I Am The Strongest

I watched the messenger gulp down a cup of water and pant heavily before asking,

“Feeling a little more awake now?”

The messenger, whose face now looked utterly exhausted, glanced up at me and replied.

“……I will not forget the grace you showed by sparing my life. Thank you.”

“Think nothing of it. More importantly.”

“Please speak.”

I rested my chin on one hand and asked,

“Think the Sword Hero Gate will come after us themselves now?”

Truthfully, the question didn’t mean much. Whether the Sword Hero Gate came after us or I went after them myself, the result would be about the same.

Either way, I’d win.

What I really wanted to know was the Sword Hero Gate’s Sect Master’s personality and temperament.

Perhaps because the messenger kept his mouth firmly shut, So Geum-ho answered in his place.

“They probably will.”

“The reason?”

“The Sword Hero Gate’s Sect Master is an extremely prideful man. He’s ambitious, and he’s committed plenty of evil deeds to match. His goal is to rule Yongmyeong County like a king, so there’s a good chance he’ll come here himself.”

“Ah-hah.”

In short, he was a king toad with a rotten temper and twisted personality like mine, except he was greedy on top of it.

The messenger, who had been listening closely, cautiously raised a hand, so I graciously granted him permission to speak.

“All right, our pathetic messenger from the Sword Hero Gate. What is it?”

The messenger spoke with extreme caution.

“I am by no means saying that your defeat is certain, Sect Master. However…….”

“However?”

“The Sword Hero Gate’s Sect Master is a far greater expert than one might expect. I heard he paid a Black Path expert to teach him martial arts.”

“Is that so?”

“It is.”

“Not my problem.”

“…….”

With all the memories of my previous life intact, a bunch of second-rate Black Path nobodies were never going to be a match for me. So I wasn’t worried.

There had been times when anxiety, fear, helplessness, and all sorts of other emotions descended on me like shadows and became a kind of inner demon. But this wasn’t one of them.

These pathetic bastards couldn’t rival me in either martial prowess or strength of mind.

I blurted out the thought exactly as it came to me.

“……I am the strongest.”

Looks from mere mortals incapable of understanding the perspective of the strongest rained down on me from every direction, but I only held myself more proudly.

“Why are you all looking at me like that? It’s not like I’m some lunatic.”

“…….”

The sharp-witted messenger, who had been carefully analyzing the situation, asked a rather incisive question.

“Sect Master, have you suffered a serious head injury recently?”

“How about you shut your damn mouth?”

“My apologies.”

I stared ahead before voicing the conclusion I’d reached.

“Anyway, from everything you’ve told me, it doesn’t sound like the Sword Hero Gate’s Sect Master will be afraid to fight me. He’ll probably bring his men here and demand a head-on fight.”

“Most likely.”

“If he were the scheming type, that’d be another matter. But if I’m dealing with a brainless blockhead like this, that’s actually better. I prefer them that way.”

The Demonic Gentleman was exactly that scheming type. I’d suffered badly at his hands in my previous life, so these days I actually welcomed brainless bastards like the Sword Hero Gate’s Sect Master who didn’t think about what came afterward.

I rose from my seat and continued.

“They’ve probably realized by now that their messenger isn’t coming back……and if they’re going to come after us anyway, it’d be better if I went there myself. I’ll go and try to have a conversation with them.”

“Conversation?”

“A physical conversation.”

“Ah.”

Truthfully, the moment I’d heard that the Sword Hero Gate’s Sect Master routinely committed evil deeds, most of my desire to let him live had disappeared.

Still, I needed to see for myself whether he truly deserved to die, or whether I could keep him alive and beat some sense into him until he reformed.

So Geum-ho asked,

“When will you leave?”

“Now.”

“So suddenly?”

“A surprise attack is supposed to be sudden.”

I left the modest main hall and headed down the corridor. Behind me came the sound of So Geum-ho hurrying after me.

“Let me come with you. I’ll accompany you.”

“What do you mean, come with me? I can go alone, so stay here. If you leave too, who’s left at the Sword Name Gate? Someone needs to stay behind, watch the prisoners, manage things, and keep a damn close eye on these bastards in case they decide to poison our precious food.”

