Chapter 51 - Episode 8. The Last Romance (7)
Chapter 51: Episode 8. The Last Romance (7)
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There was a saying in 《Chaos》.
‘If the 《Great Realm》 had the Samyeong Great Family, then 《Chaos》 had Jegal Myeong.’
He was the only strategist said to rival the Samyeong Great Family’s retainers, renowned as the pinnacle of strategy in the 《Great Realm》. There was some exaggeration in that, but Jegal Myeong, Hall Master of Scholar Forest Hall and Chaos’s greatest strategist, was that kind of man.
‘So that guy is the Fortress Lord.’
Because he was such a man, he could not easily acknowledge the man before him. He had been a genius since childhood, achieved outstanding results in the Tower of Nightmares, and become a respected strategist in the Great Realm, even if he had fallen short of the Samyeong Great Family.
After coming to Chaos, he and the Hall Master of Thunder God Hall had become two of the Ten Hall Masters in the shortest time possible. His life had been a smooth road all the way through. There might have been people better than him, but there was no one more brilliant. That confidence was what Jegal Myeong had lived by.
For the first time today, his pride was wavering.
‘He became Gorgon’s Fortress Lord in a week?’
Hall Master of Fire King Hall Kang Hwang had told him about it beforehand.
A man who declared he would unify Chaos and fight the 《Palace of Rebirth》. A man who said he would re-form the Abyss Expedition that had disappeared nine hundred years ago. A man said to be only sixty years old.
Every part of it rubbed him the wrong way.
That was why Jegal Myeong said, “Fortress Lord, I have heard much of your plan.”
“...”
“But it is impossible. As you are now, you could not defeat a Military Artisan or Martial General, much less a Middle General, the Lords who serve the Great Lord directly.”
Jegal Myeong had entered this bothersome tournament precisely to offer that advice.
“Do you think you are the first person in Chaos to be like this? There was one two hundred years ago, and another three hundred years ago. Do you know what happened to them all?”
Jegal Myeong paused for effect before continuing.
“They all died.”
Hundreds of thousands of years. Perhaps millions.
Maybe even hundreds of millions.
Chaos was a place so ancient that no one could calculate how long it had existed, much less trace the beginning of those years. How could there have never been revolutionaries in such a place?
How could there have been no heroes who held great ideals?
There had been.
People who gave others hope, who made them long for the lives they had lost.
Those who embraced that hope departed into the Abyss alongside them. None ever returned.
Jegal Myeong had endured in Chaos for four hundred years. Having endured for four hundred years, he could say this.
“Do you think we leave this world as it is because we are fools?”
The guardians of despair were those who understood despair more deeply than anyone. Those who protected the world’s injustice were those most victimized by it.
Jegal Myeong knew why the world could not change.
They had been steeped too deeply in this world’s despair.
People who had become afraid to hope. People who had trampled the hope before their eyes again and again because they feared an even greater despair might come for them.
So they learned not to hope. They learned to accept the world as it was. They learned to reject change.
A life that flowed nowhere.
That was the way of life they had barely learned at the end of 《Chaos》.
For hundreds of years, they had lived that way. Now another despair, wearing the mask of hope, stood before Jegal Myeong and tempted the people.
What Jegal Myeong needed to do today was crush that sprout before it could grow into an even greater despair.
“Remember this, Fortress Lord. This world can no longer change. No one wants it to.”
Jegal Myeong’s unique weapon, the Seven-Colored Golden Fan, snapped open. At the same time, Jegal Myeong’s Eye of the Son of Heaven, a top-grade skill capable of reading all information about an enemy, glowed red.
[System Error! Unable to read User Information.]
[System Error! Unable to read User Information.]
“...What?”
Jegal Myeong was flustered.
Then Jaehwan spoke.
“Are you done talking now?”
“...Pardon?”
“Say one more word, and you’ll really die.”
Jaehwan’s Dokbul moved.
It was a clean movement without the slightest hesitation. Truly, it was a magnificent strike.
“Gah! Aaargh!”
Jegal Myeong began taking a one-sided beating from a sword whose shadow he could not even see.
“W-wait! Wait!”
When had he last been beaten like this? Was this how much the switch had hurt when his father beat him as the youngest child of the Jegal Family?
A strike that blamed neither his old despair nor his rash fear. A strike that forced nothing upon him and taught no lesson, yet made some deep place in his heart ache.
A terribly painful strike.
