The First Oath of Loyalty
“….”
“….”
After the exchange of silent voice transmission, a brief hush settled over the room. The acting head of the Seo Family and her husband locked eyes.
“I shall step out for a moment…”
With that, she rose from her seat in demure composure.
“…If the relationship between that First Young Master and the former heads of the Sixteen Noble Families is true,”
“Then in the end, it would also mean the First Young Master is the one who arranged for His Majesty the Emperor to meet those old monsters, would it not?”
The family heads, deep in grave discussion, cast furtive glances her way as she stood. Yet when she declared,
“I wish to set my attire to rights.”
“Yes, this way, please.”
and followed the waiting maid into the inner chambers, they promptly lost interest in her.
“An inner chamber has been prepared for you here.”
The reception was of the highest caliber. The maid, of charming appearance, was respectful in manner and elegant in speech.
“Should you require water, simply give the word—”
“The inner chamber will not be necessary.”
As the door to the reception hall closed behind them and they stepped into the corridor, the acting head of the Seo Family addressed the maid.
“If you would prefer another room instead of the inner chamber—?”
“No.”
The acting head cut her off once more.
“Arrange an audience with the First Young Master.”
“……!”
To the maid whose eyes had gone wide, the acting head spoke in a short, firm tone.
“At once.”
“You wish to meet the First Young Master immediately, my lady?”
“Yes. Exactly that.”
Irritated by the maid’s need to reconfirm her words, the acting head prepared to press her harder.
“It is a matter of the utmost urgency, so without a moment’s delay—”
“Heh.”
The acting head’s words were severed by the maid’s soft laugh. Just as she opened her mouth to demand an explanation for that unfathomable smile, the maid spoke first.
“Surprisingly, the Seo Family of the military lineage proves the swiftest of foot. Your ladyship is the first.”
“You…?!”
The figure standing before her was no ordinary maid.
“I am a maid of the Wongak Pavilion.”
With elegant poise she spread the skirts of her maid’s uniform and smiled.
“My name is Il-ryeong.”
“…So you are one of the First Young Master’s people.”
“Yes, that is so.”
Il-ryeong, smile still playing at her lips, gestured gracefully toward the far end of the corridor.
“If you wish an audience with my master, please come this way.”
As she followed Il-ryeong toward Yeon So-hyeon’s study, the acting head of the Seo Family found her thoughts in turmoil. To think a maid of the Wongak Pavilion had already been positioned here… Her mind was as tangled as her heart. And that our Seo Family is the first…?
Il-ryeong’s steps as she led the way were light, yet the acting head felt the weight of her own footsteps. It was as if she had stumbled, unawares, into the very heart of a vast spider’s web. All this time she had been dancing upon the web Yeon So-hyeon had spun.
“We have arrived.”
When Maid Il-ryeong opened the door and entered first, the acting head followed her inside.
“Pardon the intrusion for a moment.”
“Hm?”
The figures already seated in the reception room caught sight of the acting head and their eyes widened. Those two…? The acting head’s own eyes went just as round. Seated there were two district magistrates whose relations with the Seo Family were far from amicable. Yet Yeon So-hyeon himself was nowhere to be seen. Was the First Young Master not meeting with these magistrates? Then where was he?
As though reading her thoughts, Maid Il-ryeong raised a hand and pointed toward the inner door.
“My master is currently receiving an important guest in the study within.”
At that, the two magistrates, who had been eyeing the Seo Family’s acting head with open dissatisfaction, grumbled aloud.
“Now see here. We were waiting first.”
“Why does the First Young Master receive the Seo Family ahead of us?”
Maid Il-ryeong waved a hand with breezy nonchalance.
“Oh dear, the order is not what matters—my master’s will is what matters. Can you not wait even this little while?”
She planted both hands on her hips.
“Or shall you leave now and make another appointment later?”
“……!”
At those words, it was the acting head of the Seo Family who started in surprise. From any other maid, such provocative language would have invited a thrashing with no grounds for complaint. Yet—
“Make a new appointment, you say…?”
“Ahem. Did we ever claim we could not wait?”
