Chapter 14

“Hoo!”

Il-geom took off his mask with a low sigh.

An old man in his early sixties was revealed.

A deep sword scar was carved diagonally across the middle of the old man’s face.

It was a wound he received when he was deployed on his first mission.

The fledgling assassin who had once held his sword with trembling hands was now an old man over sixty.

Although his physical strength and senses had declined from his prime, he compensated for the shortcomings with his experience. But as time went on, it was inevitable that he would find it taxing.

Il-geom’s name was Im Sayeol. But only he and the Unit Leader knew this fact.

He was only ever called Il-geom, and had never heard his own name from another’s lips. It had reached the point where his own name felt unfamiliar.

“It must be my time to die. To think I’ve become so sentimental.”

For the past six years, he had pushed the children with what could only be described as cruelty.

He had no regard for the children’s sacrifices.

He only cared about successfully raising them.

As a result, thirty children passed all the tests and were completed as assassins.

Since three hundred were initially brought in, it meant that only one-tenth of them had survived.

Two hundred and seventy lives had been sacrificed to raise thirty new assassins, but he felt no guilt.

The Jianghu he knew and had experienced was a harsh place where you died if you couldn’t kill others.

Compared to him, who had started from the very bottom, the children here were fortunate. At least they had received systematic training to become assassins.

Just then, I-geom and Sam-geom opened the door and entered.

They were startled to see Im Sayeol without his mask.

It was the first time they had seen Im Sayeol with his mask off since coming here.

“What’s the occasion for you to take off your mask?”

“It just felt stuffy… Six years is a long time to endure, isn’t it?”

“That’s true…”

“You two can take yours off too if you feel stuffy.”

I-geom and Sam-geom looked at each other.

After a moment of conflict, they took off their masks.

“Phew!”

“Hah!”

They let out sighs.

Though they had only removed a simple mask, the air entering their lungs felt different.

To them, the mask was not simply for hiding their faces.

When they wore their masks, they felt no sense of ethics or guilt. For them, who walked the path of the assassin, the mask was both an indulgence and another face.

While wearing the mask, they felt no guilt whatsoever, but when they took it off like this, their hearts would unknowingly soften.

I-geom’s name was Gu Shin-haeng, and Sam-geom’s name was Sang Il-shin.

The three men, having removed their masks and revealed their true faces, sat facing each other at the table.

Im Sayeol spoke.

“It’s a shame. This is the kind of time for a drink.”

“Won’t we be able to drink to our heart’s content once we get out?”

“The day we leave is not far off.”

A glimmer of anticipation appeared on Gu Shin-haeng’s and Sang Il-shin’s faces.

They had been stuck here for a whole six years, teaching children. Although they had no great ambitions for worldly affairs, having to spend such a long time in a place where not a single ray of sunlight entered was a great torment for them as well.

The promised time was now near.

It would soon be seven years, and if nothing out of the ordinary happened, the children would be deployed for an assassination.

What would become of the children deployed for the assassination was none of their concern.

They treated the children as complete strangers.

The children were not their disciples.

They were merely tools to be used once and thrown away.

Giving affection to a tool would only result in them being the ones to get hurt.

Im Sayeol asked.

“What is the children’s level?”

“Beyond expectations. Their skills have improved more than we anticipated. That’s what makes me uneasy.”

“Why? Afraid you won’t be able to control them?”

“Yes! A few of the children have already surpassed the level of the instructors. Yeok-pyeong said so himself. He said he did his best but couldn’t find Pyo Wol when he used the Breath Concealment Art.”

“Hmm!”

Im Sayeol let out a low hum.

The one who had paid the most attention to Pyo Wol’s potential was none other than Il-geom, Im Sayeol. Although his martial arts had not improved as much as expected, he showed outstanding skill in arts like stealth and the Breath Concealment Art.

Gu Yeok-pyeong was said to be the best at tracking and stealth, and if Pyo Wol had completely deceived his eyes and ears, it could be seen that he already possessed skills superior to the instructors.

“It’s a waste.”

“What is?”

“The fact that they must be used once and thrown away.”

“It can’t be helped. That was the condition of the contract from the beginning.”

“Just who is the assassination target that we have to go this far? The mission is almost over, so shouldn’t we know by now?”

“I’m sorry! Even after the mission is over, I cannot tell you.”

Im Sayeol firmly shook his head at Sang Il-shin’s words.

