The Legend of Red Cloud - Chapter 89

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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Chapter 89. Rising Value
“I have a single daughter, unwed despite her age—a willful child. I thought perhaps I might take her off your hands.”
“Kha-ha-ha! That’s an excellent idea as well. Hehehehe.”
As Hyeol Yeong Ma Jon laughed with gusto, a figure stepped forward through the sound of his mirth.
“That would be rather difficult, I’m afraid.”
Following the voice, Hyeol Yeong Ma Jon’s gaze turned, and his eyes hardened in an instant.
“Why?”
Despite the savage tone—as if he might simply draw his fist and strike should the answer prove unsatisfactory—the Seocheon Merchant Leader remained unmoved.
“Do you know why he has come here?”
“The order……”
The Seocheon Merchant Leader cut off the Dang Household Master’s response swiftly, continuing his thought.
“He came to retrieve my daughter.”
“What do you mean by that?”
The Dang Household Master asked with a bewildered expression, and the Seocheon Merchant Leader replied.
“Where was he captured yesterday, if you recall? My daughter makes the same claim. So I intend to take him with me.”
At the Seocheon Merchant Leader’s words, Hyeol Yeong Ma Jon set aside his ferocity and chuckled.
“So you mean to make him your son-in-law?”
“Should I not? My daughter—I’ve only one, mind you—keeps threatening to hang herself, saying it’s his fault, insisting I spare his life. She’s driving me to distraction with it.”
As the Seocheon Merchant Leader dragged out his grievance, Hyeol Yeong Ma Jon, who had been studying his eyes intently, burst into loud laughter.
“Pu-ha-ha-ha! Well, if your daughter threatens to hang herself, what else can you do? Kha-ha-ha.”
Hyeol Yeong Ma Jon had seen through it.
He understood that the Seocheon Merchant Leader knew his daughter’s words were false.
Indeed, a man who could not perceive even that much would never have grown the Seocheon Trading Company to its present magnitude.
Yet the fact that he still meant to take Ryu away signified that the Seocheon Merchant Leader had recognized his true value.
Though he could not say why it pleased him so, Hyeol Yeong Ma Jon was genuinely delighted.
The Hwasan Sect Leader, who had been observing Hyeol Yeong Ma Jon intently, spoke.
“It would seem you knew he would come here, Lord Gunma Rim.”
At the Hwasan Sect Leader’s question, Hyeol Yeong Ma Jon shook his head.
“Me? No. How would I know the movements of that friend of mine in the Cheol Hyeol Maeng?”
Those present took note that Hyeol Yeong Ma Jon had just referred to the man named Ryu, who was being held captive, as his “friend.”
Among those startled by this, the Geumchae Merchant Leader stepped forward.
“What is the meaning of this? I am most curious as to how the Cheol Hyeol Maeng has come to act according to your will, Lord Gunma Rim.”
The assembled figures nodded in agreement, their thoughts aligned.
Which meant they were all ignoring Hyeol Yeong Ma Jon’s denial from moments before.
Observing them intently, Hyeol Yeong Ma Jon smirked and answered.
“I set it as a condition when that man Hong Taek proposed a ceasefire.”
“What did you say to make him accept such a condition?”
“If Wolpa Geom Hwang, the leader of the Baek Ui Ryeon, joins forces, that makes four Hwagyeong on the Cheol Hyeol Maeng’s side. I asked if he thought I would tolerate that.”
“And what did he say?”
“That if we transferred one Hwagyeong to our side, that would suffice.”
Those assembled could read in that simple exchange the complex and tangled currents of Kangho’s present state.
The fact that Hong Taek, a man of the Baek Ui Ryeon, had agreed so readily showed that the Baek Ui Ryeon itself found three Hwagyeong in the Cheol Hyeol Maeng’s hands burdensome.
Hyeol Yeong Ma Jon, having seen through this, had simply nudged it along.
“So that is how matters have unfolded.”
The Danlise Household Master, sitting beside the Geumchae Merchant Leader who was nodding to himself, asked a question.
“Then what brought him here?”
His tone made clear that he too did not believe the Seocheon Merchant Leader’s explanation.
Yet the Seocheon Merchant Leader’s expression remained untroubled, as though he expected nothing less.
Hyeol Yeong Ma Jon glanced at him with amusement and answered.
“I informed him of the time and place of this gathering.”
“Then he means to target one of us…?”
At the Danlise Household Master’s question, Hyeol Yeong Ma Jon shook his head.
