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Translator: Vine
Chapter: 1
Chapter Title: Seonwoo Family (1)
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Having returned from death, I walked back into hell of my own accord.
To the place that had made me a warrior—the front lines against the Blood Demon Cult.
In this life, I will lose nothing.
Not my friends, not my family, not my own life.
And I will crush it.
The Blood Demon Cult, which stole everything from me.
*Swish!*
The ultimate technique of the Diancang Sect's Eighteen Light-Splitting Swords divided the light, severing three heads.
Clear Wind, Breaking Waves.
*Shhhlick!*
The ultimate technique of the Qingcheng Sect's Clear Wind Sword Art sliced through the chests of the advancing figures, spraying blood.
But the ones charging me did not scream, even as their bodies were torn apart and they died.
And I, the one who had done this to them, felt no joy.
Instead, I was shedding tears of grief.
Because they were not my enemies, but my family—the people of the Seonwoo Family.
My family, my friends, my subordinates.
"Kwahahaha! What an interesting fellow! The Head of the Seonwoo Family, yet you only use the martial arts of Qingcheng and Diancang! Have you forgotten the famed Thirteen Swords of Seonwoo?"
Du Dang, a Demon Head of the Blood Demon Cult.
The very bastard who had turned the people of the Seonwoo Family into puppets and sent them to attack me was now taunting me.
"Aha! Come to think of it, the technique was only passed down to *this one*, wasn't it? I'd forgotten."
Beside him stood my younger brother, Seonwoo Gi, the previous Head of the Seonwoo Family, his expression vacant, his body rigid.
I had heard he went missing during an attack by the Blood Demon Cult, but to think he had become Du Dang's puppet.
And that wasn't all.
"To so cruelly slaughter your own people, what a ruthless bastard. You're from the Flying Dragon Squad, aren't you? Tsk, tsk. Those Flying Dragon bastards are all the same."
Clicking his tongue, Du Dang looked over my family members standing there blankly and spoke.
"Now, who should I send that you won't be able to bring yourself to kill, forcing you to surrender? Yes, this child should do."
His gaze fell upon *her*.
My younger sister, Yeon-ha, who had stood by my side even when I was called the shame of the Seonwoo Family, a useless pig.
I had prayed they wouldn't touch her, of all people...
My expression must have twisted horribly, because Du Dang clapped his hands and burst into a bright laugh.
"Yes! It seems I chose well! Now, let's see you kill this child just as cruelly! Seonwoo Jin, the last Head of the Seonwoo Family!"
My sister, Yeon-ha, walked past the Blood Demon cultists surrounding me and slowly approached.
In her hand, she held the White Heron, the beloved sword I had gifted her...
I glanced around.
Blood Demon cultists surrounded me in every direction. Behind the wall they formed, Du Dang had lined up the puppeted members of the Seonwoo Family as if for my viewing, sending them out one by one, clapping his hands in delight.
There was no hope left.
I squeezed my eyes shut.
'I'm sorry, Squad Leader. It seems I couldn't become like you after all.'
Suddenly, the face of my benefactor, my eternal Squad Leader, the Gale Flying Dragon Seol Pung, flashed through my mind—the man who had turned me from a worthless wreck into a true warrior.
His words, too...
Whenever I was frustrated, he would always smile and say to me:
'Jin, are you slumping over like that again? I've always told you, you've already done your best. That's enough. The outcome isn't your responsibility. So, straighten your shoulders.'
My eyes snapped open.
Strength had returned to them.
The Squad Leader always used to say.
Do what you can until the very last moment.
As long as you don't give up, you're not a loser, even in defeat.
Yes, he was right.
I couldn't become a loser just because I couldn't win.
I would not be able to defeat them today, and I certainly would not survive.
But there was still something I could do, something I had to do.
If I were captured like this, my body, like my family's, would become one of Du Dang's puppets.
And someday, he would try to do to my Squad Leader what he had done to me.
I couldn't let that happen.
The thought of my existence becoming a burden to my Squad Leader and friends was horrifying.
'Yes, if I must die, I will die cleanly, by my own will!'
I made my decision.
I gripped my sword in a reverse hold and raised it to my chest.
The Red Lotus Sword, the symbol of the Seonwoo Family Head, said to possess an aura that vanquishes evil, was pointed at my heart.
