HLCOB C44

Chapter 44

“Did you hear the news?”

“What news?”

“They say the third young master will be appointed to an official post directly, without first serving in the provincial office!”

“Is that true?”

“It’s true! The rumors run rampant in the palace! To curb Assistant Commander Cao, the third young master will be recommended!”

At the Yuan estate in Luoyang, the servants gathered in a corner of the mansion, whispering among themselves.

“Already? Isn’t the third young master still not yet of age?”

“These days, everyone rises quickly to office. Isn’t it likely that the master himself intends to elevate the third young master?”

“Well, indeed. Lord of Huaxu and even that debauched Cao, both obtained ranks before they reached the proper age.”

Unaware that Yuan Shao was passing right by them.

“Then… what of the second young master?”

“Come now. Do you think the second young master has any chance of gaining office?”

“…Still, he too is the master’s son, is he not?”

“You know full well the truth. He is the son of a concubine, disdained by the old matriarch, unacknowledged as a true heir. And considering the second young master’s vile temper…”

At those words, Yuan Shao halted.

“……”

The servant accompanying him turned pale as death.

“If he were truly regarded as the master’s son, the second young master would already have been granted an office!”

Yuan Shao, holding a fragment of bamboo slip in his hand, turned to face the servants. His thick brows twitched faintly.

“They even intend to grant the third young master the rank of Captain of Cavalry. Surely, there would have been more than enough offices for the second young master as well!”

Captain of Cavalry.

It was a position designed to check the Commandant of the Central Army, and ranked even higher than the office of Assistant Commander which Cao Cao held.

Yuan Shao, who had sought to rise without the support of his family, well knew what such appointments meant. Giving Yuan Shu a post even higher than Cao Cao’s signified one thing alone—that no bastard’s blood could ever be raised above that of the rightful son.

His grip tightened on the bamboo fragment.

Crack—

At last, the bamboo splinter snapped in Yuan Shao’s hand.

“……!”

Instantly, the servants’ chatter ceased. Startled, they looked up, finding Yuan Shao glaring with a face white with fury. The sight made them collapse to the floor, prostrating themselves in terror.

“Forgive us, young master!”

“W-we are sorry!”

“We were wrong! Just once! Please, just once, forgive us!”

Yuan Shao looked down at the servants now pressed flat against the floor, some of them weeping.

“Young master! Please forgive us! We are but foolish slaves, show mercy just once…!”

The second young master of the Yuan clan of Runan was infamous—

For being utterly different inside the household compared to outside.

Outside, he was the flawless heir of a noble family, impeccable in bearing. But within the estate, he was merciless in cruelty toward the servants.

Drip—

From the broken bamboo in his hand, blood ran down Yuan Shao’s palm. His light brown eyes dropped to his injured hand, then his exquisitely handsome face curved into a cold smile.

“Whip them, then lock them in the storeroom.”

The servants wailed and begged for forgiveness.

“Let them starve for three days, that they may learn their place.”

But Yuan Shao ignored their cries as he walked on.

Drip—

Drops of blood continued to fall from his wounded hand. Yet he paid no mind—to the injury, nor to the further spread of his cruel reputation among the servants. None of it mattered now.

What truly mattered was that his half-brother—the rightful son of the Yuan clan—would ascend to office ahead of him.

Yuan Shao came to a stop.

‘In the end, was it impossible from the start?’

It was the fact he had long refused to accept. He could never be the true son of this household. Fully acknowledging it left his mind within an icy calm. The reason his efforts, however bitter, had never brought him advancement—he could no longer deny it.

Thinking back, it was so from the beginning.

From the day he had been brought into this house, on the grounds that his face so resembled his father’s that it could not be denied.

—So similar, it is impossible to reject him.

And yet, Yuan Shao had clung to hope.

He believed that if he gained recognition from others, his standing within the Clan might change. Thus he had staked everything on earning acknowledgment, striving in desperation. He had hoped to rise in rank by his own merit, to make his name known.

But it all amounted to nothing.

The clan would never give him anything. Because of the taint in his blood, they would withhold everything, and in the end cast him out of Luoyang. It had been decided from the very start.

Realizing this at last, Yuan Shao laughed bitterly.

Then he suddenly stopped.

“……”

Because a thought rose unbidden in his mind.

In that vast imperial palace, there was one who, unlike himself, never bowed or demeaned himself. The vision of that beautiful person blazed within his memory.

“Is it truly so severe?”

“Yes. That the old matriarch of the Yuan clan blocked the second young master’s advancement has long been common knowledge.”

