The Cards
At the very moment the cards were being confirmed, the forced execution against the Lee Family was already underway.
An investigator serving a magistrate of the Cheong Family kept his presence concealed near a government office, silent and still.
The report arrived by sound transmission from a subordinate already mixed in among the office staff.
At the main residence, where the retired elders of the Lee Family resided, the old men would of course exercise their right of self-defense and resist with force. The enforcers would simply apply the charge of obstructing justice and crush them for it.
But the active members of the Lee Family—those who had been on duty in broad daylight—were another matter entirely.
Like every other criminal, the target slipped out the back door, trying to avoid eyes. The investigator already waiting near the rear entrance and his subordinates followed in silence.
They pursued only one target, yet the sitting officials of the Lee Family were many—even setting aside the petty lower clerks. That was why other teams, each assigned their own mark, were tracking their designated targets in real time across the city.
The moment the head of the Lee Family heard the unidentifiable boom—the sound of the main gate being destroyed—he decided to flee.
By the time the report reached him that Yeon So-hyeon himself had come, he was already slipping into the underground secret passage known only to the family head.
If that First Young Master has shown his face in person, it means he has prepared a proper means of attack no matter what I try.
The judgment and reflexes were those of a man who led a powerful house. Yet the question still gnawed at him.
How in the world did he finish preparing an assault on our Lee Family so quickly?
Not even a single double-hour had passed since the family member who had been village head of Cheonghak-dong was beaten with staves and carried home for obstructing the resettlement of Hodu Village.
Was it prepared in advance? But how did he single us out so precisely? Does the bastard possess foresight as well?!
He ground his teeth at the sheer speed and accuracy of Yeon So-hyeon’s movements.
Demon-spawn…!
The instant he cleared the formation laid across the secret passage, he ordered without even looking back.
“Two of you remain and hold this place.”
“Yes, Family Head.”
Two of the martial artists trailing him immediately peeled away from the group. Those who still followed him were the most loyal fighters the Lee Family possessed. The two left behind would hold their ground until their last breath.
As he moved swiftly through the labyrinthine passage, the head of the Lee Family patted his robes and confirmed the weight within.
Fortunately I secured the secret ledger I kept hidden for emergencies.
That ledger was filled with records that must never fall into outside hands—especially not the judiciary. Yet he could not simply destroy it. With the main house in peril, the ledger that named every partner in his backroom dealings was nothing less than his lifeline.
With this, I should at least be able to buy my own life.
At the end of the secret passage a ladder rose upward. It connected to a building somewhere in Luoyang’s old quarter. The structure, located in a deserted alley and disguised as a warehouse, was in truth the Lee Family’s emergency escape route.
“Climb first and check the interior.”
One martial artist scaled the ladder without hesitation. She opened the camouflaged exit and entered the building—a broad warehouse two stories high. After surveying the inside she called down.
“Interior clear.”
Every device installed to leave traces of any intrusion had been checked before she reported.
“Good. Two more of you go up and confirm the outside.”
At his thorough order even at the last moment, two more martial artists climbed and peered through hidden windows before reporting below.
“Exterior clear.”
Only then did the head of the Lee Family nod.
“I go first.”
Leaving the rear-guard martial artists behind, he climbed the ladder. When his hand came within reach, a martial artist seized it and hauled him up in a single motion while the others already waiting inside moved with practiced speed to secure the exit.
“Time is short. Move.”
Brushing dust from his clothes, the family head advanced. The martial artists who had secured the exit stepped first into the deserted back alley. Those who had guarded the rear below climbed up swiftly after them.
And the moment the family head stepped into the tangled back alleys—
The martial artists who had gone ahead to secure the corner were slammed into the wall as one.
“……?!”
What had pierced their heads and torsos were iron bolts. Fired from a distant rooftop, the bolts had not merely killed them instantly but pinned them to the wall itself.
“Enemy ambush—!”
It was only the beginning. With successive shrieks of torn air, more iron bolts streaked in, deliberately avoiding the family head and targeting his guards.
“Kh!”
Like the elite of a powerful house, they drew their blades with astonishing reflexes and began batting the bolts aside.
“Repeating crossbow fire!”
“Protect the Family Head!”
Several of them already formed a living wall around him on all sides.
“First get the Family Head back into the pass—!”
Someone was still shouting when the rear windows shattered all at once and the hidden weapons of the Sichuan Tang Family poured through.
“Guh…!”
“Hidden weapons from the rear!”
They spun to cover the back, but several had already fallen to the projectiles and many more were wounded. And that was still not the end.
A grating chain-rattle rang out once. The warehouse roof exploded inward. A single figure dropped through and landed without a sound. Twin sickles filled his hands, and the heads of those standing apart from the family head rose into the air trailing blood.
A perfect surprise attack that left no room for response.
“A-a master…!”
The chain-rattle sounded once more. This time the strike came from the front, so most of them managed to keep their heads from being harvested.
“Grrk…”
Yet the torsos of those already slowed by iron bolts and hidden weapons lost their heads and collapsed.
