What In The World Are You Doing? (3)

Jwa Go-Hak stared at Chung Myung, at a loss for words.

“Affairs Head Do-Hyeon of the Ceremonial Affairs is… someone’s subordinate?”

“Yeah.”

Chung Myung answered nonchalantly.

“The wording may differ. Business partner, collaborator, whatever. But what difference does that make? If there’s someone who ultimately profits from that bastard’s efforts, then that person is the mastermind.”

“…….”

He had never even considered such a thing.

Do-Hyeon, Affairs Head of the Ceremonial Affairs.

The very heart of power in Beijing, a man who made not only crying children but even old men with one foot in the grave tremble in fear.

There was someone who could make a man like that move? Who could ever have imagined such a thing?

It was absurd. Anyone with even the slightest understanding of how the country worked and how its officials moved would immediately realize how preposterous it sounded.

But…….

If, by some chance, it was true, then everything could be explained.

Jwa Go-Hak swallowed hard.

“Even so…….”

“Well, there’s no need for us to argue it among ourselves.”

Chung Myung’s gaze shifted to Do-Hyeon.

“We can just ask the person involved.”

Do-Hyeon’s gaze turned razor-sharp.

He glared at Chung Myung with a ferocity far beyond anything he had shown before. Of course, Chung Myung was not someone who would be cowed by another person’s glare.

“Your delusions are getting out of hand.”

“Oh?”

Chung Myung smiled slyly, one corner of his mouth lifting.

“Then did our Affairs Head prepare all this because he wants to sit on the dragon throne himself?”

“…….”

“You’re not the kind of person who would do that. Aren’t you?”

“You act as though you know me well.”

“Of course, I don’t know what kind of person you are. But… when you’ve lived long enough, there are some things you come to understand.”

“There he goes again.”

“I told you, you’re the youngest one here, you punk.”

“Be quiet.”

Chung Myung waved off the Mount Hua disciples jeering behind him, then continued.

“At least, from what I can tell, you don’t seem like the sort of person who would harbor the mad dream of becoming emperor yourself.”

Do-Hyeon silently glared daggers at Chung Myung.

“Then there’s only one answer. There’s someone else who is going to become emperor. Isn’t there?”

“Based on the nonsense you’re spouting right now alone—”

“Hm?”

Do-Hyeon spat out the words through a deeply twisted expression.

“You have committed treason, and your nine clans could be exterminated—”

“Oh, that’s fine. I’m an orphan.”

“…….”

Do-Hyeon quietly closed his mouth. It seemed even he could not think of an appropriate response to that.

The Mount Hua disciples who witnessed the scene began whispering among themselves.

“Being an orphan does have its advantages.”

“What kind of thing is that to say!”

“But it’s true.”

“Shut your mouth, beggar.”

“Yes, sir.”

Do-Hyeon gently closed his eyes and calmed himself.

The rage surging within him was not easy to endure. He had endured countless unreasonable demands from the stubborn ministers of the court, but the things these bastards said provoked a completely different kind of fury.

After taking a shallow, deep breath, Do-Hyeon spoke again.

“Do orphans not have lives? You act as though you’ve died once before.”

“Oh, how did you know?”

“…….”

Chung Myung glanced toward the Mount Hua disciples, then raised his index finger over his mask and held it to his mouth.

“I don’t know how you figured it out, but please keep it a secret. I don’t want other people to know. Heheh.”

Do-Hyeon lightly rubbed his forehead as though he had a splitting headache. The others were bad enough, but this man standing before him was truly impossible to handle.

“I have nothing more to say. Kill me if you want.”

“Well, I suppose that’s what you’d say.”

Chung Myung shrugged.

“Though it’ll happen that way even if we don’t lift a finger.”

“Hm?”

“The reason we’ve been handling you so carefully until now was because we had no way to stop you from destroying the evidence, you know?”

“…….”

“But what are you going to do?”

Chung Myung turned his head and nodded toward the eight warehouses standing side by side.

“Even the great Affairs Head of the Eastern Depot probably can’t make this many weapons disappear overnight, can he?”

“…….”

“So, to put it another way, even if you bring just one moderately powerful person here…”

Chung Myung drew his hand across his throat in a slashing gesture.

