People had gathered in the Silver Moon Order’s meeting room.
Bido sat at the very back,
his back to the wall.
He was holding Miryeong’s hand.
Her palm was still cold.
Her breathing had returned, but Miryeong still had no strength.
Her shoulders trembled faintly from time to time,
and her eyelids hung half-lowered.
Bido could not let go of that hand.
Across from him sat Raen.
Raen’s mouth was closed, but his expression was clear.
A face that seemed to understand what was happening—
yet did not know how to accept it.
But Bido was the same.
Arku.
The city where Bido had grown up.
The smell of the streets, the clamor of the market, the wind atop the city walls.
All of that might now
come to believe him an enemy.
Even though his mind tried to understand that it was the Empire’s plot, his heart could not keep up.
It was too vast, too sudden, too cold.
But Bido felt the warmth in his hand.
Miryeong, Raen.
And,
the Silver Moon Order that his mother had tried to protect.
The people the Silver Moon Order was protecting.
Bido remembered.
The moment this place fell,
all of that would fall with it.
Not “the side that runs.”
But
“the side that protects.”
The moment he thought that,
his chest thudded hard once.
It was an unfamiliar tremor.
Bido had no time to think about why.
With the sound of the door closing,
Rangnan returned to his place.
Yun stood beside him.
The two exchanged a brief glance.
Soon after, Rangnan spoke.
“From now on, we prepare.”
Though his voice was low, the meeting room fell silent.
“We’ve already confirmed that we were deceived. The wagon was bait, and the council was destroyed.”
Rangnan steadied his breath and continued.
“And the result… will solidify in a way that makes all of Arku suspect the Silver Moon Order.”
Bido’s fingertips tightened a little more.
Rangnan slowly turned his gaze.
As though confirming each and every face.
“From now on, we make ready to leave at any moment.”
“Organize supplies, secure hidden routes, sort out lines of contact.”
He spoke firmly.
“Starting today. Immediately.”
Yun took over.
“All informants are to withdraw.”
“Keep external contact to a minimum. No one moves alone.”
Small breaths escaped from around the meeting room.
Because the word “leave” was the same as being “hunted.”
Rangnan knew those breaths, but he did not stop speaking.
“And… those who can fight will prepare to fight as well.”
At those words, the look in several eyes changed.
Some showed resolve,
while anxiety deepened in others.
Bido bit his lip.
A fight.
A war.
Those words were still too large for Bido.
But Rangnan’s words did not stop there.
“We still cannot be certain who our opponent is.”
Rangnan spoke slowly.
“But the source of this incident is clear.”
Yun added briefly.
“The Empire.”
That single word changed the air in the meeting room.
Bido heard the word as if swallowing it.
The Empire.
Distant, vast, a presence that carried weight by name alone.
Bido looked again at Miryeong’s hand.
Miryeong’s eyes were still closed.
But her fingertips, ever so slightly, traced back along Bido’s hand.
As if she were holding him in return.
Bido drew in a breath.
Even if the day came when Arku believed him an enemy,
even if it was the Empire’s plot,
he could not run.
Bido was still young.
He could not understand all of this situation.
But this much was clear.
The people in his hand.
The people in this room.
The thing his mother had tried to protect.
Bido no longer wanted to be swept along helplessly.
“I’ll protect them too.”
That feeling,
though it never left his mouth, lodged in his throat.
Rangnan spoke at last.
“This is not a war council.”
He raised his head.
“It is preparation to survive.”
—
The council building was no longer a council building.
The smell of ash still lingered among the collapsed corridors and scorched pillars,
and whenever the wind blew, ash rose from the floor.
And so the temporary assembly hall was moved again to an annex used by the council members,
a little distance away from the council building.
A hastily cleared room.
On the table lay glasses half-filled with water and layers of crumpled documents.
Beyond the walls, the sound of stretchers passing by could still be heard.
The sound of someone swallowing a groan, too, drifted in faintly from afar.
Someone slapped a sheet of paper down on the table.
“In a situation like this, you’re still quibbling over wording?”
said a councilor with exhaustion carved into his face.
“The council has been blown apart. Citizens have died. Right now, we need to survive.”
“It’s precisely in order to survive that we must be more careful.”
A councilor known as a moderate fired back.
He did not raise his voice.
Instead, he cut each word with precision.
“A request for support and a request for subjugation are different. A single word,”
“will determine how far their feet step inside.”
An imperial faction councilor tilted his head slightly.
“And if, while we hesitate over a single word, something like today happens again?”
“Something like today—”
Before the moderate councilor could continue, another councilor cut in.
