The face, they say, is the window to the soul.

And until the landscape of his mind’s eye found some semblance of stability, correcting his expression to appear natural was an impossible task. So, he chose another method: to control every single muscle in his face individually. It was a technique he could only conceive of thanks to the extraordinary physical control granted by the Scripture that Commands the Dark and Quakes the Heavens. Ultimately, however, it would have been impossible without his own, frankly abnormal, memory. He could recall every minute change that flickered across a person’s face in the brief instant their expression shifted with the situation.

“…Good.”

After a final check, he opened the door and stepped out into the courtyard. An involuntary gasp escaped his lips.

“Ah…”

Sunlight.

It was a warmth that thawed the terrible, bone-deep chill of the darkness he had endured. Without realizing it, he walked barefoot into the center of the courtyard.

“Grand Young Master, you have risen.”

The servants cleaning the yard bowed their heads in a cursory greeting. They knew the Grand Young Master wasn’t one to be bothered by their minor displays of disrespect.

The scholar paid them no mind, his gaze never once falling upon them. It was as if he were completely oblivious to their existence. He simply stood there, his hands slowly unfurling to feel the sun, as if he were a tree that had waited a thousand years for a single ray of light. He closed his eyes.

“Grand Young Master…?”

A servant, finding his behavior odd, questioned him, but received no reply. At his silence, the servants could only exchange wary glances. It was strange. Normally, no matter what the Grand Young Master did, they would have just shrugged it off and ignored him.

Gulp.

A cold sweat began to bead on the servants’ hands. It was the kind of oppressive silence that servants only felt in the presence of a strict and unforgiving master.

Just as the discomfort was becoming unbearable, the Grand Young Master’s lips parted.

“…Summon every servant under my charge.”

It was a voice they had never heard from him before. It was undeniably the same as yesterday, yet it was fundamentally different. It was a voice that lowly servants could not dare to defy.

“Y-Yes?! Yes, sir! Right away!”

Startled back to their senses, the servants scrambled, each running as fast as their legs could carry them. They scattered in a flurry of disciplined haste, rushing off to gather the other servants from every corner of the estate.

“What’s going on…?”

“What is it? Did something happen?”

The servants who were summoned began to gather in twos and threes, their faces openly annoyed as they ambled over. If not for the urgent tone of the servant who delivered the message, a few of them might not have shown up at all.

What they arrived to see was the bizarre spectacle of the Grand Young Master standing barefoot on the dirt floor, his arms outstretched to receive the sunlight. Low murmurs rippled through the assembled crowd.

“Looks like being cooped up in his room all the time finally made him lose his mind.”

“Ah… I was having such a nice nap. I can’t believe they called us out for this.”

One of the older servants clicked his tongue in open disapproval.

“Tsk, tsk. If the Grand Young Master is in such a state, what will become of the Great Sword Clan of Luoyang…?”

To them, the Grand Young Master was an ‘easy’ and ‘manageable’ person. They had been with him for a long time. Not once had he ever berated or scolded them. He granted nearly every request they made. Furthermore, his residence, the Courtyard of Original Distinction (Wongakjeong), required remarkably little work for its size. No guests ever came to visit, so there was no need to polish every nook and cranny several times a day. The expansive garden, which would have been a great deal of work, was mostly tended by the Grand Young Master himself. He owned only a few sets of clothes, so even the laundry—often the most strenuous chore—was a trivial matter.

And so, the servants of the Grand Young Master’s Wongakjeong had grown complacent and lazy.

Crucially, the sentiment that he was to be scorned, to be called by the slur ‘the Swordless One,’ was an unspoken atmosphere that permeated the entire clan. Though his station was far above what a mere servant could dare to disrespect, the fact that they had seen him up close for so long, this man of such an exceedingly agreeable nature, had become the problem.

“…Ahem.”

“Cough.”

At first, they expressed their discontent with the Grand Young Master’s strange behavior after summoning them. But soon, for reasons none could explain, the courtyard fell as silent as a tomb. No one had told them to be quiet. Just as it had been with the first servants, they gradually ceased their idle chatter. They restrained their insolent movements. And they began to grow anxious.

“…”

“…”

Eventually, a strange tension and an ominous silence were all that remained. And no one dared to break it. Without realizing it, they had already fallen under the sway of the aura emanating from the Grand Young Master.

“…Is everyone gathered?”

The strange state of affairs continued until the Grand Young Master finally spoke.

“Y-Yes?! Yes, that is correct. Everyone is here, sir.”

He didn’t even look at the flustered servants.

“From this moment on, you are no longer needed at the Wongakjeong[1]. Report to the Steward’s Department immediately and receive your new assignments.”

His voice was low, yet it reached every ear with piercing clarity.

“W-What…?”

“Grand Young Master!”

Those who had been standing with their heads bowed in tension now cried out in protest.

“If you dismiss us so suddenly, what are we to do?!”

Once a few found the courage to shout, the others joined in, their voices rising in a chorus.

“What are we supposed to tell the Steward’s Department?!”

“Everyone will look down on us!”

“Grand Young Master!”

They all cried out in unison, denouncing the Grand Young Master’s decision.

“…Kekekek.”

Just then, a laugh cut through their clamor. It came from the lips of the Grand Young Master—a sneer. The low, rumbling sound was laced with a strange metallic quality that seemed to claw at the listeners’ ears. It was a sound both bizarre and utterly sinister.

