Even the heart of the Martial Alliance, lined with enormous halls, had its shadowed corners.
Screams echoed from one such back path, chiefly used by low-ranking warriors and servants who had nothing to gain by catching their superiors' eyes.
“S-spare me.......”
“Aaaaargh!”
THUD, THWACK—!
“How dare the likes of you mock me?”
The one mercilessly beating the bloodied men as they desperately tried to flee was Dang Si-jeong.
“W-we did not know you would come this way, Clan Head!”
“How could we have done it if we had known?”
The men curled up as tightly as they could and begged for mercy, but that only enraged him further.
“For lowborn scum like you, being slow-witted is a crime! Ignorance is a crime too!”
Their greatest crime of all was simply their bad luck.
His mood had not been good lately, but today it had reached its absolute worst.
“What? There is no possibility the information you gave me was wrong?”
He was not speaking to the men sprawled before him.
His fury was directed at the person he had just met.
“Even if there was a problem somewhere along the way, I only gave you that information out of goodwill, yet you came running to complain the instant things did not go your way? And then you even lectured me that no matter how people whisper that I am only half a Clan Head, I should not forget a Clan Head's dignity and behave so frivolously?”
Dang Si-jeong recited what he had heard as if the other person stood before him.
That was when he wandered without direction and entered a road he had never seen before.
He lowered his gaze to the men writhing beneath him like vermin.
“You must also think I am only half a Clan Head, a man who failed to earn his father's recognition and gained the position through the Council of Elders' insistence, and that is why you ran your mouths so freely. My father said my temper was violent and my aptitude base, unworthy of the legitimate line. What about you? Do you think the same?”
When Dang Si-jeong asked with venom gleaming in his eyes, the men shook their heads desperately.
“No. A-absolutely not!”
Dang Si-jeong nodded.
“Right, you do not. So this is not revenge born of my private feelings. You are receiving the punishment you deserve for mocking the noble Dang Clan's Clan Head.”
Dang Si-jeong slowly raised his foot.
***
Ga Jeong-hak, who had once again secretly visited the Alliance Leader's office, enjoyed refreshments, and spent a long while there, widened his eyes at the sight before him.
Someone whose face he recognized was trampling a group of men.
What he heard was even more outrageous.
“Wow. Are you a son of a bitch?”
It was enough to make him want to offer a greeting without thinking.
“I have heard your fine introduction. It seems you are an even bigger son of a bitch than the rumors say.”
Whatever else might be said of the former Clan Head Dang who had refused to make his eldest legitimate son the successor, the man seemed to possess an eye for character.
At the very least, he had apparently not tried to seat a son of a bitch in a man's place.
Startled by Ga Jeong-hak's presence, Dang Si-jeong identified him and flicked his fingertips at once.
WHIZZ—! WHIZZZ—!
The hidden weapons that any member of the Dang Clan carried at all times hurtled toward Ga Jeong-hak.
“Is this because you are a son of a bitch? Someone greets you, and you start by swiping your claws?”
As if it were nothing, Ga Jeong-hak twisted his upper body and lightly avoided the hidden weapons.
Yet even the most wretched martial artist had one final move!
WHIIIIIZ—!
After he evaded every hidden weapon, a feather needle Dang Si-jeong had launched later with a deliberate delay flew straight at the point between his brows.
SNATCH—!
Of course, a move that seemed impressive to him would not necessarily seem so to his opponent.
Ga Jeong-hak caught the feather needle between his index and middle fingers, then sent it straight back.
WHIZZZ—!
“Gasp!”
Dang Si-jeong jumped in shock when the feather needle buried itself at his feet.
Then, seemingly realizing how ridiculous he looked, his face twisted violently.
“A demonic fiend of the Demon Alliance has attacked a martial artist of the righteous path inside the Martial Alliance!”
“What are you talking about? I only returned something you threw at me without warning.”
“Martial Wheel, was it not already wrong for you to leave Floating Cloud Pavilion and wander the heart of the Martial Alliance as you pleased?! Attacking an intruder is only natural!”
Seeing his chance, Dang Si-jeong tried to pin the crime on Ga Jeong-hak.
Ga Jeong-hak scratched his cheek.
Clan Head Dang was not making his accusation up from nothing, but still.......
“You are the only one who saw me here, are you not?”
If he quietly disappeared and claimed that he had never left Floating Cloud Pavilion, and that Clan Head Dang, who bore the Demon Alliance a grudge, was framing him, what could they possibly do about it?
Besides.
“Unlike me, you must have quite a lot to hide, do you not?”
Ga Jeong-hak pointed with his chin at the men lying unconscious, beaten to a pulp.
Dang Si-jeong had refrained from using inner arts when he struck them, not for their sake, but because an investigation would begin if so many people—even low-ranking warriors—suddenly died inside the Alliance.
He must have thought there would be no real problem as long as he silenced them somehow and sent them away alive.
Of course, that had been before Ga Jeong-hak appeared.
“If you try to drag me into this, I will have to tell them what I saw. Then what will you do when your already dreadful reputation turns into complete garbage? The character of a Clan Head from one of the Five Great Clans, so appalling that even a demonic fiend of the Demon Alliance was shocked. I can practically hear the Martial Alliance leadership choking.”
A playful glint entered his rugged face as he shrugged.
“When that happens, everyone in the Martial Alliance and beyond will shout the same thing at you as our Demon Alliance's Wood Banner Captain did.”
‘Is that the Martial Alliance's justice?!’
Dang Si-jeong could not suppress the rage surging within him.
Had he not beaten those low-ranking warriors precisely because of those words they had been snickering over and imitating among themselves?!
