GMLS Ch 14

‘He played his cards well.’

It was customary for two factions to go ahead and wait at the location of the monument.

One was the Imperial Guard and the Hidden Shadow Corps. As long as these two greatest military powers of the imperial palace acknowledged him as their master, the will of the warriors and private soldiers under them would also be decided.

The other was the Shangshuling, the Zhongshuling, and the Menxia Shizhong. Once the three heads of the civil officials bowed to him, the officials below them would also bend their backs and bow to the new emperor.

In that moment, even a prince who had not been considered a successor until then would seize firm legitimacy and power.

“Why is that fellow included? Doesn’t a deposed fellow have no right?”

“To be precise, he was not deposed. He was confined. Therefore, the 5th Prince is also qualified to participate in the test. This is proclaimed in the name of the executor, upholding the solemn will of the ‘Sangseon.’ I will not accept any objections.”

The 2nd Prince, rendered a mute who’d eaten honey once more, ground his teeth. In contrast, the 3rd Prince had an attitude of indifference. He even snickered at the 2nd Prince, who was losing his temper and acting rashly.

Their gazes clashed. The 5th Prince instantly vanished from their consideration. It was obvious they thought this was a fight between just the two of them. Yeo Yullyeong suppressed a scoff as he watched the two princes.

“Well then, let us now discuss the Three Bureaus and the state funeral.”

Yeo Yullyeong began to speak, his face that of a prime minister trying to conceal his grief. Two dogs and one tiger. And he truly looked forward to the path of the young magnolia who followed that tiger.

⊹ ࣪ 💮⊹₊

Time flowed like water. The late emperor’s state funeral concluded, and the briefly chaotic political situation stabilized. At least, that’s how it appeared on the surface.

If one looked closely, most of it was a mess of haphazardly handled work, with state affairs taking a backseat, officials playing tug-of-war between the 2nd and 3rd Princes, and corrupt officials seizing the opportunity to scheme and cover up their shady dealings. In any case, the surface of the water was kept calm.

The investigation into the Crown Prince’s assassination was also still ongoing. Of course, there was no particular progress. Since everyone knew how this case would be covered up, they were all just pretending to work, dawdling and being indecisive, so it was only natural.

The hands who had served the Crown Prince quietly left the palace. I watched them from a distance.

They performed a deep bow towards the Crown Prince’s palace. No one was crying. There was no one who hurled resentful words at the sky or spewed their anger. They were like pallbearers carrying an empty bier. The kind of people who would walk calmly to their master’s grave and lie down beside it.

But that was only in their hearts. They hadn’t even been able to properly see their master’s body, and touching it was even more impossible. The Crown Prince’s body still lay in the cold basement of the Uigeumbu, under the pretext of an investigation.

“Do you think their feet will move, trying to leave their lord behind?”

Yeo Yullyeong, who had approached without a sound, stood next to me.

“Even so, it cannot be helped. Those who belong to the imperial palace know the moment they must leave. For them, that moment is now.”

Rarely, a faint trace of pity was laced in his words. It was so unexpected that I stared at him, and his folded fan, which had been still, began to flutter slowly.

“It’s because it’s a waste. There’s nothing better to exploit than those who are honest and upright.”

This, too, sounded much too sincere.

Suddenly, it occurred to me that with this man, both what he said before and what he said after could be the truth without a single lie. His languid smile supported that assumption.

……Well, it’s Yeo Yullyeong. I gave up on thinking about it and looked back at the Crown Prince’s limbs.

I couldn’t take my eyes off them until they passed through the main gate of the imperial palace and disappeared into the distance. Their empty figures lingered on my eyelids for a while. It was as if I could see them, carrying a non-existent bier, whenever I closed my eyes.

⊹ ࣪ 💮⊹₊

The political landscape of the imperial palace changed from moment to moment. The same was true for those who lived within it. Whenever three of them gathered, they were busy putting the 2nd and 3rd Princes on a scale and holding an evaluation session.

The only ones who remained unchanged were the Imperial Guard and the Hidden Shadow Corps. They had maintained a strict alert posture ever since martial law was declared. The repercussions of this reached the Ministry of War as well.

With the supreme commander absent, from the perspective of foreign powers, there was no better opportunity than this. While others grew lax and lazy, they tightened their sword belts. They sharpened their swords even more keenly and set their minds upon the blade’s edge. And they kept a close watch on the situations in the Jihan Kingdom and the five southern nations.

The Geum Empire was like a lake with no outlet. Its size was like the sea, so it wasn’t very noticeable, but it was a lake where corruption had seeped in everywhere.

Among them, the clearest place was the Ministry of War. This was because the man at their center until three years ago was a person of integrity and rectitude, truly befitting the one above ten thousand.

Those who belonged to the Ministry of War, especially those with outstanding martial arts, all admired the 5th Prince. Even the Captain of the Imperial Guard, ‘Wi Junghyuk,’ who was exuding a terrifying aura over there, was no exception. After getting to know the 5th Prince, he regretted for the first time being in the position of Captain of the Imperial Guard.

