WeTried Translations
Translator/Editor: Chen
Discord: https://dsc.gg/wetried
◈ The Martial Genius who Remembers Everything ◈
Chapter 487: The Conditions of Hatred (5)
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Following Ilgak’s guidance, Gwak Susan found Jin Sowoon.
He was sitting atop one of Hwapung Manor’s roofs.
Empty liquor bottles covered the rooftop, as though he had spent the entire night drinking without a single bite of food.
“Benefactor Jin, it’s time to rise.”
Even at Ilgak’s words, Jin Sowoon continued staring silently into empty space as he drank, then drank some more.
He showed no reaction at all, as though he had been lost in another world.
“Group Leader Jin, the people of Hwapung Manor and Azure Dragon Pavilion are arguing.”
Only when Hwapung Manor was mentioned did the bottle abruptly stop.
“The people of Hwapung Manor want to leave, but that isn’t possible right now.”
If they let their emotions overcome them and tried to force their way out, they might be saddled with an even greater crime.
Tap.
The bottle slowly touched the roof.
“That’s right.”
Believing Jin Sowoon had finally come back to himself, Gwak Susan asked, “What should we do now? We can’t just stand by and watch Hwapung Manor collapse like this.”
They had joined the battle against their will, but they had endured the war against Blood Heaven Fort. Along the way, Gwak Susan had witnessed the deep bonds shared by Hwapung Manor’s people.
Their martial strength was weak, and their martial arts lacked depth, but the loyalty and chivalry in their hearts were no less than those of any White Path martial artist.
Gwak Susan did not want to watch them simply fall into ruin.
Yet contrary to Gwak Susan’s hopes, not a trace of warmth entered Jin Sowoon’s voice.
“There’s nothing to do. They’ll be investigated, verified, and forced to live under surveillance.”
“…”
“Yes. If they wish to survive even that way, they mustn’t do anything foolish.”
Just as Gwak Susan was about to snap at Jin Sowoon’s words, spoken as though this had nothing to do with him at all…
-Society Leader.
Gwak Susan looked over at Ilgak and saw him shaking his head.
Fury instantly boiled up inside Gwak Susan, but they held it in for now.
They could not offer a better alternative.
Pop! Pop! Pop!
Jin Sowoon’s martial robes swelled, and the foul stench of alcohol spread through the air in an instant.
“I’ll speak to the Manor Lord.”
Gwak Susan felt deeply disappointed by how different Jin Sowoon seemed.
His actions were more than enough to make anyone frown, but beneath it all, Gwak Susan had always sensed an upright heart within him.
The Jin Sowoon they had seen during the regular examination, at the Academy, and in Mukrim had been a better person.
‘Was this all he was…?’
What he showed now was no more and no less than the hypocritical adult Gwak Susan despised.
There Gwak Susan was, composing themself as they cleared the empty bottles from the roof.
Children began gathering around Jin Sowoon.
“Those children…”
They were the children who had appeared carrying swords too large for their bodies when Blood Heaven Fort attacked, insisting they wanted to fight alongside everyone.
The same children who had clutched at trouser legs and begged to be allowed into battle.
“J-J-Jin, Hero Jin.”
A child who appeared to be their leader blocked Jin Sowoon’s path.
“…I-I have something I want to ask.”
Jin Sowoon only looked at the child, his footsteps heavy and still.
Even so, the child continued.
“Senior Sister… was she a spy? She wasn’t, right?”
The child’s voice was full of tears despite the attempt to sound composed.
“She wasn’t, right? The adults say she might have been a spy for the Black Path or those heretical martial artists… That’s a lie, right? Senior Sister… she didn’t enter Hwapung Manor to deceive us, did she?”
Like Song Yesul had done, the child bit down hard enough to draw blood while holding back tears. The other children covered their mouths and repeatedly wiped their eyes.
“Did she truly mean to deceive us? When she treated us like younger siblings, when she said she didn’t like sweets and gave them to us, when she apologized for us whenever we did something wrong… Was all of that a lie?”
“…”
Unable to hold back their emotions any longer, the child burst into tears.
“Am I saying this because I don’t understand the world? No, no… What kind of spy in this world acts like that?”
Strangely enough, the child’s cries stabbed again and again at Gwak Susan’s heart, even though they were not involved.
It was painful enough to make them want to turn away.
But Jin Sowoon, who had his back to them, did not move.
“Hwapung Manor… I truly love this sect, but is this place even valuable enough for someone to plant a spy here?”
“…”
“Please? Say something, Hero Jin! Senior Sister, who had sacrificed herself all her life, from my earliest memories onward! Senior Sister, who loved Hwapung Manor more than anyone else… Was she really a spy who learned dark arts?”
At that moment, Gwak Susan saw it.
Jin Sowoon’s hand, stroking the child’s head, was trembling violently.
The child fiercely slapped Jin Sowoon’s hand away.
