Chapter 70

It took only four days for Jaheon to seize control of the Inner Court.

What was more, he had accomplished it without shedding a single drop of blood. The speed with which he moved was almost enough to make one wonder just how many places Jaheon had already extended his reach into.

His momentum was nothing short of that of the Ten Attendants at the height of their power.

As a result, even those who had once looked down upon Jaheon began watching him warily. Once one controlled the Inner Court, was it not possible to exert influence over the imperial court? Moreover, Jaheon now held both the Empress and the only Imperial Prince in the palm of his hand.

Thus, although he had taken control of the Inner Court without shedding a drop of blood, Jaheon had gradually become an object of fear within the palace.

There was only one exception.

Apart from Sun Yu.

“Are you joking?”

Looking upon the utterly deserted Inner Court, Sun Yu muttered under his breath.

“…So this is why I wondered why the Chamberlain was so eager to recommend me.”

The usually vacant expression on Sun Yu’s face was now unmistakably tinged with irritation.

“Is it strange? Is this not the ordinary sight of the Inner Court?”

“What in the world is ordinary about an Inner Court with no one in it?”

At Jaheon’s shameless response, a chilling light flashed through Sun Yu’s usually languid eyes.

“There is no one here.”

His tone remained calm, yet there was something murderous beneath it.

Having never seen Sun Yu like this before, Jaheon burst into laughter.

“Haha! Even if they were here, they would only get in the way.”

The Inner Court was where all memorials submitted to the Emperor were gathered.

It was also where those memorials were reviewed and matters worthy of being brought before the imperial court were selected. Because of its importance, the officials who had originally served in the Inner Court were all connected to the Ten Attendants. They had been planted there by the Ten Attendants to obscure the Emperor’s eyes.

“So it is better to have none at all.”

Jaheon had not even needed to look to know what would happen.

Had he left them there, they would have obstructed everything he tried to do at every turn. If that was the case, it was better simply to remove them. And so, Jaheon had cleanly swept them all away.

Had the Emperor not known exactly what he was doing and continued to indulge Jaheon with his favor?

Then is there any reason for me to hesitate?

There was no reason for Jaheon not to wield the Emperor’s favor to his advantage.

“But you should at least have left enough people behind to handle the handover.”

Sun Yu, however, was not pleased with Jaheon’s methods.

“Recruiting people all over again is work in itself. Just what sort of nerve do you have to—!”

Sun Yu, irritated despite his perpetually vacant expression, suddenly remembered something Jaheon had said to him on the day they first met.

—Why not see things for yourself and make your own judgment while you are in Luoyang?

Those words, so unlike anything the established scholar-officials would have said, had been what made Sun Yu resolve to assist Jaheon while in Luoyang.

Quite some time had passed since then.

“……”

Why had he remembered that now?

It had been long enough for an ordinary person to have forgotten it entirely. Yet an indescribably strange sensation settled over Sun Yu as he stared at Jaheon through half-lidded eyes.

It felt as though he had fallen into a trap.

At that very moment, the beautiful man before him smiled brightly.

“Indeed.”

Sun Yu’s face twisted violently.

“I did this with you in mind.”

Though Sun Yu was merely a collateral branch of the Yingchuan Xun clan, was he not exceptionally clever and capable enough that even Xun Shuang, the head of the clan, doted upon him?

“Gongda, I believe you are more than capable of filling all these vacancies in the Inner Court properly.”

By now, Sun Yu’s eyes were practically hurling every possible curse at Jaheon.

But once water had been spilled, there was no way to gather it back.

Jaheon’s telling him that he was free to leave?

What utter bullshit.

Judging from the situation, Jaheon had no intention of accepting Sun Yu’s resignation until the Inner Court had been completely reorganized.

Sun Yu considered every possible scenario.

But there was no escape.

In the end, having resigned himself to his fate, Sun Yu let out a deep sigh before addressing Jaheon.

“Chamberlain.”

“Is there something you wish to ask?”

“No. It is simply that I cannot be the only one to suffer.”

“……?”

“I would like to recommend someone to the Chamberlain who can share this misery with me.”

At Sun Yu’s unexpected words, Jaheon burst into laughter.

“Hahahaha!”

But Sun Yu was perfectly serious.

