The Gamblers' Gate — Part 1
"What do you plan to do now?"
We had pulled Lady Ha-yeon back from the brink, but outside these walls, the civil war within Haomen was still raging in full swing.
After reaching our dramatic accord, my father-in-law and I turned to discussing what came next.
"...If it were up to my heart alone, I'd vanish with my daughter this very instant."
Uncle Wang sat beside the sickbed, his face hollowed by grief, answering me as he gazed down at his unconscious daughter.
"Uncle Wang."
"I know, I know. If I did that, everything you and my daughter have bled for would come to nothing. It's just... after ten years, to finally meet again and have it turn out like this. A man's allowed one lament, isn't he?"
"I understand. When Lady Ha-yeon's life hung in the balance before, I raised the idea myself more than once. And every single time, she refused."
"Of course she did. Fleeing now would make her no different from the girl who ran all those years ago. And besides..."
Uncle Wang nodded slowly, then turned to me with a faint smile.
"...?"
"Do you really think this child could ever leave you behind?"
"Ha... that was certainly no small part of it."
I nodded, laughing awkwardly at myself.
"It's infuriating how you don't even bother denying it. And doubly so, since there's no way around it."
With a smile that betrayed mild annoyance, Uncle Wang brushed off his clothes and rose from his seat.
"Hahaha."
"Right, then. If we disappeared now, there's no telling where that madman's rampage would end, and I'd feel sorry for the men left out there besides. To be honest, I want to settle the score of the past ten years once and for all. And..."
Uncle Wang knitted his brow and stared out the window.
"Is there something more you desire?"
"I want to find the antidote for my daughter."
"That's far too dangerous."
My answer came immediately, my face set like stone.
It wasn't as though the antidote was truly necessary. Even if Lady Ha-yeon had to endure a few hard years, so long as other medicine could eventually heal her, there was no reason to court such risk.
Besides, I had already confirmed that the power of the Defier of Destiny worked on her, just as it had with Hwarin. Far better to persuade her to retire the Shadowless Divine Thief altogether — let her recuperate in peace and lend me a hand with my own work now and then.
I laid all of this out for him, but Uncle Wang only shook his head.
"What kind of father watches his daughter suffer and feels nothing? What kind of father could bear to see her in pain for years on his account — a father who never gave her a single thing his whole life?"
"Uncle Wang."
"Naturally, I've no intention of handing that madman the Mangju's seat. We'll simply have to find another way. Although, now that you mention it..."
Uncle Wang glanced warily around the room, then looked at me.
"Yes?"
Did he have something else to ask? I waited on his next words, and out came a question I hadn't seen coming at all.
"The Heavenly Killing Star — where has that child gone?"
"Circumstances beyond our control forced us to part ways for a time."
"What a pity. With her at our side, we could have used her help."
Uncle Wang smacked his lips, looking genuinely disappointed.
Uncle Wang, I don't think you quite grasp the situation. One So-hee alone would be more than enough raw force — she'd practically be an excess.
If So-hee suddenly showed up, we might well be able to solve everything with one good scream.
'The real question, of course, was whether So-hee could ever bring herself to accept Lady Ha-yeon or Lady Jegal.'
So-hee, you know your oppa loves you, right? Then who are those women standing behind you? And just like that, the single greatest crisis of my life would come crashing down.
'Was there truly no way to find Lady Ha-yeon's antidote?'
If we could only get our hands on it, she wouldn't need years of convalescence at all. Her internal energy would keep compounding, and having grown so strong without ever swallowing a single worthwhile elixir, her realm would advance by leaps and bounds.
The trouble was, the risk was simply too great...
While I sat lost in silent deliberation, a member of the Tumun opened the door.
"Former Branch Master. The members who have come back to their senses wish to pay their respects."
"Let's step out for a moment."
I nodded and followed him out of the room.
"Branch Master!"
Outside, the warriors of the Tumun — the poison driven from their bodies — knelt in ranks, waiting for us.
"Your branch master lies in there."
Uncle Wang snorted and answered, jabbing a finger toward the room.
"Then punish me, by your authority as Former Branch Master! The man who betrayed us this time was one I invited here myself, from half a province away!"
"No! He came attached to me! Had I only noticed him cozying up to the Domun dogs, none of this would have happened!"
"We all failed to guard the Tumun Branch Master! The fault belongs to every one of us!"
Uncle Wang heaved a deep sigh, swept his eyes once over the kneeling warriors, and waved a hand as though the whole business wearied him.