At that, the smile finally vanished from Du Dang's face.
"You bastard, what are you doing?!"
It seemed I had made the right choice this time. I gave him a savage smile and said.
"You may be able to kill me, but you won't be able to use my corpse. And Du Dang, I will never let you live. Even if I become a ghost, I will find a way to kill you!"
The moment I finished speaking, the tip of the Red Lotus Sword pierced my heart.
*Plunge!*
A searing pain, as if my chest were being branded with fire, shot through my entire body.
But it wasn't agonizing.
Instead, as my consciousness faded, I felt a slight sense of relief.
Since the Red Lotus Sword—a divine sword in the long history of the Seonwoo Family—had pierced my heart, he wouldn't be able to use my corpse.
And I had regrets.
If I had known it would come to this, I would have tried to live a little more earnestly.
I shouldn't have spent my life running away under the excuse of not wanting to fight my brothers.
And I should have unleashed my talents more freely...
***
In my hazy consciousness, a piercing voice stabbed at my ears.
"Kyaaa! It's murder!"
Yes, I did commit murder. I killed many, and I killed myself.
So could you please be quiet? It's too noisy to stay dead.
"It's murder! Young Master Seonwoo Jin has killed Young Master Dan Hasang!"
Even though I was dead, my head felt incredibly heavy, and that voice made me scowl.
Dan Hasang? What ancient history are they talking about?
Just thinking about that incident still keeps me up at night.
As the surroundings grew louder and I heard the sound of people rushing in, I finally realized something was wrong with my consciousness.
I cautiously opened my eyes.
And to my surprise, they opened.
"Huh?!"
I was bewildered.
I was definitely dead,
but my eyes are opening?
Why?
The first thing I saw upon opening my eyes was a messy scene of scattered liquor bottles and food, and across from me, the corpse of a young man slumped over the table.
The corpse of a man, dead with a sword stuck in his back.
I knew him very well.
His name was Dan Hasang.
He was the man who had promised to become my sister Yeon-ha's husband, the man who had died over a decade ago, when I was twenty-one.
And yet, here he was, dead right before my eyes.
"What... what in the world is this...?"
I stared at him, dazed.
I couldn't make sense of what was happening.
I couldn't even tell if my head was fuzzy from the alcohol or from this incomprehensible situation.
I glanced down at my hand.
It was a chubby hand, like a bear's paw.
"This... isn't my hand, is it?"
My eyes narrowed on their own.
This plump hand was, at the very least, not my current hand.
It was the hand I thought I had said goodbye to forever after I lost weight at twenty-two...
"Is this a dream? What part of it? How much of it?"
As I muttered in a daze, people swarmed into the room.
They gasped at the sight of the corpse, then shouted at me.
"Young Master Seonwoo! Why on earth did you murder Young Master Dan?!"
Hearing their words, my gaze drifted blankly to the sword in the corpse's back.
Dan Hasang. The sword stuck in his back was none other than my own.
***
I was captured, bound tightly, and forced to kneel in the center of a large hall. The elders and members of the Seonwoo Family stood at a distance, watching me.
Kneeling with this fat body, my legs were already going numb, even in this situation.
'Ah, maybe... this really isn't a dream.'
The sense of reality was so vivid I swallowed hard.
Just then, a middle-aged man standing on the dais before me roared in a voice like fire.
It was my father, Seonwoo Jung, the Head of the Guizhou Seonwoo Family.
"Jin, you cur! Do you have anything to say for yourself?!"
No, not at all.
I had nothing to say.
Not because I had no excuse, but because the situation was so absurd that I was speechless.
My father, whom I hadn't seen since I was twenty-one, was bellowing at me.
And it was all exactly as I remembered it, both his appearance and his words.
"Does your silence mean you admit to killing the third young master of the Dan family, the man who was to be your brother-in-law?!"
No, not at all.
I could never admit to that.
Though I had been too shocked and drunk at twenty-one to trust myself and had remained silent, I had spent years of sleepless nights thinking it over and had come to a conclusion.
'I definitely did not kill him.'
That's right.
I had no reason to kill him, nor did I have the ability.
He was my only friend, someone who treated me without prejudice even when I was regarded as the family's shame.
Thanks to him, he and my sister Yeon-ha had connected and were planning to be wed.
