I finished my preparations and set out with the Crown Prince.
“Your Highness. The place we’re headed is quite treacherous, so there may be some danger along the way.”
I made sure to lay the groundwork first.
That way, even if A-jeong happened to meet with an unfortunate accident, no one could accuse me by asking, “Why did you take His Highness somewhere so dangerous and allow something like this to happen?”
“Don’t worry about it. If I want to enjoy a truly magnificent view, I should be willing to endure that much.”
The Crown Prince naturally continued.
“And there’s no need to inconvenience everyone by making the entire group come along. Only those we truly need should accompany us.”
“Understood.”
In the end, two Royal Guards responsible for the Crown Prince’s protection, two eunuchs, my escort guards, and I would make the trip together.
A-jeong was one of those two eunuchs.
And so, we began climbing the mountain.
The place I intended to show the Crown Prince was a cliff.
The scenery from that cliff was breathtaking beyond description.
No matter what ulterior purpose I had hidden behind this little sightseeing trip, everything had to look perfectly natural on the surface.
Otherwise, people would grow suspicious.
Reaching the viewpoint required walking along the mountain trail for about half an hour.
That also gave me plenty of opportunities to naturally draw closer to A-jeong.
Thanks to that, I became certain.
The Qi I sensed from him unmistakably belonged to the Asura Blood Cult.
Perhaps because the martial art he practiced was one commonly taught to eunuchs, the presence wasn't especially strong.
Still, the fact that I could clearly sense it at all proved that he was connected to them.
And if this man had even learned the Soul-Bewitching Art, then we had a serious problem on our hands.
Before long, we arrived at our destination.
“This way.”
The Crown Prince stepped onto the cliff I had guided him to and stared out at the scenery in amazement.
“Oh! What a magnificent view.”
“I’m glad it pleases Your Highness.”
It truly was beautiful enough to earn such admiration from the Crown Prince.
I had first learned about this place in my previous life from an Escort Chief who had traveled with me on my way to Beijing.
He had told me there was a spot nearby with an excellent view.
“What incredible scenery! Climbing all this way was certainly worth the effort.”
“Indeed. It’s been quite some time since my eyes were treated to a sight like this.”
The Crown Prince’s Royal Guards and eunuchs all nodded as they admired the scenery.
But inwardly, I was tense.
This was where I needed to take A-jeong’s life while making his death look like an accident.
If that were all I intended to do, though, there would have been no reason for me to be this nervous.
I wanted to go further. If someone besides A-jeong was secretly operating inside the Imperial Palace, I intended to uncover them as well.
If I was going to do this, I might as well do it properly.
I hate troublesome things.
But if I have no choice but to do something troublesome, my rule is simple: either accomplish it with the least possible effort, or squeeze the greatest possible result out of it.
“Huh? What’s that…”
I pointed somewhere as though I had just noticed something, prompting the Crown Prince to ask.
“What is it?”
“There’s a Spirit Herb over there. I’m certain that particular herb only grows on dangerous cliffs. Its fruit is extremely valuable and is said to promote health and longevity.”
I continued.
“If Your Highness permits it, I’ll retrieve it and present it to you.”
And someone as hungry for recognition as A-jeong would never let an opportunity like this slip away.
Sure enough, his eyes lit up as he immediately stepped forward.
“There’s no need to trouble Deputy Merchant Lord Eun with such a task, Your Highness. Allow me to retrieve it.”
“Very well.”
After receiving the Crown Prince’s permission, A-jeong headed toward the spot I had indicated.
“Where is it?”
“A little closer to the edge of the cliff.”
“Here…?”
As he bent over to inspect the edge, I discreetly gave him a shove from behind where no one could see.
“Urgh!”
He flailed in shock, but there was no stopping his fall over the cliff.
“Ah! Eunuch A!”
I quickly reached out and caught his hand.
Then, as I saw my escort guards and the Crown Prince’s Royal Guards rushing toward us, I deliberately let the strength drain from my body.
Slip.
And just like that, I went over the cliff as well.
“My Lord!”
I heard my escort guards desperately calling out to me.
I reached toward them as though begging them to save me while continuing to fall.
– Kui!
Once we had fallen far enough that the people above could no longer see us, Geumryeong caught me on its back. Thanks to that, I reached the bottom of the cliff without so much as a scratch.
It suddenly reminded me of the time I fell off a cliff in Sichuan.
Back then, Geumryeong had also helped me grab onto a tree root growing from the cliffside, allowing me to survive until I was rescued.
This time, though, I deliberately went all the way to the bottom.
I needed time.
Come to think of it, Geumryeong seems a lot stronger now than it was back then.
Is it because I’ve been feeding it so much gold lately?
Thinking that, I walked over to the unconscious A-jeong.
