WeTried Translations
Translator: ZERO_SUGAR
Editor: Abstract
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Episode 44: King Jin (1)
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It did not take long for the incident to turn the imperial capital upside down.
-Splaaaaash!
Rain poured down late that afternoon.
In an outlying area not far from Geumjeong Palace, Imperial Palace guards and Censorate officials had barred entry and sealed off the surroundings.
The place under their control was the Manor of Yang Jeong-myeong, the Minister of Revenue.
Or rather, it had been.
"What in the world happened here?"
"Was there a war or something?"
"It's completely devastated."
"How could it be like this unless cannonballs fell here?"
The soldiers murmured among themselves.
Just as they said, the once-grand Manor of Yang Jeong-myeong, the Minister of Revenue, had been reduced to ruins.
Most of the buildings had collapsed, while enormous craters dotted the Manor as though cannonballs had struck all over it.
A tall, bearded official was inspecting the devastated Manor. It was O Mu-yang, the fourth-rank Left Assistant Censor of the Censorate.
'...Hah.'
O Mu-yang had volunteered to investigate, yet the scene left them utterly dumbfounded.
According to the people questioned nearby, all of this had happened in barely a gak[1].
A gak.
Could a scene like this truly be created in just a gak?
If this had belonged to an ordinary official, O Mu-yang might have been able to accept it.
But this was the Manor of Yang Jeong-myeong, the Minister of Revenue.
He was one of the three powerful ministers who controlled this country, with more than forty renowned martial artists serving as guests under him.
Among them were Byeok Ung, a former member of the Ten Great Masters of the Force of Justice, and two supreme masters who rivaled him.
Even his private army consisted entirely of Advanced martial artists.
Yet the result was nothing short of disastrous.
-Swish!
O Mu-yang examined the bodies.
Every one of them had died in a single move. There were no exceptions.
O Mu-yang was confident that, if they truly set their mind to it, they could kill these middling fighters in one move as well.
But not the bodies laid out at the very front.
Dae Ja-gwang Byeok Ung, Supreme Unity Sword Yuk Chon, and Hyeongmun Fourteen Fists Mo Eun-hoe.
These people were exceptions.
'...Even they were defeated in one move?'
No matter how closely O Mu-yang looked, every one of them had died in a single move.
Byeok Ung's body bore a few wounds, but the decisive blow had still been a single move.
Even O Mu-yang could not accomplish such a thing.
'This is troublesome.'
There were only about three people in the imperial capital capable of displaying such monstrous power.
The future Master whom O Mu-yang served, and the two Grand Elders who guarded the Imperial Palace.
Those people might have been capable of this.
The problem was that none of them had any reason to attack the Minister of Revenue.
'...It makes no sense.'
There was no supreme master like that on King Jin's side.
If King Jin had possessed one, he was not the sort to remain quiet for so long.
That meant a third force had intervened, but the only people in the current martial world capable of such power were the Four Immortal Masters at its peak.
Yet even they would not turn against officialdom because of Southern Blade Imperial Uncle Hong Hwa-yun, a member of the imperial family.
Besides, even if they acted, they would never reduce a Manor to ruins like this.
'Who in the world was it?'
O Mu-yang's head throbbed.
This was a variable far too dangerous to simply leave alone.
'This has become quite a problem.'
It had strayed from the original plan.
Inspector Censor Yu Jin-sung was supposed to die, and Princess Seo was supposed to fall into the hands of Yang Jeong-myeong, the Minister of Revenue, for the plan to proceed smoothly.
'I'll have to see the future Master.'
The plan would likely need to be revised completely.
* * *
Six days passed.
At last, Princess Seo's escort procession reached the outskirts of the imperial capital.
Some of the party had been injured in the attack by the river, and two days of relentless rain had delayed their return to the Imperial Palace.
Fortunately, there had been no further attacks after the incident by the river.
Some might have called it heaven-sent luck, but everyone believed it was the work of one person.
-Nod... nod...
