Three Days of the Luoyang Sword Family: The Second Young Master's Camp
"…The family heads are stuck at Geomga Jeonjang?"
Her nails had been prettily painted and tended in violet, yet the tendons stood out starkly along those same hands as they trembled with strain.
"What in heaven's name is going on?! In the meantime, the Cheng Family and the Kong Family are attacking our allied houses, are they not?!"
At the fury-laden cry of the Second Young Master's mother—Grand Madam Ouyang of the Luoyang Sword Family—the elders seated around the council table averted their eyes from hers.
"For what reason is that damnable Kong Family mobilizing their entire clan?!"
Her ringing voice rolled through the vast chamber until the room itself seemed too small to hold it.
"We are still confirming, but…"
One elder of the Luoyang faction spoke carefully, gaze averted.
"According to word that has reached us, they have long held a personal friendship with the Kong Family's Old Horse, Kong Ryang, dating back many years…"
Another elder, watching her reaction, ventured a cautious addition.
"And contrary to reports that he had retired, the current family head may still be none other than Old Horse Kong Ryang. That is why, unlike the other Sixteen Imperial Capital Families, the entire house is moving—"
"And furthermore!"
Grand Madam Ouyang's voice cut the elder short.
Ordinarily, a man interrupted mid-speech might have coughed a few times in awkward embarrassment. Now he only joined the others in avoiding her stare.
"Why are the factions within our main family—who originally agreed to join hands with us for this very opportunity—keeping such utter silence?!"
"That is…"
As the surrounding elders' gazes converged on him, the elder charged with internal cooperation sighed and answered.
"After Geomga Jeonjang was raided by the Central Investigation Department, the rumors circulating within the main family have grown… unsettling."
"…Rumors?"
The council chamber turned cold enough that frost might have settled.
"Are you telling me that the organizations of the great Luoyang Sword Family are cowering—over mere rumors?"
Her eyes began to flush a burning red, like coals smoldering down to ash.
"Th-that is… these are no ordinary rumors."
The other elders hurried to join in.
"According to the talk, the Chief Administrator of the Inner Court has begun to move, and his first target will be rooting out corruption at Geomga Jeonjang!"
"There is even an interpretation that the Central Investigation Department struck first under the tacit approval of the head of the Inspection Bureau!"
It was an interpretation that reversed the true order of events—but that had been precisely the purpose of those who had created and sowed the rumors.
"Word is spreading that this incident may become the occasion for a sweeping crackdown and investigation throughout the main family…"
"So everyone is understood to be keeping their heads down, busy putting their own houses in order!"
Luoyang Sword Family, Stewards' Department.
The Stewards' Department—where servants of every station from across the Luoyang Sword Family gathered for any number of reasons—remained busy with coming and going even as the night grew deep.
"You lot. Have you heard?"
Even among the lower servants, ranks of a sort existed according to the importance of the posts they held.
"What is it this time?"
"If it's about Geomga Jeonjang, I already heard."
The more critical the place one worked, the faster and more accurate the rumors one received.
"Heh heh. You fellows are behind the times."
And so the servants took pride in being the first to mention whatever rumor they had heard, a small display of superiority.
After all, a rumor was only a rumor. Simply repeating one would never earn punishment under the strict internal regulations.
"Ah, fine, fine—I understand."
As those who had gathered around pressed him, the man who had started it all finally, as if left with no choice, unspooled the rumor.
"After that last business with the Inner Court's book funds, you all know at least that Geomga Jeonjang is taking a hard hit this time."
"Oh, come on—stop dragging it out and spit it already!"
The circle erupted in immediate clamor.
Having savored that clamor to his satisfaction, he delivered the real point.
"Ahem. So—I've heard that, seizing this opportunity, the high ones of the Supreme Operations Council may mobilize every judicial organ in the family and begin a full-scale internal purge of every organization in the main house."
"An—an internal purge?!"
"Of the entire main family?!"
Save for a few whose posts amounted to nothing more than the laundry or groundskeeping, the rest nearly leapt out of their skins.
"Did you just say the Supreme Operations Council?!"
