The Ruler Of Darkness - Chapter 611



Only Noblemtl

Episode 611

Chapter 11: Confession

‘You held hands…?’

The Director of the Internal Affairs Bureau, the Supreme Management Council, and even the Grand Duke Yeon So-hyeon and the Lord of the External Affairs Bureau.

‘All of these…?’

It felt like lightning had struck my head, and my vision had turned white.

It was only after a while that Elder Ho-jung realized that he had been gaping at something for a long time, trying to say something, but then stopping again and again.

And rather.

He chose to keep his mouth shut.

“… … .”

Sarak, Sarak.

The sound of papers being turned over by Hao Yun-hyeong (郝賱燑), the head of the foreign affairs department, was particularly loud.

So Elder Ho-jung opened his mouth again, making his decision to keep his mouth shut seem meaningless.

“Your Majesty.”

“What?”

Oewonju Hakunhyung didn’t even take his eyes off the report.

But Elder Ho-jung felt like his head would burst if he didn’t say anything.

“This is. This is an act of betrayal. Do you know that?”

“… … .”

The gaze of the head of the household, Hak-un-hyeong, briefly left the report and turned to Elder Ho-jung.

When Elder Hojung flinched without realizing it, Oewonju returned his gaze to the report and answered indifferently.

“What constitutes betrayal?”

“Are you really saying this because you don’t know?!”

Oh, my gosh.

His emotions, which had been suppressed in the confusion, surged forth.

“Don’t you know?! All of us here believe only in the Lord of the Outer Circle, and have joined the Lord of the Outer Circle’s sect…!”

Okay, once the waters have opened.

Raw emotions poured out of Elder Hojung’s mouth like a dam bursting.

“I believe that the Lord of the Outer Circle will create a swordsmanship family that will enable our elders to aim for higher positions…! And so that we can survive without being purged by the ruthless Archduke Yeon Soo-hyeon…!”

Elder Ho-jung raised his voice, pointing to the conference hall outside the separate room.

“Not everyone here is clean! At least, those who thought that if the Grand Duke ascended the throne as a minor lord, they would not be able to keep their position! Yes, that’s right! But still…!”

The veins in his neck stood out, and his neck, which had been overworked for a considerable period of time, quickly became hoarse.

But he shouted even in a hoarse voice.

“But everyone! Everyone believed in and followed the Lord of the Outer Circle! But, but is this situation the Lord of the Outer Circle’s response to their faith…?!”

“… … .”

As always.

There was no reply from the foreign minister, Hakunhyung.

“Hoo…! Hoo…!”

Elder Ho-jung let out a ragged breath and wiped the sweat from his wrinkled forehead with a handkerchief.

Then he turned around, poured some water into a glass prepared on one side of the room, and drank it all down.

One glass is not enough, two glasses.

After downing three glasses in a row, he placed both hands on the table where the water bottle had been placed.

“Haa… , haa… .”

As his breathing slowed down while he was leaning against the table, Hak-un-hyeong, who had been reading the report, finally opened his mouth.

“What is your reason?”

“…yes?”

Elder Ho-jung turned his head back with an expression on his face, not understanding the question at first.

There, the head of the household, Hakunhyung, who had put down the report, was staring at Elder Hojung.

“Elder Ho-jung, this is why you joined this sect.”

for a moment.

Elder Ho-jung sighed as he opened his mouth to answer, sweeping back his flowing hair.

“… Didn’t I tell you earlier? I want to go up higher, and also to survive-.”

“-What crime have you committed?”

“… … .”

It was such a direct question.

Elder Ho-jung, who was at a loss for words for a moment, turned his body completely, placed his butt on the table where the water bottle had been placed, and opened his mouth.

“…me too.”

Ahem.

When his voice cracked, he cleared his throat and opened his mouth again.

“I, too, like the Lord of the Outer Circle, was not in this family home when the Supreme Lord fell. Not to mention Luoyang…”

He smiled bitterly.

“I was in Changsha, a city far from Luoyang. I was on an overseas mission as usual.”

“… Business.”

Oewonju Hakunhyung nodded.

“It was an area close to the realm of the evil hegemon.”

“Yes, it was.”

If the Luoyang Swordsmanship Family is a single family and the best in the world.

Sapaecheon.

