Raising the White Flag
Hwangbo Taejin heard hopeful news.
"The Beggar Sect has arrived?"
"Yes. Once they arrived, the assault on Deungmyeong Manor stopped."
It was as if a cloudburst had ended and bright sunlight was breaking through.
"Once we reach Jinan, everything will return to the way it was. Hurry."
They quickened their pace and at last arrived at the Jinan they had so desperately wanted.
But Jinan was nothing like the atmosphere they had hoped for.
"Where are the Beggar Sect disciples?"
Not a single one of the Beggar Sect members said to be spread throughout all of Jinan was anywhere in sight.
That was not all.
The Hwangbo Clan's attire had always drawn respectful gazes. Not now.
People began watching them from the corners of their eyes and whispering among themselves.
"Did the Hwangbo Clan really do those things?"
"I hear the businesses that had their enterprises stolen unjustly are countless."
"And the methods were so horrific that over five hundred people died. Plenty of them were innocent children, from the sound of it."
Hwangbo Taejin, who would normally have flared up at once, was so stunned he could find no words.
If even ordinary people who were not martial artists were speaking this way, it meant the rumors had spread beyond any hope of control.
As he moved on with an uneasy step, he fortunately spotted familiar faces.
"Clan Head. I am Hwangbo Jinil of the Northern Tiger Guard. I am overseeing the martial artists gathered in Jinan."
Behind Hwangbo Jinil, who was responsible for the movement of the northern warriors, about a hundred martial artists stood at attention.
"I shall escort you to the Shandong Inn for now."
Even if the clan had fallen, they still had no shortage of places to lodge.
"I will check the main house first."
"As you command."
Leaving the surrounding stares behind them, Hwangbo Taejin went to the main house—and received a shock.
He had expected it, but seeing it with his own eyes made his mind go blank.
At least the laborers had cleaned away the ashes and were preparing for reconstruction, yet every face among them was dark.
They had heard the rumors as well.
"What rumors are circulating about us?"
Hwangbo Taejin asked the question he had put off. Hwangbo Jinil answered with a calm face.
"It is not mere rumor. The diary written by the Chief Steward and the ledgers we seized have been made public. The Hao Sect revealed them to the Beggar Sect, and the Beggar Sect withdrew entirely the moment they verified the contents. And those materials are now spreading nationwide."
Materials acknowledged by both the Hao Sect and the Beggar Sect. That meant this was no longer rumor.
It will spread not as rumor, but as truth.
Cold sweat ran down Hwangbo Taejin.
Just then a clan warrior who had rushed over bowed his head and reported.
"The Somyung Merchant Guild, which had agreed to join the clan reconstruction work, has suddenly informed us they are canceling the schedule."
That was not all.
"Everyone who had promised to lend strength to the main house is pulling out."
"The Muho Martial Hall has canceled the dispatch of martial artists."
"Is not the Muho Martial Hall a martial hall like a branch family of ours?"
"They say there was a conflict with another martial hall, but we have not confirmed the truth."
It was probably an excuse.
It is a martial hall the collateral branches established even using bribes. For such a place to turn its back…
Hwangbo Taejin decided to see the rumors for himself.
"Bring me the materials the Hao Sect made public."
He moved to the nearby Shandong Inn. And in a luxury guest room reserved for honored guests, he faced that truth.
Compressed onto three sheets of paper, the contents included incidents even Hwangbo Taejin had never known about.
"There were even affairs like this."
After confirming every incident, he felt ashamed of the simple fact that he belonged to the Hwangbo Clan.
Among them were things he could not understand at all.
In the southern Contending Family Village of Shandong Province, the blacksmith Jang Han-seop, who made farming tools, was murdered in the process of refusing to join the Shandong Ironworks. And to cover it up, they even murdered his five-year-old daughter and pregnant wife.
