Chapter 140: Love (2)
Translator: bjgoofy
The Beggar Emperor had used my signature line, "an expert", without permission, but the fact that he'd deployed that word at exactly the right moment meant he was on the level of a devoted viewer from my past life.
And that made sense, because pulling off a YouTuber's catchphrase with perfect timing like that was impossible unless you'd consumed every single broadcast.
Otherwise, you simply couldn't nail the emotional feel of the bit.
Not that I was doing a broadcast here, of course.
'The Beggar Emperor seems to like me more than I thought? And given how often he drops by, has he bookmarked me or something?'
The Beggar Emperor probably did feel a strong fondness toward me.
Having an old beggar fawning over me was a bit much, admittedly, but still, the Beggar Emperor was a useful person.
I decided to permit his fondness.
After all, he'd already brought me the Divine Thief's case and helped me meet our silver silkworm larvae, Moji and Soji.
It was a hassle, sure, but if it meant more work like that, I was more than happy to oblige.
And from the word "expert" he'd just mentioned, I had a vague idea of why he'd come looking for me.
Having solved the Naok incident and then perfectly handled the Divine Thief's case that he'd brought to me, it seemed the impression of me as a poison expert had been firmly cemented in his mind.
'Being too competent is its own kind of curse, isn't it?'
So, with a somewhat expectant expression, I asked.
"My expertise, you say? Could it be...?"
Given that the Beggar Emperor had brought up the word "expert", it felt like another matter involving poisons or insects.
Sure enough, the Divine Thief nodded.
Just as I'd guessed, the Divine Thief answered that the reason he'd come to find me was a matter involving insects.
"That's right. It's about bugs, the kind you know so well."
I decided to hear the details first.
The fact that he'd said "bugs" specifically, rather than using a term like "spirit creatures", told me this was about ordinary insects. And earlier, when the Beggar Emperor had first brought it up, he'd used the word "strange incident".
A strange incident, meaning something bizarre and uncanny.
For ordinary insects to cause something bizarre was, well, not an ordinary thing at all.
"Could you tell me exactly what happened?"
At my question, the Divine Thief bobbed his head and began to explain.
"It's a matter concerning the Murim Alliance, but there's a reason I came personally.
You see, they were in a bind because their deployment had been blocked, and then a few days ago, someone came to the Murim Alliance......."
***
"So, have you confirmed the court's exact intentions?"
Alliance Leader Zhou Zhonghe asked in an urgent voice as Zhuge Hu entered the Alliance Leader's Hall.
He had heard that a messenger carrying news from the imperial court had just arrived, and so he'd been waiting for his strategist to deliver the report.
But despite his pressing question, Zhuge Hu could not readily answer, his expression dark.
"The thing is...."
"What? Why can't you speak?"
When Zhou Zhonghe pressed him again in frustration, Zhuge Hu reported with a pained look on his face.
"The situation has become extremely difficult. I confirmed through the court ministers our clan has influence over, and it seems the imperial court will absolutely not bend on this. They say that after the Blood Cult Rebellion, the court wishes to prevent anything like that from happening again...."
"What!?"
-Bang!
At the news that the court would not yield, Zhou Zhonghe slammed his palm down on the blue-steel stone table, leaving a handprint pressed into its surface.
Then a voice full of bitter frustration spilled out.
"Isn't that precisely why we're deploying troops, to prevent something like that from happening!? If the Blood Cult is allowed to spread across the Central Plains like vermin, innocent people will suffer terribly. What on earth is the court thinking!?"
With that, both men fell into expressions of helpless defeat.
The intelligence that Vice Chief Bang Sun of the Flying Dragon Pavilion had given his life to send them.
Using that information, they had identified the Blood Cult's base and drawn up plans for a surprise assault, but if the court refused to relent, they would be unable to mobilize their forces.
They had reached out through their allied ministers, hoping against hope to discern the court's true intentions, but with this answer, there was no other recourse.
They could split their forces and move in secret, but if they did, the court's eyes planted within the Murim Alliance would not stay silent, and charges of disloyalty would surely follow.
The people of the martial world were still the emperor's subjects.
Government-Murim Non-Interference was the established principle, yes, but once a secret imperial decree had been handed down, they could not simply act as they pleased.
After a long silence, the Alliance Leader broke the stillness with a murmur about heaven's indifference.
"So this is when the saying 'heaven is heartless' proves true."
