The air changed.
It should have been nothing more than the chill of the season, but this felt different.
Huh.
All he had done was stop smiling.
A man who always smiled too easily had simply gone expressionless, and yet it felt as if the fine hairs on my back were standing on end.
Definitely.
Father was like this, and so was this man, but the family itself had a tendency to look rather chilling when its members went expressionless.
For a brief moment, our eyes met.
“Ahaha.”
My brother’s expression returned.
He went back to that smiling face again, but I had already seen what had happened. I could not pretend otherwise now.
“I didn’t think you’d ask me outright.”
“I held back quite a lot, actually. I sent you a letter in the first place.”
“True. That is true.”
Click.
He opened the liquor bottle in his hand and gulped it straight down.
The man was already dead drunk. How much drunker was he trying to get?
“Khah... Good stuff... As expected, you don’t need snacks. Liquor is something you drink for the taste of liquor itself. Right?”
“...I wouldn’t know.”
It was beyond me. I did not exactly enjoy drinking.
“So. What is your relationship with the Dark Sovereign?”
“Did you not notice I was changing the subject?”
“Of course I did. I simply have no intention of letting you.”
“Right? Our youngest was always clear about things like that.”
He beamed.
I sighed.
“I just came back from seeing the Dark Sovereign.”
“Hm?”
Bang Yuseong’s eyes narrowed at my words.
“You saw him?”
“Yes. He appeared.”
“...How did that happen?”
His face had turned serious.
I shrugged at him.
“No idea. He just showed up.”
“Good grief... That man, honestly.”
He scratched the back of his head.
“That old bastard really has a terrible personality. If you’re that suspicious of everyone, the ones who lose out are yourselves, but he doesn’t seem to understand that.”
“...That part doesn’t matter. What is he, really?”
“Hm.”
Bang Yuseong pursed his lips as if he were thinking.
It was not easy for a man his age to make that kind of face...
“Just a friend?”
“That is not an age gap where friendship makes sense.”
“What does age have to do with friendship? If your hearts align, you are friends!”
“Do you not think it is strange for your heart to align with the Dark Sovereign?”
“It happened somehow.”
“That is the most absurd thing I’ve heard today.”
I was genuinely dumbfounded.
“You sent a letter saying you would come in person, but I was the one who had to come here.”
“Ah, sorry about that. Your brother had a lot of work.”
He scratched the back of his head awkwardly.
A lot of work? Like hell he did.
“You probably just drank every day.”
“Oops, you caught me.”
“...Never mind that. What are you actually doing? Do you know how shocked I was when the Dark Sovereign appeared at Mount Hua?”
“It was a surprise gift, wasn’t it?”
“Some damn gift.”
What kind of gift was that?
“You even made the Dark Sovereign deliver a letter. What are you really doing?”
“If you’re going to be the young patriarch of the Bang Family, you need at least that much nerve.”
“...Forget nerve. Explain the situation.”
“Ahahaha.”
Bang Yuseong laughed softly at my question.
My eyes narrowed at that laugh.
It felt different.
“Must you hear it?”
“Were you not planning to tell me?”
“There are plenty of things in this world one does not need to know. This is no different.”
“Then you should have at least kept it from showing.”
If he wanted to keep me ignorant, he should not have made me curious.
This was not that.
“The moment the Dark Sovereign personally interfered with me, there were things I needed to know.”
Had he not appeared in person, that would have been one thing.
But since the Dark Sovereign had come to me and even shown himself...
Since he had gone so far as to deliver Bang Yuseong’s letter to me...
I had gained a reason to know.
“What is it? What are you doing?”
“...”
I pressed Bang Yuseong.
At my question, Bang Yuseong stared at me for a while.
Then—
“Then let me ask one thing.”
“What?”
Bang Yuseong asked me.
“Little brother. Can you explain your current situation to me?”
“...”
His serious tone made me pause for a moment.
“Becoming the disciple of that great Sword Saint, your current state, and beyond that, all the things neither of us have said to the other. I am asking whether we can truly lay everything bare now that we have come this far.”
“That’s dirty, using your finishing move like that.”
“You should always have an escape route.”
“If I tell you, does that mean you will explain?”
“No. That is not what I mean.”
“Then—?”
At my words, Bang Yuseong pointed at me.
“Even family needs secrets.”
“Ah.”
So he was saying he would not tell me.
I understood.
“You’re telling me to find out myself.”
“It would be even better if you didn’t.”
“...I don’t think I can do that.”
If this were before, I would not have cared, or I would have tried not to care in the first place.
“There are too many strange things in this damn family.”
“...”
It would have been comfortable if this place were nothing more than a gathering of troublemakers.
But things keep crawling out.
The Dark Sovereign was one.
Everything else was the same.
“If you won’t explain, fine. I’ll look into it myself.”
“Little brother.”
“Yes.”
Bang Yuseong stopped me as I was about to turn away.
“You know your brother loves you, right?”
“...What is wrong with him?”
I fled in disgust.
That was a horrifying thing to hear.
*****
Right after Bang Seongyeon fled from Bang Yuseong’s declaration of love, Bang Yuseong watched his youngest brother grow distant and chuckled.
“He grew quite a lot while I wasn’t looking.”
At most, it had been one or two years.
That was the only time they had not seen each other, yet the boy had grown far too quickly.
“What a shame.”
It was deeply regrettable.
It would have been nice if he could have watched him grow in more detail.
