The Crown Prince Geom Muyang stood alone at the edge of the cliff on Daecheon Mountain.

Far below, the buildings of Cheonma Sin Gyo looked tiny.

Muyang stretched out his hand. If he grasped like this, Cheonma Sin Gyo could fit in his palm.

He opened his empty fist in the air, recalling the words Geom Mugeuk had once said:

—“There is no coexistence among brothers in power struggles? In the end, they kill each other? Who decided that? Why should we be swayed by such fools who cannot even control their own desires, by their precedents and doubts? So don’t even dream of being swayed. If you ever feel paranoid that I’ll kill you, come find me.”

He should have come to him at least ten times already. Lately, he had frequent nightmares. Every time, in the dream, Geom Mugeuk smiled as he killed him.

—“You’re so naive, brother. Did you believe everything I said? Well, that’s why you end up like this. You thought power could be shared? The greatest power in the martial world? I’m grateful for your naivety. Pathetic, really.”

He would wake up cursing him. He cursed in every way possible, but he always lost to himself. And Geom Muyang knew that those words Mugeuk spat were ultimately his own thoughts.

Lately, Muyang had been busy.

Handling cult affairs, meeting various Majon of different ranks, attending to external matters, even saving time to sleep less and accomplish more.

But he could not keep up with Mugeuk’s relentless pace.

One moment he would open his eyes as a disciple of Kwonma; another, searching for poisonous insects in Cheondokrim; next, departing the cult with Geugak Soma; and then again...

He was a man who couldn’t bark in the training grounds, nor could he carry Soma on his back running to the brink of death.

Waaaah!

He could almost hear the crowd’s cheers for Geom Mugeuk ringing in his ears. He didn’t want to be petty and mean, but he couldn’t suppress this maddening jealousy.

Just when he felt like shouting out loud, Mabul arrived. Small in stature, his golden radiance was unchanged.

“Did you call?”

“Welcome.”

Mabul stood beside him on the cliff.

“Geugak Soma has awakened.”

“I heard as well.”

Muyang’s voice was dry. Mabul knew his mood was sour. Majon were turning to Mugeuk one by one, so of course he couldn’t be pleased.

Mabul understood Muyang’s feelings better than anyone.

“Kwonma still supports the Crown Prince.”

Muyang’s lips curled slightly.

“Though the disciple is Mugeuk.”

He judged that Kwonma’s support wouldn’t last long.

“Kwonma distinguishes between public and private affairs. He won’t change his words recklessly.”

Mabul quickly added,

“Duke Dok will also support you, sir.”

“Barking at the training grounds alongside Mugeuk?”

“That’s why the Crown Prince has moved further from succession. The future Cheonma should never be like that.”

“Are you aware that Mugeuk’s popularity in the cult rose even higher after that day?”

“What matters more than popularity is the leader’s will. The Crown Prince is the legitimate eldest son of the leader, and has been trusted from youth to become successor.”

Mabul tried to encourage him, but Muyang asked with a tired voice.

“Lately, when I see you and Mabul, I think of a defeatist and a baseless optimist. Isn’t that right?”

“Who’s the defeatist?”

Muyang’s face twisted slightly at the question.

Maybe Mabul didn’t know how many times he had been frustrated and disappointed by Muyang and almost succumbed to defeatism. How many times he had to compose himself to get here.

Mabul asked calmly,

“I’ve never been optimistic, but even if I were, why do you think it baseless?”

“Then do you believe I can become successor?”

Mabul met Muyang’s eyes and answered firmly,

“I believe.”

“That’s why it’s a problem. Your judgment of the situation is so dark. While we were stagnant and rotting, Mugeuk burst forth like a waterfall, flowing into the sea.”

“No matter how capable the Crown Prince is, we only need to do one thing well.”

“What is that?”

Mabul raised his voice as if shouting from a mountaintop,

“The leader’s seat suits the Crown Prince better!”

His shout echoed repeatedly.

When the echo faded, Mabul said,

“That’s all you need to convince everyone of. No need to be proud or angry that Mugeuk has won Majon hearts. The Crown Prince only has to accomplish that.”

