The Jade Token
"Hah!"
Clang! Clang!
Samryong's dazzling spearwork blurred before Yeo Cheolgi's eyes.
"Hup!"
And the instant he spotted an opening, he drove in sharply.
"Well done."
"Uwaaagh!"
Thud! Boom!
But Yeo Cheolgi lightly caught the sneak-attacking spear, and with one hand, hurled Samryong just as he was.
"Uwaaaaah!"
"Flying through the sky again today, I see."
"The scenery must be lovely, but it must hurt terribly. If he gets injured, who's going to treat us?"
Crash!
Watching Samryong crash down among the gathered weapons, the soldiers training nearby approached with practiced ease and gathered up the armament sprawled across the ground.
"Another hard day's work."
"Still winless, I see."
"Ugh……."
Amid the encouragement of the officers, Samryong rose from his aching body and offered a bow to Yeo Cheolgi.
"Thank you for the instruction."
"Medic Yu has a talent for the spear as well. Martial arts, medicine—what can't you do?"
"Haha……."
With the practical spear techniques he'd wielded in his past life supplemented by Yeo Cheolgi's teaching, he'd become passably decent to watch. He generally avoided close-range weapons, but the spear was less a close-quarters weapon than a mid-range one? In any case, it was the weapon whose reach Samryong liked best.
'And besides, anything you learn will find a use eventually.'
It had been true in his past life, so in this one he intended to learn everything he could.
Clap clap clap!
Just then, he heard someone applauding.
"Impressive. Makes me want to learn a little myself. I've always been half-hearted about martial arts and physical training, you see."
"We greet His Highness the Prince."
"…We greet you."
"Spare me the greetings. I came because I heard some interesting news today."
"Interesting news, Your Highness?"
Interesting news, on this battlefield? Had Northern Yuan conveniently self-destructed? Unless it was something along those lines, he doubted it would be all that interesting.
"Well, I hear there's someone from the Sichuan Tang Clan here. Do you know it? The Sichuan Tang Clan?"
"The Sichuan Tang Clan?"
"Ah……."
Yeo Cheolgi looked as though he'd never heard of it, so the prince kindly explained.
"A family based in Sichuan, skilled in poison and hidden weapons."
"Poison and hidden weapons… how efficient."
"So I'm told. Tang Samryong."
"Ah……."
He'd assumed the man wouldn't bother with interest in someone lowly like himself, but he hadn't expected him to ferret that out too.
"I seem to have misspoken my surname."
Samryong deployed his trademark shamelessness, and the prince clicked his tongue as if exasperated.
"Tsk! Doesn't it strike you that the excuse is a bit too crude?"
"How dare you speak falsehood to His Highness the Prince!"
At his bodyguard's thunderous bellow, the prince soothed his ringing ears.
"Would you please lower your voice."
"I had no particular intention to deceive."
"I know. If you'd meant to, you'd have used a false name outright—not this lazy business of changing only the surname. Well, honestly, 'Yu' isn't exactly wrong either, is it? It's your mother's family name."
"Thank you for your generous magnanimity."
Relief at the prince's more open-minded thinking than expected lasted only a moment before a sudden sense of foreboding washed over him.
'This feeling is usually right, isn't it?'
"Yes, be sure to remember my goodwill. Understood?"
One look and you could tell he'd be asking for something later.
'Ah, dammit.'
He cursed up a storm inside, but outwardly, Samryong answered with a genuinely moved expression.
"I shall… most certainly remember it."
"You there! Mindful of His Highness the Prince's grace in overlooking your insolence, you shall treat and care for even more of the wounded!"
"Could you… please……."
"F-forgive me!"
As he calmed his overexcited bodyguard, the prince smiled like a sly old serpent.
"And work on your acting. Any of the royal family's scheming serpents would see right through you. If someone gives you trouble over it, tell them I told you to."
"I beg your pardon?"
"Consider it repayment for the good treatment. There are some rather uncomfortable people here, after all."
However much of a layabout he played, the prince had a grasp on just about everything. Samryong found himself wondering, idly, whether that layabout act was the prince's true mask. Watching him for over half a year, Samryong had already realized he was a man whose surface was never the whole of him.
"I am grateful for your grace."
"Do you? Then, shall we walk together a moment?"
"Me?"
"Yes, you."
The prince pinpointed Samryong with precision. In the end, Samryong wiped off his sweat roughly, straightened his clothes, and followed behind the prince.
"The Tang Clan… I've heard it mentioned here and there. A renowned house of poison and hidden weapons, no?"
