Round Two (1)
In my personal opinion, power is at its ugliest when it climbs into bed with merchants.
For the past decade and more, the privileges of the duchy had been carved up piece by piece by the trading companies the vassals had founded. The list of Ravenschade's crimes submitted to the courts was long enough to fill a published volume on its own.
Amending the law at will to grant tax exemptions, guaranteeing monopolies over merchandise, handing out public works contracts without so much as a bid—the catalog went on and on.
They had devoured everything so thoroughly that they'd even monopolized the market for the votive candles used on the saints' feast days.
Apparently the Treasury had been keeping an eye on all of this for a long time. Until now, though, they'd had no way to touch it—Marbel and Chris would have been in the way.
But I had no lingering attachment to either of them.
Seven years' suspension of business.
The administrative penalty handed down to Ravenschade amounted to a death sentence.
"The world doesn't always turn according to the law, my lord."
"You'll be seeing each other's faces for years to come. Why go out of your way to stir up a hornet's nest?"
Countless nobles came all the way to the ducal residence to cajole and threaten me, but a young creature has no sense of fear to begin with. I did not waver back and forth; I executed the law exactly as written.
Needless to say, executing the law did not mean I lived happily ever after. The backlash began the moment my gavel came down.
"The theater under construction has ground to a halt—"
"A logistics crisis has—"
"The unemployed are pouring into the streets in protest—"
Bonds worth tens of millions were issued just to cover the immediate unemployment crisis and the investment losses.
The treasurer and the guild masters trampled the threshold of the ducal residence as if it were their own front door, and meetings ran around the clock in my office.
Lucian had said it himself—I'd need two bodies just to keep up.
But not every burden was mine to carry. Just as the nobles had yearned so earnestly for House Esterzy's fall, their own fall was someone else's opportunity. New nobles and new trading companies sprouted like bamboo shoots after rain.
Yes—a new age was dawning upon the duchy, whether anyone liked it or not.
◇◇◇◆◇◇◇
I rolled up my trouser cuffs and took off my shoes. The stream had swollen high from the rain that had fallen a couple of days ago, and I could see plump fish gliding through the green algae.
My master stood on the far embankment, hands clasped behind his back, and called out to me.
"Watch your footing carefully. Don't fall."
I splashed across the stream, deliberately startling the fish as I went.
"You rascal, mind yourself, I said!"
"This much is easy."
I grinned sheepishly, and my master clicked his tongue.
"Come along. We must cross the pass before the sun sets."
The mountain path was carpeted with fallen leaves that crunched and rustled beneath every step. The sun was laying itself down on the crest of the ridge.
Suddenly a longing welled up in my chest, soaking through to the bone. This moment felt like a dream, like a scene that would never come again.
"Why that expression? As if you've left something behind."
"It's nothing."
My master extended his hand and pointed at a peak beyond the pass.
"That peak is Jangsanbong—Long Mountain Peak. There's word a white tiger has been prowling beyond it."
"Rumors are just rumors, master."
My master burst into a hearty laugh.
"You never know what a day will bring. Who's to say this isn't the time a true spirit beast worthy of your medicine finally appears?"
In truth, I wasn't holding out much hope. I knew now that Cold Meridian Seizure was an incurable heavenly punishment.
And yet I walked the long road beside him all the same, because the time itself—journeying the world with my master—was treasure to me.
"Old master."
My master turned back to look at me. I met his wrinkled face squarely, and a swarm of tender, embarrassing emotions rose up in me beyond all restraint.
"Have you ever thought about this? That maybe there's a world out there where spirit beasts are so common that elixirs lie rolling through the marketplace."
Instead of words of thanks, what came out of my mouth was sheer nonsense.
"Talk of the Upper Realm, is it?"
My master smiled.
"Anywhere will do."
"You daft boy."
I scratched my head. We began climbing the pass again, and soon the sun slipped behind the ridge and darkness fell like a curtain.
"Old master."
I turned to look at him once more. But the old man who had been walking ahead was gone. Nothing remained but a vast, open plain stretching to the horizon.
And across that plain, war was raging. Armies of colossal scale were colliding head-on. They weren't people of the Central Plains—their dress was different, and every single one of them was a formidable master.
For His Highness the Grand Duke!
An unplaceable battle cry shook the field. A bad feeling settled over me. My head began to throb as if pierced by needles. I clutched my chest and bolted upright, eyes flying wide open.
······.
When my eyes opened, what greeted them was an old-fashioned room crammed with expensive furniture. It took me a moment to recognize it as my father's office.
So it was a dream.
Dusk had gathered outside the window; the clock read three in the morning. Documents lay strewn in disarray across the desk. I must have dozed off in the middle of reviewing them.
Even awake, though, that heavy ache in my chest lingered. When I lowered my head to look, I saw the flower of ice blooming across my abdomen.
So that's why it's been so quiet lately—and here it comes now.
Is this what they call trouble following good fortune?
I ran one cycle of qi circulation to settle the blood and energy boiling inside me.
