I Shouldn't Have Joined the Martial Arts Alliance - Chapter 49

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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 I Rashly Entered the Murim Alliance — Episode 49
Je Gal Su Yeon, the strategist, and her niece Je Gal I Su returned to the war room.
Je Gal Su Yeon settled into her chair, lost in thought, while Je Gal I Su remained standing, pacing back and forth in agitated contemplation.
Then, abruptly, her restless movements ceased.
“Aunt, who on earth is this U Rin?”
Both Je Gal I Su and the strategist Je Gal Su Yeon had been turning over the same question.
Je Gal Su Yeon, absorbed in deep thought, offered no reply. Yet Je Gal I Su’s voice did not still.
“How can anyone that young be so formidable?”
Even if one were to comb through the Nine Great Sects and One Gang and the Five Great Families as thoroughly as one might search for fleas, there would surely be no one of such an age possessing martial prowess of that caliber.
Had there been, the Jianghu would have been ablaze with it.
Yes, it would have been. For such a person would have been the glory of their martial sect, the pride of their clan.
“And what manner of martial arts were those?”
They did not appear infinitely varied, yet they seemed dazzling. Or perhaps “dazzling” was even the right word—truth be told, they lacked the ornate brilliance of the Huashan School’s Sword Technique.
And yet dazzling they appeared. There was something there, undeniably, that beguiled the eye.
And something else, too.
It was frightening.
The aura of darkness seemed to freeze everything in its radius.
Yet it was difficult to articulate, for though it felt like the aura of darkness, was there not a pure, crystalline white energy enveloping Du Jun Chul?
Yes, that was it.
Du Jun Chul’s eyes were indeed filled with darkness, his pupils dark and shadowed.
But a pristine white energy wrapped around him—it was only that Du Jun Chul perceived it as thick, dark shadow.
Even the morning mist, when dense enough, obscures what lies a hand’s breadth ahead.
“Aunt, you must be dying of curiosity too, aren’t you? Is that why you’re so absorbed right now?”
Je Gal Su Yeon finally turned her gaze to her niece.
“Could you please be quiet? If you insist on being this loud, why don’t you return to your quarters?”
“Tsk. I don’t want to.”
“Then be quiet.”
With that, Je Gal Su Yeon spoke toward the door.
“Summon Bi Ryeong.”
A guard waiting outside acknowledged the command.
“Understood.”
Bi Ryeong was the commander of the Bi Yeong Dae, the strategist’s direct organization.
“Aunt, why Bi Ryeong? And what secretive business are you conducting now? Besides, are you really going to keep leaving Bi Ryeong like that, all alone? When I think about it, you’re quite cold, Aunt. Or should I say—ambitious?”
“If you sit quietly, you’ll find out. If you continue prattling like this, I’ll have you thrown out on the spot. What will it be?”
“I’ll be quiet. Tsk.”
Shortly after, Bi Ryeong entered the war room.
Bi Ryeong bowed respectfully to the strategist, then greeted Je Gal I Su.
“It’s been a while.”
“Have you been well?”
“Always the same.”
“Always secretive? Don’t you ever feel frustrated?”
“Not at all. And didn’t you promise me? Not to speak carelessly about such things.”
“Come on, it’s just us here…….”
Je Gal Su Yeon cut off her niece’s words.
“That’s enough. Bi Ryeong, I called you because I have something I need you to do.”
“What would you have me do?”
“I’d like you to go to Sichuan Province.”
“……Sichuan Province, you say?”
The journey alone—back and forth—would consume considerable time. That was what troubled him.
He would see Je Gal Su Yeon’s face far less often.
“I’m sorry. But it feels like something that will matter greatly to me.”
“……Then it must be done. What is it you need?”
“I’d like you to seek out the Shu Ning County branch in Sichuan Province and bring back everything you can learn about a young man named Sa U Rin.”
“Sa U Rin is……who exactly? It’s a man’s name, but…….”
Je Gal I Su, who had been listening, could not suppress her laughter and burst out.
“Hehe. Ah, I’m sorry. I just couldn’t hold it in…….”
