The Most Fearsome Martial Artist (5)
The Luoyang Sword Family's highest operations council.
After the First Young Master entered the Gongsun Family, all information had gone dark.
"...."
"...."
And from that moment on, even the newly appointed male and female supreme councilors fell silent.
"Do you feel it now as well?" the Chairman said.
"From the past until now, the First Young Master's abilities—and the achievements those abilities forged—have existed somewhere between this family's incomplete records and the mutable memories of individuals."
The new supreme councilors could find no words to answer. They could only hum low in their throats.
Behind the curtain, the Chairman turned his head and gazed into the distance.
"…I wonder. Have those facing the First Young Master realized it as well?"
They were not contending with "Yeon So-hyeon, First Young Master of the Luoyang Sword Family."
Their opponent was "that Yeon So-hyeon"—who also happened to be the First Young Master of the Luoyang Sword Family.
The Second Young Master's camp, the elders' lounge.
One elder tried to stub out the cigarette he had been smoking, only to find the crystal ashtray already overflowing.
"...."
He fetched the broad white porcelain vessel that had elegantly decorated the lounge and ground the cigarette out against it.
For some time no further intelligence had arrived, yet among them now, not a single man still waited for information.
"…We must admit it at last."
Elder An muttered, face sour.
"What we were facing was the most fearsome martial artist of all."
To any elder of the Luoyang Sword Family—whether he practiced martial arts or not—the words needed no explanation.
"There's nothing left even to speculate about now…"
At another elder's words, the Outer Court elder removed the long pipe from his lips and slowly nodded.
"…We have neither means to guess nor means to confirm what conversations the First Young Master is holding with the former heads of the Sixteen Families."
It felt like swimming submerged in a deep lake on a night without a single ray of moonlight.
"We cannot even guess how many more families the First Young Master intends to visit."
"…At this rate I wouldn't be surprised if he tours all sixteen."
The tone was light, but no one laughed.
"Hmph."
When the cigars in his breast pocket ran dry, Elder Hahu—who had brought an entire box from his office and kept smoking—opened his mouth.
"What we needed to counter the First Young Master's move this time was never strategists in the first place."
They were the same strategists who had performed so brilliantly during the Inner Court Incident and the Family Seal Affair. That those very men had looked so lacking this time was simply because the board the First Young Master had laid out had never belonged to their field.
"…That the First Young Master, famed for his stratagems, would play such an unexpected card. Hmph."
In the end one elder voiced the question that had kept circling among them without ever finding an answer.
"Just how did the First Young Master manage to build relationships with the Sixteen Families—relationships that even included deals sweet enough to tempt them?"
"…And while in seclusion, no less."
The elder who earlier had tried a joke and received no response tried again in the same tone.
"Perhaps, as the old rumors claimed, he read the heavens and warned them in advance of calamities about to befall their houses?"
This time everyone snorted a short laugh.
"Or maybe, with that same genius, he casually whispered to the then-family heads—when he was two or three years old—how to win the Emperor's favor."
They piled on further absurdities, each man adding a line while soft laughter escaped them. For a brief moment the barren atmosphere lightened.
"Perhaps…"
Thinking it was now Elder Hahu's turn for a joke, they all looked toward him.
"Perhaps we must proceed on the assumption that every rumor we ever heard about the First Young Master in the past was true."
Those who had been waiting for the punchline, uncertain where to laugh, saw the utterly serious face of Elder Hahu and one by one began waving their hands in denial.
"Come now, that's absurd…"
"Elder Hahu, do you even know how wild and ridiculous the rumors about the First Young Master were in his childhood?"
"Writing a medical text at two, inventing new farming methods at three—that sort of nonsense?"
Elder An, who until then had only listened, spoke.
"But then again."
Every gaze turned to him.
"Wasn't the claim that the First Young Master possessed divine stratagems itself originally nothing more than a rumor?"
Puzzlement rose on the other elders' faces.
"What are you talking about…?"
