Black Swan Chapter 25

Gwanchang glared straight into Lee Hwanmae’s eyes.

“Tell me. Let me at least hear it. The price of betrayal that Lee Hwa will grant.”

“Right, right. As expected, you have a decisiveness to you. God’s judgment was accurate. You truly are a wise fellow.”

Lee Hwanmae leaned his back against the plum tree and crossed his arms.

“Just spit out the reward quickly. I don’t have time.”

Gwanchang sat down abruptly on the ground. Lee Hwanmae gazed into the empty air where the plum flower petals were scattering, as if groping through it.

“I will make you king.”

Gwanchang doubted his ears.

Lee Hwanmae added with a poker face.

“Yes. The path for you to live. You cannot survive without becoming king. You are timber. Your martial arts skills are outstanding, you know how to rein in your subordinates, you are wise and know how to exercise self-restraint, and above all, you are practical. Although you quietly concealed yourself for a long time, that extraordinariness ultimately failed to deceive your father, and you were ordered to commit suicide. If your father is like that, what would your twenty-seven half-brothers think of you?”

“Hey, who doesn’t know that? But is that an easy thing? From my bloodline alone, I am disqualified. The Muksos are a Han Chinese family. A guy born from a woman of a foreign ethnic group like me can’t even lay a hand on the throne. What do you think is the reason I’m doing the job of a security officer at this age?”

“You just kill them.”

The slaughterer said. In a soft and dignified tone.

“Kill them all. You just need to be the one left.”

“And you’ll help me with that? You’re ordering me to murder my father and brothers?”

“While you deny your mother, why do you acknowledge your father and brothers? Kill them, if you want to live. You’re going to die anyway.”

At those words, Gwanchang cleanly acknowledged Lee Hwa’s discernment. Lee Hwa had properly picked out the timber for a traitor. Because to Gwanchang, his father and brothers were, at best, nothing more than son-of-a-bitches.

Because those son-of-a-bitches could be killed as much as he wanted without having to steel his resolve enough to abandon being human. He hated Mukso so much that he didn’t even call him father in his heart, after all.

Because there was a sword hidden deep inside his chest.

When his thoughts reached this point, Gwanchang’s body temperature dropped coolly. Mukso seemed to have noticed that sword hidden in his chest from some point on, and intended to order this side to commit suicide as soon as the conquest ended. When had that fellow peered into this side’s sword? And how had Lee Hwa seen through this side’s sword and chosen him as a traitor? He had thought he concealed it thoroughly in his own way. This is why you must not ignore the seasoned experience of old folks.

Gwanchang stopped his thoughts and opened his mouth.

“Are you confident? Can Lee Hwa really make me king?”

“God said that she must make you king. Because you are wise, unlike your father who runs wild in impractical invasions. You must become king. That is the path where the snakes live and we live, too.”

At Lee Hwanmae’s reply, Gwanchang acknowledged not only Lee Hwa’s discernment but also her vessel. What had Mukso gained from his decades-long conquests? At best, the nickname ‘King of Murder’, a wasteland useless for anything, and the fierce hatred of the people of the Western Continent. Mukso was a monarch seeking a path to his own death. Lee Hwa was a monarch seeking a path to life. Which side was a beneficial monarch to the people? The answer was self-evident.

Lee Hwa was an opponent worth willingly plotting treason with. She was bold enough to make up her mind to directly establish a monarch who sought a path to life on the continent. Her creativity was also ingenious. As revealed in the various swindling techniques Lee Hwa had deployed so far, she possessed extreme and ingenious creativity possible only for someone who simultaneously harbored cold rationality and a child-like malice. A monarch must also possess ingenious creativity. Only then can you pierce the enemy’s blind spots and win.

“Hmph…”

Gwanchang purposely let out a sneer.

“They said the old woman turned over a new leaf—is the rumor true? After slaughtering all your relatives and becoming lonely in your old age, you must have changed as a person, huh?”

“Something like that. So you only need to kill your father and brothers. You must be benevolent to your wife and children. Unless you want what you’re doing to happen to you by a son like yourself.”

“A boomerang is really hitting me multiple times today. Fine, then what do I need to do for Lee Hwa? Don’t make excessive demands. You know it, I’m just a low-ranking strategist who occasionally gives advice next to Mukso. I don’t have the power to stop the conquest.”

