Chapter 2. A Third-Rate Warrior Who Remembers Everything (2)
“……Senior Brother, what are you doing?”
I was looking at Geum-pyo, whose dying form remained vivid in my memories.
“Geum-pyo……”
“Yes.”
“I am sorry.”
“Pardon?”
Geum-pyo hurriedly searched inside his robes and pulled out a small pouch.
“Did you perhaps steal my taffy?”
“……”
What in the world had I been thinking, living like that?
“……In any case, I am sorry.”
“My taffy is still here…… Ah, what is this?”
After apologizing to Geum-pyo, whom I had failed to protect in my previous life, and quietly easing a little of my guilt, I asked him a question.
“Is this not class time? What about your lesson? Why are you here?”
Geum-pyo spoke with an incredulous expression.
“If you know that, Senior Brother, why are you lying on the wooden platform?”
“My head hurts a little.”
“You have been using that excuse for a week already.”
“Has it already been that long?”
But I had been busy in my own way.
From this very moment onward, I had to go over all the disasters that would occur in the future, and I had to determine why the Taeul Sect had fallen and when the problem had first begun.
“I have been busy in my own way……”
“……That posture does not make your words sound credible in the slightest.”
“It is true. I was contemplating the future of our sect.”
The Taeul Sect, my martial sect, was a small sword sect near Hefei in Anhui Province.
It had history, but no venerable tradition. It had many martial arts, but little martial strength.
When parents compared a large martial academy with the Taeul Sect, most chose the martial academy instead.
If one had to find its advantages, they were that the Taeul Sect provided one meal a day and held one of the positions among the Murim Alliance’s One Hundred Eight Peaks.
‘Though how we ever entered the One Hundred Eight Peaks is the greatest mystery of all.’
Our sect had neither martial power nor wealth, and yet, despite never once offering a bribe to the high officials of the Alliance, it had never been pushed out of the One Hundred Eight Peaks.
So long as it maintained the rank of the One Hundred Eight Peaks, it could remain somewhat free from territorial disputes and armed conflicts with other martial sects.
Whatever justification might be given, if war broke out between sects, the Murim Alliance’s principle was to side with the One Hundred Eight Peaks.
Because of that, the Taeul Sect had been able to remain somewhat free from the savage competition among sects in Hefei.
Yet, in the end, it had essentially been annihilated because of that very rank of the One Hundred Eight Peaks, so it could not necessarily be called a good thing.
How was I supposed to overcome such a contradictory situation……
“……Senior Brother!”
“……Hm?”
“The Taeul Sect is perfectly fine, so stop worrying and get up.”
“……How could a crow-tit understand the profound intent of a stork?”
“The Hall Master of Busaeng Hall is looking for you.”
“Why is that man looking for me?”
“……Even so, calling the Hall Master ‘that man’ is a little……”
The present Hall Master of Busaeng Hall was not a person of the Taeul Sect.
To be precise, he belonged to the Gyeryong Merchant Guild and was the younger brother of its master. The only thing he could boast of was that he had once been a lay disciple of Mount Hua Sect.
Then why was such a man serving as a Hall Master in the Taeul Sect?
Because the Master of the Gyeryong Merchant Guild had planted him there as a minder, fearing that his son, who had become a lay disciple of the Taeul Sect, might happen to learn the Taeul Sect’s “bad martial arts.”
This contradictory story, which had not a shred of plausibility, could be explained by one of the privileges of the One Hundred Eight Peaks: the “Murim Academy special admission track.”
The first step toward advancement in the Murim Alliance was admission to the Murim Academy.
However, regular admission was no easy matter.
Thus, to enter through the special admission track granted to the One Hundred Eight Peaks, the precious, pampered young master of the Gyeryong Merchant Guild had become a lay disciple of the insignificant, third-rate Taeul Sect.
The impoverished Taeul Sect accepted most of their demands in order to receive the Gyeryong Merchant Guild’s support.
“If a man like that is not ‘that man,’ then what should I call him?”
Geum-pyo chuckled as though he found it deeply satisfying.
“In any case, he said you must attend today.”
“Hmm…… Did he say there would be sparring today?”
“……The atmosphere suggests as much.”
A shadow of worry fell over Geum-pyo’s face.
