Silence filled the office.
The people inside had been staring at me with their mouths agape for quite some time. The first to come to their senses was the Lord of the Black Alliance, who let out a hollow laugh and spoke.
"So you're saying you want to deal with the One-Blade Asura simply because you don't like him."
"Yes."
"If this Alliance Lord's memory serves, the One-Blade Asura is a fellow who doesn't cause much trouble as long as he's paid his protection fees properly."
"Well. That's what they say."
"…Hmph, that's a lukewarm answer. From the looks of it, you've never met the One-Blade Asura in person. So what grudge do you possibly hold against him?"
"Pardon?"
"No, think about it. You, the White Moon Sword Lord, are saying you'll wipe out the martial arts the One-Blade Asura has built up over a lifetime, along with an entire sect called the Hegemon Asura Gate, and then poison him on top of that. Anyone looking at this would say there's a grudge… W-wait a moment. Surely you don't mean to say you're getting rid of him simply because he doesn't sit well with you, with no real grudge at all…?"
The Lord of the Black Alliance had been speaking in a serious tone, then stopped mid-sentence, aghast. Rarely seen, his eyes were trembling slightly.
At that, I curled the corner of my mouth with a snort and nodded.
"No matter who I am, would I really try to bring down the One-Blade Asura with absolutely no reason at all? The fact that he never sat well with me is precisely because there was ample reason for it."
"Hoo. Fine. Even you wouldn't be so insane as to shock even the Unorthodox Sects…"
"As I see it, the One-Blade Asura has the face of a traitor."
"?"
"They will surely side with the enemy without hesitation if a critical moment arrives and we find ourselves at a disadvantage."
"No. What kind of face is that…"
"That White Moon Sword Lord, Cheon Hwi. Even if I were to betray the world, I would never allow the world to betray me."
"…This madman."
This time, it was Sama Yuryeon's face that turned pale. Well, of course. She must be well-read, so she would have immediately recognized whose words I was quoting.
As Sama Yuryeon urgently whispered something to the Lord of the Black Alliance, the Alliance Lord now also nodded with a serious expression.
"Is that so. Many in the Unorthodox Sects claim the Path of Domination, carving the word 'domination' into their aliases or sect names. This Alliance Lord is no different. I staked my own Path of Domination to found the Black Alliance, and to the subordinates who follow at the forefront, I granted the name of the Paecheon Hall. …But as of today, most of the Unorthodox Sects, including this Alliance Lord, will have to change their names."
"And what is that supposed to mean?"
"With someone who truly walks the Path of Domination right before their eyes, those who only put on airs should take down their signs. Yes."
Half-teasing. Or perhaps with a mocking tone. I understood what he was trying to say. But.
"Ah. I forgot to mention this, but the Unorthodox Sects bastards who killed my parents were gathering tribute money to join the Tyrant Asura Gate."
"…Damn! You should have said that first!"
"What am I supposed to do if I genuinely forgot to mention it?"
"This Alliance Lord thought you'd simply gained some confidence in your skills and wanted to beat everyone down!"
"Strictly speaking, they hadn't joined the Tyrant Asura Gate yet—they were only gathering money to join. So there's no direct grudge between me and the One-Blade Asura. It's just that I don't like them, and they have skill, so I want to beat them down. That's correct."
"No, this man! Though it defies logic, I can understand the sentiment… Haah. Enough. Let's stop here. This Alliance Lord has seen many people on the way to my current position, but this is the first time I've met someone as thoroughly twisted as you. I should have known you wouldn't move as expected."
"What a pity. You seem to lack fortune when it comes to talent."
"Ha! Indeed. I really do lack fortune when it comes to talent. I held a sparring tournament, and as long as one had skill, I'd hire them specially even if they didn't pay tribute or had no background—I put in all sorts of effort. Thanks to that, I gathered quite a few decent people, but…"
"Isn't that enough? From what I know, the Lord of the Black Alliance's direct subordinates are said to be both highly skilled in martial arts and deeply loyal."
