I Shouldn't Have Joined the Martial Arts Alliance - Chapter 42

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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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Foolishly Entering the Murim Alliance — Episode 42
Jang Hye-in did not respond to Patrol Captain Jo In-jun’s ridiculous remarks.
Honestly, such incidents were commonplace in the Murim Alliance. If a woman had even a halfway decent face, the men around her were bound to flock to her.
Especially those in the upper ranks. It was all too frequent for them to use their position and power to seduce the attractive female martial artists, enjoy themselves thoroughly, and then discard them.
Why would such things happen so often?
Because even if a report reached Hyungdang and Hobeobdang, there was always something exchanged between them, so they turned a blind eye to each other.
Absurdly enough, like cogs meshing perfectly in a gear system, the whole corrupt cycle ran smoothly.
So Jang Hye-in couldn’t simply do as she pleased. Not unless she threw everything away and acted recklessly.
So she merely told the team she would conduct the Martial Contest according to the method the captain had set, and came to the lodging where Team 11 stayed.
The team members leapt to their feet upon hearing their captain’s words. Among them, Seo U-chan was the first to speak.
“The captain really said that to you?”
Jang Hye-in nodded with a deeply despondent expression.
“Yeah.”
“And you just left him like that?”
“Then what? I can’t do anything about it. What would you do?”
She wasn’t high-ranking enough, and even if she set aside her position and fought him, he wasn’t an opponent she could match.
He was plainly a captain. One couldn’t reach the position of captain without attaining the rank of Supreme Master.
So martial strength was no answer either.
“I guess… there really isn’t anything we can do. Still, I figured a captain like you would come out swinging hard.”
“Have you ever seen me act recklessly without thinking things through?”
“Well, you do have quite the temper…”
“What kind of temper? What do you mean? Do you really think I’m some kind of madwoman?”
He wasn’t the only one who saw her that way, though.
“No… that’s not what I meant…”
“Want to die? Huh?”
Just as Seo U-chan was about to get knocked down, Hyung-jun stepped in.
“What the hell did that captain bastard take bribes for to act so blatantly unfair?”
“I don’t know either.”
It was impossible to know.
In-hyuk added his own words to the mix.
“Maybe it’s not that he took bribes, but that the Namgung family’s influence is stronger than the Dang family’s?”
“…Well, that’s not an impossible theory.”
Jang Hye-in kept coming back to the fact that the youngest member Sa U-rin’s mother was the eldest daughter of the Jang family.
Because of that, she thought the Dang family might have eased off on their support for them.
Hyung-jun interjected again.
“What if we told Dang I-ryeong about this?”
“No. The Dang family already pulled strings for us, and if we don’t accept that and complain about nothing, we’d be destroying their trust in us with our own hands.”
“Now that you mention it, that makes sense.”
Then Sa U-rin suddenly shifted her steps toward the door. Seeing this, Jang Hye-in was startled and stopped her.
By now, she knew the youngest member Sa U-rin well enough.
“Hey, hey! Where are you going?”
Sa U-rin stopped mid-step and turned her gaze toward Jang Hye-in.
She looked at Jang Hye-in as if to ask why she was being held back. So Jang Hye-in, thinking her assumption might be wrong, asked instead.
“If you’re looking for I-ryeong…”
Recently, Sa U-rin sometimes searched for Dang I-ryeong. The reason being that she was hard to spot.
Dang I-ryeong, who had always stuck close by her side, had taken Jang Hye-in’s advice to heart, and now there were increasingly frequent moments when she slipped from Sa U-rin’s notice.
“No, that’s not it.”
“Then what?”
“If I make him spit out what he swallowed, won’t things go back to the way they were?”
Jang Hye-in’s brow furrowed deeply. She’d known it. The team members around her felt the same way.
“…What? So you’re saying you’re going to the captain right now?”
“Yes.”
At Sa U-rin’s matter-of-fact response, the team members’ jaws dropped.
“Insane!”