A fierce-looking middle-aged man sat on horseback, his head repeatedly falling backward as he dozed.
It was Mumu, wearing a Skin Mask.
'Was it then?'
Back then, Mumu had flown off somewhere and been gone for roughly a two-hour period.
Everyone had wondered where he had gone, and Mumu had said he had taken care of things so the fire moths would not keep coming after them.
And truly, there had been no further attacks after that.
Even Princess Seo, Hong Na-yeon, who had expected people to keep targeting her, was amazed.
Yet one person alone knew the truth.
It was Mumu's older brother, Yu Jin-sung.
'...It was the Minister of Revenue.'
Mumu had told only Jin-sung the truth.
Upon hearing it, Jin-sung had been both shocked and deeply troubled.
Yang Jeong-myeong, the Minister of Revenue, was one of the three powerful ministers who controlled this country.
Jin-sung was astonished that such a man had boldly targeted Princess Seo, a member of the imperial family.
What shocked him even more was that Mumu had wiped them all out.
[You killed every one of them?]
[Yes.]
[Even so, how could you...]
[I thought they'd keep being a nuisance if I left them alone.]
For a moment, Jin-sung had felt flustered by how casually Mumu said it.
He knew Mumu had an innocent side, but that he showed no mercy once he considered someone an enemy. Still, he had never expected Mumu to kill all of them.
At first, Jin-sung had wanted to scold him for going too far.
But he could not bring himself to do so.
Those people had tried to kill them as well.
They had even destroyed a perfectly sound river embankment.
'They were people who did not care if the common people suffered, so long as they achieved their goal.'
It would have been laughable to scold Mumu for killing people like that.
Perhaps Mumu's choice had been the right one.
By removing the true culprit from the start, their journey here had become smooth.
'...I'm envious of this child.'
Jin-sung suddenly found himself envying Mumu.
It was not Mumu's outrageous strength, which defied common sense, that Jin-sung envied.
He had become an official to clear his father Yu Yeop-kyung's name, but he was gradually growing weary of the political infighting within the government.
Mumu, on the other hand, was not bound by such things in the slightest.
Perhaps that was why he had punished those who targeted them without hesitation.
'Perhaps this is the life I wanted.'
Whenever Jin-sung looked at Mumu, he found himself thinking that.
Still, he did not deny the path he had walked.
Because he had walked this path, he had been able to clear his father Yu Yeop-kyung's name.
-Swish!
At that moment, Jin-sung saw Princess Seo, Hong Na-yeon, wake Mumu from his nap.
Did she have something to say to him?
As Jin-sung wondered about that,
"Master Yu. Could you ride ahead with me for a moment so we can talk?"
Mumu was concealing his voice, so he simply nodded with eyes still half-asleep.
Hong Na-yeon and Mumu then rode ahead of the others.
* * *
Once they had ridden far enough away from the procession, Mumu looked at Princess Seo, Hong Na-yeon, with puzzled eyes.
Hong Na-yeon spoke to him.
"You can talk now, Mumu."
"...You knew?"
"I thought you knew too."
Mumu scratched his head at that.
Jin-sung had not told him, but Mumu had vaguely realized from overhearing their conversation that she knew his identity.
"But what did you want to say?"
"...I have one favor to ask of you."
"A favor?"
Hong Na-yeon let out a soft sigh at Mumu's question.
She had given this a great deal of thought before deciding to say it.
By nature, she preferred solving problems herself rather than asking anyone else for help.
But this time, she desperately needed help.
"I'm not saying you must agree, or trying to force you as a member of the imperial family. I just want to ask you as a senior speaking to a junior from the same academy, or simply as one person to another."
Mumu looked curious and asked,
"Can I ask what it is?"
"...Royal Father. No, help my father, King Jin."
"You want me to help King Jin?"
Mumu furrowed his brow.
He could not understand what she meant.
Seeing his reaction, Hong Na-yeon glanced around and lowered her voice.
