Chapter 294. I Came Because I Have a Mission.

I had wondered if anything could really happen with the Murim Alliance Leader here.

And in fact, nothing did.

In the center, the Four Great Evildoers fought as if widening a circle.

On the left, the Murim Alliance’s special operations unit swept through the enemy, and on the right, Beopga’s forces pressed in.

It was quite a curious combination.

After all, the public enemies of the murim from my previous life and the Murim Alliance that had gone around hunting them were joining hands. In truth, this was the very picture I had imagined as soon as I regressed. Seeing it with my own eyes simply made it feel somewhat absurd.

On top of that, even the scholar’s faction that had operated in the shadows across my past and present lives had joined in, so it felt strange.

I suddenly looked toward the docks. Two water bandits fleeing in my direction saw me, rolled across the ground, sprang back up, changed direction, and fled madly toward the busy streets.

I drew my sword toward the fleeing bastards.

“You bastards, where are you going in such a hurry?”

If I unleashed sword qi right away, I could kill them, but someone needed to spread word of the tragedy at the docks, so I bid them farewell with my sword in hand.

“Run faster. Water bandits. Faster. You slippery bastards. Go tell them about the carnage. Report in detail that because of your idiot leader, the men beneath him got slaughtered again. Got it? Not going to answer?”

I sheathed my sword and looked at the Chumyeong Scholar.

“Talking to myself is my hobby.”

“…….”

The Chumyeong Scholar asked me.

“Why aren’t you killing them?”

“If they’re lucky, I should let them live. Truth be told, all I need to do at Dongho is kill Sado. I haven’t forgotten my goal.”

Before long, as the battle ended in an overwhelming victory, Im Sobaek’s voice rang out.

“Light the fires.”

Had Alliance Leader Im even assigned separate people to handle the lighting? Long torches that looked like modified fire starters blazed to life here and there.

I watched the reunion between the Sword Demon and Im Sobaek.

“What brings the Alliance Leader all the way here?”

Im Sobaek looked at the Sword Demon and replied.

“I came because I have a mission. There were always many water bandits in Dongho we hadn’t managed to wipe out, so there is nothing strange about my coming here. Why are you here?”

“I came because I was curious about the bastard threatening the Hao Sect Leader.”

Im Sobaek said to the Sword Demon.

“I am happier to meet you here than I am to have met the Sect Leader in Dongho.”

When Im Sobaek smiled, the Sword Demon also answered in a more relaxed tone than before.

“The matter at the mountain villa comes to mind, so I can’t say I’m that happy.”

At the Sword Demon’s words, Im Sobaek threw his head back and laughed.

“Hahaha.”

It was nothing special as far as conversations went, but since I knew the circumstances behind it, I watched as if I were enjoying an incredibly entertaining performance all by myself.

Im Sobaek issued orders to clean up the situation.

“……There’s no need to hold funerals for the water bandits. Gather the bodies and cremate them. Inspect the boats after daybreak. They may have smeared poison here and there, or removed planks so they’ll sink slowly.”

“Yes, sir.”

“It looks like this fight will drag on, so contact Strategist Gongsun and tell him to hurry the matter of establishing a Dongho branch. Tell him to appoint an acting Dongho branch leader and dispatch him here. Promote someone from the vice-unit leader level. Any wounded?”

When hands went up here and there, Im Sobaek nodded.

“The wounded are to return and convey my intentions. Tell them to replenish the missing personnel. Senior, please safely lead the wounded back.”

The old martial artist who had been behind me cupped his fist to the Alliance Leader.

“I obey.”

“The uninjured special operations unit will not return for the time being. Spread out through Dongho and operate in a way that does not inconvenience the merchants who were originally here. If there are any meaningful reports, deliver them to me at any time.”

“Yes, sir.”

Im Sobaek looked around, then finally turned his gaze toward Beopga’s group before walking toward me with the Four Great Evildoers.

I spoke to the Chumyeong Scholar beside me as if tattling.

“The Alliance Leader is coming. He’s walking over like a tiger. You ready?”

“…….”

