Chapter 12
Do You Think We’re a Joke? (3)
The atmosphere in the room turned frigid.
Cheuk Su, who lived by his pride alone, wore an especially vicious expression.
A maggot?
It was such a humiliating comparison that he would never forget it for the rest of his life.
If Wang Gon was the old maggot, then that made him the young maggot.
Perhaps someone with the temperament to laugh over drinks and joke, “At least I was the young maggot,” could have let it pass.
But Cheuk Su was the kind of man who would destroy someone over a single irritating slip of the tongue.
His murderous intent, its purpose unmistakable, swept through the room.
Everyone present could tell.
Cheuk Su had decided to kill Baek Socheon.
Wang Gon had no need to lose his temper. Cheuk Su would punish the man in his place. Even if Wang Gon tried to stop him, Cheuk Su would not listen, and Wang Gon had no desire to stop him anyway.
‘Arrest us? Maggots? That lunatic bastard!’
Yes.
Now that maggots had entered the conversation, a corpse would be needed as well.
Despite the urgent situation unfolding around him, Baek Socheon remained calm.
“It seems we won’t be able to leave unless we arrest these men now.”
That was not entirely true.
There was still another way.
They could immediately fall to their knees and beg for forgiveness. Then Im Chung and Beon Saeng might survive.
But Baek Socheon would not.
Could Im Chung allow Baek Socheon to die merely to save himself?
Simply because Baek Socheon had been abrasive, shaken Beon Saeng’s convictions, and had known them for only a few days?
No matter what, he could not send the man to his death.
But what if he gave the order to arrest them?
Neither Cheuk Su nor Wang Gon would submit peacefully. They would carry out the threats they had made earlier.
Im Chung understood that his decision would determine not only Baek Socheon’s fate, but also his own and Beon Saeng’s.
‘Let’s kneel and beg. I’ll beg them to spare Baek Socheon too.’
Reason sent the order through his body.
But his knees refused to obey.
No, the command never even reached them.
His emotions intercepted and blocked it.
Those emotions had been screaming at him all along.
‘Never submit to these damned bastards!’
Im Chung looked at Baek Socheon.
‘You truly are shaking up my entire life.’
But everything that had happened today had undeniably begun because of him.
These two men had come to save him.
Still staring at Baek Socheon, Im Chung slowly nodded.
“Arrest them.”
At the same time, his mind screamed,
‘This is madness.’
Still pinned beneath Cheuk Su’s foot, Beon Saeng’s mouth fell open.
‘Ah, now we’re all dead!’
Even so, Beon Saeng placed his final hope in Baek Socheon.
‘Brother, please save us! I haven’t even slept with a woman yet!’
Despite already being twenty-six years old.
It was a secret he could never bring himself to tell anyone, yet he somehow felt that revealing it might compel Baek Socheon to save him.
Had the two of them been alone, he truly might have shouted it aloud.
Baek Socheon stepped forward to address Wang Gon and Cheuk Su, then glanced back at Im Chung.
“Ah. What are their names?”
“Wang Gon, hall master of the Shinhwa Guild, and Cheuk Su, a martial artist of the Shinhwa Guild.”
Baek Socheon addressed them in a clear, ringing voice.
“Wang Gon, hall master of the Shinhwa Guild, and Cheuk Su, martial artist of the Shinhwa Guild. You are under arrest for assaulting and threatening Martial Alliance officers and for offering a bribe.”
Wang Gon looked back and forth between Im Chung and Baek Socheon before shaking his head.
“It cannot be helped now. Yes, sometimes a hypothetical situation can become reality.”
Wang Gon looked at Cheuk Su and issued a cold order.
“Let us see what sort of maggots crawl out of that bastard’s body.”
It was an order to kill Baek Socheon first.
Wang Gon wanted to kill all three of them, but cleaning up afterward would be difficult.
There was a vast difference between the death of one ordinary martial officer and the deaths of an officer and a branch leader together.
He intended to kill Baek Socheon first, then force the remaining two into absolute submission.
If he made them stand by and cover up their colleague’s death, he could use that weakness to control Im Chung like a slave for the rest of his life.
‘This may actually be for the best.’
