Chapter 114
Chapter 114
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Translator: uly
Chapter: 114
Chapter Title: Part 14: Review of the Game (2)
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After the Elder Council adjourned.
Only two people remained in the place where all the elders had departed.
"Do you even realize what you've done?!"
The Elder Council Lord's booming voice echoed through the empty corridor.
"You've just made an enemy of that deranged old monster! And you did it by joining hands with the Eldest Young Master, of all people—the one he despises most!"
The Elder Council Lord squeezed out the words.
"Do you think he won't know you've dipped your toes deep into this affair?!"
The Vice Lord scratched his ear with a nonchalant expression.
"Come on. Haven't I been telling you since the old days to cultivate your voice arts? If you had, you could've become the world's greatest with that throat alone."
"Is this the time for jokes?!"
The Vice Lord's expression hardened.
"If I don't crack a joke right now, what else am I supposed to do?"
"...."
The Vice Lord raised his own hand for inspection.
"Can you see this?"
The aged, withered hand, covered in age spots, trembled as if seized by spasms.
The Vice Lord forced a smile, his lips quivering.
"That old monster never took his eyes off me once. Even when the first person spoke up about punitive compensation, and even when someone voiced agreement—his gaze was fixed on me the whole time."
They had known this all along.
But he was far too dangerous an opponent to make an enemy of.
The Elder Council Lord pounded his chest.
"Then why on earth did you strike a deal with the Eldest Young Master?! What in the world for?!"
He grabbed the Vice Lord's shoulder.
"Didn't I say I'd take full responsibility and handle it all? For your sake, I would've paid any price to resolve it!"
He shouted at his friend, who wouldn't lift his head.
"I am the Elder Council Lord! I am the Elder Council Lord of the Great Luoyang Sword Clan!"
The Vice Lord raised his eyes to gaze at his companion of sixty years.
"That's exactly why."
"What do you...?!"
The Vice Lord staggered back a step from the Elder Council Lord.
"You are the Elder Council Lord. With that power, you've always helped me. But...."
"Then why...?"
The Vice Lord spat a single remark at the Elder Council Lord, whose face was twisted in incomprehension.
"But you've been like that since we were young. Even now. You've never once pulled me fully up from the cliff's edge."
The Vice Lord bared his teeth toward his friend.
"When I was about to fall off the cliff, you extended your hand. But you've never once hauled me all the way back up to safety...."
He added,
"...And it was the same five years ago."
"...!"
Flames sparked in the Vice Lord's eyes.
"That's precisely why."
The Elder Council Lord's face contorted.
"Didn't I always say it? In everything, there is:"
"Yes, in everything, there is 'order' and 'procedure.'"
The Vice Lord chuckled.
"Just like how that position should have rightfully been mine by 'proper order.' If only you'd properly helped me five years ago!"
As the Vice Lord's words continued, the Elder Council Lord's wrinkled face trembled with rage.
"Even now, if my issues are resolved, by 'procedure,' I'd be the leading candidate for the next Elder Council Lord!"
"We both would've died! Don't you get it yet?!"
"There was plenty of chance we could've survived! It absolutely existed!"
"That chance was...!"
The Vice Lord cut off the Elder Council Lord's words with a thunderous roar.
"Then why don't you help me now?!"
The Elder Council Lord's mouth clamped shut.
"That old monster—we could take him if we combined our strength! Isn't that right?"
But conversely, there was equal chance they'd both meet their end.
"That's...."
Images flashed through the Elder Council Lord's mind: his family and subordinates, relying on him as they wrapped up the day.
The Vice Lord gave a bitter smile.
"...I know. I know it all too well. You've got far too much weighing on your shoulders now. No one understands your sense of responsibility better than I do."
That's why his friend was called the little giant.
The Vice Lord looked at his friend, whose face seemed on the verge of tears.
"...Now I, too, have too many precious things to bear."
He turned and walked toward the far end of the corridor.
"Thank you for listening to my whining all this time."
The Elder Council Lord stood rooted in place for a long while, staring at the spot where his friend no longer was, then bowed his head.
In the end, he turned and walked in the opposite direction.
Thus diverged the paths of two men who had been bound as milk brothers from birth.
A bond forged in loyalty and faith.
That bond ended in just the same way—to protect the loyalties and faiths each now bore.
* * *
The Vice Lord, with his stumbling steps, headed to Elder Yeom's residence.
Elder Yeom, who had been swinging a massive sword in light attire, spotted him and rushed over in a single bound.
"Vice Lord!"
The Vice Lord spoke to Elder Yeom with bleary eyes.
"...Might I beg a drink?"
Seeing the ominous expression, Elder Yeom nodded gravely.
"Of course. Please, come inside."
Elder Yeom helped the staggering old man indoors.
Then, after dismissing all the underlings, he personally prepared drinks and side dishes.
The old man, slumped in an armchair staring blankly at the ceiling, spoke.
"...I was prepared, but it hurts more than I imagined."
Elder Yeom let out a deep sigh.
"...I don't know what to say."
The old man muttered as if to himself.
"Even when I sealed the deal, I thought it satisfactory.... I figured the price was one I could bear...."
Elder Yeom simply kept silent vigil at his side.
The Vice Lord—Elder Ham—looked a full decade older than the last time he'd been seen.
"...I at least thought five would stick by my side. We'd even made promises."
He refused the cup Elder Yeom offered and downed the bottle straight.
Half spilled to the floor, half came back up with coughs.
"...After seeing that old monster's reaction today, no one kept their word."
Already drunk before arriving, he gazed at Elder Yeom with unfocused eyes.
"I've paid the price. More miserably than I calculated. Now I'm a kite with a snapped string. That old monster will hunt me down, fully exposed from here on. Even if you and the Eldest Young Master break your promises, I won't hold it against you."