“Since the Seocheon Merchant Leader would be staying here, I told him to break into his quarters and steal his seal.”
In that instant, the eyes of those assembled widened.
The Wu Gui Yin—commonly called the Turtle Seal for its appearance—meaning the Seocheon Merchant Leader’s official stamp was to be stolen, or so he had been ordered.
The reason this caused such alarm lay in the nature of the Seocheon Trading Company itself.
As an enormous merchant house spanning the entire Western Central Plains, the Seocheon Trading Company conducted even minor affairs through written documents.
And every such document bore the mark of the Turtle Seal, the Wu Gui Yin.
Should such a seal ever fall into the hands of an outsider, the Seocheon Trading Company would face catastrophic chaos.
And in the midst of that confusion, substantial quantities of wealth and goods could easily fall into the hands of whoever possessed that seal.
That posed a threat to Gunma Rim precisely because the goods they handled most were grain.
In fact, each sect belonging to Gunma Rim sourced their provisions through Seocheon Trading Company.
If something went wrong with that supply…….
The very thought horrified them, and not a few shook their heads vigorously.
So it was that people fixed resentful gazes upon Hyeol Yeong Ma Jon.
Had this man called Ryu somehow succeeded.
Those who could not help but entertain that thought now turned their eyes upon him in complaint—why would he dare embark on something so dangerous?
At the weight of their stares, Hyeol Yeong Ma Jon eased himself back against his chair and spoke.
“No need to look so dismayed. That’s precisely why I’m here.”
At his words, the eyes of those assembled widened.
After all, Hyeol Yeong Ma Jon, who had never once attended these meetings where merchants gathered to conspire, had suddenly appeared—shocking everyone present.
But hearing what he said now made clear he had come to prepare for the intrusion of this man called Ryu.
Upon grasping that, a chill ran down the spines of those gathered.
They had failed to consider something that this colossus had foreseen all along.
What if, as in times past, Hyeol Yeong Ma Jon had not come?
This man called Ryu, who had been captured, had reached the Hwagyeong realm.
Regrettably, the Dang Household, where the meeting was being held, possessed no master who had attained Hwagyeong.
Within Gunma Rim, only two places housed masters of Hwagyeong—the Cheonsan Demonic Sect, which people commonly called the Demonic Sect, and Hwasan.
Yet Ja Jeon Geom Wang, the Hwagyeong master whom Hwasan possessed, had not attended this meeting.
This Wusan Council was restricted to those of rank sufficient to attend—household masters, sect leaders, and similar figures of authority.
So if, as the Danlise Household Master had posed just moments earlier, this man called Ryu had emerged not as a mere thief but as an assassin targeting someone specific.
Then someone in this room would surely have fallen dead.
Of course, whether this man called Ryu could have completed his assassination and escaped alive was another matter altogether.
But before then, the one who died could have been anyone sitting in this chamber.
Once they grasped that anew, the expressions of those present hardened like stone.
And so the value of this man called Ryu—who had been nothing more than a prisoner of the Cheol Hyeol Maeng—suddenly skyrocketed.
The eyes of each master began to burn with the determination to claim him for their own faction.
At this shift in the masters’ demeanor, the Seocheon Merchant Leader cast a displeased look at Hyeol Yeong Ma Jon.
The meaning was clear: why spell out such details so explicitly?
The masters had not seemed to think matters through to that extent; with a little pressure, Seocheon Trading Company might have quietly extracted him. Now that opportunity was lost.
Even as the masters’ eyes kindled with the hunger to possess Ryu, having grasped his true worth, Hyeol Yeong Ma Jon wore a smile of quiet satisfaction.
***
Ryu, who had spent the night waiting alone in the chamber assigned to him, now faced someone he had never hoped to see.
“So you are indeed the Rim Master.”
“Huh? What do you mean?”
“The Dang Household Master said that someone recognized me, and that’s why I survived.”
“Ah, that! Even if they hadn’t recognized you, there’s no way they could have killed you anyway.”
At Hyeol Yeong Ma Jon’s offhanded response, Ryu could not help but laugh bitterly.
Then Hyeol Yeong Ma Jon asked him a question.
“But tell me—why did you give up so easily back then? With your abilities, you could have fled first and saved your companion later.”
“If I had fled, a pursuit would have been mounted and the situation would have become desperate. Then the antidote might have been delayed.”
“Hm. So your companion mattered that much to you?”
“He was the one who covered my back on the battlefield.”
