One-Man Army
The man guiding Hong Dok-ji-ju, newly appointed overall director of administrative affairs, smiled with warm satisfaction.
"How is it? Aren't the facilities simply magnificent?"
Hong Dok-ji-ju nodded again and again in open admiration as she surveyed the private night-duty quarters prepared for her alone.
"My word, there's nothing missing! True to the Sword Family, every piece of furniture is the finest quality! At this rate I could live here permanently!"
"...Ah, yes."
He had spoken out of envy for the treatment and hospitality she was receiving, yet somehow those words rang like a curse in her ears.
This luxurious night-duty facility—surely it can't mean...!
She concealed the fear rising across her face as the thought took hold.
It couldn't be that the First Young Master never intended to let me leave work from the very beginning...?
Just then a voice urgently sought her.
"Chief Administrator!"
Still unused to her new title, she emerged belatedly from the night-duty room and answered.
"I am here. What is it?"
The messenger who had come running, breathless, held out a slip of paper.
"An urgent dispatch!"
We haven't even begun yet?
Repeating Yeon So-hyeon's words inwardly, Kong Yo let out a hollow laugh.
Even as he took it for a simple display of confidence, he found it hard to hide his anticipation of what further schemes the boy before him might yet reveal.
"The First Young Master will already have heard the report. Circulating among Luoyang's families this morning was not entirely without harvest."
It concerned the families that nursed grudges against the Second Young Master—families that had become his enemies, and therefore families that wished to offer Yeon So-hyeon their cooperation.
"Yes. Even now there are those making secret approaches."
"As the saying goes, ten spoons make a meal—would it not help to meet with them as well?"
He spoke because even a single ally was precious at such a moment.
"Well. As Headmaster Kong has already predicted..."
Yeon So-hyeon shook his head.
"Even if we meet them now, they will only cooperate beneath the surface—in ways that never show openly. And they will make a great show of it while doing so."
A powerful family was being dismantled; blood and flesh were flying. In such a situation, raising one's head and declaring full, open cooperation was in truth no different from volunteering for the battlefield.
"...I suppose that is so."
Kong Yo had already anticipated as much, just as Yeon So-hyeon said.
"Those sorts will take so passive a stance, and only if the tide of war turns favorable and their own safety is guaranteed will they then run wild."
"Exactly."
Yeon So-hyeon raised his teacup, wet his lips with a sip, then continued.
"And afterward, when the time comes to reward merit, they will try to strip us down to the bone."
As if the ungrateful faces had risen vividly in his mind, Kong Yo wore a thoroughly displeased expression.
"...But is there any other way?"
"There is."
Yeon So-hyeon smiled across the rim of his teacup.
"We seize the initiative in this war without receiving a single scrap of their help."
Watching Kong Yo's white eyebrows twitch, Yeon So-hyeon leaned back comfortably in his chair.
"If that happens, those who already stood opposed to the Second Young Master will prostrate themselves flat before us."
To climb aboard Yeon So-hyeon's faction once it had seized the initiative—even belatedly—they would have no path left but to offer up liver and gallbladder alike and fawn for favor.
Yeon So-hyeon bared his teeth in a broad smile.
"They will only be able to set foot in our camp after first paying a massive coward's fine."
"Haha. The First Young Master's words alone are enough to clear the chest, yet..."
At that, Kong Yo stroked his beard repeatedly.
"Wasn't this discussion originally meant to gather even small strengths and increase the forces we can field against them?"
He swallowed dryly and asked Yeon So-hyeon.
"Surely, First Young Master, you do not believe we have a chance of victory with only our present strength?"
"That is..."
Just as Yeon So-hyeon opened his mouth, a polite knock sounded at the office door.
"First Young Master."
It was Hong Dok-ji-ju.
"Forgive the interruption during your conversation, but an urgent dispatch has arrived."
Her complexion was poor, as though the contents were grave.
After seeking Kong Yo's understanding, Yeon So-hyeon gestured while remaining seated. She approached and respectfully handed over the note.
"The Support Division of the Project Support Group has declared a halt to funding for the Valley of Sin project."
"Yes. And..."
When Yeon So-hyeon spoke the contents without any particular intent to conceal them, Hong Dok-ji-ju, who had been holding her tongue because of Kong Yo's presence, opened her mouth.
"Following that, the Project Support Group has submitted a request through Geomga Jeonjang for the full recovery of the support funds they had invested on our side."