It was that dangerous of a mission.

It was enough for the Unit Leader and himself to know the identity of the assassination target.

If the target’s name were to leak by mistake, the Bloody Shadows Guild would disappear from the world.

Gu Shin-haeng and Sang Il-shin understood Im Sayeol.

It was always better for fewer people to know a secret.

The more people who knew, the higher the chance of it being leaked.

They knew all too well that a person’s lips were never sealed tight.

“It’s time to begin the final stage.”

Im Sayeol’s gaze turned to the desk.

On the desk lay a nameless book.

＊＊＊

The children stared at Im Sayeol with puzzled eyes. To be precise, their gazes were on the book in Im Sayeol’s hand.

Not a single character was written on its yellowed cover.

It was, literally, a nameless book.

Im Sayeol threw the nameless book among the children and said.

“Three of you must learn this.”

“……”

The children furrowed their brows at Im Sayeol’s incomprehensible words. But not a single one of them opened their mouths. They knew Im Sayeol would explain without them having to ask.

As they expected, Im Sayeol continued his explanation.

“Inside this is a rough summary of a certain sect’s sword art. Three of you will learn this sword manual, and the remaining twenty-seven must succeed in ambushing those who have learned it.”

At Im Sayeol’s words, everyone’s eyes wavered.

They understood what his words meant.

These were children who had been reborn as assassins through six years of harsh training. The children’s killing methods were enough to threaten the instructors.

His words meant that the children who learned the sword manual Im Sayeol had just presented would have to face the ambushes of such children.

And not just one or two, but the ambushes of twenty-seven.

As always, there could be no holding back. If they treated it like a real battle, there would surely be casualties.

The structure was inevitably disadvantageous for those who learned the sword manual.

While those who learned the manual would be exposed, the other children would use every means at their disposal to attack from the darkness.

They couldn’t be at ease when eating, resting, or sleeping. They even had to be careful about breathing.

The children knew well how skilled their comrades were as assassins. Even being targeted by one was life-threatening, but if they were targeted by twenty-seven assassins, it was safe to say their chances of survival were nil.

‘This son of a bitch…’

‘To think he’d be like this until the very end…’

The children seethed.

They truly had not expected him to make them fight amongst themselves like this until the very end.

If they could, they wanted to start a rebellion right now. But they hesitated, knowing that even if they killed the instructors present here, they could not get outside.

Im Sayeol and Gu Shin-haeng saw right through the children’s psychology.

‘You can never escape our grasp.’

The children were hunting dogs.

No matter how fierce and rough a hunting dog was, there were ways to control it. They had already prepared several ways to control the children. Therefore, there was no reason to be afraid.

Now that the whip had been cracked, it was time to offer a carrot.

“Instead…”

“……”

The children’s gazes focused on Im Sayeol’s face.

“This is the last time. Once this training is over, I will not make you do any more training until you leave this place.”

Im Sayeol’s words completely shook the children’s hearts.

Until now, the children had not been able to relax for a single moment.

That was how harshly the instructors had pushed them.

Thanks to that, the children’s hearts had become as desolate as a desert, and they had come to trust no one.

If they had one wish, it was to be able to rest easy for just a single moment. But as if he had seen right through their hearts, Im Sayeol brought out the sweet bait of rest.

It was a proposal that couldn’t help but shake the children’s hearts to the core.

With the sacrifice of just three, the remaining twenty-seven could rest comfortably.

As long as I’m not one of them.

One of the three who learns the sword manual.

Even Pyo Wol was surprised by Im Sayeol’s demonic scheme.

‘No, this wouldn’t be his plan. It’s probably the idea of that person, the Unit Leader.’

Through his experiences so far, Pyo Wol knew that Im Sayeol did not possess such a brilliant mind for scheming.

He could perfectly execute a given mission, but he didn’t have the head to plan and create something himself.

That was the Im Sayeol that Pyo Wol had observed.

There was no way such an Im Sayeol could have come up with a plan like this on his own.

Pyo Wol looked at the nameless sword manual he had thrown.

He couldn’t tell what kind of sword art was written in the nameless sword manual. But it was clear that it would be a martial art of a different grain from what they had learned so far.

Pyo Wol coveted the nameless sword manual.

The problem was that if he learned that sword manual, he would become the target of the other children.