“Was Senior Sister truly a spy?”
Jin Sowoon looked down at his rejected hand for a moment before answering flatly.
“I… don’t know.”
Then…
The trembling that began in Jin Sowoon’s hand slowly spread to his shoulders.
He murmured once more.
“I truly… don’t know…”
As he passed the children and headed toward the manor lord’s residence, Jin Sowoon’s shoulders continued to tremble faintly.
It looked as though he were desperately holding back tears.
#
“Do we not need to restrain Hwapung Manor’s people?”
Yong Soa answered Hwang Seoyul’s question.
“Jin Sowoon will speak to the Manor Lord.”
Hwang Seoyul tilted his head.
“Have you spoken to him since the matter with Miss Song?”
While holding Song Yesul’s corpse, Jin Sowoon had unleashed truly terrifying killing intent at Yong Soa.
It was difficult to believe that Jin Sowoon, who had shown such hostility, and Yong Soa had discussed what came next.
“We haven’t. I simply know that he’ll do what he must.”
Hwang Seoyul still did not understand.
“And how did you know Jin Sowoon would ask about why you joined us?”
On the way to meet Jin Sowoon at the Branch Leader’s request, Yong Soa had said something incomprehensible.
Then Jin Sowoon had asked the exact question Yong Soa predicted, startling Hwang Seoyul.
“…”
Of course, Yong Soa had no intention of telling Hwang Seoyul everything.
“I only expected it because I know his disposition. There’s nothing more to it.”
“Is that so?”
After watching Yong Soa for a moment, Hwang Seoyul asked, “Song Yesul… How did you know she had learned dark arts?”
“I suspected it, but I wasn’t certain.”
“Then why didn’t you tell us about your suspicions beforehand? We could have restrained her and brought her to the Martial Alliance for an investigation.”
“…”
Yong Soa, who had answered without emotion until then, hesitated.
“Yong Soa?”
“First, one cannot confirm such a person’s existence from the start. We didn’t know Heo Ilsik of the Black Officials was a spy until he revealed himself.”
“That’s true… It was an absurd method. Those dark arts were terrifying and sickening…”
Hwang Seoyul shuddered.
“Song Yesul… No, that dark arts practitioner’s target was Jin Sowoon, right?”
Originally, Yong Soa had no intention of preventing Jin Sowoon’s death.
Jin Sowoon was someone whose future could not be seen, an uncertainty that disrupted planned events.
Because Jin Sowoon had interfered in the matter of the Mount Mao Sect, an unforeseen future in which he would die had come into being.
It was a future Jin Sowoon had brought upon himself, a price he should bear in full.
If Yong Soa left him to die, the original course would continue.
“…That appears to be the case.”
Yet…
Yong Soa, who loathed spontaneity and uncertainty above all else, had endured both and saved Jin Sowoon.
Yong Soa did not know why.
Nor did he know why relief had come in that moment.
Perhaps he had hoped for something.
That hope was Gu Songbaek.
For the first time, events that had never happened before had occurred.
That incident had left Yong Soa deep in thought these past few days.
Perhaps those concerns had led to improper thoughts and actions.
It could not have been a change brought about by words or actions alone affecting the future.
Yong Soa had tried that countless times.
None of it had ever brought about a positive change, except for one moment involving Jin Sowoon.
“Why would that dark arts practitioner target Jin Sowoon of all people?”
That much was impossible to know.
Yong Soa only knew scenes from the future, not the truth behind the events.
Yong Soa needed to confirm whether Jin Sowoon truly was someone capable of changing the despairing future Yong Soa saw, just as he had changed Gu Songbaek’s future.
“I should get going.”
“Why all of a sudden?”
“I need to speak with someone.”
“With whom? Jin Sowoon? Forget it. Don’t you remember how many Azure Dragon Pavilion martial artists collapsed trying to pull him away from you?”
Or whether it had only been a coincidence, and Jin Sowoon would continue creating despairing uncertainties in the future.
“Jin Sowoon will come find me anyway.”
“What?”
To confirm it, Yong Soa had saved Jin Sowoon while taking on the risks of countless possible futures.
#
“People from the Martial Alliance’s Inspectorate will come.”
Only two days ago, Gong Somyeong had dreamed of a new future with shining eyes. Now, they looked at me with vacant, unfocused eyes.
“They’ll conduct an investigation, and you’ll undergo verification again. Song…”
Their hollow gaze felt like a deep, black swamp.
“They’ll focus their investigation on Miss Song’s background, but the other people of Hwapung Manor will also be investigated.”
It would have been natural for the Manor Lord to rage at such unfair, one-sided treatment. Instead, other than blinking now and then, Gong Somyeong did not take those empty eyes off me, as though none of it mattered.
“Even after the investigation ends, surveillance will continue for some time… No, perhaps for a long time.”
I had nothing more to say.
