Chapter 353. Could You Help General Go?
After easing into the conversation lightly, Okjeong finally came to the point.
"Could you help General Go?"
Youngwoo paused with the teacup still in his hand.
Had she said they were related by marriage?
This was not a question she had asked casually.
He declined as gently as he could.
"What could I possibly do? I am only a warrior who has lost his post."
Okjeong quietly shook her head.
"If I had to name the person with the strongest voice in Liaoyang right now, it would be you, Commander."
Youngwoo gave a dry laugh.
"No. What am I, really?"
"This is not something you should dismiss out of modesty."
Okjeong spoke calmly.
She sat with the snowy window behind her, and the lamplight sharpened the outline of her face.
"The Jin people know you. The Goryeo people know you. The Balhae soldiers know what they saw at the south gate last night. And now the people inside Liaoyang know your name as well. You have become someone no one can easily ignore."
Youngwoo did not answer.
He only looked down at his teacup.
The tea, warm a moment ago, had cooled slightly.
Okjeong continued.
"I would like you to support General Go. Among the Balhae people, there is no one more suitable than him. If someone must be raised above the others, he is the best choice. He is militarily capable, respected by the soldiers, and his family descends from Goguryeo."
Youngwoo raised his head.
"So in the end, you are asking me to help put General Go above the others."
Okjeong was silent for a moment.
That silence was answer enough.
But she did not retreat.
"Someone will be raised up. That current has already begun. Even if you try to stop it, it will not disappear entirely. If that is the case, then it is better for someone who knows at least something of soldiers and common people to stand there than for some worthless man to take the position."
Youngwoo's eyes grew still.
"Every country that began that way collapsed."
"I know."
"And you still want to do it?"
Okjeong wrapped both hands around her teacup.
"Then under whose banner should the Balhae people stand? Liao's? Jin's? Goryeo's?"
The question was quiet, but it was not light.
Youngwoo could not answer at once.
It was a question he himself had been avoiding.
Okjeong spoke softly.
"As you said, the name of the state and the throne should not come first. But people are already asking themselves questions. Who are we? Whose orders are we supposed to obey? Under whose protection are we meant to live? If we cannot give them an answer, the city will soon begin to come apart."
Youngwoo slowly rubbed a finger along the rim of his cup.
The snow outside was falling more heavily.
A white line had formed along the edges of the eaves, and even the darkness of the courtyard was slowly turning pale.
Youngwoo said,
"General Go wants to become king."
Okjeong drew in a small breath.
"He is human. I cannot say he has no such desire at all."
"That is what frightens me most."
"That is why we need you."
Youngwoo smiled bitterly.
"You mean a man who wants to become king needs someone beside him constantly telling him not to?"
"Yes."
Her answer was unexpectedly direct.
Youngwoo looked at her.
She did not avoid his gaze.
"If you remain beside him, General Go will not be able to go too far. At the very least, you may be able to delay all this talk of a royal title and a throne. Those who want to use the name Balhae as a tool for their own power will not be able to run wild so easily either."
Youngwoo was silent for a long time.
What she said was not wrong.
It was easy to curse them from a distance and walk out.
But the people left behind still had to remain in that council hall and somehow find a road forward.
Okjeong spoke again, more carefully this time.
"When I ask you to help, I do not mean only that you should help raise a king. I am asking you to help defend the city, gather provisions, and keep people from being hurt. Aren't those the things you do best?"
Youngwoo let out a long breath.
"I came here to lend my strength to destroying Liao."
"Is protecting Liaoyang truly separate from that path?"
Before refusing, Youngwoo studied Okjeong in silence.
She was a woman, yet there was more openness and boldness in the way she spoke than in many men, and more strength in her eyes than in many officers.
She knew how to speak indirectly, but she also knew when to stop circling and press straight ahead.
She reminded him of the winds of Liaodong.
Cold and direct, slipping through walls and eaves without hesitation once they had chosen a direction.
She sat in a fine dress in a reception room, yet beneath it was the spirit of someone who belonged walking along a fortress wall.
Perhaps she had been waiting for Youngwoo to return from the beginning.
Running out to the estate gate to greet him, offering him tea, beginning with talk of the snow—perhaps all of it had merely been the road leading to this one question.
She knew he had stormed out of the council chamber.
Perhaps she had wanted to catch him before his heart closed completely.
Youngwoo set down his teacup.
The tea remaining at the bottom trembled, then grew still.
"Lady Okjeong, do you truly believe General Go can change if I help him?"
Okjeong did not answer immediately.
For a moment, she looked at the snow beyond the window.
It was settling quietly over the tiled roofs of the estate and the stone paths across the courtyard.
"Not change, exactly. I think he may learn where he must stop."
"A man who wants to become king does not stop easily."
"Then he needs someone who can make him stop."
Youngwoo gave a faint smile.
"You want me to take that role?"
"If not you, then who can say such things to him? My father is already inside that circle. The other officers watch General Go's expression. Liaoyang's influential families look first to their own storehouses and account books. And the young warriors intoxicated by the name Balhae reach for their swords before anything else."
Her tone remained gentle, but her words were sharp.
"But you are different. There is nothing here for you to gain. That is precisely why you can say what must be said."
Youngwoo fell silent at that.
There is nothing here for you to gain.
It was praise, and yet there was something lonely in it.
In truth, there was little he could possess in Liaoyang.
He had already laid down his official post.
His home was far away.
And he had no interest in thrones or banners.
Okjeong added quietly,
"That is why I can trust you."
Youngwoo looked at her again.
Until now, he had thought of her simply as a bold and strong woman.
But there was impatience in her as well.
Not the impatience of someone rejoicing that Liaoyang had been retaken, but of someone who had already begun to see the dangers coming next.
Perhaps she did not truly want to place Go Youngchang on a throne.
Perhaps what she wanted most was to keep Liaoyang from collapsing pointlessly.