“Ahh, this is good!”

Mo Yong-woo spoke with a dubious look on his face.

“You must have a great deal of fatigue piled up, so is it really all right for you to drink that much?”

“What’s the problem? I’m resting for two more full days anyway. And resting the body isn’t all there is. You have to shake off the mental fatigue too.”

“That does sound like you, Brother Yeon.”

The dubious look on Mo Yong-woo’s face spread into a smile.

“In any case, it’s good to see you back. Truth be told, the mission was so dangerous that I worried a great deal over whether you’d return in one piece.”

There was a power in Mo Yong-woo’s voice that made the listener feel genuinely good.

It was not because his voice itself was especially attractive. It was because there was always sincerity in it, and in the way he spoke there was always a basic respect toward the other person.

Yeon Hojeong snorted.

“That goes for me, but you too are something else, aren’t you, Brother?”

“Hm?”

“I heard you broke through the Wall of Martial Arts. As expected, that’s an incredible presence.”

Mo Yong-woo’s face reddened.

“Ahem! I asked people not to spread it around, but somehow word got out like that.”

“So what if it did? Good news should be spread in every direction.”

“Do you really think so?”

“To a certain degree.”

Mo Yong-woo shook his head.

“Isn’t the martial world a place where one hides good things, and hides bad things all the more?”

“Oh? That doesn’t sound like something you’d say, Brother.”

“Well... perhaps it would be better to say I’ve come to understand reality a little more than before.”

Yeon Hojeong’s eyes gleamed.

“Did something happen?”

“After you left on your mission, I looked around the inner affairs of the Alliance in my own way, in quite a bit of detail.”

“Oh? And what did the Alliance of the Martial World look like to you?”

“Understand, even if I use rather harsh words.”

“Of course.”

“It was a complete mess.”

He had said he would use harsh words, but even so, Yeon Hojeong had not expected anything this naked.

Mo Yong-woo’s face stiffened at once. On that face there appeared sincere disappointment, worry, and anger.

“To be honest, until I started paying attention, I didn’t know. Perhaps I too had been deliberately turning my head away. But after you left, I thought I had to endure on my own somehow, so I explored the people around me quite aggressively.”

“And then you found it was a complete mess?”

“That I did.”

“In what sense?”

“Not everyone, but at least over half of them were wearing the mask of harmony while sharpening knives inside.”

Without even pointing to anyone in particular, Yeon Hojeong knew very well who that more than half referred to.

The leadership of the Alliance. To be more precise, the Service Lords.

Yeon Hojeong smiled bitterly.

“More than half... Yes, you saw clearly.”

“The problem isn’t just the Service Lords. The sects they head, or the children of the great martial families, also seemed very far from righteousness.”

“There are plenty of bastards out there glancing around for chances ~Nоvеl𝕚ght~ because they want to tear off a strip of flesh. And since those bastards were set up as leaders, what do you think the disciples under them learned?”

“Do you know what disappointed me the most?”

“Hm?”

Mo Yong-woo let out a sigh.

“That not one of them is as vicious as my elder brother.”

“......”

“I don’t know. Maybe even now, I still haven’t fully grasped who my elder brother really is. But even so, that alone is enough...”

“Enough to be frightening.”

Yeon Hojeong lifted his cup.

“He’s a frightening man. He definitely has flaws, but as you said, Brother, he’s vicious and clever enough to erase most of his own flaws.”

“That’s right.”

Yeon Hojeong filled Mo Yong-woo’s cup.

Mookbi, seated beside Yeon Hojeong, quietly drank her liquor and listened intently to the two of them speak. It was not a place for her to cut in, but she too learned a great deal by hearing conversations like this.

“So that’s why your expression was bad? Hide the good things, and hide the bad things all the more... Why? It seems the way people around you looked at you didn’t sit well with you.”

Mo Yong-woo’s face crumpled like a wad of paper.

“There were many who openly picked fights.”

“They’ve got iron plates over their hearts. They dared openly pick a fight with a genius master who broke through the Wall of Martial Arts?”

