Remove the Firewood from Under the Cauldron
Part One: Remove the Firewood from Under the Cauldron
Geomga Jeonjang, the rear garden.
"Big Brother! So then, so then, Hye-a was saying…!"
"Sister, this is so embarrassing—why do you keep bringing up only my stories!"
The two girls burst into peals of laughter. A smile touched Yeon So-hyeon's lips as he watched them.
The tales they spun were nothing more than the trivial happenings of daily life, yet simply watching them, simply hearing their voices, left no room for boredom. It was like rising in the morning to breathe the fresh air and listen to the mountain birds sing.
"No, so listen. The mare was giving birth, and Hye-a, you know—"
"I said stop…!"
Fourth Young Mistress Yeon Da-hye jabbed her sister Yeon Da-eun in the side, and Da-eun toppled backward with a breathless squeal of laughter. Seizing the opening, Da-hye tickled her sister's ribs without mercy.
"You little—!"
Da-eun struck back at once, going after her sister's weak spot—the soft underside of her arm. They tumbled over each other without pause, for all the world like a pair of kitten cubs at play.
…They really do look alike.
Yeon So-hyeon thought that the way the two of them laughed without a single crease of worry was just like their mother, Lady Ha.
So-hyeon.
Her voice rose in his mind, and a dull ache bloomed in a corner of his chest.
Leave the affairs of adults to the adults. With your father away, I must step forward myself.
But…
At young So-hyeon's anxious words, she had rolled up her sleeve, flexed a bicep, and smiled.
I may not match your mother, Sister So-yu, but I am no pushover either.
And those had been the last words young Yeon So-hyeon ever heard from her.
One sweltering summer day.
Beneath a rainbow hung in the sky after a sudden downpour, Lady Ha's pale corpse already beginning to spoil.
That smell.
The smile that had clung to her lips until the very end, as always, looked uncommonly strained.
Those voices.
To go boating for pleasure at a time like this…
They say there was torrential rain upstream. No way that little ferry could have held against the sudden flood.
But still—to go out alone in a boat, without a single escort…?
Shh. Keep your voice down.
An assassination dressed up as an accident.
A memory like a curse—nothing of that day's nightmare could ever be forgotten.
What in the world do you expect me to do?!
The scream of his younger self, howling up at the sky.
Resentment against fate.
That despair.
That helplessness.
That self-loathing.
That terror.
That rage.
From his heart, the demonic energy of the beast surged up in a rush.
His teeth ground together.
"…Brother?"
The moment Yeon Da-eun and Yeon Da-hye turned to look at him, a small, sharp gust of wind slammed through the garden.
"Kyaa…!"
It was the wind formed by the Yang-ui-sim-bup Yeon So-hyeon had drawn to its absolute limit for an instant. The sisters squeezed their eyes shut against the dust, and when they opened them again, they found only the back of Yeon So-hyeon, already risen from his seat.
Standing in silence, staring into the distance, their eldest brother's back somehow seemed suddenly far away.
Just as they were about to call out to him, Yeon So-hyeon's mouth opened first.
"It would seem the Second Young Master's underlings have begun to move."
At those words, the two girls scrambled to their feet and turned their gazes in the direction he was watching.
"Fourth Young Mistress."
The first to arrive was an agent of the Luoyang Sword Family's intelligence division. After offering a formal bow toward Yeon So-hyeon, the agent handed a note to the Fourth Young Mistress—information secretary to the Business Support Department head.
"Ah, thank you."
"It is nothing."
While Fourth Young Mistress Yeon Da-hye asked Yeon So-hyeon's leave and unfolded the note, the intelligence agent stole glances at Yeon So-hyeon. No doubt he did not want to miss this chance to see, with his own eyes, the man at the center of every rumor these days.
…So this is the First Young Master, Yeon So-hyeon.
The agent studied him as discreetly as he could manage.
But somehow he seems more ordinary than I'd heard—
In that instant, Yeon So-hyeon, sensing the gaze upon him, locked eyes with the man.
Eyes like a bottomless abyss.
Was this what it felt like to plummet from a cliff with no floor in sight? A lurch in his guts made the agent feel as though his very soul were fleeing his body.
No—as though his soul were being seized—
"…Excuse me. Excuse me? Agent?"
"Y-yes?!"
He jumped and answered at the voice calling him.
"P-please speak, Y-Young Mistress."
