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Chapter 39
Vrrrr—
With the deep whir of an electric motor, a luxury sedan pulled out of Hanseong.
The car was headed for Incheon Port.
It was the rendezvous point where the Hahoe agents who’d finished the job were to meet one final time.
Dozens of artificial islands lit the sea, and merchant ships plied the waters between them.
Stacked containers tier upon tier, and large vessels being assembled in eight-story dry docks.
Like its reputation as the Second Ship-Trading Port suggested, the distant nightscape of Incheon glowed like a city that never slept, even at midnight.
“How do you feel?”
“Pardon?”
Their admiration of Incheon’s view lasted only a moment. I spoke to Moo-yeong, who was seated opposite me in the car. He seemed to snap out of a daze as if tension had finally left him.
“You asked how I feel…?”
“You took your arm back from the one who did that to you. Aren’t you happy? Relieved? Isn’t that how it should feel?”
Moo-yeong glanced at his own hand without a word. After a short silence his mouth opened.
“It wasn’t as satisfying as I expected.”
He wore a complicated expression; I shrugged as if to prod him to say more.
After choosing his words, Moo-yeong spoke slowly.
“Killing Cho Seong-hwan was simple. When I found him, he was half-dead already……”
“And yet?”
“Well—this may be presumptuous, but I…”
I already had a guess where he was going. I tilted a corner of my mouth and said, “If you had the chance, you’d have wanted to finish him when he was at his full strength, didn’t you?”
Moo-yeong’s eyes widened at that.
“He cut off your arm, stole your chance, and ruined your life. You’d want to punish him with your own hand. Not with someone else’s power, but your own.”
“……”
“Isn’t that what you want to say?”
Moo-yeong nodded slowly. His face asked how I could possibly have known what he was thinking.
How did I know? Simple. The mindset of martial men doesn’t change much, even in the twenty-third century. If it hadn’t been Moo-yeong, it would have been Taewoong who’d said the same thing.
“If you could complete your revenge that way, that would be perfect.”
After that remark, I handed Moo-yeong a piece of the snack I was eating.
“But Moo-yeong, your way has no future.”
“No future?”
“Yeah. If you defeat Cho Seong-hwan with your own strength, what do you think will happen next?”
Moo-yeong could probably see it as easily as I could. Cho Seong-hwan was a member of the noble class, while Moo-yeong was nothing but a ronin swordsman — and one who came from a background as a former coastal pirate.
If Moo-yeong had beaten him in open combat, the Pungyang Cho Clan would never let him live. Not after what had been lost. Not when a single younger sister depended on them.
“So that’s why you ordered me to kill him this time — to disguise it as a crime by the Andong Kim clan, to protect me…”
Only then did Moo-yeong seem to understand, and he nodded slowly.
“That’s partly true, but let’s push the idea a bit further.”
“Further…?”
He looked puzzled, as if he didn’t quite follow. A little more explanation was needed. I opened the rear-seat refrigerator and took out a well-chilled sori cup.
“Moo-yeong. What is the greatest revenge?”
“Pardon?”
“Is it forgiveness? Forgetting? Living so well that the enemy’s face never crosses your mind? No.”
I filled the artisan-made sori cup with a convenience-store drink. The label read, absurdly, “Limited Edition Whipped-Cream Melon Truffle Sujeonggwa”.
Now they were putting truffles into sujeonggwa— what a world.
I twirled the bottle and offered him a drink, but Moo-yeong shook his head—absolutely not.
Smart fellow.
Savoring the terrible taste of that sujeonggwa, I said to Moo-yeong:
“If you think one life—Cho Seong-hwan’s life—will finish this, then we never should have started in the first place. True revenge is destroying everything tied to that man.”
My words came out blunt and undaunted; Moo-yeong’s eyes widened.
“The fruits of everything he built. His parents, siblings, lovers, family, relatives. His clothes, his genealogical record, his identity tag. Everything his hand ever touched, anything that bears his name, anyone who remembers him. Grind it all into dust. Leave nothing.”
A little clink rang from the sori cup sitting in its case, and my face must have contorted as I looked at Moo-yeong.
I was smiling.
Laughing like a man drunk on satisfaction—choked, breathy laughs escaping me.
“Erase his existence from the world completely. Make it so that if his name ever surfaces again by chance, no one can remember his name, much less his face. Books, videos, audio, photographs… every possible record—wipe him clean from them all. That is revenge.”
Killing, torturing, humiliating—those are merely steps toward that end. At best they’re catharsis.
That is why I had Moo-yeong kill Cho Seong-hwan.
So that, through his death, everything the man had built would collapse.
“The Pungyang Cho Clan will fall. I made it fall, and you toppled it with your hands.”
“……!”
“So hold your head high, Moo-yeong.”
I said this and lifted a finger upward.
“You didn’t just defeat Cho Seong-hwan. You cut down one of the very skies over Joseon.”
****
“Seong-hwan— our Seong-hwan— wha- what did you say?! D-die…!”
“Madam?!”
“Bring him inside! Quickly! Where is the medical team?!”
