Urban Vagabond: Reload

The Korean Martial Alliance had been in considerable turmoil lately.

It was because of a shocking piece of news that had arrived not long ago.

“The Eight Great Sects reported us to the World Martial Alliance?”

“They’re claiming the Alliance committed illegal acts and abused its authority...”

“Shameless bastards! Have they forgotten that what they’ve done for over ten years was an abuse of authority?”

“I heard the issue was that the Alliance reinstated a member who was expelled in disgrace long ago.”

“I heard that too. It’s that Sword Demon, right?”

As Alliance members murmured indignantly throughout the building, an old man arrived at the Martial Alliance.

The Alliance member checking his identification flinched, then cautiously looked at the old man in a bomber jacket.

“Your name is...?”

“Choi Geon. What? Do I look that different from the photo on my ID?”

“N-No, sir. Everything has been confirmed. Here is your visitor’s badge.”

It had been twenty years since Choi Geon had formally visited the Martial Alliance.

He studied the badge with an odd expression, then let out a quiet chuckle.

“Thank you for your trouble.”

As Choi Geon passed through the Martial Alliance’s main gate by official procedure, word of his arrival spread in an instant.

“That’s the Sword Demon...”

“I heard he served on the special operations team during the Black Heaven Society suppression operation.”

“Those masked people? Wasn’t that Blue Wolves?”

Despite the sidelong glances and endless whispers directed at him, Choi Geon crossed the Martial Alliance with an unhurried stride.

“The sunlight is especially nice today.”

After secretly infiltrating the Martial Alliance during the license exam because he had been worried about Kim Muhyuk, Choi Geon had met the Alliance Leader and resumed his role as the Martial Alliance’s Shadow Sword.

However, he had never wanted to reveal his identity to the world. He usually hid who he was or visited in secret.

It had been more than twenty years since he had shown his face openly before so many people.

I’ve always slipped in and out like a cat burglar. I never even had the leisure to take a proper look around the Alliance.

Choi Geon slowly looked over the buildings that had changed since his time. At times, he stopped walking altogether to watch the people coming and going through the Martial Alliance.

Then two middle-aged men in Martial Alliance uniforms approached him with stiff expressions.

They aren’t looking to pick a fight, are they?

Come on. Surely not...

As several martial artists watched tensely, the two middle-aged men respectfully cupped their fists before Choi Geon.

“Instructor Choi. Do you remember us?”

“It has been far too long. Have you been well all this time...?”

Unable to immediately place their faces, Choi Geon spoke with an apologetic look.

“Perhaps I’m getting old, but your faces are a little hazy. Were you two among those I taught swordsmanship to?”

“That’s right!”

They had been among the people Choi Geon personally trained when he served as a swordsmanship instructor for the Martial Alliance.

They were not close enough to call themselves his disciples, but neither was the connection between them insignificant.

Gentle smiles appeared on the two middle-aged men’s faces.

“Thanks to the solid foundations you gave us, Instructor, we’ve managed to hold our own in the Alliance all these years.”

“When we heard you had returned, we wanted to see you again so badly.”

In the welcoming faces of the two men, Choi Geon saw the young men they had been more than twenty years ago.

“...Weren’t you both with the Black Tortoise Unit?”

“Yes!”

“He’s the leader of Fifth Squad now, and I serve directly under the unit commander.”

The three exchanged old stories for a while.

The young men who had once been little more than green swordsmen had become veteran martial artists supporting the Martial Alliance.

A smile naturally rose to Choi Geon’s lips. The two middle-aged martial artists wore the same expression.

“By the way... are you formally returning to the Alliance?”

“You should, of course. When you were unfairly expelled, Instructor, we were furious. And now those Eight Great Sects bastards are trying to—”

The two men clearly welcomed Choi Geon’s return, yet complicated emotions showed on their faces as well.

Watching them, Choi Geon firmly shook his head.

