Chapter 44: A Breach in Discipline (4)

Kang Yun’s face flushed.

“You mean to drag me out of the Captain’s seat?”

“Count yourself lucky.”

Yeon Hojeong raised his fist.

Wuuuuum—

Fierce True Qi flared from his knuckles.

Kang Yun, about to speak again, jolted.

Impossible...?!

The force pouring off Yeon Hojeong’s fist was staggering—so much so that it cleanly eclipsed the inner power of the Flying Hawk Captain himself.

“I’d like nothing better than to break your arms and legs and throw you out, but fists are for men worth hitting.”

“......!”

“On the likes of you, even a punch is a waste.”

Yeon Hojeong looked to Yu Jiha.

Yu Jiha started.

“Do my words sound like nonsense to you?”

“I—I’m sorry!”

Yeon Hojeong’s eyes were murderously cold. Yu Jiha’s feet moved on their own.

Kang Yun’s lips twitched.

“You mean to make a spectacle of this.”

“Don’t flatter yourself. Nothing about you is worth making big. What I can’t fathom is the men above you who slept easy after putting you in that seat.”

Yeon Hojeong smiled like ice.

“And because you cling so slavishly to your precious code, we’ll process this by the code. Shut your mouth and stand by.”

“...No matter that you’re the First Young Master, you cannot remove me from the Captain’s seat.”

“That’s why I called the Law Blade Pavilion Master instead of cutting you down on the spot. And I told ❖ Nоvеl𝚒ght ❖ (Exclusive on Nоvеl𝚒ght) you already—stand by. I’ve said what needs saying; there’s no need for more bleating.”

Kang Yun bit his lip.

“I acted for the clan.”

“And I’m removing you for the sake of the main house.”

“Small units gather to make a great organization! Without law and discipline, any unit scatters! For a complete corps, a measure of sacrifice is the natural price!”

“Trash.”

“W—what did you say?”

“If sacrifice is the point, why is the man who should be the example for his men never the one to bear it?”

“......!!”

“You’re the type who’s ‘flexible’ with yourself and ruthless only with others—a petty man in full. With someone like you holding the Captaincy, no wonder the Flying Hawks’ performance is mired where it is.”

Yeon Hojeong turned his head.

“Isn’t that right?”

There was no one where he looked.

But he spoke on without hesitation.

“Since I’ve called the Law Blade Pavilion Master, this will reach Father anyway. You can come out now.”

Just then—

Srrrkt.

Kang Yun and the Third Unit of the Flying Hawks all flinched.

From the shadow beside the Grand Training Ground’s weapon storehouse, a man stepped into view.

Tall, solidly built. Yet with a hooded mask that covered everything but his eyes, his features were hard to read. Judging by the eyes, he was somewhere around forty.

The man spoke.

“You knew I was here?”

“I didn’t. But a moment ago, your qi flickered—just for an instant.”

“Impressive.”

“Nothing much.”

Yeon Hojeong smiled.

“Are you Wang Jeon?”

“I am.”

Kang Yun’s eyes flew wide.

Wang Jeon meant the Clan Lord Yeon Wi’s closest hidden retainer. The one who, generation after generation, guarded the Yeon Clan Lord—people called that post the Guardian of the Lord.

Wang Jeon was the Guardian of the Lord of this generation. Save for the Clan Lord himself, his skill could be called the best within the household.

“Do you have anything to say?”

Wang Jeon shook his head.

Even to the First Young Master, he simply shook his head. It might look like a breach of decorum, but the Guardian of the Lord was allowed. He was the one man who heeded only the Clan Lord’s command.

“Please inform Father: there’s going to be some business to handle today.”

Wang Jeon, who had been silently watching Yeon Hojeong, spoke.

“I have a question.”

“Ask.”

“If the Law Blade Pavilion Master does not hold the Flying Hawk Captain to account, what do you intend to do?”

Yeon Hojeong didn’t know why he asked, but he answered plainly.

“I’ll kidnap Captain Kang and make sure he never functions as a person again.”

A fierce light sprang in Wang Jeon’s eyes.

Kang Yun, likewise, stared at Yeon Hojeong as if he’d lost his wits.

