Chapter 548

“Well done.”

Jin Wikyung said it the moment we left the great conference hall. I answered with a quiet laugh.

“Why are you laughing?”

“I don’t know. Maybe because your expression doesn’t match what you’re saying?”

“Ah.”

Only then did his stiff expression ease. But the smile at the corners of his mouth was so faint it looked ready to disappear.

“To be honest, I don’t know what to make of what you said. Today, you were just so…”

“It’s all right. That reaction is only natural.”

I understood why Jin Wikyung trailed off. I could imagine how he felt.

If I were in his position, I’d react the same way.

In this world, the word death did not carry quite the weight one might expect.

Murders were rare in the modern world, and people learned about them through television and other media. Here, people witnessed death often.

Things were somewhat better in cities with good public order. Outside them, commoners lived under the threat of bandits or mounted bandits, depending on where they were.

Martial artists were another matter entirely.

A life spent walking on the point of a blade.

There was a reason people called it a mountain of sabers and a forest of swords.

They were always prepared to die. They stoked their fighting spirit and trained their martial arts. Jin Wikyung, standing before me, was a martial artist too.

The problem was the environment he and all the others had grown up in.

In Murim, people killed people, and people died by human hands. There were fierce beasts and spiritual creatures, but at least people knew what those were. They were not monsters no one had ever heard of or seen.

And today, I had told them those monsters would cover the world.

I had predicted a fight in which humans and monsters would kill one another.

I don’t know how much of what I said sank in. But they must have felt the danger.

As I spoke, some looked at me with disbelief. Others were confused but fell into deep thought.

They did not all have to believe me right away. Getting them to listen was enough to accomplish what I had set out to do.

It only got through at all because they’re martial artists and I had hard evidence.

If my audience had been a bunch of old Confucian scholars, they would have shouted “Confucius Akbar!”¹ and staged a protest against supernatural powers. The people in the great conference hall were not quite that close-minded.

At least, not with the corpse of a four-armed monster lying in front of them.

There were the Water God Dragon’s remains, too.

Its body had been separated into parts and was still being transported in strict secrecy. But I had quietly slipped some of its byproducts into my Inventory just in case. Those were enough to serve as important physical evidence.

“Come to think of it, Youngest. Where did you get that? I was sure every last piece had been collected.”

“What?”

“You know. The imugi² you defeated in Hubei…”

“Ahem. Ahem. Cough-cough-cough!”

I forced out a fit of coughing. Cheongpung, who had been listening beside us, rummaged through his robes.

“Benefactor. Would you like a sweetmeat? Sweetmeats are the best medicine for a cough.”

“…No. They’re the worst.”

“Okay.”

Since when were sweetmeats miracle medicine?

Denied a test subject, mad scientist Cheongpung looked dejected and put a sweetmeat in his own mouth. Jin Wikyung watched him and let out a quiet laugh.

“I understand. I won’t ask again.”

“Good. Thanks.”

I scratched my chin awkwardly. Jin Wikyung watched me for a long moment, then spoke.

“Sometimes I wonder whether you—our youngest—are the same child I knew.”

“……!”

“I won’t ask you outright. Nor will I harbor any further doubts. But there is one wish I have never told you about.”

His voice remained gentle.

“When all this is over, and the time is right, I’d like to hear the stories you haven’t been able to tell me.”

The stories I haven’t been able to tell.

I repeated the words to myself.

When will that time come?

But if all this really did end, as Jin Wikyung said, and I was ready… maybe I would tell him myself. The secret I had never been able to share with anyone.

Maybe that day would come.

“…I understand.”

I gave him a bitter smile and nodded. At that exact moment, a voice called out.

“There you are, Fire Dragon Pavilion Master.”

Tap.

A dull sound rang out with the elderly voice. I turned my head and saw Song Ho, the Chief of the Hidden Shadow Pavilion of the Murim Alliance—the Thousand-Faced Fox.

“The meeting ended half an hour ago, yet you’re still here. Coincidence?”

I shook my head. Talking to Jin Wikyung was not the only reason I had stayed at the Murim Alliance.

“It must have been inevitable.”

“Inevitability, is it? Yes, I suppose so.”

Something flickered in those old, unreadable eyes. After a brief silence, the Thousand-Faced Fox spoke again.