"Why would that be a rumor…"
The elder who had begun to speak closed his mouth, expression hardening. The others sensed something amiss and likewise fell silent.
"That's right…"
Elder Hahu's brow twitched.
"It was. Even the stories of the First Young Master's genius for strategy were originally just rumors…"
Confusion clouded their faces.
"But everyone already knew about the First Young Master's stratagems…"
Elder Hahu cut them off.
"No. That is not it."
"Was it not only a short while ago that the First Young Master used Elder Yeom as intermediary and threw the Council of Elders into chaos?"
"And there was the Inner Court Incident as well!"
Elder Hahu scowled.
"I am speaking of before that—before!"
He slammed the armrest.
"For nearly ten years the First Young Master had been in seclusion, yet somehow everyone already knew he was a divine strategist of unmatched brilliance—before he ever caused the Inner Court Incident!"
Only then did the elders' faces go blank.
"Why on earth—on what grounds—have we 'believed' all this time that the First Young Master was such an extraordinary strategist?!"
One elder managed to speak with difficulty.
"Anyone who has been in this family long enough has heard one or two stories about the First Young Master from the past…"
"Stories with evidence behind them?"
"...."
Elder An removed his spectacles.
"…Strange. Very strange."
He lifted his eyes and looked far beyond the window.
"There is clearly something here we still do not know."
In the uppermost stratum of the Luoyang Sword Family, who had not merely believed the rumors but had known them as fact?
Without his spectacles, everything in his vision turned hazy and indistinct.
The Luoyang Sword Family, Council of Elders.
When the elders emerged from the closed-door session, what awaited them were reports of the First Young Master Yeon So-hyeon's movements.
None of them left the front of the Council Hall; instead each received the intelligence from his own confidants on the spot. The elders of the Third Young Master's faction who had attended the same meeting were no different.
"Hah. The Sixteen Families, you say…?"
"An unimaginable course of action."
Among the colleagues still absorbing the information, the first to leave was the former Sect Leader of the Diancang Sect, his face set hard.
"Elder! Please wait a moment!"
One of the martial artists who had brought the reports called after him.
"…What business do you have with me?"
"The Grand Abbess of the Emei Sect wishes an audience with you, Elder."
"Does she? Tell her to send someone else in my place."
He turned on his heel with a snort and began walking away. What stopped him were the fellow elders who had sat through the council with him.
"Was the matter of the Grand Abbess not under your charge, former Sect Leader?"
At that the former Sect Leader sighed.
"I only took the first meeting because of an old connection with her. Nothing more."
He waved a dismissive hand.
"Communication is already well established. Anyone can handle what remains."
Voices called after him from behind, but he ignored them and strode on. After hearing of the First Young Master's opening move, a chill had run down the back of his neck; he rubbed the nape roughly.
As if I would sink any deeper into a board where that devil of a man is running free!
He was cutting across an intersection, weaving between carriages, when a voice stopped him.
"A moment, if you please!"
Thinking it was for him, the former Sect Leader looked back, and a question rose in his eyes.
"You are…?"
A warehouse district within the Luoyang Sword Family.
"Here we can speak without watching eyes. Therefore…"
The former Sect Leader spoke while narrowing his gaze at the man opposite him.
"First tell me where you heard of the 'gathering.'"
The other man—Elder Son of the Second Young Master's faction—sent him a brief sound transmission. It concerned the source of the intelligence.
"…Hmm."
The former Sect Leader let out a short hum.
"I suppose I cannot simply play dumb."
He leaned his back against the cold warehouse wall.
"What is it you wish to know?"
Elder Son hesitated a moment, then finally spoke.
"…May I hear why you withdrew from that 'gathering,' former Sect Leader?"
After a brief consideration the former Sect Leader twisted a smile.
"…So it was you who had been handling the First Young Master for the Second Young Master's side all this time."
Elder Son's silence was affirmation.
"And now questions about the man himself have begun to arise?"
Elder Son answered with a question of his own.
"…Do you believe the First Young Master was forced to surrender the Family Seal to the supreme councilors?"
