Chapter 2 : Chapter 2

Chapter 2. To the Murim Alliance

[How dare you discard me! Do you think you are someone of importance?]

Strapped to my waist was a grumbling Cursed Sword. It was driving me insane, but I couldn't get rid of it.

"Quit your grumbling already. You're not a baby, so shut it."

[What did you say?!]

"I said shut up."

I snapped back with all the irritation I could muster and followed behind the Daoists.

Long story short, I could no longer stay in the village. My rosy middle-class future of running an inn had gone up in smoke. Just my rotten luck.

So how did I end up trailing these Daoists? There's a tragic story behind it. Yes, please hear me out. Those damn thugs were hauling me away.

It started like this. Everyone surely knows that I dropped the blade out of the goodness of my heart.

I truly had no attachment whatsoever to this accursed sword.

I was about to start cleaning when those Daoist bastards wouldn't leave me alone. They stood there staring blankly, then started whispering among themselves.

'What do we do with this child? He doesn't seem bewitched by the sword.'

'Wait, he's not even a martial artist–he's a waiter? He's cleaning in the middle of all this?'

'Should we just retrieve the sword?'

'Still, shouldn't we take him to the Murim Alliance? After something like this, it would be hard for him to keep living here.'

'More than anything, isn't he the sole person involved in this Blood Demon Sword incident? We can't just leave him be.'

'And he wasn't bewitched. This is no ordinary matter. This is truly……'

They were going back and forth about what to do with me. Did they think I couldn't hear them?

'What a joke.'

These guys weren't even government officials, and they had the nerve to decide my fate on their own. Thugs standing above the law–what was this country coming to?

'Hold on, they did say there's Non-Interference Between Court and Martial World, so this is a martial world matter, isn't it?'

But what did these bastards have to do with the dead men to be deciding my fate? It was truly absurd. I wasn't even a martial artist to begin with.

"What in the world happened here?"

In any case, while they were huddling together, the inn's owner, Boss Jang, returned. Unfortunately, I hadn't finished cleaning up the bloodstains and corpses yet.

"Bl-blood…… The inn…… the inn is…… Hgggh, hgggh……"

Boss Jang took one look at the scene and started hyperventilating, pounding on his chest.

The Daoists watched him with sympathetic eyes.

"Oh dear, are you all right, innkeeper?"

"Wh-what in the world happened here? Daoists."

"Well, you see……"

The Daoists looked uncomfortable. They hadn't actually witnessed the whole thing, after all.

In the end, I had to step in.

"Here's what happened……"

I gave Boss Jang a brief account of what had gone down at the inn.

Boss Jang was horrified, and the Daoists beside him wore peculiar expressions. All of them–save for the single oldest Daoist–looked as though they couldn't believe my account.

"You did this?"

"Not all of it. Most of it happened because those martial artists fought among themselves."

"Oh lord, I'm ruined! Oh lord!"

Boss Jang collapsed on the spot, weeping and wailing. What a faint-hearted man.

"If you search the corpses, you'll find plenty of money–enough to buy new tables and chairs. The blades can be sold to a smithy for good coin too."

"That's not the problem! Oh lord! Who's going to come to our shop after seeing this mess?!"

Hmm, it was true that even in the modern era, properties where incidents occurred tended to drop in value.

Still, was there really that much to worry about? There wasn't a cook as skilled as our chef in these parts, nor an inn as clean and affordable. So Boss Jang's worries were quite overblown.

"Ahem, ahem."

Just then, a thug–no, a Daoist–cleared his throat and whispered something to Boss Jang.

And I saw, clear as day, the Daoist slip something to Boss Jang. It glinted–it was definitely silver. Naturally, Boss Jang's eyes went wide.

"Ahem, use this to fix the shop. And as for that boy……"

"Oh my, please take him! If the Daoists take him, I can rest easy!"

"Pardon?"

"You listen well to what the Daoists tell you."

Boss Jang's demeanor changed on the spot, and before I could even get a word in, he spoke with a benevolent smile.

