The Old Hunting Dogs (2)
"Ah—at this rate, we're headed for disaster!"
The former family heads were stamping their feet without a shred of dignity.
"We were sailing along just fine, and now a bolt from the blue! What in heaven's name is going on here…!"
They looked like misers who had just watched their warehouses—every last scrap of their fortunes stored within—burst into flame, and had no idea what to do with themselves.
Then one of them cried out.
"General Ak!"
At that shout, every gaze in the room swung toward the former family head they called General Ak.
"That's right! We still have General Ak!"
"General Ak needs to step in and put a stop to this!"
Like the Yang Family, the Ak Family was a military house charged with defending the Imperial Capital. Its former head rolled up both sleeves.
But he did not dare approach too rashly.
The former head of the Yang Family, Yang O-dan, looked ready to stretch out a hand like a cauldron lid and snap the slender, fragile-seeming throat of the First Young Master then and there.
"So that was it. I see."
Without so much as a glance at the men making such a commotion, the First Young Master, Yeon So-hyeon, spoke again.
"It was the Min Family of the Imperial Capital."
"I told you that if you didn't stop this outrageous nonsense, you would regret it!"
The words struck dead center, but the former head of the Yang Family, old wolf that he was, did not so much as flinch.
Yeon So-hyeon, however, paid no attention to the man's words, and gave not the slightest ground before his threats.
"Indeed."
He treated the aura of a master who had crossed the wall as if it were no more than a passing breeze.
"The Min Family, is it. Having produced the new Empress and riding high on their influence—it would hardly be strange if they had already reached out behind the scenes to the former heads of the Sixteen Families."
"…!"
At those words, the former family heads who had been raising hell beside them went still.
"The Min Family…?"
"He definitely said Min."
How could they not know that name?
When the northern war's outcome had forced certain parties to step down, the Min Family had been one of those that influenced the Emperor's decision—and reaped considerable profit as a result.
"Hmm."
The old wolves' gazes fixed on the former head of the Yang Family like a flight of arrows.
"Surely you aren't all believing this absurd nonsense?!"
In the brief moment Yang O-dan flinched under the weight of those stares, Yeon So-hyeon laid out his deduction.
"Yes. Now I understand. Once you became the steward of this colossal enterprise, you meant to play both sides—between the Min Family you were already in contact with, and us."
A clear sneer touched the corner of his mouth.
"The Empress's natal house joining hands with a military clan that guards the Imperial Capital. That has a rather dangerous stench about it, wouldn't you say?"
Yang O-dan nearly leapt out of his skin.
"What…?!"
He bellowed at Yeon So-hyeon.
"From the start you've been manufacturing outrageous pretexts—I can't begin to fathom what you're trying to pull! If you're going to spout such confident rubbish, how about producing a single scrap of evidence first?!"
On one hand, the room was half-persuaded by Yeon So-hyeon's words, and eyed Yang O-dan with a peculiar wariness.
At the same time, they cast looks of suspicion toward Yeon So-hyeon himself.
As Yang O-dan said, the First Young Master's claims were nothing but assertions. Could it be that he was using that overflowing cunning of his to eliminate one of them for some reason of his own?
"Evidence?"
Yeon So-hyeon's tone was pure arrogance.
"I am the evidence."
His gaze looked down upon Yang O-dan with lordly disdain.
"I who listen to the whispers of the heavens and read the flow of celestial qi—how could I fail to peer into the heart of a mere mortal?"
How could something so wildly fantastical sound so utterly convincing?
The former family heads nodded before they even realized it.
"W-what are you—?!"
Even Yang O-dan, who had been insisting that Yeon So-hyeon was framing him with baseless slander for want of any proof, found his mouth snapping shut.
"Y-you little—!"
By then, had anyone in the room looked down at their own feet, they would have been struck speechless by the uncanny sight.
A black miasma, dense with an eerie force, had settled over the floor like fog.
But already under the influence of the energy flowing from Yeon So-hyeon's feet, they were losing the keen senses they normally possessed.
