WeTried Translations
Translator: ZERO_SUGAR
Editor: Abstract
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Chapter 9: Invitation (2)
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Invitation (2)
"...Oh, my aching head."
Watching the scene from a distance, Yu Yeop-kyung pressed a hand to his head. He had been wondering what the two of them were even doing when his son knocked Jang Po-kwae flat with a single blow. Sure that trouble had broken out, Yu Yeop-kyung started to rise, but Deputy Commissioner Oh Ji-gang waved a hand back and forth as if to say it was nothing.
"School official Yeo. It's nothing serious." "Nothing serious? Jang Po-kwae went flying like that." "Hahaha. Jang Po-kwae is a martial arts master. No matter how monstrously strong Mumu is, the man isn't someone who'd go down so easily. He's probably just toying with Mumu."
'Toying with him? Hmm. Is that really it?'
If it was only play, why had the constables rushed over in such alarm? While he was puzzling over it, Deputy Commissioner Oh Ji-gang changed the subject.
"More to the point, will you really be all right? Stopping over along the way, I mean." "What choice do I have? As you said, Deputy Commissioner Oh, if the Minister of Justice wishes to see me, I'm in no position to refuse."
Among the Six Ministries, the Ministry of Justice handled the carrying out of sentences and all matters concerning prisoners. The man at its head was none other than the Minister of Justice, who held the senior second rank. Though he had been specially pardoned on the occasion of a national celebration, it was the Ministry of Justice that had overseen his exile, so he could not refuse the summons.
"Still, I haven't the faintest idea why I'm being called."
This was what troubled Yu Yeop-kyung. It had been some seventeen years since he was caught up in that 'incident' and sent into exile. From what he heard, a great many figures in the political world had already been replaced, and those who knew him had grown few. He couldn't fathom why anyone would summon him now, when he was no more than a former criminal.
"Hm... To be honest, I do have a notion." "And what would that be?"
At Yu Yeop-kyung's question, Deputy Commissioner Oh Ji-gang smacked his lips and said,
"I'd meant to save it so you'd be pleasantly surprised, telling you only when we reached your home in Kaifeng, but it seems there's no helping it." "What on earth do you mean by that?" "It's most likely on account of your sons." "My sons? Have those children gotten into trouble somehow?"
Yu Yeop-kyung asked in unease. Waiting in Kaifeng were his two sons, whom he had not seen for a long time. The eldest would now be past his coming of age, and the second was the same age as his adopted son, Mumu.
"Ah, please don't misunderstand. It's nothing like that." "Then?" "You have a truly splendid son."
At those words, Yu Yeop-kyung looked lost. Deputy Commissioner Oh Ji-gang smiled and went on,
"Your eldest son completed his studies at Changcheon Martial Academy as Second Graduate, and was appointed as an Inspector Censor of the senior seventh rank at the Censorate." "Wha, what?"
At that, Yu Yeop-kyung was struck dumb. The Censorate was the inspection bureau of the imperial capital. By its very nature, the inspection bureau, which assessed officials' competence and conducted audits, in some respects wielded even more power than the Six Ministries. To become a senior seventh rank Inspector Censor in such a place was, quite literally, to rise high in the world.
'Is this a dream, or am I awake?'
Even he himself had been no more than a Learned of the senior eighth rank. And yet a senior seventh rank official had come out of a household whose head had been exiled as a criminal. It was astonishing, yes, but more than that, it was utterly beyond comprehension.
"Are you perhaps making sport of me? How could the office employ the child of an exiled criminal?" "Ahaha. It's only natural that it makes no sense to you." "How did this come to pass?" "Now, where should I even begin... Ah! Do you remember the Changcheon Martial Academy I just mentioned?" "I do. You said my eldest completed his studies there as Second Graduate? What exactly is that place?"
It was an academy he was hearing of for the first time. When he had been in Kaifeng, he hadn't even known such an academy existed. Given the 'martial' character in its name, it seemed not to be an academy of the literary persuasion.
"School official Yeo. Do you happen to remember the Mighty Conqueror Council?" "The Mighty Conqueror Council, you mean that band of vile traitors who sought to conquer the Central Plains by force of arms and even threatened the imperial palace?"
How could he not know. The starting point of that incident had been tied to the Mighty Conqueror Council. A great many from the National Academy had all been branded criminals and sent into exile, after all. In any case, even Yu Yeop-kyung, who knew little of the martial world, understood better than anyone how much terror that organization had instilled in countless people.
"And what of it?" "You know who drove the Mighty Conqueror Council back, don't you?" "That would be... those they call the Four Immortal Masters, was it not?" "That's right. The place founded by two of these Four Immortal Masters is none other than Changcheon Martial Academy." "And how does completing studies there lead to such a thing?" "Do you also know that one of the Four Immortal Masters is of the imperial family?"
At those words, Yu Yeop-kyung's eyes went wide. Cast into exile after the incident broke, he'd had no way of learning such things. What was more, he had taken no interest at all in the affairs of the martial world.
"Of the imperial family..." "That person, of the imperial family, is astonishingly one of the great masters of the martial world, and so is called the Southern Blade Imperial Uncle. Together with the Northern Heaven Fist Hero, that person founded Changcheon Martial Academy." "Well now. I see." "The imperial court and the office, recognizing the merit of the Four Immortal Masters who saved the Central Plains from the Mighty Conqueror Council, and of one among them, the Southern Blade Imperial Uncle, grant posts in the Ministry of War, the Censorate, the Embroidered Uniform Guard, and the like to those who complete their studies at Changcheon Martial Academy as First Graduate, Second Graduate, or Third Graduate."
Yu Yeop-kyung, who had known nothing of any of this, could not contain his astonishment. To think that a path into officialdom had been opened in this manner even to martial artists. There had been a time when the office and the martial world were bound by mutual non-interference. But a question lingered.
"Deputy Commissioner Oh. Even so, you mean this is possible even for the child of an exiled criminal?"
Going into exile did not mean everyone fell under collective punishment. Yet for a criminal's household, the road into officialdom was, plainly put, closed. At this, Deputy Commissioner Oh Ji-gang smiled and said,
"School official Yeo. His Majesty too calls that person Imperial Uncle, favoring him and entrusting him with great responsibility. And so he has proclaimed that anyone, regardless of high or low station, will be given a chance." "Ahaha!"
At those words, a cry of deep emotion spilled from Yu Yeop-kyung's lips. If what Deputy Commissioner Oh Ji-gang said was true, then his son had completed his studies at that Changcheon Martial Academy as Second Graduate and been appointed to the Censorate. For a man who had worried over his children in Kaifeng waking and sleeping, there could be no greater joy than this.
"Are you, perhaps, weeping?" "N, no. It seems a spark flew into my eye." "If a spark touches it, you'll go blind."
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