The Supreme General's Lineage 2
The First House Under Heaven_3
"I said I'm not going!
I can't go!
I will never go!
I'll die here!"
It was Ga Gyeong-pil who shattered the silence.
The curses laced through his voice made him sound reckless, almost childish.
"Hey, where did that scholar brat go…?"
His flippant voice floated over the heavy stillness, and someone answered.
"He's over there.
By the wall.
Walking with his head down."
A finger pointed.
The scholar—Yu Saeng-won—was pacing beneath the wall.
Hands clasped behind his back, head lowered, then arms folded, twisting his torso from side to side, rubbing his cheek with his palm as if deep in thought.
He walked one way, then the other, then spun around again—hands behind his back one moment, arms crossed the next.
He tried to carry himself like an adult, yet at a glance he was small and awkward.
"Call him."
"Why?"
"Why? The commander's calling and you say 'why'?
Want to die, you little bastard?"
The man in front of Ga Gyeong-pil grumbled as he went.
'I'm unsettled too. Why am I the one being sent…'
He muttered inwardly but said nothing aloud.
He ran to the wall and called out.
"Yu Saeng-won! The commander's looking for you!"
"The commander? Why?"
"You too with the 'why'?"
"No idea. Just go. And don't stand there asking 'why' over and over. He looks like he wants someone dead. Anyway—what's under the wall? Something good? You've been staring at it for a while."
"Yes. Something good."
"What is it?"
"These stones wedged in the wall—when I give each one a name, it becomes the world.
I don't know if that's 'good,' exactly.
This one is the Emperor.
This one is the Black Blade.
This one is the Chancellor and the Imperial Guards.
This one is the General.
This one is the martial world.
And this one…"
"Playing games, are you? Then what's this black one here? There's a mark on it too."
He pointed at a dark stone.
"That's me.
Yu Saeng-won.
That's me."
The messenger stared at its position and felt a jolt.
To place oneself within the great game of the world was no ordinary thought.
Few would dare such a thing.
The world did not bend easily, no matter how one strained against it.
It stood vast and irreversible.
Yet the look on the boy's face suggested he was truly calculating himself into it.
"Well… you've gone properly mad."
To map the great powers of the realm onto stones in a wall—and include himself among them.
"Does it look that way? Hee…"
So-un smiled faintly.
Then his eyes met Ga Gyeong-pil's glare from afar.
'Ah. He was looking for me.'
His armor clattered as he ran.
Like wind, he closed the distance in an instant.
"You called for me, Commander?"
"Forgot the 'sir'?"
"Yes, Commander, sir."
Ga Gyeong-pil blinked.
The distance should have taken time.
One moment the boy had been there—
the next he stood before him.
As if he had stepped through space itself.
He pushed the thought aside.
"We need to write something.
Big. Very big."
"Where? And what?"
Ga Gyeong-pil scratched at the dirt with a stick.
It looked more like a crude sketch than writing.
His handwriting was atrocious.
"First House Under Heaven."
"Yu Saeng-won.
After what happened today, I question why this place bears the plaque 'First House of Hanan.'
It deserves another name.
In my eyes, the Jin estate is not merely Hanan's finest.
It is the finest under Heaven."
Though he spoke almost to himself, everyone heard.
The scraping of steel against dirt and his voice carried through the stillness.
"In hard times, men send their subordinates away and seek their own survival.
But this house stands as the First Under Heaven."
"Yu Saeng-won.
If I write it, I'll only stain this family's noble tradition with my miserable penmanship.
You're the scholar.
Write it large for us.
I ask you.
We cannot forget today.
We must not forget.
Let us carve the will of the White Dragon Division into stone.
I'm asking you."
One sentence could move men.
The White Dragon soldiers had been torn between staying and leaving, their hearts heavy with Jin Mu-gwang's final command.
But Ga Gyeong-pil's words steadied them.
This was the First House Under Heaven.
A place where loyalty and righteousness still breathed.
A commander worthy to serve without shame.
A man whose fall would wound them, yet whose side they would proudly keep.
"Where should I write it?"
"Where? At the entrance."
"And on what?"
"Figure that out yourself, scholar."
Normally one would write on paper first, then carve a wooden plaque.
But So-un asked no more questions.
He walked toward the gate.
Every gaze followed him.
He drew his sword.
In a single bound he passed the two guards at the entrance and leapt outside.
The sound came first—
Crack. Crack-crack-crack.
Men rushed after him.
There was no board.
No brush.
Yet he had gone without a word.
They saw him vault toward a massive boulder to the right of the gate—larger than a house.
He leapt up and down through the air, bringing his blade down again and again.
Thrusting.
Cutting.
Carving.
It was astonishing.
Steel biting stone was miracle enough—
but the fine lines began to form characters.
Papapapapapang.
"First House Under Heaven."
In less than half a shi, it was done.
He had struck the stone thousands upon thousands of times.
Gasps rippled through the crowd.
The clan members came running, hearts pounding, watching as if witnessing a divine feat.
Each leap carried him several stories high.
Each descent carved another stroke.
Near divine.
"First House Under Heaven.
White Dragon Division—United as One."
Not the hand of a master calligrapher.
But upright.
Clean.
Each stroke firm and unbending.
There was no flourish.
No ornament.
Only straightness.
Plaques and inscriptions are meant to be bestowed by others.
To be honored by those who remember.
Yet in these times, men carve their own epitaphs.
Straightness.
In a world that twists and snaps so easily, what stands straight seizes the heart.
"Written like a scholar.
Even the letters are him."
"Indeed."
When the waiting ended, Ga Gyeong-pil stepped forward.
"I will not leave this place.
I accept the General's will in my heart—but I remain.
You may decide for yourselves.
Any further questioning is an insult to the First House Under Heaven."
That was the end of it.
No one left.
All chose death if it came.
And So-un—
at some unnoticed moment—had vanished once more.