Alliance leader candidate.

The moment I heard those words, a curse flew out of my mouth.

At the rough language that slipped out, Cheonrijinan made an incredulous face.

“So now you even curse in front of me.”

“...My apologies. It just slipped out.”

The phrase alliance leader candidate made my insides twist.

I had heard it when I spoke with Divine Spear too, but it still didn’t sound familiar.

‘And it probably never will.’

It was a ridiculous thing to say in the first place.

“Could you stop saying that?”

“Saying what?”

“Saying alliance leader candidate.”

“If I do not call an alliance leader candidate an alliance leader candidate, then what should I call him?”

“Can I curse again?”

“Go ahead.”

“...”

That expression was scarier than if he had just told me not to.

So I couldn’t do it, and could only let out a sigh instead.

“...It’s not like there are actually people who see it that way anyway.”

Alliance leader candidate.

The reason I had ✧ NоvеIight ✧ (Original source) started being called that was simple enough.

I had heard it in my talk with Divine Spear too.

The cause was the upheaval brought about by his preparations to retire.

The alliance leader was preparing to step down.

Once that message was officially delivered, chaos swept through the Martial Alliance.

With so many things already going on, the biggest change of all was—

‘...who becomes the next alliance leader.’

Who would rise to the position after Divine Spear stepped down.

If Divine Spear had simply died as things were, they would have rushed into a vote at once to choose a new alliance leader. But Divine Spear was still alive.

That meant they could prepare the next alliance leader candidate in relative calm, and the current upper leadership of the Alliance had apparently already selected several figures they wanted to raise as the next alliance leader.

The problem was—

“...Why the hell am I in that group?”

I was among them.

And not just that. I had been directly recommended by Divine Spear himself.

“Has everyone gone insane...?”

It was absurd. What kind of nonsense was this?

I was not even twenty yet. I had neither the standing nor the power to wedge myself in among all those old men and women.

And suddenly I was being lumped in with them? No one in their right mind would believe that—

“Why am I even in there?”

Amazingly, it was real.

Fucking real.

There were currently five alliance leader candidates being discussed.

And every last one of them was the kind of monster whose title alone could crush people flat.

Which made sense. This was the Martial Alliance, the heart of the righteous sects.

If they were choosing someone to stand at the very top of the Martial Alliance, of course the candidates had to be terrifying figures.

‘...This is making me lose my mind.’

And I was mixed in among them?

No one who heard it would believe it.

Naturally, the matter had become a source of nonstop argument inside the Martial Alliance too.

‘Is it really right for Moon Hero to be raised as a candidate?’

‘No matter how much of a hero he may be... putting someone that young up as an alliance leader candidate is a bit...’

‘Divine Spear clearly made a mistake.’

‘As for this matter...’

I heard all sorts of things. Some people even went and protested to the Alliance directly.

‘I don’t want it either.’

Who said I wanted this? It was maddening.

I had no desire to get tangled up in that kind of headache.

“I won’t get picked anyway, and it’s not exactly good for the Alliance either.”

“That is probably true.”

“Then why—”

“I do not know.”

“Huh?”

“I do not know what the alliance leader... no, what Divine Spear intends. He does not seem inclined to explain it either.”

Cheonrijinan turned his eyes toward the letters before him, but he was still speaking to me.

“My thoughts are no different from yours. It is hardly a favorable situation, and no matter who looks at it, it is not something they can easily accept.”

“In that case—”

“However, now that Divine Spear has exercised his authority, there is no room to object to this matter.”

“...Authority?”

“Yes. Divine Spear used the authority of the alliance leader.”

“What is that supposed to mean?”

It was the first I had heard of it. There was such a thing? I glanced at Yoo Cheongil.

Yoo Cheongil avoided my eyes. That old man clearly knew something.

“The authority to personally choose the next alliance leader.”

“...That kind of thing exists?”

“It does. Otherwise, how do you think Divine Spear was able to rise to the position of alliance leader?”

“...!”

At those words, I looked back at Yoo Cheongil. His expression was entirely different from the way he had avoided my gaze earlier.

‘The reason Divine Spear rose to the position of alliance leader.’

I had thought it was simply because he was one of the Heaven-Beyond-Heaven.

‘...But now that I think about it.’

Divine Spear’s background was a problem.

Had I not known, that would have been one thing. But now that I did know, he had been in a position that should have made it hard for him to ever become alliance leader.

‘If nothing else, the issue with the Jeok Family was huge.’

The internal matter of the Jeok Family, who had dreamed of rebellion.

The Martial Alliance learned of it and moved to punish them, and Yoo Cheongil stepped in.

And in the process, Divine Spear survived because his eye was taken.

‘That definitely reduced the problem.’

But it didn’t erase the Jeok Family’s crime.

Even if the information had been buried—

‘there would still be people who remembered.’

And those people were likely the central pillars of the Alliance. Which meant—

‘as long as his background was stained by something filthy.’

And if that filth was something that had tried to rise against the Alliance—

‘...then the number of ways Divine Spear could become alliance leader would drop to almost nothing.’

Even if he was one of the Heaven-Beyond-Heaven.

Even if he was strong and had piled up merit on the battlefield.

That and this were separate matters.

‘That’s just how the world works.’

People may forget everything else, but they never forget rebellion.

So even a hero could not necessarily sit in that seat.

‘...So that old man forced Divine Spear into that position anyway?’

By using the authority of the alliance leader.

“...Is that authority really that powerful?”

