Chapter 66
Jegal Gil and the warriors ispatched from the Murim Alliance soon headed towards the White Wolf Unit's training grounds, guided by Peng Seo-jin.
And when they arrived,
"Aaaaargh!"
"Uratcha cha cha cha!"
"Ugya gya gya gya!"
A hellish training session was taking place.
Over twenty warriors were crawling, jumping, swinging swords a hundred times, then crawling and jumping again...
Every single one of them looked like they might drop dead at any moment, panting heavily.
But not a single person gave up or collapsed on the ground.
As if the moment they fell behind, their life would be over.
"My goodness... what on earth are they doing?"
The Murim Alliance warriors' eyes widened in shock.
Even Jegal Gil, who normally seemed impossible to surprise, was the same.
Peng Seo-jin laughed awkwardly in response.
He too knew very well how these training sessions must look to outsiders.
"This is how they normally train."
"Th-This is their normal training?"
When one of the Murim Alliance warriors asked again, stammering, Peng Seo-jin nodded once more.
"That's right."
"S-Surely not. Do all Peng Family warriors train like this?"
"No, of course not. This is unique to the White Wolf Unit. It's a special training method devised by the White Wolf Unit's commander. Haha..."
Whether he had actually devised it or not was uncertain, but it was definitely being done on his orders.
At Peng Seo-jin's words, Jegal Gil's eyes lit up.
The White Wolf Unit's commander.
"What kind of person is he?"
Jegal Gil asked while waiting for the training to end. Peng Seo-jin smiled slightly in response.
"Until recently, he was a scholar. He also became my sister's husband, making him my brother-in-law."
"Hmm? A scholar? Ah, could it be...?"
He had heard about Peng Seo-yeon before.
After all, she had been one of the Six Dragons and Four Phoenixes, a famous Rising Star in the martial world.
Her sudden disappearance had been quite a shocking incident in the martial world at the time.
Moreover, when rumors spread that she had eloped with some scholar to escape her family's opposition, the Peng Family became quite a laughingstock for a while.
But now,
"So she's returned, I see."
"Yes. It hasn't been long, but that's what happened."
Peng Seo-jin spoke with an incredibly bright expression.
It was unexpected.
Normally when such things happened, prestigious families were extremely cold towards daughters who had left like that.
Usually, as the eldest son set to inherit the family, it wouldn't be strange at all for him to hate such a sister.
Especially since she had tarnished the family name and made them a laughingstock.
Yet for some reason, Peng Seo-jin seemed very pleased about his sister and this man he called brother-in-law.
How could that be?
By normal common sense, Peng Seo-jin's current attitude was hard to understand.
Perhaps he was just too nice, unnecessarily so.
Maybe he was the type who couldn't express dislike even when he felt it.
But Jegal Gil didn't particularly like that type of person.
Well, in any case.
To think that Peng Seo-yeon's husband was now the White Wolf Unit's commander.
Didn't he say he was a scholar earlier? Had he learned martial arts separately in that time?
Even so, there would be obvious limits, yet the notoriously rough White Wolf Unit had readily accepted such a person as their commander?
Many questions filled his mind.
"Good work everyone!"
By then, the White Wolf Unit's training had ended. Soon, Yeo Un-hwi, the White Wolf Unit's commander, approached them.
He was tall and exceptionally handsome.
"Brother, this is the investigator from the Murim Alliance."
Peng Seo-jin spoke to Yeo Un-hwi in a friendly voice.
"They wanted to meet the White Wolf Unit regarding the recent incident with the Scholar Forest Group."
"Ah. I see."
Yeo Un-hwi nodded.
He then turned to greet Jegal Gil and the Murim Alliance warriors.
"I'm Yeo Un-hwi."
"Jegal Gil, investigator from the Murim Alliance."
After brief introductions, Yeo Un-hwi looked at Jegal Gil with a somewhat strange gaze.
Noticing that look, Jegal Gil made a puzzled face. Yeo Un-hwi smiled slightly and asked:
"What did you want to see us about?"
"I had a few questions about the recent incident that I wanted to ask."
Soon, Jegal Gil began asking questions to verify the story he had heard from Peng Seo-jin one by one.
Meanwhile, the White Wolf Unit members lined up behind Yeo Un-hwi.
Jegal Gil's gaze briefly turned towards them.
They looked like well-honed swords.
Moreover, the aura emanating from each and every one of them was far from ordinary.
Despite the insane training they had just done that should have left them exhausted, not a single one of them looked slack.
They were like an army preparing for war.
In contrast, surprisingly, Jegal Gil sensed absolutely nothing from Yeo Un-hwi.
What on earth was this man?
Jegal Gil continued to probe Yeo Un-hwi's aura with his Aura Perception in between conversation.
But still, he sensed nothing at all.
Even during training, Yeo Un-hwi had merely watched.
There was something else strange.
It was the look in the White Wolf Unit members' eyes towards this man who seemed to know nothing about martial arts.
From what Jegal Gil could tell, that look was one that could only come from complete trust in their superior.
It was quite an incomprehensible atmosphere.
How could this be possible?
The Murim Alliance was also a place with clear hierarchy.
No, it should be more so than anywhere else.
As was the nature of the martial world, all martial artists always judged others by the standard of whether they were stronger than themselves or not.
In that sense, it was natural to subtly look down on superiors who were not more skilled in martial arts than oneself.
Perhaps it was only to be expected.
This was not much different even in the Murim Alliance.
