The Time to Pay for Your Crimes
It could only be expected.
After all, my granduncle had left the Northern Heavenly Sword Sect more than twenty years ago.
And yet that very man had returned...
No wonder everyone was stunned.
Even so, his influence had not faded in the slightest.
Most of the senior figures gathered here were already in their forties or older. Every one of them had served the Northern Heavenly Sword Sect since the days when my granduncle was still active at its center.
Which meant they all knew exactly how strong he was.
"L-Lord Ho-geon..."
One of the elders spoke in a trembling voice.
But my granduncle answered only with icy contempt.
"...!"
Rumble...
The pressure pouring from my granduncle crushed the entire conference hall beneath it.
The senior members' faces turned even paler.
Just from that aura alone, anyone could tell his power had only grown stronger with time. It certainly had not weakened.
"M-My apologies!"
In the end, the elder bowed his head at once and apologized.
Clicking his tongue, my granduncle swept a look over them all.
"I leave for a time on my own business, and in the meantime the clan turns into a complete cesspit. It's enough to make one's heart ache."
"Uncle, I am sorry."
"This is not your fault. The blame lies with the vile traitors who poisoned you and tried to seize the clan. Haa... If anything, I only regret that I could not help you sooner."
At those words, Father's eyes reddened.
It seemed the bond between the two of them had been quite deep.
My granduncle looked at Father with quiet affection for a moment, then his expression changed completely as he turned a sharp glare on Yi Tae-gyeom.
"Yi Tae-gyeom."
"...It has been a long time, Lord Ho-geon."
"Until now, I trusted you. I knew you had always coveted wealth and power, but I never thought you'd sink this low. And now I hear you've gone so far as to betray the clan and try to poison the Family Head?"
"Y-You misunderstand! I did no such thing!"
"Hmph. We'll see whether you can still say that after hearing the testimony. Enter!"
With that, my granduncle raised his voice and called out.
A moment later, one of the cooks of the Northern Heavenly Sword Sect stumbled inside, trembling like a leaf.
The instant he saw Father, he threw himself flat on the ground and cried out at the top of his lungs.
"I-I deserve death!"
"Cook Oh? Why are you..."
"I-I'm the one who mixed poison into the Family Head's meals, under the orders of the Head of the Elders' Council. Just a tiny amount, over the course of years, so you wouldn't notice..."
"W-What?!"
"Is that truly the case?!"
The senior members aligned with Father shot to their feet, eyes wide.
What had just been said was enough to turn the entire Northern Heavenly Sword Sect upside down.
This was the trump card I had prepared over the last two days.
From the beginning, I had already known who the culprit was, thanks to the knowledge of my first life.
And I also knew that Cook Oh had been suffering under gambling debts before falling for the temptation offered by the Head of the Elders' Council.
So yesterday, I met him in person, laid everything bare, and threatened him.
I told him I would spare his life—but only if he stabbed the Head of the Elders' Council in the back before we exposed him first.
Already half-crushed by guilt, Cook Oh accepted my offer.
This was the result.
"Cook Oh, you miserable bastard!"
"Head of the Elders' Council! Is this true?!"
Even Yi Tae-gyeom, of all people, seemed shaken by the enraged shouts of the senior members.
He leapt to his feet and shouted back.
"Y-You misunderstand! That dog is lying! Why would I ever try to harm the Family Head?!"
"Because the weaker the Family Head's authority became, the stronger the power of the Elders' Council grew."
My granduncle's voice was frigid.
"You intended to act as the true master of the Northern Heavenly Sword Sect in place of the bloodline of the Jin Family. Am I wrong?"
"L-Lord!"
"There's no need to hear any more of a traitor's drivel. Seize him and throw him into the prison below! Torture him if you must—do whatever it takes to make him confess every crime he's committed!"
Yi Tae-gyeom moved at once, trying to break free of his place and escape.
But I was faster.
I had already cut off his retreat and moved to block his path.
"Out of my way!"
Enraged, he lashed out at me.
I can feel it.
The flow of the wind told me where the attack would come from.
I wrapped a gentle breeze around my hand and used a grappling technique. My movement, now far smoother than before, intercepted Yi Tae-gyeom's strike.
"What?!"
"How is the Young Lord stopping an attack from the Head of the Elders' Council, a master of the Harmony Realm...?"
The senior members gasped in disbelief.
To their eyes, I was no more than a martial artist brushing the edge of the Peak Realm.
And yet I had just stopped a blow from the Head of the Elders' Council, who—even diminished—was still a master of the Harmony Realm.
Yi Tae-gyeom looked just as shocked. His face twisted as he tried to launch a second attack, but—
"You wretch!"
A thunderous roar slammed down on him.
My granduncle had already moved behind Yi Tae-gyeom.
With fury blazing across his face, he struck.
"You commit crimes, try to flee, and then dare raise a hand against Muyeol?!"
Pow! Bam! Crack!
In an instant, more than a dozen blows hammered into Yi Tae-gyeom.
"Kuaaagh!"
He couldn't even mount a proper defense, much less counterattack. Blood sprayed from his mouth as he collapsed to his knees.
To my granduncle, a master of the Heavenly Martial Realm, Yi Tae-gyeom wasn't an opponent who could last even three exchanges.
"Jin Seo-hong!"
My granduncle's shout turned toward the leader of the Iron Blood Sword Unit, who had also been present at the meeting.
Jin Seo-hong answered at once, his face tense.
"Yes, sir!"
"Lock this wretch in the prison below and set the Iron Blood Sword Unit to guard him. And Seo Un-hwi!"
"Y-Yes!"
"Use whatever means necessary to pry open his mouth. Let me repeat that—whatever means necessary."
