Chapter 219: East, Hwaseong (7)
Arriving at the gate Zetto had passed through earlier, the three women read the words on the sign.
“A ninja must not be deceived by the tempting fruits in front of him… Perhaps this place was meant to be a training ground for ninja, not just a grave?”
After reading the sentence, Yuri summarized the situation.
“But we’re not ninjas, and neither is Cadet Zetto.”
“Did Zetto want to be a ninja?”
“Zetto…?”
Aizel raised an eyebrow at Yuri’s question.
“Because he’s cool…?”
“I’m surprisingly fond of being cool, but…”
“Well, let’s just open the door.”
“Wait.”
Yuri grabbed Kaen’s wrist as she opened the door.
“Why?”
“I think there’s something up ahead.”
“I’m sure there is.”
“Focus on the word deception. Are you sure you won’t panic if something jumps out from behind this door?”
“I don’t think it would faze me.”
“Me neither.”
“…Aren’t you guys underestimating the Great Ninja, the first ninja?”
“Well, we do know that the strongest ninja we’ve seen wasn’t exactly a hotshot.”
Kaen was referring to the Happo they’d seen before.
At least the Happo they’d known had been rude, unable to react to Zetto’s speed, and ridiculously outmatched.
“I was thinking something similar.”
“The First Ninja…Could it be different…?”
Yuri stammered.
She was doing this for a reason.
It was because of a warning from Benno, the dragon trapped in the orb in her arms.
Benno spoke to Yuri.
‘You were right, this is a test so don’t panic if something appears behind the door.’
The sudden seriousness of Benno’s warning was a bit alarming for Yuri, who had always been prone to bullshit and obscenities.
“Cadet Yuri, if you’re only doing this because you’re scared, you can take it easy and come slowly, but if you do, we’ll meet Cadet Zetto first.”
“I’ll go first.”
“We’ll go with you…!”
Aizel and Kaen found Yuri’s hesitation frustrating, and eventually she followed them to the door without much choice.
Contrary to Yuri’s fears, however, there was nothing special to see. Except that it was a bit dark, making it difficult to see the entire passage.
“Hmm…”
Kaen murmured, looking around.
“…There’s nothing.”
Aizel grumbled, staring at Yuri.
‘Benno…Did you play a trick on me to scare me?’
Yuri frowned, seemingly annoyed by this.
“We should probably find an exit.”
“I’ll go this way.”
“I’ll go this way.”
“…”
The three women split up for a moment to find their own exits, and ended up walking off in different directions.
“Benno, answer me.”
[But, master…]
“What the hell is in here?”
Yuri asked in an irritated voice as Benno walked through the darkened passageway, fireball in hand.
[Didn’t the master feel it?]
“What?”
[Pfft… You can’t be serious, you can’t feel the smell.]
“What smell? Could you even smell yourself?”
[Just saying.]
“So what’s here…?”
Yuri trailed off and turned her head.
-Bam…
She didn’t miss the small sound from across the aisle. It was a feint.
“…Hey, who’s there?”
Immediately, Yuri raised the fireball she was holding in the air to identify the face, then slowly moved it to light up the dark passage.
His face was finally revealed.
“…Zetto?”
“You must be Ms. Yuri.”
Zetto, who had been slouched against the wall, waved in greeting.
“Why are you here…?”
“How long have you been following me?”
“Well…”
“Never mind.”
“…”
“Why don’t you come this way?”
Yuri was dumbfounded by his next suggestion, but she moved to his side without a second thought.
“Sit next to me, it’s just the two of us here.”
“Just the two of us…”
As Yuri muttered that, she came to the conclusion that Aizel and Kaen hadn’t found Zetto yet, and for some reason that gave her a sense of pleasure.
As Yuri carefully sat down next to Zetto, he flashed her a smile.
“Shall we take a break?”
“Uh, yeah… should we…?”
Yuri’s mind raced, trying to figure out what he meant by resting.
[Master.]
