WeTried Translations
Translator/Editor: Chen
Discord: https://dsc.gg/wetried
◈ The Martial Genius who Remembers Everything ◈
Chapter 319: The Matter of Responsibility (2)
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“Uh... huh? You're running out of strength? Huh?!”
Every time Jin Sowoon struck his sword against theirs as if mocking them, a numbing shock ran through Eunho's hands.
Eunho cried out in frustration.
“I've reached my limit!”
His eldest martial brother sneered.
“So? Are you going to die because you've reached your limit?”
Slash-
The Scarlet Radiance Sword grazed his collar and sliced through the hem of his robe.
It stung a little too. Jin Sowoon had clearly cut a little deeper on purpose.
‘Damn it!’
During the rest period, Eunho had taken two elixir pellets and brought his qi circulation to a mature level, but even he had limits.
Jin Sowoon seemed to know exactly where those limits were. By controlling the pace of the fight, he drove them to the brink of complete exhaustion.
“Pant, pant... pant.”
“Damn it.”
Their junior martial sister Saryeon, Geumpyo, and Dongryong all looked as though they had been pushed beyond their limits.
“Thinking of running again?”
The blade he raised lightly turned crimson.
Screeeeeech-
An ominous scream, its origin impossible to tell, rang out. A murderous aura squeezed their entire bodies, making it feel as though their souls were being torn away.
That alone was enough to make them feel as though they would die, yet Jin Sowoon swung his sword without hesitation.
Shrrrk!
Dozens of blades brimming with murderous intent spread out and bound all four of them.
They knew their eldest martial brother would not kill them, but their bodies instinctively feared death.
“Argh!”
Eunho screamed until his throat hurt and charged forward, scattering sword strikes in all directions.
He had learned something through countless sparring matches.
Running was not always the answer.
When fear was at its greatest, the answer was to move forward first.
Just as their eldest martial brother always did.
He scraped every last bit of strength from his dantian and began qi circulation.
His internal energy was too limited to even attempt the Greater Heaven Sword Art.
All he could use was the Lesser Heaven Sword Art, and only its simplest forms.
‘There's no way I can block them all...’
So he moved as little as possible and avoided only the most critical wounds.
Offer the enemy flesh and bone, then take their heart.
That was the only way to survive this situation.
Slash-
Just as he thought he had finally avoided the Scarlet Radiance Sword and reached Jin Sowoon...
“What are you going to accomplish by coming alone?”
As though he had been waiting for this, Jin Sowoon lifted his foot and kicked Eunho away.
Thud!
Crash-
Eunho flew three zhang before slamming into the ground.
‘Please, the others...’
He desperately hoped the remaining three would succeed.
Thud! Thud!
Crash! Crash! Crash!
‘And I haven't even finished my last words...’
The other three simply flew over and landed behind Eunho.
“Tsk. You're already down after just this much? Do you think you'll have time to rest like this on a battlefield? If you have no internal energy, fight with your stamina. If you have no stamina, then fight with sheer will.”
What was he talking about? Anyone listening would think he had spent decades on the battlefield.
Eunho was full of complaints, but he did not open his mouth.
He had complained four hours ago, only for that mad... no, eldest martial brother of theirs to say, “So you still have strength left,” and continue the sparring.
He had learned that staying quiet was better, even when he had something to say.
“Tsk. I'll give you half an hour. Recover.”
Jin Sowoon had already gone inside the pavilion.
Even after he left, the Taeul Sect disciples, including Eunho, could not get up.
“Pant...”
“J-just kill me.”
They truly could not move.
There was no way they could finish their qi circulation in half an hour anyway.
All they could do was continue their qi circulation while resting as much as possible.
‘Pant... what the hell are we even doing?’
Lying flat on his back and circulating his qi, Eunho began to feel ashamed of himself. He turned only his eyes toward Saryeon.
“Saryeon, do you know why our eldest martial brother is acting like that?”