“Even so…….”

I spoke to the hesitant So Geum-ho.

“Chief Steward Salt. Nothing’s going to happen, so stop worrying and hold down the fort. I’m not going there to die. While I’m gone, you’re the Young Sect Master. Act like one.”

“……Understood.”

Whatever his martial ability, So Geum-ho’s loyalty was something I could certainly trust.

He wasn’t particularly reassuring as a bodyguard, but as a sect’s Chief Steward, he was almost ideal.

Just as I turned to leave again, So Geum-ho called out to me once more.

“Sect Master.”

“What?”

“At least wear this before you go.”

So Geum-ho slipped off the black long robe he was wearing and handed it to me.

It looked fairly expensive.

Not only that, he had clearly treasured it and worn it with great care, judging by how well preserved it was.

I accepted the robe, which looked like something So Geum-ho had splurged on, and asked,

“Why are you giving this to me?”

“You’re still the Sect Master of an entire sect. You should at least wear something expensive.”

“Come on……it might get torn if a fight breaks out.”

“You can turn it into a complete rag for all I care.”

I draped the robe over my shoulders and said one last thing.

“I’m off.”

“Please take care.”

And with that, I left the Sword Name Gate and headed for the Sword Hero Gate.

On the way to the Sword Hero Gate, I looked around and took in the atmosphere of the town.

In truth, part of the reason I was going there myself was so I could take a look around Yongmyeong County along the way.

Carefully analyzing one’s surroundings was one of the fundamentals of combat, and I’d been taught that making a habit of adapting to unfamiliar environments was how one gained the advantage.

In that sense, Yongmyeong County was……in a word, a town full of hot-tempered men.

Drunken men traded punches in alley after alley, while passersby watched the fights as though they were a perfectly familiar sight.

And yet, no one actually beat the other side to death. They traded blows for a while……and then somehow the whole thing simply fizzled out.

Every bit of it was unfamiliar to me, leaving me with a rather strange feeling.

“What a strange town.”

It was a sight I could never have imagined on the Demonic Path where I’d lived. Once a fight started there, it didn’t end until one side died.

That was why I’d only realized at a rather late age that there were kinds of fights other than life-and-death duels.

Even knowing that……there was still something strangely unique about the atmosphere of this town.

Fights happened as casually as meals, yet no one was getting murdered. It was almost as though everyone silently observed some unspoken line.

I was casually passing through a crowded commercial district when I suddenly heard someone whispering in the distance.

“Isn’t that the bastard who’s Sect Master of the Sword Name Gate?”

“There goes the bastard who brought his own father to the grave. Squeezing money out of him was pretty profitable, so I was disappointed when he collapsed. Good to see he’s back.”

“His face looks completely different, though. Let’s go squeeze a little drinking money out of him.”

Were those really things to say about someone who had collapsed and barely escaped death? Apparently, Dokgo Mu-jin had spent his life enduring every sort of contempt and ridicule.

He had probably forced himself to smile even while being treated like this.

At least, that was what I thought. No matter what I did, it would take time to completely erase the impression that Dokgo Mu-jin was an easy target.

Rumors spread in an instant, but a reputation took quite a while to form.

If I wanted to shorten that time, there was only one thing to do. Beat down the people this town feared with my own hands.

And one of those was the Sword Hero Gate. Which meant beating down the Sword Hero Gate wasn’t merely about my personal anger. It was a noble cause for the peace, tranquility, and stability of Yongmyeong County.

I absolutely wasn’t doing all this just because I was pissed off. It might sound like a lie, but it was true. Anyway, it was. Seriously.

When I finally arrived at the front gate of the Sword Hero Gate, I let out an exclamation before I’d even stepped inside.

“Wow……what the hell is all this?”

I’d wondered why these bastards were treated like villains in Yongmyeong County. Apparently, it was because they’d sucked up every coin they could get their hands on.

It didn’t look remotely like a sword sect. If I had to describe it……the building before me was so extravagantly decorated that it looked like luxury itself given physical form.

“This is the Sword Hero Gate? Seriously?”

But it was. The characters written on the signboard above the main gate clearly read Sword Hero Gate.

