The Five-Year Promise
"Denied."
So answered my father, Dancheon Gang, with terse finality.
Beside him, Uncle Bang Yeo-baek failed to hold back a laugh. "There you have it. Didn't I say so?"
Had Uncle Yeo-baek guessed from the very start that I would abandon the contest for Young Patriarch? I couldn't say what gave it away, but his expression and bearing spoke plainly enough: he was receiving my declaration of withdrawal as though it were an appointment long since written into the calendar.
"Tsk."
At the click of Dancheon Gang's tongue, Uncle Yeo-baek hastily swallowed his laughter.
Yet for all the force with which he had cried denied, the emotion caught in my father's gaze was neither distaste nor sternness. It was curiosity. I took that for what it was — room to talk, room to persuade.
"So you have reached the Harmony Realm."
"Yes, Father."
I nodded quietly. He would have seen for himself what clung to my blade when I faced Elder Iljang; there was no playing the innocent.
"And having reached it, you find the seat of Young Patriarch worthless?"
"No, Father."
"Then why?"
I could tell the Clan Head was laboring under some misunderstanding. Untangling it would demand a mountain of explanation and proof — a wearisome process, and I could not afford to squander time on it. Fortunately, I had a method ready. Had I not, after all, kept to one stance my whole life long?
None other than the frontal charge.
"I wish to become the clan's next Escort Captain."
I answered looking straight at Uncle Yeo-baek. Evidently he had not seen it coming; surprise broke across his face.
So my heart had spoken. To hold back the Righteous-Demonic Great War and take up Uncle Yeo-baek's post — would that not suit me well? Was that not the very place I would return to? So the thought had come to me.
Clan Head Dancheon Gang shook his head, slow and quiet. "The Clan Head must be the strongest of all."
In truth, not every clan lived by that law. But in the Dancheon clan — which had made succession by the legitimate heir its family creed and held its standing as a renowned house for generations — it counted among the iron rules.
Honestly, it was the reaction I had expected.
But I had carried an answer for it all the same. "Won't it be settled once Brother reaches the Harmony Realm?"
Father and Uncle closed their mouths at the same instant.
Even if he were not the strongest in the clan, once Dancheon Hak reached the Harmony Realm and ascended as Clan Head, the problem would dissolve. Such was the nature of that realm.
"I will see Brother to it."
Had anyone else said those words, ninety-nine in a hundred would have called it a swindle. The Harmony Realm is something one arrives at oneself — never something another person can build for you.
But could anyone dismiss as empty bragging a declaration made by one who had reached the Harmony Realm still young? The weight of a word comes, in the end, from the footprints of the one who speaks it.
"Five years."
"What is?"
"Within five years, I will bring Brother to the Harmony Realm."
Which was to say: hold the succession contest in abeyance for five years. If Dancheon Hak reached the Harmony Realm within that span, he would ascend as Clan Head; and if I failed, we could simply weigh the matter of the Young Patriarch afresh.
My father, Dancheon Gang, was a warrior at the height of his powers, just past forty. Postponing the contest by five years could hardly be called a burden. Compared with refusing a son who did nothing but cry resignation, a five-year stay on the succession was not a bad option at all.
"I shall give it thought."
So spoke the Clan Head with due gravity, but...
"Thank you, Father."
"Heh. Five years, you say."
Watching the patriarch smile before he knew it, I found the outcome of his deliberation none too hard to predict. It was a bargain that satisfied both sides — and so, unnoticed, a warm wind had already begun to stir through the patriarch's hall.
"There is something I have prepared."
I had lifted the dark cloud from the clan; the next task was to make the Dancheon the Number One Clan Under Heaven. And with my obsession shed, the knowledge had come to me naturally — that even without becoming Young Patriarch, I could see it done.
"Please accept these."
I drew two glass vials from my breast and offered one to Clan Head Dancheon Gang, the other to Uncle Yeo-baek.
"And this is?"
Uncle Yeo-baek, curiosity overcoming him, asked first.
"That, Uncle, is Empty Blue Stone Milk."
"...!"
That familiar expression — one I had now witnessed any number of times — bloomed across their faces as well.
The cornerstone of the Dancheon clan that would stand number one under heaven would be laid not on the day I won the contest for Young Patriarch. It would be laid today.
"What is the meaning of this?"
Dancheon Hak stormed into my quarters without so much as a by-your-leave.
