Diversifying the Front Lines
At the very moment when the xia with the hand-axe and his fellow martial artists struck a passing escort caravan on a mountain road under the name of a highway bandit gang—
identical raids were erupting simultaneously across the outskirts of Luoyang.
The Yellow River. The East-West Grand Canal.
While the brilliantly shining moon rested for a while behind the clouds, a sailing junk made its way along the canal.
It was an utterly ordinary vessel with no particular distinguishing features. The only things that set it apart were the unusually large number of troops visible on deck and the fact that its waterline sat high and clear—whatever it carried was not heavy cargo like grain.
“….”
Without a sound, a human figure rose from the water and began climbing the hull.
She scaled the slippery side with spider-like skill. Before hauling herself onto the deck she glanced left and right.
Their armament is no joke…
Then she dropped to all fours and scuttled soundlessly past the sentries’ line of sight, slipping into the ship’s hold.
Found it…!
A thick smile curved her lips as she confirmed the goods stacked beneath the white canvas covers.
Moments later—
Fweeeeeee—!
A signal arrow streaked skyward from near the stern, trailing a brilliant flare of light.
The escort commander’s face twisted the instant he recognized the glowing arrow.
“Enemy am—!”
He never finished the word “ambush.” Blood sprayed from his mouth as a dagger punched clean through his chest from behind.
“K-kugh…!”
“You who guard the wealth wrung from the people’s blood,” a voice said behind the commander as his legs gave way and he sank to his knees. “Do not think our blades too cruel.”
With the last of his strength the commander lifted his head and looked at the one who had stabbed him.
“Y-you people…?”
“Us?” The martial artist whose mouth was covered by waterproof cloth considered a moment, then smiled. “We are a waterborne bandit gang.”
The dagger flashed once more in his hand.
If there was any good fortune left that night, it was this:
“Signal arrow!”
“All hands to battle stations!”
“Get up! On deck, now!”
Even without their commander the reserve troops responded exactly as they had been trained. But when they rushed topside, the sight that met their eyes was a deck already turned into a bloodbath and completely overrun by the waterborne bandits.
“……!”
Shortly afterward several small boats that had seen the signal drew alongside; men began climbing aboard.
“You’ve worked hard, honored xia. That’s the third big catch already tonight.”
They were ordinary men without internal energy, yet every one of them was broad-shouldered and formidable.
“It is nothing,” the martial artist replied, clasping his hands in gratitude as the newcomers headed straight for the hold without waiting to be told and began hauling cargo. “All of this is possible only because the people of the House of Mercy support us from behind and handle every hard task.”
Indeed—they were a detachment dispatched from the House of Mercy.
The detachment’s leader smiled.
“We are the First Young Master’s most loyal limbs. We are merely doing what is only right.”
The martial artist looked away from the corpses sprawled in the blood and asked, “…I should have asked sooner. Does this kind of work not sit ill with you?”
“Not in the least.” The answer came at once. The detachment members were already deftly avoiding the bodies while transferring the cargo to the smaller boats, as though the corpses simply did not register. “If anything, it feels refreshing.”
“Refreshing?”
“Yes.” The leader met the martial artist’s gaze squarely. “Until now all we could do was help the poor and the suffering, over and over. But that work never ended—because the ones who made people poor and suffering still lived. We were powerless.”
His eyes were deep. The martial artist clearly read the emotion burning in their depths.
“But now, at last, we can help strike those culprits.”
The emotion was rage—and joy.
“How could we not feel refreshed? How could we not be glad?”
The martial artist nodded as though exhaling a long sigh.
“You people are the ones who truly possess the spirit of a xia.”
“You flatter us.” The leader scratched his nose bashfully. “Besides, when you work for the House of Mercy you see horrific sights every single day. We grew used to it long ago.”
He laughed heartily and handed the martial artist a small slip of paper that carried a sharp, acrid scent. It was the same kind of note he had already received several times before.
“The next prey.”
“That’s right. Intelligence passed to us, as always, by the Shadow Unit of the Sichuan Tang Family.”