“Come with me, Fire Dragon Pavilion Master. You know what this is about, don’t you?”

I did. I knew who wanted to see me, and why.

His next words turned my guess into certainty.

“The Alliance Leader is looking for you.”

Thud.

The door closed behind me with an unusually loud sound. Two people were already waiting in an office inside the Alliance Leader’s Hall.

“You’re here?”

After Jeok Cheongang’s flat question, Murim Alliance Leader Mae Jonghak gestured toward a seat.

“Sit down. The rest of you, wait outside for a moment.”

He was not speaking to me or the Thousand-Faced Fox, who had followed me straight into the office. He meant the others who had yet to show themselves.

Swish.

No sooner had Mae Jonghak spoken than several presences vanished like ghosts.

Even the secret guards said to remain at his side at all times had withdrawn. I sat in an empty chair.

“They’re incredibly skilled. I could barely sense them.”

“Most people who enter this room don’t notice them at all. It’s impressive that you did.”

“Even if they don’t know, wouldn’t they at least guess? It would be strange for someone as important as the Murim Alliance Leader to have no guards at all.”

“Ah. You have a point.”

Mae Jonghak scratched his chin like a young man my age, then looked at me. My face was reflected in his clear, deep eyes.

“First, I was impressed by what you said in the great conference hall.”

“I’m glad to hear it. I don’t know what the others thought.”

“They may not believe all of it, but they won’t dismiss it. I promise you.”

Even lightly spoken words carried different weight depending on who said them. And when the speaker was the Alliance Leader of the Murim Alliance, it was only natural for those words to carry tremendous authority.

That gives my argument more weight.

Things were going well. My expression must have relaxed, because Mae Jonghak smiled.

“You were worried.”

“I’d be lying if I said I wasn’t.”

“Since we’re on the subject, how certain are you of your claim?”

“Five out of ten. Fifty-fifty.”

The Thousand-Faced Fox’s face went rigid.

“Did you just say… five out of ten?”

“Yes. Is that lower than you expected?”

“Damn it, the opposite! You’re saying there’s a fifty-percent chance the world will be covered in monsters!”

There was a curse in his outburst, but no one cared about that now. Far from taking offense, I felt relieved.

Their reactions told me that, at the very least, the people gathered here had already accepted my claim as fact.

“What gives you that fifty percent?”

Mae Jonghak was still calm. I answered without hesitation.

“Everything I’ve seen and felt fighting Dark Heaven.”

Jeok Cheongang, who had been sipping strong liquor instead of tea, spoke up.

“You could be wrong.”

“I hope I am. They can curse me for the rest of my life if I am.”

I meant it. I would much rather be completely wrong. Maybe Dark Heaven would turn out to be nothing special, and no mutated monsters would ever appear.

If all it took to get a happy ending was for everyone to curse me, I’d take that deal.

But…

“It sounds insane, but it’s all true.”

“Damn it. This is driving me crazy.”

“Is it that hard to believe?”

“I don’t want to believe it. If it were anyone but you saying it, I wouldn’t.”

“……!”

Where did that sudden burst of emotion come from? What am I supposed to do with this?

Thud.

But emotional or not, to hell with all that. Jeok Cheongang slammed his liquor bottle down and glared at me.

“Tell me it’s a lie instead. If you confess right now, I’ll let you off with three strikes from the Flame Divine Palm.”

“I swear on my balls, right here and now, that I’m not making this up. Also, three strikes from the Flame Divine Palm would kill me.”

“Whew.”

Jeok Cheongang let out a deep sigh and turned to Mae Jonghak and the Thousand-Faced Fox.

“This old man doesn’t want to believe it either, but it seems the punk is telling the truth. He’s sincere when he puts his balls on the line, at least.”

“……”

That was a strange standard for deciding whether something was true. Still, I seemed to have gotten my sincerity across.

As what I feared settled over the office, silence fell. Mae Jonghak broke it.

“I have one more question.”

“You can ask two.”

“No. One is enough.”

Swish.

Mae Jonghak crooked a finger. A large scroll flew out from among the bamboo slips piled behind him and unfurled across our table.

Rustle.

I looked at what was written on it—no, drawn—and muttered, “This is…”

“You are looking at exactly what you think you are. A complete map of the realm.”