“Still, Beopga has earned merit. They killed a group of water bandits.”

The Chumyeong Scholar let out a sigh.

Beopga’s group also approached from a short distance away and waited amid an awkward silence. Since the Murim Alliance Leader had proven his identity through his skill, the tension hung only over Beopga’s people.

After arriving, Im Sobaek asked.

“You said you were the Chumyeong Scholar?”

The Chumyeong Scholar, thinking he was about to be dragged away, answered in a resigned tone.

“That’s right.”

“And the faction you lead is an organization called Beopga?”

When the Chumyeong Scholar nodded, Im Sobaek asked me.

“Was the clash here due to a personal grudge?”

“Yes.”

Im Sobaek pondered for a moment, then reached out and helped the Chumyeong Scholar up. He undid the acupoints I had sealed as if it were nothing, then spoke to the Chumyeong Scholar.

“The Hao Sect Leader has killed many people recently. Is this a grudge that arose from that?”

“It is.”

“I cannot make a hasty judgment, but he is not someone who kills indiscriminately without reason. If your acquaintance was the one who provided the cause, then you would have nothing to say either. I will not pry too deeply into the story, so withdraw for today.”

The Chumyeong Scholar looked at Im Sobaek with an expression of utter shock.

Im Sobaek asked again.

“Why? Do you want to take a look around the Murim Alliance?”

The Chumyeong Scholar, who had thought he was caught without any chance of escape, answered with a bewildered expression.

“May I go?”

Im Sobaek said with a calm expression.

“Surely you don’t think I would seek the Hao Sect Leader’s permission. If I had come as the Alliance Leader, it would be difficult to let you go, but today I came as the special operations unit leader. Chumyeong Scholar, I don’t know how you will operate from now on, but when it comes time to strike down bastards like water bandits, if you join forces even to this extent, I do not think I will greatly regret my choice today. I’ll see you next time.”

Im Sobaek spoke to Beopga’s group.

“……Take him. He’s badly injured.”

Three or four people from Beopga rushed over in a cluster and supported the Chumyeong Scholar. As the Chumyeong Scholar walked away surrounded by Beopga, he turned back and spoke to Im Sobaek.

“Alliance Leader, I will see you again.”

Im Sobaek nodded.

“Take care on your way.”

It was a somewhat peculiar night.

At this rate, it was also a night where only the dead had been wronged.

When the leader is incompetent, the subordinates die like this.

Beopga’s group, who had suffered a bizarre defeat and survived so absurdly easily, retreated from the docks while escorting the Chumyeong Scholar. I was dumbfounded that this bastard was leaving without even saying goodbye, so I shouted fiercely.

“Chumyeong!”

The Chumyeong Scholar stopped and looked back at me with the expression of someone caught stealing food.

As soon as our eyes met, I said to him.

“……Farewell. You should at least say goodbye.”

The Chumyeong Scholar sighed, then moved away. I met the Lust Demon’s eyes and muttered.

“Who am I supposed to greet now?”

The Lust Demon clicked his tongue.

“……Who’s going to return your greeting after you beat him half to death? Pathetic bastard.”

The Ghost Demon chimed in.

“You beat him to the brink of death and then go saying hello. Impressive.”

I said to the Lust Demon and the Ghost Demon,

“Isn’t it enough that I let him live?”

“That’s true.”

Im Sobaek was truly a busy man, and he continued issuing orders.

“Special Operations Unit.”

“Yes, sir.”

“If you spend all night clearing away corpses, you’ll have to sleep all day tomorrow. Rest today, then tomorrow hire nearby people as laborers, pay them generously, and have the corpses at the dock cleaned up completely.”

Dan Hyeoksan replied.

“Understood. After we secure new lodgings, I will contact you.”

Only then did Im Sobaek look at me.

“Guide me to the inn you were occupying.”

It struck me anew that there was little this man did not know.

* * *

We came to the inn we had occupied illegally, sat around, and looked at one another. Aside from the Sword Demon and the Alliance Leader, everyone’s clothing was a spectacle.

Because there were so many torn places.

