Luoyang Sword Clan, the Council of Elders.

There was only one item on today’s agenda: ‘The vote of no confidence against the Director of the Treasury.’

“…This should have been a simple matter.”

An elder, seated in a luxurious lounge, stroked his long beard, his displeasure evident.

“It should have been,” another elder from his faction agreed with a click of his tongue. “For whatever reason, the current Director had already lost his will to fight. He wasn’t putting up any resistance at all.”

“We just had to vote, oust him…”

A third elder chimed in, “And then recommend the ‘candidate’ that all factions and clans had already agreed upon to the Supreme Operations Council. That was all.”

In a political landscape of tangled, competing interests, a candidate that the vast majority of elders could agree upon was, to put it nicely, a person who had no intention of causing problems, and likely lacked the ability to cause them even if he wanted to.

“But then…”

Another elder from the same faction clicked his tongue.

“…the Grand Young Master suddenly jumps into the mix…” As he said it, he shivered, as if he’d been touched by frost.

“Hah. Aren’t you being a bit too cowardly?”

At this, a more relaxed-looking elder let out a snort. “This is the Council of Elders, is it not? This is our ‘domain.’ Even the previous Patriarch, and the Patriarch before him, respected the role and territory of the Council.”

“But, our opponent…” The elder who had shown his anxiety now spoke with force in his eyes. “He is not the same Grand Young Master from a few months ago. He is not. We cannot take this lightly.”

“Hmph.” The boisterous elder snorted even louder. “So what? In this matter, just how many elders do you think he can actually influence?”

When the other man couldn’t immediately refute him, he crossed his arms and sneered. “Honestly. For an elder of the great Luoyang Sword Clan to be so faint of heart…”

That was the last straw. The anxious elder bristled. “What did you just say to me?!”

“You want me to say it again? I’ll say it ten times! For an elder of the great Luoyang Sword Clan—”

“Enough.”

The man who had been sitting in the seat of honor, lost in thought, finally spoke.

“That will be enough.”

At the sound of Elder Peng’s voice, the leader of their faction, the two quarreling elders immediately fell silent. The other elders in the room also quieted down.

“First,” Elder Peng, who hailed from the Hebei Peng Clan, raised a finger and pointed at the elder who had expressed his fear. “Caution is a fine thing. But do not try to stir up anxiety and pass it off as certainty without clear evidence.”

“…Yes, sir.”

At that, the elder who had been berating him immediately puffed up, his expression triumphant.

“And,” Elder Peng continued, his finger now swiveling to him. “Were you not anxious as well?”

“I was not…!” The triumphant elder immediately shook his head, his voice full of indignant denial. “On what grounds do you accuse me of being—”

“In that case,” Elder Peng cut him off. “Why is it that you, a man who is always so busy, are here now, well before the meeting has even begun?”

He pointed at the lounge floor. “Why are you already here?”

Why? It was because he had heard about the chaos that had erupted at the Court of Judiciary this morning.

The rebuked elder, lost for words, fell silent. Elder Peng began to summarize.

“…However, neither of you is fundamentally wrong.”

As the leader laid out his reasoning, the others nodded.

“That’s true.” An elder stroking his beard from a short distance away picked up the thread. “We do not know how the Grand Young Master will interfere in this meeting, but it is a clear fact that he is a tangible threat.”

An elder sitting near the entrance, who had been constantly checking incoming messages, also spoke up. “We must not overlook what happened at the Court of Judiciary this morning.”

“What about it?”

The elder with the message looked up. “It means the Grand Young Master could very well have made the same preparations here, in the Council of Elders.”

An uncomfortable silence settled over the room. The thought that he might have already laid the same trap for them, that they could be humiliated just as the Head of the Court of Judiciary had been, was the root of their shared anxiety. It was the precise reason they had all gathered here, so early, without a single summons being sent.

“But, as Elder Peng said, there is truth in both arguments.” The long-bearded elder spoke again. “There is no need for us to be consumed by fear. Because…”

Elder Peng finished his thought. “Because, right now, almost every elder is sharing that same ‘anxiety’.”

No sooner had he spoken than the door opened, and an elder who had been waiting outside leaned in.

“Apologies for the interruption, but requests for discussion are flooding in from the heads of every faction and clan.”

“Which factions and clans?”

The messenger shrugged. “All of them.”

At those words, a faint smile touched Elder Peng’s lips. “In this family, the factions and clans of the elders are the one group that can never, ever unite.”

The Council of Elders was an arena where victors and losers were clearly decided. If one person won, another had to lose. For all of them to suddenly desire dialogue… what could that mean?

“Of course…!” An elder, grasping the implication, let out a low gasp. “The Grand Young Master… he’s managed to unite a group that should be impossible to unite…!”

The incident at the Court of Judiciary had given all the elders a shared sense of crisis.

“Indeed.” The long-bearded elder’s eyes narrowed. “Perhaps he wanted to show off his new status. I don’t know his intentions, but in the end…”

Elder Peng nodded. “That arrogant Grand Young Master has rashly kicked the hornet’s nest.”

***

The Council of Elders, Meeting Hall.

The room, normally used for committee meetings, was packed shoulder-to-shoulder with the representative elders of every faction and clan.

“We cannot respond to this as we normally would!” one elder boomed, and others immediately roared in support.

“That’s right!”

“To interfere in the dismissal of the Treasury Director, a matter the elders had already reached a consensus on… this is tantamount to the Grand Young Master declaring war on the Council of Elders itself!”

