Chapter 243: Chapter 243
The atmosphere in the hall settled flat.
Everyone kept their mouths firmly shut, but their expressions made it clear they were ready to explode in anger at any moment.
“The Black Flame Dragon would not have summoned us here just to make a joke. So we should take this as sincere, yes?”
The Demonic Path Sect Leader crumpled up the paper I had handed him and ground his teeth.
“I feel we have endured far too much until now. After exchanging a few jokes with the Alliance Leader, have you already forgotten where you are?”
The Demonic Path Sect Leader was furious, as if he might start smashing everything at any moment.
Well, it made sense for him to be angry.
He had suddenly received an unexpected debt claim.
The others also seemed to be waiting only for the Demonic Path Sect Leader to make a move.
I quietly looked at the Demonic Path Sect Leader.
“Then there is one thing I am curious about……. Why do you think the work I did was free?”
“……”
As expected of bastards with a thief’s mindset, they thought it was only natural for them to receive things.
“I do not belong to the Black Thought Alliance, and most of you are trying to wage war against the Murim Alliance, to which I belong. I worked for you people despite that, yet are you planning to shamelessly pay no price at all?”
“……Th-That was for the sake of both sides’…… what was it again…….”
“The public good?”
“Yes! The public good! It was for that!”
These bastards always drag out grand-sounding words only when it suits them.
“What we concluded was merely a peace agreement, was it not? It would be one thing if we had formed an alliance. Are you not expecting far too much from someone with whom you have merely concluded a peace agreement closer to a temporary ceasefire?”
“……”
“In any case, if I had not moved properly, there would be very few of you here whose lives would still be safely attached to your bodies.”
“……”
I handed the Demonic Path Sect Leader a new contract.
While everyone was reading the contracts with expressions as though they had chewed shit, Wang Ju-bal, who had become the new Sect Leader of the Four Dragons Sect, looked at Hwang Bu-sik’s contract beside him and asked,
“Wait. Why is the amount different on each contract?”
“Huh?”
“Where?”
Starting with that, the Sect Leaders examined one another’s contracts.
Those with large amounts written on theirs grew relatively more indignant, while those with half the amount written on theirs looked somewhat relieved.
“What is this nonsense? Black Flame Dragon!”
I spoke as though it were only natural.
“Is it not obvious that the amount would differ between those who want war with the Murim Alliance and those who want peace? I am not some saintly gentleman, so there is no need for me to set the same amount.”
Fairness does not apply at all times.
Especially in situations like this, one must create differences so that someone moves first.
“……Even so, five hundred gold taels is too excessive.”
At Hwang Bu-sik’s words, Il-myeong suddenly hiccuped in surprise.
“F-Five hundred gold taels?”
No, why are you surprised?
It is not as if I am asking you to pay it.
Then, out of nowhere, he sent me a Sound Transmission.
-Benefactor Jin, what on earth are you thinking?
-I did work, did I not? I will set aside a little for you too, Senior Il-myeong, so do not worry.
-……That is not what I meant!
If he stayed still, I would naturally take care of him.
But the worry-ridden bald man continued speaking.
-Would they so easily give you such a large sum?
If I thought I could not receive it, I would not have started this in the first place.
“Black Flame Dragon. I acknowledge that you worked hard. However, even we cannot spend five hundred gold taels on something like this.”
When Hwang Bu-sik came out like this, the others rushed in as though they had been waiting for their chance.
“Exactly! Do you think a thousand gold taels is the name of someone’s dog?!”
“Even if you have no sense of reality, this is going too far!”
“Even hiring a special-grade assassin costs only fifty gold taels, and they even dispose of the body!”
As expected, they say humans are different when entering the latrine and when coming out of it.
Well, Black Path bastards would be worse, not better.
I swept my gaze over everyone gathered there.
“Hmm, it seems the lives of those present here are not even worth that much.”
The pro-war faction, meaning those who had received debt claims for a thousand gold taels, shot to their feet with anger in their eyes.
“No, why are you suddenly saying something like……!”
“Exactly! Even so, there is no need to go that far……!”
I tilted my head.
“Do you perhaps think there are no hidden agents left?”
“……Huh?”
