[So, it’s true that you encountered the Demonic Cult during this battle.]
In that instant, Mount Hua Sword Dragon Gam Woo-hyeon felt every hair on his body stand on end.
[Don’t even think about spouting nonsense.]
Grand Strategist Sima set down the poker he’d been holding and stared directly at Gam Woo-hyeon.
[You clearly just said it yourself.]
The Grand Strategist’s eyes, fixed squarely on Gam Woo-hyeon, gleamed with an unfathomable, profound depth.
[“Having encountered the Demonic Cult personally this time… I know it even more clearly now.” That is exactly what you said.]
Gam Woo-hyeon’s grip tightened around his blanket.
Damn it…!
Just moments ago, he’d been so utterly stunned by an aura that resembled the Demonic Cult that his attention had locked onto it completely. That brief lapse was the root of this disaster.
[Why did you lie?]
Gam Woo-hyeon tried to force his mind into motion.
Think. Think…
However, a figure of Grand Strategist Sima’s caliber would never grant him that kind of leeway.
[Was your testimony about seeing the Grand Young Master also a lie?]
“No…!” Gam Woo-hyeon’s voice burst out reflexively. “I definitely saw him!”
The volume startled even him. He snapped his head around with wide, rabbit-like eyes, but—
“Then we must move even now…!”
“Is Wudang going to take responsibility for that?!”
Fortunately, the area was still unbearably noisy, and his outburst disappeared into the clamor.
“Calm down, calm down,” Grand Strategist Sima said softly, as if soothing him. “I merely wish to know the truth.”
Yet despite the gentle tone, there wasn’t a hint of warmth in the Grand Strategist’s eyes.
“Don’t be nervous. Just tell me exactly what happened, exactly as it was.”
His gaze was stripped of emotion, filled only with cold, calculating rationality, as if he were examining an object on a table.
Damn it…!
Gam Woo-hyeon ground his teeth.
Where did this start getting tangled?
Once he’d learned from the Grand Young Master that someone in this allied encampment was connected to the Demonic Cult, he hadn’t been able to tell anyone about what he’d witnessed, not from the very beginning.
And naturally…
He absolutely could not speak about what had transpired between him and Grand Young Master Yeon So-hyeon.
The people gathered here were the cream of the crop of the Central Plains Empire. He knew he couldn’t deceive them with vague evasions, half-truths, or convenient omissions.
Therefore…
From the start, Gam Woo-hyeon had fabricated a lie that was both incredibly simple and perfectly clear.
[According to the Military Strategy Bureau’s investigation, among the disciples who escaped with you… there are many who are struggling immensely to recall the combat situation.]
[Their memories…] Gam Woo-hyeon replied quickly, slipping into telepathy. [Are heavily confused due to the immense physical and psychological trauma caused by continuous, brutal combat. Are you not well aware of such symptoms yourself, Grand Strategist Sima?]
[Of course I am.]
Grand Strategist Sima lifted one finger.
[However. The confusion and delirium evident in their testimonies is far more severe than typical symptoms.]
[That merely indicates that the shock of the battle following our escape from Shenyang was that massive—]
[No.] Grand Strategist Sima cut in with absolute conviction. [Their symptoms are nearly identical in severity to those described in the reports I previously reviewed in Luoyang.]
Gam Woo-hyeon fell silent, and the Grand Strategist continued, watching him.
“Allow me to continue trusting you, Mount Hua Sword Dragon.”
Those words were far more terrifying than a simple threat like Tell me the truth, or else.
They squeezed Gam Woo-hyeon’s heart like a vice.
Regardless of the Demonic Cult…
Gam Woo-hyeon belonged to the Huashan Sect, and he was currently part of the allied forces centered around the Third Young Master of the Sword Clan. Considering the influence Grand Strategist Sima wielded within that faction, losing his trust could mean—
It could mean that Gam Woo-hyeon, along with the surviving disciples of the vanguard, would soon face a problem far more agonizing than a simple death.
“…It is true.”
As if surrendering.
Sigh.
Gam Woo-hyeon bowed his head deeply and returned to telepathy.
[…I did see the Demonic Cult during the battle.]
“What were they like?”
