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Chapter 38
Chapter 38: The method of avoiding the Wind (2)
Translator: hwarang
Editor: Kidyeon
I waited for her at the Guest Pavilion. Normally speaking, I would’ve gone to meet my father-in-law face-to-face in order to say my greetings, but I chose not do so today. Thirty minutes later, Song Hwa Rin arrived, with a perplexed expression on her face.
“You came here to meet me?”
She had a very nice aroma. She smelled like she’d just gotten out of the bath. When I saw her in spring, she’d looked like a blooming spring flower, but now she was akin to the fall sky.
“Shall we go for a stroll?”
After a moment of hesitation she nodded.
We headed towards the garden together. It was still early in the morning, thus there were hardly any people around.
“How’ve you been?”
She answered, “Training… lots of training. It’s been extremely repetitive. What about you?”
“I’ve been training too.”
“I heard the news about you forming the lesser sword sect. I also heard that you took down a group of bandits?”
“We were just lucky.”
“Was that really the reason?”
It seems that she’s observing me. She seems to have finally accepted the fact that I’ve changed.
“Why did you act like you did? Did you really want to divorce me?”
In her shoes she probably could see it like that.
“It wasn’t that I was acting like that—I really was scum back then.”
“And you changed after getting beaten up by me?”
“Yes.”
“And you want me to believe that?”
“You have to. Because that’s the truth.”
She deeply sighed and said, “I really don’t know.”
“There’s also one thing that I really don’t know about”
“What?”
“Didn’t you say it before? That there was a reason that you hate the previous Mengju.”
She gave me a small grin. “Why? Are you that curious?”
“Yeah. I am that curious.”
“But why? You aren’t related to the previous Mengju, are you?”
It was hard to find the right answer. I almost said that I respected him, but I decided to give her an improvised answer. “No particular reason. You know, something like, ‘Once you become curious about something, you’ll really want to get to the bottom of it. If you don’t, you’ll just keep getting more curious.’”
She smiled. It was the first time she’d smiled in a long while. No, was it the first time she’d smiled?
The answer that I gave her was probably a better answer than something along the lines of just respecting the Mengju.
“So it’s not even that great of a reason. I should’ve told you sooner.”
“Well, you can tell me now.”
“There is a person that I really hate. That person, in turn, reveres the previous Mengju almost like a god. Since the person who I hate likes him so much, I came to dislike him. This is quite a stupid reason to dislike him, don’t you think?”
“Who’s it that you hate?”
Her face darkened. It seems that I’ve touched on a personal matter.
“Let’s stop here.”
“Alright. Thank you for telling me.”
“What’s there to be thankful for. Well, regardless, for what reason did you come to meet me today?”
Contrary to the light mood, I said something that was pretty heavy.
“I want to exchange pointers with you.”
“What?” Song Hwa Rin’s eye became round. I think this was the first time I’d seen her this surprised.
“Let’s spar for a round.”
She asked me with a questionable face, “Is this for real?”
“Yeah.”
“...And the reason?”
“Revenge for that day.”
Song Hwa Rin looked at me flabbergasted.
The last time that we’d parted ways, the last word she’d said to me were, ‘I don’t understand you’. However, considering the fact that I’d come to ask for an exchange of pointers, she was definitely confused.
“Really, I don’t…”
It seems that she was trying her best to figure me out. Well, it’s not like she’ll ever be able to.
After biting her lip, she agreed, “Alright, let’s do it.”
***
We stood face-to-face on the practice ground. Soo Ran was looking at the situation with a worried expression from far away.
“I don’t know what you’re up to, but since we’re exchanging pointers we should do it for real.”
“That’s what I wanted.”
“With real swords?”
I nodded, causing her to be surprised yet again. She’d just asked to get rid of the possibility, but I’d answered with a yes. With real swords, one wrong move could result in a major injury, or even death. On top of that, this was our first time facing off against one another, thus neither of us knew what sort of technique the other would use.
She was nervous. If it was the me from before, she definitely wouldn’t have agreed. However, she got the feeling that if it was the me of now, she could agree to it.
“Alright. Then... you can’t get too excited.”
Hearing her warn me, I nodded. “Alright.”
She slowly drew her blade.