The Sect Leaders froze in that instant.
They are rather innocent men for Black Path martial artists.
I spoke to them.
“I never said I caught all the hidden agents.”
“Wh-What kind of bullshit is that?!”
“Y-You clearly said you had handled everything!”
“Exactly! You even drank at the banquet!”
Oh dear, it seemed there had been a problem with communication.
“I said I had handled all the ‘urgent matters.’ My goal was to eliminate as quickly as possible those who were closest and would aim for your necks.”
“Th-Then……?”
I lightly nodded.
“Of course there are hidden agents left.”
The Sect Leaders trembled like people who had realized that the gambling match where they had wagered and lost the deeds to their houses and land had been a rigged game.
“How many are there?!”
“Am I supposed to tell that to people who might become my enemies in the future?”
“Y-You damned bastard!”
I looked at the Demonic Path Sect Leader’s dazed expression.
“That is why you should have gladly accepted when I proposed an alliance. Then I would have handled everything for free.”
“You doglike……”
It seemed the heads of Black Path martial artists were flower gardens compared to what I had expected.
Was this very basic?
Everyone in the Sojeong Squad was like that.
“Well, in any case, it seems none of you intend to pay the amount. I will be returning now.”
“Where do you think you are going?”
Crash-clatter.
The chairs in the empty seats flew into the air, struck the door, and piled up to block the exit.
Wow, did he just use Airborne Object Grasping?
“The Envoy Delegation’s mission is over, so naturally I must return to the Murim Alliance.”
“Are you going back like this?”
“Of course?”
At my response, as if that were only natural, the Demonic Path Sect Leader finally calmed his excitement.
“……What you said. Is it true?”
“Do you think it is a lie?”
“It could be a lie!”
The Demonic Path Sect Leader seemed to have grown excited again without realizing it.
“Is it not the essence of the Orthodox Path to spew lies whenever they open their mouths?!”
“Do you truly think so?”
“……”
The Demonic Path Sect Leader stared at me with the expression of a person trying to find the red bean on a gambling table with two cups placed on it.
I did not avoid his eyes either.
“Are you truly certain? Is that a lie?”
All sorts of shouting had passed back and forth, but in the end, the matter was simple.
“If you think it is a lie, do not pay. If you think it is true, pay.”
A simple fifty-fifty choice.
The only problem was that the stake placed upon it was their lives.
After all, no gambler in the world would set up a game with his own life on the line.
If someone like that existed, then he would truly have to be considered a real gambler.
Step.
I took one step forward, breaking the silence that had descended over the room.
“Are you truly certain that it is false?”
“……!”
The Demonic Path Sect Leader, who had been glaring at me with fierce eyes, ultimately lowered his head.
Once one person is broken, everything becomes very easy after that.
I then looked at the other Sect Leaders one by one.
“If you are certain that it is false, there is no need to continue this war of nerves with me.”
Each time our eyes met, the Sect Leaders lowered their heads in turn.
“Are you certain that it is false?”
Within the room that had once again sunk into silence, the Demonic Path Sect Leader barely opened his mouth.
“……We cannot prepare a thousand gold taels immediately.”
I knew it!
I suppressed the corners of my mouth as they tried to rise and answered calmly.
“I accept in-kind goods and promissory notes as well.”
There was no true gambler in this room.
As the false charge hanging over the Envoy Delegation was lifted, it became easier for the Black Thought Alliance Leader to meet with the Envoy Delegation, but the number of times he actually met them was small.
The major forces within the alliance, who had been glaring with bloodshot eyes to drag Cha Seok-du down from the position of Black Thought Alliance Leader, tightly closed their mouths after the hidden agents appeared, and Cha Seok-du took advantage of that moment to exercise personnel authority as he pleased.
He had once faced countless restraints even when appointing a single Pavilion Master, but with Dam-ak’s help, he began placing his own people one after another into positions that would become pillars of the Black Thought Alliance.
Amid the crisis in which he had nearly lost the seat of Black Thought Alliance Leader to the restraining forces, he had dramatically revived and firmly secured his position.
The Black Thought Alliance was now beginning to take shape as a proper organization.
