Responsibility
"Master...!"
The first to come running was Jeong-a, chief maid of Yeon So-hyeon.
The moment she spotted him in the half-collapsed passageway leading into the deepest chamber, she flung the torch she carried to the floor and sprinted toward him.
"Master!"
How long had she been tormented by worry for him? Tears brimmed at the corners of her eyes as she rushed forward. Leaning against the tunnel wall, Yeon So-hyeon managed a bitter smile.
"...There's no need for such a fuss."
That reply alone confirmed he still held onto consciousness. He had not lost awareness and sunk into total erosion by the demonic energy of the Jeam Jincheon Scripture. In other words, this was not yet a "black situation."
Yet the color never returned to Chief Maid Jeong-a's face.
"Master. That mask...!"
The white mask still covered Yeon So-hyeon's face. He was not merely wearing it. The mask had fused to him.
"...It won't come off for the moment. But it's all right."
"How can that be...?!"
The skin around the adhered mask had warped, and black veins spread outward like tree branches. She hurried to help him up, but the instant she stretched out her hand—
"...Kk!"
A searing pain raced from her fingertips as if they were burning away. Yeon So-hyeon was suppressing it, yet demonic energy from the Jeam Jincheon Scripture still leaked past its limits.
"Did I not say I was fine?"
He chided her in an intentionally casual tone and braced himself against the wall, forcing his body upright. Yet contrary to his words—
"...Master."
—a thin thread of blood trickled from between his clenched teeth.
Every scrap of heat had been stolen from him; even his blood vessels felt frozen solid. At the same time a scorching agony raced through his entire body. The clash between the demonic energy of the Jeam Jincheon Scripture and that of the Demonic Cult had proven far more violent than he anticipated.
And far more painful.
Even so, Yeon So-hyeon straightened his back and rose under his own power. The newly revealed history of the Demonic Cult's birth. The crushing sense of responsibility that came with bearing the blood of the Luoyang Sword Family. That very weight was what lifted him to his feet now.
"I have good news for you."
"...Pardon?"
Having risen, Yeon So-hyeon looked at Jeong-a and smiled.
"Your family's old enemy, Geum-jil, is dead."
Jeong-a shook her head so violently her hair whipped through the air.
"A man like that means nothing to me now!"
In a moment like this, what did Geum-jil matter? Even now her master was still thinking of a mere maid like her.
"Master must return to Wongak Pavilion at once and settle your energy!"
Yeon So-hyeon shook his head.
"No. That cannot be."
"Master...!"
Jeong-a's cry was desperate, yet Yeon So-hyeon remained resolute.
"The work is drawing to a close. We are in the final stage. At a critical juncture such as this, variables are inevitable."
His will was absolute.
"While matters stand as they do, until everything is finished, I will not step back from the front line."
"But—!"
Jeong-a opened her mouth to protest, yet her voice was cut short by other cries.
"Leader...!"
They were the priestess and priestesses of the Fairy Cult who had hurried after Jeong-a. Some of them flinched at the sight of Amcheonjonza's mask; others felt open alarm at Yeon So-hyeon's condition. None, however, dared speak of it first.
"You have all worked hard."
The priestess of the Fairy Cult shook her head.
"Not at all."
Though blind, she approached Yeon So-hyeon without anyone's aid.
"We of meager ability merely assisted our Leader. How could we accept praise for something so slight?"
"No."
Yeon So-hyeon firmly rejected her words with a shake of his head.
"None of this would have been possible without you."
It was the truth. The priestess and priestesses of the Fairy Cult had tirelessly searched the Underground Great Waterway. In the end they had succeeded in locating the path to the deepest chamber in time. Without them, Yeon So-hyeon could never have struck Geum-jil at the precise moment and place.
And in the course of that search, how great had the sacrifices been among the Fairy Cult priestesses who had volunteered? Many of them had gone mad from the demonic energy rising from the depths, or were still receiving treatment for the aftereffects. Not a few had simply vanished.
"This place is...?"
The priestess changed the subject. True to her role as a priestess who served the Medicine Fairy, she had not the slightest desire to exalt, adorn, or parade their sacrifices. That was the purity the priestesses of the Fairy Cult possessed.
"...Yes. Where this passageway ends is the very deepest chamber of the Underground Great Waterway."
Yeon So-hyeon nodded and looked back. Beyond the tunnel, torches carried by the priestesses searching downward flickered, lighting the half-collapsed walls in patches. Of the corpses that had once filled every corridor, not a single trace remained. Only empty tunnels.
"Priestess."
Yeon So-hyeon asked her,
"What do your eyes see?"
The blind priestess lifted her face toward the far end of the passage and sighed.
"...Chaos and confusion. Terror and hatred. It is filled with grievance and sorrow."
Were those the emotions once held by Geum-jil and the swarm of corpses that had surrounded him? Or were they the fragments of agony carved into the very souls of those who, centuries earlier, had been sealed in this deep underground and driven through merciless forced labor?
"Leader!"
At that moment a priestess at the front of the search party cried out. They had reached the end of the tunnel—the entrance to the deepest chamber.
