Macroscopic Vision
Northeastern reaches of the Imperial Capital.
Near Sanhaegwan, the terminus of the Great Wall, lay a certain city.
As a vital trade hub linking the Central Plains Kingdom, the North, and the northern territories of Haedong by land, the city thronged without pause, crowds surging in and out in endless tides.
“This Korean ginseng is premium stock bound straight for the Imperial Capital. You want to trade something that precious for mere hides? Have you lost your mind?”
“You’re the one who’s lost it! Where do you get off saying this white tiger pelt is worth less than those stinking roots?!”
A merchant from Haedong and a trader from the Northern tribes bellowed at each other as if they might seize one another’s collars at any second.
“Setting foot in the Central Plains without proper customs clearance is—”
“Aigoo, my lords. As if I could ever forget the procedures?”
A Central Plains front-man hired by a foreign caravan to dodge the extra trade tariffs slapped a heavy purse into the hands of the corrupt officials.
“Here, here—I’ve packed the ‘procedures’ nice and full for you!”
“Ahem…!”
“Are you insulting our tribe right now?!”
“Duel! Right this instant!”
Swordplay erupted here and there as casually as street chatter. The din and chaos could have passed for a battlefield.
“…….”
“…….”
Through those streets strode a band of armed men, cloaked even in the heat of the season, radiating an unmistakably uncommon presence. Their eyes flashed as they cut across the throng, yet even that was not enough to draw special notice in this city.
[This way.]
The lead warrior spotted the prearranged signal and guided the party into a luxurious inn.
“Haaah…”
A dying groan escaped him. The moment they stepped inside, the senior strategist ripped off his cloak; sweat poured down his face in rivulets.
“You’ve worked hard, sir!”
“Here—cool tea for everyone! Please, drink!”
The senior strategist gulped down the chilled tea offered by the waiting attendants in a single draught.
“Keugh…!”
The escort captain watched with open disapproval as the man drank without so much as a basic check, then reported to the figure behind him.
[…The inn is thick with unusual auras. They don’t even seem to be trying to hide them.]
“No need to hide them, so they don’t.”
The raspy voice belonged to none other than Sama Dae-gunsa as he shed his own cloak. Age and heat should have left him more exhausted than anyone, yet his eyes alone burned with undimmed light.
“Request their cooperation and inspect security jointly.”
[As you command.]
The security officer left a skeleton guard and moved out.
“Grand Military Advisor.”
The senior strategist, fatigue plain on his face, spoke carefully.
“The time we lose stopping in this city is no small matter.”
“…And?”
When Sama Dae-gunsa’s gaze fell on him, he pressed the suggestion even more cautiously.
“Would it not have been better to hurry and join the Third Young Master even a single day sooner…?”
They had each seized the other’s ankle. As a result, neither the Eldest Young Master nor the Third Young Master could immediately mobilize the forces inside the Sword House.
“As you yourself said, our side currently holds the advantage in forces free to move outside. Reaching the North even a little sooner would—”
“—War,” Sama Dae-gunsa cut him off, wetting his throat with a sip of the tea the guards had already cleared, “is nothing like a local skirmish. The moment you lose the macroscopic view, even for an instant…”
He raised a gaunt hand and covered the senior strategist’s eyes.
“You will not even see defeat closing in around your throat.”
He withdrew the hand.
“……!”
Fully armed martial artists now ringed them front and rear, left and right—filling the senior strategist’s vision completely.
“…….”
The man swallowed dryly and asked Sama Dae-gunsa,
“…Just who, Grand Military Advisor, have you arranged to meet?”
“You need not know.”
At that moment, as if permission had been granted,
“The great man is waiting.”
One of the unidentifiable warriors pointed upward for Sama Dae-gunsa.
“…….”
The elegantly appointed chamber held not a single sound. The hellish chaos they had passed through outside now felt like a lie.
A massive desk stood at the center. The middle-aged man seated behind it did not spare Sama Dae-gunsa a word, eyes fixed only on his documents.
“…….”
“…….”
