Chapter 412: Chapter 412

Munch, munch, munch, munch.

Jegal Cheon-gi watched Dang Seo-hui and thought:

‘How does that much candied fruit fit inside that tiny body?’

When Jegal Cheon-gi stared at the spectacle with open fascination, Dang Seo-hui hastily shielded her candied fruit and mumbled.

“……Do you want some too?”

Normally, wouldn’t you hold the candied fruit out while saying something like that?

Having discerned her true feelings from the gap between words and actions, Jegal Cheon-gi shook his head.

“Oh, I’m fine.”

“You don’t like candied fruit?”

He did like them.

But didn’t most people get sick of them after just two or three?

“No. I just don’t eat them very often.”

At that, Dang Seo-hui rose on her tiptoes and patted Jegal Cheon-gi’s head.

“Good boy. Eating too many sweets is bad for your body.”

Jegal Cheon-gi gazed with bleary eyes at the remains of the nearly thirty candied fruits that had been massacred.

“Th-this can’t be helped. Junior Jin gave them to me as payment for helping with this mission, so it can’t be helped……”

“……I see.”

Even granting that, he could not help feeling it was somewhat questionable to head straight for a candied fruit shop the moment they returned to Wuhan, when they did not even know for certain how the mission had ended.

“Shouldn’t we pack these up and head back to the Alliance first? I’d like to know how the mission turned out……”

He had worried the entire journey back to Wuhan that Jin So-un might have been wounded or captured.

He knew full well how exceptional and tenacious Jin So-un was, but still—the opponents were no ordinary foes.

Yet—

“There is no need to worry. Junior Jin would not have failed.”

Dang Seo-hui clutched her candied fruit tightly and shook her head.

Jegal Cheon-gi stared at her in surprise.

Did she trust Jin So-un to that extent? The extraordinary White-Hand Divine Maiden herself……

“……And candied fruit tastes best when it is freshly made.”

“……”

The suspicion that the latter reason carried more weight led Jegal Cheon-gi to finally let the matter go.

After all, he was in no position to enter the Alliance on his own anyway.

Just as Dang Seo-hui picked up a new piece of candied fruit and was about to pop it into her mouth—

SWISH—

A leaf came flying and sliced through the skewer.

In the midst of this absurdly improbable coincidence, Dang Seo-hui snatched a fresh skewer with lightning speed, spearing the falling candied fruit and catching it mid-air.

“Eating candied fruit builds up turbid qi in a pure body.”

She sent a razor-sharp glare in the direction the leaf had come from.

“Is the turbid qi from candied fruit really more frightening to you than my poisonous qi?”

“Aw, come on, I was just playing around. Just playing.”

Hwa Jeong-san sauntered over with a breezy grin and reached for the mountain of candied fruit piled before Dang Seo-hui.

SMACK— SMACKSMACKSMACK—

But there was no breaking through Dang Seo-hui’s nimble fingers.

While the two of them bantered, Yong So-ah had approached unnoticed and now stood beside them, his expression devoid of emotion.

“I heard about Dam Ak’s situation. Why did you not tell me?”

Dang Seo-hui countered with her own question.

“Why is it that you did not know about this matter?”

“I asked first.”

Dang Seo-hui bit into her rescued candied fruit with an aloof look.

“Junior Jin told me not to speak of it.”

“Even knowing it was wrong…… you helped him?”

At Yong So-ah’s question, which bordered on reproach, Jegal Cheon-gi furrowed his brows.

“The premise of that question is already wrong. Why are you treating it as an established fact that it was wrong?”

Being contradicted on one’s opinion generally causes the speaker a degree of displeasure.

But in the eyes that Yong So-ah turned on Jegal Cheon-gi, there was not a trace of displeasure to be found.

Nothing but indifference.

His gaze lingered on Jegal Cheon-gi for a moment before turning back to Dang Seo-hui.

That vast apathy left Jegal Cheon-gi feeling almost powerless.

“Yong So-ah, if you had known, would you have tried to kill Dam Ak?”

“What was meant to flow naturally was forcibly twisted. The backlash from that will fall on Jin So-un.”

He did not answer directly, but the meaning behind his words was clear enough.