“My heart wants to flip the Law Blade Pavilion and everything else on its head, but I am not the Clan Lord. And it isn’t the way of a man to grow disillusioned with the clan because of idiots like that.”

“......”

“Does that answer you?”

Wang Jeon nodded.

Yeon Hojeong pointed at the Flying Hawks’ Third Unit.

“Please also ask Father to find a nearby medical hall. The boys are in a state.”

“You knew?”

“I only learned today. I, too, was far too indifferent—my responsibility here is large.”

Wang Jeon’s gaze turned strange.

He watched Yeon Hojeong in silence, left one sentence, and vanished.

“The Flying Hawk Captain will receive heavy punishment.”

Kang Yun’s face went bloodless.

A word pronounced by one of the clan’s very best—by the Guardian of the Lord himself. The vague sense of crisis finally reached his skin.

“Why... why on earth?!”

“You still don’t see it?”

Yeon Hojeong looked over the Third Unit’s men.

“Your uniform training ground their bones and sinews to ruin.”

“W—what did you say?!”

“You babbled on about organization and corps when you didn’t even know that?”

Flustered, Kang Yun looked to the Third Unit.

They bit their lips and averted their eyes from him.

“That’s what I mean when I say you’re incompetent. I don’t know how you ran your drills, but your men’s meridian networks aren’t normal. They were thrown back into training without proper treatment after injury.”

“......!”

“What kind of Captain are you if you don’t even grasp the state of each man’s body?”

Kang Yun’s face went corpse-pale.

Even in the Three Kingdoms of antiquity, injured soldiers were kept out of drills to preserve fighting strength. He had been grotesquely negligent of his men’s individual temperaments and health.

And on top of that, when someone trained during sleep hours, he called it disobeying orders and handed down a punishment bordering on torture.

Unfit for command.

A short while later, the Law Blade Pavilion Master arrived at the Grand Training Ground.

“First Young Master?!”

“Please wait a little. There are many yet to arrive.”

“W—what do you mean?”

Yeon Hojeong shot a look at Kang Yun.

Kang Yun’s face had gone past pale to a bruised blue.

“You like collective responsibility, don’t you?”

That day, nearly every unit and office that made up the Yeon clan gathered at the training ground.

Yeon Hojeong, with everyone listening, laid out Kang Yun’s incompetence.

Kang Yun was human. He probably wasn’t ignorant that his unit management wasn’t normal. He had simply chosen the easy road for himself.

To have that laid bare in front of everyone—no matter how thick his face, he couldn’t withstand it. In the end, under the Law Blade Pavilion Master’s icy stare, Kang Yun went to his knees.

But Yeon Hojeong did not lay the blame on Kang Yun alone.

He called in the ones who had taught Kang Yun, and everyone who had trained alongside him. Then, unit by unit, he investigated whether the same sort of thing had been happening elsewhere.

The results were shocking.

There were three units even worse than the Flying Hawks. In one of them, a man had been killed over a petty matter and secretly buried.

It was a bolt from the blue. The entire unit had kept their mouths shut to bury the truth; it was going to be smoothed over as a disappearance.

Neither the Law Blade Pavilion Master nor Yeon Wi, when he heard late, had imagined such a thing had taken root inside the household.

For more than five days afterward, the Yeon estate’s atmosphere was like a bomb about to go off.

Those who took part in the evil, those who committed corruption, those who abetted it in the shadows—every one of them was dragged out. They were punished to the letter of the clan’s law.

Kang Yun was no exception.

Strictly speaking, Kang Yun’s crimes weren’t of the gravest class. His unit management was inept; he failed to care for his men—his largest faults were incompetence and uncommunication.

But his words were the bigger problem.

Whether Wang Jeon reported it or the Third Unit did, no one knew. But the Law Blade Pavilion judged his conduct toward the First Young Master as far worse than his incompetence.

Naturally so. His behavior was, in essence, insubordination.

The Yeon clan’s law is severe. A man given such authority over a unit bears a commensurate responsibility.

For the Captain of the Flying Hawks to commit insubordination against the clan’s First Young Master was not a matter to pass over. The Law Blade Pavilion abolished his inner power and sentenced him to ten years in the dungeon.

Harsh, perhaps overly so. But it also meant the Law Blade Pavilion regarded this incident as grave in the extreme.

