A Medieval Knight in a Martial Arts Novel – Chapter 49

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Translated By Arcane Translations
Translator: Shrine
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“What do you mean?” William asked.

“Out of all those people, only you have the tracking fragrance on you,” Constable Meng replied.

Constable Meng’s gaze pierced William’s eyes. William met his gaze without flinching, undaunted by the pressure Constable Meng was emitting.

This level of pressure was nothing compared to what he had faced on the battlefield countless times before.

William shrugged nonchalantly, feigning ignorance.

“I don’t understand why the tracking fragrance is on me. Is there no one else with the fragrance on them?” he inquired.

“No, there isn’t,” Constable Meng confirmed.

“I haven’t done anything that would result in the fragrance getting on me,” William stated.

He couldn’t fathom where it could have come from. Thinking back, he couldn’t recall any instance where it might have gotten on him. The number of people he had contact with was very limited, so there weren’t many suspects to begin with. It definitely wasn’t anyone from the Haenam Sword Sect, and the old man selling hairpins had no reason to put the fragrance on him.

When exactly did it happen? When did someone put the fragrance on him?

“Are you sure you don’t remember doing anything that might result in the fragrance being on you?” Constable Meng pressed.

William remained unfazed by the intimidation attempt. “I’m certain,” he replied firmly.

“Really?” Constable Meng persisted.

“You’re free to think I’m the culprit, but I have three reasons why I absolutely cannot be the thief,” William declared.

Constable Meng looked at William with interest, curious about what he was going to say. William proceeded to explain his reasons.

“First, I was with the martial artists of the Haenam Sword Sect when the man in black was spotted on the roof.”

“The Haenam Sword Sect… how can we be sure that those martial artists are really from the Haenam Sword Sect? This could just be their disguise”

“Aren’t there martial artists from the Sichuan Tang family here as well? They can sufficiently prove that my companions are indeed from the Haenam Sword Sect. I trust you don’t think that the Haenam Sword Sect, one of the Nine Great Sects, would be involved in this incident.”

If they demonstrated the martial arts of the Haenam Sword Sect right now, everyone would have to acknowledge it.

Martial arts techniques were never leaked outside of their respective sects. As they were a combination of internal energy cultivation methods and martial techniques, they served as the most definitive means of identity verification.

That’s why Constable Meng had no choice but to nod at William’s first reason.

He could try to use his authority to pressure William, but that would only damage his reputation. No matter how big the case was, barking up the wrong tree would be a significant blow to him as well.

William presented his second reason to Constable Meng, who had reluctantly acknowledged the first.

“Secondly, as a foreigner, I didn’t even know about the existence of a treasure in this city previously.

To undertake such a big task, one needs ample preparation, don’t you think? We’ve been traveling from Haenam Island all the way to Hubei, so; we didn’t have time to prepare for doing something like this.

If you want concrete evidence, you can inquire with the Beggar Sect. They will prove our innocence.”

“You speak the Central Plains language very well.”

“I studied hard.”

Since he wouldn’t understand if William mentioned that it was a benefit of his transmigration, William brushed it off and presented his third reason.

“I… can’t use qinggong.”

“You can’t use qinggong? How is that possible? I heard you were an outstanding expert.”

Constable Meng looked at William with disbelief.

No matter how much you look at me like that, what’s not possible is not possible, William thought. He shook his head and provided a suitable explanation for Constable Meng’s doubt.

“I was a cavalryman, so I never learned qinggong.”

“So you were a soldier.”

“It was a long time ago. Now, Am I cleared of suspicion?”

“…Hmm. I suppose so. I thought this would be resolved easily… I’ve pressured an innocent person based on an incorrect assumption. I apologize. But there’s one thing I need to know. Do you have any ideas about how to solve this case?”

I don’t have any ideas either, William thought.

The people who had physical contact with me were at most the owner of the hairpin shop and Hye-ryeong.

…No, that’s not right.

Thinking about it, I realized there could be many more suspects than I initially thought.

With so many people around, someone could have easily put the tracking fragrance on me just by brushing past me on the street.

“Yesterday, the night market was open, and the streets were packed with people.

It wouldn’t have been difficult for someone to put the tracking fragrance on me. If you investigate everyone who was at the night market, you might find more people with the tracking fragrance on them.”

It’s a bit embarrassing, but with Hye-ryeong clinging to me, I didn’t have the leisure to pay attention to anything else.

“Hmm… this is troublesome. But I wonder why the fragrance was only on you. If it was to obstruct the investigation, there was no need to put it only on you, was there?”

“Perhaps they wanted to divert attention? Since my appearance stands out, they might have thought it would buy them more time.”