Sama Dae-gunsa made no sound either. He simply stood where he was and waited for the man to finish his business.
“…You’re late.”
That was the first thing the middle-aged man said.
Sama Dae-gunsa’s gaze flicked to the antique clock on the wall.
Barely a single ke—fifteen minutes.
Yet he bowed his head without protest and offered his regret.
“I offer my apologies.”
Even the clean apology left the middle-aged man’s mood strangely sour.
“Your family’s Second Young Master, Yeon Ja-cheong, was always in a hurry as well. In the end, he was late.”
Even if he was now under confinement, how many men in the Central Plains Kingdom could casually speak the name of the Second Young Master of the great Luoyang Sword House?
“He hid his ugly face behind a golden mask and strutted about as if he could do anything—until the Eldest Young Master, Yeon So-hyeon, crushed him utterly.”
As far as Sama Dae-gunsa knew, this middle-aged man was precisely the sort who could utter the names of the Luoyang Sword House young masters with such freedom.
“Will your Third Young Master prove any different?”
“Certainly…”
Sama Dae-gunsa nodded slowly.
“Building trust so suddenly is no easy matter. However…”
The sage-like old man allowed a refined smile to bare a flash of teeth.
“At the time, it was not only our Second Young Master who lost to the Eldest Young Master. You yourself suffered the same defeat, did you not?”
Sama Dae-gunsa looked the middle-aged man straight in the eye.
“Family Head of the Gongson Clan—one of the Sixteen Imperial Families.”
The Family Head of the Gongson Clan.
Adoptive son of Gongson Na-gang, the Old Devil who now followed Yeon So-hyeon and former head of the house. As the current Family Head, he wielded enormous influence inside the Imperial Household.
“…….”
Heavy eyes bored into Sama Dae-gunsa, yet the old strategist did not look away.
Perhaps the sight pleased him; at last the Family Head of the Gongson Clan eased the force in his gaze and spoke first.
“…Call me Taegam.”
Eunuchs of immense power—and he was the head of the organization that controlled every eunuch in the Imperial Household of the Central Plains Kingdom: the Director of the Directorate of Palace Eunuchs. The Saryetaegam.
“Yes, Lord Saryetaegam.”
The Taegam gestured.
“Sit there.”
The words had barely left his lips when a martial artist appeared soundlessly behind Sama Dae-gunsa, set down a chair, and vanished like a phantom.
“…I will remain standing.”
“As you wish.”
The office of Saryetaegam allowed no leisure. Without a scrap of small talk he flipped open a fresh document and drove straight to the point.
“If Yayul Nuju-cha—who styles himself king in the North—should win, he will replace the Moyong and become the new Northern Great General.”
Spoken by the head of the Directorate of Palace Eunuchs, this was no prediction or forecast of the form “the Imperial Household will have no choice but to decide thus.” It was confirmation. A settled matter.
“If our side aids the Yayul tribe’s victory…?”
The Taegam answered at once.
“The Third Young Master, Yeon Jeok-gwang, will become a meritorious subject of the Central Plains Kingdom.”
“And the other Family Heads of the Sixteen Imperial Families—”
“Unanimous. All have agreed.”
With that, the measures for a war free of aftershocks were clearly in place.
“My thanks.”
“No need for thanks at this late hour.”
The Taegam twisted his lips into a smile.
“We are well aware you have already formed an alliance with those barbarians.”
Sama Dae-gunsa merely shrugged with a placid face.
“The Sixteen Imperial Families themselves have been secretly supporting the Yayul tribe from the shadows for some time, have they not?”
Caught off-guard, the Taegam answered only with a snort while staring at his papers.
“More to the point…”
Sama Dae-gunsa turned the conversation and voiced the question that had never left him.
“Could you not have prevented the Eldest Young Master from being granted such authority in the first place?”
The Taegam’s hand paused mid-page.
“…….”
After a moment he answered without lifting his eyes from the document.
“…It was impossible.”
