Chapter 344: v14c19 - Hundred-Handed Giant God
Volume 14 Chapter 19 – Hundred-Handed Giant God
The next day, early morning.
Third Young Master’s camp, Strategist Department.
Just before dawn broke in the distance.
Only the sound of birds sitting on the roof and garden trees of the Strategist Department chirping pointlessly could be heard occasionally during the most peaceful hour of the day.
“The Eldest Young Master disappeared?!”
At the loud voice of a senior strategist who was on duty, the strategists who had been dozing off in their seats jumped up in surprise.
“…Huh?!”
“W-what is going on?!”
“Did they not say that the festival inside and outside of Pavilion of Perfect Enlightenment was continuing even until this hour?!”
Without even giving the startled strategists time to rub the sleep from their eyes, the shout of the senior strategist to the messenger of the intelligence department shook the Strategist Department.
“then why did the Eldest Young Master vanish?!”
“The Eldest Young Master disappeared…?”
Eyes widened it was the moment all sleepiness vanished.
“No, what on earth does that mean?”
“Was not the Eldest Young Master’s side in the middle of a banquet celebrating the launch of their faction?”
“But the host has vanished? Is he not just inside Pavilion of Perfect Enlightenment?”
Leaving behind the commotion of the strategists, the intelligence department messenger broke into a cold sweat and bowed his head to the senior strategist on duty.
“Well, that is…”
“It is not that we simply lost track of his whereabouts within the Main Family.”
“Then?”
“…As a result of aggregating the information, it appears that the Eldest Young Master has completely slipped out of Luoyang as of this hour.”
At that bolt from the blue, the face of the senior strategist on duty turned deathly pale.
“……!”
“T-that cannot be…!”
Of all times did a crisis have to break out when he was on duty?
“What on earth is this…?”
For a moment, instead of the senior strategist on duty who was out of his mind the strategists under him rushed at the intelligence department messenger, demanding answers.
“The Eldest Young Master, a target classified for top-grade surveillance, has left the Main Family?!”
“What on earth was the intelligence department doing?!”
Getting struck by lightning the intelligence department was in the same position, cornered as if about to be devoured, the messenger hurriedly spoke.
“if he left Luoyang, there must have been a means of transport?!”
“It was confirmed that the E-Eldest Young Master slipped out of Luoyang in his carriage, the Ironclad Fortress…!”
When he answered with one sentence, two or three sentences poured in from all directions.
“Was not the Ironclad Fortress clearly under surveillance?!”
“What on earth were they monitoring on site?!”
The messenger, his face pale, hastily shouted.
“The Ironclad Fortress finished regular maintenance as usual and was on a test drive…! According to observations on site, none of the Eldest Young Master’s attendants were on board at all!”
“…What on earth?!”
Belatedly, the senior strategist on duty, who had somehow regained his senses, rushed at him.
“Then, did the Eldest Young Master secretly slip out of Pavilion of Perfect Enlightenment alone, join the carriage somehow, drive it himself, and leave Luoyang?!”
“There was no omen whatsoever! In the first place…!”
The messenger, whose collar was grabbed, coughed and shouted.
“The fact that the Eldest Young Master left Luoyang was only figured out belatedly because his fully armed maid division is currently leaving the Main Family in armored carriages!”
“The direction?!”
The grip of the senior strategist holding the messenger’s collar tightened even more.
“The direction… surely it is not north?!”
Please.
In the eyes of the senior strategist, who was praying it was merely a simple outing, the sight of the messenger hastily shaking his head was clearly visible.
“The E-Eldest Young Master’s Ironclad Fortress is said to have headed north…!”
“Fuck…!”
The senior strategist on duty ended up closing his eyes tightly.
‘What on earth is going on…?!’
In accordance with the strategic map and Elder Namgung Hyeok-cheon’s orders it was last night that they, the Strategist Department, had begun to formulate a strategy to intervene in the north.
‘But the Eldest Young Master has already departed for the north…?!’
That the Eldest Young Master would naturally move was fully within the predictive scope of Grand Tactician Zhuge and Grand Tactician Sima, and of course, countermeasures were being formulated accordingly, but the problem was that the movement was abnormally fast, to the point it could not even be called a reaction.