"Enough. If anything, it's a marvel that only one man betrayed me after I vanished for ten years."
"Branch Master!"
"How many times must I say it — I'm not your branch master anymore. I will see about this antidote. As for you all, look after my daughter. Once the new Tumun Branch Master is back on her feet, keep her safe."
Uncle Wang turned away, gazing off in the direction of the Yangtze River. Surely he didn't intend to walk into the Domun Branch Master's den alone, without so much as a plan.
I made to rush forward and stop him, but the other members' feet beat me to it.
"It's too dangerous to go as you are!"
"Out of my way. You're in it."
Uncle Wang's voice was immovable.
"Uncle Wang."
"Hm?"
At the sound of my voice, Uncle Wang — who hadn't shown the faintest intention of turning at the members' pleas — twisted his head around to look at me.
"Must you truly go after this antidote?"
"Does a worthless father staking his life for his daughter look foolish to you?"
A father's eyes smoldered with fury. The lips of a man who hadn't even managed a single greeting with the daughter he'd found again after ten years pressed into a hard, unyielding line.
Could I really have stopped him?
No. What I had to say to my father-in-law was no plea for him to stand down.
"Then let your no-good son-in-law lend an arm as well."
My father-in-law stared at me, thunderstruck.
A son-in-law stands with his father-in-law — that is simply how it's done. I couldn't show it on my face, but my chest, too, was burning with a fury every bit as fierce as his.
"Don't tell me you've actually thought of something?"
I nodded and looked around at our surroundings.
There was still time. The darkness was slowly draining from the sky, though the sun had yet to rise.
"Yes. And for that, I'll need everyone's help."
Using our fury as kindling, I began to unfold the plan I had been turning over in my mind.
"Now there's a welcome face."
As soon as day broke, my father-in-law and I made our way in secret to the place where the Branch Masters had gathered.
"It's been a long time, Gimun Branch Master. Strange, isn't it, how I seem to be the only one among us who's aged."
The moment Uncle Wang laid eyes on the Gimun Branch Master's face, he went briefly rigid with disbelief, then greeted her with a wry chuckle.
It truly was uncanny. The Simun Branch Master, the youngest of the bunch, still looked every one of his late forties, while the Gimun Branch Master could pass, at her most generous, for a woman in her late twenties.
"The Shadowless Divine Thief? Or should I say the former one, now? To think I'd live to see that face again. So this is why a man ought to live long."
"It's been a while for you as well, Simun Branch Master."
The Simun Branch Master received us just as warmly.
"Tsk, tsk. The faces we most needed to see, and not one of them showed. Will you not tell us what has happened?"
The Gimun Branch Master watched Uncle Wang exchange a brief reunion with the other masters, then gestured with her eyes at the empty seat beside me, her face clouded with worry.
"Gimun Branch Master. About that..."
I explained to the assembled Branch Masters everything that had transpired the night before.
"Poison, you say? Even knowing she had become the new Tumun Branch Master? That madman has finally gone all the way off the edge!"
"And that same madman has called for a meeting this evening."
Uncle Wang answered with a bitter twist of his mouth.
"This evening?"
"I hear the Gimun took heavy losses. Can you lend us your strength?"
"I've kept plenty in reserve — more than enough to cave that bastard's skull in."
The long pipe clutched in the Gimun Branch Master's hand trembled with fury.
"The Mamun succeeded in bleeding the Domun with last night's ambush. The trouble is, we took punishing losses of our own."
"Our Simun kept its strength intact by holing up and holding fast, but how many of my waiters can actually swing a blade? Counting real fighting power, we're about level with the Mamun and the Gimun as they stand now."
"The Tumun can field only those of our people who managed to sweat the poison out through the wager."
"The situation is anything but favorable."
On paper, the Domun alone swallowed up sixty percent of Hubei Province's strength. Granted, they'd been bled badly by our piecemeal counterattacks, but even pooling everything we had might still fall short.
"The madman spent the better part of ten years preparing for this day. Done properly, the Domun could have taken on the rest of us combined all by themselves."
The Simun Branch Master said, shrugging his shoulders.
"'Done properly,' you say?"
Properly meaning not now, then. Could there be some good news here I hadn't heard?
When I asked the Simun Branch Master with wide eyes, I found the other masters all watching me with faint smiles on their faces.
What was this about?
The Simun Branch Master opened his mouth, grinning from ear to ear.
