Whose Side Are You On, Anyway?

Gongson Han silently watched the entrance to the main hall with an uneasy expression.

“…….”

Dokgo Mu-jin had taken Gongson Han’s sword inside a while ago, yet despite all the time that had passed, he still hadn’t come back out.

On top of that, from beyond the tightly shut doors came a chaotic mixture of men’s piercing screams, weapons clashing, flesh being sliced apart, and all sorts of other unpleasant sounds.

For some reason, this all felt strangely familiar. In fact, the situation really was unfolding much like it had when the Sword Hero Gate’s Sect Master died.

The problem was that no matter which side won that fight, Gongson Han would be in trouble.

If the Righteous Sword Gate’s Sect Master won, he would hold Gongson Han responsible for standing by while the Sword Hero Gate’s Sect Master died. But even if the Sword Name Gate’s Sect Master won, Gongson Han would still get chewed out to no end.

With no move he could make either way, Gongson Han was reduced to standing around like useless baggage and let out a sigh without realizing it.

“Haah.”

Still, if he absolutely had to choose between the two, perhaps it would be slightly better if the Sword Name Gate’s Sect Master survived.

Dokgo Mu-jin would probably just harass him a little and smack him around, but considering the Righteous Sword Gate Master’s usual conduct, Gongson Han might genuinely die if that man won.

Was this what it felt like to be forced to choose the lesser evil? Gongson Han bit at his thumbnail and muttered under his breath.

“Just don’t fucking die on me, Dokgo Mu-jin, you bastard…….”

Before he could even finish muttering to himself, all sound from inside the main hall vanished at once.

Had the bloody battle finally been decided?

Even as the silence continued, Gongson Han did nothing but stare at the entrance to the main hall for a long while.

The suffocating stillness continued to settle over them……until one subordinate could bear it no longer and cautiously spoke.

“……Um, Young Sect Master. Shouldn’t we open the door and check?”
“Shut up. What if a hidden weapon comes flying out?”
“My apologies.”

If there was one thing Gongson Han had in fucking abundance, it was caution. Before long, a familiar voice came from inside the main hall.

“……Come in.”

Gongson Han had no trouble recognizing the owner of that deep voice.

Apparently, Dokgo Mu-jin was the one who had survived.

Startled by the sudden call, Gongson Han immediately threw open the doors to the main hall.

“I’m coming in.”

The moment the doors opened, Gongson Han had no choice but to be shocked all over again.

He had naturally assumed the Righteous Sword Gate Master and Dokgo Mu-jin had fought a one-on-one life-and-death duel, but the actual state of the main hall was far more horrific than that.

More than ten men lay sprawled across the floor, their bodies already cold. Their blood had pooled beneath them, while the walls, floor, and ceiling of the main hall were drenched in gore and the stench of blood hung thick in the air.

The Righteous Sword Gate Master had died in an especially gruesome state. Blood ran from his mouth and chest as he hung pinned to the wall like a dried fish, and the weapon piercing through his chest was none other than Gongson Han’s own sword.

Unable to believe the sight before him, Gongson Han covered his mouth with his sleeve in horror.

“What the hell happened here……?”

He had admittedly made that prayer that wasn’t a prayer for Dokgo Mu-jin not to die, but he truly hadn’t expected him to win this overwhelmingly.

Gongson Han shifted his gaze slightly to the right.

Dokgo Mu-jin sat in the seat of honor, puffing away at the bloodstained tobacco pipe, his entire body soaked in blood until he looked like some ghost or evil rakshasa.

Dokgo Mu-jin stared hollowly at the corpses for a moment before setting the tobacco pipe on the table and speaking.

“……Gongson Han.”

Gongson Han swallowed dryly without realizing it before answering.

“Y-yes, Sect Master. Please speak.”
“As you can see, I won.”
“……Ah, yes. Congratulations.”

Not only was the situation unfolding much like it had when the Sword Hero Gate Master died, even the conversation was heading in a similar direction.