Thus the Yeon clan’s cold hammer fell on the guilty.

****

“You truly think it excessive?”

“Yes.”

“I hear you said that if the Law Blade Pavilion Master failed to hold the former Flying Hawk Captain to account, you yourself would mete out punishment.”

“That’s correct.”

“Then why call this sentence excessive?”

“If the Law Blade Pavilion Master had not held Kang Yun to account, it would have meant the main house itself was rotten. It wouldn’t be Kang Yun—I’d have had to thrash the Law Blade Pavilion Master and the rest first.”

“......”

“But the Law Blade Pavilion Master did hold him to account. The charges were incompetence and insubordination.”

“That’s right.”

“Incompetence is one thing, but insubordination especially is a great crime. In wartime, it’s a capital offense that can merit summary execution on the spot.”

“Indeed. That is why I decreed abolition of inner power and ten years in the dungeon. Those who sit high must bear a matching burden.”

“Right as that is, it’s still too much.”

“Give me your reasons.”

“Call it not collective responsibility, but in the end it was our clan that seated Kang Yun there.”

“......”

“In the end, he was family. Whether Father still considers him so, I don’t know.”

“So—lighten the sentence a little?”

“Kang Yun received a penalty heavier than what the clan law prescribes. I’m not saying to be lenient—I’m saying if we are to follow the law, do it transparently and clearly.”

Yeon Hojeong smiled, bitter.

“In the end, wasn’t it Kang Yun twisting the clan law to his own liking that caused this mess?”

“......”

“If you won’t allow ‘flexibility’ in the law, you also cannot handle it more harshly. It will surely confuse many.”

“You truly believe that?”

“That is my view. Whatever other organizations do, the main house must not.”

Yeon Wi turned to Yeon Jipyeong.

“What do you think?”

Yeon Jipyeong was startled; he hadn’t expected the question to reach him.

But he spoke as if he had been waiting.

“Even if it were not Captain Kang... we are talking about a man’s life.”

“Hm.”

“If he violated discipline, I think it is right to give a punishment that matches.”

He hesitated a shade, then continued.

“I think our clan is called the house of Green Mountain because we handle affairs rightly—clear in name and clean in conduct.”

Yeon Wi nodded.

“True. In fact, I, too, think this sentence for Kang Yun is excessive.”

Yeon Jipyeong looked at him, puzzled. If he thought it excessive, he could simply adjust it—why call them in?

Yeon Wi asked Yeon Hojeong,

“Will you be all right with it?”

“Sir? With what?”

“Insubordination is a crime whose degree varies widely with circumstance. You were the superior he wronged; if you wished, you could have him killed.”

“That’s true.”

“And yet you ask me to lower the sentence. I’m asking if that sits well with you.”

Yeon Hojeong chuckled.

“It does. I raked his guts raw as it is. Isn’t it something that I didn’t draw steel?”

“If you had, it would have been cause for summary execution.”

“Exactly.”

The corner of Yeon Wi’s mouth lifted.

Only for a moment; his face soon settled back into stern lines.

“Good. We’ll do as you two say.”

Inwardly, Yeon Jipyeong was startled. Yeon Hojeong, by contrast, listened to his father with an even face.

“Hojeong.”

“Yes, Father.”

“You worked hard.”

Yeon Hojeong stood with a grin.

“Please keep me from having to work hard on this kind of thing. It’s killing me.”

Flustered, Yeon Jipyeong tugged at his brother’s arm.

Yeon Wi sipped his tea and said,

“I’ll see to it.”

Yeon Jipyeong’s jaw fell open.

“Then, I’ll take my leave.”

“What will you do tomorrow?”

“What I’ve been doing.”

“Starting that brutal regimen again?”

“I’m going to change the method now.”

Yeon Wi nodded.

“Stop by before the Rear Beggar arrives. I’ll watch your forms. You too, Jipyeong.”

The Yeon brothers left the Clan Lord’s hall.

Yeon Wi looked out the window. Whatever they found so funny, the brothers were laughing aloud as they headed for their quarters.

A flicker of wistfulness crossed Yeon Wi’s eyes.

And the object of that wistfulness, as ever, was Yeon Hojeong.