Ghosts of Suspicion
"I am a revolutionary of the branch that resists Moyong Un-jeong's tyranny! I have come to aid you!"
The young warrior of the Moyong Family wore an expression of pure innocence — yet every hand only tightened harder around its sword hilt.
"……."
"……."
Not a single disciple of the Mount Hua Sect released their weapon. Not a single pair of eyes left his every movement unwatched.
"A rebel of the Moyong Family, you say…?"
The Fully Blooming Sword Phoenix, Mae Ok — deputy leader of the Mount Hua Vanguard — toyed with the grip of her blade as she asked.
"We are not rebels. We are revolutionaries!"
Even under a pressure as sharp as a drawn treasure-sword, a steely resolve burned in him that this one word, at least, must be corrected.
"We have given everything to overthrow Moyong Un-jeong — the very culprit who reduced our house, the Moyong Family, to this — and to usher in a new age of Moyong!"
He struck his chest with his fist.
"We are the true revolutionary fighters of the Moyong Family!"
That gaze, so brimming with conviction, nearly drew a snort of laughter from Deputy Leader Mae Ok.
Joining hands with foreign powers to shake one's own clan from its roots — and calling that the opening of a new age?
To raise a banner of revolt, drunk on hollow agitation and a warped creed… Just how far into the abyss has the Moyong Family fallen?
Reports that the family's internal situation had already twisted beyond recognition had long since reached her. Seeing it in the flesh, however, was another matter entirely.
"I apologize for that part."
She offered the apology with not a shred of actual remorse.
"That apology…"
He frowned at the hollow gesture, yet with no other choice left to him, he could only nod.
"I will accept it for n—"
"Of course — before that."
Deputy Leader Mae Ok cut the young warrior off as cleanly as a blade.
"You will have to prove that you are a rebel. No — a revolutionary."
"P-prove…?"
Confusion flooded his face. What? Mae Ok's brow twitched. He is truly rattled by a question this basic…?
"Th-that is…"
Cold sweat beaded on the young warrior's forehead as he stammered.
"I-I only… When I heard that the Mount Hua Sect who had come to aid us had been isolated by the Sword Clan Eldest Young Master's schemes, I sought you out, that is all…"
Words so guileless they bordered on idiocy. …The chance that this is an enemy ploy is low.
And yet—
"I need hear no more."
Deputy Leader Mae Ok spoke flatly.
"Kill him."
A low likelihood of treachery was not the same as a reason to trust him.
The chilling scrape of blades leaving their scabbards rose from every direction, and the color drained from his face.
"W-wait…!"
He cried out with the desperation of a man about to die.
"I know today's countersign — the one shared by the Duke, by the Sword Clan's Third Young Master, and by the revolutionaries alike…!"
Footsteps. One measured step closed the distance until he stood inside Mae Ok's striking range.
"And what is that countersign?"
"Cart! 'Cart' and 'Lightning'!"
A senior disciple narrowed his eyes.
[For the record — the countersigns are indeed Cart and Lightning.]
Originally, there had been no point of contact whatsoever between the Mount Hua Vanguard and the Moyong rebels. But when Sama Dae-gunsa dispatched them as reinforcements, he had provided that countersign for friend-or-foe identification.
"……."
Deputy Leader Mae Ok inclined her head, and the disciples sheathed their swords as one.
Watching them, the young warrior exhaled a long breath of relief and turned to her.
"Do you trust me now?"
"Answer one last question."
Mae Ok's voice was cool.
"How did you find us?"
In that instant, gunfire cracked from outside. The disciples dropped into low stances on pure reflex.
[The shots are closer than before!]
[The enemy is closing in!]
The young warrior, ashen once more, pressed himself flat and hissed urgently.
"Th-this place is too dangerous — we should move first…! My comrades have already secured an escape route outside. I will tell you everything as we go…!"
Shenyang, the back alleys.
Those who had slipped from the building were running hard.
"…You had our position from the beginning?"
Startled, the senior disciple asked aloud before he could even think to use a sound transmission.
[That is so.]
Guiding them through Shenyang's tangled, lightless back streets, the young warrior nodded.
