Chapter 898

Someone once said humans are creatures of adaptation.

But everyone has at least one thing they can never get used to, no matter how many times they experience it.

For me, one was being responsible for other people’s lives. Another was waking up to someone’s ugly face.

“What are you doing?”

Hyuk Mujin answered, “Checking on you, Captain.”

“Why?”

“You barred everyone from coming in and spent two whole days shut up in your room circulating your qi. I thought you might’ve suffered qi deviation, so I slipped in to check.”

“Two days?”

“Yes. You didn’t know?”

“No, I knew.”

That was a lie. I’d thought half a day had passed at most. Two whole days?

I looked toward the sunlit window and sighed inwardly.

“I appreciate you worrying about me, but next time, just leave me alone.”

“Why?”

“Because seeing your face first thing when I woke up nearly gave me qi deviation.”

“Isn’t that a bit harsh?”

“Your face is harsh.”

“Then I’ll just stay nearby. You need someone to stand guard, don’t you?”

“Don’t stand guard, either.”

“Why not?”

“Your snoring will give me qi deviation.”

“…At this point, I’d be better off not being here at all. Keep this up and I might get fed up and head back to our family on my own.”

I had just uncrossed my legs and was about to get up. Instead, I stared at Hyuk Mujin and his halfhearted attempt to threaten me.

“W-Why are you looking at me like that? Is there some rule that says I have to follow you around, Captain?”

Despite his words, he was watching me nervously. A laugh escaped me.

Hyuk Mujin had been hunching his shoulders, ready to dodge a punch that might come at any moment—or at least make it hurt less. Now he looked baffled.

“What’s going on? Am I seeing things? Why are you acting like this all of a sudden, Captain?”

“Like what?”

“You’d normally have hit me at least twelve times by now, but you’re just smiling like some virtuous gentleman.”

I barely held back the laugh bubbling up inside me.

Then I kicked off the floor and shot forward like a flash of light.

Whoosh!

Hyuk Mujin instinctively tried to defend himself. In that split second, he moved with a speed and composure that made it hard to believe he was still only a First Rate martial artist.

Of course, against me, his defense had failed before it began.

“Hup.”

Realizing it was hopeless, Hyuk Mujin let out a strangled breath and squeezed his eyes shut. He was probably bracing for the hard blow that usually followed.

But for all his preparation, it never came.

Tap.

Instead of smacking him as I usually did, I lightly tapped the back of his head and clicked my tongue.

“You’ve been learning martial arts wrong all this time. Who told you to close your eyes?”

“…Huh?”

“Even if you’re getting hit, keep your eyes wide open. Even just keeping your eyes on your opponent puts you halfway there.”

Hyuk Mujin rubbed the back of his head, looking dazed, then blurted out, “Why are you acting like this all of a sudden?”

“Like what?”

“It’s strange. Normally…”

“So you want me to hit you like I usually do?”

Hyuk Mujin answered at once. “No. Not that.”

“Then shut up. I’m keeping you fit to fight.”

“Fit to fight?”

“Yeah. We’ll be fighting like hell soon. What good would hitting you on the back of the head do? If you caught a stray blade because of it, I’d end up having bad dreams for nothing.”

Hyuk Mujin grinned.

“Ohhh. So that’s what it is. You could be a little more honest, you know.”

“What?”

“I know all about it. When I said I might leave, it bothered you, didn’t it, Captain? Right?”

I started to answer, then just let out a quiet laugh.

“Yeah, you little shit. Must be nice to be so perceptive.”

“I knew it. I thought so. Even you need someone like me, your right-hand man, stuck to your side if you want to get anything done.”

“Right-hand man, my ass. You’re a little toe.”

“Come on, now. Calling myself your right-hand man is already a big concession on my part.”

“A concession?”

“Yes. Where else are you going to find a subordinate as loyal as me? I’m not your right hand—I’m your heart. Your heart.”

“Not a chance. You’ve got balls. How dare you call yourself my heart?”

“Then if I get them removed, do I qualify?”

Whack!

This time I put some force into it. For some reason, Hyuk Mujin groaned and clutched the back of his head, but his face lit up.

“Now that’s more like it.”

“…Huh?”

“It’s still a little weak, though. Hit me harder.”

What was with that creepy reaction?

Just as I began to question Hyuk Mujin’s tastes, he grinned and went on.

“It’s nothing, really. You’ve been so different from usual that I couldn’t help worrying.”

“…!”

“I know you’ve had a lot on your mind lately, but it’ll all work out. So do what you always do. Just like you always have.”

For a moment, I couldn’t speak.

At the same time, the truth I’d kept buried in my heart welled up and tickled the back of my throat.

But…

I can’t.

I couldn’t let a passing rush of emotion make me speak. To survive and win this enormous gamble, surrounded by monsters, I had to choose my words carefully.

In the end, after thinking it over, I managed only one question.

“Aren’t you scared?”

“Hm? Of what?”

“The situation we’re in. And whatever it is we’re about to face.”

Hyuk Mujin blinked at me for a long while, then answered, “What kind of question is that? Of course I’m scared.”

“You don’t act like it.”

“I’m used to being scared.”

“You’re used to it?”

“Yes. How do I put it? I’ve always been kind of a coward.”

Hyuk Mujin scratched the back of his head, looking embarrassed.