Legal violence carried out under the name of sparring.
At present, sparring lessons were the lessons that the disciples of the Taeul Sect hated most.
“Tsk. And this is all a man who calls himself a lay disciple of Mount Hua can think of.”
I slowly rose.
They were not faces I particularly wished to see, but I could not simply stand by and watch my junior disciples be beaten.
CRACK.
“Guh!”
As soon as I entered Busaeng Hall, I saw one of the Taeul Sect’s disciples clutching his head and rolling across the floor.
Sa-ryeon quickly rushed out, examined the fallen child’s injury, and glared at Gye Cheol-yeong.
Gye Cheol-yeong seemed to misunderstand something in Sa-ryeon’s gaze and smiled triumphantly.
“How was that? Impressive, was it not?”
That fool. Tsk, tsk.
I approached the child Sa-ryeon was helping up.
“Let me see for a moment.”
Fortunately, there was no wound.
It was true that wounds to the head were usually more frightening when they did not bleed, but Gye Cheol-yeong at this age could not possibly possess that degree of strength, so there was no need to worry too much.
“When you go home, use a cold stone as a compress. It should help bring down the swelling.”
“Ah, yes……”
The child wiped away the tears gathered at the corners of his eyes and bravely returned to his place.
“What is this? You said your head hurt. Are you better now?”
At Sa-ryeon’s question, I shook my head.
“No. My head became more complicated, so I came out.”
“Pardon?”
I turned my gaze away from Sa-ryeon and spoke to Gye Yeon-seung, the Hall Master of Busaeng Hall.
“Would it not be best to end the sparring lesson here?”
“What?”
“It seems quite a few junior disciples have already been injured.”
More than half the disciples sitting there were clutching their heads, shoulders, or arms.
Every one of them had been beaten under the pretext of sparring.
“Jin So-un, you appear late and dare spout such nonsense?”
“In any case, is this so-called sparring not merely meant to show everyone how remarkable Senior Brother Gye Cheol-yeong is?”
“What did you say?”
I looked at Gye Cheol-yeong, who was standing proudly beside Gye Yeon-seung.
“And Senior Brother Gye. No matter how poor Sa-ryeon’s judgment may be—truly, however poor—there is no way she would like a wretch like you. Your dreams are far too grand.”
“Jin So-un, how dare you!”
Gye Cheol-yeong’s face flushed scarlet, and he looked ready to leap forward at any moment.
But Gye Yeon-seung raised his hand to stop him.
“In your eyes, is that truly all this sparring looks like?”
Flames burned in Gye Yeon-seung’s eyes. Whether they did or not, I continued speaking.
“I do not know what we are learning in Busaeng Hall these days. Is it not only physical training and sparring every day?”
“All of that is for real combat……”
“In that case, I believe practicing forms alone would be better.”
“What……”
Gye Yeon-seung’s face also turned red, as though it might burst.
“How dare you say such a thing before me, a disciple of Mount Hua Sect?”
“You are not a proper disciple, but a lay disciple, are you not? Just like Senior Brother Gye, you learned sword arts by paying ‘money.’”
I had merely stated the truth, yet for some reason, Gye Yeon-seung looked even angrier.
Perhaps this was why people said the truth could be violence.
“You, you wretch!”
Killing intent began to creep out from Gye Yeon-seung’s body.
Not only Sa-ryeon and the junior disciples, but even Gye Cheol-yeong felt instinctive fear and took a step back.
Strangely, however, I was not afraid at all. It was not as though my martial arts were stronger than Gye Yeon-seung’s.
‘Well, compared to the men I faced in my previous life, this killing intent is like a child’s game.’
Having accepted that roughly enough, I continued speaking.
If one could not strike with skill, one struck with words. That was the Sojeong Squad’s way.
“To be honest, I wish both the Hall Master and Senior Brother Gye would stop doing this. At the very least, then I and the junior disciples could learn the Taeul Sect’s martial arts properly.”
“Hah, ha ha. Are you saying it is better to learn from the Hall Masters of the Taeul Sect than from me?”
“Is there anything we can learn from you in the first place? Lay disciples are not allowed to pass on their sect’s martial arts to others. Moreover, you have no real combat experience whatsoever.”
