Chapter 714: How Can You Judge the Weight of a Life?
Translator: RaidenTL
Chapter 714: How Can You Judge the Weight of a Life?
"What on earth do you think you're doing, Great Matriarch!"
Cha Do-jin raised his voice, his shout echoing through the room.
His face was flushed deep red. One look was enough to tell that he was seething with rage.
"I am sorry. But I felt a smooth conversation would be impossible otherwise," Joo So-yang replied, looking at him with a pained expression.
"What kind of 'conversation' requires me to be forcibly restrained!"
"If I didn't, you would simply keep making excuses and look for a way to escape."
Joo So-yang continued with a gentle smile.
"Am I wrong?"
"……"
Hearing those words, Cha Do-jin fell silent. Her assessment wasn't exactly incorrect.
"Let me go," Cha Do-jin requested, trying to suppress his rising bile.
"I decline."
Joo So-yang rejected his request flatly, without a moment's hesitation, as if it weren't even worth considering.
"If you won't release me, I'll break them by force."
Cha Do-jin’s face crumpled into a scowl as he uttered the threat.
"Do as you wish."
Joo So-yang maintained her beautiful smile. Her attitude was a blatant provocation, practically daring him to try.
You think I can't?
Vrooooooom.
Cha Do-jin began to concentrate his internal energy. He circulated it through every single acupoint in his body.
A tremendous surge of vitality flooded his frame. His physical capabilities spiked exponentially.
Grip.
"Hmph!"
Feeling the surge of power, Cha Do-jin grabbed the chains binding his feet. He began to exert his full strength, intending to shatter the metal links constricting his legs.
"Hrrngh!"
Unfortunately, his wish was not so easily granted. No matter how much he strained, the chains didn't even budge. Instead, the sheer pressure began to make his palms ache.
Drip. Drip.
Soon, the skin on his palms peeled away, and blood began to trickle down.
Dammit!
Cha Do-jin realized the truth. He didn't have the strength to break these chains.
"It's no use. Those chains are forged from Ten-Thousand-Year Cold Iron," Joo So-yang said in a soft voice, watching his struggle.
"Why are you doing this to me!" Cha Do-jin screamed, his face filled with a sense of injustice.
"I told you. It's so we can have a smooth conversation."
Joo So-yang continued, a small smile playing on her lips.
"I promise you. If the Gyebang Hall Master cooperates, I will release you without any harm."
She stared at Cha Do-jin with a steady, unwavering gaze.
"……"
Cha Do-jin met her eyes in silence, seemingly lost in thought.
"……Fine."
He finally spoke, yielding to the situation. He couldn't break the chains on his own anyway. How could someone like him break Ten-Thousand-Year Cold Iron, the hardest metal in the Central Plains? Even a master of the Ascension Realm would find it a daunting task.
"Thank you for understanding."
Joo So-yang looked satisfied. Even though his "understanding" was forced through coercion, she didn't seem to mind at all.
Understanding, my ass.
Cha Do-jin cursed inwardly. How could she talk about "understanding" when she had just threatened to keep him bound if he didn't listen?
"Hall Master Cha."
Joo So-yang’s smile vanished as she addressed him.
"I heard an interesting story. Would you like to hear it?"
"……Go ahead."
Cha Do-jin spoke tentatively, his expression tense.
"There was a man. He was the head of a household—poor, but blessed with a wife he loved and a precious child. The man worked hard every single day. He wanted to send his son to an academy, and he hated that his wife had to earn money by doing chores for other families."
Joo So-yang spoke in a perfectly calm, detached tone.
What is this?
Cha Do-jin looked bewildered. He couldn't understand her intention behind bringing up such a story.
"But despite his efforts, nothing changed. His son still couldn't go to the academy, and his wife continued to work in other people's homes. No matter how hard he worked, his monthly salary remained the same. The man began to look for ways to make more money. His home was happy, but the lack of funds meant he couldn't provide an education, and he felt guilty for making his wife suffer."
Whether she noticed Cha Do-jin's confusion or not, Joo So-yang simply continued her tale.
"Then one day, someone made him a proposal. They promised him a large sum of money if he did them a favor. The man hesitated. While he welcomed the chance to earn money, the request was incredibly dangerous. But in the end, the man accepted. He did so on the condition that his safety would be absolutely guaranteed."
"……"
"But in the end, he died. The person who made the proposal never intended to let the man live from the start."
"I suppose they were silencing the witness," Cha Do-jin remarked flatly.
"Exactly. They created a situation where he had no choice but to die, burying the truth along with him. All to ensure their plan went off without a hitch."
"Tsk, tsk. What a foolish man. If it were me, I would never have accepted such a dangerous offer. No matter how good money is, nothing is more important than one's life."
Cha Do-jin clicked his tongue. He thought the man was incredibly stupid. How could anyone entrust their life to a mere verbal promise? In the Central Plains, where no one could be trusted, such a naive mindset was a death sentence.
"You blame the man, Hall Master. Not the one who deceived him."
"The Murim is a place where you can't trust a soul, even in a mountain of knives and forest of swords. Maintaining such a naive outlook in the Murim is no different from praying for your own death."
"Is that so? I disagree. I believe the one who deceived him is the one at fault."
Joo So-yang’s expression remained calm.
"The head of a household carries a heavy burden of responsibility. And that weight can sometimes paralyze one's rational judgment. The person who made the proposal exploited that man's sense of responsibility."
"If he's responsible for a family, shouldn't he be even more cautious?"
