Silent Cooperation
Near the pier, the armed warships that had dropped anchor poured fire from their gunports without pause.
BOOM! BOOM! BOOM! BOOM! BOOM!
From the vessels themselves—clearly sailing ships—to the cannons mounted upon them, everything was utterly unlike the ships of the Central Plains. Without a doubt, these were armed merchantmen or warships seized from some Western nation and then refitted.
“Merciful heavens…”
An elder of the Luoyang faction aligned with the Second Young Master found the spectacle unfolding before his eyes so unreal it bordered on the absurd. A bombardment… in the very heart of Luoyang?!
He had vaguely known that his lord, the Second Young Master, and Dowager Lady Guyang had prepared extreme measures of last resort. Elder Hahu had even dropped a few hints. Yet the reality now raging before them left the Luoyang-faction elders speechless.
In that interval the flagship of the armed fleet made fast to the pier. Behind it the rest of the warships continued their barrage without pause.
“Yahoo!”
“Land!”
The thick Jiangnan dialect rang raucously from the decks.
“You f*cking idiots!”
Men wearing epaulettes on their shoulders kicked the shins of the chattering sailors and bellowed.
“Shut your damn mouths and get down here for assembly—now!”
The elders watched the sailors leap lightly from the ships.
Every last sailor has trained in martial arts.
…Given that Sapaecheon prepared these forces, we expected they would not be ordinary men.
They exceed even that expectation.
Every combatant coming ashore was a martial artist.
“Whoa, holy sh*t! So this is that Moon Palace they call Luoyang?!”
“Even in the dead of night the city is bright as day—guess the Moon Palace talk wasn’t just rumor after all!”
They looked utterly without discipline, their very minds seemingly unmoored.
Did you see?
At the Luoyang-faction elder’s question another elder nodded.
…Every single one of them is armed with firearms.
Their gear was a mismatched jumble, yet one commonality bound them all: firearms. Without exception they carried guns.
…Flintlocks.
The newest style of firearm, ignited by flint. One man had a brace of pistols thrust through his sash and a pair of short swords at his hip. Another bore a long rifle with a full stock across his shoulder and a Japanese-style curved blade at his waist. There was even a fellow wearing a Spanish cavalry saber of the officer’s pattern while a bow of the Eastern Sea Kingdom rode on his back.
Even the Luoyang-faction elders, not especially familiar with Jiangnan affairs, could not fail to recognize them after seeing this much.
Pirates.
The infamous pirate mercenaries of Sapaecheon.
Sapaecheon presented itself as an alliance, yet within it dozens—sometimes hundreds—of armed bands ceaselessly warred against one another in a living hell of mutual slaughter. Among those factions the most distinctive form of organization was precisely the pirate-mercenary fleets now before their eyes.
In peacetime they pirate; when an employer appears they sell their blades as mercenaries.
“Elder Hahu…”
One of the elders turned to him, cold sweat beading on his brow.
“Is this truly all right? They may call themselves mercenaries, but is there anyone who does not know their connection to Sapaecheon?”
The mercenaries of Sapaecheon had set foot upon Luoyang soil.
Even the warriors of the Second Young Master’s side, arrayed in escort formation around the elders, could not hide their tension as they fingered their sword hilts.
“It matters not.”
At Elder Hahu’s curt reply a colleague made to speak further.
“But—”
His trembling voice was drowned by a roar that rolled from the pirate mercenaries’ direction.
“Hey, you stupid bastard!”
Every elder’s gaze snapped toward the voice thick with internal energy.
“The next ship is supposed to relieve us and disembark troops right away—what the hell are you doing tying the ship to the pier?!”
Identifying the owner of that piercing voice was not difficult; he wore a captain’s hat.
“S-sorry, sir!”
Even among the wildly individualistic pirate mercenaries, his presence crushed everything around him. A massive Hainan-style long blade rode his back. Sparse white hair flared in every direction; madness glittered in his eyes.
That distinctive appearance is unmistakably—
The Luoyang-faction elder never finished the thought.
With a thunderous crack the sailor who had been apologizing for the rope-tying mistake toppled exactly as he stood. A hole punched clean through the center of his face poured out dark blood. The pirate-mercenary captain had drawn a pistol from his sash and fired without hesitation.
