The Heavenly Killing Star
"Why was it the First Young Master of the Sword Family?"
That had been the deepest question in Gang Sang's mind from the very beginning.
He could not leave it unasked.
Why the First Young Master of the Sword Family?
Why Yeon So-hyeon?
"When I heard that the First Young Master of the Luoyang Sword Family had ended his seclusion and stepped back into the world..."
Facing Gang Sang, the Emperor had spoken these words with his own mouth:
"I realized that it was the final opportunity Heaven had granted me."
The Emperor nodded slowly.
"Yes... I knew you would ask that."
His voice trailed off, accompanied by the bitter smile that touched his lips. Though the Emperor had drawn out the silence as long as he had taken to nod, the matter was of such importance that Gang Sang waited quietly for him to open his mouth again.
And when the Emperor did speak once more—
"...I have, for a very long time now—longer than anyone else—been watching the First Young Master of the Luoyang Sword Family."
From the Emperor, Gang Sang heard a story he had never imagined.
"I have been observing the deeds of the one called Yeon So-hyeon," the Emperor added. "From the very day he was born."
"......?!"
Forgetting even the etiquette he owed before the throne, Gang Sang dared to raise his head and look at the Emperor. Instead of rebuking him, the Emperor gazed up at the ceiling as he continued.
"In all the Central Kingdom, the place that changes most slowly—the place where change arrives last—is this very Imperial Palace."
He raised a hand and pointed to himself.
"And among all of it, the place that clings most stubbornly to tradition, and thus changes slowest of all, is the Imperial House itself."
Though the Emperor's words seemed to wander into obscurity, Gang Sang accepted them for the moment.
"...It is as Your Majesty says."
In his mind rose the scenery of the palace he had seen today. From the day he had first entered court as a young official, to the day he had set aside his robes of office and left the palace, and again upon his return this very day—even the patterns on the ceiling had remained unchanged. If the palace itself was so unchanging, how much farther from change stood the Imperial House at its heart?
"And that is why, even now, the Imperial House still retains those who observe the movements of Heaven and divine from them good fortune and ill."
The Imperial House kept any number of minor offices concerned with the realm of superstition that stood beyond common sense and reason—those who conducted rites to Heaven, who tended the ancestral tablets of the royal line, who read the weather and the floods.
"...You speak of the Celestial Interpreters, Your Majesty?"
"I do."
Though they answered directly to the Imperial House, they stood so far from power and advancement that no one paid them any mind. Only a man who had once served as Grand Chancellor, like Gang Sang, would even remember their names.
"And seventeen years ago, they submitted a secret report to my father, the late Emperor."
The Emperor's eyes narrowed.
"It was a report of the appearance of the Heavenly Killing Star."
"...The Heavenly Killing Star."
It was said that the fate of one born under the Heavenly Killing Star was to stain the world in blood. How could Gang Sang, steeped in every manner of learning, not know of it?
And yet—
"Was that not a star of legend only? I have heard that some claim to have seen it rise, yet it has never once been proven."
"Indeed. I am told it was the same then."
Someone would point to a place in the night sky and speak of its ill omen with great force, yet the vast majority could find no trace of any star there at all.
"And so it seemed the matter would simply pass as nothing of consequence."
"...For an office that draws no notice in ordinary times, the only way to keep its budget is to raise such a clamor now and then."
"But, Chancellor—"
The Emperor lowered his voice. In a chamber where the old eunuch's martial skill had sealed out every sound from without—
"They say that time was different."
The Emperor's voice was unusually desolate.
"It was not only the Celestial Interpreters of the Imperial House. From across the entire Central Kingdom, warnings from renowned masters of the occult poured into the palace."
"......?!"
This was a domain exclusive to the Imperial House; even Gang Sang, who had been Chancellor at the time, was hearing of it for the first time.
"Diviners. Those who claimed to read the will of Heaven. Those who claimed to glimpse the future. Those who commanded spirits. Those who communed with the dead. Those who served divine spirits—every name that held sway in the shadows."
Even Gang Sang, whose courage was great enough to hunt tigers, could not help the chill that ran through him in that moment.
"All of them, on the same day at the same hour, delivered to the Imperial House a warning of identical content."
The Emperor spoke the warning of that day.
"'The Heavenly Killing Star has risen over the Thousand-Year Capital.'"
"......."
