WeTried Translations
Translator/Editor: Chen
Discord: https://dsc.gg/wetried
◈ The Martial Genius who Remembers Everything ◈
Chapter 365: The Invisible Torrent (5)
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Namgung Seonhwa could not speak for a while.
No, more precisely, she did not know what she was supposed to say.
“...”
Of course, Jin Sowoon had been drawing a great deal of attention lately.
Being an Academy student already made him more appealing to women than most, and he was also the top student.
Rumors had spread that he had handled the crisis in Mukrim and led the Academy students through it. Interest in Jin Sowoon, especially from those considering marriage prospects, had exploded.
Representatives from fallen noble houses and wealthy merchant families had frequently been visiting the delegation.
Even female Academy students who had paid him no attention because of his humble background had begun showing him intense interest.
Yes, that was certainly true, but...
She had never imagined Dang Seohui would become a rival as well.
And that she had come to ask whether he would be willing to become a live-in son-in-law.
“W-Why are you asking that?”
The question slipped out before she could stop herself.
By the time she realized it might have been rude, it was too late.
Fortunately, Dang Seohui simply kept chewing her sweet as though she did not care.
“I’m not the one curious about it.”
“Ah! Really?”
Namgung Seonhwa had only a moment to feel relieved.
Gulp.
Dang Seohui swallowed the sweet in one bite, then added,
“My grandfather is curious about it.”
Namgung Seonhwa felt her heart plummet again.
“Y-Your grandfather... You mean the Poison King?”
“Yes, that’s right.”
Namgung Seonhwa asked as casually as she could.
“W-Why would your grandfather be curious about that?”
Dang Seohui picked up another sweet and stared blankly at the ceiling.
A moment later, she tilted her head.
“That... I don’t know.”
“...”
Dang Seohui herself did not know, but Namgung Seonhwa thought she could guess the answer.
Dang Seohui was the only person in the Tang Clan of marriageable age.
Surely he was not considering a cousin ten years her junior.
Namgung Seonhwa began to feel impatient.
The current Poison King, Dang Hyeokje, was famously stubborn. Once he decided to do something, he was known to see it through no matter what.
Once he set his sights on a target, it was hard for that target to escape his grasp.
If that was the case...
‘Whew...’
She had no choice but to change Dang Seohui’s mind.
“Um, Senior Dang... Have you ever thought about marriage?”
“Marriage?”
Dang Seohui looked as though she had just heard something from the Four Books and Five Classics, then nodded.
“Ah, marriage. Hmm... I’ve never thought about it.”
“Right?! You’re still too young to be thinking about marriage.”
Namgung Seonhwa struck her fist into her palm.
“There must still be so many things you want to do... Even if your family tells you to marry, you obviously wouldn’t want to marry someone you have no feelings for, right?”
Dang Seohui was no less stubborn than Dang Hyeokje.
She had inherited the Tang Clan’s true transmission not only because of her brilliant talent, but also because she had refused to eat a single bite of food for an entire month, nearly starving herself to death.
On top of that, she was now a major figure in the martial world who had gained the title White-Handed Divine Maiden through the Dragon-Phoenix Association.
There was no way she could be forced into a marriage against her wishes.
Namgung Seonhwa had just begun to relax when...
“If it’s a marriage decided by the elders of the family, I’ll consider it.”
“What???”
It was like a Thunderclap Bomb had flown right at her.
“Marriage is important. I could do it with someone who doesn’t have any particularly serious flaws.”
“...”
She could do it. She... could do it.
Until the very end, Namgung Seonhwa hesitated.
She knew it would be best not to ask, but she did not think she would be able to sleep properly that night if she did not.
“Um... Senior Dang, what do you think of Young Master Jin?”
“Jin Sowoon? I think he is an excellent Academy student.”
“Um... What about whether you like him or dislike him...?”
“Hmm? Why do you keep asking strange questions?”
Namgung Seonhwa held out a sweet to Dang Seohui, whose cheeks had puffed out. Dang Seohui continued speaking.
“...If I have to choose, I like him. Munch munch... We do chivalrous work together, and he buys me Tang sweets every time.”
“...”
Dang Seohui had already brought another sweet to her mouth when she looked at Namgung Seonhwa and tilted her head.
“Why do you look like that, Junior? Are you thinking about an enemy? Just say the word. I can beat them up for you.”
“No. I think I may have misunderstood something. I thought he was someone with a clean relationship history with women... Perhaps that wasn’t the case after all? Hoho...”
The flame that had nearly died in Namgung Seonhwa’s heart began burning fiercely again.
#
‘Hm?’
I turned at the strange feeling, but there was nothing behind me except a wall.
Still, something felt off.
