The Ripple
"This… this…"
In the midst of the guards' utter panic, Tal-myeong-gwi-geom, who had been waiting outside the Elder Council Hall, broke into a single burst of laughter.
"Looks like he finished it cleanly."
He laid a hand against the split outer wall of the Elder Council Hall. Even from that severed face of stone, a blade-qi so sharp it seemed ready to flay flesh still radiated with a chill that raised the hairs on the skin. Before that sword stroke — so exquisite it bordered on the intoxicating — the competitive fire and soaring elation that only a warrior could feel rose in him. Tal-myeong-gwi-geom licked his parched lips.
"…I really did choose the right master."
"This Sword House," came the declaration from the Grand Assembly Hall, the very heart of the Elder Council Hall, "belongs to this Eldest Young Master, Yeon So-hyeon."
Had those words left the Eldest Young Master's mouth mere moments earlier — immediately after the vote's results were announced — the hostile elders would have snorted in contempt, and even the elders of his own faction would have worn looks of open discomfort. But now, in this instant at least, the declaration was so exact, so exquisitely timed, that not a single elder among them dared so much as part his lips.
"From this day forward."
The Eldest Young Master's ice-cold gaze swept across the assembled company. It was only a glance, and yet to the elders it felt as though they had been cut by a blade of blue-honed steel.
"Remember this."
With those final words driven into the marrow of their minds, the Eldest Young Master swept out of the Grand Assembly Hall, his black coat flaring behind him.
"…Huuuh."
No one could say who first let out that long breath. But only after hearing it did the rest of them realize —
"…Haah."
"…Hmph."
— that they had all forgotten even to breathe. The sound of long-held breath escaping broke out here and there in a ragged chorus. Elders coated in the dust that had sifted down through the cracked ceiling finally began to shift from their places, coughing and clearing their throats, when —
"Now, now."
The first to recover his wits and take action was none other than Elder Ham, Deputy Head of the Eldest Young Master's faction.
"The Eldest Young Master has said…" He raised his voice for all to hear. "…that this evening, to celebrate the founding of our faction, there will be a banquet at Wongak-jeong. Let no one forget."
"Ohh…!"
At those words, color flooded back into the faces of the Eldest Young Master's faction elders, who until then had still been half-dazed.
"Is the Eldest Young Master finally opening Wongak-jeong?"
"We'll be free to tour that hidden realm of Wongak-jeong we've only ever heard about…!"
When they first founded the faction, they had steeled themselves for the mockery of fellow elders, for the pointing fingers and the whispers. But the Eldest Young Master's single sword stroke had made their founding not merely successful —
"I heard there's a hot spring of the highest grade inside Wongak-jeong. Is that true?"
— but a triumph beyond all expectation. The knowledge of it was only now settling into their bones.
"Heh heh. Well, we'll just have to confirm that for ourselves, won't we…!"
"Haha, indeed…!"
Would elders of the great Luoyang Sword House, men long accustomed to every luxury and indulgence, truly grow excited over something as ordinary as a banquet?
"Tonight we drink till our noses go crooked!"
"Naturally!"
No — they simply had no other way to give vent to the delayed, spine-tingling thrill of pure joy that had only just caught up with them. So they made a clamor of it.
Yes…
Their eyes, without meaning to, slid toward the entrance of the Grand Assembly Hall — the same doorway through which Eldest Young Master Yeon So-hyeon had just departed.
…That man.
My…
Our leader…!
Even allowing for how terrifying a name Second Young Master Yeon Ja-cheong's had been, the true head of his faction had never been the Second Young Master himself, but his mother — Lady Guyang, one of the mistresses of the Luoyang Sword House. And whatever surprise announcement Third Young Master Yeon Jeok-gwang might be preparing, the real leaders of his faction remained his greatest backer, Elder Namgung Hyeok-cheon, and those who had once formed the core of the Murim Alliance.
But we…
The head of the Eldest Young Master's faction was no one else. It was the Eldest Young Master himself. And with a single sword stroke, he had proven that he was the man most fit to stand at the apex of the Luoyang Sword House.
