The Legend of Red Cloud - Chapter 4

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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 4. Peculiar Newcomers
The battle was fierce.
These were people who had survived an earlier engagement and withdrawn under Ok Ma-ryong’s command, and among them remained no shortage of skilled warriors.
Yet the ability of those engaged in brutal melee combat with such masters proved surprising.
Ok Ma-ryong began to suspect whether the Cheol-hyeol Meung had even sent elite fighters from their main headquarters into the fray.
But he recognized his opponent by the name called out among the genuine Blood Ghosts who had come with him.
Sal-rang.
A blade? A sword? A spear?
With each shift in direction of the grip controlling that long, curved weapon—impossible to name—blood sprayed from his subordinates.
Piercing, slashing, splitting, and at times hurling as he moved across the battlefield, the man was like a wolf truly gone mad.
Half of his hundred-odd subordinates fell to one who fought exactly as his moniker suggested.
What made it worse was that not a trace of Sword Aura emanated from him.
Yet even the grandmaster swordmaster who scattered Sword Aura like play, even the expert in External Martial Arts who had mastered Cheol-po Sam to perfection, crumbled helplessly before that irregular weapon.
That impossible, unbelievable sight grew increasingly blurred. The quantity of blood flowing from the wounds inflicted upon him was simply too great.
And so Mo-yong Chang-un’s world was swallowed by darkness.
***
A fortnight had nearly passed since the special operation dispatched from the Cheol-hyeol Meung main headquarters concluded with dismal results and massive casualties.
Dam-in, who had been forced to grapple with the aftermath of filling positions emptied by death and injury, had shed more than two pounds of flesh.
That withered Dam-in sat in silence for a long while before five sheets of documents.
Sa-seo, who had brought the documents, ventured a careful question.
“What shall we do?”
“Dan-ju said to process them as is?”
“Yes, sir.”
At Sa-seo’s answer, Dam-in shifted his gaze back to the documents before him, a small groan escaping his lips.
“Hmm…….”
It couldn’t be helped.
Transparency is fundamental to all matters within the Meung Ui Dan.
Given the nature of the organization—composed of members from various martial schools—and given an environment where several men died daily, prejudice and misunderstanding could undermine the cohesion of the Meung Ui Dan itself.
Thus the iron law of the Haeng-sa Gak, which handled all major and minor affairs of the Meung Ui Dan, was always ‘transparency.’
The head of the Haeng-sa Gak could not violate his own iron law.
He pushed back his chair.
Rising at last, Dam-in gathered the documents before him and made his way toward the Ui-ju Cheo.
Upon arriving at a ramshackle hut that seemed unthinkable as the office of a Meung Ui Dan leader commanding two thousand martial artists, Dam-in was stopped by a warrior stationed at the door.
“We have a guest.”
“A guest?”
“Someone from the Alliance.”
Alliance.
In the Gangho, only one place bears that name.
The Gangbuk Martial Realm Alliance to which the Meung Ui Dan belongs—the Cheol-hyeol Meung.
If someone had come to seek Dan-ju without even informing him, the head of the Haeng-sa Gak, then…….
The door opened.
A familiar face appeared, cutting through Dam-in’s musings.
“I pay my respects to the Deputy Alliance Lord!”
Dam-in’s hastily raised fist salute was undermined by the tremor in his voice.
The person he had unexpectedly encountered was extraordinary enough to warrant such a reaction.
Peng Mu-yang, the Fierce Tiger Blade Lord.
Not merely because he held the title of Deputy Alliance Lord. He was among the Top Three Lords of the Fifteen Martial Lords of the Gangho.
Since the Top Three Lords came next in rank after the Three Souls of Heaven, it meant he stood among the top six when martial strength alone determined the hierarchy of the world’s martial realm.
Such a remarkable man had come to pay his regards.
“It has been long, Champion Dam.”
“Champion? That is too much honor, Deputy Alliance Lord.”
Peng Mu-yang, who tapped Dam-in’s shoulder twice with a smiling face as the latter could barely meet his eyes, turned to leave and dropped a single remark.
“I trust you will serve Dan-ju well.”
“I shall do my utmost.”
By the time Dam-in looked up after his rushed reply, Peng Mu-yang had vanished, leaving only the stern-faced Dan-ju standing.
“Administrator Dam.”
At Dan-ju’s call, Dam-in started and came to his senses.
“Yes? Ah, yes.”
“He’s gone. Come inside then.”
Dan-ju spoke those words and entered first, with Dam-in following in his wake.
Before long, Dam-in approached Dan-ju, who had already taken his seat.
