Chapter 74

“You’ve changed.”

Those were the first words Jin Wikyung spoke after we entered his office. After giving me a careful once-over, he patted Jin Mukyung on the shoulder.

“You’ve worked hard.”

But despite the warm words, Jin Mukyung answered with a sullen expression.

“I almost called a mortician.”

“You really know how to say beautiful things.”

“You—hngh. I’ll let it slide because we’re in front of Hyung-nim.”

“I’m grateful for that too.”

Jin Wikyung gave a short laugh and gestured for us to sit. I took a seat, sipped some warm tea, and looked around.

“This place has changed a lot too. It was a mess the last time I came.”

The office was neat and orderly. When I had visited fifteen days ago, it had been a disaster area covered in all sorts of objects.

Now, even the table that should have been buried beneath stacks of documents was spotless.

“……It was a difficult time.”

Jin Wikyung muttered with a clouded expression.

“But it’s almost over. Just a little longer. If I hold out just a little longer, I can do it.”

“……”

This guy had lost half his mind too. Then again, he had handled that enormous workload alone. It would have been stranger if he were still perfectly sane.

If it were me, I would have made a midnight escape long ago.

This applied to me too, but martial artists were, to put it kindly, men of action and, to put it unkindly, blockheads. I wasn’t trying to disparage them. That was simply the truth.

The family elders were much the same.

Some of that might have been because the Head Elder had installed puppets, but even the senior members who sided with Jin Wikyung were far from capable administrators.

Despite being born into a prestigious martial family, Jin Wikyung was skilled at administration and outstanding in martial arts. In other words, he was an oddity.

“I want to rest for just one day. Just one day. I want to rest. I want to rest.”

As Jin Wikyung muttered the same words like a man with obsessive-compulsive disorder, Jin Mukyung clicked his tongue.

“It’s a good thing I was born second.”

I nodded.

“Agreed.”

If taking care of my family was already enough to break my back, then if I had entered Jin Wikyung’s body instead of Jin Taekyung’s when I first logged in…

It would have been nothing short of bleak.

The Jin Family of Taiyuan even had hundreds of retainers under its command. The only advantage was that, as the homeowner, I wouldn’t have to worry about my jeonse deposit going up.¹

“The eldest son is supposed to carry a heavy burden.”

Jin Mukyung snorted at my words.

“You’re not qualified to say something like that, so shut up. Isn’t that right, Hyung-nim?”

Jin Wikyung stared at me with moist eyes.

“How does he always manage to pick such touching things to say?”

“No, Hyung-nim.”

“You’ve grown up. You really have.”

“……Am I allowed to curse at him?”

The cold exchange continued, but Jin Wikyung seemed not to hear a thing. He still looked deeply moved as he spread both arms wide.

“Let me hug our youngest just once.”

“Yes, hyung.”

“My youngest!”

Whump!

Jin Mukyung muttered with a face like he had bitten into something foul.

“This damned household. Don’t expect me to come back.”

“Mukyung, you come here too.”

“No. Even if you beat me to death, I’m not going.”

“We’ve all gathered in one place for once, and you can’t grant your only older brother’s request?”

At the wounded tone in his voice, Jin Mukyung flinched.

“……Just this once.”

The moment the words left his mouth, a hand as large as a pot lid pulled Jin Mukyung closer.

Buried against Jin Wikyung’s chest alongside me, he mouthed the words:

You. Are. Dead.

Hmm. I should stay out of sight for the time being.

Apparently he would be leaving soon anyway. I only had to avoid him for a few days.

If things get too bad, I can always log out.

I had completed the Quest, and I had already been thinking about returning soon. There was also the matter of my contract with Team Leader Choi. More than anything, my body was itching to test the newly refined martial arts in a Gate.

“Thank you. I feel invigorated thanks to you two.”

After ending the emotional embrace, Jin Wikyung dabbed at his eyes with his sleeve.

“There’s just so much work. So much work.”

“……”

He really must have been suffering.

The tears of a human weapon made me solemn in spite of myself. I patted Jin Wikyung on the back.

“Keep your spirits up.”

Jin Mukyung, who had been wearing a death mask until moments ago, also gave Jin Wikyung a sympathetic look.

“Hyung-nim. If it’s really that difficult, take this guy and put him to work.”

“……?”

What the hell was he talking about? I asked, dumbfounded.

“Usually, at a time like this, shouldn’t you at least say, ‘I’ll help,’ even if you don’t mean it?”

Jin Mukyung answered confidently.

“A martial artist does not make empty promises.”

“Then why drag me into it while I’m sitting here?”

“You have plenty of time.”

“I don’t!”

