The Emperor's Gift
The fragrance of tea leaves brought all the way from the Western Regions hung richly through the Eunseong Merchant Group’s main office.
Eun Hwaran traced a fingertip along the rim of the teacup on the table and regarded Hwang Geolgae across from her.
“How is it, Elder Hwang? A precious leaf that crossed the sea to reach us.”
She slid the candidate for a new product—subtle in both color and aroma—forward with a smooth motion.
The old beggar guzzled the expensive tea as if it were plain barley water.
“Well, it’s drinkable enough.”
He drained it in a single gulp and set the cup down with a sharp clack, leaving one to wonder whether he had tasted anything at all.
Still, Eun Hwaran seemed to trust his verdict; she nodded.
“Then we can put this into distribution. I’ll speak with Chief Steward Jin later.”
If the words “drinkable enough” left that man’s mouth, it passed. A pleased look crossed her face at having found a new line of goods.
“You don’t have to feed this old man every new thing first. The mooncakes alone are plenty.”
He mumbled the complaint while chewing the mooncakes and wheat cakes prepared in the office.
“But you like these things, Elder Hwang.”
“Heh-heh. True enough.”
He stroked his beard and laughed in satisfaction, then poured himself another cup of the tea leaves and slurped it down as well.
After a moment he pointed casually at the unfamiliar woman who had been sitting to the side the whole time.
“And this child?”
“Ah, this is—”
Eun Hwaran set down her approval documents and looked at the woman beside her.
Hwang Geolgae had popped into the room so abruptly that she had not yet managed an introduction.
“She is Ju Wolay of Cheonhwaru. Have you heard the name?”
Dressed in lustrous silk, she was currently the most celebrated courtesan in Beijing.
As one of the Beijing Five Flowers she was famous throughout the region, so Eun Hwaran asked with a flicker of hope.
“Hmm. The face is familiar.”
“My goodness, really? To think Elder Hwang would recognize a courtesan’s face…”
She had assumed a man who cultivated the Dao would keep far from such diversions.
Eun Hwaran looked genuinely surprised, and the beauty named Ju Wolay showed a trace of fluster beside her.
“Forgive me, but I have no recollection of meeting you. How is it that you know me…?”
Hwang Geolgae dug a finger in his ear and answered as if it were nothing.
“I saw you in the beauty portraits the Eun merchant group distributes. You had some bizarre animal ears stuck on. What in the world was that?”
What he referred to were the paintings by the artist Neung Jinsam that sold like wildfire the moment they were finished.
Soft, delicate brushwork and brilliant color that captured the poise and beauty of Beijing’s foremost courtesan in three dimensions—another star product of the Eunseong Merchant Group, according to popular acclaim.
“Ah… ugh…”
Ju Wolay, who had come seeking Eun Hwaran and Dan Mujin precisely because of those portraits, flushed crimson and dropped her head.
Apparently the alluring image of herself rendered in the beauty portrait had risen before her eyes.
Eun Hwaran scratched her cheek at the sight, then smoothly changed the subject.
“Anyway, Elder Hwang—where has that boy Mujin gone? I haven’t seen hide nor hair of him lately.”
At her question Hwang Geolgae paused mid-chew on a mooncake and pointed out the window toward the Imperial Palace.
“That brat crawled into the palace again.”
“…Oh my.”
Eun Hwaran’s eyes widened slightly.
Even she, head of one of the Ten Great Merchant Groups under heaven, could not set foot in the Imperial Palace lightly—yet somehow her sworn younger brother seemed to be summoned there with suspicious frequency.
“Has something happened to Princess Dohwa again?”
Hwang Geolgae shook his head with a look of displeasure.
“No. This time the Imperial Consort called for him.”
“……”
Eun Hwaran’s mouth fell further open. The teacup slipped from her fingers.
Princess Dohwa she could understand—there had been a few shared ties. But the Emperor’s own consort?
Just what sort of storm was swirling around her sworn brother?
“…He’d better not cause an incident.”
The worry that sprang to mind the instant she heard he had been summoned by the Imperial Consort. Palace life would never suit that boy’s temperament.
“Tell me about it.”
Hwang Geolgae nodded in agreement and slurped more of the new tea leaves.
And then—
KWA-RUUUNG—
Cups and furnishings rattled as a deep boom rolled in from afar. It was low and grand as thunder, yet the sky was not overcast.
All three pairs of eyes swung toward the Imperial Palace, the direction Hwang Geolgae had just indicated.
“Artillery…?”