It was the largest coalition power in the Central Plains, which effectively ruled the area south of the Yangtze River.

It was also the hometown of Lady Taishang of Guyang, the mother of the second prince, Yeonjacheong, and their power was growing stronger by the day.

“Your Majesty….”

Elder Hojung asked the head of the household, Hakunhyung, with a bitter expression.

“You know what happened ‘outside’ at that time when the Supreme Lord collapsed, right?”

“What have you been through?”

Looking up at the ceiling, Elder Hojung answered.

“…it was a terrible mess.”

His gaze briefly wavered as he recalled a time in the past that he still cannot forget.

“A great expansion of the clan that took place under the rule of the great Taishang Family Leader, known as the First Sword in the World. However, before the expanded territory could be stabilized, the Taishang Family Leader fell…”

“Of all things, you were in a business near the realm of the Sapaecheon at that time.”

“That’s right.”

Elder Hojung let out a hollow laugh at the words of Hakunhyung, the head of the household.

“I, of all people. At the time, I was dispatched on a mission to establish friendly relations with the merchants. And just like that, I ended up being isolated.”

“at that time….”

The foreigner Hakunhyung smiled bitterly.

“Many people have had to go through similar things. But….”

He looked at Elder Hojung and asked.

“Why were you stranded, unable to leave the city? Was the Sapacheon moving too fast? Or was it because of another incident? Or…?”

The words of Hak-un-hyeong, who had been asking questions, naturally diminished.

“… … .”

It was because the eyes of Elder Hojung, who had lowered his head from his gaze to the ceiling and looked at him, were clearer than he had ever seen before.

“I am….”

Elder Hojung answered with a straight gaze.

“Because I was an elder of the Luoyang Sword Family. At that time, I couldn’t just abandon the territory and city that my family’s warriors had expanded through bloodshed and run away.”

“you….”

The head of the household, Hakunhyung, held his breath.

that.

This was because it was an answer that one could never have imagined would come from the person who was a veteran of the current heavy industry.

“Haha, I had a time like that too.”

Elder Ho-jung continued speaking, fiddling with the empty cup in his hand.

“No, not just me. It was ‘that’ time for everyone back then.”

He raised his hand and waved it in the air, representing the magnificent era of the Luoyang Swordsmanship School at the time.

“At the command of the best swordsman in the world, the world bowed down, and the warriors of our Luoyang swordsmanship marched through the world. I never slept without pride for a single day. I never had a hard time getting out of bed for a single day. But… .”

“… everything changed overnight.”

The head of the household, Hak-un-hyeong, stood up from his seat, picked up a teapot, and slowly approached Elder Ho-jung, speaking.

“Those who were at home at the time say that the situation at home was like a nightmare. But that’s wrong.”

“Yes.”

Elder Hojung nodded as he accepted the tea that the head of the household, Hakunhyung, had been holding in his empty cup.

“At that time, the real hell was not inside the main house, but outside the main house… ”

He continued, holding the gradually warming cup of tea in his wrinkled, mushroom-covered hands.

“I didn’t receive any support at all, not even a budget, not even information, not even support from armed groups. At that time, I didn’t receive any support at all. Not even…”

Elder Hojung laughed.

“Even news about the swordsmanship had to be heard through local sources.”

“… My hometown was a pit of chaos.”

Oewonju Hakunhyung shook his head as he recalled those days.

“There was no way I could help outside properly.”

“Yes, so as a result… .”

Elder Hojung’s gloomy gaze lingered on the cooling cup.

“We, I, were abandoned. And after that, we had to survive on our own.”

“… … .”

Oewonju Hakunhyung closed his mouth with a long sigh.

But Elder Ho-jung continued speaking with a twisted smile.

“From then on, I had to constantly make decisions that crossed the line between legality and illegality, and loyalty and betrayal.”

“… It was an act of survival.”

“It might have been like that at first.”

Elder Ho-jung shrugged.

“But as time went by, even that boundary became blurred.”

He spoke, looking at the transparent surface of the tea with unfocused eyes.

“In the end, it’s more about my own benefit than the swordsmanship. I realized that the more power and influence I had, the more my survival would be guaranteed….”

Elder Hojung took a sip of his cold tea and continued speaking.

“It didn’t take that long.”

“… … .”

