The Head of the Northern Heavens, Episode 2
“...!”
Wang Ho swallowed hard and stared at me with trembling eyes.
He clearly had never imagined I would go so far as to accuse him of embezzlement outright.
“Y-You misunderstand! Embezzlement? I never intended anything of the sort!”
“Then I suppose you’ll have to draw up the records again from the beginning. This time, make sure the figures actually match.”
“Y-Young Lord. Elder Wang is overseeing this matter. You know what will happen if Elder Wang learns of this, don’t you?”
Wang Ho spoke with a vile little smile.
To be honest, it was absurd.
Now that he thought he was about to be exposed, he was shameless enough to start hiding behind Wang Jin’s name. The sheer brazenness of it almost made me feel pathetic for the clan, knowing this kind of man had been entrusted with the post of chief administrator.
I spoke to him in a mocking tone.
“So Elder Wang Jin ordered you to skim off the money? Then I suppose we’ve just learned who the hidden funds belong to. Thank you for the testimony.”
“What? N-No, that’s not what I—”
“And Wang Ho. As the Young Lord of the Northern Heavenly Sword Sect and acting head of the clan, I hereby strip you of your office as chief administrator and pass judgment on you. Your punishment will be...”
I drew the sword hanging at my waist.
Shing.
The harsh metallic rasp rang through the room.
“One arm severed, and ten years in the Thunder Prison should suffice.”
“What?!”
Wang Ho blanched in shock.
Because there was no mistaking it—nothing about my words sounded like a joke.
He had realized I truly meant to cut off his arm and throw him into prison.
“...”
He glared at me fiercely.
There was a great deal of anger in his eyes. Rather than recognizing his wrongdoing and showing remorse, he looked utterly unable to bear the mix of grievance and fury boiling inside him.
“Young Lord, you should put the sword away. I’d hate to see you injure yourself swinging it carelessly. You might even end up bedridden like the Lord himself.”
“Is that a threat? I had no idea you were suddenly so concerned for my health.”
“If you truly mean to strike me with that sword, then I’ll have no choice but to defend myself.”
“Haha. You sound quite confident you can beat me barehanded.”
“...”
Wang Ho did not answer.
But judging by the way he clenched his fists, he clearly thought no answer was necessary.
And in truth, that was only natural.
At this point in time, I—the Young Lord of the Northern Heavenly Sword Sect—was infamous for being such a sickly invalid that I barely had the strength to stand, just like my father.
I had become Young Lord only because I was the sole direct heir, but I was so frail and weak-willed that people openly said I lacked the qualifications to ever become clan head.
I spent a long time believing it was simply because I was ill.
But when I later learned it had all been the result of poison...
My chest burned as though a raging fire had been lit inside it.
No, calm down.
The important thing right now was Wang Ho standing in front of me.
I deliberately swung my sword clumsily, aiming for his arm.
With a sneer, he twisted his body aside and drove his fist forward in the same motion.
The force packed into that punch was considerable.
If the current me took it badly, I really could be seriously hurt.
“Get some sleep and cool your head, Young Lord!”
Trusting in his uncle, Elder Wang, Wang Ho acted with reckless aggression.
I intentionally twisted my body only halfway and took the blow.
Crack!
Whether the bone had broken or not, a sharp surge of pain shot through my arm.
And yet, despite the pain, I almost smiled.
Because this was exactly what I had been aiming for from the start.
“So now you finally show your true colors. To your crimes, I can now add attempted murder of the Young Lord of the Northern Heavenly Sword Sect.”
“You tried to kill me for no reason at all. I merely struck back.”
“Is that so?”
It happened in that instant.
“...!”
The sword in my hand suddenly bent at a strange angle.
Startled, Wang Ho stumbled back.
He must never have imagined a sword technique like this could come from my hand.
Thanks to that, the momentum shifted completely to my side.
“Chief Administrator Wang Ho. Your crimes are as follows.”
As I swung my sword in a wide diagonal arc, I spoke.
“First: falsifying documents and embezzling money that should rightfully have gone to the clan and its martial warriors, enriching yourself in the process.”
“...!”
“Second: resisting the lawful punishment personally decreed by me, the acting head of the clan, for that offense. In doing so, you defied the sacred laws of this family.”
“What are you—”
“And third, most important of all: inflicting genuine bodily harm upon the Young Lord and attempting to assassinate him.”
The sword I thrust out writhed like a snake and slit across Wang Ho’s throat.
“For these three crimes, I sentence you to death.”
Slash!
A fountain of blood burst forth, staining the acting head’s office crimson.
Wang Ho’s body, his throat split wide open, collapsed like a puppet with its strings cut.
Bathed in his hot blood, I looked down at the corpse.
And only then could I truly feel it.
This sensation... it’s real.
I had truly returned to the past.
Thud!
Wang Ho’s beheaded body toppled forward onto the floor.
Blood poured out of him and ruined the office.
Now then. What should I do next?
It wouldn’t be ideal if I looked completely unharmed, either.
After a brief moment of thought, I pulled out a dagger.
Then—slice.
I drew it lightly across the side of my neck, creating a shallow cut.
A thin line of blood trailed down along it.
Satisfied with the sight, I placed the dagger in Wang Ho’s hand.
A short while later—
“What in the... Gah!”
Clan warriors, apparently drawn by the commotion, threw the door open and froze in shock.
The office was drenched in blood, there was a blade mark on my neck, and once I rolled back my sleeve, a large bruise could be seen on my arm as well.
“What in the world...”
“Young Lord, what happened here?!”
“Chief Administrator Wang Ho tried to kill me.”
“...!”
At my calm declaration, the warriors stared in disbelief.
