Urban Vagabond: Reload

What Choi Geon encountered within his Inner Demon was darkness so dense that he could not see an inch ahead.

What a fitting place for me.

Choi Geon walked endlessly through the abyssal darkness.

He could guess what awaited him at the end, but he still wanted to see it with his own eyes.

“Hehehehe. The sword-wielding devil has finally fallen into the hell of unending torment.”

“You’ll soon be joining us.”

“You punish evil? Then who will punish you?”

The ghosts of the monstrous villains he had killed appeared and whispered ceaselessly into his ears.

Some clung to his shoulders, while others seized the legs of his pants.

With ghosts hanging all over him, Choi Geon dragged them along as he pushed through the darkness.

“Geon.”

When his master, dead for many years, appeared before him, Choi Geon stopped for the first time.

“Did I not tell you that righteousness and corruption, good and evil, are merely two sides of the same coin? If you understood that and overcame your hatred, the path to becoming a peerless master would surely open before you! All you had to do was show a little flexibility...!”

As the ghost’s temptation mingled with the words his master had once spoken, Choi Geon furrowed his brow.

“Begone, evil ghost.”

Choi Geon swung the black sword in his hand.

KRAK!

His master’s neck split apart and fell to the ground.

The severed head instantly transformed into an entirely different face.

“Old devil. Do you really think you’re any different from me?”

It was the face of the Skybreaker Gate sect leader’s younger cousin.

Choi Geon had captured and killed the man long ago.

Reduced to nothing but a head, he looked up at Choi Geon from the ground and cackled.

“You killed me, and that’s why you ended up like this. Had you quietly let the matter slide back then, you wouldn’t be cornered and causing trouble for everyone around you now. Don’t you regret it?”

CRUNCH!

Choi Geon crushed the face beneath his foot and continued walking through the darkness.

I have only one regret. That I did not kill you bastards sooner.

One by one, the ghosts clinging to him fell away before his razor-sharp presence.

He was a martial artist who had spent his entire life punishing evil, earning the name Sword Demon.

Yet despite what he had said while driving away the ghosts, he too had his share of anguish.

After committing so many blood-soaked deeds, I have ultimately become evil myself.

He had steeped himself too deeply in the demonic while punishing evil.

Deep in his heart, Choi Geon despised himself.

It was a truth he had never revealed to anyone.

THUD.

The path ended before a door as enormous as a wall.

The door was black as though it had absorbed all the darkness around it, and the hideous face of a devil had been painted upon it in blood.

Looking up at the door, Choi Geon knew instinctively.

If I open this door and step through, I will reach the realm of a peerless master.

“Hehehehe...”

His madness surged to its peak, and laughter escaped his lips.

He could no longer tell enlightenment from his Inner Demon.

Perhaps, for him, the two had always been the same.

I...

When he resolved to become a demon in order to punish evil, he had become a supreme master and earned the title Sword Demon.

Then what would he become if he crossed this threshold?

Would he still remain human?

Though he hesitated, Choi Geon slowly reached toward the door.

Even if I become a monster and fall into hell, I do not care. I will devote everything I have to eradicating evil!

It was a decision born from self-loathing, as though he were hurling himself into the mire.

He hated evil and had always believed that hatred was the entirety of his life...

—Master.

—Teacher.

—Sir.

That was when voices reached him from outside.

Choi Geon raised his head and looked up at the sky.

The darkness filling the world gradually receded as light began to seep through.

—When you wake up, tell us more stories about your glory days, all right?

—It’s strangely boring without you nagging us... So hurry up and wake up already.

—Tomorrow’s mission is to wear animal-ear headbands and take pictures together!

—Everyone will eventually realize that you’re a good person, Teacher.

—Even if the sky splits in two, we’ll still be on your side. You know that, right?

The people calling out to him.

Their warm, affectionate voices illuminated the abyssal darkness.

That light seeped into Choi Geon’s body and thawed his frozen heart.

“So that is where you were...”

Choi Geon stared blankly at the sky for a moment before turning back toward the door.

The hideous devil painted upon it bled as it spoke to him.

