Myst, Might, Mayhem (Novel) - Chapter 281 - Sacred Fire Leader (3)
Chapter 281 – Sacred Fire Leader (3)
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Translated by Jinmu
Read it only at Novelbyu.com & Utoon.net
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Sang Ik-seo, Command Investigating Officer of the Embroidered Uniform Guard, looked toward someone with a somewhat tense face.
A middle-aged man with a strong impression and only a moustache stood before him, maintaining proper decorum.
In terms of office, Sang Ik-seo clearly outranked him, but the pressure the man gave off, befitting one of the five strongest masters in the imperial palace, was anything but ordinary.
He was none other than Hyeon Sun, the Northern Commandant, one of the two True Martial Envoys who stood at the very summit of the working personnel of the Embroidered Uniform Guard.
‘He seems to grow stronger by the day.’
Sang Ik-seo had watched him since the days when he first entered the Embroidered Uniform Guard, and had seen his growth with his own eyes.
The man had surpassed him long ago, but now Sang Ik-seo could not even measure him.
He had not become one of the most formidable experts in the imperial palace for no reason.
-Murmur, murmur!
Behind that Northern Commandant Hyeon Sun, the scene was chaotic.
Crowds wearing the uniforms of the Embroidered Uniform Guard kept pouring in, from junior Banner Commanders of the seventh subordinate rank, to Banner Commanders of the regular seventh rank, deputy Hundred-Household Commanders of the subordinate sixth rank, Hundred-Household Commanders of the regular sixth rank, Deputy Thousand-Household Commanders of the subordinate fifth rank, Thousand-Household Commanders of the regular fifth rank, Deputy Thousand-Household Commanders of the subordinate fourth rank, and True Martial Envoys of the regular fourth rank.
There was only one reason all of them had gathered here.
It was an emergency muster.
From the rank of Command Investigating Officer onward, one obtained the authority to issue an emergency muster of the forces of the Embroidered Uniform Guard.
Of course, by forces, this did not mean absolutely everyone.
Even in such a muster, the Southern Commandant who guarded His Imperial Majesty at close range, the Office of Inner Service that protected the women of the inner palace and the imperial family, and the Office of Penal Service that oversaw the forbidden prison were excluded.
Yet,
‘…Those bastards from the Sixth Service Offices.’
Nearly all of the Embroidered Uniform Guard had gathered, but from the Sixth Service Offices only those from Deputy Thousand-Household Commander and below had come.
The Deputy Thousand-Household Commander So Ye-rin and Thousand-Household Commander Mara Hyeon of the Sixth Service Offices had not come.
-Ppudeuk!
‘That bastard shook off the gu poison and is now refusing an emergency muster… no, wait. Is that bastard moving before me together with Deputy Thousand-Household Commander So Ye-rin to strike from behind?’
If that were the case, it would become extremely troublesome.
Though he had indeed been freed from the gu poison thanks to Gyeom-chang, the dead Hundred-Household Commander of the Embroidered Uniform Guard and one of that organization, and to Garrison Pacification Commissioner Mok Seom, he still had one weakness left, the human skin mask.
If they began investigating using that, his position would be imperiled.
‘Damn it.’
That was why he had informed Garrison Pacification Commissioner Mok Seom of the fact that he had been caught by this weakness.
Then Garrison Pacification Commissioner Mok Seom had said,
[This official will deal with the human skin mask. So Command Investigating Officer, you should seize that one who is pretending to be Chief Eunuch Ho of the Western Depot.]
[Seize that one, you say? But even Gyeom-chang was no match for him, so how could I…]
[I did not say you should seize him alone.]
[Do not tell me you mean…]
[Issue an emergency muster of the Embroidered Uniform Guard. If you can bring in at least more than half of its available force, then capturing him should pose no difficulty.]
[Th-that may be so, but…]
[The justification is sufficient. There is suspicion that the one serving Prince Gyeong at close range is a fake. No one will dare question or doubt an emergency muster on those grounds.]
