Chapter 937

“I heard it was important, so I took care of it as quickly as I could… Oh my, why’s the mood so grim?”

Hong Jin sensed the tension as soon as he entered the room. I answered with a troubled expression.

“It’s nothing.”

“Nothing? It sure looks like something happened.”

Hong Jin glanced between Hyuk Mujin and me, then murmured, his expression suddenly serious.

“Oh, that’s what it is? Hmm. But there’s nothing you can do about that.”

“…?”

“It’s all right, so don’t take it too hard. These things happen sometimes. It’s part of life.”

Could Hong Jin know, too?

He was now the East Depot eunuch, so it was entirely possible he knew about the Emperor’s illness.

Maybe he’d heard something while enthusiastically torturing rebels for the last three days.

Having reached what seemed like a reasonable conclusion, I cautiously asked, “You already knew?”

Hong Jin hesitated for a moment, then nodded.

“Yeah. I happened to hear.”

“It’s supposed to be top secret… More people know than I expected.”

“Eyes and ears are everywhere. No matter how tightly you try to keep something under wraps, word gets out eventually.”

Fair enough. The Emperor keeping quiet couldn’t protect every secret.

Every incident had victims and perpetrators, and perpetrators had mouths, too.

The rebels who were already dead—or waiting for death.

Some of those who’d passed through Hong Jin’s and the Embroidered Uniform Guard’s hands must have been close aides to the Eastern Heaven Demon Lord, and known the Emperor had been poisoned with Blood Soul Gu.

“You must’ve found out while interrogating the prisoners. Which ones knew?”

“What?”

“The prisoners who knew about it. They must have been closely connected to the Eastern Heaven Demon Lord.”

“Uh, well…”

Maybe it was a sensitive subject.

I realized my mistake too late and was about to wave it off when Hong Jin, who’d been blinking quietly, continued.

“I heard it from Taishan.”

“Ah. I see… Wait. Who?”

“Taishan. That huge guy.”

“…?”

No, something wasn’t right here.

Hyuk Mujin spoke up in my place.

“You mean the Taishan I know?”

“Yeah.”

“Built like a mountain, just like his name?”

“That’s right.”

“Usually an idiot, but smart whenever food comes up?”

“I don’t know about that part.”

“Obsessed with five-spice pork?”

“That part’s definitely true. Actually, some intelligence came in yesterday. According to my men, the imperial cooks tried to poison his food.”

If he was the imperial cooks’ number one assassination target, then it had to be the Taishan I knew.

Utterly confused, I asked, “How would he know about that?”

“How else? He saw it.”

“That can’t be right. He couldn’t have seen it.”

“He said he saw it clearly.”

“…What are you even talking about?”

“…That’s what I’d like to ask you. What’s all this about prisoners and interrogations?”

Hong Jin frowned at me, then went on.

“Weren’t you talking about ‘that thing’ that happened right after Young Master Jin woke up?”

“W-what?”

“You look really unsettled. Is that why? I told you it’s fine, so why are you still worrying? You just have a little more energy than other people.”

“…!”

Oh, shit.

My vision went dark in an instant, and my whole body trembled.

“How… how did you know?”

“It’s all over the palace. Didn’t you know?”

“It’s all over…?”

“I was away for a while, so I’m one of the last to hear. Less than two shichen¹ after you woke up, half the people in the Inner Palace probably knew.”

I couldn’t breathe. My hands and feet shook, and I felt like I was about to cry.

It was like turning on the TV one day out of boredom and finding a national broadcast channel throwing a wet-dream party for me.

Twitching like I was sick, I barely managed to force the words out.

“Taishan. Bring that bastard here right now.”

Hyuk Mujin, who’d frozen with his mouth hanging open, answered.

“I’m really sorry to say this, but Taishan’s stronger than I am.”

“Bring him here, no matter what!”

“Come on, Captain. You know he tears people apart with both hands.”

“I can tear you apart with one.”

“Ah. Aah.”

Hyuk Mujin let out a brief yelp and dashed out. Sensing the mood turn heavy, Hong Jin spoke with a troubled expression.

“Young Master Jin. Don’t take it so hard.”

For the moment, even my worries about treating the Blood Soul Gu had been driven from my mind.

I groaned at his attempt to comfort me. “Easy for you to say when it’s not happening to you.”

“I told you it’s fine.”

“What’s fine? Have you ever been in a situation like mine?”

At my sharp question, Hong Jin answered with a sad smile.

“Of course not. I had it cut off a long time ago.”

“…”

“Just look on the bright side. I’m actually jealous of you, Young Master Jin. Especially during the rainy season, it aches so much down there that sometimes I can barely walk without poppy…”

“Okay, I get it. I get it, so please stop.”

Using his eunuch trump card—one he pulled out whenever he was bored—to shut me up, Hong Jin held out something he’d been carrying and continued.

