Solitude
Annex, the Finance Master's study.
"Finance Master."
The secretary addressed the old man who had been poring over a volume.
"Wouldn't it have been enough to prepare a single small room and show them only the copies that could serve as evidence?"
She continued in a cautious tone.
"Granting them access all the way into the archive where every ledger of every previous Finance Master remains…"
The white-bearded old man, the Finance Master, closed the book he had been reading and smiled faintly.
"I told you already. I must earn the First Young Master's trust. I have nothing to hide, so when the chance presented itself, I opened everything."
Had the circumstances not been so extraordinary, the sheer number of watching eyes would have made it impossible to admit outsiders into the highest security zone in the first place.
"Given the time and the manpower, the Central Investigation Department will already be strained simply sorting through the materials for the current cases…"
The secretary swallowed dryly.
"But if—though I hardly think it possible—if by any chance…"
Cold sweat beaded on her brow as she pressed on.
"If they should start tracing the historical flow of funds through Geomga Jeonjang…"
The Finance Master answered as though it were of no great concern.
"Then they will uncover the truths that only the Finance Masters have ever known."
The colossal corruptions buried in the darkest, deepest places of Geomga Jeonjang—corruptions even he had been forced to know of and silently tolerate.
Geomga Jeonjang headquarters, the Finance Master's private ledger archive.
Highest security zone.
Having received access by the Finance Master's own authority, Chief of the Central Investigation Department Dokgo Ya-yeon selected two people and committed them to the zone.
It was the best choice possible under the constraints of limited personnel and limited time.
"……"
Her most trusted subordinate, Hwa Bok, wore a sour expression.
He held open the ledger copy he had been examining, yet his gaze kept sliding toward the person beside him.
"Hey, rookie."
"……"
No answer. The newcomer was busy flipping rapidly through the stacked copies of documents.
"Hey, rookie…!"
When Hwa Bok raised his voice a little, the one called rookie finally replied.
"Yes, senior. What is it?"
Even as he spoke he pushed his large glasses higher on his nose and continued turning pages without pause.
To any ordinary eye it looked as though he were merely skimming for something stuck between the sheets.
"No matter how I look at it, it's unbelievable."
Hwa Bok stared at the rookie with open bafflement.
"You flip through them that carelessly and claim you remember every single word?"
"It's nothing more than a minor parlor trick."
Only recently had this newcomer been specially recruited into the Central Investigation Department by Dokgo Ya-yeon herself. Word was that a confidential report he had written concerning the Inner Court had caught the upper ranks' attention.
"Well, I'll be damned…"
Even watching it with his own eyes, Hwa Bok could only half-believe the extraordinary memory the rookie supposedly possessed.
They say he took first place in the palace examination. Does it really take that kind of monstrous memory to manage something like that…?
Whether Hwa Bok eyed him with suspicion or not, the young man who had already committed every document the Finance Master had prepared to memory—Kang Ho—closed the final file.
"Finished."
"Uh… right."
Hwa Bok scratched the back of his head.
"Good work."
"Senior…"
Kang Ho sighed and looked at him.
"For me, memorizing the contents is the end of it. But do you intend to leave it at that? The Chief assigned you here with me for a reason, didn't she?"
Hwa Bok's eyes snapped wide.
"Ah! Right! I'd better start looking myself!"
Confirming that Hwa Bok had thrown himself frantically into the papers, Kang Ho sighed inwardly.
Good. Now…
They had entered the highest security zone of Geomga Jeonjang—the archive that only successive Finance Masters had ever been allowed to set foot in. Simply checking what they were shown and walking out again would have been the act of a fool.
"Hmm. So this is how it all connects…"
Leaving Hwa Bok completely absorbed in the evidence documents for the current cases, Kang Ho began reading every file, every ledger that met his eye.
"……"
For most people, merely verifying the provided copies of evidence and matching them against the facts would have been a tight squeeze for the allotted time. But Kang Ho was the sort of man who, if he forwent grasping context and withheld judgment of content, could still examine and memorize every document that looked important within the limit.
That was the power of his instantaneous memory.
By the First Young Master's grace I was able to write the confidential report on the Inner Court without mishap, and I was even selected for the Central Investigation Department and given this advancement.
Through the earlier incident in the Inner Court he had met Yeon So-hyeon, and he had already become a loyal subordinate of the First Young Master.
With this I can answer at least a little of the First Young Master's expectations.
