“From the moment the Blood Cult showed itself, the Imperial Palace kept watch on them.”

By healing the poor and the sick and winning the hearts of commoners, the Blood Cult had rapidly expanded its influence.

To an emperor determined to place the Central Plains under central rule, such a Blood Cult could only be a thorn in the eye.

“The number of county yamen attacked ‘for righting the wrongs’ of aggrieved commoners has grown exponentially. Of course, I know that not everyone who draws a salary is an upright official, but the Blood Cult’s handling is excessive.”

The grievance of commoners forced from their hometowns by extortionate levies.

The resentment toward yamens that, rather than protecting the powerless, colluded with bandits and turned a blind eye to their depredations.

Vengeance for family members who died unjustly.

The Blood Cult exploited the resentment of the powerless, and since the target of that resentment was most often the Empire, the party suffering the greatest damage was not the Martial Alliance but the Empire.

“Burning yamen granaries and dragging out officials to kill them is now an everyday occurrence. They even hang the bodies beside the main roads, leaving uninvolved commoners trembling with fear.”

Thus the number of yamens petitioning the center for aid had also risen.

For the Emperor, this had become the greatest headache of late.

“So, you would ask the Martial Alliance for help?”

At Cheongun’s words, the Emperor shook his head.

“No. There is the pledge of non-interference between the court and the martial world; we cannot invoke the aid of the martial world over something like this.”

“Then....”

“Explosives were stolen.”

“!”

Cheongun and Seop Mugwang started again and looked to the Emperor.

Explosives.

A dangerous killing weapon that, once lit, could explode and blow away a single house—or an entire village—in one instant.

No one could handle explosives without the Palace’s authorization, and even in the Palace they were not used except in war due to the danger.

“Surely... the ones who stole the explosives....”

“The last trace we followed clearly led that way.”

To the Great Blood Cult.

Into their sphere of influence.

“It’s enough to blow away a city wall. If we do not find it quickly, countless lives may be in danger. That is why I summoned you.”

Cheongun and Seop Mugwang exchanged a look.

The situation was more serious than they had thought.

Setting Chor Yeon aside, with explosives in the Blood Cult’s hands, it would not be strange if an entire city vanished as soon as tomorrow.

Seop Mugwang asked the Emperor,

“Then, what was it you mentioned before? That there is a Blood Cult agent inside the Palace....”

“As you would expect, the transport of gunpowder is carried out under utmost secrecy.”

Gunpowder stored in the imperial magazine becomes unusable with time.

It therefore had to be replaced periodically, and the transport of newly procured gunpowder was conducted in secrecy known to only a handful in the Palace.

“At most, myself, Chief Eunuch Joo here, and a few Brocade Guard escorts for the convoy.”

Yet those who stole the explosives had already lain in ambush along the route.

From the start, the fact of the transport and the route had been leaked.

“And I suspect the Brocade-Guard Commander. I also suspect a certain clan in close dealings with him.”

“If you say a clan....”

“The Cheol clan, Consort Suk’s natal family.”

“!”

“...!”

Consort Suk was the mother of the Second Prince whom Chor Yeon killed, and the one presently threatening Chor Yeon’s life.

Only then did Seop Mugwang recall what Seolhwa had told him before.

“Chor Yeon’s name is on Flesh Curtain’s ledger. The one who placed the contract is Consort Suk—the mother of the Second Prince Chor Yeon killed.”

Flesh Curtain had been a Blood Cult arm from the beginning.

Which meant Consort Suk might have been in contact with the Blood Cult from very long ago.

“Huh....”

At how neatly the pieces clicked into place, Seop Mugwang let out a low sigh.

He thought he now understood why the Emperor had bothered to drag up the matter from twenty years ago to summon them.

While requesting aid from the Martial Alliance, he would also stir Consort Suk and watch her reactions.

“So this is an emperor....”

A man whose unassuming face hid stringent calculation and unfathomable designs.

That was the true face of the current Emperor.

“...It would be best not to trust him too much.”

Ahem.

Seop Mugwang lightly loosened his throat and asked the Emperor,

“Then what would you have us do? Are you asking us to find the explosives?”

The Emperor nodded.

“I hear the Martial Alliance knows more than anyone about the Blood Cult. If you aid in this matter, I in turn will grant you one thing you desire.”

From the moment he was summoned to the Palace, he had assumed the {N•o•v•e•l•i•g•h•t} Emperor wanted something.

That if they acceded to that desire, he would release Chor Yeon.

Yet the Emperor, rather than intending to prosecute Chor Yeon from the start, presented another condition.

“Recovering the explosives is, from the standpoint of the Martial Alliance that opposes the Blood Cult, something we of course must resolve.”

And if they could also demand one thing from the Emperor, there was no reason at all to refuse.

Only—

“Please give your word that Chor Yeon’s safety will be protected to the very end.”

