???'s Fathoms, part 3 (after battle)

... Like a prey backed against the cliff's edge, I am left bereft of paths; my hand hesitates with no room to place the stone.

Misjudgments burgeon when contemplations harrow the mind, indeed.

Now, all that remains is to neutralize that one enemy combatant in the yard.

Tell me... Who's waiting for us in there? You should know - this place and its enemies are projections of your memories.

Not the hardest guess to make, is it?

I expect to find Im Gyeong-eop in there.

Gyeong-eop was a woman of loyalty and principles. Even as a Military Commissioner, she never stopped wanting to change the way the Royal Court was.

But even she must have broken, in the end. I scoured the newspapers and TV for anything I could find on the current state of S Corp., but it was plain as day that nothing had changed there since my departure.

.......

Mentor... Is that not but a baseless speculation, your concerns grown uncontrollably?

Never have you spoken to us about such a monstrous one in the past.

Thus, what lies before you is but a figment of the Distortion reflecting upon your memories.

Did this Im Gyeong-eop appear as that monster does, Mentor?

... No.

Gyeong-eop wasn't like that.

... Gyeong-eop.

I still believe that Salpippyeo Agroindustries deserves to die.

But destruction's not the point. The point is that I want it to be a place where I can cut away the avaricious corrupted, and...

... have it be a Wing that cares for its commonfolk.

If I didn't know better, I would've thought you were seeking to supplant the current S Corp.

You know that's not what I'm talking about.

I'm just... a wanderer, floating down the river's flow to where the currents take him.

When the river bent and I hit a wall, someone picked me up and made a blade out of me; once abandoned, I returned to the flow and found myself a "Mentor" to those who afforded me the undeserved faith.

And the river continues to wind, carrying me back to... Ah, S Corp., whence I had fled. Shall I let the blade sing my inner thoughts?

You think I'm satisfied with the way S Corp. is?

But your method, as it is now, goes against the principles.

I expected better from someone of your wiles.

... If you enjoy those principles so much, then why ask me to leave the game?

Because someone has to stay behind and try to bring change within the limits of their principles.

I only hoped that one of those bends in that river of yours would... float you back to knock on the gates of S Corp. once it was primed for change.

... Has that changed?

Hm. What do you think?

You, at least, seem to think that I have.

Because you believe that I shall stand in your path.

Stand in my path...

... and stem the flow of this river evermore.

...!

... Very well.

The law states that denial of the will of the Royal Court is a crime deserving of death by beheading.

I, Im Gyeong-eop, Second Ordinant of the Salpippyeo Agroindustries, Official of the Sword, and Military Commissioner to the Royal Court, shall uphold the command...

... and sever the buds of rebellion before they propagate.