"Why in the world would they do something like this…"
They framed Jangpung Express and massacred the escort agency head and his household. Over a hundred people of the escort agency alone died. There were three nursing infants among them, and seventy who had never learned martial arts.
After reading every last line, Hwangbo Taejin no longer coveted the seat of Clan Head.
I want out.
Having to take responsibility for all of this felt almost unjust.
What am I supposed to do now?
Only then did Hwangbo Taejin look at the many people waiting for his orders.
Even the elders who had always been so free with their advice were, irritatingly, keeping their mouths shut.
"Find Ja Gangcheon and Song Jain."
The answer did not come at once. Only after enough time had passed for several deep breaths did his subordinates reply in drained voices.
"We will obey."
The subordinates already knew that Ja Gangcheon and Song Jain had left Jinan.
The reason they did not bother to say so was that they understood there was no better order than this one.
Better to get away from this seat.
For the moment, escaping this uncomfortable position was what mattered.
More than a month had passed since Hwangbo Taejin's return.
The Donghae Merchant Guild and the people of Deungmyeong Manor who left Gyounam have all returned.
The funds entrusted to the Shandong Money House are draining away at a sharp rate. Every major enterprise is washing its hands of us. Without a fresh infusion of capital, we will be driven into a position where payment becomes impossible.
If a money house failed to return the funds left in its care, its credibility collapsed at once.
From that point on, there was no meaning in continuing to operate.
The core that ran the vast Hwangbo Clan was precisely the money house. If it closed its doors, every other business became meaningless.
The new head of the Shandong Merchant Guild has rejected the support plan requested by the main house.
Parties have appeared offering to purchase the Shandong Pharmacy and the cloth shops.
It was the same sound for an entire month.
As the money house's credibility plummeted, the capital that had moved within the clan dried up completely.
Having no funds with which to support more than ten thousand household members meant the clan was finished.
And then the thing he had feared most of all came to pass.
We have been refused attendance at the autumn assembly of the Five Great Clans.
The other Great Clans had refused to sit with the Hwangbo Clan.
That was the decisive blow.
Having lost the prestige of the Five Great Clans, the Hwangbo Clan could not endure. Even the businesses that had been watching the situation to the end pulled their money from the money house, and when payments were delayed they pressed for business rights instead.
The great tree that had once stood so firm withered branch by branch, and now even its roots were rotting.
Every enterprise is reducing its people. The main house will likely have to reduce its people as well.
A clan was bound not by money but by blood. Casting anyone out of it was never an easy thing.
Even so, they had to cut people simply to survive—and the betrayal felt by those who were driven out ran very deep.
Every future is collapsing.
Hwangbo Taejin, who had grown as haggard as the crumbling clan itself, now hated the very act of receiving reports.
He wanted to step down from the Clan Head's seat at once, yet no one was willing to take it.
No matter how far the clan had fallen, why would anyone refuse the seat of the Hwangbo Clan Head?
They want me to carry it all.
There were a few who still eyed the position, but they wanted Hwangbo Taejin to shoulder every last sin.
They meant to take the seat only after it had been cleaned, even a little.
I want this finished quickly.
The past month had been more than enough to break Hwangbo Taejin's will.
And as if it had been waiting for exactly that moment, a visitor arrived.
"The Beggar Sect Leader and the Lord of Deungmyeong Manor have requested an audience."
"They are coming together?"
"Yes."
A formal letter had arrived from Deungmyeong Manor. Yet the name written as mediator was not the Hao Sect's, but the Beggar Sect Leader's.
"When?"
"In three days."
"Understood. Make ready to receive them."
There was no martial artist in the world who would refuse a visit from the Beggar Sect Leader himself.
And so, three days later, Hwangbo Taejin was able to look directly upon the face of Ja Gangcheon he had so long desired to see.
Ja Gangcheon stepped into the main house of the Hwangbo Clan, where foundation work had only just begun.
Wooden pillars stood in many places, yet there was no sense that reconstruction was proceeding with any vigor.