“I am not joking. Chamberlain, I cannot possibly handle all this work by myself, so I ask that you recommend him as soon as possible.”

Jaheon, who had laughed so hard that tears had gathered in his eyes, asked Sun Yu,

“Ha… Fine. What is his name?”

Having reached a state of complete enlightenment, Sun Yu uttered the name of a fellow scholar with whom he had studied.

“Zhong Yao. His courtesy name is Yuanchang.”

As expected, Sun Yu knew how to find a truly exceptional candidate.

He had just proposed bringing in Zhong Yao, Cao Cao’s strategist renowned for his skill in domestic administration and the famous calligrapher credited with establishing the regular script that was still used even in later generations.

…Wait. Calligraphy?

But soon, the smile vanished from Jaheon’s face.

His face turned pale as realization dawned upon him.

Fuck.

He had just opened the gates of Hell.

Zhong Yao.

Courtesy name Yuanchang.

The eloquent speaker who had persuaded that brainless fool Ma Teng to surrender to Cao Cao, and the lunatic who had once consumed poison and nearly died because he dared to defy his lord’s orders.

And, above all, he was a calligrapher with a hobby of collecting beautiful handwriting.

“Th-the honor of meeting you, Chamberlain, is, is mine!”

In other words, there was no way Zhong Yao could possibly be normal.

“……”

As Jaheon faced Zhong Yao, the corner of his mouth twitched faintly.

At first glance, there seemed to be nothing particularly unusual about him.

His face had flushed red upon seeing Jaheon, but was that not a common occurrence? Aside from that, Zhong Yao’s appearance was perfectly neat. No, more than merely neat, he was quite presentable. He looked exactly like the sort of man who, having developed a late-life infatuation, would father a son at the age of seventy.

In other words, the problem was not his appearance.

“…What in the world are you carrying?”

Jaheon’s lips trembled as he barely managed to ask.

“I-I heard that carrying a portrait of the Chamberlain brings good fortune…!”

The problem was Zhong Yao’s mind.

What kind of lunatic carries around a portrait of me?

Jaheon could not even comprehend how the portrait Cao Cao had once sent him had somehow spread through the streets in the first place. Of course, it was not nearly as intricately painted as the portrait Cao Cao had sent him.

But regardless, why was the thing he had burned now sitting here as though it had never been destroyed?

Jaheon felt as though he were about to lose his mind.

Clenching his teeth, Jaheon asked,

“…You believe carrying my portrait brings good fortune?”

“Y-yes. It has spread throughout the streets. And, and the reason is…!”

At that moment, madness flashed in Zhong Yao’s eyes.

“…Because the Chamberlain is the reincarnation of an immortal sage!”

Jaheon was rendered speechless.

“……”

What was worse, Zhong Yao did not stammer even once when he said it.

Fuck.

His head throbbed.

It hurt even more than when he had to deal with Ma Teng.

The mere existence of Zhong Yao was almost as painful as hearing Lü Bu’s name.

Is this bastard really Zhong Yao?

In the original history, Zhong Yao had undoubtedly been a useful man.

Even if one combined Wei, Shu, and Wu, there was likely no one as skilled as Zhong Yao at sowing discord.

Moreover, Zhong Yao had excelled in numerous fields.

Domestic administration, strategy, diplomacy—he was competent in all of them. He was not extraordinarily brilliant in any single field, but he was the sort of man who could handle everything well. He fell short of Xun Yu, but he was dependable and capable in virtually anything he undertook.

Then why in the world is he like this?!

Jaheon even began to suspect that Sun Yu had recommended Zhong Yao specifically to torment him.

“It is an honor to work alongside the Chamberlain! The moment I saw the letter Gongda sent, I rushed straight to Luoyang! If you happen to have the time, perhaps you could write one of your poems upon this portrait…!”

As Zhong Yao excitedly rattled off words one after another, Jaheon, listening with a vacant expression, called out to Sun Yu.

“Gongda.”

“Yes.”

“Is he always like this?”

“He gets like this sometimes when it concerns calligraphy.”

“You know that is not what I meant…!”

But Sun Yu was unyielding.

“If you are dissatisfied with Yuanchang, then the Chamberlain, who is so busy preparing the Empress’s investiture ceremony, may personally help me process these documents.”