And it was fitting, for the variable called the imperial court was, from their position, a bolt from the blue.
Though the deployment had been thwarted by this unexpected obstacle of the court, the Murim Alliance had not simply sat idle.
They resolved to use their allied ministers to inform the court of the Blood Cult's threat.
The plan was to make the emperor aware that a heretical faction had risen and was endangering his people, thereby establishing just cause for the deployment and attempting to change his mind.
They also sent small groups of personnel to the border of the Great Viet Kingdom to monitor the Blood Cult's movements.
But time passed without results.
Then, roughly a fortnight later, on an afternoon like any other, Strategist Zhuge Hu came rushing into the Alliance Leader's Hall and cried out with a startled face.
"Alliance Leader, you must come out at once!"
Being asked to come out meant that a visitor of high enough standing had arrived that the Alliance Leader himself should go out to receive them.
"Who in the world has come that you're making such a fuss?"
Alliance Leader Zhou Zhonghe looked incredulous.
Among the visitors who might come to the Murim Alliance, there was no one that Zhou Zhonghe should go out to greet personally.
No one in the martial world stood higher than one of the Three Emperors, after all.
But the answer that came from Zhuge Hu's mouth was something he never could have anticipated.
"The Governor of Yueyang, Seo, Seo Bin-ak's wife has come to visit."
"The wife of Yueyang's Governor Seo Bin-ak? Seo Bin-ak, who was just recently appointed as Governor of Yueyang.... Guan, Guandao!? Then, the Guandao Princess!?"
"Y-yes, that's right."
At the words "the wife of Yueyang's Governor Seo Bin-ak", Alliance Leader Zhou Zhonghe's eyes flew wide open.
Seo Bin-ak, the governor who had recently been assigned to Yueyang, close to Wuhan, was someone the Murim Alliance had already been keeping an eye on, for he held the title of Imperial Son-in-law.
He was the emperor's son-in-law.
And so, the news that his wife had come meant that Guandao Princess Yu Ji-ryeon had arrived.
"Where is she? Let's go!"
"She just passed through the Murim Alliance's gates, I'm told."
Guandao Princess Yu Ji-ryeon, the wife of Governor Seo Bin-ak, who had recently been posted to nearby Yueyang.
The two of them held rather unusual statuses.
Seo Bin-ak had been an unremarkable scholar at the National Academy, but his fortunes had risen sharply after marrying the Guandao Princess, making him one lucky man.
Having become a governor at barely past twenty, he was being called the luckiest man in the Central Plains these days.
The general assessment was that he was a man of little ability who had turned his life around by meeting the right woman.
After all, he was a mere student at the National Academy who had somehow won the heart of the emperor's most beloved princess.
And Guandao Princess Yu Ji-ryeon held an even more extraordinary status.
Beyond being the emperor's daughter and his most favored child, she uniquely held the status of a martial artist as well.
Deeply devout, the Guandao Princess had been drawn to Buddhism from a young age, visiting temples across the Central Plains to offer her prayers. At the Botaam Temple in the South Sea, her talent had been recognized, and she was accepted as a lay disciple of the Sword Pavilion.
The Sword Empress had once told him that if not for Yu Ji-ryeon's imperial blood, she would have wanted to make her a successor.
In other words, Guandao Princess Yu Ji-ryeon was a martial artist of imperial lineage.
When Zhou Zhonghe heard that the princess had already entered the Alliance grounds, he quickened his pace alongside his strategist and descended to the base of the Heavenly Martial Pavilion.
A woman was already waiting before the Heavenly Martial Pavilion, accompanied by a handmaiden and several government soldiers.
Dressed not in silk finery but in the plain, unassuming garb of an ordinary woman of the martial world, a woman who appeared to be just past twenty stood at the center of her entourage.
A woman whose eyes were as fierce as a tiger's.
At the sight of her, Zhou Zhonghe's eyes lit up.
Her appearance was notable enough, but it was because Guandao Princess Yu Ji-ryeon wore a sword at her hip.
That clearly signaled she had come not as a member of the imperial family, but as a martial artist.
Traveling in plain clothes was perfectly natural for a long journey, but had she come incognito, she would not have brought government soldiers along.
Moreover, had she come in her capacity as a princess, she surely would not have been wearing a sword.
As Fist Emperor Zhou Zhonghe moved to offer a Cupped Fist Salute and bow his head first, confirming his suspicion, a startled woman's voice came from the other side, just as he had expected.
