Chapter 178: Chapter 178

Opening his closed eyes, Jang Geon looked at Bae Won-chan. Once appearing as a handsome young master warrior, he now wore the face of a fugitive. Jang Geon took a deep drag of his tobacco and spoke as he puffed out smoke.

“You look tired.”

“…Draw your sword, Jang Geon. Let us settle our match again.”

Hearing Bae Won-chan’s cracked voice, Jang Geon smirked.

“I need to have a sword to draw a sword, you rascal.”

At that light tone as if telling a joke, Bae Won-chan was slightly flustered. Indeed, Jang Geon currently possessed no weapon. He merely looked like a man who had briefly stepped outside his house at a late hour to smoke a pipe of tobacco. He did not look like a martial artist prepared to fight at all.

Bae Won-chan stammered.

“…Th-then go inside and bring out your sword. I do not wish to settle a match with someone unprepared to fight.”

“After I finish smoking this.”

Jang Geon stood crookedly, puffing his tobacco. Watching him, tragic-looking Bae Won-chan couldn’t even say anything and hesitated. Spitting out tobacco dregs stuck to the tip of his tongue while letting smoke drift, Jang Geon saw Bae Won-chan’s sight and gently shook his head. Even drawing his sword and coming, it seemed he would truly stay like that until Jang Geon finished smoking his tobacco.

So he changed the topic.

“Your story seems to have been circulating in the streets of New Sichuan.”

“Why suddenly… my story? Rumors about me are circulating?”

“Yeah.”

“…What rumors?”

Bae Won-chan asked that even while hesitating.

“What else. Content that a traitor who was a former Murim Alliance patrolman is currently being chased by the Imperial Army.”

“I am no traitor!”

He shouted forcefully. However, his cracking voice could not be very loud. Perhaps because he tried to suddenly raise his voice, he even coughed with a hack. Watching Bae Won-chan impassively, Jang Geon continued speaking.

“As if. When your uncle colluded with demonic practitioners and even raided the Murim Alliance.”

“Cough, I, I, cough! Kehem, kheem…”

Barely stopping his coughing, he spoke.

“…Mmm. I, I am no traitor. I faithfully support the justice and laws of the Murim Alliance… I did not know my uncle joined hands with the Demonic Palace… Uncle told me nothing. I merely thought my uncle’s intent and actions were a prominent expression of the Council of Elders’ opinion to keep the Alliance Leader in check… I didn’t kill anyone either…”

“Should I believe that? Then why did you run away?”

“…Even if I didn’t know, it didn’t seem like the Imperial Army would understand those circumstances.”

A bitter smile formed at the corners of Bae Won-chan’s lips. Lowering his head deeply, he spoke.

“…Right. In the end, it was because I was stupid… Because I considered the fame and power gained through my family’s help to be achieved by myself alone and was arrogant. That’s why even while executing uncle’s and the Council of Elders’ orders, I didn’t know what it meant…”

Jang Geon merely puffed tobacco smoke and looked at him silently. Bae Won-chan’s tragedy from a moment ago faded merely by him lowering his head deeply, leaving only a miserable fugitive in that spot.

Since both were silent, the alleyway was quiet.

Watching Bae Won-chan for a moment, Jang Geon took the tobacco from his mouth and spoke.

“If you truly listened to your uncle’s orders knowing nothing, even the Imperial Army will sufficiently consider…”

Jang Geon suddenly stopped speaking. And turning his head, he looked into the distance. His impassive gaze turned cold.

However, with his head deeply lowered, Bae Won-chan answered, unaware of Jang Geon’s gaze.

“Mitigating circumstances? There’s no way the Imperial Army would do that, but even if that happened, I would have to rot doing hard labor in prison for at least ten years. And to lock me in prison, they would break my dantian as well… If I lose the martial arts I’ve built up all my life, why should I live any longer?”

“You must have family.”

Looking into the distance, Jang Geon spoke roughly without even glancing at Bae Won-chan. Bae Won-chan raised his head sharply and answered.

“…The Baeklim Sect of Heavenly Empress City has fallen. My father stepped down from the patriarch position and was forcibly retired. At any rate, I won’t be able to see them again either. Our family is done. Draw your sword, Jang Geon. Lastly, I will return the humiliation suffered at your hands and end my life with my own hands.”

“Ah, right.”

Unlike Bae Won-chan, who became tragic again, Jang Geon bit the tobacco he was holding in his mouth and trudged over to him.