“I was going to do that anyway. I’m a busy man, too. I only came to hand over the item I was asked to deliver.”

My badly backfired question had snapped me to my senses. Only then did I notice the small iron chest in Hong Jin’s hand and remember why he’d come back.

The mysterious place the Eastern Heaven Demon Lord had told me about in his final moments.

The item he’d said to find there.

This is…

“It’s an iron chest, as you can see. I don’t know what’s inside or who left it there, though.”

“You didn’t open it?”

“Of course not. I promised you I wouldn’t.”

Hong Jin shrugged and added with a smile, “Besides, I wasn’t sure I could open it.”

He’d said it like a joke, but the moment I took the chest from him, I realized it wasn’t entirely one.

Ding.

System

Very Sturdy Iron Chest acquired.

New Item acquired. Would you like to appraise the Item and view its information?

I gave a slight nod, and a translucent holographic window opened between Hong Jin and me.

System

Item Window

Very Sturdy Iron Chest

Grade: Peak
Restriction: None
Description: An iron chest made by mixing in a small amount of Ten-Thousand-Year Cold Iron. As you’d expect, it’s incredibly durable—perfect for use as a shield or for storing precious belongings.

However, it has no fewer than five locks, so using it often may be a bit of a hassle.

I read the text quickly and swallowed a dry laugh.

Seriously? Even if it’s only a little, why use Ten-Thousand-Year Cold Iron in an iron chest…?

Ten-Thousand-Year Cold Iron was incredibly rare—and filthy expensive to match.

If a reasonably well-known smith used even four nyang² of it to forge a weapon, people would call it a fine sword. Use any more than that, and foul-tempered masters with a habit of spitting would descend on it like A-Gwi.

In short, it wasn’t something you could easily get just because you had money. And no matter how rich you were, any sane person would use it to forge a weapon.

There weren’t many people crazy and rich enough to mix Ten-Thousand-Year Cold Iron into an iron chest that was nothing more than a storage box.

Of course…

I can think of one right away.

I gave a bitter smile and ran my hand over the chest.

As if to prove it had been buried deep underground, its surface was damp, and patches of soil that hadn’t been brushed off gave off a strong earthy smell.

What could it be? What did you want to hide so badly?

I was thinking of the chest’s former owner, the Eastern Heaven Demon Lord, when Hong Jin rose to his feet with a wink.

“I’ll get going. I’d only be in your way if I stayed.”

He didn’t wait for my answer before leaving the room. Before closing the door, he passed along one more message.

“Oh, His Highness the Imperial Younger Brother asked me to tell you something.”

“What…?”

“He misses his one and only friend. He can’t come see you right now because of the circumstances, but he wants to make sure he sees you before he leaves.”

His one and only friend.

Remembering what he’d said when he gave me the Myriad-Poison Ring at Qianqing Palace, I couldn’t help laughing softly.

“Tell him I feel the same way.”

Hong Jin answered with a slight smile of his own, then left. Once I’d confirmed that all signs of life around me had disappeared, I set the iron chest on the floor and abruptly held out my hand.

Inventory open. Summon.

Ding.

With the brief command recited in my mind, familiar, cold metal settled into my grip.

White Flame.

My personal weapon, a divine weapon forged by the world’s greatest smith after a year of arduous work.

And the key—the physical kind—to that tightly locked iron chest and its five padlocks.

“Let’s see what you were so determined to keep hidden.”

I murmured, then brought the spearhead down without hesitation.

Slice.

A flash of light, and the metal split apart.

The blade passed cleanly through all five padlocks in a single stroke. I looked inside the chest.

This is…

I’d known from the moment I first picked up the iron chest, but its contents were as spare as its weight was light.

A dozen or so bamboo slips, so old they were practically rotting away.

Alongside them lay bundles of relatively recent-looking paper, still white and clean, and a small silk pouch.

What is this?

The moment I saw them, an inexplicable shiver ran down my spine.

These were the Eastern Heaven Demon Lord’s—or, to put it another way, what he’d left behind.

They had to be worth more than gold and more dangerous than gunpowder, in ways that couldn’t be measured by their weight or shape alone.

It didn’t take long for me to realize my instinct was right.

No—it took only moments.

Rustle.

The moment I untied the string around the bundle of papers on top, still pristine white, a bolt of lightning shot through the crown of my head.

“…!”

My entire body went rigid.

As I read the writing covering the pages, my eyes trembling, Hyuk Mujin’s voice reached me. I hadn’t heard him come back.

“Um, Captain. I don’t think I can bring him…”

His voice echoed as if from far away.

I struggled to contain the turmoil inside me and spoke.

“…Bring them.”

“What?”

“Bring everyone here. Now!”

“…!”

Hyuk Mujin’s face went rigid. He’d sensed something was wrong.