And the one who had made all of this possible was not someone from within the Black Thought Alliance, but Jin So-un, a member of the Murim Alliance’s Envoy Delegation.
“……”
“Hahahahaha. How much is all this?”
Il-myeong looked at Jin So-un, who was counting promissory notes, with the eyes of one practicing wall-facing meditation.
Jin So-un’s front was bulging with various promissory notes, Spiritual Medicines, treasures, and other things he had torn from the great figures of the Black Path.
Even that was only part of it, and they had said they would bring the remaining balance to the Envoy Delegation’s lodging tomorrow.
It was truly a strange sight.
Great figures of the Black Path had offered up the wealth in their hands and bowed their heads, saying, “Please take good care of it.”
In the history of the Jianghu, how many people could possibly have seen a sight like this?
Il-myeong barely drove away the afflictions invading his mind.
“Benefactor Jin…… may I ask you one thing?”
Jin So-un flinched in surprise and covered his chest with both arms.
“I said I would share, but I cannot give you more than a hundred gold taels. In any case, this is something I earned.”
“……”
Just what did this man take him for?
Swoosh-
Jin So-un covered his body even more tightly with both arms.
“You are not saying you do not need any.”
“……I will use it somewhere good, where Buddha’s will may reach.”
“Tch.”
Looking at Jin So-un, who appeared clearly disappointed for some reason, Il-myeong continued.
“Why did you insist on extorting…… no, receiving money? Since it was something that had to be done anyway, would doing it for free not have been better for both sides’ relationship in the long term?”
“Could I come all the way to the Black Thought Alliance, go through all this damned hardship, and return without any gain?”
“……”
Just as Il-myeong’s eyes were about to grow even cloudier.
“Ah, of course! There was another reason too!”
Jin So-un waved both hands in a great fuss.
At the sight, what little expectation had remained was rapidly shaved away.
Whether he knew that or not, Jin So-un lowered his arms and said,
“Is there not a need to drain the strength of those Black Path bastards a little?”
“Their strength?”
Through Jin So-un’s exploits, the wavering Black Thought Alliance had been able to secure its position even more firmly.
Could one really call that draining their strength?
“To be precise, the pro-war faction bastards. From the beginning, those bastards were the sort who would keep shouting for war as long as they did not fear their opponent.”
“……Did you not simply provoke them further?”
“Humans are truly ridiculous. To them, the thorn under their own fingernail feels like a greater pain than the agony of another person’s hands and feet being cut off.”
At some point, the smile vanished from Jin So-un’s face.
“Do you know who dies first when war breaks out?”
“……The people standing at the very front, I suppose.”
Jin So-un shook his head.
“No. The weakest people do. And the ones who die last are the very people who started the war.”
“……”
“If people believe that harm will absolutely never reach them, they are beings capable of driving thousands, no, tens of thousands of people to their deaths for their own profit.”
For some reason, Il-myeong felt Jin So-un’s face looked like that of someone who had lost his emotions.
“Moreover, they are beings who stood at the peak of the Black Path Murim and wielded absolute authority and force as they pleased. That is why I had to plant this experience in them. The shock that they themselves might be powerless, and the fear that they too might suffer harm.”
But soon, Jin So-un’s eyes flashed brighter than anyone’s.
“Then, when they mention war, hesitation will arise in their hearts.”
At that moment, Il-myeong felt as though something had cracked with a snap in one corner of his mind.
The face that had seemed to have lost emotion now looked detached and radiant, like that of someone who had realized everything.
……Of course, that was only if one ignored his bulging front.
Il-myeong finally voiced the sense of dissonance he had felt.
“If you dislike war…… could you not simply have avoided creating the Black Thought Alliance?”
He knew the whole story and result of the Black Path Night March that Jin So-un had caused.
At the final trial of the Regular Exam, Jin So-un had extended his hand not to Yong So-ah, but to the Black Path martial artists.
One could not blame Jin So-un for everything, but in any case, it was an undeniable fact that he had had a tremendous influence on the process by which the Black Thought Alliance was founded.
At Il-myeong’s question, Jin So-un remained silent for a moment before opening his mouth.
“Senior Il-myeong, do you think the Murim Alliance is righteous?”