“Chief Administrator Wang tried to kill you, Young Lord? What do you mean?”
Among them, a martial artist named Mak Yang-ji—the one who seemed to be in charge—asked in alarm.
I looked down at Wang Ho’s corpse and explained in an even tone.
“I found evidence of serious embezzlement in the documents Wang Ho submitted. When I pressed him about it, he tried to threaten me instead. So when I moved to punish him, he decided to kill me outright.”
“...!”
“Originally, I intended to subdue him alive and make him answer for his crimes. But my skills were lacking, and I had no choice but to kill him. That is all.”
“I-It’s hard to believe. To think Chief Administrator Wang would do such a thing...”
“Hard to believe?”
That was a slip of the tongue.
I narrowed my eyes sharply.
“Then are you suggesting I inflicted these wounds on myself?”
The cut on my neck was one thing, but the traces of fist technique on my arm were not something I could have produced on my own.
At the very least, it proved that Wang Ho had attacked me.
“N-No! I misspoke. My apologies.”
That was why Mak Yang-ji hastily bowed his head and apologized.
The ridiculous sight nearly drew a snort from me.
“Be more careful with your words in the future. It does not sit well with me to hear you defend a man who tried to kill me—to my face, no less.”
“I-I will keep that in mind.”
Mak Yang-ji’s expression turned strange.
It was the face of a man who could not believe this was real.
And that was only natural. Hadn’t I always been a weak figure, incapable of even raising my voice at those beneath me?
But now that same man was controlling the entire situation.
Mak Yang-ji and the rest of the clan warriors could do nothing but stand there dumbly and listen to my report after the fact.
Under normal circumstances, it would have been unimaginable.
Yet this was reality.
And so Mak Yang-ji could do nothing at all.
“In any case, now that you understand the situation, clean this up at once. The office is filthy, and it offends me.”
“Y-Yes, understood. Move Chief Administrator Wang’s body!”
Mak Yang-ji directed his men, and they carried away Wang Ho’s corpse.
Meanwhile, I took some wound medicine from the supplies in the room and applied it to my neck.
As for the injury to my arm... fortunately, the bone isn’t broken.
I had taken the blow on purpose to create proof that it had been a two-sided struggle, but if the bone had actually broken, it would have been a serious nuisance.
Recovery would have taken far too long.
In any case, the emergency treatment was done. There was no reason to waste time.
I left the office at once and headed for the Law Enforcement Hall, the branch that upheld and enforced the clan’s laws.
“Y-Young Lord? What brings you here...?”
The Hall Leader and the martial artists of the Law Enforcement Hall looked stunned.
Anyone in the clan would have recognized me as the acting head in name only, a mere puppet. And now that same man had come personally to the Law Enforcement Hall.
On top of that, I looked as though I had just survived an assassination attempt.
“I’ve come to file a formal accusation.”
“An accusation?”
“Yes. Against Chief Administrator Wang Ho, for corruption and treasonous conduct.”
“...!”
But after hearing my purpose, they were even more shocked.
They had just learned that Wang Ho had not only committed corruption, but had also tried to assassinate me.
To make sure they wouldn’t doubt me, I handed over the records I had brought in advance.
“These documents are proof that Wang Ho embezzled money. And these wounds are proof that he tried to kill me.”
“We will search Chief Administrator Wang’s residence immediately.”
“Please do.”
Fortunately, Seo Un-hwi, the leader of the Law Enforcement Hall, was not one of the parasites gnawing away at the clan like Wang Ho.
Even in my first life, he had simply carried out his duties in silence.
Because of that, I could trust him with the matter.
Perhaps because I had moved quickly, the warriors of the Law Enforcement Hall found pile after pile of silver coins in Wang Ho’s residence before even half a shichen had passed.
No matter how one looked at it, the amount was far too great for a chief administrator’s salary to explain.
They had uncovered the money Wang Ho had been skimming all this time.
The incident turned the entire clan upside down.
It would have been explosive enough for one of the chief administrators to be exposed for embezzling clan funds.
But Wang Ho had done more than that—during the process, he had attacked me, the Young Lord, and tried to silence me permanently.
If things had gone slightly differently, I might have been murdered.
Naturally, the repercussions were immense.
The Law Enforcement Hall went so far as to summon and investigate all those connected to the affair on a massive scale.
And amid all that chaos—
“Huu...”
I, the very person who had set the whole incident in motion, stood alone in the training ground reserved only for the clan head and his successor.
I had already done all that could be done for the moment, and before taking my next step, I wanted time to sort through the situation.
First of all, I have returned to the past.
There was no room for doubt.
At first, I had wondered if it was merely a dying hallucination, but the sensation of gripping a sword and cutting down Wang Ho had been far too vivid to dismiss as an illusion.
And the most likely cause is the Head’s Seal Ring in my possession.
But for some reason, the seal ring had not reacted at all afterward.
It was as if it had fulfilled its purpose and gone still.
Perhaps it can never be used again.
That was fine.
Simply sending me back to the past had already made its value beyond measure.
And I had no intention of wasting this opportunity.
Somehow, no matter what it took, I would use it to change the future.
So what should I do?
The answer was simple.
First, I need to become stronger.
In the past, the greatest reason I had been tossed around by others again and again was because I had been weak.
I had ascended to the seat of clan head without any real preparation, and so I had possessed no power of my own.
Of course, that had been exactly what they wanted.
I would not be such a fool as to fall for the same trick twice.
At the very least, I needed enough strength to protect myself.
In that case, first...
I decided to do what only I could do.
Drawing in a slow breath, I began circulating one of the martial arts I had obtained near the end of my previous life.
The martial art that had transformed the once-feeble me into a warrior beyond the Harmony Realm now unfolded once more.