Cruel Grief
"Do not retreat!"
Weapons clashed and battle cries tore through the air across the field. The Second Princess's voice rang out over the ground as she led the imperial forces from the front.
Even as the Empress's faction launched a fierce counterattack right before her eyes, her mind remained fixed entirely on the cellar below, where something was unfolding.
Just what in the world is happening down there?
They had stormed the site of that foul sorcery intending to crush it in one swift strike—yet the sounds of fierce combat still echoed endlessly from below.
Princess Hwajeong's brow furrowed. Surely they weren't being pushed back?
The Eastern Depot and the imperial masters, the Transcendental Peak troubleshooter hired by Consort Yang, even Cheon Su-gong himself—all of them had joined the fray, and still the cellar had not been secured.
"Your Majesty, you must not leave my side."
Clad in gleaming gold armor, the Second Princess stood like a shield before Consort Yang.
She had brought two hundred carefully chosen imperial masters, certain of an easy victory. Yet the Empress's faction resisted with far more tenacity and ferocity than expected.
Should I have cut down those sentries when I first ran into them?
She had never imagined they could summon this many troops so quickly. Had she known, she might have risked it and taken their heads then and there.
And she had never expected the fight for the cellar to drag on like this either.
"Th-the Crown Prince has gone mad—!"
And then there were those incomprehensible shouts that had been drifting up for some time now.
"He is not mad...! My son! Come to your senses!"
A voice that could only belong to the Empress also spilled from the cellar. Commanding the troops above, Princess Hwajeong could not help but keep half her attention fixed below.
"You monster! Get away from me! Don't come any closer!"
"He is no monster... Ju U-gi is no monster...!"
The man screaming about a monster sounded like that Beijing troubleshooter who had been chattering beside Cheon Su-gong earlier, making all sorts of remarks about her.
Something was definitely happening down there.
Perhaps that so-called Blood Sect had begun working some blood art.
Slash!
She cut down a man who lunged at Consort Yang, wiped the blood spatter from her cheek, and glared toward the cellar.
In that moment, a single figure slipped into the cellar as if melting into the shadows—and the sight caught her eye.
"That man...?"
The image was hazy, but as a trained martial artist she still managed to notice it.
Forgetting even her duty to protect, she almost started toward the entrance—
"There! Consort Yang is over there!"
"Stop them! Her Majesty the Empress is watching your deeds!"
Another wave of enemies came surging forward.
They poured out as if someone had kicked a hornet's nest. The ground above would remain noisy for a while yet.
Meanwhile, the cellar reeked of blood and foul stench.
There, the thing that had once been the Crown Prince glared at us with eerie, glowing eyes.
I yanked the Hell Horse-Slaying Staff back in front of my face after swinging it about in a frenzy, then turned to the unknown master who had suddenly appeared at my side.
"Do you know me?"
The man, his face tightly wrapped in a mask just like the Blood Sect cultists, glanced my way.
"Of course I do, you insolent troubleshooter."
Why did every last person in the Imperial Palace insist on calling me insolent?
Even someone who looked like a complete stranger was already lobbing accusations that I was arrogant or out of my mind. A small sense of injustice began to rise inside me.
He's not wrong, though.
A lower face and lips formed, and Salsung immediately piled on with more criticism the moment she got the chance.
She always tossed out little digs like that, and they were starting to get on my nerves.
"So who exactly are you, then?"
His sudden intrusion and the ominous qi he was radiating had brought the fighting to a brief halt. Everyone was watching everyone else, waiting.
"I am the Son of Heaven's shadow, and His blade."
It sounded like empty posturing to me, but the head of the Eastern Depot beside me flinched as if he understood perfectly well.
"The Shadow Guards...?"
Judging by the context, some kind of secret guard unit for Emperor Hongrak.
That explained the talk of shadows and blades.
"And this blade is also the one that severs the necks of those who insult His Majesty."
The Shadow Guard master muttered the ominous line and glared at me as if he wanted me dead.
From that look, he had clearly overheard every word of my lakeside conversation while on escort duty.
"Ahem... Well, back then I had no idea who it was. It was all a misunderstanding..."
"That is no excuse, troubleshooter."
"..."
Central Plains society and the Imperial Court were a lot like gang life. Right or wrong didn't matter—if you damaged someone's face, you paid the price.
Cheon Su-gong had been quietly watching the Shadow Guard master press me. Now he stepped in without warning.
"Heok-ho... is that right?"
Apparently the head of the Eastern Depot kept tabs even on the Emperor's secret guards. The master called Heok-ho only tipped his head slightly in silence.
"Your presence here... may I take it that His Majesty's will is involved to some degree?"
Heok-ho had planted himself firmly on our side rather than beside the Blood Sect, the Embroidered Uniform Guard, or the Empress's faction. Cheon Su-gong pressed for the meaning behind it.
But the Shadow Guard master did not presume to speak for the Emperor. He simply remained silent—and that silence was answer enough.
In other words, we had a very high-ranking backer now. My shoulders suddenly felt a lot more solid.
I had been holding back from casually taking the heads of the Empress and the Emperor's son for fear of the political fallout landing on Consort Yang and Princess Dohwa.
