The Sichuan Tang Family (5)

The uproar, of course, reached not only the Family Head of the Sichuan Tang Family, but the ears of Madam Dae and the Manor Lord as well.

I was summoned.

And yet it was not truly before them that I had been called. It was before another presence entirely — Dang Hu-gyeom, the Ten-Thousand-Eyed Ghost King, the man who ruled Chengdu in all but name, and whose strength was counted among the ten greatest in the whole of Sichuan.

When Dang Yang brought me before him, the masters of the house, Geon Wi-jin and Madam Dae, were already seated in the hall. Even in the inner chamber of the Golden Manor, Dang Hu-gyeom sat openly in the seat of honor, his tiger-like eyes turning with unhurried ease.

"I would ask the two of you to withdraw."

"Please, converse at your ease."

Geon Wi-jin vacated his place at once. Madam Dae, following after him, spoke.

"Should my child's conduct warrant a rebuke, you may deliver it freely. Only send me word."

"I shall."

He did not so much as thank her. Even so, Madam Dae offered a perfectly courteous bow and took her leave.

Inwardly, I found Geon A-seong — myself — rather pitiful. Parents, so-called, stood ready to cast their own child aside at any moment, so long as they did not displease the Family Head of the Sichuan Tang Family.

The thought lasted only an instant.

"This is the first time we have properly faced one another. Geon A-seong, was it?"

"Yes. I am Geon A-seong."

"I have heard the particulars in full. Mu-gi is shifting the failure of his own venture onto you."

"It is of no concern."

"Is it? And yet Mu-gi is not a child given to lies of that sort. Are you the one speaking falsely?"

"..."

"I believe nothing I have not seen with my own eyes. From what I hear, your hand was in every part of what came before and after. Even the commotion just now — Mu-gi is crying out that it was a farce of your own making."

I held my silence a moment, then answered.

"Yes. I did it."

A heavy stillness closed over the room. Dang Hu-gyeom, who had been leaning back in his chair, let a strange light kindle in eyes that had been dull with boredom. He eased his back a little straighter.

"How obedient. Then if I take your head here and now, even your parents will have no grounds on which to protest."

"I confirmed just now that they lack even the will for it. The Golden Manor, as Young Master Dang Mu-gi said, is nothing more than a merchant house that must join hands with a martial clan. I understand."

"That tongue of yours is far too much at ease. For now."

The words had barely left him when a scratch opened across my throat.

Gulp.

I swallowed against a dry mouth. Centered on my neck, translucent threads spread in every direction like an enormous spider's web. Eyes and hands upon every place at once, a body already carved apart in the space of a breath — it was exactly as befitted the Ten-Thousand-Eyed Ghost King. The black-haired man in his prime, wrought of terror and crushing presence, regarded me in silence and showed me fingertips as pale and slender as white jade.

"One flick of a finger, and your head comes off."

"Is there no way to live?"

"You would have to be without flaw. A flawlessness that does not run counter to my will."

I felt it, then, in my bones. The moment the Sichuan Tang Family set its mind to the thing, it could crush the Golden Manor by force and swallow it whole. They simply judged that the time had not yet come. They wanted to wrap the swallowing in prettier justifications first.

But the Sichuan Tang Family was not the only one that meant to devour the Golden Manor. They had failed to account for me.

"Then may I offer a proposal?"

"Say whatever you like. If it displeases me, I need only take your head."

Before a reaper calmly announcing my death, my fighting spirit rose sharp. Perhaps now was the moment to try him.

No.

Even turning back through my memories, Dang Hu-gyeom at this point in time was strong. It would not be a total defeat, but this place was no different from his own front yard. If the whole of the Sichuan Tang Family came at me together, with neither my forces nor my martial power yet complete, the loss would be mine without question.

"You look ready to throw yourself at me, should it come to that."

"How did you know?"

"I have spent my life sorting ally from enemy. Rather impudent. I want to kill you this instant."

"As I am to die regardless, I will speak freely."

"As you please."

"By your will as Family Head, bestow the Black Heaven-Rending Net upon me. As a token."