Benno, who was watching, called out to Yuri.
Unfortunately, Benno’s voice didn’t reach Yuri, who was completely distracted by Zetto’s smile, now that they were alone for the first time in quite some time.
[Ha… ]
At this, Benno let out a deep sigh, and then, deciding it would be better if she realized it herself, so she kept her mouth shut.
***
Hanzo, who had been holed up in a darkened alcove, watching the three women surreptitiously through a screen playing on a scroll, clenched his jaw.
“I can’t believe they all see the same man.”
The three women on the screen were blushing and fidgeting in front of the disguised guard.
“It doesn’t look like it’s going to be so easy to get through the gate, does it?”
Hanzo muttered in a low voice but his words carried a lot of meaning.
The truth was, the blunt armor he had created was far from perfect.
Even if he could recreate the appearance to perfection, a sloppy performance would quickly give him away.
In general, his charade was usually a matter of spouting words that seemed to work, increasing his chances of deception.
The exception to this was when it came to people he knew, where he could capture them in their entirety.
Hanzo’s transcendent doujutsu was already dangerous enough to exceed the standards of human law and fall into the same realm as possession, necromancy, and command.
As such, Hanzo himself rarely practiced it during his lifetime. A jutsu that crossed the line would mess with the caster’s memory.
So he came up with the idea of the wooden armor.
By casting the jutsu on a wooden armor instead, he could mimic a character’s behavior and speech without any risk.
In many ways, this man was serious about the art.
“So the person they had in mind was an old friend of mine who had just passed through there… Lucky.”
Hanzo turned his head and looked at the scroll beside him.
On it, a dark-haired young man with a white bandage over his eyes was engaged in combat with a combat woodcutter he had prepared.
“Reincarnation again, by the way, and a blind one at that? What a god.”
Hanzo clicked his tongue and shook his head.
The Zetto in the scroll was the reincarnation of his friend, the Conquering King, and unlike his previous life, he was somehow blind, but he was unmistakably the Conquering King.
Proof of this was that his aura was identical to that of the Conquering King he had met in life, and that it was Dao Hua, the Conquering King’s only wife, who stepped out of the doorway.
Hanzo closed his eyes as he remembered the moment he first met the Conquering King.
‘Are you the ninja Hanzo I heard about?’
‘Yes. You are the King of the Moon Kingdom, which has been making quite a stir lately. Is it any wonder, then, that the King of a nation should parade before a ninja without an escort, shamelessly baring his neck?’
‘If you can cut it, do it now, you’ve already received the king’s orders.’
That’s how the Moon Kingdom devoured Hwaseong.
The mad king of the Moon Kingdom had a pacifist solution.
A single duel would seal the fate of both countries.
At the time, the Moon Kingdom was already much larger than Hwaseong, and the foolish king of Hwaseong laughed it off.
Hanzo was foolish too.
He should have stopped the king, but he didn’t because he wanted to fight the king of the Moon Kingdom.
His blood had been boiling since their first meeting, and he could hardly contain it.
Since then, Hanzo had lost the duel, and now that the Hwaseong Kingdom had become the Moon Kingdom, Hanzo wondered if he should serve the King of the Moon Kingdom, but he was told he didn’t have to.
‘Ninjas are a bunch of men who will hang themselves out of loyalty. I have no intention of doing such a cruel thing. I only ask one thing of you. Let’s get together for a drink sometime.’
As a side note, the Conquering King was a terrible drinker.
Hanzo, on the other hand, who was an excellent ninja, was tolerant of alcohol.
‘Now that I think about it, I was just trying to keep him from getting into trouble when he was drinking.’
Hanzo thought as he studied the scroll.
“But…”
Hanzo raised the corner of his mouth.
It was true that it had been fun and it hadn’t taken much to make him a friend.
Hanzo could share a drink with him and hear many stories.
‘You know, Hanzo, it’s true. This king reincarnates.’
‘Reincarnation? You mean like reincarnation?’
