WeTried Translations

Translator/Editor: Chen

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◈ The Martial Genius who Remembers Everything ◈

Chapter 361: The Invisible Torrent

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There was no welcome party.

After the Great Journey, the Academy’s final event, there would normally be a grand banquet to honor the Academy students. This time, however, no such gathering was held.

Even the Academy’s atmosphere, which should have grown lax and noisy at the end of the term, remained subdued.

Rather than looking forward to invitations from the various pavilions before graduation, the Academy students bitterly wondered whose funeral would be held first.

Instead of wanting to leave the Academy as soon as possible, everyone wished time would simply stop.

Several Academy students were summoned to the Enforcement Hall.

Everyone who had served as a Unit Leader was called in, along with several ordinary unit members.

The thorough investigation the Enforcement Hall personnel had mentioned before had likely begun.

Since all the lecturers were being investigated by the Inspectorate, there were no classes. I spent my time in the dormitory as well.

Swishhhhh.

Sword blades unfurled, filling the private training ground.

The Lesser Heaven Sword Art was followed by the Greater Heaven Sword Art.

Then came the Twin Heavens Sword Art, unleashed in linked forms.

I poured them out again and again.

Swishhhhh.

Illusion swords spilled forth so continuously that even my own eyes grew dizzy.

[Ahhh!]

[Is this the end……?]

[Those damned bastards…….]

I swung my sword again and again, trying to erase the vivid memories rising in my mind.

I knew that merely moving my body would never erase them.

That was why I had suffered alone in deep mountain valleys in my previous life.

Even after running away, I had not been free.

Swishhhh.

I sent my sword flying once more toward the demonic beings rushing at me.

The same sword as back then.

I tried something different.

Instead of cutting down the charging demonic beings, I stabbed and knocked them back.

“Damn it……!”

Yet people still died.

As my mastery of the Taeul True Scripture had risen, the memories from my previous life had become far less turbulent. Still, the newly carved memories continued to stir my emotions.

Thump-

I swung my sword faster.

I used defensive forms, then unleashed the Shattering Form.

Yet people still died.

Thump-

Someone bled and died again.

No matter how much internal energy I poured out, how fiercely I swung my sword, or how recklessly I threw myself forward, they kept dying.

Thump-

I had reached a realm unimaginably higher than in my previous life.

Thump-

Yet within my memories, I was still powerless.

Thump. Thump. Thump.

I swung my sword again.

Swishhhhh.

Through the most optimal space, at the most optimal speed.

A little faster.

A little more precise.

How much time had passed?

The sun, which had not even risen to its zenith, was already setting.

“Haa, haa, haa.”

My dantian was empty of internal energy, and the hand holding the Scarlet Radiance Sword trembled.

As I caught my breath, a voice came from behind me.

“What kind of barbaric training is this?”

It was Hwa Jeongsan.

I already knew he had arrived three hours ago.

There was no way I could have missed it. He had made it painfully obvious from far away that he was here.

Still, I pretended not to notice.

I didn’t want to speak to anyone right now.

There would be more than enough time to talk later.

But Hwa Jeongsan was as tactless as ever.

“Hey, are you ignoring me?”

“Hoo…… You really have no sense of timing.”

“What did you say, punk?”

He approached the training ground, found a spot, and plopped down on the floor.

“If you wanted to loosen up, you should’ve called me. I was going to show you the New Plum Blossom Sword I created.”

“So you could take your frustration out on me?”

Hwa Jeongsan looked blank for a moment, then furrowed his brow.

“Is that what you’re worried about? Who would dare curse at you?”

“Sometimes, people need somewhere to vent their grief. Isn’t that why you came to see me, Senior?”

“……”

I had done nothing wrong.

Even when I went back over the memories and reviewed them again, I had done my best.

If luck had not been on our side, even more people would have died.

I could only think of it as fortune playing a part.

‘Yes. That must be it.’

Still, even when one knew that in one’s head, wasn’t it human nature to look for a way to ease the tightness in one’s chest?

To know what was right, yet not want to accept it.

Especially after learning that none of my own companions had died.

That irrational thought could grow extreme.

I had felt the same way when Taeul Sect was destroyed and I received reports of the deaths of my junior disciples who had been at the Martial Alliance.

A voice that barely concealed its trembling reached me.

“Jo Gaeryong was someone I shared a room with from a very young age.”

