Chapter 870

For a moment, I doubted my own ears.

What did I just hear?

To be honest, even after arriving at the imperial palace, I hadn’t really thought I’d get to meet the Son of Heaven.

It was only natural.

He ruled this vast continent, a man above all others.

Compared to him, I was a lawless thug from the martial world without so much as an identification plaque, and merely a son of the unimpressive Jin Family of Taiyuan.

Whatever standing I held in Murim, however much the Jin Family of Taiyuan had grown, none of it meant anything before those two words: Son of Heaven.

This was the imperial palace, and he was the Emperor, with civil and military officials and countless subjects under him.

And yet the Emperor, born of the dragon’s blood and having seized the realm through rebellion, had summoned me to an audience even Hong Jin wasn’t allowed to attend.

Could this be the world’s lamest hidden-camera prank?

I swallowed hard, then checked that I was still in working order.

I picked at my ear with my pinky, slapped my cheek two or three times with my palm, and steadied my breathing before I finally spoke again.

“Say that again.”

“What?”

“Say it again. Every last word.”

Jeong Hogun looked at me in silence, then answered without complaint.

“I said that only His Highness Prince Shangshan and Jin Taekyung of the Jin Family of Taiyuan had been summoned by His Majesty the Emperor.”

Judging by his stony expression, this definitely wasn’t a hidden-camera prank. I fell silent for a moment, faced with this unexpected reality, then asked again.

“Is this a dream or something?”

Jeong Hogun replied calmly.

“You slapped yourself just now. Pretty hard, too.”

“I did.”

“Did it hurt?”

“It did.”

“Then it isn’t a dream.”

“I see.”

The second silence lasted a little longer. The first to break it wasn’t me, but Hong Jin.

“Why?”

“I don’t know.”

Jeong Hogun gave a brief answer, then added, “We of the Embroidered Uniform Guard merely follow His Majesty the Emperor’s orders. We need no reasons, and we ask no questions.”

Of course, that was easy for the Embroidered Uniform Guard to say. They were government officials. My situation was a lot more complicated.

Why is he summoning me all of a sudden?

I had a bad feeling about this. No—I could already feel a chill at the back of my neck.

Why was I thinking of Jeong Hogun’s manner, which suggested he had some idea what had happened last night, and Ma Sanbao’s face as he spoke of rebellion?

I felt a chill run down my spine and parted my lips.

“What if…I refused the invitation?”

Contrary to what I expected, Jeong Hogun answered as though it were no great matter.

“Do you have a reason to?”

“I haven’t been feeling well lately. Besides, like I said, I didn’t get much sleep last night.”

“If you’re ill, then there’s no helping it.”

“Oh. Really?”

“Of course. We’d best move you to a different residence while we’re at it.”

“No, I appreciate the thought, but I’m fine. There’s no need to go that far…”

“Guards. Contact the Ministry of Punishments at once. Tell them to prepare the most spacious accommodations.”

“Huh?”

I blinked at Jeong Hogun.

Then I thought about it for a moment.

Was that hyeongbu the kind of brother-in-law a younger sister called her older sister’s husband?¹ If so, was Jeong Hogun the continent’s first transgender Imperial Guard? If not…

“Um. That Ministry of Punishments…”

“It’s nothing to worry about. Merely an institution for carrying out punishments, administered by the Embroidered Uniform Guard.”

“……”

That’s a pretty fucking big thing to worry about. Shit.

I glared at Jeong Hogun, who didn’t so much as twitch an eyebrow, then held out my hand toward Prince Shangshan Zhu Bao.

“Shall we go, Your Highness? I’ll escort you.”

As I followed the Embroidered Uniform Guard out of the pavilion, I heard Hyuk Mujin mutter with relief.

“Phew. Glad it wasn’t me. I really thought I was getting hauled off.”

You little shit.

The imperial palace was far bigger than I’d imagined.

Several times larger than the Forbidden City I’d toured with a VR headset on a school field trip.

The one saving grace was that the Embroidered Uniform Guard had the decency to prepare a palanquin.

“Please get in, Your Highness.”

“Huh? What about mine?”

“I’ll have to contact the Ministry of Punishments again.”

“……”

Of course, there was no palanquin for me. Only Prince Shangshan, a member of the imperial family, got to enjoy the luxury of riding in a four-man sedan chair carried by four Embroidered Uniform Guards.

“We’re moving.”

Whoosh, whoosh, whoosh!

At Jeong Hogun’s order, a golden current surged forward at tremendous speed.

I stayed close beside Prince Shangshan’s sedan chair, ready for anything, and took in every corner of the imperial palace.

Couldn’t hurt to know the layout.

Thinking about the worst-case scenario was one of my old habits.

Where each building stood, how many soldiers guarded it, and how strong they were.

If what awaited me wasn’t the Son of Heaven but a forest of spears and blades, I needed to find the fastest, most efficient escape route.

Especially if I had someone else with me.

—Your Highness.

At the Sound Transmission I sent discreetly, Prince Shangshan gave a small jerk.

But it lasted only an instant. I sent another Sound Transmission to the young prince, who had quickly regained his composure.

—It’s unlikely, but…if the worst should happen, you must leave everything to me. Do you understand?

Prince Shangshan was just about to give a small nod when I noticed Jeong Hogun, running at the head of the procession with his eyes fixed ahead, starting to turn his upper body.

I spoke a beat before he could.

“What are those people?”

Fortunately, my timing was perfect.

Half a beat later, Jeong Hogun glanced toward Prince Shangshan, then followed the direction of my finger.