Third Young Mistress Yeon Da-eun tilted her head at him.
"Is there still something else you need?"
She asked because intelligence agents were usually in such a hurry to leave the moment they handed over a note.
"N-no, not at all!"
He waved his hands at the Third Young Mistress and snuck one more look at Yeon So-hyeon.
In that brief span, the First Young Master had already turned his gaze far away, as though he had lost all interest.
"It's nothing…"
As if something were chasing him—or as if he had been bewitched—the agent bolted and vanished. Yeon Da-eun watched his retreating back with a puzzled look.
"Big Brother…"
Having finished the note, Yeon Da-hye swallowed dryly and called to Yeon So-hyeon. He nodded.
"The Second Young Master's underlings are trying to drag the Yeon bloodline into this, are they not?"
As if he had read the note himself, Yeon So-hyeon predicted its contents, and Yeon Da-hye's face filled with shock.
"They're actually trying to pull even the Yeon bloodline into this?!"
Yeon Da-eun nearly leapt out of her skin at the news.
"What on earth are they thinking—!"
Just as her rising panic threatened to spill into more words, a man and a woman appeared from the direction Yeon So-hyeon had been watching.
"First Young Master."
It was Hong Dok-jiju, who had been waiting at a distance with the Third and Fourth Young Mistresses' bodyguards, arriving now with a towering young man at his side.
"Elder Brother…!"
Yeon Ha-eung spotted Yeon So-hyeon, waved, and strode forward—then met his eyes and faltered.
Hong Dok-jiju looked at Yeon Ha-eung with a puzzled frown.
"Elder Brother."
Yeon Ha-eung forced strength into his trembling legs and asked,
"What has happened, that your temper should be so fierce…?"
"Spare me the idle talk."
Everyone looked at Yeon So-hyeon, but he had already turned his body away from them all.
"Speak of the news you brought. It concerns the Yeon bloodline, I take it?"
"Yes, of course."
Yeon Ha-eung nodded with a somewhat awkward expression and approached carefully.
"This time the Second Young Master's side made no effort to hide it. They have sent letters to every blood relative currently holding a high post within the main family."
He drew a letter from his robes and waved it. A letter had even arrived for Yeon Ha-eung, who was widely known to be close to Yeon So-hyeon. Just as he said, it was clear the Second Young Master's side had no intention of concealing whatever move they meant to make.
"Because it is a move that needs no concealing."
Everyone nodded in agreement with Yeon So-hyeon's words.
"This family is a family of the Yeon name, and so Yeon blood relatives occupy nearly half of every key post…"
Yeon Da-eun spoke, and Yeon Da-hye added,
"And so, whoever the Yeon bloodline takes for an enemy must face half this family."
To stand against half of the Luoyang Sword Family, called the greatest under heaven—that was, in truth, little different from a death sentence.
"…As Elder Brother says, there is no need to hide it, and no way to hide it in the first place."
"Because the Yeon bloodline is not a single organization."
Even among those gathered here, everyone but Hong Dok-jiju was a Yeon—and yet they were Yeon So-hyeon's allies, were they not?
"Most of the Yeon blood relatives in high posts are individuals, each with their own interests."
"If you try to approach people like that in secret with clumsy methods, word is bound to leak from somewhere—so they simply sent the letters out in the open."
"But Big Brother…"
Yeon Da-hye carefully raised a question.
"I understand that the Second Young Master's side is contacting the Yeon blood relatives, but how exactly do they mean to gather them and turn them against you?"
Every gaze settled on Yeon So-hyeon's back.
"Of course, they will not want every last one of them. That would not even be possible."
Having succeeded in forcing the rising demonic energy and killing intent back down so that none of it leaked outward, Yeon So-hyeon turned to face them.
"If they gather even a quarter of the Yeon bloodline, that will be success enough. Crushing someone like me, who has only just ended his seclusion, would be no great labor."
"And how would they gather that quarter…?"
Yeon So-hyeon gave a bitter smile.
"It will burn a great deal of political capital, but it is not impossible. Because…"
He raised a hand and pointed toward the rear gate of the pavilion adjoining the garden.
There stood a middle-aged woman with white hair and pale eyes.
"The Central Censorate Master…"
"Dokgo Ya-yeon."
Object of dread and terror among the power-holders of the Luoyang Sword Family. Nightmare of the corrupt, the embezzlers, and the grafters.
