A Fortnight's Proof
"You'd truly take my life... take my life over one worthless woman? Please, put your anger aside."
"A worthless woman?"
The Matriarch flicked her hand, and the maids withdrew in a rush. The gaunt woman, who ordinarily never stirred, came shambling up like a walking corpse and stopped in front of me.
"She is of more use than you. Far more."
Ice in the voice.
Hm. I'll give her this much — the Matriarch knows how to judge people. Seol-ha is exceptional, after all.
I twisted my face, picturing the look Geon A-seong would have worn. Childish pride would have leaked from every line of it.
"......"
"If you didn't want to die, you should have done as your mother told you and kept out of trouble. Did you think you could snatch a prize I had already marked for myself? Because of you, I no longer know which way that girl will bolt."
I trembled as if I were afraid, already weighing a shift to another plan should this one sour. Instinct, though, told me not to move so easily. I waited.
"Then, if you don't want to die, bring me results. Before you are my son, you will prove that you are useful, and I will bury this matter. Fail, and you will pay the price for killing Geon-gon — who ought to have been left alive."
I felt it afresh. I rather liked the way the Matriarch handled her affairs. Son or not, whatever stood in the way of the goal was simply cleared away. Looking at it now, her methods suit my taste.
"I... I will give it everything I have."
"You have a fortnight."
"......"
"Get out. I can't stand the sight of you."
I scrambled from the room in a visible panic, exactly so the Matriarch would see it.
My death, unexpectedly, was a quiet thing.
Even when the next day came, no one spoke of it. There was no particular stir toward holding my funeral, either. The Matriarch's hand was in that. They had simply decided to bury the matter as an accident — the charred ruins of the residence were cleared away, and Geon A-seong's corpse, passed off as mine, was collected. I had expected as much, and it barely touched me. Golden Manor had never been my family to begin with.
In the meantime I returned to the residence. The second son's residence.
Much better.
The moment I sat, I sank halfway into a chair of the finest wool and leaned back. Silver glittered from the walls all the way to the ceiling. It was certainly more comfortable, and more splendid, than my own quarters had been. And yet the place was quiet. Perhaps because Seol-ha, who had kept her silent watch at my side, was no longer there.
I had decided not to see Seol-ha for the time being. In place of that, I told her to pretend she was burying her grief in training. Once she did, the Matriarch would take her directly under her own command, the better to use her herself. So long as that full support continued, Seol-ha would keep climbing as steeply as she was now — until she met a wall. Before that day came, I had to be ready to help her.
Well then. The second son's seat is mine. Time to play this properly.
Inside Golden Manor there were any number of posts and organizations, and the manor lord's sons each had a business of their own in their charge. All of them except me, the son of a concubine. The hands that worked those businesses naturally fell under the son who held them. The second son, Geon A-seong, managed the cloth shops and the luxury goods spreading out across the regions. His usual clients were renowned high officials, martial men, and the very rich. The organization within Golden Manor that oversaw all of it was the Golden Splendor Department.
"Bring me the recent transaction ledgers."
At my order, the Grand Manager of the Golden Splendor Department entered the room. An old man by the name of Jun-pyo offered me a proper courtesy, then handed over the books.
I already knew him through and through. Under the Matriarch's tacit permission, he was the one who manufactured Geon A-seong's private funds inside Golden Manor — the true power within the Golden Splendor Department. The problem was that his feet were not planted with the second son alone. He also took secret orders from the eldest, watching the second son's movements and making use of them.
"The ledgers are here."
I took them without really taking them, and lifted my eyes.
"If you've heard the rumors, you know. I went and killed that Geon-gon bastard."
"A bold decision. I was filled with admiration."
"Right? But the bastard's left me in a real bind. Even dead, he won't stop being a nuisance."
"......"
"Anyway, I'm in a hurry. I have to show Mother some kind of result. Got anything useful?"
Days of gyeokgu on the polo grounds, endless chasing after women, and quiet visits to an underground gambling den of his own making — that was the second son. Press this man, and I would learn which pieces of all that I could actually put to use.
Jun-pyo sidled closer and dropped his voice.
"What if you used the funds you set aside at the underground gambling house to purchase land?"
"Land?"
I asked it as if I didn't know.
"The money you've accumulated is considerable. Enough to buy a plot of nearly an acre on the outskirts of Chengdu."
"And what would I do with that?"
"Information we obtained today. They say Seven Star Cinnabar Ginseng has been found near Spring Mountain, east of Chengdu. Buy the site of the discovery, and the land around it, in advance — then settle your accounts once the rumor takes flight."
He meant to drive the price up on a false rumor and skim a fat profit. It wasn't a bad scheme.
What mattered was this: I had not seized the second son's seat merely to win the Matriarch's recognition. On the outside, of course, it had to look exactly like that.
"That's too thin. I need to show Mother something with more bite."
"Then what would you have me..."
Jun-pyo had been all ease, buoyed by the experience he had stacked up for himself, and I could feel him thrown by the sudden turn. What did it matter? He was not even on the list of people worth keeping. Golden Manor would fall regardless, undone by the many affairs of a chaotic age. This was only me clearing it away with my own hands, a little ahead of schedule.
"Bring it to me. In drafts from the Yellow Mark Exchange."
The Yellow Mark Exchange was the banking house under Golden Manor. Even Jun-pyo would have cause to watch the Matriarch's mood before converting funds of that size into drafts. He looked as though he was worrying over precisely that.
"I'll speak to Mother myself, so don't concern yourself with anything else. Do as I say. Do you understand me?"
