Deception (4)
The air of Chang'an carried the familiar scent of bustling streets—a lively, welcoming fragrance, as if I had stepped onto the main thoroughfare of my hometown. When I inhaled deeply, the mingled smells of earth, liquor, and street vendor food stirred a tangled sense of excitement.
"We sell goods from the Western Regions! Carpets! Fragrant oils! Curved blades set with jewels!"
At a corner of the market, a merchant with a shaggy beard, who looked as if he hailed from the Potala Palace, was waving his hands and hawking his wares. The merchant I had seen in Sichuan had been a front for the Demonic Cult—was this man one as well? I cast a brief glance his way, but he never once looked at me.
"You've come a long way; you must be worn out."
While I stood there vacantly taking in the market, an unfamiliar voice addressed me from behind. I turned to find a man with a blunt expression speaking to me in a rigid posture that clashed with the lively atmosphere. Countless people streamed around us as we stood frozen in the middle of the street, the crowd moving like an ocean current.
The man's eyes stared straight at me, holding a peculiar kind of hostility. Its origin was easy enough to deduce with a little thought.
"So you're from the Embroidered Uniform Guard."
"Follow me. A meeting is currently in session."
The man did not answer my question about whether he was from the Embroidered Uniform Guard, but silence was an answer in itself. I grinned cheerfully as I followed behind the investigator, who strode briskly ahead.
The Embroidered Uniform Guard might have thought they had me trapped, but this was only just beginning.
*******
The meeting had been convened at a fairly large mansion in Chang'an. In this city, a mansion's splendor and its secrecy were never proportional. On the most renowned bustling streets, mansions were not a rare sight, and people coming and going drew no particular notice.
"So what is the meeting about? I suppose it concerns the Commander's disappearance?"
Even as we crossed the main gate, the man did not answer my question. His silence openly betrayed hostility and discomfort, and his quickening pace suggested he believed everything would be over the moment I entered the mansion's meeting room.
Why was he so confident?
Were they pretending to hold a meeting to assassinate me? Had Zhuge Yeong-yu not even been in Chang'an, and were the Embroidered Uniform Guard members conspiring among themselves to eliminate me?
The thought troubled me. The Embroidered Uniform Guard might be so blinded by Je Gang's death that they would do something rash.
To prepare for any eventuality, I surveyed the mansion's surroundings and mentally mapped escape routes. The windows were large, and the corridors were wide open, so even if the Embroidered Uniform Guard launched a surprise attack, escape did not appear overly difficult.
Besides, after I opened the main gate and walked only a few steps, the meeting room came into view, and the shadows of murmuring people were clearly visible inside. Only then did I relax my grip on the axe at my waist and let out a sigh of relief.
The Embroidered Uniform Guard man, perhaps oblivious to my tension, spoke in a stiff tone.
"Sect Leader Docheol of the Crimson Ring Sect has arrived."
The murmuring ceased abruptly. The meeting room door opened, and Zhuge Yeong-yu, seated at the head of the table, stared at me blankly. The other members regarded me in silence as well, as if I were an uninvited guest who had crashed a banquet.
It was an atmosphere that could easily intimidate the faint of heart. But I was different from such ordinary men.
Instead, I smiled at them, walked confidently inside, and took an empty seat. Some displayed displeasure at my expression, while others silently maintained their composure and kept their faces in check.
To me, those who suppressed their expressions were far more dangerous than those who openly displayed hostility. My eyes sorted the attendees into those who would be troublesome and those who were simple, and then I scanned the table. Several documents were spread across it, and fatigue was visible on Zhuge Yeong-yu's face. It looked as if they had held quite a few meetings.
Seeing me seated, he continued.
"...Then let us resume the meeting. Now that Sect Leader Docheol is here, we can finally address the matter that has been circling around us properly. I apologize to Sect Leader Docheol, but there was an issue that, even after several meetings with the Embroidered Uniform Guard, we could not bring to a conclusion. It was a matter on which we absolutely needed to hear from you directly."
Zhuge Yeong-yu said that much and then nodded. The Embroidered Uniform Guard man sitting across from him spoke in a stern tone.
"The Embroidered Uniform Guard suspects that you, Sect Leader Docheol, are involved in the Commander's disappearance. There are three main grounds for this suspicion. First, during the pursuit of the Hao Sect, you secretly made contact with the Hao Sect behind the backs of the Zhuge Family and the Embroidered Uniform Guard, and you were discovered and warned by the Commander. Second, you broke your agreement with us and became involved in the Tang Clan affair in Sichuan. Third, the last person the Commander met was you, Sect Leader Docheol."