Muyang exploded in somewhat heightened tone,

“It’s frustrating beyond words! Do you really think I suit the leader’s seat better, Mabul?”

Mabul replied with certainty,

“Yes, you suit it better.”

“That’s why it’s baseless confidence. Mabul, you remain with me only because you failed to gain Mugeuk’s choice, right?”

Muyang said words he should never have uttered, words that hurt Mabul deeply.

Unexpectedly, Mabul wasn’t too upset. Those words sounded like a scream.

Until now, Muyang had hidden his true feelings and treated him carefully. Now, he was crying out in despair.

“That’s the baseless statement.”

When Mabul answered calmly, Muyang took out a small vial.

“Do you know what’s inside?”

“What?”

“Mu-hyeong-ji poison.”

Mabul was shocked to hear that.

“You mean to kill the Crown Prince with that?”

Without hesitation, Muyang answered.

“It’s not impossible.”

Mabul stared and asked,

“Then why bring it here? Say, ‘Let’s have a drink with the Crown Prince,’ and poison him! Kill him!”

After pressing him fiercely, Mabul sincerely calmed him down.

“You know that’s not right, don’t you? The Crown Prince declared he’d fight the succession without bloodshed. If you poison him, no one will follow the Crown Prince. Neither Majon nor the minions below.”

Looking at the vial, Muyang said,

“So... I’m debating whether to use it.”

Snap!

Muyang turned his head.

Mabul suddenly jumped up and slapped his cheek mercilessly.

Muyang stared at him, shocked. He never dreamed Mabul would touch him, so he was extremely surprised.

Mabul extended his hand.

“Give it to me.”

Along with golden radiance, cold energy radiated from Mabul.

Muyang had never seen Mabul so angry before.

“Give it!”

Overwhelmed by his intensity, Muyang handed the vial over.

Mabul opened the cap and poured it down the cliff. Then he threw away the bottle.

The two remained silent for a long time.

“That was the first time I’ve been hit.”

“Same here, first time hitting a leader’s kin.”

Muyang, proud and strong-willed, was surprisingly calm. Had Mabul hit him when he said he would kill Mugeuk, he might have exploded.

“A costly poison, a waste.”

“The waste is in having such futile thoughts.”

Muyang’s lip corners returned to their place after a long frown. He sat down. Until now, he had spoken looking down at Mabul, but now he met his eye level.

“Crown Prince, look to the sky.”

Mabul looked up.

Muyang’s gaze, which had been fixed on Cheonma Sin Gyo far below, also turned to the sky.

Originally, Mabul wasn’t this kind of man. Muyang felt that both he and Mabul had changed a lot. Everyone changed after getting involved with Geom Mugeuk.

“To become successor, you must overcome anxiety. If the Crown Prince comes like a typhoon, become a rock. Become a rock steadfast against the storm.”

Muyang’s pupils trembled. This man Mabul was sincere.

He was the last Majon left for him.

Come to think of it, Mabul had been there from the start.

He was the Majon who stayed from beginning to end.

“I am not a rock but a pebble tossed by the storm. You should go to Mugeuk! Mugeuk will understand your heart better, speak better, and be more considerate than I.”

“That’s why I refuse. That is my role. Why should the Crown Prince? I, the elder, must be considerate and understanding, just as I am trying to understand the Crown Prince now.”

Muyang choked up.

The last time he met Mugeuk, he said this:

—“If Majon laugh in front of you and you think they’re your people, that’s a huge mistake. They will ultimately choose what benefits them at the last moment.”

He had lived with this heart until now.

“Why did you choose me?”

The wind stirred their robes.

“I think I like the Crown Prince better than the heir.”

Mabul said with a joking smile, but Muyang did not smile.

When his life was pushed to the cliff’s edge, someone stood to protect him.

Mabul, barely half the height of an adult, stood like a giant blocking his way.

“Then I’ll go down first.”

Mabul said goodbye and turned away.

“Mabul.”

“Yes?”

“Actually, that poison just now wasn’t Mu-hyeong-ji poison. It’s an internal injury cure made by the doctor. I had no intention to drink it.”

“I know.”

Muyang was surprised.

“You knew?”

Mabul pulled out the same vial from his bosom.

“I have it too.”

