The next morning, in the hushed hours before dawn, the Third Young Master’s Military Strategy Bureau lay in a state of stillness. It was the most tranquil time of day, interrupted only by the occasional chirping of birds perched on the division’s landscaped trees and rooftops.

“The Grand Young Master has disappeared?!”

A loud shout shattered the silence, startling the senior strategist on duty.

“…Huh?!”

“Wh-What’s going on…?”

The other strategists, who had been dozing at their desks, sprang to attention in alarm.

“Weren’t we informed that the festival at Wongakjeong was still ongoing, both inside and out?!” Before the startled men could even rub the sleep from their eyes, the senior strategist’s roar reverberated through the entire division as he bellowed at a messenger from the intelligence department. “So how on earth is the Grand Young Master gone?!”

The Grand Young Master… had vanished?

Their eyes widened in disbelief, all sleepiness vanishing in an instant.

“What is he talking about?”

“Isn’t the Grand Young Master’s faction still in the midst of their celebration banquet?”

“How can the host simply disappear? Isn’t he just… somewhere else in Wongakjeong?”

Ignoring the murmuring strategists, the intelligence messenger, who was drenched in sweat, bowed his head to the senior strategist on duty.

“Sir, it’s not just that we lost track of him within the Sword Clan grounds.”

“What do you mean, ‘not just’?”

Based on a compilation of reports, it seems that the Grand Young Master has completely left Luoyang.

When this news, like a bolt of lightning, struck the senior strategist, his face turned ashen. “That’s impossible…!” Of all the times for this to happen, it had to be during my watch! What in the world…

As the senior strategist stood there, stunned, his subordinates rushed the messenger and began to question him.

“The Grand Young Master is a Special Class surveillance target! How could he just leave the grounds?!”

“What on earth was the intelligence department doing?!”

The intelligence department had also been hit by this unexpected news. “If he left Luoyang, he must have used a vehicle!”

The messenger, cornered and appearing on the verge of being devoured, finally blurted out, “H-He was confirmed to have departed Luoyang in his personal carriage, the Ironclad Fortress!”

His single response elicited three more questions from all directions.

“The Ironclad Fortress was under surveillance, wasn’t it?!”

“What precisely was the field team observing?!”

The pale-faced messenger retorted, “The Ironclad Fortress was undergoing a routine test run after its regular maintenance, just like usual! The field observation team reported that none of the Grand Young Master’s attendants were on board!”

“…What did you just say?!” The senior strategist, having finally snapped out of his daze, lunged forward and seized the messenger. “Are you telling me the Grand Young Master somehow sneaked out of Wongakjeong alone, somehow met up with his carriage, and drove it out of Luoyang himself?!”

“There were no signs! And besides…!” the messenger choked out, “The only reason we even realized he was gone, was because his handmaid contingent, in full armor, just left the grounds in their own armored carriages!”

“The direction?!” The senior strategist’s grip tightened. “It’s not north, is it?! Tell me it’s not north!” The senior strategist, desperate for it to be a simple outing, watched as the messenger, filled with dread, just shook his head rapidly, as if to deny the reality of what he was about to say.

“Th-The Grand Young Master’s Ironclad Fortress, it headed north!”

“Fuck…!”

The senior strategist on duty squeezed his eyes shut, bewildered by the unfolding events. It had only been last night that the Military Strategy Bureau had commenced formulating its own northern strategy, following the directives of the Grand Strategists and Namgung Hyeok-cheon.

And now, the Grand Young Master had already departed for the North…?!

While the Grand Strategists had anticipated his move and were already preparing for it, the speed at which it was happening was unprecedented. How…?! This wasn’t a mere ‘response’ to the Third Young Master’s actions; it was a ‘preemptive strike’ against them.

“Fuck!”

It was inevitable that he would curse. Did the Grand Young Master truly possess the foresight of the rumors, able to see the future? Whenever they believed they were one step ahead, he was already two steps ahead. Whenever they devised a surprise strategy to turn the tide, he was already standing at the center of it, smirking at them. “Damn it all, Grand Young Master—!” The blood vessels in his eyes, already crimson from staying up all night, were on the verge of bursting.

“That’s enough.” A weary, elderly voice resonated in the senior strategist’s ear.

“G-Grand Strategist Sima!”

“Gasp! Kegh…!” The intelligence messenger, who had been on the verge of suffocation, collapsed to the floor, but no one paid him any mind.

“When we first heard the intel that the Imperial Family was paying attention to the North, I thought, ‘surely not’.” Grand Strategist Sima, his face etched with the same all-night exhaustion as the others, clicked his tongue. “To think he had already secured an Imperial Mandate.” Sima raked a hand through his messy white hair. “He had been moving on the northern problem long before we were.”

“I-Imperial Mandate?” The frozen senior strategist snapped to his senses. “What Imperial Mandate?”

