The Result Is Decided Before the Vote
The Grand Assembly Hall of the Elder Council.
Given the nature of an elder’s position, a great many were always away on external assignments. And this was merely a temporary session of the Elder Council, convened to dispose of a single agenda item. Yet for all that, more men filled the seats of the Grand Assembly Hall than ever attended in ordinary times.
“Quite a turnout,” an elderly elder remarked.
“Even so, it’s only a little over half,” said a newly appointed elder, his expression faintly sour. “Is this considered many?”
The older man smiled at the newcomer, who was attending the Elder Council for the first time since his appointment.
“Ordinarily, if even half the seats are properly filled, we call it a full house and joke about it with a laugh.”
A colleague seated to the right joined their conversation as naturally as he always did.
“I don’t believe I’ve ever seen so many present in recent days.”
They could speak so freely only because they belonged to the same faction.
“Indeed.” The elderly elder narrowed his eyes and surveyed the assembly. “Even those who normally entrust their voting rights to a colleague and never show their faces have all come.”
The elder to his right shrugged. “And you yourself are attending for the first time in quite a while, are you not?”
The older man gave a bitter smile. “In a situation like this, how could anyone keep his mind on other work?”
The moment he had heard the news concerning the Eldest Young Master, he had come racing to the Elder Council.
“True enough.” The elder to the left, who had likewise been frequently absent on account of his duties, stroked his chin. “The motion of no confidence against the current Banker, and the resolution on the candidates for the new Banker—all of that had already been settled by prior agreement beneath the surface.”
“Exactly.” The elderly elder nodded. “Under ordinary circumstances, today would have been nothing more than a formality of casting votes.”
“Under ordinary circumstances.”
For a moment, a heavy silence settled over them.
No one spoke first, yet every mind turned to the same root of the present tangle—to the Eldest Young Master.
Just what… is the Eldest Young Master…
…With what confidence does he pick a quarrel with the entire Elder Council?
No matter how they turned it over, no matter how they exchanged opinions, the fundamental question would not yield. Like the silence that filled the hall, that question coiled heavy and stubborn in their thoughts.
“…By the way, my friend.” One of the colleagues, finding the silence uncomfortable, casually addressed the new elder.
“Yes?”
“Do you know this saying?”
“What… saying?”
The man smiled. “In the Elder Council, the result is decided by vote—”
As he began with that smile, the elder to the right, catching the sense of what was coming, made to finish the line.
“—but that result—”
At that moment:
“—that result is decided before the vote.”
“…!”
The voice had not come from within their faction. It had not even come from any of the seats nearby.
“That paradoxical maxim,” the speaker continued, “is a very old saying in the highest political circles of the Luoyang Sword House.”
They all turned their heads at once. Behind them stood a figure with a coat of black silkworm silk, Heukjamsa, fluttering about him.
“Eldest Young Master…!”
Yeon So-hyeon was there.
As everyone half-rose from their seats, Yeon So-hyeon approached with an unhurried gait and patted the new elder on the shoulder.
“Is this your first attendance?”
“Ah—yes. It is, but…”
“Remember it well.” The pat on the shoulder was the sort of gesture one used toward a subordinate. “It is a saying that teaches how large and how important prior agreement is in this arena.”
Yet the manner was so perfectly natural that the new elder nodded reflexively, half-persuaded without meaning to be.
“I… I see.”
“As an elder of the main house from this day forward, I look forward to seeing good work from you.”
As he spoke, Yeon So-hyeon casually straightened the man’s collar, which had gone askew in his hasty rising.
“Th-thank you…!” The new elder blurted his gratitude by pure reflex.
Was it thanks for the Eldest Young Master’s teaching? For the words of expectation? Or for the personal attention of adjusting his disordered attire?
“No need for thanks.”
As smoothly as water flowing, Yeon So-hyeon even accepted the expression of gratitude. The man might be a newcomer in the Elder Council, but he was in his fifties—a man who had weathered every storm to reach this seat. Yeon So-hyeon had handled such a man, however suddenly, as one handles a child.
“Eldest Young Master…!”
But unlike the new elder, the surrounding colleagues flushed darkly at Yeon So-hyeon’s conduct.
