“The road on the right leads to Heavenly Center Pavilion, Righteous Pact Pavilion, and the other major halls overseen by the Martial Alliance leadership... If you go straight ahead from here, you will reach the Grand Meeting Hall and Alliance Leader's Hall. And if you turn left, you will find the Inner Hall and Outer Hall.......”
As they entered the Martial Alliance, Cho Myeong continued his explanation while repeatedly glancing behind him.
The Martial Alliance was an enormous coalition.
Hundreds of people came and went each day, and eccentrics and extraordinary figures of every description gathered there.
That ordinarily meant it was almost impossible to attract anyone's attention, but......
That did not apply to someone whose extraordinary beauty and great height remained impossible to hide even with half the face concealed behind a folding fan.
His immaculate robes gleamed softly, and not even the smallest ornament dangling from his belt was ordinary.
No one could have recognized the man as the Demon Alliance Leader, and he showed no trace whatsoever of having learned martial arts, but what did that matter?
Even as he was, the man possessed such a powerful presence that if he were placed not here but amid the Martial Alliance leadership, he could command everyone's attention and act the master without the slightest difficulty.
One only had to see the people coming the other way start in surprise and stop walking when they noticed him.
“Is he the owner of some wealthy merchant guild?”
“No, no. Look at that dignity. He must be the son of a powerful local family. Or perhaps the descendant of some high official in Beijing.”
They whispered among themselves, but every word was audible.
Their reactions were much the same regardless of age or gender, and Cho Myeong gradually reached a state of resignation.
Right.
Even Cho Myeong, who now shared a close bond with the Alliance Leader, had recognized the man only because he had revealed himself.
Who could possibly imagine the Demon Alliance Leader parading through the Martial Alliance while causing such a commotion?
The Alliance Leader must surely have considered everything before acting this way.
Probably?
...Please!
Cho Myeong squeezed his eyes shut, opened them, and was about to continue his explanation while rubbing his palms together ingratiatingly.
“Enough.”
“Pardon?”
“How far are you planning to go? Do you intend to draw me a map of the Martial Alliance?”
Cho Myeong stared as if asking whether that was not precisely why he had been summoned, and Wi So-baek furrowed his brow.
“Why would I need such a thing? I have Hall Master Cho.”
Me?
“The Demon Alliance already possesses a map of the Martial Alliance's interior. It is very detailed and shows every last corner, but looking at such things is not my task.”
“Ah, yes.”
“My task is to assign necessary work to someone who knows those things. So go to your office first, Hall Master Cho. I will tell you what you must do after that.”
“Understood.”
Had he known being a spy was this difficult, he would never have swallowed the bait when he visited the Demon Alliance.
Cho Myeong's shoulders slumped as he turned toward the road on the left, only to stop.......
“Y-you did not come alone?”
Only then did he notice the girl standing in the shadow cast by the Alliance Leader.
Had he not practically treated her as though she did not exist?!
Flustered, Cho Myeong recalled the sweets he took out whenever he wanted something to nibble on while he worked.
The instant he drew out the sweets wrapped in clean cotton cloth and offered them, the Alliance Leader's voice reached him.
“I came with Dark Wheel.”
Eek!
Cho Myeong looked down at the hand he had extended halfway.
It remained attached, rather than having been cut off.
Thank goodness.
Cho Myeong swallowed hard and looked at Dark Wheel, an assassin hailed as the greatest under heaven.
Only then did he realize that the figure whose presence was so utterly absent she seemed perfectly merged with the shadows was not a young girl, but a fully grown woman whose features merely retained a youthful air.
After his head stopped spinning, Cho Myeong quickly accepted it.
If the Demon Alliance Leader was here, why could Dark Wheel not be here as well?
Even if this was the Martial Alliance and Cho Myeong himself, the Outer Hall Master, was the one receiving them!
Clutching the sweets tightly, Cho Myeong guided the two to his office.
Cho Myeong stared blankly at the Alliance Leader, who naturally occupied the seat of honor and issued orders as if the office belonged to him, and thought.
So this was what people meant by one mountain beyond another.
“What are you doing?”
Cho Myeong regained his senses only after the Alliance Leader spoke again.