“One who guards your back on the battlefield, you say. That’s right. Abandoning such a man and fleeing makes you no better than a dog.”
As Hyeol Yeong Ma Jon finished speaking and smiled meaningfully while looking at him, Ryu seemed to grasp something and asked.
“Could this entire affair have been your plan, Rim Master?”
To Ryu’s question, Hyeol Yeong Ma Jon answered with surprising candor.
“Half of it.”
“Half? What do you mean by that?”
“The other half of this plan was devised by a man named Hong Taek on his own initiative.”
Ryu, recalling the face of the Ten Direction Fist master, Hong Taek, whom he had briefly confronted, asked with puzzlement.
“But why would he do such a thing?”
“Obviously. Baek Ui Ryeon found it burdensome that the Cheol Hyeol Maeng possessed three masters of Hwagyeong.”
……!
At Hyeol Yeong Ma Jon’s answer, Ryu finally grasped those tangled, sordid desires, and could not hide his disappointment.
Hyeol Yeong Ma Jon continued his words.
“Rather than remain allied with such a man, why not cross over to this side now?”
“That discussion concluded when you departed as Ga Ji Hoon and became the Rim Master of Gunma Rim.”
“Which is precisely why I bring it up again.”
“What do you mean by that?”
“Do you remember what I told you back then?”
Hyeol Yeong Ma Jon had said many things at that time. The one that lingered most in his memory was……?
“You mean when you said you would hold expectations, sir?”
“Yes. I want to keep expecting things from you.”
“Could you be more precise about what you mean, sir? I’m just a soldier who grinds away on the battlefield—I don’t follow the political games of important men.”
Hyeol Yeong Ma Jon let out a bitter laugh at Ryu’s pointedly blunt question before answering.
“It means I didn’t want to kill you before you became too large a threat.”
“……?”
Hyeol Yeong Ma Jon continued his explanation to Ryu, who still wore a puzzled expression.
“We have four Hwagyeong masters on our side, plus Wolpa Geom Hwang from the Baek Ui Ryeon. I can’t just stand by and watch that.”
“You mean me, sir? But I’m the weakest of those four.”
“For now, yes. But in a few years? Besides, you’re someone who’ll draw your blade without hesitation if I tell you to fight. Between you and those three who have much to protect and thus stand heavy-footed, who do you think I’d need to cut down first?”
Ryu said nothing in response to Hyeol Yeong Ma Jon’s counter-question.
Now convinced that Ryu finally understood his meaning, Hyeol Yeong Ma Jon asked a question.
“So come over to my side.”
In the gaze of Hyeol Yeong Ma Jon, who watched him intently as he spoke, Ryu glimpsed a ferocious beast barely restrained.
It meant he wasn’t doing this and saying these things out of lack of power.
So if Ryu refused the offer here, that ferocious beast might bare its fangs in an instant.
The reason Hyeol Yeong Ma Jon had just cited—that Ryu would need to be the first target—sounded reasonable to Ryu’s ears as well.
But…….
If he defected to Gunma Rim, the remaining members of the Jeok Sa Jo were as good as dead.
And that wasn’t all. The connection between Ryu and Gwi Geom was known even to the leadership of the Cheol Hyeol Maeng.
Naturally, Gwi Geom and his disciple would not escape harm either.
So if Ryu were to live alone—or even if he included Dong Pil and tried for the two of them to survive—there was no knowing how many he would be condemning to death.
He wasn’t a man with enough lingering attachments to life to want to live on in such a way.
So…….
“I’m grateful, but I must refuse.”
At Ryu’s refusal, Hyeol Yeong Ma Jon asked a question.
“Then you’ll die.”
He felt the beast within Hyeol Yeong Ma Jon’s gaze bare its ferocity, rising slowly to its feet.
Even so.
Ryu, his resolve hardened, nodded his head.
“I understand.”
“Even knowing that, you refuse? I didn’t realize your loyalty to the Cheol Hyeol Maeng held such value for you.”
Ryu offered a bitter smile to Hyeol Yeong Ma Jon, who spoke as though surprised.
“That’s not it, sir.”
“Then?”
“If I remain here, there are those who would have to pay the price in my stead. I cannot let them die that way.”
After hearing Ryu’s answer, Hyeol Yeong Ma Jon, who had been watching him intently for a moment, turned away.
“Walk with me for a bit.”
With those words, Hyeol Yeong Ma Jon led the way out of the hall, and Ryu, exhaling a quiet sigh, followed after him.

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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