Looking at the ragged strips of cloth, I felt as if I were looking at my own heart, so it did not bother me at all.

However, the Lust Demon and the Ghost Demon had been torn up by those water bandit bastards, while I had been torn up by the Chumyeong Scholar, so the level was different.

You could say my clothes were ragged in a slightly more artistic way.

Im Sobaek sat in a chair and rested as if he were a regular customer at an inn he visited every time. He drew the sword he had placed on the table and inspected the blade, then took out a cloth from his robe and wiped it, so I simply followed his example.

The Lust Demon held out some jerky he had taken from his robe to the Alliance Leader.

“Alliance Leader, would you like some? It’s jerky.”

Im Sobaek answered briefly.

“I’m not eating.”

“Yes, sir.”

I looked at the jerky that had lost its destination and said,

“Give it to me.”

The Lust Demon brought the jerky he had held out to his own mouth and returned to his original seat.

I glared at the Lust Demon while wiping my sword.

“That stupid son of a bitch.”

After carefully wiping the blood from his sword, Im Sobaek asked me,

“……I caught a bit of what was said during the fight. Are you thinking of settling down in Dongho altogether?”

“If he still doesn’t come out after I caused this much of a commotion, it would be better to settle down. I’m in the middle of thinking of it as my hometown.”

Im Sobaek said,

“The reason Dongho was difficult to attack was because most of the ordinary people here took a cooperative stance toward Dongho’s First Sword. If I tried to catch Dongho’s First Sword, it would have turned into a situation where I ended up harassing perfectly innocent people as well. And it wasn’t as though the troublemakers existed only in Dongho.”

I calmly listened to the Martial Alliance Leader’s excuses.

The Martial Alliance Leader’s excuses continued.

“In truth, the Alliance has few experts accustomed to water battles (水戰). Lightness skill has its limits. As far as I know, Dongho’s First Sword possesses more than thirty or forty large ships. And yet we’ve only managed to seize a few big boats.”

“That bastard has that many boats?”

“He does. I didn’t call it a water battle for no reason.”

“He’s a Water King (水王), then. Is he really holed up on some island? By the way, why did you let the Chumyeong Scholar go?”

I listened attentively to Im Sobaek’s next excuse.

“Once those scholar bastards get involved, they come pouring out one after another, so I cannot rashly expand the front line. Since I came here with the Special Operations Unit, it is right to focus only on this mission. Our manpower is limited, so I have to cut off the possibility of being attacked here by other scholars.”

In its own way, it was a strategic choice.

“You knew about the scholar faction?”

Im Sobaek looked around at the Four Great Evildoers.

“I have a rough grasp of them. Scholars are strange bastards. If they joined forces, they would become troublesome. That is why, even when they caused incidents, I ordered them to be placed on the public enemy list individually. They are people who must be distinguished and dealt with as individuals. We must not give them room to merge into one.”

Saying that they would be dealt with individually even when they caused incidents meant that, in my previous life as well, he had some idea of the scholar faction. Come to think of it, the White-Clad Scholar’s other alias, Evil Emperor (惡帝), might have been given by the Martial Alliance.

The Martial Alliance, in its own way, had been using its head to respond.

Im Sobaek looked around at us and said,

“It’s curious. All of you seem to have improved compared to before. I’m the only one who seems to have stayed in place because I keep getting worn down by my subordinates in the Alliance.”

The Sword Demon said in an indifferent tone,

“Enough with the whining……”

Im Sobaek met my eyes and said,

“Sect Leader, roughly how long do you think it will take?”

It was a question with the beginning and end cut off, but I answered immediately.

“He could show up as early as tomorrow. Or he might never show up at all. At first, I imagined he would disguise himself as a peddler and pass through here, or disguise himself as the owner of an ordinary shop and observe, but I don’t think that’s it. With this level of patience, he’s quite the villain. Whether his martial arts are strong or not, bastards with an exceptional lack of shame are generally like evil spirits.”

“If one lacks shame, does that make him an evil spirit?”

