At my words, his pupils trembled.
“Ah, I like this. How much do you think all this is worth?”
“W–well, that, I mean…”
Your mouth’s going completely dry and your throat’s burning, right?
Of course it is.
All the money he’d been siphoning off so diligently until now was about to be taken away from him in an instant.
“Let’s see here… Wow, there are spirit elixirs too? These things are insanely expensive, you know.”
“…”
The more I talked, the darker the faces of the people around me became.
I’d noticed that Escort Chief Jeon Il’s face was steadily turning pale as a sheet.
Hmm, I should stop teasing him now. At this rate he’s going to faint.
“Anyway, what a windfall.”
I handed the ledger to Escort Guard Seo Wu as I spoke.
“Find everything listed in here and bring it all to my office.”
“I accept your order.”
And just as Escort Guard Seo Wu was about to head off with the other escort guards to gather what was written in the ledger…
“I–I’ll kill you!”
Escort Chief Jeon Il lost his mind, drew his sword, and charged straight at me.
Clang–!
But his blade was blocked by someone else’s sword.
“Huh?”
It was Master.
“Escort Chief Jeon.”
He flinched at Master’s voice. There was Qi laced into that voice.
“Tell me the truth. Whose ledger is that?”
“…”
“Escort Chief Jeon Il!”
At Master’s sharp shout, Escort Chief Jeon Il jerked and stumbled back a step.
“T–that is…”
Unlike earlier, he was completely hesitating now.
Just seeing that made the situation perfectly clear.
“I… that is… I…”
“Jeon Il!”
Master’s rebuke cracked out again.
Thump.
Unable to withstand Master’s pressure, Escort Chief Jeon Il collapsed on the spot.
Even I felt numb under that aura, so there was no way he could endure it.
“Please, tell me it isn’t so.”
Escort Chief Jeon Il looked around at the people nearby.
Some had their eyes quietly shut, others avoided his gaze with a deep sigh.
Realizing there was no way out anymore, he lowered his head and answered.
“I’m sorry.”
At that answer, Master squeezed his eyes shut.
The only things on his face were betrayal and hurt.
It had just come out that someone who’d been running alongside him toward the goal of rebuilding Snow Wind Palace had actually been harboring a different agenda.
There was no way that wouldn’t wound him.
I revealed all this now even though I knew it would hurt Master, because leaving it alone would only cause far greater damage later.
And the wound then would be that much deeper.
“Since when?”
“About ten years… or so.”
“So basically from the moment you became Escort Chief.”
“…”
“Your reason… haah.”
Master let out a rough breath, rubbed his face with both hands, and asked him,
“Why did you do it?”
“I… it’s just…”
“Tell me what your reason is!”
Every single word in Master’s voice carried a deep, seething anger.
“I thought… I thought there was no hope. That there was no chance of ever rebuilding Snow Wind Palace.”
“…”
Master clenched his teeth.
As if Master himself didn’t already know that?
Even so, it’s Master’s role to walk that thorny path of rebuilding Snow Wind Palace.
Before long, the mood around us had turned no different from a funeral hall.
Heavy with grief and misery.
It was something every disciple of Snow Wind Palace, not just Master, had thought about at least once.
A goal everyone knew was almost impossibly hard.
Yet we’d been pushing each other forward, saying we had to keep going… and that guy Jeon Il just dumped a bucket of cold water over all of it.
I really don’t like this atmosphere.
“No hope, you say?”
At my words, every gaze in the room focused on me.
Step, step,
I walked right up to Escort Chief Jeon Il as I spoke.
“And who decided that?”
“Because that’s reality!”
“Reality, huh… that’s funny.”
I let out a short, dry laugh.
“Sure, reality looks bleak. So what? Who are you to decide Snow Wind Palace’s future?”
“…”
“The future isn’t set in stone.”
Yeah. The future isn’t fixed.
If the future were predetermined, the end of the path I’m walking now would be the same miserable death I had in my last life.
But the future of this life will be different from the last.
I clenched my fists tight.
It was a vow I was making to myself as much as anything.
“The future can change as much as we make it.”
Saving Lady Hong Geum-so this time had only made me more certain of that.
“And if you!”
I snatched the ledger back from Escort Guard Seo Wu’s hand beside me and said,
“If you hadn’t embezzled this huge amount written in this ledger, Snow Wind Palace would be in a far better state than it is now! Your selfishness! Your greed! Your arrogance that declared there was no hope! That’s what ate away at Snow Wind Palace’s hope!”
I turned my head and looked around at everyone.
“Do all of you also think Snow Wind Palace has no future?”
