Demonic Obstacle
Episode 22 — Demonic Obstacle
In a tea house before the Elder Council hall, the Yeon clan blood relatives were hounding a man as if they meant to spit fire.
"So? How is it going?!"
"And what was that business about the Central Audit Department descending on the Elder Council for?!"
"And why did several head-level senior figures slip out before things even finished?!"
Under the Yeon clan relatives' berating, the man who had brought word from inside the Elder Council answered, watching their faces carefully.
"That is…"
"…It appears things are resolving in the Eldest Young Master's favor."
"What do you mean by that?!"
"How exactly are things going?!"
No proper news reached them—only bad news, one after another. As time dragged on, the faces of the Yeon clan blood relatives grew darker and more deathly by the moment.
Then one of them, who had been staring anxiously out the window toward the Elder Council, shot up from his seat.
"Th-that is…?!"
Forgetting whatever dignity they still possessed, they scrambled to the window. The moment they saw the entrance of the Elder Council, their faces drained of color.
"Why is that man…?!"
Being dragged away under escort by personnel of the Central Audit Department, clad in those chilling crimson uniforms, was none other than the Vice Head of the Sword House Bank.
The Bu-jeonjangjang wore the eyes of a dead fish rotting on the shore. His legs had given out completely; he was all but being hauled along. Looking at him, calling him a corpse already would hardly have been an exaggeration.
"…If they have him under arrest like that…"
A Yeon clan relative, his face bone-white and trembling, forced the words out.
"…Then…"
"Instead of ousting the existing Banker, we are the ones who have been crushed…?"
They had wanted the Bu-jeonjangjang in the Banker's seat for a reason.
"Oh my."
With a playfully light voice, someone appeared as if from nowhere, leaning casually against the window railing.
"I see the distinguished elders of the Yeon clan bloodline are gathered here."
Crimson sleeves fluttering, a soft-looking face wearing a mischievous smile—it was Hwa Bok, the right hand of the Head of the Central Audit Department.
"No, really. We called and called, and even asked for your cooperation in the deceased's investigation."
He spoke as if wounded.
"You gentlemen were so terribly busy with public and private affairs that you refused the investigation—yet at this hour you are all idly assembled in a tea house of all places?"
Hwa Bok mocked them to the hilt.
"Is there some family function among the bloodline today?"
Ordinarily they would have exploded into shouting. But under Hwa Bok's gaze—slow, deliberate, as if licking them over—the Yeon clan relatives could not manage a single word. They were rats before a cat.
"You are all so hard to get hold of that going door to door to inform you would have been a nuisance. Well, this works out nicely."
In the quiet room, only Hwa Bok's soft chuckle echoed. But every Yeon clan relative could see it clearly: in the eyes of the man who laughed, there was not the slightest trace of humor. Something chilling even flickered through them.
"Now that your last lifeline has snapped…"
"Resist as hard as you can."
Though his duty was audit and inspection, this was a man who for a long time had never been able to conduct a true investigation. He went on:
"Stake those meager lives of yours. Drag in everything you can drag in, and resist."
At that insolent declaration—
"You—!"
The faces of the Yeon clan relatives, which they had held in check until now, hardened at once.
"…We've put up with you long enough."
"A mere inspector dares—!"
"Do you think that because we are in this situation, we cannot deal with the likes of you?!"
A murderous intent that made the hair stand on end. Ordinarily, even a Hwa Bok swollen with nerve would have found it unnerving enough to leave. But today's Hwa Bok was different.
"Those words just now are the will of the Central Audit Department—but more than that…"
"They are a message the Eldest Young Master of the main house himself ordered me to deliver to you."
And they were the same words Yeon So-hyeon had once spoken to the Bu-jeonjangjang.
The Yeon clan relatives who had been about to lunge at Hwa Bok froze stiff in their places.
"Perhaps…"
Looking at them as if they had turned to living statues, Hwa Bok sneered without the least restraint.
"It would be unwise to expect the Hobop Court to cooperate with you this time the way it has before."
An elderly Yeon clan relative who had been watching the scene with a sour face from the rear finally spoke.
"…Has the Hobop Court—has the Hobop Wonju taken the Eldest Young Master's hand?"
To so blunt and direct a question, Hwa Bok merely shrugged.
"It seems neither you nor I share enough loyalty with each other for me to answer that far."
He itched to see their faces when they learned the Hobop Wonju had fallen and a new head would take his place—but he held his tongue.
"Well then. Do give us your smooth cooperation when the compulsory summons come."
Grinning, he slipped lightly away from the railing and vanished from sight.
The words he left behind—to stake their lives and drag in everything they could to resist—had not come from some mere inspector. They had come from the Eldest Young Master himself. The atmosphere turned heavier than ever.
Then the scrape of a chair broke that weight. Every gaze turned that way.
"…Elder."
Supported to his feet, the old man who held the bloodline's eyes stood for a moment searching for words, then spoke as if releasing a sigh.
"…A demonic obstacle. That is what this is. A demonic obstacle."
Demonic obstacle—the prank of a devil. How else could one name their present situation?
We knew that once that Eldest Young Master moved in person, he would have something hidden up his sleeve…
But that everything would be overturned in a single stroke—that, they had never imagined. How could anyone accept this as anything but a devil's mischief?
"…Or was that Eldest Young Master the devil himself?"
Only now did they begin to understand why the Supreme Patriarch had hidden and protected his eldest son so deeply.
"Elder…"
Supported down toward the lower floor, the old man said:
"…Everyone."
His tone was heavier than it had ever been.
"From this moment, each of you seek your own path to survival."
