Bi Sain entered the long corridor.
On either side of the path leading into the Alliance Leader’s Hall stood wolves made of steel, poised as if they might leap at any moment.
Whenever one passed through this corridor, one felt a unique, stale, suffocating air of menace.
Was that why?
He would find himself thinking that perhaps the old tale was true—that if an intruder entered, those steel wolves would come alive and bite at the intruder’s throat until their own bodies were torn to shreds.
After passing through the corridor and opening the great doors, he saw a man standing with his back turned at the far end of the Alliance Leader’s Hall. His build was ordinary. Neither thin nor fat, that back looked like one that could be found anywhere in the marketplace.
But Bi Sain knew. That was the back of a man who could be found nowhere else in all murim.
Baek Jagang, Leader of the Sado Alliance.
The greatest master of the Evil Path, and the absolute ruler of the unorthodox murim.
Bi Sain was Baek Jagang’s disciple. Baek Jagang had no blood kin of his own. His reason was that having family made one’s heart weak. Put another way, it also meant that his heart would not grow weak for Bi Sain.
Tense, Bi Sain walked to the foot of the stairs.
As always, standing before the Alliance Leader made his heart shrink and his nerves tighten.
“It looks as though it will rain.”
Baek Jagang’s voice rang through the Alliance Leader’s Hall. His voice was deep and resonant.
“It will be the first rain of this winter.”
Ordinarily, Bi Sain would have offered a stiff greeting, saying that he had returned safely. But today, he answered the Alliance Leader’s words.
He did not want to admit it, but it was Geom Mugeuk’s influence. He had accepted Geom Mugeuk’s advice to truly look at people, and had resolved to see the Alliance Leader differently than before.
A different response drew forth a different response in turn.
“Come up.”
Bi Sain climbed the stairs and walked to where the Leader of the Sado Alliance stood. This was the first time he had ever been called to this place, where the entire main hall could be seen at a glance.
Only after standing beside him did he bow respectfully.
“I have returned, Alliance Leader.”
Baek Jagang slowly turned his head and looked at Bi Sain.
His two eyes were as small as buttonholes. Truly, eyes so small they looked like dots. From time to time, Bi Sain thought that perhaps those eyes would someday widen in surprise. That he must have been hiding his real eyes somewhere. That was how small they were.
Because of that, it was not easy to read his emotions from his eyes. Yet conversely, the Alliance Leader was a man who could pierce through to another’s innermost thoughts with those tiny eyes.
“I hear you cleaned up the Black Serpent Corps?”
But his voice was better than anyone’s. Whenever Bi Sain heard it, he always thought he wanted to possess a voice like that.
“Yes. I eliminated the Black Serpent Corps Leader and part of his command.”
“Your reason?”
What should he answer? If he were to answer honestly, he would say this: because the Black Serpent Corps kidnapped children and committed evil deeds.
But that was not the correct answer. Bi Sain thought he did not know the Leader of the Sado Alliance well, but at the very least, he knew that was not the correct answer.
Bi Sain gave the answer he believed was right.
“He acted insolently.”
The small eyes that had barely been visible vanished as Baek Jagang burst into loud laughter. His eyes were small, but his mouth was unusually large. So when he laughed heartily, it truly seemed like a great laugh.
Even if the Alliance Leader knew why he had dealt with them, this was how he had to answer. His master was that kind of man.
“Since it has come to this, I intend to absorb the Black Serpent Corps in stages while observing public opinion outside.”
Baek Jagang wore a satisfied expression. He was a man who would do anything if it made the Sado Alliance stronger. And at the root of that reason lay the Demonic Cult.
“Geom Ujin will certainly start a war to unite murim under one rule. We must prepare for that day.”
He was convinced that the current Heavenly Demon would start a war.
“If he starts a war, he will strike us first.”
“Why us, and not the Murim Alliance?”
“Because the Murim Alliance will not involve itself in that fight.”
Baek Jagang predicted the Murim Alliance’s reaction as follows.
“They will absolutely not interfere, hoping that we and the Demonic Cult will fight each other and fall together. Even if they wished to help, do you think they would join hands with us?”
Countless elders of the orthodox factions would rise in opposition to any decision to aid the unorthodox factions, and even if the Murim Alliance Leader wanted it, it would not be an easy matter to force through.
“Even knowing that when the lips are gone, the teeth grow cold, they will never help us. Even if all those teeth are pulled out later, they will mumble with their gums and prattle on about righteousness.”
Hatred was hatred. Baek Jagang’s judgment was cold and clear.
“If by any chance war breaks out between the Demonic Cult and the Murim Alliance, you must aid the Murim Alliance without fail. The Demonic Cult will certainly try to monopolize murim. The same goes for when you become Alliance Leader.”
