Last Chance to Stop the Young Master
Even just watching Hui-yeom fawn over the Provincial Commissioner and his wife as if he were their actual grandson, shamelessly currying favor, was enough to lodge a thorn in the throat. And now the boy was taking on official government projects?
The construction of a massive ironworks meant to supply all of Sichuan Province, plus water and sewage facilities for the government offices?
That alone reeked of enormous money—and what? He would hand over a tenth of the ironworks’ profits?
With money on that scale, it would not merely rebuild the Sichuan Dang Family.
The branch families’ plan to slowly strangle the main line with their meager financial grip and seize control would dissolve into foam.
That brat is the problem.
He glared at Hui-yeom with bloodshot eyes.
When Hui-yeom created the patent rights system and passed a tenth of the profits from cosmetics, Tiger Balm, and soap over to the elders of the Elder Council, they should have stopped him then.
The elders who had tasted money began to quietly fracture from that moment.
Those determined to check Hui-yeom hard, those who meant to exploit him, and those content to watch the show and take the free cake—opinions split three ways.
While they failed to unify, Hui-yeom succeeded in one venture after another, resolved the cholera crisis, placed Mount Emei deeply in his debt, and became the hero of Sichuan.
And now he was angling to bring a major national project into Sichuan Province itself.
This is the last chance to stop that brat. Miss this opportunity… and our branch families return to the old days of watching the main family’s face.
After the Provincial Commissioner and his wife departed, and Dang Un-sang’s couple and Hui-yeom likewise withdrew, Elder Ma Jeonggu sought out the Elder Council.
When he recounted the day’s events, the elders’ faces turned grave.
Especially the hardliners of Ma Jeonggu’s stripe went wild.
“We must stop it! If this succeeds as well, the Elder Council will no longer be able to control the Family Head’s Residence!”
“Exactly! Turning a blind eye to the Young Master’s tyranny has reached its limit!”
They were mainly elders whose branch families owned ironworks or had kin tied to the trade.
Indeed, once the official ironworks of Sichuan Province began pouring out massive quantities of iron, every private forge in the region might wither and die—so their frenzy was understandable.
“Stop it? On what pretext?”
Elder Hong Ilgon said coolly.
“Consider it from the standpoint of the family’s interests. The coal prices Sichuan Province will pay far exceed the earnings of a few ironworks run by the Sichuan Dang Family’s branches. The scale of consumption is different.
If the Family Head uses that as justification, how will you answer?”
One of the elders who received the question pounded his chest in frustration.
“Is justification important right now?! Our families are about to starve! Even if they are not children born of my own pain, are they not branch families bound by marriage and oaths of loyalty?
The Family Head cannot do this, Council Head!”
“My thoughts and Elder Song’s are irrelevant.
The world is moved by power and justification.
Will you tell the Family Head to sever ties with the Provincial Commissioner because branch profits will shrink?
The Family Head will cheerfully strip Elder Song of his seat, declaring he has gone senile in his old age.”
“Council Head!”
“Then are you saying we should simply take this lying down!”
Hong Ilgon slowly closed his eyes.
The vicious breathing pressing in from every side was music that delighted his heart.
They cling to me and seek my power. Good. Very good.
As the confrontation with the Family Head’s Residence intensified, the elders who had once fended for themselves banded tightly under the Elder Council’s banner—and at the center stood Hong Ilgon.
Hong Ilgon was thoroughly pleased with the present situation in which his influence grew stronger by the day.
Then Elder Gong Duchan, the only man who could still oppose him, opened his mouth.
“Even so, we cannot simply swallow it, can we? Clever Elder Hong must surely have a countermeasure. Share it with the elders.”
Hong Ilgon’s eyebrow twitched.
Insolent bastard.
Gong Duchan was his political partner. It was Gong Duchan’s financial power that propped up the Elder Council and had placed the direct line of the Dang Family—including Dang Un-sang—under debt.
Yet for that very reason he was both the most reliable force and the most dangerous rival.
