WeTried Translations
Translator/Editor: Chen
Discord: https://dsc.gg/wetried
◈ The Martial Genius who Remembers Everything ◈
Chapter 358: Encounter with the Enemy (5)
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“Yong Soa doesn't talk nonsense.”
Dang Seohui said that on the road to Kunming.
Then she drooped her shoulders and asked glumly, “Is a chivalrous hero supposed to be foolish?”
It seemed Yong Soa's words had been bothering her the entire time.
...Well, he hadn't actually said that.
Naturally, I defended her and cursed Yong Soa.
“Yong Soa is the bigger fool, idiot, sea anemone, and moron.”
Without thinking, I stroked her lowered head.
“...”
Dang Seohui glared at me coldly.
Only then did I realize I had done something wrong.
Saryeon was like that too. Women absolutely hated having their heads touched.
Fortunately, that wasn't the reason. Probably.
“...He isn't that bad.”
Her eyes had gone cold because I'd gone too far.
Though I didn't think I had...
“Hmph...”
Despite her narrowed eyes, Dang Seohui was already swaying her head around as if asking me to pet her more.
When I stroked her head again, she seemed to purr. Watching her, I recalled Yong Soa's words from the night before.
‘Jin Sowoon. You... are uncertainty.’
I still didn't understand.
Then again, there was no way words from someone standing at the peak of the Orthodox Society's established power would sound reasonable to me.
“Hmm...”
Still, if I tried to understand it...
I was probably a troublesome variable who created results beyond their expectations.
Both the Orthodox Society and the White Path Society must have had futures they anticipated, and I had thoroughly shattered them every time.
From that perspective, perhaps I really was an unpredictable uncertainty to them.
My current condition alone proved it.
After regressing, had I ever imagined that I would become who I was now?
Of course, the Azure Dragon Bangle, an extremely dangerous item, had been bound to me from the start. My life had already been about a thousand li away from certainty the instant I regressed.
‘But that's not my fault, is it?’
I'd only tried to patch together what I lacked and survive. Wasn't that how I ended up this way?
“But why are you the only one perfectly fine?”
I had no real response to Hwa Jeongsan's irritating question.
My current state was proof that I had become an abnormal existence even I couldn't have predicted.
“No matter how excellent the Myriad Poison Sect's treatment was... You look like someone who was never injured in the first place.”
“...”
When we confronted Gang Suntak and his group at the Myriad Poison Sect, the Dragon-Phoenix Association had ultimately refused to take the lecturers' side.
Anyone could see that our side was in a miserable state after enduring untold hardships.
Even those who had walked in on their own feet had golden wound medicine smeared all over their bodies and cloth wrapped tightly around them to stop the bleeding.
The problem was...
“Why is your skin alone as clean as white jade...?”
“...”
The one who had suffered the most and endured the hardest fight, me, didn't have a single wound anywhere on my body.
I had narrowly dodged or deflected attacks aimed at my critical points or vital acupoints.
Yet I'd certainly suffered wounds as serious as anyone else's.
Take my lower right abdomen, for example.
Je Geumhak's palm strike had left a wound as large as a fist there.
My left arm was the same.
There had definitely been a deep gash, deep enough for white bone to show.
Yes, there had been.
When Saryeon had nearly fainted in shock at the sight of my wounds, I'd even joked that my silky smooth skin would be left with a huge scar.
Yet all those injuries had healed.
‘What the hell is this?’
The smaller wounds hadn't even left scars.
The larger ones had closed quickly, leaving only faint marks.
From the looks of things, even those would disappear without a trace before long.
Of course, it was good that scars wouldn't remain, but recovery this monstrous was a little concerning.
‘Fuck... Even I look suspicious...’
Something clearly beyond common sense was happening. Wouldn't anyone want to investigate?
And I had plenty of other things to hide besides this.
I smiled at Hwa Jeongsan as though nothing was wrong.
“Actually... The Taeul True Scripture's Healing Wounds Formula is peerless.”
“...”
Hwa Jeongsan stared at me as though he couldn't believe a word of it.
So I went on the offensive instead.
They said the best defense was an attack.
“Surely you don't think, as you did in the past, that a divine art from a third-rate sect like Taeul Sect can't possibly be outstanding?”
Hwa Jeongsan, who had made a grave mistake in the past, looked troubled as expected.
