Surviving in a third-rate martial arts world
Vol. 1 - Ch. 29

Over the shoulder of someone, I could see this young man stepping on a sword that had fallen on the ground with his back to them.

‘Uh?’

But I couldn’t see the person properly because there was something else that attracted my attention.

‘Tae-kyung? When did he do this?’

I looked like a surprised rabbit when I realized that my body was pushed behind Tae-kyung’s without even realizing.

The others seemed to be so occupied with the man who barged in that they failed to notice it, with the exception of myself.

Well, this worked.

No one realized his presence until the man got kicked, and then he stood tall in the guesthouse.

What this meant was that the man had excellent footwork technique, enough to avoid the attention of everyone around.

“Are you hurt anywhere?”

I suddenly raised my head as a sound rang in my ears.

I thought this escort of Tae-kyung was telling him, but his eyes were on me.

“Yes. Thanks to you.”

But it wasn’t me who answered the question fully.

“Jin-chun, you went overboard, which is so unlike you. Was there any reason for it?”

“I wasn’t asking you.”

Not only were they having friendly talks with Tae-kyung, but his eyes were fixed on me and oddly looked familiar.

‘That person…’

Even though I only saw his face once properly, there is no way I wouldn’t recognize such a handsome man.

He was the fighter who belonged to the Tae-kyung group. the person known as Jin-chun. Most likely, it was because Tae-kyung called him such.

‘And what did he say to me?’

Ah, right, was I hurt… Maybe he asked me that.

‘Come to think of it, didn’t I just get into huge trouble now?’

The image of Jong Myung pulling out the sword, thinking he was going to rip off my face, suddenly flashed through my mind.

There is something else I was forgetting.

Something was slipping from my mind. I accepted with my head that if it wasn’t for Tae-kyung and Jin-chun, I would have been in huge trouble.

However, my body was still unable to process the situation quickly, so I kept blinking.

When I remained silent for some time, Tae-kyung turned his head to see what was happening and gave me this concerned look.

It appeared like he was offering me some comfort, but I couldn’t even care since everything felt so dizzy.

They seemed to think that I was in a shock that I couldn’t come to my senses, but that wasn’t the reality.

I don’t think they were too worried, but other than my heart pounding faster than usual, I was no different from usual.

Rather than being surprised or scared, I was just dazed and couldn’t quite figure out what kind of expression I should have made.

I hesitated for a moment, and only after everyone’s eyes were on me, did I stutter and answer.

“Ah, yes. Thanks to you.”

“That is good.”

Jin-chun quietly watched me and said, “Woah”, I opened my mouth to say thank you, even though I was in a flustered state of mind.

But unfortunately, I couldn’t even say what I wanted to.

“Kuak… AHHH!”

Jong Myung, who was thought to have lost consciousness and collapsed, suddenly let out an inexplicable scream while trying to get up from the floor covered in alcohol and food.

“W-who is that guy?”

“Who did that to Jong Myung?”

The members of the Old Dragon Association, who came to their senses at the sound, started beating around and took their weapons out.

‘Enough. If you lift a single finger, I will also have to draw my sword.”

In response to the stern warning from the other person, who seemed to be on a different level from them even though he looked much younger, they only looked at each other, unable to attack.

I watched Tae-kyung’s escort move and turned my attention to Jong Myung, who was still screaming desperately and appeared to be losing his senses.

With one hand holding his shoulder as though it hurt, Jong Myung was crouched on his knees in an awkward position. Upon closer inspection, things appeared a little off.

‘What is it?’

There was this huge thorn that was visible to the naked eye on the back of his right hand, which was covered by his left.

After looking at that, I realized that it wasn’t a thorn but a wooden chopstick.

Strangely, one of the familiar chopsticks had pierced Jong Myung’s right hand and was deeply embedded in his left shoulder.

‘Eh, it cannot be chopsticks.’

Before I could even speak, Jin-chun gently lifted the foot where the sword sheath was on and stepped.

Swish!

“Euk!”

Even when my eyes were wide open, I couldn’t even tell what happened.

After a while, I found out that Jong Myung had fallen back after getting hit on his face by Jin-chun's sword's wide side.

Swish, Jong Myung, who fell to the ground with his head turned, couldn’t even move.

“Euh…!”

“How dare you do that!”

There was silence in the restaurant after the horrified voices left, like if someone had thrown cold water on their shocked heads.

‘Well. They'll attack too, right?’

Well, Jong Myung, who was probably the most powerful of them all, was subdued in just 2 seconds, and there was no way they had any courage left to attack.

They would have already known by now that even if all 4 of them attacked at once, they wouldn’t be able to win.

“Now it has gotten quieter.”

I couldn’t help but be impressed by the words of Jin-chun, which were mumbled after knocking a person down.

‘Woah, I feel like he is the MC of the novel.’

Right. According to the first impression, Jin-chun is an excellent warrior. I wasn’t sure if Tae-kyung is also good at it, but it seemed clear that both knew martial arts.

