The Ruler of Darkness

Book 2: Chapter 24

Wongak Pavilion, early afternoon.

Yeon So-hyeon was, as usual, in the guest hall meeting with book brokers who had come to find him.

“Hmm.”

Yeon So-hyeon stroked the leather cover of the book.

The bespectacled book broker smiled knowingly at this.

“Ah, Your Highness! Your scholarship is unparalleled. It seems you have instantly understood the value of this book!”

Yeon So-hyeon skimmed through the book and said, “No, I was merely curious because the cover appears to be made of human skin.”

The broker’s face immediately paled at the mention of human skin.

He quickly turned to ask his associate, a foreign merchant.

Sitting timidly in a polite posture was a man with red hair and a red beard, who cautiously responded to the book broker’s question.

After a brief exchange in a foreign language, the book broker bowed deeply to Yeon So-hyeon.

“Oh dear, Your Highness! Please kill this lowly one for making you touch such an impure item!”

“I’ll save looking for pure items for the main palace. What’s the next book?”

Displeased, the book broker rummaged through the wooden chest he had brought with him.

“Well, if I may recommend this book…”

The brokers from the merchant association were all highly skilled but also very talkative.

“Enough chatter, show it to me.”

Yeon So-hyeon snatched the cloth bundle from his hand.

“Ha ha, you’re as straightforward as ever!”

Yeon So-hyeon carefully unwrapped the silver-threaded cloth and took out an old book from inside.

He skimmed through the worn-out book with delicate fingers.

“This is…!”

The book broker’s eyes gleamed at Yeon So-hyeon’s reaction.

“Hehe. Ah, Your Highness. That book is something I had a very hard time acquiring…”

Ignoring him, Yeon So-hyeon turned to the foreign merchant.

Conversing fluently in the foreigner’s language, he surprised the merchant, who soon responded with excited gestures.

“…Indeed, Your Highness, you’re quite proficient in the foreign language.”

The marginalized book broker wiped the sweat from his wrinkled forehead with a handkerchief.

Moments later.

“Fine. I’ll buy them all.”

The book broker leapt for joy.

“Your kindness is beyond measure!”

“Kindness, you say…”

Yeon So-hyeon handed over the invoice.

“…Shall we collect the payment from the royal treasury as usual?”

Yeon So-hyeon chuckled.

“Do they usually give you a hard time?”

The book broker hurriedly bowed.

“No, Your Highness! That is merely a minor issue due to the lack of recognition of myself and our merchant association. Your benevolence is like an ocean to this lowly one…”

As the book broker continued to speak, Yeon So-hyeon exchanged pleasantries with the foreign merchant.

Yeon So-hyeon smiled, and the foreign merchant burst into laughter.

The message was, ‘Next time, come directly without this talkative broker.’

Of course, the broker, who didn’t understand the foreign language, could only wipe his sweat and force a smile.

***

At that moment.

Jung-ah was serving food generously on the monks’ bowls, food enough to overflow.

The monks, wearing tattered kasayas¹ so worn-out that their original color was unidentifiable, revealed their white teeth and smiled.

“Ah, thank you. May you be blessed, young Bodhisattva.”

“Ah, there’s no place that has vegetables as delicious as this place. Isn’t all this due to your good deeds?”

The elderly monks, their faces wrinkled and etched with lines, continually bowed their heads to Jung-ah in a respectful manner.

“It’s not me, venerable monks.”

A pungent smell emanated from their bodies, and their breath reeked of decay.

However, Jung-ah made no expression of discomfort and politely returned their bow.

“Feel free to stop by if you need anything.”

Then, one of the monks looked at her with a subtle, scrutinizing gaze.

“By any chance, did the young owner of this house have something else to ask of us, the benefactors? What is it…”

Jung-ah clapped her hands.

“Ah! Please wait a moment!”

Shortly after, the monks walked away, holding smoked meat wrapped in grease paper that Jung-ah had given them.

“Monks, please take care.”

The monks waved their hands toward Jung-ah.

“Amitabha.”

“May you be blessed, young Bodhisattvas.”

“Please send our regards to the owner.”

As soon as they had gone some distance, the triplet maids who had been silent shrugged their shoulders.

“I don’t understand this at all.”

“Monks accepting meat as offerings?”

“Did you see those white teeth? The wrinkles on that face are certainly dyed from avarice.”

Jung-ah turned to them.

“The meat they took is for the young monks at the temple. Watch your words.”

The girls shrank back at her words.

“Is that so?”

Then, Sam-ryeong² cautiously opened her mouth.

“But where did those old monks come from in the first place?”

The other two triplets clapped their hands.

“Exactly! This is Wongak Pavilion, located in the most remote part of Luoyang Sword House, and out of nowhere, begging monks appear?”

Jung-ah looked towards the departing monks, her hands folded in a bow.

“Don’t you know what that mountain in the distance is?”

At her words, the triplet maids turned around.

Beyond the garden of Wongak Pavilion lay a forest, which further extended into a dense woodland.

Behind the woodland stood a harsh, rugged mountain range.

Il-ryeong³ unconsciously muttered the name of the mountain.

“Revered Mountain…?”

Il-ryeong suddenly exclaimed.

