The conference room door flew open, and Muryeong entered in haste.
Inside, Rangnan and Yun were still at their seats.
Notes were piled atop several documents and maps.
Rangnan spoke first.
“Muryeong?”
Muryeong caught his breath and said,
“Rangnan. We were deceived. The cart was a decoy.”
The tip of Yun’s pen stopped for a moment.
Rangnan immediately pulled out a chair and pushed it toward Muryeong.
“Sit. What happened?”
Muryeong dragged the chair over and sat, then continued.
“We secured the cart from the mercenaries and moved it to the hideout we’d arranged in advance.”
“But the barrels of explosives were almost empty.”
“And then… as if they’d been waiting, the guards surrounded us.”
Muryeong’s voice lowered.
“There was a priest. There’s a good chance it was the one who was chasing Bido.”
Yun spoke through clenched teeth.
“We were had. This is…”
Rangnan swallowed a sigh.
“They used our informant against us.”
He thought for a moment, then added firmly,
“There’s a high chance things have been moving much faster than we thought.”
“We revise the plan from the ground up.”
Yun immediately responded.
“First, we need to protect the informants.”
“Yes.”
Rangnan nodded.
“At this rate, the Eunwoldan will be in even greater danger.”
Yun added one more thing.
“We may have to abandon this place. We need to prepare.”
Rangnan looked straight at Muryeong.
“What about Aslo?”
“He shook off the pursuit.”
Muryeong answered.
“Miryeong… got caught by that mercenary bastard’s technique.”
Yun and Rangnan’s brows furrowed at the same time.
Muryeong quickly added,
“It’s not a serious injury. But some aftereffect we can’t identify remains.”
Muryeong paused briefly, then said,
“She’s recovering stability now through Bido’s Mirkin.”
Rangnan closed his eyes, then opened them.
“I see…”
He reached a conclusion.
“First, prepare so we can leave at any time. Have everyone gather in the assembly room.”
Muryeong nodded and left the room.
Rangnan and Yun said nothing for a while.
The lines on the map suddenly looked narrow.
—
Arku’s sky had turned black.
Smoke spread slowly over the city from beyond the walls.
Each time the wind blew, ash scattered like snow,
and people brushed it off with dazed faces.
Some were weeping,
and some did not even have the strength to weep.
“Here! Bring more stretchers!”
“Water! Water—!”
The guards were frantic with carrying the wounded.
Whenever groans rose from beneath the collapsed heaps of stone,
soldiers rushed in and cleared the rubble away.
The flames were already dying down,
but the hot air and acrid smell had not yet left.
Half of the council building had been blown away.
The once-neat corridors and columns were bent like twisted bones,
and the flags, soaked in black ash, dragged along the floor.
“Who in the world would do such a thing…”
Someone muttered.
No answer came.
Instead, people’s gazes gathered in the same direction.
The military police under the direct command of the Council had arrived.
The man at their head stepped on the ash and came to a halt.
Beneath his robe-like coat, a neat uniform was visible.
His expression was cold,
and his eyes moved quickly.
As soon as he arrived, he spoke curtly to the guards.
“Maintain the cordon.”
“Continue rescue operations, but don’t trample through the interior. If it was explosives, there will be residue.”
The guard adjutant directing the scene nodded as he gasped for breath.
“Commander. The extent of the damage—”
“Later.”
The military police commander raised a hand and cut him off.
“Right now, we secure the traces first.”
He walked toward the collapsed wreckage.
Then his gaze shifted along the path the stretchers were taking.
Bodies covered in cloth.
Blood dripped from the edges of the coverings.
Just then, one stretcher passed in front of him.
A red sleeve was protruding from beneath the cloth.
It was the sleeve of a Sun God Church priest’s robe.
The military police commander’s eyebrow moved ever so slightly.
It was not surprise, but trouble.
He did not have the stretcher stopped.
Instead, he gestured to the adjutant beside him.
“Confirm his identity.”
“Notify the Sun God Church immediately. And… record it.”
The adjutant answered in a low voice.
“Yes, sir.”
Another stretcher followed immediately after.
This time, a piece of heavy armor was visible.
The silver ornamentation was far too elaborate.
The adjutant lowered his voice.
“…It appears to be an Imperial knight.”
The military police commander pressed his lips together once.
“Confirm it.”
Then he added,
“This is going to get bigger now.”
The scene was still horrific.
But over that horror,
a different kind of weight was settling.
A priest and a knight.
Names from outside Arku had entered the very heart of this incident.
That fact alone
made the arguments that would follow today appear before their eyes.
The military police commander raised his head.
Smoke was still rising into the sky.
“The guard captain?”
he asked.
The adjutant answered,
“He is securing evidence. A portion of the guard… and a Sun God Church priest accompanied him.”
“He should return soon.”
The military police commander let out a short breath.
“Good. When he returns, report to the Council at once.”
He swept his gaze over the scene once more and issued orders.
“Move the bodies separately. Civilians, councilors, guards, Sun God Church, Empire.”
