Chapter 895

The pavilion’s interior was as dark as a cave.

I listened to the heavy rain outside the window and quietly turned over what Ma Sanbao had just said. I thought, too, of the eunuch who’d led me here as if he’d been waiting for me all along.

“You already knew?”

Ma Sanbao nodded.

“About two shichen¹ ago, the assassins reported that you’d discovered who they were. They were concerned it might interfere with the job.”

You’d have to be remarkably oblivious not to realize that concerned was putting it mildly.

Especially when the people involved were assassins.

“So the assassins you hired wanted to kill me.”

“Not exactly. But you know what kind of people assassins are.”

“I’ve never dealt with them firsthand, but I have a general idea. And you brought people like that into this.”

“I had no choice. Pay them a fair price, and they’re more loyal than anyone.”

“So what did you tell them to do about me?”

“…My friend.”

Ma Sanbao studied me with a furrowed brow, then went on with a sigh.

“Don’t mistake me for a madman like the Son of Heaven. You came all this way, a thousand li,² to help His Highness Prince Shangshan. They’re merely assassins carrying out a job they were promised payment for. Which of you is the more trustworthy ally?”

“Well…”

“You, of course. Is that enough of an answer?”

Not yet.

I barely managed to keep the words from coming out.

Right. Not yet.

Was it everything I’d experienced up to now? Or had my head simply grown as cold as the rain outside?

Instinct told me it would be a bad idea to lay all my thoughts bare. Instead, I nodded as if I accepted his answer and brought up the question I’d set aside.

“Then did you know about So Gyo, too?”

“No. I deliberately withheld information about the assassins because I knew how people like you in Murim would see them, but… she’s different.”

The shadow I thought I saw fall over Ma Sanbao’s face wasn’t just a trick of the darkness.

“We didn’t tell you about that woman who goes by So Gyo because we didn’t know much about her ourselves.”

“You didn’t know? The East Depot, of all people?”

The Embroidered Uniform Guard and the East Depot were vast intelligence organizations with roots all across the land. Even after the East Depot’s power had diminished in the wake of the coup, it was hard to believe it could have missed what was happening in the imperial palace—practically its own stronghold.

“Tell me more.”

“All right. Perhaps it’ll give you a little more reason to trust me.”

Reading the distrust in my eyes, Ma Sanbao smiled bitterly.

“It was more than ten years ago that So Gyo—or rather, an unidentified master—first appeared.”

His voice carried through the rain as it slowly began to ease.

He finished his story.

Ma Sanbao had spoken without pause for about fifteen minutes. He took a flask from his belt, while I stared at him, bewildered.

“Why are you only telling me all this now? If I’d known sooner…”

“I was afraid.”

Ma Sanbao had just raised the flask to his lips. He went on.

“It may sound like an excuse, but I couldn’t help it. I didn’t think the forces I’ve gathered so far would be able to handle her.”

The sharp smell of liquor drifted from the mouth of the flask. Noticing my gaze, Ma Sanbao tossed it to me.

“Want a drink? You look like you could use one.”

I caught it on reflex. After a moment’s hesitation, I brought it to my lips.

After a story like that, I needed a drink. I could have drunk a whole jar without getting particularly drunk anyway, so I took several long gulps.

It burned on the way down, its sharp aroma filling my mouth. Strong liquor—the cheap kind sold at any inn in the land.

“Maybe it’s because you’re from the north, but you certainly know how to drink.”

I grimaced and swallowed what was still in my mouth.

“I’m surprised. I thought you’d drink something better.”

“What, you thought the East Depot’s Brush-Holding Eunuch was too good for cheap strong liquor?”

Ma Sanbao gave a quiet laugh and shook his head.

“No matter how high I’ve risen, strong liquor is what I am at heart. I came from the bottom, just like this liquor you can find anywhere. And like it, I don’t readily reveal what I keep inside. To survive in the imperial palace, you have to hide your feelings behind a sharp smell like this one. In that sense, perhaps So Gyo and I are alike.”

So Gyo.

I turned the name over in my mind, along with the unbelievable story I’d just heard.

“Is it all true?”

“What do you think? Does it sound like a lie?”

“I want an answer.”

“If you want my word, then yes. Every bit of it is true. I’ll stake my life on it.”

Ma Sanbao’s face was grave as he answered. Then he turned toward the window.

Beyond it, the rain had grown much lighter. His eyes, fixed on the thinning rain, had sunk deep.

“I can say this much for certain: without So Gyo, the coup that day would never have succeeded. Cang Gong wouldn’t be bedridden as he is now, either.”

So Gyo had first appeared more than ten years ago, on the day the imperial palace was engulfed in war.

“Hong Jin may not have known, since he stayed by the late Emperor’s side throughout, but as I said, the East Depot did everything it could to stop the coup.”

If Ma Sanbao’s story was true, Cang Gong—now laid low by illness—had been a remarkable man.

He had served the late Emperor even before Baek Yeon, and Ma Sanbao said his martial arts were on a level comparable to Baek Yeon’s, despite Baek being hailed as the strongest warrior in the imperial family.

“Lord Cang Gong was the first to sense something was wrong. He summoned the Imperial Guards from the outskirts of the Imperial Capital and moved to repel the rebels with the East Depot forces inside the palace.”