And so, as if mocking the deepening night, raids flared across the region.
On the highways, highway bandit gangs. On the East-West Grand Canal, waterborne bandit gangs. Even the martial artists who felt the word “bandit” too shameful to speak aloud—
all of them were thoroughly hunting the assets the Yeon bloodline was trying to smuggle out of Luoyang.
The martial artists gathered or dispersed according to orders, pushing their abilities past their limits depending on the situation and the target. Of course, the reason they could do so was that the one who drew that full capacity out of them stood as their commander.
“The hunt is proceeding smoothly.”
Sang-gwan Nan-hwa reported to the First Young Master, Yeon So-hyeon.
“Cooperation among the Shadow Unit, the House of Mercy, and the martial artists of Spring of Luoyang is extremely smooth.” She looked at him with open amazement. “It is hard to believe these are forces working together for the first time. An allied force like this is actually possible…!”
“It is nothing special.” Yeon So-hyeon offered a faint smile. “I simply assigned each group a clear role according to its specialty.”
He stroked his chin while studying the strategic map.
“Tracking the diverted assets is the Shadow Unit’s task. The raids belong to Spring of Luoyang. Securing the spoils is the House of Mercy’s responsibility.”
Sang-gwan Nan-hwa nodded.
“Sometimes maximizing each organization’s expertise creates a more natural mutual alliance than forcing them into a single fused body.”
“Exactly.”
The speed with which she absorbed his methods of employing people, standing right at his side, was enough to surprise even Yeon So-hyeon. And her role was far more than simply learning.
“The firms whose shares Daseonrang secured these past few days are performing their part well.”
The House of Mercy alone could never have moved all the spoils so quickly.
“Their original specialty is logistics and transport, after all.”
Without the expertise of the transport companies newly placed under the House of Mercy’s business division, it would have been impossible to move the spoils while remaining unseen.
“And that, too, is nothing special.” She shot him a pretty sidelong glance. “Every one of those firms is one you ordered us to buy shares in ahead of time, is it not?”
When Yeon So-hyeon had previously entrusted the House of Mercy’s business division to Daseonrang, he had handed over a list of companies whose shares were to be secured.
“All they have to do is secretly transport the spoils secured by the House of Mercy detachment. There is nothing difficult about it.”
She spoke as though it were trivial, yet turning newly acquired companies into obedient limbs was never as easy as it sounded. Without the active efforts of the Daseonrang members currently posted to each firm, it would have been impossible.
“But, Representative.” Sang-gwan Nan-hwa looked at the strategic map he was studying. “If we scatter all the captured assets like this, will their usefulness not decline?”
The map showed the final destinations of the spoils—scattered across every corner of the North China region, exactly as she said.
“It cannot be helped.” Yeon So-hyeon traced the map with a finger as he explained. “As you know, we have merely plundered the assets the Yeon bloodline was trying to siphon away. The material and political capital they have accumulated over generations remains intact.”
“That… is true.”
Sang-gwan Nan-hwa nodded with a slightly dazed expression. Even the sums seized so far already exceeded the entire fortune of most ordinary clans. To hear that such an amount was only a fraction of the whole—she had known it intellectually, yet hearing it directly from Yeon So-hyeon, who knew the Luoyang Sword Family inside and out, was a different sensation altogether.
“The corrupt Yeon bloodline will never stop hunting for their stolen property, no matter what. Gathering the spoils in one place would only increase the risk of exposure.”
“I see. And it is not only them….” She swallowed dryly. “The left and right military advisors of the Third Young Master’s faction will never abandon the pursuit of Spring of Luoyang either.”
The Third Young Master’s side and the corrupt Yeon bloodline—if they shared one thing in common…
“If they have anything in common, it is that their resources overflow.”
“…….”
For a moment Sang-gwan Nan-hwa was struck speechless by the way he spoke as though discussing someone else’s affairs. Yeon So-hyeon remained so composed it was almost unbelievable that he stood hostile to every one of those powers.
“…In that case.” After watching his profile as he studied the map, she carefully ventured, “Simply scattering the spoils may not be enough, may it? Unless we bury every last coin underground, they will eventually be tracked down.”
