Temperament
Word that Dang Hui-yeom was making Manneunggo in the kitchen spread through the Dang Family.
People dismissed it as a childish whim and empty boasting from the young master, yet they were glad to see the proper heir carrying himself as one who would someday lead the clan.
The tale reached even Eun Seol-ran, wife of Family Head Dang Un-sang.
"An ointment that pairs with any poison, has no scent, keeps toxicity from evaporating even when smeared on weapons, and holds both moisture and viscosity… If such a thing truly existed, it would be the stuff of dreams."
At her words, Dang Un-sang brought his teacup to his lips and gave a soft laugh.
"A child's fancy, nothing more. But isn't it a pleasant sight? I told him to try it as he pleased."
"Does my lord believe our Yeom will fail?"
"Wouldn't success be the strange outcome, my lady? I am already thinking how best to console the boy when he is disappointed."
"Oh dear… Surely no one will pick a quarrel over it?"
"Hardly. He is a child, after all. Un-hwa has been making a show of checking me lately with the Elders' Council, but he would not stoop to something so petty."
Husband and wife traded light talk, yet Dang Un-sang's heart was far from easy.
The due date for the promissory notes issued by the Sichuan Dang Family was drawing near.
By his reckoning they could still pay, but only if he liquidated and sold off a few of their fields and paddies.
Having to dispose of ancestral holdings handed down through generations was hardly a cheering prospect.
Just then—
"Family Head, Steward Hwang is here."
"What is it?"
"The First Young Master says he has completed the manufacture of the Manneunggo he spoke of last time, and has prepared a demonstration. He asks that you grace the occasion with your presence… However…"
Seeing the worry on the old retainer's face, Dang Un-sang asked with a sinking feeling.
"A demonstration? Who else is present?"
"The Master of the Medicinal Stores, one Elder from the Council, and the Second Young Master…"
"Hah…"
Dang Un-sang's expression stiffened slightly.
The problem was that those gathered held considerable rank even within the Dang Family—people even the Family Head himself could not treat lightly.
If the Manneunggo Hui-yeom claimed to have made proved an empty boast, it would be hard to escape censure for gathering distinguished guests and wasting their time.
"Yeom summoned them?"
"How could that be? The Second Young Master…"
"Ha!"
Dang Un-sang let out a displeased sigh.
His younger brother Dang Un-hwa was an ambitious man who made no secret of his designs on the Family Head's seat of the Sichuan Dang Family.
In most martial houses the Family Head's authority was absolute, yet in the present generation that power had steadily weakened while the Elders' Council grew stronger.
Those who could have held the Council in check and supported the Family Head—his own father and grandfather, the Grand Patriarch and the Council Chairman—had both fallen in battle.
Thus the Council had long been dominated by the branch bloodlines, and his worthless younger brother was now seeking to borrow the strength of those branch elders to shove his elder brother aside and seize the headship.
"Haa… You were right, my lady. I was careless. I never imagined Un-hwa would stoop so low against his own young nephew."
Even if Hui-yeom failed, it should have been a trivial matter.
But politics had always been the art of inflating the trivial into a pretext and finding fault with one's opponent.
They would pick at whether Hui-yeom possessed the qualities of a Young Master or not, then demand something in return for letting the matter drop.
"Once this is over, I shall have to explain things carefully to Hui-yeom."
"Can you not simply suppress the Second Young Master's wicked schemes…"
"I would like nothing better, yet so long as he is channeling funds from the Chahwa Money Wall through his connections, it will not be easy. And we still lack a proper justification."
In the end Dang Un-sang rose with a heavy expression and spoke to Steward Hwang.
"Let us go."
"I shall come as well."
The place Dang Un-sang and his wife followed Steward Hwang to was none other than Hui-yeom's chambers.
When Dang Un-sang opened the door and entered, those already inside greeted him.
"Are we the last? Welcome, all of you."
"You are late, elder brother. This is the occasion for announcing your son's proud first invention—why so delayed? It seems the Family Head of the great Dang clan is busy beyond measure."
"Un-hwa."
A handsome young man lounging with one foot on the table and legs crossed in an insolent posture sniped at him; Dang Un-sang's face hardened slightly as he rebuked him sternly.
"Is that how you speak? Is that the attitude you show your elder brother and Family Head of the great Dang Family? Take that foot off the table at once!"
"Ah, yes, yes, of course. My apologies, elder brother. Unlike you, a true gentleman, I am nothing but a frivolous fellow who knows only how to keep company with ruffians. Please bear with me, elder brother."
"What was that? You insolent—!"
"Now, now! Family Head, maintain your dignity!"
"Elder Hong."
