Chapter 074. The Sleeping Girl's Prayer (3)
While Seongha raised his sword to begin his bloody revenge...
Far beyond the darkness, Hyeon was preparing to build a new kingdom.
After returning to the military camp, Hyeon removed his heavy armor and red battle robe.
His tall, solid body appeared beneath them.
Angry muscles covered his frame.
A straight spine ran down between broad shoulders and a wide back.
His pitch-black eyes and messy hair gave him a wild atmosphere.
He washed himself.
Then changed into light official clothing.
Hyeon stood before a map spread across the table.
He had spent countless nights without sleep.
Nampyeong.
Nam Geumdo.
Nam Wan.
Nam Hyeon.
The kingdom had become divided around four different members of the Nam royal family.
King Nampyeong had escaped to a northern fortress under the protection of Chancellor Jin Sangwon.
Sangwon shut the fortress gates and publicly announced that he would suppress the civil war.
Thanks to the darkness arriving at the perfect moment, the Hae Clan managed to take control of the capital, Hongyang.
They placed Crown Prince Nam Geumdo at the front and declared that they would temporarily rule Hui Kingdom in place of the missing king.
State Preceptor Nam Wan fled to the Buddhist Holy Land.
There, he declared that he would establish a new religious kingdom.
Now...
Only the choice of one more member of the Nam family remained.
Hyeon.
Hyeon's rebel army initially chased the Jin Clan forces north.
But the pursuit soon stopped.
Many mercenaries had been disappointed when King Nampyeong escaped.
Others became terrified by the approaching darkness and deserted.
In the end...
Hyeon established a temporary military base in Daebaek, the old capital of Hui Kingdom.
Then he began rebuilding everything from the beginning.
They repaired the walls.
Built wooden defenses.
There had been nowhere proper to live while doing so.
Hyeon had spent dozens of days inside tents.
His harsh life was not much different from the days when he served as a mercenary of the Rang Merchant Group.
"This is bad."
Seung-gyeom entered the tent and looked at the huge pile of documents.
"At this rate, Your Highness is going to become completely gray-haired."
He placed down a bottle of alcohol.
"Take some rest while working."
His expression became serious.
"You're not superhuman."
Among all the men who feared and respected Crown Prince Nam Hyeon...
Only his uncle, Ban Seung-gyeom, could walk into his tent carrying alcohol and lecture him.
"Jin Sangwon truly is a cunning man."
Seung-gyeom's face became hard.
"He escaped while holding the king's life in his hands."
He shook his head.
"Almost as though he wanted the civil war to continue."
"If he had chosen differently..."
Seung-gyeom sighed.
"Perhaps the realm could already have been stabilized."
None of the faction leaders understood the meaning behind Jin Sangwon's strange strategy.
Why would a man with enormous power remain loyal to King Nampyeong, who was now little more than an empty shell?
Hyeon rested his chin on one hand and stared silently through the air.
"The rebellion ended in failure."
He spoke at last.
"But I gained a new understanding because of it."
Originally...
Hyeon intended to place all his strength into one day of rebellion and overturn the entire political situation at once.
Now...
His thinking had changed.
Failure had cost him the chance to become a hero.
But it also freed him from the shame of murdering his father and stealing the throne.
The sword match with Jin Sangwon remained strongly inside his mind.
Sometimes...
It even appeared in his dreams.
As though the question and answer between Hyeon and the Chancellor had never ended.
"I will rebuild the foundation of the broken kingdom here in Daebaek."
Daebaek had been the capital chosen by Great Emperor Namji when he first founded Hui Kingdom.
After the capital moved to Hongyang...
Daebaek became a ruined old city.
High mountains surrounded it.
That made it easy to defend.
But the soil was poor for farming.
Still...
Hyeon had reasons for choosing Daebaek as his first base.
It remained far enough from Hongyang that darkness had not yet reached it.
It was also close to Gongha, the city of the Ban Clan.
That allowed cavalry support to arrive quickly.
More than anything...
Hyeon wanted to build a proper kingdom from the place where Hui Kingdom's history had originally begun.
"For now, gaining the people's hearts is more important than anything else."
The moment he settled in Daebaek...
Hyeon began studying the resources of nearby regions.
He separated responsibilities between departments.
Gave orders.
Received reports.
He was finally putting the governing ideas he developed while traveling the world into practice.
It was his own effort to become someone worthy of leadership.
Saving the people trapped in darkness...
That would take far longer than defeating an outside enemy.
Then a group of men requested permission to enter the tent.
They presented scrolls.
"Your Highness."
"This document contains information about the foreign envoys and major merchant groups after the Fifteenth Day Festival."
Another man spoke.
"Buwan Port has been closed."
"Bandits are spreading through the area under cover of darkness."
"Many servants have also escaped."
A third continued.
"We checked the list of ships trapped in port."
"Also the people staying in the official residences."
He lowered his head.
"But the name Your Highness is looking for does not appear anywhere."
Hyeon placed the document on the table.
There was no news of the Rang Merchant Group.
In the past...
They had shared everything beside him.
Now...
They were so far away that he could not even receive simple news.
The mercenaries ordered to take Bam away had not reported anything either.
And now that Hyeon had become the leader of a new faction...
He could no longer personally travel wherever he wished.
"Report immediately when you receive news."
The men bowed.
Hyeon remembered the last time he saw Bam.
Those blue eyes had stared directly up at him from the bottom of the stairs.
She had escaped the mercenaries and charged into the banquet hall.
And now...
She had disappeared somewhere beyond his reach.
"Still doing whatever you want..."
A weak smile escaped Hyeon's lips.
He looked at the silver shackle still around his wrist.
Then lowered his head toward the documents again.
But the emptiness inside him did not disappear.
Even now...
Hyeon was overlooking one important fact.
After arriving in Hui Kingdom and experiencing mysterious events...