I stared at Boss Jang with a face that said, "Is this all our loyalty amounts to?"–but he simply rolled his eyes away to avoid my gaze.

'Damn it all.'

Boss Jang had been bought off. The reason was obvious. He must have gotten enough silver to cover the damages and pay off his gambling debts too.

Getting rid of a troublesome waiter was just a bonus.

"Sigh."

In the end, I let out a sigh. Fine, whatever. It wasn't like this was the only inn in the world, and clinging to the trouser leg of a boss who'd already made up his mind to sell me out didn't suit my temperament.

What would I gain from that, anyway? The trust between Boss Jang and me was already broken. The world is a fickle place.

And so, my fate was decided. They'd been bickering among themselves about whether to take me, but the eldest Daoist made the call, so there wasn't much pushback.

It was infuriating, but what power did I have?

The Daoists, for their part, seemed uncomfortable about hauling me away, fidgeting with unease. Seeing that, they were at least a little better than those dead thugs…

"Ahem, from now on, we will be taking you to the Murim Alliance Headquarters."

"Where's that?"

"Kaifeng, Henan Province."

"That's far."

"It is. Do you know why we're taking you?"

I shook my head. I'd secretly overheard their whispered deliberations, but nothing was certain.

"No. But you'll be feeding me on time, right?"

"Of course."

At least they'd feed me.

"Then let's go."

"……Just like that?"

When I agreed to follow, the Daoist seemed taken aback and asked again. Oh, please–as if they wouldn't have dragged me along by force if I'd refused.

This was my choice to follow along, but it was essentially an escort. Still, I figured the treatment would be better if I went willingly rather than being dragged kicking and screaming.

"About the food you promised–you're not going to give me weird bugs or anything, right? Proper meals?"

"Bugs? We are not that kind of people."

The Daoist was startled. And there it was–that pitying look in his eyes.

"Then will there be meat dishes?"

"Of course."

"What about alcohol?"

"Are you even old enough to drink?"

"No."

"Then no."

Hmm, the lack of flexibility told me they really were Daoists.

"Then at least let me bathe every day."

"Bathe?"

"Yes. And keep watch for me too."

"……Very well."

The old Daoist continued to make concessions. Looking back, he seemed like a good person. Of course, the fact that I was being escorted against my will hadn't changed. On second thought, maybe he treated me this way because he had a shred of conscience left. In any case, I was glad I'd be able to bathe.

"Oh, right. My name is Jang Yul."

"……Very well, Yul. Let us get along from here on. You may call me Cheonggwang."

Once our conversation ended, the old Daoist picked up the blade they'd been calling the Blood Demon Sword.

"Junior Brother Cheongun, you will hold on to this."

"Yes, Senior Brother Cheonggwang."

The Daoist called Cheonggwang handed the Blood Demon Sword to his Junior Brother, Cheongun.

Naturally, I wasn't the one entrusted with the sword from the start.

And so I followed them. Boss Jang, who'd been terrified, waved as he sent me off. It might have been the Daoists he was seeing off rather than me, but in any case.

That night.

"KRAAAGH!"

"Cheongun! Calm yourself!"

"Martial Uncle!!"

All hell broke loose.

'Good grief, he's bewitched. Definitely bewitched.'

With his eyes rolled back and thrashing about, it was obvious he'd been bewitched by the Cursed Sword. A Daoist, he said–his willpower was pathetically weak.

That said, I had no intention of stepping in. I was immune to bewitchment, not capable of subduing someone who'd been bewitched. For one thing, I didn't have the tools…

"Hrgh!"

There was a dizzying exchange–Cheongun's sword grazed a fellow Daoist's forearm, and Cheonggwang's palm strike landed squarely on his solar plexus. Only after blood was spilled could Cheonggwang finally subdue Cheongun.

Foam dripped from the subdued Cheongun's mouth, and the surrounding Daoists clutched their wounds, breathing hard.