Under the pressure, Jun-pyo rolled his eyes and asked.
"Might I presume to ask what you truly intend? Moving funds of this scale requires a reason..."
"I told you I would speak to Mother myself. Whose face are you watching now? You ignoring me?"
Sweat broke out on Jun-pyo. He ducked his head in a hurry.
"How could that be? I only wished to be of some help to the young master's designs..."
"Then do what you're told. Don't scratch at my temper. Want me to burn you down so neither rat nor bird ever finds out?"
Threatened in that rough voice, Jun-pyo put on a hasty show of obedience and left.
Geon A-seong had been so violent, and so utterly above looking at anyone, that it was convenient. I could speak and act however the mood took me, and no one expected much of a reason.
Just then a commotion rose outside. A low murmuring.
"What is it?"
On the heels of my question the door burst inward, and a giant a full head taller than me came through.
"Your eldest brother is here, and you don't even step out to greet him?"
Geon Pyeong revealed himself, square jaw clenched stubbornly shut, a menacing presence rolling off him.
So we meet at last.
Of the Geon brothers of Golden Manor, the one who had held me cheapest of all now stood in front of me.
Feet propped on the table, Geon Pyeong stared holes through me where I sat across from him.
"I wondered why a gyeokgu-mad fool like you never showed for the tournament. Turns out you did something downright admirable."
"What's it to you, Brother?"
Ordinarily, even Geon A-seong had never been able to hold his head up beneath Geon Pyeong's ferocity. I kept my eyes off his as best I could and played the part.
"Heh. Any other day I'd have beaten the manners into you."
"......"
"I'm in a fine mood today, so I'll let it pass. Thanks to you, a tooth that's been aching finally came out."
He looked thoroughly delighted by my death. A shame for him. I'm perfectly alive.
"Just now the Grand Manager left pouring sweat. What were you grilling him over this time?"
"Mother says she's going to kill me."
"What?"
"She said if I don't show real results, she'll take my life for killing that Geon-gon bastard!!!"
"Oh, wonderful. Once you're dead, is the third the only one left worth my notice?"
"Isn't that a bit much?"
"What great brotherly love did you think there was between us?"
I frowned.
"What did you come for?"
"To see what you're up to — and to make you an offer."
"An offer?"
"That girl you're so hungry for. Seol-ha."
"......"
"I've decided to take her under me. From what I can see, she'll be of far more use in my hands than in yours."
Only natural, perhaps. For Geon Pyeong, weighing the fight over the succession, gathering talent was as ordinary as breathing and eating.
"I don't think she'll do."
He snorted, laughing at me. At Geon A-seong, to be precise.
"You never had the authority to decide in the first place. Mother has already permitted me to take her. This is merely notice, for you."
"Even if you are my brother, there's no way Mother agreed so easily. Seol-ha is a talent she covets herself."
"Oh?"
"She must have told you to get my consent. Mother never stops putting us to the test. She'll have ordered you to persuade me and bring my agreement back. I don't know the reason, but..."
I grinned.
"You came in person because you need my help. Isn't that right?"
Geon Pyeong's face hardened.
"Not bad. Have I underestimated you? You are of this family's blood, after all."
"So?"
"There's something you've been coveting from me all this time."
When I said nothing, he explained it himself.
"The treasured blade Father bestowed on me with his own hands. The Moonlit Sword. Deep Heavenly Stone went into the forging — a sword you wouldn't begrudge a fortune for. Don't ask for more. I'm already pricing this generously."
I shook my head at the man laying down his threat.
"Doesn't tempt me. Keep it."
"What? Has he actually gone mad?"
Irritation seeped into Geon Pyeong, and his savage presence surfaced.
"Know your place. Don't make your brother beat you until you're begging to be spared."
"Whether Mother kills me or you do, it comes to the same thing. If I die, you don't get what you want."
"Your spirit's high today, isn't it? How dare you. So what is it? There's something else you want?"
"Just now I ordered every asset I own converted into this manor's drafts."
"What? Hahaha. You've gone completely out of your mind. What is it — taking holy orders now?"
"What do you think I'm going to do?"
"What could the likes of you do? If you weren't my brother, you'd have died by my hand just like that Geon-gon bastard."
To Geon Pyeong, sneering in the open, I drove the point home without raising my voice. What he hated most was being stripped of something he owned.
"Brother. You're short of money right now, aren't you? You spent it all lately, bidding on the rights to that silver mine."
"......"
"So tell me. If, at a moment like this, I lock down the cloud-binding cloth that keeps the damp off the winter shipments — and the cheap textiles with it — what do you think happens? It would be a killing blow for you."
And it would. The businesses in Geon Pyeong's charge — minerals, salt works, arms — all of them lived and died by transport. Sensitive ores, especially, had to be shielded from the damp and the cold of winter.
I smiled.
He seemed to catch something wrong in it. Irritation broke past itself into a roar edged with rage.
"You dog!! How dare you come at your own brother! Shall I beat you like a dog? You think Mother will simply stand by and watch? This would cost the manor itself!!"
He seized me by the collar. I answered him with the smile still on my face.
"And in exchange, you'd be the one coming apart and running to Mother for help. That would leave quite the impression, wouldn't it? Isn't that what Mother wants from me?"
The eldest would not be able to endure refusing my offer now.
What remained was to take from him the one thing I absolutely had to hold while Golden Manor still existed. He was the one holding it. Not that the fool had the faintest sense of what it was truly worth.