Half a Day
“Rather, one might say the Gwak family now owes us another debt.”
When the Eldest Young Master’s words ended, no one could open their mouth.
“…….”
“…….”
The sun that had lain long across the prairie sank beyond the horizon, and night arrived. Darkness found the conference room that had been dyed red by the sunset.
“…….”
Ordinarily the soldiers would already have lit the lamps as the light failed, yet they stood frozen, unable to move either way.
“…….”
The chill that settled with the darkness resembled the north wind that howled across the prairie in midwinter, so that the cold sweat that had been trickling down seemed to freeze solid upon the skin.
“…Even so.”
After a long while, General Gwak finally spoke, his voice deeply hoarse.
“Isn’t this going too far, Young Master?”
At those words the Eldest Young Master’s eyes twitched. When those deep eyes narrowed, even the generals present swallowed hard.
“If I have been rude, I apologize. However…”
Unable to endure the pressure, General Gwak continued as if offering excuses.
“I am the next head of the Gwak family, and at the same time a general of this Jungwon Kingdom.”
As he spoke, his previously choked voice recovered a measure of confidence.
“For you to threaten me by saying you ‘let me walk out on my own feet’—”
“Yes. That is so.”
The Eldest Young Master’s low voice cut him off as if there were nothing further worth hearing.
“Your family is a family of Jungwon Kingdom, and you are a general of Jungwon Kingdom.”
Beneath those narrowed eyes his gaze flashed like sparks.
“Knowing that so well, you used old grievances as an excuse to refuse supplying military provisions to the front lines?”
“Th-that is—”
He tried to cobble together an excuse, but the Eldest Young Master gave him no time.
“Have you been enjoying yourself?”
“What do you mean by—”
Looking down from the seat of honor, the Eldest Young Master tilted his head slightly.
“Well, of course you enjoyed it. Of course it was fun.”
He asked as if piercing through General Gwak with his gaze alone.
“In a crisis of this magnitude you stubbornly refused the grain supply and strutted about as if you yourself were the Grand General.”
The Eldest Young Master raised a pale finger and pointed at him.
“Because you knew full well that the Grand General’s Office, fearing you might join hands with Prince Gong, could not do a thing to you.”
“…….”
At those words the generals’ long-simmering rage reignited; they glared at General Gwak with burning eyes.
“Perhaps if the situation worsened you planned to take that stockpiled grain and install Prince Gong as the new Northern Grand General?”
“…What utter nonsense?!”
Even Moyong Un-jeong, who had sat without the slightest stir, felt her rough hand twitch as if she might draw the general’s sword at her side.
“Even as the people you must protect grow exhausted from hunger, even as the strength drains from the spear-hands of the soldiers you must lead, you felt nothing, did you? You could not feel a single thing, could you?”
General Gwak felt as if the Eldest Young Master’s finger, his voice—
“You filthy bastard.”
—were piercing straight through his heart.
“I’ve cleaned up your kind in Luoyang until I was sick of it.”
The fingertip that had pointed at General Gwak moved to indicate the conference-room door.
“Don’t forget. Three years. And…”
“Get out.”
It was like the sound of molten iron boiling in a cauldron in the depths of hell. Far from offering any rebuttal—
“……!”
—General Gwak fled as if escaping, bolting through the door the Eldest Young Master indicated. He was in such haste that before the soldiers at the entrance could open it he flung the door wide himself and dashed out.
“Oof!”
He even collided with those waiting outside and tumbled once across the floor.
“W-we’re withdrawing…!”
A beat late, his guards, faces deathly pale, chased after him out of the conference room.
“…….”
“…….”
Even though the troublesome General Gwak had been thoroughly rebuked and driven out so satisfyingly, no one in the conference room, crushed beneath the Eldest Young Master’s presence, dared make the slightest sound.
Then—
“…Not only did the Eldest Young Master spare his life,”
The one who broke the ice was Moyong Un-jeong, Acting Commander of the Northern Army.