She offered her sword to Yeon So-hyeon.
While the company could not suppress their shock, Yeon So-hyeon received her sword—scabbard and all—with an expression that said it was only natural.
"I accept it."
Still on one knee, she bowed her head to him and reported,
"…I shall deliver my first report to my lord."
Her tone was as even as ever, yet everyone could feel the anger and shock simmering beneath it.
"While searching the exclusive ledger vault of the Director of Geomga Jeonjang, I confirmed the existence of large-scale irregular monetary flows."
"Not one or two cases, I take it."
Yeon So-hyeon's voice, questioning her, had gone low and heavy.
"…Even the cases roughly identified so far number in the several dozens."
A luxurious mansion somewhere within the Luoyang Sword Family.
"So Yeon So-hyeon cleaned out Geomga Jeonjang, did he…"
A man in silk robes tapped the thick surface of his desk in a steady rhythm. The retainer who had just reported bowed his head at his master's coarse phrasing.
"My lord. It has not yet been confirmed whether the Director handed the secret ledgers over to the First Young Master. There is no way to confirm it."
Another retainer carefully added his voice.
"Moreover, even the existence of secret ledgers containing matters of the past is not certain. That, too, like the claim that the Director gave those ledgers to the First Young Master, is nothing more than a one-sided assertion from the Second Young Master's side."
In truth, the Second Young Master's faction had no means of knowing what conversation Yeon So-hyeon and the Director had shared, whether the secret ledgers that had floated as rumor truly existed, or whether the Director had handed them over.
But what did that matter?
"This is without a doubt a cheap trick meant to draw in the power of the Yeon bloodline."
"Tell them to prepare to make contact with the Second Young Master's side."
And beyond the master of this mansion, many other Yeon blood relatives were already preparing to set out for the rendezvous points named in the Second Young Master's letters.
Geomga Jeonjang, the rear garden.
"Th-then what do we do?!"
Third Young Mistress Yeon Da-eun stamped her feet.
"…Those people will stop at nothing to keep their misconduct from coming to light."
The Second Young Master's side had shown remarkable quick thinking in exploiting the fact that Yeon So-hyeon had visited Geomga Jeonjang together with the Central Investigation Department.
"Do not worry."
Yeon So-hyeon offered them a gentle smile to set them at ease.
"In any case, the Yeon blood relatives differ from the root in their interests. Once the Second Young Master's side falls away, they will not even be able to form a proper alliance."
Bu-jeo-chu-sin—remove the firewood from under the cauldron.
To stop water from boiling, one must eliminate the source of the fire.
"The Second Young Master's side will fall away?"
Why would the Second Young Master's faction gather the Yeon blood relatives only to step aside themselves?
"Ah…!"
Yeon Ha-eung, who knew a little more of Yeon So-hyeon's movements, clapped his hands together. Yeon So-hyeon met his eyes, nodded, and then turned the question on his sisters.
"How was that Second Young Master dog able to concentrate his full force against me in the first place?"
His sisters answered.
"Well, of course—because the Third Young Master's side is currently off the front line…"
"Because the Third Young Master's side has thrown its entire strength into handling the large-scale disturbance at the Yongbongjihoe Arena construction site…"
The two of them cried out "Ah!" as they looked at each other, then exclaimed to Yeon So-hyeon,
"Then Big Brother means to bring the Third Young Master's side back onto the front against the Second Young Master?!"
"How on earth…?!"
Just then, Yeon So-hyeon's chief maid, Jeong-a, approached and spoke to him.
"Master. The carriage has finished its preparations and is ready."
Indeed, from far off by the main gate came the vigorous cries of two spirit beasts.
"It is simple enough."
Yeon So-hyeon smiled at the girls as he spoke.
"I need only resolve that disturbance myself, do I not?"
He recalled the conversation he had shared with Su-ran and Cheong Ho-wi, the two members of the Spring of Luoyang.
Originally we should have come to your aid during last night's fire in the Valley of Sin…
Yeon So-hyeon had shaken his head.
No. I had already guessed that most of the righteous comrades belonging to the Spring of Luoyang were tied down at the Yongbongjihoe Arena construction site.
And by a fortunate chance he had already received their invitation in advance—the finishing touch on a perfect opportunity.
Now it was time to attend the secret assembly of the Spring of Luoyang that had already been scheduled.