I had deliberately cushioned the impact just enough to keep it from killing him.
Just in case, I struck his acupoints to immobilize him, then took a rope from the Hidden Vault and tied him to a long stone pillar nearby.
This place had as many strangely shaped rock formations as it did beautiful scenery, so fortunately there was even a pillar-shaped rock that suited my purposes perfectly.
Then I gathered cold Qi into my hand and slapped him across the face.
Smack!
“Gasp!”
He jolted awake as though someone had dumped a bucket of freezing water over his head.
“W-Where am I?”
“Below the cliff.”
“What?”
“Don’t you remember? You fell from up there.”
“…”
Once he realized he had been tied to a rock, he began struggling and shouted.
It must have hurt quite a bit, considering several of his bones had been knocked out of place.
“W-What is the meaning of this?”
“Nothing too serious. I simply wanted to have a little conversation with you, Eunuch A, so I brought you here.”
“What kind of absurd nonsense is that?!”
Once he understood his situation, he glared at me.
“Then that story about the fruit was a lie!”
“Yes. It was.”
“You insolent wretch! How dare you do this to me…”
“Asura Blood Cult.”
“…!”
He froze for an instant at my words, but quickly composed himself and answered calmly.
“What are you suddenly talking about? I’ve never even heard that name before.”
“Then I wonder why the corner of your eye just twitched.”
“…”
“I already know that you’re working with the Asura Blood Cult. His Majesty knows as well.”
“…!”
“Oh, and it seems His Highness the Crown Prince knows too. Otherwise, do you really think I would be calmly threatening one of his eunuchs like this?”
“T-That’s impossible!”
“I assure you, it isn’t.”
“T-The Crown Prince is already under the Soul-Bewitching Art I used on him… Hup!”
He hurriedly clamped his mouth shut, but I had already heard everything I needed to hear.
Damn it. So it really had happened.
The very thing I had feared had already taken place, and my expression immediately hardened.
“When did you use the Soul-Bewitching Art on him?”
“…”
No answer.
I clicked my tongue and pressed one of his acupoints.
I couldn’t afford to leave anything behind that looked like a sword wound, just in case.
Apparently, even he couldn't endure the agony of having his bones and tendons twisted. A scream eventually tore from his throat.
Since his bones were already dislocated, the pain was probably even worse.
“Aaaaaagh!”
But no matter how loudly he screamed, no one would discover that we were down here.
I had sealed the sound in with my Qi.
I released the acupoint and questioned him again.
“Well? Are you ready to answer now?”
“R-Recently.”
“What exactly did you make him do?”
“…”
“This won’t do. It seems you still don’t understand your situation.”
“Aaaaaagh!”
When he refused to answer obediently, I gave him another taste of pain.
Truthfully, I don’t particularly enjoy torture.
It means deliberately inflicting unbearable pain on someone to force a confession out of them.
If the person being tortured were one of my own people, merely knowing what they were going through would make it unbearable for me as well.
But this man deserved every bit of it.
Several innocent people had already become victims because of what he had done.
And on top of that, he had even used the Soul-Bewitching Art on the Crown Prince.
That alone could create enormous repercussions in the future.
So I continued the interrogation.
“Lies won’t work on me. You’d better tell me the truth.”
“Ghk! Nngh! Aaaaaagh!”
One of the things I learned while working in the merchant business was how to recognize when someone was lying.
It certainly wasn't easy, but I was rather good at it.
So every time A-jeong lied, I treated it as an additional offense and made the pain even worse. Eventually, he broke and began telling me the truth.
To be fair, the pain I had endured while curing the condition that was supposed to shorten my life had taught me quite a bit about how to make something hurt more.
The important part was making sure he never became accustomed to the pain.
Hmm. Doing this really does make me seem like a villain.
A-jeong’s claim that the Soul-Bewitching Art had been used on the Crown Prince left me with several questions.
First, if that meant he knew the Soul-Bewitching Art himself, then why hadn't he attempted to use it on me?
Second, if he really had used it on the Crown Prince, why hadn't the Crown Prince obediently followed their wishes? Why had he instead ordered me to eliminate A-jeong?
A-jeong answered.
“I don’t know how to use the Soul-Bewitching Art myself. I used a single-use Artifact.”
“When?”
“R-Recently.”
“That’s strange. Considering His Highness told me to eliminate you, it seems the Soul-Bewitching Art wasn't quite as perfect as you thought.”
“No! It was perfect! That’s precisely why the Crown Prince chose me as one of his personal attendants.”
That part did make sense.
Then how had the Crown Prince broken free from the Soul-Bewitching Art and managed to give me instructions to kill Eunuch A-jeong?
As I pondered the question, a cool breeze swept past me.
Cool… cold…?
Ah. That was it!