So why in the world would I kill him, when I was eagerly awaiting the day he would become my brother-in-law?
Furthermore, he was a rather promising scion of a martial family, whereas I, at that time, was nothing but a pig.
No matter how drunk I was, it would have been difficult—no, impossible—for me to kill him with my skills.
And...
'Above all else, there's one piece of definitive proof that I didn't kill him.'
That day, I hadn't brought a sword to the drinking party.
Hailed as a prodigy in my youth for my memory alone, I could guarantee that with certainty.
In conclusion, Dan Hasang's death was definitely a conspiracy.
A conspiracy to kill him and frame me for it.
But despite all this, the words that left my mouth were completely different from my thoughts, the very same words I had spoken when I was twenty-one.
"I... don't remember."
Naturally, that answer only added fuel to my father Seonwoo Jung's fury.
My enraged father shouted.
"You foolish oaf! Do you call that an answer?!"
At that, the young men standing beside Seonwoo Jung—my brothers, whom I hadn't seen in a long time—spoke with incredulous smiles.
"That idiot has caused trouble while drunk more than once, but I never dreamed he'd cause a disaster of this scale."
"Really? I knew it would happen. Last time he set a fire, so I wondered what kind of scoundrel act he'd pull next to shame the family. I figured killing someone while drunk was the only thing left. Though I didn't think he'd kill his future brother-in-law."
"Still, I am a bit surprised. I didn't think you could even grip a sword with those pig-like hands of yours, Brother. Let alone kill someone with it."
As they spoke and snickered, their eyes held an unmistakable glint of contempt.
It was a scene identical to my memory.
I swept my gaze over them coolly.
'It's probably one of them. The one who killed Dan Hasang and framed me.'
Based on what was just said, the most likely culprit seemed to be my second brother, Seonwoo Hyeok, who claimed he saw it coming.
But I suspected someone else more.
My father, Seonwoo Jung, yelled again.
"I don't know how I should punish you! How can I atone to the Dan family?! Should I kill you and send them your corpse?!"
I just kept my head bowed low, remaining silent.
Because if this truly was the past, the outcome was already decided, whether I spoke or not.
Sure enough, my brothers began to offer their opinions with sly smiles.
"Will sending his corpse appease their anger? Cripple him and send him over alive. Let them vent their fury themselves."
The words of my eldest brother, Seonwoo Seong.
"Is there any need for us to go to the trouble? If we just disown him and kick him out, they'll take care of him themselves."
That was my second brother, Seonwoo Hyeok.
But the decisive words, just as I remembered, came from my fourth brother, Seonwoo Gi.
"How about this? We send Third Brother to the front lines."
"Hm?"
"What did you say?"
The suggestion was so unexpected that not only my other brothers but also my father, Seonwoo Jung, stared at Seonwoo Gi with wide eyes.
He continued.
"Didn't the Alliance recently send a request? Asking for one direct descendant to be sent to the front lines. So, let's send Third Brother there."
My father, Seonwoo Jung, asked with a grave expression.
"With Jin's level of martial arts, he'd be killed by the Demonic Humans instantly if he went to the front lines."
"Does it matter? He's going to die anyway. If he dies like that, it would be an honorable death. He would heighten the family's honor and pay for his crime. Isn't that killing two birds with one stone?"
As he finished speaking, I silently muttered one more reason he hadn't mentioned.
'And one of you wouldn't have to go to the front lines, would you?'
The "front lines" referred to the border where forces were confronting the Blood Demon Cult, which had occupied Yunnan.
Over a decade ago, the Blood Demon Cult had toppled the Diancang Sect of Yunnan, one of the Nine Great Sects, and attempted to advance into the Central Plains.
The Murim Alliance had organized a subjugation force and clashed with them head-on in what came to be known as the Righteous-Blood Great War.
In that war, the Murim Alliance suffered heavy losses, including the death of its leader, but they managed to halt the Blood Demon Cult's advance into the Central Plains.
However, they could do nothing about Yunnan, which the cult had already seized. The territory of the Diancang Sect fell into the hands of the Blood Demon Cult.
Since then, the Murim Alliance has recruited righteous warriors from near Yunnan to monitor the Blood Demon Cult's movements into the Central Plains, and people called that place the front lines against the Blood Demon Cult.
'But that was a story from over a decade ago. Now... tsk.'
