I Shouldn't Have Joined the Martial Arts Alliance - Chapter 15

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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Why did I pointlessly join the Murim Alliance? Chapter 15
‘The Sacheon Dang Family struck Unyeol Gate? And after that, they’re searching for me?’
There had to be a connection.
So was Unyeol Gate truly a branch of the Demonic Cult? But even if it were, how did the Sacheon Dang Family discover that fact? And why would they come looking for me?
Jang Hye-in had informed both Gaebang and the Sacheon Dang Family that a Demonic Being was loose. If that was the case, hadn’t the Sacheon Dang Family simply captured the fleeing Demonic Being?
It made no other sense.
Eventually, that Demonic Being must have talked.
‘……But why me?’
Why would they search for me?
‘A routine investigation, perhaps?’
This was bad.
They’d captured a Demonic Being and uncovered a Demonic Cult branch, dismantling it. The Murim Alliance would certainly recognize such a feat, and word would spread across all of Baekdo—that much was certain.
Which meant the Sacheon Dang Family had accomplished something truly remarkable.
‘But would they really…….’
Did Dok-hwa have any reason to come this far?
To call her Dok-hwa was generous; she was a lunatic, plain and simple. One wrong move around her and you’d pay dearly. That unease gnawed at me.
“This is aggravating.”
Still, with Dok-hwa having come directly, I couldn’t just sit idle. I had to move.
Jang Hye-in rose from his seat and headed outside. Everyone in the office followed him.
Sa U-rin as well.
As we emerged, the other team members had already gathered to admire Dok-hwa’s face.
‘These fools.’
What was there to gawk at?
Truth be told, judged by appearance alone, Jang Hye-in was no match for Dok-hwa. Moreover, as time passed, Jang Hye-in was aging while Dok-hwa was only twenty-three. She would grow more beautiful with the years.
As for looks, the competition was already settled.
Jang Hye-in lowered his head in courtesy toward Dok-hwa. Since she was of the direct lineage of the Sacheon Dang Family, technically she outranked him.
“What brings you here?”
“…….”
But Dok-hwa’s lips didn’t move at all.
‘……This woman…….’
Even someone as accomplished as Dok-hwa shouldn’t behave this way!
When someone showed courtesy, shouldn’t the other person return it?
Jang Hye-in wanted nothing more than to slap her across the face, but he knew better than anyone that he couldn’t afford to.
‘Damn it.’
“Um…….”
Dok-hwa finally spoke, cutting off Jang Hye-in’s words.
“There’s poison in this place.”
“……?”
‘Poison?’
Poison?
There couldn’t possibly be poison here.
And yet, these were the words spoken by a direct descendant of the Sacheon Dang Family—the foremost masters of poison in all the realm.
Caution was warranted.
She had said poison, after all.
At Dok-hwa’s words about poison, the team members startled and began scanning their surroundings. Jang Hye-in was equally alarmed.
“……Poi, poison?”
“Where, where is it?”
Dok-hwa slowly moved her gaze. Then she spoke again.
“A highly lethal poison.”
A highly lethal poison?
That meant danger.
A lethal poison was one that could cause fatal internal injuries or death merely from breathing it in.
All the team members held their breath. Yet Dok-hwa’s gaze continued to move.
Dok-hwa’s eyes swept across the assembled members of Squad Eleven. Instinctively, without thinking, they parted to make way.
Then, her gaze stopped. It fixed on Sa U-rin. Dok-hwa looked up at him.
“I never expected to find such a poison hiding in a place like this.”
The members of Squad Eleven and Jang Hye-in stood dumbfounded.
‘……Is that poison?’
‘U-rin is poison?’
‘That crazy woman!’
But Jang Hye-in found himself nodding without quite realizing it.
‘That’s right. Poison. Pure poison.’
From a woman’s perspective, calling Sa U-rin’s face poison was no exaggeration.
And the most lethal kind at that.
What was equally absurd was that Sa U-rin seemed entirely oblivious to it.
“Poison?”
‘And he’s dropped the formal speech, too?’
There were few in the Gangho who dared speak to Dok-hwa herself in casual tones. Yet this man before her—younger, no less, and merely a junior member of the Murim Alliance—spoke to her as he pleased.
Either he had audacity, or he lacked all sense.
Perhaps both.
But there was something else.
When Dok-hwa called herself poison, everyone reacted with shock. But Sa U-rin alone remained unshaken. Dok-hwa caught this detail immediately.
