Haaaa.
At those words, the surrounding atmosphere turned cold and heavy.
The reaction of the old man before him—Mukyeon—was particularly unusual.
“Are you speaking of conditions?”
The answer was plain in his gaze.
Does that even make sense? Mukyeon was saying to me with his eyes alone.
Meeting those eyes, I smiled faintly and spoke.
“Yes.”
Yes, exactly.
I confirmed that what he had heard was correct.
At that, Mukyeon’s eyes narrowed even further.
“Seongwang.”
“Yes, Elder.”
“Could it be that something about the conditions was to your dissatisfaction?”
The conditions the Alliance had offered in exchange for my service as Commander.
Was there anything among them I found disagreeable? That was what Mukyeon was asking.
“No. There was nothing disagreeable about the conditions.”
How could I possibly dislike them?
The conditions offered by the Martial Alliance were truly unprecedented.
I recalled the contents of the letter Mukyeon had given me yesterday.
The first condition:
—While affiliated with the Martial Alliance, your actions shall not be restricted by orders, save for those of the Alliance Leader, and autonomous action shall be permitted.
It was an unprecedented condition from the very start.
The Sword Squads within the Martial Alliance.
Among them, the Eight Sword Squads were the pillars of the Alliance.
They were beings of the highest standing, yet they were still ultimately subject to following orders.
The five chiefs within the Alliance.
Excluding the Alliance Leader and Mukyeon before me, there were those who held positions to sustain the Martial Alliance, the equivalent of clan elders—
—and the Sword Squad members were inevitably bound to obey their commands.
The ability to act autonomously without taking orders meant, in other words:
“They’re giving me the authority to ignore them.”
It meant that regardless of what they said, I could handle matters my own way without having to heed their commands.
And the second condition:
—For the duration of the contract period as Commander, the Shanxi Guga shall be exempt from sponsorship fees paid to the Orthodox faction and from trade contract fees.
Honestly, this was of little use to me.
The sponsorship fees forcibly paid to maintain affiliation with the Orthodox faction.
Those were calculated in proportion to the size of the clan, and since the Guga was likewise a renowned house, they would have been paying a considerable sum.
Furthermore, in separate dealings to operate merchant caravans or conduct trade, the Alliance would take a cut under its name.
It meant the Guga would be excluded from such extortion.
From the family head’s standpoint, this was a fine thing, but—
“So if I work as a Commander, they won’t pull thuggish antics on us.”
This didn’t move me much personally.
Then came the third condition:
—Upon appointment as Commander, in addition to command authority over the branch, you will be granted command over one squad, excluding the Blue Dragon Squad.
If anything was the most tempting, it was this.
As a Commander of the main alliance, one would receive authority to mobilize other regional branches; and on top of such authority—
“Command over another Sword Squad.”
One would be able to command one of the remaining Eight Sword Squads, excluding the Blue Dragon Squad.
This was undeniably a tremendous advantage.
Simply by becoming Commander, the payments owed to the Alliance would vanish, one would be free from taking orders save from the Alliance Leader, and would even gain command over a Sword Squad.
Though there was much to consider regarding the contract period or the sum received from the Alliance—
these too were set at quite favorable terms.
I could obtain all of this simply by becoming Commander.
It was no losing bargain.
The other side likely knew this as well, which was why they had reacted that way when I asked for additional conditions.
I understood.
If it were me, I’d have taken it as a refusal to give more after already being so accommodating.
But the thing was—
“If they don’t agree, what can they do about it?”
It was unfortunate for the Alliance, but I knew my own worth all too well.
In my previous life, when the Divine Sword had only just begun to be called the Little Sword Saint.
I more or less knew the conditions she had received upon joining the Alliance.
Hearing them had been absurd.
“She knew nothing of worldly matters—truly nothing at all.”
At that time, Sogeomseong had been someone who paid no mind to such matters.
No matter the conditions, she had been desperate to join the Alliance and save people; thanks to that, the Alliance had been able to recruit her for a pittance.
How did the Sogeomseong of that time compare to me now?
It would be difficult to compare to the Sogeomseong who had demonstrated the power of demon destruction during the war, but—
my current standing was likely several times greater than Sogeomseong’s at that time. Knowing this—
“I have to get conditions a hundred times better than the Little Sword Saint’s.”
At the very least, a hundredfold.
It was a value worth extracting even if it meant pulling out a pillar of the Martial Alliance.
Whether he had caught on to my intentions or not, Mukyeon’s expression did not look pleased.
“Elder.”
But so what?
“If you don’t like it, then let’s drop it. I don’t mind not doing this.”
“…”
It was a gamble. Take it or leave it—I don’t have to do this. That was my attitude, pure and simple.