“Then bring us more tea.”
“Yes, yes, understood. Please wait just a little longer.”
The two magistrates were so thoroughly cowed that even a mere maid of the First Young Master left them deflated. The rumors circulating in the imperial capital must be far from ordinary. Local officials might play kings in their own domains in ordinary times, but in a crisis none were more sensitive to the winds blowing from the capital.
“Master, it is Il-ryeong.”
Maid Il-ryeong gently rapped upon the study door and announced herself toward the interior.
“The acting head of the Seo Family seeks an audience with my master.”
“….”
For an instant the acting head of the Seo Family fretted over what would become of her should the First Young Master refuse. Then—
“Bid her enter.”
Fortunately, Yeon So-hyeon’s permission was granted.
“Come inside, if you please.”
Maid Il-ryeong opened the door for her.
“My thanks.”
As the acting head of the Seo Family stepped within, the first thing that met her eyes was Yeon So-hyeon seated in the place of honor. And who is that…? Across from the First Young Master sat a young man she had never seen before—more boyish than merely young in appearance.
“….”
The youth offered her a brief, silent bow, then turned his gaze and idly adjusted his spectacles. …Spectacles. An expensive article. Judging by the First Young Master occupying the seat of honor, this cannot be someone of higher station… The faces of every major figure of Luoyang’s principal families flickered through her mind, yet— Who is he? She could not place the identity of the bespectacled youth.
“So. You said you wished to see this Young Master?”
Her thoughts snapped short there. Yes. Now is the time to focus on the First Young Master. Gathering herself, she turned her gaze fully upon Yeon So-hyeon.
“That is so.”
She placed a hand over her chest and bowed her head with formal courtesy. This decision is the right one. Casting aside the last of her lingering doubts, she sank to her knees before Yeon So-hyeon.
“As acting head of the Seo Family, I come to offer our family’s eternal loyalty to the First Young Master of the Luoyang Sword Family.”
For a moment silence blanketed the room.
“…Is that so.”
Regrettably, unlike when he had granted the audience, Yeon So-hyeon offered her no immediate reply. …I was prepared for this much. A sense of humiliation rose within her, but she swiftly shook her head against it.
“I beg you to accept our oath of loyalty.”
She chose instead to bow her head even lower. Yeon So-hyeon had reminded them of their place time and again; all that remained now was to accept it.
“The loyalty of the Seo Family, is it…”
Yeon So-hyeon spoke again, yet his words were directed not at the acting head but at the bespectacled youth seated before him.
“What do you make of it?”
“M-me, sir…?”
The youth was flustered.
“Yes. I asked for your thoughts.”
Though startled at first, the young man soon recovered.
“The Seo Family…”
Fingering his spectacles, he began,
“is a military lineage of long and distinguished standing. During the Northern Wars they rendered no small service, yet more than that—”
Once the words began to flow they poured forth like a running stream. Through the lenses of his spectacles the youth’s gaze settled upon the acting head.
“they have never, across dynasties and the long span of ages, forgotten their loyalty toward the Empire.”
Just who was this youth, that he could appraise a powerful Luoyang family such as the Seo Family as though looking down from on high?
“Unless the family tradition and precepts have collapsed in the present generation, their oath will hold ample worth. And once they have offered their loyalty, they are not the sort to cast it aside of their own accord.”
How did he know the family precepts and traditions of the Seo Family so thoroughly?
Yeon So-hyeon inclined his head.
“So he says.”
This time the words were meant for the acting head.
“Y-yes. Our Seo Family’s precept is ‘Be as green and upright as the great bamboo.’”
She lowered her head still further until it nearly touched the floor—less a bow than a full prostration of all five points of the body.
“The loyalty the Seo Family once offers the First Young Master shall never, no matter who becomes family head hereafter, be the first to break that oath.”
“Very well.”
Yeon So-hyeon’s acceptance.
“I, Yeon So-hyeon, grant leave for the Seo Family to offer their loyalty.”
“I-I am most gratif—”
As she raised her head to express her thanks, Yeon So-hyeon lifted a finger and halted her words.
“In a military lineage, how does one prove loyalty?”