Dokgo Mu-jin raised a finger with a serious expression and said,

“Do you believe me now when I say I’m the strongest?”
“…….”
“I am the strongest.”
“……Yes. You’re the strongest.”

Gongson Han stared at Dokgo Mu-jin as though he were looking at a complete lunatic.

Not that Dokgo Mu-jin cared. He rose from his seat, opened the doors as though none of this were a big deal, and walked outside.

As Dokgo Mu-jin disappeared with his hands clasped behind his back, his voice drifted faintly to Gongson Han’s ears.

“I’m going to wash up, so you handle the cleanup.”
“Yes.”
“Oh, and…….”

Dokgo Mu-jin, already walking down the long corridor, turned only his head to look back at Gongson Han.

“Don’t go dying, you said? Who the hell is dying? There’s still so much left for me to squeeze out of you. How could I possibly dare to die?”

A faint smile spread across Dokgo Mu-jin’s lips as he spoke, while Gongson Han’s face turned deathly pale.

While Gongson Han desperately racked his brain and broke out in a cold sweat……Dokgo Mu-jin flashed him one more bright smile before disappearing from sight.

Gongson Han stared after him for a long while……and only once every trace of Dokgo Mu-jin’s presence had completely vanished did he collapse where he stood.

The thought that perhaps it might actually have been better if the Righteous Sword Gate Master had survived flashed through Gongson Han’s now-blank mind.

Before I came along, Dokgo Mu-jin had been nothing more than an unremarkable, sickly martial artist.

But now things had changed again. The Sect Master of a failing sword sect who had once been looked down on at every turn had become Yongmyeong County’s hero and lunatic, the man who beat vicious villains to death.

All of that was possible because I was strong. After all, even righteous intentions amounted to incompetence if you lacked the strength to act on them.

Of course, I didn’t believe that whatever intentions I held were automatically right.

I was hardly a chivalrous hero or righteous man to begin with.

“Uuuugh…….”

After leaving the cleanup more or less to Gongson Han, I lowered myself into the bath that had already been prepared for me. A groan of pleasure escaped on its own.

Soothing a body exhausted from relentless training and back-to-back fights with hot water was always exhilarating.

Even a man of my exceptional intellect couldn’t help reacting that way.

Perhaps even the Cult Leader or the Martial Alliance Leader……no, even the greatest under heaven would let out a satisfied groan while easing his fatigue in a hot bath.

But I couldn’t for the life of me imagine the Cult Leader making satisfied noises in hot water, so I quickly stopped thinking about it.

Why did it feel like my train of thought was getting stranger by the second?

At this rate, I was liable to start spouting bullshit as naturally as breathing, so I stuck my head out the window to cool it off.

Cold wind swept through my damp hair, and as the cool night air mingled with each breath, I felt myself calm considerably.

Meanwhile, the view of Yongmyeong County outside the window was rather pleasant.

The streets were filled with passersby living out their own lives beneath the brilliant lights,

but what especially caught my attention was the area behind a tavern where a crowd of men had gathered.

Spectators had formed a circle around an open patch of ground, where two men were amicably trading punches and deepening their friendship one blow at a time.

This was merely a personal belief of mine, but watching other people fight had always been entertaining in its own right.

So I draped my arms over the windowsill and settled in to watch. Every time one side landed a solid hit, an exclamation slipped out before I knew it.

“Ooh.”

This time, the young man who had just taken a hit let out a yell and kicked his opponent in the shin.

“Damn…….”

Could there possibly be a more pathetic fight? There was no technique, no grappling, just a textbook ugly brawl, but it was entertaining enough to watch.

The most unimpressive fight under heaven ended sooner than expected.

One of them took a punch to the jaw first and collapsed onto the ground.

Once the winner had been decided, the enormous crowd dispersed so quickly it was as though they had never gathered in the first place.

With the spectacle that had caught my attention gone in an instant, my gaze shifted somewhere else.

