As Prophet - Chapter 206



Only Noblemtl

Episode 206. Assassination and more assassination.

It took more than half an hour to check and explain the castle’s defenses. When he heard that the enemy would be loitering this afternoon, the general guarding the castle gate stood up with his eyes wide open.

“I will break your legs.”

“Okay. Just make the path they come from into a field.”

“Loyalty! But can I go out first?”

“why?”

“Their advance team is coming. I’ll turn this into a trap field.”

“Okay, you go first.”

“Loyalty!”

This is why it is good for those who are motivated. Dalcheon told Gwanseongjang to go out and apply for something he might need.

“Loyalty!”

As the two generals left, the other generals also shook their butts. It was obvious that they were tired of the long meeting. Dalcheon apologized for the long meeting and made one last request.

“There are traitors everywhere. Most of them have stayed in Hanyangseong, but there may be others inside the mountain fortress. Their goal is to secretly open the gates. I hope you will be able to control the people inside well. In particular, you should be careful if there are people from Hanyangseong who come late and ask to be let in now. Do not let them come near the gates, and send them far away into the mountains.”

“Understood. If I see any sign of it, I will cut off your head.”

Dalcheon looked at the general who had answered hurriedly.

“They look very familiar to us. They could be the uncle next door or a colleague we worked with a long time ago.”

“Ah! This is it.”

“Please be careful. That’s why I abandoned Hanyangseong in advance. I abandoned it because I couldn’t tell black from white. You know that the ones left are just like that.”

“Loyalty! I will definitely do it.”

He sent the generals out and stretched his body back. Yoo Seok-do asked secretly.

“What do we do now?”

“I plan to find them. I plan to keep them on edge for three days.”

“Assassination?”

Dalcheon nodded slowly.

“Isn’t that getting your hands too dirty?”

“I intend to prevent the race from rising again.”

“How?”

“If you kill the chieftain, his sons, and his grandsons all at once, that tribe will not be able to rise again for a while.”

“No way.”

“Their military organization is aligned with their tribes. They mix things up, but their roots are tribal.”

Dalcheon pointed to Baek Ijeong.

“Please take care of that gentleman. It’s a bit difficult if he follows me. I have to move secretly, but I prefer to be alone. Please let him achieve great things here. It would be nice to have him by my side.”

Did he hear? Baek Yi-jeong glared. He couldn’t do it because there was someone else, but he could clearly feel that he was annoyed by her.

“Am I a bother?”

“There are things I have to do alone. I can’t accompany you anymore.”

“Isn’t that what you mean by annoying?”

Dalcheon had no time to listen to Baek I-jeong’s complaints and persuade her.

“That’s not it.”

“If not that, then what?”

Dalcheon was at a loss and was struggling, so Yoo Seok-do snickered. There are people that even a true man who is fearless in the world cannot do anything about. Yoo Seok-do stepped forward and asked for Dalcheon’s understanding.

“It looks like something is going on.”

Dalcheon took advantage of the gap to speak briefly and then withdraw.

“I’ll be back soon.”

Baek Yi-jeong was about to say something when Dal-cheon suddenly ran away. Dal-cheon did not go to the castle gate but climbed up the mountain. He climbed to the top of the peak that was visible in front of him, and after checking the direction, he jumped down far away and headed towards Hanyangseong.

* * *

The first place Dalcheon headed to was the northern palace’s bedroom. There must be a guy in the king’s seat, in the king’s bedroom. Guys like that kind of place. He thought to himself that Eun-myeon would be there.

I climbed up to the roof of Gangnyeongjeon and looked down, but it wasn’t there. Has he ascended the throne yet? There were black guards everywhere underfoot, but the front of Gangnyeongjeon was empty. It seemed like they were guarding the center of the door where people came and went, and the front yard was left empty on purpose.

‘Ugh.’

Dalcheon tilted his head. It was different from what he had expected. He had discovered an error in what he had thought. He had thought of him as a greedy monster burning with lust for power, but it seemed that was not the case.

‘Ahem, I guess there’s nothing I can do. I’ll have to find someone else.’

Dalcheon headed to the Seungjeongwon in the west. He went there first because he had already been there once. He killed the Do Seungji, but five Seungjis remained. Among them, there must be someone who conspired with the enemy.

As we moved the walls and roofs like squirrels to get to the not-so-wide space, there were people moving busily, as expected.

It is a square Seungjeongwon building built around Woldae. He went straight into the main building. In addition to the left and right Seungji, there were also 7th-rank Juseo (注書), but Dalcheon did not know their roles well. However, he knew that they were playing the role of Seungji under the secret. There is no need to distinguish between good and evil, or to judge the people who remain in the palace and government offices. They are all enemies. Those who betrayed their country, people, and neighbors… … .

No, originally, it may be that such people are the ones who hold on well in their current positions. Those who are upright, clean, full of a sense of mission, and dedicated do not stay long and do their jobs. This is because those who hold on take away the space where they can stay. It is similar to taking away the water that fish can breathe.

Dalcheon, who had fallen into the room, cut down the helpless men with a single stroke. They had no time to scream. Before they could scream, the sword cut their necks. He wiped the blood-dripping blade of the sword on their clothes, glanced at the documents on the desk, and then left the way he had come.