"A treasure fit to serve as reward and as proof of trust — when even punishment would fall short?"

The translucent wires trembled fine, as if they might tear me to pieces on the spot.

"Yes."

"Such a thing is possible only if there is gain in it for me."

At that abrupt declaration, Dang Hu-gyeom's wires opened a cut at my throat and let the blood run.

"On what safety do you dare work that sly tongue? You displease me."

I was not the sort to fold under a threat of that degree.

"Do you know what Young Master Dang said when he faced me? He asked how I would like to become master of the Golden Manor. His meaning was plain enough — that he would join hands with me and help me seize every power within it."

"..."

"He must have judged it impossible by his strength alone. But he thought that with the Family Head's backing, it could be done."

The wires cinched about me loosened, just a little.

"And so?"

"I dismissed it as useless talk."

"And now you bring that same nonsense to me?"

"Facing what I faced just now, I became certain of it. The Manor Lord and Madam Dae are weak enough to offer up the Golden Manor the moment you set ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠your mind to taking it."

"Amusing. By your own account, I ought to have had the Golden Manor's wealth in my grasp long ago."

"A well-fed beast waits until its prey is at its fattest. Does it not?"

In time, Dang Mu-gi would spend every underhanded scheme there was to seize the Golden Manor for the Sichuan Tang Family, and in the end he would succeed. But behind it all, Dang Hu-gyeom had always been there. Dang Mu-gi was merely one piece on his board — and a piece, when necessary, could be replaced. With someone like me.

"Young Master Dang Mu-gi has failed. The joint venture, the collusion with the third son, and in the end even the attempt to bring me in."

"And you are different? From where I stand, you have yet to properly seize the Golden Manor. You cannot even find your footing between Manor Lord Geon and Madam Dae."

"That is why I need your aid. It would suit you to swallow the Golden Manor's wealth without losing face, at the moment it has been fattened to its fullest. I will pave that road for you."

"I'll hear more."

The wires loosened further. Of course, if his mood turned, I would die where I stood all the same.

"The conflict long buried between the Manor Lord and Madam Dae has now caught fire. The Manor Lord will already have made you the same offer I am making — to take the Golden Manor under the protection of the Sichuan Tang Family."

"He has already pledged half the shares across every venture."

"Then I will offer you the business rights in full."

"You haven't the authority for that, have you?"

"Neither has the Manor Lord. He has no justification for pushing aside Madam Dae, who owns every venture jointly with him. So he will have asked you for time in which to manufacture that justification."

"..."

Into his silence, I went on.

"Madam Dae will likely try to approach you on her own as well. But she will pledge even less. Of all of them, the greed that refuses to let go of what it already holds is strongest in her."

"To my eye, you look the greediest of the lot — ready to abandon even your parents."

"There is no fault in guarding oneself against parents who would discard their child at any moment for their own gain."

"So you would take my protection, and once the authority is yours, hand over most of the rights and the standing across every venture of the Golden Manor? On the condition that the authority comes first?"

"Yes."

"That authority is not something I can set in your hands from the outside. The force you require, I can lend. If I meant to take the manor by force, I could do so even now."

A low, beastlike growl rolled out of him. Dang Hu-gyeom bared his teeth like a predator. Even as his oppressive presence surged in like a raging tide, I answered evenly.

"If the Manor Lord and Madam Dae do something that leaves them no choice but to relinquish their positions, the justification falls to me."

"Something that leaves them no choice?"

"The Golden Manor has a single rule. A rule the Manor Lord and Madam Dae made so that each might keep the other in check."

"Hoh."

I grinned.

"I will make it so."

A brief, quiet stillness followed. And for his answer, every thread that had enclosed the room until that moment was drawn ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠back into his body.

"Heh heh heh— ha ha ha!!!"

Dang Hu-gyeom broke into something close to mad laughter, fierce light burning in his eyes.

"You have secured those ledgers?"

"Yes."

