Volume 4 Chapter 11 – Balancer

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Translated by Rain

Read it only at Novelbyu.com & Utoon.net

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The meeting was over.

When Yeon So-hyeon stepped out of the stone cave, the Agency warriors came into view.

“Eldest Young Master, we shall escort you to the entrance of the secret cave.”

The waiting female commanding warrior bowed politely, then approached with a blindfold.

“Put that away.”

“However, this is the Agency’s guideline…”

“I do not care about guidelines or whatever.”

Yeon So-hyeon pointed behind him.

“This was my father’s personal training ground. Do you understand? It is a place I visited dozens of times when I was young.”

As he took the lead and began walking with large strides, the Agency warriors hastily followed.

“But…!”

“For your information, I can go from here to Pavilion of Perfect Enlightenment with my eyes closed, even by rolling. Do not pull useless stunts.”

The female commander wearing a smooth mask seemed momentarily flustered, but soon stuffed the blindfold into her chest.

And as she signaled her subordinates, the warriors moved swiftly, bringing in the squad that had been waiting with the four-person palanquin.

She quickly handed Yeon So-hyeon over to the commanding warrior in charge of the palanquin.

Having finished speaking, she approached Yeon So-hyeon and cupped her fists.

“Since I have spoken to them, they will escort you comfortably to Pavilion of Perfect Enlightenment.”

Yeon So-hyeon patted her on the shoulder.

“You do not have a bad knack. You have a way of doing things.”

“…You flatter me.”

Getting onto the palanquin, Yeon So-hyeon held the door and spoke to her.

“It must have been very suffocating to work in such a rigid place like the Agency for a long time.”

“That is…”

Closing the door, Yeon So-hyeon spoke through the small window.

“If you ever quit the Agency, come to Pavilion of Perfect Enlightenment. I will need many capable people in the future.”

At those words, the surrounding warriors chuckled.

There was also someone clearing his throat.

And naturally so, for who would quit an important post in the Luoyang Sword Family to go to the Eldest Young Master, who was notorious as the Swordless One?

However, contrary to everyone’s expectations, she scratched her head and replied.

“Uh… my name is Cheong-su. If that time comes, I shall be in your care.”

Bursting into laughter, Yeon So-hyeon tapped the ceiling of the palanquin.

“Guys, let’s go home now.”

As the palanquin dashed like the wind and vanished from sight, the surrounding warriors stared at their commanding warrior with dumbfounded looks.

The commanding warrior nonchalantly shrugged her shoulders.

“What are you looking at like that? How important it is to grab the right line in social life.”

The warriors sighed.

“…It seems the line the commanding warrior just grabbed is a rotten rope.”

When someone spoke like that, she opened her eyes wide and looked at him.

“Puhahaha!”

It was a refreshing laughter.

Unconcerned by her subordinates’ dumbfounded stares, she clutched her stomach and laughed for a long time.

After a while, she barely calmed down.

“Ah. My stomach hurts from laughing too much.”

As she gestured, everyone shrugged their shoulders and began to move to withdraw.

Holding her mask behind her, she wiped away the tears that flowed from laughing too much.

“…A rotten rope? That Eldest Young Master Yeon So-hyeon?”

She shook her head side to side.

“I must have gotten old now too.”

Looking at the warriors walking ahead, she wore a bitter smile.

‘…Indeed, most of those old enough to remember the events of the past were replaced after the Patriarch collapsed.’

The organization that had been established for a single purpose had failed in that purpose.

After that day, numerous people who were on site with her either quit on their own or were replaced.

‘Is it about time for me to leave the Agency as well…?’

She was someone who had really taken a dislike to the Agency’s upper echelon lately anyway.

* * *

The stone cave after Yeon So-hyeon left.

The new female high councilor spoke.

“…The decision to lift the Eldest Young Master’s seclusion. Was it the right decision?”

The new male high councilor replied.

“Did we have any other option?”

“No, but…”

One of the high councilors spoke.

“The Eldest Young Master can expose the truth of that day at any time. Then…”

Another high councilor caught the words.

“Even now, those who are loyally devoted to the Patriarch will draw their swords against us all at once.”

“Many of those who were in the uppermost echelon at the time still harbor slight doubts about what happened back then.”

“A great chaos will come…”

The General Affairs councilor stepped forward.

“This council stands above the family laws of the main family, yet there were not many means to check this council properly.”

Everyone listened to his words.

“Nevertheless, this council has continuously reinforced its internal regulations, agonized to handle all matters fairly, and feared losing respect the most.”

Another high councilor nodded.

“It was because the existence of the Eldest Young Master was there.”

“That is undoubtedly true. Because he was there, capable of exposing everything at any time, this council could preserve its current purpose.”

The male new high councilor, who had been silent, asked in a strained tone.

“…Did you not make attempts to eliminate him?”

A high councilor laughed aloud.

“Perhaps there was such a plan in the early stages. However, think about it. Do you think he would not have prepared for his sudden death?”

“We have not even fully grasped how many members of the main family’s uppermost echelon still maintain friendly relations with him. In addition, if we include the reputable figures inside and outside Luoyang…”

Everyone clicked their tongues in awe.

“He seemed to have merely lived in seclusion in Pavilion of Perfect Enlightenment for ten years, but who knows…”

“If the existence of someone like him had not been there, it would be hard for me to guess what shape the main family would be in right now.”

While everyone was whispering and exchanging stories about Yeon So-hyeon, one high councilor spoke.

