Black Swan Chapter 5

Under the knives of the snakes, people were brutally slaughtered regardless of whether they were male or female. The land burned, and blood overflowed from the rivers.

The Prophet peeked at all of it. Even his own death.

― For this liberation business, the Black Snake Corps—who suffered at the border for seven whole years—contributed greatly.

The old ruler, who had conquered the entire Eastern Peninsula in one breath, was greatly satisfied and conferred a position upon each of the Black Snake Corps officers. Among the officers, only the young snake received nothing. Absurdly enough, far from building up achievements throughout the entire conquest of the Eastern Peninsula, the young snake had not even obtained a single minor opportunity to go into battle. It was because the superior officers of the Black Snake Corps—who had realized the young snake’s cleverness through the reclamation project—thoroughly kept him in check and marginalized him. Behind the superior officers returning to the Western Continent, he continually kept his mouth tightly shut and followed on his horse.

1 year passed.

― Why are you doing this to me! I had no idea you were such a cruel person!

In a filthy inn room, the young snake shouted. The young snake who had always kept his mouth quietly shut and stepped back—even his face contorted and his voice turned screechingly high in front of love. The young snake was despairing as he faced the moment the first love of his life rotted away while exuding a foul stench.

In the face of the young snake’s scream, his lover let out a sneer.

― You have to say reasonable nonsense for me to hear you out. My wife is pregnant. Does it make any sense to divorce my pregnant wife and start over with you?

― Are you in your right mind, holding your wife at night and running to me during the day? End it even now! Clear up one side or the other!

― Why are you putting all the blame on only me? Isn’t it enough if you just don’t come to the meeting place? Actually, aren’t you the real problem? I can live without you, but you can’t, right? I know very well. You can’t live without me.

For the first time, murderous intent flared in the young snake’s eyes. Only then did the lover hold his tongue with a flustered expression, as if realizing his mistake. The young snake’s fist slammed right into the pit of his lover’s stomach with a thud.

― You bastard!

The young snake shouted.

― I can’t live without you? Don’t flatter yourself, you bastard!

No matter how much the lover apologized, it was no use. The young snake inflicted an insult on his lover for the first and last time, and stormed out of the inn.

1 month passed.

The young snake was sitting on a bench in a corner of a park where the morning sunlight scattered. The surroundings were overflowing with liveliness from elderly people taking walks, young people gathering and talking, and children running around holding kites. The young snake alone had a gloomy face. Tears looked ready to pool and drop from his large eyes at any moment.

After a long time had passed, the young snake stood up from the bench. His movements as he walked down the park path staggered as if he would collapse right away. Beside him walking precariously like an insect stripped of its antennae, an elderly couple holding a birdcage walked while sharing a conversation.

Suddenly, the young snake came to a stop. A short distance away on the opposite side, an old man was immersed in ground calligraphy❨地書 ― calligraphy written on the ground❩. From the tip of a stick dipped in clear water, characters came out one by one. Before long, the old man, who finished the calligraphy, quietly looked down at the ground with a contemplative expression. As if spellbound, the young snake also stared at the ground. Written in a fluid handwriting, the poem was Li Bai’s [Drinking Alone Under the Moon❨月下獨酌❩]. The young snake recited the lines of the poem in a low voice.

― Among the flowers, a pot of wine, drinking alone without a friend. Raising my cup, I invite the bright moon, and with my shadow, we are three…

A smile flickered at the corners of the young snake’s mouth. Soon, he turned his back and hurried away.

8 years passed.

― Drag them all out.

The rebel commanded in a voice soaked in pleasure. From the fierce battle that had gone on all night, the grand hall was bleak like a forest where a hunt had just ended. Corpses were strewn everywhere like animal carcasses.

The young snake who had always kept his mouth quietly shut and stepped back—he had now grown into a 38-year-old, ruthlessly cruel rebel and challenged the old ruler. Just one night after raising the flag of rebellion, the challenger defeated the old king and stood at the summit. He had changed. In his current self, not a trace of his past figure that quietly stepped back could be found in the slightest. Soon, he would become king.

