Chapter 43
The Truth (3)
『 Translator – Divinity 』
Killed the Sword Saint.
Cheol-u’s words implied several things.
That the rumors secretly circulating in Hefei about Paecheon Fortress assassinating the Sword Saint were true, and that the culprit was Chil-ji.
Indeed.
A young woman, no older than thirty at most, had killed one of the ten strongest people under heaven.
Those who didn’t know the details would shake their heads, dismissing it as a ridiculous joke.
But Cheol-u was one of the few who knew the details, and that was why he was wary of Chil-ji.
“Wouldn’t it be natural to be wary of someone with such incredible abilities, someone whose past and real name are unknown? What do you think?”
“Others might, but you have no reason to be wary of me, Deputy Leader Cheol-u.”
Despite Chil-ji indirectly conveying that she was on his side, Cheol-u snorted.
“Humph, is that so? I can’t trust someone who won’t even reveal their real name.”
“Are you not satisfied knowing my affiliation?”
Chil-ji’s affiliation.
She was a member of another combat unit of Paecheon Fortress, different from the Heavenly Radiance Squad.
The Divine Wood Squad.
It was one of the three new combat units established by Ju Do-han, the current Paecheon Fortress Lord, after he became the leader.
The other two, the Dark Heaven Squad and the Blood Frenzy Squad, had clear purposes and characteristics, but the Divine Wood Squad was shrouded in secrecy.
‘Even the name of the unit is strange. Divine Wood Squad? Does that mean divine trees? What kind of name is that for a combat unit?’
Cheol-u’s instincts were telling him that everything about the woman sitting before him was suspicious.
And Cheol-u’s instincts were usually accurate.
…Although that was just his own claim.
“…Sigh.”
Cheol-u openly expressed his deep distrust.
Chil-ji, unusually, showed fatigue and sighed.
And then she used her trump card to get Cheol-u out of her room.
“If you keep this up, I’ll have no choice but to report it to the Squad Leader.”
“……”
“You know better than anyone how much the Squad Leader values harmony within the unit.”
As Chil-ji said, Sa Gong-chan hated it when someone showed hostility and antagonism towards their comrades, especially during a mission.
With Chil-ji bringing it up directly, Cheol-u had no choice but to back down.
“Tsk.”
Thud!
With a click of his tongue, Cheol-u stood up abruptly.
As he left the room, he didn’t forget to leave Chil-ji with a warning.
“Be careful. I’ll be watching you. Especially that ‘strange power’ you used to kill the Sword Saint. If you dare use it on our squad members…”
“…Why would I do that? Stop with the nonsense and just leave.”
Chil-ji couldn’t hide her annoyance at his paranoid attitude.
Just as the two were glaring at each other, the door suddenly burst open.
“Deputy Leader, you were here…!”
“Huh? What?”
Cheol-u looked at the warrior who had abruptly opened the door with a puzzled expression.
The warrior’s face was a whirlwind of emotions: confusion, anger, frustration, and fear.
‘What’s wrong with this guy?’
His question vanished from his mind as the warrior continued.
“Deputy Leader… the Leader, the Leader…”
***
“……”
“……”
Cheol-u and Chil-ji, and behind them, the Heavenly Radiance Squad members and the lower-ranking warriors of Paecheon Fortress.
Despite the presence of hundreds of people, a heavy silence filled the government office.
The cause of their silence was the six corpses laid out before them.
To be precise, it was the bodies of Sa Gong-chan, the leader of the Heavenly Radiance Squad, and five of his squad members, brought from Jo Un-chil’s gambling house.
“…Leader.”
Cheol-u walked towards Sa Gong-chan’s body and collapsed on his knees, as if his legs had given way.
And with trembling hands, he caressed the body.
After a long examination, he found several marks that proved the body was indeed Sa Gong-chan’s.
There was the scar on the back of his hand from a sparring session with a real sword, and even the scar from when he had taken an arrow for Cheol-u during a past mission.
No matter how much he wanted to deny it, he couldn’t.
The body before him was undoubtedly Sa Gong-chan’s.
“Uwaaaaagh—!!”
Realizing this, Cheol-u raised his head towards the sky and roared.
His intense emotions resonated with his internal energy, creating a powerful wave of pressure that spread in all directions.
The government officials, who had no resistance to such an aura, turned pale.
And around that time, the magistrate of Hefei, having heard the news, rushed in.
“Oh my, it’s really the Heavenly Radiance Squad Leader…!”
