774.
The Empress Dowager's strategy. It hadn't been long since Park Seongjin left the Empress Dowager's palace. The moment the garden door closed, the atmosphere inside the palace shifted. The voices quieted, and the sound of dozens of footsteps overlapped. Beneath the shadows of the columns and the railing of the corridor, the guards, who had stood like mere ornaments, hastily began to move.
"Your Majesty—!"
The King of Goryeo didn't even have time to turn around. His arm was twisted behind him, and his breath was cut off. There was no choking. The joints were precisely pressed. The hand knew the exact point where resistance would fade.
"How dare you... do you know where this is...!"
His words never fully came out. A cloth was stuffed into his mouth, and his vision blurred. He was dragged beneath the railing. A breeze brushed against him, and the view below became visible. It was high. Too high.
At that moment, the Empress Dowager's voice was heard. "Do not harm him. He is the Emperor's guest."
The guards halted, but their grip didn't loosen. The King of Goryeo was then dragged deep into the Empress Dowager's palace.
At the same time, Park Seongjin was passing through the outer corridor of the palace. A chill ran down his back. 'This is strange.' The presence that had followed him and the distant breath of the palace had suddenly vanished. In that moment, an unfamiliar voice was heard.
"Mid-ranking General."
He turned to find a guard from the Empress Dowager's palace bowing respectfully.
"The Empress Dowager wishes to see you again. She says there is something urgent to discuss."
Park Seongjin narrowed his eyes.
"I just saw her."
"Something has happened since then."
"What happened?"
The guard hesitated for a moment before speaking very softly.
"The King of Goryeo... is temporarily staying in the palace."
The air froze. Park Seongjin stopped walking. He took a moment to choose his words before asking.
"He is staying? Is he being detained?"
"Yes, under the protection of the Empress Dowager."
The word "protection" lingered in his ears. Park Seongjin slowly took a breath. Instead of anger, his mind cooled. 'She's playing her cards.' It wasn't an assassination. It wasn't a brute force move. She had taken hold of the king. He nodded.
"Show me the way."
Inside the Empress Dowager's palace, the King of Goryeo was sitting in a small room behind a railing. The door was closed, and guards surrounded it. The Empress Dowager was looking down at him. There was no urgency. Her face already showed she had calculated everything.
"You must be surprised," she said.
The King of Goryeo gritted his teeth.
"Is this the way of your Empire?"
"Rituals are maintained when one has the power to enforce them."
The Empress Dowager slowly approached.
"Your Majesty, you are such a good king. That is why the sword by your side is so sharp."
A moment later, footsteps were heard. The door opened, and Park Seongjin entered. He immediately surveyed the room. The king was not bound, but his freedom was restricted. The guards were positioned in a way that made every angle of escape clear. Everything was calculated. The Empress Dowager smiled.
"We meet again."
Park Seongjin bowed his head.
"Your Majesty."
"Now, it seems we can finally have a conversation, don't you think?"
Park Seongjin's gaze briefly lingered on the King of Goryeo. The king didn't speak. That silence was enough.
The Empress Dowager spoke.
"You must choose."
"Choose what?"
"Either take the king and leave, or stay here."
The air became tense. There was certainty in the Empress Dowager's eyes. This time, there was no way to retreat.
"This is no longer a matter that can be solved with a sword, Mid-ranking General."
Park Seongjin remained silent. However, his silence was different now. What he had been trying to protect was now the very thing that bound him for the first time.
The first guard raised his sword. It was a quick thrust. Park Seongjin didn't avoid it. He shifted one step to the side, placing his hand on the trajectory of the blade as it passed. He twisted the wrist, pressing in the opposite direction the joint would naturally move. Crack. No scream escaped. The sword fell to the ground, and the guard collapsed, unable to exert strength.
A spear flew from behind. Park Seongjin didn't look back. As he took half a step forward, he stepped on the middle of the spear with his heel as it passed through the air, forcing it to bend. With that opening, he closed the distance. He shoved his shoulder into the guard's chest, driving his elbow beneath the collarbone. Thud. The guard crashed into the wall. There was no need to check for breath.
