Before dawn.

In the depths of sleep, Seomun suddenly snapped his eyes open.

The instant he sprang up to seize his sword—

“Shh—”

Someone caught the hand he had thrust toward the blade.

He had no idea when the man had entered the room; Chief Eunuch Joo, dressed in a eunuch’s robes, stood before him.

Seomun’s eyes went wide as lanterns.

“W-what...!”

“Commandant, you must move the soldiers at once.”

Seomun stared blankly at him, then his face crumpled in a rush.

“...What are you talking about, barging into a man’s room at this hour?”

“Did I startle you?”

“How could I not be startled?!”

“But we cannot simply sit by while a criminal escapes, can we.”

“...!”

Chief Eunuch Joo’s lips curved in a faint smile.

But his eyes did not smile at all.

“Right now, drive the soldiers into the Namgoong Clan’s inner quarters and seize every woman there.”

“T-the inner quarters...?”

But he had told the Clan Lord he would allow three days.

It had barely been two.

“If you do that and the Blood-King Poison isn’t among them...”

That was a matter that could escalate into a fight between the Imperial House and the martial world.

“That is of no concern.”

“?”

“The Blood-King Poison will surely show itself tonight.”

****

At that hour—

“!”

Chor Yeon’s eyes also flew wide in alarm.

She had not been asleep—merely lying with eyes closed—but someone had appeared without a sound and clapped a hand over her mouth.

“Shh.”

The surprise fading from Chor Yeon’s gaze, her eyes, upon recognizing him, twisted with sorrow.

It was Seop Mugwang.

“Get up quietly. Take only what you must, and we leave the Namgoong estate right now. Can you?”

Chor Yeon nodded.

Meeting her eyes, Seop Mugwang nodded back and took his hand from her mouth.

As he turned to check her things, Chor Yeon caught his arm.

“Chief Division Lord.”

Seop Mugwang looked back at her.

Their eyes held for a moment.

Then Chor Yeon lowered her gaze and spoke.

“I...”

“Put that foolish thought away.”

“...”

Chor Yeon looked up at him.

Seop Mugwang’s voice was firm.

Chor Yeon let out a faint, helpless laugh and knit her brows.

“You know... what I was going to say...?”

“Because you’re a fool. What you’d say is obvious. But unlike you, I’m a selfish man. I have no intention of handing you over to anyone else.”

“...”

Unconsciously, Chor Yeon’s gaze fell again.

The smile she had forced to hold vanished in an instant.

Seop Mugwang looked down at the hand with which Chor Yeon had seized his wrist.

Her hand was trembling finely.

“...”

If she were taken for the crime of killing a prince, she would not escape death.

And the fact that soldiers had come storming into the Namgoong estate to seize her would have pressed on her like a dire threat.

Seop Mugwang turned his captured arm, gripped Chor Yeon’s shaking hand hard.

“Let’s get ready. We’re short on time.”

“...Yes.”

****

Seop Mugwang threw an arm out to halt Chor Yeon.

Soon, with a clamor, soldiers went thundering past.

“Damn...”

He had planned to slip out quietly at a time when no one was about.

While he was coming to fetch Chor Yeon, imperial troops had rushed the inner quarters and were indiscriminately rounding up women.

And these were the very people who had said it would be quiet for several days.

Did they spot that I came?

Did they realize he meant to take Chor Yeon out? 𝙛𝒓𝓮𝙚𝔀𝒆𝒃𝓷𝒐𝓿𝙚𝓵.𝙘𝒐𝒎

But how?

...This isn’t the time to think about that.

If they could just get out of the Namgoong estate and then clear Hefei...

“This way.”

Tack—

Seop Mugwang led Chor Yeon opposite the way the soldiers had gone.

Chor Yeon followed, looking at the hand with which Seop Mugwang held her own in a tight grip.

He was hurrying, yet his stride was shorter than usual, lest she fail to keep up.

The meticulous care made her feel so grateful—and so sorry—that she thought she might cry.

No.

Everyone—the Chief Division Lord and the entire clan—was struggling like this for her sake.

She could not ruin it by crying.

The only way to repay everyone’s efforts on her behalf was to slip past the imperial cordon and flee in one piece.

For Seop Mugwang and for the Namgoong Clan, who had hidden and protected her to this point.

I have to live.

Chor Yeon clenched Seop Mugwang’s hand and hurried her steps.

Seop Mugwang could not meet her eyes as he scanned their surroundings, but he squeezed her hand tighter.

Yet, contrary to their hopes, the moment they left the estate, imperial troops blocked their path.

“As expected—I knew you’d come this way.”

Laughing ha-ha, the man standing before the soldiers wore a eunuch’s robes.

“How...”

Seop Mugwang stepped to shield Chor Yeon and settled into a fighting stance.

“I’ve been waiting quite a while, Wind-and-Thunder Deity.”

“...!”

Seop Mugwang’s face went rigid.