“I have even less. I need to train. Besides, I’m hopeless at looking over documents.”

“I was a seventh-tier student!”

“What nonsense are you talking about?”

“I mean I was terrible at studying.”

Jin Mukyung thought for a moment, then frowned.

“A completely useless bastard. Hyung-nim, he does have good strength, so he would make an excellent laborer. I’ll be going now.”

“Wait.”

The nape of the man who had turned around so quickly was caught by a giant forepaw—no, hand. Its owner was, naturally, Jin Wikyung.

“Where do you think you’re going?”

“Pardon?”

“You have to hear why I called you two before you leave.”

“……What is it?”

An uneasy expression spread across Jin Mukyung’s face. I had no mirror, but I was probably making a similar face.

I smell trouble.

I was uncannily good at recognizing this kind of smell.

The smell of bad luck. The feeling that something bothersome was about to happen. Jin Wikyung’s next words turned that premonition into certainty.

“You’ll have to go to the Mount Heng Sword Sect.”

Ding.

System

• A Quest has been forcibly created.

“……”

Goddammit. Now it doesn’t even ask.

I stared at the translucent Quest window.

Quest

[Yesterday’s Enemy, Today’s Ally]

Now that all the truth has been revealed, the Mount Heng Sword Sect is not an enemy but an ally with whom you must join hands. Invite them to the Jin Family of Taiyuan for the upcoming New Year’s Day.

Grade: First Rate

Restriction: Jin Taekyung

Mission: Deliver the invitation (Incomplete)

Reward: ???

Failure: None

After reading it two or three times, my initial bewilderment had mostly subsided.

Not bad.

The Quest difficulty was not high, and there was no failure penalty. It was a simple mission that would end once I delivered the invitation.

More importantly…

Logout.

Ding.

System

• Would you like to log out?

That meant there was no problem with logging out. The Quest had been forced on me, so it still felt unpleasant, but this much was acceptable.

Not that I’m in a position to refuse anyway.

Unlike me, who had already accepted reality, Jin Mukyung was resisting with all his might.

“So……”

Jin Mukyung struggled to continue.

“You’re saying we should invite the Mount Heng Sword Sect for the coming New Year’s Day?”

Jin Wikyung answered.

“Yes. They are guests we cannot afford to miss.”

“Then why do we—or rather, why do I—have to go?”

“……”

Look at him, struggling to exclude himself.

Still, I agreed with part of his question.

Why us?

Jin Wikyung’s answer only made the question larger.

“The Sect Leader of Mount Heng Sword Sect requested it personally.”

I blurted out a question before I could stop myself.

“The Sect Leader?”

I had watched the Blood Wolf Sword Lee Cheonbaek die right before my eyes. Lee Seogeun, the Second Young Master, had been poisoned, and the Young Sect Leader whom I had never even met had reportedly died an absurd death during a mounted-bandit raid on the undefended sect.

I thought the Mount Heng Sword Sect’s main force had also been wiped out at Eight Spring Gorge.

But the Sect Leader?

Jin Mukyung’s reaction was not much different.

“The damage must have been severe. I only heard about it through rumors, but wouldn’t it be understandable if they closed the sect’s gates?”

Jin Wikyung shook his head.

“They were once one of the pillars of Shanxi Murim. Don’t underestimate their strength. If they have a rallying point, they can aim for a revival.”

A rallying point.

The new Sect Leader of the Mount Heng Sword Sect—the person who had requested that Jin Wikyung send Mukyung and me—seemed to be that new rallying point. I asked:

“Who is it?”

“Lee Seowol.”

“Lee Seowol? Lee Seowol……”

It was the first time I had heard the name. Judging by her surname, she seemed to have some connection to Lee Cheonbaek.

“You don’t remember the name?”

“A hidden son? A distant relative? I’m not sure.”

“As expected, you don’t remember.”

“Pardon?”

What did he mean, I did not remember?

Is she someone I know?

As I tilted my head, Jin Wikyung looked at me strangely.

“The new Sect Leader of the Mount Heng Sword Sect is a woman. She is Lee Cheonbaek’s third child, the one and only younger sister of the deceased Young Sect Leader and Lee Seogeun.”

At that moment, a fragment of memory flashed through my mind.

The scene in my memory was the main arena. The actor was Lee Seogeun. His face was flushed bright red as he shouted at me.

You shameless bastard! You tore my sister’s clothes and tried to violate her!

Ah!

“Could it be her?”

“That’s right.”

“……Damn it.”

Only Jin Mukyung, who had no idea what we were talking about, blinked both eyes.

“What does that mean? Hey, do you know her?”

“Uh, well. You could say I know her, and you could also say I don’t.”

