Seriously, How Insolent

I first studied the man’s expression.

By now, bewilderment was beginning to show in his eyes more than composure. The man glared straight at me and spoke.

“……What are you?”
“What kind of bullshit question is that?”
“I heard you were bedridden and couldn’t even move. How did you become this strong?”
“I was always strong, you goddamned bastard. Don’t look to me for the reason you’re weak.”
“You’re saying I’m weak?”

I crossed my arms and kept running my mouth.

“Of course you are. You’re weak not only in a fight, but in spirit too. Hell, you’re even weaker than that waiter over there.”

“What kind of bullshit is that?”
“Think about it. At least that waiter makes noodles, wipes tables, and earns money of his own will. But what about you?”

I pointed at the scar near the man’s mouth.

“You kill when you’re told to kill, kill when an order comes down, kill when someone offers you money. So how many people have you ever killed because you chose to? Killing people is pathetic enough already, but doing it because someone else ordered you to?”

I clicked my tongue.

“Good grief, you goddamned bastard. Calling you a bad man would be giving you too much credit. You’re just an idiot. A pathetic, miserable idiot.”

Of course, I’d gone around killing people on the Cult Leader’s orders in my previous life too, so I was an idiot myself. As one idiot to another, I gave my fellow idiot, stuck in much the same situation as I once was, a piece of my mind in my own way.

My comrade’s face twisted with rage.

“……What the hell do you know?”

I snorted.

“Whether I know anything or not doesn’t change the fact that you’re an idiot.”
“Shut up!”

Shiiiiing!

In an instant, a gale-like current gathered around the man’s straight saber, and reddish-gray qi spread across its blade.

I’d thought he was fairly capable, and apparently he knew how to use internal energy as well. The man stared at me with a chilling smile.

“Sect Master, come at me seriously. Even if I die, I’ll take one of your arms with me.”

Truthfully, if I fought him seriously, the black-clad man would be sent to the next world without even managing a single counterattack.

But this man didn’t seem afraid of death in the first place.

How should I put it……. For an assassin, he had a surprisingly manly streak to him.

Enemy or ally, an opponent worthy of respect deserved to be respected.

Following his lead, I poured internal energy into the Nameless Sword. The silver blade that had been scattering raindrops turned gray in an instant.

“……!”

This was my way of showing respect. The man’s eye widened once more before narrowing again, as though he’d only just realized that I had never been an opponent he could defeat.

I spoke.

“Didn’t I tell you? I am the strongest.”

For the first time, the man gave something resembling a genuine smile.

“Doesn’t matter.”

Shwaaaaaaak!

The black-clad man let out a battle cry and brought his straight saber down vertically. A long streak of reddish-gray saber qi tore through the rain and raced toward me at tremendous speed.

I watched the saber qi tear across the ground toward me……and the moment it reached the proper distance, I unleashed One Flash straight ahead.

Kwaaaaaaaaang!

Two enormous streaks of light raced toward each other and collided in the middle in the shape of a cross.

The deafening roar of qi colliding with qi battered my ears, and the sword wind generated by the impact swept across my forehead. Dust spread thickly through the area like fog.

After being pushed slightly backward across the ground, I casually swept the Nameless Sword through the air and cleared away the dust.

Once my vision cleared, I saw the black-clad man not far away.

“…….”

Since I was perfectly fine, it was only natural that the man had lost.

Sure enough, the black-clad man was sprawled against a wall where he’d been slammed into it, breathing heavily.

His injuries didn’t look particularly severe. For one thing, there were no signs of internal injury.

The man spotted me and spoke with difficulty.

“……Kill me. I lost.”

Going straight to asking for death made it a very assassin-like declaration of defeat. What kind of feeling was this? Now that he’d actually asked me to kill him, I found that I didn’t want to.

I couldn’t tell whether my contrary streak was acting up or whether I was simply curious how this man had ended up a fugitive assassin.

The waiter of the nameless inn watched what was happening outside with bated breath.

“Wow…….”

A breathtaking spectacle was unfolding before his eyes.

Even for the fearless waiter, this was his first time seeing a fight of such magnitude.

He’d thought fights were little more than drunkards or pathetic sect members clashing over their pride…….

But the battle between the swordsman and saber wielder before him was far more thrilling than he’d imagined.

This……this was what a true battle of the Kangho was supposed to look like.

‘Incredible……!’

Most surprising of all was that the man who had been heartily eating noodles had completely overwhelmed the man dressed in black.

At first, the man in black had looked far more frightening and carried such an unusually heavy presence that the waiter had assumed he was the much greater expert. Now he realized that wasn’t the case at all.

The strangely gray-eyed man had practically toyed with the man in black. Even while repeatedly evading the straight saber that came at him in a relentless barrage, his expression remained calm from beginning to end.

Then, in an instant, two enormous masses of qi collided in the air……and the outcome was decided just as quickly. The gray-eyed man had claimed victory in a single exchange.

‘What an incredible expert.’

The duel had been grand enough to make even a waiter with no ties to the Kangho seriously consider dreaming of becoming a martial artist.

The waiter, who had been peeking at the fight from inside the kitchen, cautiously stuck his head out……only to find the gray-eyed man already slapping the fallen man in black across the face from every angle.

“Wake up, wake up, wake up, wake up.”

The waiter swallowed dryly.

“…….”

Somehow, all that magnificent grandeur had vanished, and it felt as though he were once again watching the most pathetic street brawl imaginable between local men.

