‘Grand Young Master Yeon Sohyeon of the Luoyang Sword Clan resolved the food crisis of the Northern Great General’s Headquarters in a single day.’
That rumor had already spread to the floor of the marketplace in Shenyang, the city where the Moyong Clan was seated.
“Hey, did you hear?”
“I heard. I heard. They say the Grand Young Master of the Luoyang Sword Clan breathed life back into the Northern Great General’s Headquarters in one fell swoop!”
“It is astonishing. Truly astonishing.”
“With the rumors that Dread King would become the new Great General, I was trying to learn the clumsy language of the northern tribes, but this is a relief.”
Into the conversation of the merchants making a fuss, a merchant organizing his stall interjected slyly.
“…No, but listen. Do you really think that makes sense?”
“Why? Why wouldn’t it?”
“It was barely a day.”
The merchant who cut in continued with an expression that clearly doubted the situation.
“Doesn’t it seem strange to you that the Northern Great General’s Headquarters couldn’t solve a food problem that was apparently solvable in a single day all this time?”
“Huh…”
“Hmm…”
The merchant who had been making a fuss twitched his eyebrows and scratched his beard.
“…There must be something we don’t know.”
“So, what is it you want to say?”
The merchant who raised the suspicion shrugged.
“As is always the way with rumors. It’s either false or exaggerated.”
“No, I definitely heard…”
The merchant who first brought it up tilted his head.
“My nephew, who passed through the Northern Great General’s Headquarters on a trade run at dawn, said he saw wagons loaded with food arriving in lines…”
“Then, I suppose it wasn’t a false rumor. Maybe just an exaggeration?”
At that moment.
“Make way!”
“Move!”
Along with shouts of warning.
Warhorses equipped with unusual heavy armor thundered past behind them in a stampede.
“Whoops!”
A carriage, seemingly escorted by them, raced past as if piercing through the thoroughfare.
“…That direction is toward the Moyong Clan. Is something big happening?”
“Big happening, my foot…”
The merchant who had been doubting the rumors about the Grand Young Master, having fallen on his backside and overturned his stall, grumbled as he stood up.
“Day in and day out, we get swayed helplessly by Dread King. It’s like we have no masters of our own…”
Leaving the man who was negative about everything behind, the two merchants lifted their gazes to chase the end of the procession.
“…Even if it was a rumor mixed with exaggeration, it’s fine.”
“…Either way. I just hope that person called the Grand Young Master does well.”
Those merchants couldn’t even imagine.
That the procession was none other than the Grand Young Master’s procession—the very subject of the rumors they were discussing.
It was only natural.
Who could possibly think that the person who arrived yesterday and solved the greatest difficulty of the Northern Great General’s Headquarters would have arrived in Shenyang by morning?
***
Moyong Clan, Grand Conference Hall.
Unlike those on the streets debating over inaccurate rumors…
“…Is this information certain?”
“It is information that has even gone through cross-verification.”
Clearly.
The figures at the center of the Moyong Clan possessed more definitive information.
“Whether they secured food or not! Dread King’s victory is already certain!”
“Stop spouting nonsense!”
Nevertheless, their behavior was even worse than the stall merchants in the marketplace.
Elder Moyong Wan, classified as the representative of the pro-Dread King faction within the Moyong Clan, raised his voice.
“Doesn’t everyone know?!”
Elder Moyong Wan rose from his seat and clenched his fist tight.
“Dread King, through the Greater Co-Prosperity strategy! Beyond merely ensuring our family’s survival!”
Excited, with a face flushed crimson, he shouted, spraying spittle in all directions.
“He promised to restore the brilliant past glory of the Moyong Clan to us!”
He looked ready to climb onto the conference table.
“The Central Plains Nation, which treated us like criminals despite our shining merits during the Northern War—we must abandon them now!”
Behind him.
“Correct! Correct!”
“We must abandon the Central Plains first!”
His ardent supporters within the family applauded and loudly agreed with his every word.
“The union of the Great Yelü Family and our Moyong Clan! A history beginning anew in the North under the banner of Greater Co-Prosperity!”