‘No one knows about this but you and my wife. You’d better keep your mouth shut.’
‘This man has been drinking too much.’
At the time, Hanzo thought this was drunken rambling.
Until Dao Hua, his wife and Queen of the Moon Kingdom, came to him with a request.
‘You do know that my husband can reincarnate, right?’
‘You mean to tell me that he told the Empress that as well?’
“If he dies in this life and is reincarnated, if he has another woman in his arms besides me…please kill him…by any means necessary.’
‘…Your Majesty?’
‘It’s a thought that’s been running through my mind lately, and I don’t have much time left before I have to start the slaughter.’
‘Even if that means reincarnation…’
‘I’ve heard that ninjas complete their missions even after death.’
‘That’s…’
The words were merely propaganda to ensure the ninja’s loyalty.
‘I know, even the greatest ninja, Hanzo, can’t escape death, so you’ll probably close your eyes at some point. I was just throwing that out there half-heartedly, so don’t pay too much attention, hehe…’
Dao Hua held out something on the desk with a smile on her face.
‘This is…’
‘It’s a gift. I don’t think we’ll be seeing you much anymore.’
Dao Hua handed over a small piece of jewelry.
A jeweler later confirmed that it was too precious to be a simple gift.
Indeed, it was the last time she saw him alive, and as she feared, it didn’t take long for the glorious moon to shatter.
The Conquering King of the Moon Kingdom, who had embarked on a massive crusade, and his wife, Dao Hua, had met their end while battling demons.
Without an heir, the only unified state in the East throughout history, the Moon state naturally fell into chaos and weakened, and the nations rose up and returned to the way things were before.
The moon that once dazzled all the lands of the East was no more.
“A ninja completes his mission even in death…”
Looking at Zetto, Hanzo pondered the words.
He was clearly dead.
There was nothing left of his body.
His body was now merely a spirit body to watch the next great ninja.
“Let’s see… Did she ask me to kill him if he was carrying another woman after his reincarnation…? One of them seems to be her reincarnation…”
Of the three women who followed him, one had the same aura as Dao Hua, but the others were exceptions.
“The king, the queen…I don’t think I remember either of them, but a mission is a mission… I’ll at least try to fulfill it.”
Although his body was incapable of handling any physical force, he could still manipulate the inside of the tomb he had prepared for him in life with his will.
‘Don’t be too angry because I’m only halfway there.’
***
-Crack!
The sound of a wooden doll cracking echoed in his ears.
‘Now there’s only one left.’
He quickly passed through the second gate and was on his way to the third, the Gate of Anomalies.
A ninja must be able to face whatever comes his way without panicking.
That must have been the sentence.
The content of the gate was all about defeating a bunch of guards with all sorts of weaponry strapped to their bodies.
However, they were quite good, so I practiced my swordsmanship while sealing up my Reverse Heaven for the first time in a long time.
‘A demon who used reverse grip…’ Keraph said my swordsmanship is similar.’
He firmly believed that if I continued like this, I would gain the swordsmanship he had practiced as a demon.
He was right, because this time, when the King’s progress reached 10%, I was rewarded with a skill.
What was unusual was the name of the skill.
“Ordered by the King of Conquest” appeared in my status bar, in the skills section.
How to use it was really simple.
When I give an order to someone, they receive a beneficial effect, a “buff”.
I hadn’t quite figured out what the buffs would be like yet, but it sounded like it could be very useful.
‘I can’t wait to try it out.’
I thought to myself as I slit the throat of the last remaining guard.
-Boom!
Something fell from the ceiling.
-Thud!
It made a heavy sound as it fell from the ceiling.
-Thud!
There were quite a few guards.
The test for the gateway was supposed to be over after dealing with five guards, but the number of guards that suddenly fell seemed to be over twenty.
‘No matter how you slice it… It’s going to be hard to do it without the use of Reverse Heaven…’
This was the first variable I encountered in the Gate of Anomalies.