Through him, the entire historical flow of funds through Geomga Jeonjang—from the distant past to the present—would be delivered to Yeon So-hyeon.
Including every vast corruption nestled within it.
Annex, the Finance Master's study.
"But have you considered this point?"
"What do you mean, sir…?"
The Finance Master turned his chair and crossed his legs.
"Why the First Young Master did not enter the ledger archive himself, but left that role to the Chief of the Central Investigation Department."
"That is…"
The Finance Master offered his secretary a further clue.
"Had the First Young Master entered the ledger archive himself, that extraordinary mind of his would have grasped the entire abnormal flow of funds at a glance."
"Ah…!"
Finally understanding, the secretary almost cried out in admiration and hastily clapped a hand over her own mouth.
"It means the First Young Master knows that the Central Investigation Department possesses, even in this short span of time, a talent capable of mapping that flow!"
And then the next realization struck.
"Then… is the First Young Master testing the Chief of the Central Investigation Department?"
Geomga Jeonjang headquarters.
The temporary investigation command post requisitioned by the Central Investigation Department.
Chief Dokgo Ya-yeon was pacing the room in a manner most unlike her usual self.
Kang Ho…
Kang Ho himself had no idea, but before she had accepted him into the ranks of the Central Investigation Department she had already completed a thorough background investigation on him.
Everything from the instantaneous memory that only her direct superior, the Censorate Master, had known of, all the way to the relationship between his grandfather and Yeon So-hyeon.
Of course she had not been able to confirm that Kang Ho was offering his loyalty to Yeon So-hyeon, yet even that possibility had been one of the scenarios she had already factored in.
And still I had no choice but to send Kang Ho into the Finance Master's private ledger archive.
In a situation starved of both time and personnel there was simply no reason not to deploy a talent who possessed such a unique ability.
Nor could she have refused to recruit into the Central Investigation Department a man who had already rendered distinguished service and would continue to do so, merely on the suspicion of a connection with Yeon So-hyeon.
…A situation like this is one the First Young Master would have anticipated completely.
That was why he had allowed her Central Investigation Department to enter the Finance Master's ledger archive in the first place.
Extracting the information Kang Ho has grasped would be simple enough.
The problem was what came after.
From Kang Ho's mouth would pour, one after another, information about corruptions so massive they defied imagination.
Ten years without a Family Head. It was all too easy to picture what the corrupt power-holders of the Luoyang Sword Family had been doing inside a warehouse that had lost its master.
And the weight of those long-festering corruptions was something she and the Central Investigation Department could never hope to bear alone.
In the end, must I myself share the information with the First Young Master—an outsider—and request his aid…?
The option of simply burying the investigation never even entered her mind.
Yet neither was there anyone at the uppermost ranks of the Luoyang Sword Family—swarming as they were with vipers like the Deathstalker—whose hand she could safely take.
…Was this the First Young Master's design from the very beginning? To make the Central Investigation Department walk of its own free will into his faction?
From the moment the anonymous tip had first arrived until this very instant, she had in truth possessed no real choice.
Yeon So-hyeon, who read her patterns of behavior and her values as if they were the palm of his own hand.
This was precisely the sort of board he would have laid out.
…Does the First Young Master want the Central Investigation Department to abandon political neutrality completely in this moment and become his force?
Without realizing it she clenched her fist until it trembled with fury.
In the end the First Young Master is no different from those other heir bastards…
Then her pacing feet halted.
Heir…?
"By now she will have realized it as well."
The Finance Master wore a meaningful smile.
"This is the question of whether one regards the First Young Master as the predetermined Young Family Head of the main house, or merely as one heir among others."
"Ah…!"
The secretary exclaimed in admiration.
"If one regards him as Young Family Head, then of course one must report the fund flows one has uncovered! And seek the First Young Master's cooperation… No!"
She shook her head vigorously in excitement.
"Not seek his cooperation—one would be obliged to offer him one's cooperation."
"Exactly."
The Finance Master smiled with quiet satisfaction.
"That is why you yourself said earlier that you must earn the First Young Master's trust!"
Because the Finance Master already regarded First Young Master Yeon So-hyeon as the predetermined Young Family Head, he had chosen the path of earning Yeon So-hyeon's trust.
"The same choice has been placed before the Chief of the Central Investigation Department!"
The First Young Master had not stripped Dokgo Ya-yeon of her options.
On the contrary, he had given her the right to choose.
Would she regard the First Young Master as the predetermined Young Family Head and make the choice that earned his trust?