“Brother Yeon.”

“I’m not joking. It’s true, isn’t it?”

Mo Yong-woo drained his cup with a stifled expression and let out a sigh-like confession.

“The truly frightening people are the ones who do not show it outwardly. But even ordinary people cannot hide their eyes.”

“That’s true.”

“It may just be my imagination, but aside from the troops of my own Corps, there were almost none who were purely happy for me.”

Yeon Hojeong clicked his tongue.

“Purely happy for you? Who could be? We gathered under the name of an alliance, but at the same time, each of us stands in competition with the others. Unless it’s a genius from their own sect or family, it’s only natural there would be few who would sincerely congratulate you.”

“Was it the same for you, Brother Yeon?”

“What?”

“Didn’t you break through the Wall of Martial Arts long ago? People are trying to hush it up, but by now you’ve already gained fame as the greatest rising star under heaven.”

“I wouldn’t know. I’ve never paid attention to things like that.”

“You didn’t care?”

“Beyond whether I cared or not, I didn’t even have the time.”

Mo Yong-woo nodded.

That made sense. Yeon Hojeong was the sort of man who moved harder than anyone in places others could not see, whether in political conflict or martial training.

Truly incredible.

Now that he heard that answer directly, he could not help but admire Yeon Hojeong sincerely.

It isn’t that he’s forcing himself not to care. He truly has no interest in the evaluations of those around him. Because he knows well that there are things far more important to him than such trivial matters.

And even if one understood that, it was extraordinarily difficult to stay immersed in it every moment.

Perhaps that powerful concentration is what pushed Brother Yeon’s achievements even further.

Yeon Hojeong smiled as though amused.

“This is why people talk about empty theory. You may understand it in your head, but if you don’t see it, hear it, and experience it yourself, you won’t really know. It seems you’ve finally realized the world is not as beautiful as you thought, Brother.”

“I knew it. I had felt it too.”

“Hmm. Then again, you went through humiliation like that in your family, and all kinds of things happened at the Zhejiang Branch too.”

“That’s right. And because of that, I was greatly disappointed in myself as well.”

“Disappointed?”

Mo Yong-woo smiled.

“There is nothing newly disappointing about this, and yet I was sitting there disappointed and frustrated over it anyway. So naturally, I could not help but be disappointed in myself too.”

Yeon Hojeong snorted.

“A whole chain of disappointments.”

“You can say that again.”

“Have a drink.”

“Gladly.”

The two clinked their cups.

After emptying his cup cleanly, Yeon Hojeong spoke.

“How was training the Demon-Sweeping Corps?”

“They all followed well.”

“That they did. It’s not just your martial arts anymore. Now you really do show the makings of a proper leader.”

“I-is that so?”

“It is. What, did you think a leader improves only by being outstanding on his own? Changes in subordinates change the leader too. The pressure you give off without even meaning to is quite something.”

Mo Yong-woo smacked his lips.

“Enough with the embarrassing praise. And if anything, it seems Division Head Mook is even more so than I am.”

Yeon Hojeong looked at Mookbi.

Since the topic had suddenly turned to her, Mookbi was startled.

“M-me?”

Mo Yong-woo smiled.

“When I happened to see you in passing about a month ago, I was truly startled. You were no longer the same person I had seen before.”

“Ah...”

“To fill Brother Yeon’s absence on your own—I sincerely admire it. I hear the troops of the Evil-Smiting Corps are all highly individualistic, so you must have had quite a hard time.”

Mookbi shook her head.

“It wasn’t all that hard. They all followed well...”

“Haha.”

He seemed to feel an unspoken sense of kinship. Well, both Mookbi and Mo Yong-woo were gentle and kind by nature, so they probably understood each other’s changes more deeply than anyone else could.

“But...”

Mo Yong-woo spoke carefully.

“My elder brother...”

Yeon Hojeong nodded.

“I was going to tell you anyway.”

“Please, tell me.”