The present capital of the Central Kingdom was the Imperial Capital—yet the phrase "Thousand-Year Capital" referred to Luoyang. And seventeen years ago—Gang Sang was not so dull as to miss how every thread of the tale was connecting.
"...You mean that the First Young Master of the Sword Family was born under the Heavenly Killing Star?"
"That was their claim."
Gang Sang shook his head.
"...It is preposterous, Your Majesty. Was there no other possible interpretation?"
"If not that," the Emperor said with a bitter smile, "then it meant that the new cult master of the fallen Demonic Cult had been born in Luoyang on the same day as the First Young Master of the Luoyang Sword Family."
A new cult master of the Demonic Cult...!
"......."
Gang Sang swallowed a sound of dismay and shook his head again.
"And so it was confirmed that the First Young Master of the Sword Family was the Heavenly Killing Star?"
"No."
The Emperor shook his head.
"I cannot say how it came to pass, but after that day the Heavenly Killing Star is said to have vanished from sight."
"...Vanished, Your Majesty?"
"Every manner of theory ran wild among the Celestial Interpreters of the Imperial House."
The Emperor stroked his beard.
"The child of the Heavenly Killing Star had died. If he was destined to die so soon, he could never have been born under that star. Someone had defied the will of Heaven and intervened in fate. Or it had never been the Heavenly Killing Star to begin with—and so on."
"...In the end, the truth could not be determined."
"But it was more than enough to keep the Imperial House's attention fixed upon the First Young Master of the Sword Family."
"Ah...!"
Yes. From the very beginning, this tale had started from a single question: Why had the Emperor taken notice of the First Young Master of the Sword Family? How had he been watching the young man's existence from the start?
"In the past, there was one known as the Medicine Fairy."
At the Emperor's words, Gang Sang nodded.
"You speak of Yak So-yu, the First Young Master's mother."
"I do. The feats she performed, one after another, so close to miracles that an entire new religion was founded upon them."
"...Whether to recognize the Fairy Cult as an official religious order was debated at a great council of every formal faith in the Central Kingdom."
And as a result, the Fairy Cult had been recognized as an official religious body, and its name had begun to resound in every direction.
"Indeed. And yet..."
The Emperor's gaze turned upon Gang Sang.
"Nearly half of the achievements the world attributes to the Medicine Fairy's miracles were, in truth, the work of that First Young Master. I take it this is the first you have heard of it as well."
"......!"
"In her lifetime, the Medicine Fairy—who held any number of honorary titles—submitted countless memorials to the Imperial House."
Recalling the old records, the Emperor continued.
"She checked great floods, predicted severe droughts, developed new methods of agriculture, compiled medical texts, and more."
And half of those, the Emperor was saying, had borne the touch of the young First Young Master's hand.
"Had the Imperial House not been watching his every move, it was a truth we would never have known."
"...Astonishing. And yet—"
Gang Sang shrugged.
"As one who knows the First Young Master personally, I find it not so very astonishing after all."
"Is that so?"
The Emperor laughed softly.
"To me it was more astonishing than anything. He was a more astonishing figure than any other. And so, from long ago, I wished more than anyone to take him as my model."
"......!"
"I saw to it that every report concerning him reached my hands."
It was a secret the Emperor had never shared with a living soul.
"That boy—younger than myself—was my hero. I wished to become a man like that First Young Master."
In this moment, the Emperor was more honest than he had ever been.
"If I could become like that youth Yeon So-hyeon, I believed I too might remain in the history of the Central Kingdom—no, in the history of this entire continent—as its finest emperor."
"...Your Majesty!"
At a confession so excessively candid, Gang Sang no longer knew where to put himself and pressed his forehead to the floor. He could guess what story would follow. Yet he dared not give it voice, and only bowed his head still deeper.
The Emperor shook his head.
"But I, unlike him, was incompetent."
"......."
When the late Emperor died suddenly, the crown prince—himself—had inherited the throne amid chaos. And in that hour, the heads of the Sixteen Imperial Capital Families, who had been his greatest loyal subjects, had all at once bared the fangs they had kept hidden. The Emperor, still little more than a child, had become their puppet.
"And even that First Young Master, the hero of my heart..."
After the incident known as the Blood Affair—the great purge of the Luoyang Sword Family—he had withdrawn into seclusion.
"In the end, did he yield to the cruel destiny of the Heavenly Killing Star?"
The Emperor murmured as if to himself.
"Or was even that his ordained fate?"