I also slowly drew my blade and proceeded to approach her.
Stab!!!
She lightly stabbed her sword towards me. It was a variant of a probing move.
Tiing!!!
I easily parried.
Our swords clashed again.
Clang! Chang ! Clang!
It became an exchange of light blows, as there was no need for us to go all out right from the beginning.
It was as I’d expected: She was quite proficient with her skills. Her footwork was superb, while her basics were sharp. Her sword art also seemed extremely familiar. I got the feeling that her master was someone that I knew.
Clang! Chang ! Clang!
As we exchanged blows, I slowly raised the tempo.
She didn’t notice that I was the one in control of the fight. Considering the fact that she could get hurt, I made sure I controlled everything down to the finest detail. I pressured her, I was pressured, I made a risky attack, went back to tightly defending... this continued onwards.
Due to my extravegant planning, she was fully immersed in the fight and was swinging her sword madly. I pressured her to her limit. I didn’t give her any time to think about anything else. This was probably the first time that she’d experienced something like this.
Once I believed that she’d passed her limits, I dodged her attack and swung at her neck.
She tried to block it, but was too late. “Ah!”
If this had been for real, she would’ve lost her head, but I turned my sword sideways and hit her with the blunt side.
Smack! My blade landed on her shoulder.
“Kuahh!”
She raised her sword and tried to block my attack.
Smack! Smack! Smack! Smack!
I continuously attacked her shoulder, ribs, and stomach. My last two blows landed on her face.
“Asgassii!”
Soo Ran rushed to Song Hwa Rin’s side to make sure she was okay. Thankfully, she was still consciousness.
After confirming this, Soo Ran started berating me, “Are you crazy?! How could you do this?!”
“This was a fair fight. Did you expect me to go easy on her, just because she’s female?”
Hearing my words, Soo Ran couldn’t say anything. She frowned.
I knew that she was pretty angry, but I added something. This was something that I really needed to say so that it became more believable. “This is revenge for last time.”
Soo Ran’s face became even uglier. She really wanted to jump at me.
However, Song Hwa Rin grabbed her arm. When Soo Ran looked back towards her, Song Hwa Rin was shaking her head. She was telling her not to.
“…I lost. That, and…”
From the ground, she stared at me with her eyes half opened. It wasn’t a stare full of resentment.
“…that last move…?”
She’d been able to sense it.
I gave her a mischievous smile and nodded. I hadn’t hit her just to win. Through our exchange, I’d sensed a major flaw in her sword art. And it was with one of the most important stances of it. Thus, I clearly saw through it and took advantage of it.
If she wasn’t able to correct this weakness by herself, she could be killed by anyone that sees through it. And Song Hwa Rin had just realized it through my last attack. She never would’ve thought that her flawless sword stance would crumble this easily. She realized that it wasn’t just luck that I’d been able to see through her flaw.
“Later…” She said before passing out. Did she want to say that she wanted to have another round of sparring later? Or something else?
Soo Ran picked her up and rushed inside. Even though everyone might worry about her condition, they didn’t have anything to worry about, as I’d hit been smart about how I hit her. She’d be bedridden for about ten days, and her face would be bruised for awhile, but she’d be perfectly fine after a month or so.
Had I come here just to let her gain some real experience, or just to expose the flaw in her sword art?
Of course—not. I’d come here because of Ma Jung Soo.
I’d seen how he took care of business. He’d make some sort of an excuse to get close to her, then would visit her at her house the next day. However, after seeing her like this, he wouldn’t be able to do anything to her. If he still tried to approach her like this, then I’ll definitely kill him. I don’t care if the entire Heavenly Dao Gate comes to San Dong because of it; I’ll take care of them when that happens.
Originally, I wanted to go directly to Song Wu Kyung and tell him the truth. I wanted to ask him to send Song Hwa Rin far away. There was a possibility that she’d say no, but if she did leave, there’s a possibility that she could be in more of a danger since she’d be out of my sight, considering the fact that he could send some men after her. And I gave some other excuse he would try to find out what happened.[a] Thus, if she was lying in bed with real injuries, he wouldn’t be able to do anything, which was a good enough reason. Even though I’d been reborn, it was revenge from before. This was the best option I had available to buy some time with.
