Chapter 139

Less than a shichen after the six-horse carriage carrying Jin Taekyung and his group departed, the streets of Taiyuan heated up once again.

This time, it was because of the fifty mounted soldiers surrounding the four-horse carriage, as well as the martial artists radiating sharp, piercing gazes.

“That’s…”

“It’s the Jin Family of Taiyuan!”

“Woooooah!”

“First the Sleeping Dragon of Shanxi, and now the Jin Family of Taiyuan? What a feast for the eyes today!”

Inside the carriage, Jin Wikyung’s ears pricked up at the cheers pouring in from every direction.

“Mukyung, did you hear that just now?”

Jin Mukyung yawned and nodded.

“Yes. I heard it.”

“Wipeng, you too?”

Wipeng answered with an exasperated expression.

“You don’t care whether I heard it or not. Just say what you want to say.”

“Why do you always speak like that? Does it make you feel better?”

“Feel better? I’m about to give myself an ulcer as it is. So what did you want to say?”

“Those people just said Taekyung…”

“Wow. This is driving me insane.”

Jin Wikyung pretended not to hear Wipeng’s muttering and continued.

“It seems he’s on his way to attend a luncheon with the City Lord. He might even have arrived by now.”

“He probably has. It’s just a stone’s throw away.”

“You don’t think anything will happen, do you?”

“The Third Young Master isn’t some little child left by the water. He’s probably being treated to such a lavish meal that the table legs are breaking. Stop worrying.”

“I don’t know. He’s such a free-spirited child.”

Wipeng’s eyes went round as though he were asking what the hell that was supposed to mean.

“Free-spirited? Isn’t this more a case of him being reckless and out of control?”

“Ahem.”

“You could just say you’re worried he’ll cause trouble. Why dress it up like that…?”

“Shut your mouth.”

“Yes, my lord. I won’t say another word. If you’re really that worried, ask the Second Young Master over there.”

At Wipeng’s indifferent reply, Jin Wikyung’s gaze shifted slightly to the side.

In truth, Wipeng’s advice was appropriate. Jin Mukyung was the only person among them who had ever met Shanxi’s current City Lord, even once.

The problem is that he won’t tell us anything else.

Jin Mukyung had dismissed his luncheon with the Shanxi City Lord with a single phrase—It was fucking awful—and had firmly kept his mouth shut ever since.

“Mukyung, by any chance…”

The answer came before he could finish.

“There shouldn’t be any problems.”

Jin Wikyung let out a sigh of relief at the decisive answer, but Jin Mukyung added one more thing.

“As long as he has a strong stomach.”

“…A strong stomach? What are you talking about all of a sudden?”

This was a meal hosted by a member of the imperial family and the City Lord. Was he saying they might serve food crawling with maggots at such a grand banquet?

As Jin Wikyung stared at him in confusion, Jin Mukyung’s face slowly twisted.

“There’s someone there as revolting as a bug.”

The Shanxi Provincial Office, where the City Lord resided, had long since ceased to resemble an ordinary estate.

The Jin Family of Taiyuan and the Mount Heng Sword Sect, which I had visited not long ago, were both enormous, but they looked laughably small compared to this place.

What am I supposed to call this? A fortress? Or a castle?

I had known for a long time that the continent operated on a massive scale, but this was beyond anything I had imagined.

Cheongpung, the other young prodigies, and I all gaped as we looked around. The official smiled faintly.

“What do you think?”

“It’s big. Extremely big.”

“It can easily accommodate several thousand people, so it has to be. If we had to defend it during wartime, we even have enough grain to last ten years.”

The official pointed to several enormous warehouses one after another. He added that they were filled with food.

“All of those?”

“Of course.”

The official continued with a proud smile, like a resident of a Gangnam apartment showing off his building.

“Provincial offices are generally built large and sturdy in preparation for wartime, but they aren’t normally this large.”

“Then…?”

“Have you already forgotten who lives here?”

“Oh.”

Right. He wasn’t merely the City Lord. He was a member of the imperial family. On top of that, he possessed an official royal title—a proper prince in his own right.

“Then is this the royal palace?”

“In a manner of speaking.”

