That's Not How You Use Martial Arts

Chapter 42
The Truth (2)

『 Translator – Divinity 』

“…How can I trust you? What guarantee do I have that you won’t kill me after hearing my story?”

“There is none, of course.”

“……”

Jo Un-chil seemed dumbfounded by my answer.

I looked at his expression and said with a smile,

“Look, you seem to be mistaken about something. You’re not in a position to demand a deal from us. Soon, news of what happened at the gambling house will spread throughout Hefei, and Paecheon Fortress will be searching for you with a vengeance. Do you think you can afford to be picky?”

“……”

Jo Un-chil couldn’t refute my words.

However, even after being reminded of reality, he still didn’t open his mouth easily.

But perhaps realizing that this standoff wouldn’t benefit him, he cautiously spoke.

“…If I side with you, can I live?”

So, his life was the most important thing to him, after all.

I shrugged and answered,

“It’ll be much better than siding with Paecheon Fortress, at least.”

“…Alright.”

Jo Un-chil nodded heavily.

Finally, it seemed like I could hear something.

Having made up his mind, Jo Un-chil let out a deep sigh and looked up at me.

“What exactly do you want to know?”

“Paecheon Fortress’s objective. Why are they harassing the Namgung family?”

Jo Un-chil hesitated for a moment at my question, then slowly opened his mouth.

“…I don’t know the details.”

“I wasn’t expecting you to know the details. Just tell me everything you know. How you got involved, how deep you’re involved.”

And so began Jo Un-chil’s explanation.

According to him, he had been living an honest life, diligently working (Go-heung couldn’t help but snort at this), when he met Sa Gong-chan, the leader of the Heavenly Radiance Squad, about a year ago.

“He suddenly visited my gambling house and said, ‘Instead of scraping together pennies from the commoners, why don’t you try earning a fortune?'”

“And you were completely swayed by those words?”

“…Yes.”

Jo Un-chil nodded uncomfortably and continued his story.

That was when the operation against the Namgung family began.

They started attacking the escort missions departing from the Namgung Escort Agency.

“To do that, I handed over information about the escort missions to that bastard Sa Gong-chan.”

“And the reason you were able to get that information?”

“…Because one of the leaders of the Namgung Escort Agency was a regular at my gambling house.”

A regular? He probably meant a sucker.

It seemed he had demanded information about the escort agency in exchange for writing off the leader’s gambling debt.

So, it was Jo Un-chil who had leaked the information about the escort missions.

He was more deeply involved in this than I thought.

“That’s how the attacks on the escort missions began. They killed any warrior with the Namgung surname and burned or destroyed the goods.”

I glanced at Go-heung, and he nodded silently.

It meant that Jo Un-chil was telling the truth.

“As the escort missions kept failing, the Namgung family started deploying their renowned experts. And they had no idea it was all part of Paecheon Fortress’s scheme.”

Neither the Namgung family nor the experts who participated in the missions would have imagined that the escort failures were a trap.

They wouldn’t have even suspected that someone was plotting against them.

Should I call this complacency?

It was a regrettable situation.

But it was already in the past.

I clicked my tongue and urged Jo Un-chil on.

“That’s how they achieved their goal of weakening the Namgung family’s forces. I already know that. The problem is what came after.”

Yes, the problem that came after.

“The head steward’s assassination and the armory fire. What were their objectives?”

Jo Un-chil seemed slightly surprised that I specifically called it an “assassination.”

But his surprise was fleeting, and he soon nodded.

“…Well, I guess there’s no way you wouldn’t know. That bastard Sa Gong-chan said that was what they were aiming for.”

“What do you mean? Aiming for what?”

I pressed him for an answer to his cryptic muttering, and a truly absurd answer came back.

“I once asked that bastard Sa Gong-chan. I asked why he was being so sloppy when he could have handled things more discreetly.”

“…And?”

“He said they were doing it on purpose. To show off Paecheon Fortress’s power to the world and make an example of what happens to those who don’t bow down to them.”

Uh… so, it wasn’t that they had a powerful backer and were being careless, but that they were intentionally making it known that Paecheon Fortress was behind it?

Dumbfounded, I looked at Go-heung, and he was shaking his head.

Perhaps hidden behind our masks, we were both making the same expression.

“…He’s insane.”

“I told you, he’s an unlucky bastard.”

While Go-heung and I were bonding over our shared opinion of Sa Gong-chan’s mental state, Jo Un-chil continued his story.

“From what I heard, their goal isn’t much different from the escort mission sabotage. They’re trying to prevent the Namgung family from replenishing their forces by reducing their available funds.”

“…So, in the end, everything was aimed at weakening the Namgung family?”

I couldn’t understand.

Why were they so obsessed with the Namgung family’s strength? What was their reason?

“…They’re not really planning to attack the Namgung family, are they?”

Go-heung shook his head firmly at my question.

“As I discussed with Master Yeo earlier, that’s highly unlikely. Besides, if they were planning to directly attack the family, they wouldn’t have bothered with schemes like sabotaging the escort missions. Framing them would have been much easier.”

Go-heung exchanged a subtle glance with me that Jo Un-chil didn’t notice, and I remembered something I had forgotten.