[Shenyang is Moyong territory. How could we not know?]
He lifted a finger toward one of the buildings. At the gesture, a window that had been cracked open by the barest margin snapped shut in haste.
"……!"
[Citizens of Shenyang who cooperate with us are planted everywhere. Warriors as conspicuous as you lot were never going to go unnoticed.]
Deputy Leader Mae Ok cut in.
[Then the Eldest Young Master's side could have our position as well?]
[Most likely.]
Her brow furrowed.
[Then why have they not simply overrun us at once…?]
A rebel warrior who claimed to be a comrade of the young man answered in his place.
[From what we have seen, the Eldest Young Master's faction is extremely reluctant to take casualties.]
That much, she had already sensed.
[Knowing our rough location is one thing. If they tore house to house in a panicked sweep and the fighting dissolved into a free-for-all, their losses would be catastrophic.]
Turned the other way, the meaning was plain. …So the enemy meant to close the noose slowly — but with absolute certainty — and annihilate us.
Had they still been sitting in that empty house, they would already be completely surrounded.
A chill crawled down Mae Ok's nape as she put the question to the rebel warriors.
[So. Where exactly are we going?]
The young warrior answered.
[There is a fortified secret stronghold. My comrades and I were already bound for it.]
"Cart…?"
"Lightning…!"
The entry procedures proved simpler than expected.
"Reinforcements have arrived from the Mount Hua Sect…!"
They were the support the rebels — living through a nightmare of a day — had longed for with every breath.
"Reinforcements!"
"Mount Hua… Heaven and earth, we thank you…!"
Proof that they were of Mount Hua required nothing more than Deputy Leader Mae Ok raising a flare of violet qi.
While the rebels welcomed them with fervent joy, the members of the Mount Hua Vanguard stood with eyes gone round.
"…I never imagined there would be an underground space this vast."
"Impressive, is it not?"
The young warrior who had guided them there smiled with unmistakable pride.
"From above, it looks like nothing but a jumble of buildings thrown up at random. In truth, the cellars are all one connected space."
The place had originally been a kind of secret refuge — one of the lingering remnants of the Northern War.
[…They said it was fortified. I thought it was bluster. There was no exaggeration at all.]
A layout labyrinthine from the very entrance. Watch posts set at every critical junction. At each post, repeating crossbows and dedicated marksmen. And the corridors they had already passed through kept descending, level after level — restricting the sight lines of anyone approaching from outside while giving those within the first and best view of any threat.
The senior disciple looked around, faintly appalled, and sent a sound transmission.
[The caliber of these warriors is high as well. To force this place from the front, one would have to accept catastrophic bloodshed.]
Deputy Leader Mae Ok inclined her head in agreement.
[…However politically fractured the Moyong Family may be right now, the war experience they have accumulated over their long history is the real thing.]
She quietly revised upward her appraisal of the present Moyong Family, which she had been underestimating.
"Reinforcements from Mount Hua, you say?!"
As they pressed deeper, a massive old man burst into view, his face bright with welcome.
"Well met! Well met indeed! I am Moyong Gu-cheok, an elder of the Moyong Family!"
A long-bearded elder in full armor. One of the information specialists among the disciples studied him with respectful care and sent a transmission.
[…His features match those of Moyong Gu-cheok, known as a pro–Wulin Alliance elder.]
Mount Hua's intelligence network, of course, had already gathered profiles on every major figure of the great houses.
"It is an honor, Elder Moyong Gu-cheok."
With a brief nod to her disciple, Deputy Leader Mae Ok clasped her hands in formal greeting.
"I am a disciple of Mount Hua's Sect Leader, and the deputy commander of this vanguard—"
"Nonsense! No introduction needed!"
All hearty warmth. Moyong Gu-cheok waved a hand with a booming laugh.
"How could I fail to recognize Mount Hua's renowned heroine — the Fully Blooming Sword Phoenix herself?"
"…I see."
Just as she had confirmed his identity through intelligence, he was making a point of showing that he had already confirmed hers.
"Haha! Far more important — let me introduce someone who has been desperate to see you!"
"Pardon?"