Stop.
Il-myeong’s movement stopped for a moment.
It was a question he had never doubted.
No, a question he had thought he must not doubt.
It was a simple question, but the implications contained within it were by no means simple.
“……I believe it is striving to move toward justice.”
“As expected, the gaze of someone who has walked only on a flower path is brilliantly positive.”
Words like sharp thorns flew toward him.
While Il-myeong remained silent, unable to find words to answer, Jin So-un’s cold voice came flying again.
“The Murim Alliance I have seen is by no means like that.”
And yet, strangely, the attack did not hurt.
Rather, it felt as though Jin So-un was pulling out a thorn lodged in his own body and showing him his wound.
“To the weak, the Murim Alliance is a place that feels more ruthless than the Black Path and more despicable than the Unorthodox Path.”
“……”
“The Murim Alliance has grown far too stagnant. That is why it is slowly rotting.”
Just what is this man thinking?
Does he have any sense of identity as the representative of the Murim Academy, and as an elite who will one day lead the Murim Alliance?
Or is he truly thinking of taking the position of Vice Alliance Leader of the Black Thought Alliance, just like the joke he made at the banquet?
With his bulging front swaying, Jin So-un leaned forward.
“Do you know what I heard most often when I entered the academy?”
“Was it not that you were remarkable?”
His accomplishments could truly be called remarkable, after all.
However, Jin So-un slowly shook his head.
“They said I would bring chaos. And that this chaos would disturb the Jianghu and collapse justice.”
It was unfortunate, but understandable.
To the vested interests who did not want to lose their wealth and power, Jin So-un was no different from a thorn in their side.
Yong So-ah, too, had tried to use that very Jin So-un to clean up the inside of the Murim Alliance.
“Even so, how can that justify creating the Black Thought Alliance?”
At Il-myeong’s question, Jin So-un shook his head.
“Do you know that there is a great pond in the imperial palace, and that rare fish from all under heaven live within it?”
It was an abrupt story, but Il-myeong was intoxicated by the scholarly tone of his voice and quietly listened.
“……I have heard of it.”
“When they brought fish to this pond, the problem they agonized over most was the survival of the fish. No matter how carefully they tended to them, the fish all died before reaching the imperial palace.”
Creatures that lived in water were so sensitive that they could die even if the water temperature changed only slightly.
Il-myeong knew this as well, but before he realized it, he had become absorbed in the story.
“The method that solved this was putting the fishes’ natural enemy into that fishbowl.”
“……Their natural enemy?”
Jin So-un let out a small laugh.
“Strange, is it not? Putting rare fish that must not lose even a single one together with their natural enemy. But when they did so, strangely enough, not a single one of those precious fish died before reaching the imperial palace.”
“……”
“They survived by moving around diligently to avoid their natural enemy.”
As Il-myeong listened to the story, his body trembled.
A new realization he had never felt even in the Buddhist scriptures struck his mind like thunder and lightning.
Then Jin So-un leaned back and stretched.
“Of course, the true reason for the Black Thought Alliance’s existence is not limited to the purification of the Murim Alliance, but in any case, it will have a good influence on the Murim Alliance for now.”
“Are you saying there is another reason?”
“……I will tell you later.”
“……”
The moment he saw Jin So-un’s unwavering eyes.
Il-myeong could be certain.
As Il-gak had said, Jin So-un was indeed an “Enlightened One.”
There was no need to question his actions any longer.
He was already seeing the world through a different perspective.
Il-myeong could not even begin to guess what kind of great enlightenment he would have to obtain in order to see the world through such a perspective.
“Then are we returning to the Murim Alliance now?”
Jin So-un immediately answered as though it were only natural.
“No. There is still something left to do.”
“……”
Of course, the fact that he did not know what Jin So-un might do next was deeply worrying.
Whether he knew such feelings or not, the corners of Jin So-un’s mouth rose in a grin.
“We have to catch a cunning fox bastard.”
“……”
In any case, was he not an “Enlightened One” who saw things through a different perspective?
‘I do not know anymore. ……Amitabha.’
For some reason, Il-myeong felt that after coming to the Black Thought Alliance, his capacity for no-mind was increasing.