"I'm telling only you, so don't tell anyone else. My father, King Jin, is always under threat of death."
"What?"
"You heard correctly. Father has fallen out of favor with the Emperor and the powerful ministers, so he is always being watched."
Mumu tilted his head at that.
It was quite different from what his older brother Jin-sung had told him.
He had heard that Hong Na-yeon's father, King Jin, was a feudal king who had been granted a title and was the current Emperor's younger brother.
He had even heard King Jin was a trusted member of the imperial family who possessed a fiefdom.
What was this supposed to mean?
"...I thought King Jin was the Emperor's most cherished younger brother."
"That is what people believe. The truth is different."
"The truth is different?"
"Father is the member of the imperial family whom the Emperor is most wary of."
"Wary of?"
"Yes."
Hong Na-yeon looked directly at Mumu.
This was the first time she had ever told anyone such a story.
To Hong Na-yeon, Mumu was her only hope.
Her face flushed slightly as she bit her lip, then continued.
"My father, King Jin, was the second son, not the eldest. But among his brothers, he possessed the deepest virtue and excelled in every way, so the Former Emperor favored him greatly."
"..."
"The more that happened, the more the current Emperor, who had been the eldest son at the time, hated and feared him."
She recalled those days.
At the time, rumors had spread that King Jin would become Crown Prince instead of the eldest son.
That was how deep the Former Emperor's trust in him had been.
King Jin had, in fact, already been close enough to the throne to study the art of rulership alongside the Crown Prince.
But everything changed when the Former Emperor suddenly died of illness.
"That was the turning point."
The current Emperor swiftly seized control of the Imperial Palace. Claiming that no will had been left behind and invoking the principle that the eldest son should inherit, he ascended the throne himself.
The Empress Dowager, who knew the Former Emperor's wishes, refused and would not hand over the imperial seal. A considerable number of ministers also submitted memorials in opposition.
"...It could have become a civil war. But Father feared that many people would be sacrificed, so he eventually persuaded the Empress Dowager to pass the imperial seal to the current Emperor."
"So he gave it up?"
"That's right."
That was the hidden story.
Yet King Jin's concession had become poison to himself.
"Outwardly, the Emperor showed trust in Father and even granted him a fiefdom, but that was only to calm public sentiment and bring the ministers to his side."
Though he was inferior to King Jin, the current Emperor was skilled in schemes and political infighting.
He understood that he needed to maintain appearances to stabilize the imperial family.
As the situation within the empire gradually settled, the Emperor filled important posts with his own people, drove out the powerful ministers who had served since the Former Emperor's reign one by one, and isolated King Jin.
It was as though he was slowly holding a sword to King Jin's throat.
Mumu shook his head at that.
"That's really awful."
"You think so too?"
"Yes."
Mumu's Skin Mask made him look fierce, but he defended her in such an innocent tone that Hong Na-yeon smiled faintly.
Mumu then asked,
"So is the current Emperor trying to get rid of your father, King Jin?"
"...Yes. If he finds a sufficient pretext, he'll try to kill him at any time."
That was why King Jin did his utmost not to reveal any weakness.
But the ceaseless political attacks were steadily driving him into a corner.
Aware of this, King Jin had allowed his only daughter to secretly enter Changcheon Martial Academy so that she would be protected.
Hong Na-yeon spoke bitterly.
"I am Father's weakness. That's why I wanted to grow stronger, so I wouldn't hold him back. But..."
No matter how strong she became, she could not become a source of strength for King Jin.
Even this time, if not for Mumu, she would have been captured and held hostage without any way to resist.
"...I think I'm still weak."
Her eyes reddened with frustration.
Mumu felt sorry seeing her like that.
He scratched his head and said to Hong Na-yeon,
"Um... Then would the problem go away if I just take care of the Emperor?"
'!?'
Hong Na-yeon, who had been overcome with emotion, stared at Mumu in stunned disbelief.
What had this child just said?
[1] Gak: A traditional time unit of roughly fifteen minutes.
Footnotes:
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