Struggle Chapter 89

Can you… cast me aside if it is the righteous path?

Taerok is bitter. As one who walks an unrighteous path because he cannot cast you aside, he is, for a moment, lonely.

“Today, I shall pay my nephew the price for sex that I owe.”

“…”

“And you, my nephew, must remain anxious and uneasy from now on, forever.”

I shall pay the fee, and even give an advance. Taerok smiled coldly.

There is a smell of burning. A fire is being lit, it seems.

∞ ∞ ∞

After filling their stomachs with the provisions they had brought, the retainers each formed ranks and guarded the surroundings with such stern vigilance that one would think this place was a battlefield.

The atmosphere was strange. Nanyoung had long since noticed that this was no place for a hunt. It felt as though they were waiting for something.

And around the time the sun was slanting low toward dusk, the sound of horse hooves was heard.

It came from all directions, disorienting him. With the sun having just slipped completely beyond the mountain, it was pitch dark save for the area around the lit fires, which made it all the more confusing. It was hard to tell whether the numbers were great or small, whether they were coming from the front or the back.

And then the retainers stoked the fires even brighter. Holding torches aloft, they looked as menacing as yaksha demons. Without realizing it, Nanyoung searched for Taerok. But no matter how he looked around, he could not see him. At that moment, his body was yanked back abruptly.

“Don’t wander about pointlessly; stay here.”

It was Taerok’s voice.

In his bewilderment, he was pushed inside the canopy that had been erected for the two Grand Princes. It was quite sturdily built, with walls and a ceiling made of the canopy, and a heavy curtain hung at the front to block the wind that had turned sharply cold at night.

But the canopy was so thick—as if several layers of fabric had been added—and so tough that Nanyoung wondered if it might not simply be for blocking the wind.

“What in the world is going on….”

Muttering, Nanyoung pressed himself close to the heavy curtain, through which he could at least see better than through the canopy walls. Through the gap, he could see the situation outside.

Whether all the owners of the horse hooves had arrived, the outside was far more crowded than before. Sparks flew with the wind, and every time the light flickered here and there, faces appeared and disappeared in turn.

They were faces he recognized. The moment he confirmed their identities, Nanyoung realized what this gathering was. The whispered conversations he had overheard beyond the inner and outer walls of Taerok’s residence and past the grand private quarters came back to him vividly.

This was not a hunting ground but a place of gathering for treason.

“In such a close place…?”

Nanyoung murmured without thinking. It was a place that could be reached in less than half a day’s ride on horseback beyond the capital’s gates. To think they had been scheming in a place like this. It was, quite literally, a case of the darkest place being under the lamp.

Moreover, it was a place where only occasional passersby went, otherwise desolate yet wide open—who would ever imagine that treason was being plotted here? It was a checkmate. And that was precisely what stood out most in Taerok’s temperament, and what he was best at.

“I can’t hear well….”

Because the canopy was set somewhat apart from them, no matter how hard he concentrated, their voices did not carry. On top of that, the wind was growing fiercer and the river rougher, the sound of the surging water like crashing waves, making it even more difficult.

Restless, Nanyoung clutched the curtain. In his heart he wanted to rush out, but not knowing why Taerok had brought him to such a place, he couldn’t act rashly.

Right. Why in the world had his uncle brought him here?

Unresolved questions—questions that could not be resolved right now—only piled up.

And Taerok seemed to see Nanyoung transparently clear, even from behind his back.

“Has the day of the great undertaking been set?”

A man of impatient temperament spoke first. He was among those slated to become a meritorious subject. In fact, most of those gathered here were.

Just as their names are written. Having confirmed the list they had been told to prepare for the oath against the faces of those assembled, Taerok nodded.

“It has been set.”

His voice was no different from usual. It was languid as always, and detached as always.

“One must hunt before winter comes.”