What were you going to do if you suspected me anyway?
“W-what are you... Ahem. Who said anything? I just asked because it seemed strange.”
The truth that forcing the issue was faster than persuasion had remained unchanged since ancient times.
With many unresolved problems on my mind, we arrived in Kunming.
Then, as if Yong Soa's words had clung to me like a curse, something unexpected happened again.
“Jin Sowoon. I will place you under emergency arrest pursuant to the law concerning insubordination and acts of espionage.”
I had expected some trouble when we reached the Kunming Branch.
I thought Gang Suntak and his group might be there. I had even anticipated that people at the Kunming Branch connected to them would try to pressure us.
But...
‘The Enforcement Hall?’
The lecturers, including Gang Suntak, were nowhere to be seen.
Instead, people who introduced themselves as members of the Enforcement Hall were trying to arrest me.
To meet people one rarely encountered even within the Martial Alliance in a place this far from home.
I was so delighted I could have cried.
They didn't seem delighted, though.
“Bind him!”
At the nod of the person who had spoken to me in a voice as cold as autumn frost, those standing behind approached all at once to strike my acupoints.
I immediately blocked their hands.
Tap. Tap-tap.
Perhaps because I had stopped them rather roughly, or because a mere Academy student had dared block them, their expressions turned vicious.
“You bastard!”
“Hold still!”
They acted as though they held absolute authority.
I looked at their ugly faces without expression.
“Do you have a command order?”
“Hah...”
The Enforcement Hall members laughed in disbelief.
Amid that laughter, the one who had ordered my arrest spoke again.
“You are suspected of violating a serious law. Therefore, we may make an emergency arrest without a command order.”
“Did Lecturer Gang Suntak put you up to this?”
I looked at the man who appeared to be their leader.
His face looked to be around the same age as Lecturers No and Gang.
The crease between his brows showed that he couldn't completely deny my words.
If he was willing to move at Gang's request, they had to be Academy classmates.
“Hmm...”
Judging him to be roughly Hall Master-level, I searched through the list of names in my head.
Only one person fit.
“Hall Master Na Jakchung.”
“...”
A face that had rarely revealed its true thoughts, even when I had uncovered the truth behind matters, now cracked.
His expression was full of confusion over how I knew him.
Still, like a member of the Enforcement Hall who believed revealing emotion meant exposing weakness, he quickly returned to a blank expression.
“You came from the Myriad Poison Sect, did you not? It has already been confirmed that you stayed at the Myriad Poison Sect and received their hospitality. Do you believe we need more evidence?”
Words were frightening because their meaning could change depending on how one chose to interpret them. This was exactly that kind of situation.
It was true that we had stayed at the Myriad Poison Sect. Considering the meals, treatment, and even the small banquet they had provided us...
It wasn't a lie to say we had received hospitality.
Why hadn't Gang Suntak stayed here in the first place?
The fact that he had removed himself meant he had gone to the Martial Alliance ahead of us to lay the groundwork while erasing any trace of outside pressure.
Seeing them still confident that they wouldn't fall, I could only applaud.
Impressive, Gang Suntak. Truly.
When they finally realized they really were falling, their expressions would be worth seeing.
Even if everything was eventually clarified and the matter was resolved favorably, I had no intention of letting them drag me to the Enforcement Hall.
It would take a long time to establish the truth, and the Enforcement Hall's cells couldn't be much different from the Inspectorate's.
Besides, I had a way to make Na Jakchung back down right now.
“Hah... Honestly.”
Just as I organized my thoughts and prepared to speak.
“What kind of nonsense is this?!”
A resounding Lion's Roar shook the entire Kunming Branch.
“An emergency arrest of Unit Commander Jin...?! This is completely absurd!”
Ilgak stood there, his smooth scalp flushed redder than heated iron.
“We suffered tremendous losses in Mukrim. Asking the Myriad Poison Sect for help was unavoidable. To accuse us of espionage based only on outward appearances without even investigating what happened... How can that possibly make sense?!”
Ilgak was far more agitated than usual.
What was wrong with him...?
As I tilted my head.
“Monk Ilgak is right. This is certainly incomprehensible. If you intend to arrest Unit Commander Jin...”
Cheol Sunjik stepped in front of me with a cold expression that looked ready to kill.
