The word reward rings well no matter when you hear it.
Something precious handed over without your having done anything special for it. Who would turn that down?
"Your reward is......."
Tang Gang-heon trailed off, deliberating.
Tang Yu-hyeon held his posture and waited for the rest.
Even with something prepared in advance, he would hesitate to produce it right away, and asking the opinions of the others meant too many enemies.
In such a situation, dragging things out and then asking the person himself what he wanted was the usual course.
That was the moment to name what he truly wanted.
'Good descendant of mine. Whatever you have prepared, do you know me better than I do?'
I will say what I need myself, so just hand it over.
'I'll look after my own rice bowl.'
Tang Yu-hyeon covered a sly smile with his hand.
Tang Gang-heon did not see it; he propped his chin and lowered his gaze.
"Hmm."
"What is there to deliberate? He brought back the Tang Clan's manual even while poisoned!"
When Tang Gang-heon delayed his answer, the Myriad Poison Hall Master, thoroughly worked up, slapped the table.
In his eyes, Tang Yu-hyeon seemed to look like a great hero.
'Well, as head of the Myriad Poison Hall, his affection for the Tang Clan would run deep.'
Perhaps the reason there had been so little resistance whenever Tang Gang-heon forced through strained plans to restore the secret arts was that the Hall Master had been holding the line alongside him.
So Tang Yu-hyeon, who had braved harm to bring back a manual they could fairly be said to have given their lives to, must look lovely to him.
And that wastrel past had long since been erased along with the manual.
"Should the poison not be purged at once?"
Ah. He's fixated on the poison.
As if anyone could doubt he is the Myriad Poison Hall Master.
"About that, I am fine."
"Do not speak so heartlessly. How much pain must you have suffered at such a young age!"
"No, I am telling you I have already purged it and I am fine."
"Hm?"
The Myriad Poison Hall Master looked back and forth between Tang Gang-heon, smiling with his mouth shut, and Tang Yu-hyeon, shrugging.
With every gaze on him, Tang Yu-hyeon raised both hands for all to see and turned them front and back.
"Purge complete, I said."
His hands were clean, without a single trace of the blackening that comes from accumulated poison.
Since he had never taken the poison, that went without saying.
If they went examining him with antidotes and the like, the lie would be exposed, so he had to strike first.
What if they fed him poison to test his resistance, you ask?
There was no one with the courage to throw cold water on a mood this fine.
With the Hall Master backing him and the Clan Head watching right there, anyone who valued his life would keep his head down for now.
And even if they made a move later, he had only to build up his resistance by then.
'Look at all the spiritual medicine I've been given!'
It was a moment when Tang Gang-heon's love for his child shone.
"Ha ha ha."
While everyone was struck speechless, the laughter of the Third Elder, Dead Soul Poison Elder Tang Wi, cut through the silence and rang out.
"To think the Second Young Master's attainment is this remarkable. It is a great blessing for the Tang Clan and for the Clan Head."
He had cut the flow before the praise for Tang Yu-hyeon could grow any further.
'He is no ordinary sort, as expected.'
He could tell as much even without knowing that this was the head of the opposing faction, the one who clashed with Tang Gang-heon over every single matter.
The man would not stop here.
Now that Tang Yu-hyeon was no longer a usable offering but an enemy to be brought down together with the Clan Head, he would use moves more cunning than before.
'I'll have to be careful for a while.'
Knowing they would play moves even against the direct line, he had to be prudent about his steps from here on.
That did not mean shrinking back.
If he shrank back, he would be swayed by public opinion again, or die of poison without a rat or a bird knowing of it.
'Draw enough attention and they'll pull back on their own.'
The more a man holds his breath in the shadows, the more he fears losing what he has.
"He seems to think deeply enough to have deceived us all for years, so surely he knows well what he needs. Why not ask him directly what he would take as his reward?"
However deep his thinking, Tang Yu-hyeon was still fifteen.
It was only natural that a child could not match the wisdom of an eighty-year-old man.
The words were spoken in the certainty that he would fail to grasp true worth and ask for something absurd or shabby.
But who was inside Tang Yu-hyeon now?
The soul of a veteran who had lived to the brink of eighty.
'If you took me for one of those run-of-the-mill children, you've made a grave miscalculation.'
The corners of Tang Yu-hyeon's mouth crept up bit by bit.
What should he ask for?
There was plenty of spiritual medicine left from last time, so should he refine his poison essence?
The poison essence sits in the qi center alongside the innate true qi, refining and storing the poison one has taken in.
Tang Yu-hyeon had roamed about here and there, so the poison he had gathered was scant, and he could not help falling short compared to others his age.
'If I don't build it up now, I'll fall behind forever.'
Then, far from reaching the martial attainment he wanted, he would drop out partway.
'Can't let that happen.'
Tang Yu-hyeon combed through the memories at once and picked out poisons worth having.
Was there still an inner core of a Ten-Thousand-Year Fire Carp left in the poison vault?
Or should he ask for Beauty's Tears?
'Well now. What a happy dilemma. Heh heh heh.'
Taking his deepening thought, which came from choosing a poison suited to his attainment, for difficulty in answering, the Myriad Poison Hall Master seized the reply for him.
