The Great Immortal Merchant Group
The tower built of human heads was still climbing higher by the moment.
Laborers in utterly mismatched garb hauled the heads in on carts or A-frames, and the warriors of the Fourth Young Master’s faction kept stacking them without pause.
“…So you’re saying you have no idea how any of this came about?”
“That is correct.”
At Chief Constable Bak’s question, one of the Fourth Young Master’s men merely shrugged.
“Where these heads are coming from, or why someone is sending them to us—we know nothing at all.”
He spoke with complete nonchalance.
“In fact, we were just about to report the matter to the authorities. How convenient that you’ve arrived first. By all means, please investigate.”
“……”
For a moment Bak Po-kwae was left speechless.
Truly.
The answer was so brazen it bordered on the absurd.
“Then why stack them into a tower like this…?”
Bak asked, deliberately keeping his gaze from drifting toward the pile.
“Why, of course.”
The warrior answering him broke into a sly grin.
“To assist the investigation, naturally—we’re simply gathering all the evidence in one place, aren’t we?”
“……”
That smile felt like open mockery of Bak Po-kwae and of the law itself.
Swallowing a sigh, Bak looked toward his junior.
“So they really know nothing?”
“Absolutely.”
Over there the junior constable was still questioning the laborers who kept arriving with more heads from somewhere.
“We’re just hired hands, sir. Got told to move the ‘goods’ from a designated spot to here. That’s all.”
“And the client?”
“No idea, sir. Don’t want to know, either.”
“Then how do you get paid once the job’s done?”
“The cart the heads came in—that’s our wages, sir.”
“……”
One glance was enough to tell they were laborers from the poorest alleys.
Men who would do anything just to put a meal in their mouths.
Hauling already-severed heads was, to them, nothing worth fussing over.
“…Understood.”
After sending the laborers on their way, the junior constable turned back toward Bak and shrugged.
Senior. Not a single one of them looks like he knows a thing.
…Of course they don’t.
The subordinates of someone as high as the First or Fourth Young Master of the Luoyang Sword Family would never leave a loose end.
We’ve done all we can. Let’s pull out.
Yes, sir!
The junior’s face brightened at once.
Well… this much should be enough.
They had at least gone through the motions of carrying out the investigation order from above.
Anything more was more than Bak was willing to swallow.
Just as they were about to wrap things up and leave, a raised voice cut through the air from the other side.
“You mean it’s still not possible?!”
The man shouting with deliberate force was, judging by his robes alone, a high-ranking official.
“I told you it doesn’t matter whether it’s the First Young Master or the Fourth Young Master!”
The ward chiefs seemed to be trying to secure an audience with one of the two Young Masters.
Either their countermeasures were finally ready, or they had at last mustered the courage.
Or their backers simply applied more pressure.
Whether the official sensed Bak Po-kwae sneering behind him or not, he spoke again, voice trembling.
“…Is there truly no way at all?”
By now his tone had almost become a plea.
“That is…”
The man from the Fourth Young Master’s side who was dealing with him looked equally troubled.
“If what you need is a sufficiently convincing reason to bring the ward chiefs around…”
A voice drifted over from the direction of the main gate; the high official’s head snapped toward it.
“Then I shall provide one.”
When the high official saw the speaker—followed by an entire retinue—his body gave a violent shudder, as though struck by lightning.
No high official of Luoyang could fail to recognize those robes.
“The Inner Court of the Sword Family?!”
His gaze dropped to the speaker’s waist.
Seven gold ornaments…!
A matching detail surfaced from his memory.
“…Are you the Chief Secretary to the Chief Administrator of the Inner Court?”
“I am.”
As the high official swallowed dryly, the Chief Secretary of the Inner Court smiled.
“Now you should be able to persuade the ward chiefs that even they must wait their turn, yes?”
The official nodded hurriedly.
“O-of course!”
Of course he could.
The presence of the Chief Secretary here meant only one thing: the Chief Administrator of the Inner Court himself is on these grounds…!
The high official did not ask anything so foolish as “Why is the Inner Court of the Sword Family here?”
Still less could he ask, “Is the Chief Administrator of the Inner Court present?”
The Inner Court of the Luoyang Sword Family was that kind of place.
And the Chief Administrator of the Inner Court was that kind of man.
That man had already been Chief Administrator of the Inner Court when the official first set foot in public service as a young man.
And he was still Chief Administrator now that the official had grown old and risen to high rank.
Watching the high official scramble down the slope through the window, Fourth Young Master Yeon Bi spoke.
“It seems the Chief Administrator of the Inner Court has no intention of concealing his presence here.”
“What reason would this old man have to hide the fact that he is here?”
The Chief Administrator of the Inner Court answered at a leisurely pace.
“If anything, the one who would prefer to conceal a meeting with me is the First Young Master, is it not?”
It was a remark he could make only because he was already certain of the work Yeon So-hyeon was conducting behind the scenes.
