Chapter 11: Overtime (2)

The moment I opened the door and stepped inside, I bowed with my fists clasped.

“The youngest disciple, Il-mok, greets his Master and senior disciples."

As I slowly raised my head, I took in the scene before me. Appetizing dishes were laid out in rather elegant bowls, and at the head of the table sat Master.

"Come in, come in. Everyone, greet him. This is Il-mok, the youngest disciple I've taken in my twilight years."

Following Master's brief introduction, a middle-aged man sitting closest to Master nodded.

"Hahaha! Welcome, junior brother. I am Wi Jin-hak, your Eldest Brother."

Eldest Brother greeted me with a laugh that could be described as hearty at best, or foolish at worst. However, I couldn't let that smile fool me.

'He's definitely the one who learned the Raging Demon Sword Art.'

This was information I'd gotten from Jin Hayeon. The side effect of the Raging Demon Sword Art was intermittent explosive disorder. Not the selective kind, but a genuine, all-consuming rage. He was the type who would slice my neck off the moment he snapped, regardless of whether Master was present or not.

"It's an honor to meet you, Eldest Brother."

I tried to ignore the sweat dripping down my back and gave him the most polite greeting I could muster.

'...Honestly, he seems more like a Martial Uncle or Grand Martial Uncle rather than a Senior Brother.'

Eldest Brother Wi Jin-hak was forty-five years old this year and considering this body was fifteen, he wasn't anywhere near an age I should be calling ‘brother’.

'To think someone like him has the title Mad Demon (狂魔)'

He gave off the impression of a kind neighborhood uncle who was a bit slow, the type you'd find in every neighborhood back in the day.

But his title was indeed the Mad Demon.

About twenty years ago, when the Eldest Brother's mastery of the Raging Demon Sword Art reached Extremity, he went berserk and was subdued multiple times by Master.

Master then advised him, "If you cannot control your anger, don’t take it out on innocent people. Go find some evildoers and cleanse the world of them."

The Eldest Brother was so moved by this advice that whenever he felt himself about to go berserk, he’d leave Xinjiang and head for the Central Plains.

He’d then proceed to unleash all his pent-up rage on any local martial artists or crooked officials he could find. The body count from him alone supposedly broke a thousand.

Naturally, the Murim Alliance declared Eldest Brother a public enemy of the jianghu, and his berserk, anger-fueled appearance earned him the title "Mad Demon."

After nearly ten years of venting his fury, Eldest Brother finally started to break free from the Extremity of the Raging Demon Sword Art.

'...No matter how I look at it, it's a miracle he didn't die.'

It was remarkable in many ways that he survived after rampaging dozens of times in the Central Plains and killing over a thousand people.

If he had died, I guess they would have just chalked it up to another ‘side effect’ of his training.

Anyway, the report said that he's now moving past the Extremity stage and is 'close to' achieving Transcendence.

And for me, the key words there are 'close to' achieving Transcendence.

In other words, it meant he hadn't yet fully achieved Transcendence.

‘Which means if I provoke him in the wrong way and he snaps, the rage disorder could pop right back out.’

If I let my guard down because of that foolish-looking smile, I'd be dead meat.

After I finished greeting Eldest Brother in this tense atmosphere, a man sitting opposite Eldest Brother spoke in a gloomy tone.

"Seo Wan-pyeong."

Third Brother Seo Wan-pyeong.

If I remember correctly, he was thirty-four years old. I bowed with clasped hands to this man who gave off a gloomy aura, looking like a worn-out middle manager.

"Pleased to meet you, Third Brother. I am Il-mok."

"Why are you greeting me twice? Are you treating me like I'm dead?"

"......"

I was momentarily speechless.

'F*ck...'

The martial art Seo Wan-pyeong had learned was the Shadowless Fourteen Moves. True to its name, it was a Demonic Art that boasted swift and traceless sword techniques, and its side effect was none other than paranoia.

A condition where one interprets everything negatively.

And unfortunately, Seo Wan-pyeong hadn't completely broken free from the Extremity of his Demonic Art.

'If I hadn't greeted him, he would've thrown a fit about being ignored.'

As I stood there hesitating, unable to do either right or wrong.

"Third."

A voice imbued with immense energy emerged from Master's mouth.

"!!!"

As our Master's energy had driven away the demonic energy plaguing Third Brother's mind, he shook his head several times and then looked at me with somewhat clearer eyes.

"Ahem. I apologize."

“Hahaha! Not at all! It was my fault for not knowing proper etiquette. Please don’t worry about it, Senior Brother.”

Though he looked like he was sane for the moment, I was extremely careful not to provoke him.

If his paranoia kicked in again, he might sneak into my room one moonlit night and take my head.

The Shadowless Fourteen Moves specialized in assassination, after all.

As this spine-chilling greeting was over, a young man sitting one seat away from Master compared to the other two Senior Brothers greeted me.

"It's nice to meet you. I am Jong-ri Chu, the Sixth Disciple."

"Pleased to meet you, Sixth Brother. I am Il-mok."

Fortunately, Sixth Brother didn't react to my greeting like Third Brother had.

Instead, he slightly furrowed his brows while looking at me, then suddenly turned his head slightly to look beside me.

Sixth Brother Jong-ri Chu alternated between looking at the empty space and me.

The Demonic Art he had learned was the Mad Soul Sword Art, and its side effect was none other than schizophrenia.