"There are many places besides the Tang Clan that handle poison and hidden weapons."
"Most of them are classified as unorthodox sects, aren't they? And unlike them, the Tang Clan is also famous for its medicine, no? No doubt your own medical skill was learned from your family……."
"Yes."
"So there's something I wish to ask. Please answer with sincerity, so that I don't come to regret the goodwill I've shown."
His ominous premonition had not been wrong. Listening to what was coming out of the prince's mouth now, it sounded like he was about to be entangled in something extraordinarily complicated.
—From now on, I'll speak through transmitted voice.
Since when had the prince learned martial arts to the point of using sound transmission? On the outside, he looked no different from an ordinary layabout. As if reading Samryong's thoughts, the prince spoke.
—Those of the imperial family learn somewhat unique martial arts. Just keep that much in mind. What, are you curious for details?
—No.
Samryong asserted his right not to know.
—A shame. It would have made quite the entertaining tale. Anyway, there's something I want to ask…….
—I'm listening.
—You've heard that the Crown Prince's seat stands empty, haven't you?
—No.
—This concerns the Crown Prince himself.
He tried playing ignorant to the end, but the prince brushed it aside cleanly. Did the man have the makings of a true sovereign? Samryong let the nonsense flow lightly out one ear.
—The Crown Prince—my elder brother—is in poor health at the moment. He's unconscious. So everyone and their mother is scrambling madly to seize that seat.
—Unconscious, you say?
—Yes. A man who was perfectly healthy suddenly lost consciousness one day. The Imperial Physicians examined him and found no poison… and thinking perhaps he'd been struck by some martial technique, they even brought in renowned jianghu masters to verify.
At the prince's words, Samryong recalled something he'd read while studying poisons before coming to this place.
'The Formless Poison…….'
Should it be called the poison of legend? A colorless, odorless poison whose victims never even knew how they'd been poisoned—and one that could not be cured by any ordinary means. Those struck by the Formless Poison either died or lost consciousness as though falling asleep.
Hmm… may I ask about his exact condition?
—Something strikes you as familiar?
—I'll need to hear the details first.
—Very well…….
After the prince described the Crown Prince's condition, Samryong found he had exactly one thing to say from within the bounds of his own knowledge.
—There is a poison called the Formless Poison. It's dismissed as the stuff of legend, but it most certainly exists.
—The Formless Poison?
—It is colorless and odorless, and even its victims don't know how they were poisoned. As I understand it, those struck by it either die—or lose consciousness, as His Highness the Crown Prince has.
—The Formless Poison… I believe others mentioned something similar. They got an earful for their incompetence at the time, but hearing it from you, it somehow gains credibility. I'll have to look into it more closely.
The prince, his face more serious than usual, climbed atop the wooden palisade and gazed out over the grassland.
—Is there a cure?
—If the Divine Physician exists, I imagine he would know.
—The Divine Physician… you mean that physician of legend, the one not even the royal intelligence network can track?
—His movements are indeed outlandish, but dismissing him as mere legend would be a mistake—he most certainly exists, and even now he is surely treating someone, somewhere. What's more, though my memory is hazy, I've heard he once visited the Tang Clan before I was born. They say I was born thanks to him.
At Samryong's words, the prince gave the faintest nod.
—I see……. Still, compared to the blank despair of before, at least now I know what must be done—the goal is set. It remains a mountain within mountains, mind you.
The prince looked at Samryong, his face noticeably lighter.
"Let's get along well, Medic Yu. Or should I say Medic Tang now? Tang Samryong, who misspoke his surname."
"Haha……."
"It is an outrage, no matter how I think of it! Your Highness!"
"Your voice… that's a request… no, an order."
"B-but, Your Highness……."
As the bodyguard hung his head with a stricken expression, a soldier nearby suddenly shouted.
"Someone approaches!"
"Enemies?"
"No, sir!"
"Check with the telescope."
It hadn't been so long ago that Samryong had been surprised they even had a telescope—crude and early as it was. More than a year had passed since his past-life memories had surfaced, and he'd come to realize this world resembled the one he'd known, and yet differed from it. The flow of history, the pace of civilization, the people—similar, yet different.
'I recovered my past-life memories, so it's possible someone else did too.'
Meaning that the small changes such people made could well have set off a butterfly effect.
"Blurry, but… it's a woman."
"A woman? Is she pretty?"
Just then, the prince crept up behind the soldier and whispered softly into his ear.
"Waaagh!"
He could have simply asked; the prince just had to play his pranks. The startled soldier immediately bowed his head at the sight of the prince.
