The Agreement (2)
To be honest, Danmok Jin was getting impatient.
That impatience had taken root during the evaluation spars he'd privately dubbed the placement exam — because the gap between the original novel he knew and the reality unfolding in front of him was staggering.
Why the hell has the plot gone this far off the rails? Is this a reincarnator's butterfly effect?
"GRAAAAAAH!!"
Baek Woohyeok, who by now should have been nothing more than Third-class, had snapped the limbs of a reasonably well-known rising talent.
"KYAAAAH!!"
And then he'd gone and beaten Jegal Hui — one of the original's heroines, a direct descendant of one of the Five Great Noble Clans.
Steel screamed against steel.
And that wasn't even the end of it.
"...I lost."
Namgung Cheon, the novel's protagonist, was no less alarming in his martial prowess.
A low, resonant hum rolled through the air.
"Hah...! Sword energy!"
When Namgung Cheon manifested sword energy — the very hallmark of a Peak Realm master — Danmok Jin was struck speechless with shock.
"Hm? Young Master Danmok?"
"Ah... my apologies. I was so startled I made a fool of myself for a moment."
"Well, it's understandable. Reaching the Peak Realm at around our age — he truly lives up to his reputation as the greatest rising talent in the Murim, the eldest young master of the Namgung Clan."
"Hahaha... indeed."
The shocks had come so fast and so hard that he'd even forgotten the dignified-heir-of-a-prestigious-clan act he'd been maintaining so carefully until then.
Is this really a butterfly effect...?
No matter how he turned it over, too much of it refused to add up as a butterfly effect of his own making.
What the hell went wrong?
In the end, Danmok Jin came down with the classic reincarnator's disease: anxiety over a reality that had diverged from the story he knew.
Is there another reincarnator besides me? ...Or was everything I remembered just a delusion?
Then I have to redo my plans from scratch. I have no idea where else the plot might split. The Demonic Cult's schemes might even move up...
Feeling the urgency, Danmok Jin revised his plans at speed.
"This is it! The Wise Guide to Cheonryong Academy Life: Final Edition!"
First priority:
"Snatch up the fortuitous encounters and raise my martial prowess fast. I don't want to get killed off for being too weak in a world where the power balance is already shot!"
Which, of course, meant securing the opportunities that would elevate Danmok Jin's own strength.
"Shall I start by properly mapping out the Dragon Vein? I'll be using it a lot from now on, after all..."
And so, on the first day of Cheonryong Academy's semester proper, following the "absolutely badass revised edition" he'd written, the results came in immediately.
"Hah. So it was you after all... tsk."
Danmok Jin found himself face-to-face with Namgung Cheon, who was radiating a sinister killing intent at him for reasons he couldn't begin to guess.
"Whoa. It's been a while since I've been here too."
And then he came face-to-face with the warped Baek Woohyeok of the Yellow Springs — the one who'd even acquired the terrifying epithet of Blood Wolf.
"Hahaha... Baek Woohyeok, was it? I enjoyed watching your sparring match the other day. Running into you here of all places — what a coincidence."
Danmok Jin was doing his best to play his usual self. Inside, though, his mind had already gone white.
Yeah. I'm fucked.
Which is why he failed to catch the peculiar undertones running through Namgung Cheon and Baek Woohyeok's words.
A regrettable thing, really.
Danmok Jin himself used to call it his "ordinary civilian side," didn't he? For a man once praised as a hero of the Murim, he'd had a surprisingly timid streak. That had been early in the war, of course — he'd grown more and more like a proper martial artist as the years wore on.
Having once been his friend, I knew his personality well.
That bastard's scared shitless right now.
From where I stood, Danmok Jin was clearly terrified.
Then again, I'd be scared too if some guy I'd never even properly spoken to was dripping killing intent all over the place. Of course, if Danmok Jin brought out everything he was hiding, he wouldn't fall far behind even Namgung Cheon, a Peak Realm master.
But Danmok Jin's got next to no real combat experience at this point.
For a clan heir who'd never seen a real fight, the killing intent Namgung Cheon was pouring out would be overwhelming. This was killing intent steeped in a grudge deep enough to turn back time, after all. The way the air around Namgung Cheon felt unnaturally gloomy wasn't just my imagination.
"Tsk."
Namgung Cheon clicked his tongue at my sound transmission.
He answered via sound transmission as well, then reeled in his killing intent.
That said...
He really has been lonely for a long time, hasn't he. He's spilling everything surprisingly easily.
Was this the sense of kinship between fellow regressors?
"Anyway!"
Setting aside those peculiar thoughts, I started wrapping up the situation. If I didn't start talking first, they'd just keep measuring each other forever.
"Looks like we all came here for the same reason... right?"
"Hmph."
"Mm."
The two of them nodded quietly. Internally, they seemed to have been hoping I'd take charge of this.
Tsk... should I just stir the pot here?
That'd be entertaining, sure.
But if I poke them the wrong way, this turns into a death match on the spot.
This wasn't the time for that.
"Look, I'm not gonna ask how you found out about this place. I don't want to answer that question myself, and neither do you."
"...Fair enough."
"Agreed."
The way to resolve this standoff was actually pretty simple.
"We all skipped the first class to come here, so none of us wants to make a scene... How about we just come to an agreement among ourselves?"
A little mutual compromise, the orthodox way — that should do it, right? Not that there was a single genuine orthodox martial artist among us, but anyway.
"...Tsk. I don't like it, but it's the best option."
