CH 491

“Did you say... total annihilation?”

“Yes, sir.”

Nakata Yuji's expression stiffened against his will. “Nanahoshi-gumi was... wiped out? How sure are you about this?”

“We're certain, sir.”

“...!” Nakata Yuji slowly shook his head in disbelief.

Of course this information couldn't have been faulty. Even so, Nakata Yuji still found it hard to accept this news at face value.

Nanahoshi-gumi was definitely not a clan of weaklings and pushovers. However, they were still annihilated before exercising their full might? How was Nakata Yuji supposed to interpret this news?

“Sir, that's not all. Apparently, the Chevaliers were also present at the scene, but the Martial Assembly subjugated and apprehended them all.”

“The Chevaliers? That French knight order?”

“Yes, sir.”

“...That means even the Round Table has decided to butt in?” Nakata Yuji gritted his teeth. 'That damn Saito... You stupid bastard!'

Since that bastard hopped over to South Korea with the grand ambition of conquering it as his own, shouldn't Saito have done a better job than this?! With him now a denizen of the afterlife, who was supposed to deal with this mess?!

“China, and even Europe, too...? Dammit...” Nakata Yuji held his head.

How did the Joseon peninsula morph into such a messy state in such a short period? It genuinely felt like some of the largest factions were gathering in South Korea lately. And to make matters worse...

Nakata Yuji quietly asked, “What was that about apprehending them all?”

“Yes, sir. The Chevaliers are now in the Martial Assembly's custody.”

“What the hell are they scheming this time, those lunatics...!”

Sending a fax to the Round Table asking them to directly jump into the Korean peninsula's business might be simpler and quicker than whatever this was. Shouldn't the Koreans either kill those Chevaliers or let them go? But it was neither of those.

Capturing an entire knight order seemed to indicate the Martial Assembly wanted to have a go at the Europeans, but... Surely, the top members of the Assembly couldn't be fools who didn't understand what that meant?

South Korea was like a shared buffer zone between China and Japan. Rather obviously, the presence of Europeans in such a zone would only agitate the Chinese and Japanese martial artists.

'What troublesome nonsense this is...'

Nakata Yuji was one of the most vocal pacifists in Japan. He knew how terrible war could be. Life was already pretty good as-is, so why did some people still crave for more territory and thrust sharp blades under each other's throats?

Unfortunately, with how things were heading... Not even Nakata would be able to prevent all the agitated factions from making their moves now.

Back when Saito Genryu was busy mouthing off about invading South Korea under the antiquated pretext of the Greater East Asia Co-Prosperity Sphere initiative, it was none other than Nakata Yuji who had viscerally opposed the idea and even painted the leader of Nanahoshi-gumi as a nutjob.

However, the situation changed completely with the total annihilation of Nanahoshi-gumi by the Koreans. One of the main reasons why the Japanese had left Korea alone was because of how little threat the people of the peninsula posed. And conquering that proverbial wasteland of martial arts would mean Japan would have gotten geographically even closer to China.

Even if North Korea still existed as the final buffer zone, China would still be agitated by the subjugation of South Korea by the Japanese.

The powerhouse nation of China was undoubtedly a difficult opponent, even for Japan. Although the Japanese were confident about not getting their butts handed to them one-sidedly in case of a conflict, the prospect of said conflict against China was still not something anyone looked forward to.

So, the majority of the Japanese chose to leave South Korea alone. However, with everyone learning about Korea possessing strength that shouldn't be ignored, people would have to change their minds and worry about their neighbor now.

'Just what the hell is going on in there?'

Being a pacifist didn't strictly mean someone who only wanted peaceful resolutions to every conflict. Nakata Yuji was fully aware of the necessity of sufficient strength as a means to prevent war. As far as he knew, South Korea shouldn't possess the power to annihilate Nanahoshi-gumi like this. Yet, it still happened. Two likely reasons could be behind this catastrophe.

One, Nakata Yuji's knowledge had been faulty all along, or...

'...South Korea has become enormously strong. Terrifyingly strong...!'

It was hard to fathom how that was possible, but Nakata Yuji still found this situation somewhat familiar. Any Japanese of certain age groups would've gotten a spooky deja vu from this situation.