Ma Sanbao had served under Cang Gong at the time. He’d believed they stood a good chance if they could defeat the Embroidered Uniform Guard in the palace and take back the late Emperor.

Until one person appeared.

“The life-and-death duel between Baek Yeon and Lord Cang Gong was evenly matched. If it had stayed that way, we could have put down the coup. Once the Imperial Guards joined us, even the Embroidered Uniform Guard couldn’t have held out. But…”

Ma Sanbao’s voice hardened.

“Things don’t always go the way you want.”

An unidentified master dressed entirely in black appeared, and the tide turned sharply against them.

Cang Gong couldn’t withstand the combined assault of the two Supreme Peak masters. He collapsed with severe Internal Injuries, and the balance of the battle fell apart.

“Our forces were by no means weaker than the Embroidered Uniform Guard. The only reason we lost was that figure in black… No, that unidentified master we now call So Gyo.”

Ma Sanbao reached for the flask I’d handed back to him, as though his throat had gone dry. But his fingers had begun to tremble, and it slipped from his hand.

It struck the floor with a hollow thud and rolled away. Liquor spilled from the half-full flask.

Ma Sanbao stared at the spreading puddle, his eyes heavy, and murmured as if to himself.

“What I saw her do that day was… chilling. In the face of that overwhelming aura, I couldn’t do a thing.”

I suddenly remembered So Gyo’s energy, calm as a spring breeze from beginning to end. And the terrifying wave of power that surged from her in that brief instant.

“She surely wasn’t even going all out.”

Was this what it felt like to face a wall you could never climb?

I’d met countless powerful people, allies and enemies alike. Fewer than ten had ever made me feel that kind of pressure.

And every one of them belonged to the Three Saints or was a master who could stand as their equal.

They had gone beyond Supreme Peak, the realm every martial artist dreamed of, and stepped into something higher.

Jeok Cheongang had finally reached the realm of Returned to Youth after casting off the Heart Demon that had worn away at his mind and body for years. So Gyo, too, was a master for whom even a match for ten thousand men was no exaggeration.

“So that’s why you chose me. No—me and my Master.”

“That’s right. Just as I told you before.”

With the truth laid bare, Ma Sanbao continued grimly.

“Someone who would come a thousand li² to help Prince Shangshan. Someone who would put human decency ahead of any reward. And…”

“Another master capable of facing the unidentified expert at the Emperor’s side. The Fire King, Jeok Cheongang. Am I right?”

Ma Sanbao was silent for a moment, then nodded weakly.

“Exactly. That’s why I put your name in the secret letter to Hong Jin. If Jeok Cheongang’s only Disciple risked going to the imperial palace, it wasn’t hard to guess his Master would come too.”

“Then you knew everything that happened in Nanman?”

“I’d been watching for some time. Not Nanman—you.”

“Why didn’t you formally ask the Murim Alliance for help? Wouldn’t that have been much better?”

“I know quite a bit about its current Alliance Leader, Sword Saint Mae Jonghak. Cang Gong once called him one of the few true chivalrous heroes left in this age.”

“Then why choose me or my Master?”

“The fewer people who know a secret, the better. Especially when the secret is a coup.”

“Ah.”

At my low murmur, Ma Sanbao smiled bitterly.

“We call ourselves a restoration army, but to the rest of the world, we’re traitors. And if our ties to Murim came to light, nothing good would come of it.”

Murim was a forest within the borders of the Great Nation, but its people also openly defied the laws of the land.

If the Murim Alliance intervened, it would be like bringing a foreign force into this crucial fight for the throne. A pack of beasts beyond the fence, without even leashes to restrain them.

“Of course, the current Alliance Leader likely wants to help us. The secret order he gave you to guard Prince Shangshan tells me as much.”

“That’s true. We also have to keep a close eye on every move the imperial family makes.”

“But that’s as far as he can go. If he asked the Alliance to formally join the restoration army, how many of its leaders would agree?”

“Well…”

My voice trailed off.

A coup.

Just thinking of the word sent a chill down my spine.

The Heavenly Demon, who supposedly ruled the Demonic Cult like a king, might have been able to make that decision alone. An elected Alliance Leader could not.

The Nine Sects and One Gang. The Five Great Families. And all the other sects beneath the Murim Alliance’s banner.

Winning the support of most of them would be next to impossible. Right or wrong, a coup was a gamble that could ruin entire families in an instant.

“And so, Blazing Flame Divine Dragon Jin Taekyung, I ask you formally.”

The rain that had poured down without letup had stopped as if by magic. Ma Sanbao’s eyes flashed in the darkness.

“Will you join forces with me—no, with us?”

His voice rang clear, full of force.

“Will you help us set this troubled land to rights and put His Highness Prince Shangshan on the throne?”

“…!”

My body trembled before I could stop it.

A bolt of lightning struck through the tangled mess in my head.

For a moment I said nothing, staring at Ma Sanbao. The silence was brief, yet it felt longer than any I’d known. Then I spoke.

“Do you still have that joint pledge you showed me last time?”

At the meaning behind my words, a bright smile spread across Ma Sanbao’s face.