"Please, spare me the formalities, Sword Emperor, sir. I have come here today in my capacity as a disciple of the Sword Pavilion."
At her words, Zhou Zhonghe smiled and replied.
"As a Sword Pavilion disciple, it would not be easy to even secure a meeting with this Zhou Zhonghe. Are you certain about that?"
It was an unexpected move on her part, and he wanted to gauge what sort of person she was. Sure enough, Yu Ji-ryeon smiled from across the way and answered.
"Of course I'm well aware. But once you hear what gift I've brought, I'm certain you'll say you must see me."
"A gift?"
The moment he tilted his head at her reply that she'd brought a gift for their meeting.
Yu Ji-ryeon's clear, ringing voice reached him.
"You've been unable to deploy your troops, haven't you? I believe I may be able to help with that. If I tell His Majesty that I'm frightened and anxious because of the Blood Cult, he might not only approve the deployment but send reinforcements as well."
He had once heard in passing from the Sword Empress of Botaam Temple that the princess was deeply devout and remarkably perceptive. Indeed, Yu Ji-ryeon certainly seemed like a shrewd woman.
At her answer, Zhou Zhonghe broke into a broad laugh and nodded.
"Ha ha. A gift of that caliber certainly earns you an audience with this Zhou Zhonghe."
Shortly afterward, they arrived at the Alliance Leader's Hall.
Over warm tea, the conversation began.
"So then, what brings you to see this Zhou Zhonghe?"
At Zhou Zhonghe's question, Yu Ji-ryeon offered a respectful Cupped Fist Salute and spoke.
"I will help the Murim Alliance, and in return, I would like the Murim Alliance to help me."
"The Murim Alliance help the princess, you say?"
Zhou Zhonghe immediately glanced toward his strategist.
Since members of the Zhuge clan sometimes served in government positions, he wondered if Zhuge Hu might know more about matters related to the court.
If she was asking them to help with some kind of court power struggle, that was something he absolutely could not do.
Then came a Sound Transmission.
[I haven't heard anything recently, either. They say the Guandao Princess has no interest in court disputes and doesn't support any of the crown princes or royal sons.]
Yu Ji-ryeon's voice followed right after.
"You seem concerned, but of course this has nothing to do with the imperial court. Though I may be a lay disciple, I am still a disciple of Botaam Temple. I understand the principle of Government-Murim Non-Interference, so how could I drag the heroes of the martial world into an imperial struggle? And I have already left the palace, following my Lord Husband. I simply ask that you help my Lord Husband."
"Your Lord Husband, you mean the current Governor of Yueyang, Lord Seo?"
Though she was married, the emperor's deep affection for the Guandao Princess was very well known.
As she herself had said, if anyone could help the Murim Alliance achieve what it desired, she was the only one who could.
For that reason, they needed to accommodate her wishes if at all possible, but even if this wasn't a court matter, her Lord Husband was the Imperial Son-in-law.
Zhou Zhonghe asked again.
Helping the Imperial Son-in-law could very well become entangled with the court.
He was the emperor's son-in-law, after all.
What he heard next was something rather unexpected.
"Yes. To explain in detail, strange incidents have been occurring in Yueyang, where my Lord Husband was only recently posted, and the people are in an uproar. I've come to ask for your help with that."
"Strange incidents? Public unrest?"
When Zhou Zhonghe tilted his head, Yu Ji-ryeon drew a pouch from her breast and held it out.
"Open it."
Zhou Zhonghe opened the pouch as she instructed, and inside was something dark.
When he tipped it into his hand, a heap of dried insects piled onto his palm.
They were jet-black bugs.
Judging by their wings, they appeared to be some kind of flying insect, and the quantity was considerable.
Seeing his startled expression, Yu Ji-ryeon answered.
"What are these!?"
"Right now, all of Yueyang is blanketed by those bugs. The roads, the streets, and even the houses. You can't so much as step outside without covering your face with cloth.
Because of it, rumors are spreading rapidly that it's all happening because of the newly appointed governor.
My master once told me that the martial world is full of extraordinary people, some of whom handle insects. Could you use the Murim Alliance's name to find someone who could help me?"
At the princess's words, Alliance Leader Zhou Zhonghe and Strategist Zhuge Hu looked at each other and gave the exact same answer at the same time.
"This is definitely a job for Soryong...."
"This is definitely a job for Soryong...."
After all, the person they knew who was best with insects was Soryong.
*****
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