Chapter 18
Chapter 18: "So."
The next day, at the Andong Kim Clan Main House.
Seated at the head of the hall, Patriarch Kim Jung-heon of the Andong Kim Clan gazed down with narrowed eyes.
In the meeting room off to one side of the main house, Yu Sang-hyun stood with his head bowed toward him, while a line of court nobles and high officials from the capital looked down at him.
"Is that all you have to say?"
"Yes. It pains me as a father that my daughter has vanished like this... but that failing lies with me, for not keeping proper watch over her. It is my own oversight, and no fault of those gathered here."
Kim Jung-heon had summoned Yu Sang-hyun to inform him of A-rin's death and express his regrets. If the man had gone berserk, it would have given them cause to detain him. And if, in the process, he had killed any gold army or other nobles, they could have peered into his mind under the pretext of criminal interrogation.
But this man, Yu Sang-hyun, had done no such thing.
Quite the opposite.
Overnight, his head had cooled, he claimed. He never knew his daughter possessed such power, he said—behaving no better than a petty small-minded fool.
"Hah! Even as your daughter goes missing, you harbor not a shred of doubt...?"
"Even a rough soldier from the frontier knows the ways of the nobility. I understand the laws of Hanseong."
"If the Iron Tiger Commander is such a man, then we can rest easy about Hamgyong Province for the time being."
The reactions from the surrounding nobles weren't bad either. Some sneered at Yu Sang-hyun. Others looked down on him in contempt. They must have found it amusing, how he thrashed about desperate to survive even after his daughter's death.
No matter how lowly the frontier rabble, they hold the front lines against the monsters. Provoking them further isn't wise.
In the end, Kim Jung-heon made his decision.
There was no gain in escalating the incident here, and no need to stir up these men over a done deal.
"...Since the Minister of Justice has spoken thus, I shall not pursue the matter further myself."
As Kim Jung-heon opened his mouth, the murmuring nobles fell silent all at once.
"The use of ability against Young Master Kim Hyun-woo was a rampage triggered by the sudden awakening of her power—a backlash of ability overload. The perpetrator, Miss Yu A-rin, perished from the recoil of that same overload. Thus, no further blame can be assigned."
"......"
"As proxy for the victim, Kim Hyun-woo, I request leniency for the perpetrator, Miss Yu A-rin, and her father, General Yu Sang-hyun."
Leniency.
The word was enough to turn a listener's stomach. Treating the father of a slain daughter as the perpetrator, then granting forgiveness like some magnanimous favor.
Yet Yu Sang-hyun, bearing the full weight of that insult, showed no particular reaction to the end.
"I am deeply grateful for the Left Prime Minister's magnanimity."
He merely said that and bowed his head.
Watching him, Kim Jung-heon spoke in a slightly softened tone.
"...I also convey my profound regrets to General Yu for the tragic loss of your daughter in this unforeseen accident. On behalf of the clan, we shall provide a modest consolation payment."
"......"
"You may go now. I regret subjecting you to such successive misfortunes."
With Yu Sang-hyun offering a final bow and turning to leave, the clustered nobles began departing in twos and threes one by one.
Their faces were refreshed, as if a rotten tooth had finally been pulled.
But one among those nobles—Kim Jung-heon himself—did not share their ease.
"Duk-hun."
"Yes, my lord."
"Put men on Yu Sang-hyun. Until he leaves Hanseong."
At Kim Jung-heon's words, his bodyguard asked back.
"You mean to keep him under surveillance? The matter is already settled..."
"Yes, settled. Far too cleanly, in fact."
Kim Jung-heon stared at Yu Sang-hyun's receding figure in the distance.
"The central nobles may scorn them as frontier trash pushed to the edges... but the Iron Tiger Army is no pushover."
"......"
"They're like untamed tigers, that lot. If Yu Sang-hyun were truly the petty sort to laugh off his own daughter's death, the Iron Tigers would have ripped out his throat long ago."
"Then... General Yu was acting?"
"Indeed. He must have been."
It would have been better if he'd raged.
If he'd lost his mind demanding they bring back his daughter, things would have been much simpler.
They could have found a pretext and wiped him out entirely.
But instead of fury, the man chose submission.
Pretending to be a brainless fool obsessed only with his own survival, just like the elders crammed into the center of power.
All while sharpening his blade of vengeance against those who took his daughter's life.
"Washing away the king's bloodline was fortunate, but it's left us with a new thorn. Still..."
Compared to the incident's gravity, it was a bargain.
With that, Kim Jung-heon slowly rose from his seat.
He couldn't afford to dawdle further, with the next event looming.
"Don't make me laugh!"
A holographic letter shattered against the wall amid the shout.
Sparks flew from the fragments.
But Kim Hyun-woo paid them no mind, bellowing into the empty air.
"'Weakened from ability overload'? You're telling me they killed that bitch with that ridiculous excuse?!"
What flashed in Kim Hyun-woo's mind was the sensation from that moment.
The girl, Yu A-rin, who had caught up to him with just a glance.
The blinding golden radiance, his shattered aura.
The gut-wrenching pain, the thick taste of defeat.