Cheuk Su removed his foot from Beon Saeng’s chest and walked toward Baek Socheon.
From several steps away, he aimed his sword at him.
“I’ll cut off your arms and legs first. Tell me, which one should I start with?”
Baek Socheon showed none of the fear Cheuk Su expected. Instead, he added another charge.
“Assault, intimidation, bribery, and now attempted murder.”
“Attempted murder? What a shame. You’ll have to charge me with actual murder instead.”
Baek Socheon grinned at Cheuk Su’s mockery.
“Unfortunately for you, it will remain an attempt.”
“You crazy bastard!”
Cheuk Su abruptly closed the distance and thrust his sword.
It was fast and precise, and it carried unmistakable killing intent.
The attack possessed all three qualities in perfect measure.
The blade swept toward Baek Socheon in an instant.
Im Chung shouted,
“No!”
The moment the cry left his mouth, regret struck him.
‘What have I done?’
Had he not known that Cheuk Su was an expert?
Of course he had.
Wang Gon behaved so outrageously precisely because he trusted Cheuk Su’s strength.
Im Chung must have been bewitched for a moment.
Just as Beon Saeng had, he too must have been swept along by Baek Socheon.
He should have found some way to beg so that all three of them could survive.
Pow!
A crisp impact echoed through the room.
Baek Socheon and Cheuk Su stood pressed close together.
When Im Chung, Beon Saeng, and Wang Gon saw their positions, all three cried out at once.
Two cries were filled with joy.
The third was a gasp of horror.
Cheuk Su’s sword had missed and extended past Baek Socheon’s twisted torso.
Meanwhile, Baek Socheon’s elbow was buried squarely in Cheuk Su’s face.
For a moment, both men remained frozen as though time itself had stopped.
Clang.
Cheuk Su’s sword fell to the floor first.
Thud.
Then Cheuk Su toppled stiffly backward like a stone statue, his nasal bone completely shattered.
It had taken only one move.
Baek Socheon had defeated him using pure external strength, without any internal energy whatsoever.
Everyone watched without even breathing.
No one had imagined that Cheuk Su could be defeated in a single exchange.
They were so focused on the result of the fight that none of them noticed the training guards strapped around Baek Socheon’s wrists.
Even while wearing those heavy weights, Baek Socheon had evaded Cheuk Su’s attack and knocked him down with one strike.
Beon Saeng hurried over and examined Cheuk Su.
“He isn’t dead, is he?”
Fortunately, Cheuk Su was still alive.
Beon Saeng would have preferred the bastard dead, but killing a martial artist of the Shinhwa Guild could provoke retaliation from the guild’s main headquarters.
There was a vast difference between killing someone and officially arresting him.
Afraid that Cheuk Su might wake up, Beon Saeng quickly sealed his internal energy.
Wang Gon stood half-dazed.
He had never imagined that Cheuk Su could be defeated in a single move.
‘What the hell is this?’
Baek Socheon slowly approached him.
Wang Gon backed away.
Although Wang Gon was a hall master, Cheuk Su’s martial skills surpassed his by several levels.
If Cheuk Su had lost, there was no point in Wang Gon trying to fight.
He had never possessed much talent for martial arts in the first place. That was why he had concluded that learning schemes and political manipulation would serve him better than spending his time training.
“Stay back! Come any closer and I’ll kill you!”
He deliberately raised his voice, but none of his subordinates came.
Wang Gon regretted meeting Im Chung here.
Believing they would discuss confidential matters, he had chosen the most secluded guest hall and ordered every subordinate except Cheuk Su to remain far away.
Then again, even if he had called them all here, they would have been useless after Cheuk Su fell in a single blow.
“If you touch me, the main guild will not stand by! You know that much, don’t you?”
“Of course they won’t stand by. Wouldn’t they replace the hall master who caused the problem first?”
Wang Gon’s heart sank.
Baek Socheon had likely spoken casually, yet he had predicted Wang Gon’s future with terrifying accuracy.
The master of the Shinhwa Guild was the kind of man who would prefer quietly replacing a troublesome hall master over creating a larger conflict to avenge a subordinate.
Wang Gon shouted again.
