I Shouldn't Have Joined the Martial Arts Alliance - Chapter 54

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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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It wasn’t wise to join the Murim Alliance — Chapter 54
Jang Chun also recalled the events of two months before Sa Cheol-gang’s arm ended up the way it had, just as Jang Gae had said.
“Back then… it was when I’d stepped away for a moment…”
“Right. That’s why you don’t know about it.”
“Then if something happened, you or… no, you wouldn’t have said anything, but surely you should have told me.”
“You’re right. I should have. Why wouldn’t I have said anything?”
“… He told you not to say anything?”
“Sharp as always. That’s right.”
“But what in the world happened?”
“… It was a similar matter.”
“A similar matter? What do you mean… Could it be…?”
“Yes. Back then, he also rescued a woman from the Human Trafficking Organization.”
Of course, he’d saved many women. It all started because of one woman.
“Then… wait, but he didn’t die, did he?”
That’s right. It’s strange.
From what everyone said, they’d all died. That’s why everyone pretended not to see or hear of the Human Trafficking Organization, full of fear.
For all those long years.
“I didn’t learn of that story, of that incident, until a year after it happened. After he disappeared.”
A junior member of the Melma Squad who had followed Sa Cheol-gang left the Squad after he became as he is now, and eventually revealed the truth to Jang Gae of the Gaebang, whom he was known to be close with.
At the time, Jang Gae was a Deputy Commander of the Third Unit, so he wouldn’t have been able to touch this recklessly, or so he thought.
“Don’t drag this out. Speak quickly.”
“Sa Cheol-gang’s senior had never even met the Heavenly Demon as he is now back then.”
“… What?! Then that incident was also orchestrated by the Invisible Hand…?”
“Yes. When I heard it, I was dumbfounded. There really is someone in the Gangho who orchestrates events in such a way.”
All these long years.
No.
For years even we don’t know when it began.
“So then, everything was arranged to kill him, as the rumors say?”
“Yes. And the Melma Squad members moved directly.”
“… The Melma Squad?”
“That’s what I’m telling you.”
“The Melma Squad was moved by the Invisible Hand? Hah.”
That would mean the Murim Alliance itself is being moved by the Invisible Hand.
Isn’t that maddening?
The invisible hand of someone, the fact that it can move even the Murim Alliance as it wishes, doesn’t that mean they’re manipulating the entire Gangho according to their will?
Jang Chun looked at Sa U-rin with eyes that said this truly, really, cannot be.
If the Melma Squad of the Murim Alliance is moved by that someone, then killing Sa U-rin and the Deputy Commanders here would be child’s play, wouldn’t it?
“We’ll still do it. It’s for Jong-cheol’s sake.”
This time Jang Gae asked Jang Hye-in and the other deputies behind Sa U-rin.
“You as well?”
“Yes. We go to the end with our youngest.”
“Ha ha. So kindred spirits have found each other. What excellent fortune.”
Even so, Jang Gae felt a strange sense of pride. And his chest grew warm.
Hadn’t Jang Gae himself, when he was young, carried such conviction?
The conviction he’d forgotten, the passion he’d tried to bury, seemed to bloom anew.
“You’ll surely die.”
“We know. But we won’t die.”
How could we have come this far?
“Impressive. Even now there are warriors like you who carry conviction in their hearts.”
“… That’s not it.”
Jang Gae froze in surprise. The fervent warmth in his chest cooled instantly.
“… Not it?”
“We don’t know anything about conviction. We’ve never had it, never wanted to have it.”
“But then… why…?”
“… We just happened to meet our youngest, and one thing led to another and now we’re in this mess. We don’t even understand how we got here. So now we’re here being dragged along by whatever the youngest wants. Honestly, death frightens us, but even so…”
“Even so?”
“After surviving a crisis where we nearly died, it doesn’t weigh on us much. Strangely, when I’m with the youngest, I have the feeling we won’t die.”
The subordinates nodded in agreement.
“… Ha. I’ve never seen such mad creatures. Don’t you understand this is different? No one ever survives.”
