Chapter 385. A Face Like Zhang Fei After Drinking Himself Stupid and Failing to Cure His Hangover.

Eldest Brother looked at the Golden Tiger Commander and the Silver Dragon Commander.

“Commander Tiger, Commander Dragon.”

Their formal names were likely Golden Tiger and Silver Dragon, but the way Eldest Brother addressed them sounded like the Left Envoy calling his former subordinates.

Even as the two men trembled, they answered Eldest Brother’s words.

“Speak.”

“If you have lost to the Sect Leader, then the Golden Tiger Unit and Silver Dragon Unit have lost as well. Lead your forces and withdraw.”

The two commanders looked at each other. It was likely not a proposal they could accept easily.

Eldest Brother continued.

“Even if you engage in all-out battle, all of you will die at the Sect Leader’s hands. Since you were ordered here, you won’t want to retreat. I know. However, once Left Envoy Wei arrives, the Golden Tiger Unit and Silver Dragon Unit will become meaningless fodder. There is no honor in this fight. If you refuse, I will have no choice but to cut off both your heads. You two know even better than the Sect Leader that I keep the words I speak.”

I looked at Eldest Brother. Whether the wounded men were his former subordinates or not, Eldest Brother was the sort of man who placed his own words above all else.

In any case, I thought Eldest Brother’s intention to make both the Golden Tiger Unit and the Silver Dragon Unit withdraw with a single bout was excellent, so I chimed in as well.

“If you two die, it’ll only be easier for Left Envoy Wei to command the troops. Withdraw while you’re being given the chance.”

The Golden Tiger Commander raised his hand and called one of his subordinates.

“Deputy Commander Jang.”

“Yes, Commander.”

“Take command and retreat.”

“Commander, what about you……”

“I will remain. This is my responsibility.”

“Commander.”

“This is not the time to argue. Withdraw.”

The man called Deputy Commander Jang let out a sigh, then barely managed to answer.

“I will obey.”

This time, the Silver Dragon Commander spoke.

“Deputy Commander Yaryul, retreat with them.”

Naturally, the man who was presumably Deputy Commander Yaryul answered.

“I will remain.”

“I cannot bear to see you used by Left Envoy Wei. Retreat. If you do not go, I will either smash my own crown again or bite off my tongue. I will take responsibility. Withdraw. Be sure to retreat southeast first, then circle around and return. If you run into him on the way, you will have to cross blades with Left Envoy Wei. The same goes for the Golden Tiger Unit. Retreat together.”

“Understood.”

After that, the deputy commanders exchanged glances and slowly withdrew with those who had been waiting. As the Silver Dragon Commander had said, their direction was southeast.

It was not what I had expected, but in any case, Eldest Brother’s choice felt correct. No matter how much troops like these rushed at us, they meant nothing against the two of us.

Eldest Brother said to the two commanders.

“Though you may be called the demonic path, there is no need to die like this.”

The Golden Tiger Commander nodded as though respecting Eldest Brother’s words.

“Thank you for showing consideration. But we will remain here. You know, do you not? That someone must always take responsibility.”

Eldest Brother answered.

“I understand.”

Only then did the Golden Tiger Commander and Silver Dragon Commander take their stances, regulate their breathing, and close their eyes.

Eldest Brother brought up something I could not immediately understand.

“Now that time has passed and I look back.”

“Mm.”

“It seems the Cult Leader is still stuck in the days of the struggle over succession.”

“In what way?”

“Perhaps that was his last pleasant memory. After taking the summit, commanding forces like these with a single word likely held little meaning. In the end, the era when rivals still remained seems to be what holds him there.”

It was an overly abstract statement, but I understood it to a certain degree.

I asked Eldest Brother about what I had been suspecting.

“Then has he been hoping that you or I would appear as his great enemy? Looking back at everything he’s done.”

“There are times when a man comes to understand the world quite thoroughly, yet fails to understand himself. I find myself thinking that it was not that I failed to understand the Cult Leader, but that the Cult Leader failed to understand himself. To say that the years in which he struggled desperately to survive were, in retrospect, the best time of his life…… How should that even be expressed? Even the words to express it are inadequate.”

I looked at Eldest Brother’s expression.

I was about to ask, “Is the Cult Leader really such a sentimental person?” but held back. That was because I recalled the time the Cult Leader had gone to see Elder Heo. Because of that incident, I thought Eldest Brother’s conjecture might perhaps be correct.

A sigh escaped me.

“Don’t tell me he’s doing all this shit because he’s bored living in a world with no worthy opponent?”

I tasted the feeling of some part of me rotting away inside.

Eldest Brother looked at the commanders circulating their qi and regulating their breath as he spoke.

