The Martial Genius Who Remembers Everything Chapter 129

[ … words ]

***

“Are you going to keep lying there so disrespectfully?”

“Yawn… Ah… I am so tired… Huh? Who is…”

Je-gal So-myeong spoke without even looking back.

“Your acting is still clumsy… Do I have to stop what I was doing and go out of my way to turn around?”

“Oh? Aren’t you the Chief Strategist?”

“Do I have to keep playing along with that ridiculous act?”

“I apologize, my body is not in very good condition. I pushed myself too hard inside the Myeol-hon-jin…”

“Although your fatigue was compounded, your essence, energy, and spirit were all perfectly fine… Do you know that? Anyone who gives a false report to the Chief Strategist is subject to up to three years of imprisonment.”

At Je-gal So-myeong’s words, Jin So-un’s face, which had been smiling brightly, distorted.

It was already incomprehensible that the Chief Strategist of the Murim Alliance was in his quarters, and somehow, his personality seemed even more eccentric than before.

“Ugh…”

Jin So-un let out a long sigh and looked at Je-gal So-myeong.

Similar to their last meeting, he was looking through documents without even making eye contact with Jin So-un.

This was not a place far from the Murim Alliance like the Iron Sword Sect, so Jin So-un could not understand why he would come all the way to someone else’s quarters to do this.

Jin So-un decided to just wait calmly for Je-gal So-myeong until he brought up the topic first.

Jin So-un, who filled the teacup in front of him to the brim, slowly sipped the tea.

In terms of real time, it hadn’t been long, but in terms of the flow of time inside the Myeol-hon-jin, it was tea he was sipping for the first time in almost ten days, so the fragrance felt rich.

It was a good fragrance that was not inferior at all to the tea he drank at the Namgung Clan.

He had heard that the middle-aged attendant had recently changed the tea after hearing that Jin So-un, who did not enjoy alcohol, at least enjoyed tea, and he wondered if he had pushed himself a bit too much.

‘No, considering the scale of the Murim Alliance and the Martial Arts Academy, is it not a stretch?’

Thinking about the spending of other representatives, Jin So-un’s consumption was not that high, so it seemed the middle-aged attendant did not feel much burden in spending money on things like this.

While Jin So-un was lost in thought for a moment, Je-gal So-myeong signed the document he was reading, pushed the documents to one side, and looked at Jin So-un.

“…”

Je-gal So-myeong asked at Jin So-un’s surprised expression.

“Why are you like that?”

“Did you not bring them here because they were urgent documents?”

When Jin So-un pointed to the documents piled up on one side of the table, Je-gal So-myeong furrowed his brow tightly.

“Did you not learn that when you are talking to someone, you should look at their eyes, not do other things?”

“Wow…”

At Je-gal So-myeong’s blunt words, Jin So-un almost said, ‘Then I guess I wasn’t a person before,’ but he stopped.

“You have an expression that says you have something to say.”

“Ha… No, it is nothing. But what brings you all the way here?”

“Many things happened while you were asleep.”

“What kind of things are you talking about?”

“First, the punitive committee was held.”

“Ah… is that so?”

At Jin So-un’s reaction, Je-gal So-myeong’s eyebrows twitched.

“You are not surprised?”

“Well… because it was something I expected.”

“The punitive committee was mostly selected by Priest Myeong-hyeon, so punishment for you was also discussed.”

At Je-gal So-myeong’s words, Jin So-un nodded.

“Hmm… what was the result?”

To Jin So-un’s question, Je-gal So-myeong did not answer and continued to look at him.

“Did I do something wrong?”

“…I said the punitive committee was held while you were asleep, and punishment for you was also discussed. Was that also something you expected?”

“Well… I did think they wouldn’t just let it slide.”

“And yet, you deliberately pushed yourself in the Myeol-hon-jin and slept for three days?”

Jin So-un scratched his cheek and said,

“Because even if I hadn’t been asleep, there wouldn’t have been anything else I could have done. I would have just been dragged around here and there to testify, which would have been even more tiring.”