“You mean—”
“In the current political world of the Imperial Capital,” the Taegam cut off the speculation Sama Dae-gunsa had been about to offer, as though even that moment were a waste, “the Eldest Young Master’s influence has seeped far deeper than you imagine.”
“…….”
That deep, then.
Fresh furrows carved themselves into Sama Dae-gunsa’s already wrinkled brow.
“Starting with His Majesty the Emperor, and not even counting the Prime Minister Kang Sang, a great many high ministers have already taken Yeon So-hyeon’s hand for a quiet shake.”
The Second Young Master’s defeat had proven decisive. The Taegam clicked his tongue softly; the sound echoed in the chamber.
“And outside—those damned Old Devils are quietly sabotaging every affair across the Central Plains.”
In the end the Taegam flung the document he had not even been reading properly onto the desk.
“We believed the Eldest Young Master had drawn the Old Devils in merely to reinforce His Majesty’s allies inside the Capital. But—”
This time Sama Dae-gunsa interrupted him.
“From the very beginning the Eldest Young Master intended to shake the Sixteen Imperial Families from places far from the Capital.”
The Taegam nodded with a bitter expression.
“…I suspect he floated the ‘Yangtze Waterway Expansion and Maintenance Project’ precisely to drag us out of the Capital.”
The Yangtze lay distant from the Imperial Capital. While the Old Devils claimed to aid the Emperor and stirred up every region with the waterway project, the current Family Heads could no longer sit rooted in the Capital if they hoped to respond.
“…And in that opening the Eldest Young Master obtained His Majesty’s imperial edict.”
“Exactly.”
The Taegam nodded, then sank deeper into his chair and regarded Sama Dae-gunsa.
“And that Eldest Young Master arrived at the Northern Great General’s headquarters yesterday, I hear.”
“I have received the same report.”
The Taegam gave a low snort of laughter.
“Have you also heard he solved the food crisis in a single day?”
“…….”
When Sama Dae-gunsa offered no reply, a subordinate brought a report to the Taegam.
“…….”
Watching the Grand Military Advisor grind his teeth while reading, the Taegam said,
“Gongwang Yayul Nuju-cha meant to strangle his opponent’s breath and pursue a slow but certain victory. That strategy has already failed.”
He issued a warning.
“Whatever you intend to do, you would do well to move quickly.”
As Sama Dae-gunsa turned to leave, the Taegam’s voice followed him.
“Yeon Ja-cheong was always in a hurry, yet always later than his opponent, and so he failed. I hope you find a different ending.”
Northern Great General’s Headquarters.
“…….”
Dazed, Moyong Un-jeong sat before her meal tray, turned her head, and gazed out the window—until
“…It will all go cold.”
Yeon So-hyeon’s words brought her back. She put rice in her mouth, chewed a few times, then forgot even to chew and stared outside again.
“…….”
Throughout the camp—once better called a northern refugee village than a Great General’s headquarters—cook-fires rose in every quarter.
From the great tents housing entire tribal households to the tiny shelters that looked ready to collapse at any moment, not one failed to send up the fragrant smoke of cooking rice.
“----!”
“---!”
The black-faced children laughing and shrieking as they raced about the muddy yard outside made it all too easy to forget the food in one’s mouth.
“…It feels like a dream.”
At her words, spoken as though she wandered inside a dream herself, Yeon So-hyeon set down his chopsticks with a wry smile and rose.
“Are you glad?”
Watching him stand by the window, Moyong Un-jeong smiled.
“…I am glad.”
“Good.”
She too laid down her utensils, rose, and came to the window. Carefully she took a place neither too near nor too far from Yeon So-hyeon, and continued.
“With this, morale is more than sufficient. Even right now—”
“No. Not yet.”
She turned with a puzzled face; Yeon So-hyeon spoke.
“One cannot leave a source of trouble in the rear and then march to battle.”
Moyong Un-jeong’s eyes flew wide as if they might tear.
“You mean—”
“Depart at once!”
Sama Dae-gunsa vaulted into the carriage and shouted.
“The Eldest Young Master’s next target is the Moyong Family!”