“This intel just came in from the Imperial Capital.”

The strategist hurriedly unfolded the note Sima handed him. His voice and his hands trembled as he read.

“’It was belatedly revealed that His Majesty the Emperor unilaterally granted the Grand Young Master full authority over the North, causing a major backlash from the ministers in the throne hall’?”

Swoosh.

A hand suddenly shot out and snatched the note from him.

“Wh-Who—?!” The senior strategist, about to erupt, saw who it was and quickly backed away. “Grand Strategist Zhuge…!”

Zhuge, looking as if he had just been startled from a light sleep, read the note in silence. His expression remained placid, but his white hand, veins standing out, crumpled the note into an unrecognizable ball. Crumple.

“This surpasses the worst-case scenario.”

His dire hypothesis—that all of the Grand Young Master’s moves had been a two-pronged plan to intervene in the North—had not only been proven correct but now confirmed that he had already moved the Emperor himself.

“The Grand Young Master,” Zhuge began, his voice hoarse, “heading to the North, effectively alone, most likely means—“

Sima finished his sentence with a bitter expression. “It means he has already prepared all the necessary elements to intervene, even if he’s alone.”

If it were anyone else, there might be room for a different interpretation.

“Nine times out of ten… no,” Zhuge corrected himself, “Ten times out of ten. It is a certainty.” But since it was that Grand Young Master, there was no need for “what if” or “perhaps.”

“Still,” Sima said, trying to console him. “We’re only a day behind. We succeeded in deciphering his move. We are gradually adapting to his thought process. Next time, we will definitely catch up.”

Even without a direct order from the two Grand Strategists, the division, now fully awake, was already boiling like the inside of a furnace.

“We must predict the route the Ironclad Fortress is taking!”

“Analyze the supply volume of the handmaid contingent! That will predict where they’ll be resupplied!”

“What about the intelligence department’s chase report?!”

“Our Military Strategy Bureau is not like the Second Young Master’s haphazardly run private army. We are the military division of the Martial Righteous Alliance, with a long history of maintaining order.”

Sima moved to the map on the wall.

“By now, the Third Young Master has surely received Elder Namgung Hyeok-cheon’s message and departed for the North.” His finger tapped the Third Young Master’s starting point. “He is starting from a position much farther north than the Grand Young Master, so he will arrive first. It can be said that we still hold the first move.”

Zhuge’s expression remained unyielding.

Sima, smiling at him, continued, “Furthermore, the Grand Young Master’s regular forces require the Council of Elders’s approval to move. But ours can, can’t they?”

Sima’s hand moved across the map, tapping Huashan, Wudang, and the Namgung Clan.

“As you know, they will reach the North long before the Grand Young Master’s main army. And…” He tapped the northern region. “The Yelü tribe, whose home base is the North, has been on the move for some time. All we need to do is focus on keeping pace with the Grand Young Master’s thoughts.”

Sima lifted a teacup, savoring the aroma. “The bigger the body, the slower it moves. That’s the rule.” He stated it as a fact. “The Grand Young Master’s organization is also growing. Its speed will inevitably slow down over time.”

This was a truth that the veterans of the old Martial Righteous Alliance’s military division, who had to manage numerous organizations simultaneously, understood best.

“Indeed, that’s true,” the other strategists, who had been listening, nodded in agreement. “There’s no way to simultaneously control hundreds of arms and legs.”

“And what’s worse, organizations are limbs with their own brains.”

“The biggest reason the Grand Young Master has been able to move so nimbly and unpredictably is because his ‘body’ has been light until now.”

Just then, “But,” Grand Strategist Zhuge broke his silence. “What if… What if the Grand Young Master hasn’t even reached his peak speed yet?” He stood with his back to the rising sun, his face shrouded in a gloomy shadow. Slowly, his face turned to Sima. “What if, as his organization grows, his body expands, and he gains more limbs and legs,” Zhuge’s voice cracked. “…his movements become faster?”

The eyes of the man revered as a genius, who had ascended to the rank of Grand Strategist at such a young age, visibly trembled.

“What if, from the very beginning… he was born as a Giant God, one who can effortlessly control a hundred limbs?”

His question hung in the air.

Silence.

Sima, chuckling, broke the silence. “Honestly, you have an overactive imagination sometimes. You’re being pessimistic because you’re hungry. Come on.” He clapped Zhuge on the shoulder. “It’s early, but let’s grab some breakfast.”

Normally, Zhuge would have heeded Sima’s advice, considering Sima’s decades of experience.

“No.”

“Hmm?”

But not today.

“I’ll leave for the North immediately.” If I leave now, I won’t arrive much later than he did.

“Brother Zhuge…”

“I know the Third Young Master is surrounded by capable men,” Zhuge’s eyes filled with resolve. “But this time, I must face the Grand Young Master directly, on-site. I can’t fall behind him any longer.”

He turned to leave.