If he became the target of children like So Yeowol, Song Cheonwoo, or Kang Il, who had mastered the killing method to its extreme, even Pyo Wol would have a hard time handling it.

‘He’s thrown the poisoned bait perfectly.’

The other children might not know, but to Pyo Wol, the bait Im Sayeol had thrown was extremely tempting.

Having said his piece, Im Sayeol left with the instructors.

It was a silent pressure for them to decide amongst themselves who would learn the sword manual.

The children silently watched each other.

It was best not to expect the children who didn’t learn the sword manual to go easy on them.

Even if they wanted to go easy, the instructors wouldn’t let them.

Knowing this, not a single one of them readily stepped forward to learn the sword manual.

Pyo Wol scanned the children’s faces and thought.

‘The martial art in the sword manual is highly likely to be the one our assassination target uses. Even if it’s not identical, they’re probably learning a similar martial art.’

It was a rather meticulous plan.

It was a sophisticated method of having them experience the martial art directly by ambushing the child who learned the manual, and thereby grasp its weaknesses.

‘You can’t get stronger without taking risks. I can’t stop here.’

Pyo Wol made his decision.

As he picked up the sword manual that had fallen to the floor, the children’s gazes focused on him.

“I’ll learn the sword manual. The other two can decide amongst yourselves.”

“Are you saying you’ll be a sacrificial lamb yourself?”

So Yeowol asked with a look of incomprehension.

“Who knows? We’ll see if I become a sacrificial lamb or a wolf.”

“Why did you make that choice? It’s not like you to make such a choice for no reason. Did you see some kind of potential in the sword manual?”

“Curious? Then you learn the sword manual too.”

“No thanks. Just sitting back and defending isn’t my style. You learn the sword manual. I’ll be the one attacking.”

So Yeowol shook her head.

Pyo Wol smirked as if he had expected as much.

“When the people who will learn the sword manual are decided, come to me. I’ll hand it over. Well then, I’m off.”

“You’d better be careful. Everyone in this room will be after you.”

“I’m looking forward to it.”

Pyo Wol waved to So Yeowol and the children and headed for his room in Area One.

Until then, the children just glared at each other’s faces without making any move. But Pyo Wol knew.

He knew that soon, some kind of movement would occur among them.

And that the result would determine who would learn the sword manual.

Pyo Wol didn’t care who else learned the sword manual.

What was important was to perfectly memorize and understand it before passing it on to someone else.

As soon as Pyo Wol returned to his quarters, he opened the nameless sword manual.

[Seventy-two sword strikes surge like waves, sweeping away even great boulders like sand.]

It was the first passage of the sword manual.

Pyo Wol couldn’t take his eyes off the first passage.

He felt an unknown resonance in his chest.

“Seventy-two sword strikes surge like waves?”

He imagined himself unleashing seventy-two sword strikes. But even when he mobilized all his imagination, he couldn’t picture himself swinging the sword more than twenty times.

It wasn’t just about swinging the sword; he had to pour his internal energy into it and swing with all his might.

The basis of his imagination was an objective view of his own martial arts level.

‘So this is my limit.’

Pyo Wol newly realized his own limits. But he was by no means disappointed.

He still had a lot of time left.

As long as he survived, he would get stronger one way or another.

Pyo Wol thought so and read the sword manual again.

The oral formula continued.

[No matter how strongly the sun beats down, the waves surge without rest; this is no different from the principle of the sword.

If the opponent is strong, I maintain my breath; if the opponent weakens, I cut off their breath. If this flow continues unbroken, who can stand against it?

…The martial arts of the Pa Sect do not deviate from this flow, so if you learn this deeply, learning the other martial arts of our sect will be as easy as flipping one’s palm.]

The passage clearly mentioned a certain sect. But it was blotted out with ink, which must have been erased by the person who sent the sword manual when they acquired it.

That wasn’t all.

There were many deleted oral formulas in the sword manual.

It seemed that important oral formulas in the flow had been deleted.

‘It’s not a complete sword manual.’

Pyo Wol looked disappointed for a moment.

If this was the case, there was no reason to take the risk and learn the sword manual. It would be like learning only the shell with the core missing. But Pyo Wol did not give up.

He was the Pyo Wol who had found a subtle use even in the Thunderclap Mind Method that everyone else neglected. Although it was only a shell, if he delved into it, he would surely be able to find something helpful in the nameless sword manual.