That was why Sang Ik-seo had issued the emergency muster.
Yet though he had summoned them, Mara Hyeon, the masked Thousand-Household Commander of the Embroidered Uniform Guard who held his weakness in hand, had not come, leaving him wavering over what to do.
There were only two possibilities.
Either they had seen through his move and were preparing to strike him from behind, or Garrison Pacification Commissioner Mok Seom was, as he had boasted, in the process of stripping them of the leverage they held over him.
If so,
‘I must hurry.’
Either way, they as well as he had no choice but to move in a double maneuver.
He had to trust Garrison Pacification Commissioner Mok Seom and capture that fake Chief Eunuch Ho if all this was to be resolved.
Sang Ik-seo looked over the assembled Embroidered Uniform Guards.
Nearly sixty percent of those in the imperial palace had gathered.
This much force was sufficient from the standpoint of strength.
If they pressed that one with Northern Commandant Hyeon Sun at the forefront, they would be able to subdue him, no, kill him.
-Pak!
Sang Ik-seo raised his hand and said loudly,
“There is no time to wait for the head of the Sixth Service Offices. From this moment onward, we move to Cautious Mirror Palace to rescue His Highness Prince Gyeong!”
* * *
Thus the forces of the Embroidered Uniform Guard led by Command Investigating Officer Sang Ik-seo were heading toward Prince Gyeong’s Cautious Mirror Palace.
Ordinarily, it was forbidden for an armed group beyond the prescribed number to enter a palace allotted to a member of the imperial family, but an exception was made if the purpose was to rescue an imperial prince or princess.
That was why Garrison Pacification Commissioner Mok Seom had proposed it.
Not long after, they reached almost the very vicinity of Cautious Mirror Palace.
They only had to cross past the hall.
‘That bastard must die.’
There was no need even to subdue him.
He absolutely must be killed, because letting him open his mouth would be far too dangerous.
Sang Ik-seo was just about to issue that order.
Then, right at that moment,
-Kururururur!
“Wh-what is this?”
“The ground?”
The ground shook and an earthquake broke out.
Startled, the entire force of the Embroidered Uniform Guard halted its advance toward Cautious Mirror Palace.
Because the sudden quake was happening throughout the entire imperial palace, roof tiles fell from above and chaos broke out everywhere.
‘What in the world is this?’
He already needed to hurry, and now the earthquake made things unbearably difficult.
He was wondering what in the world it meant when he saw red smoke rising somewhere in the distance.
That red smoke stirred the Embroidered Uniform Guards even more than the earthquake itself.
That was because red smoke signified that a grave emergency had occurred in the underground forbidden prison and help was being requested.
At once, the Deputy Thousand-Household Commanders approached and said,
“Command Investigating Officer, what shall we do? Should we not split our forces and send some to the underground forbidden prison as well?”
“That is right. If the red signal is up, it means there has been an escape attempt at the underground forbidden prison.”
At the opinions of the Deputy Thousand-Household Commanders, Sang Ik-seo felt his insides twist.
‘Damn it, the target is right in front of us.’
If he wanted to seize that bastard, he needed all of this force now.
Even half of it felt uncomfortably insufficient.
Yet neither could he simply ignore the red signal from the underground forbidden prison.
Just as he was fretting over what to do,
“Command Investigating Officer! True Martial Envoy! Look over there!”
At that moment, a Thousand-Household Commander of the Third Service Office raised his hand and pointed toward Cautious Mirror Palace.
They all turned their heads to see what it was, and there on the roof of Cautious Mirror Palace stood Prince Gyeong.
“It is His Highness Prince Gyeong.”
“Why is His Highness on the roof?”
At Prince Gyeong’s sudden and inexplicable action, the Embroidered Uniform Guards could not hide their bewilderment.
Sang Ik-seo was no different.
