Episode 56 - Brash Brigade: Beginning 1

Early dawn.

The day of the operation.

Maengseol, who had already risen and was seated, wore a complicated expression.

Not long ago.

The day they had decorated Athunga's head — the last of the Four Gang Lords — at the grave.

Kaftin had unwound the Torture Martial Arts instruments strapped around his waist and set them down in front of the mound before walking away.

From this point on — no longer as Kaftin, apprentice of the torture practitioner, but as a single human being making his own way.

The other members had watched the scene without particular thought — but Maengseol alone had needed to swallow hard.

If it meant returning to the form he had shown back then — the one that had cost Maengseol his eye —

Perhaps sooner than he had imagined, he might end up killing this man.

He spotted Kaftin coming out of the bathroom, having washed his face, and immediately rapped the table twice to call him over.

"Good morning. Boss."

"...Hearing that from you is somehow embarrassing."

"...I told you. The boss is you."

"......"

Watching him smile and brush it off with a nonchalance that seemed impossible for someone who had only just come of age, Maengseol found himself genuinely doubting whether this man was really as young as he was.

"There's one thing I want to confirm."

"...What is it. That face."

"You said you would no longer use the Torture Martial Arts... and that means..."

Before he could finish, Kaftin let out a quiet laugh and shook his head.

He seemed to have grasped what Maengseol was worried about in an instant.

"Heh... you don't need to concern yourself with that. It won't come to that."

"How can you be certain of that?! Your true nature is—!"

"The me of right now is... different from 'the me of back then.' Different, in a clearly distinct sense. Please stop worrying."

"That's exactly why I need you to make me believe it. I'm not naive enough to take your word at face value."

At Maengseol's firm tone, Kaftin's mouth curved into a satisfied smile.

Because to him, this was always the correct way for someone to deal with him.

To doubt. To press. To demand proof without ceasing and remain uneasy regardless.

And as for Kaftin himself — he savored that openly, and crushed each piece of that unease one by one.

Just like right now.

"Well... fine. No matter how much I talk, it won't convince you... let's finish this outside."

"......!"

"What is it?"

"...If — if I become certain that you haven't changed from 'back then'...!"

"...Of course. If you wish it, you're welcome to split my skull open in a single punch like a watermelon."

Confirming without any hesitation that he was welcome to blow his head clean off, and grinning about it — Maengseol's brow creased.

Though their acquaintance was short and their time together only about two years, he still could not fully grasp this man.

When he seemed ferocious, he was gentlemanly. When he seemed lost to madness, he came back to himself without warning.

In the end, the two of them faced each other in the inn's rear courtyard.

Maengseol settled into his stance first and steadied his breathing.

"...You're not taking a stance?"

"Well... I'm not particularly bound by that sort of thing — but here, it's probably better to show you."

The moment the words left him, Kaftin spread his feet to shoulder width, slowly raised both hands, and placed them in front of his chest with the backs of his hands facing outward — neat, almost delicate.

"...What in the world is that stance? I can't sense any trace of a fighting art..."

"Ha, of course not. What I'm about to show you isn't, strictly speaking, anything like a martial art."

"......!"

"...Simply put... something like Reverse Medicine."

Reverse Medicine.

The peculiar name made Maengseol's eyebrow move.

"Reverse... Medicine? What does that even mean."

"Exactly what it sounds like. Medicine, inverted."

"......!"

"Medicine in its original form is a field of learning humanity has developed — largely without magic — for the purpose of saving lives..."

"And turning that... inside out would mean...!"

"Yes. The technique of... disassembling... a person."

He now had certainty that this was genuinely different from the Kaftin he had known.

But at the same time, he was equally certain that the underlying nature was not greatly different from what he had seen back then.

"You...! Inverting it means you originally know proper medicine! Why would you misuse such a rare and precious skill like this! Don't you think it's a waste of that talent?!"

"You have it backward. Precisely because it is precious, it should be used this way! Do you understand? All death is a natural phenomenon! There is no good death or bad death!"

"......!"

Kaftin, wearing a grin edged with madness, continued.

"All death is simply a phenomenon! Which naturally means murder and suicide are also simply phenomena...! The moment you accept this truth, the fear of death and the guilt over killing both become meaningless...!"

"Is that what you call your true nature...!"

"Yes. This is my root... and it is the founding philosophy of the Brash Brigade that I will be leading from this point on!"

"You damned wretch! Just as I thought, you—!"

Maengseol immediately poured force into both arms and let genuine killing intent rise to the surface.

He hadn't expected the moment to come this quickly — but his gut was screaming that this man could not be allowed to live.

"Kaaaftiiiin—!!"

"Hahahaha! What are you making such a face about? That fist of yours was trained to kill people too, wasn't it?! Stop pretending to be virtuous after all this time! It's disgusting!"

Maengseol threw a full-force punch at Kaftin's grinning face.

A devastating blow — heavily loaded with Aura Fist — drove straight toward Kaftin's head between the backs of his raised hands.

"Ngh?!"

Kaftin's body twisted away like a revolving door, and the punch cut through empty air.

In the instant Maengseol scrambled to regain his footing, a hand blade was approaching the underside of his extended armpit with no warning whatsoever.

"Hff—!"

