Same Bed, Different Dreams
The Valley of Sin.
Yeon So-hyeon's camp.
"All personnel, prepare for battle!"
"Leave only the bare minimum behind—everyone else sorties!"
"Command staff, assemble at the command post immediately, effective this moment!"
Amid the rush of men and women sprinting every which way, Kong Dam-ung scratched the back of his head and spoke.
"…The First Young Master actually pulled it off."
Beside him, the supervising nun of the Emei Sect wore a dazed expression.
"…So instead of fighting the government troops, we're going to clean out the Valley of Sin with them."
The look on her face was almost certainly mirrored on Kong Dam-ung's own.
"Truly. Hero Yeon just casually does the most absurd things."
If it was Yeon So-hyeon, he would find a way to untangle whatever mess came his way. That vague expectation had felt only natural—until the impossible actually unraveled right before their eyes. The sensation that followed was…
"Thrilling."
"Thrilling, isn't it?"
They spoke the same words at the same instant, glanced at each other, and snorted a laugh.
"Hey, Brother Gong! You think this is the time for flirting?!"
One of the Four Heroes of Yellow Lake, hurrying through battle prep, bellowed at them.
"Supervising Sister! The Buddha's teachings may hold that karmic bonds are precious, but remember—you're a nun who can never marry!"
Teasing shouts flew from the Emei disciples racing toward the assembly point as well.
"Q-Quiet, you!"
"Q-Quiet!"
Again the same words burst from both of them; they turned to each other with matching smiles and pressed their palms together.
"Fortune in battle."
"May fortune favor you in battle."
The afternoon air was beginning to thicken with the tension of a battlefield.
The mouth of the Valley of Sin.
The joint government-troop camp of Tanryung District and Gahyo District.
"Everyone! Check the gear of the man in front of you!"
Just like Yeon So-hyeon's camp, the place seethed with the frantic motion of men preparing for war.
"We're suddenly attacking the underworld of the Valley of Sin?!"
The junior constable shouted while strapping on extra equipment taken from the carriage they had ridden in on.
"Senior!"
The din around them was so thick that conversation was impossible without yelling.
"What the hell is going on?!"
With practiced hands Bak Po-kwae tightened his greaves, took his spear, and gave a shrug.
"Probably, from the district chiefs' point of view, once you've drawn the sword you have to cut something."
"What?!"
Bak Po-kwae's words were swallowed by the roar of orders and cadence counts. Raising his voice further, however, would have been unwise—the subject was far too sensitive.
"After mobilizing this many troops, if they just walked away empty-handed the chiefs would become laughingstocks, wouldn't they?"
"…So they're pinning the crime on the underworld of the Valley of Sin and staging a punitive expedition?"
"Most likely."
The junior constable's face twisted in disbelief.
"What kind of deal did they even strike with the First Young Master…?"
"Who knows."
Bak Po-kwae stripped the leather cover from his spearhead, inspected the edge, and smiled bitterly.
"In all the years we've conducted power-related investigations here in Luoyang, how many times have we ever learned the real inside story?"
The junior constable's hands froze on the crossbow string he had been stringing.
"…Never once."
"And how many times have we ever properly thrown a real power-holder into a cell?"
"…"
They were not magistrates. What could mere constables possibly do against true power-holders?
Bak Po-kwae turned his gaze toward the upper reaches of the Valley of Sin. The clear morning sky had long since been forgotten; the fickle spring weather had already drawn a shroud of cloud. Perhaps it was only his own stifled heart, but the clouds clinging to the natural fortress of the upper valley looked especially heavy to his eyes.
"…From the viewpoint of chess pieces like us, all we ever see is the enemy in front and the comrade beside us."
He rested the spear across his shoulder and fished a tobacco roll from a gap in his armor.
"Don't overcomplicate it."
He stepped closer to his junior, drew out a second roll, and held it out with a smile for the dark-faced young man.
"Oh?"
"Rolling around in the mud with underworld scum is our specialty anyway, isn't it?"
"Well… true enough."
The junior clamped the tobacco between his teeth and gave a short laugh.
Just then—
"To the right! All Central Government Public Security Special Office carriages, clear the right side of the road!"
Their own carriage, which had been blocking the way, swung to the right; Bak Po-kwae and his junior pressed themselves to the roadside after it.
"Hyah! Hyah!"
No sooner had they cleared the path than a stream of carriages shot past them like arrows.
"…Those carriages do not belong in a neighborhood like this."
"Agreed."
Bak Po-kwae nodded at his junior's observation.
"Every carriage different—shape, coachmen's livery, crests, all of them."
"Must be from separate clans."
Just as the junior said, the carriages that had flashed past belonged to different houses.
"Fairly influential ones, by the look of them…"
"Heading to meet the First Young Master, do you think?"
"Probably—"
Their conversation never finished.
"All Central Government Public Security Special Office forces will now advance to the mid-valley!"
The elite units would take the lead. At the order, Bak Po-kwae immediately roared at his men.
"You all heard that?!"
The junior constable put on a deliberately cheerful bellow of his own.
"All right, boys—time for that march we all love so much!"
And so they began the march toward Yeon So-hyeon's forward base in the mid-valley.
What neither constable could possibly have imagined was that the men riding in the carriages that had just sped past them were the very masterminds who had forced them to this place—the ones who had placed the contracts that were even now turning Luoyang into a sea of blood, all for the sake of forging an alliance with Yeon So-hyeon.
Nearby.
A building hastily secured in a safe location.