Seemingly intoxicated by his own words, Elder Moyong Wan’s chest puffed out, and strength entered the finger pointing at the sky.
“That is the great milestone our Moyong Clan must move toward!”
The Grand Conference Hall, which revealed the history of the Moyong Clan as it was, was massive.
“A new history!”
“A great milestone!”
The supporters filling the space behind Elder Moyong Wan raised enthusiastic cheers.
“Greater Co-Prosperity! Greater Co-Prosperity!”
“Moyong Wan! Moyong Wan!”
Towards them, shouting as if to bring the hall down—
“Order! Order!”
The Grand Chairman, dressed in attire from when the Moyong clan was a royal family, bellowed.
“Elder Moyong Wan! Silence them immediately! Or else, I may have everyone expelled from this Grand Conference Hall!”
“Hahaha.”
Elder Moyong Wan shrugged and gestured behind him as if he couldn’t help it.
“Booooo—!”
His supporters jeered at the Grand Chairman as they sat down.
“Next! Next! Elder Moyong Chusan! Please proceed!”
As the Grand Chairman shouted, striking his gavel as if to break it, Elder Moyong Chusan immediately began his speech.
“Holding hands with Dread King is a foolish act!”
As shouts of “Correct! Correct!” erupted from around him, he shot up from his seat and shouted.
“Furthermore, that so-called Greater Co-Prosperity strategy is utterly preposterous!”
“Booooo—!”
“Wake up! Elder Moyong Chusan!”
As jeers burst out from Elder Moyong Wan’s side—
“You are the ones who need to wake up!”
Exploding in anger, he raised his voice even higher.
“Offering up the Great General’s seat! Offering up the Northern Army! After doing all that, for what reason would Dread King treat our Moyong Clan, which would be left as nothing but a shell, with respect?!”
Elder Moyong Chusan’s supporters applauded him fervently.
“Right!”
“Those words are correct!”
Elder Moyong Wan’s supporters jeered even louder.
“Bullshit!”
“Is Elder Moyong Chusan ignoring our Moyong Clan?!”
“Greater Co-Prosperity is our future!”
As it overheated again to the point where proceeding was impossible due to the protests of Elder Moyong Wan’s supporters, the sound of the Grand Chairman’s gavel rang out roughly.
“Elder Moyong Wan!”
At that angry roar, Elder Moyong Wan gestured to his supporters to calm down, letting out a hollow laugh of “Haha, my goodness,” before turning his head.
“No, then.”
He asked Elder Moyong Chusan.
“Does Elder Moyong Chusan have some brilliant idea?”
“Of course.”
Elder Moyong Chusan answered immediately, as if he didn’t need to think twice.
“Our Moyong Clan must not kneel to Dread King, but participate in the New Martial Righteous Alliance led by the Third Young Master of the Luoyang Sword Clan!”
He was of the pro-Martial Righteous Alliance faction.
“Correct!”
“That is right!”
As the elders supporting him added their encouragement, Elder Moyong Chusan eloquently argued his case with vigor.
“If we join hands with the Third Young Master of the Luoyang Sword Clan, we can! Effectively check Dread King, who would become an absolute tyrant in this northern land, and at the same time!”
Taking a breath, he shouted on.
“The possibility of advancing into the abundant South, no longer confined to this desolate North, will open wide!”
He raised a clenched fist.
“This is the very opportunity for our Moyong Clan to become a great family in the entire Central Plains, not just the North!”
Moyong Chusan’s supporters applauded thunderously.
“A Great Clan!”
“Not of the North. The Great Clan of the Central Plains, Moyong!”
As if to crush the spirits of those supporters—
“That is exactly what bullshit is!”
The pro-Dread King faction’s Moyong Wan stepped forward.
“If we join hands with the Third Young Master of the Luoyang Sword Clan, we will not be communicating directly with Dread King on equal footing! We will be swayed by the Third Young Master, Dread King’s ally!”
“You’re the one who should stop spouting bullshit!”
When the pro-Martial Righteous Alliance faction’s Moyong Chusan pointed his finger—
“Order! Order! Be quiet!”
The Grand Conference Hall plunged into uncontrollable chaos.
Extremely usual for them.