“When I was little, I was afraid my younger sibling would take all my parents’ love, so I cried every day. Then, when I got older and decided to become a martial artist, just holding a sword made me tremble. I thought I’d gotten better after joining the Jin Family of Taiyuan, but once I started following you around, Captain… I felt like I was going to piss myself every single day.”

That was the first I’d heard of it.

Thinking back, I’d never really asked Hyuk Mujin about his past.

I’d learned by chance that he was the eldest son of a large textile shop that had been in his family for three generations. It wasn’t as if I’d tried to find out.

Maybe that was why, instead of cutting off his long-winded story with a flick to the forehead as I normally would have, I found myself wanting to hear more.

“…Anyway, somehow I wound up stuck to your side.”

Hyuk Mujin finished with a shrug, then suddenly looked at me.

“This is all your fault, Captain.”

“Mine?”

“Yes. You’re like a ghost, always finding your way to places where people go to die. I got so much practice along the way that now I’m scared, but I’m not. You know what I mean?”

“So it was hard on you?”

“Hard? I thought I was going to die. But I never actually did. Or, to be precise, whenever I thought I was going to die, you saved me.”

Maybe not this time.

I swallowed the words that had been circling in my mouth.

Unaware of what I was thinking, Hyuk Mujin went on as if nothing were wrong.

“Maybe that’s why I’m not all that scared this time, either. Even when I heard what you told Comrade Hong and me recently, I felt pretty calm.”

“Because you figure I’ll save you again?”

“No.”

“No?”

“No. I just had a thought.”

For a moment, Hyuk Mujin looked straight at me and spoke.

“Oh, I thought, maybe this time I can be the one to save you, Captain.”

“…!”

“You said it was dangerous. That even you and Great Hero Jeok would have to risk your lives. That it was basically a gamble. Then couldn’t even someone as weak as me be useful this time?”

Hyuk Mujin added with a bright smile, “I’m still a First Rate nobody with a long way to go, but they say when you’re in trouble, even a cat’s paw is worth borrowing. Right?”

I didn’t answer.

No, I couldn’t.

It felt as if an invisible hand had closed around my throat, cutting off my breath. If I opened my mouth, I was afraid the truth might slip out before I could stop it.

So I looked at his smiling face in silence, then smiled back.

“Yeah. Now you’re finally going to be useful.”

“Ahem. This time, just trust me. I, Hyuk Mujin, am your right hand and your heart. I’m the Tenfold Man of the Jin Family of Taiyuan, aren’t I?”

Watching Hyuk Mujin thump his chest with exaggerated force, I let go of every worry still weighing on my mind.

And I was certain.

Every choice I made from here on out would be the right one.

“Remember what I told you two days ago?”

Hyuk Mujin’s smile faded, and he nodded.

“Which part…?”

“The Murim Alliance reinforcements.”

“Oh, of course. But when did you manage to get in touch with the Murim Alliance, Captain?”

“That’s not important, so forget it. I have a mission for you.”

“Just me?”

“No, everyone in the Fire Dragon Pavilion.”

“The entire pavilion means… you’re coming with us, Captain?”

“I’m not going. And neither is my Master. You’ll lead the rest of the group to the place I tell you and wait there.”

“Are we meeting the Murim Alliance reinforcements there?”

“Yeah. They’ll arrive within half a day at the earliest, and by tomorrow at the latest.”

Hyuk Mujin nodded as if he understood, then suddenly furrowed his brow.

“That’s longer than I expected. Leaving you here at a time like this is a bit… You’re not in your usual condition, either.”

“I’m not. So, are you afraid a Supreme Peak master who isn’t in his usual condition will keel over coughing blood at any moment?”

Hyuk Mujin grinned.

“Right. I was a crow-tit worrying about a Heavenly Eagle.”

“Usually, it’d be a stork you were worried about, not a Heavenly Eagle.”

“For the Blazing Flame Divine Dragon, even a Heavenly Eagle isn’t enough. Anyway, is that the whole mission?”

“Yeah. Right now.”

I answered and took a neatly folded note from inside my robe, then handed it to him.

I’d prepared it two days ago, but until the last moment, I’d wavered over whether to take it out at all.

“Anyone besides me and my Master should be able to leave the imperial palace without much trouble. Once you’re sure no one’s following you, check the destination written there.”

“This is starting to feel less like the Fire Dragon Pavilion and more like the Hidden Shadow Pavilion.”

Hyuk Mujin carefully took the note and tucked it away. Then he clasped his hands in a salute.

“I’ll get going, then.”

“One last thing.”

“Yes?”

“Be careful. You and everyone else.”

Hyuk Mujin looked puzzled, then gave me a playful grin. He turned and disappeared.

Once his presence had faded completely, I slowly left the room and came face to face with the one person still there.

Whoosh.

A slow exhalation. Hong Jin looked at me through the cloudy smoke from his long-stemmed tobacco pipe, then murmured as if to himself, “Martial artist Hyuk seemed pretty busy.”

“He is. I gave him a mission.”

“It must be important, to send him off at a time like this.”

“Yes. It is.”

“I understand how you feel.”

Creak.

The old wooden chair groaned. Hong Jin rose with elegant poise and spoke through the haze of smoke.

“In a dangerous gamble where no one knows what will happen, you must want to save even one more person.”

“…!”

“So, Young Master Jin, are you ready?”

I nodded with a bitter smile.

“I’ve always been ready.”

A little while later, golden-armored guards lined up in front of the pavilion to escort us to the Grand Banquet Hall.