Chapter 9
Chapter 9
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Translator: Vine
Chapter: 9
Chapter Title: Sorting Out the Branch Ranks!
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Yang Rim explained as we walked to the warehouse attached to the kitchen.
“Our Dong-ro Branch has three teams. Team One's leader is the Branch Master, and Team Two's is the Vice Branch Master. The leader of Team Three died recently while providing support to the Hangzhou branch. The woman who started working in the kitchen is his wife.”
He kept explaining things I hadn't even asked about.
“Teams One and Two each had five members, and Team Three had four, but one person from Team Two and one from Team Three died.”
Yang Rim looked at me.
“If you have any questions, feel free to ask.”
“Are you always this talkative?”
“My apologies.”
Yang Rim blushed, but he didn't look offended.
Yang Rim handed me a set of yellow light armor, the uniform for branch members. A round patch was sewn onto the left chest, embroidered with the words 'Martial Alliance Dong-ro'.
“Choose any weapon you like.”
“I don't need one.”
“Don't tell me that black thing is your weapon.”
“It is.”
“You intend to use that in a real fight?”
“Brother Yang.”
“Yes...”
Yang Rim flinched when I addressed him as a brother.
“What's next?”
Yang Rim was flustered, understanding my unspoken command to stop the useless chatter.
“Ah... you already have a Martial Alliance medallion, so that's fine, and you said you'd use the wooden sword...”
“Where are my quarters?”
“Ah! Follow me.”
I walked outside, holding the Fire Dragon Sword in my left hand.
***
The Dong-ro Branch consisted of five buildings surrounding a central courtyard. Each team used one, and the other two housed the kitchen and dining hall, a warehouse, and a separate annex.
The building with the Branch Master's office was Team One Hall. Team Two had Team Two Hall, and I was assigned to Team Three Hall.
Yang Rim had me wait in the Team Three common room and called the three members of the team.
“The Branch Master has appointed this man as a branch member and assigned him to Team Three. Greet each other.”
A gentle-looking, slightly chubby young man in his mid-twenties smiled and clasped his fist.
“Deng Bo. Let's get along.”
A petite young man in his early twenties with pretty, almost girlish features, smiled brightly and clasped his fist.
“I'm Yeon Cheong. It's a pleasure to meet you.”
His voice was as thin and soft as a blade of grass.
I just stared, not even nodding my head.
The last one, a large man in his late twenties with a beard like a chestnut burr, sat with his legs crossed, glaring at me with displeasure.
“You should state your name first.”
“Hahaha! This man has lost his memory, you see. So...”
I cut off Yang Rim's hearty laugh.
“Where is my room?”
My meaning was clear: I had no need for introductions to the members of Team Three.
I left the common room without looking back at their stunned faces.
“That bastard!”
The chestnut burr's sharp cry came from behind me.
With guys like him, you have to establish the pecking order clearly.
When I slowly turned around, the chestnut burr was glaring at me, his face contorted.
I spoke quietly.
“You have a problem?”
The chestnut burr's lips twitched, and his Adam's apple bobbed. He was clearly swallowing the words he wanted to say.
“If you have something to say, say it to my face. Don't mutter behind my back like a rat.”
“A rat? Muttering?”
The chestnut burr flared up, but when I shot him a sharp glare, his face turned red and pale.
He must have seen me break both of Jung-gon's legs, which was why he couldn't act on his temper.
“Understand?”
“...”
The chestnut burr's face flushed as if it would burst.
“I asked if you understood.”
The chestnut burr shot to his feet.
“Agh! Dammit! I can't take this anymore!”
He strode outside.
“Get out here, you bastard! Let's fight!”
I like his personality.
He was a hot-blooded man, a different breed from the sly and despicable Jung-gon.
***
Challenging me after seeing how thoroughly I crushed Jung-gon meant the chestnut burr was confident he was stronger than him.
Either that, or he was a madman itching to get a bone broken.