We continued moving, looking around like country bumpkins.

Everywhere we looked, servants and maidservants hurried about their business, while elite soldiers with razor-sharp discipline stood guard or sparred in the training grounds.

They’re pretty good.

The most surprising thing was the remarkably high quality of the soldiers.

Most of the soldiers standing guard were around Level 20, while the commanders wearing fairly impressive armor were comfortably above First Rate.

Well, it’s not as if there’s any reason soldiers shouldn’t learn martial arts when they’re readily available.

If anything, it would make the army stronger. It was something that ought to be encouraged.

I kept walking while stealing glances at the training grounds.

Boom! Boom! Boom!

“Thrust!”

“Argh!”

It was noon, with the sun already high overhead.

Hundreds of spearheads flashed in time with the drums, and the soldiers gathered and scattered in perfect unison, moving as one body.

Watching them train in formations, tactics, and battle strategies, one word suddenly came to mind.

Raid team.

Uniform weapons. Coordination drilled into them through systematic training. In a large-scale battle, that kind of teamwork would display terrifying power.

Their individual skills might be inferior to those of Murim martial artists.

A battle of dozens against dozens might be another story, but if hundreds fought hundreds, or thousands fought thousands, even an ordinary Peak master couldn’t turn the tide by himself.

That was the terrifying strength of a trained group.

Make up for inferior quality with numbers and training. Is that it?

It was exactly what one would expect from a unified empire that had ruled a vast territory for centuries.

Wasn’t that part of the reason those proud Murim martial artists acknowledged that they were subjects of a Great Nation?

And yet…

What the hell are they keeping all this for? To trade it in for candy?

There were already more than several hundred soldiers in sight. If even a portion of them had been sent to northern Shanxi, the Red Wind Band would have run so fast they’d have left their pants behind.

Fuck. Some of us nearly died going through all that trouble.

Seeing the true face of incompetent public authority suddenly plunged me into a spell of hollow enlightenment.

What good was owning the finest sword under heaven? If you didn’t draw it from its scabbard, it was no different from a club.

Just as I was cursing them inwardly, the official spoke.

“Well, we’re almost there.”

He was right. A massive iron gate came into view at the end of a long corridor lined with dozens of pillars, drawing anxious sighs from both sides.

“Phew…”

“Whew. What do I do, Young Hero Jeong? I’m so nervous.”

“Don’t worry. You have me.”

“…What a fucking load of bullshit.”

They say people destined to succeed will succeed, but I had no idea how those two had managed to hit it off in the middle of all this.

Maybe getting beaten together made them fall for each other?

What kind of country is this?

Unable to hide my discomfort as a two-star general of the Singles Brigade, I heard Cheongpung ask brightly as he walked along with a light step.

“Is the king in there?”

King.

At that single word, the young prodigies of the Five Gates of Shanxi gaped, while the official leading us leaped as though he had been stung by a bee.

“A king? How impudent!”

“Huh? Isn’t he a king?”

“Of course he’s a king!”

“Then I was right, wasn’t I?”

“No, that’s not what I mean…!”

At this rate, one of two things would happen. The official would collapse from high blood pressure, or he would invoke treason and immediately summon the hundreds of soldiers training in the grounds.

I wanted neither, so I stepped in to mediate.

“First, calm down. And, Young Master Cheongpung.”

“Yes, Benefactor.”

“You can’t call him the king. You have to say ‘His Highness.’ Right?”

I directed the last question at the official. He glared at Cheongpung and nodded furiously.

“Absolutely! You must!”

“Oh, really?”

“Phew. Yes.”

Cheongpung blinked his clear eyes.

“Why?”

“…Young Master Jin. Do we really have to take this bastard—I mean, this person—with us?”

“I don’t mind leaving him out. But are you sure you’ll be all right?”

The official fell silent for a moment.

If he took five people without Cheongpung, he would be reprimanded by his superiors and lose his job. But if Cheongpung let his tongue slip just once, he might lose his head.

A moment later, when he spoke again, his face looked ten years older.

“…Let’s just go.”

Cheongpung beamed.

“Thank you. If there’s time, I’ll put in a good word with the king—I mean, His Highness.”