"Now then — today is a joyous day for the founding of our own faction," said Deputy Head Elder Ham, turning his gaze from his fellow faction members to the entire hall of elders. "But we are all family of the same Sword House. Should anyone come to offer their congratulations, we shall welcome them this evening with the courtesy due to kin!"
That invitation, too, would have been worse than silence if spoken before the Eldest Young Master had displayed the Supreme Family Head's sword. But now it was different.
"So," Elder Ham went on, flashing his gold teeth in a broad smile and spreading his hands, "don't trouble yourselves over it. Come with light hearts, and enjoy the banquet to the fullest!"
And before any reaction could form —
"Come, let's be off."
— the Eldest Young Master's faction elders poured out of the hall in a rush and were gone.
"Ha…!"
"Those bastards…!"
The elders of the Third Young Master's faction hostile to the Eldest Young Master shot to their feet, jabbing accusing fingers — but the Eldest Young Master's people had already emptied the hall.
Next to leave, without a word, were the elders of the Yeon bloodline. They did not even think to collect the corpse of the blood-kin elder who had been cut cleanly in two.
A procession of the dead, nothing less.
To think the once-mighty Yeon bloodline would be reduced to this in a single stroke…
With the dead-fish eyes of the utterly broken, their faces the color of corpses, they filed out of the hall one after another. No one moved to stop them.
And once they were all gone —
…Huh.
— the remaining elders found their tongues.
"…Remarkable."
"…One of the most memorable faction foundings of my life."
Someone slowly shook his head from side to side.
"…I'd heard the Eldest Young Master was concealing his martial arts."
"…To have broken through the wall at that age."
"Is it certain he broke through the wall?"
"We're not talking about some ordinary art. That was the Supreme Family Head's martial skill."
"A technique you cannot even begin to imitate without having broken through the wall."
"That means…"
Among elders who counted many former warriors among their number, the subject was inevitable.
"…Could the Supreme Family Head have transmitted it to him personally?"
"Heavens. If that's the case…"
And the murmuring that began in pockets of the hall spread like fire across a dry autumn field, until it filled the entire Grand Assembly Hall.
"…What do the elders of our faction intend to do?"
"Whatever do you mean…?"
"Don't play coy. I'm talking about this evening's banquet at Wongak-jeong."
"Mmm…"
The elders who had been reading one another's faces found the atmosphere not entirely unfavorable, and began to edge their true thoughts into the open.
"It does feel a little… awkward."
"It's not as though anyone is asking us to join the faction, is it?"
"We're only offering congratulations."
"Well…"
"I've always wondered just how beautiful it must be, for Wongak-jeong's name to be so famous. I'm curious about the interior, too…"
Something in the hall's mood was beginning to turn strange, and the elders of the Third Young Master's faction showed open dismay.
"Surely not! Don't tell me —!"
A hot-tempered middle-aged elder of the Third Young Master's faction raised his voice toward the murmuring assembly.
"Surely none among you would be so taken in by that nonsense as to go sniffing around Wongak-jeong this evening?!"
"Think carefully!"
Another of the Third Young Master's elders cut in to support him.
"The Eldest Young Master is already this arrogant — what happens if his influence grows any larger here?!"
They strained their throats, veins standing out, desperate to reverse the shifting mood.
"Even now, the force the Eldest Young Master has secured is a mere three-tenths!"
"If the rest of us stand firm together, we are seven-tenths!"
"Whatever the Eldest Young Master wants in this Elder Council Hall from now on — we can overwhelm him!"
But the response those words actually drew from the elders was lukewarm at best.
"Come now. It's not as though we said we'd join his faction…"
"I only thought it might be proper to go and offer a word of congratulations."
The glances that accompanied those muttered replies were far from friendly.
"When a new faction is founded, offering congratulations is something of a custom, after all…"
"Even so —"
"Aren't you overreacting a little?"
At that, the middle-aged elders of the Third Young Master's faction who had been trying so hard to turn the tide bristled.
"What…?!"
"So now — after the Eldest Young Master walks in here with muddy boots, turns this place into a wreck, and humiliates us all —"
"— you're going to go and congratulate him as well?!"