“It won’t be me whose nine sects get slaughtered. It’ll be yours. No matter how great your power is, this is something you can’t contain. Right?”

Do-Hyeon pressed his lips tightly together.

But he could not bring himself to deny Chung Myung’s words.

Just as Chung Myung said, no matter how mighty Do-Hyeon’s power was, this was an irreparable matter. If this affair came to light, Do-Hyeon would follow exactly in the footsteps of all those who had fallen before him. No—he would suffer a ruin so miserable that it could not even be compared to theirs.

There was one reason for that. The eunuchs’ power all came from the emperor.

Unlike officials connected through family, scholarly lineages, regional ties, and marriage alliances, eunuchs were people who wielded the emperor’s power in his stead and nothing more.

The emperor would not even need to personally step in and tear Do-Hyeon apart. Simply reclaiming the power he had granted would be enough. Those who had accumulated grudges against Do-Hyeon would surely descend upon him like madmen, eager to strip the flesh from his bones.

“Still have nothing to say?”

Chung Myung had easily guessed the same thing, and pressured Do-Hyeon with a smile in his eyes.

But Do-Hyeon’s answer was completely different from what Chung Myung had expected.

“Do as you please.”

“…Huh?”

Chung Myung tilted his head to the side.

“Did you think threats like that could do anything to me? I am Do-Hyeon.”

Do-Hyeon, Affairs Head of the Ceremonial Affairs, glared at Chung Myung for a moment before abruptly turning around.

Then he began walking away as though he no longer had any attachment to anything. Whether Chung Myung threw a blade into his back and killed him, or dragged someone here to expose everything, it was as if none of it had anything to do with him.

“Huh?”

That attitude actually left Chung Myung flustered.

“Uh… This isn’t how this is supposed to go.”

Chung Myung’s head tilted crookedly again.

Fine, he understood. Do-Hyeon was manly to an almost astonishing degree. Hadn’t Chung Myung already acknowledged that?

But something about this was strange. Being manly and being stupid might look similar, but they were entirely different things. If Do-Hyeon were a fool, he could never have risen to the lofty position of Affairs Head.

No matter how strange it is… once you rule out what’s wrong.

What remains is the answer.

Staring intently at Do-Hyeon’s back, Chung Myung spoke in a low voice.

“Aha. It’s already begun.”

At that moment, Do-Hyeon’s feet stopped despite his previously unhurried stride.

“You’re in a situation where you can’t stop it either.”

After a brief silence, Do-Hyeon slowly turned his head.

His gaze pierced Chung Myung. After fixing him with a fierce stare for a long while, Do-Hyeon spoke.

“Can you take off that mask?”

“…Do you think I can?”

“That’s a shame. I’m truly curious about who you are. Not for official reasons, but personally.”

Leaving only those words behind, Do-Hyeon turned around again. Then, together with his subordinates, he walked away from them.

“Hey.”

Baek Cheon quickly approached Chung Myung.

“Is it really okay to let him go like this?”

“What else? You want us to capture and torture the Eastern Depot commander?”

“No, I didn’t mean anything that extreme.”

“That isn’t the important thing anymore.”

“Huh? Then what is?”

Chung Myung turned his head and looked at Baek Cheon.

“What’s important is packing up and leaving as quickly as possible. As far away from Beijing as we can get.”

“What? Why all of a sudden?”

“What have you been listening to all this time?”

Chung Myung let out a short, exasperated sigh.

“This place is about to become a sea of flames.”

“This place?”

“Yeah. Because the rebels will be coming soon.”

Baek Cheon’s mouth fell wide open.

“W-Why would it suddenly come to that?”

“That’s what I’m asking. What have you been listening to? We just went over everything.”

“You’re the only kind of person who could hear all that and understand a situation like this!”

“Good grief.”

Chung Myung shook his head. Then he began explaining to the Mount Hua disciples who had gathered around him before he knew it.

“There are people who will use the weapons here, an event that will profit from using those weapons, and someone who will profit from the entire process. You understand that much, right?”

“The people who will use them are soldiers. The event that will profit is a rebellion.”

At Yu Yiseol’s words, Chung Myung gave a brief nod.