“What the hell does that mean? So what exactly is your relationship with her?”

“Hmm.”

A former girlfriend whose face I don’t even know? Or a honey-trap scammer?

One thing is certain.

Neither of us was particularly happy about meeting the other.

I let out a deep sigh.

To cut to the end of the story, Jin Mukyung agreed to go to the Mount Heng Sword Sect as well. Jin Wikyung had used the masterstroke he had been saving.

I heard the Mount Heng Sword Sect has a lot of martial arts manuals…

Even if they do, what good is that? It’s not like I can read them.

It does matter.

Pardon?

The new Sect Leader has you figured out. She said she would be willing to show you some of their Peak martial arts if you came.

……When are we leaving?

Right now.

Everything moved at lightning speed. It had been only two hours since we boarded the four-horse carriage after receiving Jin Wikyung’s farewell.

Jin Mukyung sat across from me and grumbled.

“A carriage? It’ll take an age just to get there.”

The land was so vast that even making a rough estimate, it would take three days to reach Eung-hyeon (應懸), where the Mount Heng Sword Sect was located.

For Jin Mukyung, who wanted to see the Mount Heng Sword Sect’s Peak martial arts as soon as possible, three days was an eternity.

“Hey, coachman, can’t you go any faster?”

A reply came from the driver’s box beyond the partition.

“First of all, I’m not the coachman. And no, I can’t go any faster. You may not know this from inside, but it’s freezing outside and I’m about to die of hypothermia. Anyway, that’s how things are.”

“Use the whip and spur the horses on! A coachman should be able to do at least that much.”

“I’ll say this one more time: I’m not the coachman. And the whip is frozen solid, so it would be more accurate to call it an icicle. If I jab the horses in the rear with this icicle, I think they’ll get very angry……”

“What? Why is someone who isn’t a coachman sitting there?”

“Before we left, you shouted that the attendants were getting in your way and ordered all of us to get lost. The coachman got lost too.”

Jin Mukyung thought about it carefully, then smacked his forehead.

“Oh, right.”

“……”

As expected, this guy was not normal either.

“Then who are you?”

Recalling the law of conservation of idiots, I answered.

“Hyuk Mujin.”

“Who’s Hyuk Mujin?”

“You’ll know when you see his face. Hey, Mujin!”

The partition dropped, revealing Hyuk Mujin’s face, which was covered in frost. His teeth chattered constantly as Jin Mukyung studied him carefully. Then Mukyung snapped his fingers.

“Oh, that guy.”

Hyuk Mujin answered curtly.

“Yes. I’m that guy.”

“Why didn’t you leave too? Why not bring the coachman instead?”

As if he had been waiting for that question, Hyuk Mujin proudly puffed out his chest.

“I only obey my squad leader’s orders.”

“Squad leader?”

“The Third Young Master.”

Jin Mukyung’s head snapped toward me.

“Did you call him?”

“No. He was already there without me calling him.”

“That’s what he says?”

Hyuk Mujin looked back and forth between us with a wounded expression.

“You two really are brothers, I suppose.”

“Did you say your name was Hyung Mujin? Explain exactly what that means.”

Jin Mukyung spoke in a sharp, offended voice, but I yawned hugely.

Hyuk Mujin clowning around was nothing new; when it came to dealing with that, I already had a full sixty-year cycle of internal energy.

“It’s not Hyung Mujin. It’s Hyuk Mujin. I’ll try jabbing the horses’ backsides with this thing, whether it’s a whip or an icicle.”

Tap.

Jin Mukyung glared at the partition, which had quickly slammed shut, then sighed and settled back into his seat.

“I shouldn’t have expected anything. If the water upstream is filthy, the water downstream can’t be clean either…… What are you doing?”

I wrapped a fur hide around my body as I answered.

“I’m going to circulate my qi.”

“Really?”

“Yeah. Circulate my qi.”

“Then why does it look to me like you’re getting ready to sleep?”

“That’s your imagination.”

“Then why are you covering yourself with a fur hide?”

“I get cold easily.”

I deliberately sat cross-legged. I also pressed my body tightly against the carriage wall so I would not fall over.

I can’t entrust my precious body to that guy.

I absolutely refused to return and find that my arms or legs had been broken. It would be much better to make sure he could not touch me at all.

“You know what happens if you touch me, right? Huh? Do you know what qi deviation is or not?”

“Seriously, this bastard’s been getting on my nerves for a while now…”

The moment Jin Mukyung raised his fist, I hurriedly closed my eyes. To anyone watching, it would look as though I had begun circulating my qi. As expected, no fist came flying at me.

All right, then. Now……

Logout.

Ding.

System

• Would you like to log out?

There was only one possible answer.