He sighed under the bitter gaze of his superior, Hak-un-hyeong.

“And after that, everything got easier. And then at some point, as time went by, I came to my senses and I… .”

He showed a troubled expression with a bitter smile.

“He had become the most powerful and influential figure in the business world, and at the same time, he had become a terrible person in power who had committed several acts that could be considered serious treason or treason.”

widely.

Elder Hojung said, placing the empty glass on the table.

“That’s all.”

His speech was light.

But the content was heavy.

“I was still committing a sin against my family, trying to rise higher so that no one could ask about my past sins.”

“… … .”

Elder Hojung’s story is over.

However, Hakunhyung, the head of the household, could not easily open his mouth.

“Sometimes… .”

Elder Hojung smiled nonchalantly at the outgoing student, Hakunhyung.

“I wonder what it would have been like if I had been as good as that great prince Yeon So-hyeon, or even half as good as he was.”

He laughed.

“Maybe if that were the case, everything would have been different?”

“… That’s what I’m saying.”

Oewonju Hakunhyung slowly leaned his old body, which did not match his size, against the desk and smiled bitterly.

“If that were the case, everything would have been different.”

“I guess so?”

He waved both his hands in the air and said excitedly.

“Perhaps, I could have established an independent force in Jangsa. Or, I could have created a branch of the most powerful swordsmanship in the Central Plains in Jangsa. And I could have fought another battle over Sapaecheon and Gangnam…!”

Just for a little while.

Elder Ho-jung’s eyes, which had been shining brightly like a child’s, returned to reality.

“but….”

His two hands gradually lowered down, as if he had lost strength with his smile.

“My reality is just that. I’m just a common person in power who knows the direction for his family, but uses survival as an excuse to run in the opposite direction. And that too with determination.”

“… … .”

The foreigner Hakunhyung neither confirmed nor denied.

“Your Majesty.”

but.

Elder Hojung straightened up from where he had been leaning and spoke to him.

“I will definitely succeed in the mission you have entrusted to me.”

“… … !”

The eyes of the foreigner Hakunhyung grew wide.

Elder Hojung smiled with a refreshed expression.

“No matter what happens to me later, I can’t just leave the demonic cult alone. I’ll make ten or a hundred of them into bait and release them. Or, I’d rather be the bait myself.”

His laughter was refreshing.

“I’ll go and fish out all those demonic bastards. This is a really great role for a last career.”

“Elder Hojung… .”

Did you feel his sincerity?

Oewonju Hakunhyeong stood up, clasped his hands together, and spoke to Elder Hojung with a serious and sincere tone, full of sincerity.

“If you faithfully carry out this mission, I will seek to pardon you for all the sins you have committed in the past.”

“… … !”

moment.

Elder Ho-jung, who had been looking surprised, soon smiled bitterly.

“Oh, don’t get this old man excited for no reason, Lord. If all this ends successfully, the person with the authority to grant the pardon will definitely not be Lord.”

That’s right.

It was just as he said.

Only the head of the household or the head of the household acting on his behalf had the authority to pardon such a crime.

And the owner of that place will never be the foreigner Hakunhyung.

“Do you remember what I said to you last night?”

“Last night…?”

but.

Oewonju Hakunhyung said with a strange smile, as if he had some kind of confidence.

“I made up my mind to sacrifice everything for this sword, and then one day I found myself here.”

“Yes, I did. But what was that-?”

“-You right now.”

The head of the household, Hak-un-hyeong, interrupted him and spoke with confidence.

“Ready to sacrifice.”

“Yes, but.”

Elder Ho-jung scratched his head, unable to hide his puzzlement.

“I still don’t understand what you’re saying, so-.”

Okay then.

With a squeaking sound.

The secret door of the separate room opened behind the head of the household, Hak-un-hyeong, and a bright voice was heard.

“You have shown a spirit of sacrifice for your family, so it is only right that your family reward you.”

Elder Hojung’s eyes grew wide as if they were going to tear apart.

“Your, Your Highness… ?!”

“Yes, it is I. Your Highness.”

It was Yeon So-hyeon who appeared inside the secret door, accompanied by the golden-eyed maid Jeong-ah.

“If Elder Hojung faithfully carries out his duties.”

He smiled at Elder Hojung.

“I will personally process your pardon.”