You're All Dead Now - 2
Hyeok Gi-rin had slept deeply for the first time in a long while. Even so, a shadow still lingered on her face.
Yu Gyeong had not come to see her last night.
"I hope Brother rested well."
Ever since she had entered the palace, Yu Gyeong had visited her every night without fail. Last night alone, he had been unable to come — he had to accompany Ho Cheon-an to the Cheonsang Pavilion. He could hardly tell her that, so he had been forced to invent an excuse: the fatigue had piled up, and he needed a single night of rest.
The words had left Hyeok Gi-rin wracked with guilt. Days spent on state affairs, nights spent at her side — over and over. He had told her he made up for it by sleeping until sunrise and catching naps during the day, and she had believed him. Clearly the strain had finally caught up with him.
"I was thinking of circulating some of my inner energy into Brother today. Would that be all right?"
"If Her Highness the Princess were to do so, His Majesty would surely be delighted."
The maids of Gungcheong Hall knew perfectly well that Sama Gyeong-hwi and the Emperor Yu Gyeong had been making contact with Ho Cheon-an. They also knew that last night those three had left Gungcheong Hall empty and gone somewhere together.
But the maids assumed the two men were simply taking the measure of who Ho Cheon-an was. They had no idea whatsoever that the pair were hatching a scheme to plant him at a Cheonsang Pavilion gambling table.
In the maids' eyes, the two cut a simple picture: an utterly hopeless Emperor who had thrown every shred of imperial dignity out the window to play eunuch, all so he could size up the man his sister liked — and the Director of the Eastern Depot, stuck suffering through it at his master's side.
To the palace maids, Yu Gyeong's love for Hyeok Gi-rin was a textbook case of too much of a good thing.
Still, better an excess than a void. Rather than find fault with the master of the palace, they chose to look on the bright side.
In the end, good was good.
An Emperor who went a little overboard, yes — but who threw himself into the effort for Hyeok Gi-rin's sake. And a sister who was already planning how to ease that Emperor's exhaustion.
What a heartwarming display of sibling affection!
The maids' faces softened into smiles at the thought of Yu Gyeong and Hyeok Gi-rin's bond.
"It is nearly time for tea. We shall prepare it."
"Mm."
As the maids began arranging tea and refreshments, Hyeok Gi-rin's thoughts drifted to Ho Cheon-an. Every time she thought of him, she felt a faint turbulence in her heart.
Her feelings toward Ho Cheon-an touched the very core of the problem that came of holding two identities at once — Yu Ya, imperial princess, and Hyeok Gi-rin, the Jade Dragon Hero of the Murim.
It is not a question that demands an answer this very moment…
But neither was it one she could put off forever.
All of that complicated feeling, however, vanished the instant she saw Ho Cheon-an.
He kept sending her signals with a tense expression, as if he had something to say that only the two of them could hear.
The maids of Gungcheong Hall sensed something in his manner and tried not to leave the pair alone.
"I was thinking of taking a short walk with Warrior Ho. Would that be all right?"
"But, Great Hero—"
"You may follow at a distance. I am simply feeling rather stifled."
They could hardly ignore a request from Hyeok Gi-rin. And more than that—
"Hah. You ladies had no trouble keeping your distance when I was with the eunuchs. Must you be so strict now?"
These were the same maids who had vacated the room every time Yu Gyeong and Sama Gyeong-hwi approached Ho Cheon-an. Short on excuses, they had no choice but to grant the two a private moment.
Why is Warrior Ho acting like this?
"Is something the matter?"
Hyeok Gi-rin looked at Ho Cheon-an, her face full of puzzlement. This was the interior of the Imperial Palace, and Gungcheong Hall was where the guest of honor resided. Disturbances within the palace were rare enough to begin with — and Hyeok Gi-rin herself was staying in Gungcheong Hall.
And that was not all. At night, even the Emperor Yu Gyeong came calling.
It was no exaggeration to say the entire palace currently revolved around Gungcheong Hall. Under circumstances like these, what could possibly drive Ho Cheon-an to send such signals?
"Are you aware that eunuchs have been assigned to me?"
"You mentioned it before, yes."
She had heard that eunuchs had been inserted into his instruction. From Ho Cheon-an himself, and from Yu Gyeong as well. Something about how spending time with eunuchs of the same sex might ease Ho Cheon-an's burden.
Had something gone wrong with those two eunuchs?
"…Yesterday I went to a gambling den with the two of them."
"I beg your pardon?"
Ho Cheon-an's story soared far beyond anything Hyeok Gi-rin could have imagined. He laid out his deductions. The two men had approached him out of nowhere. One seemed to be of imperial blood; the other was a man of the Sama family.
Those two had diverted tribute goods meant for the Emperor, gambled them away, and begged for his help — claiming they were dead men if the goods were not returned.
The situation had been suspicious, but for the sake of his connection to Sama Yeom, he had gone along with it.
And then, the moment they arrived at the gambling house, it turned out the two men and the establishment were in league — the whole thing a setup designed to fleece him dry.