This support force felt like a sudden downpour in the middle of a drought.
"Tsk. Kill them all—!"
One of the black-robed men had apparently heard enough of our whispering. He roared the order, voice thick with killing intent.
In that instant Heok-ho's form vanished as if melting into the ground.
I didn't even sense the movement. The next moment he was already rising in the middle of the enemy ranks, sword force flashing.
"M-Moving Form, Shifting Position!"
The first black-robed cultist lost his head without ever understanding what had happened. Before the blood could fountain, Heok-ho cleaved the second one clean through the torso.
Slash!
His brilliant sword force danced through the darkness of the cellar. In a single arc he cut down three charging cultists at once—an art only a master of the Emperor's side could display.
Every hazy motion looked like a living shadow come to life.
"Kyaaagh!"
As the tide turned against them, the Living Jiangshi that had once been the Crown Prince rejoined the fight at the Blood Sect's cry.
With a sweep of its hand, blood droplets from the floor became flying daggers that rained toward us. Seizing the openings as we threw ourselves aside, the Living Jiangshi charged in, its hands wreathed in blood-colored qi blades.
"Blood Sect—so you truly dare to trample upon the imperial bloodline."
Heok-ho exploded with rage at the cultists treating even the Crown Prince like a pawn, his qi blasting outward.
The Living Jiangshi raked blood-soaked hand blades through the space where Heok-ho had stood—but Heok-ho had already flickered behind it like a blink of light.
Swish!
The Living Jiangshi spun desperately, only for Heok-ho's sword force to sever both of its qi-wreathed arms.
The pale, bloodless limbs spun through the air.
True to its nature as a Living Jiangshi, Crown Prince Ju U-gi did not even bleed.
"By His Majesty's command, Your Highness the Crown Prince. Rest in peace now."
As expected of the Emperor's secret guard. Whether he had come with orders from the start or not, he showed none of our hesitation. He cleanly took the Living Jiangshi's head.
Slash!
Only then did the Crown Prince's head seem to find a measure of peace. Eyes squeezed shut, it rolled across the blood-soaked cellar floor.
"Nooooo! Nooo!"
Empress Ga Hwiryung's heartrending scream shook the cellar.
She burst out from among the stunned Embroidered Uniform Guards and frantically gathered up her son's head.
Clutching Ju U-gi's head in both hands, she hung her own head and remained silent for a long while.
Her body trembled violently for several minutes. Then she slowly raised her face and fixed us with a gaze steeped in venomous hatred.
"You killed him... The light that would have been the hope of the Central Plains. My son, Ju U-gi..."
She ground her teeth and poured her resentment upon us. Heok-ho paid her no mind at all, already leaping forward with Cheon Su-gong to finish off the remaining Blood Sect remnants.
Which left me to receive the Empress's hatred alone.
"You, of course—and that man as well... Martial artists sent by Consort Yang, no doubt. I will hate you all. This Ga Hwiryung will never forgive you."
Apparently she hadn't overheard our earlier whispering about the Emperor's Shadow Guard.
So I corrected her misunderstanding.
"That guy isn't on our side."
"You dare feed this lady more lies...! I will never believe another word from your mouth."
The problem was that my credibility had long since hit rock bottom and been ground into powder.
"He's a man sent by the Son of Heaven."
"Grr...! I refuse to believe it! He would never—!"
Well, he did, though.
Having lost the son she considered her everything, the Empress had plunged into full-blown denial of reality.
Was family something people staked everything on like that? Having never had one, I found it hard to empathize.
"The treatment was going well... Why do you keep inserting yourself into my life...?"
Going well? It was going straight to hell.
From the Blood Sect's perspective, maybe things had been progressing nicely—but not hers.
"It wasn't treatment. It was Jiangshi arts. The moment you handed your son over to the Blood Sect, he stopped being human."
"Silence! What would you know?!"
When it came to the Blood Sect, I could confidently say I knew better than almost anyone.
We had a long, sticky history together by now.
"Why did you trust them in the first place? The Blood Sect is the kind of bunch that can't even make a deal."
They believed in immortality and worshipped the Blood Heaven God, so they treated promises and bargains with mortals as less than nothing.
Cult fanatics were all the same that way.
But then, glancing around at the black-robed figures, I realized the one who had been using the Right Blood Method earlier was nowhere to be seen.
"What the—"
He must have slipped out of the cellar by some means while our attention was locked on the Crown Prince.
I scratched my cheek, feeling as if I'd been possessed by a ghost and looking thoroughly absurd.
"Do you think this is the end? Consort Yang had my son cut down—and you think everything will simply pass without consequence?!"
Empress Ga Hwiryung raved of revenge and war. Both her eyes already burned with rage and the thirst for vengeance.
"Look, the one who took the head wasn't even on Consort Yang's side."
"Then who?! Who stands behind them?!"
I could tell her if she wanted. The problem was that she wouldn't believe me even if I did.
Something felt off, though.
For a while now, no shouts or clash of weapons had been coming from above.
More precisely, the martial artists still stood arrayed against each other, qi and killing intent thick in the air—yet everything had fallen eerily silent, as if suppressed by some greater force.
And then someone stepped through the completely shattered cellar doorway.
"I have given the order, my Empress."