“Just what do you think you’re—”
The Eldest Young Master cut him off with a soft snort of laughter.
“I merely offered a small piece of advice and a word of encouragement to a new elder who is, for the first time, setting foot in this storied Elder Council of the Luoyang Sword House—a personally historic moment for him.” He shrugged as though the whole thing were unfair. “Aren’t you all being rather oversensitive?”
The brazenness of it was without equal. The Eldest Young Master himself was setting foot in the Elder Council for the first time…
For an instant the elders found themselves at a loss for words. Before they could recover and speak, he went on:
“Well then—carry on, all of you.”
As though they no longer interested him in the least, the Eldest Young Master did not trouble himself to engage them further, and simply walked on. The elders who had been about to speak shut their mouths.
For the entire Grand Assembly Hall of the Elder Council, having recognized his presence, had stopped every movement and was watching him. The whole body of elders was watching him.
In a stillness so unnatural that one could scarcely believe the hall had been noisy only moments before, the only sound was the measured tread of Yeon So-hyeon and the elders who followed him.
Step. Step.
Those footfalls alone echoed and re-echoed through the vast space of the Grand Assembly Hall.
Step. Step.
And within that tension composed of nothing but the sound of feet, more than a hundred pairs of glittering eyes fixed upon Yeon So-hyeon like blades ground to a blue edge.
Sharp gazes that seemed ready to gut the unknowable depths of the Eldest Young Master and drag them into the light. Eyes blazing with rage, as though they would burn Yeon So-hyeon alive where he stood. The pressure of more than a hundred elders of the great Luoyang Sword House, gathered in one place.
In that space without a single spoken word, the oppression was so great that even the Vice-Head of the Elder Council, who had volunteered to guide the Eldest Young Master, swallowed dryly.
Gulp.
Yet:
“Vice-Head.”
As if dismissing every ounce of that tension, Yeon So-hyeon spoke abruptly, as though nothing at all were amiss.
“The guests’ seats are over that way, are they not?”
Of what material was the Eldest Young Master’s heart made? The Vice-Head, momentarily stunned by that unshaken composure, scrambled to answer.
“Ah—yes…! That is so, Eldest Young Master!” Recovering himself, he even bared his gold tooth in an excess of fuss. “Oh dear…! I ought to have guided you properly. Forgive me, Eldest Young Master…!”
As Yeon So-hyeon resumed walking under that guidance, his gaze suddenly turned toward the opposite side of the hall.
…Hobop Wonju and Gamchal Buju.
He exchanged looks with those two powers for a time; then his eyes moved past them. There sat those who, from the first, had fixed upon Yeon So-hyeon the most viscous of stares. They cast their gazes without the slightest restraint—gazes that would not have been out of place as killing intent itself. Eyes that hated the very existence of the Eldest Young Master Yeon So-hyeon, as though they would spring upon him that instant and throttle him to death.
…The old men who are rotting this house from within.
Not all of them—but most of the principal offenders in the Sword House Bank affair—were elders of the Yeon bloodline.
That Eldest Young Master bastard!
What grudge does he bear against us, that he does this?!
Before we die, we will kill him first!
They wanted nothing more than to take an axe to that unmoved face, to saw through the body that carried itself with such boundless arrogance.
“Ahem.”
At that moment, with a clearing of the throat:
“I am Elder Hwangmok, charged with conducting today’s temporary session of the Elder Council.”
One elder stepped into the center and began to address the assembly. Every gaze among the elders swung toward him.
“The temporary session of the Elder Council will begin shortly. I ask that you all take your seats—”
“Not shortly. We begin this very moment. Everyone will sit down at once.”
The man who appeared behind him was the Head of the Elder Council—Jangrowonju. He took his place beside Elder Hwangmok, hands clasped behind his back, and continued.
“Today, by the authority vested in this Head of the Council, every miscellaneous formality will be omitted.”
In ordinary times Jangrowonju was a man who joked and even dozed off in his seat. There was not a trace of that man in the iron-hard expression he wore now.
“Head of the Council. Do you mean we are to proceed immediately to the vote on the motion of no confidence?”
“I do.”
For a moment the assembly murmured. Opinions passed among the various factions and parties; the Grand Assembly Hall grew noisy.