That was how dangerous Baek Jagang considered the Heavenly Demon Divine Cult, and Geom Ujin.
Bi Sain thought the Alliance Leader’s strength lay in the fact that he did not indulge in useless pride. The Alliance Leader never exaggerated the strength of the Sado Alliance. Rather, he proceeded with everything on the premise that they were one step beneath the Demonic Cult and the Murim Alliance. Bi Sain believed that the strength of the present Sado Alliance stemmed from the Alliance Leader’s thorough recognition of reality.
“I will bear it in mind.”
You need not worry when I become Alliance Leader. War will not break out in our generation. The problem is this era now.
Because apart from his recognition of reality, Bi Sain knew that Baek Jagang, too, dreamed of uniting murim under one rule. He had never once spoken such words, but Bi Sain could sense it.
That with those tiny eyes, he wished to look down not merely upon the Sado Alliance, but upon all of murim. That he was enduring and enduring again for that one decisive blow.
“There is one thing I wish to ask.”
The method Bi Sain had chosen in dealing with this matter was a frontal breakthrough.
“Is there a secret organization being raised within the Alliance that I do not know of?”
“Why do you ask that?”
“I discovered that the Black Serpent Corps provided kidnapped children to the Alliance through Yugeommun. If it is not an organization authorized by the Alliance, then I believe someone is raising a private organization.”
If it was a serious matter, then it was serious indeed, but Baek Jagang showed no particular reaction. He merely stared at Bi Sain in silence.
“If that is the case, this matter cannot be overlooked.”
Bi Sain did not avoid the intense killing intent flowing from the Alliance Leader’s tiny eyes. There was no need to fear. He is the Alliance Leader, and I am his successor. He accepted as calmly as he could a gaze he would not have dared meet in the past.
“You have changed recently.”
Bi Sain did not hide his change. There were only two people in the world from whom he had no confidence in hiding his heart. Geom Mugeuk, and the Alliance Leader before him.
“This time, after leaving the Alliance, I met the Demonic Cult’s Young Cult Leader and the Commander of the Demon-Extermination Squad. They, too, were growing with each passing day. If I do not wish to lose, I must make an effort as well.”
Was he pleased by Bi Sain’s confident attitude? A broad smile spread across the Alliance Leader’s large mouth.
Baek Jagang’s gaze turned back toward the window. Looking at the gathering dark clouds, he finally answered the first question.
“I have never permitted such an organization.”
* * *
Swaaaaaaa!
Geom Mugeuk and Pyo Gigwang were hidden in the undergrowth, watching the rain pour down. They had been running frantically to evade the assassins and were taking a brief moment to catch their breath.
“Your skills are better than I thought.”
“Did I not tell you? I said I would protect you.”
He had thought the man’s confidence alone was astonishing, but it seemed it had not been mere confidence after all.
“I am the one who protects the Young Alliance Leader. I do not fall easily to assassins.”
At the word assassins, what Geom Mugeuk had said earlier surfaced anew in Pyo Gigwang’s mind.
—What kind of alliance in the world sends hired assassins after a subordinate it gave a task to? Where, exactly, is there any room for loyalty in this filthy situation?
Because he felt Pyo Gigwang’s heart wavering, Geom Mugeuk did not let this moment slip by.
“Did that person warn you that he would kill you if you failed to keep the secret?”
Pyo Gigwang slowly shook his head. That was what hurt him the most. He had been treated like dog shit rolling on the roadside.
“It may be presumptuous of me to say this, but I can guess why that person chose you, Corps Leader.”
“Why?”
“An ordinary person would have leapt up in rage over this, but you are accepting this attempt to kill and silence you as a matter of course, are you not? That man knew. He knew how a person sunk deep in despair would react in this situation.”
If that was why he had chosen him?
Pyo Gigwang’s face flushed hot. It was unbearably humiliating.
Just then, Geom Mugeuk made a shushing gesture and thrust his sword into the thick grass behind Pyo Gigwang.
With a single short scream, a corpse collapsed forward.
“An entire assassin organization has come. It is probably because they realized you made contact with the Young Alliance Leader. In other words, no matter how many guards the Young Alliance Leader attached to you, they are determined to eliminate you.”
In other words, that was how urgent the man’s situation was. The reason he had not come himself was likely to avoid exposing himself. No matter how thoroughly they crushed this assassin organization, no trace of him would emerge.
“Even with an entire organization mobilized, they have not managed to kill me while you alone are protecting me.”
“That is how it is. Let us go. We need to move.”
The two of them ran along the mountain path again.