His head already felt ready to burst from how tangled things were, and now Prince Gyeong had gone up onto the roof in such a dangerous state, making it all the worse.
“We must save His Highness.”
At that, Northern Commandant Hyeon Sun stepped forward.
He was directly in front of the hall of Cautious Mirror Palace and could not simply pretend not to see a prince of the imperial family in danger.
But just as Northern Commandant Hyeon Sun stepped forward,
“The Embroidered Uniform Guard drives this king to his death!”
-Hwiik!
Prince Gyeong suddenly shouted those words loudly and threw himself from the rooftop.
“Damn it!”
-Paat!
In that instant, Northern Commandant Hyeon Sun used his lightness skill with all his power to somehow catch him.
But no matter how skilled he was and no matter how superior his lightness skill, the distance was too great for him to save him.
-Kung!
‘!!!!!!!!!’
He missed him by no more than five paces.
Prince Gyeong lay collapsed with his neck twisted grotesquely after striking headfirst.
Blood streamed from his contorted body and dyed the ground around him red.
Faced with this sudden action followed by something even worse, the worst possible outcome, the Embroidered Uniform Guards, Northern Commandant Hyeon Sun included, were so shocked they could not speak.
Among them, the one left most speechless of all was Sang Ik-seo.
‘D-damn it…’
He had come to capture the fake Western Depot chief eunuch, yet the situation had now grown utterly out of control.
The justification for issuing the emergency muster had been the rescue of Prince Gyeong, a member of the imperial family.
And yet now that prince had died.
Worse, as he leapt, he had cried out that the Embroidered Uniform Guard had driven him to his death.
As though plunged into despair, Sang Ik-seo collapsed onto the ground.
-Flinch! Sreung!
At that moment, Northern Commandant Hyeon Sun, who had been examining Prince Gyeong’s corpse, half drew the sword at his waist and looked about sharply.
As he examined his surroundings like that, he frowned in confusion.
For an instant just now, he had felt something chilling from Prince Gyeong.
Yet it had vanished in a blink.
‘…What in the world was that just now?’
There was one spirit body observing him from the air.
Clicking her tongue around her pipe, it was none other than Blue Spirit.
-Impressive.
After absorbing the demonic power of the Golden-Furred Nine-Tailed Fox, the Hundred Faces King, one of the Six Demons, her spiritual power had nearly reached the level of a Purple Spirit.
Because of that, she had thought that even one who had surpassed the wall would not be able to sense her spiritual power so easily, but in that fleeting moment he had noticed it.
If her spiritual power had not evolved further, she might have been detected.
Blue Spirit rose upward.
-I did as that sentient being brat told me to, but I wonder if this will really scatter their attention enough.
* * *
Around the same time.
One of the imperial palace food storerooms, some fifty zhang from the entrance to the underground forbidden prison.
Because dried fish and similar goods were stored here, the smell was particularly strong, and unless someone had come to fetch provisions, few people entered.
-Kururururururu!
As the earthquake shook the entire storeroom, someone rose from his place and opened the storeroom door just a crack.
-Kkiiik!
Through that narrow gap he saw the red smoke and could not hide his surprise.
That was the red signal meaning a grave incident had occurred in the underground forbidden prison.
Once that smoke signal was raised, every Embroidered Uniform Guard except those of the Office of Inner Service had to move out, no matter the cause, just as in an emergency muster.
-Kung!
Someone hastily shut the storeroom door again.
It was none other than the masked Thousand-Household Commander Mara Hyeon.
Mara Hyeon stared in disbelief.
‘Did he not say he would get them out quietly?’
Things had grown far too large.
If the red signal had gone up, then the fact of the jailbreak from the underground forbidden prison had all but become a certainty.
Walking to one side of the storeroom, Mara Hyeon frowned deeply.
If things had come to this, then it would not be an exaggeration to say that escape had become practically impossible.
