Capability
Just before Eldest Young Master Yeon So-hyeon and Moyong Un-jeong, Acting Commander of the Northern Army, arrived at the main estate of the Moyong Family.
The final approval stage of the operation.
"Eldest Young Master."
"…Yes?"
Moyong Un-jeong spoke.
"If we proceed according to your plan, Eldest Young Master, and eliminate first the leaders of the rebels—Moyong Wan of the pro-Prince Gong faction and Moyong Chusan of the pro-Murim Alliance faction—it would certainly yield great benefit, but…"
She carefully voiced her concern.
"Would those men simply offer up their necks so willingly?"
They were, without question, her own kin as well. Yet—
"Those men are rotten to the core, but they are capable enough to have shaken the Moyong Family in so short a time."
When Moyong Un-jeong spoke of them, she did so as though she never regarded them as family at all.
"Do you think they will fight to the death, Un-jeong?"
Familiarly.
At the way he spoke her name, Moyong Un-jeong flushed faintly and answered.
"…The worst situation we could face is for them to resist from within while enemy reinforcements arrive from without."
Yeon So-hyeon nodded readily, agreeing with her assessment.
"Indeed. That is so."
Rotten though they might be, this was still the Moyong Family.
The house of the Northern Great General.
If they banded tightly together from within to resist, holding out for a day or two would be no great feat.
"To the degree that the Moyong Family has failed to properly support the Northern Army Headquarters on the front lines—"
Moyong Un-jeong took up his words.
"—an enormous stockpile of war materiel has been stored at the Moyong Family. And the allied forces of the Third Young Master's New Martial Alliance are steadily advancing even now."
A prolonged war—no.
If even a few days were dragged out, the odds would tip heavily in their favor.
"Certainly, of course, every operation carries its accompanying risks, but…"
She voiced her opinion even more carefully.
"Perhaps reconsidering the plan once more…"
Yeon So-hyeon smiled faintly.
"There is no need."
"Eldest Young Master…"
"Un-jeong."
He raised a finger as he spoke.
"Moyong Wan and Moyong Chusan. I know those men well, and I have seen far too many of their kind."
Moyong Un-jeong did not miss the murderous intent that flickered across Yeon So-hyeon's face as he smiled, baring his teeth slightly.
"Those men…"
Yeon So-hyeon looked out the window.
"Even when the calculated odds of victory sufficiently favor them, if there is a hole through which they themselves can 'certainly' escape with their lives, they will choose flight through that hole over any life-staking gamble."
The Eldest Young Master was certain.
"There may be cases where those left behind choose to fight to the death. But they never will."
Did the Eldest Young Master know them personally?
Though she felt a sense of wonder at his strangely certain demeanor, Moyong Un-jeong did not show it.
For if it was the Yeon So-hyeon she knew—when the time came, he would reveal everything. That was what she believed.
"…If that is the case."
She predicted the situation that would follow.
"Then the next problem will be quelling the uproar and chaos raised by those left behind."
"Indeed."
Yeon So-hyeon nodded as he spoke.
"Certainly. Those bastards will stir up chaos and then escape, if only for their own safety."
"…Do you have a contingency?"
"A contingency?"
Yeon So-hyeon turned his head to look at her and smiled.
"Un-jeong. You yourself are my contingency."
Present.
The central plaza of the Moyong Family.
The place Moyong Un-jeong and the Great General's Guard had reached as they raced toward the Grand Council Hall was the geographical heart of the Moyong Family.
The central plaza.
"Fire! Fire!"
"Aaaagh—!"
Truly, a horrific scene of carnage.
The fires set by the rebels in every quarter had become a demonic blaze.
Everywhere across the vast Moyong Family estate, soaring flames and black smoke filled the air.
"Kill them!"
"Die!"
From every direction blood poured, the clash of weapons rang out, and death screams erupted.
"Kyaaaah!"
A carriage careening in blind panic ran down maidservants who had been wandering lost, then crashed into a high wall and shattered.