“…Work I am conducting? How could I be conducting something I myself know nothing about?”
Yeon So-hyeon gave a deliberate, innocent shrug, but—
“Spare me the nonsense, First Young Master.”
Yeon So-hyeon himself knew perfectly well that such an act would never work in front of the old monster of the Sword Family.
“All of Luoyang can feel your fury right now. But you will not deceive this old man.”
“……!”
Startled, the Fourth Young Master hurriedly schooled his expression and looked at Yeon So-hyeon.
Eldest Brother?!
Yeon So-hyeon’s eyes narrowed in clear displeasure.
“…Are you casting doubt upon the sincerity of my rage on behalf of my younger siblings?”
“No.”
Even under the pressure that seemed to squeeze the entire room, the Chief Administrator of the Inner Court remained seated ramrod-straight, not a hair out of place.
“That rage is genuine, I am sure. And yet…”
The deep, glittering light in the Chief Administrator’s eyes collided with Yeon So-hyeon’s own.
“This old man has watched you since you were very small.”
His gaze grew still deeper, as though it might pierce straight through Yeon So-hyeon’s.
“Even as a child it was so. You have never once moved for only a single reason.”
The Chief Administrator’s voice deepened to match his eyes.
“With your heart you expressed emotion as pure as a child’s, while your mind read men’s thoughts as though prying open their skulls; with your eyes you gazed a thousand leagues ahead, and with your mouth you spoke of the future.”
At those words the Fourth Young Master swallowed a low sound.
“When your right hand pointed forward, your left was already moving behind the scenes. When your right arm cradled people with infinite compassion, your left slaughtered enemies without a shred of mercy.”
Yeon So-hyeon cut short the Chief Administrator’s dissection of his very nature.
“So what exactly are you trying to say?”
The Chief Administrator’s lips moved, laying bare Yeon So-hyeon’s true aim.
“The Great Immortal Merchant Group.”
The Great Immortal Merchant Group was the name of the Second Young Master’s external intelligence organ.
“……”
While Yeon So-hyeon remained silent for a moment, the Chief Administrator continued.
“Right now, under cover of this chaos, you are most certainly taking aim at the Great Immortal Merchant Group from the shadows.”
“…Since you seem to know everything already,”
Yeon So-hyeon ended the silence.
“I will not waste both our time with pointless denials. Besides…”
He leaned back comfortably in his chair.
“Your personal presence here has only confirmed for me that the Great Immortal Merchant Group’s weakness has been exposed.”
The Chief Administrator of the Inner Court let the icy light fade from his eyes.
“As expected of the First Young Master. How pleasant it is when conversation flows so easily.”
The Fourth Young Master raised a hand.
“Hold on a moment!”
He alone was failing to follow the exchange.
“Just what is going on here?”
The two of them were speaking in such abbreviated leaps that even the Fourth Young Master—himself called a genius—could not keep pace.
“You said earlier, Eldest Brother, that this entire affair is a smokescreen raised by the Second Young Master’s faction.”
And with the Chief Administrator’s appearance, Yeon So-hyeon claimed he could now be certain it was indeed a smokescreen.
“Then, judging from what both of you have said, what the Second Young Master’s side is trying to hide with that smokescreen…”
With his keen mind the boy pieced together the situation from the private language the other two had been using.
“…is the exposed weakness of this Great Immortal Merchant Group?”
“Precisely, Fourth Young Master. The Great Immortal Merchant Group is no mere intelligence organization.”
The Chief Administrator’s gaze toward Yeon Bi was a shade warmer than the one he directed at the First Young Master.
“The Second Young Master’s faction—or more accurately,”
The old man gave a little wave of the staff he leaned upon.
“Grand Madam Guyang has, for a long time now, been secretly laundering the Luoyang Sword Family’s funds through the Great Immortal Merchant Group and diverting vast sums outside.”
“……!”
The First Young Master added,
“More precisely, ever since Father collapsed.”
“What…?!”
The Fourth Young Master’s face filled with confusion.
“I can understand the Chief Administrator knowing—that is his duty—but how does Eldest Brother know of this…?”
Mid-sentence the Fourth Young Master realized it himself.
“The Geomga Jeonjang…!”
He cried out, half in wonder, half in shock.
“The ledgers Eldest Brother obtained at the Geomga Jeonjang!”
Yeon So-hyeon nodded.
“In the end, the only place capable of producing sums that large is the Geomga Jeonjang.”
The Fourth Young Master shouted in disbelief.
“Then the real reason Eldest Brother visited the Geomga Jeonjang…!”
On the surface there had been other pretexts—purging the corrupt members of the Yeon bloodline, or pinning down the allied families of the Second Young Master who happened to be there—
“was to confirm the enormous funds that had been siphoned off to the Great Immortal Merchant Group!”
“Exactly.”
Inside the Fourth Young Master’s mind the pieces began locking together one by one.
