I Shouldn't Have Joined the Martial Arts Alliance - Chapter 81

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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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Entering the Murim Alliance for No Good Reason — Episode 81
It was an event that had dealt an enormous shock to the Murim Alliance. But would only the Alliance have been shaken?
Of course the entire Baekdo Martial World trembled.
The vaunted Yeolma Squad had been annihilated.
By the Yeolma Squad itself.
Who could have imagined such a thing?
That the members of the Yeolma Squad would turn their blades on one another, wounding and killing each other.
And so the Murim Alliance’s Yeolma Squad faded into history.
Whether anyone desired it or not.
In the end, questions of accountability arose, and the Alliance Lord Hyeon-wi found himself standing before the elders of the Murim Alliance.
The elders demanded to know which version of events was true, and they thundered at him about what responsibility he would take.
But the Alliance Lord Hyeon-wi’s response was astonishing.
The Alliance Lord Hyeon-wi curled his lips upward and spoke.
“I have nothing to say, so do as you wish. When have I ever stopped you?”
With that, he simply vanished.
Though the elders’ angry voices echoed after him, the Alliance Lord Hyeon-wi was already gone, so their outcry was meaningless.
In the end, the Alliance Lord Hyeon-wi had no choice but to step down from his position.
At someone’s behest.
* * *
Step, step.
Late at night, someone climbed a mountain path with a wine bottle in hand.
It was the Alliance Lord Hyeon-wi.
Or rather, no longer the Alliance Lord. A wanderer named Hyeon-wi.
Hyeon-wi gripped a wine bottle in his hand as he ascended the mountain. From the peak, one could see the Murim Alliance laid out below in perfect clarity.
Step, step.
For a former Alliance Lord, his gait was pitiful and ungainly.
“I’m weary. So very weary.”
Indeed.
The former Alliance Lord Hyeon-wi was exhausted.
Though he was a martial artist who had reached the realm of an Absolute Master and could ascend the mountain peak in a single breath, he climbed with the labored steps of an ancient, dying man.
Halfway up, he gazed toward the summit.
“Sigh. Still so far away.”
Such was the nature of a peak. No matter how much strength one possessed, not everyone could stand at the summit.
“Ha. How absurd.”
Looking back on it, Hyeon-wi had never actually wanted to reach a peak.
He had certainly never believed the position of Alliance Lord was one.
Sitting in that chair, it turned out to be nothing but an empty facade—a scarecrow in fine clothes.
And that was what made it all the more agonizing.
Hyeon-wi had not taken the seat of Alliance Lord just to play the role of a puppet.
“……Damn it all.”
Hyeon-wi dragged his feet forward. Each step was heavy.
At last, he reached the summit.
This mountain was where the ashes of Sa Cheol-gang, the father of Sa U-rin, were buried.
The former Alliance Lord Hyeon-wi stood before a stone inscribed with Sa Cheol-gang’s name and the words that bore his meaning.
He raised the wine bottle to his lips.
“Gulp.”
Then he wiped his mouth.
“You know, even standing before you like this and drinking, the wine doesn’t taste half bad.”
Hyeon-wi gazed for a moment at Sa Cheol-gang’s name carved into the stone.
“I’m sorry, you stubborn bastard. What you wanted… even grinding my soul to dust wouldn’t make it work. Damn it all. What did I tell you? I said it wouldn’t happen, didn’t I? But you kept pushing anyway. And look—I was right. What can be done about something that cannot be? I’m sorry.”
He took another sip of wine.
“Gulp. Good. It tastes good, but bitter. Bitter yet sweet. Yes, this is how it should be. This is the only way to truly taste life. Don’t you think, Cheol-gang? …This damn fool… why don’t you answer? Is that what happens when you die? You stay silent? Well, I suppose that’s fine. Being dead must be peaceful. But why… why did it have to be me? There was no one else… was there?”
That was the truth.
Sa Cheol-gang was not a man who grew close to many people.
