The Silver Token (9)
“Hero Wei. I’m truly grateful. Thanks to you, it feels like I’ve shed ten years of worry.”
The Hao Sect Leader looked up at me with a refreshed face, as if a decade-old burden had finally been lifted from his chest. He must have suffered quite a bit at the hands of those traitors.
“Since I’m clearly being compensated for this, it’s only natural that I do what needs to be done.”
“Haha, Hero Wei is humble as well.”
The Hao Sect Leader gazed at me with a bright expression, the sort that comes when long-held frustration finally dissolves. He must have been tormented considerably by the traitors.
“Thanks to you, we’ve dealt with the traitors in a single stroke, so the internal reorganization should go smoothly. Once the cleanup is finished, I’ll deliver the information you want, Hero Wei, along with this silver token.”
“Silver token?”
I hadn’t known about anything like that.
When I examined the object the Hao Sect Leader held out, I saw a silver plaque embossed with the character for five.
“...What exactly is this used for?”
“Present this token at any pleasure house or inn, and you’ll receive the Hao Sect’s assistance without any additional procedures. If necessary, you can also use our safe houses scattered across the Central Plains by showing it.”
Perfect for moving around unnoticed.
“Thank you. I’ll be returning now, so please finish organizing things and send someone to the inn with all the information on locations suspected to be Demonic Cult branches.”
“Understood.”
Time to head back.
I stripped off my blood-soaked outer robe, opened the door whose lock had been destroyed, and stepped outside.
Fortunately, there were no signs of Demonic Cult reinforcements.
Well, from their perspective, they probably thought catching a mere Hao Sect didn’t require committing many people.
No matter how strong the Demonic Cult was, they couldn’t outnumber the martial artists of the Central Plains in raw numbers. They must have been trying to operate with a small but elite force.
“...Hah.”
The Hao Sect Leader would do his best to bury what happened tonight, but eventually word about me would reach the Demonic Cult’s ears.
Which means I need to smash everything I can before they learn about me.
I organized a simple plan in my head as I made my way back to the inn.
“Mister!”
“You’ve returned, Benefactor.”
“Anything happen while I was gone?”
Just in case, I grabbed Hye-ryeong by the shoulders and looked her over. She stared back at me with a rare expression of bewilderment.
“M-Mister?”
“Nothing happened. Good.”
After all, there was no way the Demonic Cult could have known about me and come here. They hadn’t even recognized our existence in the first place.
“Benefactor, did everything go well?”
“Cleaned it up nicely.”
It hadn’t been anything special. The Demonic Cult members they dispatched to a place like this were usually only at the Peak level at best. The situation would have been completely different if a Super Peak expert had shown up, but it didn’t seem like they had the resources to spare one.
They had suffered a crushing defeat in the war several decades ago, and it had taken them decades just to recover from that. While Peak experts were one thing, I knew the Demonic Cult only had around ten Super Peak experts in total. Having nearly ten Super Peak experts was already a terrifying level of strength for a single faction, but conversely, it meant that out of all their numerous members—enough to rival four or five major orthodox sects combined—only ten were at the absolute top tier.
Moreover, this was around the time when the Heavenly Demon had not yet reached the Deification realm, so their manpower would be even more precious. That meant that for at least a year… I could shake down Demonic Cult branches like a fish in water without anyone coming to stop me.
I had to plunder everything possible and make sure they wouldn’t even have the strength left to wage war. Just keep them holed up in Tianshan forever.
“That’s a relief. Young Lady Hye-ryeong was so worried she kept staring at the door the entire time.”
“You were that worried?”
“Of course I was!”
“You know I’m not the type to go around getting beaten up.”
If anything, they should be worried about someone getting beaten to death by me.
“Still, worry is worry, isn’t it?”
“Yeah, yeah. Can’t be helped. But don’t worry too much. If there’s one thing I’m good at, it’s surviving. I’ve walked out alive even after being surrounded by twenty thousand enemies.”
Of course, I hadn’t been alone back then—the knight order had been with me.
“Benefactor… you really have lived quite an eventful life.”
“Twenty thousand sounds like way too much exaggeration, doesn’t it?”
“It’s not exaggeration, it’s the truth. The knight order was with me at the time, though.”
“Knight order?”
Hye-ryeong tilted her head, hearing the term for the first time. I suppressed the urge to pinch her cheek and kindly explained.
“It’s the name for a unit made up of elite cavalry.”