“…Wh-what?”

“Didn’t you say let’s fight? Do it now.”

“What? You said you’d go inside and bring your sword…”

Flicking his right hand, Jang Geon spoke.

“This will do.”

Dazed Bae Won-chan’s face flushed bright red with rage upon realizing that meaning. Gritting his teeth, he spoke.

“…To the end, you humiliate me, Jang Geon! Fine! If so, I will no longer show mercy either!”

Saying so, he twirled the sword he was holding, assumed a fancy stance, let out a shout of ‘Hut!’, and charged at Jang Geon. In the narrow, dark alleyway, the blade reflecting moonlight gleamed cold and blue.

However, the next moment, a thwack! sound echoed once, and Bae Won-chan tumbled in the alleyway in his running momentum. Escaping his hand, his sword also rolled with a clattering sound on one side of the street. With the remaining momentum of his charge, Bae Won-chan slammed his face into the ground and slid forward.

However, since he had already lost consciousness, whether his face dragged on the ground or not, he merely had his tongue long out without reaction.

Subduing him lightly, Jang Geon exhaled a long drag of smoke he had sucked in, tapped the long sword dropped by Bae Won-chan with his foot, floated it into the air, and grabbed it. And standing upright in the alley, he looked up at the roof of a pavilion far beyond the wall.

* * *

“…He is looking this way.”

Staff Officer Im Sa-yeong tried saying so needlessly once. In fact, she disliked stating again a situation everyone already knew. It was because she considered it more correct to take action fitting that situation during that time.

However, in a case like now, it didn’t seem like anyone would open their mouth unless she did, so she acted thus. That was the only way a subordinate waiting for orders could press a superior.

“Mmm…”

Captain Wi Sang also knew that. Of course, since he was barely at the captain rank, he couldn’t be called Im Sa-yeong’s formal superior, but as they were leading this operation together and his rank was higher, a superior could be called a superior. If giving an answer, it was right that he do it.

However, his gaze subtly turned to the old man beside him.

The arrest operation of Bae Won-chan, which seemed like driving prey, continued and continued, eventually arriving here. The cause was also that the old man beside him had reflected his will very heavily, so by this point, the arrest operation of Bae Won-chan had become a situation almost led by the old man.

And arriving here, Imperial soldiers of a certain rank realized that this operation had some connection with Jang Geon of the Jang Family Merchant Guild.

The Imperial soldiers also knew Jang Geon well. Reports were abundant, and there were also many Imperial soldiers who faced him on his first day entering the Murim Alliance. And they all knew well, even if not speaking openly, that their superior and current supreme commander of the Eastward Marching Army, General Pacifying the East Yu Seol, had great interest in him.

In the end, realizing that this operation was taking place due to something between Yu Seol, the old man, and Jang Geon, the Imperial Army officers became very passive. In fact, handing over command half-way to an old man who didn’t even state his exact identity like this was something that couldn’t happen in a ordinary situation.

Stretching his lips long, Captain Wi Sang looked at the old man. In fact, given his temper, he wanted to shout to just go directly to Jang Geon and handle business instead of acting frustratingly like this. Don’t even think of bossing the Imperial Army around like this.

Looking at the alley where Jang Geon stood with an interesting smile at the corners of his lips, the old man turned his head as if suddenly sensing that gaze.

“Why so, Captain Wi? Is there some problem?”

“…No. Since the criminal appears to have lost consciousness, I must request cooperation from that martial artist.”

“Heo-heo. That should be done. But you don’t need to state that to me.”

“…I merely confirmed what to do.”

“Is that so? Heo-heo.”

Moving his steps, Wi Sang spoke.

“First, let us go among ourselves. Don’t needlessly surround with kids. Since the criminal is already unconscious.”

“Yes.”

Im Sa-yeong answered briefly and followed behind Wi Sang. As the two descended below the roof like that, the old man who had been still also subtly tailed behind them.

Sensing such movement, Wi Sang let out a small sigh. He missed the life in Hawaii where there was nothing complex to think about.

* * *

Striking down Bae Won-chan, Jang Geon let his sword hang down, stood in the alleyway, and burned his remaining tobacco. In the alleyway, there was only the fallen Bae Won-chan and himself, but it was as if he were waiting for someone.

And around the time his tobacco burned almost completely, someone appeared at the entrance of that alleyway.

They were a man appearing in his early-to-mid thirties, a woman, and a short old man with a white beard. All of them were armed, and the man and woman were even wearing simple armor like wrist guards or shin guards. Stepping forward vigorously, they stood blocking one side of the street.