Just how stressful was it for some Japanese to watch a minor nation, which used to be a war-torn land of rubbles, crawl up from the bottom to reach a point where it could proudly declare itself a first-world country?

What happened on the surface world was repeating itself again in the martial world as well, and that left Nakata flustered and uncertain.

'Something like this shouldn't be happening...!'

At least, South Korea's growth in the surface world had catalysts and enablers in the form of the United States of America's support, plus examples of neighboring countries that Koreans could learn from.

It was possible to create a carbon copy of other countries' development by minutely analyzing them, after all!

However, the story within the martial world was different. Even if one desired ways to improve their cultivation, the dearth of martial paths or accumulated inheritances surviving through the ages in their local martial society would curtail their search before it could go anywhere meaningful.

South Korea was the wasteland of martial arts, after all! So, how could anyone accept it had become so strong in such a brief period?

If that was true, then... The answer must lie with one individual.

'Kang Jin-Ho...!'

Things seemed to go out of whack just as his name became known in the Japanese martial society.

Nakata Yuji massaged his aching temples. “It's no longer possible to go back to how things were.”

Did Kang Jin-Ho know? Was he aware of what holding the Chevaliers hostage signified? If he knew how far the ripples from his actions would spread, Kang Jin-Ho would've never done something this inadvisable.

'Right. He doesn't know, and that's why he could do this.'

The ones responsible for destroying the delicate balance of the world operating on fine margins were usually one or two overconfident novices. Novices possessing enough strength and recklessness would jump into the fray to trample on the widely accepted rules of the world, then try to create a brand new order.

Of course, the fate of these novices would inevitably become tragic and wretched in the middle of their quest, but...!

Nakata suddenly got up to his feet. Sitting here holding his head wouldn't resolve anything. A rule breaker had shown up to disrupt East Asia operating within the delicately observed ruleset. In that case, someone had to reorganize the new pecking order.

“Contact other gumis. Tell them we need to convene a general assembly of the leaders.”

“Yes, sir!” The subordinate bowed before retreating from the office.

Nakata Yuji groaned and stared out the window toward the West.

'What transpired is impossible with the current strength level of the Korean martial artists.'

In that case, Nakata Yuji must assume that Kang Jin-Ho's individual strength, something none of the Japanese had accurately estimated until now, greatly exceeded their imaginations.

Strength that could slaughter an entire clan without any help...?

'That's not something you can scoff at, now is it?'

Perhaps an incredible enemy that everyone had to work together to eliminate had entered the stage. Give this enemy enough time, and he would grow even more powerful like a lump of tumor... Until it'd become impossible to remove it!

Nakata Yuji had no desire to sit back and watch that happen. To avoid war, one must find potential triggers for conflicts and... remove them from the picture. And that trigger happened to be Kang Jin-Ho this time.

“Everything is for the sake of our world...”

Nakata Yuji quietly muttered to no one in particular.

***

Click...

Kang Jin-Ho wordlessly mouthed a cigarette and lit it up. His mood was getting a little weirder as he stared at the nondescript building with most of its lights turned off for the night.

'Education, is it...?'

This whole thing started on the premise of helping the orphans with their education. In all honesty, though, Kang Jin-Ho hadn't done much. Jo Gyu-Min took it upon himself to handle the majority of the work, but... Nothing would change the fact that Kang Jin-Ho did contribute a lot this time.

'How... bizarre.'

Kang Jin-Ho thought it was ironic, though. Not too long ago, he was busy slaughtering dozens of human beings. Even if they showed up with the aim of killing him first, Kang Jin-Ho still murdered them. That fact could not be excused or hand-waved away.

After all, Kang Jin-Ho was strong enough to suppress them without killing anyone. Even so, he still chose to exterminate them. In other words, he just proved that he indeed was a murderer. So, how ironic was this?

A man who freely murdered in the shadows without batting an eyelid was looking after a group of orphans in the surface world? And even worked hard to give them a good education, to boot? This had to be the most ironic thing in the entire world.

There was one word to define such actions. And that would be 'hypocrisy.'

However, could Kang Jin-Ho's actions be called hypocritical? He wasn't trying to get something back by helping these kids out. And these events weren't benefiting him in any shape or form. In that case...