[It was…] Gam Woo-hyeon dredged up the image. [A massive giant made of flesh, a form no human could ever dare to imagine. A grotesque shape that can only be described as a flesh-golem.]
“I see…”
Was Grand Strategist Sima trusting him, or weighing each word for flaws?
[That giant was massive enough to snatch a horse and its rider in a single hand, yet agile enough to catch up to Mount Hua’s Drifting Dark Fragrance footwork in a single bound.]
Even Gam Woo-hyeon, a veteran who had survived countless battles, could not even begin to guess what the man hailed as the Grand Strategist was truly thinking.
“Hmm…”
Grand Strategist Sima hummed, expression unreadable, then nodded slowly and asked:
[Was the battle concluded so swiftly because of that giant flesh-golem?]
Up until that point, Gam Woo-hyeon had appeared to surrender, confessing obediently. But the instant that question landed, he mobilized every martial discipline he knew to lock down his body’s reactions and answered,
“…I do not know.”
The flesh-golem had been executed instantly by the Venerable One of Dark Heavens, that is, Grand Young Master Yeon So-hyeon, but he could not reveal that truth.
Because if he did…
He was certain Grand Strategist Sima would eventually deduce that he and the Grand Young Master had met in private.
“You don’t know?” Grand Strategist Sima’s long eyebrows twitched. “What do you mean you don’t know?”
As the Grand Strategist’s voice gathered weight, turning sharp with reprimand—
Do not react.
Gam Woo-hyeon barely suppressed the tension trying to seize him and forced himself to move slowly.
“…It is shameful to admit, but…”
With as little energy as possible, he shook his head.
“I was not a central figure who played an active role in that battle…”
Maintaining his utterly defeated expression, he continued.
“In the midst of that chaos, I was nothing but a pathetic loser who fled with everything I had in a desperate, terrified bid to survive, only to be captured… and then I barely managed to escape.”
With that, Gam Woo-hyeon sealed his lips.
He even smothered the instinct to swallow the dry saliva collecting in his throat, because he could feel how badly his body wanted to betray him.
How much time has passed?
Grand Strategist Sima’s silence dragged, stretched, pressed.
“…I see.”
Had he accepted it?
The moment Gam Woo-hyeon began to let himself breathe, even internally—
“If that is the case,” Grand Strategist Sima asked,
[Why didn’t you testify about this sighting from the very beginning?]
Just like before, the question struck precisely when he’d loosened his guard.
“…I.”
However.
This time, Mount Hua Sword Dragon Gam Woo-hyeon did not panic. Instead, he drew out the words he had prepared from the moment this interrogation began.
[Not only am I a loser…] He focused every shred of concentration on delivering each word cleanly. [But I also did not wish to be treated as a madman, spouting nonsense about seeing hallucinations…]
It was a reason with a persuasive power and emotional pull so strong that even Grand Strategist Sima could not dismiss it out of hand.
“…I see.”
Grand Strategist Sima nodded slowly, as if satisfied.
“I understand.”
He picked up the poker he had set aside and used it like a cane as he pushed himself to his feet.
“Mount Hua Sword Dragon.”
“Yes.”
Faint morning light seeped through the gaps in the tent cloth, as if dawn had broken without Gam Woo-hyeon noticing. Bathed in that thin, grey glow, Grand Strategist Sima said, “Take good care of your health.”
“…Yes.”
With a slight nod to Gam Woo-hyeon, Grand Strategist Sima turned and shouted toward the tacticians of the Military Strategy Bureau.
“Do we still have absolutely no information regarding the location of the Grand Young Master’s main unit?!”
“T-That is…!”
“What the hell is everyone doing, sleeping on the job?!”
The Grand Strategist’s booming voice carried so much vitality it was hard to believe an elderly man like him had been up all night, under this kind of strain.
Huuu…
Only after watching Grand Strategist Sima walk away did Gam Woo-hyeon finally release the breath he’d been holding.
I survived this hurdle, for now.
Nevertheless, he did not let his body relax completely. Not even now.
Still, cautiously, he lifted his gaze and scanned the people gathered in the command tent.
I still haven’t figured out who here has joined hands with the Demonic Cult.