The man opened his mouth.

“Mmm, so… hello?”

Exhaling smoke long, Jang Geon looked at him. Seeing that gaze, the man spoke again as if the current situation was truly exhausting.

“…That person over there is a criminal who committed crimes in collusion with demonic practitioners. First, we are truly grateful you caught him, and a reward will come out before long. We wish to escort him now, so would you step aside?”

“Who are you?”

Jang Geon asked briefly. The man was puzzled for a moment as if asking what that meant, then soon nodded his head as if realizing and spoke.

“Ah, I am Captain Wi Sang of the Eastward Marching Army. I am under General Yu Seol’s command. Pleased to meet you, Warrior Jang.”

“You know me?”

“Haha… How could I not know? You are the protagonist of resounding fame in New Sichuan right now. Besides, didn’t you previously expose the corruption of Gyeon Woo-young, who worked here? That friend, really… he wasn’t such a person in the past…”

Falling into random sentimentality while speaking, Wi Sang shook his head gently, scattered his thoughts, and continued speaking.

“At any rate, thank you for catching the criminal. Now, would you step aside?”

Jang Geon looked at Wi Sang and the remaining two people with peculiar eyes. And slowly moving toward the alley wall, he spoke.

“Unlike what is known, that friend over there doesn’t seem to have colluded with demonic practitioners.”

“Did that fellow say so? But he was said to move under his uncle’s orders.”

“He said he only did what his uncle ordered. He said he didn’t even know what it meant.”

“Then he was used just because he was stupid? Ha, really… Well, anyway, if we interrogate him, everything will come out, and if that’s true, he’ll just serve a few years of hard labor…”

Answering thus, Wi Sang suddenly shut his mouth. Then he tightly closed both eyes. As he suddenly shut his mouth and closed his eyes like that, silence descended upon the alleyway for a moment. At such sudden silence, the woman beside him also looked at him with puzzled eyes.

A moment later, when his tightly closed eyes opened again, the initial softness could not be found in those eyes.

“…Mmm. Do not dare wag your mouth at the Imperial Army’s operation. If a creature like you wag your mouth recklessly like that, you can be arrested on the spot.”

Watching from behind, the woman, Staff Officer Im Sa-yeong, opened her mouth wide and looked at Wi Sang. Wi Sang’s attitude, suddenly turning domineering and picking a fight with Jang Geon, was incomprehensible to her eyes. Leaving those gazes behind, Wi Sang continued speaking. It was the same tone as a moment ago.

“Immediately drop your weapon and return inside your house. We also know your brother and sister are inside that Jang Family Merchant Guild. If you cause trouble, they will also be arrested together. Or shall I cut off your light tongue right here first?”

“Th-that, excuse me, Captain Wi? Why suddenly…”

Im Sa-yeong opened her mouth to stop Wi Sang for now. However, soon she also twitched as Wi Sang had done a moment ago, then suddenly shut her mouth. With a thoroughly stiffened expression, she stepped back a pace. While she did that, Wi Sang stepped forward a bit and glared at Jang Geon.

And receiving that gaze, Jang Geon let out a dry laugh, finding it ridiculous.

Moving back toward the wall, Jang Geon shook his head and stepped into the middle of the alleyway again. And he planted the sword he was holding upside down into the ground. Afterwards, sucking up the remaining tobacco that had almost burned out, he flicked away the remaining butt to the side. Red sparks flickered slightly.

Exhaling his last tobacco smoke, Jang Geon spoke.

“I say, old man.”

Watching the situation from behind with a faint smile, the old man twitched and looked at Jang Geon. Wi Sang and Im Sa-yeong were likewise startled. They also looked at Jang Geon with wide open eyes.

Whether they looked or not, Jang Geon looked at the old man and moved his lips.

[If you wish to see my skill, step up yourself. Stop fucking around.]

Grand Academician Sunwoo Hyeon, the old man who had silently revealed his identity and issued commands to Wi Sang and Im Sa-yeong using secret double tone sound transmission, looked at Jang Geon with wide open eyes. It was because not only did the voice currently echoing in his ears go unheard by Wi Sang and Im Sa-yeong, but its content also indicated he had heard his double tone transmission from earlier.

However, from his face, such surprise was soon erased, replaced by a smile full of deep interest and curiosity.

Seeing that smile, Jang Geon spat to the side, tui.