“Isn’t there? There’s the youngest’s father. And last time in Sunyeong District, I thought we’d just died but we survived. Don’t you know that?”
“……I can’t say. What happened back then?”
“Ah, it was when the youngest madam’s subordinates were active.”
“……You mean Jang Ryeo?”
“Yes. We’ve even met her directly.”
Nearly got killed doing it, too.
Sa U-rin’s mother, Jang Ryeo, might have been joking, but for the squad members who’d heard those words firsthand, it had been a brush with death.
“There’s no way I wouldn’t know. We nearly died that time.”
“……Well, that’s true enough. If she was involved. Anyway, this situation is definitely different.”
“I can’t say for certain. We’ll see what happens.”
“……Hah. But once you hear what I have to say, you’ll think differently.”
“Now you’ve got my curiosity.”
Jang Hye-in wasn’t alone in wondering. They all shared the same question.
And at last, Grand Commander Jang Gae opened his mouth.
“The man who severed your brother’s arm — he’s the current Murim Alliance Leader.”
“…….”
“…….”
Everyone fell silent. Shock washed over them entirely.
So the current Murim Alliance Leader was a puppet of the Invisible Hand?
Then what of the Murim Alliance now?
How could any of this possibly make sense?
Jang Gae continued.
“At the time, that incident was never reported to the Alliance Leader. And Sa Cheol-gang survived because the Melma Squad members who were with him saved him.”
No one could find the words or the way to speak them.
Their minds went blank, their jaws fell open, their tongues froze.
Only Jang Chun, who’d spent years rolling through the underworld, managed to speak.
“……In the end, you’re only going by hearsay, aren’t you?”
“Of course, that’s true. But the credibility——”
“Don’t talk to me about credibility. In a situation like this, who can trust anyone?”
Jang Gae’s brow furrowed.
“……Are you saying you don’t trust my words?”
“No, that’s not it. I’m saying the Melma Squad member who told you — he can’t be trusted. Unless you saw it with your own eyes, Jang Gae.”
You know it well.
Even though that Melma Squad member had lost an arm to the Heavenly Demon back then, he might have wanted something else and spoken lies.
“……You’re right. We can’t blindly trust. But what your brother did — I’ve confirmed that myself. So we can be certain that much came from that incident.”
“So. We’re truly stuck between a rock and a hard place.”
Whether the Murim Alliance Leader and the Murim Alliance were moved by the Invisible Hand, or whether they weren’t — there was no way to be certain of anything.
So Sa U-rin spoke.
“Right now, that’s not what matters most.”
Jang Chun asked, his eyes wide with surprise.
“Aren’t we talking about your father?”
“I know. But it’s only uncertain information, isn’t it?”
Sa U-rin had believed until now that it was the Heavenly Demon who’d crippled his father’s arm, so learning it might be the current Murim Alliance Leader was jarring.
But that too was nothing more than unconfirmed information.
“……That’s so.”
“So the priority is rescuing my sister-in-law first.”
“Already calling her that?”
“……Isn’t she?”
“I said I admired her. I never said we were lovers.”
“Ah, I see. Well, we can just make that happen, can’t we?”
Jang Chun asked as if bemused.
“You’re capable of that?”
“The Deputy Commander knows about such things quite well. Don’t you?”
Sa U-rin turned to Jang Hye-in with the question.
‘……Out of the blue?’
Right. This was the moment to play along well and make up for that mistake from not long ago.
“Oh yes, absolutely. That’s something I’m rather good at. No need to worry. I’ll take responsibility and make it happen.”
“In that case, I’ll trust you.”
“Rest easy.”
Sa U-rin spoke again.
“So where is she? Where can we find the woman who’ll become my sister-in-law?”
“Stubborn as ever.”
And for that, he felt a strange pride.
His brother’s son had grown into such a capable man.
And yet a profound unease shadowed him still. This path they walked would surely lead to death—there was no mistaking that. But neither could he turn back now, not at this point.