"Clan Head, what is there to deliberate?"
'Argh! Hold still a moment. I'm in the middle of deciding.'
Contrary to Tang Yu-hyeon's wishes, the Myriad Poison Hall Master pressed forward as though it were his own affair.
"What does a martial artist of the Tang Clan need? A personal weapon and martial arts, of course!"
"Quite so. Quite so."
There seemed to be no dispute on that point; even the opposing faction nodded, though with displeased expressions.
"So have throwing blades made for the Second Young Master, and let him choose one secret art to learn."
"A fine thought."
At the Myriad Poison Hall Master's proposal, Tang Gang-heon smiled with satisfaction.
He had, after all, protected an entire secret art, so not a single objection came.
With one exception.
'What? A fine thoooooought?'
Unable to raise an open objection, Tang Yu-hyeon beat his chest inwardly.
'The secret arts are all in my head anyway. I'm the one who has to teach them to you lot, so what are you talking about? Enough nonsense, just hand over my poison alreadyyyyy!'
He wanted to seize the shoulders of the Hall Master, who had settled the matter as he pleased and was now smiling benevolently, shake him out, and demand an answer on the spot.
"To the second son, Tang Yu-hyeon, throwing blades and the right to learn one secret manual, and—"
Before other words could arise, Tang Gang-heon drove in the wedge.
Realizing this was beyond his power to change, Tang Yu-hyeon gave up quickly and set his greed aside.
Getting heated over such a thing was nothing but a loss.
Better to spend that time working out how to make use of what he had gained.
"—one bottle of Beauty's Tears is hereby bestowed."
Because in the course of things, the heavens sometimes raise the hand of the one who is prepared.
Tang Yu-hyeon smiled and bent slightly at the waist.
"I receive it with gratitude."
A gentle smile surfaced at Tang Gang-heon's mouth for an instant, then vanished.
The father disappeared, and only the Clan Head remained.
A voice without a shred of softness rang through the council chamber.
"This matter concerns nothing less than the Tang Clan's secret arts, so a thorough investigation is required. Tenth Elder."
"Give your command."
At Tang Gang-heon's call, the Tenth Elder, Tang Jang-cheong, rose at once and made a clasped-hands bow.
"Look into whether there have been any seditious movements within Sichuan of late and report to me. Punishment will be decided according to the weight of any further crimes."
"I will obey your command."
"The boys who put themselves forward as witnesses require punishment as well, but I will lessen its severity in consideration of their age. The Thirteenth Elder will take charge of this."
"I will obey your command."
Tang Gang-heon nodded.
As the meeting proceeded swift and decisive, there was only one man who was afraid.
"And the Eighth Elder will see me."
"......Yes."
"Come to the Clan Head's hall at the hour of the Monkey."
"Understood."
Tang Yi bowed his head low.
He knew it as well.
That when the hunt fails, the hound is thrown away.
No matter who had set this board or who had denounced Tang Yu-hyeon's crimes, the punishment would be his alone to bear.
That was the price of the course he had chosen.
'Stupid bastard.'
Tang Yu-hyeon clicked his tongue quietly.
"With this, the emergency meeting is concluded."
Tang Un-yeop declared the session closed.
Those who looked calm on the outside while a thousand fires burned within, those who simply relished the reversal, those who sensed the board was about to change.
Gazes glinting for their own separate reasons poured onto Tang Yu-hyeon.
The more the stinging looks piled up, the more his head ached.
Who would make what move next?
But for this moment at least, Tang Yu-hyeon decided not to think in complications.
He knew how to enjoy a victory.
'This should keep the word wastrel out of their mouths for a while.'
The Elder Council had dragged in even the busiest of people and sat them down just to bury one man, so he was spared the labor of restoring his standing separately.
'They wanted to break the Clan Head's power and clear away an heir while they were at it. Their insides must be in a fine state right about now.'
Who told them to touch the Clan Head?
If you are an advisory body, then act like one and hold your place as the clan's elders and its support.
Grasping for more than your due turns your eyes to the wrong place, and that is how trouble comes, is it not?
'Serves them right.'
Just as he was thinking he ought to raise a toast alone tonight, Tang Gang-heon called him to a halt.
"Tang Yu-hyeon, follow me."
"Yes."
Out of habit, Tang Yu-hyeon turned his head.
Friends?
None.
An adult to lean on?
None.
Brothers?
He would count himself lucky if they did not try to kill him.
And so Tang Yu-hyeon followed Tang Gang-heon without once looking back.
As he stepped out of the council chamber, in the moment he was reading the reactions of those around him,
"Hm."
his eyes met Tang Jong-cheon's.
It was as brief as sunlight falling across a face and vanishing as one passes a window, but Tang Yu-hyeon caught it.
He is not friendly.
'Why?'
During the meeting, Tang Jong-cheon had checked the agitated Tang Yi.
Intended or not, thanks to that he had avoided being swept along by the mood and had been able to cut in at the right moment and take the flow.
There was no chance a man of an elder's standing had helped him without any intention at all.
And yet he is not friendly?
'Strange.'
Tang Yu-hyeon's eyes narrowed.
But he did not turn his steps.
It was because of a curious certainty that they would meet before long.