“As for how that happened.”
Wi So-baek frowned as he was about to continue.
It was not because he suddenly felt reluctant to tell Yeo-hwa the story.
He had merely remembered that explaining his sworn younger brother would require going through a very long and complicated process.
Besides, Yeo-hwa was not someone as uncomplicated as Jeong-hak, able to simply believe whatever she wanted, was she?
After pondering for a moment, Wi So-baek nodded to himself and reached a conclusion.
He looked at Yeo-hwa and spoke.
“That is what happened.”
“...What?”
When Yeo-hwa asked blankly, Wi So-baek shrugged.
“It simply happened.”
“S... so weren't you about to tell me what happened and how it came to happen?”
“I gained a younger brother. Therefore, I believe I will someday go into the dumpling business.”
“Ah.......”
How could the story of a younger brother who had dropped from the heavens lead to the exalted Alliance Leader selling dumplings in a marketplace.......
Yeo-hwa stopped thinking there and sighed.
She simply could not follow the sequence of events.
With her groaning in frustration before him, Wi So-baek turned his gaze outside the window.
It was absolutely not because repeating himself would be a nuisance.
Truly.
SIP.
“As expected, the tea you brew is the best, Yeo-hwa.”
When he took a sip and praised her, Yeo-hwa abruptly came to her senses and answered.
“Would you like another cup?”
“Pour one for me, and drink one yourself.”
“Yes.”
Yeo-hwa answered, attended him, and drank tea herself as she calmed her mind.
Then, after some time passed, she asked cautiously.
“You will still show him to me later, won't you?”
Why did those words sound as though she meant, If this younger brother of yours actually exists—and he absolutely must...?
Wi So-baek brushed aside the sudden suspicion with a Surely not, and answered.
“Of course. Come visit my younger brother's dumpling shop.”
“Even that dum... pling shop does not belong to you, Alliance Leader?”
Accepting him as a dumpling-shop owner was difficult enough, but now he was the unrelated sworn elder brother living off that shop.
Yeo-hwa had been about to say that if the Alliance Leader lived there, it would be proper for her not merely to visit, but to work in the dumpling shop as well.......
Then she was horrified to realize that the future of her once-radiant master, who had spoken of unifying the martial world and prided himself on being the greatest under heaven, had been crushed into something not merely modest, but utterly shabby.
Some scheme must be at work here!
And its culprit was probably!
The corners of Yeo-hwa's eyes trembled.
“I wonder what kind of person he is.”
Just what kind of man could have inspired such thoughts in someone who had never once even visited a marketplace?
Her lord easily accomplished what others found difficult and mocked those who could not do the same, yet he was clumsy at ordinary things. She could not help but worry.
However.
“You will like him too, Yeo-hwa. He is a good fellow.”
When the Alliance Leader spoke as though it were the most obvious thing in the world, Yeo-hwa felt the thoughts complicating her mind gradually subside.
“I truly hope so.”
Then she turned her face to follow the Alliance Leader's gaze, which remained fixed outside the window rather than on her.
Even after all the grass and trees had been removed, the Alliance Leader seemed to be searching for someone who ought to be there.
Had all her effort to change the garden been meaningless?
Yeo-hwa's shoulders drooped in discouragement.
Wi So-baek glanced at her and pointed with his index finger toward one part of the garden.
Amid the completely changed scenery.
His younger brother was still absent, but there.
“There you are, Yeo-hwa.”
“Me?”
“Yes. My Chief Administrator is bustling around, scolding the workers.”
“Gasp!”
He could not have seen her!
When Yeo-hwa's eyes widened, Wi So-baek curled the corners of his mouth.
“You must have been there in the old garden as well, Yeo-hwa. Though I did not realize it then.”
Wi So-baek was telling her that nothing had been meaningless.
Now Yeo-hwa wanted to know out of anticipation.
Just what kind of person was the Alliance Leader's younger brother, that he could change him so profoundly?
“Se-jin needs to taste the tea you brew soon. He will love it so much that he will pester you to make it for him every day.”
Yeo-hwa tilted her head at the Alliance Leader's words as he finished his tea.
So his younger brother's name must be Se-jin.
It sounded familiar for some reason.......
Ah!
Was the Martial Alliance Leader's name not Jang Se-jin?
Hm?
No, surely not.
Yeo-hwa swallowed hard, then remembered something and felt relieved.
The Alliance Leader had said his younger brother would open a dumpling shop someday.......
If the Martial Alliance Leader truly was their Alliance Leader's younger brother, that would mean the current Martial Alliance Leader dreamed of becoming a dumpling-shop owner one day, would it not?