Today he had managed to escape on the strength of his gambling skill alone. He had no idea what the two would try next.
"What am I supposed to do? It seems I have become entangled in something rather serious."
Watching Ho Cheon-an heave a sigh as if the ground itself might swallow him, Hyeok Gi-rin… began to piece the scheme together.
In Gungcheong Hall as it stood now, no deranged eunuch would have been able to waltz in and try to fleece a guest of the Emperor.
So who, then, were those two eunuchs?
Hyeok Gi-rin recalled the day she and Yu Gyeong had spoken of gambling. Her brother, who had been raging at her to keep her distance from Ho Cheon-an, had fallen silent — and then abruptly changed his tune.
She had taken it as a silent signal that he simply did not want to keep flushing over the subject and wished to move on. But all along…
He had been cooking up this scheme behind her back.
Sama Gyeong-hwi… and Brother…
A fake eunuch presumed to be of imperial blood, and someone calling himself Sama Hwi-gyeong? This was transparent even by transparent standards. They had smuggled an imperial guest — a guest who had come with her — out of the Imperial Palace itself, just to make a mark of him at a gambling table?
Hyeok Gi-rin ground her teeth.
"I shall handle this."
"No — what do you intend to do? One of them may be of the imperial line, and the other is a Sama."
"It is fine. I cannot tell you everything, but I have a few connections in Luoyang. Leave this matter to me."
"Mm… Are you truly certain?"
"Heh. Heh heh heh… Of course. Please — by all means — entrust this matter to me. Without fail."
Ho Cheon-an swallowed dryly at the smile of Hyeok Gi-rin, from which killing intent was practically seeping. Was this… going to end badly? He had expected her to be angry, but the form her rage was taking now was nothing like the Hyeok Gi-rin he had imagined.
"Ah… well, the Sama family is involved as well, so…"
"Ahahahaha! Do not worry! I! Will! Handle! Everything! Myself! Heh heh heh!"
"…If you put it that strongly, then very well. I shall place my trust in Great Hero Hyeok Gi-rin alone."
After parting from Ho Cheon-an, Hyeok Gi-rin returned to her chambers.
The room that only moments ago had been filled with the warm glow of sibling affection now froze over as if a great ice age had descended.
"Hah."
The maids realized at once that something had gone terribly wrong and bent their spines double. The dignity of Princess Yuya, born of the imperial main line, layered atop the presence of Hyeok Gi-rin — a Super-Peak Realm master who had tempered body and spirit to their limits — sent cold sweat streaming down the maids' backs.
"I am told that Nangin Ho spent time in the company of two eunuchs?"
"…That is so, Your Highness."
"And those two were Sama Gyeong-hwi and my brother, were they not?"
The maids felt their breath catch in their throats. A silence like death wrapped the hall, and Hyeok Gi-rin's frost-edged gaze swept across them.
"I shall take that as your answer."
Hyeok Gi-rin… smiled.
"Heh. Heh heh heh."
Gulp.
At her laughter, the maids swallowed dryly and bowed their heads even lower.
"I believed he was busy tending to state affairs by day — yet in those very hours, Brother was busy coaxing Warrior Ho. And when night fell, he put on an utterly straight face and came to see me. And yesterday, I hear, he even took a nighttime outing with Warrior Ho?"
"Please kill us, Your Highness!"
"Please kill us, Your Highness!"
Every maid in Gungcheong Hall dropped to the floor as one. Every one of them had cooperated in letting Ho Cheon-an slip out of the hall. In other words, they had deceived Hyeok Gi-rin in step with Yu Gyeong's tune.
"I fretted over him, thinking the fatigue had piled up — and all the while I was cleanly played by my own brother. Heh heh heh."
"Your Highness!"
"Your Highness!"
"Very well… Brother will be attending to genuine state affairs at this hour. As an imperial princess, how could I possibly interrupt the governance of the realm? Therefore… we shall start with Sama Gyeong-hwi."
Hyeok Gi-rin spoke.
"Bring me the Director of the Eastern Depot. This instant!"
In the great hall, a heated debate was in full swing.
The basic flow of statecraft was simple enough: ministers prepared what they considered the best solutions for the great affairs of the nation, and the Emperor selected one among them to put into practice.
How to put the confiscated assets of the Golden Family to use.
That was today's subject of governance.
"Hah hah — surely the first priority must be a road-maintenance project along the Huangtian Highway? How many destitute souls do you suppose currently crowd Luoyang? Put them to labor and you solve both poverty relief and road works at a stroke — two birds with one stone!"
"Road maintenance is indeed important. But the Luoyang Waterway Improvement Project is urgent! Urgent, I say! We have put it off year after year for lack of funds — for decades now! Decades! Let it rain and Luoyang becomes a sea!"
"Road works, waterway works — all well and good. But there is an order to these things, is there not? Not only five thousand taels of gold, but vast quantities of grain will be coming up from Sichuan. To receive them, we must first undertake a warehouse-renovation project, I most humbly submit."
