Kneeling
"...Still, if word spreads that he was bested by a Salsu, won't that reflect badly on us as well?"
"Be that as it may, we cannot allow him to muddy the waters any further."
Yi Won had no idea whether that was worth the trouble. Honestly, he couldn't understand why Yi Do had to die at all.
No matter how broken the boy's temperament might be, he still carried the Yi name.
He could be wielded as a blade of the Yi Clan one way or another — so why all this wariness?
"With matters as they stand, that plan will have to be shelved, but no matter. Once this affair is resolved, Yi Do will be as good as dead anyway."
Yi Won nodded with an awkward expression. And then, a thought struck him.
Could it be...
"Might Yi Do be the one who attacked the Sangyun Merchant Group?"
At those words, Lady Un — who had worn a grave expression from start to finish — burst out laughing.
"So now you've learned to amuse your own mother, have you? The one who raided the Sangyun Merchant Group was Yi Do himself? Ha. Do you truly believe that makes any sense?"
"...But the possibility isn't entirely absent."
"No. There is no possibility. Do you have any idea who the Meteor Sword, Hyeong Jeongmun, was?"
He did not, not in any detail.
"As a descendant of the fallen Diancang Sect, his martial prowess, while only at the early stage of the Four Realms of Qi Condensation, was such that within Suju Prefecture, one could count on a single hand the men who could stand against him. Hyeong Jeongmun had already surpassed the Yang Gwang Yi Hyeon stage and was eyeing the Five Dragon Phoenix Citadel itself. Had nothing gone wrong in the next ten years, he would have become a master of the Three Harmonies Assembly."
Lady Un continued.
"And you're telling me Yi Do — a boy who only recently reached the Zhu Cheon Realm — killed such a man? Even granting that his talent for the martial arts is monstrous and he's a born genius of combat, do you honestly believe he could have walked out of that place alive?"
Yi Won had thought it possible. But his mother's next words changed his mind.
"According to the witnesses, the intruder vanished as he stepped upon empty air."
"Surely... you don't mean the Void-Treading Step?"
"Even listing only what was described, it was unmistakably the Void-Treading Step used by martial artists of the Realm of Harmony and beyond. And they say he unfurled the Arts of Soaring Emptiness as well — that his figure, weaving this way and that through the air, was beyond marvelous, beautiful even. In other words, some absurdly powerful master attacked the Sangyun Merchant Group. Do you now understand why I don't believe this to be Yi Do's doing?"
Yi Won found himself nodding.
"Yes, my son understands your meaning perfectly, Mother."
"Good, then that's enough. Maintain your vigilance for the time being. Once we've investigated what manner of scheming lies behind all this, we will carry out what we've set aside."
"Yes, Mother."
I cycled my breathing exercises, thinking and thinking again.
I had died roughly thirty years from this point in time.
Thirty years. An enormous number of things happened in them.
To put it bluntly, I do not remember everything that took place across those thirty years.
My departure from the Yi Clan would come about three months from now.
What became of the Yi Clan afterward, I'd learned only through rumors.
It was wretched.
First, the clan head, Yi Se-geuk, suffered qi deviation mid-exercise and collapsed into his sickbed, unable even to walk — and naturally, his eldest son Yi Jeong received the clan seal and became the new head.
Yi Jeong then declared that Yi Se-geuk had in fact been poisoned, and named the second son, Yi Won, as the one behind it.
Yi Won, Lady Un, the stewards and servants who followed them — even the porters they'd hired with coin.
He had every last one of them seized and subjected to torture upon torture.
Yi Won and Lady Un ultimately confessed to feeding Yi Se-geuk the poison, and Yi Jeong immediately led every warrior in the clan to raid the Un Clan estate.
He absorbed the merchant groups, pleasure houses, and inns the Un Clan held, and slaughtered every member of the Un household, Yi Won included.
When it came to judging whose methods were excessive, at the very least, they had no right to criticize mine.
Watching how things were unfolding now, whoever poisoned Yi Se-geuk was Lady Sang or Yi Jeong — one of the two, without question.
They couldn't be thought of separately to begin with, so it was safe to assume they'd done it together.
Yi Won and Lady Un had clearly been framed. Frankly, no matter how ruthless Lady Un or Yi Won might get, neither was ruthless enough to poison the clan head.
Well then — the picture more or less drew itself.
But the important thing was the timing.
Far too much had already changed from the past I once knew.
The clan head being poisoned was something due in three months — but it wouldn't be strange for it to happen tomorrow.
I never entertained the assumption that it wouldn't happen at all.
When I seized Cheonhwaru and handed it to Yi Jeong, my intent had never been to make him acting clan head.
It was about the connection to the Sangyun Merchant Group — and, in the larger view, the benefit of the Yi Clan itself.
Yi Se-geuk, the clan head, was a man without any foundation to him.
His sense of conviction was deeply subjective, and even when he established rules, he never once kept them.
That was the kind of man he was.
Until only recently, I had thought — he is, after all, my father in some sense, and I'd begun a new life, so surely shielding him from death was only right.
That was what I used to think.
But not anymore. Live or die, it made no difference to me.
I didn't care.
I would take what was mine to take, and then quietly leave Jangryeong Commandery behind.
That was when it happened.
Something caught on my senses.
I opened my eyes slowly.
Someone stood at my door.
"Ahem, youngest. Have you a moment?"
