Viceroy Gam Youngjae hated acting as the tax collector, just as he hated taking an active role in putting down all those bandits and deserters that roamed his lands.

They kept stealing what was rightfully his, and it annoyed him greatly.

He felt that his direct intervention was so beneath a man of this high standing, and it irked him even more.

It was, regrettably, necessary, as he was unwilling to give up his plans and ambitions now, and couldn’t afford to trust others in their execution. Not now.

At least so he thought as he rode in the front of the column of his men, spending the long journey back to his fortress submerged in thoughts.

He has been trying to gain the king’s favour for years to no end. All that time he had spent weathering the endless, petty court intrigue while fulfilling every task, every demand the fickle monarch could think of, however, had finally borne fruit when the great ruler finally acknowledged his effort and rewarded him greatly both in the function and the land. He rose above the ranks of typical gentry and was now the owner of vast swathes of land, which in combination with his new title of Viceroy, brought much envy from his former peers.

The Viceroys were the officials appointed by the king to rule the various provinces in his stead, and were, by necessity, powerful men. Youngjae’s ambition was greater still. It was the position of the Grand Chancellor, the advisor to the king, a man who could influence the ruler’s decision rather than merely interpret his wishes in a remote province like this one.

These dreams of becoming the second most powerful man in the country quickly dissipated when the accursed war broke out.

Those damnable Jin, he thought. Their so-called great empire invaded with the intention to conquer all of Hanulbeol-guk, and much to Youngjae’s dismay, they proved to be more than capable adversaries. Everyone was underestimating those barbarians, the viceroy scoffed.

A new army could have been raised in southern provinces and marched up north, to fight the invaders, and clash with Jin. It was exactly on the border of the region he was given governance over.

After the great battle, both forces scattered, with the survivors from both sides roaming the land, turning to banditry, or pillaging the countryside for the spoils. While it had spared Youngjae from the necessity to fight in a decisive, deadly battle, it also created a hundred small issues he had personally attended to if he ever hoped to have true control of the area. His presence out in the field was proof that he was, indeed, still in power, and directly collecting the taxes and tribute was the only way to make sure it wasn’t lost on the way.

War, however, didn’t end up there - Jin had split their forces beforehand, and had more than enough men to lay the siege on the capital.

He could sense it, the foreshadowing of the impending collapse.

It could last months until invaders would give up, or until the starved royal city and the king trapped within would ultimately surrender.

He was, nonetheless, forming a plan.

Gam Youngjae had no intention to join that fight, instead relying on the fact that the whole matter would be decided before anyone even decided to conquer his lands specifically. They may be valuable, but they weren’t the richest ones in the kingdom and thus wouldn’t be prime targets to plunder.

Instead, he aimed to merely secure his vast holdings against the riffraff produced by that pointless scuffle and let someone else decide the fate of the kingdom. He would stockpile goods, and food, hoard the gold and silver, and simply wait out this storm, and in a worst-case scenario, pay Jin their tribute to keep them off his lands.

Should Great Hanulbeol-guk win, Viceroy would present himself to His Majesty the King as the capable custodian who kept the lands in order, to show the province untouched by the war and let others have warriors fame.

The king didn’t appoint him the General of his armies, after all, he was supposed to quickly fill the granaries as the newly levied armies would have to be fed as they fought out the enemies endangering the kingdom. And stockpiling he did, just as the king wished. A fitting role, he thought. After all, those braver and more skilled in the ways of the war tended to die an appropriately heroic death on the battlefield, and Youngjae had no intention of dying.

And should Jin win?

He had an idea too.

He had the Crown Princess!

He hadn’t quite believed it the moment the lone, lost Crown Princess Narim stumbled upon him and his men, but there was no mistake that he now had the most prized woman in the kingdom as a very valuable guest of honour.

Alone, on the road, separated from her guards, it was an almost eerily unlikely situation to happen, though not entirely impossible in his own mind. It was still, unmistakably, her, with her simile appearance, and her almost magical aura of royalty.

While he hesitantly doubted the tale about the beasts called from the Spirit Realm (no one had that kind of power), he didn’t doubt that Royal Guards would sacrifice their lives in her protection, telling her to run when overwhelmed by Jin. It would leave her in the situation they found her in.

But, whatever the reason was, her presence was most welcomed. Not only was the Crown Princess a woman of peerless beauty and blessed by the gods, as the clergy annoyingly tend to remind everyone, but now, without male descendants to succeed the king in the case of his death, she was the sole heiress of Hae dynasty. While she would unlikely rule herself, it would inevitably be her future husband that would sit on the throne of Hanulbeol. Tradition demanded that the king select an appropriate man for her to marry from the high-standing officials within the country. At least, that is what he would have done if the war hadn’t broken out.

Gam Youngjae had to smile - it didn’t matter if she was to be returned to her family, or turned over to Jin to help them legitimatize their rule should they win, each option depending on where the pendulum of war swung. She was a bargaining chip Viceroy could use for his own benefit.

“Viceroy Gam, when are you going to send troops to assist the capital?” the princess riding next to him suddenly spoke.

“Your Royal Highness,” he answered immediately in the most polite tone he could muster, “this one doesn’t have the men to aid the capital.”