“This is driving me crazy.”
“U-rin, please stop!”
“Why is she like this, really?”
“How many times did I tell you that here, you absolutely cannot act on your whims the way you did back in Sacheon!”
“Hey, someone grab U-rin!”
At Jang Hye-in’s command, the team members moved quickly to seize Sa U-rin, whether by grabbing her clothes or latching onto her pant leg.
But.
Whoosh, whoosh, whoosh.
“Damn it.”
“Hell.”
“For crying out loud.”
“Please, just—”
Sa U-rin moved with such fluid grace that they couldn’t even graze the hem of her robes. They’d hoped. They’d thought maybe. But no.
“This won’t work. Block the door instead.”
At that, the Team 11 members bolted toward the entrance, positioning themselves in front of it with the desperation of people whose livelihoods hung in the balance.
“You can’t leave.”
“Absolutely not!”
“You’re not getting out.”
“Not for anything.”
“You’d have to walk right over me!”
“…Wait. You’re not actually going to step on me, right?”
“Ah. …Scratch that. U-rin, forget I said that.”
“Anyway, you’re not going!”
“That’s right!”
This wasn’t just principle—their jobs were on the line.
So Sa U-rin spoke.
“Do you really think I can’t get past you all like this?”
Jang Hye-in exhaled deeply.
“Ugh. Fine. You could. But listen—just think about this once more. Do you really believe anything would change? You’re smart, aren’t you? Aren’t you?”
“No. Nothing would change.”
If it were something that could be fixed so easily, Sa Chul-gang wouldn’t curse so much every time he drank.
“Right.”
“But if we let this slide, it’ll become normal. Over and over, forever after.”
“I know. I know. But I told you—right now it’s too difficult. Once we climb higher, we’ll work on it then. Remember? I said that.”
“I remember.”
She wasn’t thick-headed.
“And even if you did charge at the Dae Sacheon Dang Family patriarch—could you actually win? You couldn’t.”
Even if she could win, there would be consequences.
Plenty of people would applaud and marvel at the prodigy—a barely-grown youth who’d brought a patriarch to his knees.
But.
One mere swordsman becomes that strong? They would absolutely drown her in envy and jealousy.
And that wasn’t all.
The Gupha Ilbang and the Five Great Families wouldn’t simply stand idle and watch.
If luck held out to this point, it would be miraculous. But it wouldn’t end there.
It would be a blatant disruption of the Murim Alliance’s hierarchy. Severe punishment would be inevitable. Unless every elder of the Murim Alliance spoke in unison to forbid it, Sa U-rin would be dragged off to Hyungdang or Hobeobdang, beaten into a cripple, and cast out of the alliance in humiliation.
Even the Dae Sacheon Dang Family’s backing would prove useless.
“You don’t know that.”
“…Wait, why wouldn’t you know? The patriarch is a Supreme Master. A Supreme Master. You can’t possibly…have already reached that level, have you…?”
Even as Jang Hye-in spoke, she found herself thinking, in that instant, that it might actually be possible.
She was that kind of monster, after all.
“No. If I were at that level at my age, I wouldn’t even be human.”
You’re already something other than human, you little monster.
“…That’s a relief then. But what do you mean you don’t know?”
“You only know true length when you measure it. And besides, does it really matter if I win? Getting stronger by facing masters—that’s what counts.”
“And if you die in the process? If our entire team gets disbanded and we all get thrown out?”
“Wouldn’t that just mean our abilities aren’t strong enough?”
“…Sigh…”
Jang Hye-in already knew it, but this one truly had no answer.
“So you’re really set on going?”
If Sa U-rin truly dug in her heels, Jang Hye-in and the rest of Team 11 had no way to stop her.
What came after that…
She really didn’t want to think about it. Couldn’t even imagine it.
“Come to think of it, maybe not going is a way forward too.”
Phew.
Just moments ago, she’d seen Team 11’s dissolution unfold before her eyes. Now, hearing that her youngest member was backing down—she couldn’t help but let out a sigh of relief.