How should Kang Jin-Ho define himself?

“Mister Jin-Ho. It's a pretty flashy start, right?”

Kang Jin-Ho heard the familiar voice coming from behind and slowly nodded away. Jo Gyu-Min, also mouthing a cigarette, walked up to Kang Jin-Ho with a confident smirk.

“Yes, I may have gone a little overboard this time, but things should progress as planned without many issues.”

“This is only a little?” Kang Jin-Ho cocked an eyebrow.

“Haha. Well, yes. It's a bit overboard…” Jo Gyu-Min chuckled, but his chuckles became a bit more sheepish when Kang Jin-Ho continued to stare weirdly at him. “Mister Jin-Ho, please don’t stare like that. It’s making me feel… embarrassed.”

“...Mister Gyu-Min.”

“Yes?”

Kang Jin-Ho slowly exhaled the cigarette smoke. “It feels like people recently have been overrating me.”

“Huh? I don't follow, Mister Jin-Ho.”

Kang Jin-Ho chuckled softly. “In the past, I needed others to explain everything to me in minute detail. People just assumed I was clueless about many things and tried to be much more specific while explaining things. And they even told me all the hidden meanings behind certain things too. But lately... The same people seem to think I know everything now.”

“Mm...” Jo Gyu-Min slowly nodded away.

For sure, there did seem to be a trend like that happening right now. Even Jo Gyu-Min found himself thinking that way. “Doesn't that indicate people's evaluation of you has improved greatly?”

“I guess so. I should be happy about that, but it sometimes feels like a load on my shoulders. Like... right now.”

“...”

Kang Jin-Ho shook his head a little and looked back at Jo Gyu-Min. “I do think that doing something needlessly huge and flashy shouldn't have any hidden intentions, but... If no one explains the details to me, I will have a tough time fully figuring it out myself. I might have acclimatized a lot to the current era, but I'm still not as discerning or quick-witted as the other, more... 'normal' people.”

Jo Gyu-Min stood in slight awe. This side of Kang Jin-Ho always impressed him.

Humans were naturally inclined to hide their shortcomings. In case their shortcomings were exposed somehow, they would try really hard to give off the impression that either they were still cool cats or honest individuals willing to reveal their weak points to other people.

However, Kang Jin-Ho spoke of his shortcomings with none of those intentions. He was merely stating the truth, and that was it. And that bold attitude of his forced other people around him to take a good look at themselves.

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“Mister Jin-Ho, it wasn't my intention to prank a clueless man.”

“Yes, I know.”

“It's just that... I wanted to let you know something, you see?”

“...Mm? What do you mean?”

Jo Gyu-Min leisurely turned his attention toward the nondescript building. “Mister Jin-Ho, now that it's happened, does the idea of buying a building like this to start a cram school just to educate the kids... seem like a challenging task to you?”

“Mm...?” Kang Jin-Ho couldn't immediately reply.

He wasn't sure what Jo Gyu-Min meant by that question. Besides, Kang Jin-Ho still had no concept of how big of an undertaking this task was nor how difficult it must've been to plan everything out.

“Yes, doing something like this might be nearly impossible for most average people. However, that's not the case for you, Mister Jin-Ho.”

Kang Jin-Ho silently nodded while listening to Jo Gyu-Min's explanation.

“Mister Jin-Ho, you need to be more conscious of that difference. Even now, you exercise a great deal of influence on the world around you. With your current status alone, lining your pockets with all the money in the world is no longer a pipe dream. Combine that wealth with your power, and it'll be possible to shake up the entire world. Other people might think such a claim is insane, but you can definitely do it.”

“...I think I get what you're saying now, Mister Gyu-Min.”

“No, you are still not conscious about it.” Jo Gyu-Min's expression hardened. “Unutilized power is basically the same as not having any power, to begin with. Despite possessing more power than anyone could even dream of, you keep your hands buried deep in your pockets and watch the world just drift around on its own, Mister Jin-Ho.”

Jo Gyu-Min quickly sucked in a deep breath, then narrowed his eyes.

“I've always been meaning to ask you this, Mister Jin-Ho.”

“...”

“Just... what is it that you wish to achieve?”

The winds seemed to grow a little colder than before.