Bi Ryeong’s gaze turned toward Je Gal I Su.
“Who is he?”
“He’s there. Incredibly, devastatingly handsome.”
“……Really?”
“Yes. Really, truly. I’m staking my aunt’s honor on it.”
Bi Ryeong’s head turned sharply toward Je Gal Su Yeon, and she spoke.
“Nineteen years old. She was with the Shu Ning County branch until recently. From what I know, she’s been assigned to the Shu Ning County branch for about a year now. For anything more detailed, you can ask at the Bi Yeong Gak on your way out.”
The Bi Yeong Gak was where all information from the Jianghu was gathered, interpreted, and disseminated.
“……Nineteen? Isn’t that far too young?”
“Stop it. I didn’t call you here to joke around.”
“……My apologies.”
“And this time, don’t use the Bi Yeong Dae members. Use people from your private circle instead.”
That meant the matter required the utmost secrecy—something neither the Bi Yeong Dae nor the Bi Yeong Gak should know about.
Only the people here were permitted to know.
“Understood. But……will we depart now?”
“No. Stay and have a drink with me tonight.”
A warm smile bloomed across Bi Ryeong’s lips. And Je Gal I Su, lacking all discretion, butted in.
“Oh my. You must be pleased, mustn’t you?”
“I’m not sure what our young lady thinks she knows, but she seems quite delighted about something.”
“Tch. I know plenty, thank you very much. It’s just that there’s no man around, that’s all.”
Bi Ryeong let out a short laugh, then glanced toward Je Gal Su Yeon.
“Then I’ll withdraw and await your orders.”
“Be prepared when you wait tonight.”
“I won’t disappoint you.”
Je Gal I Su interjected once more.
“Oh my, how scandalous!”
Bi Ryeong grinned wickedly and departed the command room.
“But aunt.”
“What is it now?”
“Do we really need to investigate that thoroughly? Enough to send Bi Ryeong?”
“My instinct tells me to. It could be very dangerous, or……”
Je Gal Su Yeon paused mid-sentence.
“Or what?”
“Something enormous might be hidden beneath it all.”
“Oh, now you’ve got me curious. Tell me what Bi Ryeong finds out when he returns.”
“Think about it first.”
“Tch. You’re doing this again.”
Je Gal I Su had now seen and heard everything, and was preparing to return to her quarters.
But her aunt, Je Gal Su Yeon, caught her arm gently.
“I Su.”
“Yes?”
“Do you perhaps have feelings for that U Rin fellow?”
That would explain why I Su, who never normally did such things, had deployed a Formation Technique on a man she’d only just met.
“To be honest……I am curious about him. But why? Is that wrong?”
“It just seems rather dangerous, that’s all.”
Talent of that caliber always brought danger in its wake, especially without the backing of a strong family or faction behind them.
“I understand what you’re saying. But you know, Dang I Ryeong—she’s already head over heels for that U Rin. So my desire to steal him away is stronger than mere curiosity.”
Je Gal Su Yeon’s eyes widened.
“……What? I Ryeong has already fallen for this boy?”
What was this new complication?
‘I’ll need to tell Bi Ryeong about this.’
Already, before they’d even begun, larger forces were being pulled into the current.
“That’s what I’m telling you.”
“You’re certain? You didn’t misread the signs?”
“Come on. A woman knows when she sees another woman like that. She’s already gone.”
“To that extent?”
“In front of U Rin, she was like a completely docile kitten.”
“That’s amusing.”
“Isn’t it? Truly amusing. I never would’ve thought someone with such a foul temperament could change like that. Tell me, what is love? Aunt, what is love?”
“That’s something you’ll have to discover for yourself.”
“Tch.”
“So what will you do?”
“I don’t know. I suppose I’ll follow my heart.”
“That’s the hard part, you know—following your heart. You’d do better to make up your mind quickly. So you don’t regret it later.”
“Is that so?”
“It is.”
“Sigh.”
Je Gal I Su’s long breath filled the war room.
* * *
Squad 11 was in an uproar.
“U Rin, U Rin. What exactly is this martial art of yours?”
