Chapter 175: v7c25 - Sisters
Volume 7 Chapter 25 – Sisters
Read it only at Nineheavens.org
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The general perception of the Eldest Young Master, Yeon So-hyeon, had remained fixed and unchanged for a long time inside and outside Luoyang.
The Swordless One.
The Eldest Young Master of the Luoyang Sword Family who did not hold a sword.
In a world where whether one could perceive and manipulate qi depended on innate talent, that derogatory nickname was not simply blaming him for lacking that talent.
The eldest son who did not show himself even after the Patriarch collapsed.
The Eldest Young Master of the world’s number one family who merely stayed in seclusion, turning his eyes away from the world to play the role of an immortal.
Over the past few years, his name had not been brought up much among people.
Even when rumors circulated that he had ended his seclusion, the public merely looked at him with lukewarm eyes.
However, once he took a single step out of the Luoyang Sword Family, Luoyang’s morning began to boil entirely with stories about him.
* * *
The boulevard in front of the Luoyang Central Government Office.
Tea houses lined the boulevard leading up to the Central Government Office.
Those large and small tea houses were a sort of specialty of the government office district, and they were crowded with officials drinking a cup of tea to wake up before going to work.
“Did you hear yesterday’s story? The rumor about Mount Beimang.”
“Of course. Because of that…”
At the young official’s words, the official wearing spectacles who had been drinking tea opposite set down his teacup and leaned toward the table.
“…Early this morning, the elder of our family had a meeting with the elders of other families they are normally close with.”
The young official also lowered his body.
“…The atmosphere in our family was the same. The patriarch stayed up all night with the vassals.”
To the point that their whispering was meaningless, the surroundings around them were entirely filled with that story.
“Did you hear the story that the high-ranking officials of the central government offices couldn’t even leave work yesterday?”
“I heard it was related to those people on Mount Beimang…”
“I also heard that he met all of those retired people from the Sixteen Families.”
“Just what kind of skill did the Eldest Young Master use to pull off such a thing after ten years of seclusion…?!”
“Moreover, there is even a rumor that he used martial arts.”
“Does that mean the Eldest Young Master has been hiding his martial arts all this time?”
“Haha. Just where does the rumor end and where does the truth begin…?”
An official with a white beard looked left and right, then lowered his voice and spoke.
“…They say the Second Young Master of the Sword Family left Luoyang last night and headed to the Imperial Capital.”
“Does that mean…?!”
The white-bearded official nodded.
“Whatever the truth of the rumor, it must be to the point where the Second Young Master of the Sword Family, who avoids public activities, had to step up himself…”
“It must mean that the Eldest Young Master’s movements have become a threat to him.”
“Sigh, the one who remained behind closed doors and was ridiculed as the Swordless One…”
It was not only here.
Luoyang as a whole
Wherever those who knew the weight of the name Mount Beimang gathered, the Eldest Young Master’s name was never missing.
And among the lower classes, the rumor that the Eldest Young Master was at the forefront of the fire suppression in the Valley of Sin last night was the talk of the town.
Thus, Yeon So-hyeon’s name began to be spoken of across all of Luoyang, regardless of class or origin.
* * *
The Luoyang Sword Family, Business Support Group.
Department One meeting room.
Third Young Lady Yeon Da-eun shouted.
“Just how can such an absurd agenda demanding a full review of the Valley of Sin project be discussed so seriously?!”
A member of Department One shrugged.
“Since a complaint has been received regarding the problems, it is only natural to review it.”
“Or is the Third Young Lady suggesting we cover up these complaints and move on right now?”
At the smirking words of those people, the Third Young Lady slammed the meeting table.
“Then at least show me that complaint document right now!”
At those words, the smirking people feigned ignorance.
“Mmm. Even so, it is a confidential document containing the whistleblower’s identity…”
“We also belong to this Department One!”
The Third Young Lady pointed at the Fourth Young Lady, who was narrowing her eyes and scanning the assembly beside her, and shouted.
“….”
However, the members of Department One looked at them with gazes that asked, “So what?”
“I am sorry to say this, but…”
The person who kept dealing with her clicked his tongue as if there were no choice.
“In the first place, are the Young Ladies not members of this Department One? You were merely deployed temporarily to gain experience…”
At the blatant snub, the Third Young Lady barked a scolding.
“Temporary?! Yes, indeed! You said it well! Before we are temporary members of this Department One, we are the secretaries to the Director of the Business Support Group!”
At her words, everyone wore a startled expression.
Setting aside their status, their competence was famous, and they also knew well that it was why they could become the Director’s secretaries.
“That is the Support Group Director to whom your superior, the Head of Department One, reports!”
At that moment, the door of the meeting room opened, and the Head of Department One, who had left the room, poked his face in.
“Young Ladies. Shall we have a conversation over here for a moment?”
Having moved locations, as soon as the door of the luxurious reception room closed, the Department Head spoke.
“Let us stop here. The decision has already been made.”
“…Department Head!”
When the Third Young Lady shouted in a huff, the Department Head’s eyebrows twitched.
“Watch your mouth, Third Young Lady. You are merely the secretary to the Support Group Director, and the only reason I respect you is because you are a Young Lady of the Main Family.”
“…!”
As the Third Young Lady faltered under his cold momentum, the Fourth Young Lady, who had been quiet until then, stepped forward.
“May I take the Department Head’s words to mean that Department One intends to align itself with the Second Young Master?”
“The Second Young Master?”
The Department Head of Department One grinned.
“I don’t know what you are talking about… I am merely doing my job as usual.”
