???'s Fathoms, part 2 (after battle)
"... No. It can't be. My life is - The experiences, the memories I had recorded are different."
Alas.
Kim came to a stop with a grim look on his face.
Again, I am returned to this day...
His voice had dropped to the same, morose pitch we had heard before.
Mentor.
... I have been here before.
Ah, have you? Had a peek into my memories when I had Distorted, did you?
Haha... I must say, it's a bit embarrassing to have my deepest and darkest secrets revealed like that.
Kim grinned sheepishly as though to clear the air, but it was becoming rather clear to me what he was doing.
That his flippant demeanor and seemingly devil-may-care attitude were but a mask to hide the true darkness in his heart.
Then this must be...
Indeed. The Right State Councilor's estate.
Someone whom I had once protected... thought was worth protecting.
Kim pushed open the main gates and made his way into the front yard.
Watch out, Aeng-du. Take a tall step over, or you might trip.
…!
Agh...
There were bodies splayed about the yard, and I couldn't dare start counting them.
I felt faint watching the aftermath of the carnage: some were decapitated, some had their torsos split diagonally, and some of them were so mangled that I could hardly even tell which parts belonged to who.
Are they not... retainers of the Royal Court?
What were they doing at the Councilor's... No, were they killed by assassins?
Assassins did infiltrate the estate, yes.
... You're looking at what remains of them.
<...!>
Though I had but a moment to glimpse it, I clearly remembered what the S Corp. logo I saw in Kim's fathoms looked like.
The hats these corpses are - or were - wearing... are adorned with the same logo.
So why is Bamboo-hatted Kim calling them "assassins"?
In this corrupt land, the Right State Councilor's life was always as precarious as a candlelight in a tempest.
Such is the fate of all those who have the guts to speak the truth in S Corp., where positions of influence are hoarded by corrupt sycophants whose chokehold on power is ironclad.
The most prominent among them, the Left State Councilor, with the Chief State Councilor's blessing, sought to wield his own private army to silence forever the tongues of those who would advocate against the corrupt.
Private army...?! But they are prohibited in our homeland...!
So they're kinda like how the Great Houses of H Corp. each had their own armies...?
That is similar to what is happening, but not exactly.
If S Corp.'s circumstances were to be explained in plainer terms, it would be akin to a situation in which a company, whose employees outwardly appear to be all working for the same side, is in fact fractured within, with certain departments pledging allegiance to a different individual than the chief executive.
What assassins there had been in the past at least wore masks to hide their allegiance; I had thought this no different, though with assassins significantly less invested in maintaining their disguises.
... Not realizing that I had just placed my stone inside the tiger's maw.
Gah... *gasp*
Looking around at the yard teeming with the assassins, I recall thinking it odd just how many of them they had sent.
Though the Left State Councilor's power had grown to loom over that of the King, I should have realized how ridiculous such a brazen attempt on the life of one of the triumvirate Councilors at the Royal Court would have been. Foolish.
I can't... I have failed you... Councilor...
There were simply too many of them, as though they had decided that tonight was the night they would finally slay the Councilor, or die trying.
I was soon overwhelmed, and some of them eventually managed to get around me and reached the Councilor's bedchamber...
The moment I heard them breach the door, all strength left me, and I fell to my knees.
I, Kim Lib, am a poor excuse of a bodyguard... and I have failed you.
And I knew who the author of the foul scheme was: the Left State Councilor.
Let this be my final act of loyalty ere I depart this life -
... Though I am too meager a person to carry on your will, Councilor... What I can do is plant the seeds of terror in the hearts of the unjust, if only to shackle their blackest hearts from committing greater misdeeds.
I shall go before the villain who contrived this betrayal and see that the favor is repaid with steel.
Only by such vengeance shall the Councilor at last close his eyes in his grave.
... Or so I had thought.
*creak*
... What...?
Greetings, honored Bodyguard of the Right Councilor. I see that you've been hard at work.
Accursed parasite...! I ought to flay you alive and reveal the wretched soul underneath!
Some gall you have to show your face here!
Oh, here? You mean the home of the honorable Right State Councilor who toils day and night in service of the Royal Court?
... I know the assassins were sent by the Left State Councilor.
Get out of my way.
I shall collect your head once my task here is over.
Alas, alas! This unsightly display of anger shames us all.
Are all those who live by the sword as uncouth as you? The cruelty of your damning words is an oppression upon decent men like myself.
Let's see how long you can -
Heed me, soldiers!
Arrest that mad butcher.
?!
W-what...?
The accused shall heed his crimes.
One moon ago, an anonymous letter, threatening to take the life of the revered Right State Councilor, arrived at the Royal Court.
This audacious, contumelious effrontery is an affront not only to the Royal Court, but to the heavens and men alike!
The revered Left State Councilor, who has long been in disagreement with the Right State Councilor on matters of the state, found this offense to be so heinous that...
... he has personally commanded his men to protect his political enemy on the day writ on the letter!
... Huh?
Yet, a tragedy has struck!
All those lives sent to protect the noble Councilor are slain, the bravery and justice of their honorable hearts trampled upon the ground by this villain!