Je-gal So-myeong eventually could not hide his emotions and let out a small, long sigh.

“Ha!”

“So, what was the result?”

“Those who entered the Myeol-hon-jin were expelled. Those who were expelled praised you very highly. Thanks to that, Priest Myeong-hyeon’s influence did not reach them.”

“I see.”

“Did you expect that too?”

“That is not it. It is just that I thought it would not be a big problem even if I were punished.”

“Why?”

“Even though they said the masterminds of this incident were also expelled, they were not the actual Jeongdo-hoe academy student executives, were they?”

At Jin So-un’s words, Je-gal So-myeong pressed his lips together and nodded.

“I thought it would probably be like that. Thanks to that, there will be more people within the Jeongdo-hoe who have fundamental questions about the morality of the Jeongdo-hoe. Thinking that they are not just beings who are used and discarded…

And those thoughts will not be felt much differently by the Baek-do-hoe, which is centered on the Five Great Clans, and the members of the 12 Peak Stars.”

“If things go wrong, your position will be shaken, won’t it?”

“It does not matter much. If people come to their senses and think about taking care of themselves rather than relying on others.”

“…Does that mean you are doing it for the sake of the Murim Alliance in the end?”

“I do not know anything so grand, I just thought it would be good if they came to their senses and took care of their own business.”

Je-gal So-myeong, who heard Jin So-un’s story, fell into thought without a word for a long time.

Taeeul Sect.

Among the lower branches of the 108 Peaks, it was the lowest of the low.

Someone from a sect that could barely take care of itself was trying to do things for the sake of the entire Murim.

Je-gal So-myeong, who started in a cooperative organization but had become worn out in the Murim Alliance, which had now become a huge political arena.

From his perspective, he could not quite gauge how to treat this fledgling who looked like a naive idealist.

Je-gal So-myeong, who was lost in thought for a moment, came to his senses and brought up the questions he had prepared again.

“Anyway, did you not consume any food inside the Myeol-hon-jin to gain the support of those who were expelled?”

The state of Jin So-un when he came out of the Myeol-hon-jin was truly terrible.

He was almost like a wreck.

However, Je-gal So-myeong, who had checked Jin So-un’s pulse, knew that it was Jin So-un’s intentional action.

Unlike his appearance like a wreck, his heart vessels were beating more vigorously than ever.

At first, Je-gal So-myeong was so surprised that he almost slapped Jin So-un’s cheek to wake him up.

“…I endured it for any potential survivors.”

“Hmph! Nonsense, they said most of the survivors came out fatter than when they went in. You must have given up even the amount you were supposed to eat.”

At Je-gal So-myeong’s words, Jin So-un’s face turned into an expression of having eaten poop.

“Is that not what the Murim Alliance calls ‘cooperation’?”

“You are very good at saying nonsense without a hint of shame.”

Je-gal So-myeong, who sneered with conviction, without a shred of doubt.

Although he was in the position of Chief Strategist of the Murim Alliance, he had never once thought that there was ‘cooperation’ in the Murim Alliance, just as Jin So-un said.

As Je-gal So-myeong spoke to that extent, Jin So-un eventually confessed.

“Yes. I pulled a bit of a scam. I dragged out the time, and I reduced the food as much as possible once I went inside.”

“For an even more dramatic effect, right?”

“Yes.”

And that scam worked, making those who entered the Myeol-hon-jin feel betrayed by the Jeongdo-hoe, and at the same time, making them have intense trust in Jin So-un.

Even if their own sects and themselves might suffer losses because of the Jeongdo-hoe.

“…”

Je-gal So-myeong, whose thoughts reached that point, drank his tea slowly to calm his surprised heart.

Jin So-un kept rolling his eyes, observing Je-gal So-myeong’s face.

“Could this be a problem?”

“Haa…”

It was quite funny that he had confessed to pulling a scam with his own mouth just a moment ago, and now he was trembling with anxiety.