“I’ll say this in advance, but I hope you won’t be too shocked. I’m going to tell you honestly, without leaving anything out.”

“......”

“I’ll tell you everything. About what happened to me, and about Mo Yonggun too.”

Normally, Yeon Hojeong was blunt to a fault, so the fact that he was even giving a warning like this meant something truly unimaginable must have happened.

Mo Yong-woo took a deep breath.

“All right. Tell me.”

Yeon Hojeong told him in detail everything that had happened so far.

He began from the time the operational team had infiltrated enemy territory, then went on to how Mo Yonggun entered Hunan, what had been discussed between the commanding authority and the operational-team leader, how he had earned Yangcheon’s trust, and even the process by which he had extracted the information.

Mo Yong-woo and Mookbi let out exclamations the entire time.

In that not-so-long span of time, they were able to understand with painful clarity how Yeon Hojeong had approached Yangcheon, and with what sort of mind he had undertaken this mission.

Yeon Hojeong was a man who used richer language than one might expect. Listening to him, it felt as though the situation drew itself naturally in one’s mind.

And then Yeon Hojeong began speaking of Mo Yonggun.

A little later—

“......”

Mo Yong-woo’s face twisted into something difficult to describe.

Watching him silently, Yeon Hojeong wordlessly filled his empty cup.

Mo Yong-woo let out a groan.

“...Are you saying Elder Brother truly did such things?”

“Yes.”

“Is that the truth?”

“It is.”

He had said he would tell it honestly, without leaving anything out.

Yeon Hojeong was a man who always kept the words he spoke. Mo Yong-woo knew that very well.

And yet he still asked again, because that was how desperately he did not want to believe it.

At last, Mo Yong-woo let out a sigh of anguish.

“I truly do not understand what in the world he is trying to do. No matter how hard I try to understand my elder brother, I simply cannot understand him at all!”

All kinds of emotions were tangled in the voice he spat out.

Yeon Hojeong shook his head.

“Don’t try to understand him.”

“But!”

“If you’re a person, then you mustn’t understand that kind of thing.”

“...!”

“The moment you understand him, Brother, you become the same kind of person he is. So don’t try to understand him. Just protect the morality and ethics you know.”

Mo Yong-woo ground his teeth.

Yeon Hojeong’s voice sank heavily.

“I told you before, but I’ll say it again, just in case. The reason I marked you as the next Alliance Leader is not because I want to drive a blade into Mo Yonggun’s heart. It’s because I think you are the most trustworthy man of all.”

“......”

“And the reason I trust you is because even though you are sufficiently clever, you do not stray off onto side roads. It’s because of the upright way you live.”

Mo Yong-woo looked at Yeon Hojeong with bloodshot eyes.

Yeon Hojeong smiled.

“A shortcut isn’t wrong just because it’s easy, but when there is a right path, there’s no need to force tricks. Wealth gained through tricks is bound to be stolen someday.”

“......”

“Never become like Mo Yonggun. Not that you’re the sort of person who would.”

Mo Yong-woo stared at Yeon Hojeong for a moment, then roughly emptied his cup.

“Give me another.”

“As many as you want.”

Mo Yong-woo accepted and drank four cups in a row.

Even then, the suffocating feeling did not seem to leave him. His face, as he let out a deep breath, was full of pain.

Watching him, Yeon Hojeong finally grinned.

“You feel like hell, don’t you?”

“Like utter shit.”

“I asked you to understand harsh language. I didn’t ask you to understand filthy language.”

“I’m not in the mood for word games.”

“Even if you’re not in the mood for word games, you’ve still got enough energy for a little blade work, don’t you?”

“What?”

Yeon Hojeong stood up.

“Isn’t this a nice enough place for it? Go work up a sweat and shake off that rotten mood. Liquor tastes even better after you’ve broken a sweat.”

“......”

“You broke through the Wall of Martial Arts, didn’t you? Let’s see what the Mo Yong Clan’s swordsmanship tastes like.”