Chapter 85
Chapter 85
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Translator: uly
Chapter: 85
Chapter Title: Original Sin (Part 10)
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It was the worst.
Everything was a mess.
The female newcomer among the Supreme Council members clutched her head without realizing it.
She had only recently become a Supreme Council member, but she was someone who had weathered every kind of battlefield in her lifetime.
She had routed countless enemies, crushed powerful political rivals, and earned fear and respect from all.
And now, by becoming a Supreme Council member, she sought nameless honor through endless devotion.
That was what Supreme Council members meant to her.
That was what the Supreme Operations Conference represented.
People who worked tirelessly for the Luoyang Sword Clan—not for fame, their faces, or power and glory—but without recognition.
Those who had successfully managed and grown the Luoyang Sword Clan through crises since the Family Head's absence.
Those who stood above the family laws yet wielded their authority judiciously, upholding fairness and balance to win acknowledgment from all.
And until just before dawn this very day, that faith of hers had remained unshaken.
At her age, gazing upon the twilight of life, she had thought there was nothing new left to surprise her.
But in this moment, in this place.
She felt that faith crumbling from its very foundation.
* * *
The two newcomer Supreme Council members had reached the pinnacle of the Luoyang Sword Clan, that legendary house.
The moment the words "original sin" left Yeon So-hyeon's mouth, they realized it.
That they alone had been swept up in his pace, raging and ranting away.
That they alone had opposed his demand to end his seclusion and attend the council.
And that they now faced a horrific truth.
Her voice trembled as she asked.
"...Original sin? Could someone explain?"
Before anyone else, Yeon So-hyeon spoke.
"Do you still not know when the meetings I attended stopped being recorded—or became impossible to record?"
"...At least I understand it's connected to this original sin."
As Yeon So-hyeon opened his mouth again, the Chairman's voice rang out.
"...This council could never record our meetings with the Eldest Young Master from the very beginning."
"From the very beginning...?"
"The Supreme Operations Conference has existed to this day on a single lie."
Yeon So-hyeon scoffed.
"Chairman. Don't you think calling it 'just a lie' falls woefully short?"
"...Indeed, it does."
The Chairman admitted it readily.
He turned to the two newcomers.
"It is the story of those who committed an unforgivable rebellion through an inexcusable fraud."
It was their original sin, one they could never turn away from, no matter the day.
"Fraud...?"
"Rebellion...?"
Even through their altered voices, the two newcomers' agitation was plain.
"Arrogant and foolish. It was fueled by absurd greed—a truly shameless act."
The female newcomer could no longer hold back and pressed the Chairman.
"...What exactly happened?"
Instead of answering, the Chairman posed a question.
"Do you know when this Supreme Operations Conference was first formed?"
The newcomers replied.
"...When the Family Head lost consciousness, wasn't it established per the Sword Clan laws? A contingency for when the supreme decision-maker is absent."
"I heard its original name was not Supreme Operations Conference, but 'Emergency Measures Council.'"
"Correct. That it was."
The Chairman gazed at the ceiling as if recalling that time.
"Everyone was at a loss, everyone in chaos. The Family Head was like an unbreakable mountain range, and his absence hit us in the Emergency Measures Council like a terrifying void...."
The two newcomers recalled it too.
"Yes. I remember. The thirteen pre-designated elders gathered, and all the armed forces left in the main house guarded the place ironclad."
"...Most who couldn't grasp the situation were plunged into extreme chaos and fear."
The Chairman nodded and asked.
"In that situation, what do you think we had to do first?"
"...Before announcing the Family Head's condition to the entire clan, we needed to devise countermeasures, right?"
"And to do that, we first had to designate the supreme decision-maker, no?"
"Then, by order of precedence, appointing the Eldest Young Master as Family Head proxy..."
"But I heard the Eldest Young Master refused the proxy role, citing the Family Head's order for seclusion. So the Emergency Measures Council at the time..."
"No way...?"
Fraud.
Rebellion.
Original sin.
A shameful history.
The reason meetings with Yeon So-hyeon could never be recorded from the start.
Yeon So-hyeon mocking them as thieves, despite their positions gained through lawful procedures.
The words spoken here today struck the two like blows to the head.
"...It can't be, right? Chairman. Tell me the hypothesis forming in my mind is wrong."
"Chairman...."
With no reply from the Chairman, Yeon So-hyeon twisted his lips into a smile.
"Now do you understand? Why I was summoned to this council and why, from the outset, no records could be kept of what was said."
The two newcomers stared at Yeon So-hyeon, their faces drained pale.
"You stripped me of my rightful authority. You usurped the position that should have been mine."
The smile on his lips twisted wider.
"...Supreme Operations Conference system? Lawful procedures? Legitimate status? Your splendid achievements all these years?"