If he followed that light, he would never be able to return here.

This was his final opportunity to become a peerless master.

“Hehehe. Perhaps I was simply born contrary, but hearing such nonsense makes my stomach turn.”

Without the slightest hesitation, Choi Geon swung his black sword and cut through the door.

SHRAAAK!

As the door faded away and the devil writhed in agony, Choi Geon cackled at it.

“Devil within my heart. It seems you intended to devour me and escape into the world...”

When Choi Geon extended his hand, the devil inside the door was dragged out.

SKREEEEEE!

It thrashed in refusal, but Choi Geon seized it by the collar and cackled once more.

“Come along. This old man shall reform you. Let us see how we fare living together.”

The devil resisted for a long while before finally growing still, as though submitting to Choi Geon.

FSSSS...

Only then did the Inner Demon disperse.

The darkness completely receded, allowing Choi Geon to return to reality.

“Those insolent brats... I suppose I shall have to go out there and teach them a lesson.”

He leaped toward the dazzling sky with a faint smile.

*****

“H-Hic!”

When the Skybreaker Gate sect leader suddenly hiccupped, everyone turned toward him in surprise.

Gripping his sword tightly, he glared at Choi Geon and erupted with killing intent.

“How dare you—!”

Yet Choi Geon remained seated without moving.

“What has gotten into you all of a sudden?”

Had the Azure Sky Sword Elder not hurriedly grabbed his arm, the Skybreaker Gate sect leader might have charged straight at Choi Geon and swung his sword.

“Did you not see it? That man just...!”

“Just what?”

Only then did the agitated sect leader realize what was happening.

Choi Geon was sitting perfectly still, while he alone had nearly flown into a frenzy.

His face reddened as he clenched his teeth.

“H-He insulted me through a private transmission. I was so enraged that I momentarily lost control...”

“Sit down and calm yourself. You have been far too agitated for some time now.”

Choi Geon displayed no killing intent and carried no weapon.

There was nothing remotely threatening about him.

“What was that about?”

“He must have cursed him viciously through a private transmission.”

“What could he possibly have said...?”

As everyone murmured in confusion over the Skybreaker Gate sect leader’s fit, Ivan Volkov alone twitched an eyebrow.

Could it be...?

As a World Martial Alliance investigator, he had witnessed similar scenes several times before.

However, every one of those cases had involved a peerless master attending as a suspect.

Projecting one’s mental image into another person’s mind and forcing them to witness it.

Those subjected to it often reacted exactly like this.

That cannot possibly be the case.

Ivan Volkov shook his head at the possibility, which sounded absurd even to him.

“Investigator.”

Kim Muhyuk rose from his seat.

He had remained silent ever since the public hearing began, and this was the first time he spoke.

“The Eight Great Sects appear to have presented their arguments sufficiently. May we now call our witnesses?”

“Very well.”

Ivan Volkov nodded, and the first witness prepared by the Martial Alliance entered.

“Hmph. It seems they intend to make one final desperate struggle.”

Having finally returned to his seat, the Skybreaker Gate sect leader scoffed at the sight.

No matter whom they brought in as witnesses, they could not change the undeniable truth that Choi Geon had killed nearly a hundred orthodox martial artists.

Any excuses would only drag them deeper into the mire.

Public opinion would never forgive a man who had slaughtered orthodox martial artists by the dozen.

This was a battle he could not lose.

“Our first witness.”

Kim Muhyuk knew that as well.

That was why he had decided to change the frame entirely.

It was obvious that you would cling to the people who died at Master’s hands.

Instead of denying what his master had done, he would find the people his master had saved.

“I-I am meeting the man named Choi Geon for the first time today.”

The first witness was an ordinary middle-aged woman with streaks of white in her hair.

She seemed to have gathered her courage with great difficulty and lowered her head beneath the flood of attention.

“My husband was killed by an unorthodox martial artist thirty years ago. Our child was five at the time. I had no idea what I was going to do.”

The atmosphere in the hearing hall grew solemn as she told her story.

