Monopolizing Fortunes (150)
Monopolizing Fortunes (150)
The person most delighted by those words was Ju Seo-in.
"That old man is going to live in the imperial palace?"
"The Second Prince hasn't gone mad enough to assassinate His Highness the Third Prince inside the palace yet, but there's a chance he could get that mad."
"Then...... heh heh heh...... then...... heh heh heh......."
Ju Seo-in kept leaking sinister laughter, apparently overjoyed about something. A premonition that Hwangmi Dal was going to be pitiable crept over him.
* * *
"No! That's not happening!"
As expected, Hwangmi Dal's resistance was stubborn.
"Makya Sword."
Hwangmi Dal's face stiffened with a flinch, and after trembling with rage, his shoulders sagged.
"How long?"
As expected, the resistance was easily suppressed by the Makya Sword alone.
"Until the Third Prince becomes emperor."
"That's too open-ended, isn't it?"
"It won't take that long."
"That's subjective. If it's five days, five days; if it's ten days, ten days......."
"This old gentleman is trying to eat the Makya Sword, which is like his own life, raw."
As Do Tong-dal's force sharpened, Hwangmi Dal flinched.
"Then how long......?"
"Shall we make it three years?"
"Th-three years? Are you telling me to grow old and die in the imperial palace?"
"A man who looks like he'll live another hundred years, putting on such an act. Pick one of the two. Until the Third Prince becomes emperor, or three years."
There was no need to think long.
"Make it until the Third Prince becomes emperor. Ugh—!"
Hwangmi Dal's sigh was enough to make the table tremble.
"And......."
"What now?"
"The Second Princess is going to be a bit of a nuisance."
Hwangmi Dal put on a baffled expression.
"Why would a princess be a nuisance to me?"
"Please take a look at her martial arts in moderation. If she reached that level on her own just by reading secret manuals, she's not a dullard."
"You're telling me to teach a princess too?"
"From what I can see, you don't seem to have a formal disciple. Think of it as gaining a granddaughter-like disciple this time."
"Su-ran is my disciple and granddaughter! I don't need another kid!"
"If you don't like it, dodge it as best you can. Though I don't know if that's possible in the imperial palace."
Hwangmi Dal's hand trembled as he forced it toward the Makya Sword and clenched it. If he had his way, he wanted to lop off that insufferable Do Tong-dal's neck with a single cut.
The Makya Sword in his own hand wasn't his, and he even had to be blackmailed with it!
'Just you wait! Just you wait!'
* * *
The three of them kept working their facial muscles even while eating. Wearing a disguise was as stifling as having plaster caked over one's face.
Won Dae-yeon chewed on vegetables and asked Do Tong-dal.
"How long do we have to keep trailing along behind you? Not that I'm complaining, just a bit bored."
"From now on, we'll be moving together."
"You're planning to leave the Hwangdae Merchant Company?"
"No. The three of you will be entering it."
"Us?"
Everyone stopped their chopsticks and looked at Do Tong-dal.
"On your way here, you killed the Shandong Three Killers, right?"
"Yeah. Bumped shoulders once and cleaned them up neatly on the main road."
"Then from today, the three of you are the Three Beyond the World."
"Huh? What's this Three Beyond the World?"
Namgung Seol-rin muttered, "That's a seriously tacky name."
"You're first-rate masters who suddenly appeared in the Central Plains. If people with martial arts like yours haven't made a name in the martial world yet, they'll find it strange, so we'll say you've been beyond the world all this time."
Jang Yu-seom nodded.
"So that's why you had us deal with the Shandong Three Killers. To make our names known."
"The Beggars' Sect will spread the rumors. Including the fact that you're extremely money-hungry. That way, your reason for entering the Hwangdae Merchant Company becomes plausible."
After thinking for a moment, Namgung Seol-rin scowled fiercely.
"So that means we have to keep wearing disguises again!"
"That's right."
Namgung Seol-rin thunked her forehead against the table.
"Ugh...... I hate it. I hate it."
Jang Yu-seom asked.
"Our entering the Hwangdae Merchant Company is to fight the Revenge Society, right?"
"I intend to swallow the Revenge Society."
"Swallow it?"
"I'll seat the person I want as its Society Leader."
Namgung Seol-rin lifted her head with a snap.
"You're not going to destroy the Revenge Society?"