His eyes swept the entire room, one face after another, and finally—
“I don’t care if it’s trivial or low-reliability intelligence. Bring me something!”
“Yes! Understood!”
“And where is Namgung Du?!”
His gaze landed squarely on Grand Strategist Sima’s back, and Gam Woo-hyeon muttered to himself.
…What if.
What if Grand Strategist Sima is the one who joined hands with the Demonic Cult, and this entire interrogation was just his way of testing me?
Shudder.
The chill of the dawn plains seemed to coil around his skin.
“Grand Strategist Sima…!”
However, Gam Woo-hyeon’s train of thought was abruptly derailed.
Namgung Du, the chief of the Third Young Master’s external intelligence network in the North, burst through the tent entrance.
“Namgung Du!”
An elder-level figure from the Namgung Clan shouted the instant he spotted him.
“You bastard?! Where the hell have you been hiding all night?!”
Drenched in morning dew and panting hard, Namgung Du looked like a man who had been running himself ragged until sunrise. The accusation was absurdly unfair.
“That is not the issue right now…!”
However, instead of venting his frustration, he raised a crumpled note and reported directly to Grand Strategist Sima, urgency sharpening every syllable.
“According to news that just came in…!”
At that tone, the leaders who had been snapping at each other moments ago turned toward Namgung Du one by one.
“Forces believed to be the Grand Young Master’s main unit have launched a surprise attack on the Dread King’s army stationed near the Heilongjiang Province border…!”
“……”
A heavy silence dropped over the command tent, Grand Strategist Sima included.
Hah…
The Namgung Clan elder who had first yelled at Namgung Du let out a hollow breath, then suddenly erupted, face flushing beet-red.
“What kind of nonsensical bullshit is that?!”
Others grumbled too, sinking back into their seats as though the tent’s tension had deflated all at once.
“How could the Grand Young Master’s main unit, which annihilated the Dread King’s garrison south of us, possibly appear at the Heilongjiang Province border?”
“You need to speak words that actually make sense.”
“Tsk, tsk.”
“This is what happens when you put young, ambition-blinded brats in charge.”
Their reactions were justified, no matter how one looked at it.
Unless the Grand Young Master’s main unit possessed the ability to collectively use space-compressing magic, for the vanished main unit to suddenly appear at the Heilongjiang border—
Geographically.
Temporally.
It was absolutely, utterly, completely—
“No…!” Namgung Du shouted, looking genuinely wronged by the reprimands raining down on him. “Do you know how many times I double-checked this information?!”
“You have to say something that makes sense in the first place for us to even pretend to believe it!”
“Dammit…!”
Namgung Du pounded his chest in raw frustration and shouted, “The Dread King’s main unit, which split from us, has begun a rapid advance to reinforce them!”
“What…?”
Only then did the crowd stir again.
“The Dread King’s main unit…?”
“You mean the Dread King’s main unit that was heading toward the Heilongjiang border to intercept the advance of the Grand Taro of the Haedong Kingdom?”
“The one led by the Dread King himself…?”
“Yes!”
Namgung Du yelled at the bewildered crowd, face flushed.
“The Dread King’s main unit! As you all know, they marched toward the Heilongjiang border all night, which means they’re far closer to that location than we are!”
Given that proximity, it was obvious their intelligence carried significantly higher reliability than anything the Third Young Master’s allied forces could scrape together from here.
Namgung Du thrust the note out as if he could force belief into their hands. “Do you still not believe my report after hearing this?!”
Murmur, murmur.
The heavyweights of the alliance, expressions turning grim, began trading opinions in quick, clipped bursts.
“But it still doesn’t make any sense…?”
“In less than a single night, how could they cover that distance…?”
“First they say the Grand Young Master, who was supposedly in Shenyang, suddenly appeared in a battle. Now they’re claiming his entire main unit is using space-compressing magic…?”
Right at that moment—
Hah…
Grand Strategist Sima, who had been silently lost in thought, let out something that sounded like a sigh.
“Grand Strategist Sima…!”
“H-Have you figured something out?”
As everyone’s gaze, including Namgung Du’s and Mount Hua Sword Dragon Gam Woo-hyeon’s, gathered on him, Grand Strategist Sima nodded.
“I believe I understand exactly what is happening here.”