“Damn it all. Of all people… why did I have to grow close to you? Curse it. Ah.”
A sigh escaped unbidden.
“I never thought my fate would be like this. And yet, thanks to you, I got to be Alliance Lord once before I die—something that wasn’t written in my destiny at all.”
Then the former Alliance Lord Hyeon-wi suddenly drew his blade.
He raised it and turned the point toward his own neck.
“Cheol-gang. This is all because of you. You know that, don’t you? And still, I did my best. I did everything I could. You know that, right? You saw it from above, didn’t you? Don’t pretend you didn’t see it. If you do, I’m afraid I’ll want to kill you. And… forgive me for doing this. I can’t… go on any longer.”
Hyeon-wi was ready to take his own life.
But then.
“Enough. Come out now.”
At that, those hiding in the forest emerged.
They were none other than.
Jang Hye-in and his men, along with Sa U-rin.
And the Witch—the supreme leader of the Evil Sect, Jang Ryeo—and her subordinate, Chu-yeop.
They had followed the former Murim Alliance Leader Hyeon-wi to exact payment for Sa Cheol-gang’s severed arm.
With Hyeon-wi’s life.
Hyeon-wi turned and flashed a smile at the Witch Jang Ryeo.
“Ha ha ha. It seems I can’t even choose my own death anymore. But my, what an honor—a personage of such standing comes calling. To think the Witch herself would seek out this worthless wretch. Tell me, what business brings you to find me?”
The Witch Jang Ryeo laughed in return.
“Ha ha ha ha! Cast out from the position of Leader, and now you’ve lost your senses entirely?”
She had witnessed with her own eyes his attempt at suicide.
Though she couldn’t fathom it for the life of her.
“I’d like to hear why you’ve gone to such lengths to find me. Won’t you tell me?”
The exasperated Jang Ryeo’s lips curled upward.
“Why would I seek you out? To cut off your head, of course.”
“Ah. Is that so? Must you go to such trouble?”
Did you not see it?
The Leader attempting to take his own life?
“Madman.”
“A madwoman hardly has the right to speak. I’d say.”
“Mad as I am, I would never resort to suicide, fool.”
“What else could drive a person to this?”
There was clearly a story behind it all.
Hyeon-wi turned his gaze toward Jang Hye-in, his men, and Sa U-rin.
“You’re…those children from the Patrol Squad who survived capturing the Human Trafficking Organization, aren’t you?”
Jang Hye-in, as commander, ought to have stepped forward as spokesman, but given the circumstances of their arrival here, Sa U-rin spoke instead.
“Yes, we are. But Leader, what on earth compelled you to make such a choice in this place?”
Though they had been pursuing him with intent to kill, Hyeon-wi’s decision to end his own life seemed oddly pitiful.
He was also curious about the reason for such a choice.
“What interests me more is what connection you and the Witch share. Would you tell me? Ah, have no fear—I won’t spread rumors.”
“If you answer my question first, I’ll answer yours.”
“Is it possible you’ve come for my head as well?”
“Answer first, please.”
“Ha ha ha. The boy has spirit. Come to think of it, you’ve returned alive from the underworld itself. Truly impressive. You carry yourself like a martial artist a hundred times over compared to me. Ha ha ha ha.”
Hyeon-wi laughed like a madman for a moment, then turned back to the Witch Jang Ryeo and spoke.
“Would you really not tell me what connection you have with those children?”
Jang Ryeo’s brow furrowed.
“This bastard. Want to die?”
“Ha ha. ‘Do you want to die?’ to a man who was trying to? Does that make sense to you?”
“…Is this bastard truly insane?”
“I wish I were. Could you drive me mad?”
Hyeon-wi did not want to die. He did not want to die, yet he did. He had become powerless to the point of contradiction.
The exasperated Witch Jang Ryeo.
“This won’t do. Just kill him.”
