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Chapter 41
Beep.
“5,700 won.”
“…You’re telling me a cup of instant noodles is 5,700 won?”
“Ah, it’s the location, you see. Prices are a bit… like that here.”
What kind of location excuse does a convenience store in the Central Layer of Hanseong need?
I squinted and asked again; the convenience-store part-timer shrugged like it wasn’t his fault.
Fair point.
He wasn’t the one who slapped a price tag on the cup noodles, so making a scene here would only mark me as a problem customer.
In the end I paid the rip-off—more than three times the usual price—and slowly poured hot water into the cup.
“By the way, why’d you call people and then show up so late yourself?”
I muttered, thinking of the person who’d used Choreng-i mask to specify the meeting point — Imetal. He’d summoned people urgently with “I have something to tell you,” then arranged the meeting at a convenience store I’d never seen before and didn’t even bother to show his face. No matter how big the task he’d just finished, he was impossibly relaxed.
“I should’ve just left Yu Arin to die when I rescued her.”
I grumbled, thinking of Imetal, who’d given no reply for a long time.
[BREAKING NEWS]
A menacing red headline filled the screen, and the streets were flooded with sensational reports about the Pungyang Cho Clan’s treason.
[Breaking news. Yesterday evening, at the Pungyang Cho Clan main residence in Namyangju, a battle broke out between the Golden Army and members of the clan. Reporter Han Ye-won reports…]
[Senior members of the Pungyang Cho Clan are demanding a reinvestigation into the incident, and there are assessments that Namyangju is effectively in a state of civil war…]
“Filthy bastards. They’ve already pushed all the way into Namyangju?”
Of course — it was Kim Junghun, so it was done at a chilling speed.
‘Well. Even if they lost their heir, when the clan is accused of monster-research charges, it wouldn’t be easy to refute that quickly.’
Public support for the Pungyang Cho Clan had collapsed to the floor, and many of the noble families associated with them were being shaken down wholesale.
On top of that, the Andong Kim clan, the second-ranked power among the aristocratic houses, had personally taken to hammering them.
For the press, starved by the court’s reporting guidelines, this was a rare chance to finally play their part.
Public opinion, the media, and even the entrenched ruling families, all of them were joining forces to drive into the Pungyang Cho Clan.
So in this chaotic situation, who would draw the most attention?
Just then, the screen showed Kim Hyunwoo at a press conference, being peppered by reporters.
[The Pungyang Cho Clan and their faction committed an outrage deserving of the heavens’ wrath. As fellow noble families, it’s incumbent upon us to swiftly suppress them…]
His voice was blunt to the point of awkwardness, his presence intimidating. And he no longer bothered to hide his prestige, he displayed it freely.
‘He’s always such a miserable prick.’
I thought that, then peeled back the lid of my now-ready cup noodles.
Because Kim Hyunwoo had uncovered the truth about the monster research and executed Cho Seong-hwan, who had been running the monster research facility himself, he was nothing less than a hero to the people of Joseon.
For a moment, I watched Kim Hyunwoo on the screen with indifference.
“Mind if I join you?”
By the time I popped noodles into my mouth and glanced at the news article on the screen, an old man had spoken to me.
A heavily slouched hat, a fishing vest, shabby clothes covered in dust, and the plum-flower insignia medal pinned to his chest.
Seeing that, I slid over and made room.
“Are you a war veteran?” I asked.
“Veteran, my foot. I’m just an old fool losing his mind.”
He waved his hand as if it were nothing, then sat beside me and uncapped the green bottle he’d been holding.
“…I didn’t actually say you could sit with me.”
“You don’t have to — hooray!”
‘He can’t hear a thing.’
He downed soju straight from the bottle with no glass, a proper drunk.
Resigned, I buried my face in the noodles I’d been eating.
Why does everything they market as “new” taste like this?
I chewed and swallowed, and then the old man muttered in a low voice.
“All of Joseon’s news outlets are singing his praises like they planned it.”
My gaze drifted to the screen on the building. I lifted my head and studied the old man’s face.
His lined features had flushed red, and it wasn’t only from the bottle in his hand.
“Must be Kim Junghun who pulled the strings.”
I echoed the old man’s grumble and spoke up.
“It’s true the Pungyang Cho Clan committed a heinous crime. From Kim Junghun’s perspective, this is inconvenient, sure… but he won’t miss a rolling opportunity.”
You pick the most efficient method within the situation given, even if it runs counter to your own will.
That was the image of my father, Kim Junghun, that remained in my memory.
“Thanks to that, the Andong Kim clan managed to suppress their rivals, the Pungyang Cho Clan. And his successor, Kim Hyunwoo, paraded the achievement and became a hero of Joseon. Hah, well now…”
The old man chuckled dryly, but then his eyes turned toward me.
“From your perspective and ours alike… isn’t this nothing more than cooking porridge just to hand it over to a dog?”
Ours.
At that word, I stopped answering for a moment and glanced around.
The part-timer slouched at the register, a customer bickering with him.
A young novice monk clutching his master’s hand while choosing snacks.
Courtesans gossiping loudly, spitting words in every direction.
It was the usual, ordinary scene of a convenience store, and yet—
“Tsk.”
It was certain.
Though they looked like they were going about their business, every single gaze was turned toward me.
‘So the contact had already been completed without me even realizing it.’
Only Imetal himself hadn’t shown.
From the way the rendezvous point had been arranged, it was clear they were using this entire convenience store as a hideout.
How in the world had they managed to slip past the Royal Inquisition Bureau? I couldn’t even begin to guess.
The more I thought about it, the more absurd these people seemed.
“This old man thinks so. But what about you?”
“In the short term, you’re right.”
The old man set the bottle he had been nursing down on the counter. At this point, his words no longer sounded like the drunken ramblings of a sot.