My Qi contains a purifying power.
And sometimes, it purifies things around me even when I don't consciously intend for it to.
Huh! Wait a second.
It was because of me?
The Crown Prince had briefly fallen under the Soul-Bewitching Art, only to recover his senses because of my Qi. Once he realized A-jeong was the one responsible, he gave me the opportunity to get rid of him.
And while the Crown Prince was in the process of selecting A-jeong as a personal attendant, the Emperor must have noticed something suspicious and issued me that secret order.
Now I finally understood the entire situation.
That crafty old fox of an emperor.
Well, in that case, I should make sure I live up to his expectations.
“I have another question.”
“Gasp… Huff… Please… please, just stop and kill me already.”
He was begging me to simply end his life, but I felt not even the slightest trace of sympathy for him.
“I’m afraid I can’t do that. There are still far too many things I’m curious about.”
.
.
.
A short while later.
I looked at A-jeong’s lifeless body, still tied to the rock.
After hearing everything I wanted to know, I had struck one of his fatal acupoints and killed him.
I suppose it’s about time I headed back up.
Still, I do feel a little guilty toward everyone else.
Geumryeong was the only one who knew about this operation.
It wasn't that I doubted my escort guards’ acting skills, but there was inevitably a huge difference between pretending not to know something and genuinely knowing nothing at all.
That was why I had deliberately kept them in the dark.
There’s a saying that if you want to deceive your enemy, you should deceive your allies first.
That was also one of the reasons I hadn't brought Lady Seohyang with me.
I feel bad for my escort guards and Palgap. They must all think I'm dead right now.
I feel bad for the Crown Prince too… Come to think of it, there are far too many people I owe an apology.
I should get back quickly.
First, I untied A-jeong’s corpse.
Thud.
His body collapsed limply onto the ground.
I picked up the corpse and kicked off from the ground.
Whoosh!
I soared as high into the air as I could, then deliberately released the body.
Wham–!
The corpse landed squarely on the rock I had tied him to, leaving it in an utterly gruesome state.
It wasn't pleasant to look at, but I needed at least this much damage if I wanted to conceal the true cause of death.
I walked over, wrapped his corpse in the outer robe I had been wearing, and slung it across my back.
Good grief. What kind of miserable fate is this?
I’m going to make sure I'm properly compensated for all this.
And the price of my robe is going on the bill too.
* * *
The Crown Prince and the Eunhae Merchant Group's procession had come to a halt.
A heavy, mournful atmosphere now hung over the entire place.
News had arrived that Eun Seo-ho, who had set out to show the Crown Prince a scenic location, had died.
“N-No… It can't be!”
Naturally, Eun Seo-ho’s companions were devastated when they heard the news.
“S-Seo-ho…”
The grief felt by Eun Seo-ho’s cousin, Hong Seon-il, was especially profound.
“Husband…”
“W-What are we supposed to do? Seo-ho… Seo-ho is…”
Then, in front of Hong Seon-il, the Crown Prince suddenly dropped to his knees.
“This is my fault.”
“Y-Your Highness! Why would you kneel before someone like me…”
“My foolishness has cost us a man of exceptional talent. He warned me that the place was dangerous, and yet…”
“No, Your Highness. Please, get up.”
“I have wronged all of you so greatly that I hardly know how to face you.”
The Crown Prince was every bit as grief-stricken as the others.
On the day they had departed for Nanjing, he had noticed something strange while speaking with Eun Seo-ho.
He had supposedly chosen A-jeong as one of his personal attendants, yet he couldn't remember making that choice at all.
After agonizing over it, he decided to ask Eun Seo-ho for help.
That was why he had deliberately mentioned the landslide in Sichuan, and Eun Seo-ho had responded with a slight nod.
It had been a signal that he would take care of the problem.
But the Crown Prince had never imagined that Eun Seo-ho would perish together with A-jeong, and the shock had struck him hard.
“I owe all of you an apology as well. Because of me, you have lost your lord.”
“We’re fine.”
The Crown Prince tilted his head at their response.
They were clearly suffering, yet there was something in their eyes that refused to give up.
“Our lord isn't someone who would die so easily.”
“He'll definitely come back alive.”
“That’s right. Our Young Master is stubbornly hard to kill. He'll be back, no doubt about it.”
Hearing those words, tears welled in the Crown Prince’s eyes.
Did he have any retainers who would believe in him that fiercely?
The thought made him envy Eun Seo-ho.
‘I’ll make sure your people are taken care of.’
Just as he made that silent promise, Jin Yu suddenly turned his head toward something.
“My Lord…”
Everyone immediately looked at Jin Yu.
Jin Yu closed his eyes for a moment, then opened them and spoke.
“I can feel our lord’s Qi.”
–TL Notes–
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