A House of Wolves
"There's nothing normal about any of this."
That was my first reaction after hearing the story.
"Right? The future of the martial world is looking grim."
Moyong Ryu chimed in without missing a beat.
"So that's why Jin Muje got dragged in and hung up a beat late, too. Haa..."
I scraped the last of the noodles from the bowl with my chopsticks and finished them off.
With everything cleared away, a teacup and teapot were set out on the table.
"Anyway."
I lifted the lid, and a fragrant steam rose with the scent of tea.
"What are you going to do about it, hyung-nim?"
It was a subject I had wanted to avoid.
"About what?"
And yet, as long as we were sons of the Moyong Family, it was a subject we could never truly escape.
"The family head's seat. It's truly vacant now. They won't be able to put it off any longer."
Moyong Ryu toyed with his teacup.
"Did that come from your guardian—Eighth Elder Moyong Taese—when you saw him earlier?"
"No. Elder Moyong Taese said he had to rush off to meet with the other elders, so we didn't get to talk for long."
Tap. Tap.
Moyong Ryu drummed his fingers on the table, and a maid opened the door and stepped inside.
"You called, Third Young Master?"
"Uh, some fruit. My mouth's dry."
"Yes. Right away."
A white plate of neatly arranged fruit was set down with a skewer.
Moyong Ryu picked up a piece bare-handed.
"It'll work itself out somehow. Why? Our little brother—do you think I'm going to covet the family head's seat and stab you in the back or something?"
"That..."
I couldn't answer right away.
I called him hyung-nim, and of everyone in the Moyong Family he was the one I had grown closest to—but I still didn't trust him completely. I had seen people turn on each other the moment power and money were on the table.
Moyong Ryu read that in my face. Chewing his fruit, he laughed.
"Cold little bastard, aren't you. I was just saying it, and look at you refusing to answer. Hey—if they offered you the family head seat, would you stick a knife in my back?"
"Not unless someone stuck one in me first—"
"Same here, you little shit. Being careful is fine, but trust me a little already, yeah? Getting tired of making excuses every time. Heh heh."
With nothing left to say, I steered the conversation elsewhere.
"Anyway—who do you think it was?"
"What now?"
I followed Moyong Ryu's lead and took a piece of fruit myself.
"Even if the family head spent years wandering outside and was barely more than a paper puppet, he was still the head of one of the Five Great Families. He came home gravely wounded and died. Aren't you even curious who did it, hyung-nim?"
"The family will throw everything it has into finding the culprit without us worrying about it. But... it'll all be meaningless. So everyone pretends to care while actually not caring at all."
"What?"
"They just don't say it out loud. Everyone already knows."
Moyong Ryu refilled the teapot as he spoke.
"It had to be someone in our family, right? The one who laid hands on the family head. You still don't get how far beyond imagination this rotten household is, do you? Every last one of them. Wolf cubs. Straight-up wolves."
I stared at him, dazed.
That was when it happened.
"I think the same thing, actually."
"...!"
The voice that answered Moyong Ryu was a stranger's.
"It's rare for anyone among us brothers to share the Third's opinion. Curious."
Someone stepped in through the doorway.
"Why so startled? Did you two claim this place as private property? How cold."
Narrow, cold jackal's eyes. A face with edges like a blade. A man whose entire atmosphere shifted with every expression he wore.
He was the Moyong Family's first son—Moyong Jinryong.
"Third Son Moyong Ryu. And the new arrival."
He dragged a chair to one end of the long table and sat.
"Fourth Son Moyong Bi. Correct?"
Grind.
Under the table, Moyong Ryu stepped hard on the tip of my foot.
Moyong Jinryong smiled.
"We're already acquainted, aren't we, Fourth Little Brother?"
"That was rather mischievous of you. I never dreamed you would hide your identity as a mere clerk."
"Keh keh. Surprised? Just a little joke."
I wanted to kill him.
Crack.
Blood vessels stood out in my eyes.
It had to have been his scheme. Because of you...!
I had spent two and a half years in that darkness. More than thirty months. Nearly a thousand days...!
"Ah, you're angry? Sorry. Half-brothers or not, I just wanted to see my little brother's face once. Don't be mad. You're scary."
Grind.
Moyong Ryu crushed my foot as if it might burst.
"I'm... in your debt."
I muttered it in a hoarse voice.
A maid set a cup of tea in front of Moyong Jinryong. He turned the cup between his fingers and smiled in lazy circles.
"Debt? I don't recall any debt. The documents I passed you? For my little brother, I'd do that a hundred times. In any case."
Moyong Jinryong wore a cold little smile as he went on.
"Congratulations on your safe return. I hear you failed the trial? What does that matter? Be grateful you're alive. Isn't that right?"