“Yes. Otherwise, how do you think you ended up among the candidates?”

“...”

Fair point.

‘Well, I guess.’

The fact that it had put me among the candidates at all meant it carried absurd weight.

Still, there was one thing that came to mind.

“So it’s not powerful enough to seat someone as the actual alliance leader?”

“...”

This time Cheonrijinan did not answer.

Which meant yes.

‘That’s a relief.’

It could place someone among the candidates, but it could not simply hand over the seat of alliance leader.

‘So it can give influence and legitimacy, but that’s all.’

That was good, in a way.

And not good, in a way.

‘Either way, I’ve already ended up among the candidates...’

That damned old man, Divine Spear.

‘...When he explained it to me, he acted like he didn’t really know much himself.’

And it turns out he was the one who shoved me in there?

“This is ridiculous... and you accepted that?”

“How could I? I told you already. I merely respect the authority of the Alliance.”

“Right. If it had been something you could actually accept, this would have been settled long ago.”

No one would have been making a fuss over me being named a candidate in the first place.

“So in the end, you’re saying I have to remain a candidate. Fine. But what I want to ask is—”

Being named a candidate? Fine. Fine.

“But I can refuse, can’t I?”

I could say I didn’t want to become alliance leader. I could say I didn’t even want to be a candidate.

Surely I had the right to refuse.

No, I absolutely had to.

“So you do not wish to become alliance leader?”

“Yes.”

Was that even a real question?

“Why? For any martial artist of the righteous sects, it is a seat they would all dream of.”

The seat of alliance leader? Sure. Wonderful.

For everyone except me.

“A seat I reached without the qualifications for it would be crushingly heavy. Clothes that don’t fit their wearer are nothing but cumbersome.”

I needed to stop getting ahead of myself and just live.

I was already getting ahead of myself plenty as it was. Any further than this would be dangerous.

“Besides, even if I’ve been placed among the candidates, I’m not going to become alliance leader anyway.”

Like Cheonrijinan said, alliance leader was not some mutt’s name you could slap on anyone. Just because I was a candidate didn’t mean I would actually become alliance leader.

“So I really don’t understand what Divine Spear wants...”

The intention of the current alliance leader, who had shoved me into the candidate pool.

That was what I wanted to know.

‘But he hasn’t shown his face for days...’

The one responsible for putting me there had not appeared in front of me since.

‘Being busy with work probably isn’t a lie.’

But it certainly wasn’t the whole truth either.

Rustle.

I heard paper turn.

“What he wants?”

Along with that sound, Cheonrijinan spoke as if letting the words fall.

“You are pretending not to know. There is no way you truly do not know.”

“...”

“You do know. The alliance leader must already have said as much to you.”

At those words, I turned my gaze. I caught sight of Yoo Cheongil.

He was looking down at me with those faint blue eyes.

Right.

That was true.

‘I do know.’

There was no need to figure out his intention.

Because Divine Spear had already said it to me.

It was this:

‘The meeting with the DEMON CULT.’

The letter sent by the DEMON CULT.

That line asking to hold talks for a meeting with the righteous sects—that was the intention.

‘He said he wanted to send me there as the representative.’

With the title of alliance leader candidate attached to me, as the representative of the righteous sects.

‘...Did he raise me as a candidate for that?’

If that was the answer, then yes.

That really was insane.

“Don’t you think the phrase a meeting with the DEMON CULT sounds wrong on its face?”

A meeting with the DEMON CULT?

With the people who turned Henan into that kind of ruin?

From where I stood, it sounded utterly impossible.

I had read the letter, and I still felt the same.

‘So why...’

had Divine Spear accepted it?

“Did you agree to this too, Strategist? There’s no way that could be—”

“You continue to misunderstand one thing.”

“Hm?”

“Whether I agreed or not has no meaning. This is the Martial Alliance.”

Just as I was thinking that sounded painfully obvious—

“The Martial Alliance follows the will of the alliance leader.”

“...!”

“Even if that should be a vain conviction and a twisted act, it is still his will that we take as our example.”

The atmosphere changed.

Those eyes, looking at me even while they rested on the letters. That heavy faith, carried inside that body like dried firewood, pressed down on my shoulders.

‘...The weight of his soul.’

The soul Cheonrijinan carried felt unbearably heavy.

So I asked him.

“...Even if the alliance leader decides to start a war?”

I wanted to know where that will of his came from.

Fwaaash.

At my question, Cheonrijinan opened his fan and covered his face. Only his sharp eyes remained visible.

“If the alliance leader’s justice lies in it.”

“...”

A man more rational than almost anyone else, yet in matters like this he was strangely blind.

Strangely, unnervingly so.

“...Then all you’re saying is that I should just go there as a candidate because I was told to.”

“That is not so. If your will is truly against it, then no one will force you.”

“Oh...”

Now that was the first good thing I’d heard in a while. Right. I needed to have some kind of choice. The idea that I didn’t would have been ridiculous.

“Then I won’t—”

“Instead.”

Cutting me off, Cheonrijinan pointed at me with the fan as he spoke.

“Bring me someone to take your place.”

“...What?”

Someone to take my place?

My face twisted at the sudden words.

“...What do you mean, take my place?”

“The location is Xi’an. Male. A martial artist, and his title is...”

Frrrrt. Thump!

Cheonrijinan’s fan came down against the table.

“The Tyrant King. Bring him to me under the name of the Sword Saint.”

“...!”

The Tyrant King.

It was a name I had heard somewhere before.