Miscalculation
“Will you accompany this First Young Master?”
Su-ran and Cheong Ho-wi exchanged a glance, then nodded at once.
“Of course.”
“No way we’re sitting this one out.”
As members of the Spring of Luoyang, facing a high-ranking local official head-on would surely weigh on them—yet neither hesitated. It was not mere curiosity about how Yeon So-hyeon would deal with the District Magistrate who served as the Second Young Master’s running dog. Even without knowing the full details of what lay ahead, they answered out of a simple resolve: if there was any chance they could help with the House of Mercy’s work, they would give everything they had.
Knowing their hearts, Yeon So-hyeon did not settle for a mere acknowledgment.
“My thanks.”
Following the passage upward toward the surface, Yeon So-hyeon suddenly stopped near a fork in the tunnel.
“…Wait for me by the carriage first.”
Jeong-a bowed her head and led Su-ran and Cheong Ho-wi onward. Even the armed priestess who had been guiding them with a torch went with them, leaving Yeon So-hyeon alone as the passage sank into darkness. Only faint sunlight, reflected along the walls from the surface, dimly lit the space—just enough to make out the silhouette of Yeon So-hyeon standing with his back to the exit.
He turned his head toward the deeper path. An ordinary man would have shuddered at that unfathomable dark, but for Yeon So-hyeon, the Contractor of the Jeam Jincheon Scripture, fear of darkness held no power. His eyes fixed precisely on a single point within the gloom.
“Priestess. Have you something left to say?”
As though parting mist, the priestess’s form emerged from the dark. The sunlight, bouncing again and again off the walls, cast only the feeblest glow across her pale face. Her lips stirred.
“The most unclean ones are on the move. I hear the sound of their footsteps crawling up from the deepest reaches of the Grand Canal. I feel the breath that reeks of blood and pus.”
Her voice was so frail it seemed a breeze might scatter it entirely, yet it struck Yeon So-hyeon’s ear with uncanny clarity.
“…The most unclean ones.”
Yeon So-hyeon murmured the words. In the history of the past, the Yeon So-hyeon of this season would have let such talk wash over him. A gentleman does not speak of the strange, the forceful, the chaotic, or the divine. Engulfed by the terror his fate as the Star of Heavenly Slaughter had brought, that earlier self had sought only to accept things as they were—to transmit without creating. Superstition was what he had fled farthest from.
But the Yeon So-hyeon of now was different. The Jeam Jincheon Scripture. And its Contractor, Amcheonjonza. Was he himself not already something of the strange and the divine?
“The Demonic Cult is already showing movement?”
The Heavenly Demon Divine Cult—the most bizarre and dangerous heretical order in the history of the Central Kingdom.
“Fate was twisted, and thus destiny has found its proper place again.”
Her answer was vague for an answer, yet not entirely without a point that could be grasped.
“…You mean their movements have quickened because of me?”
The priestess gave another non-answer.
“They revere an unclean prophecy and live by the prophecy of the end. The hour of prophecy has arrived; the unclean ones moving now is not chance, but inevitability.”
Her lips moved swiftly.
On the day the city overflows with blood and screams,
the earth shall be wreathed in flame, and a crimson moon shall hide in the heavens.
Thunder born of the ground shall roll,
and mortal beings, unable even to tell front from back, left from right,
shall devote themselves only to killing and being killed.
Her body swayed forward and back; her eyes rolled until only the whites showed, as though something had taken possession of her.
Her final words echoed and re-echoed through the empty passage.
“Is that all?”
The priestess slowly nodded.
“And when is this to take place?”
“Not long now.”
Yeon So-hyeon gave a short laugh.
“Convenient, then.”
He turned and faced upward.
“I have business with those bastards myself.”
With a casual wave of his hand behind him in farewell to the priestess, Yeon So-hyeon strode up the passage. There was not a shred of hesitation or unease in his steps. Advancing toward the exit blazing with sunlight, he looked for all the world like one walking into the light itself.
Watching him go, the priestess found herself reciting, unbidden, a line of prophecy handed down from antiquity.
When the master of the sword without a sword returns and stands tall,
the stars shall reclaim their places, and every fate shall flow true.
It was a passage recorded in the prophetic text known as the Codex of Dark Intent.
In Luoyang, the post of District Magistrate sat directly beneath the Luoyang Magistrate and held administrative responsibility for each district—a high office. The man stroked his sharply trimmed beard and jerked his chin at his aides.