“…In our Seo Family,”
He addressed her with complete condescension, yet the acting head answered without the slightest show of offense.
“we are taught to fulfill the duty of the military house and offer our lives without stint upon the field of battle.”
“Indeed.”
Still kneeling, she looked up at Yeon So-hyeon with a flicker of unease. Does he desire that we offer our lives?
“However.”
The words that followed allowed her to breathe again.
“I hold in high regard the courage and wisdom of you who have come first to offer loyalty. As my first command, I shall not require that you give even your lives.”
She pressed her forehead to the floor once more.
“My deepest thanks!”
“At present the Seo Family holds command of no legion, is that not so?”
“…To our shame, that is correct.”
A military house pushed out of politics could hardly produce commanders.
“I shall issue you your first command.”
“Command me.”
Above her bowed head Yeon So-hyeon’s voice rang out.
“Attack the families charged with the defense of Luoyang.”
“……!”
“And seize their positions for the Seo Family.”
Yeon So-hyeon’s words continued.
“Whether by political assault, by actual force of arms, by dredging up past corruption, or even by slander and intrigue—it matters not.”
At the First Young Master’s order the acting head turned the situation over in her mind and instantly grasped his intent.
“…The families responsible for Luoyang’s defense maintain close ties with the Second and Third Young Masters’ factions.”
Still bowed, she spoke toward Yeon So-hyeon.
“The First Young Master means to strike while the Second and Third Young Masters’ side is thrown into confusion.”
“Precisely.”
“Of course the Seo Family shall obey that command, yet…”
Her voice trailed off. Cold sweat beaded on her brow and dripped to the floor. She had no wish to raise objections to the very first order, but—
“To attack them at once is possible. Yet to wrest their positions from them would mean the Seo Family itself becoming one of Luoyang’s guardian families.”
To claim capability where none existed would only breed greater trouble later. She drove her head against the floor.
“That much lies beyond the power of our Seo Family…!”
It was no decision of the Luoyang local offices; it required a decree from the imperial capital itself. Before one even spoke of the Seo Family’s ability, it was not a matter that could be settled in Luoyang at all.
“That, you need not worry over.”
Though she dared not look upon Yeon So-hyeon’s face, she sensed the deep smile that curved his lips.
“Once the Seo Family has sufficiently proven its loyalty through the attack,”
Yeon So-hyeon declared,
“the Seo Family shall become one of Luoyang’s new guardian families.”
The First Young Master’s confidence—that bottomless certainty in his declaration—caught the breath in the acting head’s throat. …Does the First Young Master, sitting here in Luoyang, truly believe he can decide the affairs of the imperial capital? How? The question itself refused to form. Every aspect Yeon So-hyeon had shown her thus far had been of the same nature. Only after the results appeared would she begin to understand, even a little, the workings behind them. Therefore—
“I receive your command.”
Those were the only words she could speak.
“At last you have brought one of Luoyang’s powerful families completely under your banner.”
After she had withdrawn and a short silence had passed, it was the bespectacled youth who spoke.
“I offer my congratulations, First Young Master.”
“It is no great matter.”
Yeon So-hyeon’s unchanging demeanor made the affair that had just occurred seem truly of little consequence.
“Rather, let us return to the conversation we were having.”
“…Yes, First Young Master.”
The youth adjusted his spectacles and inquired of Yeon So-hyeon,
“The reason you summoned me here—”
Yeon So-hyeon corrected him.
“It was not I who summoned you. To be precise, Kang Ho, it is you who came seeking me.”
The bespectacled youth—Kang Ho of the Central Investigation Department—addressed Yeon So-hyeon.
“…You removed me from the operation, so what choice did I have? Striking the Dae-seon-sang-hoe will be dangerous, yet…”
“That is not the reason.”
“…Then.”
With a tense air he continued.
“I have heard from my own family that a tremendous upheaval may be coming to the imperial capital.”
He swallowed dryly and asked Yeon So-hyeon,
“Might that matter also involve my grandfather, who has already retired?”
A meaningful smile touched Yeon So-hyeon’s lips.
“It does.”