This time the former Sect Leader closed his mouth. That silence, too, was answer enough for Elder Son.
"…The 'gathering,'"
After a pause the former Sect Leader spoke with a sigh,
"was a cross-faction secret organization formed to diminish the First Young Master's influence while no one knew when—or if—he would ever return."
"I heard it included considerable numbers of elders from our Second Young Master's faction, the Third Young Master's faction, and the neutral faction as well."
The former Sect Leader nodded frankly.
"Correct. Yet among them I was the only one who properly understood the danger he posed."
"…What exactly did you experience, former Sect Leader?"
The former Sect Leader laughed scornfully at Elder Son for asking.
"Did you truly expect me to hand over old stories that might become weaknesses to an elder of a hostile camp?"
"...."
He pushed off the wall and walked toward the warehouse door.
"I will leave you with one last thing."
Hand already on the latch, he spoke without looking back.
"It is safer to believe that every rumor about the First Young Master is entirely true than to believe that only the exaggerated parts are false."
He opened the door and stepped out, chuckling.
"Of course, saying such a thing will only get me treated as a madman."
He left, and the door closed.
"...."
Elder Son stared at the door a moment longer, then lifted his gaze to the high warehouse ceiling.
"Safer to believe all the rumors…?"
The past. The Luoyang Sword Family.
"How did you send the letter?"
His father asked with a stern face.
"Out of caution I followed the security protocols I was taught and sent it anonymously."
"Then how did you receive the invitation?"
"Through the confidential reporting channels of the Outer and Inner Courts, as the protocols dictate."
Only then did his father's expression ease a fraction.
"…Well done."
He closed his eyes briefly, thinking, then spoke again.
"…From now on, when you exchange letters with those old foxes—or with almost anyone of consequence—use my name or an alias."
"…Yes. I will remember."
"That is not all."
His father looked down at the young Yeon So-hyeon.
Those clear eyes, the very image of his mother's, still seemed free of any fear of the world's senseless cruelty and injustice.
"Until you come of age, nothing you do must be done under your own name."
"...."
Seeing a flicker of discontent on the boy's face, his father carefully chose additional words of explanation.
"That is to say…"
Young Yeon So-hyeon spoke first.
"Because Mother Guyang and Mother Namgung have both borne sons."
"...."
How could the child be this sharp already?
Beneath the outward innocence, was he already beginning to grasp the darker faces of the world?
His father swallowed a sigh.
"…Yes."
The boy continued.
"And because Mother and I have no maternal clan to offer us protection."
"…That too is correct."
In the Luoyang Sword Family the law of primogeniture—that the eldest son inherits—did not exist in the family code.
"This father is often away from the family because of the Jiangnan affairs. Therefore…"
Young Yeon So-hyeon smiled bitterly.
"…I have heard that excessive jealousy can drive a person to do the unimaginable."
What was there to say?
What words would suffice?
His father clenched his teeth, then sat so that his eyes were level with his son's.
"…I have said it many times: the next head of this family is you, So-hyeon. You alone."
He met the boy's gaze squarely.
"So until you learn how to protect yourself without ever drawing a sword—only until then—endure for me."
Young Yeon So-hyeon nodded.
"Yes, Father."
His father carefully cupped both of the boy's shoulders and pressed their foreheads together.
"…Forgive this sinful father."
Young Yeon So-hyeon only smiled, comforting him.
"Chief Administrator!"
"Your command."
The Chief Administrator of the Inner Court, who had waited like a shadow, dropped to one knee.
"You heard?"
"Yes. Henceforth the First Young Master's name will never be mentioned more than necessary."
That had been when Yeon So-hyeon was four years old.
Thereafter, from time to time, rumors of the First Young Master's unbelievable achievements would circulate through the Luoyang Sword Family—only to die away again soon after.
Even so, after the Blood History, a handful of those in the highest ranks who still remembered fragments of those days remained. Through them, the claim that the First Young Master's stratagems reached the heavens quietly gained conviction and spread in secret.