And now she was dead? From ability overload?
Absurd.
That girl who had blasted him away. Those eyes that looked down on him like an insect—how could they belong to some frail weakling?!
"Young master, isn't this actually a good thing?"
But his bodyguard, Ho-cheol, asked with genuine puzzlement.
"That girl, Yu A-rin, had power surpassing your own. The patriarch disposed of her at the perfect moment. Seems like a win to me..."
"No. The opposite!"
Grinding his teeth, Kim Hyun-woo spat.
"With me here, the pinnacle of our generation's aura, Father personally mobilized the Royal Guard to kill her. Do you not grasp what that means?"
No answer was needed.
He hadn't really asked anyway.
"Father has already judged it. That I couldn't beat her! No matter how much I grow, beating that girl was impossible from the start...!"
This audience had been more crucial to Kim Hyun-woo than anything.
A chance to display his power to Joseon's nobility, to cement who would rule Joseon.
And that girl—that lowly wench from the frontier—had ruined it all.
"So she... she couldn't just die like that."
"......"
"I had to do it myself. Tear her apart in front of everyone—that's what would have mattered!"
Yes, that's how it should have been.
But now that the bitch was dead...
"I'd be left forever branded the loser...!"
His furious outburst dissolved into tear-choked lament.
His first defeat in life.
A crushing loss where he couldn't even resist—it had twisted something deep inside Kim Hyun-woo.
His trembling rage had nowhere to go.
But only for a moment.
"So, losing to that girl troubles you so deeply."
"......!"
He snapped his gaze upward at the voice from above.
Left Prime Minister Kim Jung-heon.
His father looked down with the same icy eyes as always.
"I came worried after hearing you'd been injured, only to find such petty thoughts. Who is strong, who is weak..."
Ho-cheol had already assumed a rigid stance, head bowed.
He must have sensed his father's arrival but been silenced.
"If you aspire to lead the clan, remember this: whether one's power is great or small, strong or weak—it means nothing."
"Then what is important?"
"Survival."
Kim Jung-heon approached the hospital window as he spoke.
"Surviving, and constantly watching the feet beneath you."
The private ward in the Andong Kim Clan Main House.
Below the window stretched an endless carpet of Hanseong's skyscrapers.
"Drag down those at the top by their heels. Sever the arms of those rising from below, so they can never climb again."
"......"
"That's how the Andong Kim Clan reached this seat."
Finished, Kim Jung-heon turned his gaze to Kim Hyun-woo.
Too young to fully grasp it, perhaps.
Taking a breath, he spoke in a gentler tone.
"You did your part. An unexpected variable caused some chaos, but you succeeded in imprinting your power on the elders."
"Then...!"
Kim Hyun-woo blurted it out before he could stop himself, and Kim Jung-heon looked at him.
Should he speak?
He hesitated, but opened his mouth anyway.
"Then why must we remain on the same level as them?"
"Remain?"
Kim Jung-heon crossed his arms, as if to say, go on.
"Didn't you see it, Father? Those fools who couldn't even match half my aura!"
"......"
"And with the gold army and Royal Guard fully under our control, the Andong Kim Clan wields power on another level entirely. Even if they all banded together, they couldn't touch us!"
Yet Kim Jung-heon observed protocol with them, showed respect.
And he himself—possessor of the generation's greatest aura.
Beings fundamentally superior—yet forced to cling to dusty traditions, standing shoulder-to-shoulder with them.
"But you lost. To a wench from the frontier."
"......!"
"Does that make you truly superior?"
Stunned into silence, Kim Hyun-woo pressed on.
"If you'd given me more time, I could have killed her myself."
"Killed her yourself? Meaning..."
His eloquence faltered for a moment.
"You fancy yourself a king?"
The shocking words slipped from Kim Jung-heon's lips.
Even Ho-cheol standing by gasped.
He had invoked changing the dynasty.
"Father, what are you suddenly...?"
Killing that girl—and those words—how could they connect?
But as he mulled it over, Kim Hyun-woo's eyes widened.
The power that girl had shown.
The nobles' bizarre overreactions.
And now, his father's mention of "king."
Putting it all together, something dawned on him.
"That girl...?"
"Exactly as you think."
Stunned, Kim Hyun-woo fell silent for a long stretch.
But only briefly.
"...I don't think she was unworthy of it."
"Hoh."
At the unexpected response, Kim Jung-heon turned to face his son.
"Good."
Angry? No, not quite.
But his expression was inscrutable—joyous, perhaps, or mocking.
"Then first, there's something you must see."
"Something to see?"
"Yes. More precisely... someone you must meet."
As he spoke, a knock came at the hospital room door.
A palace eunuch from the Department of the Royal Household entered.
He bowed deferentially, as if ready to escort Kim Hyun-woo.
"Dress properly and proceed to the designated place. The other young heirs will be waiting."
"So formal, for a meeting? Who is it?"
"You truly don't know?"
The reason today's event bore the name "audience."
Muttering that, Kim Jung-heon slowly spoke.
"You will have an audience with His Majesty the King, the kingdom's sovereign."