"Whatever do you mean?"
"That you're giving up the contest for Young Patriarch?"
It seemed the clan contained nothing but loose mouths. I couldn't fathom how the rumor had traveled this fast. I'd wager the Dancheon clan alone could fill a Beggar's Union intelligence squad and still have hands to spare.
Then his hand shot out — Dancheon Hak seized my collar in a rough grip. It was the first time he had ever laid hands on me himself, and though I could have slipped aside, I did not.
I could feel the fingers wound into my collar trembling, just slightly.
"You... you pity me, is that it?"
Dancheon Hak's voice was shaking.
He had confirmed for himself that I had entered the Harmony Realm, so tracing the chain of thought that had delivered him to that conclusion was no difficult task.
"Brother."
I could have knocked his hand away at any moment. I simply spoke, collar and all. "Why do you want to be Clan Head?"
A single question. Nothing more — and yet the strength drained out of Dancheon Hak's grip, and the fist in my collar slipped loose.
"Why would a reason be needed? I was simply born into it."
That self-mocking remark was not wrong. Born the legitimate heir of a storied martial house like the Dancheon, dreaming of the Clan Head's seat was as natural as the turning of the heavens.
"As for me,"
But was I so different from Dancheon Hak? A second son — and a bastard at that.
"I wanted to make a place for myself in the Dancheon clan."
"..."
"That was all."
To my plain confession, Dancheon Hak gave no answer. He knew my circumstances well enough, after all.
I had wanted a place to stand in the Dancheon clan. I had wanted to become family. It was the shape an old want takes, I suppose. Narrow as I had been, I had believed the only road was to seize the seat of Clan Head itself.
But had it truly been so?
"The truth is, I have no interest in the Clan Head's seat. There is a far greater dream kept in this chest of mine."
Having reached the Harmony Realm while still young, I was more than entitled to dream the bigger dream.
"Brother."
"What?"
Scowling as though put out, yet swallowing every word I gave him — he was curious what I would say.
"If you became Young Patriarch, and then Clan Head — would you cast me out of the clan?"
"Hm. I'm starting to think that would be the right thing to do."
Hearing Dancheon Hak answer so, a wry laugh escaped me. "You wouldn't, though."
In my past life, too, Dancheon Hak had never once cast me out. I had simply turned my back on the clan myself, once no place remained in it for me.
"Brother — I've found the place I want to be in this clan."
"..."
He had heard even the rumor that I meant to withdraw from the succession; he would know as well that I intended to follow the Escort Captain. That's right. I wanted to walk the road behind Uncle Yeo-baek. Within the Dancheon clan I harbored no greed beyond it — which meant that Dancheon Hak and I had no need to contend with each other at all.
Dancheon Hak was a man of larger vessel than I had ever credited him. I believed he could hold me easily enough — even a me who would one day stand as the finest under heaven.
Only, I knew a precondition would come attached.
"Which brings me to the matter at hand..."
With that, I flicked a glass vial from my breast and tossed it to Dancheon Hak. Before a question could even form on his face as he caught it, I pressed on. "Brother, you must enter the Harmony Realm."
"What?"
Declaring it so abruptly left Dancheon Hak staring, blank.
"I will entertain no objections."
Meaning: I would refuse any refusal he offered.
"Look forward to it."
With the karma of my past life fully settled, I would live from here on for the future. Well — it would be unavoidable for Dancheon Hak to take a few tumbles along the way.
"Brother, you must become Clan Head."
And while we were about it — Clan Head of the Number One Clan Under Heaven.
First Elder Iljang, head of the Council of Elders, had turned out to be a mole of the Demonic Cult. Naturally, the Dancheon clan broke out in a bout of the measles over it.
Every member of the household went under a fresh vetting of origins and trustworthiness, but fortunately no further trouble came to light.
And so a month passed, suspended between tension and peace.
The Second Elder, a man of negligible presence, succeeded to the head of the Council — hardly a momentous affair. It amounted, in effect, to a stopgap arrangement until Bang Yeo-baek entered the Council of Elders in due course.
And once Bang Yeo-baek entered the Council, I would succeed to the Escort Captain's seat. If, that is, everything proceeded according to my design.
The most crucial link in that chain was Dancheon Hak entering the Harmony Realm.
"Brother! Come out!"