A request for recovery of support funds. It meant forcing them to spit out every last coin invested thus far.
"These bastards..."
Kong Yo's drooping eyelids trembled.
"After creating a vacuum in administrative power, now they mean to apply financial pressure as well...?"
The Second Young Master's side was clearly revealing its will to starve out entirely the project that would form the foundation of Yeon So-hyeon's power.
"...Even if they recover every amount that was to be invested in Hodu Village, it would not amount to even a quarter of what the main family intends to demand."
Hong Dok-ji-ju spoke with a deliberately calm expression, striving to keep her face composed.
"Moreover, even the Hodu Village project that the First Young Master so cleverly kept the main family from touching will now be halted along with it."
Her expression was calm, yet the anger lying beneath it was vividly felt.
"...Our Kong family will try to exert some influence, but it will be difficult to affect internal matters of the Sword Family much."
Kong Yo clicked his tongue.
"Besides, I doubt the Second Young Master's side moved with only that in mind."
Hong Dok-ji-ju nodded.
"If Geomga Jeonjang decides to recover the support funds at the Support Division's request, every banking house inside and outside Luoyang will cut off dealings with us."
Geomga Jeonjang's decision was the Luoyang Sword Family's decision, and no banking house in the vicinity could be found that would refuse to follow it.
"Hmm."
"Mm..."
Unlike the two who had frozen, lost in worried thoughts, Yeon So-hyeon remained perfectly composed.
"Il-ryeong."
At his gesture, Il-ryeong, who had been waiting, brought a small metal box and handed it to Hong Dok-ji-ju.
The metal box was sturdy, and a heavy lock was fastened to it.
"This is...?"
Yeon So-hyeon smiled at her.
"The proceeds from disposing of the Yi family's merchant group."
Using the key she received from Yeon So-hyeon to open the box, shock bloomed across Hong Dok-ji-ju's face.
"Th-this sum...?!"
Checking the promissory notes that filled the metal box, she cried out to Yeon So-hyeon.
"You received the entire sale price from them as a lump sum?!"
Ordinarily, when such vast sums changed hands, lump-sum promissory notes were rare. Even for a family that piled up cash thickly, there was a limit to the amount that could be mobilized on the spot.
"As a result we did not get the full proper value. But I anticipated something like this might happen."
Nodding his thanks with his eyes to Il-ryeong, who was pouring tea from the teapot, Yeon So-hyeon spoke in a leisurely tone.
"From the start, selling off the Yi merchant group in pieces was partly to prevent Sapaecheon from pressuring the purchasing families, but it was also so that we could receive the full payment on the day of the transaction."
Everyone brought plenty of promissory notes, I trust?
The words Yeon So-hyeon had first spoken at the trading table had not been mere jokes. The families of those gathered there were not of a scale that could swallow the enormous Yi merchant group in one bite. But because that merchant group had been appropriately divided by Yeon So-hyeon, every procedure could be completed—including receiving the transaction payment as a lump sum.
"Such a thing...?!"
Listening to Hong Dok-ji-ju's exclamation that was almost a scream, Yeon So-hyeon continued with a satisfied expression, showing his pleasure in the fragrance of the tea.
"Moreover, the disposal of the assets the Yi family had stockpiled in their main house is also underway, so we will soon be able to receive that sum as well."
The bundle received from Lord Cheong, head of the Cheong family, would by now have gone to the main temple of the Temple of Compassion and be undergoing laundering through various means.
"All told, the sum will come to this amount."
Checking the figure Yeon So-hyeon had written on a note and handed over, Hong Dok-ji-ju's face went deathly pale.
"So even if the situation of having to spit out all the investment funds actually occurs, there will be no need to worry for the time being."
"With this sum...!"
Hong Dok-ji-ju hurriedly nodded in agreement.
"Even if the Project Support Group demands we repay every investment fund all at once, we can pay it off sufficiently!"
She shouted, unable to hide her excitement.
"This way, we can actually completely separate the main family from the Valley of Sin project!"
That meant the Valley of Sin, like Hodu Village, would completely escape the influence of the Luoyang Sword Family.
"Hmm."
Yeon So-hyeon smacked his lips and muttered to himself.
"If we could have sold the Yi merchant group as a single lump, we could have secured a far greater sum..."