Hwa Jeong-san added, as if to supplement:

“Of course, I’m not saying we were in the right. But a lot of people are uncomfortable about what happened this time. It does feel like a betrayal of the Orthodox Path, when you get down to it.”

Hwa Jeong-san was right.

Even Dang Seo-hui could not easily counter that, and silence quickly settled over them.

Then—

“Has he.”

A voice that cut into the silence as if unwilling to let it stand.

“Already accounted for that consequence as well?”

At Yong So-ah’s question, Dang Seo-hui set down her candied fruit.

“Whether it becomes a backlash or a new current…… that remains to be seen.”

Yong So-ah, who had been gazing down at Dang Seo-hui with that blank expression, turned his gaze for some reason back to Jegal Cheon-gi.

“A new current……”

A chill ran through Jegal Cheon-gi at that hollow stare, but he struggled to keep it from showing.

“Jin So-un has already accumulated considerable karma. The backlash layered upon itself like that is never something human endurance and persistence can easily overcome.”

This was clearly an answer directed at Dang Seo-hui.

But to Jegal Cheon-gi, those words felt like arrows aimed at himself.

As though he were one piece of that mountain of karma.

“He will ultimately be crushed under that weight and vanish from history.”

“We will see about that.”

With those words, Dang Seo-hui turned her back on Yong So-ah in obvious displeasure and resumed eating her candied fruit.

Hwa Jeong-san, who had been wearing a troubled expression caught between the two, eventually led Yong So-ah away.

“……”

Jegal Cheon-gi, who had been holding his breath in that strange tension, let out a long sigh and went over Yong So-ah’s words again in his mind.

Taken at face value, they were nothing more than a string of spiteful remarks born from jealousy and personal grudges.

But the uniquely impassive, still aura the man exuded made it impossible to pin down the source of his criticism.

And in the end, the thought crept in that what he had said might actually come to pass.

Had Dang Seo-hui read the wavering in Jegal Cheon-gi’s thoughts?

“There is no need to worry. The probability of such a thing happening is fifty-fifty.”

Dang Seo-hui patted Jegal Cheon-gi’s head with fingers made sticky from picking up candied fruit.

“……That means it could happen too, doesn’t it……?”

“That is also not a problem.”

Having finished wiping her hands clean on Jegal Cheon-gi’s hair, Dang Seo-hui gripped his shoulder with a firm squeeze.

“When that time comes, you just need to help. That is all.”

Dang Seo-hui’s final words.

The instant he heard them, the chest that had been clenching tight with dread burst wide open, cool and clear.

‘I…… can help Brother?’

Because perhaps this was the very opportunity he had so long wished for.

“Still, it is not good to wish for misfortune. ……Are you even listening to me?”

No more ill-omened words could reach Jegal Cheon-gi’s ears.

***

I could have moved right away after waking up, but I deliberately chose not to.

I had pushed my body far too hard, and my injuries were severe enough that it made more sense to recover fully before departing.

In the meantime, I had nothing to do, so I wandered the Black Thought Alliance’s garrison, checking just how different this life’s Alliance was from the one in my previous life.

In addition to the two hundred cavalrymen who had arrived first, three hundred more warriors had been added.

I had felt this when I first saw the cavalry, but the Black Thought Alliance undeniably reeked of the military.

They could not encase the horses entirely in iron plate, but the mounts were at least outfitted in light armor, and the riders who drove them went without saying.

What impressed me most were the warriors on foot. Though their level of martial arts was low, their movements were disciplined, and their military code was firmly in place.

Black Path thugs with military discipline.

It seemed they had found the best possible approach—compensating for martial prowess lower than the Orthodox Path’s and unifying a disparate rabble who could not otherwise be brought together.

And I did not have to think deeply to know whose judgment had led to this choice.

‘Dam Ak really is Dam Ak, I suppose.’

In the previous life, even amid the most desperate circumstances, Dam Ak had been the one to insist on drilling the White Tiger Sword Formation before engaging in battle.

‘Still, seeing it like this in person is seriously impressive.’

The armored cavalry and iron-clad warriors clearly bore the influence of Four Emperors Peak.

I did not need to see them in action to know how effective they would be on the battlefield.