When Cho Seong-hwan’s death became known, the main house of the Pungyang Cho Clan in Namyangju erupted into complete chaos.
The sudden death of the heir.
A family secret unearthed without warning.
The shocking news that a rift had opened in Hanseong — and that the very man who caused it was dead: Cho Seong-hwan.
Even one of those alone could overturn a clan; together they swept through the household in an instant.
[Breaking news. The cause of last night’s massive blackout has been identified as the research facility of the Pungyang Cho Clan. An official briefing from the court is forthcoming…]
[Pungyang Pharmaceutical, in which the Pungyang Cho Clan holds over 80% stake, has come under direct investigation this morning by the Royal Investigation Bureau. 112 senior executives have been detained on-site, and the court will subject them to rigorous interrogation…]
[Internal testimony has been received naming the late heir Cho Seong-hwan as the instigator of the recent rift incident in Hanseong. The claim was made by an anonymous informant…]
Among these, the press was the most devastating.
Every news outlet in Joseon clamored that the Pungyang Cho Clan had been researching monstrosities. Reporters swarmed the clan’s facilities without pause. The collateral branch families tasked with stopping them were being hauled before the Royal Investigation Bureau or fleeing abroad. Before any response could be organized, the Pungyang Cho Clan’s limbs were being cut off one by one.
“The whole country is shouting that the main house is traitorous. This is no small matter!”
“The court’s investigators have stormed their Hanseong facilities. At this rate, it’s only a matter of time before the Royal Guards descend upon Namyangju!”
“What, whatever did the young master do to cause the research to be exposed? And why would Master Kim Hyunwoo go to such extremes…?!”
As one despairing report after another came in, the senior members of the Pungyang Cho Clan all turned their eyes to one man.
The clan head, Right State Councillor Cho Gang-woon— the one who would have envisioned all of this— could not hide the fury on his face as he pictured Kim Junghun.
“Right State Councillor— shouldn’t we try to silence the press now? If we allow this to continue…!”
“No.”
One word.
That short command, like the roar of an old beast, nailed the room into silence.
“The fact that the press has begun knocking at the main house means other noble families at court have already turned their backs. It’s too late to fight a public-opinion war.”
“Then what of the researchers and guards inside the research wing…?”
“They would already have been ‘retained’ as ‘evidence’.”
It was only a matter of time before the court’s Royal Guards occupied the main house’s facilities in Hanseong. Sending reinforcements from the main house to Hanseong would be pointless.
“The Andong Kim clan acts so extremely precisely because they are certain of their ground.”
Crucially, they had slain the clan’s only heir. Cho Seong-hwan had been put to death.
It all pointed to a single conclusion.
Like an old beast exhaling, Cho Gang-woon let out a low growl and spoke.
“There is no room for negotiation. The Andong Kim clan now moves to utterly subjugate the main house.”
The fact that the Pungyang Cho Clan had been researching monstrosities had already been laid bare for all to see.
The moment the Royal Investigation Bureau’s findings became public, everyone involved in the research would be unable to escape the charge of treason. The clan elders, himself included, would be stripped of their titles, and the proud Pungyang Cho Clan would be utterly ruined.
If that were to happen….
Beeeeeeep—!
A sudden alarm yanked Cho Gang-woon out of his thoughts. A report blinked up on his visual interface. The Royal Guards were approaching the estate in Namyangju.
“Fifteen tactical-class combat modules, three squadrons of fighters. Five multi-angle tanks, and one hundred twenty Royal Guards…”
An overwhelming force—no different from waging war. A bitter laugh escaped him.
“Ah. So they’ve made up their minds at last.”
They had already finished off the facilities in Hanseong and were now coming to Namyangju. Too fast.
One inference came clear. The Andong Kim clan had planned this from the start. They already knew of the clan’s monstrosity research and had been waiting for the right moment. Yes—such a thing was possible. If it were Kim Junghun. If that lesser dragon who had rooted himself at the top of the court were truly behind it, then of course he could do this and more!
“If the heir Kim Hyunwoo were to reach full maturity, there would be no one left who could contest the Andong Kim clan’s power. It would be like a dragon clutching the wish-pearl.”
Watching the distant Royal Guards draw near, Cho Gang-woon murmured softly.
“So you intend to become a dragon after all.”
He would seize his own blood, Kim Hyunwoo, bite down, and ride the sky. He could not hide his innate talent and would insist on taking the imperial seat. He would break the centuries-old pact himself.
“If the only check on the Andong Kim clan— the Pungyang Cho Clan— falls, there will be no house anywhere able to stop the Kim clan’s power.”
If Kim Junghun knew Cho Gang-woon was present here, he would come personally.
“We cannot be allowed to die easily.”
Having decided, Cho Gang-woon spoke in a hard voice.
“Contact every noble house in Joseon. Claim that the Pungyang Cho Clan denies all charges and that this entire affair is a fabrication staged by the Andong Kim clan. Say that the Andong Kim clan used this incident to kill the main house’s heir deliberately….”