“……”

Jaheon looked back and forth between the mountain of documents awaiting approval and Sun Yu, then reluctantly permitted Zhong Yao to join them…

“Fine. It cannot be helped.”

“Then all that remains is for you to write a poem upon the Chamberlain’s portrait that Yuanchang brought with him.”

…But he had never agreed to that!

“…Why should I?!”

Jaheon forgot all dignity and shouted in outrage at Sun Yu.

“But Chamberlain, that was the condition under which I summoned him to Luoyang.”

“You summoned him under that condition?”

“Yes. Yuanchang likes the Chamberlain’s poetry.”

From afar, Zhong Yao gazed at Jaheon with eyes full of anticipation.

Jaheon was seized by an overwhelming desire to burn both his portrait and Zhong Yao together.

“……”

But Sun Yu urged him on with nothing more than his eyes.

From this day forth, I swear never to write another poem again.

It was all because of his own foolishness in seeking fame through poetry.

In the end, with his lips trembling, Jaheon wrote a poem upon his own portrait.

Seeing Zhong Yao become utterly enraptured by Jaheon’s handwriting, Jaheon wanted nothing more than to throw him out immediately.

He truly did.

“Chamberlain.”

“……?”

“…I have finished sorting the memorials you mentioned.”

Until, that was, Sun Yu returned with the neatly classified memorials in less than half a day.

“……”

It had taken two hours.

Merely adding a single Zhong Yao to the Inner Court had resulted in the enormous pile of memorials being completely sorted.

“I have separated the memorials and documents concerning the bandits, rebellions, and heterodox religious movements you mentioned and placed them here.”

Why had Jaheon originally wanted to become an Assistant Remonstrator?

It had been so that he could observe the course of history, which had already been thrown off its original path by his intervention. An Assistant Remonstrator could inspect memorials under the pretext of offering remonstrance.

And the Inner Court was where every memorial submitted to the Emperor was gathered.

Yet when Jaheon finally became Chamberlain and saw the state of the Inner Court for himself, it had been an absolute mess. Thus, Jaheon had reformed the Inner Court.

But because he had only just begun that reform, he had assumed that it would be impossible to find the information he wanted for quite some time.

And then, like a ray of light, Zhong Yao had appeared.

“Gongda.”

“Yes.”

“Did Yuanchang ask for any more poems?”

Jaheon decided to consider his vow never to write poetry again null and void.

“……?”

“Tell him I can write him some new ones.”

What did a few poems matter?

He could write as many as necessary.

“…I shall convey your message.”

Sun Yu, bewildered by Jaheon’s sudden change of heart, replied.

It did not matter what Sun Yu thought of him.

If Jaheon could win Zhong Yao’s favor, he was willing to do anything.

To modern-day Jaheon, Zhong Yao felt like a computer from his memories of the modern world that had somehow transformed into a human being and appeared before him.

I had been wondering how I was ever going to sort all of this…

There were simply too many memorials.

Until Jaheon became Chamberlain, the officials of the Inner Court had neglected the countless memorials sent up from the provinces. After all, it was not the scholar-officials of Luoyang who suffered from the ravages of banditry, but the common people in the provinces. Unless the problem grew large enough, they had likely never even considered bringing it to the Emperor’s attention.

But Jaheon had to examine every single one of these memorials.

…If I check them all, I will have to stay up all night.

There was something he absolutely had to find before the Empress’s investiture ceremony.

[Bandit activity in the Sili region.]

[The Wudoumi Sect….]

[Bandits dressed in black….]

[Rebellion in Nanzhong….]

History had changed because of Jaheon’s intervention.

It was no longer possible to predict the constantly shifting political situation solely through the memories of a modern man that he carried within him.

Therefore, Jaheon had to find the signs.

…Just as I thought.

At dawn, as the sun began to rise,

Jaheon finally found the omen.

[There are those proclaiming that the Azure Heaven has already perished, and that the Yellow Heaven shall rise….]

No matter how much history had changed, there were signs of events that could not be avoided.

Signs that countless commoners would rise up and demand a new world.

[They wrapped yellow scarves around their heads.]

It was the birth of the Yellow Turbans—

the first stirrings of the rebellion that would throw open the gates to an age of chaos.