“Urgh……”
Gye Yeon-seung began to tremble.
Sa-ryeon came close beside me and whispered.
“What are you doing, Senior Brother? Have you lost your mind?”
“I do not know. It is true, is it not?”
Ah, I no longer cared.
A future filled only with obvious despair.
A self that could do nothing.
Perhaps, if I died here beneath Gye Yeon-seung’s blade, Gye Cheol-yeong would have no choice but to leave the Taeul Sect.
Then perhaps a true disciple of the Taeul Sect could enter the Murim Academy through the special admission track.
‘Though even if one person enters, will anything change?’
Even if one went to the Murim Alliance as a low-ranking Warrior, there was nothing to become except a wall of flesh.
Still, to take an active role in the Great Righteous-Demonic War, one had to enter the Murim Academy.
In the first place, Gye Cheol-yeong, who sought admission to the Murim Academy only to advance in the Murim Alliance, must not be allowed to steal that chance.
“Ha…… So that is what you think? Very well. You must have the skill to support such words. Step forward at once! Prove it before Cheol-yeong!”
This was how it always went.
When every argument ended in the exercise of force, there was ultimately nothing more to say.
Had this happened in the past, I would have tucked my tail and backed down around this point.
‘Hoo, I suppose I should show them a lesson.’
Even if it were nothing more than meaningless venting, would it not gain meaning if it relieved my temper?
I held out my hand to Sa-ryeon.
Sa-ryeon hid her wooden sword behind her back and spoke.
“……Senior Brother, if you fight now, you will truly be badly hurt. Just apologize.”
“Why should I apologize when I did nothing wrong?”
I unfolded the White Phoenix Hand, snatched the wooden sword from Sa-ryeon’s hand, and stepped forward.
“Jin So-un! Take your opening stance!”
“Why would I need an opening stance just to face Senior Brother Gye…… Let us simply begin.”
I rested the wooden sword on my shoulder, signaling that I was ready.
My insolent reaction must not have pleased him in the slightest, for Gye Cheol-yeong’s expression was not greatly different from Gye Yeon-seung’s.
“Jin So-un! What manner of speech is that before the Hall Master?”
“Senior Brother, let us begin quickly.”
“You truly need to be taught a lesson.”
Gye Cheol-yeong began to assume an opening stance that did not belong to the Taeul Sect.
‘The Three Shadows Sword. In my previous life, I was beaten by that sword art a great many times.’
It was a martial art he had learned after inviting Heonwon Su, a wandering Warrior renowned in Shaanxi Province, to teach him.
I had memorized its forms and techniques the moment I first saw them, but in my previous life, I had lacked the ability to evade and counterattack.
Now, however, I was a former low-ranking Warrior of the Murim Alliance, and I even had the brilliant career of having served in the Sojeong Squad as a wall of flesh against the Demonic Cult’s various armed forces, including the Heavenly Demon Black Sword Unit.
I would not be beaten one-sidedly by the twenty-year-old Gye Cheol-yeong.
“Begin!”
No sooner had Gye Yeon-seung given the order than Gye Cheol-yeong stepped with his footwork and shot forward as though gliding.
It was certainly not Taeul Sect footwork.
Gye Cheol-yeong’s first strike was deliberately aimed at my eyes.
As befitted the sword art of a wandering Warrior, its sword formula was exceedingly rough, and its momentum was exceedingly ferocious.
The young disciples of the Taeul Sect could not help but be flustered.
‘However.’
Compared to those murder-mad fiends of the Demonic Cult, all of this was no more than a child’s game.
Moreover, Gye Cheol-yeong had neither Heonwon Su’s resolve to stake his life nor his desperation to complete a single technique.
Even if it was the same martial art, it unfolded in an entirely different manner.
There was no need to use any of the other martial arts I had gained in my previous life.
The Minor Heaven Sword Art, which all the children of Busaeng Hall knew, was enough.
CLACK.
I struck Gye Cheol-yeong’s sword upward with the flat of my blade and poured out three techniques of the Minor Heaven Sword Art.
THWACK THWACK THWACK!
In an instant, my wooden sword caressed various places across Gye Cheol-yeong’s body.
“Ugh!”
Gye Cheol-yeong’s eyes flew open as though his mind had snapped awake.