I couldn't say how things were at this point in time, but during the period when the Righteous-Unorthodox Alliance had just been formed, the Lord of the Black Alliance had three Transcendent Peak martial artists who would willingly give their lives at a single word from him, and each of them even led a Martial Force Unit composed of martial artists at Peak Realm or above.
Naturally, those Martial Force Units were also filled with people who, having received great favor from the Lord of the Black Alliance, would lay down their lives for him.
In the Unorthodox Sects, where people gathered and scattered according to profit, gathering subordinates with this much skill and loyalty was, in itself, proof that the Lord of the Black Alliance was a capable leader.
In fact, I remembered that before the regression, he had taken considerable pride in that… but just now, he denied his own achievements, so I couldn't help but find it strange.
Receiving my gaze, the Lord of the Black Alliance let out a hollow laugh and shook his head.
"It's not that I have any complaints about my subordinates."
"Then…"
"But this Alliance Lord can't live for a thousand years, let alone ten thousand. Someday I'll have to retire, and I'll need to hand the position of Lord of the Black Alliance to someone else."
"Hmm."
"No matter how hard I searched, I couldn't find anyone worthy. And the one I finally managed to find, with great luck… happened to belong to the Orthodox Sects."
"What? If a talent from the Unorthodox Sects belongs to the Orthodox Sects, wouldn't that make it easier to poach him? With all the small and large frictions that would arise, he'd probably find it uncomfortable to stay with the Orthodox Sects anyway."
"That's what this Alliance Lord thought too! So I showed him favor, telling him to think of me in hard times, and even gave him the Alliance Leader's Token, telling him he could come find me anytime! But the lucky bastard went and found himself a good match and just settled right down."
"Oh dear."
He shook his head at the Alliance Lord's pitiful situation, but only for a moment. Tang So-wol, who had been pondering something beside him, carefully tugged at my sleeve.
"Young hero Cheon, young hero Cheon."
"Hm?"
"That was about you, young hero Cheon."
"…"
Now that I heard it, it was true. Still, honestly, I was a bit taken aback.
The reason the pre-regression me had caught the Alliance Lord's eye and been treated as a half-successor was simple.
I had shown the ability and talent to warrant it. And I had displayed poison energy potent enough to overwhelm most of the Unorthodox Sects' scum.
Leading with killing intent and exploiting fear? In the Black Alliance, that's practically a virtue. After all, if people are afraid, there won't be any noise about rebellion or the like during the succession process.
But what the Lord of the Black Alliance had seen in me this life wasn't all that impressive.
At best, a Peak Realm martial artist single-handedly cutting down dozens of Peak and first-rate martial artists, then slaying the Black Heaven Sword Gate Lord who had reached Transcendent Peak and ascending to Transcendent Peak himself.
Or, in the span of just a few years, having my fiancée kidnapped, going all the way down to Yunnan, wiping out the Heavenly Poison Sect—the regional hegemon—slaying the Poison Demon that even Harmony Realm martial artists were wary of, and reaching the level of an absolute master at the age of twenty.
Or, when a Heavenly Demon appeared out of nowhere and even I was hard-pressed to hold my ground, suddenly compressing my aura in a crude, reckless manner, slicing off his sleeve, and making him retreat as promised.
And now, I was running around claiming I'd teach manners to the other Harmony Realm martial artists of the Unorthodox Sects.
"Ah."
Come to think of it, I'd been making even more waves than before the regression.
So even in this life, just like before the regression, he considered me his successor.
Feeling a bit embarrassed and also strangely touched, I let out a hollow laugh and looked at the Lord of the Black Alliance.
"Hmph. Figured it out now, have you? Well, I suppose if the heavens granted you talent and luck with women, it's only natural you'd have some wits about you too."
"I never imagined the Alliance Lord would see me in that light."
"You certainly have a talent for saying things in the most grating way possible."
"Allow me to correct myself. I never imagined the Alliance Lord would seriously consider handing over the position of successor to someone who isn't of his own blood."
In my previous life, I was, in a sense, half a successor to the Black Alliance.
Yes. Half.
The Lord of the Black Alliance treated me like his successor, but he never officially announced me as one.
And at some point, Sama Yuryeon began appearing at the Alliance Lord's side.