“……Retrieve the Sword of Light. Retrieve Ilsal. What meaning would a few swords have to the Cult Leader? He must already be at a realm where he need not use a sword himself. Saying it is written in the General Law is a fine phrase when commanding those beneath him. If he had followed the General Law properly in the first place, there would have been no reason to be called the Demon Cult. He would not have tried to set himself against the world. Just as there are hypocrites on the righteous path, there are hypocrites on the demonic path. The nameless, unknowable unease I found so uncomfortable must have been because of this hypocrisy of the Cult Leader. Because……”

“……”

Eldest Brother continued as though conveying his words to the commanders.

“The Cult Leader’s amusement is more important than your lives. You two are being sacrificed because of the loneliness the Cult Leader feels, his emptiness, his boredom, his tedious daily life, and his tedious enemies. I left the cult because of my own foolishness—I had witnessed these sacrifices, yet could not even determine precisely what was wrong. I needed to view all of this objectively.”

The commanders, who had been regulating their qi, quietly opened their eyes and looked at Eldest Brother. From their expressions, I could tell that the two of them had been listening to Eldest Brother’s words.

The Golden Tiger Commander asked.

“Was that why you left the cult?”

Eldest Brother answered.

“Do you think leaving for such a trivial reason was insufficient?”

The Golden Tiger Commander shook his head.

“No. It is just like the Left Envoy.”

As I listened to the conversation between Eldest Brother and his former subordinates, I felt a strange emotion. It was not a wholly pleasant feeling. It was like discovering the Cult Leader’s weakness for the first time.

The Cult Leader’s weakness, as I saw it, was……

The Sword Demon beside me.

Because the Sword Demon was a man more suited to be Cult Leader. It was not only what I thought; his former subordinates seemed to feel the same, which made it even more so. But the reason I felt bad the moment I realized this was simple.

If Eldest Brother became the Cult Leader, even by some remote chance, I would lose him.

The reason a sigh suddenly escaped me was……

Because I thought the clever Cult Leader, too, might have known it from long ago.

As though throwing prey to be sacrificed to the Sword of Light.

As though throwing him a trial to become the next Cult Leader.

As though saying one had to endure hardship and adversity of this level in order to become the Cult Leader.

The battles we had experienced had been more or less bearable.

Eldest Brother, who had fallen into the trap called the Cult Leader’s amusement, was pitiful.

I was pitiful too.

And the cultists were pitiful as well.

That was why people always had to find their own path. If they did not, it was no different from walking through darkness.

Who could possibly understand such a Cult Leader in any detail?

Darkness was simply dark; it was not a realm one could comprehend. And so, in any case, the hilt of the counterattack lay in Eldest Brother’s grasp.

Just as Eldest Brother’s sword was light.

The problem, however, was still the Cult Leader’s martial might. If the thing he had been playing with disappeared, he would surely find another amusement.

In other words, this was the very archetype of an extremely primitive and childish game.

It was nothing more than catching the strongest tiger from that mountain over there, catching the strongest bear from this mountain here, and watching to see which one would win. You could say he had expanded the fight between a tiger and a bear to the entire murim.

If my reasoning was correct.

The Cult Leader would have left the Right Envoy of Light alive as well.

After tormenting him mentally to his heart’s content, if the variable known as the Hao Sect Master appeared and made his head suddenly snap, he would turn into a mad dog. Even so, there was no need to kill him. A mad dog was still a dog.

Together with Eldest Brother, I stared at the newly appearing banner.

Then what kind of sons of bitches could they be?

Perhaps realizing that new troops were approaching, the Golden Tiger Unit Leader and the Silver Dragon Unit Leader closed their eyes again. They seemed unwilling to exchange words.

Absurdly enough, their numbers were greater than the Golden Tiger Unit and Silver Dragon Unit combined. However, their attire was not uniform, and the experts at the front carried all manner of weapons and wore all kinds of clothing, making them look like a band of wandering warriors. Only after they came closer did I realize they were not wandering warriors, but retainers.

On the banner was written the character for Tower.

It seemed the Tower King, who had become the new Right Envoy of Light, had arrived. If they had been just a little faster, even the Golden Tiger Unit and Silver Dragon Unit would not have been able to withdraw. Their orderliness as troops was actually inferior to that of the forces that had retreated. However, the atmosphere and presence of the retainers seemed stronger than that of the cultists who had just left. Clearly, there were murim people who had rolled around all over the place mixed in here and there.

When one person moved within that group, the people parted to the left and right. He was so tall it was as if a tree were walking out from the crowd. Once I checked his build, I saw that not only was he tall, but his width from side to side was abnormally broad as well—a strapping giant of a man. He boasted a frame that made one wonder whether not only he, but all his ancestors, had been generals.

When this man opened his mouth, a voice with a resonance greater than that of ordinary people flowed out.

“……Why did you leave them alive? Sword Demon.”

Eldest Brother snorted and did not answer.

Then the man presumed to be the Tower King asked the unit leaders.