The magistrate, seeing Sa Gong-chan’s body with his own eyes, held his forehead and lamented.
His expression, however, seemed more troubled by the sudden incident than sorrowful.
“To think that the leader of a Paecheon Fortress squad would die so easily. What will happen to the plan now…?”
On top of that, he was even insensitively mentioning the progress of the plan.
Of course, the magistrate of Hefei was just a collaborator who had joined forces for mutual benefit.
He was someone who had no reason to mourn Sa Gong-chan’s death.
However, humans were creatures of emotion, easily swayed by their feelings.
To Cheol-u, who was half out of his mind with grief and rage, the magistrate’s attitude was extremely irritating.
“This greedy pig…!”
“Wh-What!?”
Cheol-u didn’t hesitate to insult the magistrate with a face contorted in rage.
The magistrate’s face, which had been red with anger, quickly turned pale as he saw Cheol-u striding towards him.
“Wh-What are you doing? How dare a mere warrior threaten an official of His Majesty the Emperor?”
The magistrate stumbled backward.
Cheol-u closed the distance with a momentum that seemed ready to strike the magistrate down at any moment.
“S-Stop him! Stop that lawless brute!”
The magistrate, his face contorted with fear, ordered his soldiers.
But the soldiers, already overwhelmed by Cheol-u’s aura, hesitated to block his path.
Meanwhile, Cheol-u stood right in front of the magistrate.
The magistrate’s face, as he looked up at Cheol-u, who was a head taller than him, was now not just pale, but deathly white.
“H-Hiik…!”
Cheol-u’s fist, the size of a cauldron lid, trembled as if it was about to crush the magistrate’s head.
What stopped it was a slender, delicate hand.
“Stop it, Deputy Leader.”
“……”
“Are you trying to ruin the mission?”
“…Kugh.”
Cheol-u gritted his teeth at Chil-ji’s cold words, roughly brushed her hand aside, and returned to Sa Gong-chan’s body.
The magistrate, finally free from Cheol-u’s pressure, immediately started to assert his authority as soon as he escaped the fear of death.
“I-I will not let him get away with this. I will report this to the Regional Commander and have that lawless brute punished…”
“Magistrate, the Deputy Leader has just lost his superior, who was like a brother to him. Please understand his grief and let go of your anger.”
Chil-ji interrupted the magistrate, who was shouting with spittle flying from his mouth.
The magistrate flinched momentarily at Chil-ji’s gentle words, spoken with her rare beauty, then regained his composure and hardened his expression again.
“No! Absolutely not. If we let this slide, who knows when those warriors will threaten innocent officials again…!”
“Magistrate, would you look into my eyes?”
At Chil-ji’s words, the magistrate’s eyes turned towards her.
And he saw them. Chil-ji’s eyes, shimmering with a strange red light.
“Uh…”
The moment he saw that red light, the magistrate’s expression turned blank.
Chil-ji, looking at his vacant face, murmured discreetly,
“You are a merciful person, aren’t you, Magistrate?”
“Huh…? Uh, yes… I am always merciful…”
“Then you will forgive the Deputy Leader’s rudeness with your merciful heart, won’t you?”
“Of course… I forgive him… I am merciful…”
Chil-ji smiled with satisfaction at the magistrate’s answer, as if his soul had left his body.
The red light in her eyes disappeared, and the magistrate blinked rapidly, coming back to his senses.
“Uh, uhm?”
The magistrate looked around, momentarily disoriented, then, as he had agreed with Chil-ji, he said he would overlook Cheol-u’s rudeness and turned to leave.
Of course, before that, he didn’t forget to confirm their deal.
“Our agreement is still valid, right?”
“Of course. The land and assets of the Namgung family that you desire, Magistrate. You’ll have them all in your hands soon.”
The magistrate nodded in satisfaction at Chil-ji’s answer and left.
Chil-ji watched his retreating figure with a cold gaze, then turned and walked towards Cheol-u.
“What, you bastard? Say that again!”
“Th-That is…!”
Cheol-u was berating the autopsy specialist, who had arrived and was explaining his findings about the body.
Chil-ji, sighing inwardly at the sight, intervened.
“What’s the problem now?”
“Just listen to what this guy is saying!”
At Cheol-u’s exasperated reaction, Chil-ji turned to the autopsy specialist.
And so began the autopsy specialist’s explanation from the beginning.
Chil-ji’s expression as she listened was no different from Cheol-u’s.
“…What did you say?”