Naturally, accompanying them to such a gathering was not something he could do as he pleased simply because he wanted to.
After all, the Hugo of the present was nothing more than a guest-retainer lodged in the clan as a visitor.
“Hmm, as it happens, we were in the midst of selecting personnel on our end as well. But as you know, it will be quite dangerous. Are you truly all right with that? It is a place where no one can say what sort of accident may occur. There will surely be no shortage of attacks aimed at us deliberately.”
“With the world in such a state, one cannot simply avoid danger forever. We cannot remain shut away in a safe place like this indefinitely, can we?”
Thus, for the time being, the priority was to obtain permission from the person in charge and create a place for him to join them...
“...A commendable mindset. Indeed, in this chaotic world, varied experience is essential if one is to properly respond to change.”
“That is so. There is no better opportunity than now to see the wider world and broaden one’s insight.”
“I understand your intent. Then I shall see to making a place for you.”
He requested an audience with Jegal Gunak, the Grand Patriarch who had allowed him to stay in the clan, and was able to receive permission without much difficulty.
Of course, if Hugo had been at the level where he would only be a useless hindrance, the other side would not have agreed so readily. But the current him was a martial artist more than capable of taking care of himself, so that was not a major issue.
‘Perhaps he thought Harris would intervene if things came to a head.’
Having a master of the Profound Realm secretly protecting them was, from the delegation’s standpoint, an incomparably reassuring thing.
Whether that would truly happen or not, giving up a single spot was hardly anything extraordinary, so there was no reason not to agree with the thought of taking out one more bit of insurance.
However, what happened next was unexpected.
“I want to go too.”
Jegal Hyemi, who had first told him about the meeting, stepped forward to say that she also wanted to accompany them.
“My treatment isn’t finished yet, is it? If a problem were to arise while Young Master Ha was away, it would be terrible... So wouldn’t it be better for me to go with you?”
She put forward a reason that was reasonable in its own way and insisted on her opinion, but naturally, such sophistry was not going to be accepted.
To begin with, that was not a place one went to for fun.
What guardian would send a young lady, no different from a flower raised in a greenhouse, into a perilous land where certain danger lurked, just to prepare for some contingency that might not even happen?
Frankly, even if she came along, she would only be in the way.
“...Ah, what a shame. I thought there might be a chance, but I suppose it really won’t work.”
Jegal Hyemi gave a bitter smile, as if regretful of the result that had reflected all those circumstances, and shook her head.
At that reaction, Hugo looked at her with narrowed eyes.
‘So telling me about that meeting was deliberate after all?’
He had thought she had let it slip thoughtlessly while chatting as usual, but judging by her behavior now, it seemed she had planned it from the beginning.
Though the way she wrapped things up was rather clumsy, so it strongly felt like she had simply tested the waters just in case.
‘...It’s not as if I can’t understand how she feels.’
After all, she had spent her whole life within this closed-off clan, and because her body was weak, she had not even been able to wander freely, living only around her residence. Now she had only just recovered, so how could her feelings be light?
It was just that she had barely learned to walk, yet was already trying to step onto a running track.
“Ugh— I suppose it can’t be helped. Then I’ll stay cooped up here and exercise diligently, so Young Master Ha, please tell me what happened there in my place. I can look forward to that, right?”
“Well, that much won’t be difficult. I’ll try to bring back a souvenir as well, if I can.”
“Wow! As expected of you, Young Master! Then it’s a promise?”
After Hugo’s participation was decided in that way.
Perhaps because they had been preparing for the meeting for quite some time already, the expedition plan for the delegation, which had already taken shape to a certain extent, began to be fleshed out rapidly.
Martial artists and spellcasters who could be called the very elite of the Jegal Clan were selected, along with the elder who would lead them, and as the person in overall command, Jegal Junghyeok—the second son of the current clan head and one of Jegal Hyemi’s older brothers—was appointed.
‘They said it was dangerous, so I thought at most one of the elders would go, but this is more serious than I expected. To think even a direct descendant of the clan head would personally step forward.’
Perhaps it was unavoidable if they wished to avoid needless disputes as much as possible and uphold the clan’s prestige.
The distance was not all that far either, so they might have judged it to be comparatively less dangerous.
‘...Then I’ll have to focus more on training until the preparations are complete.’
