Chapter 1192. Countering (2)

Chapter 1192. Countering (2)

Ta-dat!

The footsteps echoing in the air sounded crisp and energetic.

Yoshinobu finally reached the top of the ‘hill’ and stepped on the Martial Assembly HQ’s grounds.

Shinichi-kai’s elites followed right behind him and entered the spacious open field in front of the main building. The Japanese warriors quickly scanned the surroundings. However...!

‘Why is it so quiet around here?’

Yoshinobu furrowed his brow.

No matter how sloppy the security was, the Assembly’s people should have realized Yoshinobu and his men were on their way by now.

The distance between here and the entrance of the mountain road should be at least one kilometer. And he must’ve spotted dozens of CCTV cameras along the way, too. Since there were cameras, someone must’ve been monitoring the feeds.

So, why didn’t the alarm go off?

Yoshinobu glanced at his advisor. “Could it be that Kang Jin-Ho has fled already?”

“...Unlikely, sir.”

“Unlikely? But the information about our operation could have been leaked!”

“Yes, that’s a possibility, sir. However, even if that happened, and Kang Jin-Ho knew about us making a beeline to this place, he’s not the type to run away.”

Yoshinobu scowled deeply. He couldn’t understand what his advisor was trying to say.

“The higher-ups determined that Kang Jin-Ho’s personality would preclude him from fleeing, sir! As such, he will be here.”

Yoshinobu narrowed his eyes. “So, he won’t run away even after learning about us?”

“Yes, sir!”

“Then how do you explain this situation?”

“That... I’m not...”

Yoshinobu gritted his teeth.

‘What dogsh*t nonsense are you talking about it!’

Kang Jin-Ho would never run away? What kind of inane babble was this?

Even the famed generals from Japan’s history, recognized as brave commanders, didn’t hesitate to flee if the flow of war strongly disfavored them.

This was what it meant to fight with the mindset of ‘No Retreat, No Surrender’. It certainly did not mean you should foolishly not retreat from a losing battle!

But the boss of the Korean Martial Assembly wanted to stick around even after finding out about an army of this scale was coming? And fight them, to boot?

“Don’t speak nonsense and search the area, right now! Our plan will go down the drain if he’s not here! Find him!”

Yoshinobu, incensed by the lackadaisical response from his subordinate, was about to issue new commands. However, his hand suddenly stopped moving on its own. Even his body followed suit and froze on the spot.

Like a robot stuck in one pose, Yoshinobu slowly and creakily turned his head.

He couldn’t understand why his body was behaving this way. However, his head still ignored his will and turned to look in a certain direction.

That direction was the Assembly HQ’s main building, with all of its lights turned off. More correctly, it was the glass doors in the building’s foyer.

When Yoshinobu acted strangely, other Japanese warriors couldn’t help but chase after his gaze and stare at the building’s entrance.

‘What... is that?’

Everyone reflexively narrowed his eyes to focus their vision.

That was because they could see

something

faintly flickering in red within the darkness.

This mountainside was as dark as it could get. As there were no man-made light sources in the vicinity, the darkness of the night made it difficult to decipher what was in front of one’s nose.

But such darkness made it so much easier to notice that flicker of light in the distance.

That red dot suddenly grew brighter before vanishing into the darkness.

Yoshinobu narrowed his eyes even more. Wasn’t that...?

That was when the light came back to life again.

Yoshinobu was sure of what that light was now.

‘A cigarette?’

The red light grew in light before vanishing again. The shape of the light, and the rate of its flickering, reminded him of someone smoking a cigarette.

And it seemed his thoughts were on the mark too, as he could hear the distinct footsteps coming from the foyer next.

Creaaak...

The sound of the glass door opening shouldn’t have been this loud. Yet, on this eerily still mountainside, that noise had enough power to echo into the surroundings like a wail of a mournful ghost.

Clomp, clomp...!

As those quiet footsteps rang out, a man walked out of the darkness of the building’s foyer. The cigarette dangling between his lips burned brightly before a puff of white smoke wafted into the air.

“Yoshinobu-

sama

!”

“...Yes, I know,” Yoshinobu calmly replied.

He didn’t need to hear it from his subordinate since he could instinctively tell.

Even his body was faintly trembling ever since that man showed up, too!

‘Just how... How were we evaluating that man until now?’

