In the silence that had settled heavily over the room.

Woon Taeryun spoke, slowly.

“A deal…”

He let out a small sigh, then put the smile back on.

“Amusing.”

Woon Taeryun looked blankly at the cup in front of him and asked,

“First, I’m curious. What is it you want?”

Seo Woojin held up three fingers.

“It’s a fair amount.”

Woon Taeryun glanced at the fingers and smirked.

“You’re greedy.”

“I consider that a virtue in a Dark Alliance Lord.”

Woon Taeryun nodded slowly.

“Say it. I’ll listen, and then judge whether you’re a fit party to deal with. And if you fail to move me… yes. Then I’ll bear your threat.”

In that instant.

Every hair on him seemed to stand on end at once.

Killing intent.

From places he could not see, from every direction at the same time.

Right. This room was part of the formation too, in the end.

There would be men beyond the dark, watching him.

If he failed to persuade Woon Taeryun, they would draw the killing intent back in, take shape as sharpened weapons, and show themselves.

‘He’s decided it’s cleaner to kill me and clean up after? His arithmetic really is faster than anyone’s.’

Judging by the fact that he had already made up his mind in so short a moment.

Seo Woojin took a small, deep breath and began, slowly.

“First, one thing. Acknowledge my independence.”

Woon Taeryun smirked and shook his head.

“An unreasonable demand right out of the gate.”

Seo Woojin denied it flatly.

“It isn’t unreasonable. If anything, it profits the Woon Clan too.”

“Ho. Is that so? Would you explain it, then?”

Seo Woojin picked up the two chopsticks in front of him.

“Right now the Dark Alliance has the moderates and the hardliners. Two factions set against each other. And here.”

He picked up a spoon as well.

“There’s the neutral faction, which belongs to neither. Yes. Places like the Baek Clan.”

Crack.

Seo Woojin snapped one of the chopsticks in half.

“And the moderates, unfortunately, are being pushed back by the hardliners as things stand. And since the Alliance Lord died, hasn’t that trend only sped up? Which is why you wanted me made Alliance Lord by any means from the start, isn’t it?”

“So you mean to absorb the neutral faction, the ones who belong to neither?”

Seo Woojin nodded deeply.

“Correct. But if I go under you, they won’t move. Some of them are simply indecisive and can’t pick a side, but there are certainly others who haven’t picked because they dislike both powers. If they think I’m your man, there’s no reason for them to move at all.”

Woon Taeryun stroked his chin, apparently lost in thought.

Seo Woojin watched his face and went on.

“Acknowledge the Alliance Lord’s independence. I’ll use that independence as my banner and absorb the neutral faction. And those powers will help you hold the hardliners in check.”

“Meaning that once you’ve absorbed the neutral faction you’ll come under me? Or that we become allies for a time?”

“The latter, obviously. Why would I hand back an independence I went to all that trouble to win?”

The corner of Woon Taeryun’s mouth lifted.

“You really are greedy.”

“Thanks for the compliment.”

Woon Taeryun snorted at the nerve of it.

“What’s the second?”

Seo Woojin held up two fingers.

“I’ll give you two at once. The Four Black Dragons. And Woon Seorin.”

Woon Taeryun’s brow twitched.

“Setting Seorin aside for the moment and taking the Four Black Dragons first — people call them by that byname, but fundamentally they belong to the Black Dragon Guard. And the Black Dragon Guard is the Dark Alliance Lord’s personal guard.”

Seo Woojin shook his head.

“No. That line doesn’t work anymore. The Black Dragon Guard was created under the Black Dragon Woon Clan’s support to begin with, wasn’t it? And of them, the Four Black Dragons looked closer to you than the rest.”

The Four Black Dragons followed Woon Seorin’s orders.

They obeyed too naturally for orders coming from an acting Alliance Lord, and the relationship looked closer than that.

The line back to the Woon Clan drew itself.

“Give them to me. I need to make them wholly mine.”

“Is Rin the same case?”

Seo Woojin smiled.

“Well… the reason is different, but it’s close. I do want her ability. But I also don’t want her sacrificing anything for my sake.”

Seo Woojin had not forgotten.

That during the first test she had paid something to borrow the Woon Clan’s warriors.