“By the way, this meeting room was a place I liked quite a bit, but now we can no longer use it.”

“Is that not unavoidable?”

They stared at the spot where Yeon So-hyeon had stood.

The sunlight pouring through the hole in the ceiling was illuminating the Sword Family’s Golden Seal placed on the floor.

Yeon So-hyeon had left the Patriarch’s Seal in that spot and departed.

“…Since no one can dare lay a finger on it either.”

“Until a new Patriarch is born as time passes, or the Grand Patriarch miraculously wakes up and returns as the Patriarch, that is.”

“We have no choice but to seal this entire meeting room.”

The Chairman, who had been silent, spoke.

“Everyone, remember.”

Everyone focused on the Chairman’s voice.

“We have only repeatedly made promises to the Eldest Young Master that we could not keep until now, but the Eldest Young Master kept his promise to us this time as well.”

Everyone instantly grew solemn.

‘I will ensure the Patriarch’s Seal in my possession does not affect the successor competition of the main family, so do not worry.’

The past Supreme Executive Council, which had belatedly learned that the Patriarch’s Seal was in Yeon So-hyeon’s hands, had been thrown into a great chaos.

Those were the words the young Yeon So-hyeon had said to them when he appeared in the meeting, though how he had known that fact was a mystery.

“If there is still a promise we can keep, even if only a possibility remains…”

The General Affairs councilor replied.

“It is only to do our best to prevent the successor competition from intensifying into a large-scale conflict.”

“Since the only ones who can do that are us, the Supreme Executive Council, who possess all authority.”

While recalling their roles anew in a brief silence, one of the high councilors joked.

“Since even that Eldest Young Master has now officially jumped in as a successor, it seems things will be even more of a headache in the future.”

“I guess getting a peaceful night’s sleep is out of the question now.”

“Does that mean you had the luxury of sleeping peacefully until now?”

While they were chatting boisterously, the new female high councilor spoke in a small voice.

“…Will we really have a harder time than now?”

Her voice echoed inside the stone cave.

“The Eldest Young Master has maintained silence for the sake of the main family, enduring all those stigmas even until now.”

Whether being called the Swordless One, or words like coward or craven, he had endured them in silence.

“If it is such an Eldest Young Master, would he himself not stand at the very forefront to block that large-scale conflict?”

The high councilors nodded one by one.

“…That is a sensible thought.”

“Perhaps if it is him, he might act that way.”

Just then, the Chairman’s voice rang out.

“However, do not forget, everyone. If the Eldest Young Master feels that we are not performing our roles properly…”

Everyone could feel the unconcealable trace of fear in his voice.

“The Eldest Young Master will, at any time, immediately ignore all rules and attempt to repeat that Bloody History. Without any hesitation.”

The stone cave fell into a heavy silence.

* * *

The other high councilors were conducting a meeting to turn this council chamber, where the Sword Family’s Golden Seal lay, into a sealed site.

However, the Chairman was alone deep in thought.

‘…Was the restriction that Eldest Young Master placed on this council really only such intangible things?’

Making the Supreme Executive Council fairer due to his existence?

He did not think it was only that.

The evidence of that was precisely the Chairman, his own existence.

‘How dare he disparage us as a band of thieves?!’

‘Just because people around him praise him as a genius, he is full of bluster!’

‘Drag that fellow out of the council chamber immediately!’

He still vividly remembered the remarks that those who were in the early Supreme Executive Council had poured upon Yeon So-hyeon.

They were terribly shameless people.

They were people who practically confined the Eldest Young Master, the sole and legitimate successor.

Relying on the Eldest Young Master’s goodwill, they were people who believed the day the truth would be revealed would never come.

They were old men who ran wild as if the Luoyang Sword Family were their own.

‘…Now, not one of them remains in this seat.’

Their identities had been revealed one by one through secret rumors.

The most important internal regulation, the ‘Oath of Silence,’ was a matter that had to be kept without fail, even for the sake of the Supreme Executive Council’s legitimacy.

Even back then, he had assumed it was because the security regarding the members at the time of the early Emergency Council was relatively loose.

However, such occurrences were repeated afterwards as well.

Those who tried to privatize the power of the high councilor position.

Those who harbored excessively grand ambitions, tried to secretly aid their own faction, or sought to take illicit profits.

Such individuals had their identities revealed one by one at some point, vanishing from the council chamber.

And the one remaining up to now was the person who was the only one at the time to oppose their actions to the very end.

The person who had secretly sent a letter of apology to the Eldest Young Master anonymously.

The person who was the only one to acknowledge his mistake and accept the original sin.

That was none other than the current Chairman, himself.

He recalled the conversation he had shared with Yeon So-hyeon one last time before his departure.

* * *

“…The Supreme Executive Council owes too massive a debt to the Eldest Young Master. However.”

Toward the Chairman, who was at a loss, Yeon So-hyeon spoke with his hands clasped behind his back.

“However, even so, I know that you cannot grant me special favors in selecting the Young Patriarch.”

“…Thank you for understanding.”

If it were revealed that even a slight favor went to the Eldest Young Master during the Young Patriarch selection process, the other successors would not stay still.

“Furthermore, I also know that being only slightly ahead of the other successors is not enough to become the Young Patriarch.”

“…We are deeply sorry.”

There had to be a massive gap to the point that everyone could accept it, in order to minimize dissatisfied forces.

“Leave those to me.”

He smiled at the Chairman sitting behind the special veil.

“So you just do as you have until now, Chairman.”