At last, long-held contempt and hatred surfaced on his face.
"How dare a band of mere thieves and a handful of frauds...!"
Though Yeon So-hyeon insulted them and defiled the council, this time neither newcomer could speak.
"You didn't even tell me my father had collapsed! Instead, you spread the lie that I had renounced my succession rights!"
He spat his fury.
"Then you arbitrarily demoted my father to Supreme Family Head Emeritus and appointed yourselves as interim Family Head proxies!"
No trace of inner energy laced his shout, yet it brimmed with a chilling resolve fiercer than any master's aura.
"You thought that in the ensuing chaos, I—secluded as I was—wouldn't dare act rashly! I still remember vividly the first time I was summoned to this council!"
He cried out as if vomiting blood.
"That day, you told me! In these turbulent times for the main house, don't you dare act lightly or recklessly! If I went around flapping my mouth, it would spark civil war, so just wait quietly!"
The two council members swallowed hard.
It was a threat too horrific to even imagine.
"That day, you promised me! Just wait a little, the chaos would subside, and when the time came, you'd hand over my position!"
Yeon So-hyeon stepped out from the sunlight illuminating the cave's center.
"That was your first promise to me!"
He strode into the darkness, closing in on the council members.
"But soon after, you converted the main house to the Supreme Operations Conference system and began full operations!"
In the shadows, his eyes seemed to flash with icy light.
"And from that first promise until now, I have waited ten years!"
He roared.
"Even now, can you keep that promise?!"
The entire council fell silent.
They bowed their heads, groaning inwardly.
It was a promise that could no longer be kept.
A reality where it was impossible.
With other successors now fully grown and entrenched, the demand was untenable.
* * *
Yeon So-hyeon stood in the darkness, gazing at the ceiling.
He had known from the start they could never keep it.
He turned his attention away from them.
Amid the silence, he brushed the dust from his plain white robes.
Dust clouded the air, leaving ugly yellow stains on the fabric.
The Chairman's voice echoed once more.
"...On the day the Emergency Measures Council first convened. Someone said it. That we could do far better than a mere child not even ten years old."
The silence grew heavier.
"That this vast house should no longer be swayed by one person."
The Chairman pressed on with difficulty.
"...I still don't know who voiced it first. But it quickly became everyone's view."
Only the old man's voice echoed gloomily in the stone cave.
"By pooling our opinions, we could advance the house further—we convinced ourselves somehow."
The old man's shadow clenched a bony fist.
"...And so, we announced that the main house's Eldest Young Master had refused the Family Head proxy position."
A horrific lie.
An irreversible colossal lie.
In doing so, they effectively imprisoned Yeon So-hyeon—living in seclusion—in the Won-gak Pavilion.
The male newcomer shook his head.
"I, I can't accept it. That those renowned figures in the main house, enough to join the Emergency Measures Council, would rebel for such a petty reason...?"
The Chairman gave a bitter smile.
"...It wasn't greed for power that drove us then. It was ugly jealousy. The dregs of a sense of defeat."
"No way, from the Blood Purge...?!"
At the words "Blood Purge," Yeon So-hyeon turned from the darkness.
He returned to the sunlight and looked up at it.
"...Yes. We were survivors of the Blood Purge. We never escaped its aftermath."
The Chairman covered his face.
"But the elders purged then weren't outright enemies of the clan?!"
"Besides, only a handful at the top knew the truth—everyone else was in the dark!"
The Chairman bowed his head.
"...Yet we, all those powerhouses in the main house, couldn't escape the terror of having been defeated by—no, toyed with—by a single child."
He muttered to himself.
"...That's why we wanted to prove ourselves. And in doing so, we committed that irredeemable folly."
It was theft.
A fraud.
They hadn't even informed the son his father had fallen, and stole the clan from him.
The male newcomer cried out like a scream.
"E-even so, aside from not consulting the Eldest Young Master at the time, everything afterward was done legitimately, wasn't it?!"
Yeon So-hyeon burst into laughter.
"You still haven't realized?"
"W-what...?"
Yeon So-hyeon drew something from his sleeve.
In the sunlight, it gleamed gold.
It was the Luoyang Sword Clan's Family Head Seal, the Sword Clan Golden Seal.
"Why I, in seclusion, possess this—and still rightfully do."
"...!"
The Chairman's voice followed.
"...The Family Head had arranged for the seal to pass to the Eldest Young Master in emergencies."
Yeon So-hyeon bared his teeth.
"Moreover, Father often said it plainly."
The Chairman nodded weakly.
"...The Family Head always repeated it to us, the ones closest."
He uttered the Family Head's words like a sigh.
"...If anything sudden happens to me, all of you must remember."
He clutched his face.
"...That Yeon So-hyeon exists in this Sword Clan."