The lingering echo of an explosion. It felt exactly like the massive cannons said to be used inside the palace. And of course it had to sound the moment after Dan Mujin headed that way.
“It can’t be… right?”
Eun Hwaran asked carefully, wearing a face that said surely not.
“…Mm. Surely not.”
Hwang Geolgae set down his cup and heaved a very deep sigh, as if he could not bring himself to trust the brat for a second.
When I opened my eyes, the ceiling was unfamiliar.
Still half-adrift, the first thing I saw was finely worked wooden beams. The layered grain of the timber looked for all the world like flowing river water.
In short: the interior of a very expensive building.
“Ugh…”
A groan slipped between my lips. The last thing left in my head was the chest splintering in every direction and the explosion that filled my vision.
A sharp medicinal scent brushed my nose. The bedding was soft; this had to be the palace infirmary or dispensary.
Then footsteps from somewhere nearby.
“Awake, are you?”
An elderly voice. I opened my eyes slowly and saw a white-haired imperial physician.
“Where is this…?”
“The palace infirmary. Rest easy.”
He wore spectacles, rare for this era. Judging by the splendid robes, he was no ordinary physician but something like the imperial household’s personal doctor.
“I can’t feel anything below… What happened?”
“Ah, that. You lost so much blood we bound the legs tightly. That is all.”
Indeed, once he loosened the tourniquets the blood began to circulate again and sensation returned to my lower half.
For a moment I had been terrified without realizing it—afraid I might have lost something precious.
Honestly… men…
Surrounded by strangers in a strange place, something all too familiar spoke up.
A red palm quivered and snickered, having clearly watched me panic from start to finish.
I ignored it the way I always did. At once the thin palm flared and reappeared right in front of my eyes.
Who… do you think… kept you alive… only to be ignored…?
According to the physician, the chest had exploded the instant I threw it and I had been caught square in the blast.
Yet every part of me still worked and moved; Salsung must have dragged me through again.
Why do I… have to keep… saving you… every single time…
A heavy dose of resentment colored Salsung’s voice.
How did it feel to mop up after the very person you hated, keeping them alive again and again?
I had no way of knowing. This body of mine was the one being kept alive, after all.
“At any rate, you came around far sooner than expected. Fortunate. To open your eyes in a single day…”
The imperial physician praised my recovery as remarkable and said he was glad.
A full day to recover—so the explosion from yesterday had already been sorted out to some degree.
“Listen carefully and do not be alarmed. Shrapnel from the chest grazed places that are… less than ideal. Moving about will be difficult for a while. Therefore you will need a period of convales—”
I sat bolt upright before the physician finished speaking.
His eyes went round as saucers.
“Impossible… The injuries were severe.”
“I practice external arts and divine arts that heal quickly. Anyway, thank you for the treatment.”
No point flashing more of my body and inviting strange suspicions.
I left the stunned physician behind and ran straight out of the infirmary.
“This was the way, wasn’t it.”
I retraced the path I had come and returned to the Imperial Consort’s palace, where my employer would be.
When I reached Huayang Palace, the residence where the Imperial Consort stayed, Jo Harang burst out as if she had been waiting and was the first to greet me.
“…You crazy bastard!”
Honestly—cursing the moment she saw my face.
I had not raised my subordinate to be like this.
“No matter how tough your body is, what are you doing throwing yourself in front of a thunderbolt bomb!”
“I didn’t throw myself. I threw the chest. The timing just happened to be rotten.”
I had only tossed it once I thought we were far enough from Consort Yang’s party.
Who could have guessed the damn thing would go off the second it left my hand?
“Where’s Yang Yang the Divine Thief?”
I asked with a puzzled look when I failed to see the face I had last seen before collapsing.
“She bolted. Too many things to feel guilty about if she stuck around the palace, being a thief and all. Said she never wanted to get mixed up in another vicious plot like this.”
Classic Divine Thief.
When things went sideways, her escape speed was truly something else.
“And Mujin—she told me to pass something on. She said she’ll repay the debt she owes you this time, one way or another. She even left a way to contact her.”
Well, well. I had secured myself an outstanding technician out of this mess. I intended to work her for all she was worth later—more than enough to cover the money I had given up by abandoning the wish this time.
“Also, Mujin—you beat every guard who stood in your way and charged straight at Consort Yang and the princess, is that right?”
Hearing it put that way made me sound like some villain who had ambushed the Emperor’s wife.
“…Well, the cause-and-effect and the order of events are a little different, but if you summarize it shortly, yeah.”
“Thanks to that, rumors about you are spreading all over the palace right now.”