"Can you take responsibility for that claim?"
The man spreading the rumor scowled at once.
"Responsibility, nothing… Did I not say from the start that it was a rumor? If I actually had solid intelligence rather than gossip, I'd be working as an agent in the information bureau."
"Well… that's true enough…"
It was a fair point, and they had no choice but to concede.
"But even if it is only a rumor, this is no time to be standing around!"
Already, several servants who attended persons of real importance were racing off as if fire had been set to their tails.
They had to carry this rumor to those they served as swiftly as possible.
"Now then, shall we begin the lesson…?"
A short while later, a steward of the department stepped into the training hall for the scheduled regular instruction and wore a blank look of bewilderment.
"What? Where has everyone gone?"
Fewer than half remained in the hall.
Upon receiving the report from the officer in charge of regular instruction, the Chief Steward flew into a rage.
"What did you say?!"
His roar—famous even on ordinary days for a fussiness, thoroughness, and perfectionism that bordered on the extreme—sent the man before him bowing his head in frantic apology.
"You recorded the full list of those lunatics who dared skip regular instruction without leave, I trust?!"
"Y-yes. Of course, Chief Steward."
"Those scoundrels will all be rounded up later and flogged! How dare they treat this department's regular instruction as nothing and abscond without permission?!"
"H-how could there be any other way?"
Even his utmost efforts to soothe the man earned him only a further blast of fury.
"And why are you still standing here doing nothing?! Is this your private office?!"
It was as if fire poured from his mouth. One step hotter, and the inkstone would surely come flying.
"No, sir! I—I shall go assess the situation myself at once!"
The moment the man fled as if from a fire, the maids of the Stewards' Department—who knew the Chief Steward's temper well—hurried over and shut the office door.
No sooner had the door closed and the noise of the outer rooms been cut off than the visitor already present in the office could no longer hide a sly, chuckling smile.
"For the very man who spread the rumor to send the underlings running with reports to rage so thoroughly…"
That young man was none other than the Foot-running Rumor himself—Yeon Ha-eung.
"That is one matter, and this is another, is it not?"
The Chief Steward snorted coldly and seated himself once more.
"In any case, this too is thanks to Advisor Yeon's guidance."
At the Chief Steward's words, Yeon Ha-eung set down his teacup and waved a hand.
"Ah, please. What help could the likes of me have been?"
"Thanks to you, we no longer merely gather the family's internal intelligence."
Ignoring the modesty entirely, the Chief Steward continued with what he meant to say.
"We have become able to wage information warfare through rumor as well…"
Yeon Ha-eung wore a bitter smile.
"…Though it seems the work has tripled as a result."
In the past, after being dragged off by the triplet maids, the man he had met was precisely this Chief Steward before him.
He had been building an information network within the Luoyang Sword Family at the time, and their cooperation had continued to this day.
The Chief Steward's secret intelligence organization—whose original aim had been to draw information up from the very bottom—had, with Yeon Ha-eung's aid, become capable of conducting operations through rumor as well.
"These days my body is scarcely left to me."
As Yeon Ha-eung clicked his tongue, the Chief Steward drained his already cold tea in a single swallow and snorted.
"Busy and hard-pressed, you say?"
"Why do you ask…?"
As the Chief Steward's sharp gaze fixed on him, Yeon Ha-eung flinched with a look of alarm.
"Advisor Yeon. By now, would it not be better to stop spinning words that hold nothing of your true heart?"
At that, the expression of the Yeon Ha-eung who had been performing a persona changed as if by a lie.
"…Is that so?"
As Yeon Ha-eung straightened his posture, his entire bearing transformed as though he had become another man.
Tall enough to rival the famous strongmen of the Luoyang Sword Family, he had only to stand upright to look down upon the Chief Steward.
"We have scarcely even held private conversation, and yet…"
Even the voice that had seemed only frivolous settled into something deep and still.
Yeon Ha-eung shed his shell and revealed his true nature.
"To see through an act that no one but the First Young Master has ever noticed… you are remarkable."
When a snake sheds its skin, a snake should emerge.