“Where did you send all the troops? They do not seem dead. Unit Leaders.”

Thinking it necessary to turn the Tower King’s attention, I opened my mouth.

“……Are you the new Right Envoy?”

The Tower King nodded, then fixed an ugly expression on me.

“Are you the Hao Sect Master?”

I slowly shook my head.

“I am the lecher of Baekeungji.”

The Tower King nodded as he answered.

“So you are Young Master Mong. Where is the Sect Master?”

“Elder Brother is busy right now.”

Eldest Brother stared at me blankly from the side, as if he had no intention of stopping me.

The Tower King continued in a solemn voice.

“Where did that waiter bastard go, leaving his inn empty? Did he say he was going to collect unpaid tabs?”

When the exceptionally stupid-looking Tower King spoke so glibly, only then did the retainers burst into laughter all at once. It was laughter that said they had all already known I was the Hao Sect Master. In truth, I found it funny too, so I laughed with them.

“Tower King…….”

“Speak.”

“You’re smart, unlike how you look. I took a hit there. You were a clever man. Unlike how you look. It was prejudice. This is why people shouldn’t judge by appearances. You look like Zhang Fei drank for three days straight and couldn’t even get over his hangover, but I misjudged you. As expected of a retainer with such a famous reputation. I heard Left Envoy Wei sold you off for cheap because he couldn’t handle your food expenses. Is that true?”

The bastards who had been laughing wiped the smiles from their faces.

The bastards who had been chattering closed their mouths.

The Tower King also stared at me with a stiff expression, then snorted.

“I have often heard rumors about you. I expected that someday, someone would tear that mouth apart, but you have somehow endured. I promise you that before the sun sets today, your mouth will be ripped open.”

“Bullshit.”

Eldest Brother beside me finally opened his mouth.

“Tower King.”

The Tower King answered.

“Apostate, do you have something to say?”

“Did you kill the War Demon?”

The Tower King smiled broadly as he said,

“Ah…… Was he perhaps a former subordinate of yours? War Demon—what an embarrassing sobriquet. How embarrassed must he have been to take his own life after losing?”

Eldest Brother asked in a dignified tone.

“Did the War Demon act shamefully or show cowardice when he fought?”

The Tower King answered.

“He did not. It is just that compared to his sobriquet…….”

Eldest Brother cut off the Tower King mid-sentence.

“Then why are you mocking the War Demon’s death? Because you are stronger?”

Eldest Brother, who had been sitting on the wall, stood up.

When the man called the Sword Demon rose, the surroundings became quiet before anyone knew it. Whether the enemy troops were many or few, Eldest Brother’s declaration of war followed.

“……An apostate has no reason to avenge a cultist, but I cannot overlook your mockery. Come forward.”

Before the Tower King could say anything, I cut in.

“Surely sending your subordinates first is not your Demon Path. If you send your men, I will deal with every last one of them, so you face the former Left Envoy. I hope you did not become the Right Envoy of Light with nothing but your mouth. Tower King. Come to think of it, there was a king here too. You dumb bastard. Every dog and cow calls itself a king now…… Damn it.”

Perhaps because the Tower King’s face had such a wide surface area, I could see even from here that his complexion was turning red.

Eldest Brother lightly leapt down from the wall, walked forward, and stopped in an open space.

A bastard who could not step forward after things had gone this far was neither a follower of the Demon Path nor a man. And there was such a thing as the atmosphere of a battlefield. If you backed down, you would receive no respect not only from your enemies, but from your allies as well.

In truth, that was the murim.

The Tower King looked at the group of retainers and said,

“Bring it.”

From among the retainers, two gaunt men approached while holding an oddly shaped great saber as thick as their own torsos. It was a weapon that looked grotesque and massive, as if several huge blades had been joined together. The Tower King lightly grasped it with one hand and walked out with the great saber resting on his shoulder.

As if he had lost his mind, the Tower King even mocked Eldest Brother.

“……No matter how I look at it, you seem only one or two moves above the War Demon. Are you truly that confident?”

I stared at Eldest Brother’s back, then, for some reason, he looked far angrier than usual, so I kept my mouth shut for a moment.

At that moment, I suddenly met the eyes of the Golden Tiger Unit Leader and the Silver Dragon Unit Leader.

“…….”

The two of them seemed to have been forcing their eyes shut, only to open them because they were curious about the fight. I pointed a finger at the two of them, then twirled it around. At that, the two let out dry coughs and turned around from their seated positions. It seemed that even with internal injuries, they could not resist watching a fight.

Without a word, Eldest Brother drew the Radiant Sword.

For some reason, the gleaming blade seemed especially dazzling today.

I wondered if it was just my imagination, but when I looked up at the sky, it was simply a bright, clear day with the sun blazing down.

“……Wow, the clouds.”

So white.