In truth, this could turn the Alliance into an enemy, or bring me troublesome disadvantages.
I knew that perfectly well, but… as I’d said before:
“But do you have a better way than this?”
The Alliance side ought to know as well—that making use of me right now was the best method available.
The problem was that they hadn’t known I was acutely aware of it.
“The conditions are excellent. There are hardly any cases of someone being asked to serve as Commander with such unprecedented terms, are there?”
“Indeed. However, Seongwang, are you suggesting additional conditions even while knowing this?”
“Yes. That there are no such cases is simply because there haven’t been any. It does not satisfy me.”
“…”
“If you are unwilling, feel free to say so.”
I said, flashing a grin.
After that, Mukyeon regarded me with furrowed eyes.
His eyes were fixed on me, but within them he must have been agonizing fiercely. A few seconds passed.
“Seongwang.”
“Yes.”
“The conditions I have offered now faced considerable opposition; this old man obtained them through significant effort.”
I caught the meaning buried within his measured tone.
—So meet me halfway, won’t you?
That was roughly what he meant.
‘Hmm.’
So this was his approach. No sooner had I thought that than I employed the exact same tactic.
“I see. It must have been quite difficult.”
—None of my concern. Try saying something else.
“If the conditions are unsatisfactory… we could exchange them for different ones. What do you think?”
—That’s impossible. At best, they’d try to swap them for what I want.
“Haha. I appreciate the offer… but what I want is not an exchange.”
—Who does he think he’s fooling? I don’t accept cheap tricks.
“…”
“…”
A conversation rife with hidden meanings went back and forth.
The negotiations were going nowhere. At this rate, we’d likely never reach a conclusion.
Knowing this, I moved at once.
*Screech.*
I pulled back my chair and rose to my feet.
“I’m afraid this discussion can proceed no further.”
I had no interest in wasting time.
Round and round, we always returned to the same point.
“Thank you for the fine offer. I look forward to meeting again under better circumstances.”
Take it or leave it—my attitude had remained consistent. Since the conversation seemed interminable, I turned to leave without hesitation.
My steps carried me forward, and just as I reached for the door handle—
“…Very well.”
I paused.
At Mukyeon’s words, I turned my head slightly.
“…Might I at least hear what you have to say?”
The old man clutched his head as though it throbbed.
At the sight of him, I broke into a wide grin.
“Of course. I can talk as much as you wish.”
I had won.
******************
*Rustle.*
I wrote a line of text across the letter.
When finished, I handed it to Mukyeon, who sat across from me.
“It is done.”
Three pages of letters in total.
I wrote my name upon them.
It was called a contract, but for now I had only recorded the verbal terms.
To formalize it properly, I would need to discuss it with the Guga as well; for now, I had only recorded my intent.
I could handle the task of persuading the clan later.
‘There are many concerns regarding timing, but it should be feasible.’
The contract as Commander was for five years.
Whether to renegotiate thereafter would depend on the circumstances—
‘Five years? Ridiculous.’
I had no intention of honoring the full term to begin with.
Even if I took the position, I would see it through in less than a year.
‘Yes, that should be just about right.’
In one year, I could obtain everything I needed to obtain.
Anything more was unnecessary.
No, attempting to stay longer would be a problem in itself.
Because for me, it wasn’t merely the clan—time itself was the issue.
“At any rate. I look forward to working with you henceforth.”
After handing over the letter, this time I truly turned to leave.
There was no reason to remain, and no one would stop me if I left.
*Clack—!*
And with that, the door closed.
“…Hmmm….”
Mukyeon exhaled the breath he had been holding.
His head seemed to throb, forcing him to press hard at his brow, while he strained to suppress a rising cough.
After catching his breath for a moment, Mukyeon—
“…Heh heh….”
—soon let out a hollow laugh.
“What an incredible child….”
How long had it been since he had exerted himself so mentally?
Perhaps only a handful of times since his retirement.
Recalling the fierce discussion, Mukyeon took a swallow of tea. His throat was parched beyond endurance.
“Not easy at all.”
Truly difficult.
Under normal circumstances, it ought not have been so difficult, but both the situation and the opponent were unfavorable.
The one he absolutely had to recruit happened to know his own worth all too well.
The more they spoke, the clearer it became.
Whatever I say, you people have no choice but to accept.
Every reaction was steeped in that deep conviction.
Of course, even convinced of that, these were not matters easily undertaken.
“…He did it all so nonchalantly.”
Far from feeling burdened, he seemed almost to be enjoying himself.
He showed not an inch of retreat, as though he had no intention of yielding the initiative throughout the exchange.
‘He seemed well aware that he might lose it if he let his guard down.’
A situation where he had no choice but to yield.
Yet despite knowing this, his opponent hadn’t let his guard down for a moment.