"Come with me. Attack."
The shout rang out. Three guards rushed in at once. Swords from the sides, a blunt weapon from the front. Park Seongjin drew his sword. He didn't strike. There was no need to. The back of his blade moved. Not fast, not powerful, but precise. Wrist. Elbow. Shoulder. Thud. Thud. Thud. With each strike, weapons fell to the ground. Then came the feet. He kicked behind a knee. The moment the guard fell, the shinbone snapped.
"Ugh!"
Finally, a scream broke out. Some dropped their weapons and retreated. Some knelt, bowing their heads. Park Seongjin didn't stop. If they ran, he struck their backs. If they left an opening, he shattered their arms. If they fell, he stomped on their legs. He didn't kill. Instead, he left bodies that could never fight again.
The room grew quieter. Only the occasional sound of metal dropping and the dull echo of broken bones remained. Dozens had fallen like that. The last guard retreated until his back hit a column. His hand, still gripping the sword, trembled. Park Seongjin stood before him. Without a word, he reached out. The guard instinctively extended his sword. The next moment, the sword was snapped. The wrist twisted, and the guard hit the floor.
There were no more guards standing in the room. Silence. Park Seongjin lowered the sword. There was little blood on it. He didn't even catch his breath. His face showed that the task had been completed. From behind, the King let out a quiet exhale.
Now, in this room, there was only one person left who could fight. And that one person was the owner of this space. The Empress Dowager, who didn't know when she had collapsed, had not screamed nor been pushed. Her legs gave way. Her body leaned forward, and her aides rushed to support her in surprise, but their hands never reached her. She silently sank to the floor.
The room that was once a palace now lay in ruins. It had been only moments ago when she had tried to turn the empire's tides with the king as her hostage. Now, it was filled with fallen guards. Her own people. The ones she had raised, chosen, trusted, and relied on. They were all sprawled on the floor. Some had passed, some only groaned, while others, still breathing, could not move.
'...This doesn't make sense.'
The thought repeated in her mind. It was not an attempt to understand, but a scream pushing away comprehension. Even when the assassination had failed, and even when brute force had not been enough, she had maintained her calculations. Capture. Bind. Control the king, and it would all end. She had reached this point with that strategy.
But now, all those calculations had collapsed in the face of one man's inaction. Her gaze fixed on Park Seongjin. He did not breathe heavily nor show off his sword. There was no victorious attitude or mocking look towards the defeated. His eyes were those of a person finishing his task. Judgment.
In the face of that gaze, the Empress Dowager realized. 'This boy does not belong to a category I can understand.'
She had seen countless men: generals, ministers, emperors, rebels, and ambitious men. All of them could be explained by the language of desire. But there was no word to describe this boy. That made him even more terrifying.
She grabbed the arm of one of her aides. There was no strength in her hand. Her heart didn't race. It sank coldly.
'It's over.'
The hostage, the threat, the prestige of the empire—everything had been settled in this room. At that moment, Park Seongjin's voice was heard.
"What shall we do now?"
The Empress Dowager couldn't even lift her head to respond. She knew that the question was no longer directed at her.
The king's answer followed.
"…What can be done? Perhaps the rise and fall of the Yuan Empire has been brought forward a little."
Those words sank deeper than a sword. The phrase 'brought forward' was a declaration acknowledging the empire's inevitable downfall.
The King of Goryeo rose. His steps wavered, but they were no longer those of a prisoner.
"Let's go."
Park Seongjin lowered his upper body and placed his fist over his chest.
"Loyalty."
The moment the two turned their backs, the Empress Dowager knew. She no longer had any means to stop them.
Outside the palace, no one knew what had ended in the Empress Dowager's chamber.
But the Empress Dowager knew. In this very place, the Empress's power had collapsed once again, and the empire had taken one more irreversible step towards its fall. More than that, she realized that all the control she had built up throughout her life had been completely powerless in front of one person.
That despair was not expressed in tears or anger. It silently sank deep within her.