He {N•o•v•e•l•i•g•h•t} was known well enough under the epithet “Wind-and-Thunder Deity,” a master on par with the Ten Masters—but even within the Central Plains, not many knew his face.

How did a palace eunuch recognize him?

“...Stand aside. If you don’t want to die.”

“My, in this situation, can you protect the Blood-King Poison and face so many soldiers at once?”

Seop Mugwang tightened his grip on his sword.

As the eunuch said, the number of soldiers blocking them was considerable.

And every one of them had trained in martial arts.

None could match Seop Mugwang alone, but if they swarmed him all at once, he could not be sure he could keep Chor Yeon safe.

The Patrol Unit of the Namgoong...

Seop Mugwang cast a quick glance back toward the Namgoong estate.

From the clan, where the imperial troops were rampaging, the sounds of turmoil still carried.

I will hold the imperial troops; in that gap, take the Medicine Hall Lord and go.

Those had been Namgoong Cheongun’s words before they left the estate.

So by now, Cheongun and the clan’s Patrol Unit would be busy holding the enemy’s eyes.

Who could have guessed that would be a trap.

So this is the main force...

Judging by the power gathered here—far beyond the soldiers encountered inside the clan—it seemed so.

“How did you know we’d come this way?”

“Regrettably for you, I can read mechanism arrays passably well. You weren’t going to walk out the front gate, so I watched for the moment the mechanism array shifted.”

The mechanism arrays protecting the Namgoong estate were manifold, but in the end they were a single defensive system.

Whether inner or outer quarters, if an intruder broke through the system, a sign would appear.

Chief Eunuch Joo had circled the outer quarters, found the junctions where the mechanism arrays intertwined, and waited for the slightest fissure—and so learned that the Wind-and-Thunder Deity had entered the Namgoong estate.

At once, he had set Seomun in motion to stir up a commotion, and at the same time guarded the line of retreat where the two, driven by the soldiers’ pursuit, would bolt.

“From the start, I placed men around the inner quarters before you entered the estate. Quite a bit of effort, no?”

Chief Eunuch Joo let out a soft laugh and hid his mouth with his drooping sleeve.

Seop Mugwang scowled.

As the eunuch said, it was a painstaking operation.

Only—the target was not Chor Yeon.

Coming without notice with an imperial decree; mapping the Namgoong’s mechanism arrays; bringing this many martial-trained soldiers—every bit of it—

“From the start, I was the objective.”

Chief Eunuch Joo chuckled again.

“If we split hairs—both.”

“What do you want.”

“First, how about you lower that sword and have a talk with me. With the Clan Lord present as well, if possible.”

Seop Mugwang raised his edge toward the chief eunuch.

What in the world was his scheme?

If it were up to his heart, he would cut down every soldier blocking the way, take that fox of a eunuch hostage, and flee.

“....”

Seop Mugwang glanced back at Chor Yeon.

From the moment they had run into the imperial troops, she had been visibly trembling.

He did not want her hurt.

Seop Mugwang lowered his sword.

“Let’s change venues.”

****

Once the turmoil was contained, four people gathered in the Clan Lord’s Hall.

Namgoong Cheongun and Chief Steward Namgoong Mun, and Seop Mugwang and Chief Eunuch Joo.

Commandant Seomun had led the soldiers back to the guesthouse, and Chor Yeon had likewise been returned to Moyong Yeonhwa’s quarters.

Around Moyong Yeonhwa’s quarters, eunuchs of the Eastern Depot who had come with Chief Eunuch Joo were arrayed to watch her.

“So—what business is this. Why rake up a matter more than twenty years old only now, and say you will lay blame?”

Seop Mugwang asked in a sharp voice.

Chief Eunuch Joo belonged to the Eastern Depot, eunuchs who moved on the Emperor’s secret charge.

He was not a man to be addressed lightly, so Seop Mugwang had modulated his tone, but he did not slacken his guard.

“If we were to lay blame, we could lay it on you as well, Wind-and-Thunder Deity. Twenty years ago, did you not fell the Brocade Guard soldiers the Emperor sent?”

“What...!”

Seop Mugwang clenched his fist tight.

It was true there had been a clash with the Brocade Guard soldiers who pursued Chor Yeon.

He had not killed them, but it was tantamount to defying the imperial command.

“But even then, you had no intention of pressing charges! If they truly meant to seize us, they wouldn’t have sent such chaff!”

Seop Mugwang slammed the table—KWAANG!—and shouted.

“Why bring it up now!”

“Just so.”

Chief Eunuch Joo slowly nodded, as if in agreement.

Seop Mugwang frowned and fell silent.

“It is not that we now intend to censure the deeds of that time. We merely require a pretext.”

“...A pretext?”

Smiling with his eyes narrowed at Seop Mugwang, Chief Eunuch Joo’s lips were set without a trace of mirth.

“His Majesty the Emperor wishes to meet you.”