Chapter 110

Chapter 110

What is needed to overturn the ‘impossible’?

If you ask people this, ninety-nine out of a hundred will answer like this: What nonsense is that? The impossible is impossible precisely because it doesn’t become possible even with effort, isn’t it?

It’s half right. Just as a child cannot shatter a mountain range with their fist, just as a human cannot defeat a tiger, ‘impossible things’ refer to things that seem utterly impossible to overturn.

Such things often seem to have no solution no matter how much you rack your brain.

However, if ninety-nine out of a hundred say ‘overturning the impossible is impossible,’ that means the remaining one says something different.

If you ask them how to overturn the impossible, they usually answer like this.

First, attempt it.

Start by believing the impossible is possible.

Creaaak!

“B-Baek Riyun, former Corps Commander. You’re being released!”

“Is it that time already?”

At the sound coming from outside the bars, I twisted my cross-legged body to loosen my stiff joints and stepped outside the bars. Then the guard bowed ninety degrees upon seeing me.

“You’ve worked hard. Your name was…… Jang-o, wasn’t it?”

“Yes, yes! Were you comfortable during your stay?”

“Thanks to you.”

When I smiled and patted the guard’s shoulder, the guard hurriedly bowed his head. Though there’s no need for that since I’m not a superior now.

“C-congratulations on your release. I-I-I’ll bring you some tofu…….”

“It’s fine. It’s not like I committed a crime. More importantly, what’s that?”

“Ah…… the Alliance Leader left it. He said to give it to you on your release day.”

“The Alliance Leader?”

I received the small letter the Alliance Leader had supposedly left from the guard’s trembling hands and blinked for a moment. Did he still have something left to say?

“……How troublesome.”

Perhaps there was something we missed while discussing. Or perhaps the situation of the plan we were supposed to proceed with had gone awry.

Well, whichever it is, it’s definitely not good news for a situation that needs to proceed meticulously.

I steel myself lightly and open the letter. Thinking I won’t be surprised either way.

And at the contents that immediately appear, I couldn’t help but let out an empty laugh.

“……Jang-o.”

“Wh-why do you ask?”

“Did the Alliance Leader say anything when he left this letter?”

“Say anything, you mean?!”

At my words, Jang-o, who had frozen as if his breath had stopped for a moment, barely squeezed out a memory and answered.

“Ah. Yes, there was! He wished you good fortune in martial affairs…….”

Good fortune in martial affairs. Is that so?

“He’s still a mischievous old man, now as then.”

“Pardon?”

“It’s nothing.”

I patted the shoulder of the guard who answered with a dumbfounded expression at my words once more and shook my head. A fight. A fight, is it.

“It’s not wrong, I suppose.”

Perhaps there’s no more accurate expression than that. Overturning the impossible is, after all, no different from fighting against the world.

Whoooosh!

I ignited Threefold True Fire to burn the letter and looked up at the sky. A sky so clear you wouldn’t think it was a day for someone to die.

“It’s today.”

Today it is. One week since the Murim Alliance refused Seonwoo Gang’s return.

“What nice weather.”

I made a light comment while wearing a faint smile.

Weather perfectly clear for a person to die and come back to life.

Today is precisely Seonwoo Gang’s execution day.

“The execution ceremony is soon. Muryeon Hall member Seonwoo Gang. Are you ready?”

Sasi. The Medicine Hall.

At the sight of Moyong Hyeyeon who had come to fetch him along with several Changcheon Corps members, Seonwoo Gang smiled bitterly and awkwardly scratched his head with his handcuffed hands behind him.

“May I be honest?”

“What?”

“I’m not ready at all. It doesn’t feel real that I’m going to die.”

It doesn’t feel real.

Indeed, there’s no other way to express it. How unrealistic is the story that his life will be taken not even tomorrow, but today?

Seonwoo Gang smiled bitterly at the feeling that he could be discharged and return to Muryeon Hall at any moment. And seeing that, Changcheon Corps member Namgung Woo chuckled.

“Junior…… it’s okay to call you that, right? I’m from Mujeong Hall, but Mujeong Hall and Muryeon Hall are pretty much the same thing anyway.”

“Ah, yes.”

“Right. Junior. Well, don’t worry too much. Our Murim Alliance’s executions are famous for being painless.”