"Run!"
Warhorses that had escaped the stables fleeing the fire galloped in every direction.
"…It's over. This family is finished now."
Those who had feared stepping into the street only to be struck by a blind blade were hiding inside buildings, slowly smothering.
Even the rebels themselves could no longer distinguish friend from foe.
Even the midsummer sun had hidden itself behind the black smoke.
And then—
cutting through all that chaos and turmoil—
"Hear me!"
A single clear thread.
Moyong Un-jeong's voice rang out distinctly.
"Members of the Moyong Family, hear me!"
When she yanked hard on the reins—
Hiiiiihiiing!
Her massive warhorse reared up on its hind legs in place and let out a long cry.
Fire and civil war.
Cutting through that chaos and turmoil—
"It's the Acting Family Head!"
"Lady Moyong Un-jeong…!"
Filled with abundant inner energy and an irresistible force of presence, Moyong Un-jeong's voice reached every corner of the plaza.
"The innocent, cast down your weapons and take up water buckets!"
She shouted without hesitation.
"Those caught in the middle, do not be afraid—follow my orders and suppress the blaze!"
Of course.
The first to respond to her were—
"The root of ruin for this family!"
"The culprit Moyong Un-jeong is there!"
In a situation where even friend and foe could not be told apart—the rebels who had been cutting down everyone in sight.
"Execute Moyong Un-jeong!"
And what awaited those men was—
"Fire!"
With a deafening roar that seemed to tear the eardrums—
the long guns of the Great General's Guard, who had been waiting behind Moyong Un-jeong for the rebels to emerge, spat fire as one.
"Gyaaah!"
The rebels had their limbs torn away on the spot, their guts scattering from perforated abdomens.
In the thick smell of gunpowder they toppled and rolled in heaps.
"……!"
"……!"
What remained in the street now were only those caught up who had no thought of charging Moyong Un-jeong.
"Reload! Reload!"
Toward those who had dropped flat in shock at the gunfire, eyes wide as they stared at her—
"Rise!"
Even with bullets grazing past her, Moyong Un-jeong, who had not so much as blinked, shouted again.
"Members of the Moyong Family!"
The general's sword she raised high from horseback flashed amid the black smoke of the blaze and the white smoke of gunpowder.
At that chest-shaking cry—
it was not clear who moved first.
"Rise!"
But what was certain was this: the one who moved first was not the last to join.
"Don't be afraid—get up!"
One by one.
Those who had not known where to go found their direction.
"It is the Acting Family Head's command!"
Those who had not known what to do found their method.
And so the voices they raised began to echo from every direction like a chorus.
"The innocent, suppress the blaze!"
"Save the people!"
"Put out the fire!"
Soon they began to shout with one voice.
"The Moyong Family does not fall!"
The Moyong Family was the house of the Great General, and the servants and maids who had lived their entire lives under rigorous training—
"The Moyong Family does not fall!"
"It does not fall!"
—once a leader appeared, began to move as they had been trained.
"Those without guilt, cast down your weapons and take up water buckets!"
It soon became a current, and amid the chaos a single thread of order began to form.
"The vile traitor Moyong Un-jeong is that way!"
The rebels, lacking any proper chain of command, kept pouring out of every alley, but—
"Confirm weapon possession!"
Anyone who defied Moyong Un-jeong's orders ringing out from every direction and held a weapon instead of a water bucket was an enemy.
Distinguishing friend from foe was all too simple.
"Open free fire!"
Tatatatatang!
Centered on the central plaza.
Before the fire of the Great General's Guard, who had rapidly seized and held tactical strongpoints—the moment the rebels emerged from the alleys, they were swept away like autumn leaves in the wind.
"Captain of the Guard!"
At Moyong Un-jeong's booming voice—
the Guard Captain entrusted with command of the central plaza's defense answered at once with a hand signal.
"Leave it to me!"
Without another word—
"Hya!"