While the Luoyang-faction elders froze in sheer disbelief, the pirate mercenaries burst into uproarious laughter at their comrade’s corpse.
“Stupid bastard! Good riddance!”
“More shares for the rest of us!”
“Captain! Thin out a few more useless ones for us!”
Three pistols already at his waist, the captain handed the still-smoking weapon to a subordinate, received a fresh one, and shoved it into his sash. After spitting on the corpse he bellowed:
“What are you standing around for?! Get the slaves we can sell down here!”
“Slaves coming down, on the captain’s orders!”
The pirate mercenaries scrambled into motion and began hauling slaves up onto the deck. The clank of iron chains binding the captives’ feet filled the air.
“Please, spare us!”
“Just once—please!”
“Drag them out, damn it!”
The pier turned into an instant pandemonium. One elder hurriedly waved his hands and strode forward.
“Stop! Stop this at once!”
The white-haired captain spun toward him.
“What?”
The elder shouted, face contorted with incredulity.
“This is not Jiangnan! There is no large-scale slave market in Luoyang!”
“Huh?”
The captain looked bewildered; the pirate mercenaries likewise wore expressions of blank incomprehension. While they stood silent, the slaves spotted the elders in their fine silk robes and began to wail.
“Please—please save us!”
“We are not slaves! We are free commoners!”
Gaunt frames, hollow eyes, the foul stench of filth— the Luoyang-faction elder unconsciously took a step back.
“Ah, damn it…”
The captain shook his head, ignoring the cries behind him.
“Why did I ever think hunting slaves on the way and selling them in Luoyang was a good idea?”
The elder began, “Get them back on the ship immed—”
The captain issued a new order.
“Kill them all.”
Against the rolling thunder of the continuing bombardment, gunfire erupted across the deck. The sharp reports and the thick black-powder smoke swallowed the planks, yet the screams of the kidnapped commoners rang clear, and the blood that sprayed was vividly bright.
“Well now, well now. You’ve been waiting a long while.”
Leaving the pirate mercenaries to heave corpses into the river with heavy splashes, the captain approached the elders of the Second Young Master’s faction.
“A chance to set Luoyang ablaze? We couldn’t possibly sit that out—so we raced here in one go!”
It was Elder Hahu who stepped forward to answer the cackling captain.
“Not Luoyang. Only the Valley of Sin may be burned.”
Elder Hahu spoke the man’s epithet.
“Sa Hae-hyung-sal of the Fresh Blood Fleet.”
The elders could not conceal their agitation.
These are the Fresh Blood Fleet?
The Fresh Blood Fleet—are they not the most elite pirate mercenaries even within Sapaecheon?
The ones said to overpower even Spanish armed merchant convoys?!
No wonder their numbers and armament looked extraordinary…!
Sa Hae-hyung-sal, master of the pirate-mercenary fleet known as the Fresh Blood Fleet and a master ranked among the foremost of Sapaecheon, merely shrugged.
“Well, f*ck. While we’re burning the gorge or valley or whatever, a few other places are bound to catch fire and some people will die. Why get so damn picky about it?”
“The Alliance Lord of Sapaecheon must have given you a direct order, did he not?”
The moment the Alliance Lord was mentioned, Sa Hae-hyung-sal quickly raised both hands and stepped back.
“I have no idea what you’re talking about! Sapaecheon has not the slightest connection to this affair!”
He added with brazen innocence:
“All of this is simply so that I, Sa Hae-hyung-sal, may become the first pirate to rampage through Luoyang and sail away unscathed.”
While they spoke, the next sailing ship ceased fire, glided in to relieve its predecessor, and began disembarking troops.
“…False pretenses are of no concern. Simply fulfill the contract without fail.”
“Don’t you worry about that.”
Sa Hae-hyung-sal cackled.
“Everyone except that First Young Master and the Fourth Young Master or whatever—we’ll kill them all and burn everything down.”
He winked and added:
“Your lord the Second Young Master may one day rule both the Sword Family and Sapaecheon. Best to leave a good impression while we can.”
“Captain! All combat personnel excluding the ship-handling crews have assembled!”
Already nearly a hundred pirate mercenaries stood ready on the pier after disembarking.
“What are you waiting for, you bastards?! Move out—now!”