Baek Cheon swallowed hard and asked.

“Then who is that person?”

“How would I know?”

“What do you mean, how would you know, you bastard!”

“What do you expect me to do about something I don’t know?”

Chung Myung answered gruffly.

He had lived his entire life as a Taoist in the first place. He did not even know who was currently in the court or how power was distributed within the imperial family, so how could he possibly know that?

“One thing is certain: it’s someone with more power than Do-Hyeon.”

“That’s what I’m asking—how is that possible? According to that Grand Academician, Do-Hyeon practically controls the court as it is. Where could there be someone with more power than him…? Oh…”

Baek Cheon’s speech gradually slowed. Then he opened his mouth so wide his jaw nearly dropped off and clutched his forehead.

“There is… someone like that…”

“There is?”

Baek Cheon nodded.

“It would be possible if they were a member of the imperial family. No matter how powerful Do-Hyeon is, he couldn’t surpass the authority of an imperial prince.”

“That’s true. Then some other member of the imperial family incited Do-Hyeon to…”

“No, that’s impossible.”

At that moment, Jwa Go-Hak’s cold voice cut into their ears.

“Impossible?”

“That’s right. The imperial family as it stands has no such power. More precisely, there is no one capable of moving Do-Hyeon and the imperial army. All those people are already dead.”

“Dead? By whose hand?”

“Who do you think?”

“Ah…….”

There was only one person in the world who could kill a member of the imperial family.

“In any case, the imperial family is in complete disarray right now. There should be no one of that caliber.”

A groan escaped Baek Cheon’s lips.

“Then we’re back where we started… So who in the world is it?”

“That’s just how sasuk talks.”

“I agree.”

“…You little bastards.”

Baek Cheon was just about to say something when—

“We’re not back where we started.”

Jwa Go-Hak, whose face had gone so pale it seemed tinged blue, glared at Chung Myung.

“Taoist.”

“What?”

“You said earlier, Taoist, that whoever profits from this situation is the mastermind.”

“That’s what I said. How many times do I have to tell you?”

“And that he would have the ability to move an army.”

“Yes, yes! Do you want me to write it down for you?”

“No. That won’t be necessary.”

Jwa Go-Hak closed his eyes, trying to quiet his thoroughly troubled mind.

“…Because I think we’ve found the mastermind.”

Baek Cheon turned to Jwa Go-Hak in surprise.

“What? You said it was impossible just now.”

“I didn’t say it was impossible. I meant there was no one among the imperial family capable of it.”

“That’s true, but… if he isn’t a member of the imperial family, there can’t be anyone who would dare command Do-Hyeon, can there?”

“There is no one in the world who could command Do-Hyeon. As you can see, he is that sort of person.”

The Mount Hua disciples nodded without realizing it. Even to a stranger, he certainly did not look like someone who would work under anyone.

“However, there is someone who could join hands with Do-Hyeon. And in that case, someone with enough power to crush Do-Hyeon as well.”

“You said there was no such person in the court.”

“There is no such person in the court. But there is one in the military.”

“Hm?”

Everyone’s eyes trembled slightly.

“The military?”

“…That’s right. Even for Do-Hyeon, the greatest power in the world, moving a massive army would be difficult. It would be impossible through the power of an ordinary subject; one would have to be at least a member of the imperial family. But… if the person moving that army were not a court minister but a military commander, would there be a problem? He would already have tens of thousands of soldiers under his command who obeyed him.”

“Ah…….”

“The military cooperated with Do-Hyeon? No, wait—wouldn’t that mean Do-Hyeon cooperated with the military? But who could it be?”

Jwa Go-Hak bit his lip and spoke again.

“There are countless generals in the world, and it cannot be said that there are few among them with forces capable of targeting Beijing. But among all of them, if we are speaking of someone even Do-Hyeon would concede superiority to, there is only one.”

“…Who is it?”

Jwa Go-Hak looked around at everyone once, as though he was afraid to even utter the name.

“…The head of the Red Banner Army, who has guarded the northern frontier for decades.”

Jwa Go-Hak squeezed his eyes shut and forced himself to continue.

“The Liaodong Regional Military Commander, General Hwang Bo-Ung. Only… only he is the one.”