A white-bearded old man who had been watching quietly intervened to restrain him.
"The position of Family Head carries the heavy responsibility of setting an example in every respect. When a younger brother behaves improperly, the foundation of virtuous rule is to reform and move him through virtue. Why raise your voice and try to browbeat him?"
"Elder Hong, I shall return those words to you. Un-hwa, as an elder of the family, not only displayed frivolous speech and conduct before his own nephew but sought to insult me. Is that truly proper conduct for a family elder?"
"Certainly that was improper. But must you scold an elder so harshly before a child? A gentle reprimand would have sufficed. Besides, is today not a happy occasion?"
As Elder Hong spoke, his gaze flicked meaningfully toward Hui-yeom, and Dang Un-sang bit his lip.
It was a veiled suggestion: Your son is about to parade his empty nonsense before us—will you really take so hard a line? Why not lower your head a little?
At that moment Hui-yeom, who had been watching in silence, smiled brightly and spoke.
"Elder Hong."
"?!"
At the omission of any honorific, everyone froze for an instant.
The man thus addressed stiffened as though he had been insulted, while Dang Un-hwa's eyes flew wide in disbelief.
"E-Elder Hong?"
In answer to his question, Hui-yeom only tilted his head innocently, as if wondering why they reacted so.
"Is it strange that I call Elder Hong 'Elder Hong'? By the family law of the Sichuan Dang Family, an elder of branch blood is subordinate to the Young Master. Custom merely grants mutual courtesy out of respect for an elder's age. Yet in this place Elder Hong has committed a grave breach of etiquette not only toward me but toward my father, the Family Head of the great Sichuan Dang Family. What reason have I to treat Elder Hong with courtesy?"
It was an insolent declaration no one present would ever have dared imagine.
Elder Hong, the target of the rebuke, bit his lip, face flushed crimson, and glared at Hui-yeom.
"Y-You arrogant little—!"
"I have not finished speaking. The rudeness Elder Hong committed is as follows."
Cutting the elder off with firm finality, Hui-yeom pointed a finger at him and lectured amid the open-mouthed adults.
"First: insubordination. The highest elder of the Sichuan Dang Family is, beyond dispute, my father the Family Head. Yet Elder Hong publicly criticized him. In rebuking Father for scolding my uncle, Elder Hong said, 'Must you scold an elder so harshly before a child?' Then what of your own conduct in scolding the family's highest elder before his own son? That is inconsistency between word and deed—behavior no gentleman who speaks of virtuous rule should ever utter.
"Second: interference in household discipline. From of old it has been said, 'Even the Son of Heaven does not meddle in the instruction between parents and brothers.' By what right do you dare insert yourself and spout nonsense while Father disciplines his own younger brother?
"Third: the wicked crime of using my presentation as a pretext to pressure my father the Family Head. Yes, I might fail. But to use that failure to pressure the Family Head—what kind of scheme is that? The Elders' Council is not an organ for checking the Family Head. Looking at Elder Hong's actions, it rather seems the Council harbors other designs. Am I wrong?"
"Y-Y-You—!"
"Stop stammering and explain yourself properly. What was Elder Hong's true intent in acting so?"
Mouths hung open all around.
It was impossible to believe this was a seven-year-old child. Hui-yeom's tone was icy, his eyes sharp, his speech full of authority.
The Dang Family members, who could not know that this was the vibe of a founder who had built the world's greatest military-industrial conglomerate from nothing with his bare hands, could only sit stunned and listen to Hui-yeom's sermon.
Amid the general shock, Hui-yeom continued.
"What, after all, is the Elders' Council? What is an elder? One who has rendered long loyal service is admitted to the Council and treated as an elder so that he may draw upon the wisdom of an old horse and assist the Family Head—that is the Council's reason for existing and an elder's duty. Why then has Elder Hong attached himself to my uncle and sought to oppress the Family Head? Is this the will of the Elders' Council? Or is it Elder Hong's personal deviation?"
"Y-You—!"
"Wipe that look off your face and explain yourself properly!"
Hui-yeom—or rather, the former chairman—was genuinely furious.
Having once been driven out of the great enterprise he himself had built, he found it deeply offensive that mere elected directors (elders) should bare their teeth at the bloodline of the founder (the main house of the Dang Family).
A bunch who only stuck a shovel on a castle already built, and they dare play the masters!
Even as the elder trembled with murderous rage, Hui-yeom advanced a step without the slightest flinch and shouted; Elder Hong was thrown into confusion.
It was as absurd and enraging as being bitten on the fingertip by a rat, yet there was not a single error in Hui-yeom's words.