“What brings the Vice-Leader to this place, sir?”
To Dam-in’s question, still tinged with bewilderment, Dan-ju replied evenly.
“It’s hardly the first time. Don’t make a fuss about it.”
Dan-ju was right.
It wasn’t the first time the Vice-Leader had visited the Meung Ui Dan.
By Dam-in’s count, it had happened three times before.
The problem was that each time, the air above Sa-ja-pyeong, where the Meung Ui Dan was garrisoned, had reeked of blood.
“Then… is this another raid?”
“Fortunately…”
Dan-ju hesitated for a moment, as if questioning whether the word he’d let slip was the right choice, then shook his head.
“…no, that’s not it.”
“Then why…?”
“A request, or rather—pressure, I’d call it.”
“What do you mean, sir?”
“This.”
Following Dan-ju’s gaze, Dam-in looked down at the documents in his own hands, and his eyes widened.
“Surely you don’t mean… this, sir?”
Dan-ju nodded at Dam-in’s question, which was accompanied by him lifting the documents he held.
“The Vice-Leader brought it himself.”
“But why?”
It was a natural question.
A high-ranking official of the Vice-Leader’s standing wouldn’t submit personnel requests to the Meung Ui Dan—a unit that wasn’t even among the main organization’s vital departments, but rather closest to death itself—without good reason.
“You’re asking the same thing I did. So I’ll give you the very answer the Vice-Leader gave me.”
Even now, in hindsight, Dan-ju didn’t seem satisfied with that answer, his brow slightly furrowed as he continued.
“Don’t ask.”
Dam-in, who had been waiting for what would come next, questioned the Dan-ju who now simply stared at him in silence.
“That’s… all he said?”
“Even you managed more than I did. I couldn’t ask further—his eyes were too heavy, too penetrating…”
It was his way of saying the circumstances were too complex and fraught for him to confide, even to Dan-ju.
Aware of the danger involved, Dam-in asked with concern.
“Then you truly intend to accept these people, sir?”
“And if I don’t? Do you have another way out, Commander Dam?”
Dam-in had no answer to that.
He knew too well that such a person couldn’t be swayed by appeals to transparency.
The man in question was the Vice-Leader of the Cheol-hyeol Meung, second-in-command to one who could pluck birds from the sky.
Dam-in’s shoulders sagged visibly as he turned to leave.
Upon returning to the Haeng-sa Gak—a shabby affair, befitting Dan-ju’s administrative quarters—Dam-in spotted five unfamiliar figures sprawled across the long bench set aside for visitors.
Dam-in recognized them at once as the people the Vice-Leader had made his mysterious request about.
They wore clothes far too fine for the Meung Ui Dan, where men died as casually as the changing seasons.
Without exception, only disciples of the Great Damen sect wore such garments—youths accustomed to reverence and luxury their whole lives, visiting the Meung Ui Dan for the first time.
Sure enough, Gi-hun, the chief scribe, approached hurriedly.
“These honored guests are looking for you, Commander.”
At that, Dam-in cast another glance at those sprawled across the bench.
“They’re no guests.”
“But, sir, these distinguished visitors came specifically seeking you…”
Hadn’t Gi-hun’s former position been as chief steward of Namgyeong’s finest pleasure house?
Perhaps that was why he always had a keen nose for money and power—and the social graces to match.
Thanks to that talent, he’d managed to survive seven years as a scribe in the Haeng-sa Gak, a place whose lifeline was as short as any warrior’s, though conversely, that same sensitivity was both his greatest weakness and the most grating aspect of his character.
“Scribe Gi.”
“Yes, Commander.”
“Since when does the scribe of the Haeng-sa Gak call fresh recruits distinguished guests?”
“F-fresh recruits, sir?”
He had every reason to be shocked.
Beneath the expensive silk clothing they wore, an imperious bearing radiated from them—the kind that suggested, to any discerning eye, a background of considerable consequence.
But Dam-in had no patience to soothe Gi-hun’s astonishment with gentle explanation.
“That’s right. So stop your empty chatter and get back to work.”
“Yes? Ah, yes.”
Gi-hun, quick-witted enough to match his social finesse, caught at once that his superior’s mood had soured, and promptly withdrew.
Dam-in’s gaze then turned toward the five figures sprawled across the long bench.
“Sigh…….”
No matter how many times he looked at it, the sigh came first.
Expensive silk clothing to wear to a war front…….
“Sigh…….”
Dam-in couldn’t suppress another sigh escaping unbidden.
For that reason, he had no desire to draw things out. Besides, the assignments were already fixed.