Power is not shared even between father and son.
But not yet.
While already considering how to settle Gong Duchan, Hong Ilgon smiled kindly and spoke.
“My apologies. I was slow in organizing my thoughts and inconvenienced the elders.”
“Do you have a good plan?”
With every elder’s attention fixed on him, Hong Ilgon paused a beat, then opened his mouth.
“We move the retainers. We halt the activities of the branch families.”
“What?”
“We call a strike.”
Hong Ilgon’s gaze swept across the elders.
“If matters proceed as they stand, our branch ironworks will clearly take a heavy blow. Therefore we induce a strike across every industry, centered on them.
If we claim that the Family Head’s Residence will snatch our livelihoods one by one as in this incident, we can easily draw in the retainers of other businesses as well.
Then we gather them all, march to the main gate of the Dang Family, kneel, and beg for survival.”
If the Family Head is the king, the elders are the ministers, and the retainers are the common people.
When a king purges his ministers, it can become a means of consolidating power;
but the moment a king kills the people, he becomes a tyrant and the spark that overturns the realm.
The Family Head will never dare strike down the retainers thronging the front gate of the Sichuan Dang Family.
“Then, with the public opinion of the retainers at our backs, we go to meet the Family Head.
This is not our private scheme but the outcry of the retainers who uphold the family, desperate to live. The Family Head can never ignore it.”
“Ohhh, truly a brilliant plan.”
“A strike… truly an excellent word.”
Most of the elders seemed satisfied, yet some were not.
Especially those tied to the ironworks still cast dissatisfied looks.
Among them Elder Ma Jeonggu, who held the greatest speaking rights, opened his mouth.
“Listen here, Elder Hong.”
“Ah, Elder Ma. Do you perhaps have another fine idea?”
“No. After the strike—what then do you intend?”
“Well, that depends on what the Family Head’s Residence decides, does it not?”
What kind of answer is that!
An exclamation of frustration rose to Ma Jeonggu’s throat, but he barely swallowed it.
“We must be precise! For our ironworks this is a matter of immediate livelihood!”
“Oh my, Elder Ma. Why such anger? Are we not discussing this step by step?”
“Exactly. One step at a time…”
“Are you not far too relaxed simply because it is not your affair?! Even if we extract benefits from the strike, if we cannot force the Provincial Commissioner to abandon the ironworks project, the whole thing is meaningless!”
Hong Ilgon, who had been watching Ma Jeonggu raise his voice in excitement, cast a cold gaze.
“Elder Ma, abandon the ironworks.”
“What……!”
“Looking at the anger knotting your voice, had you not already guessed as much?”
Ma Jeonggu’s complexion turned deathly pale, as though he might faint on the spot.
Hong Ilgon continued calmly.
“Even if we meet the Family Head on the pretext of the strike, we cannot scrap the large-scale ironworks.
The hilt of that sword is no longer held by the Family Head but by the Provincial Commissioner.”
The root of the entire affair was the Provincial Commissioner’s greed for the ironworks business.
And since considerable discussion had already taken place, overturning the decision would be harder still.
“I know that. So after pressuring the Family Head we must also consider how to persuade the Provincial Commissioner——!”
“Elder Ma. We will pressure the Family Head, but we will never approach the Provincial Commissioner.
Whether by persuasion or any other means, if we scrap the ironworks while going against the Provincial Commissioner’s will, this ceases to be a question of the Dang Family Head’s prestige. The very survival of our Sichuan Dang Family could be endangered.”
What they wanted was the weakening of the current direct line and the strengthening of their own power—
never the downfall of the Sichuan Dang Clan.
In other words, Elder Hong and the Elder Council intended only to pressure the Family Head, using the ironworks as a discarded pawn.
“Elder Ma, even so we will persuade carefully so that the other branch businesses may be preserved. Rest assured.”
“Th-this……!”
In the end, unable to contain his rage, Ma Jeonggu sprang from his seat and strode out of the council chamber.