In an underground rebel fortress whose very existence she had not known until minutes ago, someone who wanted to meet her? She frowned in open puzzlement.
"Me…?"
Then the door slammed open, and the figure who came hurtling through resolved every question at once.
"Junior Sister! You made it!"
"Senior Brother…!"
It was Gam Woo-hyeon — the Sect Leader's senior disciple who had been scattered to the opposite side of the city by the explosion.
The reunited martial siblings spoke in low voices.
"The numbers you managed to gather on your side…?"
"…Not many."
Vanguard Leader Gam Woo-hyeon wrapped both hands around a warm teacup and ground his teeth.
"Damn it. Just the disciples who took the blast head-on and were obliterated — more than ten."
Mae Ok ran the count in her head. Even combining every Mount Hua fighter present here, they did not amount to half their original strength.
"Then the rest…"
"Are being hunted outside right now. Or have already been hunted down."
"……."
The hand that held Mae Ok's cup trembled hard. She forced herself toward composure and opened her mouth.
"And the Wudang Sect's vanguard—"
The question died before it was finished. There was no need to hear the answer.
"Those bastards are no doubt still waiting outside Shenyang's walls."
Even seeing the chaos that had erupted inside the city, the Wudang vanguard would never enter. They were no fools — and they did not possess nearly enough honor to walk into a trap for Mount Hua's sake.
"Those dog-hearted bastards…"
Had she been in Wudang's position, she would almost certainly have made the same call — and still Mae Ok could not keep the curse behind her teeth.
"What is even more galling is Elder Moyong Gu-cheok's side."
Gam Woo-hyeon clicked his tongue.
"The man wants payment in exchange for protecting us."
"Ha…!"
While the martial siblings spoke, elsewhere — in one of the rebels' underground quarters —
"You are from another branch? How goes the situation outside?"
The young warrior who had arrived with Mount Hua, and the comrades who had come with him, were in conversation with the stronghold's rebels.
"…Our branch was annihilated."
At the young warrior's dark reply, the rebels clicked their tongues.
"That damned Eldest Young Master…"
"Eldest Young Master, nothing. That thing is a demon. A demon!"
Fury boiled over among them.
"Because that bastard joined hands with the witch Moyong Un-jeong, our Moyong Family is finished!"
"Until those two are dead, this house has no future!"
A gray-haired rebel clapped the young warrior on the shoulder.
"Do not worry."
His voice carried absolute certainty.
"This underground stronghold is impregnable. It cannot be taken by ordinary means. We can hold long enough for more reinforcements to arrive from outside."
The young warrior smiled as if reassured.
"So it is…?"
"Of course it is!"
The older rebel nodded firmly.
"Kill them all!"
"Revolution!"
Behind them, other rebels were whipping one another's morale higher.
"So you, too — never abandon your faith in the revolution, and—"
Thuk.
The rebel's words faltered.
"And…"
His hand groped at his own abdomen.
"You…?"
"Which is precisely why."
The young warrior who had driven a blade into his gut merely shrugged.
"If we are going to purge every last one of you filthy rebels, this was the only way."
By the time the others sensed something wrong and spun around, it was already far too late.
Pshhk! Pwahhk!
The comrades who had entered with the young warrior drew their swords as one and began cutting the rebels down without discrimination.
It did not take long for the floor of the quarters to become a thick, glistening sea of blood.
"Good."
The young warrior spoke softly.
"Command's prediction was correct — walk in with Mount Hua, and no one suspects a thing."
He and his comrades, who had been disguised as remnant rebels, were in truth members of the suicide corps led by Moyong Ho — younger brother of Moyong Un-jeong.
"Now. Begin the operation."
He and his fellows stripped off their Moyong Family martial robes.
Beneath them, the sleeves of pure white garments revealed themselves — and upon those sleeves, plum blossom motifs were embroidered with perfect clarity.
Uniforms of the Mount Hua Sect, procured for them by Hyeonwol Pavilion.
"From this moment on, we are disciples of Mount Hua."
A short while later, shouts charged with internal energy thundered through the underground stronghold.
"Mount Hua has betrayed us!"
"They are attacking us!"
And so the chaos began.