“You are…”

At that time, someone from the Old Dragon Association broke the silence and spoke.

I recognized at a glance that he was one of the friends who had just arrived in Jang-yang village, the ones Un-bo mentioned.

‘Are they really willing to stand up for the sake of their friend?’

This made no sense. Where do the back alley people have loyalty?

“Aren't you the Whirlwind Sword Dragon?”

“…”

“I saw you once from far when you competed with the Black White Twin Demon, the one disturbing Shaoxing.”

Of course there is no loyalty in the back alleys.

A puzzled look appeared on my face at the words he spoke in an extremely polite tone.

‘Whirlwind Sword Dragon?’

A title I feel like I have heard before. Where did I hear it before?

And so my doubts got resolved.

“The Whirlwind Sword Dragon!”

“It was said that he was the divine dragon born in the Baek-ri family!”

“Aren't they one of the Seven New Stars?”

“What brings such a person like that to this corner?”

It was because the Old Dragon Association, who had been cowering a lot, suddenly started speaking about everything.

With their help, I found out that Jin-chun's family is the Baek-ri family, a famous family of scholars, and his title is the Whirlwind Sword Dragon. He is a rising warrior who is considered to be the best among the warriors who are the best Justice faction.

‘Hmm, right.’

Actually, it wasn’t that surprising. Because I had a vague guess from the moment I first saw him.

‘The Seven Stars. They have heard of them too.’

I knew the titles because some of them were mentioned by outsiders who occasionally stayed at the guesthouse, and others of them were in the original work.

“We have committed a great act of disrespect by not knowing the famous Baek-ri family’s great warrior and his close friend.”

Meanwhile, the quick-witted Un-bo realized that Jin-chun was a big man and not just he and his association but everything could be in attack, so he began to bow down.

He was so groveling that I thought his head would hit the ground.

I felt a little annoyed with his utterly polite change now, unlike when he treated me and Tae-kyung with arrogance.

"It would be nice if I had possessed a warrior like that as well, if I had to possess the body in the murim world."

Then, in the same situation as now, wouldn’t it be possible for me to beat up a 3^rd-rate warrior like they were nothing until my anger vanished?

‘I envy him.’

I gulped back the words that rose to the throat.

‘I also want to learn martial arts now.’

It was a similar situation to the time before when I felt sick to my stomach after seeing Ja-hyun’s strength.

Although I was more desperate than before.

‘I think it would be impossible to join a military service at this age. When I get to know Ja-hyun later, should I ask him to teach me martial arts that are easy to learn?’

Why, even if it's not a particularly good martial art, if you go through the memories of the previous life, he should undoubtedly find among the Demonic Cult's martial arts one that's easy enough for beginners to master.

If Ja-hyun, the strongest character in the plot, teaches me, I think I can surpass the blood blockage in the body and do something great even if I don’t touch the Whirlwind Sword Dragon.

‘I will have to ask him when we have time.’

Although it didn’t seem like I would gain much, I clenched my fists thinking I would make him work for the money he owes me.

Anyway, back to the point.

The point of Un-bo’s story about Jin-chun was as follows:

While it is true that Jong Myung and his friends were responsible for the mistake that occurred in the guesthouse a while back and that they committed a wrong deed in Shaoxing, Jong Myung was not yet an official member of the Old Dragon Association, so we were free to pursue him.

The man was essentially stating, "You can do whatever you want."

‘He is laughing. He instigated but is pretending to not do so.’

Of course, it wasn’t his upfront intention for Jong Myung to be betrayed. Everything else, such as the fact that they came to our guesthouse and acted so rudely, began to fight with unexpected guests and called me out, grabbed Tae-kyung by the collar, and created this discomfort to the public; all of these were not to be blamed on Jong Myung alone. But it was clear what he was trying to do.

“Isn’t that right, Eun-ri? Instead of just standing there, please convey the message to the great warrior. How special the ties between you and me are, and how sorry I feel right now.”

And yet, he was shamelessly asking for my help.

“Eun-ri?”

“Uh, what?”

But I couldn’t tell the truth.

What is the point of talking? It isn’t like Jin-chun, who had to leave, would completely destroy them.

He and Tae-kyung were departing early tomorrow morning, so I would have to deal with Un-bo and the others once more.

Moreover, the fact that Un-bo asked me for help was tantamount to indirectly extending a hand of reconciliation.

In return for directly covering their faults with my words, Un-bo made it clear that they wouldn’t touch the guesthouse, as he swore to Jin-chun earlier, but would also take care to ensure that even if Old Dragon Association moved ahead in the future, they wouldn’t touch the guesthouse.

Thinking about the future, it was right to persevere here even if it made me feel a bit upset.

Yeah, true, it was the right decision, but…

‘I wish for Jin-chun to maybe go with that person.’

I just didn’t feel like vouching.

To the extent that I believed it would be best to expose the truth and get those people out.

Still, I resented and hated my situation where I had no other choice but to protect Un-bo and the others.