He could tell from Saryeon's stiff expression over the past two days that something had happened between the two of them.
Still, he had not dared ask when she would not say a word.
Things were different now.
If this continued for a few more days, they might become the first Martial Arts Academy students to die during training.
“...”
They could not become resentful ghosts before even reaching the Martial Alliance.
Eunho pressed her again.
“Saryeon, we might all die at this rate. No, I'm practically dead already. I'm only struggling like this to save Geumpyo and Dongryong...”
“Our eldest martial brother...”
At last, Saryeon spoke in response to Eunho's groaning.
“...I think he's worried about us.”
What could he possibly be worried about while driving them to the brink of death?
“He's worried that he won't be able to protect us when he isn't around.”
“...”
The frown on Eunho's face vanished at once.
Geumpyo and Dongryong, who had been staring blankly into space, opened their eyes wide and looked at Saryeon.
“He's worried that the people who hate him might hate us in his place and torment us.”
Saryeon raised her head and looked at her younger martial siblings.
For some reason, sorrow showed on her once-stiff face.
“I think that's what he's worried about.”
He had thought all his strength was gone.
He had thought he no longer had the strength to breathe.
Grit.
His teeth ground together as his jaw clenched.
The anger he had directed at his eldest martial brother now changed into hostility toward himself.
‘Have I become a burden again?’
When they had gone to the Iron Sword Sect, and when they heard they would take the regular examination...
He had felt sorry for Jin Sowoon, who carried too much alone, and wanted to lighten his burden even a little.
But no matter how much he tried to help, the burden on Jin Sowoon's shoulders never grew lighter.
No, once Eunho realized that he himself had become another burden on those shoulders, he had fallen into self-loathing.
He thought he had grown a little on the way here, but he and his brothers had not grown at all.
“It must be because of what happened with the lecturers.”
Saryeon gave a small nod at Eunho's voice, now cold.
Eunho growled.
“We have nothing to do with it. We don't care if we receive lower scores or face discrimination.”
“...”
Saryeon looked at Eunho with the same sad expression.
“What if it doesn't end at the Academy?”
“...”
“What if it continues after we go to the Martial Alliance? What if we are scattered apart? What if we have to obey a superior's orders? Will you still be able to say you don't care?”
Her sorrowful words carved deeply into the hearts of the Geum-Eun-Dong brothers.
As long as they formed a sword formation and remained together, they had nothing to fear. But individually, they were only around the middle ranks even within the Academy.
The gap would grow even wider once they entered the Martial Alliance.
Without the protection of their sect, how well could they protect themselves?
“Damn it... Damn it, damn it, damn it!”
The person most troubled by this had to be their eldest martial brother, who had made enemies of the lecturers.
Yet even then, what he worried about most was not himself.
[Don't worry.]
It was them.
That made Eunho's anger burn like an erupting volcano.
Thud. Thud. Thud. Thud.
His bare fists struck the marble floor until they were soon covered in blood.
Just like them, weak beyond measure.
“...”
Though he was badly hurt, no one tried to stop him.
They all felt the same way Eunho did.
Then...
Step. Step. Step.
A group of people entered the training ground.
Saryeon rose to her feet.
“Huh?”
This was Jin Sowoon's private training ground.
Others were not allowed to enter.
When Saryeon saw who had arrived, she let out a quiet groan.
“...Mm.”
They were the newly appointed lecturers and instructors.
At their head stood a pale-faced man glaring fiercely.
“I heard Jin Sowoon is here?”
As Saryeon hesitated at the lecturer's question, Eunho rose to his feet, not even bothering to wipe away the blood on his hands, and stepped in front of her.
“This is the Academy Representative's private training ground. Please leave.”
“...Who are you?”
The lecturer frowned deeply at Eunho's words.
As if asking why someone like Eunho was standing in his way.
The fact that he posed no threat to them made Eunho feel even more bitter.
“If you wish to speak with the Academy Representative, make an appointment and meet him at the representative's office. This is his private dormitory.”