Day after day, spectacles my previous life had never once offered now unfolded in earnest. My calling at Dancheon Hak's quarters every single day was one of them. His retainers had come to treat my visits as a matter of course, no longer troubling themselves with even a token inspection.
"You came, then?"
"Hurry and get ready."
"Can't a man rest even one day?"
Grumbling through his teeth, yet already immaculate in his training garb, Dancheon Hak came crawling out of his quarters. That temperament, I'd say, was lifted whole from his mother, Baek Yeo-hae. I had once found it a thoroughly hateful sight; now it only drew a smile out of me.
"Let's go."
When a master of the Supreme Peak and a master of the Harmony Realm unfolded the Cloud-Treading Steps with easy grace, the training yard arrived in, quite literally, the space of a breath.
And past that, no words were needed.
"Come at me."
"Hmph!"
Snorting through his nose — but his body was honest. Dancheon Hak came hurtling at me.
Cheeeng! Azure sword qi met in violent collision, embroidering the air.
Cheeeng! Cheeeng! Cheeeng!
Time and again, Dancheon Hak's ferocious strikes were barred by my blade, denied any chance to unfold as he willed.
"Brother, as I've told you before — your sword path is monotonous."
No sooner were the words out than my sword whipped out without warning, and Dancheon Hak sprang back a good span.
"Yielding that much ground at every flash of a moment — where would your chance at victory come from?"
The essence of the martial arts, as ever, lay in the oneness of attack and defense.
A month had passed, and still the scene refused to change.
"Shut it, you brat!"
Cheeeng! I parried the blow and flashed him my most infuriating grin.
"Honest again."
In truth, the martial skill Dancheon Hak displayed even now deserved to be called remarkable. Tempering him was my aim, so I withheld my sword aura — but that a man merely of the Supreme Peak could trade blows with me at all was praise enough in itself. For the gulf between the Supreme Peak and the Harmony Realm was not measured in sword aura.
Having climbed to the Supreme Peak by his own strength and taken the Empty Blue Stone Milk, Dancheon Hak was advancing so relentlessly that a word like diligence felt too faint to hold him.
And yet when he would cross into the Harmony Realm — even I could not say. No road existed that could raise a warrior up into the Harmony Realm.
Save one. The Yakseon Heart Decision alone excepted.
So I simply believed. Believed that Dancheon Hak would reach the Harmony Realm within five years.
The difference from leaving it to fate was that I did not sit with folded hands and wait — I fed him ceaseless tempering from without, and...
"Winded already?"
"Hyaah!"
Cheeeng! ...his own effort, stacked on top.
In a flash, the count of exchanges swept past three hundred.
"Hah... hah..."
Before either of us marked it, my swordtip had come to rest against the pit of Dancheon Hak's chest.
"Well fought."
Shring. Dancheon Hak burned his glare into me as I slid the blade home.
"Tomorrow will be different."
"I'll be waiting."
In him I could see, of all things, my old self squaring off against Uncle Yeo-baek — except that mine had belonged to the past, and this did not.
"Now you'll spar with me, won't you?"
With that, Uncle Yeo-baek came flying at me.
Cheeeng! His blade, barging in with a grin of pure delight, tangled with mine in a flickering weave.
But before we could see out even a hundred exchanges...
"...That's only because my stamina is drained, Uncle."
"Hah! Now what was it you said?"
Uncle Yeo-baek's sword hovered at my utterly unguarded heart.
I knew, of course, that it was pure excuse. Still unable to keep pace with the Empty Blue Stone Milk-fed Cloud-Treading Steps of Uncle Yeo-baek, I too had a long road left to walk.
And then...
"Who's been bullying my sons?"
Thoom.
At last, Clan Head Dancheon Gang made his entrance.
"Heeek!"
The Clan Head's blade swung toward his own shield — the Escort Captain.
BAM!
We both winced at the collision of blades on a plane wholly apart from ours, yet the eyes of Dancheon Hak and me stayed nailed to the scene, unwilling — unable — to move.
"Ah— go easy in front of the boys, will you!"
"Fight properly. Before that blade-point finds your belly."
"Heeek!"
KWAANG!
The spar between Uncle Yeo-baek and the Clan Head carried on for a good long while. To witness a duel between masters of such transcendent realms with one's own eyes — that, one could rightly call a fortune without precedent.
And I would judge that the Dancheon clan was already marching, stride by stride, toward its place as the Number One Clan Under Heaven.