To the grumbling Gwanchang, Lee Hwanmae spoke in a nonchalant tone.

“The mission God will assign is easy. You grab the horse’s reins of Mukso as he sets out for the invasion. Mukso always stands in the middle of the large army and advances, right? Right behind him follow your twenty-seven half-brothers. Make Mukso stand in front of Mukhui. It’s not completely dead center, but it’s not a position skewed to one side either, so Mukso won’t suspect it. Ten minutes after the advance begins, Mukso’s horse will get caught on a protruding stone and rotate 180 degrees. Mukso will tumble to the ground and be trampled to death instantly by the horse of Mukhui, who was running from behind.”

Gwanchang was left speechless.

“The one whose downfall was originally foreseen by destiny was Mukhui. Now, do you understand? God can sufficiently make you king. If you only thoroughly obey.”

Stopping his words, Lee Hwanmae smiled arrogantly.

Gwanchang had to calm his churning heart for a moment. If what Lee Hwanmae said came to fruition, Mukso’s peninsula invasion would come to naught. In truth, the sides of God and Yun (侖) could have assassinated Mukso much earlier. How many snakes had the slaughterers kidnapped and killed in the meantime?

Even so, there was only one reason the sides of God and Yun (侖) hadn’t killed Mukso until now. Because killing the king of an enemy country provides truly definite justification for invasion. The snakes would have to march into the peninsula unconditionally, if only to avenge their sovereign. For that reason, the sides of God and Yun (侖) had no choice but to use a strategy of inducing the snakes to withdraw on their own.

However, what if Mukso dies an accidental death? What if he dies at the very moment he attempts the peninsula invasion?

“There were many opinions on your side as well to drop the peninsula invasion, right? Only Mukso was stubborn alone and dragged it out for 7 years. If Mukso dies an accidental death, a perfect justification to ditch the peninsula invasion is created. The million-strong army will return with the feeling of having laid down a heavy burden, and your administrative officials will rejoice, saying there’s no longer any need to waste tax money. God has bestowed the grace of finding a way to live for you snakes, as well.”

“…After I see with my own eyes Mukso getting trampled to death by Mukhui, I will acknowledge your praise. Fine, grabbing a horse’s reins is not that difficult. Then what about Mukso’s sons? Those fellows number twenty-seven.”

“Impatient, aren’t you? Step back for just a year and wait leisurely. While the princes fight among themselves, six of them will die. You don’t necessarily need to get all your brothers’ blood on your hands, do you? While the brothers are fighting, you gather talent.”

It was right. Gwanchang accepted it cleanly.

“God also needs time to sort out state affairs. She wants to quickly wrap up the border clashes, send my younger brothers and your brothers back to their places, and take a rest. God needs a year of time, too. She’s human after all, anyway.”

“Well, that might be the case, too. Fine, then a year later?”

“God said she will send me. You just need to listen well to what I say.”

“…”

Gwanchang stared intently at Lee Hwanmae.

I have to spend time together with this white-faced slaughterer? With that annoying high priest?

The old woman isn’t coming herself? She’s a hermit? Then since he’s a hermit, can’t he go play around a bit on the continent to broaden his horizons first?

While chatting with Lee Hwanmae, Gwanchang genuinely came to want to see Lee Hwa. The old woman who had made up her mind to personally grind down and replace that King of Murder with her own hands. He wanted to learn a thing or two directly from that old woman who confronted a formidable enemy with bizarre, out-of-this-world tactics and ultimately overthrew them. Aside from that, all sorts of curiosities coiled up one after another in Gwanchang’s mind. Does she have a proper nose? Is the reason she’s sensitive about exposing her face perhaps because she’s hideously ugly? Does she fart? Does her thing get hard?

Lee Hwanmae lowered his gaze, as if turning his eyes away from Gwanchang.

“…Be grateful. The top-tier high-value talent recognized by God is none other than me. I am one of the very few close associates who can sit face-to-face with God within 10 meters. God doesn’t send me on overseas business unless it’s a considerable matter. To that extent, I am competent and the missions I take on once never fail.”

Gwanchang was simply left dumbfounded. Lee Hwanmae’s self-praise grew bigger and bigger. He wondered how he could act so all-knowing and full of himself without the slightest hesitation.