It could have been a freak accident. Everything he suspected might be nothing but conjecture. Yet he could not simply lie down and accept death. If there was even a sliver of a chance to survive—if there was any way to overcome this crisis—then he would use any means, even lies.
“We will say that Kim Junghun intends to seat himself as clan head.”
No sooner had Cho Gang-woon finished speaking than—
Boom—!
With a thunderous sound, agents of the Royal Investigation Bureau burst into the Pungyang Cho Clan’s main house. Four-legged combat robots slammed down from the sky. Royal Guards deployed on either side of the tactical-class combat modules, and someone stepped forward slowly between them.
It was the Andong Kim clan’s head, Kim Junghun.
“Right State Councillor — greetings.”
“Welcome, Left State Councillor. You honor this humble place with your presence.”
Their salutations were edged with lethal intent.
“Please cooperate with the investigation quietly.”
They stared hard at each other, and it was Kim Junghun who spoke first.
“Although the matter has escalated to an extreme, the Andong Kim clan does not wish to deepen this discord further. If we can come to certain agreements, the Pungyang Cho Clan can maintain its current status.”
“Agreements? What agreements could those be? An agreement to make the Pungyang Cho Clan into your puppet?”
“Right State Councillor.”
At Cho Gang-woon’s taunt, Kim Junghun’s voice dropped lower.
“The Pungyang Cho Clan now faces the charge of treason, and the evidence is clear.”
“…….”
“Nevertheless, I offer you an opportunity, Right State Councillor. Do not let emotion lead you to squander this advantage—hold to the wiser path.”
His tone was flat as if emotion had never existed. The dryness of it twisted Cho Gang-woon’s expression further.
“An opportunity, huh.”
With a short, scornful laugh, Cho Gang-woon’s eyes fixed on Kim Junghun.
“If you intended to spew such words, then at the very least you shouldn’t have killed Seong-hwan.”
The next moment, a razor-sharp blast of wind shot toward Kim Junghun.
Kwak-koo-oooom—!
A tactical module stepped forward, its armored plate absorbing the strike fired by Cho Gang-woon.
Not so much as an eyebrow twitch from Kim Junghun.
Seeing that, Cho Gang-woon’s face twisted into something monstrous.
“Seong-hwan… my one and only son—reduced to that state—and you, the one behind it all, dare to stand before me and talk about an ‘opportunity’!?”
His unleashed Aura power sent shockwaves rattling through the Pungyang Cho Clan mansion.
The force alone drove nearby Royal Guards back several steps. Yet Kim Junghun only stood where he was, staring back as if untouched.
“I fully understand the grief of losing an heir. However, for the sake of the nation—”
“Understand? You?!”
The voice of Kim Junghun dripped into the tense silence, but to Cho Gang-woon, it was as though he had just heard the most intolerable blasphemy.
“No. That cannot be.”
Cho Gang-woon spat the words.
“You’ve always been like that. Closing off every trace of emotion, choosing only the most rational, most efficient path.”
For all his fury, Cho Gang-woon was a contemporary of Kim Junghun.
They had known each other for decades—competing for Joseon’s supreme power for just as long.
So he could proudly claim: there was no one in Joseon who understood Kim Junghun better than he.
And yet… what had he just said?
Understanding?
Absurd nonsense.
“A monster born without human emotions! You, who see people, love, family, blood ties—all of them as nothing but tools! And now you dare to say you understand the heart of a father who has lost his son? That you understand human feelings?! Don’t make me laugh!”
Gwoooong—!
As the very landscape twisted, Royal Guards realized what was happening and panic flickered in their eyes.
“Councillor, that’s…!”
Like a living creature, the entirety of Namyangju began to shift.
Access routes into the city slammed shut. The clan’s private soldiers, equipped with synthetic bodies and armored vehicles, deployed across the streets.
On the rooftops of tall buildings, anti-air missiles and Vulcan cannons were set up. Dozens of combat modules lifted into the sky, activating their weapons.
“This isn’t a pathetic imitation of humanity. You monster…!”
Namyangju.
Once called Pungyang County, it was the ancestral seat of the Pungyang Cho Clan.
This clan-city, where the noble family’s branches gathered, had now turned into a fortress.
No Pungyang Cho Clan Aura users are in sight. Have they bound me and the Royal Guards here, while dispatching their powers across the regions to strike at the main facilities?
“Tch.”
As intelligence streamed in, Kim Junghun clicked his tongue harshly.
Fools.
All they needed was to bow their heads once. To claim it was all Cho Seong-hwan’s reckless action. To insist they knew nothing. If they had said that, the main house could have fallen in line, and the conflict could have been neatly tied off.
Utterly incomprehensible.
An heir? Replaceable. Easily made anew.
So why rave about vengeance for a son, why invoke such useless emotions, dragging the entire clan into ruin?
“Prepare all forces for battle.”
Kim Junghun gave the order to the Royal Guards as he slowly turned his belt and drew his sword.
Things had come this far. Only one option remained.
End it, quickly.
“From this moment, follow my command. Subdue Councillor Cho Gang-woon.”
---The End Of The Chapter---
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