Je-gal So-myeong, who had roughly organized his thoughts, set the teacup aside and pushed the documents that needed to be processed in front of Jin So-un.

Jin So-un still had an expression of not knowing what was going on.

“Read them, organize them, and then process them.”

Jin So-un rolled his eyes round and round.

“Are these not documents from the Man-tong-bu (All-Communication Department)? How dare I handle such important documents…”

“Because I was by your side, work piled up for several days, and documents piled up like this. If you do not process them properly, I will punish you.”

Jin So-un, who was rolling his eyes round and round, muttered as if for him to hear, ‘Who asked you to be by my side…’, and picked up one document and began to read it.

Then, he brought the brush and ink that Je-gal So-myeong was using and began to edit various parts of the document.

“…”

Jin So-un, who was writing this and that on the document, finally wrote the word ‘Rejected’ at the end, pushed the document to one side, and began to look at the next document.

As if he didn’t even intend to get an evaluation for what he had processed.

At that absurd action, Je-gal So-myeong took the document Jin So-un had pushed aside himself and unfolded it.

Thinking that if there was something he had written incorrectly, he would use it as an excuse to give him a hard time. However,

“Phew… haha…”

Je-gal So-myeong, who was looking at the document, could not help but burst into laughter before he knew it.

The document Jin So-un had just processed was about the issue of who to give the outsourcing for logistics moving between the Murim Alliance and each branch.

There were twenty-four escort agencies already contracted with the Murim Alliance. There were twelve escort agencies that had applied for new contracts.

It was a problem of selecting six escort agencies that had been found to have problems in the past to terminate their contracts, and selecting six from among the newly applying escort agencies to proceed with new contracts.

It was a difficult problem that would take up several pages just to explain the problems that had arisen at the current point in time.

However, Jin So-un, among the six escort agencies found to have problems, stated that three of them should be considered as having been unavoidable due to natural disasters, and along with that, he raised a fundamental objection to the pointing out of the problems.

At the same time, he judged that most of the escort agencies that applied for new contracts were linked to the Guipalbang, and therefore were not a solution to the problem, so he wrote an opinion that it was not a solution and rejected them.

It was a valid opinion that Je-gal So-myeong would have also given, but that was not what surprised Je-gal So-myeong.

To reach the judgment of rejection in the document, one would need to investigate the existing escort agencies, investigate the new escort agencies, investigate the fundamental causes of the issues raised, and so on.

It was a result that could only come out after going through countless organizations within the Murim Alliance.

Je-gal So-myeong could not help but be shocked at how he presented solutions without hesitation, as if he knew all the answers to complex problems.

Seeing Jin So-un, who was already writing something on the third document, Je-gal So-myeong asked.

“What is your true identity?”

“Yes?”

“I asked how you know about this.”

“…Uh, that, I have a good memory.”

“Memory?”

“I mean a memory that never forgets what I have seen once.”

“You processed these documents with that memory?”

“I do not know how to explain it to you, but that is the case.”

“…”

At Jin So-un’s words, Je-gal So-myeong fell into deep thought.

Having a good memory is something that can happen occasionally.

However, the ability to derive insights based on that memory was a separate matter from memory.

Because insight comes from vast knowledge and deep thinking.

Je-gal So-myeong, who was looking at Jin So-un intently, took the document in Jin So-un’s hand and threw it roughly into the pile of documents.

At Je-gal So-myeong’s sudden action, Jin So-un had an expression of wondering why this person was doing this again.

“Did I do something wrong?”

“No, there is something you need to do from now on.”

“What is it again?”

“From now on, you must have a sparring match.”

“Yes?”

Jin So-un’s face crumpled like the document that had just been thrown.

“What kind of preposterous talk is that?”

“I said many things happened while you were asleep, did I not?”

Jin So-un nodded instead of answering.

“The second thing is that I saw the three gapja of internal energy sleeping within your dantian.”

“…”

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