“Yes! I will move at once!”
Then Cho Myeong fled as though being chased, his back looking infinitely desolate.
Before completely withdrawing, Cho Myeong spoke into his own office with utmost politeness.
“Th-then please rest here.”
SLAM—!
Only after hurrying outside and firmly closing the door could Cho Myeong release a long sigh.
“Haaaa.”
A bomb capable of blowing away the entire Martial Alliance sat inside his office.
Yet he was about to fetch another bomb.
After rubbing both hands over his dry face, Cho Myeong straightened his back and steadied his breathing.
The single fact that made this unavoidable was far more powerful than the hundreds of reasons he should not do it, so he could not delay.
“He is more useful than he looks. I should reward him.”
As Wi So-baek spoke while stroking Mi-a's hair where she sat at his feet, Mi-a looked toward the closed door.
Quite some time passed before that door opened again.
Alliance Leader's Hall did not reject the Outer Hall Master's somewhat abrupt request to deliver an in-person report about a matter requiring consultation.
The Alliance Leader was known for his gentle nature and for welcoming anyone who came to him, but Cho Myeong had still paced anxiously in case the request was denied. He cheered inwardly. As expected of our Alliance Leader! Then he hesitated.
He wondered whether he still had the right to call the man that.
The guilt quietly rising inside him peaked when he entered the Alliance Leader's office and faced a kind-looking young man with clear eyes and an unclouded expression.
Seen up close rather than from a distance, the Alliance Leader appeared even more imposing and radiated an even finer air.
To think he had chosen the Demon Alliance Leader over a man like this.
Urgh.
Cho Myeong groaned inwardly in misery, but the instant he recalled the face of the Alliance Leader waiting in his office, his mind snapped back into focus.
Once he changed sides, he would stay the course to the very end!
Many people said that a man who betrayed once would betray twice and stab anyone in the back again at any time.
But that depended on whom he had switched to.
If someone who had betrayed once seemed about to betray a second time while under you, then you should think carefully.
Had you shown him any weakness?
Had you revealed even the narrowest crack and given him room to slip inside?
Of course, the Alliance Leader was perfect, so Cho Myeong would never make such a mistake.
“The master of the Manhong Merchant Guild wishes to meet you in private, Alliance Leader.”
“The Manhong Merchant Guild?”
“Yes. He says he has something urgent to discuss.”
Cho Myeong's throat felt dry as he answered.
Why had the Alliance Leader disguised his identity, come all the way here, and tried to lure the Martial Alliance Leader out?
‘Surely the Martial Alliance Leader is not about to be murdered in my office?’
Cho Myeong repeatedly wiped the cold sweat covering his brow with the back of his hand.
‘No. If the Alliance Leader meant to kill him, he would have simply said so. He is not the sort to speak in circles.’
“...Master.”
‘But if something like that does happen, should I beg him to take me to the Demon Alliance too?’
“...Hall Master.......”
‘What positions equivalent to Hall Master are there in the Demon Alliance? I hope he at least gives me something at a similar level......’
“Hall Master Cho!”
“Gasp! Yes? Yes, Alliance Leader!”
Only then did Cho Myeong realize that he had been lost in thought and failed to hear the Alliance Leader call him several times, and his head jerked up.
No matter how mild the Alliance Leader's temper, such rudeness surely deserved a rebuke.
Yet despite Cho Myeong's resolve, the Alliance Leader merely smiled.
“You seem very nervous, Hall Master Cho. There is no need.”
“Y-yes. Thank you! Then may I tell the Manhong Merchant Guild Master to wait, with the understanding that you will make time for him?”
Jang Se-jin answered Cho Myeong's subtle attempt to secure a firm promise with a question.
“Did you come to me knowing whose false identity the Manhong Merchant Guild Master is, Hall Master Cho?”
“.......”
Cho Myeong froze.
His vision went black.
He trembled at the thought that his spying had been exposed and he would now be dragged to the underground prison.
Jang Se-jin confirmed the truth from Cho Myeong's reaction and spoke.
“He loathes waiting, but if I am to slip away naturally without attracting notice, it must be night. Tell him to be patient for just a little while.”
“Ah? Ah? Ah?”
