The Assembly
Waaaaaah!
Shenyang shook with the roaring cheers of the government troops.
It was the cry of victory.
"We won!"
Children who understood nothing of what had happened came pouring out into the streets, racing about in every direction and screaming at the top of their lungs.
"We won!"
Even the common folk who had spent the night in anxious vigil breathed easy at last. They pressed water and food into the soldiers' hands, sharing in the joy of the moment.
"Take as much as you like!"
The more hot-blooded among them dragged the corpses of the Neutral Tribal Alliance mercenaries over and hung them from the eaves. If they were going to burn them anyway, why not have a proper exorcism first?
"Filthy bastards!"
"Never set foot in our Shenyang again!"
And through the midst of it all strode two men, heading straight for the command post with the full weight of the people's and soldiers' cheers upon their shoulders.
"Moyong Ho! Moyong Ho!"
"Tal-myeong-gwi-geom! Tal-myeong-gwi-geom!"
The heroes of the hour were Moyong Ho, younger brother of Moyong Un-jeong and the officer who had commanded the government troops, and Tal-myeong-gwi-geom, whose dazzling feats on the field had shone brightest of all.
"Moyong Ho! Moyong Ho!"
"Tal-myeong-gwi-geom! Tal-myeong-gwi-geom!"
The louder the two names rang out, the higher their shoulders rose and the loftier their noses became.
"Ahem…!"
"Hmph…!"
They lifted their chins and shoved at each other's shoulders, each trying to claim the lead by even a single step.
"Haha."
Tal-myeong-gwi-geom let out a booming laugh and struck a pose.
"If this Tal-myeong-gwi-geom hadn't been here, the government troops would have been cleaned out by the Neutral Tribal Alliance, and there would have been no victory today. Isn't that right?"
"Hoho."
Moyong Ho refused to be outdone. He laughed even louder and struck a matching pose of his own.
"Certainly, Elder Tal-myeong-gwi-geom accomplished great things. But they cannot compare to this Moyong Ho, who kept the troops under control and led the battle to victory."
They shoved so hard that veins stood out on both their foreheads.
"Hahaha."
"Hohoho."
Just then—
"What's so funny?"
A bright, clear voice rang out from behind them, and a cheer that utterly dwarfed the previous ones exploded through the crowd.
"Uwaaaaaah!"
Even Tal-myeong-gwi-geom and Moyong Ho, men who claimed second place to none when it came to sheer guts, flinched at the sheer volume of it.
"Yeon Seo-rin!"
"Cheonui Mubong!"
Tal-myeong-gwi-geom was famous enough, true—but he had been out of the game for a long stretch, and his renown was centered on the south of the Yangtze rather than these northern lands.
As for Moyong Ho, a mere military officer, there was no comparison at all.
But—
"Cheonui Mubong!"
"Cheonui Mubong!"
Cheonui Mubong Yeon Seo-rin was more famous among the younger generation of martial artists than even the dragons and phoenixes of the age, and her martial prowess stood at a level few could match.
The cheers that greeted her name defied imagination.
"Hahaha!"
She waved once to the crowd with the ease of long practice, then threw an arm around both men's shoulders and asked,
"What is it? What's so damn funny?"
They were tall men, both of them.
Yet when she—half a head taller still, with shoulders broader by a full head—slung her arms around them, they suddenly looked absurdly small.
"…Nothing at all."
"…Nothing, really."
Tal-myeong-gwi-geom shook his head with a sulky scowl; Moyong Ho simply sighed.
Whether it was the weight of Cheonui Mubong Yeon Seo-rin's arms or something else entirely, their steps grew noticeably heavier.
"You've all arrived."
A woman pushed aside the flap of the temporary command tent and greeted them.
Beneath the sunlight her Golden Eyes shone with uncommon brilliance. She was Jeong-a, chief maid of the Eldest Young Master.
"Uwaaaaaah!"
"Golden-Eyed Divine Maiden! Golden-Eyed Divine Maiden!"
Looks like a fairy from heaven, and the martial skill to have cut down the neck of the Hwasan Sect's famous Fully Blooming Sword Phoenix Mae Ok—someone must have spread the tale, for her name was already racing through every corner of Shenyang.
"Ahem."
Jeong-a quickly recovered from her brief fluster and ushered them inside.
"Everyone is waiting within."
"……."
"……."
Tal-myeong-gwi-geom and Moyong Ho looked particularly crestfallen.
"Haha, not bad. Chief Maid, how about giving them a little wave?"
"…No, thank you."
When Cheonui Mubong Yeon Seo-rin grinned and made the suggestion, Jeong-a's face flushed pink.