The Sichuan Dang Family had traditionally been a house in which the authority of the Family Head and the direct bloodline was extremely strong.
"If you are not a Dang, you are not a person" was a long-standing lament sung like a round among the son-in-laws who had married into the family and the branch bloodlines.
Originally even the Elders' Council had been nothing more than the Family Head's advisory staff.
Its chairman had always been the previous Grand Patriarch—that is, the Family Head's grandfather—generation after generation.
They acknowledged the authority and experience of the shrewd branch elders and accepted their counsel on family policy, yet to block any attempt by them to crush the main house at the source, they installed the previous Grand Patriarch—the Family Head's ally and the greatest elder of the house—as Council Chairman.
It was an open secret that the very existence of the Elders' Council also served to gather the branch houses in one place, watch them, and enforce their obedience so that they would never entertain other thoughts.
But now that both the Grand Patriarch and the Council Chairman were dead, and one of the main house's two pillars—the Hidden Weapons Lineage—had nearly collapsed, this delicate power struggle had become possible.
The main house of the Dang Family was currently weak enough that the Elders' Council could challenge the Family Head's authority to this degree.
Even so, family law remained family law.
Nothing Hui-yeom said was wrong; the justification lay with him.
To try to refute him would only hand the Family Head a pretext to strike at the Council.
In the end Elder Hong, trembling with humiliation and mortification, had no choice but to yield a step.
"…This Hong Ilgon harbored no such wicked intent. This old man intervened only because the quarrel between brothers was unseemly to watch. If it appeared poorly in the Young Master's eyes, I regret it."
"Regret?"
Hui-yeom raised an eyebrow.
"What Elder Hong ought to do now is not express regret but offer an apology. I believe it proper that you apologize to the Family Head for the rudeness just now and beg his forgiveness."
The attempt to paper it over and slip away came to nothing.
Elder Hong ground his teeth, yet having already lost the moral high ground he had no choice but to follow Hui-yeom's words.
"I apologize to the Family Head. This old man misspoke."
"I forgive you. But take care in future. And Un-hwa! You must have something to say as well!"
"…I am sorry, elder brother."
Dang Un-hwa looked dissatisfied, yet he was not so foolish as to thrash about without grasping the situation after his own backer, Elder Hong, had already submitted.
Dang Un-sang now turned to Hui-yeom and scolded him sternly.
"You are no different, Hui-yeom! You speak of the Way of the gentleman and of propriety, yet what manners are these toward your elders? Elder Hong has served the family with loyalty for fifty years, assisting the late Grand Patriarch. However much you may be Young Master, he is not someone you may treat so carelessly! Apologize at once!"
It was a thoroughly political gesture—stepping forward first to deliver a sharp rebuke so that the Elders' Council could not later pick a fight over Hui-yeom's attitude.
"Yes, Elder Hong. This child was rash and committed a grave breach of etiquette. Please forgive me."
And the Hui-yeom receiving that scolding bowed his head with irritating promptness and apologized on the spot.
In the end Elder Hong had no choice but to accept the apology with an uncomfortable cough.
"Well, the atmosphere has grown unsettled. Shall we postpone the presentation? Everyone's throats seem dry, so perhaps a cup of tea first…"
Hui-yeom's mother Eun Seol-ran tried to seize the moment and smooth the presentation away, but Elder Hong shook his head as if that were out of the question.
"What are you saying, Grand Madam? People have already gathered—why delay the presentation?"
His tone was polite, and he seemed to carry no grudge over the earlier incident, yet it was plain he intended to chew Hui-yeom thoroughly if the presentation proved clumsy. Eun Seol-ran's brows drew together.
"Elder Hong, he is only a seven-year-old child. It will surely be a crude prototype—must the Master of the Medicinal Stores and an Elder of the Council both attend and place such a burden on him?"
Dang Un-sang also tried to stop Elder Hong, but the old man only grew more punctilious and bowed his head.
"A burden? How can you say such a thing? If the Young Master has made something that may benefit the family's future, the Elders' Council must of course examine it."
The deliberate mention of "Young Master" laid bare his inner intent: if the item proved worthless, he meant to deal a heavy blow to the Young Master's prestige.
"Must it go this far?"
"I do not understand the Family Head's true meaning."
Just as the atmosphere threatened to turn ugly again, Hui-yeom gave a short laugh and spoke.
"It is all right, Father. This son is confident."
"What?"
"What did you say?"
"Then allow me to show you. These are the Tangga Manneung-go this son has made, and its derivative products."
Hui-yeom lifted the wooden box he had set beneath the table, placed it upon the surface, and opened the lid.
Every gaze turned toward the interior of the box.