It was a display of might utterly unimaginable from Orthodox Path warriors, who threw fits and screamed ‘Just kill me instead!’ if you so much as tried to make them carry a wooden shield, let alone wear iron plate.

It also happened to be exactly what I was striving for in this life.

‘Still, our kids are slowly adapting. Hmm, the White Wolf Pavilion’s going to be the problem later, though……’

The thought of those bastards—who weren’t even from some prestigious sect—stripping to the waist and throwing tantrums because they refused to wear armor was enough to make my fists itch already.

“Well, there’s no hardhead that a good beating can’t fix.”

Three days passed, and I was no longer hindered in my movements.

The Black Thought Alliance’s personnel had begun preparing to withdraw at the same time.

Their entire purpose here had been to rescue Strategist Dam Ak.

Getting from Anhui to Shanxi would require setting out as soon as possible.

But…… then what about the agreement?

Surely Dam Ak isn’t going to go back and then declare ‘War!’ just like that?

“You’ve already fully recovered?”

Dam Ak, whose own recovery lagged behind—still looking rather pitiful—stared at me with disbelief.

“Didn’t I tell you? Warriors naturally recover fast.”

Yeah, just go with that. Anyway, that’s how it is.

“……Honestly, I’m tempted to take you back to the Black Thought Alliance and run some experiments.”

“What can you do? If you did that, you’d start a war between the Black Thought Alliance and the Murim Alliance.”

A dry, crumbling chuckle escaped Dam Ak’s lips.

What the hell? That laugh was big-time……

“Young Master Jin, you are hardly such a prized talent within the Murim Alliance. And this incident likely made you even more enemies.”

“……”

As expected, he was impossible to match in a war of words.

At least before, he had been a prim little bookworm, and there was some fun in needling him.

Whether spending time among Black Path types had corrupted him, his ability to sling barbs had become truly exquisite.

“Everything has turned out this way because of you, Strategist Dam. Just know that.”

I deployed the most effective counterattack available when at a disadvantage.

Its name: ‘blaming someone else.’

I knew it was a cheap shot, so I had steeled myself for whatever retort would come next—but out of nowhere, Dam Ak bowed his head deeply.

“I will not forget. No, I could not forget even if I tried.”

“……”

Why are you suddenly taking that seriously? Now I feel awkward.

In any case, I’m the kind of person who prefers a single repayment over a hundred words.

“Then you’ll grant me a favor when the time comes?”

“Of course.”

Yes! I just earned a ‘wish card’ from the Black Thought Alliance’s Grand Strategist.

How should I use it? If I ask for something too outrageous, he’ll refuse. Has the Black Thought Alliance built a treasury? Could I maybe take a look and pick something?

While I was lost in such thoughts, Dam Ak rummaged through his clothes and produced something.

In his hands were a small wooden case and an envelope containing a letter.

“What are these?”

“One is for that man, Jegal So-myeong. The other is for you, Young Master Jin.”

If he was giving me something, I really hoped my share was the wooden case. The envelope was obviously a letter, not a promissory note.

“Would it…… look bad if I asked which one is mine?”

“……Yes. I believe I would feel the last grain-sized speck of goodwill I had for you disappear completely.”

Wow, harsh. And to a man who saved his life, no less.

Just as I was about to pout—

“The wooden case is yours, of course.”

“I see. What’s in the letter, by the way? You’re not making some absurd request for me to deliver a declaration of war, are you?”

Dam Ak, who no longer so much as flinched at my jokes, replied with perfect calm.

“If I wished to commit a borrowed-knife murder, there are plenty of other methods.”

“That’s a relief.”

I accepted the wooden case and the letter with a light heart.

And then I opened the case.

“Snff, snff.”

The aroma that hit me the instant I lifted the lid was extraordinary.

‘What is this? This lavish…… no, this exquisite fragrance that seems like it could only come from a celestial realm?’

There was a profound coolness to it that could not compare with any spiritual medicine or pill I had ever consumed.

“Truthfully, I am uncertain. Who the real enemy of the Black Thought Alliance might be. However, the one thing this incident has taught me is that the Murim Alliance will never change.”