“I have no intention of returning to the Martial Alliance. I came today only to see the Alliance Leader.”

At the upcoming special audit, the Eight Great Sects would surely use Choi Geon’s past as a pretext to attack the Martial Alliance.

He had come to discuss that matter with Yeo Pilgeuk. Returning to the Martial Alliance was not what Choi Geon wanted.

“I know the Martial Alliance has been having a difficult time lately because of me. You two must be worried as well, no?”

“What? That isn’t what we meant.”

“We were only wondering whether you were all right...”

Choi Geon gave the two flustered martial artists a teasing smile.

“Heh heh. Someone would think I was scolding you. I’m the one who committed the sins, so why are you two the ones getting flustered?”

“Why would you say that...”

“Instructor...”

Choi Geon did not regret the life he had lived.

His past in the Martial Alliance, when he had thrown himself wholly into rooting out the evil he despised.

...But he did not believe that every action he had taken along the way had been right.

After the Eight Great Sects had effectively driven him from the Martial Alliance and into seclusion, Choi Geon had gone over his past countless times.

Back then, I was too blinded by punishing evil to notice. Even if I never intended it, people could be hurt or suffer because of me.

In those days, Choi Geon’s hatred for evil had reached its peak.

The moment he came of age, he joined the Martial Alliance and volunteered for the most dangerous assignments before anyone else.

He had faced countless brushes with death. Yet every time, he killed the villains and survived, growing stronger with each battle.

For a time, he had even commanded an elite special unit known as the Demon Extermination Unit.

—Captain! It’s too dangerous for us to enter on our own! We should wait for reinforcements first—

—You can come later. I’ll go ahead and be taking their heads by then.

—Damn it... Everyone, follow the Captain!

Choi Geon’s methods were harsh, radical, and utterly uncompromising.

The road that led to him being called the Sword Demon had been soaked in blood beyond measure.

Not only the blood of corrupt-path villains, but also the blood of comrades who had fought beside him.

—Choi Geon! Were you trying to get all your men killed in the last battle?

—...I never forced them to follow me.

—What subordinate would sit still when his captain charges off, saying he’ll fight alone?

—Next time, I’ll order them to do exactly that before I leave. Is that enough?

—Grrr...!

The Sword Demon and the martial artists under his command were always deployed to the most dangerous places. No matter how well they fought, casualties were inevitable.

After several incidents of that kind, Yeo Pilgeuk came to find Choi Geon himself.

—May I ask one favor of you? Step away from the front lines and become a swordsmanship instructor. Train the Martial Alliance’s next generation.

—I refuse. I would rather leave the Martial Alliance.

—And I would like you to become the Martial Alliance’s Shadow Sword.

—...What do you mean?

That was how Choi Geon became a swordsmanship instructor by day and the Martial Alliance’s Shadow Sword by night.

Several years later, a heretical cult whose power had abruptly expanded through drugs and dark arts began severely threatening ordinary people.

—Wouldn’t the Sword Demon be the right man for this operation?

—There is no one better suited to it!

Choi Geon was nominated to command a special unit meant to wipe out the cult’s senior members. Even the senior figures of the Eight Great Sects who had agreed to join the top-secret operation supported the decision.

But on the battlefield, after leading the Martial Alliance’s and Eight Great Sects’ elite forces on a campaign against the heretical cult, Choi Geon fell into a trap and returned after losing most of his comrades.

—There was a trap! I will not deny my responsibility, but I will not step down until I uncover the spy who leaked our information!

It was obvious that the operation had been leaked from within, and Choi Geon erupted in fury during the meeting meant to determine responsibility.

But then—

—...I will testify. The Sword Demon, Choi Geon, recklessly forced the operation forward, resulting in numerous deaths. There was no intelligence leak. Everything happened because of the Sword Demon Choi Geon’s poor judgment.

Even now, remembering the moment when the disciple he had cherished most turned away from him made his heart ache.