Or the guilt that had settled over her face today, after she led him here.

He remembered it clearly even now.

Clink.

Woon Taeryun picked up the cup and let out a small sigh.

“You really do have an eye for people. All five of them are people I prize.”

He turned the cup this way and that, then raised his eyes to Seo Woojin.

There was a bleak light in them, and it landed on him hard.

“Do you happen to know that Rin borrowed warriors from me a while back?”

“I know.”

“Then do you know what the price was?”

Seo Woojin frowned.

“That, I don’t.”

A sneer settled at Woon Taeryun’s mouth.

“That child is truly sharp. She was from the day I first brought her home. Ah — did you know? The Woon Clan didn’t hold its commercial holdings from the start. It was on that child’s advice that we took them first. And that is what has let us survive this far.”

Seo Woojin tilted his head.

Something in that was off. Brought her home. Did that mean Woon Seorin was not his own blood?

Questions crowded in, but Woon Taeryun’s voice made him fold them away for the moment.

“In any case, that child understands exactly what a deal is. From a very young age she had grasped that to get what you ask for, you have to give the other side what it wants.”

Something about it turned Seo Woojin’s stomach, though he could not have said what; he made himself look unbothered.

“Are you bragging about your daughter all of a sudden? I’m aware she’s remarkable.”

Woon Taeryun laughed and shook his head.

“Hoho. No. I’m not bragging about my daughter. I want to open your eyes.”

“…?”

“For the loan of my warriors, that child offered up three merchant companies.”

“…What did you say?”

Woon Taeryun closed his eyes as though reaching for the memory.

“Where was it. One in Jiangsu. One in Anhui. And… ah! And one in Jiangxi! Solid companies, every one of them just beginning to stand out in its region. They were growing steadily, and before long they would have pushed into Zhejiang as well.”

When he opened his eyes again, he was wearing a bright smile.

“She was the first to find those companies, and she borrowed my warriors in exchange for handing them to me as a gift. She got hold of their weaknesses and threatened them. Where a threat didn’t take, she had the head of the merchant company killed and made it look like an accident. Their families were all put out on the street, and she brought me the heart of the companies and put it in my hands.”

Just now.

What was this man saying?

The words did not sound like words.

It was as though a devil’s sneer were ringing at his ear.

“Bringing down those three solid companies took her all of five days.”

He remembered.

After the first test ended.

The haggard Woon Seorin who had appeared in front of him only after five days had gone by.

“The Four Black Dragons I can give you. I have warriors of that caliber myself. But Rin is a different matter.”

Woon Taeryun shook his head firmly.

“For nothing more than the loan of a few warriors, that child put up goods of that value in trade. What can you give? Can you afford to buy that sharp, admirable child?”

Woon Taeryun’s meaning was clear.

If you want to take Woon Seorin, bring compensation to match.

Otherwise put your greed down and be satisfied with the Four Black Dragons.

Seo Woojin forced down something rising in his throat.

There had been a time when he thought Woon Seorin was trying to make a puppet of him. A time when he took the Woon Clan’s will to be her will.

But now he saw it. She was the puppet.

A puppet moved as Woon Taeryun pleased.

How difficult he must have made things for her, a woman who had lived that way her whole life, with him doing as he liked at every turn. And how lonely she must have been.

Seo Woojin pushed his hair back and put the anger down.

Then he spoke, in a voice calmer than before.

“As the price for her, I’ll give you the Cheon Clan. And the Gok Clan.”

Woon Taeryun started, then broke into a roar of laughter.

“Ha, hahahaha! You have a talent for making a man laugh. Leaving aside whether you have any such ability — you want Rin handed over on nothing but that promise? Did you understand nothing of what I just told you?”

Seo Woojin listened to the mockery and kept going.

“You’re the greedy one.”

“I’m greedy?”

At the question, Seo Woojin nodded.

“The Cheon Clan and the Gok Clan. Calling them half the dark path would not be overstating it. Do you plan to move on a great undertaking like clearing them away only once you’re certain? Is that certainty ever going to arrive?”

“It isn’t a question of certainty. I say it because what you’re proposing is close to reckless.”