“If it happens again, it’s over. We cannot afford to endure a second time.”
The imperial faction councilor’s lips lifted ever so slightly.
It was an expression too thin to be called a smile.
“We have already crossed a line we cannot step back from.”
He said.
“The council exploded. A priest and a knight of the Empire died as well.”
The air in the meeting room grew heavy again.
“That…”
The moderate councilor tried to choose his words,
but someone else interrupted.
“Then doesn’t that give the Empire all the more reason to move!”
It was a voice mixed with anger.
“We have to reach out first.”
“Otherwise, the Empire will claim even greater rights as the ‘victim.’”
The moderate councilor shook his head.
“I’m saying we reach out, but not hand over our wrists.”
He pressed a finger against one line of the document.
“Use ‘cooperation’ instead of ‘subjugation.’”
“Even if we conduct a pursuit, Arku’s command authority must be clearly stated.”
The chairman looked between the two of them and said,
“We must request support from the Empire. However….”
“However?”
the imperial faction councilor asked quietly.
The chairman closed his lips for a moment, then opened them again.
“Arku is a republic.”
“We cannot allow an external army to come and go through our gates as they please.”
He lifted the document.
“The scope and duration of support. And the command structure. At the very least, these must be specified.”
The imperial faction councilor asked in return,
“A duration, is it? And if we fail to catch them within that time?”
“Then we discuss it again.”
The moderate councilor answered at once.
“The moment we write ‘subjugation’ here and now, the opportunity to discuss anything disappears.”
The chairman lowered his head and stared at the document for a long while before speaking.
“We will include a time limit.”
He gestured to the clerk.
“The scope and duration of support. And that Arku’s command authority remains with the council. Add that sentence as well.”
The room went briefly quiet.
The corner of the imperial faction councilor’s mouth moved ever so faintly.
Though his expression did not change,
there was a hint of, “And what will you do about it?”
He immediately struck at another point.
“Very well. Duration and scope. Command authority.”
Then he continued slowly.
“In exchange, the target must be clear. Arku has already been attacked by the ‘Silver Moon Order.’”
At those words, the councilors began to nod.
The moderate councilor clenched his teeth.
“Are we truly certain it was the Silver Moon Order?”
At the moderate councilor’s words, the imperial faction councilor asked back,
“The ‘evidence’ will make it certain.”
The chairman did not wait and drew a conclusion.
“Very well. We will settle it this way.”
He said to the clerk,
“The wording will be ‘request for pursuit and cooperation.’ The support will be temporary.”
“Command authority will remain with Arku.”
Then, after a pause, he added,
“And… the suspect in this incident will be written as the ‘Silver Moon Order.’”
“That judgment will be confirmed by the evidence to be secured.”
The moderate councilor pressed his lips tightly together.
He had not completely backed down.
But he knew that in this room right now,
if he pushed any further, the “faces of the victims” would swallow him whole.
The clerk’s pen moved.
Ink seeped into the paper.
The sentences were arranged, and the words were fixed.
The chairman read the final line.
“We will send a messenger to the Empire.”
Someone quietly exhaled.
That breath held both relief and resignation.
“Have the gendarmerie prepare a messenger.”
the chairman said.
“The road is long. If he is cut off midway, we will be in even greater trouble from that moment on.”
The clerk nodded.
“Yes.”
The imperial faction councilor spoke last.
“All that matters is that the messenger arrives.”
His voice was low,
yet strangely filled with certainty.
“They want procedure. That procedure is now being completed.”
The moderate councilor heard those words but could say nothing.
The document’s seal was being prepared.
Once the stamp was pressed, it would become a line that could not be taken back.
Outside, smoke was still rising.
Beneath the black sky, Arku was completing a single cold sheet of paper.
—
The messenger placed the sealed document inside a cylinder and locked it tightly.
Then he came out before the city gate.
In front of the gate, a horned lizard prepared by the gendarmerie was waiting.
It was timid and difficult to handle,
but if carrying only one person in light dress without armor,
it was a messenger beast that could run faster than any mount.
With a practiced hand, the messenger stroked the horned lizard’s nape once.
After steadying his breath so the beast would not be startled,
he slowly climbed onto the saddle.
A gendarme said,
“Then do your duty well.”
The messenger bowed his head.
“Yes. I’ll be back.”
He lightly pushed the horn rising from its neck.
The horned lizard’s body crouched low—
and the next moment, it shot forward as if springing away.
In an instant, the messenger vanished from sight.
For a moment, only the wind remained before the city gate.
And beneath the black sky, the weight of the seal quietly began to roll onward.