The Chancellor and the Lord of the Black Sword
"Have you come again?"
The Chancellor stepped out of his office.
He had no desire to meet the lord of an assassination corps inside the chamber where state affairs were conducted.
The office of governance was, by his own decree, a place of a certain sanctity.
Though the foundation of power itself might have been crooked, he believed that within those walls no further corruption should intrude.
It was a line he had drawn for himself.
Perhaps it was nothing more than the last fragment of pride he still possessed.
He would not bow before an assassin within the room where he judged the affairs of the realm.
He led the way to the small garden behind the office.
The lord stood there alone.
He wore black martial robes and a cap resembling that of a Daoist adept.
With his back turned, he gazed silently at the garden.
Securing supreme martial force had been a stroke of fortune.
Power requires force, yet force is not easily obtained.
Loyalty cannot be expected from ordinary blades.
But this man had been bound by contract.
He carried out tasks with precision.
He accomplished what others deemed impossible.
He demanded only what had been agreed upon.
He did not cross the invisible line.
Yet when he appeared unannounced like this, it unsettled the Chancellor.
He never overstepped formal decorum.
Still, his presence was unpleasant.
The martial strength of the Black Sword was necessary.
It was not, however, worthy of admiration.
Ambush after ambush, wearing down an opponent until exhaustion and death—
it was not a method a Chancellor could openly approve of.
And yet, within the hidden corridors of the palace and the shadowed lanes of bureaucracy, it was indispensable.
No one matched him in eliminating political enemies.
He completed his work flawlessly.
He silenced those who sought to expand matters by involving the martial world.
He was that kind of man.
"May we speak here?"
The Black Sword asked with a faintly mocking smile, measuring the Chancellor with his eyes.
His work was clean.
His speech was not.
Words rarely emerged straight.
They twisted once, then again.
Whether by nature or design, none could say.
"This is where state affairs are handled.
We will speak elsewhere."
At the word "state affairs," the Black Sword gave a thin laugh.
As though all these grand declarations were but disguises for the maintenance of power.
As though he longed to say that the Chancellor and he were not so different.
To him, the line between governance and brutality was illusion.
Caring for the people meant collecting taxes.
Politics was only a different shade of force.
"You must be pressed for time.
I hear that five thousand Imperial Guards were squandered by that fool Jang Sigi."
The Chancellor answered sharply.
"I anticipated it.
And it was you who enlarged the matter.
Why pursue General Jin?
He was declared dead.
Why chase a vanished man?
It could have been left alone.
Corner a man and he bares his fangs."
"He had to die for the Empire to remain at peace.
We were of one mind on that point."
The Black Sword emphasized the word Empire, as though it were something the two of them had forged together.
There was no doubt in his expression.
Convincing him otherwise was nearly impossible.
A man with conviction is difficult to move.
He pursued confirmation of Jin Mugwang's death to the very end.
The Chancellor thought differently.
The Black Sword was replaceable.
The Chancellor was not.
He had ensured that no equal would grow beside him.
Potential rivals were cut down early.
That was how he survived.
And the Black Sword carried out that pruning.
"I believed his death necessary for the Empire's stability."
"Why?"
"Excessive martial power is unnecessary to the Empire.
I have said so more than once."
To the Chancellor, Jin Mugwang was like another official—
someone to bargain with, restrain, negotiate.
To the Black Sword, the matter was simpler.
There could be only one supreme blade.
And that blade should be himself.
"Then why did you consent to sending five thousand men?
It was not my decision alone."
"That was Jang Sigi's petition."
"And the thousand before that?
You are no different from me."
"It was precaution.
He had reason and ability to raise troops.
He was pressed too far.
The Northern Expeditionary Army might have turned its blades toward the capital.
Yet he returned with only a handful and resigned.
It should have ended there.
A general without soldiers is merely an old man."
"His estate should have been destroyed regardless.
His kin held hostage."
The Chancellor sighed.
He had approved the mobilization.
Conversations with this man drained him.
The Black Sword insisted on decisive measures.
He uprooted threats without hesitation.
"So what now?
Five hundred men defeated five thousand, they say."
"Five thousand rabble.
If five thousand fail, then fifty thousand.
Send more, and more again."
"To crush a single clan with fifty thousand?"
"For a fraction of that cost, I would resolve it."
"The assassins you sent are all dead.
Will you repeat the same method?"
"Send again.
Stronger ones.
Eventually, the target falls.
It is simple."
"Fifty thousand can be drawn from a single province."
No agreement was reached.
As other ministers approached, the Chancellor ended the discussion.
Such matters could not be spoken before witnesses.
At the sound of footsteps, the Black Sword vanished like wind.
He was a man who must not be seen.
One who could not stand beneath open daylight.
Thus he was called the Black Sword.