621
"The Goryeo army from the continent has taken the island."
In the northern Hizen Peninsula, drums thundered from the tenshu of Karatsu Castle.
Doom— doom— doom—!
At the topmost council chamber of the keep, Nabeshima Mototakesat at the center.
The doors flew open and a courier dropped to his knees.
"Your Lordship, Iki Island has fallen completely to the Goryeo army."
"In three days."
The courier swallowed hard.
"Yes."
"Mitani Mototada has been captured."
"The fortifications are secured."
"The Goryeo flag now flies over the island."
A murmur rippled through the room.
Mototake's hand came down with a sharp thud, and the air snapped into order.
"Be precise."
Clenching his teeth, the courier added,
"Both Tsushima and Iki Island have fallen."
One retainer leapt to his feet.
"How dare Goryeo—!"
Mototake looked out the window.
The dark waters of Karatsu Bay looked strangely shallow today.
Shallow seas are easy to cross.
"It is not that we lost islands," he said slowly.
"It is that our leash has been taken."
Someone asked in a trembling voice,
"My lord, what of the shogunate's response?"
Mototake exhaled.
"The shogunate is quiet."
"That silence is the shogunate's way."
He tapped a sealed document with his fingertips.
"They will pretend not to know that funds were supplied to Iki Island."
"A stage will be set where Hizen claims ignorance."
His gaze swept the chamber like a blade.
"The problem is that Goryeo may now be holding that entire flow in their hands."
Yamada Noriyoshi, head of intelligence, stepped forward.
"My lord, it is already leaking."
"The Goryeo army openly spreads word that it will make the island its territory."
The air froze.
Retainers shouted.
"Gather the troops!"
"Summon Nagasaki and Shimabara!"
"We must cut them off before they land on the mainland!"
Mototake raised a hand, pressing the noise down.
"If we move rashly, the shogunate will bind us with guilt."
He paused.
Then, very low but unmistakably clear:
"If we do not move, Goryeo's blade will reach our throats."
The chamber swallowed its breath.
Mototake divided the grain of his words.
"We go two ways."
"First."
"To the shogunate, we present the posture of cooperating in suppressing pirates."
"We seize the justification first."
"Second."
"We build a path into Iki Island."
"The path by sea has been mastered by Goryeo."
"So we go through the forest."
Yamada asked quietly,
"Through the forest?"
The corner of Mototake's mouth lifted faintly.
"Goryeo intends to govern the island."
"Governance brings documents."
"And household registers."
The retainers looked at one another.
Someone swallowed dryly.
"My lord… then this is—"
Mototake cut him off.
"War."
"Not a war fought only with blades."
Looking out at the sea, he continued,
"Before Goryeo hardens its roads, we sever them."
The room grew cold.
Within that chill, some eyes sharpened instead of dimming.
The weight of responsibility was settling into Hizen's hands.
"We will make contact with the Goryeo army."
As the words fell, faces stiffened.
After the silence, a senior retainer raised his voice.
"My lord, this is dangerous."
"They ride the momentum of victory."
Without lifting his head, Mototake replied,
"We cannot simply endure."
"If words can stop them, that too is a battlefield."
"A choice that sheds less blood follows the grain of efficiency."
Another retainer hurried forward.
"If the shogunate learns of this, all of Hizen will wear the brand of treason."
Mototake's expression was already set.
"The Goryeo army has not yet set foot on Hizen soil."
"Only up to Iki Island."
"They have not struck us directly."
He paused, clenching his fist.
"Once they land, we will not last even a day."
His gaze slowly swept the room.
"To protect Karatsu."
"To protect Hizen."
"To protect the people—"
"The path of sitting across from them must stand."
The samurai lost their words.
Mototake added, his voice stripped of emotion,
"The moment Iki Island raised Goryeo's flag,"
"the initiative of this war left our hands."
"Mitani Mototada is not a warrior who collapses so easily."
He spoke low.
"It is clear where they will strike next."