In twenty cauldrons set on one side of the grand hall, oil and water boiled furiously. The private soldiers dragged the old ruler and his twenty-seven princes over, flinging them beneath the rebel’s feet.

― How do you feel, Mukso? How does it feel to kneel at someone’s feet for the first time in your life?

At the winner’s mockery, the loser fell silent. The rebel slowly—very slowly—slapped the cheeks of the old man who was once king, alternating with both hands. The slapping sound that was light at first grew loud enough to ring crisply through the vast grand hall before long. Only after slapping the loser’s cheeks for a full hour did the winner withdraw his hands. The cheeks of the ‘Murder King’ Mukso, who had driven the entire Far East Asia into terror for fifty-five whole years, were torn like an old rag and bleeding heavily. The rebel sneered:

― Do you look like you’re holding a mouth full of candy?

― You fellow…

The old loser trembled all over at the shoulders. The rebel’s combat boot struck the loser’s face. The loser’s nose was crushed, spraying blood violently.

― Who do you dare call ‘you fellow’? Have you still not come to your senses, old man?

The rebel, who repeatedly trampled the loser’s face with his combat boot, straightened his waist comfortably.

― If you want to console yourself that you were hit by bad luck while off your guard, save it. Because your defeat is merely the result of my long-standing challenge. My challenge already began 17 years ago. Secretly and quietly enough that even you wouldn’t notice. You probably didn’t know that inside my chest—which you only looked down on and despised—a single blade was hidden. Only today did you see that blade with your own two eyes.

The rebel looked down at the loser with an arrogant gaze.

― I will now inform you of your disposition. Naturally, there is no mercy.

There was no time for the loser’s face to even turn pale. The rebel added swiftly:

― Mukso, as for you bastard, in accordance with the traditional method of retribution, I will pour boiling oil into your ear and kill you. Every single one of your legitimate sons will be boiled to death in boiling water without exception. The flesh and broth will be thrown to the dogs as food. With their bones, I plan to make wine cups and pass them around to drink with my subordinates.

It was a tone full of pure pleasure. Dumbfounded, the loser could not move even a fingertip.

― You go too far, Grand Prince. Command them to commit suicide.

One person stepped forward in front of the rebel. It was his right-hand subordinate, Jeung Yeolsaeng. Glaring at the opponent, the corners of the rebel’s eyes slanted up slyly.

― A guy like that was king even if only for a short while, so give him the chance to die honorably?

― That is not it. It is because of the relationship between the old tyrant and the Grand Prince. Everyone knows very well what kind of relationship exists between the tyrant and the Grand Prince. If the Grand Prince inflicts a cruel death upon the tyrant and his legitimate sons, people will fear and avoid the Grand Prince to the extreme. Looking at the bigger picture, this is not beneficial to the Grand Prince…

― Shut up!

The rebel shouted harshly.

― That tyrant and I have no relation whatsoever! That old tyrant thoroughly denied me! What do you guys know that you step forward! Why aren’t you pouring boiling oil into that tyrant’s earhole this instant!

No one stepped forward. Because every single person here knew clearly what kind of relationship existed between the old loser and the young rebel. On the off chance that the young rebel regretted today’s affairs far in the future, the direction where the innocent arrow of retribution would fly first was bound to be the subordinates who executed the old loser’s death sentence right now.

― Execute the death sentence quickly!

The rebel shouted once more. No matter how much he raised his voice, not a single person stepped forward. The corners of the rebel’s mouth contorted.

― It can’t be helped then.

Smiling a twisted smile, the rebel soon walked toward the cauldron without a moment of hesitation.

― Grand Prince!

Jeung Yeolsaeng bellowed. The rebel put on gloves without even pretending to hear. Then, pouring boiling oil into a funnel, he headed toward the loser. Whenever boiling oil dripped down from beneath the funnel’s slender tube, white smoke surged up from the floor with a sizzling sound.

The loser said in a calm voice:

― I will commit suicide.

― Shut up.

The rebel thoroughly brushed it aside.

― A bastard like you has no right to die honorably. You are a son of a bitch, Mukso. So die like a son of a bitch.