"Have you all taken leave of your senses?!"
Bang!
A middle-aged elder of the Third Young Master's faction slammed his palm down on the table.
"Where did you all sell off your pride?!"
He lifted the hand that had struck the table and pointed through the cleft left by the Eldest Young Master's sword stroke, toward the outside world visible beyond.
"What do you think they'll be saying out there, looking at our Elder Council Hall?!"
Crowds had already gathered for reasons no one could name. The Elder Council Hall's defeat, made starkly visible even from a distance by that single sword stroke of the Eldest Young Master's, would spread as rumor in every direction — that much was certain.
"Are we going to let them call us beaten dogs wagging our tails for the Eldest Young Master now?!"
Once the language had grown that crude and that naked —
"Now see here…! You —!"
"That's going too far, isn't it?!"
— even the elders who had been silently watching the situation surged to their feet.
"It was the Third Young Master's side running wild that made this whole affair so much larger in the first place!"
"And why are you quietly trying to count us as one of your own?!"
"Do you think that just because the Eldest Young Master bloodied our noses, we'll go scampering off to the Third Young Master?!"
"Have you forgotten that we have been neutral on the question of the main house's succession from the very beginning?!"
The backlash was far fiercer than they had anticipated.
"N-no, that isn't what we —!"
"We only meant —!"
The middle-aged elders of the Third Young Master's faction faltered. The Eldest Young Master's brazen, public provocation that morning had made them seem as tightly bound as a single body — but as their own words had just revealed, they had never been one to begin with.
"What do you mean, 'that isn't'?!"
"A succession faction that couldn't even properly check the Eldest Young Master, that let things go this far — and now you —!"
From within the hall that was collapsing into chaos, a weighty voice cut through.
"Such rash words."
Those who had been heatedly casting blame at the Third Young Master's side closed their mouths one by one.
"On behalf of our Third Young Master's faction, this old man offers his apology to all of you, fellow elders."
The owner of that apologetic voice was none other than the second-in-command of the Third Young Master's faction — a man who had once been Vice Leader of the Murim Alliance.
"…Ahem."
"Hmph, hmph."
When a man of such heavy authority apologized so frankly, even the elders who had worked themselves into a passion had no further desire to waste their strength on the situation.
"…Then, taking that apology as accepted, we shall take our leave first."
At his word, the remaining elders of the Third Young Master's faction rose in a body.
"Of course," the old master of the previous generation went on in a mild, even voice, "our Third Young Master's faction also once received congratulations according to custom when we ourselves were founded. Therefore we shall not point fingers at any elder who chooses to attend the Eldest Young Master's founding banquet. However…"
He spoke as though truly concerned for the others, his tone a quiet warning.
"Even if we do not point fingers among ourselves — how those outside will see it is another matter."
His narrowed eyes swept the hall as he finished.
"I believe you, fellow elders, understand that better than anyone."
With that, he led his faction's members from the hall.
And as he went, those same narrowed eyes of the old master lingered one last time on the scar Eldest Young Master Yeon So-hyeon had left behind. No one noticed.
For a moment the Grand Assembly Hall sank into silence. Then —
"…Ahem."
"I believe I shall take my leave as well."
"Then let's go find a late lunch together."
"You've all worked hard."
— it filled again with the noise of elders rising and departing in a disorderly rush, each of them leaving as they pleased.
"…Head of the Council."
Elder Hwangmok, who had been charged with conducting the session, watched the departing elders' backs and put a question to the Head of the Elder Council, who had said nothing for some time.
"How many of them do you think will attend the Eldest Young Master's banquet?"
But no answer came. The Head of the Elder Council, as though under some spell, could not tear his eyes from the scar Yeon So-hyeon had left.
"Head of the Council?"
Only then did he come back to himself and reply to Elder Hwangmok.
"…How many of them will attend — that, we shall have to wait and see. But."
He sank to one knee and carefully — with a reverence that bordered on the sacred — laid his hand upon the mark left by the Eldest Young Master's quake-foot technique.
"From that moment just now," he said, "there is no doubt that a new order is being raised within our House."