"Something not one of the Branch Masters gathered in this room could pull off — our lucky charm managed it."
The Simun Branch Master came over and clapped me on the shoulder as he said it.
Ah. So that was what he meant. He was talking about how I'd lured the Domun warriors into the formation last night and sent every last one of them to their graves. Far more of them had poured in than I'd expected, and they'd all crossed over in a single instant — no wonder their losses were catastrophic.
"I was merely fortunate. Without the toil of you Branch Masters, how could I ever have baited the Domun dogs into the trap?"
"Spare me the false modesty. Thanks to you, the Domun's main force took a savage blow. As things stand, the fight is at least worth having."
"The problem is that even at its very best, the outcome is ruin for both sides. No matter who wins, Haomen's power in Hubei Province will vanish without a trace."
"You've said it. We crawled up out of the cracks between the orthodox sects to build all this — and now it looks like it'll end on my watch."
At the Mamun Branch Master's words, the Simun Branch Master nodded with a long, theatrical sigh.
"The orthodox bastards must be positively delighted. An unorthodox power that was set to swell its strength across the northern river has simply evaporated into thin air."
The Gimun Branch Master drew deep on her pipe and murmured a lament of her own.
"All four Branch Masters sit gathered here. If you were to declare formally that you do not recognize the Domun Branch Master, wouldn't his faction collapse?"
The original plan had been to install Lady Ha-yeon as the Tumun Branch Master before the civil war ever ignited, and strangle the crisis in its cradle.
Couldn't we still do it, even now? I put the question to the Simun Branch Master.
"Collapse in the end, yes. Had war not already broken out, it would have settled things cleanly. But civil war has begun, and so the problem is time."
"What do you mean, time?"
"Civil war — and poison slipped to a fellow Branch Master on top of it. He's a man who crossed the line long ago, then crossed a dozen more beyond it. We'd best consider where a madman like that will aim his fury next."
The Gimun Branch Master spoke as she watched the smoke of her long draw unravel into the empty air.
The smoke blurred our sight and left its thick, bitter scent hanging long after it had scattered into nothing at all. Much like the Domun Branch Master himself.
"A gambler who has lost everything and seethes with rage has only two moves left at the table — draw his blade and be killed, or kill."
"And unfortunately, that blade is pointed at us."
"Fight the civil war and we destroy each other. Avoid it and go into hiding, and in the meantime Haomen bleeds out all the same."
"..."
A heavy silence settled over the Branch Masters.
There was no advancing and no retreating. Even if we chose to clash rather than be butchered at our leisure, the Domun's strength was simply too overwhelming.
A situation where the best available outcome was mutual annihilation.
If anyone held a cleverer card, they kept it to themselves — every gaze stayed lowered in stifling quiet. We all knew how the story ended, and not one of us had a solution, and the air was thick enough with it to choke on.
Which is to say — the perfect moment to finally play what I'd been holding.
"What if I told you..."
The instant I spoke, every eye in the room swung to me.
"Hm?"
I poured iron into my voice — enough to ring with absolute conviction. Meeting each Branch Master's gaze in turn with eyes fixed in resolve, I opened my mouth.
"If there were a way to end all of this once and for all — would you follow my plan to the very letter?"
There is a way to win. I said it with a face full of certainty.
Uncle Wang, who had already heard my plan on the road here, dipped his head toward the masters in quiet endorsement.
The Gimun Branch Master studied me long and hard, then spoke with a faint smile. "That this affair has come as far as it has is entirely the work of your stratagem alone. What hardship could there be in following you one more time?"
"Looks to me like our Gimun Branch Master has been angling to butter up our youngest of late. She doesn't even know it was I who dug up that uncut gem and polished it for her."
"How could I ever forget the debt I owe the Simun Branch Master?"
"Do as you please, kid. A leader's only real job is trusting the people beneath him to do the work."
"This time, the Mamun will not go at it half-hearted."
"I trust you, and my daughter counts you as her other half. How could I doubt you?"
Bathed in the Branch Masters' gazes, heavy with trust, I stepped into their midst.
'At last. I've finally made it here.'
For the past ten days, I had turned today over in my mind countless times, all alone.
Even if events unfolded exactly as I had planned and we had prepared — what then, if the Domun Branch Master went berserk anyway?
What would I have to do to carve out the best possible ending?
"Then allow me to lay out my plan."
The cards were all in hand. Now came the hour to settle the game.