“Urk!”
His insides churned until he vomited blood, and Ga Jeong-hak tilted his head innocently as if wondering what was wrong.
He looked almost guileless, but Dang Si-jeong knew.
That bastard, and every other demonic fiend of the Demon Alliance, was a demon!
When it became clear Dang Si-jeong had no intention of stopping him, Ga Jeong-hak did not forget to leave him with one last piece of advice.
“So if you do not want to see us, stop wasting time testing the waters and sizing us up to break our spirit, and start the negotiations quickly. The sooner the negotiations end, the sooner we can get the hell out of the Martial Alliance, can we not? Think carefully about that—and about what happened today.”
Ga Jeong-hak even waved before vanishing as if he had never been there.
Left alone, Dang Si-jeong clutched his head.
“Why the hell are you doing this to me?!”
He felt as if he were going mad.
Not long afterward, word arrived that the Martial Alliance wished to begin negotiations for convening the Grand Martial Conference.
“Oh, that actually worked?”
Ga Jeong-hak grinned as he turned to Oh Chi-yeong and Cheol Myeong-hwan.
The two men, who had heard what happened a few days earlier, also looked surprised.
And was Dang Si-jeong not merely a member of the leadership, but the man responsible for receiving the Demon Alliance envoy delegation?!
For him to brave the consequences, step forward, and force matters along meant......
“Just how much does he hate us?”
“When hatred burns this fiercely, it is love! As expected, it seems anything decisive is better than something halfhearted, hahahaha!”
Cheol Myeong-hwan took up Oh Chi-yeong's remark and laughed loudly.
Oh Chi-yeong nodded along vaguely, then straightened his posture and took a breath.
He reminded himself once more of the value he had to hold most dear.
The day set for the Grand Martial Conference negotiations arrived.
Oh Chi-yeong opened his eyes wide.
“Why are you putting on airs again? From the way you have been acting lately, Captain, I am worried your eyes really will split from side to side.”
“You know it too, Deputy Captain. I look too gentle. I have to practice making a stern face like this so no one thinks I am an easy mark.”
Cheol Myeong-hwan scratched his head.
“...That might have been true before, but now you already seem quite.......”
As they spoke, the Demon Alliance envoy delegation arrived before a massive door.
Cheol Myeong-hwan closed his mouth, while Oh Chi-yeong fixed his gaze straight ahead and faced the Martial Alliance figures watching them through the wide-open doors.
The placement of the table at the center, the refreshments prepared, even the positions and order of every person lined up—each detail undoubtedly held meaning.
The negotiations had begun before they ever reached the door.
***
Yeo-hwa prepared lunch and headed for the pavilion in the garden her master had often visited of late.
Her master sat in a sunny spot, reading something.
There was no possibility he had failed to sense her presence, so Yeo-hwa stopped and decided to wait until he called her.
Then she spotted the tiny figure curled up at her master's feet and her eyes widened.
‘Mi-a?’
The other woman, whose eyes had been closed, happened to open them and look at Yeo-hwa.
Yeo-hwa showed her delight, but the other woman remained impassive.
Dark Wheel closed her eyes again with her head against her master's leg.
As though she knew that his shadow was the safest place to rest.
For Dark Wheel, who must have lived under constant threat, how profound that sense of peace must have been.......
Yeo-hwa could not even imagine it.
Thus Yeo-hwa waited at a distance, content simply to watch the heartwarming scene.
Eventually, Wi So-baek looked up from the letter and turned his gaze toward her.
“The site of the Grand Martial Conference has been decided.”
Yeo-hwa tensed.
An event of that scale would enormously increase the preparations she had to make as the Demon Alliance's Chief Administrator and the person responsible for attending to her master's many needs.
Yeo-hwa came only as close as Mi-a would tolerate before asking.
“Where will it be?”
“Hubei, Wuchang.”
“Wuchang... is roughly midway between the Demon Alliance and the Martial Alliance, without favoring either side too heavily.”
“Yes. The message came by carrier pigeon, so it did not include the details, but it seems the Wood Banner Captain distinguished himself at the Martial Alliance.”
He had not been excessively greedy, yet had not allowed the Demon Alliance's standing to suffer either.
The negotiations had struck precisely the right balance, and in truth, Wi So-baek was a little surprised.
He had thought the Wood Banner Captain would not change so quickly and would be pushed around out of sheer good nature until the Martial Alliance squeezed every drop of benefit from him.
Or perhaps he would vie for credit with the tremendous zeal he had shown before leaving.
“What a relief.”
Yeo-hwa rejoiced as though it were her own good fortune.
Perhaps the only person in the Demon Alliance whom Yeo-hwa disliked was Law Wheel Gi Yun-cheong?
In any case, Wi So-baek dipped his chin in agreement.
It was fortunate that the Wood Banner Captain had handled the matter well, but.......
More than anything else, Wi So-baek was pleased that he would finally be able to meet his sworn younger brother again.
“The date is the last day of next month.”
“That is soon.”
“That is the part of the negotiations I like best.”
Perhaps sensing Wi So-baek's mood, Dark Wheel opened her eyes and looked up at him.
Her soundlessly moving lips asked whether he was happy.
“Yes. The news Mi-a brought has pleased me.”
Then he considered whom he should take to the Grand Martial Conference.
Wi So-baek suddenly looked down.
“Would you like to come as well?”
At Wi So-baek's question, Mi-a shifted her gaze between him and the letter in his hand.
She seemed to be confirming that he meant for them to go there.
“Yes. To the Grand Martial Conference.”
When Wi So-baek confirmed it, Mi-a sprang to her feet.