I Shouldn't Have Joined the Martial Arts Alliance - Chapter 17

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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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Chapter 17 — Pointless Entry into the Murim Alliance
The carriage bearing the Sacheon Dang Clan’s colors traveled without rest for two hours, maintaining an unhurried pace. At this speed, they could have reached the clan by morning, but there was no urgent need.
The two carriages marked with the Sacheon Dang Clan’s pennants headed toward an inn where Dang Yiryeong and the members of the 11th Unit could spend a comfortable day.
The carriage came to a halt before an exceedingly elegant establishment.
The 11th Unit members descended with racing hearts, their eyes immediately drawn to the carriage ahead.
They prayed Sa Urin had come through unscathed. Or rather, that both of them had.
“……They look perfectly fine?”
No raised voices erupted as they disembarked, no harsh words exchanged between them, and the poison showed no signs of having done any lasting damage.
“……I know.”
“It makes no sense…….”
Hadn’t Dokwha specifically forced Sa Urin into that carriage? Surely something catastrophic should have occurred.
This was Dokwha, after all. The legendary Dokwha.
Unless Sa Urin had wronged Dang Yiryeong so grievously that she’d grown horns——
“How are they so intact?”
Crack!
Jang Hyein struck Hyechan across the back of his head.
“Ow! What was that for?”
“Why would you ask that? Of course they should be intact.”
“But…….”
They’d all clearly said in the carriage that the youngest wouldn’t be!
“Still, there’s something……odd about the atmosphere?”
The eyes of all the 11th Unit members widened like torches igniting.
“Now that you mention it…….”
It truly did seem strange, didn’t it?
Dang Yiryeong, usually unrestrained, now appeared demure, while Sa Urin carried himself with the bearing of a man standing tall.
“That is……how should I put it.”
“It looks like the youngest really held his own?”
“Yes! That’s it. That bastard actually stood up to Dokwha!”
“Senior, but what exactly did he stand up to her about?”
“Kid, you know, at night when a man and a woman——”
Crack!
This time Taein’s head took the blow.
“Ow! Why me?”
“Is that all that fits in that skull of yours?! You damned fool.”
“I was just trying to explain it simply, make it easy to understand.”
“Men, truly. Tsk.”
“Chi. When they were happy, they——”
“Is this a time for jokes, huh?!”
“Because the youngest looks fine, we felt relieved.”
“Fine? I see nothing fine about it.”
Looking at the situation, the members weren’t wrong.
“You see that?”
“Yes. Look with your eyes——can’t you see? That’s clear proof the youngest caused some kind of trouble.”
In other words, Dang Yiryeong had made her move against Sa Urin as usual, but Sa Urin had not simply accepted what she dealt him.
“Exactly. There’s no way Dokwha would look so utterly feminine otherwise. You can see it clearly. By anyone’s measure, the youngest is the victor.”
“Victory——spare me that nonsense, truly.”
Captain Jang Hyejin’s thoughts didn’t end there.
“Would Dokwha be Dokwha for nothing? Please, don’t go around without a head on your shoulders. Huh? You fools.”
Even Hyungjun, who had been quiet until now, spoke up.
“That’s right. The captain’s got a point. If Dokwha really was bested by the youngest, she wouldn’t just leave it at that. If, by sheer bad luck, Dokwha harbored malice and——”
“If she harbored malice and——what?”
“Ran straight to her father and told him everything the youngest did, what calamity might befall him then? We don’t know what he actually did, but——”
“……If that happened……”
“……We would be……!”
Every member of the unit trembled.
The thought was unbearable.
The reward would vanish like dust, and they would likely be thoroughly marinated in hundreds, thousands of the poisons the clan prided itself on, leaving the clan only to emerge as withered bones, little better than walking corpses.
And that would be the merciful outcome.
“Stop speaking such ill fortune. Let’s head in ourselves.”
Under the guidance of the guards, Dang Yiryeong and Sa Urin were entering the inn.
“Ah, I wish we were heading back to the Branch Office.”
“Me too.”
