Chapter 880

A fire rising from a dense bed of reeds was not easily stopped, even by fierce wind and rain.

Neither were the rumors that had suddenly begun sweeping through the Imperial Capital.

“Have you heard? His Highness, Prince Shangshan, is in the imperial palace right now…”

“They say the Emperor finally has an heir.”

“I heard they’ll hold a great banquet soon. That must be why His Highness, Prince Shangshan, returned after more than ten years.”

“But an heir? Does that mean Her Majesty the Empress is pregnant?”

“Who knows for sure? Jang next door told me it’s a new concubine the Emperor recently took…”

“Jang next door? The butcher?”

“That’s the one. You know him too?”

“Of course. That man knows how to slaughter livestock. But where on earth did he hear it?”

“From someone… what was his name? Oh, right. Wu, who runs the shop across the street.”

“Then who did Wu hear it from?”

“Li the woodcutter.”

Even the Embroidered Uniform Guard, said to be capable of catching a bird in flight and dragging it off to prison, could scarcely silence so many mouths.

The rumors spread so quickly that the imperial palace’s towering walls might as well not have been there. In a single night, the Embroidered Uniform Guard dragged away hundreds of people.

“If you want to live, tell us everything. Which bastard has been spreading this nonsense?”

“Eek! I’ll tell you! I’ll tell you everything!”

Everyone knew what happened when the Embroidered Uniform Guard took someone away. You were as good as dead. Even the highest officials could be cut down like weeds.

The prisoners knew that reputation well. Before the guards even brought out the instruments of torture, they told them everything they knew. Yet for all the ease of the interrogations, the Guard learned nothing useful.

“What did they say?”

“All of them say the same thing. They heard it from ordinary neighbors with no ties to the imperial palace, street vendors, or strangers they met at inns and pleasure houses.”

“Damn it.”

Countless names had come up during the interrogations, but every lead was an empty shell. The people the prisoners named were utterly ordinary, and the source of the rumors spreading across the capital remained a mystery.

It was like being ordered to find a vein of gold in an exhausted mine.

But they were the Embroidered Uniform Guard. In this vast realm, they owed absolute loyalty to one person alone: the Emperor. Whatever the circumstances, they had to produce results.

“Begin the interrogation in earnest.”

“Pardon?”

“Use whatever methods you need. Find the culprits as quickly as possible.”

“B-but those people…”

“They’ve thrown the Great Nation into turmoil with baseless rumors and sullied His Majesty’s name. Are they subjects of this country, or traitors?”

The officers fell silent at their superior’s command. They knew the prisoners trembling in their cells were nothing more than ignorant commoners.

Just as no storeroom was so clean that shaking it wouldn’t stir up dust, countless high officials had passed through the Guard’s prison, each with a crime or two to their name, great or small.

But these people were ordinary subjects. When the wind blew, they bent; when it rained, they got wet.

And now the officers were to torture them. They had to send their superiors results, even if it meant killing those people horribly or leaving them half-crippled.

The officers took pride in punishing corrupt and disloyal people in power to set the Great Nation in order. This left them uneasy.

But…

“Answer me!”

At their superior’s renewed roar, they realized they had nowhere left to retreat. Military discipline was strict, especially in an institution as powerful as the Embroidered Uniform Guard.

“We obey the Thousand Captain’s orders.”

They answered reluctantly and were about to return to the cells when a quiet voice stopped them.

“Everyone, halt.”

A middle-aged man appeared and swept his gaze over them. His golden armor was spotless, his bearing imposing. The Thousand Captain recognized him at once, his eyes widening.

“Thousand Captain Jeong?”

Jeong Hogun gave a curt nod.

“It’s been a while, Thousand Captain Hong. How are the interrogations of last night’s prisoners going?”

“We’ll have proper results soon. But what do you mean, halt?”

“Just what I said. Stop. There’s nothing more to uncover.”

The Thousand Captain, who had been roaring at his subordinates moments ago, frowned at Jeong Hogun’s firm reply.

“You’re interfering more than usual today. Are you planning to overstep your authority?”

“Of course not.”

“Then what is this? No matter how much the Guard Commander favors you, this is clearly—”

“An imperial order.”

“What?”

“I said it’s an imperial order. The moment you receive it, you are to stop interrogating or torturing the prisoners brought in last night and release every one of them within half an hour. His Majesty commands it.”

“……!”

“What are you all waiting for? Obey the imperial order.”

Jeong Hogun’s sudden arrival settled the matter in an instant.

The Embroidered Uniform Guard officers knelt and formally received the imperial command, then streamed away like the tide to release the hundreds of prisoners. Their superior, the Thousand Captain, asked Jeong Hogun with a stony expression,

“What’s going on? And what about our report?”

“Forget the whole matter. That is His Majesty’s will.”

Jeong Hogun’s voice was as flat and unreadable as ever.

“I’ll get straight to the point. The rumors are true.”

“What?”

“I said they’re all true. The imperial court will make an official announcement soon. The Embroidered Uniform Guard will be responsible for the task.”

