“Damn it! What on earth is happening!”

The Brocade-Guard Commander was raising his troops and heading for the Grand Peace Hall {N•o•v•e•l•i•g•h•t} where the Emperor now stood.

As soon as that news spread, the Imperial Palace turned chaotic, and Seop Mugwang could not hide his dismay.

“There was no talk of this! A rebellion...!”

But Eunuch Ju, striding ahead with a grim face, only hurried his steps and did not answer Seop Mugwang.

“Chief Attendant!”

Seop Mugwang grabbed Eunuch Ju by the arm and pulled him back.

Only then did Eunuch Ju turn to look at him.

Meeting Eunuch Ju’s indifferent gaze, Seop Mugwang’s expression went cold in an instant.

“...You knew.”

“....”

“You knew from the start this would happen. And that damned Emperor is the same...!”

“Mind your tongue. This is the Imperial Palace. Must your head come off for you to come to your senses?”

GRIND.

Blue veins bulged on the hand with which Seop Mugwang gripped Eunuch Ju’s arm.

Swallowing down the fury rising in his throat, Seop Mugwang continued.

“Is that why? You summoned me and Chor Yeon into the palace?”

To use them in the rebellion that would soon unfold?

“It is true the Explosives were stolen.”

“So that, too, was in your calculations.”

Damn it.

“In the end, you wanted hostages.”

Seop Mugwang gave a crooked smile.

With matters come to this, Seop Mugwang had no choice but to fight the rebels—if only to protect Chor Yeon.

He had been swayed by slick words—amnesty, pledges—and left her under the Emperor’s protection, and in the end she had become a hostage.

“The ringleader of the rebellion is Consort Suk. To my knowledge, she is also the one seeking to kill the Blood-King Poison. If we crush the rebellion, we can remove that threat as well. Two birds with one stone, is it not?”

That was true.

Even if Seop Mugwang was among the foremost masters under heaven, he could not easily kill the Emperor’s woman.

In a situation where he would have to flee the rest of his life from Consort Suk’s resentment, a righteous pretext had now arisen to kill her through a rebellion.

“The Blood-King Poison remains under His Majesty’s protection.”

Chor Yeon’s location was the Palace of Heavenly Purity.

It was the Emperor’s residence, the deepest place within the Imperial Palace.

Who could set foot lightly in the Emperor’s own quarters?

In fact, he had found it strange when, days ago, Chor Yeon’s lodging was moved to the attendants’ quarters attached to the Palace of Heavenly Purity.

When asked why the quarters were being moved, Eunuch Ju had answered, “As one receiving help, it is only proper to house her where it is safest.”

How brazen.

“Did you know? I dislike sly men like you.”

“I hear that often.”

At Eunuch Ju’s unruffled reply, Seop Mugwang clicked his tongue.

Eunuch Ju turned his body and hastened on again.

Seop Mugwang followed after him.

****

“Tell me—

is it truly I whose eyes and ears are clouded?”

The Emperor’s words struck at the fact that the Brocade-Guard Commander had joined hands with the Cheol clan and was aiding the rebellion.

At the Emperor’s words, the Commander showed signs of fluster.

Just as he began to retort, the Emperor spoke again.

“The Grand Preceptor leading the rebels is Consort Suk’s half brother. You cannot be ignorant of where Consort Suk’s resentment began. And yet you judge the Grand Preceptor’s words to be right?”

In the Imperial Palace, the Three Excellencies were considered second only to the Emperor.

The office of Grand Preceptor that was leading the rebellion was one of those three key posts, with the Grand Guardian and Grand Tutor.

Moreover, he had ties to the Cheol clan—Consort Suk’s natal family—and thus held an influence within the palace that could not be ignored.

“I formed the Eastern Depot as well to strengthen the Imperial authority—this you knew, Brocade-Guard Commander.”

He who had been closest to the Emperor, and thus knew the Emperor’s mind best.

“What has blinded your eyes? What has stopped up your ears?”

“....”

The Commander’s expression wavered.

When the Emperor organized the Eastern Depot—why it was created, why force was needed, who would be fit to serve within it—

He himself had been the one who exchanged the most opinions.

And yet somehow...

How did I come to level a sword at His Majesty?

How...

“Your Majesty is turning away from what matters most.”

A woman’s voice rang across the courtyard of the Grand Peace Hall.

Everyone, the Commander and the Emperor included, turned to the right side of the hall.

“Consort Suk...!”

Consort Suk was entering the hall alone.

For a brief moment, her gaze met the Emperor’s in midair; then she spoke in a composed voice.

“Whatever the reason for establishing such an office, the place where power abides must sour in the end. Because Your Majesty trusts only the Eastern Depot, their noses have risen so high they near the sky, have they not.”

Consort Suk looked to the Brocade-Guard Commander.

“The Brocade Guard has suffered every humiliation for no reason other than losing Your Majesty’s favor. Their grievance is not something to cast aside.”

“...!”

In that instant, the scorn of eunuchs and the contempt of officials—the slights he had endured—surged up within the Commander’s mind.