“I asked who you were. And the dormitory is still an Academy facility. What Academy facility would a lecturer be forbidden from entering?”
It was miserable to realize he could not force even the most obvious truth upon them, that he could not make them feel even the slightest threat.
That was why he spoke with even greater intensity.
“Even Academy lecturers have no right to enter a student's private living space as they please. That goes double for a sensitive facility like a training ground.”
The lecturers' faces darkened at Eunho's cold reply.
“I've asked who you are three times. Do you intend to ignore a lecturer's question? Do you want to be expelled from the Academy as well?”
As well...?
Eunho's heart dropped.
His eldest martial brother had done nothing wrong.
There was no reason for him to be expelled.
Even so, those words, as if Jin Sowoon's expulsion had already been decided, made Eunho's heart tremble.
‘This must be what our eldest martial brother is worried about...’
The weakness of being shaken by a single word and disturbed by the slightest movement.
Eunho forced a mocking smile onto his lips.
It was a false expression copied from someone he had always watched.
But if he did not do this, he felt as though he would run away.
He put on an air of leisure, just as that person did, and spoke in a mocking tone.
“Expulsion for not answering a question... Did the Academy create some new regulation during the last break that I don't know about?”
“...”
A small crack appeared in the man's expression.
Eunho was only imitating someone, but it somehow seemed effective.
“Did the Education Hall approve of this? That students selected through the regular examination can be expelled so freely? Or is this a rule the lecturers made up on the spot?”
The small crack grew larger, and the emotions he had kept hidden until now surged through it.
“How dare you speak so arrogantly in front of me!”
“Ah, did I say something wrong? Or perhaps...”
It was strange. As the man spewed fiery anger, Eunho's mind became calmer than ever.
“Are you getting worked up because I hit a sore spot? Hm... You acted rashly against our eldest martial brother and ended up like that, yet you still haven't learned your lesson?”
“...!”
The man could not think of a reply and pressed his lips together.
Eunho had been feeling his way through the moment, and by luck, he had touched a nerve.
As Eunho quietly celebrated his victory inside...
Fire lit the man's eyes.
Creak.
By the time Eunho noticed something was wrong and raised his head, the lecturer had already drawn his sword.
“How dare disciples of some third-rate sect... disrespect me twice over?”
His murderous aura was not comparable to Jin Sowoon's, but it was sharp enough.
A sticky wave of qi bound Eunho's entire body.
The other lecturers tried to restrain him as he moved as though he had lost his mind.
“Hey...”
“Let go! If I don't cut off that bastard's head today, I'll die of rage!”
He began to approach as though he truly had nothing left to lose.
‘Damn it...’
If he had even a little internal energy, he could have tried to run. But he was barely holding himself upright.
It was already too late for Saryeon or his brothers behind him to help.
The righteous path might be better than the Black Path, but White Path martial artists were still martial artists.
Once they failed to control their anger, they would eventually resort to force.
Eunho tried to raise his sword somehow, but he knew he would suffer at least a serious injury.
Then...
“Stop it, Hall Master No Jinha. Are you not ashamed to bear the name of the Qingcheng Sect?”
At the relaxed voice, the lecturer charging forward as though possessed stopped dead.
“...What mad bastard dares bring up the Qingcheng Sect...!”
No Jinha's shout abruptly cut off.
At the end of his gaze...
“Honestly... you're loud and ignorant.”
A man in scholar's robes walked over slowly with his hands behind his back.
Eunho tilted his head.
‘Who is that?’
His hair was unkempt, and he looked gaunt. There was not the slightest trace of internal energy from him.
Looking completely out of place at the Martial Arts Academy, the man slowly approached the tip of No Jinha's sword.
“Are you not putting that away?”
“...”
“You might stab someone with it. Hm?”
“...N-no.”
No Jinha, who had just been foaming at the mouth like a mad dog, immediately tucked his tail and stepped back.
Who was this man?