Not far ahead, there was a commotion. As I went to the side hall and climbed up to the roof of Geunjeongjeon, I could see the grounds below brightly. A feast was being held in the pavilion and yard in front of Geunjeongjeon. They were grilling meat, sharing drinks, and making a mess. It was noisy and chaotic. It was like a feast of the Jurchen after a hunt.

‘Wow! It’s a victory feast.’

Dalcheon checked the faces of the men, then escaped and climbed up onto the roof with his bow and a staff.

After offering him a drink and drinking it, he offered it again, but the front yard of Geunjeongjeon was thick with the scent of alcohol. I looked for Eunmyeon, but I couldn’t find it. Since I couldn’t see the room, I guessed that the two of them must have gone somewhere and were having a secret conversation.

It took quite some time to sort out who appeared to be the leaders of the army. Few people knew their faces and most of them looked similar, so it was difficult to tell them apart.

Someone who knows how to assassinate can do it. I thought I could sneak in and kill them, but I thought that wasn’t a good idea. It would only make them more alert. I put my bow in the hole and made sure it didn’t get hit by the dew before sneaking down.

Another place Dalcheon knows is the residence of the vertical soldiers. It is the military residence, but it is located inside the palace. Thinking that there might be someone a little taller, he turned around slowly. He jumped from the roof and jumped over the wall, then jumped over a large jump. He didn’t expect much, but there were quite a few generals gathered there. He sat at a table in the yard and was half-drunk. He kept shouting and worried that the war would be prolonged.

“They left the castle empty on purpose. I heard it was good, but there’s nothing to take. Finding food is also a task.”

“We can’t stay here too long. We have to get food and hay.”

“They searched every house, but there was nothing left to eat. It was a scorched earth operation. They intend to starve us to death.”

“There is nothing in Hanyangseong and Seongjeosipri. You have to go to the outskirts.”

“No. They have fled to the mountain fortress. Everything we are looking for will be there. We must attack Bukhansanseong Fortress first. If we set up camp in front of the fortress and block it, they will leave it behind and run away. They also carried a lot of things and could not escape. Let’s attack Bukhansanseong Fortress.”

It wasn’t a conversation. It wasn’t a meeting. They were just shouting at each other as they thought of something. They entered without bloodshed(?), but there was something uneasy about it, and they seemed embarrassed because they had nothing to gain. Judging by the way they were talking, it was clear that there was no one higher than them. If there was a Khan, they wouldn’t have been talking like that.

Dalcheon ran along the rooftop without a sound. He ran along the slope of the rooftop and jumped down, landing lightly on the central table where the men were meeting. By the time the men found him and were surprised, Dalcheon’s sword drew a large circle. The top and bottom of the circle were cleanly cut in two. Some had their heads blown off, and others had their shoulders and necks blown off together. More than a dozen people became guests who would never return with a single blow. Blood gushed out, and the torsos that had lost their heads fell limply to the side and back.

From afar, I shouted, “Enemy!” but Dalcheon was already gone. He had leapt like a grasshopper and climbed over the wall. I heard a voice behind me saying, “Catch him!” but he quickly entered one of the hundreds of pavilions. The palace without people was really nice. There were so many places to hide. I only had to move a couple of steps. As with any place, the empty courtyard and pavilion were filled with emptiness. It had a strange power that made me take a deep breath.

Dalcheon stood in a small room and listened to the sounds around him. The sound of soldiers running in all directions was hundreds of feet. What good would it do to count them all? He wiped the blood away, looked around, and then moved toward his next target.

* * *

That night was the worst for the Yeojin army that entered the palace. An unknown assassin cut off the head of a key figure and disappeared. There was no way to know where he came from, how he killed him, and where he disappeared. There was chaos everywhere, but there was no way to find the assassin.

When many people gathered, arrows would fly from afar. The arrows would inevitably pierce the victim’s neck or get stuck in a vital spot, causing instant death. When many people gathered, arrows would suddenly fly from somewhere, drop, cut down all of them at once, and disappear.

The one who was hit by a rock had a rock the size of a fingernail stuck between his eyebrows. The one who was lying against the wall had his heart pierced, and the one in the room died without a single wound. He was a master. Judging by the fact that there were a lot of corpses with their heads cut off, he was clearly a forensic investigator.

I found him late, but it was no use. He left no trace. He didn’t touch a single common soldier. He only killed those of higher rank than Jalranjin.

Those who gathered together were afraid that it would be better if they gathered together, but they only became good targets. Some people changed their clothes and saved their lives, while others escaped the palace and hid in private houses to save their lives.

The situation was the same outside the palace. He appeared in the place where each tribe and army had taken over the houses and sank down. There was no reason and the goal was unclear. There was a series of murders for which no one could know the purpose. The method was clean. He sent the target to the other world without pain. Should I be grateful for that?

The Khan, who had received reports of a series of assassinations, entered the King of Joseon’s side chamber. He sat down in the seat where the King had sat. A throne was placed on a platform several steps high, and behind it hung a painting of the sun, moon, and five peaks. The Khan sat down and ordered the surrounding area to be guarded tightly.

“The army is in turmoil. Dozens have been reported dead.”

In war, dozens are not even numbers. It is difficult to see them as casualties.

“Most of them are military commanders, or at least those who have been severely injured. There have also been many cases where the heads of tribes have been affected.”

“Should we be afraid of assassins?”

“Your Majesty! An army without a commanding officer is no longer an army.”

“Sit down the next person.”

“debriefing.”