“Does it not? If a man has no shame, the world revolves around him, he has no interest in others’ feelings, and whether someone starves to death or not, he’ll still complain about the side dishes. He’s probably eating a feast somewhere while cursing me.”

Even among the malicious remarks I had made, that one was fairly harsh.

The surrounding lights had gone out, but my words would spread from mouth to mouth among the people of Dongho. I believed that the words I had spat out would someday make their way to Dongho’s First Sword.

What did that bastard say?

I won’t get angry, so tell me exactly as it was.

That is human nature.

Moreover, since he would have to receive reports on my every move, my insults would make their way to him one way or another.

Im Sobaek said,

“Sect Leader, if I stay in Dongho, wouldn’t he be even less likely to appear? What do you think?”

I looked around at the night streets of Dongho, where an unusual number of lights had been extinguished, and answered.

“In truth, it doesn’t matter. These people must have thoughts of their own. If the people living in Dongho decide they need to replace Dongho’s First Sword, an ordinary merchant might come and report the First Sword to me, or an old man might come and report him. It seems the matter of making a living is deeply entangled in this, so it must be hard for them to decide. But once the result of today’s battle spreads, their fear of Dongho’s First Sword will subside a little. We’re already letting them know that we newcomers do not fear Dongho’s First Sword in the slightest.”

Im Sobaek nodded, then called the Lust Demon.

“That is a good strategy. Mongrang.”

“Yes, sir.”

“Go buy some liquor.”

The Lust Demon stood up while clutching his forehead.

“……Ah, understood. I should go buy liquor. Of course, of course.”

The Lust Demon rubbed his face with both hands, then walked off somewhere like a drunken man.

Im Sobaek looked at the Lust Demon and said,

“What’s wrong with him? Isn’t that guy the youngest?”

The Alliance Leader certainly knew a great deal.

“That’s right. He’s the youngest.”

In the middle of the road, the Lust Demon suddenly flung both arms about and let out a bellow loud enough to wake those asleep.

“Dongho’s Number One Sword, you son of a bitch! Come out! Are you afraid even of the youngest? I am the Lust Demon!”

“Tsk, tsk, tsk. He’s lost his mind.”

When I clicked my tongue, the Sword Demon also let out a sigh.

The Ghost Demon rose and headed in the direction the Lust Demon had gone.

“Where are you going?”

When I asked, the Ghost Demon answered.

“To look around.”

“Go on.”

Somehow, it looked as if he was going to escort the fellow who had gone out to buy liquor. A brief silence fell, and then Im Sobaek asked in a curious tone,

“What became of that child?”

At the unexpected question, I looked at Im Sobaek.

“I took him as my disciple.”

Im Sobaek gave a slight nod and answered in an even tone.

“So that’s how it turned out.”

For a while, the three of us exchanged sighs whose meaning was impossible to tell, then sprawled in our chairs and gazed up at the night sky. The stars glittering in the night sky shone like the swords held by the masters of the gangho.

As I counted the flashing stars, I made a request of the Alliance Leader.

“Senior, I have a favor to ask.”

“Speak.”

“Does the Alliance keep something like a ranking register?”

“Since we have lists, there are times we arrange them by rank for convenience. It likely isn’t accurate. There are those who haven’t crossed hands, compatibility between styles, and many who must be hiding their strength. And then there are men like you, who grow stronger with every passing day.”

I looked at Im Sobaek and said,

“Please keep lowering my rank in the Martial Alliance.”

“Why? You’ve been climbing faster than anyone all this time.”

“Because the higher my rank rises, the more people will think Haomun is an impressive sect. In the long run, I think it would be better if it remained an insignificant sect.”

“Is that so?”

When I nodded, Im Sobaek accepted.

“That is not difficult. Don’t worry about it. I’ll put you below Mongrang.”

I stared at the Martial Alliance Leader.

“That’s a bit much.”

Perhaps Im Sobaek had been joking as well, for he corrected himself at once.

“I’ll put you above him.”

Not wanting to simply take the joke lying down, I offered Im Sobaek a cupped-fist salute.

“Thank you.”

All of a sudden, my eyes met the Sword Demon’s, and he avoided my gaze.