And now the villain promises death to yet another pillar of the Royal Court?!
Thus we are, perforce, to arrest the criminal and restore the rule of law!
You spout senseless drivel! I saw your men make their way into the Councilor's bedchamber with their blades drawn...!
The Councilor? Might you be looking for the Right State Councilor here, alive and well?
.......
... My lord...?
The vile wretch leaned down next to my ear, and whispered:
Perhaps you should've known where not to stick your nose.
Did you really think you could overcome the entire private army in the Left State Councilor's service?
He sent so many of his men to their deaths... just to lure me into a trap? Why?
Now, don't take this as a compliment, as you're not even the Apex Blade of the Homeland, nor are you the <ruby=Cloudblade>Un'geom</ruby>. But you have been a rather egregious obstacle to the execution of my plans.
Couldn't get through with the first thing in my plan, with you constantly getting in my way. Let's keep you nicely locked up and out of trouble.
Th-this can't be...!
... For what it's worth, young man... I am sorry.
I've come to realize the error of my ways... The truth is, though S Corp. is indeed a pond of turbid water...
... it was those like us who had stirred the dirt from its bed and turned it cloudy.
Fearing the worst, we arrived to protect the revered Right State Councilor...!
A thousand curses upon the villain! In his quest for the Right State Councilor's life, the butcherous man has already watered the ground with S Corp.'s laborers, the very lifeblood that runs in the veins of this most serene Wing!
And that charcoal-hearted villain is none other than the Councilor's Sworn Guard, Kim Lib!
Han...
Heed us, O villain!
Han Ho-bae!!!!!
And let the Ohra bonds take you!
You've fallen far, my friend. You who were once considered a candidate to the honor of Un'geom...
And with that Brand of a Nobi sapping your strength...
... even your mastery with the blade will only dull.
... Are you to be my executioner, Gyeong-eop?
I hadn't received the orders to behead you, if that is what you're asking. Nor would it befit someone of my station to sully my hands with an executioner's duty.
How... will you live on, now?
... I don't know. The Councilor has abandoned me. There is no path forward.
Salpippyeo Agroindustries is... more corrupt than I had thought. Rotten to the core. This is... where the game ends.
... Time to resign my stone.
Indeed it is.
...? Why... are you freeing me?
Once a game has been lost, you start anew and test other gambits in the next round.
Why don't you stop playing this unfair game where the opponent always starts with stones placed on all 9 star points on the board...
... and find a place where you can begin anew in equal standing?
... As soon as they realize it was you who freed me, they'll come after you.
It's okay. Unlike someone who made a fool of himself and fled after passing the Royal Examinations, I have the Royal Court's backing as its Military Commissioner.
My position in the Court isn't so fickle that they would cast me down right away just because I let go of someone like you. You're a Branded criminal... In the eyes of the Royal Court, you're as good as inconsequential. I'll report that even if you were to flee, you would still be nothing more than a plaything in the palm of their hands.
I didn't think you were the kind to go against your honorable principles.
Some things can't be done without bending a rule or two. And you are needed. S Corp.'s future is in need of those who are less bound by expectations... like yourself.
Besides, it's not the rules I stand by, it's my own principles.
I did say I owe you a token of gratitude, didn't I? Consider this a settlement of that.
Gratitude and vengeance, after all, share a common quality. They are both debts to be repaid.
... Gyeong-eop.
... Come with me. There is no hope left for S Corp. You said it yourself, didn't you? We'll never win as long as we're playing their rigged game.
Listen. They might have a 9 stone advantage over you, but to me, it's as small as 3.
I'll manage and keep my finger on the pulse. Besides, change doesn't always have to come from the outside.
The old wisdom says that to catch a tiger, you must enter its den. But... wouldn't it help to have an ally waiting in the tiger's den to back you up when the time comes?
There, all done. Your bonds are severed.
Go now.
Go, and build your strength beyond the walls of S Corp. Yet beware of relying overmuch on foreign powers.
... I don't have it in me to take up such a grand purpose. I'm done with S Corp.
You know how I am. I just go with the flow...
Yes, yes. Do as you will, go with the flow, be whatever you want to be.
But I'm just hoping that the currents of the river will someday bring you back to S Corp., that's all.
.......
... Though I had left the rigged game, my records afterward weren't stellar. The laying of the stones on my board was always full of holes and mistakes.
I joined the Blade Lineage, became their Mentor, dragged them into the Library... until eventually, I cut down those who had placed their faith in me. Self-defeating move after self-defeating move.
When Gyeong-eop had let me go, I thought I had escaped the tiger's maw.
But as I let the game progress with the flow, I soon came to the realization that my life was an endless sequence of connect-and-dies.
I was in a losing play from the start.
Shadows dancing by the distant humanoid form begin to grow like wildfire,
and those in the attire of the Blade Lineage one by one leap over the wall and approach us.
Like the projections of Kim's darkening fathoms...
<They're from his memories.>
<Films and photographs can sometimes remain undoctored, but...>
<... the impressions a person gets from viewing the photograph... is malleable.>
... Then they must be after...
<Yeah. Kim believes that if the Blade Lineage were to come back to life, they would want to kill him.