"What benefit would destroying the Revenge Society bring me?"
"Still, they nearly stirred up a bloodstorm in the martial world. And there's personal grudges too."
"Of course the grudges have to be repaid. So does smashing the signboard called the Revenge Society repay the grudge?"
"What do you mean? You have to kill the ones who did those things."
"I will kill them."
Won Dae-yeon spoke.
"So you're going to swap out the insides and leave only the outer shell. Is there really a need for that?"
"Think about it. I'll have a faction in the martial world no less than the Nine Great Sects on my side."
Do Tong-dal said "on my side," but it was no different from subordinates.
"It seems like it'd be convenient."
"Well, sure. But you wouldn't even learn martial arts because you're a thug."
"Of course I still have no intention of learning martial arts. But who knows what might happen down the road. Did you ever think I'd get mixed up in a fight over the imperial throne?"
"So it's a kind of insurance?"
"Exactly."
"You're keeping a giant sect on the level of the Nine Great Sects as mere insurance?"
"The bigger the coverage, the better the insurance."
Watching Do Tong-dal grin, the three of them were dumbfounded. A plan that could only be built by someone with grand ambitions like unifying the martial world or conquering the Central Plains, Do Tong-dal was executing for the reason that "it seems like it'd be convenient."
Namgung Seol-rin asked quietly.
"Do you really have no ambitions in the martial world?"
"None."
Do Tong-dal's answer was firm.
"But if you're just going to live as a thug....... It's too easy."
"What is?"
"What underworld in the Central Plains could stop us? If we set our minds to it, it'd just be unification."
"If it's easy, that's good. What's to complain about? Once this is over, I'm going to devour the nights of Beijing first, so keep that in mind."
Do Tong-dal wouldn't receive a high government post from the emperor, but it was clear he would be a meritorious subject.
With the emperor behind him, Do Tong-dal dominating the nights of Beijing would be as easy as flipping over his palm.
Namgung Seol-rin muttered.
"He lives so comfortably in this world."
"I worked my ass off for sixty years, so I should be allowed to take it easy now."
"Sixty years? Who, you?"
"Ah...... no, I mean I suffered so much it was like sixty years compressed. Anyway, my plan is to keep the Revenge Society alive and just replace the people inside it, so let's move accordingly."
No one opposed Do Tong-dal's decision. Just as the discussion concluded, word came from the imperial palace.
It was news that the Embroidered Uniform Guard were all prepared to go arrest Hwangbo Gil. The three were baffled by the news that they were going to arrest the Minister of War.
"Did something happen?"
At Jang Yu-seom's question, Do Tong-dal answered nonchalantly.
"The Second Prince tried to assassinate the Third Prince, and I stopped it and even secured evidence. We're going to retrieve that evidence."
"What? If you just find that evidence, isn't the fight for the throne over?"
"I've arranged things so it won't end. For the time being, the imperial palace will be chasing the Revenge Society, so don't worry."
They weren't worried about that. It was just that Do Tong-dal's ability to intervene in such important matters was newly astonishing.
"Is there anything we can do?"
"Then, just in case, could you keep watch around Hwangbo Gil's house? If anyone tries to run, please catch them."
Since idling only leads to trouble, the three gladly joined the mission. Do Tong-dal hurriedly made his way to Hwangbo Gil's house.
He wasn't worried about failing to find the Second Prince's letter. Once he grabbed Hwangbo Gil and asked a few questions, he would naturally learn where the letter was.
The problem was whether Ju Hyeong-seon, who held the Second Prince's letter, could endure.
Not stepping onto the path that could place him on the imperial throne today required tremendous patience from a prince's perspective.
'I'll get to see just how big the Third Prince's vessel is.'
Understanding one's opponent is more important than anything. Even more so when that opponent is the person who holds the greatest power in the world.
"Welcome."
Yang Su-pan, who greeted Do Tong-dal warmly, held out an Embroidered Uniform Guard uniform. Beside Yang Su-pan stood Hwangmi Dal in Embroidered Uniform Guard attire, arms crossed and face full of discontent.
"Old man, what's got you so sulky?"
"I'm the leader of the Northern Unorthodox Alliance, and I have to play the part of a coffin-bearer's strap. You think I'd be in a good mood?"
Do Tong-dal patted Hwangmi Dal's arm.
