Chapter 171: The Truth-2
Translator: RaidenTL
Chapter 171: The Truth-2
Anhui, night.
A woman visited the Murim Alliance.
Because her identity was beyond reproach, she was not stopped by any guards. Nor did they say a word about the "object" she carried on the A-frame carrier strapped to her back.
She entered a building.
The sign on the building read "Recorder’s Office." Perhaps because visitors were rare, a man inside was nodding off.
"What brings you here?"
Startled awake by the presence of another person, the man rubbed his eyes and asked. The woman silently held out her identification plaque.
The man’s eyes widened in surprise when he saw the plaque, but he quickly composed his expression.
"Show me the Alliance Register."
At the sound of her voice, which carried an indescribable weight of emotion, the man retrieved the requested volume from the archives.
As if driven by a desperate urgency, the woman opened the book right where she stood.
She began to read the records carefully from the beginning, but at a certain passage, her movements froze.
"No... it can't be..."
The woman stumbled out of the Recorder’s Office.
Left in the wake of the storm, the man stared blankly at the door through which she had vanished.
The woman left the Murim Alliance and walked aimlessly. The "object" resting on her carrier rattled with every step she took.
[Go to the Recorder’s Office. Check the register.]
Those were the words she had heard two weeks ago in Hanam, from an unexpected person she met at a bandit stronghold.
The moment she had seen that person’s face—a face that seemed devoid of all emotion—fury had surged within her, and she had attacked without hesitation.
After several exchanges of blows, her opponent had sheathed her sword, effectively declaring surrender.
The opponent asked what had happened in the meantime, and the woman had carved out the memories of that day, which had been piling up in her heart, and laid them bare.
With every word she uttered, her heart ached and burned.
Recalling the last moments of her disciple when he was still alive and moving, she had burst into tears and collapsed to the ground.
Her opponent, Cheong-yeon, had approached her cautiously and patted her shoulder with an awkward hand.
How long had she cried?
As her sobbing subsided, Cheong-yeon’s words, heavy with hesitation, fell upon So-yu’s head.
[Just think of this as me talking to myself.]
[Go to the Recorder’s Office. Check the register.]
Though they were far from being on good terms due to their eccentric personalities and their relationship through their masters, So-yu knew the other woman was not one to speak nonsense.
Clinging to that single piece of advice, So-yu had headed for Anhui, carrying her disciple on her back.
And today. Seeing the single line she found in the register, So-yu felt a wave of nausea.
"Urgh!"
Having left the city and reached a wide plain, So-yu could not suppress the churning in her stomach and vomited.
Since she hadn't eaten in days, only thick saliva came up, but she continued to retch as if trying to expel everything inside her.
Perhaps it was the last of her sanity she was throwing up.
After retching for a long time, she collapsed onto the ground, exhausted.
She loosened the shoulder straps and looked at In-ho, lying on the carrier.
"In-ho... what is all this...?"
She muttered hollowly, as if her entire world had crumbled.
*
One year later.
A woman stepped into a small bookstore.
Dressed in black martial robes with a white overcoat draped over her shoulders, she looked around the shop.
"Welcome."
The bookstore owner greeted the rare customer.
The owner approached the woman as she wandered through the shop, her hand lightly brushing the covers of the books.
"Are you looking for a specific book?"
"If I tell you, will you find it for me, shopkeeper?"
Though the much younger woman spoke to him with blunt informality, the bookstore owner replied genially.
"Yes. Just say the word."
"I am looking for the Cat-Masked Assassin. Is he not here?"
At the woman's question, the bookstore owner leaped backward and threw a hidden weapon concealed in his sleeve.
However, there was nothing where the weapon struck.
"It seems I’ve come to the right place. You’ll have to be my guide."
The woman snatched the bookstore owner by the scruff of his neck and dragged him toward the back of the shop.
After a brief clamor, silence returned. Ho-seong, the owner of the Black Market, closed his eyes tightly.
"What was bound to come has arrived."
To think she had found him in just one year. He felt a sense of awe at how much his opponent had grown in the blink of an eye.
There was no way out. He decided to accept his end calmly.
Thud!
With a heavy sound, the door swung open, and a wave of intense heat washed over his face.
Following the heat came the smell of burning flesh.
The reaper who had come to end his life was a woman with a serene face.
"Should I say it’s been a while?"
"I suppose so."
Ho-seong massaged his right shoulder with his left hand.
There was nothing below his right elbow.
"Have you come for revenge?"
When Ho-seong asked calmly, the woman let out a short, sharp laugh.
"Revenge... Yes, I suppose you could call it that."
The woman murmured, as if reminiscing about something far away.
"But before that... you have something to confess to me."
"Are you talking about the client? Give it up. I’m a dead man anyway... Aaaaagh!!!"
Ho-seong collapsed forward.
His severed left arm fell to the floor with a thud.
"I’ll cauterize it for you."
The woman’s palm pressed against the stump.
Sizzle—
The sound of searing flesh echoed through the basement.
"Gah... huff... ugh...."
Ho-seong felt as if thunder were crashing before his eyes.
As Ho-seong slumped forward in excruciating pain, the woman held a piece of paper before his face.
"This is the record I saw in the register last year. It doesn't matter if you don't speak. There are plenty of ways to find out... but if you talk, it will save me a lot of time."
"Ugh... even if I talk, what do I gain? I’m going to die anyway."
As Ho-seong spoke through gritted teeth, the woman offered a kind smile.
"Why would you gain nothing?"
With a face of infinite mercy, the woman spoke.
"I will let you die without pain."
Faced with an offer that left no room for negotiation, Ho-seong looked again at the record placed before him.
It was a record regarding the succession of an inherited martial art.
[Succession of the Flame Wheel Art]
Previous: Yeom-jin
Successor: Namgung So-yu
[Successor Disciple]
Previous: Namgung So-yu
Successor: Vacant, succession by direct disciple
"My master, who went to process the succession of the Flame Wheel Art... why did she not record In-ho’s name? And who are the bastards involved in this? Tell me everything you know."