It had to be one of three things.
Either he hadn’t heard her words, or he was the sort of man who faced death without flinching, or—he was simply mad.
The last possibility, though, troubled her most.
Even as he met her face, his gaze never wavered, never faltered.
‘Could he be indifferent to women?’
There was no other way a man could stand so unmoved before her beauty.
It was unheard of.
At least one thing was certain: he was a rare sort of man.
“Don’t you know who I am?”
“Do I need to?”
He’d heard at the bureau chief’s office that she was Dok-hwa of the Dang Family. But hearing a name wasn’t the same as truly knowing a person, was it?
‘This is amusing.’
Dok-hwa turned her gaze toward Jang Hye-in, who offered a response.
“…A new recruit, ma’am.”
“Even so.”
For someone not to know her in Sacheon Province—it made no sense whatsoever.
Jang Hye-in, uncomfortable, directed his words toward Sa U-rin.
“Youngest…”
“I simply don’t know because I genuinely don’t know.”
‘I know, of course I know…’
Yet Jang Hye-in couldn’t understand why this clever man was acting like this now. Come to think of it, hadn’t he behaved the same way when Jang Hye-in had sought him out at the gambling den to recruit him?
Why did he have to do this now, of all times?
“Well, then, at least let me…”
Dok-hwa cut off Jang Hye-in’s words.
“No, never mind.”
A man who wouldn’t yield before her, who spoke in casual tones, who said exactly what was on his mind—such a man was a novelty, a refreshment to her.
To redirect Dok-hwa’s attention away from Sa U-rin, Jang Hye-in spoke again.
“But may I ask what brings you here, ma’am?”
“Ah, I lost focus for a moment. The Head of the Family has ordered me to bring all members of the Sunyeong District branch.”
“All of us? Might we ask why?”
“Have you heard word from the Unyeol Gate?”
“We heard something just a short while ago.”
“Then you understand—thanks to this Sunyeong District branch, we’ve managed to destroy one branch of the Demonic Cult entirely.”
“Ah. So we’ve captured him then? That’s excellent. I’ve been quite sorry we let him slip away.”
Dok-hwa’s head suddenly tilted to one side.
“Let him slip away?”
Letting him slip away meant you’d fought the man, and he’d escaped during the battle—didn’t it?
That made no sense.
Who was the opponent?
The Heavenly Demon’s second son, Hyeok U-hyeok, and his bodyguard. What’s more, the bodyguard protecting Hyeok U-hyeok was an exceptional master. A single guard could have sent all the warriors of the Sunyeong District branch to the grave and back again.
So how could they have let him escape?
‘…Damn.’
Jang Hye-in sensed there was something else at odds with what he thought he knew.
“Ah. I think I understand what you mean.”
The Unyeol Gate’s master had mentioned finding a Demonic Being’s corpse—a body bearing dozens of sword wounds.
“The branch chief said the man he spoke of was already dead.”
“…Dead?”
If he was already dead, then how did the Unyeol Gate ever learn he belonged to a Demonic Cult branch?
“Then… how…?”
“The Gaebang told us. Said the Heavenly Demon’s second son had appeared. So we captured him.”
‘…The Heavenly Demon’s son?’
This was no ordinary matter.
“Then the Sacheon Dang Family has him now…?”
“No. We released him. In exchange, we obtained one of the Demonic Cult’s branch offices.”
“I see.”
Typical of the Sacheon Dang Family—masters of Sacheon Province and pragmatists to the core.
If they’d kept the Heavenly Demon’s son as a hostage, what would happen? One misstep could spark an Orthodox-Demonic Great War.
Of course, as long as they didn’t kill him, such a thing wouldn’t occur. But still.
There was no point in holding the Heavenly Demon’s son if they had no intention of executing him.
A branch office of the Demonic Cult made for a far better prize.
“Thanks to your efforts, our Dang Family has achieved considerable merit. The Head summoned you all so he might bestow some small reward upon you.”
“Ah, yes.”
His anxiety finally eased. Now he understood why the formidable Dok-hwa had come all this way in person.
The corners of Jang Hye-in’s mouth curved upward of their own accord.
‘Ah, that lucky bastard.’
Without Sa U-rin, things would never have unfolded this way. U-chan would be dead, and the unit would still be in the dark.
