I greeted Warrior Jin Yeong.
“Jin Yeong, what brings you all the way out here?”
Hunan might be an important region, but it’s still pretty far, so I never thought they’d send someone like Warrior Jin Yeong…
“His Majesty personally summoned me and gave me orders. When he heard you were here, he grew worried.”
“Ah…”
A groan slipped out before I could stop it.
‘I’ve got you in the palm of my hand. So don’t even think about trying to escape. Not unless you want to die working inside the imperial palace.’
I could almost hear the Emperor’s voice saying that.
Ugh… gives me the chills.
Hunan’s Commissioner of Land Affairs standing beside us wore a face like he had no idea what Warrior Jin Yeong was talking about.
But explaining it would’ve been long, complicated, and above all mortifying, so I left his question hanging.
“You must be tired from the long journey, Jin Yeong.”
Sensing I wanted to get to the point, Warrior Jin Yeong nodded and spoke.
“Lord Commissioner. I bring an imperial decree from His Majesty the Emperor.”
At his words, the Commissioner and the rest of us promptly dropped to our knees and paid our respects.
Warrior Jin Yeong carefully took out the red silk scroll he’d been carrying against his chest and unfurled it.
Then he read the decree aloud. In short, His Majesty was pleased that the work here was being carried out properly, and said he had also sent decrees to the Provincial Military Commissioner and the Censorate Inspector regarding this matter, ordering everyone to work together to resolve it well.
When he finished reading, Warrior Jin Yeong rolled the scroll back up and held it out to the Commissioner.
“I receive His Majesty’s decree with utmost sincerity.”
The Commissioner accepted it with both hands and spoke, then bowed once more before rising.
We rose as well.
I could guess why Warrior Jin Yeong had been sent personally. Someone had to coordinate between the Provincial Military Commissioner, who commanded the troops, and the Censorate Inspector, who oversaw prisons and criminal cases.
“The Provincial Military Commissioner has already dispatched troops. They’re standing by nearby.”
At that, the Commissioner spoke.
“To be honest, I’m not too clear on the details. Deputy Merchant Lord Eun handled things at my request. It would be better to discuss this with Deputy Merchant Lord Eun than with me.”
“Is that so?”
Warrior Jin Yeong turned his eyes on me, satisfaction practically radiating from his gaze.
Yikes!
I had to be careful. That look basically said, ‘How can I drag you into the Embroidered Guard?’
.
.
.
Roughly four hours later.
The Hunan troops that had been waiting nearby advanced on the Seoun Sect.
The one commanding them was Hunan’s Deputy Provincial Military Commissioner.
It was an important matter, so the second–in–command of Hunan’s military had come in person.
When he reached the Seoun Sect, he shouted at the top of his lungs.
“Rebels, hear me! Surrender at once! Otherwise, not one of you will escape death!”
At that moment.
The refugees inside the Seoun Sect began to grow anxious at the noise from outside.
“What the hell is that racket?”
“I looked outside, the soldiers have this place surrounded.”
“Why here?”
“And what did he mean, rebels?”
It was only natural they were confused.
To them, the Seoun Sect were benefactors who’d fed and sheltered them when the famine left them nowhere else to go.
And now they were being called rebels?
“What kind of damn nonsense is that! Calling such good people rebels!”
“This country really has gone insane!”
“We can’t just sit here! After all they’ve done feeding and housing us, we at least have to clear up this misunderstanding!”
“Damn right we do!”
As that mood of “we have to stop the soldiers” swept through the refugees, the one who’d just talked about clearing things up allowed a satisfied smile to creep onto their face.
‘Idiots.’
The only reason he said all that was to use the very refugees they’d been feeding and housing as human shields.
‘They’re so sentimental it’s pathetic. All they can do is let us use them. Heh.’
There was, in fact, a reason they’d gathered the refugees.
They’d planned to use them to spark a massive peasant revolt, but somehow the Empire had made the first move.
‘If we’d had just a few more months! Damn it!’
There were roughly eight hundred refugees and a little over two hundred sect disciples.
But the troops surrounding the place numbered in the several thousands.
At this point, if they wanted any chance of surviving, they had to push those refugees to the front and use them as arrow fodder.
That was the only way they’d open a gap to escape.
“Let’s go!”
“Yeah, let’s go!”
“I’ll go too!”
The refugees started moving in a great clamor.