"Are you married, Hall Master?"
"……I am still single."
"Then you wouldn't know. You wouldn't understand the heart of a husband and father who wants to do anything for his beloved wife and child."
"If it makes one so foolish that they lose their ability to judge rationally, then I have no desire to marry."
"You insist to the end that the victim is at fault for being deceived."
Joo So-yang smiled as if amused.
"The one who is deceived is at fault. How can a naive mind survive the harsh winds of this world?"
Cha Do-jin spoke with conviction. He truly believed it. The fault lay with the one who was fooled, not the one who did the fooling. If the man had handled himself properly, would he have fallen for such a pathetic trick? He was deceived and killed because he was lacking and incompetent.
"……"
Joo So-yang stared at him in silence. Her gaze was chillingly indifferent.
"Hall Master Cha."
She finally spoke his name slowly.
"Do you know who that man was?"
"The man who was silenced? I have no idea. I don't keep such idiots in my circle."
"Hwang Sam."
Joo So-yang’s eyes flashed coldly.
"That was the name of the culprit who was summarily executed for colluding with a Public Enemy of the Murim."
She continued, her smile as cold as the bitter northern wind.
"He was also a man who was sacrificed by a lowly, horrific plot—a head of a household, a husband to a wife, and a father to a child."
Whoosh.
Suddenly, a massive aura began to ripple from Joo So-yang’s body. It instantly filled the entire room.
"Ugh!"
A pained groan escaped Cha Do-jin’s lips. He couldn't withstand the crushing pressure weighing down on his entire body.
"Cha Do-jin."
Joo So-yang looked at him.
"Did you really have to do that?"
"W-what are you talking about…"
"Did you really have to kill him like that?"
Joo So-yang glared at him with eyes of pure ice.
"It… it's a misunderstanding… Great Matriarch… I… never…"
Cha Do-jin denied it. He claimed he had done no such thing, that it was all a misunderstanding.
"Liar."
Joo So-yang cut him off with a hollow voice. It was a lie not even worth listening to.
"You told Hwang Sam to impersonate Jang Sam. Then you urged your friend, the Black Tortoise Hall Master, to confront him. You used his rigid personality to ensure he would kill Hwang Sam. Am I wrong?"
"It… it's a misunderstanding… How could I… do such a thing…"
"Isn't it obvious? To maintain that pathetic power of yours."
Joo So-yang’s expression was frozen in a mask of coldness.
"Didn't you want to incite the public into believing Jang Sam was the mastermind behind everything? You staged this whole thing because you wanted to make the Cheonmu Alliance look like an absolute victim, didn't you?"
"T-that… that is…"
Cha Do-jin began to stammer. He was flustered by how perfectly Joo So-yang had grasped the Cheonmu Alliance's intentions.
"You deceived Hwang Sam, you deceived your friend, and you deceived the public. And yet, you say the one who is deceived is at fault? Is the act of trusting someone so cheap to you?"
Joo So-yang was furious. She felt nothing but contempt for Cha Do-jin’s rotten values. Hwang Sam had trusted him because he was the Gyebang Hall Master—a leader of the Cheonmu Alliance, which supposedly neither looked at, listened to, nor acted upon anything that wasn't chivalrous. How could he have known such a man would silence him to bury the truth?
His friend, the Black Tortoise Hall Master Jin-gang, must have trusted him as well. Because they were long-time friends, he must have believed Cha Do-jin had his best interests at heart. But all he received in return was betrayal. Cha Do-jin had discarded their trust and manipulated them like puppets.
How could she not be enraged? He was trash. Trash so disgusting that just looking at him made her stomach turn.
"……"
Cha Do-jin remained silent, his mouth clamped shut. He realized that the truth was out. She knew everything—that he had used Hwang Sam to orchestrate this crisis, and that he had used his friend Jin-gang to silence the witness. He didn't know how to respond in such a situation.
"……It was all… for the Alliance."
Cha Do-jin finally spoke. Since the truth was out, he decided it was better to admit it and try to justify his actions.
"If I hadn't done this… trust in the Alliance would have plummeted."
He looked at Joo So-yang with a defiant gaze.
"And if trust falls, it becomes impossible for the Alliance to secure resources and bolster our strength for the Great War of Righteousness and Demons!"
"So you build a false trust by sacrificing an innocent man? Is that your definition of justice?"
"The Demonic Cult! They are a foe so powerful that we cannot even hope to win unless everyone stands together with one heart and one mind! In such a situation, how could I let anything diminish our strength! I had no choice!"
"Are you saying his sacrifice was justified?"
"It was! By his sacrifice, many more can be saved! One man died so that thousands of lives could be spared!"
Cha Do-jin invoked the "greater good." He framed it as an unavoidable sacrifice for the sake of everyone, to save countless people.
"How arrogant," Joo So-yang said, her voice cold.
"How can you judge the weight of a life?"
Her expression was as frigid as a winter storm.
"How can you say one life is worth less than thousands? Who are you to justify the sacrifice of the few for the many?"
Joo So-yang raised her voice to a shout. Her disgust and contempt for Cha Do-jin, who spoke of people as if they were expendable chess pieces, had transformed into pure rage.
"People are not chess pieces whose value can be measured in numbers! The weight of a life is the same! Whether it's hundreds or thousands, they cannot be heavier than the life of a single person!"
Joo So-yang screamed, emitting a terrifying, murderous aura. Cha Do-jin’s face began to turn a sickly, dark hue as the full force of her killing intent washed over him.