Chapter 380: Chapter 380
Though this was already his seventh graduation ceremony as Alliance Leader, the occasion always stirred fresh emotion in Hyeok Mu-gang.
The faces of Academy students brimming with hope for the future.
And the families and relatives, sect elders and fellow disciples who gazed upon those students with pride.
The world held all manner of happiness, to be sure, but rarely did an event produce such a concentrated outpouring of this particular kind.
At every graduation, Hyeok Mu-gang would draw upon inner arts he seldom used otherwise, focusing them into his vision.
Because he wanted to take in the students’ faces and the attendees’ expressions all the more clearly.
And yet.
“……Something seems off.”
He murmured to Jegal So-myeong in a voice only the Grand Strategist could hear.
“Everyone’s expressions are sour.”
Whether their grades had been good or poor, wasn’t graduation a joyous occasion for all?
Yet not only the students, but even the families and relatives who should have been beaming with pride — every last one of them sat with expressions pinched tight, as though enduring the stench of something foul.
What in the world was going on……?
“More than half the students failed to receive the assignments they wanted.”
“……”
With an air of understanding, Jegal So-myeong whispered on.
“Applicants flooded a single pavilion, causing an overflow of rejected candidates.”
Hyeok Mu-gang tilted his head.
Weren’t student assignments usually arranged through the help of senior alumni and sect connections, landing most people more or less where they wanted to go?
“What do you mean? Did the seniors and sects not guide this batch……”
Jegal So-myeong’s gaze slid toward the Elder Council.
Hyeok Mu-gang followed his eyes to the council members.
Sure enough, their expressions were just as rotten as those of the students and guests.
“The ones who were supposed to apply to the pavilions their sects had designated…… apparently all went and applied to the White Wolf Pavilion instead.”
“What??”
“It didn’t matter whether they belonged to the Righteous Path Association, the Orthodox Path Association, or the Twelve Peak Citadels — they all acted on their own. Bitten in the foot by the axe they trusted.”
Students didn’t collectively eat something wrong, did they……?
Why would they suddenly — of all places — flood the White Wolf Pavilion, which hadn’t once lost its title of most-avoided assignment in the Academy’s entire history?
“Did they discover a vein of Azure Stone Milk in the White Wolf Pavilion or something?”
“……”
“I’m asking seriously.”
Jegal So-myeong sighed softly and answered.
“The Black Forest incident likely played a role. The new instructors who were swapped in were, in a sense, the students’ direct seniors within the Murim Alliance.”
“Ah……”
The betrayal of those one looks up to and trusts without question cuts deeper than any other.
Just as no child escapes unscathed when abandoned by a parent, the events in the Black Forest had undoubtedly left deep wounds in those young hearts.
“According to intelligence from the Heavenly Eye Pavilion, several sects and clans actually disciplined or punished the students who followed Jin So-un into the Ten-Thousand-Poison Sect.”
“What are you saying? The Alliance ruled that matter closed.”
Jegal So-myeong kept his voice measured, but his lip curled.
“How many of them do you think place their own sect’s rules above the Alliance’s?”
“……”
It was a travesty.
Scolding children who had barely made it back alive for daring to return — of course the young ones would be embittered.
Yet one question still nagged.
“Then…… why do the students who were assigned to the White Wolf Pavilion also look unhappy?”
If they’d applied in defiance, then they’d gotten what they wanted.
So why the long faces?
This time, Jegal So-myeong’s lips curled with amusement.
“According to them, their ‘Unit Leader’ was snatched away, so there’s no reason to be in the White Wolf Pavilion anymore.”
“Unit Leader?”
“They mean Jin So-un.”
“……”
Hyeok Mu-gang, forgetting that the graduation ceremony was in progress, stared blankly at Jegal So-myeong.
“……I deliberately pulled Jin So-un out of the White Wolf Pavilion.”
“Precisely. The White Wolf Pavilion Master says Jin So-un even came back begging to be accepted again.”
“……”
He was confused. He’d pulled Jin So-un from the White Wolf Pavilion for the boy’s own good, yet both the person in question and scores of others were aggrieved by it.
Just then, Jegal So-myeong whispered.
“But don’t worry. I’ve made sure no one finds out that the Alliance Leader personally intervened……”
And at that, Hyeok Mu-gang shot to his feet.
“It was all your doing, Grand Strategist! How can you say that so……. ahem……”
“……”
“……”
“……”
“……”
Every major figure seated on the dais — the Elder Council, key Alliance officials, even the envoy delegation from the Black Thought Alliance — stared at Hyeok Mu-gang in bewilderment.
“Um…… Alliance Leader, sir…… did I do something wrong?”
Even the ceremony emcee was sweating bullets in confusion, and as Hyeok Mu-gang hesitated mid-rise —
Jegal So-myeong said, with an expression of perfect innocence:
“This is an important event, is it not? Let us discuss the matter calmly afterward.”
The sight of Jegal So-myeong sitting there with that brazen face sent Hyeok Mu-gang’s blood pressure soaring, but he had no choice but to sit back down as though nothing had happened.
This graduation ceremony was more important than any before.
Of course, he did not forget to send a sound transmission to Jegal So-myeong.
— We will talk after this.
— ……
Naturally, no reply came.
***
In my past life, when I’d arrived at the Murim Alliance a bit early for mandatory service, I had forced myself to attend the Academy graduation ceremony.
I’d sat in the spectators’ section clutching a shabby banner the Gyeryong Merchant Guild had made, clapping for Gye Cheol-yeong without an ounce of sincerity.
In a sense, this was my second time attending the same graduation ceremony, yet the circumstances could not have been more different.