“’Scuse me, but… somethin’ here just don’t sit right with me.”
Just then, someone spoke up from among the refugees.
He was a big, dopey–looking man who resembled a bear, but for some reason his words drew their attention.
None of them remembered seeing his face before, yet there was a strange familiarity to him, like someone they’d known for years.
“What doesn’t sit right?”
“It’s somethin’ I’ve been wonderin’ for a while now. How many of us are there in total?”
“Us and the sect disciples together… maybe a thousand or so?”
“Then how many sacks of rice does that take in a day? And how many months have we already been stayin’ here?”
At his words, the refugees finally realized just how much food they’d been given.
“I might be just a dirt farmer who don’t know much ’bout all that readin’ and writin’, but there’s one thing I do know. Nothin’ in this world comes free.”
The people listening to him nodded along.
It was a simple, obvious truth they sometimes forgot while struggling to survive.
“And where in the world do you think all that food’s comin’ from, when folks are starvin’ to death outside because of the famine?”
Only then did they finally sense that something was off, murmurs spreading among them.
“That’s why I’ve been uneasy this whole time. What were they expectin’ from us, givin’ us all that food and shelter? Now that the troops have this place surrounded, I think I finally know what it was all for.”
He continued.
“They meant to put us out in front and start a rebellion. Right now, they were plannin’ to shove us out there as human shields.”
“What?”
“A re–rebellion?”
“We never planned any of that…”
He cut them off decisively.
“Even if you never meant to, you keep listenin’ to folks gripe about the Empire day in, day out, people eventually start movin’ that way.”
“…”
Someone else spoke up.
“S–still, they fed us and kept us alive. We ought to repay that grace!”
Y–yeah, that’s right.”
“You think a famine lasts a hundred years? It’ll end sooner or later, and there’ll come a day when we can live decent lives again… Don’t you care what happens to your wives and children here with you now?”
Before they knew it, everyone’s eyes were on him.
“You side with rebels, you become rebels yourselves. You think the soldiers are just gonna let a pack of rebels walk away?”
Sniffling, he went on.
“Don’t we at least have to keep our families alive?”
The moment he mentioned their families, the refugees’ hearts swung hard toward the bear–like man’s words.
And with that, the tide had completely turned.
Flustered, one of the Seoun Sect’s warriors suddenly exploded without meaning to.
“You sons of bitches! Do you have any idea why we shoved all that food into your mouths? You can’t just turn on us now– urk!”
“…”
He hurriedly clapped a hand over his mouth, but it was far too late. Everyone who needed to hear him already had.
“What did he just say?”
“So you’re sayin’ there was a reason they dragged us here and fed and housed us?”
“Just like that fella said, huh?”
“Wow… those filthy bastards!”
As the refugees’ mood turned ugly, the warrior yanked out a hidden dagger and shouted.
“You useless trash!”
He grabbed a child standing next to him and pressed the dagger to the kid’s throat.
“Get outside! Either beg them that we’re innocent or throw yourselves at them or something! If you don’t want to watch this brat die!”
The child’s parents and the people around them froze at the sudden hostage situation.
“Fwish–!”
Thud!”
At that moment, a hidden weapon whistled in and buried itself in his shoulder.
“Urk!”
He couldn’t endure the pain and dropped the dagger, and in that instant someone flew in and pinned him down.
“Good thing I had Pil teach me how to throw hidden weapons.”
“Nicely done, Escort Guard Yeo.”
Then, someone who’d been hunched under a ragged cloth threw it back and stepped forward.
He was a strikingly handsome young man who instantly drew every gaze.
It was Eun Seo-ho.
The refugees stared at me with wide, startled eyes.
I looked around at them and spoke.
“To tell you the truth, we’re here on His Majesty the Emperor’s orders. His Majesty knows you’ve been wronged. As the father of all the Empire’s people, he wishes to give you a chance to be saved.”
Throughout this whole mess, the refugees weighed heaviest on my mind.
Honestly, what crime did they commit?
Last time, they really had started a revolt, so they had to pay for it. This time, they’d only been used.
It’s the Seoun Sect, the ones who used them, who deserve punishment.
That’s why Palgap, my Escort Guards, and I slipped in here ahead of time.
I continued.
“Line up and follow my attendant. We need to get you out of here as quickly as possible.”
At my words, they moved in an orderly line, following Palgap.