‘By what method is he supposed to make it all the way here?’
He had been asked to prepare just one safe staging point for the escape, and had barely managed to find one in haste.
But now even that seemed on the verge of being ruined.
The situation had become extremely difficult.
At this point, should he first respond to the red signal and head for the underground forbidden prison?
He was still wrestling with what to do.
-Kung!
At that moment, though he had felt no presence whatsoever, the storeroom door suddenly opened.
Startled, Mara Hyeon hurried to hide himself among the stacked wooden crates.
Then the door, which had opened, shut again.
‘Who is it?’
Mara Hyeon suppressed his presence as much as possible.
Judging by the fact that he had not sensed the newcomer at all, the person was clearly a formidable master.
Yet he heard a dragging sort of noise.
-Haa… haa…
The breathing was uneven.
It sounded like someone breathing through an injury.
Then a voice spoke.
“Thousand-Household Commander Mara.”
‘!?’
At that voice, Mara Hyeon could not hide his inner bewilderment.
The owner of that voice was none other than his benefactor, no, his superior, Deputy Thousand-Household Commander So Ye-rin of the Sixth Service Offices.
Mara Hyeon’s eyes trembled slightly.
Why had she come to this very place where he was hiding?
He was still wondering when Deputy Thousand-Household Commander So Ye-rin said,
“What exactly are you doing, to have even such a person trailing you?”
‘Trailing me?’
What did she mean by that?
At last he had no choice and came out from between the crates of dried goods.
In front of So Ye-rin, who stood with arms folded, lay someone whose face was bruised and who looked badly injured.
Judging by the clothes, he was a low-ranking eunuch of the Eastern Depot.
‘!?’
Had that fellow really been tailing him in secret?
To conceal his presence from Mara Hyeon, the man would have had to be specially trained or a master at least a cut above him.
Yet by the breath and qi-sense he gave off, he was not a master superior to him.
Then So Ye-rin, still with her arms folded, said,
“Thousand-Household Commander Mara. What exactly are you doing?”
“………”
“An emergency muster has been issued by the Command Investigating Officer of the Embroidered Uniform Guard. I went to fetch you, and by chance discovered this one following behind you. What are you hiding from me?”
At her suspicious words, Mara Hyeon did not know what to do.
The reason he had come here was to help certain prisoners escape the underground forbidden prison.
That was why he could not reveal the truth.
-Tok, tok!
So Ye-rin approached him with a face gone cold.
She trusted Mara Hyeon, who was her subordinate and almost like a disciple to her, but acting secretly like this without telling her anything was a betrayal of that trust.
Feeling the disappointment emanating from her, Mara Hyeon hesitated over what he should do.
“If you will not speak the truth…”
Before she could finish,
-Seuseuseu!
at that very moment the space right beside them rippled, and then smoke arose out of nowhere, forming a round entrance.
‘!!!!!!’
At the sudden strange phenomenon, both Deputy Thousand-Household Commander So Ye-rin and Thousand-Household Commander Mara Hyeon whipped their heads toward it at once.
Their eyes widened.
What in the world was this?
Why had something like an entrance suddenly appeared inside the storeroom?
Even as she stared in bewilderment at the incomprehensible phenomenon, So Ye-rin’s expression hardened.
That was because of the people visible beyond the entrance.
‘Prisoners?’
She had never been assigned to the Office of Penal Service, so she had never entered the underground forbidden prison, but as a member of the Embroidered Uniform Guard she was familiar enough with the clothing of prisoners.
Two of those people were wearing prison clothes, and the one unconscious there was…
“Ju Un-hyang?”
It was the cadet Ju Un-hyang.
And the one standing at the entrance with some strange thing hooked over his index and middle fingers was Cadet An Jong-hu.
On seeing those two, she could be certain by instinct.
It was hard to believe, but that mysterious smoke entrance seemed to be connected to the underground forbidden prison of the imperial palace.