Just the members of Team Three—me, the chestnut burr, Yang Rim, Deng Bo, and Yeon Cheong—went to the riverbank behind the annex.
Facing me, the chestnut burr tapped the great saber slung over his shoulder and spoke with his glaring eyes.
“I'll be using this. I'll wait for you to get your weapon.”
“Come at me.”
The chestnut burr's dark, thick eyebrows furrowed.
“Is that a wooden sword?”
“Yeah. It is.”
“You're really going to use a wooden sword?”
As I nodded silently, his expression turned complex before he drew the great saber from his shoulder.
*Shhhring!*
“Hmph! I don't care if you use a wooden sword or a pair of chopsticks!”
The chestnut burr pointed his great saber at me.
“The loser becomes the subordinate. Agreed?”
I liked this guy's personality, but his talkativeness was a flaw. I absolutely hate talkative people.
“Anything else to say?”
“Get ready.”
His willingness to attack only after his opponent was ready showed he was fundamentally different from Jung-gon.
“Attack.”
I didn't draw the Fire Dragon Sword, but the chestnut burr didn't need to be told twice.
*Fwoosh!*
The chestnut burr shot straight and fast toward me, then suddenly launched himself into the air.
It was such a swift change in attack that an ordinary person would have believed he was continuing his charge on the ground.
Moreover, for a man half again my size to leap seven feet into the air in a single bound was no easy feat.
Deng Bo, Yeon Cheong, and Yang Rim watched with sweaty palms. Seeing the chestnut burr's reckless momentum, they probably thought he might actually beat me.
The chestnut burr plunged diagonally from the air, bringing his great saber down in a heavy arc.
*Whoosh! Whoosh!*
It wasn't a simple downward slash; he swung with dazzling complexity, aiming for four spots on my upper body.
‘Just let my body move!’
I now trusted the fact that my body would react on its own in a real fight.
First, I'll focus on dodging.
I could counterattack immediately, but I wanted to confirm my evasive reactions first.
As the chestnut burr descended, slashing with all his might, his great saber again looked far too slow.
Just moments ago, his saber had been incredibly fast, but the instant I resolved to fight, it slowed down.
It wasn't that his saber had slowed; my eyes had gotten faster.
I could also clearly foresee that he would follow up with a somersault, attacking the crown of my head, the back of my head, and my left shoulder in the process.
He tucked his chin and prepared to kick off the air—the preparatory stance for a somersault. That much I could understand.
But how I could predict that he would then attack the crown of my head, the back of my head, and my left shoulder was still a mystery to me.
With both feet planted on the ground, I moved only my head, upper body, and waist to evade the first series of attacks.
*Swish! Swish!*
Then, I looked up to confirm his next move.
Just as I'd predicted, he was somersaulting, unleashing three consecutive slashes at the crown of my head, the back of my head, and my left shoulder, when he noticed me staring right at him and flinched.
Moreover, when our eyes met, his widened.
‘What the...?’
*Thud!*
As he descended, the chestnut burr twisted his body to land on the ground facing me.
Just then, he saw a black object cutting straight toward him and hastily blocked it with his great saber.
*Clang!*
The black object—the Fire Dragon Sword—effortlessly snapped the great saber in half and shot toward the chestnut burr's head.
“!”
Startled, the chestnut burr squeezed his eyes shut and froze like a statue.
“Aah!”
“Incredible!”
Yeon Cheong and Deng Bo let out cries of astonishment.
When nothing happened after a moment, the chestnut burr cautiously opened his eyes.
He saw me and Yang Rim walking back toward the Dong-ro Branch, and his face crumpled.
As I walked, a faint, satisfied smile touched my lips.
‘That, too, was with only thirty percent of my power.’
It meant that thirty percent was more than enough to deal with low-level opponents like Jung-gon or the chestnut burr.
The chestnut burr looked at the broken saber in his hand and the severed piece on the ground.
From five or six yards away, I heard him mutter.
“Why didn't he strike me?”