‘What is it?’
You know how it is sometimes.
I was a well-behaved and proper man, but every now and then, I would make a huge mistake in front of someone, grow afraid of the consequences, and feel the back of my neck go cold.
“Academy student Jin Sowoon, is there a problem?”
The weighty voice brought me back to my senses.
Come to think of it, it would have been stranger if I did not feel uneasy in a situation like this.
“It’s nothing.”
“Continue.”
I had come because they asked for help with an investigation, but no matter how I looked at it, their purpose did not seem to be simply investigating Mukrim.
“So, what did you do when that enormous bear appeared?”
“It wasn’t a bear. It was a divine spirit. The Ten-Thousand-Year...”
“So it was a bear.”
If that were not the case, why was Jang Bogeuk, the Great Hall Master of the Red Dragon Pavilion, taking part in an investigation by Cheonmok Pavilion?
“It took the form of a bear, but... Hah, never mind.”
“Huh? Did you just sigh?”
“Great Hall Master Jang, stop interrupting him. Put your feet down, too. This is a time to hear a report, isn’t it?”
The one scolding Jang Bogeuk beside him was Hwang Seoyul, the Great Hall Master of the Azure Dragon Pavilion.
They were not the only ones there.
White Tiger Pavilion, Black Martial Pavilion, Yellow Phoenix Pavilion, and Red Phoenix Pavilion.
They might not yet have been the representatives of their respective units, but everyone present would lead the combat pavilions in the future and become heroes.
‘It can’t have been easy to gather all these people in one place...’
For the record, no one had come from White Wolf Pavilion, which I had been preparing to apply to.
It was clear proof of White Wolf Pavilion’s current position as an outside force.
I could not help feeling disappointed.
I had missed a chance to make a good impression on my future superiors.
On top of that, the listeners’ attitudes were atrocious.
“I apologize, Academy student Jin Sowoon. Everyone only recently returned from Sichuan, so they’re in a relaxed state. Please be understanding.”
At least Hwang Seoyul had a proper attitude and tried to reassure me.
Jang Bogeuk still had his feet on the table. He rested his head on one rough hand and spoke.
“Why did you enter the Demonic Realm in the first place? You only ran into a divine spirit because you went in there for no reason.”
They were none of my business anyway.
No matter how they listened or what they thought, it had nothing to do with me.
“You should’ve just run straight to the entrance. Why did you bother overthinking it?”
Right, they were none of my business, but...
Damn, this was incredibly unpleasant to listen to.
“Why can’t you answer? Is there something you’re hiding?”
“You! That’s enough...”
“If the Red Dragon Pavilion had been in the same situation as us... Every member of the Red Dragon Pavilion would have died.”
“...!?”
“...??”
Ah, I’d gone and done it.
Hwang Seoyul, who had been trying to stop Jang Bogeuk, now looked displeased as well.
The people from the other pavilions were the same.
Hah, it was too late to smooth things over now.
I spoke with a whatever-happens-happens attitude.
They weren’t going to become my superiors anyway.
“Did you not hear me properly earlier? We deployed the Heavenly Net and Earthly Web. On top of the killing intent, another sinister energy was severely shaking the Academy students’ steadfast hearts. Running toward an enemy formation that had already taken position, knowing exactly where we would exit...”
I looked at Jang Bogeuk and curled one corner of my lips.
“Why not tell your subordinates to carry stones and jump off a cliff instead?”
“...”
Jang Bogeuk’s face slowly reddened.
His expression stiffened as he lowered his feet, then he slammed his fist into the table.
Bang!
The prepared teacups overturned and fell as the long table cracked, then shattered into pieces.
His strength was clearly on a completely different level from a Hall Master-level martial artist.
He was not even releasing killing intent, yet the force radiating from his entire body made it hard to breathe.
“...What did you just say?”
Still, I knew too well that if I backed down now, there would be no fixing it afterward.
Jang Bogeuk hated people who made excuses just to save face.
“Let me be clear. If Great Hall Master Jang Bogeuk and the Red Dragon Pavilion had been there...”
Jang Bogeuk was the kind of man who valued someone who would charge straight ahead rather than someone who broke apart.
I stared directly into his eyes and answered.
“Not a single person would have returned alive.”
Whoosh.
The air froze in an instant.
“You know who I am, yet you dare say something like that?”
It did not bother me much.
“Well, was I wrong?”
I always said what was right. The problem was that people occasionally took it as something worth beating me up over.
Creak.
Jang Bogeuk crushed the armrest of his chair into powder, glaring at me with wide eyes.
“Do you think the Red Dragon Pavilion is that much of a joke?!”