“Come here, all of you.”
At Dam-in’s call, the five men who had been waiting stepped forward before him.
“I’ve questions to ask and things to say that are as numerous as mountains, but I’ll set them all aside. Instead, remember this one thing: this is a battlefield!”
The five men gave quiet nods at Dam-in’s words.
Considering that to be the minimum warning given, Dam-in continued.
“The Meung Ui Dan is composed of one headquarters and six divisions. Among them, you will be assigned to the Hwang-san Dae, one of the six divisions.”
The Hwang-san Dae’s primary duty was to escort the transport of supplies used by the Meung Ui Dan.
In other words, they would be tasked with guarding the supply lines operating from the rear.
Though the rear might seem safe, sometimes the enemy launched attacks to cut off supply lines, so it was far from being entirely comfortable or secure.
Then again, in the Meung Ui Dan positioned in the thick of battle, there was nowhere that was always safe.
After explaining such matters at length, Dam-in produced documents and continued.
“So you mustn’t grow careless. And this is your assignment order to the Hwang-san Dae…….”
“I wish to go to the Jeok-myeol Dae instead.”
Dam-in’s words were cut off by the youngest of the five men, and after studying him for a long while, Dam-in asked.
“To the Jeok-myeol Dae, you said?”
“That’s right.”
A young man.
Had he only just passed his early twenties?
It was possible he hadn’t even reached that.
The reason Dam-in didn’t know his age despite holding his intake documents was that all of the young man’s personal information had been blacked out with ink.
The same applied to the other four.
That was why Dam-in had gone to find Dan-ju.
In this place where spy infiltration was the greatest headache, accepting men who revealed neither their origins, nor their past, nor their backgrounds, nor even their names was unthinkable.
Yet those reasons had become impossible to raise once the sub-leader appeared.
So it was not Dam-in’s fault that he didn’t even know the new recruit’s age.
Still, the fact that he felt uneasy was unavoidable, and a bitter smile settled at the corners of Dam-in’s mouth.
“Youth has its merits—high spirits, deep pride in combat. Yet sometimes those very things become the harbinger of an early grave.”
“I know the Jeok-myeol Dae is dangerous.”
“Dangerous, you say…….”
The Meung Ui Dan was structured as one headquarters and six divisions, just as Dam-in had already explained to the five newcomers, one of whom now asked to join the Jeok-myeol Dae.
Skipping over the Ui-ju Cheo where Dan-ju made his residence, the Cham-myeong Gak where the scribes gathered, and the Haeng-sa Gak which Dam-in himself oversaw—all unrelated to these men—the six armed divisions were as follows:
First came the Meung Ui Dae, the core of the organization; then the Heuk-ya Dae, the assault force, and the Cheong-jeong Dae, the support contingent; there was also the Nok-an Dae, responsible for garrison defense, and the Hwang-san Dae, ensuring the safety of rear supply routes, and finally the Jeok-myeol Dae, tasked with enemy infiltration and reconnaissance.
Even from that brief outline, one could discern that the Jeok-myeol Dae faced the highest difficulty and danger in its missions.
Therefore, the casualty rate—the probability of death during operations—was the highest among all six divisions.
Of course, the frequency of actual combat was far greater than in the other divisions.
So it was not uncommon for young men with fierce competitive spirits or eager to show off their abilities to the world to volunteer for it.
Naturally, the casualty rate among those who volunteered was terrifyingly high.
Yet he couldn’t lay it all bare like that.
It would be far too cruel to those he had repeatedly assigned to the Jeok-myeol Dae with his own hand, knowing all these circumstances.
So he had no choice but to speak more gently.
“……Rather than that, it’s simply a grueling place. The missions are constant, and combat is frequent.”
“Then I’ll go there.”
Pointless stubbornness—no, sheer bravado—made Dam-in’s brow furrow, but he managed to suppress his anger, thinking of the sub-leader.
“It’s not some trivial post. So…….”
“I didn’t come here to slack off in an easy place!”
At the young man’s rebuttal, Dam-in closed his mouth and gazed steadily into his eyes.
The young man’s gaze was brimming with undeniable stubbornness and challenge.
Those with such eyes cannot be persuaded by mere words.
They will not yield until they taste genuine hardship firsthand.
“If that’s truly your will……. Very well. I’ll send you to the Jeok-myeol Dae. As for the rest…….”
“Send me to the Jeok-myeol Dae as well.”
Before the young man beside him could finish, the others spoke up simultaneously.
“Me too…….”
Having spoken together, the men seemed embarrassed, and Dam-in watched them exchange glances with a displeased look.

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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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