In the end, the old demons who had manipulated the young Emperor as they pleased had withdrawn, bearing the blame for the Northern War—yet that had been nothing more than the product of factional strife within the Sixteen Families themselves. The prestige of the Imperial House had long since fallen to the dust.
He had been powerless.
"I—no..."
The Emperor smiled in self-mockery.
"I had, in truth, given up on everything..."
"......."
"As time slipped helplessly by, loyal ministers were swept away. The great houses across the Central Kingdom grew ever more powerful. And now even the Min family, from which the new Empress has come..."
The Emperor—no, an ordinary young man—held up his two empty hands.
"...There was nothing I could do."
At the Emperor's raw confession, Gang Sang's eyes reddened.
"...Your Majesty."
What words could he offer here? But there was no need for Gang Sang to speak at all.
"Then, not long ago, a shocking piece of news reached me."
"What news was that, Your Majesty?"
The words that followed had nothing of self-mockery in them.
"It was a report from the Celestial Interpreters of the Imperial House—those who had barely managed to keep their line unbroken even now."
Rather, the Emperor even wore a meaningful smile.
"They said the Heavenly Killing Star had risen once more."
"...The Heavenly Killing Star—again?"
"And not long after—"
Gang Sang could guess the rest without hearing it.
"—the First Young Master of the Sword Family ended his seclusion...!"
"Just so."
The Emperor nodded firmly.
"He has returned."
As if convincing himself, he nodded again and again, speaking half to himself.
"At last, he has come back."
Why the Emperor had called Yeon So-hyeon's emergence from seclusion his final opportunity—Gang Sang understood. Similar ages. Similar circumstances. The Emperor had identified his own powerlessness before destiny with Yeon So-hyeon's situation, and poured his feelings into the young man. And with that, the unproven connection between Yeon So-hyeon and the Heavenly Killing Star from years past stood all but confirmed.
"They say that the moment he returned, he began setting off one major incident after another."
The Emperor looked almost pleased as he said it.
"...The First Young Master is rapidly reclaiming the position he had lost."
And wherever he went, blood scattered and screams rose.
The Heavenly Killing Star...
In the end, it was merely a strand of superstition. The Emperor's tale had been mysterious enough, yet—as Confucius said: a gentleman does not speak of the strange, the forceful, the chaotic, or the supernatural. To Gang Sang, who had long known Yeon So-hyeon personally, it held no great weight. And yet—once you know something, you begin to see it anew. Yeon So-hyeon's path of action felt suddenly different to him.
"Your Majesty..."
Gang Sang spoke carefully.
"Does it not trouble you—that the First Young Master is the Heavenly Killing Star?"
"No."
The Emperor shook his head at once.
"On the contrary, I think it well. What this age needs is precisely that."
He bared his teeth in a smile.
"From ancient times, whenever history turns in a great arc, a great wind of blood has always blown. Every change meets resistance, and a change great enough to alter history must meet resistance greater still."
That face was so different from the weak visage the Emperor had shown before that Gang Sang felt a shock almost refreshing in its force.
"...Indeed. It is as Your Majesty says."
"Then tell me."
The Emperor spread his hands toward Gang Sang.
"The news you have brought."
Lit by the hope named Yeon So-hyeon, the Emperor was no longer powerless.
"Share that First Young Master's stratagems with me as well."
"Yes, of course, Your Majesty."
At that sight, Gang Sang smiled and bowed his head once more in salute. Those who had waited for Yeon So-hyeon's return were not only Gang Sang and Kong Ryang—not only the old loyal ministers. The Emperor, too, had been waiting for Yeon So-hyeon with such longing.
"However—rather than hear it from me, it would be better for Your Majesty to hear it directly from the parties concerned."
"The parties concerned?"
"Yes, Your Majesty."
Still bowed, Gang Sang reported:
"By now, those old demons who received the First Young Master's orders will have slipped into this Imperial Capital and gone to ground."
If the appointed signal were given even now, they would enter the palace at once.
"......!"
The Emperor's eyes flew wide with shock.
"You mean the rumors you spread were not merely to conceal your own entry into the palace?!"
The smile at Gang Sang's lips deepened.
"Empty within the solid, solid within the empty."
Spread rumors of the old demons to conceal Gang Sang's movements. Reveal Gang Sang's movements to conceal those of the old demons.
"All of it was the First Young Master's stratagem."