Yet when Yeon Ha-eung cast off his shell, what stepped forth was not the Foot-running Rumor Yeon Ha-eung, but Yeon Ha-eung, the legitimate successor of the Gaebong Yeon family.
"It seems my cultivation is still lacking."
"We have worked this matter together all this while. One ought to notice at least that much."
Even faced with that transformation, the Chief Steward showed no surprise—only a low snort of amusement.
"Our lord would never keep a mere wastrel so close. It was obvious, was it not?"
At the Chief Steward's words, Yeon Ha-eung too lifted his chin and looked down at him.
"Indeed. The famed Chief Steward—a man who ought to have become an elder long ago—is of a different caliber."
A man who could have become an elder, yet for some reason kept himself low and remained in his present post.
And a man who had been sharpening a blade in secret to reclaim the family that had cast him out.
Their gazes collided in the air without yielding an inch.
"……"
"……"
What shattered that hair-trigger tension was the laughter that slipped from both their mouths.
"Indeed, indeed."
Soon the office filled with the sound of it.
"It seems I can at last exchange honest conversation with the Chief Steward. I am glad of it."
To Yeon Ha-eung's words, the Chief Steward answered with a smile.
"I had found it lonely that none near our lord could truly conceal the depths of his heart. From now on we shall be able to forge an even better bond."
"I look forward to working with you further."
The sly smiles that touched both their lips were uncannily alike.
It was the moment two men of kindred root found their accord.
"Then I shall move one step further still, to strengthen the rumor a little more."
As Yeon Ha-eung rose and dusted himself off, the Chief Steward nodded.
"Work is best done thoroughly—the more thoroughly, the better."
"I have never quite understood why the saying about excess being as bad as deficiency exists."
"Just so."
In looks, upbringing, and origin, the two men matched in almost nothing—and yet, somehow, they were of a terrifyingly perfect mind.
"Heh heh heh."
"Heh heh heh."
The Second Young Master's faction.
"At this rate, every plan we laid to crush that Yeon So-hyeon will come to nothing, will it not?!"
When Grand Madam Ouyang slammed her hand down upon the conference table, the thick board split cleanly in two.
"What exactly do men who call themselves elders ever manage to accomplish properly?!"
The room fell silent as a tomb.
"……"
While none dared easily open his mouth, Elder Xiahou—who until now had stood a step apart with his arms folded—stepped forward.
"Grand Madam."
"What is it?"
Grand Madam Ouyang's smoldering gaze turned upon him.
With his one remaining eye, he looked back at her, unmoved.
"It has been a mere two days."
"…What has been two days?"
Elder Xiahou bent and retrieved his report from the floor, where it had fallen when the table shattered.
"It has been two days since the First Young Master made his first official outing."
He glanced briefly at the clock on the wall and added,
"Midnight has already passed. So it is the third day."
"……"
"It is only the third day."
At that, Grand Madam Ouyang closed her mouth.
He was right.
Their response had not been inadequate.
The moment abnormal signs appeared, the Second Young Master himself had headed for the Imperial Capital, and for two days they had steadily mobilized everything within their power.
The only problem was that their opponent—that First Young Master—had been intercepting their every move as though he had become a prophet himself.
"…It cannot be helped."
Grand Madam Ouyang swept back the hair that had fallen loose in her fury and spoke.
"We will have to deal with the Yeon blood kin within the main family."
At her words, the assembly stirred.
"…Grand Madam, I urge you to reconsider."
"We might set out to catch a mountain fox and end up drawing a tiger instead."
"Whatever demands they make… the political price we would have to pay will be considerable."
Even Elder Xiahou held his silence.
"……"
To that reaction, Grand Madam Ouyang answered in a frigid tone.
"If we mean to take Yeon So-hyeon here, we have no choice but to deploy a stronger hand. As things stand, we will only keep being led around by him."
She looked around the room and asked,
"Or do any of you have an alternative?"
Every mouth stayed shut.
"Make contact with the Yeon blood kin and arrange a private meeting in secret."
Her violet lips twisted into a smile.
"At this point, those people will want to shove Yeon So-hyeon off a cliff just as badly as we do."