Chapter 865

A person’s body and mind are like a bowstring.

Drawn taut, then released all at once.

Once the tension lets up, exhaustion catches up with you.

That was true even for me, after weathering countless crises. For a child barely twelve or thirteen, it went without saying.

Click.

Careful not to wake his young lord, Hong Jin closed the door with the utmost care and whispered to me,

“He must have been exhausted. He fell asleep in no time.”

Soft, even breathing came through the crack in the closed door.

Once I was sure Prince Shangshan was fast asleep, I glanced out the window.

Down below, amid the swaying torchlight, members of the Embroidered Uniform Guard stood like iron towers in their golden armor.

You bastards. It’s dark enough already. Why don’t you clock out on time for once?

Of course, that wasn’t going to happen.

From what I’d seen, those guys would risk not just overtime but their lives to carry out an order.

Murim martial artists were all crazy in their own way, but the Embroidered Uniform Guard were hunting dogs, blindly loyal to the Son of Heaven.

“Watching us like that won’t change anything. They won’t leave their posts for even a moment.”

Hong Jin surveyed the torches and guards surrounding the pavilion as if they were laying siege to it, then added, “That’s how the Changwei operate.”

“Changwei?”

“Oh, it’s a collective name for the East Depot and the Embroidered Uniform Guard. As I told you, Young Master Jin, I was once part of one of them.”

I knew Hong Jin had belonged to the East Depot, but there was still plenty I wanted to ask him.

As if he’d read my mind, Hong Jin spoke first.

“Now that it’s finally just the two of us, shall we talk for a bit?”

I’d be grateful if he did.

I nodded, and Hong Jin and I walked downstairs together.

We’d already sent away the Embroidered Uniform Guard, along with the palace attendants who were more or less there to keep an eye on us for them.

Even though I could see everything happening inside the pavilion as clearly as if it were in the palm of my hand, Hong Jin was still deeply uneasy about leaving Prince Shangshan alone.

“Young Master Jin, do you think it’s all right?”

“There’s no need to worry. I’m nearby, and more importantly, I left that rascal Mujin with His Highness as a precaution.”

“Right. That makes me even more worried.”

“……”

Thank goodness Hyuk Mujin hadn’t heard that. I stepped into an empty room.

As befitted a pavilion belonging to the imperial palace, it was spacious, with a faint fragrance drifting among the antique furnishings.

Best of all, there’s no chance anyone’s bugging us.

Back in the modern world, I’d worried about being overheard whenever I had an important conversation. Murim was old-fashioned enough that I could talk without a care.

“Finally, I can breathe a little. Don’t you think?”

Hong Jin seemed to feel much the same way. He brought a lit candelabra over to the window to brighten the dark room, then sat down and spoke, looking tired.

“I’m sure you have a lot you want to ask me, Young Master Jin, but could I speak first?”

“Go ahead.”

“Don’t provoke him more than necessary. Whatever you do.”

He hadn’t said who he meant, but I knew at once.

“Baek Yeon?”

“That’s right. Baek Yeon, Commander of the Embroidered Uniform Guard. Keep as much distance between you and him as you can.”

I didn’t ask why. There was no need.

He commanded the Embroidered Uniform Guard, was an exceptionally skilled Supreme Peak master, and was the military officer the Son of Heaven trusted most.

Any one of those would have been reason enough for caution. All three together left nothing to discuss.

But…

“I think we’ve already gotten a little too close for that.”

Hong Jin sighed.

“I know. I saw everything with my own two eyes. I’m just asking you to be careful from now on.”

His worry showed in his expression, his voice, even the way he spoke.

The Hong Jin I knew had plenty of nerve. The East Depot, made up of eunuchs, was a ruthless organization that served as the Emperor’s human-cleanup crew alongside the Embroidered Uniform Guard.

He seemed to have held a fairly high position there, so he must have been through all sorts of hell. He’d even sneered while dealing with Jeong Hogun and the other guards, and with the East Depot eunuchs.

Until Baek Yeon appeared.

“Is there another reason I don’t know about?”

Hong Jin’s answer made his concern clear.

“Thirty thousand. That’s how many people Baek Yeon captured and killed in the last coup.”

“……!”

“How did the fourth prince, already sidelined in the struggle for succession, manage to seize the throne of the Great Nation? Because he was exceptionally capable? No. That wasn’t enough. He needed a cause, and he needed people. No one becomes the Son of Heaven by their own strength alone.”

Hong Jin rushed through the words, then took a long-stemmed tobacco pipe from inside his clothes and put it to his mouth.

Before long, pungent smoke rose around him. His face looked especially dark through the haze as he continued.

“Baek Yeon was already head of the Embroidered Uniform Guard long before I entered the imperial palace. He had the late Emperor’s full trust from a young age, and for a time, he even taught the Crown Prince martial arts.”

“The Crown Prince—you mean the one…?”

“That’s right. So when Baek Yeon helped the fourth prince stage a coup, everyone was stunned. No one thought he, of all people, would betray the late Emperor and the Crown Prince.”

Hoooo.