The lowest level where Amcheonjonza and that aberrant being had clashed. A vast space shaped like an hourglass. The chamber had collapsed in places during the battle, half-buried under earth and still shedding soil, yet from the end of the sloping passageway it was not difficult to make out the "walls" of that space.
"This is...!"
"What in the world...?!"
The priestesses stood stunned, holding their torches so the light fell upon the walls of the deepest chamber. As Yeon So-hyeon, Jeong-a, and the priestess drew near, the women, faces bloodless, stepped aside to clear a path.
"...It appears to be nothing but human bones."
Just as she said. The walls of that broad chamber were formed entirely of plaster slapped on thick and countless human bones.
Bones that looked like femurs. Slender arm bones. Ribs. Bone. Bone. Bone.
A wall wrought from the bones of at least several hundred—perhaps a thousand—people revealed its stark white presence under the wavering torchlight of the priestesses. Before, the demonic energy of the Demonic Cult had blanketed everything so that the walls had seemed only black. Now that the energy had vanished, their true form stood exposed.
"These remains..."
Having heard the history of the Demonic Cult from Geum-jil, Yeon So-hyeon could guess the identity of the bones.
"...are the remains of those seized and forced into labor here by the previous dynasty and the Sword Family of the past."
The countless dead from the brutal labor had been carried by those newly thrown into the work and stacked into walls. When those who stacked the walls themselves died, the next wave of laborers came and built walls of their bones. No one had explained it to him, yet in his eyes the process by which that wall had risen centuries earlier seemed to unfold with terrible clarity.
"...I have seen similar records among the ancient ritual arts."
The priestess spoke.
"It is said that if one stacks human bones according to the proper axes and performs the fitting rite, they become a 'vessel' capable of containing even that which has no form."
What her sightless eyes beheld, none could say.
"But a scale such as this..."
Her entire body was soaked in cold sweat.
"Come to think of it—if it is a vessel...!"
Jeong-a seemed to recall something and spoke with a stunned expression.
"According to the oral legends that have been handed down, the previous dynasty dug the artificial lake known as the Yellow Lake at the counsel of a certain Daoist, hoping to restore the nation's fortune."
"Yes. That legend is correct in its broad outline. But to be more precise..."
Yeon So-hyeon raised a hand and pointed toward the ceiling. Every gaze followed that hand upward.
"They dug the Yellow Lake,"
His hand traced a winding path downward from above.
"and extended the great waterway that begins beneath Luoyang all the way to this place, creating this chamber beneath the lake."
"You mean this place is the underground of the Yellow Lake?!"
The priestesses and Jeong-a wore looks of shock. They were standing beneath a vast artificial lake.
"Yes. This place is..."
Yeon So-hyeon wore a bitter expression as he gazed upon the enormous hourglass-shaped deepest chamber, a space so vast the torches could not fully illuminate it, and continued.
"a vessel meant to gather the earth's energy and artificially create a dragon vein."
He added,
"And it is also the place where the Demonic Cult was born."
To the astonished company, Yeon So-hyeon related the history he had heard from Geum-jil. As that history of bitter resentment unfolded, the eyes of those present grew wider and wider until they seemed ready to tear.
"...That is how it came to be."
The shocking secret history Yeon So-hyeon had recounted came to an end. Once more they all looked out over the deep, broad deepest chamber.
Yet in the eyes of the priestesses, in Yeon So-hyeon's eyes, even in the eyes of the priestess who possessed strange power, and in Jeong-a's Dragon Eyes—there was no dragon vein to be seen. All that existed here was empty space and the bones of those who had died in countless numbers.
This was nothing more than the legacy of madness.
In the midst of that insane spectacle, while no one could easily speak, Yeon So-hyeon was the first to open his mouth again.
"Once this matter is concluded, I will make this chamber public."
"I and the Sword Family will take full responsibility for everything. If necessary, I will petition His Majesty the Emperor as well."
His gaze fixed upon the walls, he continued.
"After every bone here has been gathered and a proper memorial rite performed, this space must be filled in and sealed."
Those who had died centuries ago. Moreover, people who had been nothing more than slaves. Finding even their descendants would now be impossible. Even if they shouldered every responsibility, that was all that could be done.
"But, Master."
Jeong-a could not hide her dismay.
"...Outside the main house there will be those who try to exploit this somehow. And if that happens, within the main house itself there may be those who resent Master for having exposed our shame."
It was a rare expression of concern from Jeong-a.
"That is so. Moreover..."
The priestess nodded in agreement.
"In a time when the Demonic Cult is stirring, one cannot know what effects the revelation of that secret history may have."
"It would be wiser to wait for a more suitable moment—"
"It does not matter."
Yeon So-hyeon cut them off at once. Exhaustion was plain upon him, yet his words carried a weight heavier even than when they had been laced with the demonic energy of Amcheonjonza.
"This is a matter that has nothing to do with profit and loss."
He spoke more solemnly, more deliberately, driving each character home like a nail, than at any moment before.
"When one takes responsibility and reflects, there is no such thing as a 'suitable time.'"
"I, and we,"
It was a declaration, and a resolve.
"will neither bury history nor forget it."