The Most Terrifying Warrior (1)
The Luoyang Sword Family.
The Second Young Master's faction, Grand Assembly Hall.
Elder Hahu sat utterly motionless, the unlit fresh cigarillo still clenched between his teeth, not even thinking to set it alight.
There is no need to panic.
Elder Son and the Jiangnan clique had lately been jerked about by the First Young Master to a degree that bordered on the absurd.
Yet that had been only the merest fraction of the power the Second Young Master's faction truly possessed.
The proof was plain enough: the last time the Second Young Master's faction had committed its full strength, the outcome had been entirely different.
They had won. Clearly and decisively.
We permitted the First Young Master to emerge from seclusion. But in exchange…
…they had succeeded in reclaiming the single most dangerous instrument he possessed—the seal of the Family Head.
This time will be no different.
Just as before, the Second Young Master's faction had effectively thrown its entire strength into the present contest.
Every resource was concentrated here.
Yes. No different from last time.
They had merely witnessed the opponent's opening move. The true game was only beginning.
His composure had been shaken for a moment by the unexpected card the other side had suddenly produced—Mount Beimang—and nothing more.
At that moment one of the strategists spoke.
"Elder Hahu. The elders have all assembled."
Elder Hahu formed a spark of True Flame and lit the cigarillo, then turned to face the gathering.
If we simply respond with composure, we will win this time as well.
The usual confident smile returned to his lips.
The Luoyang Sword Family.
The Elders' Court, Grand Council Hall.
Elder Son sat alone; no one approached him, yet he felt neither isolation nor loneliness.
Eyes closed, he summoned every shred of concentration and simply replayed everything that had happened so far.
Where did it begin to go wrong…?
The First Young Master had clearly been swept along by their schemes and had ultimately surrendered the Family Head's seal—his most powerful weapon.
From that moment onward, however, everything had changed.
In the course of the joint venture with the Fourth Young Master, the First Young Master had slipped past every obstruction they laid.
Not once had he granted them a proper victory.
The fingers that had been tapping his folded arm suddenly stilled.
…Could it be?
What if the First Young Master had deliberately returned the seal in order to make them lower their guard?
What if he had taken an unavoidable concession and used it to deceive them instead?
What if, by that very act, he had induced their side to commit only manageable forces during the most vulnerable early phase of the joint venture?
A cold bead of sweat slid down his temple.
"Completely empty in here today, isn't it!"
The booming voice of the Chief Elder of the Court shattered the razor-edged focus Elder Son had maintained.
"Come, come! Cheer up, all of you! I'm the busiest and most exhausted man in this room, after all!"
With the declaration that the session was open, the "ominous delusion" concerning the First Young Master was swept from Elder Son's mind.
It was only speculation piled upon speculation to begin with. No need to take it more seriously than that.
He held the full set of proxy votes from every elder of his own faction.
Unlike ordinary times, there was no one with whom he could consult.
This was the moment to devote himself entirely to the elders' council.
A short while earlier.
Luoyang, Mount Beimang.
The checkpoint at the entrance to the ultra-luxurious residential district.
"Affiliation?"
The deputy abbess of the Emei Sect answered in haste.
"Ah—Emei Sect."
"Identification?"
While the man's sharp gaze swept the interior of the carriage, the deputy abbess hurriedly rummaged in her robes and produced both her personal plaque and the Emei Sect's credentials.
The other nuns inside the carriage did the same.
"Hmm…"
The sound was probably meaningless, yet the deputy abbess's heart plummeted.
"O-our identities will be vouched for by Sang-gwan Nan-hwa, who rides in the carriage ahead—that is, by Lady Sang-gwan—"
She rattled on without being asked.
"Lady Sang-gwan is the daughter of the Governor of Chengdu in Sichuan, her status is beyond question—"
"Enough."
The man cut her off and returned the documents.
"Thank you for cooperating with the inspection."
He had almost thrown the plaques back at them, yet the deputy abbess dared not protest.
Because…
Th-the Imperial Army!
Yes.
The men were soldiers of the Imperial Household.
Even without the morning sun, their armor of flood-dragon scales flashed silver.
Plumes of gold and violet thread streamed from their helmets.
At their waists hung both the swords that symbolized their own houses and blades that could only have been bestowed by the Imperial Family.
From those details the deputy abbess pieced together their identity in her memory.
…The Second Imperial Guard Brigade, under the direct command of the Central Kingdom's Imperial Household.
The sight of the Guard soldiers finishing their inspections at each carriage and forming ranks with crisp precision was enough by itself to cow any onlooker.
The last to complete the check was the brigade commander who had boarded Yeon So-hyeon's Ironclad Fortress.
"We thank you for your cooperation!"
He stepped down from the Ironclad Fortress and clasped his hands in formal salute to Yeon So-hyeon.
"Open the main gate!"
At his order the barrier that blocked the broad road shifted, opening a path.
It looked less like a checkpoint than the gate of a fortress.
"Proceed!"
He shouted and gave a hand signal; the procession carrying the First Young Master Yeon So-hyeon began to move once more.
Thus they entered the Mount Beimang district, enclosed by stone walls as high as city ramparts.
"…Wh-where in the world is this place that it is guarded not by Luoyang's city watch, nor even by the regular army, but by the Imperial Army?"
One of the martial nuns asked in a trembling voice. The administrative nun wiped the cold sweat from her palms and answered.
"Have you never heard? This is Mount Beimang."