“Pardon?”

“I mean before you can feel pain, swish! You’ll already be dead. Fast and swift. Right?”

“Namgung Woo.”

At the sight of Namgung Woo spouting nonsense, Cheongha, the Changcheon Corps squad leader who had been watching from the side, frowned. But Namgung Woo didn’t stop talking.

“Why? It’s true, isn’t it? That this guy won’t have time to feel pain.”

“Watch your tongue. It’s before the execution. Do you want to be punished?”

“Punishment, punishment, punishment for everything—you wield it like some kind of ultimate weapon. Why don’t you try becoming a squad leader first?”

Namgung Woo grumbled and grinned at Seonwoo Gang, who had a dumbfounded expression.

“Well, what I just said was a joke, so let it slide.”

“Yes…….”

“Junior. While you’re at it, straighten your face and your shoulders.”

“……When I’m going to die?”

“That’s right. Precisely because you’re going to die, you should do so even more.”

What is he talking about?

To Seonwoo Gang who was making a puzzled expression, Namgung Woo twirled his finger once, then brought it to his temple and spun it around.

“When a person dies, what remains?”

“……Well, bones and skin?”

“If they’re burned to death?”

“Bone powder would remain.”

“Right. Then what if you scatter even the bone powder? If there’s no trace of death, what happens?”

At the playful Namgung Woo’s words, Seonwoo Gang, who had been lost in thought for a moment, carefully offered an answer.

“A name……?”

“A name, you say. Well, there’s that perspective too.”

“Mm-hmm. It’s not a wrong answer. I think that’s also one way of thinking. But! I think it’s memory rather than name.”

“Memory?”

“That’s right. Memory.”

Namgung Woo nodded and continued speaking while tapping his head with his finger.

“The bones or skin a person leaves behind when they die. These things can disappear.”

No matter how much money you earn, no matter if you learn the greatest martial arts of all time, it ends when you die. The money you’ve accumulated will disappear, and a corpse cannot use martial arts.

But what about memory?

“Memory remains surprisingly deep, you know.”

Namgung Woo smiled lightly and showed a wistful expression.

“A while back, you see, there was a death among fellow Martial Force Corps members…… Changcheon Corps members.”

“Yes.”

“Thinking about it, he was really a bastard. Lacking social skills, terrible at cooking, picking fights with everything others did.”

“He was such a dog-like bastard that I prayed with water offerings every time squads were reassigned to be assigned to a different squad.”

Were they on bad terms?

They weren’t on good enough terms to summarize so simply. To put it nicely, they were rivals; to put it badly, you could say they were itching to kill each other.

“Then one day we went on a mission together and requested reinforcements, but the reinforcements came a bit late.”

The two isolated in enemy territory.

They were driven to the brink of death and were injured. They fought desperately until reinforcements came and barely managed to survive until they arrived.

But when Namgung Woo turned around, his comrade was no longer breathing.

That’s all there is to the story.

That’s all there was to the story.

“The death of someone you know, that loss remains as a memory stronger than anything.”

“I still sometimes dream of that bastard. Despite how terribly we got along, I remember how he didn’t let go of his sword even as a corpse. Why is that? Do I have a good memory? No!”

“It’s because that was the last image he left me. And it’ll be the same for your fellow disciples.”

If you’re going to die anyway, leave an impression—more dignified than anyone.

“If you’re not guilty, be upright. Even if the result doesn’t change, the memory changes. So that those who decided to kill you can remember you forever. So that your fellow disciples don’t remember your death as a tragedy.”

“That guy from Muryeon Hall was artistic even when he went. Let’s go with shoulders back so you can hear things like that. Got it?”

At the sight of Namgung Woo acting dramatically, Seonwoo Gang, who had burst into laughter in spite of himself, thought for a moment and nodded. And seeing that, Namgung Woo grinned.

“Looks like you’ve made up your mind.”

“Yes.”

“It’s about time. Shall we go?”

“Artistically?”

“That’s right. This junior gets it. Artistically. Memorably. Then.”

Kwaaang!

“Well then, the condemned prisoner makes his entrance.”

Confirming Namgung Woo kicking open the door of the Medicine Hall as if to burst it and going outside, Seonwoo Gang clenched his fists and stood up.

“It’s time. Let’s go.”