“You were a cavalryman, Mister?”
“Didn’t I mention it before?”
“Maybe you did…”
I wasn’t sure if I had told her or not. Come to think of it, I probably hadn’t spoken much to Hye-ryeong about my past. I wasn’t the type to bring up old stories without good reason.
“Anyway, they were the elite of the elite. The lowest-ranked members were at the end of First-class, and those at the top were all at the peak of the Peak realm.”
Europe’s strongest knight order.
The Butchers of God.
The Demons of Steel.
The titles once used to describe us still lingered in my mind. I had heard them so often they were practically nailed into my ears.
…But after a single defeat we were completely wiped out, so all those records are probably buried in the sand by now.
It felt empty.
“...Mister?”
“Benefactor, are you all right?”
“Ah, I’m fine. Just got lost in old memories for a moment.”
I loosened my clothes and lay down on the bed. I could feel both of them staring at me intently, but relieving my fatigue took priority. After blinking a few times while staring at the ceiling, I spoke.
“Sleep well.”
“...Sleep well, Mister.”
“Rest well, Benefactor.”
I quietly drifted off into dreams.
“Mister, are we heading back to the Wulin Alliance Headquarters now?”
“Not sure.”
“...Are we stopping somewhere first?”
Why was she looking at me with such an anxious face?
“Benefactor, aren’t you pushing yourself too hard?”
“If I push myself a little, I can thoroughly plunder the Demonic Cult.”
I answered while recalling the information about suspected Demonic Cult branch locations that I carried in my chest. It couldn’t be called one hundred percent reliable, but since it was information the Hao Sect had carefully gathered over a long period, it shouldn’t be entirely wrong. It would be best to calculate how much profit I could gain from this information and move accordingly.
“But…”
“Hye-ryeong, Mok-gyeong. This is exactly the time to move if we want to reduce their strength efficiently.”
“But it’s dangerous.”
“Life is always a series of dangers.”
Ever since I was possessed in this damned medieval era, there hadn’t been a single moment in my life that wasn’t dangerous. The martial world had actually been so peaceful that it almost made me lose my edge; it had felt like a long vacation.
But now was the time to move.
“...Still…”
“If you’re that worried, you can come along too.”
“Huh?”
“The fastest way for a martial artist to raise their realm is through life-and-death battles.”
“Benefactor, isn’t that too dangerous an approach? For Young Lady Hye-ryeong to take on such risky work…”
“I’ll do it! No, I’m going to do it!”
…Hmm.
I watched Hye-ryeong glare at Mok-gyeong with fire in her eyes. Was her pride hurt? While Mok-gyeong and I had realms disproportionately high for our ages, Hye-ryeong wasn’t exactly a weak martial artist herself.
“You’re the one who said it.”
“I’ll follow you all the way to the Demonic Cult!”
“That might be a bit much.”
Her enthusiasm was a little too strong. Maybe I shouldn’t have said anything.
I left the fired-up Hye-ryeong alone and looked at Mok-gyeong. He met my eyes with an expression not much different from usual.
“...I naturally intend to follow as well. In the end, revenge requires shedding blood.”
“Even though they aren’t the targets of your revenge?”
“If I turn a blind eye to evil simply because they aren’t my personal targets, innocent people will surely suffer.”
Now that was some main-character-level dialogue.
Ah, right. He is the protagonist.
“Anyway, that means we’ll be raiding every suspicious location along the route to Wuhan.”
“Wouldn’t it be better to go to the Wulin Alliance Headquarters and request support?”
“No. If the Wulin Alliance moves as an organization, things will get too big.”
Explaining that I bought information from the Hao Sect and was raiding places would be troublesome. The Hao Sect was officially treated as part of the unorthodox factions, so if someone like me—who was treated as an orthodox practitioner—admitted to receiving their help, it would definitely cause talk. Besides, the Demonic Cult must have planted one or two spies in the Wulin Alliance by now. Rather than risk information about me raiding their branches leaking out, it was simpler for the three of us to handle it while also training the kids.
Or… I could bring just one person who could verify our activities.
There should be an Open Sect branch around Xiping.
“Kids, let’s go. Our next destination is Xiping.”
“Xiping? That’s the city further down, right?”
“That’s right.”
“It will probably take about two days.”
“Then we’ll go.”
After roughly organizing the plan, I unfolded my lightness skill and raced along the endless official road.