The martial nun's mouth fell open.
"M-Mount Beimang? The Mount Beimang where the villas of the Sixteen Imperial Capital Families stand?"
The mere mention of the Sixteen Imperial Capital Families silenced everyone under the weight of the name.
"…Yes."
The deputy abbess gazed out the window and spoke.
"The meritorious houses of the Empire that have, for generations, safeguarded the Imperial Throne from the closest possible distance."
Each wall of the estates visible beyond the window was a miniature city wall; from inside the carriage one could not even see where they ended.
"The retired power-brokers of those sixteen houses spend their remaining years on Mount Beimang—said to possess the finest feng shui in the Central Kingdom—and when their allotted span ends, they are enshrined in the ancestral halls of their Mount Beimang estates alongside their forebears."
One of the administrative nuns recited the most famous saying about the Sixteen Imperial Capital Families.
"…They own not a single merchant house, yet the wealth of the continent flows to them; they keep not a single private soldier, yet the authority of the Imperial Household itself protects them."
The procession continued.
Yet the towering wall of the first estate they had encountered still had not revealed even its gate.
"As First Young Master of the Luoyang Sword Family, does he ordinarily associate with people like these?"
At the martial nun's question the deputy abbess shook her head.
"Impossible. Not even the Family Head of the Sword Family could do so lightly."
However much the Luoyang Sword Family stood as the greatest house under heaven, these were the supreme political houses that attended the Emperor from the nearest seat of power.
"They are not people one can simply visit and meet… Wait. Then…?"
Her voice trailed off.
"…There was a prior appointment?"
The Luoyang Sword Family.
The Second Young Master's faction, Grand Assembly Hall.
There was no chance the elders of the Second Young Master's side would fail to make the same deduction the deputy abbess had reached.
"Here! I have it!"
One elder pulled a scroll from a heap of documents.
"I investigated just in case something like this might happen."
With a faintly triumphant expression he unrolled the scroll.
"This is the complete list of everyone who sent congratulatory letters to Wongak Pavilion after the First Young Master ended his seclusion."
The investigation had been possible because the messengers who delivered the letters had loudly announced both their houses and the names of the senders at the gate of Wongak Pavilion.
"Here—take that end and unroll it!"
Those who had first wondered what sort of scroll it was now stared in blank dismay.
The list was so long it could only be kept in scroll form.
"Gentlemen! Quickly find which of the Sixteen Families sent a letter to the First Young Master!"
Every eye was nailed to the list that stretched taller than a man.
"Here!"
A strategist skilled in speed-reading pointed to a place on the list.
"The Kong Clan! The house that produced prime ministers for three successive generations!"
Eternal Exemplar of All Ages. Embodiment of Culture. Repository of Virtue. Culmination of Sagehood. Unparalleled Among Living Beings.
The Kong Clan was the direct lineage of the great teacher Confucius, who was praised with those radiant epithets.
"Hmm…"
The elder who had compiled the congratulatory list stroked his long beard, dredging his memory.
"Someone in the Kong Clan with a connection to the First Young Master…"
An elder from the Outer Court clapped his hands.
"I remember! I once heard a rumor that the previous Family Head, long since retired, sometimes speaks of his friendship with the First Young Master!"
"Of all people, the previous Family Head…!"
While the others swallowed groans, Elder Hahu lifted his head and looked toward the entrance of the Grand Assembly Hall.
"Still no word from the field?! We must confirm whether the house the First Young Master is visiting is truly the Kong Clan!"
In the rapidly shifting situation the strategist waiting at the entrance shouted back, cold sweat beading on his brow.
"N-not yet!"
Nearby elders shook their heads.
"Elder Jiang will only just have left the main estate by now."
At that, Elder Hahu ground the cigarillo between his teeth.
Mount Beimang was a place where even recruiting informants was like plucking stars from the sky; sending agents inside to gather information was simply impossible.
That was why they had been forced to dispatch an elder in person.
"…For the time being we have no choice but to assume the First Young Master's destination is the Kong Clan and prepare every possible scenario."
At one elder's mutter, Elder Hahu raised his head and barked at the strategists.
"You all heard! Begin at once!"
Even before he finished speaking, the sharpest strategists were already moving.
"No matter that it is one of the Sixteen Families, once we grasp the situation clearly, intervention from our side remains perfectly possible!"
The Luoyang Sword Family, Supreme Operating Council.
"The Kong Clan?!"
The supreme councilors murmured among themselves.
Through the intelligence bureau they were tracking the First Young Master's movements in real time; within the Luoyang Sword Family they possessed the swiftest and most accurate information of anyone.
"…There was indeed intelligence that the First Young Master was on friendly terms with the previous Family Head of the Kong Clan. I recall it now."
Hearing the words of the new female supreme councilor, the new male supreme councilor muttered,
"So after ending seclusion he used the members of the Kong Clan who visited him to request a meeting…?"
"One cannot help but admire the First Young Master's network. At that age, with no maternal backing, and while living in seclusion no less—to have cultivated such connections…"
One of the supreme councilors who had been listening spoke.
"The First Young Master requested the meeting. Do you truly think so?"
The two new councilors looked puzzled.
"What do you mean…?"
"Are you saying the First Young Master simply trusted their friendship and went to visit without any prior invitation?"
Another supreme councilor smiled as he answered.
"Why do you not consider the reverse—that the Kong Clan themselves first sent both a congratulatory letter and an invitation to the First Young Master?"