‘What’s that?’

It looked like some kind of group brawl, and a much larger one than I had expected.

But when I looked closer, it wasn’t a group brawl at all. A chaotic one-against-many fight was taking place in an utterly shabby training yard, with a single man desperately resisting while being driven onto the defensive.

“Tsk, tsk…….”

My brow furrowed on its own. Ganging up on one person had always been the sort of thing only beasts did.

For a moment, I wondered why I hated one-against-many fights so much……then I remembered that was exactly how I’d died in my previous life.

Just as my mood was beginning to sour, the bathroom door burst open and someone shouted at the top of his lungs.

“Sect Master! What are you doing?!”

Why the hell was someone suddenly giving me shit while I was taking a bath?

Gongson Han, who had barged in with this unexpected display of rudeness, glared at me while breathing heavily.

Not one to lose, I grabbed the bath scrubber I’d been using and hurled it at Gongson Han as I snapped,

“Why the hell are you barging in here and acting all crazy, why?”
“Can’t you see what’s happening outside?”

I turned my head and looked out the window at the fight.

“Looks like there’s a fight.”
“A fight?”
“Would ambush be more accurate? What about it?”
“The one being ambushed is the Sword Name Gate.”

I turned my head back and stared at Gongson Han with the most serious expression in the world.

“……What?”

Sometimes your body froze when you heard something unexpectedly alarming. Apparently, this was one of those times.

Gongson Han and I stared at each other like two lost rats……then came crashing out of the bathroom together like a pair of close-knit bastard brothers.

Truthfully, I hadn’t anticipated this at all.

I’d assumed it would take at least a day for news of the Righteous Sword Gate Master’s death to reach the Righteous Sword Gate.

That was also why I’d prioritized washing up and getting myself back in order first.

Once I’d sorted things out here, I had intended to head to the Righteous Sword Gate and deal with the remnants before news of their Sect Master’s death reached them.

But they were already attacking? No matter how I looked at it, there was no way the Righteous Sword Gate had received the news and mobilized this quickly.

Which meant there was only one explanation that made sense…….

‘Righteous Sword Gate Master, you crafty bastard…….’

Apparently, before coming to fight me, the Righteous Sword Gate Master had already stationed men near the Sword Name Gate.

The bastard was still giving me headaches even after dying. This was exactly why people who used their brains were so damn exhausting.

Feeling my temper flare, I used my lightness art and raced back to the Sword Name Gate. Fortunately, it seemed I wasn’t too late.

I pushed through the crowd and stepped inside the walls, where men I assumed were from the Righteous Sword Gate were smashing what little shabby property we had left.

Meanwhile, a young man in a long robe and another wearing nothing but martial robes were fighting a one-on-one life-and-death duel in the middle of the training yard. The man in martial robes was So Geum-ho, just as I’d thought. Then who was the young man in the long robe?

Whoever he was, he was someone I needed to beat down, so I poured internal energy into my voice and shouted.

“Hey, you fucking bastards!”

It wasn’t quite a Lion’s Roar, but it was more than enough to get everyone’s attention.

Sure enough, the martial artists diligently smashing up our home all turned to look at me at once. So did the young man in the long robe and So Geum-ho.

So Geum-ho, breathing heavily with exhaustion, called out to me in surprise.

“Sect Master?”
“Yeah. It’s me.”
“How did you get here?”
“I came straight from the bath. Are you hurt?”
“Not yet.”

But So Geum-ho’s voice sounded utterly exhausted.

Apparently, he had been holding off the Righteous Sword Gate men all this time despite his exhaustion.

This time, the young man in the long robe addressed me.

“Are you the Sect Master of the Sword Name Gate? You don’t look like it.”

How many times had I heard that question already? I couldn’t be bothered giving a long answer, and after one infuriating thing after another, I just started swearing however I pleased.

