That's Not How You Use Martial Arts

Chapter 41
The Truth (1)

『 Translator – Divinity 』

I turned my head, and the goatee immediately caught my eye. It was Jo Un-chil, the owner of the gambling house.

Well, was he going to thank me for saving him…?

“You’re crazy, completely insane! Do you even understand what you’ve done!?”

…That was a rather unique reaction.

Didn’t people usually thank you for saving them?

Well, of course, he wasn’t a normal person, considering he had tried to swindle the Namgung family in Hefei…

As I blinked in surprise, Jo Un-chil’s reaction was truly a sight to behold.

He frantically looked around, then grabbed his hair and started pulling at it. He even writhed and groaned as if in pain.

What? Had he gone mad?

Out of pure curiosity, I asked him why he was acting like that, and he glared at me with wide eyes.

“Why? You ask why? You don’t know!?”

“Of course, I’m asking because I don’t know.”

“……”

Jo Un-chil’s jaw dropped at my reply.

Then, his face contorted hideously as he shouted,

“Do you even know who you just killed? That was Sa Gong-chan, the Autumn Wind Sword, the leader of the Heavenly Radiance Squad, one of Paecheon Fortress’s combat units!”

Huh, the Autumn Wind Sword. A sword that chases the wind?

It was a rather grandiose title for his level of skill.

I chuckled and shrugged, then realized that I had heard something I couldn’t ignore.

“…Huh? The Heavenly Radiance Squad? The leader?”

I looked at the middle-aged man who was dead with a sword through his heart… So, Sa Gong-chan?

That guy was really a squad leader?

No, why would a squad leader come all the way here?

Shouldn’t he be sitting comfortably somewhere, delegating all the troublesome tasks to his subordinates?

Seeing my surprise, Jo Un-chil jumped up and down like a fish out of water and shouted,

“Yes! You just killed the leader of a Paecheon Fortress squad, right here in my establishment! H-How… how are you going to take responsibility for this!?”

“Responsibility? Why should I?”

“Wh-What?”

I chuckled at Jo Un-chil, who looked dumbfounded.

His shamelessness in not even thanking me for saving his life… well, let’s just overlook that.

I hadn’t saved him with good intentions anyway.

“But why are you acting so boldly after witnessing me single-handedly kill the six warriors who were about to kill you all? Are you certain that I won’t kill you?”

“……”

Hearing my cold voice, Jo Un-chil’s face turned pale as he seemed to realize the reality he had forgotten in his anger.

He finally seemed to have grasped the situation.

I smiled with satisfaction and patted Jo Un-chil’s shoulder.

“Don’t worry. I won’t kill you.”

“…Who are you? No, who is your…”

Jo Un-chil gulped nervously as he saw my smile.

I added, watching his reaction,

“But I need to take you with me.”

“…What?”

I struck Jo Un-chil’s pressure point.

I slung the unconscious man over my shoulder and walked towards the window, when I heard a voice calling me from behind.

“H-Hey! Master!”

“Hmm? What?”

I turned my head and saw Jo Un-chil’s subordinates hesitating.

They didn’t look like they were bravely trying to save their captured leader.

“What is it?”

“Um… what should we do?”

…Why were they asking me that?

I stared at them blankly for a moment, dumbfounded.

But their faces were filled with desperation.

They seemed to have no idea how to handle this mess or what to do with themselves.

So these guys were truly just Jo Un-chil’s lackeys.

With that realization, I answered casually,

“How should I know? Do whatever you want.”

And I jumped out the window.

I thought I heard some noisy curses and commotion behind me, but I ignored it.

Even if they were just following Jo Un-chil’s orders, the fact that they participated in his evil deeds didn’t change.

There was no reason or value in saving those guys.

Assuming they would probably be caught by the Paecheon Fortress guys and either killed or imprisoned, I jumped from roof to roof and climbed onto Go-heung’s carriage, where he was waiting for me with an anxious expression.

“Did you wait long?”

“You’re back! I was worried something went wrong since you weren’t coming back… Jo Un-chil?”

Go-heung’s face, which had brightened at the sound of my voice, turned to one of bewilderment as he saw Jo Un-chil slung over my shoulder.

“Why is this guy…? Weren’t you just going to find some documents?”

“Well, things got a bit complicated.”

“…I’m afraid to ask for the details, but I feel like I have to.”

“It seems like things are about to get messy, so let’s get out of here first.”

And so, we inadvertently ended up kidnapping Jo Un-chil and returning to the Changcheon Teahouse.

***

“What the—!?”

“Oh, you scared me… Why are you suddenly shouting?”

The secret basement room of the Changcheon Teahouse, with the lights off.