A dumpling shop owned by the Martial Alliance Leader, with the Demon Alliance Leader living off him.
It felt as though something utterly unimaginable must be hidden within that!
Yeo-hwa shook her head vigorously, perhaps because thinking of the Martial Alliance Leader had reminded her.
She suddenly thought of the Wood Banner Captain, who had departed for the Martial Alliance.
The Wood Banner Captain must be doing well, mustn't he?
The Alliance Leader had given him an opportunity, so he could not afford to miss it.
Yeo-hwa deliberately kept her distance from struggles for influence within the martial world and the Demon Alliance, but even she found the Wood Banner Captain, Oh Chi-yeong, an unusual man who drew her attention.
‘I hope he does not make a mistake because he is too nervous.’
While Yeo-hwa prayed inwardly for him, Wi So-baek appeared to finish admiring the view and rose from his seat.
She quickly followed him.
***
Meanwhile, Wood Banner Captain Oh Chi-yeong's party, which had been the subject of Yeo-hwa's concern, was heading without incident alongside the Martial Alliance's envoy delegation toward Kaifeng in Henan, where the Martial Alliance was located.
Of course, the journey had not been peaceful from the beginning.
They walked such utterly opposite paths that one was black and the other white, and until recently they had fought while staking their lives on dominion over the world. It would have been stranger if nothing happened while they traveled together.
But no matter how emboldened the Martial Alliance envoy delegation became after leaving the Demon Alliance and returning to their own territory, they still struggled to confront Demon Alliance martial artists, whose very dispositions were ferocious.
Furthermore, although the Martial Alliance envoy delegation was led by Outer Hall Master Cho Myeong, little better than a card discarded by the Martial Alliance, did the Demon Alliance's envoy delegation not include an extraordinary figure?
A man who had Ga Jeong-hak, the Martial Wheel and one of the infamous Demon Alliance's Four Wheels, serving as his escort!
Opinions had been divided when they heard that the Wood Banner Captain, Oh Chi-yeong, was the leader put forward by the Demon Alliance this time.
But almost nothing was known outside the Demon Alliance about its internal affairs, and every person whose name had become known beyond its walls had shaken the world.
“They say the Wood Banner Captain is truly an amazing man. Could it be that the Demon Alliance Leader treasures him so much that he has kept him tightly under wraps until now?”
“Is that not a lie? He would keep such a capable martial artist out of the Righteous-Demonic War?”
Was not something valuable held in reserve so it could be used at the decisive moment?
“No. They say there was a reason for that too. Apparently, the Demon Alliance Leader forcibly kept him inside the Demon Alliance so that if anything happened to him during the Righteous-Demonic War, he could leave the Demon Alliance in that man's hands!”
“Hah! To think such a hidden history existed......!”
As misunderstandings and false assumptions of unknown origin ran rampant, the Martial Alliance envoys could only grow increasingly respectful toward those from the Demon Alliance.
Cheol Myeong-hwan, the Wood Banner Deputy Captain, had no way to know what was being said within the Martial Alliance envoy delegation and grumbled.
“I heard those righteous-path bastards specialize in tormenting people behind their backs while acting slippery. I was hoping just one of them would try something stupid so I could smash him, but they have all been far too quiet.”
Oh Chi-yeong, who had been tending his sword in his camp tent, stopped and looked at Cheol Myeong-hwan.
“Do not cause trouble. We cannot forget what the Alliance Leader expects of us in sending us to the Martial Alliance.”
“I know, I know. Was I not there that day too? When the Alliance Leader said, like a true man, that he trusted you and would give you a chance—ahh! I fell for him completely as well!”
When Cheol Myeong-hwan spoke while slapping his chest with a hand as thick as a pot lid, Oh Chi-yeong nodded.
“He said he would watch the path I take. For the first time since the day I stepped onto the demonic path, I feel as though I am living like a human being. I will never disappoint him.”
The members of the Wood Banner Unit had always been treated with contempt. When their Captain and Deputy Captain, who had looked after them, made up their minds like that, the members became even more mindful of their conduct and strove to give no one cause to find fault with them.
They could do nothing about their fierce appearances, but their solemn bearing became so pronounced that Martial Alliance warriors flinched upon seeing them and reflected on themselves.
“But the Martial Wheel has been nowhere in sight. Deputy Captain, have you seen him?”
“Is there any need to look for him? He is probably doing what he has done throughout the entire journey.”
“He must be tormenting Hall Master Cho of the Martial Alliance again.”