Everyone's eyes turned beyond the sea.
There—on Iki Island—a blue banner would be cutting through the wind.
The next day, on the broad wooden floor of Iki Island's tenshu.
From this high ground, the Karatsu coastline lay clearly visible beyond the wind sweeping across the island.
In the morning, a group in blue robes arrived at the harbor aboard a large ship.
It was an envoy bearing the banner of the Nabeshima clan of Hizen.
They set aside all swords and climbed the path empty-handed.
Their lips were tight, their eyes excessively cautious.
Park Seong-jin waited for them in the courtyard before the tenshu.
At his side stood Song I-jeong, Goryeo local officials, and civil administrators.
The envoy stepped onto a stone and performed a formal bow.
"By the command of Nabeshima Mototake, lord of Karatsu in Hizen, I come as envoy."
Park Seong-jin gave no reply.
He simply watched.
As the silence lengthened, dryness crept into the envoy's throat.
"Hizen has never laid a hand on the affairs of Iki Island."
"It was an independent domain."
"The matter of pirates raging at sea lay beyond our control."
As he spoke, the envoy kept gauging reactions.
No grain of assent appeared on Park Seong-jin's face.
The envoy bowed deeply.
"Hizen desires peace."
"We hope to live in peace henceforth."
Civil officials exchanged glances.
Song I-jeong lifted the corner of his mouth slightly.
Park Seong-jin's face remained fixed from start to end.
In a low, slow voice, Park Seong-jin spoke.
"Where do you place your own responsibility?"
The envoy hesitated, lifting his head.
"We are, after all—"
"Do you say you knew nothing of the flow until now?"
Park Seong-jin's eyes gleamed like a thin blade.
He walked slowly toward the envoy.
"For decades they passed through Iki and Tsushima into Goryeo."
"Each time, our people died."
"Ships moved from Hizen."
"Weapons flowed from Hizen."
"From Hizen's ports, pirates came and went."
The envoy's face drained white.
"Upon that flow, do you claim to have seen nothing?"
Sweat gathering, the envoy opened his mouth.
"That was the doing of lesser houses, and our clan—"
"That is enough."
Park Seong-jin's words overlapped him.
"If Hizen wishes to establish peace, there is something to do first."
"First."
"Offer an official apology for the accumulated crimes on Iki Island and Tsushima."
"Second."
"The lord of Hizen himself must come here, kneel in this courtyard before the tenshu, and apologize."
The envoy looked up in shock.
"My lord, Nabeshima-dono is the ruler of Hizen."
"The rank of that seat—"
Park Seong-jin carried the grain of the words onward.
"An apology is complete only when it can speak of what comes next."
"What will be corrected."
"What mechanisms will be built."
"How the same will never happen again."
"If Hizen had truly policed the brigands,"
"the pirates could not have moved so freely."
"The traces of wealth built on that flow are stamped in documents."
The envoy spoke low.
"Please meet us in rank."
Park Seong-jin pointed toward Karatsu, visible from the tenshu.
"Rank moves along the flow of the sea."
"If the rank Hizen offers stops here,"
"we will convert that rank into the rank of captives."
The envoy's face hardened.
"My lord, do you mean war?"
Park Seong-jin slowly shook his head.
"The beginning of war has long since flowed."
"You enjoyed its profits."
"You turned that current."
"Now the order returns."
The envoy was struck dumb.
Turning away, Park Seong-jin said,
"If you seek peace, do not put face first."
"Come to Iki Island and acknowledge guilt."
"State your countermeasures."
"And carry them out as spoken."
"Then your lord keeps his seat."
He turned back once more.
"If not—"
"Hizen's winds and waves will be bound by our grain."
The envoy turned weakly and withdrew.
His retreat bore more the grain of flight than of departure.
Song I-jeong asked,
"General, will they really come?"
Park Seong-jin gave a short laugh.
"They won't."
"But we leave the road open."
"Before we go ourselves."
His gaze was already set on the next battlefield.