Ju Cho-saeng had been busy indeed. Through him, I had the ledgers Madam Dae ordered burned spirited away in advance. Geum Sa-yeop had taken a hand in the matter himself, but he was no keeper of books. The one who truly handled the ledgers stood at my side.

The Manor Lord had been simple. Among the many trades he had run and the movements of money throughout the manor, I secured the books that tracked not the official accounts but the slush funds — by persuading the head factor of the Gold Ledger Pavilion, which answered to him.

It had not been especially difficult. I pledged a sum worth staking one's life upon, and had Seol-ha deliver the payment in fact.

Loyalty to the Manor Lord? One look at how he had conducted himself all this time made that impossible. The head factor of the Gold Ledger Pavilion, having just watched the head factors of the Iron Mirror Bureau and the Gold Flower Bureau purged by Madam Dae, answered my proposal with particular enthusiasm.

In the end, exactly as I had wanted, I held every proof by which they would lose the whole of their authority in a single stroke.

What remained was the manpower to carry it out. Judging by what I had recently achieved, doing it alone was not impossible — but my aim did not end there. I intended to wring the Golden Manor dry, to the very last, through the Sichuan Tang Family.

For that purpose, Dang Hu-gyeom was a most fitting instrument.

Not that he knew it.

"Satisfying. More so than my own son, Dang Mu-gi."

That was unexpected. Within the family Dang Mu-gi had been scorned as a bastard, and yet Dang Hu-gyeom ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠acknowledged him as a son all the same.

And his lot was better than mine?

"Still, I would have preferred you were one of my sons. You are better than Mu-gi."

A fitting reward, and a fitting punishment. Watching Dang Hu-gyeom, so practiced in the art of handling men, I could feel why Dang Mu-gi had thrashed so desperately to be acknowledged.

"You have my gratitude, and nothing more. Once the funeral is over, I am thinking of carrying this out before the household of the Golden Manor, gathered as they will be. There is, however, a condition."

"What is it?"

"If I hand over every business right in the open, even those within will call it a foolish judgment. I need compensation from the Sichuan Tang Family sufficient to crush that talk."

"Payment, for surrendering the whole of the ventures?"

"Yes."

"Name what you want."

"Pay the price for my handing over the Golden Manor entire. I would like it reckoned in chests of gold — only as much as three years' net profit from every venture."

"You know this is greed past reason? I have already chosen you in an adopted son's place, and agreed to put an end to every conflict. I spared your life as well, into the bargain."

"Very well. Then make it two years. Preserve my face while you are at it."

"I cannot settle the whole of it in gold chests alone. I will add rare elixirs, and other precious things, to make up the value."

"Agreed."

"Then consider it sealed. From this day, this family will aid you."

"Understood."

"So you will be the new Manor Lord. A fine partner in trade."

"In truth, the master of the Golden Manor will be you, Family Head. All the manpower, and nine-tenths of the business rights, will pass beneath your command."

"And yet."

"Yes?"

"What, then, do you mean to do with the wealth the Golden Manor has piled up until now, and with the remaining tenth of the assets? I find myself curious."

The look in Dang Hu-gyeom's eyes — greed that meant to strip me of everything — was sharp enough to pierce straight through to what I kept inside. Before I was cast back, and now as well, he remained one of the most troublesome opponents I had. But if there was a difference between us, it was this: I was always preparing a future one step ahead of his.

"The wealth already gathered, the tenth of the assets included, and the bad debts besides..."

"You would add those as well?"

"I mean to buy up the goods still sitting across the lands ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠of Sichuan."

"As if bracing for a famine. Or a flood."

"Precisely. Will you join me?"

"If I had spare means to waste on a useless affair whose end I cannot see, I would spend them putting the rights in my hand to proper use."

"Then do so."

I was smiling, and with me Dang Hu-gyeom showed a bright smile for the first time.

"As a token of the trust and the pact that have drawn out my satisfaction, I shall bestow upon you the Black Heaven-Rending Net you named. What do you say?"

"Utterly..."

I bared my teeth in a brilliant smile.

"Satisfying."

The funeral of the Golden Manor would be, for me, the moment of a Manor Lord's coronation.