Those assembled took this to mean the king, who could be devoured if Taerok merely struck him down. A small piece of meat cannot be shared among all the beasts. At the end of their desire to eat more and possess more, their calculations had concluded: they would push past the current meritorious houses and rise, and their insufficient justification would be filled by Lee Taerok.

But the same was true for Taerok as well.

“The most important thing in a hunt is neither accurate archery nor splendid swordsmanship.”

Taerok looked beyond the gathered crowd. They had brought only the minimum of attendants to avoid being conspicuous, and they were dressed in merely flashy clothes; their bodies had grown dull, and their minds equally indolent.

Yes. It was time to thin them out. The most important thing in the first harvest, after all, is to thresh away the empty husks of rice in due season.

Far off in the distance where he was gazing, a crimson light was approaching, like the star Sirius in the heavens.

“The most important thing is the beat.”

A faint heat rose in Taerok’s voice.

And then he raised his hand and brought it down lightly.

The hunt began.

∞ ∞ ∞

Inside the canopy, Nanyoung covered his mouth.

Outside, something was happening that overturned everything Nanyoung had expected. Taerok was using his own retainers to seize the assembled traitors. Those who had dismounted out of deference before a Grand Prince were easily caught. And those who had swiftly mounted their horses were dragged back by entirely unexpected figures.

“The Supreme Commissioner of the Sunwibu Patrol Office, Geo Panyeong, greets the Grand Prince, my lord.”

It was the Sunwibu. And behind the Supreme Commissioner, just like Geo Panyeong, stood Kim Saon, wearing a jeongnip hat.

Nanyoung’s knees trembled at the sight of the Supreme Commissioner standing before the traitors, who were being bound in a row with arrest ropes. It was an office his father had created, but one that had never been properly used. It was meant to oversee night patrols, the capture of thieves, and the prevention of unrest, but the meritorious houses had blocked it, deeming that it gave excessive power to the king.

Why were they here?

At that moment, Taerok turned his body. Feeling as though their eyes had met directly, Nanyoung reflexively turned his back. He held the curtain tight, keeping it from parting. His heart pounded violently, and it pained him, as if someone were gripping his insides.

Footsteps were approaching. Nanyoung’s breathing grew ragged.

Then Taerok seized the curtain that served as a door. He pulled it slightly, but realizing that Nanyoung was holding it and it could not be parted, he laughed quietly, put strength into his hands, and flung it wide open.

“…!”

Nanyoung stumbled forward. Perhaps he should count it a mercy that he did not fall pathetically.

Turning around, Nanyoung stared at Taerok. He was dumbfounded, as if demanding an explanation of what this was all about. With the sight of his own plans completely crumbling behind him, Taerok approached Nanyoung.

“How is it.”

Taerok asked. The smell of burning, born of fire, rose from him.

“Is this enough.”

Was this what he had meant by the price for sex he owed…. Soot smeared Taerok’s cheek, making him appear even less human.

“Without dirtying a single one of your hands, my nephew, you are utterly destroying even me.”

Taerok snatched Nanyoung’s hand and pressed it to his own chest. The pounding pulse was like the footsteps of the monster Taerok had so terrorized him with in his childhood.

“Ah… ugh….”

It felt as if everything from his stomach to his chest would be torn apart. As if the pain was clenching even his heart. Groping at his chest and clutching it, Nanyoung at last slowly collapsed forward.

∞ ∞ ∞

He was in such agony that he screamed and writhed at night. He clutched his stomach and thrashed, and tears streamed down without cease. What was more astonishing was that he remembered only the pain, and not at all the fact that he had wept.

Every time he quietly surfaced to consciousness, it was Sim Eung who was at Nanyoung’s side. Sim Eung fed Nanyoung a thin rice gruel, even forcing it upon him.

‘Inflammation has arisen in the stomach. It can be said that the fire qi is so severe that it festers from within. You must set your mind at ease.’

Such theoretical words did not reach Nanyoung. With his face contorted in pain, Nanyoung asked Sim Eung: Uncle? Even his own voice did not reach him.