A lucky bastard born in an ownerless land called Korea, allowing him to devour it in the proverbial blink of an eye! A man who was skillful enough to unite South Korea and become a threat to Japan! And lastly...

‘If we can eliminate him, the Korean martial society will instantly crumble into nothing. In other words, this country’s weakness!’

That was how Shinichi-kai evaluated Kang Jin-Ho until now.

Maybe those evaluations were right on the money. It wasn’t as if those points could be argued against, after all.

However, Yoshinobu was now convinced that his organization’s evaluation had been completely wrong.

When evaluating someone, that person’s most important, perhaps their most defining, aspect must be included in the evaluation. Without it, no evaluation would matter, regardless of how detailed and perfect it was.

As for the most important, defining aspect of Kang Jin-Ho? It was neither his influence nor faction. And it wasn’t his strength, either!

Yoshinobu understood that the moment he saw Kang Jin-Ho’s distant figure.

Clomp, clomp...

Kang Jin-Ho leisurely walked up to the Assembly’s athletic field, then casually held his cigarette.

“Fuu-woo...”

After lazily exhaling the cigarette smoke into the night air, Kang Jin-Ho turned his head slightly to glance at Yoshinobu.

Flinch!

Yoshinobu almost stumbled back against his will when his gaze met Kang Jin-Ho’s. What stopped his legs from moving instinctively wasn’t his courage, but the knowledge of a thousand Japanese warriors watching him from behind!

“You’ve...”

The man, Kang Jin-Ho, scanned the Japanese filling the field before addressing Yoshinobu.

“...Traveled pretty far.”

Yoshinobu nervously swallowed his saliva. Even doing something as simple as that hurt, since his lips and throat had dried out in the blink of an eye!

But this pain helped Yoshinobu sober up.

‘Am I... Am I nervous because of him?’

Getting nervous was obviously natural. There shouldn’t be anything strange about it.

However, it was rather bizarre to get nervous about encountering one opponent when he had one thousand elite warriors behind him!

One thousand! An army of this scale had enough power to wipe out most

gumis

without leaving any traces behind. In fact, this level of combat force could utterly annihilate Kanto’s Yamashiro-gumi, too!

The only reason Shinichi-kai had left Yamashiro-gumi alone until now, despite possessing such incredible combat power, was because it wasn’t worth the trouble.

The Iemoto and the higher-ups believed that ‘benefits’ from destroying Yamashiro-gumi couldn’t make up for the losses incurred during the war, as well as the headaches that would surely follow afterward. That was the only reason the war had not happened between the two

gumis.

That was how powerful this army was. An army that could easily rival a country’s martial society was backing Yoshinobu here, so why...

Why did he find squeezing his voice out so difficult?

This was not something his head could figure out. His body shrunk back first even before his head could understand the situation.

Yoshinobu subtly bit his lip.

Even though this situation was beyond his comprehension, trying to understand it was a foolish waste of his time.

What mattered in a situation like this wasn’t finding the source of confusion, but responding appropriately to it first.

Even now, elite warriors were watching him. Displaying any hints of weakness would instantly destroy the army’s morale.

“Are you...”

Yoshinobu forced his recalcitrant lips to part. Thankfully, he sounded the same as his usual self.

“...Kang Jin-Ho?”

Kang Jin-Ho’s response to Yoshinobu’s question was to puff silently away at his cigarette before lazily exhaling the unhealthy smoke.

“That is the stupidest question I’ve heard in my life.”

“...Say what?”

“Didn’t you come here to kill me?”

Yoshinobu grimaced silently.

“But you want me to confirm if you’ve found the right person or not? What an amusing fella you are.”

Kang Jin-Ho cracked a ridiculing smirk.

Yoshinobu realized his slip-up, and his face grew flushed in an instant. “Why, you...!”

“Sure, I’m Kang Jin-Ho.”

Yoshinobu was forced to shut his mouth again.

For some reason, he found it tricky to find the right timing to say something. Even though they hadn’t conversed for long, Kang Jin-Ho already dictated the pace of this exchange!

“Fine. I acknowledge you,” said Yoshinobu with a deep sigh.

He was acting stiff like this because of his pride. As long as he acknowledged how incredible his enemy was, and how much he paled in comparison, this encounter should become so much ‘easier’ for his mind to handle.