"More importantly—"
She had barely begun to speak when a sharp bark erupted from deeper inside the tent.
"What are you all dawdling around outside for?!"
It was the voice of the Eldest Young Master, Yeon So-hyeon.
They jumped as if scalded and hurried in—only to realize at once that the air inside the command tent was far from ordinary.
"—This is the latest report that just came in."
"—So for now the balance of the front lines—"
They had expected to find people celebrating the victory, cleaning up at their leisure.
Instead the tent was a hive of frantic motion, countless people rushing back and forth.
"…What the hell?"
Tal-myeong-gwi-geom looked around in open bewilderment.
"…I'll go on ahead."
Moyong Ho spotted his elder sister Moyong Un-jeong gathered with her officers before the strategic map. His expression hardened into seriousness at once, and he strode toward them.
"Damn."
Cheonui Mubong Yeon Seo-rin took in the tense atmosphere of the tent and gave a wry smile.
"Even though the fighting's over, the stink of battle just keeps hanging around."
As they came to stand before the desk, Eldest Young Master Yeon So-hyeon flicked his fingers and summoned Moyong Un-jeong and her group as well.
"You all wondered why the Neutral Tribal Alliance forces that had been milling about outside the walls suddenly charged into Shenyang itself, didn't you?"
Everyone who had not already heard the answer nodded.
"This is the reason."
The Eldest Young Master unfolded a single letter.
Deeply stamped with the seal of the Northern Grand General's Headquarters, the missive bore the crimson characters URGENT and CONFIDENTIAL in stark relief.
Terror King Yayul Nuju-cha's Preemptive Attack Begins!
"Terror King Yayul Nuju-cha's preemptive attack has begun?!"
Tal-myeong-gwi-geom read the title aloud and nearly choked.
"Correct."
Eldest Young Master Yeon So-hyeon stretched out a hand and pointed to the front lines the Northern Grand General's Headquarters had been holding on the map spread across the desk.
"At first light this morning, the Terror King's personal legions—having learned of Acting Grand General Moyong Un-jeong's absence—launched simultaneous assaults on every sector of the front."
"……?!"
Those hearing the news for the first time went rigid.
"And."
The Eldest Young Master tapped the front lines as he continued.
"It has been confirmed that those personal legions also contain large contingents of troops dispatched by the Neutral Tribal Alliance."
"So that means…"
Moyong Ho spoke quietly.
"The forces that had been stationed here were the ones that entered Shenyang."
"Exactly."
The Eldest Young Master gave a small nod of agreement.
"Commanders on the other fronts will already be racking up merits. The commander on this side, having heard that war had broken out, could hardly sit still."
The Neutral Tribal Alliance operated like one vast mercenary company; its internal hierarchy ran on pure meritocracy.
"I see…"
Moyong Ho nodded, accepting the Eldest Young Master's reading of the situation—then suddenly jerked his head up as something clicked into place.
"Wait—hold on…!"
"Then that means…?!"
According to the Eldest Young Master's conjecture, the Neutral Tribal Alliance had entered the war by decision of Sama Dae-gunsa.
Yet large numbers of their troops had been observed not here in Shenyang, but in the clashes on the distant northern front—
"Shenyang was never Sama Dae-gunsa's primary target?!"
"Correct."
"……!"
The Eldest Young Master reconstructed Sama Dae-gunsa's movements and thinking.
"In all likelihood… last night already."
He placed a finger on Shenyang.
"Sama Dae-gunsa judged that coming to Shenyang in person would be too late. Therefore—"
He set the markers representing the Hwasan and Wudang vanguards and the Neutral Tribal Alliance's siege engines onto Shenyang.
"He poured the Hwasan and Wudang vanguards, along with the Neutral Tribal Alliance's siege contingent, into Shenyang in order to pin us down as thoroughly as possible in the rear."
Next he moved the Terror King's markers onto the northernmost front lines.
"Then he sent word to the Terror King and set the Terror King's personal legions in motion."
Sama Dae-gunsa had never bothered calculating the odds of victory in Shenyang itself.
All he had wanted was for the rebel army and the Hwasan-Wudang vanguards to join forces and keep the Eldest Young Master and Moyong Un-jeong's feet nailed in place for as long as possible.
"Then…?!"
Moyong Ho cried out.
"You're saying Sama Dae-gunsa never intended to come to Shenyang in person at all?!"
"At first he was heading here himself. But somewhere along the way he changed his mind."
The Eldest Young Master gave a light, intrigued smile.
"He was a full day behind me. And so…"
He picked up Sama Dae-gunsa's banner and planted it on the northern front.
"He decided midway that there was no need to pass through Shenyang, and took the shortest possible route straight north."