He had been the one who confidently declared that he would show us the Mount Hua Sect’s drinking capacity.

The image of his white teeth flashing through blood suddenly came to mind.

“He wasn’t as good as me…… but he still had more than enough potential to raise the Mount Hua Sect’s name high.”

“……”

When I silently looked at him, Hwa Jeongsan lowered his head slightly and bit his lip.

“You were right. I came intending to take my frustration out on you. No, this isn’t the first time. I wanted to ask you at the Myriad Poison Sect too.”

Hwa Jeongsan’s eyes were gray, like cold ashes.

“Whether Jo Gaeryong truly had to die, or whether perhaps……”

He swallowed, hesitated several times, then continued.

“Whether he died because of my past actions……”

“……”

Perhaps he found his own thoughts absurd. Hwa Jeongsan lowered his head and let out a bitter laugh.

“It’s ridiculous. He wasn’t the only one who died……”

Most of the people rushing to the Martial Alliance now would likely have the same question.

Did it have to be their disciple?

Did it have to be their child?

“……The disciples of the Mount Hua Sect defended you. That was why I couldn’t ask.”

His eyes were bloodshot, as though he had not slept for days.

Then he lowered his head again, as if he found himself absurd.

“But I kept thinking about it. Whether it truly had nothing to do with what happened at Taeul Sect.”

His eyes were filled with a certain longing.

As though he were looking beyond me at something else.

I met his gaze directly.

“Was what you said true?”

“What did I say?”

“Your actions at Taeul Sect. That you did it deliberately because that role was necessary.”

I asked about something I had not heard in my previous life, but had known all along.

“That you did not mean it.”

Hwa Jeongsan stared at me for a long time.

After an intense internal struggle, he slowly opened his mouth.

“No. I enjoyed it.”

The answer was utterly honest.

No, it burst out of him.

As though a dam holding back water had collapsed.

Something within him seemed to have broken, and the words flowed freely.

“Even if that role was necessary, it was clearly improper. But I was the Mount Hua Sect’s New Plum Blossom Sword, Hwa Jeongsan of the Dragon-Phoenix Association.”

His face twisted, stained by shame and honesty.

“I was allowed to act that way. So I did. Taeul Sect was a sect people were allowed to treat that way.”

He could not have spoken any more honestly than that.

Was that longing I had seen in his eyes earlier a desire to hear the truth?

I asked again.

“What happened in Mukrim. Do you need my answer?”

Could he bear it?

Could he carry the weight that I, that we, had carried in my previous life?

“……”

Hwa Jeongsan bit down hard on his lip but said nothing.

His eyes wavered for a moment, then tangled with complicated emotions.

“I’m not someone like Yong Soa or Ilmyeong who understands everything without needing it spelled out. So just…… tell me.”

“……”

No longer.

Hwa Jeongsan was no longer someone I feared.

Neither the Orthodox Society he carried on his back nor the Mount Hua Sect felt absolute to me anymore.

No, from now on, we would likely become people forced to fight fiercely against one another.

That was why I could speak with complete honesty.

He owed me, and I owed him nothing.

I could make him feel the same frustration and despair I had experienced in my previous life.

“……”

But.

For some reason, Jo Gaeryong’s smile, his white teeth exposed, kept flickering clearly in my mind.

This was why I had not wanted to talk today.

“I know. I know how many people died for us to return alive from Mukrim. I know how irrational it is to resent you. But, but……”

His voice, pretending to be fine, was thick with tears.

“Jo Gaeryong was not someone who should have died so easily in a place like that.”

Resentment without a destination wandered.

It stabbed itself, then stabbed another person. No matter how much it wandered, it did not weaken. It continued to move.

That was the nature of resentment.

And at the root of his resentment, there was likely jealousy toward me, who had returned with all my people alive.

I had no need to make Hwa Jeongsan understand my choice.

I had the authority to give orders, and I had simply made the best choice.

Just as he had done to me in my previous life, I could coldly say, “It isn’t something you need concern yourself with.”

I was already suffering enough.

I had no room to consider his feelings.

But.

[Unit Leader Jin, you should worry about your wallet. The Mount Hua Sect measures its basic drinking capacity by the jar. Hahaha!]

That damned Jo Gaeryong kept appearing before my eyes, grinning with his teeth bared.