“What is the Captain of the Constables doing?! Send these wretched things home at once!”
Hearing him, the officer in charge of the constables—the Captain of the Constables—bellowed in a booming voice.
“Execute the order!”
More than a hundred constables ambled toward the poor. They had no more desire than anyone else to pick needless quarrels with innocent destitute folk, but with the District Magistrate himself present and watching, there was no choice.
“Come on, come on! All of you, head home!”
“If you don’t leave this instant, you’ll taste the rod!”
As they began shoving the poor who had packed their belongings and come out, a clamor rose at once.
“Aigo! My lords! We’re only going to another village under the guidance of the House of Mercy!”
“We’re not even trying to leave Luoyang, are we?!”
The House of Mercy’s relocation officers called out to the poor.
“Do not resist—return home for now!”
“It’s all right! Do not resist the constables!”
“The House of Mercy will remain with you all the way!”
At those words most of the poor turned and began to move their heavy feet again, but not everyone was persuaded.
“We were promised relocation support money! And jobs!”
“We’re just trying to live like people for once—what crime have we committed to deserve this?!”
They had been dreaming of a new life’s beginning, and they would not yield easily. Those who had waited only for death and then seized a single thread of hope feared letting it go even for a moment.
“Have you no law, no decency?!”
An old scholar missing teeth jabbed a finger at the constables.
“How dare you persecute His Majesty the Emperor’s guiltless subjects…!”
A dull thud rang out, and the old scholar crumpled where he stood. Blood from his head ran across the dirt.
“Aigo! Father!”
“Old man!”
Blood dripped from the six-sided club in the Captain of the Constables’ hand.
“Ptui!”
He spat on the fallen old scholar and shouted at his men.
“What are you standing around for?! Anyone who refuses the District Magistrate’s control is a rebel spawn!”
“Subdue the rebel spawn!”
“Show no mercy!”
Irritated by the poor’s fiercer-than-expected resistance, the constables drew their six-sided clubs without needing further instruction.
“All House of Mercy personnel—evacuate the people! Quickly!”
At the sight, the elderly physician in charge of the House of Mercy’s Hodu Village branch cried out like a scream.
“Everyone, return home at once!”
I already sent word to the main temple. The First Young Master should intervene any moment now…!
The moment trouble erupted, he had been the first to pull the House of Mercy’s armed forces completely back. Armed conflict with the authorities was something that must be avoided at all costs.
Those who had resisted in the front ranks were already being thoroughly beaten.
“You rebel spawn bastards!”
Chaos reigned as people fled toward their homes and constables chased them, swinging six-sided clubs.
“Rebellion? How can they use such an absurd pretext…?!”
He had expected the Second Young Master’s side to play tricks, but the District Magistrate’s actions far exceeded imagination. In his long life he had never before witnessed common folk who had done nothing but protest being crushed so cruelly, without even an attempt at persuasion, under such a ridiculous pretext.
“Fuck, drag them out!”
“Kill them!”
There were even constables who chased people into nearby shacks, dragged them out, and beat them.
“Oof!”
An old woman with a child on her back collapsed under the weight of her load.
Should anything unexpected arise, secure your own safety first.
Yeon So-hyeon’s caution had long since been erased from the elderly physician’s mind. He dashed forward and helped the fallen woman up.
“Th-thank you!”
He shouted to her.
“Hurry! Hurry and run—!”
A dull crack, and his consciousness receded.
“Pour the water!”
A bucket of cold water mixed with filth was dumped over the elderly physician, and he came to. Consciousness returned, but the blow to his head left him dizzy and his vision blurred.
“So you are the ringleader who stirred up this ‘popular uprising’?”
At the District Magistrate’s aide’s question, the elderly physician swayed. Constables’ rough hands forced him upright on his knees where he was bound.
“A traitor against the state will answer when spoken to!”
“A traitor against the state…?”
To his left and right, House of Mercy personnel, as bloodied as he was, knelt bound. The elderly physician bared bloodied teeth and answered.
“This old man is merely a physician who serves at the House of Mercy…”
“You bastard…!”
The Captain of the Constables’ six-sided club smashed down on the elderly physician’s shoulder.
“Kh…!”
His collarbone shattered; the men on either side caught him as he sagged like a corpse.
“…The House of Mercy is a charitable organization of the First Young Master of the Luoyang Sword Family.”