Cold sweat formed on his brow as old trauma surfaced.

“Instructor? Are you all right?”

“Are you feeling unwell?”

“...I’m fine.”

Pulled back from the past, Choi Geon answered through the cold sweat on his face. Then he forced a smile.

“There will be no trouble for the Martial Alliance because of me, as there was twenty years ago. So you two need not worry.”

“We have never thought that.”

“Instructor, you did the right thing. What happened then was only—”

“Enough. Enough.”

Choi Geon waved a hand, cutting them off.

“I’ve kept busy men talking for too long. Let us meet again another time, should the chance arise.”

“...Understood.”

“We’ll see you again.”

Realizing that Choi Geon wanted to end the conversation, the two middle-aged martial artists offered their farewells first and left.

“...”

Choi Geon watched their backs for a moment before turning away.

To think there were still people in the Martial Alliance who remembered him.

With an odd feeling in his chest, he headed for the Martial Alliance Leader’s office.

Knock, knock—

“Come in.”

When Choi Geon entered after knocking, Yeo Pilgeuk rose to greet him with a weary expression.

“Alliance Leader. It seems you have more wrinkles than when I saw you last.”

At Choi Geon’s pointless joke, Yeo Pilgeuk narrowed his eyes.

“Whose fault do you think that is? I told you to lie low for a while. Is even that one thing too difficult? Thanks to you, the paperwork I need to handle has multiplied several times over.”

“Heh heh. Weren’t you the one who said it was nice to be swamped with work in your old age?”

“That is something one says when the Martial Alliance finally gets to fully pursue the great ambitions it has kept restrained.”

Yeo Pilgeuk let out a long sigh. A bitter expression crossed his face before he spoke with difficulty.

“...I’m sorry.”

It had been Yeo Pilgeuk who made Choi Geon the Martial Alliance’s Shadow Sword in the past.

But when Choi Geon was falsely accused, the Alliance Leader—whose foundation and authority had been weak—had not been able to protect him to the end from the Eight Great Sects’ fierce attacks.

Even now, Yeo Pilgeuk carried guilt for not having acted more decisively back then.

Yet Choi Geon himself looked puzzled.

“What could the Alliance Leader possibly have to apologize to me for?”

“Their target is the Martial Alliance in the end. They intend to use you as a pretext to tarnish the Alliance’s image and incite public opinion. And to accomplish that, they will dig through every corner of your past...”

They would undoubtedly edit and emphasize only the darkest, most painful parts of the life Choi Geon had lived as a martial artist.

Knowing that, Yeo Pilgeuk could not understand why Choi Geon still intended to attend the special audit.

“It is not too late even now. Hide for a while. I will handle this somehow...”

“Alliance Leader.”

Choi Geon looked steadily at Yeo Pilgeuk.

His eyes were deep and dark.

“I no longer wish to live hidden in darkness.”

“...”

“It is time to settle the debts I have built up myself. If I have committed wrongs, I will repent. If there is a price of sin I must pay, then I will pay it. But...”

As Yeo Pilgeuk’s expression hardened, Choi Geon gave his usual low chuckle.

“That disciple of mine told me something. He said that even if my methods had been harsh, the path walked by a martial artist named Choi Geon had surely been the correct path.”

There were people who believed in him, a man whose hands had been stained with countless lives.

For their sake as well, Choi Geon wanted to walk into the light with his head held high.

But that was not the only reason.

“And if I attend, won’t he have to appear before me as well?”

“...The Eight Great Sects?”

Choi Geon shook his head with an inscrutable smile.

He was not referring merely to the Eight Great Sects.

“Who do you think wants to kill me more than anyone?”

“Choi Geon, surely you don’t mean...?”

“Only then will the evil with the deepest roots show itself again.”

As though he had waited for this moment alone, Choi Geon bared a savage smile.

“It is the perfect chance to rip out his throat.”