No matter how I looked at it, the place seemed far more suited to chasing money than chivalry, so how had they ended up putting “Hero” in the sect’s name?

I had no way of knowing for now, so I pounded on the gate of the place that looked more like a pleasure house doing business at night than a martial sect.

A deep voice soon came from behind the gate.

“Who’s there?”

I let out a small sigh before answering curtly.

“I’m here to see your Sect Master. Open the gate.”

“Crazy bastard. If you’re drunk, piss off quietly unless you want to die.”

“Didn’t you hear me? Open the damn gate.”

“Why, you little…….”

When someone had been looked down on for long enough, anything he said had a way of making people treat him like an idiot, whether he meant it or not.

It was as though the power behind his words had been worn down to nothing. In that case, I had no choice. Words hadn’t worked, so I’d have to use force.

Without hesitation, I kicked the Sword Hero Gate’s front gate with all my strength.

Kwaaaaaang!

The wooden gate shattered helplessly, and a thick cloud of dust rose to obscure my vision before quickly dispersing.

The first thing I saw was the ridiculous sight of the gatekeeper who’d told me to piss off unless I wanted to die sitting sprawled on his ass.

With my hands clasped behind my back, I looked down at the gatekeeper and mocked him.

“My, my, well done, you goddamned bastard. Should’ve opened it when I told you to. Honestly…….”

“What the……wait. Sect Master of the Sword Name Gate?”

Had he only just recognized me? I pointed a finger at my own face.

“Yeah, it’s me. Your big brother.”

The gatekeeper exploded in anger.

“Sect Master, have you gone mad? Do you seriously think any of this makes sense?”

“Did the bullshit you people pulled on us make any sense?”

“Come to think of it, we definitely sent a messenger…….”

I couldn’t be bothered explaining everything one detail at a time, so I struck the talkative gatekeeper on the back of the neck and knocked him unconscious.

As the burly man collapsed limply……a commotion erupted from deeper inside the compound, and a group of men in dark-blue martial robes appeared.

One man among them wore a particularly ornate long robe, but he was too young to look like the Sect Master of an entire sect.

The man, who looked about my age, surveyed the scene with a grave expression and spoke.

“What in the…….”

After studying my face closely, the man’s gaze suddenly turned murderous as he spoke in a voice that sounded ready to kill.

“……Wait. Aren’t you the Sect Master of the Sword Name Gate?”

I answered indifferently without giving it much thought.

“I am. And you are?”

“What kind of bullshit question is that?”

“I lost my memory. I genuinely don’t know, so introduce yourself properly.”

The man stared at me suspiciously before replying.

“……I am Gongson Han, Young Sect Master of the Sword Hero Gate.”

“I see.”

I’d thought his clothing looked unusually fancy. Apparently, the Young Sect Master of the Sword Hero Gate himself had graced me with his presence.

Young Sect Master Gongson Han, whose face somehow looked irritating just by existing, glared at me with a deathly serious expression.

“……Sect Master. I believe you owe us an explanation for all this.”

“This isn’t something I’d discuss with the likes of a Young Sect Master. Shut up and bring your Sect Master out here.”

“The likes of?”

Had a single phrase really wounded his pride that badly? Honestly, both the messenger and this bastard had remarkably little ability for men with such enormous egos.

No wonder this town was such a mess when pathetic bastards like these were the ones in charge.

At Gongson Han’s gesture, the men in dark-blue martial robes drew the swords at their waists in unison.

Amid the murderous atmosphere, Young Sect Master Gongson Han gave his men an order.

“……The Sect Master already ordered us to attack him over the matter with the messenger. Kill him if you have to. Bring him to his knees and drag him over.”

“Yes!”

I gripped the Demon Wail Sword and laughed to myself.

“Hehehe…….”

Why was I suddenly laughing? Why was fighting always so damn fun?

No one else laughed with me, so I cackled and snickered all by myself. What a lonely man I was.

I hadn’t been immersed in my lonely solitude for long when……the men’s swords came rushing toward me like arrows.

Not caring whether they came rushing in or not, I swung the Demon Wail Sword hard like a club.