As Jaheon inspected the villa Oh Jook-yeop had procured, his brows furrowed as he asked,

“…If she despised him so much, why was he ever legitimized in the first place?”

This was not antiquity anymore.

With no such thing as genetic testing, all it would take was for them to deny the boy as their son, and that would be the end of it. Yet still, he had been brought in by the Yuan family.

To Jaheon’s question, Oh Jook-yeop replied,

“It was because the second young master’s face bore an uncanny resemblance to Lord Yuan, the Minister over the Masses. They had no choice.”

The Minister over the Masses—one of the Three Excellencies, the highest offices of the court. Yuan Feng, the current patriarch and Yuan Shao’s father, held this dignity. It was also why the Yuan clan still carried such influence within the Filth faction.

“Rumors spread widely throughout Luoyang at the time—that the current Minister had fathered a bastard. The resemblance was so great, the gossip never ceased.”

“So, had he not resembled him, they would never have taken him?”

“Yes. Most likely, no. They formally adopted the second young master into the Yuan line not as a true son, but as a fostered one.”

This was the first Jaheon had heard of it.

‘An adopted son…’

Even the memories of his modern life had never clarified such details.

“There are even tales that the Yuan clan’s old matriarch starved herself, refusing to eat, until he was adopted not as a true son but as a fostered one, saying she would never acknowledge a child with such base blood.”

In the end, in true history, Yuan Shao became lord of Hebei without his clan’s support. It also meant the widely praised reputation he now held in Luoyang had been built solely on the strength of his own ability.

Jaheon pressed his fingers against his brow and sighed.

‘He will not be easy to sway.’

To build such a reputation without family backing required immense effort. Moreover, Yuan Shao’s noble birth still carried the glaring stain of illegitimacy.

Even under such conditions, for him to maintain so high a reputation meant his character was anything but ordinary. And if he was indeed a close companion of Cao Cao, then his nature could not, by any means, be common.

‘…If only he were as simple-minded as Sun Yu was.’

Jaheon clicked his tongue, recalling the naive strategist Sun Yu.

“But, young master…”

“…?”

“Why did you command me to procure a residence here, of all places?”

Oh Jook-yeop, watching cautiously, asked.

He had followed Jaheon’s orders and found the house, but the location his master had chosen was unusual indeed.

“This place is no poor estate, but most of the ministers maintain their residences close to the palace, do they not?”

The house Jaheon selected was among the outermost of those searched. Around it lived far more commoners than noble grandees, and even a slum lay nearby. In truth, it was an exceedingly modest dwelling for one so favored by the Emperor.

But Jaheon had his reasons.

The Beggar Sect.

A name he had once read of in martial hero tales, but also a group that truly existed in history. Jaheon intended to create such a network himself.

“From now on, I will use the merchants’ name to provide relief to the poor here, at regular intervals.”

In ancient times, there were only limited ways to obtain information.

To train men as spies and send them, or to position one’s watchers in advance. But such methods demanded time and money. Jaheon had plenty of money, but little time.

Therefore, the better method was to win the allegiance of those who heard and saw the most.

“There are none in Luoyang who hear more stories than the beggars of the streets.”

And what he gained would not be information alone.

He could also spread rumors.

For beggars existed everywhere. This meant Jaheon could use them to circulate whispers among the common people.

‘…Then, perhaps I should offer a gift.’

Thinking of Yuan Shao’s precarious standing within the Yuan clan, Jaheon added,

“Tomorrow, let us conduct a demonstration of relief here, as a trial.”

As it was, the rumor which Zhang Yang had planted in the palace was not enough to push the Yuan clan into a corner. Thus the very first rumor to spread here in Luoyang would instead be about the arrogance of the Yuan family’s own heir.

Yuan Shu.

In true history, he had been a formidable warlord, commanding Sun Jian as his subordinate, and ultimately founding the Zhong dynasty through vast wealth and influence amassed by the Yuan clan of Runan. Yet his arrogance had led to its swift ruin, and he was infamous for having begged for honey water even as he fled—a fool’s downfall.

“We will let it be whispered that the third young master of the Yuan clan wept and pleaded before his father for the office of Captain of Cavalry.”

Indeed, though Yuan Shu was surely inclined to such behavior, even if the rumor were false, it did not matter.

What mattered was only that throughout Luoyang it be said that Yuan Gonglu, the rightful son of the Yuan clan, was far too petty and narrow-hearted ever to deserve such a rank.

“When the precious grandson earns the people’s scorn, are you not curious how the old matriarch of the Yuan clan’s household, the power behind them all, will respond?”

Jaheon murmured with a sly curve of his lips.