“……!”

“His Majesty has a good idea where the rumors came from, but he says there’s no point trying to establish the exact facts. Whoever planned and spread them so thoroughly will have left almost no evidence.”

“T-then…”

“A banquet will soon be held at the imperial palace to celebrate. His Highness, Prince Shangshan, will attend, as will every civil and military official. Until you receive further orders, see to security inside and outside the palace.”

The matter of the Emperor’s heir had been a closely guarded secret known to only a handful of people. The Thousand Captain had known of Prince Shangshan’s return, but nothing of this. His face hardened like stone.

“You mean to confirm all of it—and announce it to the people? Now?”

“Exactly.”

“Do you understand what that means, Thousand Captain Jeong? Or are you pretending you don’t?”

“I understand well enough. Including something else you’re overlooking.”

“Something I’m overlooking? What are you—”

“What a mere military officer like me can guess, surely His Majesty the Emperor knows.”

“……!”

“Follow the order.”

Jeong Hogun left the speechless Thousand Captain behind. As he passed the dark cells and the people emerging from them one by one, he thought:

This is where it begins.

He could feel it: a great storm that would soon sweep through this splendid city called the Imperial Capital—no, through the whole realm.

The imperial court’s formal announcement would be the first arrow, signaling everything to come.

Many people will gather. Many words will be exchanged.

The people drawn into this now would not be ordinary folk like those filling the cells. The so-called educated classes would take notice. Those with power, who could grasp what was happening and act on it, would begin to move.

And in the process…

At last, we’ll know friend from foe.

Until war began, there was no telling who was an enemy and who was an ally. But when everyone drew their weapons and the fighting began in earnest, with no retreat possible, the truth would finally show itself.

Whatever form it took.

What choice will that bastard make in this war?

Jeong Hogun thought of a young man he could never quite figure out.

A reckless young ruffian of the martial world who had thrown himself into the eye of the storm.

“As daring as ever. Just like a little over ten years ago.”

Hong Jin broke a long silence with those words, and I nodded quietly. I felt the same way.

This is more than I expected.

As soon as Ma Sanbao received the information I’d given him after my visit to Qianqing Palace, he acted. He sent trusted subordinates across the Imperial Capital to spread rumors about Prince Shangshan’s whereabouts and everything concerning the Emperor’s heir—which we still hadn’t confirmed for certain.

But what the Emperor did next caught me completely off guard.

I can’t believe he admitted it right away.

Even celebrities caught red-handed by Daspatch usually spend a day or two keeping quiet and denying the dating rumors. The Emperor had gone beyond admitting the rumors and announced them outright.

All in less than a day.

He sure is quick to act, but what on earth is he up to?

The more widely this became known, the worse it was for the Emperor. Unless the thing on his shoulders was purely decorative, anyone with a drop of ink on their hands and a working brain would come to roughly the same conclusion.

—Huh? The Emperor secretly brought Prince Shangshan into the palace?

—Huh? There’s an Emperor Junior, and he hid that until he got caught?

—Huh? Now I’m pissed.

Those thoughts led to one conclusion:

—The Emperor might get rid of Prince Shangshan!

It would be one thing if he had a good reputation to begin with. But wasn’t the current Son of Heaven the one who’d come to the throne after unleashing a river of blood?

A first-time offender might get probation for a minor crime. Nobody was going to trust a murderer with a record.

They might pretend not to notice because they’re afraid of him, though.

In Go terms,¹ the Emperor had made a terrible move. For us, though, it meant we could breathe a little easier. We’d tried to buy time so he couldn’t recklessly threaten Prince Shangshan, and now that protection seemed firmer.

“Isn’t this a decent situation? Whatever else, the imperial court has acknowledged everything in its own name. For now, the threats surrounding His Highness, Prince Shangshan, will disappear.”

Hyuk Mujin had spoken cautiously, watching for their reactions. Hong Jin nodded.

“You’re not wrong. But we always have to consider the worst.”

“The worst…?”

“Young Master Jin, you can probably guess. You’ve experienced for yourself what the current Emperor is like.”

At their gaze, I smacked my lips and slowly began.

“Personally, I see two possibilities. One good, one bad. Which do you want first?”

“Hmm. I think I’d rather hear the bad one first.”

“Mujin.”

“Yes?”

“Read the room.”

“Yes.”

Hong Jin looked sympathetically at Hyuk Mujin, who had quietly shut his mouth, then spoke.

“The good one first.”

The good possibility.

I sorted through my thoughts once more, then slowly parted my lips.

“First: now that he’s made it public, the Emperor will find it hard to lay a hand on his only younger brother, and he’ll send him back safely after the banquet.”

“I like that one, but… what’s the bad one?”

“Second, now that things have come to this, he decides he can take being cursed out one more time and kills off every remaining dissident.”

Hong Jin fell silent. After a long while, he murmured, his expression dark.

“This banquet… could become a Hongmen Banquet.²”