“No! Those crazy monks are entering the forbidden land!”

Il-ryeong stamped her feet.

“Mistress! Isn’t that a cursed place, designated as forbidden because nobody, no matter how skilled, has ever returned alive?”

That was the reason why Wongak Pavilion’s garden, despite being open to nature, had no defenses in that direction.

Jung-ah smiled.

“Don’t worry.”

As she spoke, the monks disappeared into the forest.

“They came from there in the first place when they arrived.”

* * *

In the cold winter weather, the bright sunlight should have been wholly welcome, but a chilly atmosphere lingered around the main gate of Wongak Pavilion.

“Captain. Even so, isn’t the disciplinary action too harsh?”

It was a discussion about what had happened last night.

As Life-Stealing Devil Sword remained silent, the special agent disguised as a guard seemed frustrated and thumped his chest.

“No, what he did—letting someone through the service road without proper procedure—was clearly wrong. But reporting that to the higher-ups just for that seems excessive, doesn’t it?”

Leaning against the wall, Life-Stealing Devil Sword finally opened his eyes.

“Just for that?”

When he finally spoke, the special agent earnestly defended the disciplined senior agent.

“We were simply trying to provoke Grand young master a little. Haven’t we done this sort of thing occasionally in the past?”

Life-Stealing Devil Sword gave a cold smile.

“A servant was half-dead when carried out, and four young warriors who had a bright future lost their right arms.”

His gaze turned towards the special agent.

“Is that supposed to be a joke?”

“That is—”

The special agent found himself at a loss for words.

Not just him; the other special agents who were listening also looked grim.

Life-Stealing Devil Sword sighed.

“Fine. It could have been just a joke before. We’ve never seen Grand young master get angry before.”

He looked around at the special agents.

“Didn’t you all feel that things changed in Wongak Pavilion, that Grand young master changed after all the servants were fired?”

Everyone remained silent.

“We may not know much about each other. But what I do know is this.”

Their eyes were fixed on Life-Stealing Devil Sword.

“We have all been fighting to honor our families all our lives, and now for various reasons, we’ve stepped back from the front lines.”

Life-Stealing Devil Sword tapped his sword.

“Treasure the honor you’ve built so far.”

He briefly added.

“And everyone, be careful not to disrespect Grand young master.”

As he finished speaking, the special agent he had been conversing with shrugged his shoulders.

“The last part ruined what was otherwise perfect.”

The others chuckled.

“Listen here—”

Life-Stealing Devil Sword tried to say something more, but the special agent turned away and walked back to his post.

Without looking back, he responded.

“Stop messing around? I’ll obey the order. Think of my honor? I get it. But don’t be disrespectful to a swordless man?”

Another chuckled and laughed.

“Come to think of it, Captain, when did you start calling Yeon So-hyeon as ‘Grand young master’?”

The man who had been silent spoke up.

“For ten years, I was assigned a special mission, making the mountains of Yunnam my roof and the forests my front yard. I have never regretted it even once.”

He clenched his sword handle.

Two of his fingers were missing.

“But when I returned home injured, the Lord was fallen, the household was in chaos, and that eldest son was nowhere to be found.”

“Is it his lack of martial skills? Can’t be helped. It’s a matter of talent, isn’t it?”

The man, who always wore a leather helmet, had suffered a severe head injury during a past mission.

“But I can’t stand the sight of him enjoying all the privileges of being the Grand young master, yet shirking his responsibilities.”

The man who usually guarded the front gate had an irrecoverable injury on one of his legs.

“Weren’t there seclusion orders from the Lord? But to me, that seems like nothing more than an excuse. If it were you, would you just hole up at home while your father is down?”

The man, who usually conserved his words due to a throat injury, spoke up, even coughing.

“If he had inherited even half the blood from either his father or mother, he couldn’t have acted like that.”

They all had sacrificed their bodies for the sake of Luoyang Sword House.

They all spat on the ground.

“……”

This time, the words of Life-Stealing Devil Sword were stuck.

Weren’t all the things they were discussing the thoughts he had once had about Yeon So-hyeon?

And those thoughts likely underpinned the Luoyang Sword House warriors’ stance toward Yeon So-hyeon.

What could he say here?

Should he mention that Yeon So-hyeon created the famous Fleeting Shadow Moment?

Or that he saw him last night and thought Yeon So-hyeon might have mastered some martial skills?

As they said, the issue wasn’t really about martial skills.

Moreover, talking about the Grand young master’s martial skills was not a topic he could casually bring up.

Coward and scaredy-cat.

Should he say that the Yeon So-hyeon he saw was not such a person?

But what should he say?

The always confident look of Yeon So-hyeon he had seen? The occasionally eerie gaze? Actions that reminded him of the Lord?

It was woefully insufficient to overturn Yeon So-hyeon’s long-standing seclusion.

And to begin with,

‘…Why am I trying to speak for the Grand young master?’

At that moment, the gaze of a special agent standing outside turned toward the main road.

“Approaching individual with unidentified identity.”

“Male, wearing silk, unarmed.”

The alert special agent recognized the approaching person.

“Eh? That person is……?

1. Monk’s clothing[↩]
2. The 3rd of the triplets[↩]
3. 2nd sibling of the triplets[↩]

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