“You seem to have a mountain of worries.” Yeon So-hyeon turned to her and smiled faintly. “Do not worry.”
He added only a short sentence.
“They will be so busy using those surplus resources to keep one another in check that they will have no leisure for anything else.”
“…Pardon?”
Somewhere inside the Luoyang Sword Family.
“…What did you say?”
Gemstone rings screamed as a hand clenched tight around them.
“Say that again.”
At the utterly incredulous voice of his master, the subordinate smashed his forehead against the floor.
“P-please kill me!”
The Yeon bloodline member who was his master pressed the ring-laden hand against his temple.
“Everything we were secretly shipping out in four separate routes—all of it was robbed?”
“We have already dispatched additional men to determine exactly what is happening…!”
They say that when something truly outrageous happens, a man cannot even work up a proper rage. That was precisely the state of this particular Yeon bloodline member.
“What in the world is….” He nearly blanked out for a moment, then surged to his feet and barked at the subordinate, “Wh-what about the other bloodline houses?! Any word from the other houses?!”
He had not been the only one siphoning illicitly amassed wealth today.
“No special messages have arrived, but….” The subordinate reported with his head still pressed to the floor. “Every household is running about as though their manors are on fire. Judging by that….”
The Yeon bloodline member’s mouth fell open.
“They were all hit the exact same way…?”
He sank heavily back into his seat.
“…How could we be cleaned out so easily? Did we not post high-level martial artists?”
“…As far as I can guess,” the close aide standing beside him bowed his head, “splitting the transport methods into multiple routes to avoid eyes may have backfired.”
“Immediate pursuit is….”
The aide shook his head.
“Ordinarily we would have borrowed the main family’s intelligence bureau, but….” No—before they could even ask for help, the Luoyang Sword Family’s intelligence apparatus would already have detected every movement. “But we ourselves diverted that bureau’s gaze. We chose to hide the movement of assets….”
Was it not far too convenient?
He wiped his forehead.
“Someone planned this situation from the beginning? Timed to the Central Investigation Department’s inquiry?”
The aide lowered his head.
“…That is the only explanation that makes sense.”
“Then who…?”
Silence filled the office.
“…….”
He first ruled out the First Young Master. As far as he knew, the First Young Master might conceivably devise such a scheme, yet he lacked any organization capable of executing it.
Then the next candidate is—
A shout cut his thoughts short.
“My lord!”
His chief steward rushed into the office.
“Just now this note was found in the manor garden…!”
The note had been tied to an arrow. Someone had shot an arrow bearing the message into the garden.
He hastily unfolded it and read.
This is the price for choosing the wrong side.
The instant he confirmed the contents, every thread in his mind knotted into a single strand.
“…Those bastards of the Third Young Master’s faction!”
They were the ones who had tried to seal Luoyang in the first place. At the start it had looked as though they were assisting the Central Investigation Department’s probe in order to cover their own corruption—but no.
“It was their doing from the beginning!”
When the First Young Master had visited Geomga Jeonjang—the very root of the corruption—the Yeon bloodline members, seeking to contain the crisis, had answered the summons of the Second Young Master’s side. And then—
The Third Young Master’s faction had unmistakably fired a warning that was practically a declaration of war!
“Those dog-born bastards…!”
The rage that had found no outlet surged all at once. His closest aide hurriedly waved both hands.
“C-compose yourself, my lord!” He stopped the master who looked ready to storm the Third Young Master’s residence that very instant. “Nothing is yet certain! This could all be a scheme to sow discord!”
At those words the Yeon bloodline member’s movement halted for a moment.
“Yes… a scheme to sow discord. That is possible. Even so, we must still strike the Third Young Master’s side.”
His decision did not change.
“W-why…?”
He ground the words out between his teeth.
“If I simply sit here after being hit, everyone will take me for a fool.”
“But… if the real culprit is later revealed…!”
At his aide’s words the Yeon bloodline member bared his teeth.
“Then when that day comes, we simply smash that one as well, do we not?”