After placing Jo Un-chil, who was still unconscious due to the pressure point strike, in a corner, I told Go-heung about what had happened at the gambling house.

From Paecheon Fortress trying to silence Jo Un-chil, to me intervening and killing the Paecheon Fortress warriors and rescuing Jo Un-chil.

But when I mentioned that the warriors who came to the gambling house were from the Heavenly Radiance Squad and that their leader was Sa Gong-chan, Go-heung suddenly let out a yell.

“Why? You ask why I’m shouting? Is this something you just brush off with an ‘oh, I see’?”

“…Isn’t it a bit of an overreaction?”

Go-heung looked at me with a dumbfounded expression at my reply.

He sighed deeply and then explained to me as if I were a clueless child.

“That was the leader of the Heavenly Radiance Squad. One of the fifteen representative masters of Paecheon Fortress.”

“A master…”

Didn’t they say you needed a record of defeating fifty opponents in battle to be called a master?

Was that Sa Gong-chan guy like that?

That guy who tried to run away without even fighting?

Go-heung, seeing my dubious expression, asked me about Sa Gong-chan’s physical characteristics.

Feeling suspicious, I described him as I saw him, and Go-heung clenched his fist with a delighted look.

“That’s him. Wow, that unlucky bastard. He’s finally dead.”

He looked as if there was no better news in the world.

I had guessed as much when he killed innocent people while claiming to be silencing them, but it seemed he really was a terrible person.

When I asked about him in detail, I received a scathing assessment.

“He was the deputy leader of the Heavenly Radiance Squad when I was in the Skynet Division, and he was a truly annoying bastard. He was soaked in elitism, always spouting nonsense about ‘lowly commoners’ as if it were nothing.”

“Ah, I heard that too.”

Seeing how consistent his personality was, it seemed that he really was the squad leader.

“But why would the leader of a squad personally handle such dirty work?”

“That’s the second reason why I hate him. That disgusting bastard takes the initiative, claiming to set an example.”

…There were other ways to set an example, why would he set an example by killing innocent people? This was…

I shook my head in disbelief and turned my gaze towards Jo Un-chil, who was slumped in a corner.

“Well, that’s why I had to bring him here like this. He seems to know something, and if I left him there, he would definitely be killed by Paecheon Fortress.”

“If that’s how it is, then it can’t be helped. Let’s wake him up and find out what he knows.”

“Yes.”

At Go-heung’s request, I slapped Jo Un-chil’s cheek to wake him up.

“Huh, huh…? ”

His trembling eyelids slowly opened, and his still hazy eyes looked around before settling on me.

The light in his eyes gradually sharpened, and his eyes widened.

“Gasp!?”

Jo Un-chil, startled as he regained consciousness, flailed his limbs and then looked terrified as he saw Go-heung and me looking down at him.

For the record, both Go-heung and I had our faces completely covered.

He said there was no need to show our faces.

Well, I had to follow the words of an expert in this field.

“You’re awake?”

“Who, who are you? What… where am I!?”

Hmm, it seemed that the great star of Hefei’s gambling world, Master Jo Un-chil, hadn’t fully woken up yet.

I crouched in front of him, looked him straight in the eye, and brought him back to reality.

“You’ve been kidnapped.”

“…!?”

Jo Un-chil’s face turned pale as he seemed to recall his last memory before falling unconscious.

“Wh-what do you want from me? Money?”

“If I wanted money, I would have just taken some of the shiny things decorating your room. Why would I bother bringing you all the way here?”

“Th-then…?”

“It’s nothing special. I just want to know why the Heavenly Radiance Squad tried to kill you.”

“…!”

Jo Un-chil’s eyes widened in surprise, and he quickly shook his head.

“N-no way! Absolutely not! If I tell you that, they’ll try to kill me…!”

…This guy, it seemed he still wasn’t fully awake.

“Get a grip. Have you already forgotten that the squad leader himself came to kill you?”

“Th-that’s…!”

Jo Un-chil was speechless.

He seemed to have finally remembered the blood-soaked scene at the gambling house.

“You understand, right? Paecheon Fortress has already decided to kill you and your men. I managed to get you out, but I’m not sure about your men. Maybe they’re already all dead?”

Hearing my roundabout words, Jo Un-chil lowered his head and gritted his teeth.

“Damn it, damn it…!”

A stream of curses flowed from behind his goatee.

He was probably regretting his cooperation with Paecheon Fortress bitterly.

Too bad it was already too late.

He had chosen to live a life obsessed with money and to side with Paecheon Fortress, so who could he blame?

Go-heung and I watched Jo Un-chil in silence for a while.

Jo Un-chil, who had been pouring out creative curses with his head lowered, finally seemed to have calmed down and raised his head.