"How does it feel to return to the place you set fire to with your own hands?"
Guided to the meeting place, Hwangbo Taejin offered a greeting sharp as a blade.
"Not pleasant. This sight could just as easily have been our Deungmyeong Manor."
When Ja Gangcheon answered without flinching, Hobanggae stepped forward beside him.
"This old beggar came out of excessive concern. Last time I saw you, you were about ten years old—quite a stretch of years has gone by."
"Welcome. I am sorry to receive you in such a shabby place."
"Sorry for what? A beggar going to a shabby place is only natural."
Hobanggae openly acknowledged that the very site of the Hwangbo Clan's main house was shabby.
It was a quiet rebuke of the Hwangbo Clan itself.
Hwangbo Taejin, who could not have failed to understand, wore an uncomfortable expression—and then he saw other figures who grated on his nerves still further.
Three people stood behind Ja Gangcheon, and the looks they fixed on Hwangbo Taejin were fiercely hostile.
"Ak Pungjin, head of Jangpung Express."
Ak Pungjin's voice trembled faintly as he offered the greeting. He was holding his rage tightly in check.
"Jin Hyeon-pil of the Jin-geuk Martial Hall."
"Baek Seou of the Iseong Merchant Guild."
At the greetings thick with enmity, Hobanggae intervened.
"The one who forced harsh measures upon all of you is not the present Clan Head. How about hearing him out first?"
Who would dare refuse a proposal from Hobanggae?
The meaning of this gathering became clear.
Hwangbo Taejin had already expected as much, and he accepted the situation with a drained spirit.
Across a table that had been set up for the occasion, Hwangbo Taejin and Ja Gangcheon sat facing each other. For some reason, Ja Gangcheon found himself remembering the moment he had once sat across from Hwangbo Baek.
Back then neither of them had any interest in a peaceful negotiation, so that meeting had held little meaning.
Today the atmosphere was different.
"I'll give you a chance."
Ja Gangcheon spoke first.
"A chance?"
Hwangbo Taejin answered with hostility before he could stop himself—and earned a sharp look from Hobanggae for it.
"Let me say one thing to the Clan Head in advance."
"I am listening."
"If today's negotiation falls apart, there will not be a single person within the orthodox factions who will ever deal with the Hwangbo Clan again. That includes the Beggar Sect."
That was why Ja Gangcheon had called it a chance.
"The only chance for the Hwangbo Clan to cast everything off and begin anew is right now."
"What is it you want?"
"In the name of the Hwangbo Clan, acknowledge every past wrong. And go to the people who suffered and offer them a direct apology and full compensation."
In the Hwangbo Clan's present state, paying compensation for the damage would mean abandoning most of its businesses.
Knowing full well how heavy a single word could be, Hwangbo Taejin turned the matter over and over in his mind.
Yet the moment he looked at Ja Gangcheon across from him, he realized he had been mistaken about something.
Ja Gangcheon's expression was cold.
As if this entire meeting displeased him. So he asked.
"Does the Manor Lord dislike this negotiation?"
"Yes."
"Why is that?"
"Because I can't kill you."
At that brief answer, Hwangbo Taejin saw his own reality with perfect clarity.
"If you want a fight so badly, why did you come to negotiate?"
"Because the lives I have to protect are worth more than the lives I want to take."
This answer shamed Hwangbo Taejin.
With that single sentence, the tangled thoughts in his head fell into order.
What choice must I make for the Hwangbo Clan?
He had never once thought that way before.
He had always asked, What benefits the Hwangbo Clan while I am its Clan Head?
For the first time, Hwangbo Taejin thought only of the Hwangbo Clan itself.
"How could something so simple have kept me trapped in such a swamp all this time?"
Hwangbo Taejin spoke in a voice drained of strength.
"I accept."
It was the moment the Hwangbo Clan raised the white flag to Deungmyeong Manor.