Yu Gyeong stared blankly at the ministers squabbling over how the Golden Family's budget ought to be spent.
In truth, none of the talk of state affairs was reaching his ears.
Haa…
Yu Gyeong let out a long breath. Yesterday's defeat had not been his first. Since ascending the throne, he had fought continuously on the board of politics and lost more times than he could count.
But even when his will was broken and he was defeated, his heart had never broken.
Whenever his resolve failed to carry through in state affairs and was crushed in the hands of his ministers, Yu Gyeong had thought of Hyeok Gi-rin and steeled himself. That child had stepped of her own will into the Murim, where blood and blades ran free, all to protect her brother's imperial authority — how could he, as her elder brother, simply sit down and give up?
I will build absolute imperial power, and I will bring Yu Ya back to the imperial house!
On that single conviction he had strengthened the throne, weakened the ministers, and purged the factions. Along the way he had endured countless hardships, and at times suffered hopeless defeats.
Even so, Yu Gyeong had never retreated. Hardship and defeat had only become fuel, setting his will ablaze all the hotter.
He had dismantled the factions that supported Yu Ya, fortified the imperial authority, and stripped power from his ministers. He had grown the Eastern Depot and the Embroidered Uniform Guard until he commanded both force of arms and force of intelligence.
And so Yu Gyeong had become a giant, bending this vast empire to his will. And yet…
Against Ho Cheon-an yesterday, he had felt a wall.
In a situation where overwhelming victory should have been a given, he had been overwhelmingly, catastrophically crushed. Simply losing was not the problem.
His heart had broken.
The conviction that no matter what measures he took, he could never defeat that Ho Cheon-an at a gambling table had driven itself deep into his chest and lodged there.
Yu Gyeong chewed his lip.
…Fine. I admit it.
Yu Gyeong accepted his defeat.
He admitted that he had been captive to the prejudice of "gambler," had quarreled with Hyeok Gi-rin over it, had treated her like a child who knew nothing of the world, and had schemed to shatter her trust in Ho Cheon-an — only to be thoroughly humiliated by the man himself.
An investigation meant only to understand Ho Cheon-an… how had it come to this?
Yu Gyeong flushed as he thought of the disgrace he had brought upon himself.
"Road maintenance! Road maintenance! Road maintenance is the people's livelihood!"
"Waterway improvement! Waterway improvement! Waterway improvement is the long-deferred task we must resolve!"
"Warehouse expansion! Warehouse expansion is the future!"
Yu Gyeong's eyes snapped open. He clenched his fist and brought it down on the armrest of his chair.
CRAAASH!
The report rang through the great hall — the power of a throne specially crafted so that striking its armrest would produce a tremendous sound.
"My lords—!!"
Surging to his feet, Yu Gyeong exploded.
"Even planning a budget that fell into your laps for free, you raise your voices like thiiiis!!"
"Have mercy upon us, Your Majeesty!"
"Mercy, mercy — I am sick of hearing it! Did I tell you to go earn money? I told you to spend it — spend it! Someone out there is fulfilling his duties as a prefect and filling the national treasury on top of it, and what exactly are the rest of you doiiing!!!!"
"Have meeeercy upon us, Your Majeestyyy!!"
"I have half a mind to ship the lot of you to Sichuan this instant and order you to take lessons from Sama Yeom! Men who call themselves ministers of the central government — how can you be this hopeless!"
"Have mer—!"
"Enough! Enough! Court is adjourned for today! If you do not bring me a proper budget proposal by the next session, you had best prepare yourselves for dismissal!"
Storming out of the hall, Yu Gyeong felt a little better. Something black and stagnant that had been festering in his chest seemed to be draining away.
I was too narrow… and too petty.
He had hunted for whatever displeased him, picked at it, and tried to tear a man down. Yu Gyeong acknowledged the fact in his heart and nodded calmly.
Yes — think positively. He would never, ever, ever ruin himself at a gambling table, so that was one worry off the list, was it not? Even if some misfortune struck and a venture failed or a family was shattered, with gambling skill like that the man would rebuild in an instant.
There was plenty one could evaluate positively.
He possessed gambling skill that reached the heavens, so he had no need to toil diligently — and yet Ho Cheon-an had worked as a Sichuan nangin, sweating for his coin. Arrogance might well have led him to neglect his martial arts — and yet of late he was said to be throwing himself into them more than ever.
This time… let me truly look at the man Ho Cheon-an is.
Evaluate only the character of the man Ho Cheon-an as seen and felt with his own eyes. Even now, admitting his narrow gaze and looking at Ho Cheon-an with fresh eyes was all it would take.
Simply see Ho Cheon-an rightly, judge him fairly… and decide whether he is a man fit for Yu Ya!
And so, returning to his quarters in a bright and refreshed frame of mind, Yu Gyeong found himself greeted by a Gungcheong Hall maid and an Eastern Depot eunuch waiting for him with deathly pale faces.