The Hierarchy
The scheme the two wives had concocted had never once consulted the opinions of their two sons, Yi Jeong and Yi Won.
Honestly speaking, it was their daily routine.
Though the two took part in the great and small affairs of the clan, their opinions always converged, in the end, with those of their mothers. One might even have called it a genuine convergence of counsel.
Seen from a wider angle, however, it simply meant that both men had ultimately bent to their mothers' will.
The two of them had entered Myeongwol Mountain to put down the bandits.
Balbon Saegwon — pull the weed out by the root. Not even the root was to be left behind.
By making Yi Do's merchant mission end in failure, they had intended to isolate him even further within a clan where he was already an outcast.
That plan had collapsed, but its underlying intent remained the same as if the two sons, contending for the position of the Yi Clan's next patriarch, had joined hands to strike at the Yi Clan itself.
Word had not yet reached the patriarch's ears, but if it ever did, the two men's positions would be utterly untenable.
Erasing it was the right call.
Of those two, however, Yi Won's demeanor was a little strange.
A full day had already passed since they left Jangryeong Commandery for Myeongwol Mountain, and yet — how to put it — he wore the expression of a man dreaming.
...What on earth happened to him?
Yi Won could not understand it.
The moment Yi Do had gripped his shoulder, just before they set out for Myeongwol Mountain, Yi Won had become a pathetic little pup cowering before a bear, if only for that one instant.
It made no sense.
Yi Won had already reached the Entrance Realm and stood at the threshold of the Flight Realm.
Menacing, one might call it.
Even now, Yi Do's gaze from that moment would not leave his mind.
As if his life could be severed on the spot. As if, were he to fail to get a single proper word out, his limbs would be torn from his body right there.
That was the feeling.
...Something is very wrong.
That Yi Do had changed was already beyond doubt.
Which meant he would clearly become a massive obstacle to Yi Won claiming the position of next patriarch.
And in the midst of it all, thoughts were seeping into Yi Won's mind.
What if Yi Do had no interest in the patriarch's seat at all?
That handiwork of his — that ruthlessness, as though he had been replaced by an entirely different man.
If he could only make use of it, wouldn't Yi Do become the finest blade imaginable?
"Second son."
Yi Won snapped out of it.
His eldest brother, spattered head to toe in blood, was regarding him with a gentle expression.
"Get your head on straight. Low as these bandits may be, a blind blade can still find you."
The words sounded like concern, but the mood was not. At least, that was how it felt to Yi Won.
He glanced around. The corpses of the several hundred bandits aside, the warriors of the Yi Clan were all watching this spot.
Right. Right now, Yi Jeong was worried about those watching eyes. He came over and put a hand on Yi Won's shoulder, then whispered in a low voice.
"Wiping your shit isn't anything new for me, but pull yourself together, you little bastard. You think you're out here on holiday?"
"...Brother..."
"This fucking idiot — I'd love to wring your neck right here, if only you weren't family... Tch."
A tone utterly at odds with the gentle look on his face.
Yi Won stared blankly at his brother's back as Yi Jeong turned away.
That was simply the kind of man he was.
A man of two faces, the archetypal coward before the strong and tyrant before the weak. Toward anyone he judged beneath him in rank or power, he spared neither crude abuse nor casual threats. Even his affairs with women were, at this point, an enormous mess — he already had a record of impregnating five courtesans.
Yi Won was certain of it.
That bastard became the next head of the Yi Clan, and the clan would collapse in the space of a heartbeat.
Then, suddenly —
Yi Do's words drifted back through his mind.
'A secret can only remain a secret, sir, if the number of people who know it is kept as small as possible.'
Those words.
Strangely enough, they now sounded a little different.
Suppose three men knew a certain truth, and two of them kept their mouths shut. What became of the third?
Wouldn't it be, in the end, whatever the two silent men said that became the truth?
"Second son. What are you doing? Finish the cleanup."
Yi Won forced a smile.
It seemed, once they returned to the clan, he would have to have a word with Yi Do as soon as they arrived.
I opened my eyes slowly.
A smile spread across my lips.
The rotting stench filling the room could not wipe that smile away.
My body felt impossibly light and clean. I raised the qi in my dantian just slightly, and it coursed through my meridians without the faintest obstruction.
Every trace of turbid energy that had once clogged them was gone — unmistakably, completely gone.
In my previous life, I had reached the Flight Realm only after my twenty-second birthday. In this life, I had arrived there at the mere age of seventeen.
A staggering leap.
I rose slowly. I threw out my ruined clothes, washed myself, and cropped my long hair short with a dagger.
Then I looked into the mirror.
My frame stood at roughly six cheok. The once-frail body had grown, in its own way, a size larger. The smile would not leave my face.
That was when it came.
"Y... young master. Were you coughing just now?"
At the sudden voice, I turned my head.
I didn't recognize it. Probably one of the servants or managers belonging to the Yi Clan.
"What is it?"
"It's, well... the Patriarch is asking to see you urgently."
"The Patriarch?"
The man who in my previous life had never once sought me out was now summoning me of his own accord.
Curiosity stirred more readily than annoyance.
So I headed straight for the Patriarch's Hall.
I lifted my head.
I had expected a private audience. It was nothing of the sort.