Honestly, I can’t think of any other reason. If the merchant had sprinkled the fragrance on me, it should have gotten on Hye-ryeong too.

“Hmm… you’re sharper than I expected.”

“You flatter me. So, can I go back upstairs now? It’s been proven that I’m not the culprit, hasn’t it?”

“…How about helping me solve this case?”

“I’m just a mere martial artist.”

“For a mere martial artist, you’re quite sharp, unlike other martial artists. Many martial artists worship martial arts too much focusing all their attention on it and are lacking in other aspects.”

Is he saying martial artists are ignorant?

“Anyway, I’ll be going now.”

“Don’t go. Why don’t you give it a try? The compensation will be generous.”

Hmm.

It’s not a bad offer for me.

In Chinese society where connections are important, forming a relationship with an official is a powerful asset in itself. If I build goodwill now, I might be able to get help from him later if something happens.

There’s no guarantee that troublesome incidents like this won’t happen again, so maybe I should use this opportunity to build some connections with the officials here.

“Let’s work together then.”

“Thank you.”

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“Have you finished all the interrogations?”

William sat across from Constable Meng, who was sighing in a corner after finishing the interrogations. He grasped the handle of the teapot.

It’s still warm, he thought. He took out a teacup, poured some tea, and looked at Constable Meng while inhaling the tea’s aroma.

“Yes, I have. But the interrogations yielded nothing. However, the trail of the tracking fragrance ends here. I wonder what happened…”

“Well, isn’t it obvious? The thief knew that there was tracking fragrance on the treasure.”

“I suppose so.”

In a quiet corner of the restaurant, William and Constable Meng put their heads together, deep in thought.

After half a day of interrogations, they hadn’t found a single plausible suspect. To catch the culprit, they needed either a change of perspective or new clues.

William came to a conclusion on what they needed to do:

“Constable Meng. We need to start from the beginning. What exactly was the nature of the treasure Master Zhang was displaying?”

“The nature of the treasure?”

“Yes. If it’s not a secret, please tell me. It’s difficult to make any deductions without knowing what the treasure is.”

“Ah, I see you didn’t know. The treasure Master Zhang was displaying was… a secret manual left behind by the Shadowless Divine Thief.”

“The Shadowless Divine Thief?”

Seeing William tilt his head in confusion, Constable Meng belatedly realized and explained:

“Ah, of course, you wouldn’t know about the Shadowless Divine Thief. He was a notorious thief from several decades ago. He was infamous for his ghostly qinggong and his ability to steal anything with his Golden Snatch technique.

The public might call him a righteous thief, but in the end, he was still just a thief.”

The Shadowless Divine Thief.

Was he in the original work?

To be honest, I couldn’t remember.

I don’t recall everything in the original work perfectly. Besides, wuxia novels tended to have a lot of similarities between them, so it was easy to get confused when trying to recall exactly what was in a certain novel.

Frankly speaking, if you just slapped the title “Sword King” on someone, it would be impossible to know which work they were from just from this title.

If you gathered all the characters with the title “Sword King” from wuxia novels, there would probably be over a thousand of them.

“He was a well-known thief, huh…”

“There are rumors that he was an unparalleled master thief who could even steal from the imperial treasury, but at some point, all news of him suddenly ceased. And then Master Zhang happened to obtain the Shadowless Divine Thief’s secret manual and was planning to sell it this time.”

The story was starting to take shape.

“We should investigate the Shadowless Divine Thief,” William suggested.

“But he’s a figure from decades ago, I’m not sure if we can find any meaningful information…”

Fair point.

This wasn’t the 21st century; finding records from decades ago wouldn’t be easy.

Even if something remained, it would likely be just fragments of information, requiring a considerable amount of time to piece together.

William took a sip of the tea on the table and spoke:

“Constable Meng. Let me just ask you directly. Have you interrogated Master Zhang?”

“…Master Zhang, you say?”

To Constable Meng, who looked at William as if he had said something absurd, William explained his thoughts:

“The secret manual of the Shadowless Divine Thief itself might be the key to this case. We need to contact Master Zhang and find out how he obtained that manual.”

Thinking about it, there were many suspicious aspects to this case that made it seem more complex than a simple theft.

How did the thief know about the existence of the tracking fragrance?

Why was the tracking fragrance on William’s body?

How did Master Zhang obtain the secret manual of the supposedly missing Shadowless Divine Thief?

The clues to finding answers to these three questions lay with Master Zhang.

It was just a hunch, but since they couldn’t find any leads here, they needed to meet Master Zhang.

William stood up and said:

“Let’s go meet Master Zhang.”

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For one i think there might be more to the theif that stole the manual. I don’t think the thief framed William just because he stands out.