Not just Snow Wind Palace’s disciples but even the escort chiefs couldn’t bring themselves to open their mouths.
I spoke firmly.
“If you believe that’s how it’ll be, then that’s exactly how it’ll turn out. But if you believe Snow Wind Palace will flourish in the future, then it can turn out that way instead.”
I continued,
“So which side are you on?”
“…”
“I’m putting everything I have on the side that says Snow Wind Palace still has hope.”
“Why?”
Escort Chief Ha Cheol asked me.
“Why do you think that way?”
“Isn’t it obvious?”
I pointed my thumb at myself and said,
“Because I’m the Young Palace Lord here. You really think I’d let the place I’m Young Palace Lord of go under?”
“Hahahaha!”
At that, Escort Chief Ha Cheol burst into hearty laughter.
“No wonder my daughter spoke so highly of you.”
Huh? Just what did Second Sister-in-law say about me…
Thud–!
Escort Chief Ha Cheol dropped to his knees before me and said,
“Snow Wind Palace’s Protector Ha Cheol greets the Young Palace Lord!”
Next, the Chief of Changin Escort Bureau also knelt before me.
“Protector Yu Seong greets the Young Palace Lord!”
So Chief’s name was Yu Seong.
Whether it was because those two started it or not, everyone else followed one after another, bowing to me.
Once I confirmed that everyone was kneeling to me, I turned to look at Master.
Tap!
I cupped my fists to Master and said,
“Your disciple Eun Seo-ho awaits Master’s words.”
At my words, Master gave a small nod.
“I, Gwak Myeong-hyeon, Palace Lord of Snow Wind Palace, hereby appoint my disciple Eun Seo-ho as Young Palace Lord!”
I couldn’t help grinning.
And just like that, I officially became Snow Wind Palace’s Young Palace Lord.
Now the only thing left was to decide Escort Chief Jeon Il’s punishment.
Master walked over to Escort Chief Jeon Il.
Tap–tap–tap!
Then his hands shot out toward Jeon Il.
“Gah!”
Escort Chief Jeon Il coughed up blood.
“I’ve abolished your martial arts. The martial arts of Snow Wind Palace aren’t meant for someone like you.”
As Master said that, there wasn’t a trace of warmth left in his eyes.
“Lock him in the dungeon. His punishment will be decided later.”
“Yes, sir!”
Stripped of his martial arts and all his internal Qi in an instant, he looked utterly pathetic.
The other warriors dragged him away.
I held the ledger out to Master.
“Please take this, Master. It belongs to Snow Wind Palace.”
Master accepted the ledger, mulled it over for a moment, then asked me,
“By the way, how did you get your hands on this?”
“Ah, that…”
I answered with a mischievous grin.
“That’s a secret.”
Now I’m a little worried Master might clutch the back of his neck once he actually sees what’s written in there.
Escort Chief Jeon Il really skimmed off a ridiculous amount.
“Urk!”
A little while later, in the Chief’s office, Gwak Myeong-hyeon, who was going through the ledger I’d handed over, unconsciously grabbed the back of his neck.
The scale of what had been embezzled was absolutely staggering.
“Hehe. Hehehe, hehehehe.”
The Chief could only let out an awkward laugh, as if he’d lost the ability to speak.
“Phew, if Deputy Merchant Lord Eun – no, Young Palace Lord – hadn’t caught this, the damage would have been enormous.”
“It’s a huge relief we managed to uncover it even now.”
After Escort Chief Ha Cheol spoke, the Chief added on.
“Still, his skills are impressive. How did the Young Palace Lord notice something we ourselves had been completely blind to all this time?”
Gwak Myeong-hyeon answered that question for him.
“It’s probably because all of you are on the inside that your eyes grew clouded. And though he is my disciple, the Young Palace Lord’s insight is quite exceptional.”
As he said that, a faint smile tugged at the corners of Gwak Myeong-hyeon’s mouth.
Seeing that, the Chief and Escort Chief Ha Cheol both wore expressions of surprise.
Ever since Snow Wind Palace had been annihilated, you could barely ever find a smile on Gwak Myeong-hyeon’s face.
Becoming Palace Lord and bearing the burden of leading Snow Wind Palace and rebuilding it had stolen away his ease and happiness.
The two men, who still remembered his childhood, had always found that terribly sad.
But lately, they’d started to see little smiles on his face again.
They had a pretty good idea whose doing that was.
And so they felt deeply grateful to Eun Seo-ho.
“By the way, how do you intend to deal with Escort Chief Jeon?”
At the Chief’s question, Gwak Myeong-hyeon let out a sigh.