Even Yang O-dan, who had crossed the wall, and the former head of the Ak Family known as General Ak were no exception.
In their usual state, they would at least have noticed the existence of the sound transmission flitting past Yeon So-hyeon's ear.
"Gentlemen!"
Yang O-dan declared to the former family heads as if making a formal proclamation.
"I will not stand here and endure such outrageous insult and groundless accusation! I am withdrawing from this plan!"
Before any of the others could get a word out, he strode purposefully away.
"Ah. And where might you be going?"
Yeon So-hyeon casually took a single step and blocked his path.
A scholar who doesn't even know martial arts, trying to bar my way? Laughable!
Yang O-dan mocked him inwardly and stamped through a dizzying sequence of footwork, intending to slip past the First Young Master in an instant.
But—
"Nngh?!"
Yang O-dan froze in shock.
He had advanced with his footwork, yet each of the First Young Master's leisurely steps thoroughly sealed off every direction he needed to go.
"W-what is this…?!"
He tried the footwork several more times, only to find the sealed directions giving way to something worse—he was being forced several paces backward.
Yeon So-hyeon's footwork was not merely strange; it was wondrous.
What kind of trick is this? Some form of qi-gate formation disguised as footwork?
Even now, it never occurred to him that Yeon So-hyeon—still known as the Swordless One—was actually using martial arts.
"First Young Master! I don't know what little trick you're playing, but if you keep acting this recklessly, you are going to get badly hurt!"
He poured Internal Qi into the shout, but Yeon So-hyeon only snorted with open contempt.
The former family heads watching could only manage a series of blank "Huh? Huh?" sounds. That was the limit of those who had never been gifted with Internal Qi.
"W-what on earth is going on…?!"
Only the former head of the Ak Family, standing close enough to take the situation in at a glance, stared at the First Young Master—known as the Swordless One—with a face full of shock and suspicion.
Yang O-dan drew Internal Qi through his entire body and shielded his upper dantian.
…Don't be deceived!
Even as the demonic qi made sound judgment nearly impossible, his instincts protected his mind. It was the right response, born of countless experiences and a lofty realm.
If I can just get out of this place, there will be any number of paths open afterward!
Under the protection of the mental technique guarding his upper dantian, his thoughts raced.
But injuring the First Young Master in the middle of this would be the worst move of all.
Simply walking away could be explained away as a reaction to baseless speculation.
But if he wounded the First Young Master they all so treasured, there would be no tomorrow. True or false, he would bring down the wrath of every other former family head upon himself.
This mad genius of a boy…!
Only then did he feel true fear of Yeon So-hyeon, who had once again bound every former family head together as one.
But the cup was already overturned, and the water already spilled.
Still—I cannot simply remain here in this situation!
He made the bold decision to strike.
Subdue him in one move so he can't keep this up!
Once he cast off his hesitation, everything that followed flowed like water, a perfect display of his realm.
"Don't blame me if my hands are heavy!"
Both of his hands swept in as if to envelop Yeon So-hyeon's entire body at once.
First, dislocate the opponent's knee joints to seal that uncanny footwork; at the same time, strike five vital points at once and subdue Yeon So-hyeon in a single exchange.
That, at least, was the intent.
"Hmph."
Hardness yields to softness; softness meets hardness.
Yeon So-hyeon's knees folded like reeds bowing before a typhoon, drawing away the force carried in Yang O-dan's grip.
And in the same breath, the refined technique meant to seize five vital points at once was caught at the source—Yeon So-hyeon's grip, cold and clear as tempered steel, locked onto the arm and cut the technique off at its root.
"?!"
That single exchange alone snapped Yang O-dan fully awake.
This is no ordinary opponent! From this moment on, I treat him as someone of my own realm!
He abandoned the left hand, which would not budge as if pinned beneath a mountain of ten million catties, and his free right hand moved like lightning.
"Hmph!"
The Yang Family's secret art: the Forbidden Tiger Iron Claw Hand.