Although Shaolin Temple, the site of the meeting, was comparatively close compared to other places, even by distance alone it was only a little shorter than the distance from Seoul to Busan, so there was no choice but to have many things to prepare.
Thus, even though the plan had already progressed to a certain degree, about half a month was additionally required.
Even while Hugo was absorbed in training to grow accustomed to the abilities he had newly obtained, time passed quickly.
At last, the day came for the delegation to depart.
The front gate of the Jegal Clan, where numerous carriages and horses were lined up.
“Then please go and return safely. You remember our promise, don’t you?”
After finishing her farewells to her elder brother, Jegal Junghyeok, and the elder, Jegal Hyemi trotted over to where he was and spoke brightly.
In that cheerful voice was an unmistakable worry that perhaps she had caused something unnecessary, but to him, it was a concern of little meaning.
“Do not worry, Miss Jegal. I have the ability to get myself out somehow, at least. Of course, it would be best if nothing of the sort happened.”
“...Then I’ll be waiting for my present.”
And so, the delegation that included Hugo—Ha Seunghun—left the clan and moved north.
***
Clop-clop— clatter—
While the horses and carriages carrying the delegation moved along the road, Hugo remained shut inside a carriage filled with all sorts of luggage, sitting perfectly still with his eyes quietly closed.
“Whew—.”
It just so happened that the training he had been doing right up until just before leaving the clan had reached a point where results seemed as if they might appear at any moment, so he could not bring himself to let go of it.
‘Tsk, it feels like it’ll work if I push just a little further.’
He repeated several heavy breaths and sank deep within himself.
Breathing was the most important element in handling internal energy.
In truth, that was something that applied to any living creature, but in the mystery of martial arts that refined and handled qi, it was particularly emphasized.
‘When accumulating qi, when refining it into internal energy, when circulating it through the body, and when deploying martial arts—breathing is involved in all of it.’
It was not for nothing that internal cultivation methods in this Ganghwan Realm were also called breathing techniques.
Then what would happen if one became able to control that breathing as one pleased?
‘“Underwater Breathing” is a skill that allows one to breathe through the skin instead of the nose and mouth while underwater. If I can twist it well somehow and make it usable on land too...’
He would become able to delicately control the energy within his body through breathing that used not only his nose and mouth, but the pores of his entire body.
He had already experimented with that sufficiently while shut in a bathtub for days on end during his time in the Jegal Clan, so he could vouch for its usefulness.
If there was one problem with it, it was that—truly regrettably—the humans of this world were creatures who lived with their feet on the ground, not underwater.
‘Of course, if I don’t breathe normally at the same time, the efficiency won’t be very good.’
Hugo forcefully concentrated, scattering the memories that flickered in his mind of the people who had repeatedly come to check whether he had drowned while he was absorbed in training in the bathtub.
No matter how flexibly a skill could be applied depending on the user’s proficiency, there was still a limit.
Naturally, it was not easy to arbitrarily modify a skill whose very name specified that it could be used only “underwater.”
‘But it’s not as if there’s no way at all.’
It was something he had already experienced several times.
The evolution of a skill, in which multiple skills combined into one.
Thus, the topic he was currently focusing on was harmonizing “Qi Circulation and Breathing” and “Underwater Breathing” into one.
By mobilizing everything: his correction as an otherworlder, the growth potential of his avatar, “Versatility,” and the medicinal effects of elixirs.
‘As it is, the spiritual herbs Harris gathered haven’t all been digested yet and are piled up inside me. If I complete this whole-body breathing, that speed will increase dramatically as well...!’
But just as he was deeply absorbed in a state of selflessness.
Kwaaang!
Sh-sh-sh-shing—!
The scheduled event occurred.
“Ambush! Everyone dismount and form a defensive formation!”
Neighhh—!
“Reactions detected from both the northeast and northwest!”
Shiiing—!
“Arrows are coming! Protect the horses!”
At the sudden commotion, his concentration broke, and at the same time, a bloody struggle began.
In truth, up to that point, it was not so bad.
He had already expected there to be an ambush anyway, and by observing the martial arts of the Jegal Clan’s martial artists and the attackers as they entered real combat, he could also gain a feel for “Imitation.”
However...
Piiiiik—!
“Enemy attack! Enemy attack!”
“Everyone up!”
Even in the middle of the night while they had set up camp and were sleeping.
“Waaaaaah!”
“Strike—!”
“You bastards! Do you know who we are, to dare!”