It showed the geography and terrain across the realm, with place names marked as well. But it was larger than any map I had seen in Murim, and there was another difference.

“It even shows where the sects are.”

“It was made for the Murim Alliance. Now, tell me…”

Mae Jonghak’s calm voice reached my ears.

“Where do you think Dark Heaven will strike next?”

“I can’t be certain.”

“Who in this world can be certain of the future? A simple guess will do.”

A simple guess…

I remained silent, lost in thought. Then, suddenly, I raised my hand and pointed to one part of the map.

Tap.

“Here.”

The reactions were immediate.

Jeok Cheongang muttered a quiet curse. A sharp light flashed in the Thousand-Faced Fox’s eyes, while Mae Jonghak leaned his upper body toward me.

“Why there?”

“If what happened in Hubei happens again, Dark Heaven would have a hard time finding a better place.”

“You mean that ‘rift.’”

“Yes.”

“You’re certain the rift will open again—or rather, you suspect it will?”

“I think there’s every chance it will. What happened wasn’t a natural disaster. Dark Heaven planned it and made it happen.”

There can only be a first if there’s a second.

I alone had been able to glimpse the Water God Dragon’s memories, however briefly. I had no physical evidence I could offer with confidence, and I could not be certain. But there was a good chance Dark Heaven had its sights on that place.

I continued calmly.

“I don’t know what Dark Heaven is going to do right now. This may not be its next target. But at least one person must have already set out for that place.”

“The Southern Heaven Demon Empress.”

At the sound of the title, the countless bodies I had seen in Hubei flashed before my eyes. My fist clenched.

“That’s right. If it’s the Southern Heaven Demon Empress… she must have that place in mind.”

“Is that another simple guess?”

“A guess. One close to certainty.”

I could not be sure of anything. But a thought that had been haunting me for some time seemed more and more likely.

Mae Jonghak nodded quietly and looked to Song Ho.

“What do you think, Chief of the Hidden Shadow Pavilion?”

“I’ll add my voice to the Fire Dragon Pavilion Master’s.”

Song Ho answered at once, then continued.

“It has been more than seven days and nights since we sent a missive. With no reply yet, there’s a good chance something has already gone wrong.”

“I expected as much, but… that’s fast.”

“Yes. We could send the Outer Hall forces we selected in advance, but we risk arriving too late.”

A missive? Forces selected in advance?

The Thousand-Faced Fox read the question on my face.

“The Hidden Shadow Pavilion has eyes and ears throughout the realm. You weren’t the only one to make this guess.”

“…You had already been considering that place.”

“To be precise, we began considering it immediately after receiving a report on the circumstances surrounding what happened in Hubei Province. However, that strange phenomenon called a rift was something neither I nor anyone else in this Pavilion anticipated.”

I remembered something I had briefly forgotten. The elderly martial artist before me had been the head of the Hidden Shadow Pavilion forty years ago, and he still was.

And there was only one person in this room who could give orders to both of us.

“Fire Dragon Pavilion Master Jin Taekyung.”

Mae Jonghak’s voice rang through the office, heavier than usual.

Mae Jonghak, the great martial artist known as the Number One Sword Under Heaven and the man standing at the pinnacle of Murim today, stared at me with clear blue eyes.

“I’m giving you your first order.”

Whoosh!

A fierce wind rose with every step I took.

Ignoring the eyes of everyone around me, I even used my movement technique to hurry back to my residence. When I arrived, I flung open the door with all my strength.

Bang!

A familiar face came into view.

Hyuk Mujin had been lounging in the annex. He sprang to his feet, looked back and forth between me and the shattered door, and muttered,

“Welcome back… Wow. The owner is going to cry tears of blood. That door was replaced less than half an hour ago.”

I had no time to sympathize with the owner. Instead of greeting Mujin, I gave him an order.

“Summon everyone.”

“What?”

Hyuk Mujin stared at me, dumbfounded.

“What are you talking about all of a sudden? Wait, summon what?”

“The Fire Dragon Pavilion.”

“What?”

“It’s a mission. Right now.”

“Wait. Hold on! Captain, why all of a sudden? Where are we going?”

I answered the wide-eyed Hyuk Mujin in a low voice.

“Nanman.”³