“Then let me ask you one thing. What measures does the Red Dragon Pavilion have against heretical martial artists, dark arts, and the Demonic Path?”
“...Those wicked things...”
I cut him off.
“You’re not going to say you’ll overcome them through deep mindscape cultivation, are you? Surely the Red Dragon Pavilion wouldn’t do something like that.”
Jang Bogeuk opened and closed his mouth like a fish.
“Hmm... It seems I was right.”
“...”
“I heard the Red Dragon Pavilion suffered greatly in Sichuan because its members had sold off all their Spirit-Sealing Orbs. Was their mindscape cultivation lacking then?”
His body began to tremble.
He did not bother hiding the rage that looked ready to explode at any moment.
“They could not even stop that, yet how do you expect to stop the things in Mukrim...”
“You bastard!!!”
He finally exploded.
Jang Bogeuk threw a fist force with all his might.
Thud!
The fist force barely grazed beside my ear, leaving a shallow wound on my neck before carving a deep fist mark into the wall.
“Huh... He didn’t dodge that?”
“He has some nerve.”
“I heard he had more guts than most Black Path martial artists...”
Exclamations came from every direction.
...It did not seem anyone knew what had really happened.
‘F-Fuck... He actually threw it.’
I thought he would only threaten me, but Jang Bogeuk was more insane than I had expected.
Still, acting unshaken would make me look more confident, so I stood there calmly as though nothing had happened.
Jang Bogeuk, who had thrown the fist force, looked awkward instead.
“Y-You damned bastard...”
As Jang Bogeuk stood there, unable to do anything, Hwang Seoyul spoke in a serious voice.
“Stop it, Jang Bogeuk.”
His voice was perfectly ordinary, but Jang Bogeuk flinched and trembled.
After settling the situation, Hwang Seoyul gave me a slight bow.
“Academy student Jin Sowoon. I apologize on behalf of everyone gathered here. If you were startled, we can arrange another appointment.”
“I’m fine.”
“Thank you. Then, could you continue?”
Was it because I had not reacted to the fist force?
The listeners’ attitudes clearly changed afterward.
As I continued, they grew angry, then impressed, then unable to hide their shock.
Once I finished, another strange silence settled over the room.
Hwang Seoyul, who had been lost in thought, gave a faint nod.
“Astonishing.”
What, that was all?
I was not expecting applause, but they could at least acknowledge that it had been a successful operation.
Their reaction was strangely lukewarm.
“Can this truly be a plan that an Academy student could devise and carry out? What do you all think?”
At Hwang Seoyul’s question, the others began sharing their thoughts one after another.
“That is absurd. Improvisation like that does not come easily even from someone at Hall Master-level...”
“It’s spitting in my own face to say this, but if it had been our people, they would all have died.”
“Honestly, even if half of it is true, it’s hard to believe.”
“When the Chief Strategist told us, I was only half convinced... Now I understand why the Chief Strategist said that.”
Finally, Hwang Seoyul looked at Jang Bogeuk.
Jang Bogeuk kept his mouth firmly shut, but under Hwang Seoyul’s gaze, he eventually shook his head and spoke.
“I-I admit it was fairly useful.”
Then a question suddenly occurred to me.
Had I not been summoned to Cheonmok Pavilion to share information about the enemies we had encountered in Mukrim?
Why were the people with real authority in the combat pavilions occupying the seats meant for Cheonmok Pavilion personnel?
“Do you have any more questions?”
I thought the combat pavilions might be sent into Mukrim right away, so I was ready to tell them as much as I could...
“Yes, what is your first-choice assignment?”
“Pardon?”
Why was my career path suddenly coming up here...?
Well, they had asked, so I should answer.
“I am considering White Wolf Pavilion...”
“Hmm? White Wolf Pavilion? Not the Dragon-Phoenix Association?”
“I thought it would be better to adapt to the front lines quickly and prepare countermeasures than to take part in Dragon-Phoenix Association activities. The atmosphere in the martial world is unsettled.”
“Huh... Even so, why White Wolf Pavilion of all places?”
Questions completely unrelated to Mukrim continued pouring in.
“Are you interested in the Special Operations Unit?”
“I heard your martial arts are exceptional. Do you have any other talents?”
“From what I hear, it does not seem you absolutely want to join White Wolf Pavilion... Is there somewhere else you want to go? Red Phoenix Pavilion, perhaps, ahem.”
“Do you like to drink?”
“...”
In the end, someone even asked the ridiculous question of whether I liked alcohol, so I looked at the person who had asked it.
Jang Bogeuk subtly avoided my gaze.
“T-That is a very important question!”
“...”
I had no idea what they had gathered here to do.
Were these people really not busy at all...?
“So... How much can you drink?”
Footnotes:
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