Tremble.
The corner of my eye twitched.
...This bastard.
It was a provocation. I told myself not to take the bait. I could not give him anything to seize on.
No matter how strong a person's martial arts, you could not go against the power of a faction. Right now, the one with the greatest strength in the Moyong Family—backed by the elders—was Moyong Jinryong. Cross him, and you could be eliminated out in the open.
My nails dug into the palm clenched on my knee until blood began to drip.
Then—
Clang!
A teacup hit the floor and shattered to pieces.
"Ah, damn. Look at that."
Moyong Ryu grinned foolishly as he scooped up the broken cup from the floor.
"Where is my head today. Seeing our eldest hyung-nim after so long, I got so scared I dropped the whole cup."
Moyong Jinryong's brow furrowed.
"Moyong Ryu. You haven't changed."
The thick tension that had been building snapped.
"Ah, neither have you, hyung-nim. What's this—your youngest brother's just gotten here and you're already riding him into the ground? You're supposed to look after him. A kid who just walked into the main house for the first time—what does he know? Keep it up and the boy will run away from home."
"A younger brother has to act like a younger brother. You don't call a wolf cub a brother. Isn't that right, Third Little Brother?"
"Wow."
Moyong Ryu snorted and spoke to Moyong Jinryong.
"Maybe my ears are going. That almost sounded like it was aimed at me."
"Oh, it was. That one was for you."
"Aha."
With a dry laugh, Moyong Ryu set the broken teacup on the table.
"So why has our precious First Hyung-nim graced us with his presence? What—come to share a sweet cake and bond as brothers?"
Moyong Jinryong picked up a piece of fruit.
Crunch. Crunch.
He chewed and swallowed.
"If we put knives in each other's mouths, fine—but are we the sort who talk about brotherhood while stuffing our faces with fruit?"
"..."
Moyong Ryu's smiling face slowly twisted into something chilling.
"Still a riot, our hyung-nim. Even saying the same damn thing, you manage to make it sound like garbage. The elders wipe your ass after you run wild however you please—you think that lasts forever? Those sly old snakes?"
Moyong Jinryong answered with a smile that reeked of blood.
"You little—"
Moyong Ryu ran his tongue over his teeth and said,
"I don't know why you came, but good timing. While we're here, let's get one thing straight. Who knows when we'll sit face to face again."
"What?"
Moyong Ryu wiped his fruit-sticky hand on the tablecloth as he spoke.
"I don't care about anything else—leave our youngest alone. We're family, aren't we? You look after the baby of the house. What does this kid even know? What are we, animals? The kind of beasts that tear every brother to pieces just to become family head?"
I looked at Moyong Ryu.
I hadn't expected him to bring me up here.
I had heard that the Moyong Family's real power was split between these two. Right now, in this seat, he was trying to put my fears to rest.
"I,"
Moyong Jinryong leaned back in his chair,
"have no idea what our little brother is talking about. Of all people—Moyong Ryu, the one they call the Butcher—you're the one saying that?"
"Let's be honest, hyung-nim."
There was no one else around but us.
"You killed the family head, didn't you."
Moyong Jinryong looked at Moyong Ryu without a word.
"I think you did."
"Why would I?"
"Under the banner of household harmony, the family head took the 'Sword of the Moyong Family Pointed at the Martial World'—the Tensal Gwimu Unit you built almost from the ground up—and carved it up. He gave three-tenths to me and one-tenth to Second Son Moyong Gangcheon. Excellent children, truly. I'm always grateful. Of course, they answer only to me now."
Moyong Ryu's face hardened.
"Aha?"
He tipped his head back and stared at the ceiling.
Silence filled the air. The tea in the cups went cold.
"Wow."
The frozen expression on Moyong Ryu's face slowly changed. A chilling bead of moisture ran down the side of a cup and wet the table.
In a bone-dry voice, Moyong Ryu muttered,
"That one hit a little hard."
He looked Moyong Jinryong in the eye.
"What the hell did our hyung-nim eat today. You're really going all out. The family head's dead and we haven't even sealed the coffin lid yet—what, you want me to make you another one right next to it? I can do it if you want. When I move, I move. And I always finish the job. You know that."
When I move, I move.
Those were the same words Moyong Ryu had once said to me.
Moyong Jinryong rose from his seat.
"No need to be impatient, I think. For the six years you're enrolled as a disciple at Cheonsubaekryeonsa, you can't be trusted with the family headship. But tell me, Moyong Ryu—"
He pointed at me with one hand.
"So you're joining hands with this filthy bastard son to play house? We still have the dignity of blood to uphold—know some restraint."
With that, Moyong Jinryong made to leave.
