An Old Debt
"You've made even greater preparations here?!"
"Remarkable, Eldest Young Master...!"
Unlike the generals, whose minds were relatively simple affairs—
"……."
—Moyong Ho could not make sense of the situation unfolding before him.
He prepared in advance, in case something like this might happen?
What, exactly, was that supposed to mean?
From what I've heard, even the grain stockpiling through Daseonrang was arranged months ago, wasn't it?
Months ago.
That was before the epithet of the Terror King had even properly taken root in the North. And it was a time when the Eldest Young Master, only recently emerged from his long seclusion, had been locked in a fierce struggle with the Second Young Master, who had spent years building his own power base within the Luoyang Sword House.
And in the middle of all that... he was fretting over the food situation in northern lands he might or might not ever need?
The generals, dull when it came to money, might simply think, Well, he's the Eldest Young Master of the Luoyang Sword House—he must have had the coin to buy up grain.
But Moyong Ho was not so simple.
At that point, how in the world did the Eldest Young Master raise such an enormous sum?
The woman named An Song-gyeong—
"You've prepared yet another measure, then?"
—only laughed with hearty good humor and clapped as though sharing everything with the room.
"As expected of the Eldest Young Master!"
She put on a show of being open and free-spirited—but in truth, she had not so much as mentioned a single detail that might prove sensitive.
Where did the funds come from? How will all that grain be moved, and by whom? What, exactly, is the plan?
Daseonrang are clearly gifted merchants, but...
They were, at best, a house expanding out of Sichuan.
There's no way people like that could handle large-scale transport south of the Great Wall on their own.
Which meant—
Moyong Ho's trembling gaze turned toward the Eldest Young Master of the Yeon family, Yeon So-hyeon, seated in the place of honor as their new commander.
Does the Eldest Young Master still command some vast organization that has never been revealed to the outside world—and Daseonrang is working with them?
Did his elder sister know something?
Moyong Ho slid a sidelong glance at Moyong Un-jeong.
"……."
Her usual blank face. The same unreadable expression that never quite let you know what she was thinking, or whether she felt anything at all—utterly impassive.
"……."
But if you looked closely, you could see her nose twitching ever so slightly.
...She's just plain thrilled to death.
Having seen straight through a mood no one else could easily read, he quietly swallowed a sigh.
...Fine.
What was there to overthink?
If our new ally-commander is outstandingly capable, then a good thing is a good thing.
"Admit them."
At the Eldest Young Master's command, the doors opened.
At this point, is there anything left that could still surprise me?
So Moyong Ho thought—until he saw who stepped through.
"It is an honor to meet you at last, Eldest Young Master of the Luoyang Sword House."
Confirming the man who had revealed himself, Moyong Ho—
"……!"
—could only feel the corners of his eyes twitch as though a spasm had seized them.
"The next head of the Kwak family?"
"Isn't that General Kwak...?"
Escorted by a line of heavily armored troops, the man who appeared was the one they called General Kwak—the next family head of the Kwak clan.
"……."
He was by no means a stranger to the senior officers of the Northern Grand General's Headquarters. Far from it. If anything, they knew one another all too well—and that was precisely the problem.
"What business do you have, coming here of all places?!"
"You sat safe in the rear and never even sent the Grand General's Headquarters a scrap of aid—what do you want here?!"
"You held all that grain from the Great Plains and wouldn't so much as listen to our requests!"
The generals of the Grand General's Headquarters surged to their feet, grinding their teeth so hard the chairs went tumbling backward behind them.
"Safe in the rear?"
But General Kwak, thoroughly shielded by his mid-ranked armored troops, only snorted under his breath.
"Our Kwak family opened the Great Plains north of the Great Wall before any of you here ever did."
Within the military, the next head of the Kwak family held only the rank of general. The power of the Kwak house itself, however, lent him influence that far outstripped any rank.
"In the Northern War—who held those plains to the very end?"
He lifted a hand for all to see.
"Only our Kwak family remained. At the cost of countless lives of our own blood, we kept the Great Plains from the hands of those barbarians."
His gaze swept the room, sharp and cutting, as he put the question again.
"And where were all of you then—you proud generals of the Northern Grand General's Headquarters?"
"……."
"……."
The generals ground their teeth, yet found no answer. Seeing that, he let a low, mocking laugh fill the chamber.
"And now, when it suits you, you come bleating about 'safe rears' and demand we hand over military provisions?"
"As if you'd left the grain in our keeping."
"General Kwak! Watch your tongue!"
Unable to bear it any longer, Moyong Ho stepped forward and barked the rebuke.
"You too draw a stipend from the state as a general—yet you dare speak so freely before this company?!"
At those words, General Kwak's eyes flicked briefly toward Moyong Un-jeong—then he looked away as though he had seen nothing, and spoke.
"Eldest Young Master."
He clicked his tongue.
"This is a poor way to treat a guest. If this is the famous hospitality of the great Luoyang Sword House, I shall be disappointed."
Every gaze in the room turned to the Eldest Young Master.
"……."
"……."
He had said he had preparations in place. But the next head of the Kwak family was a very different creature from An Song-gyeong of Daseonrang.
And yet—
"I take it the Family Head is still in good health?"
The Eldest Young Master's wholly unexpected question leapt out into the silence, and puzzled looks deepened across every face in the chamber.
"...Of course. My father is well."
As he answered, General Kwak's face twisted.
"If Father were not still hale, I would have had no reason to come this far at all."
That the present Family Head, the elder of the Kwak house, had refused to retire even at his advanced age—leaving General Kwak, already deep into middle years, still unable to take the headship—was common knowledge in the North. To the officers of the Grand General's Headquarters, his reaction was nothing unusual.
What held their attention now was something else entirely.