What could I, or anyone around us, have thought?
"I assumed the child born between the Alliance Lord and Commander Sama Yuryeon would become the successor."
"A child…"
The Alliance Lord let out a bitter smile and spoke.
"That would be nice, but this Alliance Lord's body cannot bear children, so it would be difficult."
"Pardon?"
"Every master of the unorthodox sects has experienced Qi Deviation at least once, haven't they?"
"Not all of them, but it's true that quite a few have gone through it."
"This Alliance Lord is no different. The orthodox and unorthodox sects clashed and fought, and the common folk caught in between were torn apart—some joining one faction, others another, or even the Demonic Cult. In that endless struggle, I lost my grip on my sanity once."
That was before I was even born. The reason people say the Central Plains martial world was peaceful before the Demonic Cult's invasion is precisely because the past had been so chaotic.
And the Lord of the Black Alliance was a martial artist who had been active during the most turbulent of those times.
He lost his parents to the Green Forest bandits, and that drove him to crave power.
In that process, he naturally found his place in the martial world, resolving countless karmic debts through his own martial strength—and now, he himself had become the source of new debts.
Surely, he too had experienced much in his life.
"I, the Alliance Lord, have come to realize that I have become no different from the Green Forest bandits myself. It must have been for that reason that I fell into Qi Deviation."
Given that he had operated among the Unorthodox Sects rather than the Orthodox, this was something that could have been foreseen to some extent.
"The half-mad Alliance Lord made a decision with a clouded mind. The conflict between the Orthodox and Unorthodox Sects—every tragedy I have endured—I would end it all with my own hands."
"That is…"
"Once I personally rolled around in the martial world, I saw that the Orthodox and Unorthodox Sects are bound together in a way that cannot be severed."
That was true.
No matter how righteous a sect claimed to be, not every person within it could be virtuous.
And what if someone had suffered an injustice at the hands of a martial artist? What if that person had not gone so mad as to become a Demonic Cultist?
Naturally, such a person drifts into the Unorthodox Sects. Whether they become a great martial artist or not is beside the point.
After all, am I not one who took up the sword that way?
Beyond that, there will always be those who, having gained power, want to use it.
Pursuing money over honor or righteousness is human nature, and people who don't care about crushing others in the process exist everywhere.
…And there will also be those who learn martial arts to survive against such people.
As long as the Orthodox Sects—no, as long as the power of martial arts itself—exist, the Orthodox and Unorthodox Sects cannot disappear.
The front and back of a coin. The shadow cast by light. Truly two sides of the same whole.
That is the relationship between the Orthodox and Unorthodox Sects.
Those who crossed the line here turned to the Demonic Cult, but why would a line be a line in the first place? Few are willing to walk the demonic path willingly.
At any rate, the Lord of the Black Alliance, who had spent his youth fighting endlessly, believed this conflict would never end, and resolved to put a stop to this endless strife.
"There are many reasons. This Alliance Lord is greedy. To have what I want and enjoy what I desire, I can't spend every day brawling."
The Lord of the Black Alliance toyed with his wine cup and continued.
"Martial arts are truly unproductive power. They can't grow rice, can't craft convenient tools for daily life, can't even produce luxury goods that please the eye. They are power meant only to kill and destroy."
Then he downed the half-filled cup in one gulp.
"Perhaps it weighs on this Alliance Lord that I lost my parents to the Green Forest bandits. In those days, the Green Forest imposed a toll rule on martial artists and merchants to survive the chaos, and unleashed the desire for plunder upon the common folk without backing."
As if savoring the aftertaste, he closed his eyes for a moment, relishing the aroma of the wine, then opened them halfway and spoke.
"So we decided to separate them. The Orthodox and the Unorthodox. As expected, once the Black Alliance was established, the martial world enjoyed peace for a while. And my coffers as Alliance Lord grew just as full. …So many things happened that it would take far too long to tell it all here."
That made sense. Throughout martial history, there had been several attempts to unify the Unorthodox Sects. They had all merely failed.
But the Lord of the Black Alliance had succeeded. How many obstacles he must have faced along the way… Honestly, I couldn't even begin to imagine.