“Have I not already said it? The decision not to prosecute the Blood-King Poison was promised twenty years ago. Having summoned you here, I will protect the Blood-King Poison.”

Namgoong Cheongun and Seop Mugwang slowly nodded.

When each party’s aims aligned, further table talk was nothing but a waste of time.

The Emperor agreed to place at Cheongun’s disposal eunuchs of the Eastern Depot under Chief Eunuch Joo, and Cheongun agreed to begin the pursuit the instant he returned to the Namgoong estate.

When the two stepped out, the Emperor’s Palace spread before their eyes in a grandeur beyond any comparison with the Namgoong estate or the Martial Alliance.

Seop Mugwang halted and looked out over the vast forecourt of the Palace laid before him.

— Voice Transmission: “Clan Lord Namgoong.”

At the Voice Transmission, Cheongun stopped and turned back to him.

Seop Mugwang’s expression was dark.

— Voice Transmission: “I am sorry. I....”

— Voice Transmission: “Lord, it would be best if you remained in the Palace.”

Before he could even speak, Cheongun’s reply made Seop Mugwang look at him.

— Voice Transmission: “If you, Lord, also go to pursue the explosives, the Medicine Hall Lord will be left alone in the Palace. Please stay by the Medicine Hall Lord’s side.”

A complex, subtle look crossed Seop Mugwang’s face.

What he had intended to say was, in fact, the very same.

To recover the munitions they would have to scour the Central Plains, and clashes with the Blood Cult would be unavoidable.

Difficult and dangerous in equal measure.

Yet if even he left to search for the explosives, Chor Yeon would be left alone in the Palace.

No matter that the Emperor had pledged to protect her, Seop Mugwang could not bring himself to trust the Emperor—or the palace as a place—and so he had been about to make a shameless request of Cheongun. But—

— Voice Transmission: “It is simply that I cannot fully trust. If you remain, Lord, I can be at ease.”

“Please.”

Cheongun dipped his head slightly to Seop Mugwang.

It was he who ought to be asking a favor.

In the blink of an eye, the positions of guest and host had reversed, and Seop Mugwang’s gaze toward Cheongun quivered minutely.

“Why....”

Seop Mugwang lightly curled his fist.

He had lived a long time without family or hometown.

Though he belonged to the Namgoong estate, lacking the Namgoong surname, a corner of his heart had always counted himself an outsider.

And yet—why.

Why would the Namgoong—why—

“Why do you go this far for us?”

Namgoong Mucheon, who had shielded Chor Yeon before the Emperor twenty years ago.

No—before that, they had gladly accepted those who were fugitives, and had silently taken his killing-intent-laden blade. 𝙛𝒓𝓮𝒆𝔀𝒆𝙗𝓷𝒐𝙫𝒆𝙡.𝒄𝓸𝓶

When his inner power was lost, they had sought to heal him even to the point of offering up a most treasured sword—and in the end, they had healed him.

And even now.

Whether Chor Yeon, who killed a prince, or he, who loved her—from the estate’s standpoint, these were matters they could simply turn their faces from.

“Do you still not see?”

A sincere smile spread across Cheongun’s face.

“You and Chor Yeon are already our family.”

Though they could not take the Namgoong name, the Namgoong was not a group formed by blood alone.

As we call every place under heaven the All-Under-Heaven, so Namgoong is the sky itself.

As the sky embraces the All-Under-Heaven, those who would carry the sky’s intent and advance are, in the end, Namgoong.

“Is that not precisely what ‘Namgoong’ is?”

Seop Mugwang and Chor Yeon lacked only the surname; for a long time they had lived bearing the Namgoong spirit.

In the Namgoong estate becoming the martial clan that now represents the Central Plains, the two’s merit was by no means small.

For so-called outsiders, twenty years is by no measure a short time.

— Voice Transmission: “I will return for you when the work is done. Until then, please take care.”

Cheongun saluted Seop Mugwang and departed the palace alone.

It took a long time to walk out of the vast Palace on foot.

Seop Mugwang stood there in silence until Cheongun’s figure could no longer be seen.

****

After enduring a cold that seemed to flense flesh, she crossed snow mountains to a land where lava flowed here and there from fiery pits.

A body frozen by the cold felt as though it would melt at once in the heat; in moments, Namgoong Seolhwa was drenched head to toe with pouring sweat.

What spread vast before her eyes and what her skin felt were indubitably real, and so even knowing it was an Array’s deceit, Seolhwa had to pass the threshold of life and death again and again.

So she came through the third Test: the Swamp of Poison.

The third Test was not difficult.

Because Seolhwa already cultivated arts that overcame poison, she quickly found the life gate and escaped the third Test.

And at last she faced the final Trial of Phantasm.

Past the third life gate, the world before Seolhwa’s eyes washed into pure white.

Presently, into her ears trickled the tinkling laughter of children.

When she opened her eyes, brows knitting against the piercing light, Seolhwa stood in the very middle of a manor’s courtyard.