That was because she knew both of them had entered this time as trainees of the Office of Penal Service assigned to the prison.
At that moment, Cadet An Jong-hu, standing in front of the entrance, glanced from Mara Hyeon to So Ye-rin and said,
-Did Thousand-Household Commander Mara bring that person?
‘!?’
The moment the transmitted voice rang in his ear, Mara Hyeon recognized that Cadet An Jong-hu was in fact Mok Gyeong-un.
That sent Mara Hyeon’s thoughts into confusion.
On top of everything else, the fact that he had changed his face again, and that his claim that he could escape from the underground forbidden prison had meant this…
It was then.
-Sreung!
Deputy Thousand-Household Commander So Ye-rin drew the sword from the scabbard at her waist and pointed it toward Mok Gyeong-un, whose face looked like Cadet An Jong-hu’s.
“What exactly are you people doing right now?”
At her words, Mok Gyeong-un, seeing Mara Hyeon’s reaction, let out a faint breath.
Judging by the way he was watching the situation, it seemed he had not brought this woman here deliberately.
Her involvement was somewhat troublesome, but there was no helping it.
For now, he had to cross through the entrance.
The treasured artifact he wore on his index and middle fingers had been received from Yeo Su-rin, disciple of the Pavilion Lord of Sea Immortal Pavilion, Red-Brow Old Immortal, one of the two pavilions said to be the most mysterious among the Sixty-Four Pavilions of the Square and Circle.
Won as a wager, this treasured artifact was a useful object that could create a doorway one time only, to any desired location within a radius of a little over two hundred zhang.
However, useful though it was, it was disposable.
That meant they had to cross to the other side quickly before it closed.
-Seuseuseu!
Judging by the way the entrance was already growing unstable, he needed to hurry.
So Mok Gyeong-un pulled the Ou Yezi demon sword Calamity Bane from where it was stuck by the entrance and gestured to the Sacred Fire Leader and to Dam Baek-ha, one of the Six Blood Saints of the Old Blood Cult, who stood behind him.
“We should hurry across before the doorway closes.”
Naturally, he altered his voice.
So Ye-rin believed he had been injured and ambushed and was most likely dead in the apothecary.
There was nothing to be gained by letting her know he was alive.
However,
-Wooooooo!
At that moment the demonic nature of Calamity Bane Sword surged up and tried to erode Mok Gyeong-un.
At the far stronger demonic nature than he had expected, Mok Gyeong-un’s brow arched.
To this degree, it was far more vicious even than Evil-Answering Sword.
Because of that, Mok Gyeong-un had no choice but to draw up demonic aura in order to suppress the sword intent’s demonic nature without being eroded by it.
But the moment he drew up the demonic aura,
-Chaeng!
A sword came flying like lightning, and Mok Gyeong-un hurriedly raised Calamity Bane Sword to block it.
The one who had launched that strike was none other than Deputy Thousand-Household Commander So Ye-rin.
With a hardened face, So Ye-rin said,
“…So you were alive.”
Her qi-sense was exceptionally sharp, and once she experienced an aura, she remembered it exactly.
For such a person, revealing a distinctive aura together with demonic aura was no different from openly declaring one’s identity.
At her words, Mok Gyeong-un scratched his head as if troubled.
“This is unfortunate. I have been found out against my intentions.”
“How in the world did you…”
“More importantly, I do not have much time, so I think you will need to step aside.”
-Paaang!
With those words, Mok Gyeong-un infused demonic aura into Calamity Bane Sword and created a recoil force, hurling Deputy Thousand-Household Commander So Ye-rin back together with her sword.
-Papapapapapak!
Driven back about six paces by the sudden force of the recoil, her pupils shook.
‘This man… his power has increased.’
It had not merely increased a little.
Compared to when she had last fought him, it had grown beyond comparison.
That a man she had thought dead was alive was bad enough, but what in the world had happened to him in just a few days?