“To think the road to collect a reward could be the road to the underworld.”
“Damn it.”
“I opposed bringing him in from the moment the leader suggested it.”
“Me too.”
“This is all that bastard Seo Wouchan’s fault.”
If Seo Wouchan hadn’t chased after Main.
If Seo Wouchan had just stayed out of that gambling house.
…….
Seo Wouchan, whose body hadn’t fully healed yet, was drowning under a barrage of stares as sharp as killing intent.
And only then did the scene before them come into focus.
“……Wow!”
“……Is this…….”
“Amazing.”
“……We’re really going in there?”
It was an extraordinarily luxurious inn pavilion that soared toward the heavens themselves. This wasn’t the first time they’d seen such a fine establishment.
Around the Murim Alliance, there were quite a few inns of this caliber. But they’d only ever glimpsed them from afar, never daring to approach the entrance.
To enter an inn of this standard, one needed to be at least a Major Master Rank, or possess the rank of Clan Leader or elder.
More than mere title, though—it came down to having enough coin to eat, drink, and lodge in an establishment of this quality.
Which meant that even a unit leader, let alone a common martial artist, wouldn’t dare attempt it.
“Say, look over there for a moment.”
“……Oh!”
Everyone’s jaws drop except Jang Hyejin. Saliva drips from between their lips.
All because of the women greeting guests at the entrance.
Every one of them a beauty. Compared to Jang Hyejin, they showed no sign of lacking. And the clothes they wore?
Skirts so tight the women’s bodies showed through. Not content with displaying deep cleavage, the garments were split wide open at the thighs.
It was plainly obvious that any man worth his salt couldn’t possibly tear his eyes away.
Jang Hyejin shakes her head slowly.
“Look at you calling yourselves men. Sigh. Aren’t you going in?!”
“……W-we should head in.”
“Let’s go. Come on.”
By now, whatever Dang Yiryeong had done and whatever Sa Urin had done had long been erased from the minds of the 11th Unit members.
And they were savoring this moment as though it were their reward itself.
But there was one thing Jang Hyein and the unit members didn’t know.
Just moments before, their destination had been abruptly changed to this place.
* * *
“Wow!”
“Amazing!”
“……A separate pavilion!”
“Are we really staying in a place like this?”
“Incredible luck. Incredible!”
It wasn’t merely a meal and lodging within the inn proper.
Every luxury inn maintained separate pavilions. Beyond the inn’s interior, through carefully manicured gardens and ponds, past surroundings so pristinely beautiful that merely walking through them cleared the mind, stood several pavilions set apart and pristine.
This inn was no exception.
Luxury inns charged far more than ordinary ones, but the separate pavilions cost several times that price.
The 11th Unit members, guided by a beautiful woman, fell into rapture as though they’d entered paradise itself.
“Dinner will be served presently. Please enjoy the garden scenery in the meantime.”
Jang Hyejin answered on behalf of the members, whose mouths hung open in slack amazement.
“Yes, of course.”
Jang Hyejin and her unit members stood in a pavilion that seemed fit for immortals and heavenly maidens. Though the others, half-delirious with wonder, didn’t notice, Jang Hyejin had sensed something amiss the moment they entered the separate pavilion.
So she turned to ask the martial artist who had been guarding Dang Yiryeong below the pavilion.
“Where is the unit member who went ahead of us?”
That was it—Sa Urin was nowhere to be seen.
Only then did the rest of the unit notice that their youngest member was missing.
“Huh? That’s right.”
“He went in first, didn’t he?”
“Yeah, he did.”
“So where is he?”
Dang Yiryeong’s guard, who had been standing below in the garden, opened his mouth to speak.
“That friend of yours just entered the Separate Pavilion with the young lady.”
‘Inside the pavilion?’
“……Why do you ask?”
“That, I’m afraid I cannot say. I’ve only been ordered to see that you all rest comfortably here.”
Jang Hyein’s head tilted in confusion. But the other members of the unit wore knowing smiles.
“You don’t mean……?”
“Seriously?”
“Are you talking about that?”