“If anyone has an objection to the procedure, raise it now.”
Under ordinary circumstances, given the peculiar atmosphere of the Elder Council, someone would certainly have voiced a complaint. Today, no one did. Their faces differed, but every man there shared a single desire: to reach a conclusion as swiftly as possible.
“…Then I take it there are no objections, and I hereby declare the session open.”
Even as the tension rose until the skin prickled:
“The vote of no confidence will proceed, as prescribed by the Sword House Code, by secret ballot.”
True to the sobriquet of the ‘Small Giant,’ he showed not a hair’s breadth of wavering amid the murderous atmosphere. Elder Hwangmok, charged with the conduct of the meeting, added the necessary details.
“Furthermore, the motion of no confidence shall pass only if a majority of the whole body votes in favor…”
Perhaps because the relentless pace of the proceedings held every eye:
“But if invalid ballots amount to three-tenths or more of the whole, the session will be briefly adjourned and a revote will be held…”
Not one among them saw the blue ghost-fire that, for an instant, flickered deep in the eyes of Yeon So-hyeon as he regarded the elders of the Yeon bloodline.
The voting was finished. The counting of the ballots was well under way.
“The secured votes…?”
Conversation passed among the elders of the Yeon bloodline.
“It is already done.”
On the table lay a large sheet of paper marked with the names of every elder. As he said, most of those names already bore a red circle.
“The Eldest Young Master bastard barged in without warning, so from this morning we had to make fresh contacts and renegotiate. But…”
Ordinarily, as if by some law of nature, there were always those who tried to adjust the terms of a bargain at the last moment. Today, there had not been even one such man.
“Today, because that Eldest Young Master bastard so thoroughly wounded the pride of the elders, the matter was settled more easily than usual.”
In the Elder Council, the result is decided by vote—but that result is decided before the vote.
Just as the saying went, they had already succeeded in securing more than enough votes in advance.
“I will now announce the results of the count.”
The conclusion, it seemed, was already reached. Unlike the new elders, who still showed curiosity, the mid-ranking elders wore indifferent faces.
“Favor will clear seven-tenths. It is over.”
“Opposition will amount to nothing more than the handful of votes that follow the Eldest Young Master.”
“Time, then, to meet the candidates for the new Banker.”
The result of the vote would be announced well within the expected margin of error.
“…And yet.” One of the elders in the assembly muttered. “If that is so—then what, in the end, was the Eldest Young Master’s aim?”
At that moment, Elder Hwangmok unfolded the slip on which the result was written and began to read it out.
“Result of the vote. Favor: seven-tenths.”
A deep smile settled over the faces of the elders.
“Exactly seven-tenths. It is finished.”
“Serves you right, Eldest Young Master.”
What expression was Yeon So-hyeon wearing now? Without anyone needing to suggest it, the elders’ gazes converged upon him.
“…He’s smiling?”
Even from a distance the smile was so vivid that they could clearly make out the meaningful expression on Yeon So-hyeon’s face.
“However…”
A look of bewilderment crossed the face of Elder Hwangmok as he continued the announcement.
“By the total count, invalid ballots amount to three-tenths of the whole.”
From every direction came the sound of breath being drawn in sharply.
“…What did you say?”
“Invalid ballots are three-tenths of the whole?”
Elder Hwangmok himself looked as shaken as any of them.
“As invalid ballots amount to three-tenths of the whole, in accordance with house law, the session will be briefly adjourned and a revote will be conducted.”
“What in the world is this nonsense?!”
“How is it even possible for three-tenths of the ballots to be invalid?!”
As if trying to overcome the swelling murmur, Elder Hwangmok all but shouted:
“I ask that every elder make active use of the recess so that, in the revote, you may make your intentions absolutely clear!”
No one paid the slightest attention to Elder Hwangmok’s words.
“A revote?!”
“This is absurd…!”
Amid the roar of confused voices that shook the assembly, a low laugh from Yeon So-hyeon mixed with the rising clamor.
“In the Elder Council, the result is decided by vote—but that result is decided before the vote.”
Yeon So-hyeon’s quiet laughter threaded through the high, angry voices.
“This is only the beginning.”