No, nothing came to mind that I could say.
Thinking I had listed nothing but despair too coldly, I deliberately added something else.
“Hwapung Manor doesn’t have a direct connection with the Martial Alliance, so the investigation and surveillance won’t be too severe. Once the verification is complete, you can return to your normal lives. You don’t need to worry about developing the gold mine either.”
After my long explanation, only a short reply came back.
“Is that so?”
“I see.”
It was a hollow, indifferent response, as though none of it mattered no matter how things turned out.
“…If you have any questions, I’ll answer as much as I know.”
Gong Somyeong remained silent for a while, then their dry lips moved.
“Was there no way other than killing her?”
“…”
It was what everyone who faced a Demon-Subduing Madman most wanted to know.
Yet no one had ever found another way.
I could not tell the truth.
What I knew was a truth discovered only after countless hopes and wishes had been crushed, after immense damage had occurred amid despair.
So I mixed a great lie into a small truth.
“It isn’t widely known yet, but there was a sect where hundreds died trying to return a Demon-Subduing Madman to normal.”
Gong Somyeong had also clearly witnessed the strange phenomenon caused by the Descending Body’s collapse.
The Manor Lord might be dissatisfied with my actions, but they could not deny that my response had been correct.
The Manor Lord’s question ultimately returned to the same point.
“…Was she that kind of child from the beginning, or did she go astray somewhere along the way?”
It was the same question the children had asked before I entered the manor lord’s residence.
Had they been deceived by a traitor from the beginning, or had the Manor Lord’s own mistakes turned the child into a traitor?
No answer to that question could avoid tearing apart the heart of the one asking it.
That was why…
I hid the truth only I knew once again.
“That hasn’t been determined yet.”
“…Is that so?”
Yet Gong Somyeong stared at me as though the answer lay with me.
“I promised I would stand in for that child’s parents at her wedding after she lost them.”
Unable to endure that gaze, I rose first.
“I’m sorry.”
Gong Somyeong did not stop me.
Until I left the office, their body did not move in the slightest, like someone whose soul had left them.
#
I left the manor lord’s residence and went straight to Yong Soa.
In one corner of the half-destroyed garden, he watched the carp in the pond.
“You saw what I was going to ask beforehand, didn’t you?”
“…”
“Or did that damned prediction of yours break down again?”
Yong Soa did not take his eyes off the carp.
“What do you think I fear most?”
“Fuck, how would I know?”
“Knowing the future.”
Yong Soa looked at me with those damned transparent eyes.
“The things I see are not toys that can be reversed, changed, and adjusted as I please.”
I remember everything I see, hear, read, feel, and smell.
Whether I want to or not, my perfect memory works involuntarily.
That was why I remembered the events of my previous life and knew better than anyone how this journey would end.
“Yong Soa, why are you so certain of what you see…”
And I knew better than anyone that the martial world had eventually fallen into the Demonic Cult’s hands in my previous life because of Yong Soa.
“You don’t even know what end awaits you…”
“You speak as though you know.”
“…!”
I realized I had slipped up, but acted as though nothing had happened.
Yong Soa’s voice broke the silence that followed.
“I was certain, until the matter of the Mount Mao Sect occurred.”
Something in his voice seemed to waver, and I found myself staring into his eyes.
His gaze had already returned to the pond.
“I did not spare Gu Songbaek because of Heo Gwanjung.”
“Then why?”
His gaze returned to me.
“Because of you, Jin Sowoon.”
The wind passed between Yong Soa and me.
“Gu Songbaek’s future changed.”
“Then that means…”
“If you mean to say that I was wrong, you’re too hasty. Do you think I’ve never tried anything until now?”
Even if it was an incomplete future, the ability to know the future was a supernatural power everyone would desire.
And from the moment someone gained that power, they would surely try to change the unhappy future they had seen.
Yong Soa would not have been any different.
“Even a small change to predetermined things brings changes to the future that spiral beyond control. No single person can bear all of that.”
That arrogant Yong Soa was speaking of overwhelming things that even he could not change.
Still, his explanation gave me no reason to let go of my anger.
“Then why didn’t you tell me beforehand?”
Yong Soa’s empty gaze met mine directly.
For some reason, a long silence followed.
I could not tell what that silence was for.
“You called it a Demon-Subduing Madman. If I had told you beforehand, would anything have changed?”
“…”
“If there had been a way, I wouldn’t have killed Song Yesul.”
My anger blazed like fire, yet the reality that left me unable to say anything made my chest feel as though it would burst.
“If there was no way, then my actions were still correct. And saving you, Jin Sowoon…”
Yong Soa suddenly closed his mouth.
Watching him move his lips, so unlike himself, I realized once more that he was still the same as he had been in my previous life.
“I had to do what I had to do.”
Yong Soa possessed every condition that made him impossible for me not to hate.
Footnotes:
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