“Please, just keep that gentleman’s mouth shut.”

While the official rattled off every precaution we needed to take, along with his earnest pleas, we finally reached the iron gate.

The gate was enormous and incredibly thick. Quiet voices drifted from behind it.

Assistant Military Commissioner, Huashan, insult?

Those fragments alone gave me no clue what they were discussing. Still…

The atmosphere doesn’t seem very good.

I had a feeling this wasn’t the best place for people to sit across from one another over a meal.

At that moment, a man standing at attention before the gate shouted loudly,

“The young prodigies of Shanxi Murim request an audience!”

Groooan.

The iron gate began to open at the same time.

The official gave me one final warning with a worried expression, stealing a sidelong glance at Cheongpung.

“Please just keep that man’s mouth shut.”

“…Ah. Yes.”

He must have been seriously worried.

The moment we entered, it felt as though my eyes had brightened.

The lavishly decorated grand hall was filled with a long table like the ones I had only seen in movies set in magic schools, along with all kinds of food.

And the moment I saw the five people who had arrived ahead of us, only one thought crossed my mind.

We’re screwed.

When it came to reading the room, I was second to none. After scraping by as an F-rank Hunter for so long, always watching everyone’s mood, I could size up an atmosphere in 0.1 seconds.

Like right now.

What a wonderful atmosphere.

The air around the five people was pulled taut. I had sensed something was wrong from outside, but it was even worse than I had expected.

It was fortunate everyone was empty-handed given the occasion. If they’d had anything hanging from their waists, swords would already have been drawn.

“Well… Now that our guests have arrived, shall we end this reunion here?”

A man’s delicate voice broke the tension.

Though was he really a man? He was slender enough to seem like a woman, with a pale face and lips as red as though they had been painted with dye.

System

Level 22: Hong Jin

He smiled at me.

“What a strikingly handsome young man, just as one would expect of a young prodigy of the martial world. I heard a young hero from the Jin Family of Taiyuan would be joining us today. Might that be you…?”

Now was the time for introductions. I performed a fist-and-palm salute toward the five men.

“My name is Jin Taekyung of the Jin Family of Taiyuan.”

The unpleasant atmosphere immediately eased somewhat. Surprise painted over the traces of displeasure and ridicule lingering on the other four faces.

“If you’re Jin Taekyung of the Jin Family of Taiyuan…”

A huge man dressed in black martial robes muttered.

From the moment I first saw him, he had radiated tough-guy energy. His name was Li Feng, and the number 68 hovered above his head.

Is he affiliated with the military?

I couldn’t judge everything from a first meeting, but that was the impression he gave. A proud and upright soldier. That was my first impression of him.

Li Feng, Li Feng… At Level 68, he’s probably an advanced First Rate?

Just as I was engraving his name and Level into my mind, the other three men reacted.

“Hm. That’s the Sleeping Dragon of Shanxi?”

“He’s young. No, he’s a child.”

“He doesn’t particularly look as impressive as the rumors claim…”

Their curious gazes held surprise, a hint of jealousy, and a subtle sense of superiority.

In situations like this, there was usually no need to ask about the other person’s identity. They were the sort of people desperate to show off.

“Apologies for the late introduction, Junior.”

A sharp-eyed man grinned as he spoke to me. The other two stood with their arms folded, looking at me like I was a cute little chick.

This is weirdly irritating.

Who the hell were they to act like my Seniors right off the bat?

My question was answered soon enough.

“Oh, you don’t know yet, do you? We came from Shaanxi. The Zhongnan Sect of Shaanxi—have you heard of it?”

My mouth fell open before I knew it.

“Th-the Zhongnan Sect? That Zhongnan Sect?”

The three men’s faces blossomed with smiles.

“Haha! Look how surprised he is.”

“Exactly.”

“Perhaps you know our sect well?”

I shouted, suddenly brimming with excitement.

“I do! I know it very well! I had so much fun reading about it!”

“We’re glad to hear you know us… Wait. What do you mean, ‘reading about it’?”

“What else? Obviously, The Reign…”

I stopped halfway through my answer.

Ah. This wasn’t a novel.