The grounds for suspecting me spilled out. Objectively speaking, the circumstances pointing to me were clear. Even Zhuge Yeong-yu seemed to sympathize to some extent, nodding silently. His posture, with his fingers laced and head bowed, almost made him look as if he were praying. Another Embroidered Uniform Guard figure picked up the thread.
"We felt that you, Sect Leader, needed to explain these points. We hope you will not take it too unpleasantly. We believe this is something we must address for the sake of our alliance moving forward."
I nodded at his words. But I had to fight to suppress the twitching at the corner of my mouth. They claimed it was for the alliance, but the Embroidered Uniform Guard was probably convinced I was the culprit. The reason they could not attack immediately or break the alliance was likely because Zhuge Yeong-yu was not convinced of my guilt.
Getting rid of me was simple, but doing so without cause would mean smearing the face of Zhuge Yeong-yu, who had appointed me. Even if the Embroidered Uniform Guard did not need me, their relationship with the Zhuge Family was important.
In other words, even the Embroidered Uniform Guard had only circumstantial evidence pointing to me as the culprit; they had no physical proof.
"I, too, felt regret at the news of the Commander's disappearance. But I can firmly state that I am not involved in this matter. I understand the suspicion, but I am not the culprit."
As I spoke, murmurs of displeasure leaked from the Embroidered Uniform Guard's side. From this point on, I had to prove my innocence to Zhuge Yeong-yu against the Embroidered Uniform Guard. In any other matter, it would not be easy to win against the Embroidered Uniform Guard, who hoarded information. But this case was different. The Embroidered Uniform Guard lacked crucial information, while I possessed it. If I used that, it was a fight worth having.
One of the Embroidered Uniform Guard men spoke up.
"During the search operation for the Heavenly Demon's belongings, the Commander once warned you, Sect Leader, about contacting the Hao Sect. What do you have to say about that?"
"It is true that the Commander held such suspicions, but I never made contact or conspired with the Hao Sect. It was purely a misunderstanding."
At those words, an Embroidered Uniform Guard man frowned and shouted.
"Don't lie! There is evidence that Sect Leader Docheol went near the sect where the Hao Sect leader was disguised at the time!"
"Then why didn't you bring it up publicly and interrogate me at the time? Why raise it as an issue now? Was it not because you lacked any physical proof back then, and so you could not make it public? I think it is wrong to use that matter now as grounds for the Commander's disappearance. Moreover, at that time, Gwak Ryong of the Mount Hua Sect had come to the Crimson Ring Sect. To divert Gwak Ryong elsewhere, I simply took a route near the Phoenix Blade Sect, which I believed was in the completely opposite direction from where the Hao Sect leader was. It was truly a desperate measure. I can see how it might have caused a misunderstanding. So I bear no resentment over the Commander's warning at the time. However, it is unpleasant to hear that you are using that matter to accuse me of killing the Commander or being involved in his disappearance."
Since I had a valid excuse and there was no clear physical evidence, even Je Gang had been unable to do anything about it at the time. If the issue had been clearly exposed then, I would have died on the spot. Now, with no physical proof linking me to Je Gang's disappearance, they were merely dredging up past suspicions to incite Zhuge Yeong-yu.
The Embroidered Uniform Guard members frowned, while Zhuge Yeong-yu nodded silently. Another Embroidered Uniform Guard investigator spoke again.
"The suspicions involving you, Sect Leader, do not end there. When you left Shaanxi for Sichuan, did you not promise not to touch the Tang Clan? Yet after you arrived in Sichuan, the Tang Clan sealed its gates, and there were many eyewitness accounts of a martial artist wielding an axe intervening during the sealing. Did you, Sect Leader, not intervene in the Tang Clan affair? Were you not making some deal with the Tang Clan and orchestrating events to build your own power?"
The important thing about lying was grasping the core. You could never escape by simply saying anything to refute suspicions. You had to grasp the intent behind the question and provide an answer that matched it.
In summary, the Embroidered Uniform Guard's accusation boiled down to this: weren't you betraying the Imperial Household and Zhuge Yeong-yu to line your own pockets? In that case, outright denying any involvement with the Tang Clan would be a poor move.
"It is true that I involved myself in the Tang Clan matter this time."
But who could prove my loyalty?
Ideals were ultimately proven by the tongue.
"But how could there have been any other intention behind it? I merely threw myself into it solely for the peace of the Imperial Household and the Central Plains."