Moyong Un-jeong began her breakthrough inward through the central plaza together with twenty heavy cavalry.
"In the name of Moyong Un-jeong, Acting Commander of the Northern Army, I declare!"
The Guard Captain left behind with the defensive forces raised his inner power and shouted.
"Even now, cast down your weapons and surrender! Lay down your arms, take up water buckets, and save your family!"
"Kill her!"
The closer they drew to the Grand Council Hall—
"It's Moyong Un-jeong!"
—the rebels' resistance grew fiercer, and the mere twenty heavy cavalry led by Moyong Un-jeong could not help but slow.
"Guh…!"
When a soldier of the Great General's Guard struck by a stray arrow staggered and nearly fell from his horse—
Moyong Un-jeong snatched him up as she was and shouted.
"Do not stop for anything!"
Using the shift in her center of gravity as the heavily armored subordinate threatened to tip her, she drove her spear down into an enemy in that very direction and recovered her balance.
"Here…!"
The moment she took the short spear her wounded subordinate passed up from behind the horse, she hurled it, skewering an enemy, and spurred her warhorse on.
"Do not stop—ride!"
Even with the thick smoke on every side making it hard to see ahead, the warhorses frothing at the mouth, enemies pouring from every direction—the answer of the Great General's Guard was fixed.
"Loyalty!"
With a roaring battle cry, they tightened their formation with Moyong Un-jeong at the head, bunching into a single mass, and began to smash straight through the enemy lines.
"Uwaaagh!"
The head of a rebel charging with a howl was shattered and scattered by a bullet fired from a Guard's hand.
Those rammed head-on by the enormous weight of the warhorses went flying from the impact.
The Guard's long spears stretched out from the formation like ghosts and took heads—their martial arts were terrifyingly effective in this chaotic melee that was no different from a battlefield.
"I see it!"
A Guard who confirmed the massive blue-roofed hall through the black smoke shouted.
"The Grand Council Hall ahead!"
But at the same time another shouted.
"Martial artists spotted to the front!"
Men in light armor wearing white martial robes embroidered with the Moyong Family's crest.
Even from a distance their aura was no ordinary thing.
Confirming their identity, a Guard shouted.
"It's the Moyong Family's Sword Corps!"
The Grand Council Hall was as good as the heart of the Moyong Family.
An encounter with an armed force was an inevitable step, but—
"Great General! With our current strength, clashing with the Moyong Family's Sword Corps is too much!"
With the forces left behind at the central plaza to restore order absent, charging the Sword Corps with a mere twenty cavalry was madness.
"It does not matter!"
Moyong Un-jeong spurred her warhorse, drawing out every last ounce of strength as she shouted.
"We break through as we are!"
This time as well, the answer of the Great General's Guard was fixed.
"Loyalty!"
Even if the enemies before them were the Moyong Family's Sword Corps, skilled in anti-cavalry tactics, it did not matter.
"Uwaaa—!"
If their Great General rode, they rode.
If their Great General charged, they charged.
They were the Great General's Guard, and not one among them could fall on the battlefield later than their Great General.
"Uwaaaaaaah—!"
With battle cries that could not be told apart, drawing up every last shred of strength, they began to overtake Moyong Un-jeong.
"……!"
And then—just before they reached the front line of the Sword Corps, who held their swords ready as if loading for an anti-cavalry intercept—
"Ha."
Kurrung!
With a low snort of laughter, black lightning fell like a flash of light from the sky upon the Moyong Family's Sword Corps.
The unique martial art of Geomakpasan.
Kwadeuk.
The figure who crushed two martial artists upon striking the ground spun once in place and raised his index and middle fingers straight—that was precisely the Sword Formula Finger.
"Eldest Young Master!"
In that brief instant when Moyong Un-jeong's face brightened upon confirming his identity—
The core sword art of the Luoyang Sword Clan.
Secret Ultimate Technique — Extreme Enlightenment Chaos.
Merciless sword light swept through the Sword Corps.