“Yeah. What else would they be doing in there?”
Jang Hyein, lost on the implication, asked for clarity.
“What do you mean?”
“You know, that thing we were talking about in the carriage.”
The guard stationed beneath the pavilion was within earshot, so they couldn’t quite bring themselves to spell it out.
“……You don’t mean that? When he……?”
Jang Hyein couldn’t finish the sentence either.
“Yeah, that.”
“You bastards—thinking about that now, at a time like this?”
But even as she said it, something clicked into place.
‘……Really?’
It was absurd, something she’d never have believed……
Yet there was Dang Yiryeong, composed and demure as she’d always been. And their youngest, carrying himself with a masculine confidence their earlier remarks had unveiled.
The fact remained: just the two of them—Dang Yiryeong and Sa Urin—had slipped into the pavilion alone.
One guard was posted here below the pavilion, while the other two waited at the pavilion’s entrance.
Jang Hyein’s head tilted again.
‘It doesn’t make sense……’
No matter how she reasoned it, the current situation painted exactly that picture.
They’d been alone in the carriage, and now they were openly shut away together in the pavilion.
Even knowing how unlikely it all was, she couldn’t dismiss the possibility—nor could she ignore what it might mean between a man and a woman.
“I’m losing my mind.”
“So am I.”
“Me too.”
It was envy speaking.
Whatever her temperament, Dang Yiryeong was still the youngest daughter of the Sacheon Dang Clan leader. And wasn’t she the most beautiful woman in Sacheon itself?
If—just if—Sa Urin were to become intimate with her, and they married……?
He would ascend to a seat of tremendous power in a single stroke.
How could anyone not envy that?
If things unfolded that way, neither Jang Hyein nor the others would have reason to object. To be connected to Sa Urin—or rather, to the son-in-law of the great Sacheon Dang Clan—was no small matter.
And yet.
“Something feels wrong.”
Jang Hyein’s instinct insisted otherwise. But with no way to explain the current situation, she felt only frustration.
Moments later, food arrived—so much of it the serving tables nearly buckled under the weight. Premium spirits flowed freely as well.
“Wow!”
“This is incredible.”
“I could die happy after this.”
The members of the 11th Unit fell to eating with abandon.
But then.
“Leader, aren’t you eating?”
“Don’t mind me. Just eat.”
“How can we eat when you’re sitting there like that?”
Yet they were clearly gorging themselves all the while.
“Stop complaining and finish what you’re doing. Now!”
“……Right, of course.”
Regardless of Jang Hyein’s unease, the unit members savored every delicacy laid before them.
Then, shortly after, the youngest—whom Jang Hyein had been watching for—finally emerged.
Alongside Dang Yiryeong.
Relief bloomed across Jang Hyein’s face in a smile. Though she didn’t fully understand why.
She opened her mouth, her expression bright with warmth.
“Sa Urin, you’re back. Come eat with us.”
But the words she’d been waiting to speak were cut short.
“No, thank you. Please, continue your meal. It seems Sa Urin and I still have matters to attend to elsewhere.”
In that instant, Jang Hyein’s brow furrowed. The members of the 11th Unit, who had been savoring the sweetness of wealth and glory, pulled back from it, if only for a moment.
“……What do you mean by that?”
They were doing this to make a living, after all. Whatever it was, as long as they could eat, what difference did the work make?
“And, I’m sorry, but it seems you’ll need to stay here for a while.”
“……What? Aren’t we supposed to go to the Clan tomorrow?”
“That was the original plan, yes. But things have changed suddenly.”
“Changed suddenly……?”
Dang Yiryeong cut off Jang Hyein’s words and continued.
“A bloodstorm is coming to our Clan, so you’re to wait here for now. Well then, I’m afraid I must go.”
With that, Dang Yiryeong turned and left the Inn at once.
Sa Urin followed close behind.
“……?”
Struck by the sudden turn of events, both Jang Hyein and the members of the 11th Unit were left speechless.
A bloodstorm coming to the Sacheon Dang Clan…….

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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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