Not being able to do so always left the regret inside him to quietly swell.
Of course, none of this could compare to how their father must have felt.
Bang Yuseong had only one wish.
Do not go out of your way to be curious.
If Bang Seongyeon tried to find out, he would not stop him.
It was not as if stopping him would work, and he had never tried especially hard to hide it.
However—
“I hadn’t meant to make it show.”
Had it been a mistake?
Because he had realized that his little brother was becoming entangled in increasingly absurd situations.
A mistake made because he had tried to slow those steps, even a little.
That was the sort of regret Bang Yuseong felt.
“But you, of all people, should not have done that.”
Bang Yuseong spoke with his expression gone utterly cold.
At those words, someone appeared behind him.
A being dressed in a black mask and martial uniform.
It was the Dark Sovereign.
“Do you intend to break the promise?”
Bang Yuseong asked with an expressionless face.
“I am not the one failing to keep it.”
The Dark Sovereign spoke to Bang Yuseong.
There was nothing in his hand, but inside the sharpened air, Bang Yuseong instinctively knew that something was touching his throat.
“Young Patriarch Bang. The only reason your younger brother still has his head after seeing me is because he carries the Bang Family bloodline.”
The Dark Sovereign spoke calmly.
“If not for that cursed surname, his head would already have fallen long ago. And more than that...”
SSSSSSS—!!!
The Dark Sovereign’s shadow rippled ominously.
“Yoo Cheongil. If he is the disciple of that bastard who deserves to be torn to pieces, then his limbs should already have been ripped apart by my hands.”
“What a frightening thing to say.”
Bang Yuseong did not waver at all despite the Dark Sovereign’s rough words.
“But you can’t do it, can you?”
Because he was certain the Dark Sovereign could not.
“You cannot do that. Because we are the only ones who can resolve your grudges and debts.”
“...Arrogant.”
“We are good friends. The fact that you chose me instead of Father means you know that as well, doesn’t it?”
“You are wrong.”
The Dark Sovereign denied it.
“The Bang Family Head is a bastard whose thoughts cannot be read. Young patriarch, you are no different, but you have not yet reached the bottomless abyss. I merely judged you the better option.”
“Ah. So I’m easier to use, and that’s why you kept me as your friend.”
“Do not call me a friend.”
The Dark Sovereign was firm.
“This is nothing more than a transaction.”
“You really are bleak beyond belief. Maybe that is why you keep getting played and end up like this every time.”
He said it with a smile.
SHICK—!
A shallow cut appeared on Bang Yuseong’s neck.
Blood trickled down.
“Ah, that stings.”
“Watch your mouth.”
“You can’t even kill me anyway, so why bother threatening me?”
Drip, drip.
He used the liquor spilling from the bottle to wipe his neck.
“...And if you are going to threaten me...”
Bang Yuseong glared at the Dark Sovereign with sharpened eyes.
“You should do it properly. Don’t you think so, Dark Sovereign?”
GRRRAK.
Bang Yuseong reached out.
By all rights, his hand should not have been able to touch the Dark Sovereign.
Instead, it seized him by the collar as if nothing were strange about it.
“Do not approach my younger brother. You. If you do that one more time, then there will be no transaction or anything else.”
“You are surprisingly protective of your blood. I thought you would not be.”
“Family is precious by nature. Not that you would know. So answer me. Do not touch him again.”
“Fine. I will apologize for this matter. There was something that bothered me slightly, so I intended to confirm it.”
“Something that bothered you?”
“It is already past, so I will not explain.”
Thud.
Bang Yuseong let go of the Dark Sovereign’s collar.
The master of the night.
Bang Yuseong was likely the only one who had ever seized him by the collar and survived.
“Tell the Bang Family Head. The Sky-Crushing Palace has begun to move.”
“...”
After saying those words, the Dark Sovereign vanished from before his eyes.
“...What the hell is there to tell?”
Bang Yuseong repeated the words, then chuckled.
There was no need to tell him.
Their father surely already knew everything.
However—
He only knows.
He would have no intention of moving or interfering.
That was all the Bang Family had to be.
A place that existed as if it did not.
So—
I hope you all do not live that way.
It was enough for only him to do that.
He hoped his younger siblings would live differently.
He lifted the liquor bottle in his hand to his mouth and drank deeply, almost indulgently.
He gulped and gulped, filling himself, but in the end, he would never truly become drunk.
“Ahaha. Good stuff.”
There was no day he did not drink himself toward drunkenness.
Only then could he endure the day.
That was what Bang Yuseong’s days were.
*****
The night passed, and morning came.
Since I had to deal with every unresolved matter, I first intended to head back out to the county town.
It seemed I would have to visit the Hao Clan again, and there were other things I needed to grasp as well.
“...Um...”
But I could not.
A guest had arrived early in the morning.
And not just any guest.
A guest I absolutely could not ignore.
Two cups of tea sat alone between us.
Even the Head Steward, who was usually always present, had fled.
Inside the unbearably uncomfortable air, I asked,
“...What brings you here?”
“...”
A noble, handsome middle-aged man who did not suit this shabby house in the slightest.
An absolute master whose well-formed features naturally called someone else to mind.
Seeing him give no answer, I called him again.
“...Family Head Mo Yong.”
One of the Five Kings Under Heaven.
The master of the Mo Yong Family, one of the Five Great Families.
The White King.
He was sitting in front of me, drinking tea.
At the crack of dawn.