Splash. Splash.

With every step, blood mixed with rainwater that had yet to dry.

Surrounded by another group of Embroidered Uniform Guards, dozens of bloodied men were being dragged somewhere. Jeong Hogun saw them and answered.

“You can see for yourself. Prisoners.”

“Anyone can see that. I asked what they did.”

“Those men belong to the Imperial Astronomical Bureau. Or rather, they used to.”

“The Imperial Astronomical Bureau?”

“It’s the institution that observes and analyzes the heavens. They’ll be punished for failing to predict last night’s lightning and torrential rain.”

“…!”

“Don’t waste any more time on something so irrelevant. His Majesty is waiting.”

I answered with a silent nod, but the sight of the prisoners’ backs, already receding into the distance, wouldn’t leave my mind.

These people are seriously insane.

They’d beaten men half to death just because they hadn’t predicted the weather.

That seemed far too brutal to write off as the way things were in this era.

No. Even for this era, that’s not normal.

Once I started looking at things differently, I noticed more.

Even as I hurried along behind the Embroidered Uniform Guard, I studied the expressions of the palace attendants, whose faces I hadn’t paid much attention to before.

Their faces and movements were stiff as wooden dolls. Whenever their eyes flicked toward the soldiers stationed all around them, I could see a tremor they hadn’t managed to hide.

Everyone is afraid.

By the Emperor’s will—or even by a single word from him—someone could be tortured or killed.

No matter how brave they were, they wouldn’t dare refuse or show their displeasure.

This was the imperial palace, where not even the smallest mistake could be tolerated. The Emperor had taken the throne by killing countless high officials and even his own blood relatives. His power must be absolute.

The cold, oppressive atmosphere I could feel against my skin wasn’t something I could explain away as merely the product of an age ruled by absolute monarchs.

Rule by terror.

A wise and benevolent ruler embraced people with kindness as vast as the sea.

A tyrant drove them with spears and fear into a thorny enclosure of his own making.

I’d heard plenty of stories about such rulers, though I’d never encountered one myself. Even so, I had a good idea what kind of person the current Son of Heaven was.

And the biggest problem was…

I’m going to meet that tyrant of my own free will.

Out of habit, I felt inside my clothes and found the small bundle of pills made by the Divine Physician.

Oddly enough, remembering their unbelievably foul stench made me feel a little better.

If—if I had to fight here, what would happen?

Whether I should call it reassuring or not, based on what I’d seen so far, the Embroidered Uniform Guard stationed in the imperial palace numbered in the thousands, perhaps as many as ten thousand.

That alone was enough to make a great army. Still, compared to the combined forces in the Imperial Capital and its surrounding areas, they might as well have been fairies.

The real issue is the Supreme Peak masters loyal to the Emperor. And the System is unavailable because of the update.

Not being able to use the System was an enormous penalty.

With the System down, I couldn’t gain EXP, let alone recover by leveling up.

On top of that, my Inventory—which had served me so well whenever I caught enemies off guard with an unexpected attack—was firmly shut.

If I’d known this would happen, I should’ve taken White Flame out of my Inventory the last time I logged out in Murim. Or at least the Fire Dragon Armor.

I’d only been able to fight as recklessly as I had because I could level up. And I’d beaten masters in higher realms than mine thanks in large part to my Inventory and divine weapons.

But…right now, I had nothing.

No System to save my life in a dangerous moment. No divine weapons.

All I had was a bundle of pills that even the neighborhood mongrel would spit out, and a body that would get worse unless I forced those rotten-smelling things down.

Oh, and I had a few other things, too.

A young prince and a eunuch I had to protect. And some damn idiot with a bad snoring problem.

Perfect.

At this point, I was almost tempted to ask Prince Shangshan to assassinate the Son of Heaven. I called out to Jeong Hogun, who was walking silently ahead of us, just in case.

“Hey, can I ask you something? Ever heard of chokbeop sonyeon²?”

“Chokbeop what?”

“Chokbeop sonyeon².”

“What’s that? Never heard of it.”

“…Never mind.”

Now that I thought about it, people were being implicated by association and killed one after another. What good would being too young for criminal prosecution do here?

I pictured a sweet little fantasy that could never come true.

The Emperor, collapsed in a pool of blood. Embroidered Uniform Guards rushing in from every direction at the sound of a scream. And Prince Shangshan, grinning triumphantly with a dagger in his hand.

“Your Majesty! Your Majesty!”

“Yep. Killed my imperial brother, didn’t I?”

“Your Highness Prince Shangshan! What have you done?”

“The Embroidered Uniform Guard can’t do a thing, can you? Now I’m the Emperor, right?”

“His Majesty has been assassinated! Apprehend the traitor Zhu Bao at once!”

“Yep. I’m still too young to be prosecuted!”

“……”

It was a sweet fantasy, but now that I thought about it, it seemed pretty serious in its own way.

Becoming Emperor because he was too young to be prosecuted.

If this were a Western fantasy setting, wouldn’t they call him Brat the First?

“Jin Taekyung. Why are you looking at me like that?”

“Ah, it’s nothing.”

I couldn’t exactly tell Prince Shangshan what I’d been thinking. I was trying to dodge his question when it happened.

Vrrrrmm.

The air shook violently.

With an oppressive weight like ten thousand geun³, two middle-aged men who looked exactly alike appeared and blocked our procession.

“Stop.”

“Stop.”

The twins, identical in face and build, spoke in unison. It looked a little ridiculous—but I didn’t laugh.

Supreme Peak masters.

No doubt about it. This place was a demon-slaying battleground.