Illusory forms and true forms flickered past each other in the space of a breath; within a hundred phantom shapes and a hundred transformations, a seizing technique unfurled and lunged for the throat.
But the First Young Master saw through solid and empty alike, ignored every illusion, and with nothing more than a light tap upon the wrist that generated the changes, crushed the flow itself.
What remained was nothing but a simple motion—fast and strong, and nothing more.
The vast force invested in that hand cut emptily past Yeon So-hyeon's side.
What I was aiming for all along was over here!
But that had never been the whole of the trap.
His realm was not empty reputation. Even as he launched the technique, he had already stepped into the center of the footwork Yeon So-hyeon was deploying.
In the same instant, a lightning-fast leg technique struck Yeon So-hyeon's left knee-hollow three times, then tangled that foot with his own and shoved the opponent backward.
The arm Yeon So-hyeon had bound with unbelievable strength became, instead, a perfect axis for transmitting force.
Fingers, claws, palms, and legs used freely; muscles struck, joints seized, vital points targeted—in a single moment he wove a dazzling array of techniques into one seamless flow.
Yang O-dan was showing exactly what a subduing bare-handed art looked like at the peak of its realm.
And yet—
"Gyaaah!"
A scream tore from Yang O-dan's mouth before he could stop it.
The foot he thought he had tangled was instead wrenched by Yeon So-hyeon's absurd leg strength.
Even the arm he had used as an axis was twisted the other way by the opponent's mysterious technique.
In that brief instant, Yeon So-hyeon had returned Yang O-dan's force through the principle of Transforming Force.
Uniting the weight and Internal Qi Yang O-dan had invested with his own raw strength, he snapped the arm that thick Internal Qi had been protecting.
"W-what—this is insane…!"
Yang O-dan wanted nothing more than to tear free of the hands and feet clamping down on him and retreat.
But it was as if he had been bound in diamond chains; he could not break away at all.
Then he felt the opponent's breath, ice-cold, against his face.
It was so cold that even the steel-hard skin of a face protected by Internal Qi seemed ready to freeze solid.
"Well…"
A voice like molten iron seared against his ear.
"Have you finished showing off every little trick you can manage?"
Yang O-dan's head snapped up by reflex—and what filled his eyes was the ghost-fire burning blue at the edges of his opponent's gaze.
The time for fattening the prey was over.
Now it was time to thrash the dogs that had forgotten their place, lunging and climbing where they did not belong—and show them who held the leash around their necks.
Luoyang Sword Family, Wongak Pavilion.
The shrine where the memorial tablet of the Medicine Fairy, Yak So-yu, was enshrined.
The Second Young Lady picked up a wooden Buddha statue with a distinctly sour expression.
"This is one of the statues that child carved to master his fury…?"
Il-ryeong, looking a little unsettled herself, nodded.
"…Yes, that is so."
"…This."
She was known to everyone as a woman of frank and forthright temperament, yet for a long moment she could not find the words to continue.
"…Whenever His Lordship feels he may no longer be able to govern himself, he carves Buddha statues."
"…And when did that child begin carving these?"
Il-ryeong bowed her head.
"I am told they began to multiply roughly two months ago."
"Then it has hardly been any time at all…?"
"…."
The Second Young Lady lifted her head and looked left and right.
Truly, one could see how deep the Grand Family Head's love for his Grand Madame had been.
The shrine's interior alone surpassed the main hall of any ordinary temple in scale.
And every inch of that space was packed with wooden Buddha statues.
Some were large, some sat crooked; some were smiling, some weeping.
Wherever the eye turned—statues, and more statues.
Shelves in several tiers ran along the walls, stacked with statues in layer upon layer.
They looked as though they had finally failed to contain themselves and burst free, spilling out across the vast wooden floor.
"…In heaven's name."
Only the space for prostration and incense had been left clear.
Everywhere else, the statues that filled the room gazed as one upon the visitor.
"…."
Overwhelmed by a sight that spoke of nothing but madness, the Second Young Lady could not bring herself to say another word.