Blood dripped steadily from the twin sickles held by the gaunt-faced middle-aged man—Tang Baek, former head collector of the Tea Horse Road. He stood blocking the floor hatch that led into the secret passage and watched the remaining enemies without a word.
All other attacks had ceased. Only the martial artists shielding the family head with their own bodies remained. From their midst the family head asked,
“…The First Young Master’s subordinates?”
The question had barely left his lips when figures hidden in every winding alley revealed themselves. At their head stood a woman of startling beauty, sword in hand.
The family head spoke as though sighing.
“How in the world did the First Young Master know of this passage’s existence…?”
Her eyes glowed an unusual gold. The family head did not know it, but before those eyes—called Dragon Eyes—any secret passage was as good as useless.
At that same hour, the main residence of the Lee Family.
Yet another one. An elder who had somehow managed to hide was dragged out and flung into the courtyard. The important documents he had carried and the gold and silver he had gathered had already been confiscated.
The elder lifted his disheveled head. Like the other elders around him, he stared blankly up at the sky. The spring day was mild, and the sky was a merciless blue. The bruises on the old men differed, yet their thoughts were identical.
…Just where did it all go wrong?
Everything had been wrong from the beginning.
Surrounded by the few martial artists still left to him, the head of the Lee Family let a bitter smile touch his lips. From the start there had been neither place nor method of escape.
The moment the First Young Master revealed his cards, the moment I was able to confirm those cards…
In that single moment everything had already been finished.
With a hollow expression he slowly raised both hands above his head. Then his lips moved.
“…Strike!”
The elite martial artists, drilled for precisely this situation, exploded into motion before the command had even finished. Three toward Tang Baek. One toward Chief Maid Jeong-a. And he himself was half-carried by the last remaining martial artist as they hurled themselves toward the entrance of the secret passage.
Accompanied by a woman’s cool snort of laughter, the martial artist who had lunged at Jeong-a was simply cut in two.
Perfect reverse of cause and effect. The most powerful counter-technique in the history of the Luoyang Sword Family.
There was no world in which a mere martial artist of the Lee Family could stop the completed Seom-yeong-chal-na.
Tang Baek’s side fared no differently, though he made no sound of laughter. The already exhausted martial artists failed to last even a single exchange and tumbled away as corpses. The final resistance had been meaningless.
“Kh!”
When the last martial artist who had leapt with him lost his head and fell, the family head’s body, carried by residual momentum, bounced several times across the ground. The old man who had once headed a powerful house now cut a pitiful figure.
“…Well now.”
He muttered once, coughing, and staggered to his feet.
“It seems I have no methods left.”
Surrender.
“I have lost. Escort me to the First Young Master.”
In the steadiest voice he could manage he spoke to the woman approaching with measured steps—Chief Maid Jeong-a.
“I will give whatever testimony is required. I will spare no cooperation—”
The family head’s eyes flew wide. With a trembling hand he reached up and gripped the sword that had been driven through his own throat.
“Grrrk…”
He seemed to want to speak, yet only bloody foam rose from his mouth. The last strength drained from the old man’s unremarkable frame, and he sagged, the sword as his axis. Jeong-a’s blade did not so much as tremble under the weight of the corpse.
With an expression that looked almost wronged, almost uncomprehending, she kept her eyes on the body whose breath had already stopped, then drew her sword free. Afterward she caught the falling corpse with greater care than she would give anything else in the world—as though cradling the body of a beloved.
Inside the dead man’s robes lay the precious things her master desired. Her hands moved carefully yet with perfect precision as she searched the garments, wary that any item might be damaged. Blood from the corpse’s thrown-back throat dripped steadily onto the ground.
“Recovery of the Lee Family head’s seal of office and the secret ledger complete.”
When she released the items she had come for, the corpse simply toppled to the dirt. The agents of Hyeonwol Pavilion waiting behind her moved at once.
“You’ve worked hard. We’ll take over from here.”
They set about their tasks with seamless coordination according to each specialist’s field—moving bodies, destroying traces, recovering hidden weapons, sealing the secret passage. Far off on the rooftops, Jeong-a’s eyes caught the maids of the Wongak Pavilion withdrawing with the repeating crossbows slung across their backs—the same crossbows that had been detached from the armored carriage and set up for the ambush.
Having confirmed that much, she tucked the ledger into her robes and walked out of the warehouse. Tang Baek was already gone. The afternoon sunlight was dazzling.
Someone approached the investigator who had been tailing a sitting official of the Lee Family.
After delivering the message by close-range sound transmission, the messenger vanished into the crowd. The investigator sent his own transmission to his subordinates.
Not only they, but every team tracking Lee Family officials across the whole of Luoyang began to pull back. He added a brief postscript.
The remnants of the Lee Family. To suppress the sitting officials before they could attempt any foolish tricks required intervention that crossed from gray methods into outright illegality. And a house that possessed power enough to turn even that illegality into legality was cooperating with Yeon So-hyeon.
The Gong Family—proudly listed among the Sixteen Imperial Capital Families.
The moment Yeon So-hyeon’s next card was laid upon the table.