I raised my head and looked at Hwa Jeongsan.

Then I told him the words I had wanted to hear from him in the past.

“What happened at Taeul Sect had nothing to do with it.”

“……”

The words he had wanted so desperately to hear.

“I do not let personal feelings interfere in important matters.”

At my firm declaration, he wore a blank expression for a moment.

Then he nodded with a bitter, slightly relieved smile.

“I see. I knew you would be different……”

As though he had expected that answer all along.

Yet the worry on his face did not disappear.

Knowing the truth did not make emotions go away.

He still could not fully cast off the death of his companion.

“……Thank you. For telling me.”

Hwa Jeongsan forced a smile as if he were fine, then turned away.

I added one more thing to his retreating back.

“Jo Gaeryong…… was a true martial artist.”

Hwa Jeongsan stopped dead.

“What else could someone who threw away his own life for his companions be, if not a true martial artist?”

The word “martial artist” lingered on Hwa Jeongsan’s lips several times.

For a brief moment.

Then his face cleared, and he smiled brightly.

“I’m glad I asked. Thank you.”

Until he left the training ground, he repeated “martial artist” over and over.

#

The next day, I was summoned to the Inspectorate.

It was different from the other Academy students, who had been investigated by the Enforcement Hall.

The treatment I received was different from what I had heard as well.

The Enforcement Hall personnel had been polite, but everyone said they were questioned in a rather heavy atmosphere in an interrogation room.

I, on the other hand, was being questioned in a Hall Master’s office.

Trickle.

Steam rose as the aroma of tea spread.

I watched it quietly, then asked, “Do you have any better tea?”

“……”

The grim investigator’s face twisted into an even fiercer expression.

If he didn’t have any, he could just say so. That personality of his hadn’t changed at all.

“It’s fine if you don’t.”

“……Have you forgotten that you came here to be questioned?”

“The atmosphere made it seem like I could ask.”

The guidance had been friendly, the attitude polite, and there was even enough leisure to drink tea during the inquiry.

It didn’t feel like an interrogation at all.

Well, except for the fact that the investigator was Ak Byeongbi.

“The investigation is already largely complete. All that remains is to dispatch investigators to Mukrim and confirm it.”

I could not help tilting my head at his words.

The lecturers must have had a reason for wanting to arrive at the Martial Alliance first.

Surely they had sent courier hawks in every direction to people they had connections with, trying to obstruct the investigation. So why……?

“Because Yong Soa’s report argued the exact opposite of the lecturers’ claims.”

Hah, Yong Soa again.

It was good that Yong Soa’s statement had made the matter easy to resolve, but it also made me feel the immense wall between us.

If he gave an opinion different from mine, would my opinion even be considered?

“Of course, the fact that the Academy students’ accounts matched also had an effect.”

I tilted my head.

“They matched?”

People seeking advancement usually did not enjoy conflict with their superiors……

“Yes. No matter who we investigated, they all said the same thing.”

I had expected at least a few to tell stories different from the truth because of pressure from their seniors or elders of their sects.

I was about to feel touched for nothing……

“Hm?”

Ak Byeongbi’s expression suddenly turned fierce.

“They all said it was because of you, Jin Sowoon……”

“!”

What the hell? What was this about?

Had he not been praising me just a moment ago?

“……Did I do something wrong?”

Ak Byeongbi’s eyes widened as though my reaction was completely unexpected.

“They said they survived because of you. They all praised you.”

“No…… Why are you saying that with such a terrifying face? Honestly.”

Ak Byeongbi’s shoulders drooped as he looked at me in disbelief.

“I was smiling……”

Fuck, if he smiled twice, my heart would drop out of my chest.

After looking dejected for a moment, Ak Byeongbi recovered his composure.

“You worked hard.”

“……”

“It could not have been easy to lead your companions in that situation.”

“I just…… did what I had to do.”

“Why do you look so down? You accomplished something no one else could have.”

That was true.

I could respond as I had because I knew who they were and how they would act.

But even knowing everything, I had still been struck by them.

……I had still lost people. Rage surged up within me.

I could feel their malice, so my emotions did not settle easily.

I tried to steady my breathing.

Yet the suffocating heaviness pressing down on my heart did not fade.

“When will the funerals…… be held?”

“The investigation must be concluded first.”

“……Then they will probably be held around the end of the term.”