"H-how…… what is……"

When Cheongun came to his senses a while later, he spent a long time berating himself. Fortunately, no one died, but several Daoists were badly hurt.

After that, every one of the Daoists stared at the Blood Demon Sword with terrified eyes.

No one wanted to hold that sword.

"Even Martial Uncle Cheongun, whose cultivation runs so deep, was bewitched……"

All eyes turned to Cheonggwang. No one said it out loud, but he was the only one left who could carry it.

But there was a problem. If Cheonggwang, the strongest among them, fell under the sword's spell, it would be catastrophic. Nobody uttered the words aloud, but the unspoken truth was plain. If even I could tell, that said it all.

The debate over who would carry the Blood Demon Sword dragged on. In the end, they decided to give it to the weakest, youngest disciple, with a plan to subdue him immediately if he was bewitched. Since abandoning the sword was never an option, it was the only solution.

"KRAAAGH!"

He didn't even last until nightfall. Within a single shichen, one person after another succumbed to the sword's bewitchment.

Naturally, Cheonggwang and Cheongun had to step in each time, and the party's exhaustion reached its breaking point.

With so many people falling to the sword's influence, the meat dishes and daily baths I'd been promised were nowhere in sight–we couldn't even enter a village and had to make camp in the wilderness.

Naturally, my lip jutted out a mile. The bewitchments were what they were, but this wasn't my problem, and I didn't see why I should be understanding about it.

"Instead of all this, just give me the sword."

"……Give it to you?"

"I don't get bewitched. You all just have pathetically weak willpower……"

The Daoists' expressions turned strange.

"Come to think of it, that child……"

"He wasn't bewitched by the blade, was he?"

"Maybe it's because he's not a martial artist?"

"But then how do you explain the massacre at the inn……?"

"Aren't we putting too heavy a burden on the child?"

"Ahem…… why don't we try giving it to him? Even if he is bewitched, surely we can handle a single child?"

"That's true, but……"

They started whispering seriously among themselves again. Honestly, they had no better solution–why were they being so dramatic about it? So impractical.

"……Can you truly handle it?"

"If you're going to give it to me anyway, why drag it out? Hand it over."

I snatched the noisy Cursed Sword from them. The moment I did, a voice thundered out.

[You! You! How dare you discard me?! Do you know who I am?!]

"Why should I care? Shut your mouth. I ended up like this because of you. Do you know how many days it's been since I last bathed?"

[Slaughter all of them right now! That is how you begin the Hegemon's Path! Dye the martial world red with blood!]

"Ugh, you're going to burst my eardrums. Are you going to keep yapping and driving people crazy? No wonder they get bewitched. Seriously."

Cheonggwang stared at me with eyes full of shock.

"What on…… What are you doing right now?"

I tapped the Blood Demon Sword casually and replied.

"This thing won't shut up."

The expression on Cheonggwang's face at that moment was something I'd never forget. From my perspective, it was more like, "Hm, is it really that impressive?"

The Daoists' gazes changed too. Were they offended? Stunned? Either way, a flicker of relief briefly crossed their eyes. Not that it was any of my concern.

In any case, from that day on, we were able to stop at villages and towns, and I could eat meat dishes and bathe properly.

I even received a decent set of clothes without having to ask. Not a drop of alcohol, though…… Granted, it would've been unpleasant to keep wearing smelly clothes after bathing.

As we continued our journey, we soon arrived at our destination. It had been quite a long trip, but aside from the Cursed Sword being noisy beside me, there was nothing particularly aggravating. Eating meat every day kept my energy up.

"This is Kaifeng."

"It's big."

"You're less impressed than I expected."

"I figured it would be at least this much."

Cheonggwang studied me with a curious look. He must have thought I was just some country bumpkin. Which, to be fair, I was.

Well, it was impressive in its own way. It had a charm quite different from modern cities.

And so I was dragged to Kaifeng. More precisely, to the Murim Alliance Headquarters in Kaifeng.