At that same hour, in the great assembly hall of the Elder Council—
Countless elders of the Luoyang Sword House, men who could pour forth eloquence like a mountain stream the moment they opened their mouths, had gathered. Yet none among them could cleanly explain the situation.
"All of them are the Eldest Young Master's faction…?"
"…Three-tenths."
"Then they are—"
"The three-tenths who cast invalid votes at the start."
"…So the worst we tried to prevent had already happened."
A senior elder who had done everything to keep the Eldest Young Master's faction from forming and rising to the surface pressed his fingers to his brow. Once they had revealed themselves so openly, it was no different from the official launch of the Eldest Young Master's faction.
"…When exactly did the Eldest Young Master make contact with so many of them?"
"Did we not all keep his side under thorough surveillance?"
"After arriving at the Elder Council, the Eldest Young Master had no chance to contact them…!"
"Then how…?"
No one offered a clean deduction. Only questions piled up.
"You still don't understand?"
The senior elder who had sighed clicked his tongue and spoke.
"Those men were not recruited here in the Elder Council today."
"If not today…?!"
The eyes of the elders listening nearby went wide.
"Yes."
The senior elder nodded and continued.
"During the period when votes were being gathered to drive out the existing Banker and appoint a new one."
In the Elder Council, the outcome was decided before the vote—and "before the vote" never meant the day of the vote alone.
"You mean that during that period the Eldest Young Master was also making secret contact with them beneath the surface?"
Beneath the surface there had been secret agreements among the elders. And deeper still, in the abyss under that, the Eldest Young Master had been moving.
"…I don't know the concrete method myself. But at least this much—"
The senior elder narrowed his eyes.
"Those strange events of today—the mass of invalid votes and the re-vote—I finally understand why they happened."
The elders swallowed dryly and turned their heads to follow his gaze. There stood the three-tenths—the Eldest Young Master's faction—exchanging greetings and light conversation as if they had iron plates for faces, unflinching under every stare in the hall.
"At first I didn't understand why the Eldest Young Master told me I would understand once I cast an invalid vote…!"
"When the invalids reached a full three-tenths and a re-vote was declared, I could not help but marvel…!"
The elders gathered around Eldest Young Master Yeon So-hyeon spoke over one another.
"It was not so difficult a matter."
Yeon So-hyeon spoke as he always did, as if it were nothing—but no one present, not even his political enemies, believed that.
"I merely breathed a little courage into you."
"Not so, Eldest Young Master."
The one who stepped forward, shaking his head, was the newly appointed elder whose shoulder Yeon So-hyeon had once clapped.
"You did not give us courage. To men who could not even dare to try, you only asked that we cast invalid votes."
When he spoke up, the other elders joined in.
"And simply by casting those invalid votes—"
The result had been a re-vote driven by invalid ballots that reached three-tenths.
"—we clearly confirmed that we had many comrades who shared our will…!"
Because Yeon So-hyeon had asked of them only that they cast invalid votes, they had been able to confirm one another's existence by a light and simple means.
"And at the same time we could clearly feel the Eldest Young Master's influence, which had gathered so many…!"
The numbers were there for all to see—so his own capability and strength were proven as well.
"And yet not a single person—"
"—realized that this process was, in real time, the process of our faction being formed…!"
Everyone had assumed those mass invalid votes were merely an intermediate step as the Eldest Young Master tried to persuade some particular faction or clique. They could not have thought otherwise. That was why his political enemies, trapped in the illusion that it was still not too late, had wasted their efforts trying to claw back votes.
"And once the invalid votes reached three-tenths—"
"—the one-tenth the Eldest Young Master had already secured through 'political deals' saw a chance of victory—"
"—and in the re-vote that followed, they added another one-tenth of invalid ballots."
At those words Yeon So-hyeon turned his head and, toward the hostile elders watching them, gave a little wave of his hand. Most wore sour faces, looked away, or even snorted—but among them, without question, hid that one-tenth who had not joined his faction yet had struck political bargains with him in this affair.
"And then…"
"Those invalid votes, which reached four-tenths—"
"—together with the arrest of the Bu-jeonjangjang, became the decisive wedge…!"
No sooner had the word "wedge" left their lips than—
"I-I will now announce the results of this re-vote…!"
Elder Hwangmok, who had received the slip with the tallied results, began the announcement.
"Regarding the third vote of no confidence against the Banker of the Sword House Bank: twenty votes in favor of no confidence, ten invalid, eighty opposed. Therefore…"
Most of the elders who had already sensed defeat chose only to get this moment over with quickly.
"Therefore, the motion of no confidence against the Banker is finally rejected…!"
The Jangrowonju spoke after him.
"I declare this session closed."
At once, cheers and a storm of applause erupted from the Eldest Young Master's faction.
"Yes…!"
"We won…!"
An enemy's victory was a bitter thing—and when that victory was born from one's own defeat, it twisted the gut.
"…Damn it."
Cursing under their breath against the roar of celebration, the elders rose one by one from their seats.
"…We prepare countermeasures at once."
"…Immediate measures are required."
"…I will inform Elder Namgung, who left his seat early, without delay."
The light and shadow of victor and defeated divided sharply. Amid an atmosphere thick with the sense of adjournment—
"…So-hyeon."
There were those for whom that announcement was not merely a single defeat, but something far more.
"Yeon So-hyeon, you bastard——!"
With that howl, a devastating pressure born unmistakably of inner energy erupted. One of the corrupt Yeon clan bloodline elders, inverted eyes pouring murderous intent and madness in streams, charged at Yeon So-hyeon.
"Diiiie——!"