"Mm! I wanted to resolve this through dialogue from the start. There's neither need nor reason for one person to monopolize the Dragon Vein."
Namgung Cheon grimaced. Danmok Jin brightened. Both nodded in agreement with me.
"In that case, I'll go first—"
"Weren't you the last one here, you maggot?"
"Tsk... this demonic bastard keeps saying shit that makes me want to cave his skull in."
"Haha. I thought so at the entrance ceremony too — you two actually get along rather well, don't you?"
"Danmok Jin just talked nonsense, so he can concede a little extra."
"Fine."
"...What?"
And so the three-way Dragon Vein Accord began in earnest.
Baek Woohyeok slowly surveyed his surroundings.
Namgung Cheon and Danmok Jin had long since left. By the terms of their agreement, Baek Woohyeok had won the first chance to use the Dragon Vein.
"...Good. Looks like they actually left."
In truth, circulating energy together wouldn't diminish the Dragon Vein's effects in the slightest. Even so, the three of them had deliberately chosen to use it separately.
The reason was simple. Not one of them trusted the others.
If someone were interrupted mid-circulation, the consequences for a martial artist could be fatal. Baek Woohyeok, Namgung Cheon, and Danmok Jin didn't have the kind of trust that would let them put their lives in each other's hands. And they might never develop it, for the rest of their lives.
Namgung Cheon's goal is plenty sinister as it is...
Baek Woohyeok knew Namgung Cheon's goal and his past, so he couldn't trust him. Hell, the man might snap at any moment, draw his sword declaring he'd become the protagonist, and revert to his Evil Sword Demon days.
And Danmok Jin...
He didn't particularly trust him either. They'd once been friends, but that was before the regression — back when he'd known nothing. Now that he knew the secret Danmok Jin had been hiding, trusting him didn't come easily.
Besides, the only people Baek Woohyeok had ever given unconditional trust were his family — the Black Tiger Unit. He wasn't the type to show weakness to people who weren't family.
"Hmm... this spot looks good."
Having found a good place to circulate his energy, Baek Woohyeok picked up some nearby stones.
"So... this one goes here, this bastard goes here, and the last one goes here..."
Placing the stones on the ground in the prescribed pattern, he completed a simple formation that would conceal his presence. It was a simplified formation Jegal Hui had taught him before the regression.
Back then, every member of the Murim Alliance knew this formation, but...
That wasn't the case now. Jegal Hui had personally devised it during the Orthodox-Demonic War to raise the survival rate of orthodox martial artists.
"Hoo..."
Settling into the center of the formation and crossing his legs, Baek Woohyeok closed his eyes.
A deep, resonant hum. Inner energy began to flow, vast and unhurried, circulating through every meridian.
I let out a long breath and slowly opened my eyes. Looking up, I found the moon had already risen.
This really is something else.
The Iron-Blooded Yama Divine Art already excelled at accumulating energy. Add the Dragon Vein's effects on top of that, and my inner energy had visibly increased in a single day.
At this rate...
It looked like I'd reach my target realm faster than I'd expected.
I stood up, dusted off my rear a few times, and dismantled the formation. Then I pulverized the stones that had served as its medium. I didn't want to give those two any excuse to figure it out.
Of course, Namgung Cheon had still had connections with the Murim Alliance before the regression — he might already know about the formation.
Just in case...
Better to be as careful as possible.
"Tomorrow's Namgung Cheon's turn, huh?"
Well, in that case, maybe I should actually attend class tomorrow. I didn't have any urgent fortuitous encounters to chase, so that might be the better play.
Having roughly made up my mind, I unfurled my lightness skill and headed for the dormitory. I could definitely feel that my inner energy was more substantial than it had been this morning.
"Hm?"
Just as I was leaving the forest that hid the Dragon Vein, I spotted someone standing in the moonlight.
"Ah, Woohyeok. You're finally out."
It was Jegal Hui. The swelling in her face had long since gone down.
"What, were you waiting for me?"
I asked, just in case.
"I was. Skipping from the very first class — is that even acceptable?"
The answer I expected came back.
"How'd you know I was here?"
"Young Master Danmok told me."
Figured as much.
Is that guy trying to get close to the Five Great Noble Clan kids this time around too?
Then again, the rising talents from the Nine Great Sects had enrolled in a different cohort than ours.
What a joke.
The Nine Great Sects and the Five Great Noble Clans were competing for dominance over the Orthodox Murim — and yet they hated letting that competition show on the surface.
All that pride, for what?
Which is why the Nine Great Sects and Five Great Noble Clans strictly staggered their enrollment at Cheonryong Academy by cohort. If the Five Great Noble Clan heirs enrolled this round, the Nine Great Sects' rising talents would enroll in the next, and so on. It was possible because the age limit for enrolling at Cheonryong Academy was more generous than you'd think. Jegal Hui herself was older than me, after all.
Anyway.
"So, why were you looking for me?"
I asked why Jegal Hui had bothered waiting for me this late into the night.
"Hmm..."
She slowly waved the white folding fan in her hand, a sly smile spreading across her face. True to the Jegal Clan, it suited her better than I'd expected.
"I got word from my father."
Huh?
"He's coming to see me tomorrow."
No way.
"And while he's at it, he wants to meet the unidentified rising talent who beat me in the sparring match — the Blood Wolf."
"Haaah..."
He was showing up a lot sooner than I'd expected.
Just how much does this man love his daughter?