I had tasted the finest products of Mount Hua and Shaolin—the two establishments counted among the murim’s top three sources of spiritual pills—but none of them had possessed this kind of depth.

“And I cannot even be sure whether the Demonic Cult, these unseen enemies…… are truly more dangerous than that Murim Alliance.”

My heart was pounding like mad and I could feel saliva pooling in my mouth, but I could not hide my bewilderment.

Pill refining was one step along the path of cultivating the Dao.

But how had Black Path bastards—who had tossed the Dao to the dogs long ago—managed to create a spiritual pill like this?

“The Black Thought Alliance cannot fight alongside those it cannot trust…… Are you even listening to me right now?”

“Snff snff—no, it’s just…… the aroma is so incredible…… Ahem…… I heard you clearly, Grand Strategist. But might I ask where this pill came from?”

I could not consume a pill whose source had not been confirmed. That would be no different from swallowing poison.

“……”

Dam Ak stared at me with a look of utter disbelief, then let out a small breath.

“You need not worry about that. It was manufactured by a reputable sect. A genuine article.”

“Right, but which sect?”

“It is called the Taiji Pill, from Wudang, I am told……”

“HOLY SHIT!!!”

I nearly swallowed the pill in the case right then and there from sheer shock.

Was this stolen goods?

“Are you out of your mind?!”

Oops…… my inner thoughts and my actual words just switched places.

“It is not stolen goods. It was given to me as a gift.”

Is this man insane?

“We have a word for that—it’s called ‘stolen goods’!”

Dam Ak tilted his head.

“Was it really that remarkable?”

“The Taiji Pill is a spiritual pill that only the Sect Leader of Wudang or figures of equivalent stature are permitted to consume. It is not something that can be obtained through any amount of power or wealth.”

Fuck, what in the world is going on?

“Then please return it. If it is such a dangerous item, we need to destroy the evidence immediately.”

Huh? Now that’s not right.

SMACK!

“……Young Master Jin, did you just block my hand?”

“I thought about it carefully. Whether it is truly right for you to hold on to such a dangerous item, Strategist Dam. After much deliberation, I arrived at this conclusion.”

“……”

“Something this perilous should simply be disposed of at my level.”

“Your eyes have changed.”

Obviously. I’m a man who knows how to be serious when the moment calls for it.

Dam Ak continued, as if in wonder.

“Now I understand what it means when they say someone’s face is full of greed.”

“……”

I pretended not to hear that and quickly tucked the perilous item into the folds of my robe.

Still, if it had been given to Dam Ak as a gift, that meant it left no trace.

Whoever had given it to him would not have gifted something that could be tracked back.

I kept my hand pressed against my chest and regarded Dam Ak with a solemn expression.

“Now, what were you saying?”

I steered back to the main topic, but Dam Ak stared at me for a long while with slow, blinking eyes before finally releasing a long sigh.

“I have decided simply to trust you, Young Master Jin.”

And then—unexpected words from his lips.

“To believe in the reason you fight, in the things you seek to protect, and to walk alongside you. That is all I thought.”

For an instant, a sharp pang pierced one corner of my chest.

Not because the case had poked my skin.

It was because the thought of having repaid—even if only a little—the heavy debt I owed him from a past life made the weight on my shoulders feel just a bit lighter.

I raised my head and looked into both of Dam Ak’s eyes. He, too, was looking at me.

For a time, we simply gazed at each other in silence.

“Grand Strategist! Preparations are complete.”

At the report from the Black Path warrior who had come to escort Dam Ak, he nodded in acknowledgment.

“Until next time, Young Master Jin. When we meet again, there will be no sharing tables.”

“By the time we meet again, I’ll have climbed high enough to share one with you, Strategist Dam.”

Dam Ak walked away, his posture upright.

His frame was tiny compared to the iron-clad warriors escorting him, yet he did not look small in the least.

Unwavering, he strode forcefully into the distance.

“A friend, huh……”

I watched the scene for a moment, then turned around.

His fight with the Murim Alliance was over, but my fight with the Murim Alliance was just beginning.

“You tried to kill my friend? Just wait.”

I gently tapped one corner of my chest.

TAP, TAP—

The sound of friendship rang out, carried on a clear fragrance.