I swung the Minor Heaven Sword Art again and pressed Gye Cheol-yeong hard.
“Hah……”
“……Wow.”
“That is the Minor Heaven Sword Art, is it not?”
At the familiar techniques, astonished exclamations burst from the children.
By contrast, even though the techniques were familiar to him, Gye Cheol-yeong was flustered and failed to respond properly to each one.
In the end, the moment he failed to continue his technique and revealed an opening—
“I see an opening, Senior Brother!”
I struck down at his head with all my strength.
CRACK!
A scream rang out along with the sound of something breaking.
“Aaaagh!”
Gye Cheol-yeong dropped his sword, clutched his head, and began rolling across the floor.
“Aaaaagh!”
After a brief silence, the children of the Taeul Sect began shouting.
“““Waaaaaaah!”””
“Silence! Silence! Silence!”
Gye Yeon-seung, who had been examining Gye Cheol-yeong, released a terrifying pressure and shrieked.
“Everyone back to your places!”
The children, quickly frightened by the pressure of an adult—and an adult with powerful martial arts at that—returned to their places and swallowed hard.
“Aaaagh, my head!”
Gye Cheol-yeong, who had been touching his head, sensed something strange and lowered his hand to look at it.
His hand was stained red.
Gye Yeon-seung saw it as well and glared at me as though he would kill me.
“How did this happen?”
“What do you mean?”
“I am asking how you defeated Cheol-yeong.”
“I defeated him with the Minor Heaven Sword Art.”
“The Three Shadows Sword lost to something like the Minor Heaven Sword Art……”
Gye Yeon-seung, who had been about to speak, stopped abruptly.
No matter how thoroughly the Gyeryong Merchant Guild manipulated the Taeul Sect, there was still a line that must not be crossed. Gye Yeon-seung barely managed to keep to that line.
“The Three Shadows Sword and the Minor Heaven Sword Art differ greatly in form. I am asking how you bridged that gap.”
Gye Yeon-seung was speaking in a roundabout way.
To put it simply, his fundamental question was this: how could the Minor Heaven Sword Art, a mere basic martial art, defeat the Three Shadows Sword, which had even produced a peak master?
“Where in the world is there such a thing as an ‘absolute’? If the practitioner is lacking……”
As I spoke, a realization struck me like a blow to the head, and I suddenly came to my senses.
-The Demonic Cult returns.
-The Murim Alliance falls by the hand of the Demonic Cult.
-The Taeul Sect belongs to the Murim Alliance, and so it falls with it.
-In the midst of it all, I, cursed with a pointlessly good memory, am used by one side and another until I die.
Was this, too, something that would ‘absolutely’ never change?
“Judging from the fact that you cannot explain yourself properly, you must have used some trick, is that not so?”
As I was lost in thought for a moment, the drivel coming from Gye Yeon-seung made my face twist of its own accord.
“……What sort of nonsense is that?”
“The gap between a basic sword art and an advanced sword art cannot be bridged. This is common knowledge among those who practice martial arts.”
“Does Mount Hua teach you to make excuses like that when your own skill is lacking?”
“You wretch, how dare you……! Take back those words at once!”
“Am I wrong?”
“Very well! Then bridge that gap against me.”
“……”
Contempt filled the eyes of Hong Sa-ryeon and the junior disciples.
No matter how generously one looked at it, was this not an adult throwing a tantrum against a child?
“Are you serious?”
“Of course, I will not use internal energy. I will face you with techniques alone. Why? Can you not prove it?”
“Before that, should you not take Senior Brother Gye to a physician?”
Gye Cheol-yeong, who had been howling that he was in pain, must have expected Gye Yeon-seung to avenge him in his stead. He stopped crying and shook his head as though nothing was wrong.
“I, I am fine.”
You fool, you are still bleeding.
“I will ask again. Can you not prove it?”
Perhaps I had been steeped in defeatism before I had even begun.
My situation was clearly one of despair, not greatly different from my previous life.
Yet crucially, was not the ‘me’ of my previous life clearly different from the ‘me’ now?
As I had said, where in the world was there such a thing as an ‘absolute’?
If everything had been decided from the beginning, then the fact that our Sojeong Squad had brought down the Demonic Cult’s Guardian Dharma King would have made no sense.