Smoke curled up from Hong Jin’s lips. Through the pale haze, it was almost as if the past he remembered were passing before him.

“It began in an instant and was over just as quickly. They moved so secretly that even the East Depot couldn’t do a thing. No—perhaps it’s more accurate to say we were caught off guard because we never saw it coming.”

The coup began in the dead of night and was over around dawn.

The pounding of hooves echoed across the Imperial Capital until daybreak, and the screams never stopped.

“The coup was… perfect enough to make your skin crawl. Every civil and military official had gathered to celebrate His Majesty the Emperor’s birthday, along with members of the imperial family from every corner of the land. Security was tighter than ever against any possible threat. Except for one thing.”

This wasn’t some village headman’s birthday. It was the birthday of the Emperor, ruler of an entire continent.

I could almost see it all before me: the packed crowds that day, and the dazzling golden armor of the guards who had sealed off the imperial palace.

“……The Embroidered Uniform Guard. They were in charge of the palace defenses.”

Hong Jin gave a bitter smile and nodded.

“Yes. That’s right.”

Everything had been prepared down to the last detail.

Baek Yeon and the guards who followed him took control of the imperial palace in an instant. As everyone looked on in shock, the fourth prince alone rose to his feet and stepped onto the stage prepared for him, his expression calm.

It was the moment the history of the Great Nation changed.

“And then… the purge began.”

The unexpected spectacle was over, but no one left their seats. No—no one could leave.

The people who had arrived as nothing more than spectators were forced to become actors in the next performance.

“Those who submitted at once survived. Those who resisted were dragged off to the prisons controlled by the Embroidered Uniform Guard. The imperial family had it a little better, at least. At first, they were only confined.”

The Emperor—no, the late Emperor—was already old. He was locked inside his residence. The Crown Prince and his wife, and the rest of the imperial family, were no exception.

They endured day after day under relentless watch, trembling at the screams that rang out day and night beyond the high walls surrounding them.

Waiting for their turn to come.

“Countless people died in the process. More families than anyone could count were wiped out. And…”

Hong Jin let his voice trail off before adding, “The man who led the purge was the Commander of the Embroidered Uniform Guard. No—the Blood Envoy, Baek Yeon.”

“The Blood Envoy…”

“Every time I hear it, I think how well that sobriquet suits him. Don’t you?”

Hong Jin’s lips curled into a smile, but it was feeble and vanished almost immediately.

“Young Master Jin. Back then, I couldn’t do anything. I failed to detect the treason, so I was incompetent as a subject. And all I could do was watch it happen, so I was powerless. But one thing hasn’t changed, then or now.”

Tap.

Hong Jin knocked the ash from his pipe. He looked up as if he could see through the ceiling to where the young prince lay sleeping, then continued.

“I must protect His Highness Prince Shangshan. That was the late Emperor’s final wish. It’s also the last act of loyalty I can offer as a servant who was both incompetent and powerless.”

His voice fell silent.

In the heavy silence, I turned over what he’d told me, then spoke abruptly.

“I’m not sure that’s really loyalty.”

“Hmm?”

“A subject wanting to protect his lord and a parent worrying about a child are two different things. And from what I’ve seen of you, Deputy Military Commissioner, it’s more like the latter.”

“What are you trying to say?”

“It’s simple. His Highness Prince Shangshan isn’t just a child who needs someone to protect him.”

Hong Jin sighed.

“Young Master Jin, I’m sorry, but he’s still young. He’s only thirteen.”

“That’s right. Only thirteen—and already able to make the Commander of the Embroidered Uniform Guard, a man whose influence could knock birds from the sky, bow his head. Already able to keep his composure while people die right in front of him.”

“……!”

Sometimes. Maybe even fairly often.

People caught up in their personal feelings make the wrong call.

Even if that person is a eunuch from the East Depot who’s been through hell and back.

I held Hong Jin’s frozen gaze and continued.

“His Highness Prince Shangshan isn’t a child who needs someone else to protect him. He’s been a king for a long time already. He just hasn’t fully come into his own yet.”

“Young Master Jin, you…”

“If all he wanted was to survive, he could throw himself at the Emperor’s feet tomorrow and beg for his life. He could plead that he had no idea what crime he’d committed and ask to be spared just this once. Assuming, of course, that his desperate plea stirs the Emperor’s tender heart.”

“……!”

“But you have something else in mind, don’t you, Deputy Military Commissioner?”

Hong Jin stared at me, his face set, then asked in a dry voice, “What makes you think that?”

“At a time when you should be bending over backward to please the Emperor, you dared to bring martial-world ruffians into the imperial palace. You dared to speak provocatively in front of the East Depot and the Embroidered Uniform Guard. And…”

I suddenly turned around and continued slowly.

“Late tonight, you brought an uninvited guest all the way here without the Embroidered Uniform Guard noticing.”

At that moment—

Fwoosh. Whoosh.

The three candles Hong Jin had lit when he entered the room went out at once.

I looked from Hong Jin to the black figure that had appeared out of thin air, then back again.

“So, when are you going to introduce us?”