“Even without the Shinhwa Guild, if I call upon all my connections, every one of you is finished!”
“Connections… Connections are useful. But what can you do? Assaulting, threatening, and attempting to bribe Martial Alliance officers, along with attempted murder. You will probably spend thirty years in a dungeon.”
“Thirty years!”
The realistic number made Wang Gon’s face twitch.
“Will you even be alive by then? Your connections? Do you truly believe anyone you know would oppose the Martial Alliance to rescue you? I imagine the only things gathered around a maggot like you are piles of shit.”
Wang Gon could not deny it.
There was no one he himself would protect at the cost of opposing the Martial Alliance.
If that was true of him, then it would surely be true of the people around him.
A horrifying reality he had never once considered seemed to rise like an enormous tidal wave and crash over him.
His head spun, and in the end, he returned to the only argument he had left.
“Don’t make me laugh! I’m Hall Master Wang of the Shinhwa Guild! The Shinhwa Guild, do you hear me?”
“Listen, Hall Master Wang.”
Wang Gon flinched at Baek Socheon’s cold gaze.
“Playing king in a rural backwater made you think the Martial Alliance was a joke, didn’t it?”
The words were spoken calmly, yet they frightened Wang Gon more than a savage threat to kill him.
It was probably because of the way Baek Socheon looked down at him as though he were an insect.
Wang Gon knew that gaze better than anyone.
It was the same look he gave weaker people.
The look he wore just before crushing them beneath his feet.
“You heard the rumors about Tae Jeong’s death, didn’t you? The people I hit tend to suffer strange bouts of bad luck. Shall we see how fortunate our Hall Master Wang is?”
“Ugh… Get away from me, you bastard! Stay back…”
Crack!
Baek Socheon’s fist struck him squarely in the face.
Wang Gon, already half out of his mind, failed to evade the blow.
His head snapped violently to the side, and several broken teeth flew from his mouth.
As his head turned, his entire body spun in the same direction before he collapsed flat on his back.
Thud.
Baek Socheon grabbed the fallen man, dragged him across the floor, and deposited him in front of Im Chung.
Wang Gon lay unconscious, his face a mangled mess.
“I arrested both men as ordered.”
Only silence filled the room.
To Im Chung and Beon Saeng, the scene was so unreal that they felt as though they were dreaming.
“You…”
Im Chung could not think of what to say.
He was grateful, yet part of him also resented Baek Socheon.
The situation they now faced was incomparably greater than the arrest of the Taejeong Faction or even Tae Jeong’s death.
They had arrested the Shinhwa Guild’s person in charge of the southern region and his closest enforcer.
Simply taking the two men away would not end the matter.
Wang Gon would use every excuse, justification, and scheme imaginable to escape punishment.
The Shinhwa Guild itself might also intervene openly.
Meanwhile, Im Chung was merely the leader of an obscure rural branch with no powerful backing.
He did not even know whether this was a situation that could be resolved.
Whether or not he understood Im Chung’s feelings, Baek Socheon spoke to him.
“Coming here alone in a fit of anger was extremely foolish. But refusing the bribe was the right decision.”
Having said only what he wanted to say, Baek Socheon walked out first.
Watching his retreating back, Beon Saeng cautiously spoke.
“Branch Leader, would you like to become his younger brother with me? We need one more person if we want to swear brotherhood in a peach garden…”
“You lunatic.”
“That’s right. I’ve gone mad. How else could I endure this situation without losing my mind?”
Looking down at the unconscious Wang Gon and Cheuk Su, Im Chung added his own sigh.
Yet deep inside, one thing made him feel relieved.
The words Baek Socheon had spoken to Wang Gon were the very words Im Chung had always wanted to say whenever Wang Gon and Cheuk Su treated them with utter contempt.
—Playing king in a rural backwater made you think the Martial Alliance was a joke, didn’t it?
When Baek Socheon said those words, Im Chung felt as though something that had long been obstructing his chest had suddenly burst open.
Despite the mountain of trouble awaiting them, that was why he did not feel entirely bad at this moment.
Im Chung looked down at the fallen Wang Gon.
‘Yes. I may have looked ridiculous, but the Martial Alliance was never a joke.’