The hair on the back of the servants’ necks stood on end. Their tongues froze. Their movements ceased.

“…”

Their mouths fell shut, but the Grand Young Master’s ominous laughter showed no sign of stopping. For the ridicule was not aimed at the servants.

It was aimed at himself.

How hopelessly naive and ignorant my past self was.

He had believed that if he offered goodwill, others would return it in kind. He had believed that even if they did not repay his kindness immediately, his sincerity would one day get through to them. No, he had wanted to believe it. The servants now clamoring before him, ignorant of their place in the world, were creatures of his own making.

At last, the Grand Young Master’s laughter subsided, and he looked down upon them. Not a single trace of emotion remained in his gaze. The servants shrank back even further under his stare, which was as cold and empty as glass.

“What is my surname?”

He raised a hand and pointed to one man, who answered with a start.

“I-It is Yeon, sir!”

The Grand Young Master of the Yeon Clan nodded, as if satisfied with the answer.

“That’s right. And this family, the Sword Clan of Luoyang, belongs to that Yeon Clan.”

He then pointed to another and asked again.

“What is my name?”

The chosen servant trembled, not knowing the reason, and answered.

“…You use the character ‘So’ and the character ‘Hyeon,’ sir!”

So-hyeon. The man named So-hyeon of the Yeon Clan asked another servant.

“Yes. And what is this person, this Yeon So-hyeon[2], to this family?”

The servant he pointed to swallowed dryly and replied.

“Y-You are the Grand Young Master, sir.”

Grand Young Master Yeon So-hyeon smiled. But the smile was an empty shape, devoid of all substance, and it was utterly chilling.

“Correct. I am the Grand Young Master of this family, Yeon So-hyeon.”

A chilling blue flame seemed to flicker in his eyes.

“Then what are you, who defy the order of that Grand Young Master?”

His lip twisted.

“Are you the masters of this family?”

At those words, the faces of every servant turned ashen, and they fell prostrate on the ground. They were uneducated and foolish, but they were not so dull as to be ignorant of when their lives were on the line.

“P-Please spare us!”

“We were not defying your order, sir!”

“This lowly one was merely…!”

Their neat servant uniforms became soiled, far filthier than the bare feet of the man they had just been mocking.

“Shh…!”

When Yeon So-hyeon raised a finger to his lips, not even the sound of breathing could be heard from the servants who had their heads pressed to the dirt.

“It is my fault that you have grown so complacent, so I will not hold you accountable for your transgressions.”

A bright smile graced Yeon So-hyeon’s lips.

“So pack your things and get out. Immediately.”

The words had barely left his mouth before the servants were thanking him profusely.

“Th-Thank you!”

“Thank you, Grand Young Master!”

He watched them with that twisted smile, looking down. When he had been endlessly kind, all he received was gossip and resentment. But now that he squeezed them without mercy, they finally offered him their gratitude. Such was the perverse nature of human affairs.

But there was no reason to be moved by such things now. Besides, he had a more important reason for dismissing all the servants.

With this, I have removed the unnecessary ‘eyes’ for the time being.

Many of the servants at the Wongakjeong had been reporting his every move to other factions within the family. He had been aware of this in the past but had ignored it out of his indifference to power. There were ways to make the servants who dared to spy on their master wish for death, but he had not taken them.

There is no need to beat the grass and startle the snake just yet[3].

There was no need to put them on their guard.

At least, not yet.

“You, there.”

A servant who had been scrambling to get out of the Wongakjeong, having barely managed to pack his things, froze. When Yeon So-hyeon pointed at him, he was scared out of his wits and dropped to the ground.

“Y-Yes, yes! Grand Young Master! Your orders, please!”

As he answered with his forehead pressed to the ground, his hastily packed belongings tumbled and rolled across the floor. But neither he nor Yeon So-hyeon paid them any mind.

“Tell the Steward’s Department—no…”

Yeon So-hyeon’s eyes narrowed.

“Go directly to the General Steward[4]. Tell him I said to select one of his best and send them to attend to me personally.”

The ‘General Steward’ was someone so high up that lowly servants like him couldn’t even dare to meet his gaze. A person who could issue a direct command to such a man… Now, far too late, the servant clearly understood just who it was he had been serving.

“Yes, yes! I understand, Grand Young Master! I will carry out your command!”

“And…”

His next question was baffling.

“Where is the sun now?”

“The… sun, sir?”

The servant looked up. Yeon So-hyeon was staring at the sky. The question made no sense. The servant simply answered as asked.

“It is over there, sir. It’s so white and bright that it’s hard to even look at.”

At that answer, Yeon So-hyeon tilted his head slightly.

“…Is that so?”

Yeon So-hyeon waved his hand dismissively. The servant bowed deeply and scrambled away.

“…It’s over there?”

As Yeon So-hyeon looked up at the sky, all he could perceive was the warmth of the sun’s rays. The form of the sun itself was nowhere to be seen.

“…Has even the sun now turned its face from me?”

In his ears, the mad laughter of the Scripture that Commands the Dark and Quakes the Heavens still seemed to echo vividly.

[From this moment on, you shall breathe in darkness, and in darkness, you shall bring down the sword of judgment. You shall become a Venerable One of Dark Heavens, who punishes all the karma of the world!]