“They eventually caught the culprit, but he claimed he had been drugged and remembered nothing. We never received any compensation either...”

The woman, who had been speaking cautiously, raised her head and looked at Choi Geon.

Her eyes glistened with tears.

“But a few months later, a large sum of money arrived as support funds. It had been sent under the name of the commander of the Martial Alliance’s Demon Extermination Unit.”

The Demon Extermination Unit was an organization Choi Geon had once commanded long ago.

However, it had been disbanded soon afterward, and the middle-aged woman was only now meeting the benefactor she had searched for her entire life.

She bowed deeply to Choi Geon.

“Thanks to that money, I was able to start a business and put my son through college. Thank you so much.”

Choi Geon did not remember her.

There had been far too many people with stories similar to hers.

“A mother who raised and protected her child alone is the admirable one. I did nothing.”

Choi Geon smiled warmly and nodded.

It was a smile the villains who had faced him could never have imagined.

The second witness was a sturdily built man in his thirties.

“I was kidnapped when I was a child. It was a major case that even made the news... That man rescued me.”

He explained that after Choi Geon saved him, he had wanted to become someone who helped others, so he became a firefighter.

“Ahem. I do not know whether you remember me.”

The third witness was an elderly man around Choi Geon’s age.

Leaning on a cane, he slowly stepped forward.

“I went on a trip with my children, only for us to be captured and tormented by a group of villains. The Martial Alliance launched an operation to rescue us, and that man was the first one to jump out of the helicopter!”

Every witness was someone who owed Choi Geon a tremendous debt of gratitude.

They were people from his past whom the members of Blue Wolves had tirelessly tracked down.

Others had contacted them first, saying they wanted to repay his kindness.

“Hahahaha...!”

Overcome with delight and gratitude, Choi Geon burst into joyful laughter.

His gaze passed over the witnesses and settled on the gallery behind them.

Teacher, over here!

We did well, didn’t we?

You have no idea how hard it was to find those people!

Shin Kangheon, Kim Bokja, Hwang Suksu, and Han Jaechun stood there with proud expressions, waving their hands enthusiastically.

As the witnesses brought by Blue Wolves gave their vivid testimony, public opinion—which had been turning against Choi Geon—gradually began to shift.

“...It sounds like he did too many good things to call him completely evil.”

“After hearing these people, doesn’t it almost seem like the opposite?”

“There must have been some reason for what he did...”

People began to see another side of the old man they had regarded as a murderer without equal.

Even the reporters who had been writing sensational articles paused their hands.

After confirming the change in the atmosphere, Kim Muhyuk raised his voice.

“You said that ninety-eight martial artists died at my master’s hands?”

Kim Muhyuk looked directly at the unsettled sect leaders of the Eight Great Sects.

Then he turned toward the people gathered in the gallery, the countless cameras, and finally Investigator Ivan Volkov.

“But the martial artist named Choi Geon may have protected thousands—perhaps even tens of thousands—of people. Most of them were ordinary civilians. In the orthodox faction, someone who does such things is called a heroic swordsman.”

Ivan Volkov said nothing, merely giving a slight nod.

“That bastard...!”

The Skybreaker Gate sect leader glared at Kim Muhyuk with bloodshot eyes, while the other sect leaders remained grimly silent.

They appeared to be searching for a rebuttal, but Kim Muhyuk had no intention of giving them the time.

“Therefore...”

Kim Muhyuk turned to Choi Geon.

Master and disciple met each other’s eyes.

A question appeared in the depths of Choi Geon’s gaze.

What are you trying to do?

Everything.

Restore the honor of the master whom the Eight Great Sects had unjustly driven out.

Make Yang Seonu pay the proper price for betraying that master.

And one thing more.

This was why Kim Muhyuk had expanded the affair to such a scale and dragged it into the public eye.

“I hereby formally request the reinstatement of Choi Geon, former commander of the Demon Extermination Unit, to the Martial Alliance.”

He would make the Sword Demon no longer a Shadow Sword hidden away by the Martial Alliance, but a divine sword whose very existence made evildoers tremble.