Trapped between advance and retreat, with the outcome already written.
“I understand.”
The Grand Commander Jang Gae began to lay bare everything he knew.
Information he had buried away, kept hidden.
Gaebang had always made it their practice to investigate the Human Trafficking Organization whenever they caught wind of them, no matter how useless the intelligence seemed.
They felt compelled to do it. They could not stop themselves.
Not to ease their own conscience.
But simply in the faint hope that when someone appeared like this, they might restore the Gangho to what it once was.
* * *
According to the Grand Commander, the place where Jong-cheol’s beloved had been taken was two days’ journey from Gaebang’s headquarters in Honam Province.
So the squad members boarded a boat to cut straight across Dongting Lake rather than circle around it, and rode without pause beyond.
There was time enough, but no luxury for a leisurely pace. Their hearts were too urgent.
According to Jang Gae, it was a bandit fortress situated somewhere around the eight-tenths mark up Hyeong Mountain.
Bandit fortresses are not easily discovered. If brigands’ hideaways were so conspicuous, they could never operate with such freedom.
Fortunately, Gaebang knew its exact location.
Jang Gae had explained it well.
There was no better place to disguise a hideout than a mountain fortress. Remote and inconspicuous, and if danger arose, cleanup was simple.
Beyond that.
No one paid any mind to the Human Trafficking Organization, so there was no reason to waste manpower guarding it.
Of course, some personnel would be stationed there to oversee the trafficking itself.
He didn’t know the exact numbers. He only knew the precise location. He had always been careful to ensure that Gaebang’s surveillance remained undetected.
Only Jang Hye-in, Sa U-rin, and the squad members were moving—determined that if something went wrong, only they would fall.
And as they rode relentlessly on, Jang Hye-in suddenly spoke.
“Everyone, hold a moment.”
Bewildered, they all stopped abruptly, dust billowing around them.
“Why so sudden?”
“We need to prepare.”
“Prepare for what?”
“You weren’t planning to simply rush in and cut everyone down and be done with it, were you?”
“…….”
That was precisely what they’d been thinking, judging by their frozen expressions.
“In any case, let’s stop by the Market Street for a moment.”
“Market Street? Why?”
“Just follow me. Since when did you all become so——”
Hyeong-jun cut him off.
“What about U-rin?”
Hyeong-jun suddenly turned to the youngest, as if to pull him to his side. The momentum was already swinging that way—or so he was certain.
Which left Jang Hye-in momentarily stunned.
“The Deputy Commander knows these things best. So we should follow him.”
Now it was Hyeong-jun’s turn to freeze. The thread he’d tried to catch slipped through his grasp.
Slowly, Jang Hye-in’s expression thawed.
“Just wait and see, Hyeong-jun.”
“That’s……”
“Enough. Now, follow me.”
So they all made their way to Market Street as Jang Hye-in directed.
Jang Hye-in and the squad members stood before a small fabric shop on Market Street.
This time it was Seo U-chan who asked.
“A fabric shop? Why?”
“Are we going like this?”
“……Of course not? You’ll need to change clothes, won’t you?”
“Obviously, you fool. Just in case, we need to conceal our faces too, don’t we? Don’t we?”
Truly, just in case. If their faces couldn’t be seen, those pursuing them might never find them.
“Ah, that’s right.”
“Our Deputy Commander, as always.”
So they bought Black Robes and Face Masks from the fabric shop.
And yet.
“Why only nine sets?”
“Ah. Mine will be something different.”
Jang Hye-in turned toward the women’s garments.
“…No, but why that section…?”
“Why? Because I’m going to use the Beauty Scheme, that’s why.”
The Beauty Scheme is the thirty-first stratagem of the Defeat phase in the Thirty-Six Stratagems.
In other words, it counts as a legitimate tactic of war.
But not everyone can employ it. Still, the Deputy Commander Jang Hye-in possessed a face perfectly suited to wielding the Beauty Scheme.
And so Jang Hye-in felt assured.
He paid no mind to his men’s concerns whatsoever.

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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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