“Did the Eighth Hall Master of the White Tiger Pavilion come all the way to the Academy to kill a student?”
“...This is not the Head's concern.”
“Oh, what a hurtful thing to say... I was the one who stamped your transfer approval, after all...”
It was strange.
The scholar did not know any martial arts. If anything, he looked frailer than an average man.
Yet No Jinha turned pale at the scholar's words.
“Seeing that you transferred for personal reasons...”
The man casually looked around, then beamed at No Jinha.
“I suppose that means you have no lingering attachment to the Eighth Hall?”
“W-what do you mean by that?!”
“You thought you could kill an Academy student and still return to the Eighth Hall? Do you think I'd allow that?”
“...T-that's not it.”
No Jinha answered stiffly.
“What do you mean, it's not? From the look of it, you don't seem to have any attachment left to life in the Martial Alliance. Didn't you just prove that?”
“N-no, absolutely not.”
“Are you sure?”
“Yes.”
The man in scholar's robes nodded, then waved his hand as if chasing away a fly.
“Then leave.”
“...That...”
He then casually put an arm around Eunho's shoulders.
“This friend is right, isn't he? This is the Academy Representative's private training ground. It is a place lecturers cannot and should not trespass upon.”
“...”
No Jinha's gaze wavered violently.
He seemed caught between leaving and trying to do more.
At last, he managed to say one thing.
“...I wish to speak with Jin Sowoon.”
The scholar cut him off as though there was nothing to discuss.
“Arrange another time. You did not have an appointment today, did you?”
“...”
No Jinha and the lecturers behind him reacted halfheartedly.
They feared the man, but seemed to think he had no way to physically force them to comply.
“Even if you are the Head, you have no authority to order us around...”
“Now that I think about it, the White Tiger Pavilion Master has been demanding an increased budget... I had been considering an inspection anyway, since the White Tiger Pavilion has been spending so freely lately...”
“We'll leave for now.”
“Hm?”
“...We'll arrange another appointment later.”
They were leaving that easily? After causing all that trouble?
Eunho could not make sense of how things had turned out.
The scholar waved his hand again as though annoyed.
“Yes, good choice. Go on!”
No Jinha gave the man a respectful bow, glared murderously at Eunho, then sharply turned away.
Once the lecturers had left, the man called Head removed his arm from Eunho's shoulders and asked,
“Sowoon is inside, right?”
Eunho stared blankly at the Head before carefully asking,
“...Who are you?”
“Hm? I'm someone who can meet Sowoon without an appointment.”
“No, what I mean is... what kind of work do you do that you can make those people obey you like that?”
The man's eyes widened at Eunho's question before he burst out laughing.
“Hm? Ah! Hahaha. I wondered what you were curious about. That was it?”
“If it isn't rude, what is your martial epithet...?”
Eunho swallowed unconsciously.
He could not sense even the slightest trace of internal energy from the man.
Could he possibly be an absolute master whom Eunho simply could not sense?
But...
“I don't practice martial arts.”
The answer was unexpected.
“What? Then why did they... Is your sect or clan perhaps extraordinary?”
An Eighth Hall Master of the White Tiger Pavilion and a Qingcheng Sect martial artist held enough authority to make even birds fall from the sky.
Yet No Jinha had restrained even his emotions and left at the words of someone who did not practice martial arts.
It was difficult to believe.
The man gave a faint smile as he looked at Eunho's bewildered face.
“That's because I am Maeng Juwon, Head of the Mantong Office.”
“Head of the Mantong Office...”
Eunho mouthed the man's title to himself, then raised his head and looked straight at him.
“If I reach that position... can I have that kind of power even without martial arts?”
“Hehe... Background and martial strength are not the only forms of power in this world, are they?”
After saying that, the Head patted Eunho on the shoulder and went inside.
As Eunho watched Maeng Juwon's back disappear into the building, he thought,
‘Fucking...’
Perhaps that man had the answer Eunho had been searching for.
‘That's so cool.’
Footnotes:
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