It was as if the Eastern Depot, which he himself had organized for the Emperor, had turned a sword to his throat.

Recalling once again why he had joined a plan that would be deemed treason, the Commander shouted anew toward the Emperor.

“Your Majesty. You must seize those fox-like eunuchs at once! Only the Brocade Guard can stand at Your Majesty’s side!”

Eunuch Ju shot back:

“And you can claim to act for His Majesty while pointing a blade even now! How shameless you are, Brocade-Guard Commander!”

“I told you to shut that mouth!”

WHOOSH—

The Commander snatched a soldier’s sword at his side and hurled it at Eunuch Ju.

Eunuch Ju did not so much as flinch.

He stared straight at the oncoming blade.

KAAANG—!

One of the eunuchs beside Eunuch Ju struck the thrown sword aside.

The motion was so swift that those with slow eyes heard only the sound and did not see the deflection itself.

SLIDE—

“!”

The Commander fixed a hardened gaze on the eunuch calmly sheathing his sword.

Who is that man?

True, the sword had not been thrown with internal power—but to bat aside the blade he had hurled so easily?

Was there such a master of that level within the Eastern Depot?

Meanwhile, having drawn the Commander’s sharp gaze with a single movement, Seop Mugwang clicked his tongue briefly and sent a Voice Transmission to Eunuch Ju.

— Is killing him alone enough?

— For now, yes. He is the core of the rebels’ force.

However, the Commander was counted among the top ten masters under heaven.

He was in truth the palace’s main fighting strength—the Emperor’s sword and shield that once made the nobles not even dare to dream of rebellion.

Yet at this moment, his existence was little different from the spark to a conflagration.

“Your Majesty!! Will you only be satisfied if blood is spilled by these hands!!”

He had exercised force before the Emperor.

For that alone, the Emperor no longer needed to tolerate the Commander.

“Hear me, Imperial Army!”

The Emperor’s shout rang across the courtyard of the Grand Peace Hall.

He was not one to raise his voice, but now his cry was clearer and more resolute than ever.

“We can no longer tolerate the vile plots and stratagems of traitors who shake the discipline of the realm! Thus I command! Seize at once the whole traitorous rabble—beginning with Consort Suk and the Grand Preceptor!”

“!”

“...!”

The Commander and Consort Suk looked at the Emperor with the same startled eyes.

Plots? Traitors?

To brand the Emperor’s consort and one of the Three Excellencies as traitors outright—merely because the eunuchs had been threatened?

She and her brother had not yet done anything...

“Your Majesty!! This is unjust! What have I done...!” 𝙧𝙚𝙚𝔀𝒆𝓫𝓷𝙤𝓿𝒆𝙡.𝒄𝙤𝓶

“Any who take part in rebellion—whoever they are!!”

The Emperor turned to Consort Suk.

In his chill gaze there was neither pity nor affection.

It was as if he had regarded her as a traitor from the very beginning.

“We will exterminate their nine clans, and see to it that their descendants can never again set foot in the Imperial Capital!”

He issued the order to the Eastern Depot and the soldiers.

Too late.

Only then did Consort Suk grasp it.

That just as they had prepared for rebellion over long years, so too had the Emperor prepared thoroughly to purge them.

That behind that guileless face, he had been surveying every move from above.

There is no slipping free of this.

Since the Brocade-Guard Commander had hurled a sword at one close to the Emperor, even without any other proof, that alone could be taken as the start of rebellion.

“Brocade-Guard Commander!!”

Consort Suk pointed at the Emperor and cried out.

“What are you doing! Stop His Majesty!”

“C... Consort Suk!”

“Do you mean to watch all your men die here!”

The Commander’s eyes shook.

All he had wanted was to expose the Eastern Depot’s vile face and entreat the Emperor to cast them away.

To show that only the Brocade Guard—who had stood at his side—were truly loyal to His Majesty.

To show who the true loyal subjects were.

He had only wanted to make that plain.

“Brocade-Guard Commander!”

Consort Suk hurried to his side.

She seized his arm.

“It is too late to turn back...! His Majesty intended from the start to purge me and my clan! He never meant to heed either your words or mine!”

Her voice was urgent.

In her gaze was fear she strove—and failed—to conceal.

“Move the soldiers...! Quickly...!”

The Imperial Army and the Eastern Depot began to move at the Emperor’s command.

Their first priority target was Consort Suk.

She was the Emperor’s consort who had entered the palace as a child and had long remained at his side.

“My lady. Stand behind me.”

From the time she entered the palace—to the child she bore; to the sight of her wracked with grief after losing that child—

The Commander had witnessed the whole of her life in the palace.

Who could fail to harbor bitterness toward the one who had killed their child.

In that alone—in Consort Suk’s resentment toward the Emperor—he could not share the Emperor’s will.

“Protect my lady.”

Passing Consort Suk to his subordinates, the Commander faced the Imperial Army surging toward them.

It is not too late.

What is wrong can simply be set right.

If he slays the vile swarm of eunuchs and lays out, in full, Consort Suk’s and his own circumstances before His Majesty—

His Majesty will surely recognize his loyalty.