"Hiii! We greet His Highness the Prince!"
"Agh! Unless you intend to announce to the enemy that I'm the Prince, lower your voice. Can you see all right?"
"Yes, sir!"
"And how does a fine soldier of Great Ming come to be such a coward? Tsk!"
"Forgive me!"
"I said lower your voice. Now then… this thing… I look through it like this?"
Taking the telescope and peering through it, the prince confirmed that two women were approaching on a single horse. Had they wandered the grassland for a long while? They looked a match for any open-road beggar.
'Hmm… but even at a glance, she looks like a daughter of some great house?'
However much their appearance resembled vagrants, the air the women naturally carried was, for lack of a better word, noble. The two women arrived before anyone noticed. They looked quite worn out, as if they had ridden hard for a long time.
"Who goes there, and from where!"
At the soldier's shout, Won Ayoung, half out of her wits, jolted in fright.
"Oh my!"
"Are you awake?"
"Ah… Young Palace Master… forgive me……. I……."
"It's all right. Thankfully, it seems we've arrived safely."
"I shall ask once more! Who goes there, and from where!"
With the soldier's shout, the soldiers between the wooden palisades slowly drew their bowstrings taut. One wrong move, and the pair would be turned into a pincushion. Seol Mokyeon finally realized the moment had come to take out the thing she carried against her breast.
"I have come to see the highest-ranking person in this place."
Murmur, murmur.
At the unexpected words, murmurs rose from all around. As the soldiers and officers wondered what to do with the situation, the prince stepped forward.
"And why do you seek the highest one here?"
"I have something to deliver to him."
"Something to deliver? May I see what it is?"
At the prince's words, Seol Mokyeon slowly drew a jade token from her breast.
"Hmm… not a jade token General Hang would have use for… one moment……."
As he quietly examined the token, the prince's expression changed.
"Open the gate! Quickly!"
"Your Highness! Why do you—!"
"Did I not tell you to open it at once!"
"Y-yes, sir!"
Through the swiftly opened gate, the prince hastened toward Seol Mokyeon with urgent steps, and Samryong followed after him without quite meaning to.
'What on earth is that thing, that he'd react like this?'
Samryong had already noticed that the prince's hypersensitive reaction was because of that jade token.
"May I see that again?"
"Are you the highest-ranking person here?"
At her words, the prince spoke with an authority entirely unlike his usual self.
"I am. A Prince of the realm. Hand it here."
The silence around them at his words seemed to confirm it was true.
"H-here!"
Flustered, Seol Mokyeon swiftly dismounted and bowed.
"We greet His Highness the Prince. Here……."
"Hand it over, quickly!"
Snatching the jade token as if to steal it, the prince promptly drew something from his own breast.
'…The same jade token?'
Seol Mokyeon stole glances at the token, but however many times she looked, they were identical.
'The Crown Prince of Ming, and Khulan… what on earth is their relationship?'
Seol Mokyeon sank briefly into thought. Just then, the prince's trembling voice rang out.
"Are you the owner of this token?"
At his question, Seol Mokyeon shook her head.
"No. Someone to whom I owe a great debt asked me to deliver it to the highest-ranking person of the expeditionary army."
"Where is the owner of this token! And……."
The prince started to say something, then swallowed the words whole. Just then, Hang Jeoksan and a number of officers appeared, following behind him.
"Even if it is His Highness the Prince, the gate must not be opened on a whim."
"For now… let these women inside."
"Admit a woman into the military camp? Unthinkable."
Hang Jeoksan's face was resolute. Watching him, the prince approached slowly and whispered.
"You said you wondered at my intentions, did you not? I'll tell you—let them in."
"Even so……."
"It concerns His Highness the Crown Prince. We'll speak once we're inside."
For the first time, the emotion of alarm surfaced on Hang Jeoksan's expressionless face.
"…Understood."
"Follow me."
And so Seol Mokyeon and Won Ayoung slowly entered the expeditionary army's camp.
* * *
Inside the barracks, where the silence was so absolute one could hear breathing like rolling thunder, the prince fiddled with the jade token for a long while without a word before looking at Samryong.
"Check on the health of those women. They seem to have suffered a great deal on their long journey."
"Understood."
Samryong slowly approached the two women. One was a young girl on the cusp of seventeen, and the other a woman of strikingly exotic features.
'Beggars' rags, but quite a beauty.'
The woman's calm, lake-blue eyes brought to mind a lake in midwinter. A beauty who might make even Tang Soso yield a step, one could say. Realizing that staring blankly was rude, Samryong quickly spoke.