“but he even offered words of virtue. One could say the debt is not one, but two.”
“Indeed.”
Her rare jest, and the faint smile the Eldest Young Master offered in return, allowed the generals to relax their shoulders and let laughter escape.
“Exactly! That’s right!”
“Since he bestowed a teaching worth a thousand gold, one might even call it three!”
Sensing the atmosphere lighten a little, Moyong Ho quickly nodded. The waiting soldiers began lighting the oil lamps. As the lights in the conference room came on one by one, those without internal energy—who had been fully exposed to the crushing pressure—could finally breathe sighs of relief inwardly.
“However.”
Sensing the mood had eased, Moyong Un-jeong spoke again in a low voice.
“I am concerned whether General Gwak will properly keep his promise.”
“Indeed, Young Master.”
One general nodded in agreement.
“If Elder Gwak, the family head, continues to hold the line as he has, General Gwak won’t be able to pull any foolish stunts, but…”
He trailed off. Discussing what would follow the Gwak family head’s death was something one had to approach with care in the presence of the Eldest Young Master, who was known to be on friendly terms with the old man.
“That is nothing to worry about.”
Taking a note, the Eldest Young Master flicked his hand toward the entrance. Soldiers hastily opened the door.
“I pay my respects to the Eldest Young Master of the Luoyang Sword Clan, proxy of His Majesty the Emperor!”
A man who appeared to be a high-ranking local official entered and respectfully greeted him. He was none other than the man who had been waiting outside and had just collided with General Gwak.
“You are…”
One general who recognized his face spoke.
“Aren’t you an official from the Governor’s Office of the region where the Gwak family resides?”
“That is correct.”
The elderly high-ranking official, his beard braided in the northern style, smiled amicably.
“I have come as the Governor’s proxy to deliver a message to the Eldest Young Master.”
“A message from the Governor…?”
Unlike the Huabei region where Luoyang lay, most of the northern territories were autonomous domains. Thus the highest authority in such domains was not a prefect, but a governor.
“His Excellency the Governor said that regarding what the Eldest Young Master requested… ah…”
Not wishing to err in the message, he drew a document from his robes and carefully checked it as he continued.
“He will strictly supervise the process by which the Gwak family harvests grain and delivers it to the Grand General’s Office, and will not tolerate even a single grain of corruption.”
At those words the generals’ eyes widened like lanterns.
“……!”
“……!”
The Eldest Young Master, peerless in thoroughness, had already made his moves with the Governor’s Office as well.
“And furthermore, His Excellency the Governor said that…”
The official put the document away as he continued.
“All grain transport processes will be handled directly by the Governor’s Office. Even if any unforeseen incidents occur along the way, they will take full responsibility.”
Those present could not help but exclaim in admiration.
“The Governor’s Office will handle the transport directly and take responsibility as well?”
“Hoo…! The Governor has made a bold decision.”
This was the North, teeming with all manner of large bandit gangs that roamed the prairie. Moreover, those without roots even targeted armed caravans carrying tax tribute to the Emperor. For the Governor’s Office to involve itself directly in every stage of grain transport in such a land was a generosity beyond imagination.
“…Is it a loyalty contest?”
Whispers rose among the generals as they tried to grasp the situation.
“After all, the grain itself—the core of it—belongs to the Gwak family, doesn’t it?”
“In that case the Governor can prove his loyalty to the Eldest Young Master simply by intervening in the middle, at little cost…”
“A profitable venture, one might say.”
“Indeed. He’ll also gain the upper hand in the daily squabbles with General Gwak…”
However, Moyong Ho’s thoughts as he listened differed slightly from the generals’.
In a situation where Prince Gong might become the new Northern Grand General, he’s lining up so quickly with the Eldest Young Master who arrived only today?
It was an excessively bold gamble, no two ways about it.
…But that man isn’t the type to make such gambles?