“This journey is the first time I realized the Martial Wheel was so interested in the Martial Alliance Leader. Wow, he really has so many questions.......”
He had seized Martial Alliance warriors and asked them all manner of things. When they proved to know too little, Cho Myeong was inevitably the one he eventually caught and dragged around for the longest time.
Cho Myeong could not disregard the Martial Wheel, who held the honorary Protector position within the Demon Alliance, and because he alone believed himself to be a spy personally recruited by the Demon Alliance Leader, he wanted to remain on good terms with the Martial Wheel.
With all those circumstances converging, the two men looked to others like the closest of friends.
“People are saying everything from Hall Master Cho having become sympathetic to the Demon Alliance to the Martial Wheel having been interested in defecting to the Martial Alliance. Should we warn him?”
“Leave him be. When the Alliance Leader, who knows the Martial Wheel better than anyone, included him in this journey to the Martial Alliance, he must have anticipated all of this. Yet he gave no special warning, so this too must fall within his calculations.”
“As expected, the Alliance Leader is incredible!”
Deputy Captain Cheol Myeong-hwan laughed heartily and raised his thumb.
To outward appearances, the two envoy delegations' journey to the Martial Alliance was peaceful again today.
***
BANG—!
The table in the Martial Alliance's Grand Meeting Hall shook violently.
The man who had slammed his palm down on the table and shot to his feet was Ak Jin-gun, Sect Leader of the Mount Hua Sect.
“We must show the envoys from the Demon Alliance the Martial Alliance's stern authority. It is right that we refuse to yield in the slightest and take a hard line!”
“Hoh, Sect Leader Ak, I understand your intent. But do you not know that the Alliance is in no condition to wage another war immediately? This is a time when some compromise is necessary, and if trouble arises with the Demon Alliance's envoy delegation, we too will suffer greatly.”
“To think the Blood Monk of Shaolin, who opened the killing precept to eradicate all evil and personally smashed villains' skulls with his monk's staff, would speak so mercifully!”
“This is not mercy, Sect Leader Ak, but reality! You must know that as well. Ask yourself whether the grudge you still bear against the Demon Alliance Leader for seizing you by the neck and dragging you across the dirt of the Chang'an Plains, on the charge that you ambushed him while he fought our Alliance Leader, is obstructing the greater cause!”
The Blood Monk was hot-tempered and careless with his words, but this time he had gone too far.
His own face reddened as though he realized his mistake, and just as Sect Leader Ak was about to lose patience and release his killing intent.
“Infinite Life Buddha!”
A clear, pure energy spread through the meeting hall.
“Both of you, please calm yourselves. Your positions and thoughts may differ, but have you not both stepped forward for the sake of the Alliance?”
When the Sect Leader of Wudang soothed them in a gentle tone, both Shaolin's Blood Monk and Mount Hua's Sect Leader Ak fell silent and sat down.
Their ill feelings had not vanished, but for the moment, they at least appeared to endure them.
After sending them a mild gaze as though praising them, the Sect Leader of Wudang turned toward the empty seat of honor in the meeting hall.
“Hoh, but how can the Alliance Leader be absent from such an important meeting?”
“......”
Neither the others from the Nine Great Sects and One Gang nor the figures from the Five Great Clans responded.
“Did none of you send for the Alliance Leader again?”
The Wudang Sect Leader clicked his tongue, then ordered a warrior outside to go to the Alliance Leader's Hall and bring him back.
The warrior bowed and headed toward the Alliance Leader's Hall at a brisk pace.
Aside from the signboard bearing the words Alliance Leader's Hall, the place was no different from the ordinary halls built throughout the Martial Alliance. The warrior entered it, informed the guard inside of his purpose, and the guard went to one of the hall's four rooms.
“Alliance Leader.”
No sound came from inside, but the guard paid it no mind and flung the door open.
“Alliance Leader!”
A man who had apparently been searching for something looked up from where he sat among an armful of books strewn across the floor.
“What is it?”
His pronunciation had sounded muffled because an ink-stained brush was held crosswise between his lips.
“The council of elders is calling for you.”
“Understood.”
The man took the brush from his mouth and rose.
“Thank you for telling me.”
A gentle smile hung from his curved eyes as he expressed his thanks, and every movement carried a careful, mild air.
When he left the Alliance Leader's Hall, rank-and-file warriors bowed their heads to greet him one after another.
The man acknowledged every greeting as he made his way to the meeting hall.
He was the current Martial Alliance Leader, Jang Se-jin, the Gentleman's Sword said to be the only man in the ruthless martial world who still carried the fragrance of a true gentleman.