"May I take your pulse for a moment?"
"Yes."
Seol Mokyeon obediently offered her wrist, and Samryong slowly felt her pulse.
'She's trained in martial arts……. Yin energy of this degree… she's from the North Sea Ice Palace.'
Samryong slowly drew her sleeve back down and turned to Won Ayoung.
"The one beside her as well."
"Yes."
Having confirmed that, though exhausted, neither had any serious health problems, Samryong addressed the prince.
"They're fatigued, but nothing serious is wrong. Rest and good food should see them right."
"Thank you. Everyone but General Hang, the guard Jeongcheon, and Samryong—out, for a moment."
"Your Highness, why not me—!"
To the protesting bodyguard, the prince spoke slowly.
"You may feel slighted right now, but it is all to protect you."
At the prince's words, the hot-blooded bodyguard Hwang Ung left the barracks, hiding his disappointment. Thus only six remained inside. The guard Jeongcheon, as ever silent and masked, brewed warm tea and served it to the two women.
"You came at the request of this token's owner?"
"Yes……."
Seol Mokyeon briefly recounted the circumstances, and as he listened, the prince's expression hardened into stone.
'Ah, hell! I think I just heard something I shouldn't have?'
If the prince's face had frozen solid, Samryong's bore what one might call a we're-done-for expression.
'A princess of Northern Yuan… what on earth is the connection?'
Samryong found himself suddenly curious about the relationship between the prince and the Northern Yuan princess.
"Dammit all……."
The prince did nothing but quietly turn the jade token over in his hands. Watching him, Hang Jeoksan asked.
"Your Highness, now you will tell us the reason, won't you? What does that token have to do with His Highness the Crown Prince?"
At Hang Jeoksan's words, the prince hesitated a moment before speaking.
"It is the token my elder brother—the Crown Prince—gave to the woman he loved."
"WHAT?!"
A stricken cry filled the barracks. Samryong in particular wanted to scrub out his own ears.
'A wuxia Romeo and Juliet? This is killing me. I've fallen into the swamp…….'
For Samryong, who had intended to quietly finish out his military service, it was an enormous ordeal. Whether or not it knew his heart, the prince continued.
"As you've heard, General Hang, that woman was a princess of Northern Yuan. In the end, she left my brother's side."
"…I see."
Call it a bond that could never be. Hang Jeoksan understood Khulan's choice.
"The problem is… she left carrying my brother's child."
'Dammit… truly, living long is out of the question for me.'
Knowing all the truths of the world was not a good thing. Getting inconveniently entangled in the affairs of the high and mighty was a shortcut to an early grave. Past life and present alike, it was gospel truth for ordinary people. Thus Samryong flopped heavily into a chair, wearing a face gone sour.
Thud!
Samryong wasn't the only one in such a state. As if thunder had struck inside the barracks, everyone startled violently. Hang Jeoksan, his anxiety at the unexpected news mounting, scrubbed his face again and again, while Seol Mokyeon and Won Ayoung, mid-sip, nearly dropped their teacups. However little connection her Ice Palace had with the Ming imperial house, she could feel in her bones how grave this matter was.
An unregistered child of a Crown Prince with no heir? And a son, at that? This was news that would shake even Hang Jeoksan. But as if they weren't even present, Prince Zhu Wancheong continued.
"Right up until he lost consciousness, my brother searched for the two of them desperately……. And before his mind left him, he asked me a favor. To find them. With nothing but the knowledge that she was a princess of Northern Yuan and somewhere out on this vast steppe, I volunteered for this campaign and followed her here."
"Haah……."
Only now did the prince's every action begin to make sense to Hang Jeoksan. Why he insisted on questioning high-ranking Northern Yuan captives, why he kept slipping away to search for something—it all fit. While everyone was still reeling from the shock, Zhu Wancheong went on.
"Finding their whereabouts at last is a mercy, but… the problem is that they've been taken by the Sword of the North. We must rescue them."
"Haah……."
"This is no simple matter, General Hang! Not because the child and the woman are my brother's son and his beloved. Those two are……."
Without hearing the rest, Hang Jeoksan already knew what he meant to say.
"They possess the legitimacy to reunite a fractured Northern Yuan."
"…Exactly. Which is why they must be rescued, no matter the cost, General Hang."
"Haah……."
Hang Jeoksan clutched his throbbing head, and Samryong tore at his hair.
'Dammit…….'
He wanted nothing more than to throw it all away and run.