More assassins attacked them. Pyo Gigwang did not know even in his dreams, but they were not fleeing. Geom Mugeuk was deliberately finding the assassins and eliminating them.
Trained solely to kill their targets, they knew no fear.
But no amount of courage could overcome a gap in skill as vast as heaven and earth. No ambush worked.
Geom Mugeuk’s methods in dealing with the assassins were so ordinary that, to Pyo Gigwang’s eyes, the assassins’ level seemed rather low instead.
It looked like such a light swing, so why can’t they dodge it? An assassin allows a simple kick like that to land and twist his jaw?
But whenever they attacked him, their terrifying momentum always called forth the same cry.
This time, I’m really dead!
He did not know how many times he had shouted those words in his heart, but they burst forth again.
Thuk!
A sword that had burst out was before Pyo Gigwang’s eyes. Blood dripped from its tip.
The sword did not belong to the assassin. It was Geom Mugeuk’s sword, having pierced through the back of his head.
It looked as though he had hurriedly thrown his sword and killed him, but that single move had displayed flying sword technique superior to any method.
“Are you all right?”
“I am fine.”
“It seems we have dealt with all the assassins now.”
Pyo Gigwang was startled. If told to run, he ran; if told to duck, he ducked; if pulled, he was dragged along; if pushed, he fell over. And before he knew it, the fight was over.
It’s over? Then I survived?
With a face that could not quite believe it, Pyo Gigwang looked at Geom Mugeuk.
Swaaaaaaa!
Geom Mugeuk was washing the blood from his face and body in the falling rain.
Suddenly, that figure felt unfamiliar. He was not the youngest martial artist who had listened to him, enthusiastically chiming in with his words.
The sight of him calmly washing away blood felt like that of a true martial artist who had passed through mountains of blades and forests of swords, experiencing every hardship under heaven. Was that why? Somehow, he looked lonely.
“Let us go.”
“Where?”
Where were they supposed to go now?
But Geom Mugeuk knew exactly where they had to go.
“To that bastard. We should go and demand answers. Ask why he handled things in such a shitty way. If he wanted to finish it, he should have come and finished it himself, so why did he send mere assassins? You should demand to know why he looked down on you so much.”
Geom Mugeuk was saying in Pyo Gigwang’s place the very words Pyo Gigwang wanted to say.
“I believe this matter was not authorized by the Alliance.”
For an instant, Pyo Gigwang flinched, but then he shook his head.
“That cannot be.”
Now that the time had come, Geom Mugeuk offered the decisive words he had been saving.
“If it were something the Leader of the Sado Alliance had authorized, he would never have sent hired assassins. I heard once before that the people the Leader of the Sado Alliance hates most are hired assassins.”
“!”
In that instant, Pyo Gigwang recalled a moment from the past.
When he had been the Black Dragon Corps Leader, he had spoken with his subordinates about this very subject. That the Alliance Leader truly hated assassins, and that in the present Sado Alliance, no one from an assassin background ever rose to prominence. In fact, he had been the one to say it.
Goosebumps rose all over Pyo Gigwang’s body. It was something he had forgotten. After being injured, stepping down from the corps, and living like a ruined man, he had forgotten it all.
If that person were someone carrying out the Alliance Leader’s will, he would not have mobilized assassins, would he?
With that powerful doubt, the conversation he had shared with that man naturally came back to him.
—Is this operation something the Alliance Leader knows about as well?
—Of course. That is precisely why absolute secrecy must be maintained.
At the time, he had naturally thought the Alliance Leader knew. That must be why this person had stepped forward. That was why he had thought even the Young Alliance Leader should not intervene. It was a secret operation that had not even been disclosed to the Young Alliance Leader.
Why did I never doubt it even once?
He knew the answer to the question that surfaced in his heart.
Because all he had wanted was to escape that situation. To escape it and boast to those who had looked down on him, “I’m doing something this important, you fools!”
“If this matter was carried out without the Alliance Leader’s knowledge, then it is treason.”
Pyo Gigwang’s heart sank. If those words were true, it meant that bastard had dragged him into treason. Pyo Gigwang was utterly confused.
“Let us confirm together what the truth is.”
Until yesterday, Pyo Gigwang had believed the truth was something only he knew. No words would have gotten through to him. But now, he was asking this.
“Can we do it?”
“You were prepared for death anyway, were you not?”
Yes, that was right. He did not know how many times today he had closed his eyes thinking he was about to die. He would close them one more time.
Looking at Geom Mugeuk, Pyo Gigwang nodded.
Now the situation had changed.
“From now on, we are not fish. Become a fisherman and cast the net with me. Then let us hear what that fish, who has been acting like a fisherman all this time, has to say for himself.”
Absolute Regression, Chapter 350