Deng Bo's voice was full of awe as he spoke.
“If he had, Brother Dam, your head would have been split open, and you would have died instantly.”
It was a wooden sword that had split a great saber in two; it was obvious what would happen if it hit someone's head.
“He didn't want to kill you, Brother Dam. He didn't kill Jung-gon from Team Two either, did he?”
Instead, he had broken both of Jung-gon's legs. But with the chestnut burr, he had only broken his saber, leaving his body unharmed.
From that, the chestnut burr must have grasped my intentions.
He, on the other hand, had been so desperate to win that he had only aimed for his opponent's vitals. He felt something like an awl digging into his heart.
He remained standing there long after Deng Bo and Yeon Cheong had left.
***
How was I supposed to make sense of this?
Normally, I couldn't recall a single martial art I'd learned, but as soon as a fight started, they would just unfold.
But even as I used them, I had no idea what techniques they were. My body simply reacted.
It could be because my opponents were low-level martial artists, so I didn't need to use any advanced techniques.
So, after much deliberation, I made a decision.
I would accept reality and stop racking my brain over this issue.
This was a decree from the heavens for me to become the strongest in real combat.
And I would live my life like a real battle!
***
Dong-ro was a small county with a population of only about thirty-five thousand, but it was a geographically important area, so both the Ten Heavens of the Unorthodox Path and the Demonic Emperor's Grand Union had branches there.
The Orthodox, Unorthodox, and Demonic paths each followed different principles, but as the saying goes, birds of a feather flock together. The Ten Heavens and the Grand Union didn't cooperate, but they didn't obstruct or provoke each other either.
As a result, the Martial Alliance was the common enemy of both the Ten Heavens and the Grand Union.
The Dong-ro branch of the Demonic Emperor's Grand Union held sway in Dong-ro County, and the Dong-ro branch of the Ten Heavens tacitly accepted it.
This made the Martial Alliance's Dong-ro Branch an easy target. The branches of the Grand Union and the Ten Heavens were five times and three times larger, respectively, in both size and influence.
***
“Brother Ak, we're being dispatched.”
Deng Bo had come to fetch me. Yang Rim had told the branch members my new name was Ak Bi-ryong.
It was my first mission, just two days after becoming a member of the Dong-ro Branch.
I got up from my bed, slung the Fire Dragon Sword over my shoulder, and went out.
Yesterday, I had found a suitable saber sheath in the warehouse that fit the Fire Dragon Sword and tied it to my shoulder to use as a scabbard.
Deng Bo and Yeon Cheong flanked me, with the chestnut burr following behind. Yesterday, Deng Bo had told me the chestnut burr's name was Dam Geum-hu.
Team Three had no leader, but there was an unspoken sentiment among Deng Bo, Yeon Cheong, and Dam Geum-hu that I was their leader.
Deng Bo tilted his head.
“This never used to happen. I don't know why they're suddenly acting like this.”
“Brother Deng, is the entire Dong-ro Branch being dispatched?”
“No. It's just our Team Three.”
“Just Team Three?”
Yeon Cheong looked a little surprised at Deng Bo's words.
***
The location was a tavern in the center of Dong-ro County, run by the wife of the Vice Branch Master and Team Two Leader.
When we arrived, people were pouring out of the tavern.
I stood outside while Deng Bo and Yeon Cheong went inside to see what was going on.
Dam Geum-hu stood tall behind me, looking as if he were my escort.
He had proposed that the loser of our fight become the subordinate, and it seemed he was trying to keep his word. I didn't really care one way or the other.
The people who had come out of the tavern when we arrived hadn't left; they were gathered in front, murmuring amongst themselves.
From what I could overhear, they seemed to have been kicked out while eating, without any explanation.
Anyway, quite some time had passed, and Deng Bo and Yeon Cheong still hadn't come out, so I went in myself.
*Rustle!*
As I approached the entrance, Dam Geum-hu quickly lifted the beaded curtain for me.