However, he was a man of steadfast character by nature. There was even a saying: if you don’t know what faith and loyalty are, look at Wi Junghyuk. There were two people the previous emperor, who didn’t even trust his own children, had trusted. They were Shangshuling Yeo Yullyeong and Captain of the Imperial Guard Wi Junghyuk.

The anecdote of the Captain of the Imperial Guard, who moved only for the emperor, visiting the Shangshuling’s house for a ‘sparring match’ at the Shangshuling’s request and with the emperor’s permission, was already famous in the capital. The only one who didn’t know how extraordinary that event was was the subject of the rumor himself, who was completely absorbed in his duties.

Wi Junghyuk calmly folded away the feelings that had come to him like a summer day’s dream. He folded it slowly until he even forgot what it originally was. It was a resolution truly befitting Wi Junghyuk.

However, what was folded was merely folded, not gone. Like a small shard of pottery buried in a vast sandy beach, that feeling, buried somewhere in his heart, stretched its limbs due to this test.

“It’s spring.”

The man with a tongue of steel, Yeo Yullyeong, said.

Even with the frosty head of the Imperial Guard at close range, he was completely at ease. Wi Junghyuk glanced at Yeo Yullyeong. That was all. Despite the response that was close to a snub, Yeo Yullyeong didn’t mind.

The head of the civil officials and the man with the greatest influence among the military officials stood side by side.

The aura the two of them emanated was so extraordinary that just looking at them was suffocating. No one could even come near. No, what was coming near? They would bow so low their waists touched the ground as if they had seen something they shouldn’t have, and then run away.

Wi Junghyuk sighed inwardly. He found this man quite uncomfortable. The inability to read his inner thoughts was a given, and his silver tongue that would swallow you whole if you let your guard down was a bonus. When his perpetually languidly smiling face was added to the mix, Wi Junghyuk’s polar opposite was complete.

Unlike Wi Junghyuk, for whom things were either right or wrong, Yeo Yullyeong was a man of deep calculations. Those who knew no better would compare him to a hundred-year-old white serpent, but Wi Junghyuk found it absurd when he heard it. In his view, even a thousand years wasn’t enough.

There were a few times he had coincidentally figured out the schemes Yeo Yullyeong had laid, and there were moments when even the great Wi Junghyuk’s blood ran cold.

Among them were schemes where the emperor himself was a piece on the board. While his own heart, which he prided on being brave, had sunk, Yeo Yullyeong, who would have died with a single misstep, had been nonchalantly fanning himself with his folded fan.

From that time on, Wi Junghyuk instinctively avoided Yeo Yullyeong. To him, Yeo Yullyeong was someone he never wanted to get close to.

“Are you not bored?”

That Yeo Yullyeong spoke to him. If he just ignored him, it seemed he would stay there forever. He could feel that the surrounding Imperial Guards, though appearing like stone statues, were furtively watching this way.

“What business does the Shangshuling have?”

“A person has come, yet you won’t even turn to look once?”

“I am on duty.”

“A duty to guard an empty imperial palace without anyone to protect, you mean.”

“Watch your words, Shangshuling.”

Wi Junghyuk’s voice lowered. An aura that would make even the Imperial Guards who followed him flinch was laced within it, but Yeo Yullyeong didn’t even blink.

The more slowly the folded fan fanned, the more anxious Wi Junghyuk became. If he fought with a sword, the Shangshuling was one who fought with a brush. And the tongue was a weapon closer to the brush than the sword.

“Do you perhaps remember my son?”

Of course, he remembered. He had gone and crossed hands with him in person last year. Thinking that some mediocre fellow dared to summon the Captain of the Imperial Guard to receive instruction just because his father was the Shangshuling, he had shown no mercy in his hands.

The moment their first exchange connected, his mind snapped to attention. The Shangshuling’s son already possessed skills similar to his own or a hair’s breadth below.

After exchanging several blows, the sight of Yeo Yullyeong fanning himself with his folded fan and smiling contentedly entered Wi Junghyuk’s wide-open eyes. It was a rather genuine smile, unlike him.

I see. There was no one else around for him to spar with and learn from, so he had summoned him.

Yeo Hwa was a man who exuded the spirit of an upright warrior, unlike the son of that thousand-year-old serpent. Moreover, he was still a young man who had not yet reached his coming-of-age, so thinking of his future growth, Wi Junghyuk felt pleased for the first time in a long while.

……Though this old man in front of him was not pleasant at all.

“He will be embarking on the path of the test with the 5th Prince this time. You have seen for yourself. That child is a martial genius blessed by the heavens.”

Wi Junghyuk agreed with that. As he nodded inwardly, he paused. A warrior’s instinct had detected something ominous.

“However, as he is still young, his eyes are dim and he lacks experience.”

Tak. The swaying folded fan snapped shut.

“I would like the Captain of the Imperial Guard to accompany that child on this test’s path.”