By the time he felt the sky spinning, it was already too late.
A dull pain pounded mercilessly against his stomach. Faced with that pure, overwhelming pain, the Hall Master of Scholar Forest Hall found himself absurdly impressed.
‘N-not at the level of a General or Warlord, but perhaps as strong as a Lieutenant General...’
Then the delayed pain proved itself through his mouth.
“Arrrgh!”
The Hall Master of Scholar Forest Hall’s body flew into the sky.
* * *
Everyone in the stands went pale.
Their faces showed the cognitive dissonance of people unable to believe what they were seeing. Their common sense was breaking apart before that overwhelming might.
“Th-this is truly incredible! The Fortress Lord has defeated the Hall Master of Scholar Forest Hall with Stab!”
Only after hearing the announcer did the spectators realize that what they had witnessed was not an illusion.
The Hall Master of Scholar Forest Hall, who had been spinning through the air, crashed onto the stage headfirst.
As though that sound were a signal, cheers burst out from everywhere.
“Gorgon’s Fortress Lord is the best!”
“Waaaaaah!”
The technique Jaehwan had used was Spiral Kill, a technique he had created with Cheongheo some time ago.
Jaehwan and Cheongheo had argued over whether it should be called Spiral Stab or Spiral Slash, until Cayman stepped in and named it for them.
“Whether it is a stab or a slash, it is a technique that kills the enemy in the end. Why not add ‘Kill’ and call it Spiral Kill?”
Remembering Cayman, Jaehwan looked at the fallen Hall Master of Scholar Forest Hall.
There seemed to be differences in skill even among seventh-stage Adapters.
He had heard that Hall Master of South Sea Hall Cayman and Hall Master of Scholar Forest Hall Jegal Myeong were both seventh-stage Adapters. Yet after fighting him, Jaehwan found the Hall Master of Scholar Forest Hall to be, at best, comparable to or slightly stronger than the Hall Masters of Thunder God Hall and Fire King Hall.
Below expectations, perhaps.
Cheongheo had told him that among the candidates of the 《Palace of Rebirth》 were people with greater martial prowess than Jaehwan himself. Beyond the 《Abyss》, there were apparently beings beyond the heavens themselves.
If the Ten Hall Masters, said to be Chaos’s strongest, were like this, perhaps he would be better off going alone.
Just as Jaehwan was about to put Dokbul away, Jegal Myeong slowly rose from the floor.
“...W-wait! It isn’t over yet!”
Jaehwan looked at Jegal Myeong and shook his head.
“That’s enough.”
Jegal Myeong’s expression turned miserable.
“...”
Jegal Myeong had talked from the moment the match began. The man before him had done nothing except beat him mercilessly and brand him with defeat.
It was an unbearably absurd and violent ending. Normally, he would never have considered a match like this a defeat. Normally, that was.
Jegal Myeong, Chaos’s greatest strategist, could not accept the feeling of defeat. He could not allow himself to accept it. The moment he did, the four hundred years he had lived would be denied in their entirety.
“Do you believe you defeated me?”
Jaehwan did not answer. It was not something that needed thought or an answer.
Then the Hall Master of Scholar Forest Hall said something unexpected.
“Fortress Lord, you are cowardly.”
“...Cowardly?”
“Do you remember the speech you announced yourself at the Advent Festival?”
Of course he remembered. He had said it himself.
Still, Jaehwan could not guess which part of that speech Jegal Myeong was trying to seize on.
“The deadline is one month. Whether you are from the Ten Halls or another Fortress, it does not matter. If anyone defeats me in a one-on-one match within a month, I will hand over the position of Fortress Lord to them... Is that not exactly what you said?”
“That’s right.”
Not a single word differed.
At that moment, Jaehwan realized what Jegal Myeong was after.
“You only said it would be a one-on-one match. You did not specify the kind of match.”
That was certainly true. It had not been a speech where he had paid attention to such details in the first place.
“So?”
“I did not come to challenge you to a martial contest.”
“Then?”
“I wish to face you in a one-on-one battle of strategy. You have already won once in a martial contest, so would it not be fair to compete in the manner I choose as well?”
It was a logical argument, yet there was something pathetic about it. It was like throwing cold water over the excitement that had finally risen.
Boos erupted from the stands.
“How shameless, Hall Master of Scholar Forest Hall!”
“If you lost, admit you lost!”
Cheongheo, seated at the very front of the stands, clicked his tongue.