Lady Sang and Lady Un, and the patriarch — my father. Behind them sat the four elders, along with a dozen managers and even the Chief Manager who presided over them all.
Last time had merely been a family council. This was —
for all the world, a tribunal.
Yi Se-geuk, who had been kneading his temples as if burdened by a headache, let out a long sigh.
"I trust you already know why you have been called here."
I shook my head.
"I'm afraid I don't."
"You don't?"
"No, Patriarch."
I stood there, composed and unflinching. Yi Se-geuk spoke.
"It seems you killed Manager Jeong. With your fists, no less."
So that was it — he was only now hearing about the matter. Absurd.
"Was that a wrongdoing?"
"That is precisely why you have been summoned. So that the reason may be made clear."
I gazed at Yi Se-geuk for a moment, then shifted my eyes to the two wives flanking him. Hmm.
"You asked for a clear reason, so I will state it plainly. Manager Jeong stole from me."
"He stole from you?"
"Yes. While I was away on the merchant mission, he took it upon himself to clean out my quarters and made off with the box of elixirs I had collected over the years, carrying it straight to my second brother."
"So you mean to say the second son ordered him to steal it?"
I paused, letting my gaze settle briefly on Lady Un. Her two eyes were trembling violently, while Lady Sang, across from her, wore the faintest curl of a smile at the corner of her mouth.
A rather amusing thought occurred to me.
I straightened my neck and spoke.
"No, it wasn't. Manager Jeong committed the crime entirely on his own. My second brother merely held on to my belongings for a time, hoping to see how much longer a treacherous snake like Manager Jeong could be tolerated. That is the whole of it."
Lady Un went pale with alarm, and Lady Sang's brow drew tight.
I had just praised my second brother. Seen another way, this could be read as the third son lending his support to the second.
They were more than welcome to take it that way.
Those two would surely have woven some scheme or other together already — but the trust between them was thinner than a sheet of paper.
I dismissed it and continued.
"Thanks to my second brother, I was able to put down a single worm that had dared to crawl above its station within this clan. A fortunate thing, wouldn't you say?"
"Fortunate? And yet you beat his face past all recognition. Our Yi Clan is no sect of demonic cultists that venerates slaughter. There is such a thing as righteousness in this world, and you went far too far."
"Patriarch. When it comes to questions like how one ought to kill a man, opinions will always differ from one person to the next, so I see no need to belabor the point. However — would you permit this son of yours to say a word regarding all of these affairs?"
"You wish to state your position? Very well. Speak."
I shifted my gaze to the middle-aged man standing behind Yi Se-geuk and opened my mouth.
"Just when, precisely, did the hierarchy of the Yi Clan degrade to this pathetic level?"
"...What did you say?"
"A mere manager — a man of no rank whatsoever — stole from the bloodline of the Yi Clan. A mongrel lower than a servant laid hands on this house. And yet tell me, why is my presence the one being called into question here? Should not the man standing over there — that Chief Manager — be the one standing in this seat?"
The Chief Manager went white.
I ignored him.
"I simply cannot understand it. How inept must the Chief Manager be, how rotten must his character be, that those beneath him would dare covet their master's property? At its root, this is a failure of hierarchy itself—"
"Young master. I have been listening all this while, and your words go too far."
It was the Chief Manager.
Unable to bear my speech a moment longer, he had cut me off mid-sentence.
At the corner of my mouth,
a soft smile bloomed.
"One moment, Chief Manager."
"Yes, young master."
"Step over here, would you."
The Chief Manager let out an awkward laugh and slowly made his way toward me, descending the dais step by step. At last he stood before me, looking down, half a cheok taller.
"Wrong as Manager Jeong may have been, your methods were excessive. Had you simply brought the matter to me, he would have been punished in one way or another. Why ever did you resort to this?"
"Now that I look at you, it seems I truly did make a mistake after all."
The Chief Manager burst into scornful laughter.
"Well, better late than never—"
"It wasn't Manager Jeong I should have killed. It was you."
"...I beg your pardon?"
Talking had become tiresome.
My hand shot out and seized the Chief Manager by the throat. His body, half a cheok taller than my own, was lifted clean off the floor.
It happened before a single soul in the Patriarch's Hall could react.
My hand —
clenched tight.
Crunch!
The windpipe buckled inward beneath my grip. Not enough.
I drew back my right fist. My dantian awakened, inner energy surging through my meridians, and a faint white light seeped into my right hand.
I drove it forward.
Thud—!!
My fist punched straight through the Chief Manager's heart.
The Patriarch's Hall fell utterly silent.
I withdrew my arm and hurled the corpse behind me.
Not even the sound of breathing remained.
I turned to one of the warriors standing at the back.
"Go bury that in the hills."
"...Y... yes?"
"Bury it next to Manager Jeong. The stray dogs have to eat too."
The warrior's mouth hung open. I paid him no mind.
I turned my head back toward Yi Se-geuk, roughly shaking the blood from my hand, and said, calmly and evenly:
"To say it once more — this clan's hierarchy is in a truly deplorable state."
"..."
"How is it that a mere Chief Manager dares to interject, unbidden, into a conversation between the head of the Yi Clan and his own son? Nothing short of contempt for the Patriarch's authority could make such a thing possible. That this man holds the seat of Chief Manager is precisely why the rabble beneath him comport themselves the way they do."