“You will have to arrest everyone here.”
What was with him too?
Before I could even be surprised.
Shing-
“Lecturer Gang has already confessed. There is nothing more to hear.”
Namgung Seonhwa drew her sword and stepped forward.
The atmosphere turned grave in an instant.
No, why were they all acting like this?
It wasn't as if this was the first time something like this had happened...
“Fuck...! Do you know what we went through in Mukrim? How dare you accuse us of being spies?”
Crack-crack.
Nam Hwaseong and Gwak Susan of the Mount Zhongnan Sect.
“We will protect the Unit Commander.”
Then Dang Gihan of the Tang Clan and Wang Joeun of the Yuwol Sect joined them.
All of them radiated a vicious presence, as though they were about to start a war.
“The Unit Commander threw his life on the line at the front for us. To frame someone like him as a spy is the same as branding all of us as spies!”
“The ones you should place under emergency arrest are those lecturer bastards! Those fucking bastards who abandoned us in Mukrim!”
“We barely made it back alive... and this is how you treat us?!”
The Academy students were furious as though they had been falsely accused for the first time in their lives.
As the Academy students began to radiate their full force, the Martial Alliance members faltered backward.
The Enforcement Hall members appeared to have encountered a situation they had never expected. They looked unsure of what to do.
Well, they could never have imagined that every Academy student would resist so fiercely.
Even I was dumbfounded.
Either way, the atmosphere had become much more favorable.
I smiled at Na Jakchung.
“You must be quite close to Lecturer Gang Suntak. To risk your own neck because of him.”
“...”
Na Jakchung maintained a blank expression, but perhaps because I had faced Yong Soa just before this, I could sense far richer emotions in the subtle movements of his facial muscles.
As though he had been properly caught off guard.
“Perhaps you weren't told the full story?”
“The full... story?”
“Why do you think the Academy students are in this condition?”
At my words, Na Jakchung's gaze turned to the Academy students.
They radiated fierce energy, but most of them could barely move properly.
Looking over each of them, I began to explain quietly.
“We were attacked in Mukrim. The lecturers, including Gang Suntak, abandoned us Academy students and ran. The very people who had a duty to protect the students.”
“...”
Na Jakchung's face twitched faintly.
“They are using you now to escape responsibility for their wrongdoing.”
“...”
“If it is revealed that you exercised your authority over a matter where responsibility was wrongly assigned...”
I took another step toward Na Jakchung.
“It won't end with a simple apology.”
Ak Byeongbi of the Inspectorate had already been disciplined for abusing his authority.
Even so, Na Jakchung couldn't easily back down here.
Admitting his mistake and confessing his shame before younger juniors was never easy.
“...Do you have evidence concerning the attackers?”
It sounded as though he was looking for a pretext to retreat.
Hmm. I wanted to play along, but we had no evidence worth presenting.
“If you killed that many enemies, shouldn't you have something?”
We had worked ourselves half to death just carrying the wounded.
Naturally, we hadn't had time to gather evidence.
It wasn't as though we could return to Mukrim on the way here and retrieve some.
What if those madmen were still there?
Then.
A clear voice rang out from the entrance to the branch.
“The Academy students are telling the truth.”
At the sound of that voice, which seemed to carry a noble fragrance, the Academy students, who had been radiating a stern presence, each backed away with blank expressions.
Through the opening walked a handsome man in blue martial robes.
“I brought evidence.”
The incredibly irritating Yong Soa approached with a large bundle slung over his shoulder, walking with lofty grace.
Clatter.
When he untied the bundle and dumped its contents onto the floor, several weapons, broken weapons, and severed body parts already beginning to rot spilled out.
“Traces of fierce battles remained throughout Mukrim. The iron used in the enemy's weapons is angular iron, a metal rarely used in the Central Plains.”
“...You went to Mukrim?”
“I thought the scene needed to be examined.”
“...”
The Enforcement Hall members looked confused.
The Academy students began murmuring too, wondering what was happening.
They could hardly believe that he had entered Mukrim alone in the first place.
But...
“Hah...”
The most confused person here was me.
‘What the hell is this bastard?’
Only a few days ago, he had been trying to kill me while spouting strange nonsense.
“His words are true.”
And now he was clearing me of suspicion.
Footnotes:
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