"This Alliance Lord staked everything, truly. You said earlier that I called myself the path of the sovereign, didn't you? The path of the sovereign begins with standing atop one's own blade. To keep from falling, to keep from being cut by one's own path, I had no choice but to give up many things."
"Surely not…"
"Yes. The qi and blood that had grown unstable after falling into Qi Deviation—I forced them too hard, and problems arose."
It was a common story. That was exactly why so many masters of the Unorthodox Sects had something wrong with them somewhere.
When the body was sound, the mind had problems; when the mind was sound, the body developed problems.
If both were sound, they'd be in the Orthodox Sects—why would they stay with the Unorthodox?
If I was the former, then the Lord of the Black Alliance was the latter.
"At this very moment. It seems that burning everything for the sake of the present has become a karmic debt that leaves you unable to see your own successor."
"Ah."
The Lord of the Black Alliance is not a man who shies away from women's charms.
He had calmed down somewhat after meeting Sama Yuryeon, but looking at his past deeds and the memories from before the regression, he was quite the man who knew how to play.
Yet no one had ever stepped forward claiming to be his illegitimate child, to carry the blood of the Alliance Lord.
To be precise, some had tried—but every single one had been proven false.
He had thought it was simply because they managed things well, but it turned out they had become unable to have an heir.
Come to think of it, even before the regression, the Lord of the Black Alliance and Sama Yuryeon had been close, yet they had no children.
They hadn't even gone out of their way to seek out good medicines to conceive.
At the time, he had assumed it was because the two of them were both a few screws loose, but… was it that they wanted to have a child but simply couldn't?
"Wait. So you're saying you were thinking of me as the successor…"
"That's right. If you were willing, I intended to take you in as an adopted son."
"An adopted son whose age difference with you is less than ten years is a bit burdensome, but… if that was your wish, I was prepared to follow it. Though my own resolve has come to nothing."
Sama Yuryeon shrugged her shoulders.
Come to think of it, before the regression, Sama Yuryeon had always dealt with people in a businesslike manner, but she had treated only me and the Lord of the Black Alliance with emotion.
I had disliked that and answered her curtly, but…
Now that I think back on it, the things Sama Yuryeon had said to me back then were, in substance, close to nagging.
It was only because I had lost my parents so long ago that I had never realized it until now.
Only now did the events of the past make sense, and the realization that connected them all in a single line struck me like a shock, leaving the back of my head numb.
There had always been someone who worried about me.
When I was young, it was my parents. As I grew, it was Seol Ri-hyang and Seomun Hwa-rin. After them, it was the Lord of the Black Alliance and Sama Yuryeon, and after the two of them passed, Tang So-wol was by my side.
No matter how capable a person is, they cannot live alone. Everyone is connected to others in some way, and it is that tightly woven net that we call the world.
I closed my eyes for a moment and etched the enlightenment I had just gained into my mind.
I could ponder it deeply later. For now, I would simply hold onto it.
"W-wait! Is it even possible to gain enlightenment from hearing that this Alliance Lord has become a eunuch?!"
The Lord of the Black Alliance's incredulous voice reached my ears, but that wasn't what mattered right now.
Only after I had gathered my inner self for a while did I slowly open my eyes.
"I will remain as the Tang Clan's live-in son-in-law. I have no intention of calling you Father, Lord of the Black Alliance, nor can I become the Alliance's successor."
"I know."
"But I cannot ignore the favor the two of you have shown me."
"Hm?"
I turned a gaze full of resolve toward the puzzled Lord of the Black Alliance.
"This matter. I will see it done perfectly."
"…"
The Lord of the Black Alliance, silent for a moment, subtly turned his head away. As if trying to avoid my gaze.
"You don't need to be quite so eager."
Well, well. How shy he is.
***
Swoosh.
I cut down the signboard of the Overlord Asura Gate with my sword.
To the gatekeeper, who stood staring blankly at what had once been the signboard now lying on the ground, I said,
"Today. Tell them I will show which of the two blades—the sword or the saber—stands above the other."
As he still seemed unable to grasp the situation, I spoke once more to the flustered man.
"Tell your sect leader to come out."