‘What on earth…?!’
That speed was not the Eldest Young Master’s “reaction” to the Third Young Master’s camp’s movements, but rather deserved to be called a “preemptive strike” by the Eldest Young Master against the Third Young Master’s camp.
“Fuck…!”
It was inevitable that the senior strategist spat out vulgarity.
‘Does the Eldest Young Master really possess an eye that sees the future, like the rumors say…?!’
Whenever they thought they were even a single step ahead before they knew it, the Eldest Young Master was two steps ahead.
Whenever a surprise strategy to flip the board was somehow formulated the Eldest Young Master was already sending them a sneer from the middle of the board.
“Damn it, Eldest Young Master…!”
The bloodshot veins in his eyes from staying up all night turned so red they looked as if they might burst at any moment.
“Stop.”
The voice of an elderly man was heard in the ears of the senior strategist.
“G-Grand Tactician Sima…!”
“Cough…!”
The intelligence department messenger, who was almost strangled to death, sat flat on the floor, but there was no one who spared him a glance.
“When I heard the information that the Imperial Court was paying attention to the north, I was doubtful, but…”
Just like them grand Tactician Sima, whose fatigue was clearly revealed on his face since he had stayed up all night, clicked his tongue.
“To have already secured even an imperial command.”
Grand Tactician Sima swept back his messy white hair and continued.
“To think the Eldest Young Master was moving earlier than us regarding the northern issue…”
At those words, the frozen senior strategist on duty regained his senses and asked Grand Tactician Sima.
“A-an imperial command?”
“What imperial command do you mean?”
“Information that just came from the Imperial Capital.”
The senior strategist hastily opened and read the note passed from Grand Tactician Sima.
“…Revealing belatedly that His Majesty the Emperor unilaterally commanded the bestowal of plenary powers over the north upon the Eldest Young Master.”
The voice of the senior strategist reading the note, and his hand holding the note, trembled.
“It says the ministers fiercely protested at court…?”
Swoosh.
A hand suddenly reached out and snatched the note the senior strategist was reading.
“W-who…?!”
The senior strategist was about to fly into a rage, but quickly backed away upon identifying the hand’s owner.
“Grand Tactician Zhuge…!”
Grand Tactician Zhuge, who seemed to have just woken from a light sleep, read down the note in silence.
“…….”
His face, having grasped all the content, was the same as usual, but crumple.
His white hand, veins bulging, crumpled the note so hard that it was barely recognizable.
“…To have surpassed even the worst-case assumption.”
The movements shown by the Eldest Young Master his ominous foreboding that they might be double-layered setups to intervene in the north, not only did it turn out correct, but it was even the moment it was confirmed that the Eldest Young Master had already moved the Emperor.
“…That the Eldest Young Master is currently” grand Tactician Zhuge, who had remained silent for a while, spoke in a hoarse voice.
“heading to the north practically alone is probably—” grand Tactician Sima took over Grand Tactician Zhuge’s words with a bitter expression.
“Probably because he has already prepared enough elements to intervene even if he moves alone.”
If it were someone else rather than the Eldest Young Master, there might be room to interpret it differently.
However, grand Tactician Zhuge corrected his words.
“…Nine times out of ten, no.”
“Ten out of ten. It is definitely so.”
If the opponent is that Eldest Young Master words like “perhaps” or “what if” were unnecessary.
“…Even so,” looking at Grand Tactician Zhuge, Grand Tactician Sima spoke soothingly.
“Though it is a day’s difference, we succeeded in reading the Eldest Young Master’s movements.”
All this time the Eldest Young Master had always shown movements different from everyone’s expectations, and Grand Tactician Zhuge and Grand Tactician Sima were no exceptions.
“It means we are gradually adapting to the speed of the Eldest Young Master’s thinking.”
Since his seclusion ended the Eldest Young Master had been placing countless moves on the board to a degree unbelievable for a single person and conversely, thanks to that, they were able to repeat analysis upon analysis.
“Next time, surely, we will be able to catch up.”
Even though the strategists had not received separate commands from the Grand Tacticians, the Strategist Department, awake since early dawn, was boiling like the inside of a furnace.