"Oh? That is welcome news."
The relationship between that aged Family Head and the Eldest Young Master.
"...As if you didn't know."
General Kwak's eyes trembled with rage.
"Last spring, during the wall-repair project, you and Father meddled to your hearts' content and stripped me of my face—!"
He ground his teeth.
"And now you play at not knowing!"
"The wall-repair project?"
When the Eldest Young Master put on a face as though he had no idea what was meant, General Kwak flared up at once.
"The wall-repair project that the great hero of the Northern War—that Elder Yeom—walked off with!"
Just as he said. Last spring, when Elder Yeom had come seeking him at Wongak-jeong, the Eldest Young Master had, from his seat, put a little force behind things so that he might receive the old man's sword.
"Ah."
Only then did the Eldest Young Master pretend, with perfect calm, that the memory had returned.
"Now that you mention it... there was something of the sort."
Of course, it was impossible for Yeon So-hyeon to forget anything. This was pure theater, meant only to rake General Kwak's temper raw.
"Eldest Young Master!"
And how precisely it struck home. Veins stood out on General Kwak's face as it flushed a deep red.
"If you summoned me only to mock me like this, I will leave at once!"
"No, no. You mustn't do that."
Faced with a man who looked ready to storm out that very second, the Eldest Young Master gave a good-natured, easy laugh and continued.
"For at least the next three years, the Kwak family will supply the Grand General's Headquarters with the grain that comes from the Great Plains."
"...What?!"
The content of those words, so at odds with that genial smile, was more than enough to wrench General Kwak's mood completely out of joint.
"Just because His Majesty appointed you his proxy, do you think everything in this Central Kingdom is yours to command?!"
It was not only General Kwak who burned with fury. Even the Kwak family escort troops he had brought with him flushed and bristled.
"Our Kwak house cleared the Great Plains and held them alone! For that, we were granted independent rights over every grain harvested there!"
That was the greatest reason General Kwak could raise his voice so high before the Grand General's Headquarters.
"I owe neither the Luoyang Sword House nor you, Eldest Young Master, any debt whatsoever—so do not speak to me so freely!"
At that frost-edged cry, even the generals let out low, uneasy sounds. But—
"You say you owe no debt?"
The Eldest Young Master still wore that same amiable face as he spoke.
"If not for this Yeon So-hyeon, the Kwak family would never have succeeded in opening the Great Plains at all."
What was that supposed to mean?
The room stirred.
"Did you hear that just now?"
"He says they opened the Great Plains thanks to the Eldest Young Master?"
"That's the first I've ever heard of such a thing..."
Moyong Ho ran the numbers hastily in his head and wore a look of pure disbelief.
No—the Kwak family's opening of the Great Plains was when the Eldest Young Master was still very young, wasn't it?
Whether the chamber muttered or not made no difference to him.
"General Kwak—you yourself cannot have been wholly ignorant of the circumstances at the time."
"……."
It was true.
Back when the Great Plains reclamation had run into obstacle after obstacle, his father had exchanged frequent letters with someone. And each time, the stalled work would suddenly flow as though a blocked channel had been cleared. From around then, a name that should have meant nothing to his father—the Eldest Young Master of the Luoyang Sword House—began to appear often on the old man's lips.
And so the half-formed suspicion that his father had succeeded in the reclamation only with the aid of a young Yeon So-hyeon had just hardened into naked fact.
"My father..."
General Kwak muttered as though the words were stuck in his throat.
"never explained your role with any precision to anyone—"
"That was because I had no wish to steal the lifelong labor the elder had poured into the work. We agreed it would be so."
The Eldest Young Master tapped the desk lightly.
"And so the elder kept the truth buried."
"……."
The Eldest Young Master clicked his tongue and spoke to General Kwak.
"The elder, whose movements are no longer easy, sent you in his place—and charged you, most solemnly, that you must accept this Yeon So-hyeon's request, and raise no obstruction. Did he not?"
"……."
Because it was true, General Kwak had nothing to say.
"Before you nursed resentment that your aged father would not yield the headship, you should have thought more deeply."
The Eldest Young Master's voice rolled through the room.
"Last spring, when the elder—long withdrawn from the front lines—accepted my request on the wall-repair project even at the cost of your face... did you feel nothing?"
"……."
And then—
"When the elder, upon receiving the letter I sent, dispatched you here at once... did you feel nothing but resentment?"
"……."
"Do you still not understand why the elder has never shared the secret with you—why he has never handed you the headship?"
"……."
Yeon So-hyeon's speech had shifted into the familiar, downward register. From the high seat, the weight of his gaze was heavy.
"You said you owed me no debt? No. Not so."
Yeon So-hyeon slowly wagged a finger.
"The clothes you wear. The seat you occupy. Everything your family now enjoys—"
His finger turned toward himself.
"—is a debt to me."
The Eldest Young Master bared his teeth.
"To Yeon So-hyeon."
"……."
"……."
In the silence where no one in the room dared so much as breathe loudly, General Kwak forced his mouth open.
"...You said three years?"
"I did."
At the Eldest Young Master's immediate answer, General Kwak drew a line.
"With that, the Kwak family will owe you, Eldest Young Master, no further debt."
So saying, he turned to leave—only for the Eldest Young Master's words to catch his steps.
"No, no. Not quite."
"Accounts must be settled precisely, must they not?"
General Kwak turned back.
"...What do you mean?"
As he looked, the Eldest Young Master spoke without a trace of a smile left on his face.
"The eldest son of the house stood before me in such arrogant insolence—and still gets to walk out on his own two legs unharmed..."
"……!"
A killing intent like freezing ice poured from the Eldest Young Master.
"If anything, one would have to say the Kwak family's debt has grown by one."