“Yeah, that’s me. I’m the Sect Master of the Sword Name Gate, Dokgo Mu-jin, a lunatic, and a fucking hooligan. You earthworm-looking bastard who wriggles when stepped on, are you insane? Why the hell did you come swarming in here with all these people?”

The young man with earthworm-like eyebrows furrowed his brow and said,

“……I am Seok Gwang, Young Sect Master of the Righteous Sword Gate. Our Sect Master should have gone to see you, so how are you still alive?”
“You’re asking how I’m alive?”

I dragged a finger across my throat and said,

“Because he died by my hand, that’s why I’m alive. You stupid bastard. Does that head of yours not work? You’re a damn stonehead. At this point, change your name from Seok Gwang to Seokdu (Stonehead). That’s my sincere advice.”
“…….”

Amid the suddenly frigid atmosphere, Young Sect Master Seok Gwang surprisingly let out a mocking laugh.

“Sect Master Dokgo. Just because you spit something out doesn’t make it true. Did you really think I’d fall for a lie like that? Perhaps it’s because you’re lowborn, but you certainly know how to run that mouth of yours.”

Why did none of these bastards ever believe me when I told them the truth?

Still, it was true that I’d been lowborn in both my previous life and this one. A man had to admit what was true.

I was just about to nod in agreement when Gongson Han, who had somehow appeared without me noticing, suddenly stood beside me and spoke to Seok Gwang.

“Young Sect Master. It’s true. The Sword Hero Gate Master went down, and so did your idiot Sect Master. If that head of yours is capable of thinking rationally, surrender while you still can. That’s what I did.”
“……Gongson Han? Why the hell are you here?”

Gongson Han’s sudden appearance surprised me, So Geum-ho, Seok Gwang, and pretty much everyone else.

Now that I thought about it, Gongson Han was every bit as good at running his mouth as I was. I crossed my arms, nodded, and acknowledged what he’d said.

“That part’s true.”

This time, Seok Gwang started giving Gongson Han shit instead of me.

“Talk some sense, Han. Have you really run out of people to cozy up to, so now you’re siding with the Sword Name Gate? You’ve always been a slippery bastard. I should’ve known.”

To be fair, I agreed with that to some extent too, so I nodded along once more.

“That’s also true.”

Seok Gwang and Gongson Han both snapped at me at the same time.

“You shut your mouth.”
“Seriously, whose side are you on? Why the hell are you giving me shit?”
“…….”

That’s the kind of man I was. Enemies everywhere.

Still, our enemy right now was the Righteous Sword Gate, so I directed the killing intent rising in my heart solely toward Seok Gwang.

I said to Gongson Han,

“Gongson Han, give me your sword.”
“Are you going to cut me down?”
“Not you. Those bastards over there.”
“Yes.”

Once again, I took Gongson Han’s sword and slowly walked toward the Righteous Sword Gate disciples.

Seeing this, Seok Gwang gave the stupidest order in the world.

“……Attack those two.”

The Righteous Sword Gate men who had been smashing furniture now came rushing like arrows to smash me instead.

But their speed was nowhere near enough against me. Why was that? Was it because the Sword Name Gate’s training yard was so damn cramped?

To my eyes, the charging men looked almost neatly packed together. As though……a single sword stroke could cut them all down.

I snapped the sword from its sheath toward the men in front of me.

“One Flash.”

Puaaaaaaak!

The instant I drew the sword, I unleashed a horizontal wave of sword qi. Silver light flashed, and the men’s upper and lower bodies separated before crashing to the ground.

Bright-red blood erupted into the air, spraying in every direction and soaking my body. Not even a few hours after my bath, I stood in the middle of it all covered in blood once again.

As expected, this kind of look suited me better than being clean ever did.

Feeling the killing intent filling my heart……I smiled at Young Sect Master Seok Gwang, now the only one left.

“Young Sect Master, you see…….”

Before I could tell him the simple truth, ‘I’m the strongest,’ Seok Gwang rushed at me.

A smile spread across my face on its own.