“I drove out the Crazed Fiend. And not only that — I made him wholly mine. The Baek Clan, whose worth you acknowledged yourself, is under me as well. And today I’m sitting in front of you.”

Seo Woojin lifted his chin.

At a glance it looked like arrogance.

“Do you need more? Proof of who I am?”

“…”

Seo Woojin nodded.

“Fine. Let me become Alliance Lord first. And if you still can’t trust me after that… it won’t much matter, really.”

“It won’t matter?”

A thick sneer came over Seo Woojin’s face.

“A clan head who can’t even make a bold investment isn’t worth dealing with like this. I’d simply take it instead. That’s another virtue of the dark path, isn’t it. The strong taking what belongs to the weak.”

“Can you become the strong one?”

Seo Woojin tilted his head.

“I find myself curious.”

“About what?”

“Are you certain I won’t make a deal with the Cheon Clan and the Gok Clan?”

“…”

Seo Woojin scratched his head and said it lightly.

“Once I’m Alliance Lord my range of choices widens. The position will be attractive to them too. If they’re wise, they can forget the bad blood so far.”

Woon Taeryun let out a small sigh.

“In the end you’re threatening me again.”

“No. It isn’t a threat, it’s the reality. To me the Woon Clan and the Cheon Clan are the same thing.”

A short laugh escaped Woon Taeryun.

“I’m truly torn just now. Whether to clear you away here. Or to make the bold investment, as you put it.”

Seo Woojin knew.

Which he would choose.

‘The Cheon Clan and the Gok Clan are the Woon Clan’s raw nerve. The Woon Clan stood at the top for a long time, and those two pushed them off it. The hunger to remove them and stand at the top again has to be enormous.’

That was why the man had wanted him made Alliance Lord by any means.

And the reason he was not being cleared away on the spot, hard as he had just pushed, was just as clear.

‘The louder a hunting dog barks, the better it bites the prey. He’ll hate to lose it. The dog may bite its master, but that ferocity looks like a threat to those two as well.’

Tap. Tap. Tap.

Woon Taeryun’s fingers drummed the table at an even pace.

Weighing his danger against his value, no doubt.

‘What is there to weigh? Do you rate Woon Seorin above the Woon Clan’s long-held wish? I even left the Woon Clan a hole to slip out through, deliberately. Think about that one.’

The Alliance Lord’s independence.

If the move against the Cheon and Gok Clans went wrong.

The Woon Clan could slip out on that ground.

Nobody would believe it, but if that was the official position, the Cheon and Gok Clans could not make an issue of it.

Which meant the Woon Clan could make its attempt on the Cheon and Gok Clans at no risk at all.

While swinging a sword called the Alliance Lord.

Tap.

And Woon Taeryun’s fingers stopped.

His cold eyes were fixed on Seo Woojin.

“A pity.”

Seo Woojin frowned.

‘Refused?’

Woon Taeryun spoke, slowly.

“If I had met you a little earlier, I would never have handed you the Young Lord’s role. I’d have made you wholly mine.”

Seo Woojin’s hand closed into a fist.

“Become Alliance Lord first. Do that, and I’ll acknowledge the Alliance Lord’s independence and give you the Four Black Dragons.”

“And Military Advisor Woon?”

Woon Taeryun clicked his tongue.

“I’ll give her to you for now. But if things start running strangely… I’ll take her back.”

A smile with blood in it hung at Woon Taeryun’s mouth.

“As you said, the strong taking what belongs to the weak is a virtue of the dark path.”

A similar smile settled at Seo Woojin’s mouth.

“As you said, I am greedy. Everything I want, I’ll have, and nothing already in my arms will be taken from me. So look forward to it. To how I keep what’s mine.”

“Good.”

Woon Taeryun lifted the cup and drank half of it.

Then he sent it back to Seo Woojin.

The cup skidded across and stopped in front of him.

Seo Woojin looked at it a moment, then drained what was left.

Watching that with a satisfied look on his face.

Woon Taeryun finished what he had to say.

“I’ll look forward to it.”

Seo Woojin and Woon Taeryun.

The two of them sealed a blood pact no one could see.

With a blade held at each other’s heart.

An alliance as precarious as it was blood-soaked.

(End of Chapter 47)