But.
She’s relieved he won’t go, but the words that follow make no sense to her whatsoever.
“……What are you saying? Not going is the method?”
Sa U-rin suddenly recalled something her father had said, a passing remark she’d half-forgotten.
He’d spoken of how corruption and bribery, born from those blinded by power, had become normalized—even rationalized as shortcuts to success. But if the thought ever took root in their minds that bribes might not work, might not always guarantee results, then the foundation of their certainty would begin to crack.
If cracks formed in that once solid, unwavering faith—one crack, then another, multiplying with time—no matter how carefully constructed the edifice of corruption and bribery, it would inevitably crumble. That was what her father believed.
Yet he had known all this and never acted on it. Or perhaps he’d simply never found a way to crack that warped certainty in the first place.
Now, in this moment, Sa U-rin wondered if perhaps this—this very thing—might be that way forward.
And so she decided: she would begin it herself. After all, wasn’t it said that the beginning is half the battle?
Her thoughts ordered, Sa U-rin opened her mouth.
“If I think about what you said, Captain, I believe Team 47 will choose me. Think about it—I’m the youngest here, the weakest-looking. Of course they’ll pick me. Men willing to offer bribes to the leader just to secure promotion won’t pass up the easy path for a hard one. What do you think?”
“……That makes sense.”
Why hadn’t Jang Hye-in and the Team 11 members thought of something so simple and obvious?
Not because Jang Hye-in’s mind was dull—but because the Patrol Leader’s infuriating words had scrambled her thoughts, preventing her from seeing what lay plain before her.
Unbelievable.
And the Team 11 members were too occupied with stopping Sa U-rin to think of anything else.
There it was.
Seo U-chan, harboring a flicker of doubt about Sa U-rin’s reasoning, spoke up.
“But what if Team 47 doesn’t choose you?”
“Why would you think that’s possible?”
“Because you’re too young, just as you said. So they’ll think you’re too weak. But they have at least some pride, don’t they? There will be people watching. They’ll believe they can win without targeting you, so why would they deliberately choose you and lose face doing it?”
Jang Hye-in and the other members nod—it makes sense. Yet Sa U-rin doesn’t look convinced.
“Men with minimal pride would scheme like this?”
“This world has always been this way.”
Behind closed doors, they commit every filthy act. In front of everyone, they pretend to be clean, righteous.
“But what if there are no witnesses?”
“……What……? How could that be? Someone will still…….”
Surely it’s far too important a martial contest—promotion hangs in the balance.
So it’s absolutely necessary to have observers. For verification.
“What if all the observers are connected to them?”
“……You can’t be serious…….”
Jang Hye-in cut in.
“Either way, it’s good for us.”
Sa U-rin will enter the martial contest.
But now a new question occurred to Sa U-rin.
“But what if I could win and yet still lose?”
The promotion winner might already be decided before the contest begins.
“……No. Not to that extent.”
“That’s a relief then. When is the martial contest?”
“Tomorrow.”
“Then tomorrow I’ll find out.”
The true face of the Murim Alliance her father had cursed so bitterly.
With that, Sa U-rin resumed her steps, which had stopped.
“You said you weren’t going.”
“I’m going to see Dang I-ryeong.”
“Ah, alright then.”
A soft smile played at the corners of Jang Hye-in’s mouth. Along with it, a faint bitterness.
After Sa U-rin disappeared, a moment passed.
“……By the way, does U-rin know where the Dang family headquarters is?”
Everyone remained silent.
“Why isn’t anyone saying anything?”
This time, they all shook their heads.
“Christ. U-rin’s got a terrible sense of direction…….”
“……She’ll manage to find it…….”
“……And she’s sharp too, so surely…….”
Right—she’s not a child. And even with a terrible sense of direction, this is still the Murim Alliance compound, not some foreign land.
“Why are you asking me then? Huh?”
Because the youngest could cause trouble.

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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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