“I knew that bastard would pull something like this.”
“I see. Such cowardice truly suits the Hall Master of Scholar Forest Hall.”
Hall Master of Limitless Hall Shin Mugeuk nodded and continued.
“But if it is a contest of strategy, it will be difficult to decide a winner.”
“He will obviously want to play that game.”
“A game?”
“You know. The game he is best at.”
Cheongheo seemed to know this game, because he ground his teeth.
“It is the kind of game those strategist fools love most.”
“Ah, surely not?”
Shin Mugeuk seemed to have realized what it was as well.
“Still, it should be entertaining to watch.”
Soon after, the shouting among the crowd grew louder.
Jaehwan had accepted the Hall Master of Scholar Forest Hall’s proposal for a battle of strategy.
The moment Jaehwan agreed, changes began on the stage.
It was an advanced illusion technique. The surface of the stage flowed inward like quicksand, then mountain ranges rose throughout it, with hills scattered along either side of small streams.
Some areas were covered in fog, while others were clear. Grasslands stretched around the outside of the mountain range, and beyond them lay a desert.
It was an entire region reduced to a fixed scale.
Then a message floated gently into the air.
[Welcome to the world of Tactical Formation.]
Another message appeared only before Jaehwan.
[You are a beginner. Please check the manual above for the controls and rules of the game. Would you like to proceed?]
Jaehwan pressed the button labeled “Manual” and asked, “...What is this?”
Could this battle of strategy be a contest of tactical formations?
Jaehwan was slightly flustered. If so, it could not have been a worse move.
He began considering whether to cancel the contest of strategy and send Jegal Myeong flying right then.
Perhaps sensing that killing intent, Jegal Myeong began sweating and spoke quickly.
“It is called a formation, but simply put, it is a kind of game.”
With an awkward smile on his face, Jegal Myeong continued.
“To be exact, it is a game created by the dream demon Mars, one of the thirteen Masters. I heard Mars was inspired by a game popular in some World in the 《Peripheral Worlds》. The game is exceptionally well-made, so strategists in the 《Great Realm》 enjoy playing it as well...”
‘And it is also the game I am best at.’
Jegal Myeong did not say that last part aloud. There was no need to.
“Well, even if it is your first time, it is not a difficult game. You produce and manage your own forces, deploy them well, and fight. That is all there is to it.”
Jaehwan barely listened as he read the manual, giving an absentminded answer.
“Hmm. It is simpler than I expected.”
Jegal Myeong frowned at that composure.
‘Let’s see how long that arrogance lasts.’
In truth, the game was practically over already. Whether he knew the future that awaited him or not, Jaehwan’s gaze remained calm.
Looking at him, Jegal Myeong thought, Sorry, Fortress Lord, but the match is already decided. I have never lost a game of Tactical Formation.
Yet even clever Jegal Myeong did not know one thing. In truth, there was no way he could have known it.
How could Jegal Myeong have known the strange emotion in Jaehwan’s eyes as he read the manual?
‘It was inspired by a game from some World in the 《Peripheral Worlds》?’
Jaehwan’s lips twitched faintly. He thought he knew exactly which 《Peripheral Worlds》 World that was.
Jaehwan had never played Tactical Formation before. That was true.
At the same time, in another sense, it was not true.
Jaehwan had played tens of thousands of matches of a game exactly like this Tactical Formation.
To be precise, everyone from Jaehwan’s generation in his hometown had played that game thousands of times.
‘What exactly do these dream demons do? This is outright plagiarism.’
Tactical Formation.
It was a legendary game said to have been created by Mars of Play, one of the thirteen Masters, to improve the tactical and strategic training of the 《Great Realm》’ strategists.
Its main Scenario was a war caused by the conflict among three races. It was a strategy game where players gathered resources in real time, produced forces, and won by destroying every enemy structure.
Jaehwan already knew a game with exactly that system. In Jaehwan’s hometown, there was not a single person who did not know that game.
“Will this terrain be acceptable?”
“Whatever you want.”
Jaehwan’s eyes gleamed once more as he looked at the battlefield map Jegal Myeong had selected.
[Jegal Myeong has selected the ‘Lost Garden’ as the battlefield for Tactical Formation.]
Jegal Myeong, Hall Master of Scholar Forest Hall, did not know the country where Jaehwan had been born and raised.
That was his greatest misfortune today.
Footnotes:
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