At the captain’s piercing shout the pirate mercenaries began to march. Some sang incomprehensible sea shanties; others lit pipes. They set out toward the Valley of Sin.
Sa Hae-hyung-sal clapped Elder Hahu on the shoulder as the elder watched them with his single remaining hollow eye.
“A face that has already abandoned life, yet those eyes stay calm and mad. I like people with eyes like that.”
He waved over his shoulder as he walked away.
“If you’re still alive later and ask nicely, I’ll even take you on as a crewman.”
Elder Hahu watched the cackling figure recede, then cast a telepathic message.
One question only.
Sa Hae-hyung-sal glanced back.
Your Fresh Blood Fleet—how long exactly have you been waiting nearby?
After a brief moment of consideration the pirate answered lightly.
You’re going to die soon anyway, so I’ll tell you in place of funeral money.
He scanned the surroundings, confirmed no one near enough to intercept the transmission, and continued.
Your Second Young Master and Dowager Lady Guyang requested Sapaecheon’s aid long ago.
How long ago?
From the day your lord left Luoyang for the Imperial Capital.
Leaving those words, Sa Hae-hyung-sal made to stroll away, then paused and asked:
“Ah, by the way—are you certain the Sword Family will not move?”
“If the Sword Family were going to move, do you think pirate mercenaries would ever have set foot on this pier?”
“True enough.”
Sa Hae-hyung-sal laughed as he departed.
“Even the peerless Sword Family has fallen completely into ruin.”
Left alone, Elder Hahu lifted his gaze to the black sky.
So that was it after all.
The day the Second Young Master had set out for the Imperial Capital had also been the day he tore out Elder Hahu’s eye and granted him one final chance.
From the very beginning I never possessed even a shred of their trust—mother and son both.
The Second Young Master and Dowager Lady Guyang had been preparing for a day like this from the start.
A hollow laugh escaped his lips, only to be swallowed without trace by the thunder of the Fresh Blood Fleet’s bombardment rolling across the Yellow River.
Luoyang Sword Family.
Supreme Operations Committee.
“…So it was true.”
The newly appointed female Supreme Councilor shuddered as she spoke.
“Not a single report has reached us.”
“What on earth is going on? A bombardment is taking place on Luoyang soil, yet The Agency is not even sending word?”
Another Supreme Councilor spoke in a tone of disbelief.
“Has The Agency truly fallen this far?”
The Agency was the organization that stood closest to the Supreme Operations Committee—the very core of the Luoyang Sword Family—and performed its most essential supporting role. Yet that Agency was currently transmitting nothing at all.
“Had the Chairman not informed us, we would still be buried in this meeting knowing nothing!”
Their chamber lay deep underground by design; the distant, muffled roar of cannon fire was impossible to notice.
“Has the upper echelon of The Agency joined hands with the Second Young Master’s faction? Or the Third Young Master? Or the corrupt bloodline of the Yeon clan?”
“Perhaps…”
One Supreme Councilor answered like a sigh.
“They have joined hands with every one of them.”
Behind her screen the new female Supreme Councilor wore a stunned expression.
“…You mean The Agency has abandoned its noble mission and is now pursuing power for itself?”
“Is what is happening right now not proof enough?”
However dark it may be under the lamp…
“There had been several reports of suspicious movements among The Agency’s upper ranks, yet every internal investigation returned clean…”
“Perhaps even those who conducted the investigations were compromised.”
“What?!”
The corruption of The Agency struck them with a bone-deep shock. Amid year after year of record profits, just how far had the Sword Family fallen?
“Th-this is no time to sit still!”
The newly appointed male Supreme Councilor shot to his feet.
“We must crush The Agency at once and grind those pirate bastards into dust!”
“Y-yes! Before it is too late—!”
An organization so close to the Supreme Operations Committee causing a crisis of this magnitude was an unprecedented emergency for most of them.
“Everyone, do not act rashly.”
A voice heavy with internal energy filled the secret cavern.
“As I informed you all beforehand—”
It was the voice of the Chairman of the Supreme Operations Committee, the Head of the Martial Arts Academy of the Luoyang Sword Family, the man once known as the Sword Venerable—Geam-jon.
“This is the once-in-a-thousand-years opportunity that the First Young Master has created for us.”
From his lips came the name of Yeon So-hyeon.