"You'll have to wear it for a while, so get attached to it. Heh heh heh......."
He had never dreamed that a being would appear whom he wanted to beat this badly but couldn't.
'Someday I'll beat him! Beat him to death!'
Do Tong-dal's gaze shifted from the trembling Hwangmi Dal to Yang Su-pan.
"Did you confirm Hwangbo Gil is at home?"
"Of course."
"If a fight breaks out, tell them not to hesitate and to kill."
"That's only natural, but I don't know if the Embroidered Uniform Guard have the skill for it."
Yang Su-pan looked at the twenty Embroidered Uniform Guard standing some distance away. He had faith in their loyalty, but it was hard to have faith in their skill.
"This old Embroidered Uniform Guard is here, so it'll be fine. And I'm here too, of course. Shall we go, then?"
With the old Embroidered Uniform Guard (?) at the front, they dashed quickly toward Hwangbo Gil's house. Passersby on the road saw the Embroidered Uniform Guard and hurriedly pressed themselves against the walls in alarm.
The Embroidered Uniform Guard were the sort who could drag a person off and beat them with a cudgel merely for blocking their path.
At dusk, when the clearest shadows of the day stretched longest, Hwangmi Dal kicked in the front gate made of birch wood.
Through the splinters of wood shattering to pieces, the voice of Embroidered Uniform Guard squad leader Tae Jun-seo rang out thunderously.
"Traitor Hwangbo Gil, accept the warrant of the Embroidered Uniform Guard!"
The servants sweeping the broad courtyard fell on their backsides in shock. But the soldiers with weapons at their waists stared at the Embroidered Uniform Guard with eyes that said, "What are those bastards?"
The stone lanterns placed between the tiled-roof buildings, each like a whale's back, were already lit even though darkness had not yet come.
A group of soldiers burst out from between those stone lanterns.
"What's going on here?"
A middle-aged man with a short goatee shouted at the Embroidered Uniform Guard. No fear of the golden uniforms could be seen in the middle-aged man.
Tae Jun-seo shouted.
"You bastards! Do you dare defy the national law being enforced by the Embroidered Uniform Guard?! Throw down your weapons and prostrate yourselves!"
It didn't have the slightest effect. The middle-aged man stepped forward.
"If you wish to see Lord Hwang, I'll send word inside, so wait here."
The middle-aged man was treating the Embroidered Uniform Guard, who had come to enforce national law, as uninvited guests. It showed how little they thought of the authorities.
"You wretch! Can't you see that we are the Embroidered Uniform Guard?!"
"Embroidered Uniform Guard or Silver Uniform Guard, in this house, that is the law."
Enough time had already been wasted. Do Tong-dal said to Hwangmi Dal.
"Please clean up here. I'll go inside and grab Hwangbo Gil."
"You said I could kill them, right?"
A gaze that said, "Please say yes! Please!" pierced through Do Tong-dal's chest and shot out his back.
"Do as you please."
"Heh heh heh...... these little shits are all dead."
Do Tong-dal and Hwangmi Dal leaped forward at the same time. As Hwangmi Dal drew the Makya Sword, a red energy spread in all directions.
"I'll kill every last one who surrenders!"
Hwangmi Dal shouted and swung the sword horizontally. The extended sword aura sliced through the waists of three soldiers at once.
Leaving their screams behind, Do Tong-dal leaped deep into the house.
He had already grasped the layout of Hwangbo Gil's house. He even carried a drawing of the house's structure in his breast.
Servants busy with dinner preparations were running about in confusion, and soldiers grabbing their weapons were bursting out from all over.
"Stop!"
Four soldiers spotted Do Tong-dal and rushed at him. Their swings with blades and swords were quite fast and sharp, but far from enough to face Do Tong-dal.
Drawing his blade, Do Tong-dal deflected all the attacks and struck the necks of two of them. Killing the remaining two on the spot was pointless.
Do Tong-dal stepped on a nearby tree and climbed onto the roof directly ahead. The tiles of the roof he landed on shattered with a crunch.
With one building between them, Hwangbo Gil's residence came into view. When he leaped three jang and landed on the roof of the building opposite, the soldiers below shouted.
"There's an intruder over there! Archers! Where are the archers?!"
It seemed archers were mixed in among the soldiers. Just as he was about to descend into the courtyard below, an arrow flew from the left.
* * *