54 — Deployment (4)

Unable to pursue the enemy because of Seonu Jin’s restraint, Man Jongim frowned and asked him,

“Why did you tell me not to give chase?!”

Earlier, Seonu Jin had predicted that men from the Alliance would try to stop them from going, and had asked Man Jongim to follow his lead if that came true.

On top of that, Seonu Jin had foreseen this ambush and warned Man Jongim beforehand.

Because it was Seonu Jin saying so, Man Jongim could no longer bring himself to ignore the advice.

But he could not help feeling displeased.

Glaring after the assailants who had fled in an instant, Man Jongim shouted his frustration.

“If we let those bastards go now, they’ll come back with even more men next time! Do you not understand that?!”

At his fierce roar, Seonu Jin only grinned and nodded readily.

“Yes, that’s likely. You’re right, Commander.”

Startled by such easy agreement, Man Jongim pressed him.

“W-what? Then why are we…?”

“If we follow right away, they’ll only run farther. But if they think we’re not chasing, they’ll stop soon.”

“…What?”

Man Jongim’s expression twisted.

He couldn’t make sense of it.

They had already lost sight of the enemy—what did it matter if they stopped somewhere out of view?

Yet Seonu Jin showed no sign of explaining; still smiling, he looked around at the others and said,

“All right, let’s move. No need for everyone—only those who’ve reached the Pinnacle should come.”

Though puzzled, the Pinnacle-level warriors in the party—Commander Man Jongim of the Twelfth, Captain Do Mugon of the Twelfth First Squad, and Captain Je Wonyoung of the Eleventh First Squad—set off behind Seonu Jin together with Seol Pung and Hae Cheong-yeon.

The foresight Seonu Jin had shown in a short time made them feel there had to be more to this.

---

Hyu Jaseng realized early on that no pursuit was coming. Even so, he kept running a long while, changed direction again, and only when he was sure they could not be tracked did he halt.

Seven Shadow Unit warriors landed behind him one after another.

Seeing them, Hyu muttered in hollow disbelief.

“Only seven…. In that brief span we went from twenty-two to seven?”

It was devastating.

The result was beyond anything he’d experienced—or even imagined.

The others were the same.

Reeling at the unbelievable carnage, every Shadow warrior swallowed tears with heads bowed.

Hyu gazed at the survivors in silence for a moment.

With their remaining strength, taking down the enemy was clearly impossible. But—

“Fweeee!”

With eyes blazing, Hyu whistled toward the sky.

Moments later, his personal carrier dove toward him from above.

Whirr!

Grinding his teeth, Hyu thought,

‘If we can’t avenge this ourselves, we’ll borrow the Alliance’s hand. We’re eight now—but none of you will live!’

He felt certain.

Their enemies had less than a month to live.

Even if they’d beaten two Shadow squads, none could survive after being marked for annihilation by the Martial Alliance.

Hyu meant to exaggerate their actions and threat and request deployment of regular forces.

Two Shadow squads had taken catastrophic losses—hardly an outright lie.

He tied the message to the bird’s leg and sent it skyward.

Whirr!

Watching the pigeon rocket up, Hyu smiled cruelly.

‘It’s over now!’

Then it happened.

One Shadow warrior at the rear burst forward like the wind and snatched the bird from the air.

Whoosh!

“Skree!”

To pluck a courier mid-flight—that footwork was astounding.

More shocking than the skill itself was the suddenness of it; Hyu yelled,

“What do you think you’re doing?!”

Judging by the fact the man didn’t know who Hyu was, he was likely a survivor from the Ninth Squad.

But why would a Ninth Squad man stop the dispatch?

And to snatch a launched bird at a speed Hyu couldn’t react to—

At that level, he was no worse than the fallen Ninth Captain, Yang Wondang.

Furious, Hyu shouted at the warrior holding the bird,

“I asked what you’re doing! What number are you in the Ninth?!”

The man gave a thin smile.

The smirk beneath the bamboo hat twisted Hyu’s face even further.

Then a Ninth Squad soldier behind him said, pale-faced,

“H-he isn’t Ninth, Captain.”

“…What?”

“There’s no one like that in the Ninth. I thought he was Eighth….”

“What did you say?!”

As Hyu started to bark back, an image flashed through his mind—the Shadow who had ruined their ambush earlier.

The one who had jumped alone and wrecked everything—

Hyu’s eyes widened.

What if it hadn’t been a mistake caused by bad relaying of orders?

What if someone had sabotaged the ambush deliberately to expose them?

Now aghast, Hyu shouted,

“W-who the hell are you?!”

The man lifted his head slightly, and Sag Muhun smiled under the hat.

“This is hardly the time to worry about who I am.”

“What?!”

Pointing past Hyu, Sag Muhun said,

“Look behind you.”

Hyu ground his teeth and snapped,

“What kind of cheap—”

That was when it happened.

Led by Seol Pung, the Flying Dragons’ Pinnacle Experts surged over them from the rear like a crashing wave.

Splurt!

“Gaaahhh!”

Seol Pung, Man Jongim, Je Wonyoung, Seonu Jin, Hae Cheong-yeon, Do Mugon.

Every Pinnacle Expert in the strike party.

All veterans tempered by countless fights on the front.

Like a tidal wave, they butchered the Shadow warriors.

Whoosh!

“Arghhhh!”

Ssst!

“Ghhhk!”

The Shadow warriors died without mounting proper resistance.

They no longer had the strength to face six Pinnacle Experts.

No—more precisely, they had no will left to fight.

Crushed by helplessness and the shock of being betrayed into a trap by one of their own, they were already broken.

Splurt!

“Gaaahhh!”

