Chapter 10

Yeon So-hyeon, the one who had turned his back on the world and chosen seclusion.

Kang Sang, the one who had been forced to retire to prevent a disastrous defeat.

Gong Liang, the one who had fought alone after losing all his comrades, only to be laid low by illness.

They had all returned.

***

“…Then.”

Kang Ho’s exceptional mind, still reeling from the shock, naturally deduced the next conclusion.

“You didn’t just remove me from the operation targeting the Great Immortal Merchant Guild…”

Gong Liang nodded. “The Grand Young Master was protecting you, and by extension—.”

“—he was protecting my grandfather in the Imperial Capital,” Kang Ho finished.

“Correct,” Yeon So-hyeon replied. “Word that your grandfather is returning to the palace has likely already begun to spread through the capital.”

“And there isn’t a single person of power in the capital who doesn’t know how much Elder Kang Sang treasures you,” Gong Liang added, his gaze fixed on Kang Ho.

“I understand.” Kang Ho nodded slowly. “I must be exceptionally careful from now on.”

“‘From now on’?” Yeon So-hyeon scoffed.

Kang Ho looked bewildered. “…Did I misspeak just now?”

The answer came from Gong Liang. “Not ‘from now on.’ You should have been careful from the very beginning.”

“…From the very beginning?”

Before he could finish his question, the voice of the maid Il-ryeong came from outside.

“My lord. Lord Tang Baek requests an audience.”

“Let him enter.”

Tang Baek. Kang Ho had never heard the name. He was well-versed in the noble houses of the Central Plains and their scions, but his knowledge did not extend to the names of swordsmen from Sichuan. But for the Grand Young Master to admit him to this meeting, he must be someone of consequence.

Kang Ho’s thought was cut short as a vile stench flooded the room, forcing him to clamp a hand over his mouth and nose.

“!”

Tang Baek was holding a cluster of severed heads.

“Place them here.”

At Yeon So-hyeon’s command, Tang Baek approached the table.

THUMP.

With a heavy, wet sound, the heads were set down. Their hair had been knotted together for easy carrying. The blood on them had dried black, suggesting they had not died recently, and the stench of decay was nauseating.

“…”

Kang Ho’s face went pale, but Tang Baek’s next words made it impossible for him to breathe.

“As you commanded, these are the heads of the Luoyang informants who were surveilling the one named Kang Ho.”

A silent scream echoed in Kang Ho’s mind. They were watching me?!

“Were they only conducting surveillance?”

“No, my lord,” Tang Baek’s grim voice replied. “They had long since finished preparations to abduct or assassinate him immediately upon receiving word from the Imperial Capital.”

Kang Ho now understood why the faces of the dead were twisted in expressions of unimaginable agony, and how Tang Baek knew the full extent of their orders.

“You have done well,” Yeon So-hyeon praised.

Tang Baek shook his head. “I merely collected the heads, as is my way. The agents of the Crescent Moon Pavilion did all the difficult work.” That was all he said. He knew well that this was not a place for a mere swordsman to linger. “If you’ll excuse me.” He bowed respectfully to the room and withdrew.

“…”

Until the maid Il-ryeong had silently opened the windows wider and closed the door behind her, Kang Ho could not say a single word.

“They seem to have been dead for some time,” Gong Liang observed, completely unfazed as he inspected the heads. “I thought you were about to deal with this matter, but it seems you’ve already finished. As expected of the Grand Young Master.” He even looked intrigued, not like a man appreciating art, but like a general assessing a tactical report. “That man, Tang Baek, was the Fourth Young Master’s subordinate, was he not? And he said the Crescent Moon Pavilion did the work. If that’s the case…”

Yeon So-hyeon took a calm sip of tea and nodded. “I sent the Fourth Young Master’s men to support the Crescent Moon Pavilion, who, until yesterday, were holding off the Great Immortal Merchant Guild’s attacks alone. They took care of this matter at the same time.”

“Excellent. Truly excellent,” Gong Liang said, delighted by Yeon So-hyeon’s foresight.

“I was merely taking care of two things at once.”

“The Grand Young Master is formidable, but that Fourth Young Master’s subordinates and the Crescent Moon Pavilion are no ordinary bunch either,” Gong Liang clicked his tongue. “The children of my own clan should learn a thing or two from them. They’ve all grown lazy, relying on the power they were born with. Tsk, tsk.”

“They will surely learn much from the war they are now fighting.”

“They had better. If they do not learn, they will be culled.”

Yeon So-hyeon and Gong Liang. Neither of them paid the heads on the table any mind.

“…”

In that moment, Kang Ho felt the immense distance between himself and these two men more keenly than ever. It was as if he alone were being left behind. Gong Liang, leader of the Imperial Capital’s Reformist faction, a man some whispered was the greatest of the old demons. And Yeon So-hyeon, the Grand Young Master of the Luoyang Sword Clan, a man who harbored a darkness so deep Kang Ho could not even begin to fathom it.

“Well?” Gong Liang’s gaze snapped to him, and Kang Ho jolted back to the present. “Have you learned anything?”

Kang Ho took a long, deep breath. The stench seared his nostrils and seemed to pierce his brain, but as he inhaled deeply, his senses began to numb—a trick he had learned from a coroner at the inspection bureau.

“…The reason you brought in the heads of men long dead, for a matter that did not require your direct confirmation, was…” Kang Ho was inexperienced, but he was not without ability. “…as Elder Gong Liang said, because there was something I needed to learn.”