“This was not an ordinary death.”

As the Martial Alliance pursued this matter, enemies it had never known about would come to light.

And because of those unseen enemies, the Martial Alliance would be thrown into confusion for some time.

“How will the funerals be held? Will there be one collective funeral?”

“The Mantong Office appears to be planning an alliance funeral.”

“I see. That is a relief.”

A few inconsequential words passed between us.

Then Ak Byeongbi abruptly asked, “Were they the ones you saw there?”

He did not specify where “there” was, but I nodded.

“……How certain are you?”

“Is this something that requires certainty?”

Ak Byeongbi could not hide his groan at my answer.

There was no need for a lengthy explanation of how terrifying the people we met in the Black Alliance were.

“So they truly exist.”

Ak Byeongbi sank into deep thought for a long time, as though he could not believe it.

A moment later, he muttered in a low, heavy voice, “The martial world will fall into chaos.”

“It will probably not be good news for you, Hall Master.”

“Probably not. There is no better target for political exploitation than an invisible enemy.”

“I hope no one ends up wrongfully accused as I was.”

“Ahem. Ahem.”

Ak Byeongbi cleared his throat several times, perhaps embarrassed.

How awkward.

When I gave a faint smile, he watched me closely.

“By the way…… where are you planning to apply after graduation?”

Ak Byeongbi then clenched both fists, his face serious and dignified.

“If you want to join the Inspectorate, I will make a place for you.”

What was this man talking about?

The Inspectorate was a place only the most privileged among the Martial Alliance’s privileged could enter.

The Mantong Office had only one threshold, passing the test Jegal Somyeong set. The Inspectorate required not only excellent grades but family and connections as well.

In other words, no matter how high my grades were, a disciple from a third-rate sect like me could not enter so easily.

Even if I did, there was no chance I would be assigned normal work.

I would probably run errands until I was eventually thrown out.

“No, thank you. Running errands doesn’t suit me……”

Bang!

“Who said I would make you run errands!”

Fuck, that startled me! Why was he suddenly slamming the table?

Perhaps embarrassed by his own reaction, Ak Byeongbi straightened his clothes and added, “……Ahem. You know I became a Great Hall Master this time, right?”

“Yes. The world truly is ending.”

“You little…… Ahem. In any case, because of that, the personnel in the Third Hall all moved up one position, so a Unit Leader position opened up.”

“……”

I was speechless at the ridiculous statement.

The ranks in the Inspectorate and Enforcement Hall were one grade higher than those of other divisions.

That meant a Unit Leader position in the Inspectorate was equivalent to a Grand Unit Leader position in an ordinary division.

‘How could that possibly make sense?’

It was a position far beyond what even the Academy’s top student deserved.

No, it was absurd from the start.

“I’m not in the mood for jokes.”

“Why do you think I’m joking?”

Ak Byeongbi made another fierce expression.

“Why are you looking so fier…… Ah.”

He had said that was his smile.

No matter how many times I saw it, I could not get used to that smile.

#

On my way back to the Academy, the Martial Alliance was filled with unrest.

People cried on one side, while others comforted them on the other.

There were people who appeared to be family and relatives, as well as groups who seemed to belong to the same sect.

All sorts of people mourned, raged, and stamped their feet in grief.

Some fainted as they listened to explanations from Martial Alliance members. Others flew into a rage and grabbed those members by the collar.

Grief erupted everywhere in different forms.

As I walked quietly, my eyes met those of several people.

“……”

Some glared at me as if they wanted to kill me. Others looked at me in stunned despair.

There were even people who bowed their heads while crying.

Would it comfort them if I told them that they still had more blood to spill in the future?

‘Of course not.’

It would not comfort them at all.

There was no such thing as a death that was natural.

Another question came to mind.

Were those Demonic Cult bastards grieving right now? Or were they……

Cheering?

Rather than mourning their sacrifices, they would be happier over their achievements.

For some reason, the image of something I had not even seen rose before my eyes, and something surged upward from deep in my chest.

Once more, I slowly looked over the people grieving for the deaths of those precious to them.

Then, recalling the Demonic Cult bastards one by one from my clear memories, I made a vow.

That grief would not belong to us alone forever.

That one day, they too would face the desolate atmosphere brought by sudden death.

I vowed again and again that I would make it happen with my own hands.

Footnotes:

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