"That means…!"
"By now,"
the Eldest Young Master smiled, baring his teeth,
"Sama Dae-gunsa will have arrived at the Terror King's camp."
He added quietly,
"Using the forces he threw into Shenyang as sacrificial offerings, Sama Dae-gunsa has clawed back the day he had fallen behind me."
Moyong Ho swallowed dryly.
"……."
"……."
A chill wind seemed to pass through the gathered company.
Afternoon.
The hour when the summer sun blazed at its fiercest.
The military camp of Terror King Yayul Nuju-cha.
"…So then, Sama Dae-gunsa."
An elderly man of dignified bearing, his long white beard flowing, spoke in a low voice.
"In the end, you took the children of the vanguard…"
The sleeves of his pure white martial robes were embroidered with a magnificent design of fully blossomed plum blossoms—yet his voice carried a chill as deep as midwinter frost.
"…and used them as nothing more than sacrificial offerings so that you could reclaim a single day?"
Who would dare press Sama Dae-gunsa so bluntly?
This old man could.
Given his seniority, given his station, he could.
For he was—
"Geomgun."
The Supreme Elder of the Huashan Sect.
That very "Geomgun."
"They were nothing more than a handful of troops."
Sama Dae-gunsa answered without yielding an inch.
"If even that many are too precious to lose, then I would recommend you withdraw to Huashan this very moment."
"…What did you say?!"
Geomgun's snow-white brows twitched with open displeasure.
"Heheh."
Into that opening stepped another old man, clad in splendid black martial robes, laughing as if he found the whole exchange highly entertaining.
"This humble Taoist must also, on this occasion, agree with Sama Dae-gunsa's view."
Geomgun of Huashan confirmed the speaker's identity and scowled even more deeply.
"…Taechong Jinin."
Taechong Jinin stood a full generation above both Hyeonhyeon-ja Baek Cho Jin-in and Steel Dragon Fang Baek Cheong. He was of the same generation as Baek Cheong's master, the previous Wudang Sect Leader.
"This is a battlefield, Geomgun."
Taechong Jinin spoke with deliberate, almost kindly condescension, as though lecturing a junior.
"I understand your fondness for the children. But that is hardly the mindset needed to win a war."
The wrinkled lids of Geomgun's eyes trembled.
"…You must be in fine spirits, having used an enemy's hand to eliminate Hyeonhyeon-ja—the man you normally couldn't stand the sight of simply because he belonged to a different faction."
"Heheh."
Taechong Jinin gave a hollow chuckle at that.
"Even when someone offers you good advice you refuse to listen—no wonder you lost to that green boy Sword-Peak Mountain-Breaker."
"Taechong—!"
"Geomgun."
Just as Geomgun looked ready to spit lightning from his mouth, Sama Dae-gunsa interjected with quiet precision.
"There are many eyes watching us here."
Geomgun's gaze swept the assembled company for an instant.
"(— — —, — — — —.)"
"(— — — — —.)"
On the far side of the tent, generals in the distinctive garb of the northern tribes, their armor flashing, were murmuring among themselves as they watched.
"Ahem."
Geomgun cleared his throat shortly and swallowed the shout that had been about to burst free.
"In any case."
Sama Dae-gunsa continued, as though granting the man a measure of consideration.
"It is great good fortune that the main forces of both Huashan and Wudang arrived safely and on schedule."
Naturally. Where there is a "vanguard," there is also a "main force."
"Heheh, indeed."
"…On that point I agree."
Taechong Jinin of Wudang and Geomgun of Huashan were the respective commanders of their sects' main forces.
"And now this old man has arrived just in time as well."
At that moment the general guarding the entrance ahead raised his voice.
"(All present, show proper respect!)"
Thud—
As one, every general dropped to his knees upon the ground.
"(True Sun of the North! Rightful Master of the Great Steppe! Overlord of the Thirteen Great Tribes and Twenty-Nine Clans! Father of every northern bloodline!)"
The entrance general raised his voice still higher.
"(The Terror King approaches!)"
Sama Dae-gunsa smiled faintly and murmured to himself,
"Eldest Young Master."
Watching the tent flap open, he brought his hands together in the formal Central Plains salute and said,
"Our preliminary skirmish is now over."
Clutched inside his closed fist was the scrap of paper he had received by messenger hawk only moments before entering the camp.
[Eldest Young Master's side — main force. Approaching the North.]
Chapter 05. The End
Chapter 06. Lord of the Borderlands
"There never was a good war or a bad peace."
There never was a good war, nor an evil peace.
— Benjamin Franklin (1706.1.17.–1790.4.17.)