“Save the wounded first. But gather anything with traces of explosives on it separately.”
The adjutant nodded.
“Yes, sir.”
Ash scattered again.
Arku was still breathing.
But that breath was acrid,
and the city already needed a name called “culprit.”
—
The emergency council meeting was held in a hastily prepared assembly hall beside the ruined building.
The moment the door opened, hot air and the smell of ash rushed in.
The councilors still had black ash clinging to their collars.
On their faces were anger and fear,
mixed with a strained determination to avoid responsibility.
Someone struck the table with a fist and said,
“This is a declaration of war! To blow up the council in the middle of the city!”
Another councilor responded in a trembling voice.
“How many casualties are there?”
“We are still confirming.”
The clerk answered with his head lowered.
“But… it is not a small number.”
A brief silence.
Breaking that silence, one councilor opened his mouth.
His voice was calm.
“There is only one thing we must discuss now.”
He placed a hand on the table.
“We must elevate the Eunwoldan to the status of a dangerous organization.”
The meeting room stirred.
“The Eunwoldan?”
Someone asked in return.
“Are you saying this has something to do with the Eunwoldan?”
The councilor nodded.
“Those people calling themselves the Eunwoldan have long carried out operations against our Arku.”
“It seems they have finally bared their claws.”
Just then, from the opposite side, a hand slowly rose.
It belonged to a councilor who usually chose his words carefully,
but whose influence was strong.
People knew the rumors that he was “close to the Empire.”
The councilor said,
“There is evidence.”
Everyone’s eyes turned to him.
“There is an internal informant.”
He continued calmly, as if he had known for a long time.
“And… based on that report, a pursuit team has already been sent.”
“What?”
Several voices burst out at once.
“An informant? Is such a thing possible?”
“Inside the Eunwoldan…?”
The pro-Imperial councilor nodded.
“It is possible. Fear divides people.”
He paused briefly, then delivered the decisive blow.
“The perpetrators, along with the cart used to transport the explosives, will be secured.”
In an instant, the meeting hall tilted toward “certainty.”
Yet some hesitation still remained.
“Even so…”
One councilor cautiously opened his mouth.
His voice was quiet.
“I find it hard to believe the Eunwoldan would commit something this extreme…”
Those words were closer to “hesitation” than “doubt.”
Here and now,
someone still wanted to hold on to the final line.
But the air left in the meeting hall had already shifted elsewhere.
Someone struck the table again.
“If this isn’t extreme, then what is! The council has been blown apart!”
Another councilor immediately took it up.
“With so many casualties, is now the time to debate the Eunwoldan’s character?”
As voices overlapped,
the chairman raised a hand and barely restored order.
In the meantime, the words “even so”
mixed into the smoke and vanished.
Before evidence, people wanted “someone to hold responsible.”
And as if the name “Eunwoldan” was enough for that purpose,
everyone was looking in the same direction.
Not missing that opening,
the pro-Imperial councilor slowly opened his mouth.
“That is precisely why we must end this before it crosses a line we can no longer handle.”
He chose his words for a moment, then gave his conclusion with great precision.
“I believe it is right to request that the Empire track down and subjugate the Eunwoldan.”
Another councilor said,
“Is the guard alone not enough? Bringing outside troops into Arku…”
The pro-Imperial councilor cut in at once.
“I am not speaking of outside troops.”
He lowered his voice,
as though presenting the face of a victim before them.
“In this explosion… it is said that there were casualties among the Imperial side as well.”
The air in the meeting hall froze.
“A priest, too.”
He added,
“And a knight. There are dead.”
“The Empire, here?”
One councilor muttered in disbelief.
The pro-Imperial councilor nodded.
“They are victims as well. And they are accustomed to matters like this.”
He turned his gaze and swept it over the other councilors.
“If we send out more guards, more people of Arku will die.”
“But if we bring in the Imperial army…”
The opposition continued weakly.
“I am not saying we should bring in the Imperial army.”
He spoke as though choosing each word.
“Support. Cooperation. The minimum personnel necessary.”
And he pressed the final point with absolute clarity.
“The Eunwoldan is already too dangerous for us to face.”
Opposition tried to rise again,
but the black smoke and the groans of the wounded pressed those voices down.
At last, one councilor lowered his head.
“…If it can reduce the sacrifice of the guards.”
That single remark
pushed the meeting hall toward a decision.
The chairman closed his eyes for a moment, then opened them.
“We will put it to a vote.”
Hands went up.
Some hands hesitated,
but more hands rose than did not.
“Passed.”
The chairman spoke as if dropping his voice.
“We will… request support from the Empire.”
At that moment, the door of the assembly hall opened again.
A messenger from the guard entered, panting for breath.
“Chairman!… We have secured the evidence!”
Breath caught in the meeting hall.
The messenger chose his words for a moment, then added,
“And… they say the culprits have fled.”
The corners of the pro-Imperial councilor’s mouth rose ever so slightly.
No one noticed that expression.
Amid the smell of smoke,
Arku was opening the door of its own accord.