I had raced around the grounds, caused multiple disturbances, and pulled enough outrageous stunts that the name of Eastern Depot Martial Lad had apparently gained some notoriety.
Jo Harang kept going as if she still had more to say.
“For the record, the chest incident is under joint investigation by the Eastern Depot, the Embroidered Uniform Guard, and the Imperial Army on the Emperor’s orders. Looking at the remaining traces, they say it might involve some outside force.”
The palace had been turned upside down, but the Emperor’s swift judgment and commands had restored calm and the search was underway.
An outside force? Hardly. By every suspicion it was the Empress, but given the scale of things she had scrubbed the hard evidence clean.
Yang Yang had seen suspicious Embroidered Uniform Guards, but the testimony of a thief caught red-handed was never going to be enough to topple a nation’s empress.
“And last of all—you.”
A slight note of grievance colored her voice.
“What now?”
“If it was that urgent you should have called me too. Why did you only take Yang Yang?”
Honestly, she could get sulky over something like this?
I jerked my chin toward the giant saber she wore.
“Hey, Greatsword Miss. You’re slow on your feet.”
“You jerk, I am not that slow!”
Jo Harang stamped her foot and snorted in indignation.
Which meant I had to spend a while out in front of Huayang Palace soothing her.
Once I got past Jo Harang I ran into Cheon Su-gong, who was looking at me with a complicated expression.
“What?”
I spoke up first toward the man staring steadily from beside the Imperial Consort.
“Honestly… I call you to stop an assassination attempt on Her Highness the Imperial Consort, and you thrash Consort Yang’s bodyguards and set off a bomb in the middle of the palace?”
In other words: why did you go into someone else’s house and cause a ruckus? I put on a faintly wronged look. I had not set off any bomb.
Of course, beating Consort Yang’s people because the situation was desperate was true enough.
“I knocked them down to save her. Is that a problem too?”
Couldn’t demerits be offset by merit?
When I put it that way, the Imperial Consort and Cheon Su-gong exchanged awkward glances.
Especially Cheon Su-gong, head of the secret police—he stared at me as if I were a beast that had slipped its leash.
“Tsk. Well, in the end you did well. Consort Yang will see you as one of our people now, and since you saved her life we’ve put her deeply in our debt.”
Everything turned into politics here. I nodded as if that settled it.
If he was going to praise me in the end, what was with all the scolding atmosphere?
“What’s with that face? Looking like you’re wondering why you’re being chewed out. Because you go off and do things nobody asked you to, you brat.”
Cheon Su-gong’s brow twitched as he spat the words.
My client was clearly appalled that I had abandoned the very person I was supposed to protect, the Imperial Consort, and gone running off—probably half-expecting me to declare next that I would save the Empress too.
Well, every second had been critical. Leaving those innocent women to die when I knew the thing was about to explode would have weighed on my conscience.
Which was to say, it was the direction Salsung would have loved.
“Anyway, there were many twists and turns, but you handled the matter better than expected.”
Unlike Cheon Su-gong’s gruffness, the Imperial Consort readily acknowledged my efforts and gave me a warm smile.
I scratched the back of my head, a little embarrassed under the gratitude in her eyes.
“In that case, a reward is in order.”
She held out a long, elegant wooden case glittering with luxurious ornamentation.
Blackwood or something equally precious, lacquered and inlaid with gold and silver—one look told you it was a treasure.
“What is this?”
I accepted it carefully and asked.
“Heh. Open it and see.”
The Imperial Consort’s smile deepened. She gestured gently for me to check.
I clicked the case open slowly. Nestled in soft silk lay a black staff.
Long and slender, with a grip perfect for cracking skulls. Even at a glance the material was extraordinary—immensely hard, the balance exquisitely centered. A weapon of no ordinary make.
“A treasured implement from the deepest vaults of the Heavenly Repository. A gift bestowed by His Majesty the Emperor, who was impressed by your deeds this time.”
The faintest note of envy colored her voice. An object carrying the Emperor’s will was worth far more than a mere weapon in the present situation.
“Ohh…”
I ran my hand slowly from the grip to the tip. The cold touch of the staff against my fingertips strangely soothed the mind.
Then I noticed a deliberate, hair-fine seam near the end. This was no ordinary staff.
“Twist it open.”
Following the Imperial Consort’s advice, I gave the staff a light twist.
Click.
A clear metallic ring sounded as the end opened and the hidden secret revealed itself. Like a sword-cane, the black staff had concealed a long blade.
The silver metal that shyly showed itself filled the room with a soft luster, as if announcing that it was a famous sword.
“Ohh.”