"Failed?"
The eunuch bowed deeply.
The low rumble in that voice was always difficult to endure, no matter how many times he heard it.
There were many words in the world, but the one that best described that voice would be 'bewitching.'
Grand Eunuch Nok-gi was such a person.
No matter how the Emperor had promoted eunuchs to strengthen imperial authority, without Nok-gi at the center, earning the Emperor's trust, let alone building up his current status, would have been absolutely impossible.
Even while receiving checks from numerous high and low officials, Nok-gi was the one who received the current Emperor's absolute trust. He knew how to bewitch people's hearts, and he knew how to move people as he wished without even needing to create words with his mouth.
And Nok-gi was the most cruel and thorough person in the imperial palace.
Eunuchs cannot bear children.
Not being able to bear children meant they could not create a family lineage, which in turn meant it was impossible to create strong bonds through blood relations.
Sometimes people in the world think that being a eunuch makes it easy to gain power, but that's wrong. A eunuch must throw himself into the imperial palace alone and climb up solely through his own abilities. The world of eunuchs had a desperation that differed in class from ordinary officials who were pulled up by their families and supported by their fathers.
And Nok-gi, with his charisma to bewitch people and his thoroughness, was not only at the pinnacle of eunuchs but at the pinnacle of all officials.
Without a doubt, there might be those in higher positions than him, but there was no one who wielded more power than him. This was the result of receiving more trust than the Emperor's blood relatives and using that trust to thoroughly strengthen the Emperor's imperial authority.
That legendary figure's voice was now growing sharp.
"It shouldn't have been that difficult a task. What did Cho Gong do?"
"Wei Yan-ho was at the Great Lake Pavilion."
"Wei Yan-ho?"
"Yes. Wei Yan-ho of the Guangdong Wei Family…"
Before the eunuch could finish speaking, Nok-gi held his forehead.
"Wei Yan-ho, Wei Yan-ho…"
Nok-gi reached out and lightly sipped the half-cooled tea, then let out a low sigh.
"What a truly tiresome connection. Wei Yan-ho, of all people."
Others might have heard the name Wei Yan-ho for the first time, but Nok-gi knew that name very well.
'I should call it a bad connection.'
Wasn't it precisely that Wei Yan-ho who had blown away the once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to entangle both the Hanrim Grand Academy, which he had been cultivating, and that thorn-in-the-side Inspector General all at once?
After that, he went out into the martial world causing all sorts of trouble, and now he had appeared again to interfere with his affairs.
"Could that bastard really be the Inspector General's secret weapon?"
How could things be this entangled unless he knew what he was doing and was deliberately interfering?
When he thought coldly based on the information he had gathered about Wei Yan-ho so far, Wei Yan-ho was absolutely not someone who could earn the Inspector General's trust.
The Inspector General, who preferred serious Confucian scholars, entrusting his sacred objects to such a rootless martial artist ruffian was already shocking enough, but was he really giving him proper information and entrusting him with checking the Eastern Bureau?
'That's absolutely impossible.'
Nok-gi absolutely believed in his own judgment.
By nature, Prince Lee Wang-ya and Wei Yan-ho did not match.
No matter how unpretentious Prince Lee Wang-ya's disposition was, he was still of imperial blood. Those who didn't know what kind of beings the imperial family were might think it was possible, but for Nok-gi, who had watched and understood what kind of people the imperial family were right beside them, it was unimaginable.
For those whose every finger movement was filled with authority to trust some rootless martial artist ruffian was harder than being struck by lightning while walking down the street and continuing to walk unharmed.
"Yet they keep getting entangled."
Nok-gi pressed his temples firmly.
"So what happened to Cho Gong?"
"…It seems he was captured as a prisoner by Wei Yan-ho."
"A prisoner…"
Nok-gi's brow furrowed.
'He's definitely different.'
The Inspector General's Office doesn't take Eastern Bureau eunuchs as prisoners. They know that no matter how much they worry and threaten, those eunuchs will never open their mouths. So when the Inspector General's Office clashed with eunuchs, they chose to either kill them outright or cut off their hands.
The very fact that they were holding Cho Gong as a prisoner was the greatest evidence that Wei Yan-ho had little connection to the Inspector General's Office.
"Right, so what is he doing with Cho Gong as a prisoner?"
"Th-that is…"
Seeing the troubled eunuch, Nok-gi bit his lips hard. For him to trail off like that when he knew how much Nok-gi hated it meant something very uncomfortable for Nok-gi was happening.
"Don't waste time. Time is gold."
"He is currently heading to the capital with Cho Gong as his prisoner."
"To the capital?"
"Yes. Right now…"
The eunuch bowed his head.
"It seems he's coming to Beijing."
"Huh."
Nok-gi sighed deeply.
"Is he walking into the tiger's den with his own feet? Is it to catch a tiger, or does he have some other purpose?"
Nok-gi's face contorted.
The only tiger that could be caught in Beijing was himself. The thought that Wei Yan-ho might be coming to Beijing to strike at him made him feel blood rushing to his head.