The total of the divided Yi merchant group was far less valuable than a single intact Yi merchant group. Had it not been so, the sum from selling the intact Yi merchant group alone would have covered every long-term investment needed for both the Valley of Sin and Hodu Village, with plenty left over.
"A bit of a shame."
But that regret did not even register with Kong Yo and Hong Dok-ji-ju. They were too busy clicking their tongues at the series of displays Yeon So-hyeon was showing them.
"Haha. Magnificent, First Young Master. Just listening was one thing, but seeing you wield that skill firsthand like this, I find myself at a loss for words."
"You flatter me."
To Kong Yo, who was shaking his head, Yeon So-hyeon offered modest words without changing expression in the slightest.
"Astonishing...!"
Hong Dok-ji-ju, who had taken out an abacus and roughly fitted the sums together in calculation, cried out.
"The amounts really do match almost exactly!"
Yeon So-hyeon shrugged.
"I calculated it and handed over precisely the right amount."
"......!"
Even in this situation, Yeon So-hyeon had left a scrap sum aside just in case.
"With this...!"
Hong Dok-ji-ju nodded with a flushed expression.
"The halt and recovery of investment funds causing the project to sink all at once is already as good as prevented!"
Moving part of the Project Support Group's business and getting Geomga Jeonjang to move as intended would have consumed considerable political resources even by the Second Young Master's side's standards. But thanks to Yeon So-hyeon's preparations, the chance of the project being blown away by financial pressure had vanished. Those political resources had become meaningless—already about half evaporated into thin air.
Hong Dok-ji-ju muttered as she flicked the abacus beads.
"If there's a regret, it's that with this sum we can protect the project, but continuing to progress it is impossible..."
The impossibility of project progress. That was the remaining half.
"Ah, First Young Master. Forgive me!"
Having unconsciously voiced her regret, she hurriedly bowed her head in apology and shut her mouth. Even a half-victory was a victory purely won by Yeon So-hyeon's power. This was absolutely not a place for her to make regretful remarks.
"You say immediate project progress is difficult?"
Instead of blaming her, Yeon So-hyeon wore a meaningful smile.
"First Young Master...?"
Valley of Sin.
Joint Project Headquarters of the First Young Master and Fourth Young Master.
The office of Fourth Young Master Yeon Bi.
Tang Go-gyu, leader of the Sichuan investment delegation that had arrived with Daseonrang, stroked his chin.
"Haha. I did already receive a heads-up from our family's Young Mistress, but..."
Last night there had been a conversation between Tang Eun-rang, Young Mistress of the Sichuan Tang Family, and First Young Master Yeon So-hyeon. Those disguised as an investment delegation from Sichuan were in fact agents of the Sichuan Tang Family seeking to advance into Luoyang with the First Young Master's help.
"If you've received the heads-up and completed verification of the token, then the conversation can proceed quickly."
Fourth Young Master Yeon Bi smiled as he spoke to Tang Go-gyu, called a sage of the Tang Family.
"Please immediately disburse the Sichuan Tang Family funds that the Tang Family promised to Elder Brother."
Having verified the small silver ornament—the token—that Tang Eun-rang had handed to Yeon So-hyeon, Tang Go-gyu nodded.
"This wasn't the point at which we were originally to hand over the funds, but... well, what of it? I simply follow the orders I've received."
When he raised a hand toward those behind him, the one waiting in the rear went outside. As a security measure against any unforeseen incident, the funds had been dispersed and hidden in multiple locations.
"Gold coins and promissory notes will soon be transported here in secret."
At those words the Fourth Young Master wore a thoroughly pleased smile.
Gwak Nopin, who had been standing silently behind him, breathed an inward sigh of relief and transmitted a close-range voice message.
[My lord. With this, both the Valley of Sin and Hodu Village projects can now proceed without any financial problems.]
She had broken out in a cold sweat at the powerful counterattack the Second Young Master's side had unleashed by mobilizing the Project Support Group. Even after hearing Yeon So-hyeon's plan in advance from the Fourth Young Master, when that counterattack actually came, anxiety had surged within her.
Turning toward her, Fourth Young Master Yeon Bi smiled. Even without words, even without voice transmission, Gwak Nopin could fully sense the meaning.
[Yes, my lord. This old woman has more than fully realized it by now.]
That the single existence known as Yeon So-hyeon was overcoming the extreme disparity in power against the Second Young Master's side.
He was no different from a one-man army.