However,
“Where do you think you’re going?”
“You’re not walking out like this! Pay back everything you ate from us – with your lives!”
Seoun Sect warriors appeared, weapons in hand, blocking the refugees’ path.
Of course. As if these bastards were ever going to let them go peacefully.
“Srrng–”
I drew my sword. This was exactly why I hadn’t sent only Palgap, but brought all my Escort Guards with me.
“Everyone, get out of here!”
“Clang–!”
“Clang, clang!”
While we held off their attacks, the refugees hurried past us.
And then,
“You there! What nerve do you have trying to slip out of here? Think you won’t get caught if you blend in with the refugees?”
“Damn it!”
We took care of the ones trying to sneak out disguised as refugees.
By the time we were done stalling them, every last refugee had escaped.
“All troops, attack!”
“Waaaaaah!”
With a thunderous roar, the soldiers stormed into the Seoun Sect compound. They were all wearing friendly–force markers, so we were in no danger of being mistaken.
They began subduing and arresting Seoun Sect warriors wherever they turned.
“Let’s leave things here to them and move.”
“Yes!”
We moved out at once.
To truly settle this affair, we had to capture the most important person.
The Seoun Sect’s sect leader.
But I hesitated for a moment.
It hit me that we didn’t actually know who the sect leader was.
Should I just look for the person with the strongest martial arts?
But a sect leader isn’t always the strongest fighter. In a place like this, it could just as easily be someone who’d shown the most loyalty to the Murim Alliance.
Just then,
“Kui!”
Geumryeong chirped Kui from inside my sleeve, and at the same time I sensed a familiar presence in the sky.
It was the aura of the bird that had carried letters for us before – the one that had since become one of Geumryeong’s underlings.
The bird shot toward us, circled twice above my head, then veered off in a specific direction.
Telling us to follow, huh?
I used my lightness skill and chased after the bird.
There, I found…
“D–dammit! I need to run! I told you I didn’t want any part of this from the start!”
A man was frantically stuffing money into bags. The bird had just led us straight to the sect leader.
I glanced at Escort Guard Lee Pil, and he flicked a hidden weapon toward the man.
“Fwish!”
“Thwack!”
“Aaaagh!”
He screamed, then looked back at us and shouted with a terrified expression.
“I–I don’t know anything! I just did what I was told!”
“Right, and that’s exactly what I want to know. Just tell me what they ordered you to do.”
.
.
.
And just like that, the Seoun Sect was wrapped up.
The sect leader and key figures of the Seoun Sect were captured and locked in temporary cells set up at the Seungseon Commissioner of Land Affairs Office.
There, they were subjected to bloody interrogations.
“S–so… the one who ordered me to do it was someone named Ham Song.”
“Ham Song? And who in the world is that?”
“I don’t really know. Just… that he holds a position in the Murim Alliance, is all I’ve heard.”
The words “Murim Alliance” finally came out of his mouth.
But this alone wasn’t nearly enough to move against the Murim Alliance.
They’d just play dumb again or cut off a scapegoat and be done with it.
But they couldn’t keep doing that forever.
For now, I was satisfied that it had been said in front of the Commissioner. This would be enough for him to abandon his trust in the Murim Alliance. That alone was a big harvest.
That evening.
I headed to the fourth young master’s residence. I’d requested a private meeting with him.
“Welcome.”
“Thank you for agreeing to such a sudden request.”
“Not at all. So then, what did you wish to speak with me about?”
He looked a little dejected. Understandable, considering his own attendant had turned out to be a spy.
But that wasn’t what I’d come to talk about.
“Young Master.”
“Yes?”
“Do you have feelings for Lady Jaryeong?”
“P–pfft! Cough, cough!”
He spat out his tea, and his face turned bright red in an instant.
That was all the confirmation I needed.
Lady Jaryeong was betrothed to the third son, Young Master Yeon Myeong-hyeon, but in truth, the fourth son, Young Master Yeon Se-mun sitting before me, had feelings for her as well.
At some point, he’d learned that his older brother was fretting over what gift to give Lady Jaryeong, so Yeon Se-mun had procured the tea through his attendant and passed it along.
Without realizing that tea had been poisoned.
A twisted sort of unrequited affection.
I took a sip of my own tea and swallowed down a bitter taste.
And with that, this incident came to a close.
The real problem lay elsewhere, of course.
–TL Notes–
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