“Hoh?” A smile that said, Well, well, look at this, spread across Gong Liang’s face.

Without breaking his gaze from that smile, or from the dead eyes on the table, Kang Ho continued. “These men in the Imperial Capital, who would go so far as to surveil me in Luoyang and even plan my assassination on a moment’s notice, despite my having resigned my official post…” A faint tremor ran through his hand as he spoke. “It shows an obsession bordering on madness, a meticulousness that will not permit a single variable.”

In the current situation, there was only one group of people who fit that description. Kang Ho swallowed dryly before speaking their name.

“…The current patriarchs of the Sixteen Imperial Families in the Imperial Capital.”

They would have abducted or killed him to strike a blow against his grandfather. “They were keeping my grandfather in check, even after he retired to go hunting.” It would have been better if he could have laughed at the absurdity of it all, but his hand trembled as he adjusted his spectacles. “…So, it wasn’t just you and my grandfather whose business from that day remained unfinished.”

Kang Ho looked at the heads, and through their empty eyes, he saw the faces of the most powerful men in the Imperial Capital. “The current patriarchs of the Sixteen Imperial Families… they haven’t finished a single thing since that day, have they?”

“You are correct,” Gong Liang nodded. “And when an event like today occurs—.”

The event he was referring to was Kang Ho’s grandfather re-entering the palace.

“—they would have abducted or killed me,” Kang Ho finished, understanding perfectly.

Neither Yeon So-hyeon nor Gong Liang offered a reply. None was needed. Their silence was a more profound confirmation than any words.

“…I have learned a great deal from today’s events. No,” Kang Ho shook his head, correcting himself. “I have realized a great deal.”

Yeon So-hyeon, who had been silent until now, finally spoke. “In that case, Kang Ho, what must you do now?”

Stay in the safest place possible? Distinguish friend from foe? A thousand thoughts flashed through his mind, but the words that came out were: “…I must warn those close to me and ensure their safety.”

Behind his spectacles, Kang Ho’s eyes shone with a new, cold light. The intellect was the same, but the chill was something new. It was the mark of his growth. “Since they can no longer target me directly, they will use those around me to get to me.”

They would try to draw him out, to create a vulnerability they could use against his grandfather.

“A good answer,” Gong Liang said with a satisfied nod. Kang Ho also saw a smile touch Yeon So-hyeon’s lips.

“Indeed.” Yeon So-hyeon refilled Kang Ho’s empty cup. “Now, Kang Ho, you have earned the right to take your first step into the power struggle at the apex of the Central Plains.” He looked at Kang Ho, who held the cup with both hands respectfully. “From now on, you will serve as my secretary. You will follow me, observe my every move, and learn everything.”

Kang Ho’s eyes widened. “You would make me your secretary?”

“Yes. You must learn everything, as quickly as possible.”

Initially taken aback by Yeon So-hyeon’s favor, Kang Ho now sensed a strange urgency in his words. “As quickly as possible?”

It was Gong Liang who answered. “Elder Kang Sang is hale and hearty for his age now, but…” Kang Sang was so old that even Gong Liang, himself a wheelchair-bound elder, had to refer to him with respect.

“You two are…!” Kang Ho understood everything the old man was implying, his jaw hanging open. “You two are already, right now, preparing for what comes after my grandfather…!”

***

In the Imperial Capital.

The emergency meeting between the Second Young Master, Yeon Ja-cheong, and the patriarchs of the Sixteen Imperial Families. As the meeting dragged on, the smoke filling the room grew ever thicker.

“What of Kang Sang’s grandson?”

Another patriarch exhaled a long stream of smoke and nodded. “I have sent word to our people in Luoyang. They are to abduct him if possible, and if not, to kill him cleanly.” The death of his treasured grandson would be a severe blow to Kang Sang, both emotionally and politically.

“And the backup plan, in case he has already gone into hiding?”

“We’ll tear apart the lives of everyone around that grandson. If his loved ones suffer, he’ll have no choice but to crawl out on his own.”

“Preparations are already underway,” one patriarch growled, grinding his teeth. “Paternal side, maternal side, we’ll dig up everyone from his wet nurse to his friends from the academy.”

“…The Luoyang Sword Clan’s side,” the Second Young Master, who had been watching silently from behind his golden mask, finally spoke, “leave that to me.” Although he had heard that the boy, Kang Ho, belonged to the Central Inspectorate, where his own influence was weak, he was confident he could deal with him if he was within the Sword Clan’s domain.

“Then it is settled.” The patriarch leading the meeting tapped his long-stemmed pipe on the round table. As all eyes turned to him, he spoke. “By now, you must all be feeling that something is… amiss.”

Everyone nodded, including the Second Young Master.

“No matter how distracted we were by the old demons…”

“It is strange that Kang Sang, that mad old man, could re-enter the palace so quietly.”

“Especially here, in the Imperial Capital.” The capital was the heart of the empire’s bureaucracy, and everything moved with a slowness befitting its size. And yet, Kang Sang’s reappointment had been handled with the speed of lightning.

“The Reformist faction shattered into pieces after they lost Gong Liang…”

“And the Imperial Loyalist faction has been mostly purged. They no longer have the power to pull something like this off so quietly.”

Whether they thought on it alone or put their heads together, the conclusion was the same.

“In that case…”

Everyone nodded.

“…The Emperor himself must have made the move.”

The Emperor. After all these long years, the Emperor of the Central Plains was finally taking his first step.