, which had continued until dawn, suddenly stopped.

The drunken men shouting at the top of their lungs.

The voices of people fighting with their fists over gambling.

None of them could be heard anymore.

That practically meant word of Gu Gyeak's death had spread throughout the Black Alliance.

And word had likely spread that Ak Byeongbi, the White Path delegation leader, was the culprit.

Once the mood was set, the calls for punishment would grow louder.

At this rate, we might be beheaded before we could even resist, our heads mounted on poles.

‘Should we run away now?’

I would have liked to leave the Black Alliance last night, but if we did that, regardless of whether Ak Byeongbi lived or died, war between the Martial Alliance and the Black Alliance would begin.

‘But it's not as though there is anything I can do.’

Starting today, I had planned to meet with the Black Path Alliance's leading figures one by one, beginning with the Lord of the Four Emperors Association.

But who would meet me when someone in our delegation was suspected of being an assassin?

It wasn't as if we had been particularly close in the first place.

Then...

Thud. Thud.

With heavy footsteps, Hwang Busik strode inside.

“Will you come inspect the body?”

I rose and spoke to him.

“May I ask why the number of guards has increased?”

“To protect you.”

“Protect us...”

I didn't know whether that was true, but first, we needed to determine whether Ak Byeongbi had actually done it.

With ten armored warriors as our escort(?), we were led to where Gu Gyeak's body lay.

And...

“...”

Ilmyeong's expression would not relax after he saw the wounds on Gu Gyeak's corpse.

“Whew...”

The same went for me.

There was a fist-sized hole near the corpse's heart, and the area around the wound had been charred black.

It was clearly a spear wound, and there were traces of flames as well.

Even an outsider who knew nothing of martial arts would recognize the marks of the Ak Clan's Blaze Spear Art.

“This... cannot be denied.”

I nodded at Ilmyeong's words.

At this point, the only people who might have seen more corpses than I had were undertakers.

I had probably seen more wounds caused by martial arts than even they had.

Even I could see no signs that the corpse had been tampered with.

If someone had tried to create this wound after the man died, it would have looked different.

The fist-sized hole had unquestionably taken Gu Gyeak's life.

Hwang Busik looked at Ilmyeong and me, both speechless, then explained.

“The physician treating Ak Byeongbi said that his wounds bore the mark of the Yellow Sand Sect's sword.”

Yes, of course they did.

How many people used weapons that tore wounds apart like saw blades?

There was no way anyone could fail to recognize it.

I barely swallowed my sigh.

“It certainly looks as though our captain was injured while attempting a sneak attack.”

At this point, forget any agreement. We had to worry about whether we could keep our lives.

I turned toward Hwang Busik.

“What will happen to us now?”

“You will remain on standby until the investigation is complete.”

“At our lodgings?”

If it was at our lodgings, and with only this many guards...

Once Dang Seohui returned from accompanying Ak Byeongbi, the three of us could somehow get out of the Black Alliance.

As I retraced the route we had taken through the Black Alliance and formed an escape plan in my head, I heard two familiar voices.

“Heh heh heh, you have caused quite a mess.”

“Young Master, we meet again sooner than expected.”

Why were Blood Brawl and the Flame Ghost Consort here?

Hwang Busik's voice drove the final nail in.

“These two will stay with you.”

Hah. So we weren't even meant to dream of escaping?

It seemed Gun Yuhyeon had been right. Drawing the Five Heavenly Kings Tile must have been exceptionally unlucky.

No wonder everyone who had let me draw the Five Heavenly Kings Tile in my previous life had dropped dead the next day.

Damn it.

Hwang Busik spoke with the same blunt expression.

“...My condolences.”

It must have been his own way of offering comfort, but it did not comfort me at all.

Was this how Gal Jeongi had felt?

Even so, I had to find a way.

Had I not struggled desperately until the very end in my previous life too?

“Then may I ask one favor?”

Hwang Busik shook his head without the slightest hesitation.

What a firm man.

I couldn't back down so easily either.

“It is not a difficult request. Just hear me out first.”

In the end, Hwang Busik let out a low grunt and allowed it.

“Speak.”

“When our captain wakes up, can you let us meet him first?”

They said even the wishes of the dead were granted. A request from someone about to die should be manageable, shouldn't it?

Footnotes:

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