It was an unbelievable sight. These were men who, on any other day, would have met the words of a rival faction with a cynical sneer. Behind those shouting for a united front, the more cautious elders were having their own conversations.

“The Grand Young Master is breaking the unspoken rules passed down from our predecessors.”

“The Council of Elders is a sacred place.”

“We cannot simply stand by and watch him tramp his muddy boots all over it, even if he is the Grand Young Master.”

Even those who normally kept their fangs hidden until the decisive moment were grinding their teeth.

“We all know the Grand Young Master’s abilities are great, and his influence is at high tide…”

“But I cannot shake the feeling that he is being excessively arrogant.”

“Perhaps it is time that we, the elders, put that arrogance in its place, don’t you think?”

From a corner, the First Department Head of the Court of Judiciary, who had been observing the scene, shrugged. “…It seems we won’t have to lift a finger.”

The elders of the Luoyang Sword Clan were faster on their feet than anyone, and their words were even faster.

“Their pride is wounded,” the Head of the Court of Judiciary, standing beside him, nodded. “Pride…”

They, as elders who also belonged to the Court of Judiciary, were here to block the Grand Young Master. But…

“Well, now.” The First Department Head gave a bitter laugh. “The mess the Grand Young Master made at our Court this morning has turned into a blessing in disguise, in a manner of speaking.”

But it wasn’t something to be happy about. This ‘gain’ was a byproduct of the Court of Judiciary’s own authority taking a massive hit. It wasn’t enough to cover the loss, and it certainly wasn’t enough to restore their pride. The bitter laugh was all he could muster.

“…In any case, it seems we have no need to get involved over here.”

“Indeed,” the Head of the Court of Judiciary pushed himself off the wall. “If we interfere clumsily, we might ruin this atmosphere. That would be far more troublesome. In that case…” The Head of the Court of Judiciary headed for the door first. “Let’s go see the ‘candidate’ for the new Treasury Director.”

***

“The Grand Young Master has gotten involved?”

The lounge was somewhat smaller than the others, but it was still an extravagantly appointed space for a single person to wait in.

“No. This can’t happen…” The middle-aged man pacing anxiously inside, however, felt as if he were trapped in the Inner Prison itself, suffocating in his own agitation. “If I fail to become the new Treasury Director here…”

“Are you in?”

Normally, he would have raged at someone who dared to barge in without so much as a knock.

“Ah, ah! You’ve come.”

But the candidate for the new Treasury Director didn’t dare show any anger. His expression shifted instantly, and he greeted them with the most respectful bow he could manage.

“We thought you might be anxious about the news from our Court, so we came to see you.”

At the First Department Head’s words, the candidate waved his hands frantically. “N-not at all! Anxious? Why would I be anxious? I feel as stable as if I were sitting comfortably in a speeding carriage…!”

“For a man who feels so stable, you’re sweating a lot.”

“Th-this is…!”

While the First Department Head spoke, the Head of the Court of Judiciary made himself at home in a chair and cut straight to the point. “Let’s get to business.”

“Yes, yes.”

The Head of the Court of Judiciary looked at the candidate and asked in a low voice, “You remember your role, after you become the Treasury Director?”

“Of course…!” The candidate nodded vigorously. “My first duty is to properly bury the matters related to the Yeon clansmen—”

“Ahem,” the First Department Head coughed pointedly, and the candidate hastily corrected himself.

“—to process them. I know better than anyone that this is my first and most solemn duty.”

“Good. You remember.” The Head of the Court of Judiciary’s voice was laced with a subtle pressure. “Remember this well: if that matter is not handled properly, the one who will find himself in the most… trouble… is you.”

He then slowly, deliberately, enunciated the candidate’s current title.

“Vice Director.”

The candidate—the man who was the Vice Director of the Treasury—froze, his expression hardening.

“Of course. I am well aware of my own situation. You need not worry on that front.”

The Head of the Court of Judiciary had used the word ‘trouble.’ But the Treasury Vice Director, who was entangled in that corruption from the very beginning, knew this was a massive understatement.

‘If this goes wrong, they won’t even leave my corpse intact.’

This past spring… he still vividly remembered the words the Grand Young Master, Yeon So-hyeon, had spoken when he’d raided the Treasury.

“Struggle with all your might. Put your life on the line.”

The Grand Young Master’s chilling voice, his forehead almost touching his, was still fresh in his ears.

“Drag in everyone you can. Scramble and resist. Because if you don’t, you will be taking that lonely trip to hell all by yourself.”

Those were the words the Grand Young Master had spoken to him, a man who had destroyed all the evidence directly linking him to the crimes. How could he ever forget that day?

“This is a rare opportunity to profit handsomely from a deal with the haughty Yeon clansmen.” The elders were gaining significant political capital in exchange for burying the corruption, and the Head of the Court of Judiciary, instead of investigating the Vice Director, was entrusting the cover-up to the main culprit himself.

“We have high expectations for you.”

“…I will keep that in mind.” The Vice Director forced a smile.

‘I will survive this. I will survive, and I will live to laugh in that bastard’s face…!’

How had he gotten this chance? It was a lifeline found as the sky was falling. He could not, would not, let it go.

“I was wondering where you were. So, you were all here.”

An elder, friendly with the Court of Judiciary, poked his head in with news.

“The Grand Young Master has just arrived.”