“It’s incredible, isn’t it? Won’t you teach us too? Huh?”
“Yeah. Let’s all survive together on this. Huh?”
“U Rin, come on? Please.”
The eyes of Squad 11’s members were not merely desperate—they had turned pitiful.
As if they were trying to look pathetic.
Though it wasn’t as if they were begging for alms.
Jang Hye In neither pestered from the side nor tried to stop them. She was waiting, ready to pounce the moment her youngest truly revealed something worth knowing.
Sa U Rin’s mouth finally opened.
“I’m afraid it won’t work.”
“……It’s not that it won’t work, and it’s not that it will. What do you mean ‘it won’t work’?”
“Why do you sound so uncertain?”
“Right. That’s not like our youngest.”
“Our youngest is the type who either does it or doesn’t—he’s decisive about it.”
“Exactly! He’s not the kind to speak so vaguely like this!”
“So we’d really like our youngest to give us a proper answer worthy of his name. Huh?”
Squad 11 threw their pitiful looks out once more.
So Sa U Rin waved his hand through the air several times.
And so, the bewildered members of Squad 11 stared on.
‘……Why is this bastard like this?’
‘……Is he crazy? No, it’s not that.’
“Do you feel it, perhaps?”
Everyone shook their heads left and right.
“……What are you trying to do right now?”
“Yeah.”
“U Rin. We’re really desperate here.”
So Sa U Rin spoke.
“Have you ever seen me joke around?”
“……No.”
“……Never seen it.”
“Our youngest would never do such a thing.”
The man was so stony that you’d think even a needle’s prick wouldn’t draw a drop of blood—what joke could there possibly be?
“Exactly. I’m not joking now. If you can feel the gesture I just made, then you’ll be able to master my martial arts and sword technique.”
“Come on.”
“There’s no such thing.”
“You’re refusing, aren’t you?”
“That’s what it is, right?”
“No.”
“Then try again.”
So Sa U Rin drew his hand through the empty air once more. But it was as before.
“Damn it.”
“Can anyone actually feel this?”
“Captain. What do you feel?”
Jang Hye In couldn’t feel anything either. She shook her head.
“If the captain can’t feel it, what hope do we have?”
“We’re done for.”
Sa U Rin’s mind suddenly drifted to his childhood.
In Sa U Rin’s memory, he had felt this energy since he was five years old. Back then, he thought it was the same as the air people breathed. So he assumed it was natural.
He had believed that everyone in the world must be feeling it too.
So he didn’t think it remarkable and didn’t speak of it. Then, through his father, he came to know of the Hun Won Gong, and only then did Sa U Rin tell his father that he could feel such a thing.
After hearing this from Sa U Rin, his father Sa Chul Gang made Sa U Rin swear to him many times that no matter what happened, he must never go outside and tell anyone that he could feel such things.
So Sa U Rin never spoke of it to another soul.
Then, around when he was nine years old?
While playing with other children in the neighborhood, a girl appeared. The girl, who was the same age as Sa U Rin at the time, was named Seol Hwa.
Seol Hwa displayed before the children what she felt—the same energy that Sa U Rin had sensed since childhood, the very thing his father had forbidden him ever to speak of aloud.
Sa U Rin was delighted. He had found a friend who perceived what he did. But the neighborhood children shunned Seol Hwa as strange.
In truth, Sa U Rin himself had never been close with the other children—he was too different from his peers. Seol Hwa was much the same. And when she went about speaking of peculiar things, the children had no reason to take to her.
They mocked her instead. Yet with Sa U Rin, she found understanding. Seol Hwa told him everything she sensed, and he listened with genuine fascination.
And so they grew close.
After a year had passed, word came that the girl named Seol Hwa had vanished. Her parents turned the entire neighborhood upside down searching for her.
Rumors spread that she had been abducted.
It must have been so.
There was no reason for Seol Hwa to disappear of her own accord.
And he understood.
Why his father had warned him never to speak of such things.
After that day, Sa U Rin never saw Seol Hwa again. In this way, he lost his closest friend.

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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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