No one had stayed by his side.
Elder Yeom spoke to Elder Ham without a moment's hesitation.
"Don't worry. From now on, Vice Lord, you are one of my faction, and you shall receive the protection due."
"Really...? You'll keep your promise?"
"Of course. Isn't that what trust is?"
Elder Ham burst into loud laughter.
"Now you are my friend! My brother!"
Elder Yeom laughed along.
But there was a chill edge to that laughter somewhere.
* * *
A moonlit night.
Beneath the eaves of a building in One-Angle Pavilion.
Yeon So-hyeon was gazing at something under the moonlight.
The Medicine King approached him stealthily.
No matter what trick he'd used, he'd made not a sound—but the moment he drew near, Yeon So-hyeon turned around.
"Decided to moonlight as a night visitor now?"
The embarrassed Medicine King grumbled curtly.
"At my age, moonlighting... what nonsense."
Yet he couldn't help glancing at what Yeon So-hyeon held.
"It's nothing much."
Yeon So-hyeon readily offered it.
It was a letter on silk, inscribed with exceedingly brief words.
[I shall repay the grace you've bestowed, even if I die and come back to life.]
The Medicine King let out a short groan.
A faint musk scent wafted from the silk.
"...Yeom Baekha. From that child?"
Yeon So-hyeon, who had turned his head again, simply nodded without reply.
The Medicine King struggled to open his mouth at the somehow forlorn sight of his back.
"...Do you regret it?"
No answer came.
Only petals scattering in the mountain breeze sparkled in the moonlight.
"I am the one who found the 'herb that can artificially induce her episodes.' Should I regret it?"
The Medicine King had said it induced episodes artificially.
Yeon So-hyeon gave no reply.
"The kitchen maids were the ones who ground that herb into her meals. Should they regret it?"
"...I made the decision, and I gave the orders."
The moment his answer ended, the Medicine King posed another question.
"Then, was there any other way?"
A brief silence.
"No."
"Right. You absolutely needed Elder Yeom, so you did what you had to."
"Yes."
Yeon So-hyeon recalled the history before his return through time.
The promised great chaos that descended on the Luoyang Sword Clan after he left as a son-in-law.
Until the final moment when the Luoyang Sword Clan shattered to pieces, there was one general who never forgot his loyalty and oath to the Family Head and the clan.
A man who never lost in any utterly disadvantageous battle, who always secured the needed victories.
He guarded the deepest sanctum after the Family Head's death, upholding his loyalty to the very end before perishing. The world called him:
The Ever-Victorious,
Giant Sword Divine General.
Yeon So-hyeon needed such a man.
To build the future he envisioned.
No matter what.
And Yeon So-hyeon's final move to obtain him was a 'ruse.'
* * *
The Medicine King, who had kept silent, asked.
"...What if, that day, Elder Yeom hadn't returned, and had simply taken his daughter and left? What would you have done?"
"...Nothing. Merely greater sacrifices on the road ahead."
The Medicine King said nothing, as if awaiting something.
In the end, it was Yeon So-hyeon who continued.
"...Truth be told, I believed he would definitely return. He's that kind of man. A man of trust."
Yeon So-hyeon gave a wry smile.
"To gain the trust of a trustworthy man, my final move had to be a deception. How utterly contradictory."
The Medicine King approached and sat beside Yeon So-hyeon.
"If you'd had enough time—a few years—could you have earned Elder Yeom's trust?"
"...No. He's not the type to trust someone after a year or two of mingling."
Yeon So-hyeon muttered in a low voice.
"If I'd laid myself bare, he would've suspected everything. If I'd offered him all, he would've accepted nothing."
Because he was a man of power.
Because that was the responsibility of one who bore so much.
"...And it would've been the same for me."
Yeon So-hyeon looked up into the void.
"Even if he'd approached with sincere heart, I couldn't have helped but suspect him. If he'd offered loyalty without price, I wouldn't have accepted it."
Because he too was a man of power.
Because he too bore far too much on his shoulders.
Yet the way to earn Elder Yeom's trust—and for Yeon So-hyeon to trust Elder Yeom—was exceedingly simple.
Just like how Yeon So-hyeon sold 'trustworthy deals' to the other elders lately.
The experience of being cornered to the limit, of nearly losing his daughter forever.
Yeon So-hyeon's actions in that situation.
Elder Yeom's resolution, staking everything he had.
Having paid such a steep price, he came to trust his relationship with Yeon So-hyeon.
Because Elder Yeom had paid such a steep price, Yeon So-hyeon could trust their relationship.
A single petty deception birthed this solid bond of trust.
How shallow, after all, was trust between men of power.
"...."
The Medicine King could say nothing, his eyes falling on the other letters in Yeon So-hyeon's loose sleeve.
All written on the same silk, clearly all from Yeom Baekha.
[Today, for the first time since childhood, I walked properly. Thank you.]
[Eldest Young Master, you gave me a new life.]
The Medicine King's eyes scanned the contents.
[This girl is overjoyed that Father and the Eldest Young Master have become true friends who can deeply trust and rely on each other.]
"...."
The two shared no words.
They merely gazed at the night sky.
Chapter 03.
The Hidden Face of the Moon
An earthly kingdom cannot exist without inequality of persons.
Some must be free, some serfs, some rulers, some subjects.
지상의 왕국은 인간의 불평등 없이는 존재할 수 없다.
어떤 이는 자유민이어야 하며, 어떤 이는 노예여야 하고, 누군가는 군림해야 하며, 누군가는 지배받아야 한다.
-마르틴 루터 [Martin Luther, 1483.11.10.-1546.2.18]