After seemingly seeing something that wasn't there for a moment, Sixth Brother soon looked back at me with a gentle smile.

"Ah. My apologies, junior brother. I was just mistaken for a moment, please don't mind it."

If there was any consolation, due to his young age of twenty-four, he hadn't completely entered the Extremity stage yet.

Meaning he was just mixing up reality and hallucinations every once in a while. He wasn't totally lost in them… yet.

'Mental note: after I graduate, I need to stay the hell away from these guys.'

Though they might be "relatively" sane now, it takes one year to enter the Hall of the Demonic Way and two years to complete all the training there.

By the time three years had passed, their condition would likely change, for better or worse.

Or I might be assassinated by Third Brother in the meantime.

Shiver

Third Brother Seo Wan-pyeong was glaring at Sixth Brother sinisterly.

Apparently, he thought Sixth Brother had interrupted his turn while he was greeting me.

He seemed to think this was because Sixth Brother looked down on him.

And in response to Third Brother's sinister gaze, Sixth Brother looked in his direction.

"Hmm?"

More precisely, at the empty seat beside the Third Brother.

"Fourth Brother. When did you get here?”

"......"

Sixth Brother was greeting the Fourth Brother, who had reportedly died at the hands of orthodox sects while on a mission.

He suddenly shook his head several times, then soon returned to clarity.

"Ah. I seem to have had another hallucination. I apologize."

"Uahahahaha! It's alright, little brother. You must have missed Fourth Brother from your childhood. Huhahaha!"

In response to Jong-ri Chu's apology, Eldest Brother Wi Jin-hak burst into another foolish laugh.

'What a mess.'

It was a scene that made me want to sigh, but I managed to endure it with a transcendent patience.

The moment I sighed, I might incur the wrath of one of the three senior brothers.

After all, none of them was in their right mind.

“Ahem. Well, don't just stand there. Go on, sit down.”

At Master's order, I nervously walked over and sat down in the empty seat next to Third Brother.

Luckily, Sixth Brother seemed to have his head on straight for the moment and didn't start shouting about how I’d stolen a dead guy's chair.

And so the "fun" company dinner began, surrounded by my dear senior brothers, who were all clearly broken in the head.

“Hahaha! It’s great to finally have a drink with you all again, Master, my brothers!”

Surprisingly, it was Eldest Brother, not Master, who was playing host.

He poured drinks for Master's cup, filled all the disciples' cups, and then poured his own while leading toasts, or constantly burst into foolish laughter.

After a bit of chitchat over food and drinks…

“It’s good to be with all of you again. Come to think of it, did you all handle the tasks I assigned while I was away in the Central Plains?"

It’s been a few sips and Master's words almost made me sigh.

'Talking about work at a company dinner.'

Indeed, a company dinner was undoubtedly overtime.

Especially if it was a company dinner with an old-fashioned, stubborn boomer.

"Hahaha! Don't worry, Master. There were no problems near Karamay where I was assigned."

"As for the area near Bachu, there were reports of bandits settling near the Tarim Basin, so this disciple took care of them and returned."

However, the senior brothers didn't seem to have any particular complaints.

I guess since they were all old-timers too, this was just normal for them.

After listening to Master and the three senior brothers talk about work for a while, Master suddenly looked at me.

"Now that I think about it, we haven't explained the situation to our youngest."

“Oh, don’t mind me. Please, carry on.”

"Hahaha! How could we do that, youngest? You too will be doing these tasks after graduating from the Hall of the Demonic Way."

“Jin-hak is right.”

Thanks to Eldest Brother's meddling, Master suddenly brought up work talk with me as well.

Master's explanation was brief. My kidnapping by Master in the Central Plains was just a coincidental event. Originally, Master had other business in the Central Plains and had to leave Xinjiang for a while.

Therefore, Master had instructed the three senior brothers to patrol the regions under the Heavenly Demon Divine Cult’s influence in Xinjiang and check if there were any problems of civilians being harassed.

That's why when I returned to the headquarters with our Master, the senior disciples were still away.

With Master returning earlier than expected due to being tracked by the Murim Alliance and kidnapping me as a disciple, the senior brothers who had not yet finished their tasks returned a step later.

After finishing this rough explanation...

Master looked at me with an intriguing expression and asked.

"What does our youngest think?"

"About what, Master?"

"I'm curious about your thoughts on everything you've heard so far. What do you think about how our cult takes care of civilians, or do you have any good ideas for improvement?"

As soon as Master asked that, all the laughter stopped, and every one of my brothers turned to stare at me.

I felt like what I'd been waiting for had finally come.

According to my plan, I needed to act incompetent here.

However, simply answering 'I don't know anything' wouldn't be right.

The one who asked the question was my Master, the Heavenly Demon.

In other words, the standard for my incompetence had to be 'disappointing for a disciple of the Heavenly Demon.' It couldn't be below the average human level.

That’s why I spent the whole walk over here trying to figure out how I could appear somewhat clever while still giving an impression of being inadequate as the Heavenly Demon's disciple?

As a result, what I came up with was the image of enthusiastic but naive newcomers.

I planned to give off the impression of someone who tries hard but doesn't achieve much. Not incompetent, but just a little more capable than being competent.

‘Come to think of it, this question has a relation to the way the Divine Cult handles its affairs.’

It was the perfect topic for me.

Because I knew all too well about South Korea's most old-fashioned and blame-shifting work system.