From the voice, it was the second son, Yi Won.
"Yes, I have time. Come in."
The door opened and Yi Won stepped inside, his face taut with tension. He glanced around him again and again, wearing the resolute expression of a man in some secret society — which was, frankly, quite a sight.
Yi Won approached me.
"It's, ah... rather embarrassing for me too, having to say this in the dead of night."
He stalled for a long while, so I asked him flatly.
"Did you have something to say to me?"
"...Yes. I do. Something very important."
"There is no one around. So say it without worry."
And then Yi Won spoke words I could not have imagined even in my dreams.
"...It was I who ordered the head steward to fetch the elixir."
A question arose in my mind.
"It shames me beyond words, how unworthy a figure I've shown you as your elder brother."
Heh.
I couldn't even laugh. What was wrong with this bastard all of a sudden?
"Yi Do."
"Yes."
".....I am sorry."
My eyes went wide.
There was no help for it. His words were one thing, but his actions were quite another.
Yi Won had knelt.
"For tormenting you, for cornering you and making your life difficult — for all of it, I offer my apology."
"Why are you doing this, all of a sudden?"
"...To speak honestly, I need you."
I lowered my gaze, looking down at Yi Won where he knelt. He went on.
"I won't deny it. You have talent for the martial arts. Without any proper backing, you reached the Zhu Cheon Realm at that tender age, did you not? Call it selfish if you like. Call it base. Every word would be true. But my desire to make amends to you — that much is genuine."
I was about to say something when—
"As for just how genuine, judge it by what I am about to tell you."
"Go ahead."
"Lady Sang is scheming something."
"A scheme, you say?"
"She has hired the Killing Curtain to have you killed."
My brow twitched.
"The commission reads: kill Yi Do, third son of the Yi Clan, by any means necessary. The request tier is Special Grade. She intends to pay a hundred nyang in gold."
"Are you certain?"
"Certain. But she won't move just yet. Someone — who, she doesn't know — attacked the Sangyun Merchant Group, and her funds have run into trouble. I overheard her conversation earlier: the moment this affair is settled, she'll place the commission. If money runs short, she's even considering selling off her own treasures. So — do you now grasp how genuine I am?"
I laughed.
Yi Won's words continued.
"You have no ambition for the clan head's seat — if I've read you correctly. Am I right?"
"You see well. I have little interest in such a position."
Still kneeling, Yi Won lifted his head and met my eyes directly.
"Then how would it be, making me clan head?"
Hands clasped behind my back, I regarded him in silence.
Yi Won flinched beneath my gaze, swallowed, and spoke.
"If Yi Jeong becomes clan head, the ruin of the Yi Clan will be a matter of moments. Is the head's seat fitting for such a two-faced fool? I don't know whether you care for the Yi Clan's future or not — but if you make me clan head, I will give you everything you want."
"And how do you know what it is I want, that you dare make such a promise?"
"Whatever it is, I will obtain it. If it lies beyond my power, it may prove difficult — but within the reach of my ability, I will accomplish all of it. Yi Do. No — youngest."
"Yes."
"Help me."
I regarded Yi Won in silence.
He seemed sincere, at least.
I extended my senses for a moment.
There was truly no one around.
I gave the matter thought.
Me, becoming the head of a clan? I'd do it if necessary, but did I really need to?
Training alone kept me fully occupied. I intended to reclaim my past life's strength as quickly as possible — was I to sit in the head's seat doing paperwork and running a merchant group?
Far better to set up one obedient scarecrow and have only the weighty matters reported to me. That was the soundest course.
Slowly, I sank to one knee, bringing myself level with Yi Won.
I reached out and took hold of his shoulder.
"You've chosen well."
"...Then that means..."
"Yes. I will make you clan head."
Yi Won beamed — and then froze exactly as he was. It was only natural. The hand gripping his shoulder had tightened, hard.
I squeezed until bone creaked.
"Bear this in mind. Once you have joined hands with me, you walk this road to the very end with me. If you ever stab me in the back, I will do to you precisely what I described back then. Do you understand?"
Yi Won's whole body shuddered.
What I had said back then — tearing out both eyes while he still drew breath, rending his four limbs apart, and excising his dantian.
"...Of course... of course. Do not worry. Why would I ever betray you?"
I smiled faintly.
"My dear second brother would hardly be mad enough to betray me. That was merely a word spoken out of caution. Now, rise."
Yi Won rose to his feet. I brushed off his shoulders for him.
"How many fighters can you muster right now?"
"...Including twenty ordinary warriors, roughly fifty men within the Yi Clan itself."
"And counting the Un Clan's forces? Skip the common warriors entirely — tell me only the martial artists at the Li Qi Realm and above."
"...Martial artists of the Li Qi Realm... I could gather perhaps forty. Of the Zhu Cheon Realm, two or so."
I considered for a moment.
If he brought the Un Clan's forces over right now, Lady Sang's faction would sense it. Mm.
For now, I gave Yi Won his instructions.
"The timing is mine to decide. Until then, manage your people well — and tell your mother to watch her tongue as well. You are to do nothing until I name the hour. Do you understand?"
Yi Won swallowed hard and nodded again and again.
"A truly fine sight. You carry yourself like the head of a clan already."
"Do I...? Thank you."
A smile formed on Yi Won's lips as well.
It was an affair that unfolded in the deepening hours of the night.