'That can't be right.'
Common sense dictated that it was impossible for a mere martial artist to strike at him, who had the Emperor's trust. Even if he had the Inspector General's protection.
"How could that mere puppy dare to attack a tiger? Your Excellency's reputation has already reached the heavens, and your majesty spreads across the earth, so no one in the world would dare…"
"Shut up!"
"…"
Nok-gi threw the fan in his hand to the floor and said,
"Don't fawn before me. All power falls from complacency. If you dismiss it as a trivial matter and treat it lightly, holes might appear in the dam. Even the greatest dam can collapse from a single small hole."
"This humble one's thinking was shallow."
Even the eunuch who, as the Eastern Bureau's shadow leader, made officials throughout the realm tremble, was merely a powerless palace servant before Nok-gi.
"Strike at him."
"Your Excellency!"
"There's no need to worry. I'm anxious because I don't know how that bastard will move. So if we strike at him first, that solves it. Dead men can't do anything."
"Your Excellency, that Wei Yan-ho fellow may be young, but he's evaluated as having talent that reaches the heavens. Among the forces we can mobilize, there aren't many that can handle him. Moreover…"
"I know what you're saying."
Grand Eunuch Nok-gi's eyes gleamed.
"If it's not something to be done openly, the paths we can choose become even narrower."
Nok-gi sighed.
'When you need dog shit for medicine, there's none to be found.'
His adopted son, whom he had painstakingly raised for times like this, was nowhere to be seen recently.
Of course, considering the power and strength Nok-gi had built up, betrayal was impossible, but it was extremely irritating that he wasn't nearby when needed.
"There's no choice. We'll have to use the Blood Order."
"Bl-Blood Order, you said? But the Blood Order is…"
"Every card has its proper place. If there's no proper knife to kill a chicken, you must use an ox-slaughtering knife to cut the chicken's neck. Just because there's no chicken-killing knife, should we just keep watching the chicken crow?"
"Your Excellency's words are correct."
"Move the Blood Order. Make sure that Wei Yan-ho bastard never sets foot in the imperial palace. If he does set foot in this place, your head will be the first to roll. Do you understand?"
"I will keep it in mind."
"Get lost."
As the eunuch carefully backed away, Grand Eunuch Nok-gi ground his teeth.
"Just when the rice is about to finish cooking…"
It was work that just needed steaming, but the fact that Wei Yan-ho was heading to Beijing at this very moment felt ominously troubling to Nok-gi.
"If I can't properly finish this work, I don't know what 'that person' will do to me."
Thinking of that person, Nok-gi felt goosebumps all over his body.
People in the world don't know.
They don't know whose world this is.
Those who submit to the majesty of that scarecrow-like Emperor and think the visible world is all there is to the world don't know the terror of that person, the true ruler of this world.
'Foolish creatures.'
The current Central Plains was divided into several branches, and Crude beings were secretly scheming against each other behind the scenes, claiming they would take the Central Plains.
Nok-gi, who grasped all their movements with the Eastern Bureau's intelligence network, could only laugh at their stupid antics.
The world already belonged to that person, yet how could these fools who didn't even know that fact and were engaged in internecine strife not be laughable?
"If only the imperial palace affairs go well… that person will give me a great reward…"
"Foolish bastard."
Right then, at the voice from behind him, Nok-gi froze like stone. Nok-gi, who had sprung up from his seat, prostrated himself flat on the spot.
"Why have you sought out this humble one's dwelling?"
"You have forgotten."
"…"
"Living luxuriously in that rotten place called the imperial palace, you seem to have forgotten."
The moment he heard that emotionless voice, Nok-gi's body began to convulse.
"You are nothing more than a servant for that person. A servant should not desire anything from his master. It should be your joy to work for that person until your very body becomes ash. Yet do you now dare to desire a reward from that person?"
"I-I was foolish. I forgot."
Nok-gi did not make excuses.
Excuses only deepen the sin. What that person desired was not sin but thorough repentance.
"I briefly forgot that my body has meaning only when it is used as that person's means. I dare to request that you punish me."
"Foolish bastard."
The red shadow that appeared before Nok-gi spoke in a chilling voice.
"If there is sin, that sin must be washed away. Listen. That person wants you to move."
"Fi-finally…"
"Complete it with your life on the line. No matter what happens. If you fail to do so, you will become something that can neither live nor die."
"I will definitely accomplish it."
"There is no second chance."
Leaving those words, the shadow smoothly disappeared.
Even after the shadow disappeared, Nok-gi trembled for a long time without being able to lift his head.
'That time has arrived.'
The time when the fruit of this long waiting would ripen had approached.
Nok-gi, who quietly raised his body, pressed various parts below the Grand Secretary's chair.
Click.
With a strange sound, the lower part of the Grand Secretary's chair popped out. Nok-gi, who gently pulled the protruding part, took out a small wooden box contained within.
"Now the world will move according to that person's will."
A chilling smile crossed Nok-gi's lips.