"At least we walked away with something instead of empty hands. That's fortunate."
"True. And yet…"
The district chiefs of Tanryung and Gahyo conversed in low voices.
"The government troops will take catastrophic losses."
"Indeed."
Their attending stewards, listening while they served, wore private expressions of surprise. Worrying about the troops' casualties? Had the chiefs finally seen the light and reformed?
"Raising each of those brutes costs money. If they die in droves today, next year's budget will be a headache."
"Well. Regrettable is regrettable, but we have to think of it as an investment in the future. What else can we do?"
Reformed? Of course not.
"True enough. Because—"
The Gahyo District Chief stroked his beard and smiled with oily cunning.
"—the number of factions currently cooperating with the First Young Master is extremely small."
"Exactly. The Cheong Family and the Gong Family. Both are powerful, but…"
The Tanryung District Chief wore a smile that was the twin of his counterpart's.
"Both houses already have their hands full fighting the Second Young Master's allied clans, don't they?"
Word had it both families were bleeding heavily. Qualitative superiority or not, this was war. For the Second Young Master's allies it was a matter of life and death; they were throwing themselves forward like rats biting a cat.
"And amid all that, we are the first district chiefs to offer the First Young Master our cooperation."
"Turn crisis into opportunity!"
They nodded almost in unison.
"At first we only came because the Second Young Master's side was pressuring us to lean on the First Young Master."
"Instead we get to join hands with a First Young Master who is short on allies. From now on we'll be treated with far greater respect."
Both men laughed, pleased with themselves.
"Although, to secure our own safety…"
The Gahyo District Chief waved everyone else out of earshot.
"Even if it was for the sake of insurance," he continued in a still softer voice, "handing over half the sum we received from the Great Immortal Merchant Group to the First Young Master still stings a little."
"But that way, if we ever get caught in the Sword Family's internal investigation, the First Young Master goes down with us, doesn't he?"
Men as shrewd as they would never have withdrawn on the First Young Master's bare promise alone. The half of the black money they had transferred was, to them, a safety device.
"True, but…"
The Gahyo District Chief nodded yet still smacked his lips with regret.
"The amount itself was so enormous…"
The sum the Second Young Master's faction had fed to top-tier officials like them had been truly staggering. Half of that fortune now sat in Yeon So-hyeon's hands.
"Mmm."
Recalling the figure, the Tanryung District Chief shook his head against a faint, aching emptiness in his gut.
"Let's stop thinking about it."
"We should look on the bright side."
"Yes. Instead, we become the only usable allies the First Young Master currently has—"
His sentence never finished.
"Chief!"
"We're in the middle of an important conversation, you insolent—!"
"You must see this at once!"
A subordinate burst in, gasping, and thrust a slip of paper at him.
"This is…"
The Tanryung District Chief, who had already decided to order a flogging if the matter proved trivial, felt his face harden as he read.
"A list of the houses hostile to me."
The Gahyo District Chief took the note and scowled as well.
"And hostile to my house too."
They could hardly be otherwise.
"Aren't these exactly the families we repeatedly hit with administrative penalties at the behest of the Second and Third Young Masters?"
The Tanryung District Chief crumpled the paper and barked at his subordinate.
"Why the devil did I need to see this list in such a hurry?!"
"Just now."
The man swallowed hard.
"Just now, carriages from every one of those houses arrived at the Valley of Sin in a body."
Both chiefs shot to their feet almost together.
"Purpose?!"
"According to the temporary checkpoint report, their purpose is to meet the First Young Master of the Sword Family… as 'allies.'"
"Allies?!"
Allies—with the First Young Master?
"…Th-then—?!"
Something was going terribly wrong.
"We confirmed there was no trace that the First or Fourth Young Master's side had directly hired the men who attacked the merchants, correct?"
The subordinate nodded frantically.
"Yes—though that was only the preliminary investigation…"
"And now, all of a sudden, houses that were never known to be allied with the First Young Master—aside from the Gong and Cheong Families—are appearing and calling themselves his allies?"
"And houses that happen to be hostile to the Second and Third Young Masters' factions?"
In Luoyang's political arena these two were famous for their keen wits. Grasping the direction of events did not take them long.
"Those people—those houses—! They were the masterminds who hired the butchers who slaughtered the merchants!"
The Tanryung District Chief clapped his hands once, alone.
"That was it! That's exactly what happened! Listen here, Gahyo Chief!"
He turned to explain his deduction—only to find the Gahyo District Chief's face had gone white as paper. Cold sweat poured down it in streams.
"I-I say, Gahyo Chief. What on earth—"
"We're finished."
The Gahyo District Chief stared at him without even thinking to wipe the sweat.
"Finished? What do you mean?"
The Tanryung District Chief tilted his head.
"We did at least become one of the First Young Master's allies—"
His voice died.
He, too, had finally understood.
"…W-we…"
His lips moved.
"Before our alliance with the First Young Master has even properly begun… we have been dumped into the same alliance as a whole pack of people who are our enemies?"
Even inside a single alliance, factions always existed. And at this very moment they had been automatically registered as the weakest faction in an alliance that had not yet truly started.
"…We're finished."
It was also the moment the golden future they had dreamed of shattered into dust.
"…After offering up that enormous sum as well."
The Gahyo District Chief sank into his chair with a vacant, soul-drained expression.
"Have we just committed political suicide?"
The Tanryung District Chief stared blankly out the window and muttered,
"…What in the world is going on?"
For some reason, the First Young Master's laughter seemed to echo in both their ears.