I no longer sat in the spectator seats.
And the Taeul Sect members were not straining to find Gye Cheol-yeong among hundreds of graduates, but —
“How splendid.”
“Truly…… truly so.”
— gazing proudly at me, seated in the representative’s chair.
Of course, that was not the only difference.
The atmosphere of the ceremony itself was utterly unlike my past life.
Where the previous ceremony had been rowdy and bustling, this one was proceeding under a strangely subdued mood.
If I had to point to a cause, it was likely the uninvited guest no one had anticipated.
I’d wondered why those banners dared by Black Path riffraff were plastered at the Academy entrance.
“……”
The culprit was seated boldly on the dais, right beside the Alliance Leader and the Grand Strategist.
The Black Thought Alliance’s Grand Strategist.
Dam Ak.
Dam Ak, who in the original timeline should have filled Jegal So-myeong’s empty seat as the Murim Alliance’s strategist, had thrown himself into the murim earlier than expected — and become the Grand Strategist not of the Murim Alliance, but of the Black Thought Alliance.
And now, having begun to spread his fearsome reputation across the murim, he was —
“How pleasant.”
— planted in the middle of an event that was essentially a Murim Alliance affair, and naturally, the attendees’ discontent ran deep.
‘……What is he thinking?’
The broad strokes made sense.
With the murim increasingly plagued by imposters disguised as the Demonic Cult and the Black Path, the leaders of the Murim Alliance and the Black Thought Alliance were likely forging some kind of agreement.
A public display that relations between the two groups weren’t hostile — a warning to at least stop impersonating the Black Path.
‘But sending the Grand Strategist in person is crossing the line, isn’t it?’
A simple delegation, as the Murim Alliance would have done, would have sufficed.
That they’d brought a civilian scholar who hadn’t even trained in martial arts, given the worst-case scenarios that might arise — it seemed reckless no matter how I looked at it.
While I was lost in those thoughts, someone sent me a sound transmission.
— I am part of the Black Thought Alliance’s security detail. The Grand Strategist asked me to relay a message to Young Hero Jin.
Taken aback, I looked up at the dais. Dam Ak was whispering something to the person beside him.
‘A sound transmission in the middle of the graduation ceremony? Is there some other reason Dam Ak came in person?’
My chest tightened wondering what could possibly be important enough to warrant this.
When Dam Ak finished speaking, the bodyguard nodded and moved his lips.
— The Grand Strategist says: ‘Here I am, watching the graduation from these shadowed seats, while you are the one stepping out of the Academy. Quite the difference in position.’
“……”
What? What kind of nonsense……
— The Grand Strategist says: ‘When you visited the Black Thought Alliance as an envoy, I assumed you had at least some experience in the murim. But you hadn’t even taken your first step? Still a fledgling?’
Is he picking a fight?
Incredulous, I sent a sound transmission to Dam Ak.
— What do you think you’re doing?
Dam Ak whispered to his bodyguard again.
— The Grand Strategist says: ‘Obviously, I’m teasing you.’
An answer I never saw coming.
Dumbfounded, I stared at Dam Ak — and he was clearly suppressing a grin, his lips twitching.
Then, as though something else had occurred to him, he leaned in to whisper to the guard once more.
— The Grand Strategist says: ‘Given the hierarchy of the murim, it would be somewhat awkward for me to share a table with you, wouldn’t it? I do hold a rather high position…… My apologies. I shouldn’t have brought it up. Ha ha.’
He flipped my temper right over again.
This son of a…… no, this man.
Using a brilliant mind for this kind of waste.
Ha! As if anyone’s going to be provoke……
— The Grand Strategist says: ‘How about I eat on the third floor and you eat on the first? That should be acceptable, shouldn’t it?’
……Shit.
— The Grand Strategist says: ‘An opportunity like this is hard to come by for a murim newcomer like yourself, so I suggest you think it over carefully.’
Was this man always such a lunatic…… no, always like this?
In my past life, he’d been rock-solid and composed, with a sharp edge like a well-honed blade.
— The Grand Strategist says……
I genuinely wanted to hit him. Just once.
***
Thanks to Dam Ak, I had no idea how the graduation ceremony had ended as I made my way to the dining venue with the Taeul Sect party.
The banquet prepared by the Academy was held in the Academy cafeteria and the main hall.
All around, congratulatory greetings and gift presentations continued.
“Hey! Where’s the second kid? The painter’s here, hurry up and bring him! We’re getting a portrait together!”
“Let’s go drink!!!”
“I…… the truth is, I’ve had you on my mind since……”
“Let’s go drink!!!”
The lively atmosphere stirred a strange sense of vitality.
Everyone was busy tending to family and catching up with classmates.
Having attended this ceremony in my past life as a mere spectator, I now took in the scene once more — slowly, this time — as a graduate.
As I was committing each person to memory, one by one —
“……!”
I caught sight of a figure standing in the crowd, and my body froze.
A person who existed in the memories of my past life.
The one who had marked the beginning of a nightmarish chapter.
“Senior Brother? What are you doing?”
Eun-ho called from beside me, but I shoved the flowers and gifts into his arms and followed the figure as though drawn by an invisible thread.
‘How…… how is he…… here?’
So much had changed from my past life.
My presence at this graduation ceremony instead of Gye Cheol-yeong’s was not the result of one or two altered events.
Countless changes had accumulated to reshape the present.
And according to my revised plans —
‘……That’s impossible.’
That person should not have been here.
Because.
“Se…… Senior Brother!!!”
In my past life, he had been one of the assassins who killed Je Geum-hak — already dead in this life as well — and Jegal So-myeong.