As time passed, the front lines, once a place where chivalrous warriors eagerly volunteered, had degenerated into a place of nothing but danger, with no fame or profit to be gained.
It had become a place that could only be maintained by forcibly conscripting warriors.
For that reason, the martial sects of Guizhou Province, which belonged to the Murim Alliance, were now obligated to send one direct descendant each to the front lines in Yunnan.
Our Seonwoo Family was no exception.
'Originally, one of my three brothers should have gone, not me, with my weak martial arts. But! With this incident as a pretext, they can now send me, whose death wouldn't matter.'
For my brothers, there could be no better outcome.
Having replayed the events of this time thousands, tens of thousands of times, I had concluded that the probability of my fourth brother, Seonwoo Gi, being the conspirator was the highest.
The opinion in the hall was soon unified.
It was a decision that harmed no one—in fact, it was incredibly beneficial to my remaining brothers.
It was decided that the Dan family would be given appropriate material compensation, and I would be sent to the Yunnan front lines as quickly as possible.
It was the same decision made over a decade ago, when I was twenty-one.
Afterward, I was locked in the dungeon.
The pale moon shone faintly, alone in the black night sky.
It was the last moon of my hometown, the one I would recall every night for a long time after going to Yunnan.
A thought from that time came to mind.
'In the past, I used to gaze at that moon and weep endlessly.'
But having returned, I was different now.
Because I already knew that two people would visit me tonight.
And I had to get something from one of them.
One of them was already approaching cautiously.
It was my kind younger sister, Yeon-ha, the only one who had been a sanctuary for me in my home, which had always felt like a bed of thorns.
"Brother Jin, are you all right?"
Seeing her face, the image of her as a Blood Demon Cult puppet right before I returned to the past came to mind, making her seem all the more precious.
I smiled gently and replied.
"I'm fine, Yeon-ha. Is everything all right with you?"
"How could anything be wrong with me? You're the one who needs to stay strong, Brother. I believe you're not the culprit."
That kind child had said the same thing back then, too.
Back then, I just wept and repeated my thanks.
Now, I could say it with confidence.
"You're right, Yeon-ha. Your brother is not the culprit."
Yeon-ha's eyes widened in surprise.
"What?"
"Hm? What's wrong?"
"No, it's just... I was wondering why you're so certain..."
Hm? Why was I so certain?
"How could I kill my only friend, the man who was to be your husband? More importantly, Brother Dan and I were drinking face to face. And yet, the sword was in his back. A sword I never even brought with me."
Yeon-ha swallowed hard and replied.
"I-I see. Then, Brother, why didn't you say that in front of Father..."
"Because leaving the family and going to the front lines seemed like the better choice for me."
"What?!"
It was true.
Looking back on my past life, it could be divided into before and after my deployment to the front lines.
My life before, my life in the family, could not be considered that of a warrior, no matter how generously I looked at it.
'No, it wasn't just unbecoming of a warrior; it wasn't even a life fit for a human.'
The memory of that time was so stifling that just thinking about it made my chest tighten.
Among the Seonwoo siblings, I was the only one without a mother. She had passed away when I was very young.
But that wasn't really what mattered.
What mattered was that I had no powerful maternal family to back me.
In my childhood, I was once hailed as a prodigy for my excellent memory.
And I should have realized it back then.
'The more I displayed my abilities, the more I would be hated, and the shorter my life would become.'
The cold glares from my brothers' mothers.
The suffocating pressure that tightened around me.
I was young, but I could feel it all too clearly.
So I had no choice.
I chose the path of hiding my abilities and becoming a fool.
But one day, while pretending to be a fool, I suddenly realized.
I had become a real fool.
Trying to appear lazy, I became truly lazy. Trying to appear playful, I truly learned nothing.
I would grin foolishly even when called the shame of the Seonwoo Family, always ruining myself with women and drink.
That was my life for the past twenty-one years.
A hollow laugh escaped my lips.
'Yes, honestly, I deserved to be called a pig.'
So, to change that, I had to leave the family.
And I had to go to the front lines and meet *him*.
My idol, the Gale Flying Dragon, Seol Pung—the man who had transformed me, the shame of the Seonwoo Family, into a warrior.
That was why I had said nothing and accepted the false accusation.
Of course, I had no intention of carrying that blame to the end in this life.
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