The elders who led the ironworks exchanged glances and followed after him.
No sooner had Ma Jeonggu and the others left the meeting than they formed a separate gathering.
“Hong Ilgon has abandoned us.”
“How can that be—good heavens!”
“Utterly wretched.”
“Then what are we to do now…”
As negative words flew about, Ma Jeonggu cast a chilling gaze.
“If there is no justification to stop the business, and none to impeach the Young Master, there remains only one path.”
“Surely…”
“Eliminate the Young Master.”
“E-Elder Ma! Have you gone mad?”
“What dreadful words are those!”
Before the gasping elders, Ma Jeonggu spoke with cold precision instead.
“The recent advances of the Family Head’s Residence all stem from the countless ventures proposed by that cheeky Dang Hui-yeom.
But before the brat stepped to the forefront—what was it like?
Family Head Dang Un-sang possesses outstanding martial talent, yet he is a pure martial artist weak in calculation, so he had no choice but to reach out to us in managing the household.
Thus we seized the Dang Family’s finances and wielded authority.
In other words, if only the Young Master is gone, we can return to the past.”
At Ma Jeonggu’s lengthy explanation the other elders gradually calmed their excitement.
Yet they by no means agreed with his opinion.
They looked at him with worried expressions.
“But Elder Ma, that act far crosses the line.”
“Correct. The reason we could come this far is that we never lost justification.
The moment we lose it—have we not already seen how they respond!”
Elder Jong Li-hyeok.
Only a short while ago he had melted away entirely in acid while people watched.
In the end he received no proper funeral, and even his main family could not escape clan extermination.
That wretchedness defied description.
“Honestly, everyone knows. The moment Dang Un-sang and the Poison Peak Unit go berserk, we will all melt into a handful of poison water.”
Though they sat in the Elder Council and were called elders of the Dang Family, their personal martial force differed little from ordinary men.
The only reason they had been able to confront the direct line and pressure the Family Head’s Residence until now was that they never lost justification and pressured solely with financial power.
“Then what do you propose we do!”
“Would a strike not be better?
As Elder Hong said, once the ironworks matter has passed to the Provincial Commissioner it is not easily reversed.
But if we pressure the Family Head through a strike this time, the other businesses can be preserved.”
“You people! In the end that path leads to ruin for us all!
Have you not seen what the Young Master has accomplished? Leave that brat alone and we will eventually fall!
Why can you not understand that the ironworks is merely the beginning!”
“But killing the Young Master is nonsense.”
“Even if we succeed, the moment even a small clue is discovered, we are the ones who become a handful of poison water!”
In the end the elders began to leave one by one.
Ma Jeonggu alone could not yield his will.
No. You lot may each have other businesses to fall back on, but our family cannot!
His main house operated one of the three greatest ironworks in Sichuan.
Not only Ma Jeonggu’s blood kin but every relative around them worked in related trades.
The moment the ironworks was lost, they would all be cast onto the streets in an instant.
“Stupid bastards! In the end the Young Master will swallow every business.
If we stay still we only fall into ruin—and they do not even see it!”
Even if not now, eventually the Young Master must be dealt with.
With reddened eyes he slipped out of the Dang Family and vanished somewhere under cover of night.
A few days later.
Hui-yeom visited the Provincial Commissioner’s residence to survey its internal structure for the coming water-and-sewage works. On the return journey he left the city and followed the road that climbed toward the upper reaches of the Yangtze.
The reason he endured such hardship was simple: the Provincial Commissioner’s house stood in the heart of Seongdo, ringed by high castle walls.
In the Jing Kingdom the power of a single province was never concentrated in one man—neither a governor, a minister, a provincial lord, nor a feudal prince.
The founder of the Jing Kingdom, the Blood Martial Emperor himself, had risen from among the feudal lords, and therefore he guarded against the concentration of local power more fiercely than anything else.
Thus the authority of a province was divided among administration (the Provincial Commissioner), judiciary (the Surveillance Commissioner), and military (the Regional Military Commander).