Rather, the clear hierarchy might exist precisely because those at the top were usually stronger than those below them.
But what was this?
From what he had observed so far, Yeo Un-hwi seemed utterly ordinary, with no particular level of martial arts to speak of.
For the White Wolf Unit to follow such a person so devotedly was strange beyond belief.
There must be something more to this.
But for now, he had no way of knowing what that might be.
And above all, that wasn't what was important right now.
Setting aside the unexpected questions that had arisen, he soon began talking with the White Wolf Unit members as well, after the commander Yeo Un-hwi.
After various questions, the last person he ended up speaking with was Peng Do-hwan.
He was said to be the one who had been seriously injured during the sparring with the Scholar Forest Group.
Sure enough, he still had bandages wrapped around his wound.
*Sigh. This is maddening.*
To think that those who had first insisted on sparring had resorted to assassination techniques when they started losing.
He had heard about it earlier, but it was truly an absurd situation.
Somehow, the more he investigated, the more he found himself having to apologize to the Peng Family because of the Scholar Forest Group.
Those rotten bastards.
Though they were already dead and nothing could be done about it now, it was utterly disgusting.
How could a group with such a vile nature have come together to form the Scholar Forest Group?
Their arrogant and outrageous behavior was clearly largely the fault of their masters, the Murim Alliance elders who had raised them.
After all, nurturing people involved more than just teaching martial arts.
Helping them establish proper values was also the role of a teacher.
Otherwise, how was it any different from simply creating human weapons?
But despite being raised by the same elders, the previous cohorts were not like this at all.
They were still excellently fulfilling their roles even now.
So perhaps it was right to see this as a problem with the Scholar Forest Group itself.
Of course, that didn't mean the elders who had raised them this way could avoid responsibility.
But who in the Murim Alliance, besides the Alliance Leader, could hold them accountable?
It was a difficult situation. Even more so since even the Alliance Leader wasn't properly fulfilling his role.
*Grind.*
*Once again, the conversation flows in that direction.*
Lost in thought, Jegal Gil unconsciously ground his teeth.
He had always believed that the biggest problem causing the Murim Alliance to rot lay with the elders.
But even his brother, the Chief Strategist of the Murim Alliance who held similar views, was unable to do anything about that aspect.
Much of the blame also lay with Song Il-do, the Murim Alliance Leader.
His utterly indecisive nature and tendency to protect his people even if they were evil constantly held back the Murim Alliance's progress.
Various problems had long been intertwined and taken root.
It was already too late to uproot them all at once.
And so, the Murim Alliance was quietly rotting away without anyone realizing.
But even so, Jegal Gil believed that if he continued to remove those roots one by one in his assigned role, the problems would surely be resolved.
So he didn't give up and did his best in the position he held.
And Jegal Gil was certain that behind another incident he was secretly investigating recently, one of the elders must be pulling the strings.
But he needed to dig deeper.
Moving rashly before obtaining solid evidence would accomplish nothing.
Anyway, that was a separate matter.
He needed to wrap up this current investigation well and return to finish what he had started.
Jegal Gil, who had momentarily felt anger recalling the Scholar Forest Group and their masters, the Murim Alliance elders, quickly composed himself.
Right now, it was right to focus on the investigation at hand.
Soon, with his characteristically stoic expression, Jegal Gil asked Peng Do-hwan a question.
"Then the White Wolf Unit must have had quite negative feelings towards the Scholar Forest Group as well."
At Jegal Gil's question, the faces of the entire White Wolf Unit suddenly hardened.
"What exactly are you implying with that statement?"
"Ah. Please don't get so worked up."
When Peng Do-hwan demanded an explanation, Jegal Gil calmly elaborated as if it were nothing.
"I'm not trying to find fault. I simply want to accurately understand the sequence of events, the process, and the emotions felt by both sides during that time."
But even if that was true, the White Wolf Unit members were already quite offended by his question.
There are things one should and shouldn't say.
Jegal Gil's words could easily be interpreted to mean that the White Wolf Unit might also be involved in this incident somehow.
But uniquely among the White Wolf Unit, only Yeo Un-hwi didn't seem to mind Jegal Gil's tone at all.
Rather, strangely enough, he seemed to find Jegal Gil's behavior very intriguing.
Whether he was oblivious or simply insensitive was unclear, but regardless of people's reactions, Jegal Gil seemed focused solely on his investigation.
After scribbling something on paper the whole time, he finally nodded.
"Well, I understand. Thank you everyone. This has been helpful for the investigation."
After formally thanking the White Wolf Unit, he then turned to Peng Seo-jin.
"Now then, please guide us to where the incident took place."
"Huh? Ah, yes. Ahem. Understood. Let's go then."
Soon, Peng Seo-jin moved to lead them away.
Peng Seo-jin glanced back briefly.
Yeo Un-hwi smiled and nodded in response.
"What an unpleasant fellow."
As they watched Jegal Gil's retreating back, all the White Wolf Unit members began grumbling about how disagreeable he was.
"Indeed. The way he asks questions, he seems like the type to make plenty of enemies wherever he goes."
"That's right."
"Commander, do you perhaps know that investigator?"
"Of course not."
Yeo Un-hwi shook his head with a smile at Peng Do-hwan's question.
But in truth, he did know him.
Before his regression, when Yeo Un-hwi had been the Blood Demon.
So it was true that they were strangers now.
*To think I'd see that guy here. Haha.*
Somehow, reality was flowing quite differently from the history he knew.