“Where does an old man get off pointing fingers?!”
“Old man?! Did you just use informal speech?! In this sacred Grand Conference Hall?!”
The elders of the pro-Dread King faction and the pro-Martial Righteous Alliance faction, who together made up nearly half the assembly.
“This bastard is grabbing my collar?!”
“What?! You call me a bastard?!”
“Guards! Guards!”
Amidst the unsightly tangle in the middle of the Grand Conference Hall.
“Good job. Tsk tsk.”
“Everyone has lost their minds. They are completely insane.”
There were those who clicked their tongues loudly, watching the fire across the river. These elders, belonging to the minority factions, whispered among themselves.
“Whether it’s the Third Young Master of the Luoyang Sword Clan or Dread King. Isn’t the future equally uncertain?”
“…Then perhaps, how about we choose the Haedong Kingdom (Korea) just among ourselves?”
“Certainly…”
They, too, were no different in thinking only of selling the family to sustain their wealth and glory.
“If we persuade and secure the tribes that were formerly allied with us. The Haedong Kingdom will surely welcome us.”
“That side is also facing instability on their borders due to the rapid rise of Dread King, so…”
As the massive ship called the Moyong Clan began to sink, all reason vanished. The crew members were not only thinking of abandoning the ship and escaping but were in a state where they were planning to rip off the expensive decorations inside the ship to sell.
“Enouuuugh!”
However, of course.
It wasn’t only such people in the Grand Conference Hall.
Bang!
“Everyone, come to your senses!”
An elderly Elder rose from his seat, smashing his desk.
Eulji Hwang shouted with a feeling of coughing up blood.
“Did you all not hear the news that the Grand Young Master of the Luoyang Sword Clan resolved the food crisis of the Northern Great General’s Headquarters in a single day?!”
Eulji Hwang was a figure who had risen to the position of Elder in the Moyong Clan after laying down his baton as a former general of the Great General’s Headquarters.
“Right now, we are not in a situation to think about whom to bow to and how! That food crisis was a problem that would have been solved if our Moyong Clan had helped from the beginning!”
At his appeal, a few elders nodded slightly.
“Therefore, we must think first about how to help the Great General’s Headquarters even now—!”
The retired old general’s words could not continue to the end.
“Do not interfere recklessly when you aren’t even a blood relative of our Moyong Clan!”
“Where does a mere military origin with no proper education dare to cause a commotion!”
The elders of the pro-Dread King and pro-Martial Righteous Alliance factions, who had been grappling with each other just moments ago, raised their voices as one.
“Grand Chairman!”
“Are you just going to watch this act of destroying furniture and causing a disturbance in the Grand Conference Hall?!”
The Grand Chairman, a direct blood relative of the Moyong Clan, shouted in rage, pounding his gavel.
“What are the guards doing?! Drag Elder Eulji Hwang out immediately!”
Until then, they had been standing blankly. The guards, who had only been watching the chaos caused by the Moyong blood relatives, subdued Elder Eulji Hwang in an instant.
“Wake up! Please!”
Elder Eulji Hwang shouted as he was dragged out.
“Now that the urgent food crisis has been resolved, the Acting Patriarch will storm into the Main Clan sooner or later!”
His voice grew distant from the Grand Conference Hall.
“When she returns, do you think she will forgive you?!”
Listening to that voice, the elders mocked him.
“Idiot.”
“Acting Patriarch, my foot…”
“Do you think that person, who knows nothing but the barracks, would ever leave the front lines?”
“Since the food problem is solved, she’s probably throwing a festival with that food today.”
Blatant remarks.
Sounds of ridicule.
“Even if she returns. How many are left in this family who would listen to her voice?”
Is this how the thousand-year history of the Moyong Clan ends?
“…How resentful.”
Just as Elder Eulji Hwang, being dragged out, was about to drop his head.
At that moment.
“Urgent report!”
A messenger rushed past him and burst into the Grand Conference Hall.
“What is it?!”
At the Grand Chairman’s question, the messenger reported, gasping for breath.
“The—The Acting Patriarch and the Grand Young Master of the Luoyang Sword Clan have just arrived at the Main Clan!”