The Blood Explosion Technique.

Come to think of it, they already had the perfect excuse to attack the Namgung family without any repercussions.

But they didn’t use it and chose a different method?

They definitely had a different objective.

Not to frame the Namgung family and wipe them out, but something else.

“And you probably don’t know about that true objective…”

I looked at Jo Un-chil, who had a blank expression, with a cold gaze.

“Why did you decide to cooperate with Paecheon Fortress? No matter how obsessed you were with money, you must have known they were dangerous.”

Jo Un-chil’s face flushed with anger at my scornful remark, and he raised his voice.

“Of course, I knew they were dangerous! But if I refused, they would have killed me right there! They’re the ones who even assassinated the Sword Saint…!”

“…Wait, what?”

I momentarily doubted my ears.

What did this guy just say?

“What did you just say?”

“Huh? What did I…”

“You just said that Paecheon Fortress assassinated the Sword Saint. What does that mean?”

I pressed Jo Un-chil for an explanation about his unbelievable claim.

But the answer came from Go-heung instead.

“Ah, that? It’s just a groundless rumor, so don’t worry about it too much.”

“…A rumor?”

Go-heung nodded at my question.

“Yes. Although it was only recently confirmed that the Sword Saint had passed away, there have been rumors spreading quietly even before that.”

The rumors were that the Sword Saint had disappeared shortly after Paecheon Fortress forces entered Hefei. People wondered if Paecheon Fortress had done something to him.

“According to recent intel, the timing is certainly coincidental, but it seems unlikely.”

Jo Un-chil strongly objected to Go-heung’s answer.

“It’s not just a rumor! The Sword Saint, who used to go out often, suddenly went into seclusion, and not long after, that bastard Sa Gong-chan came to see me! They must have taken care of the Sword Saint, the biggest obstacle, before starting their operation!”

Go-heung crouched in front of Jo Un-chil, who firmly believed in the Sword Saint assassination theory, and said,

“Hey, you idiot. Is the Sword Saint some stray dog? He’s the Sword Saint, one of the Ten Venerables, the pinnacle of the martial arts world. Do you think that’s possible unless the Paecheon Fortress Lord himself came here?”

“Th-That’s…”

Jo Un-chil was speechless at Go-heung’s words.

Go-heung stood up and waved his hand dismissively, as if there was no point in continuing the conversation.

“Anyway, it’s a completely groundless rumor, so you don’t have to worry about it. The Sword Saint assassinated? I’d sooner believe that the Regional Commander was assassinated.”

I nodded at Go-heung’s assertion, but I still felt uneasy.

Honestly, in a world where someone like Sa Gong-chan was considered a master, I couldn’t even imagine how strong the Ten Venerables were.

Since I didn’t know their level, I couldn’t be sure about Go-heung’s claim that assassination was impossible.

Was there really no connection between those two incidents?

***

Hefei County Office.

The warriors of Paecheon Fortress, including the Heavenly Radiance Squad, were officially dispatched at the request of the magistrate of Hefei.

Therefore, those who had finished their ‘support duties’ were staying in the annex of the county office, which had been prepared as their quarters.

Bang!

A loud noise suddenly erupted from one of the rooms in the annex.

“Argh, this is so boring. I can’t even go to a brothel, how long do I have to keep doing this?”

A booming voice echoed through the room.

The owner of the voice was a hulking man with a physique that matched his booming voice.

Tak Cheol-u, the Great Strength Tyrant.

He was the deputy leader of the Heavenly Radiance Squad, and he was growing weary of this long mission that had been going on for almost a year.

Due to Sa Gong-chan’s strict order to maintain a proper demeanor during the mission, he couldn’t even visit a brothel.

His frustration with this unintentional abstinence was reaching its limit… or so he had set up the scene before entering this room.

“Why are you complaining about that in my room early in the morning?”

“Why? Because I can’t have a woman, I have to at least feast my eyes, right? …Although it would be even better if you willingly came into my arms.”

The reason he had set up this whole scene and entered this room was because of the occupant, an outsider who had somehow joined them on this mission.

Chil-ji.

A woman with a name that didn’t suit her at all and was clearly an alias, meaning “seventh branch.”

Cheol-u looked at her beautiful face with wary eyes, even as he spouted lewd comments.

‘…On the surface, she’s just a pretty woman. And not even comparable to Chae-hyang.’

Cheol-u compared Chil-ji’s appearance with that of the courtesan he frequented and observed her sharply.

At his gaze, which could almost be perceived as hostile, Chil-ji responded with an expression devoid of emotion.

“I am not a prostitute. If you want to relieve your lust, go to a brothel.”

“I’m looking at your face because I can’t go, can’t I?”

He teased Chil-ji with disgusting words, but deep down, he didn’t let his guard down.

Seeing this, Chil-ji let out a small sigh and spoke.

“Stop with the unconvincing act and be honest. You’re just wary of me, aren’t you?”

“……”

Cheol-u stared at Chil-ji for a while, then smirked and shrugged.

“I can’t help but be wary. After all, you’re the amazing person who killed the Sword Saint, one of the Ten Venerables, aren’t you?”