Yoshinobu didn’t come here to fight Kang Jin-Ho as a martial artist. No, he was strictly the Iemoto’s tool and a general leading this army.

Letting his pride rule over him when over a thousand elite warriors were accompanying him sounded like the height of folly.

Yoshinobu was no fool. He couldn’t have attained the lofty position of Shinichi-kai’s commander without boasting incredible abilities. Indeed, he had obtained this glorious position by overwhelming and defeating all would-be competitors, hadn’t he!

“You are indeed worthy of many praises,” said Yoshinobu.

Kang Jin-Ho silently stared at the Japanese.

“I wouldn’t have been as relaxed as you before an army of one thousand. Hence, I acknowledge it. You are the first true warrior I’ve encountered.”

There was no ambush. No support or reinforcement, either.

That was what Yoshinobu’s senses told him. Although the main building wasn’t completely empty, none of the people inside felt strong enough to be a threat.

In other words, Kang Jin-Ho really was standing before this army all by himself.

Whether such a thing was even sane or not didn’t matter. No, what mattered was Kang Jin-Ho brazenly standing tall like this. That alone made him worthy of acknowledgment.

“You are powerful. Powerful enough to rule over South Korea’s martial society.”

Yoshinobu sucked in a deep breath before straightening his back with some force.

“And that’s what makes this operation worth it. Today, we will kill you here and raise Shinichi-kai’s flag in victory. Killing you will be recorded as an everlasting glory in Shinichi-kai’s history. So, rejoice.

“We acknowledge you. Thus, we shall try even harder. We shall give it our all! So that we can definitely kill you. You, the honorable warrior!”

Yoshinobu yanked his sword out and pointed it at Kang Jin-Ho. Determination and respect filled his expression to the brim.

The other Japanese warriors standing in formation behind him also glared in determination at Kang Jin-Ho.

Maybe this was the best form of respect they could offer to their enemy.

One thousand elites promised to give their all while fighting one man. Wasn’t that the same as acknowledging that one man’s worth rivaled that of a thousand?

There couldn’t be a better or greater sign of respect than this.

However, Kang Jin-Ho’s response to such a show of respect remained icy.

“You sure like running your mouth off, don’t you?”

He took one last deep puff of his cigarette before discarding it on the ground. He even stepped on it, thoroughly crushing it.

“A true warrior, you say?”

The corners of Kang Jin-Ho’s lips lazily curled up.

𝕗𝐫𝐞𝕖𝕨𝐞𝗯𝚗𝕠𝘃𝐞𝚕.𝐜𝗼𝚖

“You think you’re qualified?”

Yoshinobu scowled after noticing Kang Jin-Ho’s sneer.

“You’re mere invaders, yet you think you have the right to label who’s a warrior or not? How egotistical.”

“...”

“Not only that, but stupid, to boot.”

“...You bastard!”

Kang Jin-Ho glanced leisurely at Yoshinobu, causing the Japanese to grip his sword even tighter reflexively.

That was because the Korean’s atmosphere had changed in an instant. The unfathomably deep and vast feeling Kang Jin-Ho used to give off had vanished. In its place was this vicious and oppressive aura that threatened to rupture Yoshinobu’s heart merely by staring into Kang Jin-Ho’s eyes!

“You sure figured out where I was.”

“...?”

“Quite easily too, wouldn’t you say?” Kang Jin-Ho asked, while baring his fangs in a ferocious smirk. “How do you think that was possible, though?”

“...!” Yoshinobu’s eyes trembled subtly just then. “Our information network is...”

“Aren’t you curious where that information even came from? Isn’t it weird when you think about it? You were told that I’d be here. And I remained here, waiting for your arrival.”

Yoshinobu cautiously sneaked a glance in his advisor’s direction. The latter’s complexion was as pale as it could get.

“Who do you think told you I’d be here?”

“...!”

“Isn’t it funny?” Kang Jin-Ho muttered while suddenly extending a hand into the empty air next to him.

The space began wavering strangely before two swords were pulled out of thin air.

Yoshinobu’s eyes opened wider at this bizarre phenomenon he had never witnessed before.

Kang Jin-Ho unsheathed his weapons while smirking eerily.

“Moths flying toward the flame don’t realize they are about to get burned alive. Exactly like... all of you.”

The world seemed to get submerged in even denser darkness than before.

A darkness that no one could escape from!