“You hit me knowing that?”

Mabul smiled awkwardly.

“When else would I get the chance to hit the Crown Prince?”

Without waiting for a reply, Mabul quickly turned and descended the mountain.

Watching him leave, Muyang couldn’t help but laugh in disbelief.

Muyang also rose from his seat. Instead of looking at Cheonma Sin Gyo in the distance, he looked up at the sky.

“...If I go like this, I’ll lose in the end.”

Maybe he had already lost.

But he couldn’t lose without a fight. He thought to give his best until the end.

Somehow, he felt he wouldn’t have nightmares tonight.

“Are you trying to annoy me?”

Hyeolcheon Doma, reading a book, looked up and stared at me.

I was pacing back and forth in his room.

“I’m pondering an important problem.”

“Then why do it here?”

“Maybe because there are so many books, I feel smarter.”

“Then go to Cheonma Library and think. You’ll become the smartest in the world there.”

“But the elder isn’t there.”

I sneaked closer to Hyeolcheon Doma.

“If I’m in danger, you’re the one I think of.”

“You like that masked fellow, don’t you? He’d even give you Millennial Snow Ginseng. Go see him there.”

I forced myself not to laugh.

This rigid person got jealous sometimes, oddly enough. Especially jealous of Soma.

“Who compares to our elder? Tell Soma to just look at the walls in Akingok.”

“That’s not it. He’s not disturbing them, so Soma can spend good time with the woman who came along.”

“You know Cheonhwaruju came too.”

“Even if I don’t want to know, I get reports all day.”

Hyeolcheon Doma read a book.

“So that Golden Great Operation or whatever, go discuss it with the masked man or the drunkard.”

I sat down on the floor next to the window where Hyeolcheon Doma was reading.

“The operation’s name is grandiose, but I haven’t made any detailed plans. You’ve read so many books, surely there’s a way inside one of them?”

“You fool, books are for resting from all those ridiculous operations. Find the answer there.”

“All right. I’ll train here until I find the answer!”

“Who said you could!”

Just as I threw myself onto the bed, an invisible force pushed me back.

“Don’t lie on the bed wearing your outside clothes!”

Hyeolcheon Doma took me by the collar and brought me to the door.

Leaning against the window next to the door, I pondered.

“What exactly is the problem?”

“The problem is this operation isn’t about just making Mabul my man blindly.”

“Why not if you make him your man?”

Hyeolcheon Doma surely knew the reason.

“Because if I take Mabul too, it corners my brother too much.”

He worried about making a move his brother should not allow.

But Hyeolcheon Doma saw the situation differently.

“Is that really so?”

“Is it not?”

After a moment, Hyeolcheon Doma said,

“If even Mabul turns away, wouldn’t the Crown Prince give up cleanly? I thought the Crown Prince was that kind of person.”

“!”

I probably trusted my brother less than Hyeolcheon Doma did. Maybe because of the troubles my brother caused me in childhood. I had a prejudice that when cornered, he would do petty and mean things.

But separate from me, there is the relationship between my brother and the Majon. For the Majon, my brother is someone who knows when to retreat.

“You must give the Crown Prince a chance to properly admit defeat. The things you worry about now will happen when there is lingering regret.”

Hyeolcheon Doma looked up from the book and stared at me.

“When you step on someone, step firmly. For the Crown Prince.”

I looked at Hyeolcheon Doma without a word.

“Why are you staring like that?”

“As I always say, I don’t know how I’d live without the elder.”

“As I always say, I’ll live well splitting Millennial Snow Ginseng with the masked fellow.”

“You’re persistent.”

“Yeah, you worry about grudges here. Why worry about °• N 𝑜 v 𝑒 l i g h t •° their relationship? How presumptuous.”

I bowed respectfully to Hyeolcheon Doma.

“Thank you. Thanks to you, I found my answer.”

Hyeolcheon Doma’s words were right.

Only when I face my brother with full force will he laugh bitterly and admit defeat.

Half-hearted consideration only wounds my brother’s pride. I will firmly make Mabul mine. That will also bring my brother and Mabul’s relationship to a new place.

After leaving Doma’s quarters, I headed straight toward Mabul’s place bustling with guards.