Or would she regard him as merely one more heir, bury the fund flows she had uncovered, or seek other collaborators, and thereby become yet another political player in a Luoyang Sword Family already overflowing with them?
"I am curious which choice she will make."
"Hmm… most likely…"
The secretary spoke as though she already knew the answer.
"It may be only my shallow thinking, but given that the Chief of the Central Investigation Department has always preferred isolation by temperament, I do not believe she will make the wrong choice."
Hearing his secretary's words, the Finance Master smiled faintly.
"I hope so as well."
His gaze turned toward the window.
Wishing not to disturb his thoughts, the secretary quietly withdrew.
Isolation…
Just like Dokgo Ya-yeon, he himself was isolated.
In this age, within this Luoyang Sword Family, to choose the right path meant exactly that.
And now he thought of the one who was more isolated than anyone else.
The First Young Master.
Understood fully by no one.
Followed properly in thought by no one.
What the ten years of seclusion had truly meant, and what it meant to break that seclusion—even guessing was difficult.
All he could do was think:
I hope more people will stand with him.
"Eldest Brother…"
"It has been a long time."
Third Young Mistress Yeon Da-eun and Fourth Young Mistress Yeon Da-hye.
Yeon So-hyeon's gaze trembled faintly as he looked upon the two girls.
[Your eldest younger sister wandered about trying to restore even a little of the family's honor by hunting demon lords, only to meet a previous generation's demonic cultivator and be torn limb from limb.]
Yeon Da-eun stood before his eyes right now.
[After losing her twin sister that way, your second younger sister lost her mind and wandered the streets until, on a day of harsh rain, she froze to death.]
Yeon Da-hye stood beside her twin, holding her sister's hand.
"Brother…?"
In their clear eyes Yeon So-hyeon could find not a single shadow.
Like gentle waves on a lake, a tremor ran through him at the sight of the blood kin he had not met in so long.
Yet that very tremor only made the lake glitter like jewels under sunlight.
Their pupils seemed to reflect souls without the least stain.
"…Yes."
Yeon So-hyeon controlled his body as naturally as breathing, yet in this moment he could not even tell what voice he was producing.
"…It has been a long time."
Would his voice come out hoarse and choked, or would it tremble with joy and longing?
"Truly… a very long time."
These children were alive.
They stood before him, living and breathing, as though it were the most natural thing in the world.
Just as they had remained only in his memories of that distant past.
Their soft cheeks still held baby fat and were flushed the color of peach blossoms.
Their dainty noses, their neat brows—everything was exactly where it belonged.
He could feel his heart pounding with joy.
"Eun-a. Hye-a."
Speaking their childhood names, Yeon So-hyeon took an unconscious step toward them.
Perhaps they were simply glad to hear those old names again after so long.
"Yes, Brother."
Natural smiles bloomed on the lips of the once-tense children.
Smiles as bright as warm sunlight on a clear spring day.
Yeon So-hyeon moved toward them, opening both arms.
"Ah…"
He saw it.
Dried blood still clung to both of his palms.
It was the blood of the warriors he had wiped off only roughly, left behind on his hands.
He hastily withdrew them.
And he understood.
[One cannot take another's life as the price for saving one's own child.]
Mother.
The mother who had carved away her own lifespan to twist fate for his sake.
…Just grant this unworthy father the chance to act as a father, for now.
Father.
The father who, for the sake of his lacking son, had left behind countless arrangements until the very end.
He had lost them all.
Everyone close to him had met the same ending: death.
Everything he had given, everything he had done, had only been distorted with the passage of time.
His emotions shaken, he realized what he had forgotten.
Ever since he had returned by the power of the Jeam Jincheon Scripture, he had never once sought out his younger siblings or his elder sisters first.
Yeon Bi and Yeon Seo-rin had always been the ones to come looking for him.
Political circumstances?
If he had only set his mind to it, would such things have been any obstacle?
He had been afraid.
Afraid of showing them what he had become.
Afraid of the body through which demonic energy flowed, the self that consumed people, the self that could not even maintain human emotion without the dual-heart technique.
And afraid of the past in which, no matter how desperately he had resisted, he had lost everyone close to him.
He was afraid.
Without realizing it he asked the twin sisters:
"Do you…"
The fist he clenched trembled faintly.
"Do you not resent this brother of yours?"
Me, who for ten years turned my back on you, turned my back on everyone, and turned my back on the world.