Seo Un-hwi, leader of the Law Enforcement Hall, was not a fool. He knew perfectly well what that meant.
He immediately bowed his head.
"I obey!"
"Hmph."
My granduncle snorted and looked around the hall.
"From this moment onward, the main house will begin a full reform under myself, the Family Head, and the Young Lord. Those fools who committed corruption alongside Yi Tae-gyeom will not remain with us. No—each of them will be punished according to the crimes he has committed."
"...!"
I could see the faces of many elders from Yi Tae-gyeom's faction stiffen.
No matter how one looked at it, those words were aimed directly at them.
"However, those who first reflect on their misdeeds and turn themselves in will be given a chance for leniency. I trust each of you will choose wisely."
Of course, my granduncle had no intention whatsoever of truly forgiving them.
Neither did I.
But if we pressed too hard now, there was no telling what desperate move Yi Tae-gyeom's faction might make.
So we would pretend mercy, gather a full list of names and crimes, and sort them out afterward.
The tactic seemed to work. The eyes of Yi Tae-gyeom's faction shook violently, like an earthquake had struck beneath them.
Most likely, they were weighing whether their lives were worth more than their loyalty.
By my estimate, a third of them would end up offering up their own crimes.
And once we coaxed them into speaking, we would learn every filthy detail about the remaining two-thirds as well.
After that, punishment could be handed down when the time was right.
For now, though...
I stared at Yi Tae-gyeom's unconscious face.
He comes first.
A murderous chill sharpened in my eyes.
News that Yi Tae-gyeom had tried to poison the Family Head spread throughout the entire clan.
Everyone who heard it was aghast.
No one had imagined that the Head of the Elders' Council of a great clan would dare commit such a thing against the Family Head.
Still, there were some who accepted it more easily than others, as though they had half-expected it all along.
"It was strange, when you think about it. The Family Head's illness only began after Yi Tae-gyeom—no, after the Head of the Elders' Council seized power."
"Then does that mean he'd been planning to swallow the clan from that point onward?"
"He must have made the plan long before that. It was only the execution that began then."
"Good heavens... terrifying. How long must he have hidden such venomous schemes?"
"Still, thank goodness it came to light now. And the seat of Head of the Elders' Council has changed hands too, hasn't it?"
"It has. Now that the clan's greatest elder, the Gale Divine Sword, has taken the position, nothing like this should happen again."
Wherever members of the clan gathered, they whispered about the matter.
It was too explosive not to discuss.
And it didn't matter whether they were high or low.
Senior figures, young attendants—everyone had an opinion, and everyone had something to say about the clan's future.
Meanwhile, Yi Tae-gyeom was imprisoned in the deepest chamber of the underground prison.
"Ghh..."
His condition was anything but normal.
One arm was broken, the muscles in both thighs had been torn apart under torture and left untreated, and on top of that, the internal injuries Jin Ho-geon had given him during the clan meeting still had not healed.
They were wounds severe enough to become permanent if he was not properly treated.
Grinding his teeth, he lamented how utterly his fortunes had reversed overnight.
Damn the Jin Family. One day, I'll have my revenge on all of them.
Even so, he had not given up hope.
The moment he had been cast into the underground prison, he had received a torn scrap of paper from someone.
Do not speak of us. If you keep silent, we will get you out soon.
To Yi Tae-gyeom, that meant only one thing.
If he endured, Black Night Castle would break him out.
Once I get out of here, I'll kill Jin Muyeol first.
Clinging to that belief, he gritted his teeth and endured the hideous torture, though it might leave lasting damage behind.
He refused to open his mouth even a little, to the point that the martial artists conducting the interrogation clicked their tongues in disbelief.
How much time passed like that?
Thud! Thump! Bang!
As his consciousness grew hazier and hazier, those sounds reached Yi Tae-gyeom's ears.
He forced his eyes open and looked ahead.
A masked man was knocking out the prison guards one by one.
"Y-You came!"
For a moment, Yi Tae-gyeom's mind cleared, and he cried out.
The masked man raised a finger to his lips.
A signal to keep quiet.
"...!"
Understanding at once, Yi Tae-gyeom snapped his mouth shut and waited.
A moment later, the door creaked open.
Without a word, the masked man pointed outside.
So it's night.
And not just night—deep midnight.
The moon was dim, and the darkness was so thick that even what lay an arm's length ahead was hard to make out.
Perfect conditions for an escape.
The masked man moved like a ghost, guiding Yi Tae-gyeom out.
After a long, cautious trek, they finally reached a hill some considerable distance away from the Northern Heavenly Sword Sect.
Only then did Yi Tae-gyeom burst into wild laughter, overwhelmed by the relief of having survived.
"H-Hahahaha!"
"..."
"You have my thanks! As promised, I didn't breathe a word about Black Night Castle, so you may rest easy. Now I'll hand over everything I know about them—just help me get my revenge."
"You still refuse to repent, even now."
"What?"
Slash.
Yi Tae-gyeom's disheveled hair was cut away and fell to the ground.
"W-What the—?!"
Forcing out the last of his strength, Yi Tae-gyeom barely avoided the attack and rolled across the ground in a clumsy tumble.
He stared at the masked man in disbelief.
Why would someone from Black Night Castle attack him—and talk about repentance?
He got his answer a moment later.
"...!"
The masked man removed the black cloth covering his face.
The face that emerged belonged to a handsome young man.
And that young man was someone Yi Tae-gyeom had wished dead more times than he could count.
"Y-Young Lord! How are you—?!"
"Yi Tae-gyeom."
The young man—Jin Muyeol—spoke in a voice colder than winter.