‘So I will not run away in fear as I did before!’
I raised my head and looked at Gye Yeon-seung.
“What will you do if I prove it?”
“What?”
“If I prove it, what will you do? An adult is throwing a tantrum against a child, so it makes no sense for the child to gain nothing from it.”
Gye Yeon-seung’s face stiffened.
His expression looked as though he truly wanted to kill me.
“What do you want?”
What did I need right now?
If I was not going to give up on this opportunity, I needed time above all else.
“If I win, please acknowledge that I have completed Busaeng Hall. I will no longer attend Busaeng Hall.”
“……Very well.”
Gye Yeon-seung went to one side and picked up a wooden sword.
His aura was so grim that it was clear this would not end with something as light as a broken arm.
I raised my wooden sword upright.
When I thought about it, what Sect Leader Hong Mun-gi had offered the Gyeryong Merchant Guild was an ‘opportunity’ for admission.
We, too, had the chance to compete with Gye Cheol-yeong for the ‘special admission seat’ whenever we wished.
And yet none of the Taeul Sect’s disciples, myself included, had ever thought of challenging for that chance.
The result of failing to defend it and giving up was the annihilation of the sect.
I could not simply sit still and watch that dreadful nightmare repeat itself.
“Begin!”
The sword art that Gye Yeon-seung, a lay disciple of Mount Hua, favored most was Mount Hua’s consummate art, the Plum Blossom Sword Art.
In my mind, the sword paths along which the Plum Blossom Sword Art unfolded already began to appear one after another in full clarity.
And with them came the weaknesses of those sword paths.
The unparalleled genius Jegal Cheon-gi had studied the martial arts of the Nine Sects and One Gang and the Five Great Clans in order to make them capable of resisting the Demonic Cult. For each sect, he had created Shattering Forms, Ascendant Forms, and Demon-Subduing Forms suited to their arts.
The problem, however, was that there had been no way to deliver Jegal’s Three Forms to the Nine Sects and One Gang and the Five Great Clans, which had fractured and scattered throughout the realm.
And that was when I, with my useless absolute memory, had been given the task.
‘Even if my internal energy is lacking, there is no way Cheon-gi’s Shattering Form will fail.’
Gye Yeon-seung unfolded the Plum Blossom Sword Art.
Because he had not drawn up his internal force, I could not smell the scent of plum blossoms, but each and every one of his movements was elegant beyond question.
I instantly followed the Shattering Form of the Plum Blossom Sword Art that surfaced in my mind and thrust toward its weakness.
“You wretch!”
Just as I had done to Gye Cheol-yeong, the instant Gye Yeon-seung’s wooden sword tried to strike my head—
THWACK!
“Guh!”
Gye Yeon-seung lost his sword in midair and barely managed to snatch the wooden sword back in a fluster.
“What is this……?”
The Shattering Form of the Plum Blossom Sword Art unfolded.
Gye Yeon-seung wielded the Plum Blossom Sword Art, the sword art in which he had the greatest confidence, but there was no way strength could enter a sword art that had already been shattered.
Had he sensed that something was strange?
I felt internal force begin to flow into Gye Yeon-seung’s wooden sword.
‘It is already too late!’
The Shattering Form that had already unfolded shattered the Plum Blossom Sword Art now driven by internal force, and at the same time knocked Gye Yeon-seung’s sword from his grasp.
“!!”
In an instant, the wooden sword flew from Gye Yeon-seung’s grip.
I struck down hard at his head, and he raised both arms to block it.
CRACK!
“Urgh!”
Together with the dull sound, the wooden sword that had escaped Gye Yeon-seung’s hand belatedly struck the wall with force.
THUD. CLATTER.
Gye Yeon-seung’s wooden sword rolled across the floor.
Gye Yeon-seung had barely blocked my wooden sword with both hands.
Once again, a brief silence settled over Busaeng Hall.
“““Waaaaaaah!!”””
The disciples of the Taeul Sect rushed out as one and surrounded me.
Gye Yeon-seung stared at his own hand with eyes full of disbelief.
I slowly looked around.
This was clearly something that had never happened in my previous life.
‘Yes. This life is different from the last. From now on, everything will be different.’