These Three Offices all sat in the very center of Seongdo—the heart of Seongdo Castle.
If, like the Sichuan Dang Family, a house stood at a mountain’s foot and could draw upon the mountain’s water source, height difference alone would allow aqueducts to bring water smoothly.
But drawing water into a castle was an entirely different problem.
“Moreover we cannot ignore the military aspect.
If war breaks out and the castle is besieged, securing a drinking-water source becomes vital, yes?
So every pipe that feeds Seongdo Castle will have to be buried deep underground—
which means the construction difficulty will be insanely high.”
Hui-yeom, who would soon turn eleven, still did not know how to ride a horse, and therefore traveled in a palanquin borne by the Dang Clan’s martial artists.
They used a palanquin rather than a carriage because they needed to climb unpaved mountain paths in search of a water source.
Inside that palanquin Ye-eun watched Hui-yeom explain business matters with gem-like, indifferent eyes, then tilted her head.
“I understand. But Young Master, why are you telling me all this?”
“You’re my secretary. I have to train you properly so I can keep using you for a long time.”
Ye-eun tilted her head again, clearly finding his intention hard to grasp.
Then a faint crease appeared between her smooth brows.
She glanced about for a moment before speaking.
“Young Master.”
“Hmm?”
Hui-yeom, about to continue his explanation, looked at her curiously as she interrupted.
Ye-eun bowed her head.
“Please go on ahead. This girl has something to attend to for a moment.”
“?”
At Hui-yeom’s expression that seemed to ask why she was talking nonsense out of nowhere, Ye-eun flushed slightly.
“That… to pick some flowers for a moment…”
“Ah.”
Realizing that the girl’s talk of picking flowers was a euphemism for visiting the toilet rather than actual flower-gathering, Hui-yeom laughed with an expression that said it was no great matter.
“Take your time looking at the flowers. I’ll wait.”
“…You’re teasing me. Please go first. It is a matter of this girl’s pride.”
“What pride…”
Hui-yeom made a dumbfounded face, then scratched the back of his head at Ye-eun’s resolute expression.
Is she embarrassed I’ll wait long if she has constipation?
Since Hui-yeom himself had once found it hard to relieve himself when someone stood right behind him in a public toilet, he did not think deeper and simply nodded.
“All right. Come carefully.”
“Thank you for your consideration.”
After finishing her greeting, Ye-eun signaled outside the palanquin and stepped down.
Leaving Ye-eun behind, the palanquin carrying Hui-yeom began to move slowly along the road.
About half an hour after the palanquin had departed—
Four or five figures burst through the leaves.
From head to toe they wore pitch-black night clothes—professional assassins.
“We’ve almost caught up.”
“One set of footprints veered off to the side.”
“A small girl’s. No need to worry about it.”
Having reached their conclusion, the assassins were about to melt back into the shadows of the trees when—
“Keoheok!”
Suddenly one assassin’s neck snapped and he toppled over with a heavy thud.
“……!!”
“……!!”
The others scattered in every direction in an instant, drawing short swords blackened with soot from their bosoms.
Yet even with weapons drawn they could not move freely.
What hit him?
I can’t tell at all!
Looking at the fallen assassin there was not a single drop of blood, not even the smallest wound.
Then—
Snap!
The sound of someone flicking their fingers rang out.
A moment later small sounds began to chain-react through the forest.
Click-click.
Click.
Click-click-click-click. Click-click-click-click. Click-click-click-click. Click-click-click-click. Click-click-click-click. Click-click-click-click. Click-click-click-click. Click-click-click-click. Click-click-click-click. Click-click-click-click. Click-click-click-click. Click-click-click-click. Click-click-click-click. Click-click-click-click. Click-click-click-click. Click-click-click-click. Click-click-click-click.
Psssssssss…
As the sound of something small and numerous moving faded into the distance,
a slender young girl’s voice drifted through the noisy rustle.
“Who sent you?”