“We can’t throw him out. When we still don’t know who wiped out Snow Wind Palace, casting him out would just create another potential threat.”
“Agreed. We still have to keep our identity hidden, so that’s out of the question.”
“In that case, there’s only one conclusion.”
Gwak Myeong-hyeon rubbed his face and rose to his feet.
“I’ll end it with my own hands. I can’t make any of you stain your hands with the blood of a comrade.”
By the time I finished spending time at Changin Escort Bureau, evening had already settled in.
A bunch of people came looking for me, and chatting here and there with them made the hours fly by.
I’d had dinner too, so I figured it was about time to head home.
Walking along with that in mind, I suddenly felt something off and lifted my head.
And there, sitting on the roof, was a familiar figure.
Oh. It’s Master.
I almost pretended not to notice and kept walking, but his expression looked so gloomy.
Sigh.
I told Palgap and the escort guards to wait for a bit, then stomped my foot and leaped up onto the roof.
“What are you doing up here?”
“Ah, Young Palace Lord, you’re here.” (TL Note: His Master uses an overly polite way of speaking)
“There’s no need to be that polite, is there?”
“It’s still a bit hard to get used to.”
I sat down beside him and said,
“Whether you speak to me politely or not, it doesn’t change the fact that I’m your disciple and the Young Palace Lord.”
“That’s true.”
Master answered like that and took a swig from the bottle in his hand.
“Don’t tell me that’s alcohol?”
The prohibition on drinking hasn’t even been lifted yet…
“It’s honey water.”
Ah, right. Master always carried honey water around in a wine bottle and drank from it.
What he’d given me before had been honey water too.
“Do you know why I drink honey water instead of liquor?”
He clearly wasn’t asking because he wanted an answer, so I just kept quiet and listened.
“The day Snow Wind Palace fell, I was celebrating the completion of a mission and drinking. Because of that, I was late returning.”
“…”
“If I hadn’t been drinking, if I’d just arrived a single day earlier… Snow Wind Palace wouldn’t have been wiped out. At the very least, I would’ve learned who the culprit was.”
Master raised the bottle for me to see.
“That’s when I made up my mind. Until Snow Wind Palace is rebuilt, I won’t drink. This honey water is a symbol of that resolve.”
“…”
I listened to Master’s words in silence.
“But as I kept drinking it, I found it has another benefit. When I’m feeling low, it helps lift my mood a little.”
After saying that, Master let out a deep sigh.
“Hoo… Young Palace Lord.”
“Yes.”
“Today, I cut down Escort Chief Jeon Il.”
I bit my lip.
I’d more or less guessed already. Master still carried the faint metallic smell of blood.
“To be honest, I handed him a dagger and told him to end his own life. But he… clung to me instead. Said he was wrong, begged me to give him one more chance. But he was a danger. For the safety of everyone else… I had no choice but to cut him down.”
Master looked at me.
“This is the kind of thing a Palace Lord has to do. Can you, as Young Palace Lord, bear that kind of burden?”
“I…”
But Master continued before I could properly answer.
“Truthfully, I never wanted you to become Young Palace Lord. I didn’t want to make you walk this thorn-covered path.”
I could feel Master’s feelings for me in those words.
Just as he’d cherished his own sons, he cherished me too.
“But things have turned out this way.”
I let out a sigh of my own.
Master…
What are you going to do if you get drunk off honey water?
Of course, what really made Master this emotional today… was everything that happened earlier.
Not the honey water.
“Hoo… I’ve said too much. You should head back.”
At some point, Master’s face had gone back to its usual calm, indifferent look.
He’s really a strong person, Master is.
“And thank you, for everything today.”
“You don’t need to thank me.”
I climbed down from the roof and spoke to Palgap and the escort guards.
“Let’s go.”
“Yes.”
Just then, Master called out to me from the roof.
“Ah, I almost forgot to give you this.”
Master tossed something to me, and I caught it.
“This is…”
“The Young Palace Lord’s identity token.”
Feeling it in my hand, it finally hit me for real that I’d become the Young Palace Lord.
“Thank you. Then I’ll be on my way.”
I tucked the Young Palace Lord’s token into my robe and started walking again.
Behind me, Master’s voice reached my ears.
“Tomorrow at dawn, I’ll teach you a new sword technique. So steel yourself.”
“Huh?”
I couldn’t help turning back in surprise.
“Tomorrow will be a bit tougher than today.”
E–excuse me, Master.
If it’s tougher than today…
I might seriously die, you know?
For a split second, I actually thought about handing the Young Palace Lord’s token back.
–TL Notes–
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