“Wahahaha! Aren’t you the cowards who hole up in your own house like turtles? You did well to come outside like this!”
Even the moment they were passing along an unmaintained and uneven official road.
“These bastards, attacking while we’re eating...!”
“Ack! Dust! I’d only just taken my first spoonful!”
“Is that what you should be worrying about right now?!”
Even when they had stopped briefly to eat.
Chaos rushed in without pause, to the point that he could not do anything that required concentration.
‘...I never imagined it would be to this extent.’
As that situation continued, Hugo could not help but shudder.
When he had first come to this world as Harris, he had flown through the sky using wind spirits, and even when he landed on the ground, there had been no one who dared attack him lightly, so it had not truly felt real to him...
‘I’ve been holed up in places that were too safe all this time, so I didn’t know reality.’
He had known it as knowledge, but this was the first time he had experienced it directly.
Only now could he properly feel the situation this Ganghwan Realm was in.
To think public order had fallen apart to this degree.
‘If things are like this, then it makes sense they prepared so thoroughly even while forming the delegation. They weren’t trying to scare me for nothing.’
From elite combat units of rival forces to mountain bandits, wandering swordsmen, and commoners who seemed to have been dragged along as arrow fodder.
Even for the Jegal Clan, a hegemon of its region in its own right, the world outside its sphere of influence was no different from an asura battlefield where madness swirled, not something it could look upon lightly.
‘...I certainly did a proper preliminary survey.’
It was a good thing that he had accomplished one of the purposes of this trip, but at the moment, he could not take much joy in that fact.
Because the stress of the current situation was stealthily rising all the way to the top of his head.
‘Ah, if only I had just a little... just a little bit of leeway, I feel like something would come together...!’
The foundation of enlightenment flickered before him, close enough to touch yet not quite within reach.
Whenever he focused enough that something seemed about to be accomplished, an interruption came, and when he tried to settle that again, another disturbance arose.
It rapidly gnawed away at Hugo’s patience and stirred up an unquenchable thirst—and then.
“Kahaha! Those bookish bastards, trying to pass through our territory without permission! We ought to give them a proper initiation, shouldn’t we?”
“Hey! You slaves! If you don’t want to die, hurry up and run forward! If you come back alive, I’ll let you eat meat until your bellies burst!”
“Ugh... Uwaaaaah!”
The moment he saw the gaunt people charging in recklessly, dressed only in rags and holding rusty spears, and the martial artists giggling behind them.
The last thread of patience snapped.
‘Come to think of it, why did I come to this world... to the Ganghwan Realm?’
He sank into contemplation amid the scene where madness raged.
Why?
To establish a new source of karma.
And to restore the world that the Beoncheon Society Leader had ruined, obstructing his plan.
In other words, it was to take the lead in normalizing this world.
‘Then between intervention and observation, what should I do right now?’
If he wanted to acquire karma immediately, intervention was best.
But for the normalization of the world, rather than rashly intervening, he should grasp the relationships and situations between the forces more thoroughly...
‘No, that’s not it.’
Would leaving those human trash alone greatly hinder the plan?
To begin with, was it even possible to normalize the world in a situation where people like that roamed freely as they pleased?
‘Yes, one cannot work in a garbage dump, so it would be better to first clean up the filth that catches the eye before beginning. Like cleaning one’s room before starting to study.’
Hugo, with his eyes quietly closed, gave a heavy nod.
It felt as if the example was somewhat wrong, but now was not the time to quibble over such trivial things.
What mattered was that he had decided to do so.
‘Then who would be best as the cleaner?’
Harris, who had experience, was... not someone he particularly wanted to put forward for this sort of work.
He had already shown a violent side once against the pirates, but the fact that his personality twisted depending on the external environment felt somewhat unpleasant.
‘Then...’
Several candidates flashed through his mind.
And after careful consideration, he was finally able to select one.
“Uwaaaaaah—!”
“Kill them!”
“S-spare... spare me...!”
A battlefield filled with the stench of blood and screams, anger and madness.
At a place far removed from where Hugo was.
Sssssss—
At a certain point on the road the Jegal Clan’s delegation had passed through about an hour earlier.
“Pfft, pffhahaha!”
A madman who would devour the madness that filled and swept through this world... no.
“Ahh, how wonderful! Kahahahaha—!”
The Mad Demon opened his eyes.
The End