She had no desire to let him die by his own hand. She wanted to kill him with her own blade.
Shing.
Jang Ryeo drew her sword. Sa U-rin immediately stepped in to stop her.
“Wait, please. Let’s hear what the Leader has to say.”
There seemed to be something behind all of this.
Jang Ryeo blinked slowly.
“Son. Do you always do as you please?”
“Mother?”
“…Very well.”
Life suddenly flickered back into Hyeon-wi’s eyes, which had been so dull.
“…Son? …Mother? What is…?”
He wondered if he had misheard. Yet he had heard it clearly, hadn’t he?
And yet the words seemed impossible to believe. As if she were jesting before him…but somehow it didn’t seem that way either.
It had been far too natural.
It truly seemed like a mother and son having a conversation.
Yet that was precisely the problem.
The Supreme Leader of the Evil Sect was the mother, and the son was a warrior of the Murim Alliance?
Not even a stray dog would believe such a tale.
So Hyeon-wi felt compelled to ask once more.
“Witch… you and that boy are truly… mother and son, you say?”
Hyeon-wi found himself embarrassed even as he spoke the words.
Sa U-rin answered.
“Yes. Everyone else looked at us the same way and didn’t believe it either.”
“Ah…”
Hyeon-wi found himself at a loss for words.
Because he truly couldn’t believe it. If he were to accept such a story… he’d be treated as a fool, an idiot.
Hyeon-wi stared intently at Jang Ryeo.
“Is this truly the truth?”
“You needn’t believe. It matters not to me whether you do or don’t.”
“Ah…”
However strange the Gangho might be, this seemed to cross every boundary.
No… well… thinking about it again, it did seem like a boundary that could plausibly be crossed.
Still, even so.
Sa U-rin posed the question again to the half-dazed Hyeon-wi.
“Now tell us.”
“Tell you? What? Ah! The reason I came here?”
“Yes.”
Hyeon-wi offered a bitter smile.
“That’s right. When there is a coming, there must be a going. The reason I came here is…”
Hyeon-wi paused, unable to continue.
After a moment, he spoke again.
“Carved into this rock is the name of an old friend of mine. I don’t know who did it, but I was told that someone kindly scattered my old friend’s ashes here. And they even carved his name into the stone. So I came to have a drink with an old friend after so long, and to bid him farewell. Or perhaps not farewell—soon I might see his face again? Ha ha. In any case, that’s why I’m here.”
“An old friend, you say?”
He wouldn’t have called someone “an old friend” merely for having lived together in the Yeolma Squad.
“That’s right.”
This only deepened Hyeon-wi’s curiosity.
“Then why did you sever my father’s arm?”
“I don’t know who your father is, but I’ve never merely severed anyone’s arm. If I killed them, I killed them.”
“Surely you spoke of it?”
“Spoke of what?”
“Of the old friend whose name is carved into this rock.”
“That was…”
In that instant, Hyeon-wi’s eyes went wide as saucers.
“That means… could it be… you…?”
“Yes, that’s correct. My father’s name is written with the characters for Sa, iron, and strength.”
“Then…”
Hyeon-wi’s gaze turned toward Jang Ryeo.
“Ah!”
That was it.
“That’s right. Jang Ryeo, you once… loved Cheol-gang.”
She had loved him so much that she’d come all the way to the Murim Alliance to raise a commotion, and then gone to the Demonic Cult to cause an even greater uproar.
Now he believed it.
And now it was plain to see.
The witch Jang Ryeo and Sa U-rin bore such striking resemblance that they could have been carved from the same stone.
And in his face, one could also see Sa Cheol-gang’s eyes.
Now it became clear.
That they truly were mother and son.
And he understood now why this extraordinary young friend before him would do such mad, impossible things.
And yet…
It was maddening.
That Cheol-gang would leave him in this damned place while the bastard…
“…had a beautiful wife and fathered such a talented son. Ha, ha, ha.”
It was enough to drive one mad.

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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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