I chose my words carefully, then looked straight at him.
“But if the Andong Kim clan monopolizes power to that extent… do you really think the other noble families will sit quietly?”
“You mean the other noble families will start to check the Andong Kim clan?”
“Yes. In fact, right there.”
I pointed a finger at the building’s massive screen.
The news ticker, constantly updating in real time, was showing reports:
The Gyeongju Kim clan, the Pungsan Hong clan, and the Yeonan Yi clan were all requesting public hearings regarding the ongoing investigation.
[It’s true they committed a crime deserving the wrath of heaven, but to shackle the entire family for it is unjust! This is wrong!]
[The purpose of their monster research, what exactly they studied— these must be clarified in full! To conduct such a coercive investigation without revealing detailed information is an insult to that noble house!]
“What a load of crap.”
Justice, propriety.
They sat there spewing those words while defending an incident that could’ve fed millions living in Hanseong to monsters. The so-called nobles of this country never ceased to astonish me with their gall.
Of course, if you broke it down, this entire mess was technically my doing.
But that wasn’t my concern.
“They say even a wealthy family, when ruined, still lasts three years. Right now they’re crouching low because of the crimes uncovered, but the Pungyang Cho Clan is not a house that will collapse over an investigation of this scale.”
Their liquid assets alone were worth tens of trillions, and the intangible resources they controlled couldn’t even be calculated.
“While senior figures like Patriarch Cho Gang-woon buy time, the younger heirs — the ones meant to carry the clan’s future — will slip cleverly through the investigation net…”
“And in ten, maybe twenty years at most, the Pungyang Cho Clan will rise again, recovering what was lost.”
Of course, by then… who knows if the noble will even still exist in this country.
I swallowed that last thought along with a sip of noodle broth.
“Keuuuh!”
Just thinking of the Pungyang Cho Clan being torn to shreds made the broth taste all the spicier.
“Kim Junghun knew it too. That’s why he was impatient. If he doesn’t wrap this case up quickly, the entire city of Hanseong will be engulfed in civil war.”
According to the information flooding the internet, Namyangju, the Pungyang Cho Clan’s ancestral seat, was already a battlefield.
If things like this kept happening, even the mighty Andong Kim clan wouldn’t be able to suppress it in time.
“To crush the chaos at its root, the Andong Kim clan will push down even harder on the Pungyang Cho Clan. And the more brutal that oppression becomes…”
“The more noble families will start to fear the Andong Kim clan.”
On the TV, the elderly representatives of noble families were shouting at reporters.
Anger, and beneath it, fear.
They didn’t need to say it out loud; the reason for those faces was obvious.
If the Pungyang Cho Clan, ranked second among the great power families, could be dragged to ruin like that, what chance did the families beneath them have?
“Those families that oppose the Andong Kim clan will end up backing the Pungyang Cho Clan’s revival. And of course, the Andong Kim clan won’t let that slide.”
“They’ll hunt down the families who support the Pungyang Cho Clan, and crack down on them.”
“And in response, yet more noble families will rise up against the Andong Kim clan….”
“Keuuuh!”
The old man drained his bottle to the last drop and let out a shout of admiration.
“It becomes a vicious cycle.”
“Exactly.”
That was the very reason Cho Seong-hwan had to be killed in this operation.
The patriarch of the Pungyang Cho Clan, Cho Gang-woon.
Unlike Kim Junghun, he was a “father” who cherished his children above all.
Now that Kim Hyunwoo had slain Cho Seong-hwan, the Andong Kim clan and the Pungyang Cho Clan had become eternal, irreconcilable enemies, unable to coexist under the same sky.
Stronger Andong Kim clan means no rivals?
No— the opposite.
The more the Andong Kim clan grew in power, the more the other nobles would rebel.
And the sharper the Andong Kim clan’s blade became, the more it would turn against those nobles.
“All that bickering and backstabbing, and in the end nothing is gained. Like whetting your knives just to cut into your own flesh.”
News articles and newspapers were plastered with headlines about Cho Seong-hwan’s death.
The old man gazed at them with delighted eyes, lowering his now-empty bottle with a deeply satisfied look.
“You haven’t merely killed the Pungyang Cho Clan’s successor. You’ve cracked the unity of the entire aristocratic order.”
The old man set the bottle down and looked at me, his face glowing with pride, as though watching his own child achieve greatness.
“And now, a belated question.”
After I’d finished my explanation, I turned to him.
“Who are you? Really.”
“Take a guess.”
The old man, who’d been still for a moment, turned to face me.
“Who do you think I am?”
His eyes probed, searching.
The drunkard from moments ago was gone; in his place was a solemn gaze, fixed intently on me.
Had I ever met such a man among Hahoe’s executives?
I couldn’t recall.
I’d scoured the Royal Inquisition Bureau database for information on them, and yet….
“……”
“………”
“……No way.”
Among Hahoe’s executives, the one I could never identify.
And as my thoughts reached there, realization came.
The one man whose true identity I couldn’t uncover even when I purged every Hahoe agent in my past life.
The one who managed Hahoe’s vast troves of data.
The very reason Hahoe had no choice but to be Joseon’s “Traitor No. 0.”
The figure all Hahoe agents called the Great Elder and revered.
“Yangbantal.”
“Excellent.”
Chwarururuk—!
With that word, the convenience store’s transparent glass turned opaque, and the optical camouflage covering the old man’s face peeled away.
And then, what appeared was the gentle, smiling mask of an old nobleman.
At the sight of it, I could only swallow hard.
“An honor to meet you, Kim Chang-woon.”
The old man beside me was none other than the leader of Hahoe, Joseon’s Traitor No. 0, active for centuries—
Yangbantal, or the nobleman Mask.
---The End Of The Chapter---
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