The Third Young Lady stepped forward again.
“The Director will never allow such a thing!”
The Department Head of Department One shrugged.
“But she is currently on a business trip to the Eastern Kingdom State.”
“Do you think you can handle her wrath when she returns?!”
At those words, the Department Head of Department One fell silent for a moment.
In the Luoyang Sword Family, there existed those who ‘could not’ become elders.
Key figures of the Luoyang Sword Family who possessed too powerful authority, influence, and prestige.
Typically, the Head of the Sword Family Bank, the chief executives of business entities including Sword Family Construction, and the heads of organizations located inside and outside Luoyang that held very large and important roles, including the intelligence departments.
And the Director of the Business Support Group.
To prevent power from concentrating in such individuals, they were prohibited by family law from concurrently holding the position of elder.
“…Her wrath. That is of course bound to be terrifying. However.”
The Department Head of Department One gave a bitter smile.
“Why do you two, Young Ladies, think she would be angry at work that has been processed entirely according to procedure?”
It was the Third Young Lady whose words were blocked by that remark.
“W-Well, that is…”
Though suspicions were plenty enough to make her chest explode, there was no clear evidence that Department One had colluded with the Second Young Master.
“She…”
She recalled the Support Group Director, who usually only spoke well of the Eldest Young Master, but trying to say that much to a department head-level official would only buy them ridicule.
“Department Head.”
The Fourth Young Lady stepped forward again.
“Please make sure to record that we expressed strong concern.”
“Yes, yes. I will also leave a record officially.”
The Department Head raised his hand and pointed to the exit.
* * *
An empty corridor.
“What a damn bastard!”
When the Third Young Lady slammed a palm strike, her palm shape was left clearly on the wall of the corridor.
“…Anyone looking at this would know it is sister’s doing.”
“Argh, hey!”
Flastered by the Fourth Young Lady’s words, the Third Young Lady struck the wall a few more times, obliterating the palm shape.
“This should do it!”
Sighing at the sight of her older sister putting her hands on her waist and snorting, the Fourth Young Lady grabbed her and escaped the scene for now.
The back garden of the Support Group.
Confirming that no one was around, the Fourth Young Lady spoke.
“Department One has a clear intention to stand on the Second Young Master’s side and jump into the succession struggle.”
The Third Young Lady answered with a sigh.
“…For the Main Family’s Business Support Group, which should maintain political neutrality more than anyone else, to engage in the most sensitive succession struggle of all things.”
As was the case with any department, Department One of the Support Group was also a place where people with the strongest competitive spirits and full of desire for achievement gathered.
For them to start a dangerous play with fire while the Support Group Director was away was not a very strange thing.
“Should we go visit the Deputy Director once again?”
“No.”
At Fourth Young Lady Yeon Da-hye’s words, Third Young Lady Yeon Da-eun shook her head.
Recalling the result of their visit at dawn today, it was obvious.
“It will be just like last time. That toad old man is of no help in this situation.”
Although the Deputy Director possessed excellent ability to act in the Director’s absence, his method was close to laissez-faire based on infinite competition between departments and individuals.
He had prepared double and triple backups for any responsibility issues that could arise for him in this matter, and was merely observing the situation.
“…Ugh. When I heard the news that Eldest Brother had ended his seclusion, I wondered, but to think that such a thing would end up happening to our Business Support Group.”
Her own pronunciation of ‘Eldest Brother’ felt foreign.
Because they had never seen or heard news of their eldest brother since they were very young.
“Because we did not know Eldest Brother would move so fast and strongly.”
“To think that following his visit to Mount Beimang, he directed fire suppression and beat down the underworld organizations while revealing the martial arts he had hidden…”
“In the end, he made it so the Second Young Master had no choice but to move.”
They had not dared to imagine that the Eldest Young Master, who had just ended his seclusion, and the Second Young Master would clash.
“…We cannot just stand by and watch.”
“Agreed.”
They had no particular liking nor major grievance toward their eldest brother.
He was practically a stranger, and in some aspects, their relationship was worse than that with a stranger.
They harbored contempt beyond mere regret for the crazy Second Young Master, but they were not doing this to side with the Eldest Young Master either.
“At this rate, we will have no face to show the Director, who went on a business trip trusting us.”
“…Indeed.”
They recalled the Support Group Director, who was like a mother or grandmother to them.
She was the Director who had raised and cared for them until now, after they lost their mother early.
They wanted to prevent the Business Support Group, to which she would return, from turning into a mess due to dark struggles at all costs.
“….”
“….”
Lost in thought for a moment, they soon realized that they knew surprisingly little about the Eldest Young Master.
“…We know about the Second Young Master to the point of being sick of it, but we know too little about the current Eldest Brother.”
The Third Young Lady asked the Fourth Young Lady, Yeon Da-hye, who was the information secretary to the Business Support Group Director.
“Who is the person who knows Eldest Brother best right now?”
The Fourth Young Lady replied immediately.
“The Chief Manager of the Inner Courtyard.”
At the mention of that person who possessed a weight that was not just heavy but terrifying, the Third Young Lady’s entire body stiffened.
“N-Not that kind of dangerous person. I mean someone who will share information with us favorably…!”
At her words, the Fourth Young Lady hummed and stroked her chin.
“Come to think of it, there is someone who fits sister’s criteria and met Eldest Brother most recently.”
“Who is it?!”
The Fourth Young Lady replied.
“Second Sister.”
The Seamless Heavenly Robe.
At the mention of the Second Young Lady, Yeon Seo-rin, the Third Young Lady clapped her hands.
“Let us go right away!”