Registering that his own over-committed swing had broken his stance, Maengseol immediately drew up his Aura and parried the hand blade with his opposite hand.

A clear ringing sound as the Aura of both men collided — and while Maengseol absorbed the impact to a stop, Kaftin was pushed back a full three steps.

"Kgh...! Sure enough — fighting you head-on puts me at a disadvantage."

"Keeping you alive any further is too dangerous...!"

"You'd think so just from my view on death alone — that surprises me a little..."

Kaftin shook his head and readjusted his stance.

Maengseol set his jaw and did the same.

"Hmph! That's more than enough. Hearing that is all I needed — I don't have to hear anything more to know the rest...! If you're left alive like this, innocent people will inevitably get pulled into whatever bloodbath you cause and be ground to nothing!"

"By that logic, my master was much the same sort of person..."

"Kgh...! At least he came to regret what he had done! But you — far from regretting it, you're enjoying it...!"

Still growling, Maengseol was about to charge — and then Kaftin simply shrugged and released his stance entirely.

"What are you doing...?!"

"I said it earlier, didn't I. Death is nothing more than a phenomenon. Something that could happen at any moment, and would be entirely unremarkable if it did... and that, of course, applies to myself as well."

"......!"

"And if life, for me, is suffering itself... then the conclusion that follows from that should be fairly obvious, shouldn't it?"

He even wore a smile of relief as he slowly spread his arms wide.

"Go ahead then. Please."

"You...!"

"Certainly — if you leave me alone, eventually... things will go exactly as you said. The whole country — no, the whole world — will fill with people's screaming. Cutting me down before that happens is a perfectly valid approach too."

"......"

Maengseol ground his teeth.

Why did this man hold his own life in such contempt?

What on earth had broken a sixteen-year-old boy's mind into something like this?

"You can kill me and return to living apart from the world. But in that case... this country will be a complete mess, at least for a while."

"...What do you mean by that."

"You heard it last time, didn't you. The restoration of the monarchy is the goal of the Gang Lords and Count Carloz."

"......!"

Maengseol's fist, already descending, twitched to a stop.

"You...!"

"Without me, there will be no one to stop them. No — even if someone tried to stop them, by the time they realized it was happening, it would already be too late. But that's fine. Uncle Maengseol has turned his back on the world regardless. Whatever happens to this country, whatever happens to its people — none of that concerns him, right?"

His teeth ground together.

This man was treating his own life and everyone else's like nothing more than interesting toys or materials for experimentation.

"Do you understand? Nothing in the world changes whether I alone die or live. Death continues... because it is a natural phenomenon. No matter what anyone does, blood will flow and corpses will pile up like mountains...! That is reality...! That is the hell called life...!"

"Grrrrr...!!"

"So please — go ahead and dirty those hands with my blood. That way, at least the people in the City Guard fortress who are going to die today might be saved."

Maengseol's movement stopped.

Instead he ground his teeth, slowly and steadily —

"Then — what exactly are we supposed to do...?! By your logic, does life have any hope in it at all?!"

"Heh heh heh... that is the foolish question. Uncle Maengseol. Haven't I kept saying it? It's a natural phenomenon. Don't you think that getting worked up over a phenomenon that simply happens — calling it despair or hope — is a waste of emotion?"

"......!"

"Just — accept it. Whatever you do today, whatever you do tomorrow... the ones who are meant to die, die. The ones who weren't meant to die also die if luck runs out. Nothing changes — at all...!"

Maengseol collapsed onto the ground where he stood, closed his eyes hard.

He had lost.

Winning as a martial artist was simple enough — but as a human being, he had lost completely.

This man... in a certain sense, had genuinely transcended life and death.

"...You all understand, don't you? The Brash Brigade has to become a group built on exactly this."

"......!"

Kaftin's words made him turn — and standing there were the other members, who had apparently come out at some point and been watching.

"I think most people would find it impossible to simply accept something like that."

"...I know. But at minimum — you can follow behind my back and keep moving, can't you? That's all I need."

"......"

"Ha... well now... I knew from the first time we met that you were a bit unhinged — but I never expected it to be quite this bad...!"

Tide felt it in her gut — she had boarded a ship she absolutely should not have.

But it had already happened, and more than anything else — she didn't hate it.

Dangerous work? Bring it on.

For her, life was nothing if you weren't enjoying it.

"Just one thing I want to confirm, Admiral."

"......?"

"Your head really is a complete mess... but you're someone who's gentle with women and children. That part's true, right?"

"I'm someone who keeps the rules I set for himself. Don't worry about that."

"...Then that's enough. I'll follow you to the end."

"Tide?!"

Whispermere stared at her in shock.

Tide simply shrugged.

"What? Sure it's dangerous — but in a certain sense, it's the truth, isn't it? And... for someone like me who lives at sea, death is hardly a new concept..."

"Heh. That's a very you answer."

Kaftin smiled and moved off, giving Maengseol a light pat on the shoulder as he passed.

"The reason I brought you in wasn't anything complicated. If I reach a point where I can no longer stop myself... that's when you blow my head off."

"......!!"

"That sharp edge you keep honed — just like now — I like it very much. Please keep it that way."

"Tch...! Understood. If you truly fall somewhere I can no longer reach... in Vesren's name, I will send you to join him...!"

"Heh heh heh... that's all I needed."