“…We must predict the highway used by the Eldest Young Master’s Ironclad Fortress!”
“…If we analyze the amount of supplies secured by the maid division, we can predict where they will receive supplies!”
“…What about the intelligence department’s pursuit report?!”
“Our Strategist Department is different from the Second Young Master’s side’s private Gangnam Division, which was operated in a slipshod manner.”
They were an organization with a history of maintaining and taking charge of the order of the martial world for a long time.
Since they were the Strategist Department of the Martial Alliance.
“The Third Young Master must be, by now…”
Grand Tactician Sima approached the map hanging on the wall.
“He must have already departed toward the north after receiving Elder Namgung Hyeok-cheon’s contact.”
His hand pointed to the Third Young Master’s starting point.
“Since he departed from much further north than the Eldest Young Master, his arrival will also be first.”
Grand Tactician Sima shrugged his shoulders.
“It can be said that our side still maintains the initiative.”
“…….”
However grand Tactician Zhuge’s expression was still stiff.
“Moreover,” grand Tactician Sima showed a smile to him.
“while the Eldest Young Master’s regular troops can only move after receiving the permission of the Elders’ Hall, is that not the case for us?”
Grand Tactician Sima’s hand moved on the map, pointing to Mount Hua and Wudang.
And then he touched the Namgung Clan.
“As you know, they will reach the north before the Eldest Young Master’s troops. And…”
Next, he tapped the north on the map.
“Since the Yelu Tribe, whose home base is the north in the first place, has been on the move for quite a while…”
Grand Tactician Sima, taking his hand off the map, turned to Grand Tactician Zhuge and smiled.
“We only need to focus on keeping up with the speed of the Eldest Young Master’s thinking, just like now.”
Opening the lid of the teacup he received, Grand Tactician Sima savored the aroma of the tea and continued.
“The larger the size, the slower the movement.”
He said flatly.
“As the Eldest Young Master’s size is also growing, the organization’s speed has no choice but to gradually slow down over time.”
That was something that those from the former Martial Alliance’s Strategist Department, who had to control numerous organizations simultaneously, felt best.
“Indeed, it is so.”
The strategists of the Strategist Department listening nearby nodded in agreement.
“There is no way to control hundreds of arms and hundreds of legs simultaneously.”
“On top of that, organizations are things where a thinking head is attached to each of those limbs.”
“The biggest reason the Eldest Young Master could nimbly show unexpected movements was because his body had been light until now.”
At that moment, grand Tactician Zhuge broke the silence and spoke.
“…However.”
“What if,” grand Tactician Zhuge’s expression remained as stiff as it had been.
“what if the Eldest Young Master is not yet putting out the full speed of his thinking…?”
Backing the sunlight “what if, until now, he was simply lacking pieces to move,” and his face, shrouded in gloomy shadows, slowly turned to Grand Tactician Sima.
“what if, as the organizations he possesses increase, as his size grows, as his limbs multiply,” grand Tactician Zhuge’s voice was cracked.
“his movement becomes faster and faster.”
The eyes of the one revered as a genius, who rose to the position of Grand Tactician at a young age, were trembling.
“If he was born as a giant god who is capable of ruling a hundred limbs in the first place, what will happen?”
His question ended, but only silence lingered.
“…….”
“…….”
The one who broke that silence was Grand Tactician Sima.
“My, you indeed.”
He burst out laughing, and tapping Grand Tactician Zhuge’s shoulder, he spoke.
“having too great an imagination is a problem at times like this. You are having pessimistic thoughts because your stomach is empty.”
“It is early, but let us go eat breakfast.”
Under normal circumstances grand Tactician Zhuge would have followed the words of Grand Tactician Sima, who had accumulated several times more experience than himself.
“…No.”
“Hm?”
But today was not the case.
“I will depart for the north even right now.”
If he departed even now, he would not arrive too late compared to the Eldest Young Master.
“Brother Zhuge…”
“I know that outstanding people are always assisting the Third Young Master, but” grand Tactician Zhuge spoke with a look of determination in his eyes.
“this time, I must face the Eldest Young Master directly on the field.”
He turned his steps.
“I cannot lag behind the Eldest Young Master anymore.”