“And the decisive reason the corrupt Yeon bloodline chose to attend the gathering hosted by the Second Young Master’s side at that particular moment…!”
“Because the largest amount siphoned from the Geomga Jeonjang belonged to the Second Young Master’s faction. The true purpose of that gathering was not so much to attack me as to protect themselves.”
“But it was of little help! Because Eldest Brother forced the Third Young Master’s faction back onto the front lines, the Second Young Master’s side could no longer serve as a rallying point!”
“When their link with the corrupt Yeon bloodline failed, the Second Young Master’s faction grew even more desperate.”
“And the Yeon bloodline began smuggling black money out of Luoyang—”
This time the Chief Administrator of the Inner Court took up the thread.
“Moreover, the funds the Yeon bloodline was trying to spirit away were plundered by an ‘unidentified’ party.”
The Chief Administrator’s gaze flicked toward Yeon So-hyeon as he said “unidentified,” but
“Now that the corrupt funds the Central Investigation Department ought to be investigating have simply vanished, the next obvious target—the Great Immortal Merchant Group—could no longer hold out.”
Yeon So-hyeon ignored the look with perfect composure.
“So that was it!”
The Fourth Young Master clapped his hands.
“The reason Luoyang was never sealed even after the Third Young Master’s pursuit was thwarted!”
His eldest brother had said the odds that the present attack was a smokescreen stood at six-tenths.
“Yes. I surmised that the Second Young Master’s faction had intervened to keep Luoyang from being sealed even amid this chaos.”
“Because if the city were sealed, the funds of the Great Immortal Merchant Group would also be unable to leave!”
Hence the six-tenths probability.
The moment the Chief Administrator appeared and planted certainty, that probability became ten-tenths.
At present the Great Immortal Merchant Group was attempting to move the vast sums embezzled from the Sword Family outside.
An amount no one could find even if they searched.
Yet, just as with the Yeon bloodline,
the very instant they themselves set that amount in motion—
that was the moment their weakness was exposed.
“Until now the Central Investigation Department has been putting on a show of investigating here and there, yet never truly investigating any one place thoroughly!”
That had been to make the Great Immortal Merchant Group even more anxious.
And also so that, at the precise moment, the entire strength of the Central Investigation Department could be concentrated on striking the Great Immortal Merchant Group.
“From the very day you visited the Geomga Jeonjang, Eldest Brother was already aiming at the enemy’s head—at Grand Madam Guyang’s weakness!”
Yeon So-hyeon answered only with a faint smile; the reply came from elsewhere.
“The visit to the Geomga Jeonjang? Not so, Fourth Young Master.”
At those words Yeon Bi’s gaze turned to the speaker.
The only person present who could keep pace with Yeon So-hyeon’s thinking at nearly the same speed.
The man who had never once taken his eyes off Yeon So-hyeon.
The Chief Administrator of the Inner Court spoke in a low voice.
“It was almost certainly long before that.”
Yeon So-hyeon regarded him with the enigmatic smile of a man posing a riddle.
“And from when do you believe it began?”
The Chief Administrator answered.
“From the moment you visited Mount Beimang.”
He continued slowly, deliberately, yet with absolute conviction.
“The former heads of the Sixteen Imperial Capital Families are, in name and fact, among the greatest artists representing the Central Plains. The influence they wield over the art market is beyond words. And the art market—”
The Fourth Young Master cried out as if screaming.
“Money laundering!”
The Chief Administrator nodded.
“The art market is one of the Great Immortal Merchant Group’s principal means of laundering funds.”
In truth,
from the very moment Yeon So-hyeon made contact with the former family heads of the Sixteen Imperial Capital Families,
his plan to pressure the Great Immortal Merchant Group had already begun.
Yeon So-hyeon’s visit to the Sixteen Imperial Capital Families had not been solely for that purpose—
yet that purpose had most certainly been among them.
“…Ha.”
The Fourth Young Master sank into his seat.
“Just how far ahead is Eldest Brother…”
“No.”
Watching Yeon So-hyeon’s expression remain as inscrutable as ever, the Chief Administrator of the Inner Court corrected himself.
“It was not from the visit to Mount Beimang.”
“…What?”
For the first time a faint expression appeared on the Chief Administrator’s face.
It was something close to admiration.
Or perhaps closer to shock.
“The First Young Master’s plan to ally with the former heads of the Sixteen Imperial Capital Families could not possibly have begun only at the moment of the visit.”
At those words the smile at Yeon So-hyeon’s lips deepened.
Seeing that smile, the expression on the Chief Administrator’s face grew clearer still.
“Surely the plan must have begun far earlier than the day of the visit.”
Yeon So-hyeon’s smile deepened further.
Within one intention lay another intention;
within one scheme lay another scheme;
beside one arrangement lay yet another arrangement.
“Then…”
That smile gave the Chief Administrator the final certainty for his conjecture.
“…it was from the very beginning.”
At last
Yeon So-hyeon smiled.
“Correct.”