“……Yes.”

Agreeing to Moyong Hyeyeon’s words, and then stepping outside under the escort of Changcheon Corps members, the moment Seonwoo Gang moved his steps toward the execution ground.

“He’s out.”

“Geumgeomryong…… It’s Seonwoo Gang!”

Countless gazes began to fly toward Seonwoo Gang and stick to him.

“Hoo.”

At the pressure he felt, Seonwoo Gang unconsciously swallowed and began to walk slowly forward. But then came blatant condemnation.

“Spy bastard. Serves you right!”

“To still hold your head so high after betraying the Alliance—you’re shameless.”

“Aren’t you ashamed to face your fellow disciples? Don’t tarnish the name of Muryeon Hall!”

People whose faces and names he doesn’t know pour out curses. Fierce condemnation as if they themselves had been betrayed.

Is this what it feels like to be imprisoned and stoned?

At the crushing feeling washing over him, Seonwoo Gang’s shoulders slump slightly. But immediately, Namgung Woo moves alongside as if unable to bear seeing that and mutters quietly.

“Shoulders back, eyes forward.”

“Most of those people are ones who criticize without knowing anything. Like baby birds that only receive the food mother bird brings, they’re bastards who judge you as evil based only on given information. Do you want to bow your head to such people?”

Did I commit a wrong?

‘Not…… exactly.’

Right. It probably wouldn’t be exactly that.

A wrong is something you should correct if you can, but even if he could return to the past, he would ultimately make the same choice.

‘At least in this last moment, like a Muryeon Hall member.’

There’s no need to be servile until the end, is there?

After briefly muttering to himself, Seonwoo Gang straightened his back that he had forced to bend and pushed his shoulders back. At the same time, a clumsy smile formed at the corners of his mouth.

“……Is this okay?”

“Sufficient. While you’re at it, look around too.”

“Around, you mean?”

“That’s right. Around.”

Confirming that Namgung Woo, who had patted Seonwoo Gang’s shoulder to show friendliness, was taking the lead again, Seonwoo Gang moved his steps again and looked around. Then this time, a different scenery appeared.

“Release Seonwoo Gang! Release him!”

“Oh my, our boy isn’t a bad kid! That boy, goodness, until now he’s been so…….”

Mixed in with the crowd’s noise, the voices of his fellow disciples.

“Spy who doesn’t know righteousness, hurry up and die! How dare you hold your face so upright…….”

“Hey there, sword-wielder. Look at me.”

“What’s this now…… Wh-who are you?”

“Well. Who do you think I am?”

“I wonder. Should I tell you, Hall Master?”

Clearly visible even from afar, the angry appearances of Muryeon Hall Master Yeongun and Vice Hall Master Heo So.

“Execute Seonwoo Gang immediately! Execute…… urk!”

“Do not cross the safety line. Acts of excessive threat toward the prisoner will be regarded as an affront to the Murim Alliance’s proceedings.”

Even the Changcheon Corps members threatening those who were coming forward to throw stones.

‘More than I thought…….’

There are more who defend than expected, and fewer who condemn than expected.

‘……I didn’t live in vain.’

Seonwoo Gang, wearing a bitter smile, continued moving his steps. Before it was too late, he had to arrive at the execution ground before noon when the sentence would be carried out.

‘This is enough.’

Right. This is enough. Dying as a Muryeon Hall member. Dying while still remaining as a ‘comrade.’

Moving his steps diligently, Seonwoo Gang clenched his fists. More dignified than anyone, more upright.

“Changcheon Corps Commander Moyong Hyeyeon and five Changcheon Corps members. We’ve come to hand over the prisoner.”

“You’ve worked hard. You may go.”

After arriving at the execution ground and Changcheon Corps Commander Moyong Hyeyeon’s handover was complete.

“Ahem. Then shall we proceed with the execution?”

The moment the execution supervisor Jegal Hwi, who had cleared his throat, stepped back.

“I’ll introduce him to you all. This is the executioner who will carry out today’s execution.”

Seonwoo Gang, who had been immersed in sentiment thinking he was about to die, confirmed the other party’s face and blinked. And for good reason.

Before his eyes.

“Pleasure to meet you.”

Baek Riyun was grinning.

“I’m Baek Riyun, who will be carrying out today’s execution.”