“Aaahhh!”

Turning two Shadows into a storm of blood, Seol Pung pounced at Hyu like a tiger.

But instead of even trying to block, Hyu glanced blankly behind him.

The “Shadow” who had deceived them was already gone.

And that was the last thing Hyu Jaseng ever saw.

Thrust!

“…”

---

“So you’re saying lackeys of the Blood Sect have slipped into our reporting chain?”

“I can’t be certain, but otherwise how did ‘Alliance men’ read your report and ambush us? The Alliance is the pillar of the orthodox—why would it want us dead?”

“Mm. That’s true.”

Right now, I was conning Commander Man Jongim.

Tell a hardheaded man like him the truth about Zhuge Jigang and the Shadow Unit, and he’d hardly accept it—and digging would only make it more dangerous—so I told him what he wanted to hear.

“My guess is that Blood Sect forces, like the Giant Demon, have advanced north of the front and are intercepting reports. That’s why I asked you not to file one yet.”

“I see! If it weren’t infiltrators like that, they couldn’t have read my report—nor set an ambush. The Blood Sect worming into the reporting line between Alliance and front—isn’t that deplorable.”

“Yes, that’s my thought as well.”

After cursing the sect for a while, Man Jongim asked me again,

“Then what do you think we should do now?”

Every eye turned to me. All those bright, expectant gazes were a burden.

Since the Shadow Unit’s attack, people had begun treating me like the strategist of this expedition.

It was embarrassing.

It wasn’t that I was exceptional—memories from my past life, knowledge of the Shadow Unit, and Sag Muhun’s help made it possible.

Honestly, in pure wits, Lady Cheong-yeon likely surpassed me by far.

But when I looked at her, she only smiled and shook her head.

Probably meaning she didn’t want to step forward, so I should.

Somehow she knew what I was thinking just from a glance—remarkable, truly.

A lady like that should be leading people.

Anyway, I decided not to shrink back.

For this, it was simpler if I held the reins.

I straightened and began.

“First, for the reporting issue, I’ve arranged for a true Alliance warrior—not a fake—to receive our report. The Alliance will likely open an inquiry soon. Let them handle that; we should focus on the Giant Demon.”

By “true Alliance warrior,” I meant Brother Sag Muhun.

I’d asked him to alter the contents of the Shadow captain’s message-bird and send it off again.

It now stated that our party had returned to the front and that Blood Sect forces seemed to have infiltrated toward Guizhou—please investigate.

I also sent word to the Flying Dragons to file the same.

With Je Wonyoung’s help, we sent back his weakest fighter to deliver the message to the Eleventh and our Thirteenth, and for the Twelfth, the commander was here, so reporting posed no problem.

By now, Man Jongim was following my lead very well.

‘Now I’m curious what choice the Martial Alliance will make.’

We’d said the Giant Demon had gone to Guizhou, but not where.

If Zhuge Jigang truly wanted to catch them, he’d scour the province.

I wondered if he’d reach the same conclusion as I had, and turn his eyes toward the Righteous Chivalry Guild, the Yun Clan, or the Mountain Sword Sect.

‘If they don’t investigate, that’s truly dire—either the Alliance ignores the Blood Sect’s northern push, or worse, it’s complicit.’

But that was for later.

For now, I explained our course to the party.

“As I said, I expect the Giant Demon to be with one of the three currently at odds: the Righteous Chivalry Guild, the Yun Clan, or the Mountain Sword Sect. Our first task is to learn which of the three is the Blood Sect’s forward base.”

Man Jongim snorted.

“Hmph! Then the answer is clear. It won’t be the Righteous Chivalry Guild, so it must be either the Yun Clan or the Mountain Sword Sect. And since the Sword Sect is in poor shape, the Yun Clan is more likely.”

I smiled faintly.

I had already expected him to say that.

“Is that what you think?”

With self-assurance, he replied as if it were obvious,

“Of course. The Righteous Chivalry Guild is orthodox. If the Blood Sect were using a forward base, it would naturally be the unorthodox Yun Clan or Mountain Sword Sect.”

“But as things stand, the Righteous Chivalry Guild from Sichuan pushed into Guizhou first, and the Yun Clan and Mountain Sword Sect allied to stop them. Reports say the Righteous Chivalry Guild holds the advantage. Doesn’t that suggest it could be them?”

Man Jongim vehemently rejected my counterpoint.

“Impossible! The Righteous Chivalry Guild is a fine member of the orthodox and sends many warriors to the front. We even have one in the Twelfth—he’s slain countless fiends. If they were Blood Sect, that would mean they sent warriors to block their own base—does that make any sense?!”

I did not bother to say that if they truly were a forward base, having their men on the front could be even more dangerous.

Nor that the rank-and-file were orthodox while the top might not be.

I only said this,

“I see. Then how about this?”

“How so?”

“We’ve already been exposed to the Blood Sect’s agents. Moving as one group is dangerous; we’ll be too conspicuous and could be ambushed again. So I suggest we split quietly into three teams and scout one faction each. What do you think?”

Of course, the talk of another ambush wasn’t actually true.

The Shadow Unit that knew us was annihilated, their report stopped, and even the Alliance leadership’s eyes had been turned toward the Giant Demon infiltrating Guizhou.

But to avoid drawing eyes from here on, smaller teams were indeed better.

And more than anything, I wanted to move separately from Commander Man Jongim. His power was a shame to lose, but beyond that, he would hinder us in every other way.

Above all, being with him was suffocating.

Unaware of my feelings, he nodded readily.

“A good idea. Then I and the Twelfth will investigate the Yun Clan.”

I beamed at that.

Success.