A beat faster, Moyong Ryu spoke.
"Jinryong hyung-nim."
"What."
Moyong Ryu smiled as he said it.
"Bi is my little brother."
"And?"
"Why is your mouth so filthy? Did you eat something wrong? Or did Lady Yeo feed you meat one piece at a time and tell you to work that jaw once for every bite?"
Moyong Jinryong's face changed. He opened his mouth to answer—
"Young Master. It is time to go."
A rasping voice, as if it had been scraped raw, cut through the air.
I hadn't sensed a presence at all.
A man with short hair in green martial robes stood beside Moyong Jinryong. At his waist hung a belt studded with all kinds of hidden weapons.
Sensing our startled gazes, Moyong Jinryong smoothed his expression.
"Greet him. This is the Guardian of the Sichuan Tang Family, with whom I have newly formed the Covenant of the Sacred Mountain."
Aside from Eun Seollyeong, it was the first time I had seen another Guardian.
"I was wondering why things had been so quiet. So you sealed another Covenant of the Sacred Mountain?"
Moyong Ryu muttered.
His face once more perfectly calm, Moyong Jinryong smiled in lazy circles.
"I'm busy. I'll go first."
With that, he ignored us completely and vanished.
In the space left behind after that wave of heat, only a shattered teacup remained.
Moyong Ryu sighed and dropped into his chair. Then he looked at me and chuckled.
I frowned.
"What now."
"You held it in well. Damn. Come back from the trial and our mad dog's almost human. Honestly, I was sweating—I thought you were going to blow."
"I'm not some spoiled child. I don't take bait like that. And it wasn't worth listening to in the first place."
Though the bloodstained exchange between Moyong Ryu and Moyong Jinryong had left an impression, to be fair.
"Heh heh. Sure, sure. Well, looks like it's about time for you to head back to Cheonsubaekryeonsa too. Ah—not sure if Jin Muje told you, but I'm going into Chu-mu-gwan this time as well."
He spoke as we walked out into the courtyard.
"Jin Muje and I had the skill for Chu-mu-gwan from the start. But since we were going to Cheonsubaekryeonsa anyway, we deliberately went in at the bottom to scrape up every benefit from the floor up. So don't get antsy if we shoot ahead of you first. Got it, little brother?"
"...Yes."
Moyong Ryu would stay at the main house another two days or so to finish the funeral rites before returning to Cheonsubaekryeonsa, so I had to go back first.
When I stepped out through the main gate, maids came pouring after me to see me off. Moyong Ryu frowned and waved them off with a flick of his hand. They flinched at that single gesture and ebbed away like the tide. In that one motion you could see the weight he carried in the main house.
"Hey. Little brother."
At the main gate, Moyong Ryu hesitated, smacking his lips.
"I'll say it again—don't take what the eldest said earlier too hard. Every group has at least one complete lunatic."
"Yes."
"And wash that ugly face properly once in a while. Once you hit Chu-mu-gwan, the place will be crawling with young ladies from famous sects. Our little brother ought to snag himself a decent young miss out of that crowd, yeah?"
I closed my eyes against the headache rising behind them.
Misreading my reaction, Moyong Ryu grinned.
"You're going to let Jinryong hyung-nim hog all the Covenants of the Sacred Mountain? You can't lose either! You go past a mere covenant and marry one outright! A woman Guardian! The Sichuan Tang Family is the only one with two Guardians, and I hear one of them is a real beauty."
"Hyung-nim, why are you telling me to do something you can't even do yourself."
"Haa, you little shit. Honestly, even monkey females turn me down—what woman is going to like me. Ah, and you're my little brother, so maybe same problem. Sorry, kid. Let's just die as lonely old men."
I shoved him in the back.
"Haa. Stop seeing me off and go already. Go. I can find my own way."
"Hey. Random thought."
Being pushed, Moyong Ryu stopped dead.
"What now."
I looked at him with an irritated face.
"It's still a little awkward, but... doesn't this feel like a real family somehow?"
"..."
"Heh heh. Always wanted a family like other people have, just once."
For a moment, I had nothing to say.
"Stop talking nonsense and go."
"Rotten little brother to the end—even your goodbyes are garbage. Fine, I'm going. Going!"
Moyong Ryu left me there and headed back into the main house.
I watched his back for a long time.
Then I turned around.
To return to Cheonsubaekryeonsa, I stepped out through the main gate of the Moyong Family once more.
"What are you dawdling for? Getting soft, aren't you. For a disciple who already flunked his first trial."
Someone was waiting for me in front of the great doors.
"You..."
The scowling, shaved-head man was an excommunicated monk of Shaolin and an executioner of Cheonsubaekryeonsa—Lee Jasuo.