In short—
“Hmmm.”
—it had been a situation beyond his control.
“Truly a pity.”
Mukyeon had no children.
Had he fathered children and then grandchildren, they would still have been older than Seongwang.
He felt as though he’d been thoroughly shaken down by such a young child, yet his mood was not unpleasant.
How many could stand undaunted before him and take what they sought?
Throughout the Central Plains, Mukyeon recalled exactly three such individuals.
One was the Sword Lord in his youth; another, the Divine Doctor; and lastly, the founding master of the Baekhwa Merchant Group had done the same.
And now—
—another name had been added to Mukyeon’s mind.
However, he doubted it would be a particularly fond memory.
“…To think he would wring me dry to such a degree.”
He had been thoroughly wrung dry. The conditions he’d put forward had been mostly absurd—
—and Mukyeon had gone to considerable lengths to whittle them down.
‘In the end, two conditions had to be accepted.’
Unable to reject them all, he had been forced to accept two additional conditions and modify one existing condition.
Without doing so, he could never have recruited the boy.
“Hmmm…”
Had this truly been the right course of action?
His worries deepened.
It had already been seven days and nights since he had returned as a temporary advisor.
In that time, the orders handed down to Mukyeon had been innumerable.
More accurately, it would be correct to say that Mukyeon had increased the workload far beyond what it should have been.
He couldn’t have endured otherwise.
A mess.
A word that perfectly described the current Alliance.
After the Sword Lord departed, Mukyeon had left his post in exhaustion. What on earth had transpired in his absence?
Had he known things would deteriorate to this extent, he would never have left.
Such was the depth of his regret.
That was precisely why recruiting Seongwang had been so imperative.
Such conditions carried great risk of inciting backlash from the other Commanders, and keeping Seongwang under their wing would be difficult.
Thus, rather than bringing Seongwang in as a Commander, a different approach would have been more appropriate.
‘I have grown old, it seems.’
Mukyeon acknowledged his error.
This had been an irrational maneuver. Stubbornness.
A choice born of the instinct that he simply had to recruit that individual.
He had met the boy only twice—what conviction had driven him to this?
No sooner did he wonder than Mukyeon arrived at the answer.
‘Because I do not know.’
Not because he lacked the reason.
But because Mukyeon had failed to grasp the individual known as Seongwang.
Grasping a person normally took no more than two meetings.
Mukyeon’s eyes had been renowned since long ago. They had remained keen to this day.
The Sword Lord had even taken to calling Mukyeon’s discerning gaze the “Eye of Wisdom.”
Yet to such a Mukyeon, remarkably—
‘Seongwang remains unseen.’
Learning everything about Seongwang had proven difficult. What was his temperament? What nature did he possess? What convictions did he hold?
He simply could not be properly seen.
Was it because he was so profound and weighty?
Or perhaps—
‘Could it be that too many layers were veiled above for his true intentions to show?’
Whatever the reason, it was clear that he was no ordinary individual.
That only made it more taxing.
‘Had that child not been a martial artist.’
Had he been a complete blank slate, Mukyeon would have been moved to take him under his wing and teach him all he knew.
Like an enraged bull, yet concealing serpentine cunning beneath that frame.
A viper poised to strike at the throat at any moment.
Judging by his age alone, he shouldn’t yet have matured, yet one could somehow sense an unsettling degree of refinement.
‘What could Heaven want from such an individual, that it granted him martial prowess as well?’
Mukyeon had never devoted himself to martial arts and thus did not know the specifics, but he could gauge how absurd an existence this Seongwang was.
With martial power and cunning both at his disposal, he would surely carve a grand stroke across the history of the Central Plains.
‘So I pray.’
*Clack.*
Mukyeon set down the wine cup he had been holding.
Gazing out the window at the sky, his eyes settled into a cold calm.
‘Please, let it not be so.’
May Seongwang prove different from his suspicions.
May he have no ties to the Heavenly Demon of the Demonic Cult.
And instead, become the hope of the crumbling Orthodox faction.
Mukyeon harbored such hopes, yet—
—the primary reason he had gone to such lengths to recruit Seongwang as a Commander was to ascertain this very thing.
And so, a few days later.
Through the Beggars’ Sect, the Martial Alliance announced its stance regarding the Sword Squads.
It was an announcement that the Sword Squads would be reinforced, following the deaths of three Commanders.
The one newly selected as Commander was none other than Seongwang.
Seongwang, who had saved Hanam and ascended to the Seven Seats, though not yet formally named, was appointed Commander of the newly established Sword Squad, and moreover—
—the Martial Alliance’s greatest Sword Squad, which had been fading into the annals of history—
—the Divine Dragon Squad would be revived as well.