As a direct blood descendant of the Moyong Family, Moyong Ho was fairly well-versed in northern political affairs, yet—
“The Governor has shown great kindness. Tell him that I, Yeon So-hyeon, will not forget this favor.”
“Not at all, not at all! Through the Eldest Young Master, proxy of His Majesty the Emperor, we can prove the loyalty of the Governor’s Office like this. That alone is a myriad blessings!”
The Governor’s beloved concubine and the Eldest Young Master Yeon So-hyeon had been acquainted since the past. And further: starting with the fortress-wall repair project last spring, transactions had begun between the Governor and the Eldest Young Master.
Just what in the world is going on…?
There was no way Moyong Ho could know.
“In return, the Eldest Young Master also…”
When the official deliberately trailed off,
“Do not worry.”
The Eldest Young Master smiled.
“The promise will be kept. Convey that to the Governor as well.”
“Yes! Of course!”
After the official exited with blessings,
“With this,”
the Eldest Young Master addressed those present,
“it seems the grain issue has been resolved, both in the short term and the long term.”
It had been exactly half a day since the Eldest Young Master’s arrival.
Slap—!
In the deepest part of the Gwak family residence, at the sound coming from the family head’s study, the servants passing by startled and scattered.
“You utterly foolish brat…!”
Slap—!
When the white-haired old man slapped his cheek once more with the back of his hand, one side of General Gwak’s face flushed bright red. Yet the one who tired first and sank back into the chair was the old man. Elder Gwak, head of the Gwak family, could only resent his aged body.
“Still. Seeing you take the beating without a word, it seems you’ve at least realized what you did wrong.”
Given his father’s temperament, it would not have been strange if the old man had come out to the main gate and struck him in front of everyone.
“…It is certainly my fault for damaging the family’s honor. However—”
“However?”
General Gwak had not erased the dissatisfied look from his eyes.
“That Young Master fellow was an arrogant, insolent bastard who did not know the fear of Heaven.”
“You brat, even so…”
To his father, who wore an expression of sheer exasperation, General Gwak asked,
“I know the Luoyang Sword Clan is a great family. But in a special situation like this, do we of the Gwak family really need to bow our heads so completely?”
The “special situation” he spoke of referred to the fact that the Gwak family could at any time support Prince Gong with grain and help install him as the new Northern Grand General, thus holding a great advantage.
“Perhaps this could even be an opportunity for our Gwak family to rise in the northern lands to a level no less than the Moyong Family—”
“—You.”
Cutting him off mercilessly, the head of the Gwak family asked,
“Even after experiencing it yourself, you still don’t understand?”
“…Understand what?”
“How terrifying the Eldest Young Master is! That even after experiencing it yourself, you still don’t get it!”
A faint emotion of fear rose in General Gwak’s eyes, but soon his rebellious nature raised its head.
“…I understand that the Eldest Young Master is an impressive man. But this is northern land. No matter how high the Eldest Young Master flies or crawls—”
Once again his words were cut off.
“There is information that the Eldest Young Master has moved the Governor.”
“……!”
“Without a doubt, he means to check our family through the Governor’s Office.”
Before General Gwak could even recover from his shock, the Gwak family head continued.
“On your way home, did you not notice anything strange?”
“…Nothing in particular.”
“Dull-witted fool.”
The old man clicked his tongue.
“There were martial artists tailing you all the way to our family.”
“……!”
The old man’s voice lowered further.
“Those men are certainly the Eldest Young Master’s people.”
“Why on earth…?”
“To watch whether you, in your anger, would secretly contact Prince Gong.”
“……!”
Color drained completely from the face of General Gwak, who had not been entirely without such thoughts.
“From now on, whether the sun rises or the moon rises, keep firmly in mind that someone will be watching your every move.”
Looking at his son who swallowed dryly, the old man impressed it upon him once more.
“The Eldest Young Master is a terrifying man.”