Chapter 059. Lovers of the North Wind (4)
While the streets outside were filled with noise from the Fifteenth Day Festival, one place remained completely separated from the world in quiet stillness.
It was Seongha's residence inside Beopsindang's administrative quarters.
A strong wind swept across the courtyard like a broom.
A half-lowered bamboo blind lightly tapped against the doorframe.
Scrolls and documents lay spread all around a wooden bench.
Seongha picked them up one by one, compared their contents, and copied the information into a new book.
At last, he put down his brush and released a deep breath.
After hearing the disturbing claim that the Jin Clan had participated in the persecution of Jeongilhoi, Seongha had dug through old records, tracing events backward through time.
Records erased with a single accusation of heresy.
The strange incidents Seongha himself had experienced.
Several scattered pieces seemed as if they were about to connect, yet never quite did.
Then Seongha's hand suddenly stopped as he turned a page.
The historical record from the eighth year of Gimu, eight years after King Nampyeong ascended the throne, contained the following entry.
[A monk named Wongwang confused the minds of the people and incited them.]
[King Nampyeong therefore ordered his younger brother, Nam Wan, to send soldiers and destroy the heretical organization known as Jeongilhoi.]
[A part of the region that served as Jeongilhoi's headquarters rose into the sky, and from then on it became known as Cheonhui Kingdom.]
Seongha immediately compared it to the financial ledger managed by the Jin Clan.
On the exact same date, there was a record saying soldiers had been urgently dispatched under the order of Clan Head Jin Sangwon.
Had the royal family pressured them?
Or had Sangwon acted to prove the Jin Clan's loyalty?
Seongha could hardly believe that Jin Sangwon had personally taken part in suppressing a mere group of commoners.
The eighth year of Gimu also had another meaning for Seongha.
It was the year he had separated from his mother and begun living with the Jin Clan.
It was also the year he received news of his mother's death.
[There is something I absolutely must do. Our bloodline has always been born with the power to protect someone. I intend to use that power for this world.]
When his mother left him, she said there was something she had to do.
Could that duty have been...
Connected to Jeongilhoi?
Seongha felt disturbed.
Until now, Jeongilhoi had simply been an organization from the past that had been persecuted as heretics.
And recently, it had become connected to Cheongyeon.
He had searched for clues about his mother for so long.
Yet matters he had thought completely unrelated were unexpectedly overlapping.
And if that was true...
Another terrifying possibility appeared.
Perhaps his father had also been involved in his mother's death.
Seongha bit his lip.
Anyone who had ever seen the true nature of Chancellor Jin Sangwon could never easily forget it.
Seongha remembered something that happened during his childhood in the Jin Clan.
Sangwon had stopped while walking toward the inner residence.
When he opened the door, six or seven men in black masks were lying collapsed inside.
[Excellent work.]
Sangwon spoke quietly, almost as though he knew someone was listening.
The fallen men were badly injured, yet faint breathing showed that they were still alive.
[Why did you not kill them and punish them for their crimes?]
At Sangwon's question, a thinly dressed Seongha stepped out from the shadows inside the room.
His clothes were disheveled, as if he had rushed directly from bed.
[I thought it would be filthy to stain my hands with blood.]
His gaze was cold.
Seongha rarely became emotional before his father.
Yet at that moment, it seemed as though a blue flame was burning inside him.
[I doubt you intend to challenge your father merely because you were disturbed by some meaningless rumors.]
Sangwon glanced at the assassins.
[Judging by the situation, interrogating them must not have produced anything useful.]
Several days earlier, during a Jin Clan gathering, Madam In had openly humiliated Seongha before the entire family.
She declared that there was no possibility Seongha was Sangwon's biological child.
Most relatives had remained silent out of fear of the consequences.
But many secretly agreed.
Seongha looked nothing like Sangwon.
And most of them also agreed that the existence of an illegitimate child had stained the clan's honor.
[Rumors are merely entertainment for people who know nothing of the real circumstances.]
That day, Seongha had sat on the raised platform with an indifferent expression before quietly disappearing back to his residence.
In any case, Sangwon treated both Madam In and his second son, Seopjun, with the same coldness.
Seongha had never expected warm affection from him as a father.
[I am simply curious about something.]
Even inside the Jin Clan's estate, known as the fortress of the north, there had already been several attempts to murder the eldest son.
Yet Sangwon had remained silent and watched the ridiculous spectacle.
Why?
What exactly did Sangwon want?
[Why did you accept this lowly son as your eldest child, yet leave my mother alone to die in that cold world?]
A faint disturbance appeared on Sangwon's face.
Perhaps Seongha's provocation had touched some old memory.
[And yet you hold a memorial rite for Mother every year...]
Seongha stared directly at him.
[Isn't that hypocrisy?]
His voice became colder.
[If this was how things would turn out, why didn't you simply leave Mother and me in that poor village?]
Without warning, Sangwon drew the sword at his waist.
He mercilessly slashed down at the fallen assassins.
The strength and sword energy released from his huge body tore human bodies apart like pieces of firewood.
It was completely different from the composed man who usually sat on high platforms listening quietly to others.
Blood splashed across the wooden floor and folding screens.
Drops even stained Sangwon's thick eyebrows and dark beard.
Seongha's eyes trembled as he witnessed his father's brutality.
[You said you did not wish to stain your hands with blood.]
Sangwon turned toward Seongha without wiping the blood from his face.
[Then I had no choice but to do it myself.]
After releasing his anger for a brief moment, he once again locked away his emotions.
His face became expressionless.
Then he spoke.
[I would turn my back on the entire world if that was what it took to keep a single promise.]
His voice came from somewhere deep inside him like thunder.