As my eyelids drooped, my master's face rose up before me again. It was a strange thing. The old man's face, which I'd thought long forgotten, came back to life vividly in my mind.
How ironic. The moment I finally anchored my identity not as a Daoist but as the third son of the ducal house, I have this dream.
Had he wanted a proper farewell? Or perhaps—
That was when it happened. The wall of the office warped, and a figure clad head to toe in black burst through it. A dagger gleamed in his hand.
An assassin.
Of all the times—why now?
The figure crossed the room like lightning and swung the dagger. Still seated, I activated Transposition. The blade skimmed past my face by a single sheet of paper's width.
I saw the assassin's eyes flash. His irises had contracted to the size of pinpoints. This was not the gaze of a sane man.
Thunder Art—
Heavenly Bow of Thunderbolt!
The power of lightning gathered in both my palms. The man's lips parted, and a slender hidden weapon spat out from his mouth. I hurled a torrent of thunder directly at him.
Crackle-crackle-crackle.
He didn't even manage a scream. He simply became a lump of charcoal where he stood. Fire flared up where the current had seared, and the smell of burning meat rolled through the room on a cloud of smoke.
"...Hoo."
I leaned against the desk. Forcing my Daoist power to surge like that had thrown my blood and qi into chaos again. But the pain now wasn't from the seizure alone. When I raised my left arm, I saw it—a needle-thin hidden weapon buried in my forearm.
I dodged that perfectly, without a doubt. Then struck back.
Did he use some sure-hit ability, like Kalman's?
Worse, the blade of the weapon was purple. One look told me it was soaked through with a dangerously potent poison.
"Young master!"
Lily flung open the door and rushed in.
"Th-there's smoke—what on earth is—"
She came toward me waving her hands, then froze in horror at the sight of the weapon jutting from my forearm.
"Young master, you're bleeding!"
"It's nothing."
"Nothing? NOTHING?"
She let out a sharp cry and began ripping the hem of her apron with her bare hands. Pressing the makeshift bandage against my upper arm, she bellowed a lion's roar that seemed to rise straight from her dantian.
"Ser Theo, get up here this instant!"
At once the knights on night watch came crashing through after her.
"Lord Iden!"
"My lord!"
"I'll handle the young master—put out the fire!"
"Yes, ma'am!"
Lily's shout frightened the souls clean out of them. They doused the flames, called for a priest, and bustled about hunting for the assassin's entry route.
By the time the commotion settled, the bleeding had already stopped. The wound had been small to begin with. The weapon had been made to inject poison, so it had left nothing more than a little puncture hole in my arm.
And besides—Universal Antidote Needle was Universal Antidote Needle in this world too. The painstakingly applied poison neutralized itself inside my veins.
All of that for a truly tiny wound, and yet Lily wore the face of someone who had nearly lost the whole world. Seeing her grieve like that stirred an odd, needless guilt in me.
A little later, Colin made his entrance. He was already channeling holy power before he'd even crossed the threshold.
"Young Lord Iden, are you all right!"
"As you can see, I'm perfectly fi—"
"The rusted-out gall of these wretches!"
Colin came charging over in a towering rage. He seized my wrist and began pouring holy power into me with utter abandon. The light of the holy magic lit the office bright as noonday.
Before long, Thalia arrived as well. She approached me and bowed her head low before anything else.
"I apologize. I neglected your security."
"You've nothing to apologize for. You've been swamped lately."
Indeed, the knight order had been busier than even me these past weeks—holding the line against Grolocks in the undercity, grinding through the training schedule—and most recently they'd been deployed to the protest sites, hadn't they?
"Still, I should have anticipated it. They are not the kind of men to accept defeat gracefully."
There was no need to ask whom Thalia meant.
Ravenschade.
The secondary palace was laced through with formations I had laid myself. But the ducal residence had no such defenses—I was not yet its master, and I had no standing to plant talismans and arrays wherever I pleased. Which meant that if they wanted me dead, with me acting as lord-proxy, this was the perfect moment.
"The entry route was through the wall. An Awakened capable of merging with objects, most likely."
Thalia leaned in close over the charred corpse of the assassin.
"There won't be much left to examine. He wasn't exactly in a state fit for viewing."
"That's quite all right. From here on, you may leave it to us."
Thalia was not the type to show her emotions. And now she was visibly, unmistakably furious.
Strange as it sounds, surrounded by the people who cared for me, I felt I finally understood why my master had chosen to show his face again after so long.
He'd lived and died such an unhappy life before—of course the old man worried whether his worthless disciple was getting along.
Next time we meet, I'll tell him: I'm happy. You needn't worry about me in this life.
"I'm all healed now, Colin."
I rose from my seat. While the wound was being healed, the seizure's rebellion had been brought back under control. All that remained was the damp trace of melted ice on the floor.
I looked around at the wrecked office.
Frankly, it would have hurt less if they'd smashed my own palace instead. Watching my father's belongings lie broken made my blood boil.
But then again—
This is a declaration that the battle of law and institutions is over, isn't it?
Round Two is about to begin. I wonder how confident they are on that front.