He would be normally expected to bow, but since it was impossible on horseback and in his quite stiff armour, he thought he could be excused for not following the proper decorum in this extraordinary situation. Mentally, he silently bemoaned the fact he had to leave his comfortable, expensive robes behind, as he would rather suffer from the court pleasantries again than be forced into the field, but such was his burden.

It wasn’t an appropriate way for the Crown Princess to travel either, a royal carriage or the sedan chair were expected, but it was what they could manage in the current situation. She was also slightly inappropriately dressed for the occasion, with her rich proper robes dirtied, after all.

“Your Royal Highness,” Youngjae said, “please be reasonable, we don’t have the men to fight Jin. Their army is at least twenty thousand strong, what meagre forces we have here aren’t enough to fight them.”

Even if she didn’t make any strange or outlandish demands, the Viceroy’s experience in the court suggested that not all people close to the King were reasonable.

While it was true that he didn’t have enough men to fight the Jin invasion off or even delay it, he wasn’t sure how large a force Jin had at the moment. Before the princess gathered her breath for the answer, he continued.

“Your Royal Highness! I am following the order of His Majesty, to fill the granaries, to feed the armies marching north against Jin! Not to mention to fight off all that dishonourable riffraff that rebelled against His rule!”

He paused, and exclaimed, “Help for the besieged capital is surely coming!”

It was impolite behaviour, but Youngjae trusted he could be excused - after all, there were a lot of people to blame for this situation before him, from the appointed General losing the battle against Jin to the incompetent Royal Guards unable to ensure the safety of Crown Princess.

Luckily for him, the Princess was seemingly satisfied with the response and didn’t seem to take offence from the slightly insolent behaviour which was excellent. She stayed silent.

The Viceroy was happy with this outcome. As long as Hae Narim remained gullible to this explanation, his plans could be quite successful indeed. He was sure he could plan for every eventuality.

He just had to keep clergy away from her, as she was Cheonchong, Heaven Favoured. While all kings may have ruled with the mandate from Heavens, she was, indeed, considered a very remarkable, person truly Beloved by all the Gods.

While Youngjae doubted it reached beyond the official title, he had yet to meet the priest or priestess that didn’t believe in this to the very letter.

She didn’t know. Should she ever realize how much influence she could muster from a position entirely unrelated to her noble lineage…

Youngjae reflections were suddenly interrupted by a person who emerged from the roadside forest just before him and his troops…

He barely managed to pull the reins on his horse yelling, “Halt!”

Before he managed to shout any order, a lone man dressed in black, flowing robes was engulfed by a blast of flame coming from the treeline.

Youngjae barely managed to maintain control of his horse, while a few cavalrymen behind him were even thrown out of their saddle.

He took a glimpse of the man in black using his sword to redirect the blast away for him in an impressive display of abilities beyond the common fighters.

The Sword Disciple, the full Adept even, shoot through Youngjae's mind.

What followed was, however, much more shocking than the extraordinary abilities of the Sword Disciples, as a few strange creatures he had never seen in his life attacked the mysterious swordsman.

One came with the flames, and the other two emerged from the shifting air.

It happened so quickly.

Both unnatural beasts fell to the stranger, their bodies turning into red mist dissolving into the thin air like ashes in the wind.

Only the lone, black swordman remained - slashed, badly burned, bleeding profusely from the several slashing wounds, he stepped forward screaming something Viceroy couldn’t understand - the language of Jin.

Only now did Viceroy’s men react.

Wounded Sword Disciple fell to the arrow.

“Ambush! Ambush!” soldiers yelled, preparing for the attack.

“Formation! Shields!” was the only order Viceroy was able to give, and his men tried to follow. While his cavalrymen didn’t handle the surprise well, a few losing their horses, his foot soldiers performed admirably trying to prepare against the possible attack.

In the moment of confusion, Gam Youngjae looked around, trying to get an understanding of the situation, to find the enemy to defend against.

He expected the rain of arrows, the soldiers charging from the woods - as much as Youngjae despited the more martially inclined fools, he still knew about the war - but no further attack came.

“Order!”

He tried to keep his horse still and held his hand up to signal the nervous troops to wait for further orders. He did let the captains do the shouting.

For an endless few minutes, he waited, but nothing moved. The forest was silent.

The lone black swordsmean lay on the road in the puddle of blood, unmoving. He was not going to give answers.

Glancing in the other direction, he could even see the outlines of his fortress in the distance, and the darkening skies above. With no ambush forthcoming, they could make it to the safety of his fortified residence before the sunset.

He couldn’t however stop himself from thinking about the creatures he didn’t see before - coming from anywhere, disappearing into nowhere, like the evil spirits of legends - they were something that seriously challenged his self-control. He could be looking for the Sage later. Not exorcism though, not if he could help it, priests together with the Crown Princess Cheonchong would be a troublesome combination.

Viceroy looked at the royal lady and even though he was close to saying something he would regret, he reined his temperament immediately as had done so many times before in the Royal Court. While he couldn’t deal with spirits, he could deal with men and women.

Hae Narim not only managed to keep control of her horse while keeping her composition almost perfectly, but she also grew pale.

“They did follow me there,” she said.

Viceroy Gam Youngjae could already tell he hated his situation even more.