I slapped the one-eyed assassin every which way until I confirmed that he had completely passed out, only then taking my hand away.

“You dare pass out on me? Damn it……what an insolent bastard.”

I had plenty I wanted to ask him, so having him pass out like this was inconvenient in more ways than one.

Strangely enough, when it came to this bastard, the desire to keep him alive came before any desire to kill him.

There were plenty of times when even I couldn’t understand my own heart, so it wasn’t all that unusual.

“What are you doing?”

I heard a familiar voice from somewhere and turned my head, only to see an equally familiar bastard strolling over without a care in the world.

Naturally, the leisurely bastard was Gongson Han. Chief Steward Gongson, who was now starting to carry himself rather impressively like the strategist of a proper sect, approached and asked,

“Who’s this? Another bastard who got beaten up by you, Sect Master?”

I looked at Gongson Han and gave a casual nod.

“Yeah.”
“He certainly looks vicious. Did the Black Serpent Gate send him?”

Gongson Han’s gaze was fixed on the black-clad assassin, but I simply stared at Gongson’s remarkably calm face.

‘Why is this bastard so relaxed?’

Not long ago, he’d practically trembled at the mere mention of the Black Serpent Gate. Why had he suddenly become so fearless? Had he finally gone insane?

Of course, living in the Kangho already meant living half-insane. I stood beside Gongson Han with my hands clasped behind my back.

“I don’t know whether he belongs to the Black Serpent Gate or whether they hired him. What I do know is that he’s an assassin.”
“He came to kill you?”
“Probably. As you can see, he failed.”
“I see. What a shame he failed.”
“What did you say, you bastard?”
“It was just a joke, Sect Master.”

I let out a long, heavy sigh.

“Some Chief Steward you are…… Anyway, why are you so calm?”
“What now?”
“A few days ago, you’d have been shouting about whether I’d lost my mind and raising every kind of hell imaginable. Why are you so calm now? Have you been drinking?”

Gongson Han looked at the fallen one-eyed assassin and spoke almost to himself.

“……At first, I thought your plan was completely insane.”
“And?”
“But after thinking about it, I just can’t picture you losing to the Black Serpent Gate Master. It’s only a feeling. And…….”
“…….”

Gongson Han shot me a sidelong glare.

“……Strangely enough, getting chewed out by you feels a little scarier than dying to the Black Serpent Gate Master. So I’ve decided I’d better listen to you first.”

I clapped three times on the spot.

Clap, clap, clap.

‘What an impressive bastard.’

It was an impressive mindset.

Could this be called courage too?

Either way, credit was due where it was due, so for the first time, I praised Gongson Han.

“Impressive, Chief Steward Gongson. I picked myself one hell of a Chief Steward.”
“Thank you.”

A Chief Steward ought to have a slick side like that.

It went hand in hand with needing a good head on one’s shoulders. Gongson Han wasn’t just smart, though. He was good at crafty little schemes too, which worried me slightly.

But if Gongson Han ever tried anything crafty and got caught, I could simply fire him and find another Chief Steward.

Anyone I grabbed off the street and put to work would probably do a better job than me anyway.

Of course, by ‘fire him,’ I naturally meant smashing his head apart.

Did Gongson Han realize that the fate of his skull now depended entirely on his own greed? I looked at him grinning to himself and started grinning as well.

“Why are you smiling?”
“I had something on my mind.”
“Right”

I gave Gongson Han’s head a pat.

“It’s settled now.”
“Hmm.”

I issued a new order to Chief Steward Gongson, who was wearing a complicated expression.

“Gongson Han. Take that fallen bastard and tie him up somewhere with a nice view.”
“Ah. He’s still alive? You didn’t kill him?”
“Yeah. Report to me when he wakes up.”
“You’re not going to kill him?”

I suddenly got angry and shouted.

“Why do you keep going on about killing him, you bastard! If you’re like this, what makes you any different from the Black Serpent Gate Master?”
“Why the hell are you getting angry at me?”
“What?”
“Sorry.”

I let out a sigh before answering.

“……I need to interrogate him about a few things. Tie him up so he can’t resist for now. Report to me when he wakes up, and if he resists, then you can kill him.”
“Understood.”
“And make sure you properly manage the assets we took from the Heavy Serpent Gang and Long Serpent Gang.”
“Yes.”
“Give most of it to the merchants who suffered losses. If there’s money left over, don’t just hoard it. Use it to rebuild the Sword Name Gate, or hand some out as bonuses to the bastards who work hard.”
“……I’ll do that.”
“And another thing……what’s with that look on your face?”

As I continued handing out orders, I could practically watch Gongson Han’s expression darken in real time.

Gongson Han furrowed his brow like a man suffering from a severe headache, then let out a long sigh.

“……It’s nothing. Um, Sect Master.”
“What?”
“Please raise my monthly stipend. At this rate, I really might end up in the next world.”
“That’s a bit…….”

I was about to say, ‘That’s a bit much,’ but the moment I saw Gongson Han’s murderous expression, my mouth stopped.

At this rate, I had the unsettling feeling this bastard would stay by my side even after death just to torment me, and I swallowed dryly.

To make me, the former Sword Demon, feel a chill like this…….

I casually waved a hand as though reluctantly giving in.

“Fine. So Geum-ho and I will discuss it.”
“Thank you.”

There wasn’t much gratitude in his answer.

I stared at the back of Gongson Han’s head as he disappeared carrying the black-clad assassin on his back……then headed back to the inn with the memorable noodles to deposit some more food into my still-unsatisfied stomach.