Since I’d taken such a drastic measure, I felt sorry for her and her father. But in the given time that I had, I couldn’t find a simpler method. I wasn’t Kal Sa Ryang. All of this could very well be me overthinking my bad premonition; Ma Jung Soo might not even have any interest in Song Hwa Rin. However, I’d done this just in case. As they always say: You can never be too prepared.
***
I headed straight home. There was something else I needed to do before attending the banquet. If my objective was simply to kill Ma Jung Soo, it would’ve been easy no matter who my opponent was, as that was the thing I did best. However, my objective was to rob him of everything he had,which was no simple task. Considering the fact that I usually leave all the planning to Kal Sa Ryang, it was pretty hard trying to do it myself now.
However I was certain that getting rid of his money would be more effective than killing any the three experts that he’d brought. If his money was gone, he’d be confused and there’d be disorder in his camp. This was the power of money. No matter how close you are to someone, money can cause a divide among you.
The question now was where his money was kept, and who controlled it. Was it Ma Jung Soo himself? Old Man Flower Fan? Si Gon? Or that mysterious women?
Well we can check Old Man Flower Fan off the list, since he’s old and an outsider. There’s also no way that Ma Jung Soo would trust an outsider with his money. Thus, using similar reasoning we can check off that mysterious women.
Then was it Si Gon?
But Si Gon is a true Martial Artist. There’s no way he’d be good at dealing with money.
Then that only leaves Ma Jung Soo himself. Is he personally in charge of his funds?
This has the highest probability of being the truth.
***
After hearing my summons, Kwang Du quickly came to my room.
“Did you call me?”
“I need you to look into something.”
Seeing my expression, Kwang Du became nervous. “What is it?”
“You should have heard about an important person from the Heavenly Dao Gate arriving couple of days ago.”
“Of course.”
He looked around, then lowered his voice and asked, “I heard that he ripped off all the clans.”
I proceeded to whisper in his ear, “Why are you whispering, this is my room.”
He whispered back, “It would be bad this reached him, considering that he is the descendant of the Mengju, and from one of the five great clans of the Central Plains.”
“Then I think you’re in trouble.”
“Why?”
“Because you might have to investigate him.”
Kwang Du stared blankly at me and blinked a couple times. As I’d said before, the expressions that Kwang Du makes were what made me love him.
“So you’re serious.”
“The best way to forget about a girl is by doing work.”
“I think that I’d be able to forget about a hundred girl doing this.”
I smiled and raised my tone back to normal. “It’s nothing too serious, just relax.”
Ridding himself of his playfulness, Kwang Du asked, “What do I need to do?”
“He wants to build a school in Jae Nam. I want you to go to Jae Nam and look for anything and everything related to it. Everything from where he’s going to build it, to who’s in charge of construction, to when the construction starts; anything that you can find. There’s definitely something that they’re doing in the shadow.”
I told him all of the details regarding the construction of the martial arts school that I’d heard during our first meeting with Ma Jung Soo. Then I gave him two thousand nyang to use.
“You’re giving me this much?”
“If you need to use it, then use it.”
“Yes.”
“And make sure you come back as soon as possible.”
“Understood young master.”
I knew that I could trust Kwang Du with this sort of work—the type where you blend into the crowd to investigate something. He had a natural talent for interacting with others due to his innocent personality.
I felt that he might be feeling lonely, so I said a joke to him, “Should I send Do Soon-ee with you?”
“NO!”
He answered without hesitation.
“Why? Have you already gotten over your feelings?”
“NO! My heart still beats whenever I see her.”
“Then why?”
“Because I don’t want to have hard feelings for her. I don’t want to burn any bridges since we aren’t even in a relationship.”
I nodded in agreement.
“Then, I’ll be off.”
“Go on horseback.”
Kwang Du replied with pride, “This time I’ll come back as a horse riding expert, no, I’ll be a centaur when I get back.”
After sending Kwang Du away, I headed towards the Yang Clan, where the banquet was going to be held. Though there were many reasons why I hated attending them, this was another reason
Banquets will make people lose concentration.
However, since I knew that, this would be my chance to strike.
‘Now that I’m coming to get you, just how prepared are you?’
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