Jang Se-jin drove the point home to Cho Myeong, who could only make groaning sounds of confusion.
“Tell him that this younger brother is also eagerly awaiting the chance to see Elder Brother.”
Oh, F*ck.
Cho Myeong realized he had stepped into the world belonging only to those lofty figures who moved the realm.
And into the martial world's greatest and most terrible secret at that!
“You may go.”
“Yes, Alliance Leader.”
After bowing and leaving Alliance Leader's Hall, Cho Myeong thought.
He wanted to return to the innocent days when he had known nothing and was merely kicked around as one insignificant Hall Master of the Martial Alliance!
“Urgh.”
The life of a spy was this cruel.
“...That is what he said.”
At Cho Myeong's report, Wi So-baek flicked his fingers to show he understood.
Cho Myeong lifted the teapot and poured tea, while Wi So-baek drank and sank deep into the chair.
When he closed his eyes and sank into thought, the office fell silent.
Mi-a was not troubled by silence in the least, and because she occupied her favorite place, she remained perfectly content and busied herself rubbing her head against her master's knee.
The only one suffering was Cho Myeong.
He waited desperately for the silence to break, but.......
When the Martial Alliance Leader actually dropped from the ceiling and stood before the Demon Alliance Leader, that troubled his mind in an entirely different way.
But then.
Cho Myeong witnessed an unbelievable sight.
It was like watching a godlike being he could never regard as a person like himself kindle warmth in his cold face and undergo the process of becoming human.
“Se-jin.”
Wi So-baek rose from his chair and looked at his younger brother.
“Elder Brother.”
Jang Se-jin also smiled brightly as he faced Wi So-baek.
“I thought I would not see you until the Grand Martial Conference.”
“That is far too late. Would I not need to confirm your intentions before then?”
“What were you so curious about that you came all this way despite the commotion it could cause? You despise troublesome things.”
Jang Se-jin spoke worriedly as he sat in the seat Wi So-baek offered.
“Commotion?”
“Elder Brother, your current appearance and the aura you give off are completely different from your true self, and a Martial Alliance Hall Master acted as the intermediary, so I doubt anyone will suspect you. Even so, can one ever be certain?”
“My younger brother always has so many worries.”
He clicked his tongue, though he did not seem displeased.
Wi So-baek carefully examined his younger brother to see whether the Martial Alliance's worthless dregs had tormented or injured him while they were apart, then continued.
“Se-jin, why do you think the Martial Alliance leadership proposed holding the Grand Martial Conference?”
“That is.......”
FLICK—!
Wi So-baek lightly flicked Jang Se-jin's forehead with his index finger.
“Spare me the bullshit about peace in the martial world and stability for the people. Did it truly seem to you that they acted for some great cause?”
It did not hurt, but Jang Se-jin conspicuously rubbed the reddened spot with his hand as if to show Elder Brother before answering.
“Even if they did not act for a great cause, was it not because they believed the loss they would bear by ignoring that cause would be severe?”
“That is not entirely wrong, but is it firm evidence that the situation has become unstable? There is a more fundamental issue.”
When Jang Se-jin asked what it was with his eyes, Wi So-baek gave a faint smile.
“During the last Righteous-Demonic War, they saw me make you step down, beat the Mount Hua Sect Leader like a dog, and then, as if that were not enough, unleash killing intent at the remaining leaders before countless Martial Alliance warriors to proclaim that I could kill them at any time.”
“You mean?”
“Yes. The common people are not the only ones afraid that a second Righteous-Demonic War will break out.”
Their talk of a great cause in the first place had likely been a scheme to conceal their true motives.
“The true purpose of the Grand Martial Conference that those old monsters of the Martial Alliance desire is not to postpone the war, but to obtain the Demon Alliance's promise that it will not attack the Martial Alliance!”
Would they truly possess the courage to start a fight merely because the Demon Alliance Leader appeared inside the Martial Alliance?
“Even if they recognized the real me, they would probably pretend otherwise and cover it up with their own hands.”
It was an incomparably arrogant declaration.
Yet Jang Se-jin thought it suited his elder brother perfectly.
And it finally felt real that he had met his elder brother again.