And just now—hadn’t that formidable Dok-hwa shown interest in Sa U-rin?
‘If somehow…’
The thought kindled an unexpected irritation.
‘Wait… why…?’
“There are carriages waiting outside. Shall we go?”
“Ah, yes. Thank you.”
Two carriages stood ready. One would naturally be for Dok-hwa’s departure.
Every member of the unit climbed aboard, fantasizing happily about what their reward might be.
당이령 opened her mouth without even stepping into her carriage.
“Hey, you.”
She pointed at Sa U-rin.
“Me?”
Ju-un, standing beside him, jabbed Sa U-rin sharply in the ribs.
“Ow, what?”
“Jeez, come on.”
“Come on what?”
“No… nothing.”
He couldn’t fathom how this idiot had lost all sense of caution, spouting casual speech at Dok-hwa so freely. It made no sense.
His worry was that Sa U-rin might upset the apple cart with a reward waiting to be claimed.
The only saving grace was that Dok-hwa didn’t react at all.
“You. Ride in this one instead.”
“Why?”
“That one’s cramped. This one has space.”
Sa U-rin saw what lay before him.
Even without him and Ju-un, the first carriage was already packed. As the youngest members of the unit, they would have had to sit on the floor.
There was no room for hesitation.
Sa U-rin’s feet carried him unhesitatingly toward Dok-hwa’s carriage.
“…Seriously?”
Ju-un felt a sudden spike of frustration.
Treated like this just because of a pretty face…?
Ju-un had no choice but to settle himself on the cold floor of the other carriage.
* * *
“Fascinating.”
Dok-hwa tilted her head this way and that as she spoke to Sa U-rin.
“What is?”
“Usually when someone stares at you like this, people either avoid your gaze out of discomfort, or they say something dismissive. But you—you don’t enjoy the attention, and yet you sit there so unfazed. How do you manage that?”
From the moment the carriage departed, Dok-hwa had been seated across from Sa U-rin, boring her eyes into his face.
“I experience it often enough.”
Being this handsome had its drawbacks, after all.
“Ah. So you’re good at arrogance too.”
“…It’s not arrogance. I was simply stating the truth.”
“Hey.”
“What?”
‘I’m going mad.’
This is too amusing—I might actually lose my mind.
Where did this creature crawl out from? By now, Dok-hwa should’ve figured out who she is, yet she’s still so brazen about it.
No—brazen isn’t even the word. She’s actually trying to win.
“How old are you?”
“Eighteen.”
“I’m twenty-three. That makes me five years your senior. So naturally, you should be speaking to me with proper respect, shouldn’t you?”
“You know as well as I do that age means nothing in the Gangho.”
“Exactly. But I’m direct blood of the Sacheon Dang Family, and you’re just some foot soldier of the Murim Alliance.”
“Exactly.”
“……?”
“You’re Sacheon Dang Family, and I’m Murim Alliance. So I have no reason to defer to you.”
“…….”
‘What kind of nonsense is this?’
Technically speaking, the Nine Sects and One Gang and the Five Great Clans stand above the Murim Alliance.
The Sacheon Dang Family is one of the Five Great Clans.
Which means the Sacheon Dang Family clearly stands above the Murim Alliance.
‘Is he an idiot?’
No, he doesn’t seem to be. There’s something unshakeable about his confidence.
‘But how?’
How could anyone stand before the direct heir of the Sacheon Dang Family, before someone as striking as Dok-hwa herself, and radiate such steadfast assurance?
The curiosity is maddening.
“Hey, you actually think you can beat me?”
He looks like he’s just riding on his face, nothing more.
“Yeah.”
“Yeah?”
“That’s right.”
‘……Is he actually insane?’
“I mean, do you really think you can beat me in combat?”
“Are you deaf? I just told you I could.”
“You did?”
“Irritating as hell.”
‘……Something seems off about him…….’
She couldn’t tell which was his true self.
And that’s what made it fun. Really fun.
But there were limits to her amusement. Dok-hwa wasn’t the sort to sit idle while some foot soldier of the Murim Alliance held his head high before her, boasting that he could best her.
No—she’d been raised this way. In an environment where everyone naturally bowed before Dok-hwa.
So she wanted to make this fun moment even more interesting.
“You’ll answer for those words.”
The moment Dok-hwa finished speaking, she hurled something toward Sa U-rin that she’d always kept ready at her waist.
Her lips curling into a smile as she did.

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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