The elderly physician lifted his hazy gaze to the District Magistrate standing with his hands clasped behind his back.
“Can the District Magistrate bear the consequences that will follow?”
“Why, you criminal, how dare you—!”
“Hold.”
It was the District Magistrate who stopped the Captain of the Constables from crushing the man’s skull in a single blow this time. He stepped forward and stood before the elderly physician.
“I shall show you mercy and inform you of one obvious and important fact.”
He bent slightly at the waist and spoke.
“His August Majesty the Emperor has entrusted me with authority over the people of this Qinghe District.”
His aides chimed in from either side.
“The District Magistrate clearly ordered the relocation halted.”
“Yet these people did not stop their illegal relocation!”
The elderly physician ground his teeth.
“Illegal relocation?! Since when has moving one’s residence within Luoyang been illegal?!”
At that the District Magistrate sneered.
“Information reached me that rebel spawn were mixed among you. So I lawfully halted the relocation within the bounds of my authority. Preventing the movement of a group that includes criminals is within my power.”
The aides sneered along with him.
“Yet they ignored the notice.”
“Utterly stupid fellows who do not know the fear of the law.”
Another House of Mercy worker cried out as if in a fit.
“Notice?! We received no such notice!”
One of the aides drew a document from his robes.
“No, no. We clearly showed this document and requested cooperation, but you ignored it.”
“Lies…!”
He was struck by a six-sided club and collapsed. The District Magistrate nodded.
“I did well to lead the constables here myself, sensing the gravity of this affair.”
The aides agreed.
“Indeed a popular uprising broke out just like this, did it not?”
“And the District Magistrate personally arrested the ringleader—a splendid achievement!”
They all burst into loud, raucous laughter as if on cue. Watching them, the elderly physician trembled from head to toe and shouted.
“…The First Young Master will not let you go unpunished!”
At that the District Magistrate slowly shook his head, unhurried.
“Well, that First Young Master can lodge a protest with Luoyang’s central offices, I suppose. But what more can he do beyond that?”
A smirking smile spread across his face.
“The legal procedures to determine the truth of the matter will drag on indefinitely, and in the end it will all fizzle out. And in the meantime the venture in this Hodu Village will be delayed quite comfortably.”
“……!”
What he had aimed for from the start was precisely the delay of the Hodu Village project. That would serve as ample proof of loyalty to the Second Young Master of the Luoyang Sword Family.
So long as the Second Young Master stood behind him, the Luoyang Sword Family would not move. He had not touched the First Young Master directly. He had not stepped outside the bounds of his authority. Even if the old horses of Mount Beimang stirred, the Second Young Master’s side had driven the nail home: they did not have the entire family at their backs.
While the fabricated pretext was argued in court, he would already have received the Second Young Master’s grace and been promoted somewhere in the south.
A plan this thorough is more than safe enough.
The warning from the Second Young Master’s side that had visited him the night before floated through his mind.
Never underestimate the First Young Master!
He shrugged. From plan to execution, there were no holes.
Just then a constable on perimeter watch shouted.
“A c-carriage pulled by beasts is approaching!”
He saw the banner and shouted again.
“It’s the First Young Master of the Luoyang Sword Family!”
The ox-cart drawn by great spiritual beasts barreled in, ignoring the constables.
“St-stop!”
“Uwaaah!”
The constables who tried to block the way yelped and flung themselves left and right.
“None of you move!”
At the District Magistrate’s low cry, those standing around him managed to preserve their dignity. He tightened his lower abdomen and watched the steel ox-cart charge toward them with as leisurely an expression as he could manage.
Screeech—!
The brakes engaged; the ox-cart twisted its massive frame sideways and came to a halt. The wheels carved long, deep furrows in the ground; vibration and dust washed over the District Magistrate and his party, yet they did not move to the end.
Looking at the ox-cart stopped only a few paces away, the District Magistrate swallowed a sigh of relief.
…For now, I’ve won the opening clash of momentum!
The door burst open. He raised a hand toward it.
“Ah, I regret having to deliver unfortunate news to the First Young Master, and this official’s heart is not at ease…”
Mid-sentence he suddenly saw the sky, and the earth spinning.
Huh?
Blood and teeth exploded before his eyes. The fist Yeon So-hyeon had swung as he leapt from the ox-cart had smashed into the man’s jaw.