The Master of Transmission

The air in the main sect hall was thick with a cold that cut straight to the bone. Yeonho stood with his back to the firmly shut door, waiting for Seo Eunseol. The audit period was three days, and Seo Eunseol stepped into the hall at the appointed time. Her stride was even and measured, and the worn ledger she drew from inside her robe was thick with dust. Instead of setting it on the table, Eunseol tucked it firmly under her arm and tilted her chin toward an empty seat. Yeonho looked at the cushion with a cold gaze. It was the teaching seat, one that could overturn the main sect's hierarchy in a single stroke.

"This paper is the price of that seat. Rather than starve to death under the main sect's protection, I choose to take responsibility for myself and hold the right to teach."

Yeonho picked up the brush and ground the ink. His left thumb trembled faintly. From the aftereffects of the Reversal, a stabbing pain shot through his joints every time he gripped the brush shaft. He forced the tension out of his hand and drew the stroke. Viewing rights. Copying rights. Seat review. With every line he wrote, the sect's responsibilities grew heavier.

"There is one more condition. The original does not leave my hands. You may only view it here."

Eunseol said it flatly. Yeonho stopped his brush and met her eyes. Behind the seats, the elders murmured among themselves. Yeonho held out the paper, leaving the signature line blank. He could not approve it on the spot. This fell within the domain that required the sect leader's permission and the teaching elders' consent. But he did not dismiss the condition.

"Very well. If this record proves true, that seat is yours. On the condition that the roster of branch disciples and the Reversal records match the main sect's own regulations."

Miryeong stepped forward and took the ledger. She flipped through the pages with practiced ease, reading numbers aloud. The pages were packed with the medicine costs spent on each settlement day and the names of the young disciples. Gyeom crossed his arms and asked with a crooked look.

"Senior Brother Cha, is this really necessary? Isn't it customary to let the branch head handle branch affairs? I'm asking why you're making our sect's internal politics this complicated."

Gyeom's voice carried a sharp edge of complaint. Instead of answering, Yeonho looked at the page Miryeong pointed to. The quantity of medicine sent out matched the main sect's records exactly. But the names of the recipients were the problem. Names that did not exist anywhere in the main sect were written in the branch ledger's column for medicine recipients.

"Look here. The medicine went out, but the names of the children who received it aren't on the roster."

Miryeong said it coolly. She pointed to two small dots stamped beside the child's name. The mark resembled the one he had seen in the records of Sobin's fingertip pain and the settlement ceremony's damage report. The forgery wasn't confined to the main sect. It was an organized practice that had reached even the branch, a regional outpost. Yeonho shoved his left hand into his pocket. The sensation of his joints locking up crawled up his spine.

"Do you understand what this means?"

Yeonho asked, looking at Eunseol. She answered without changing her expression.

"It just means the children are in pain. I don't know where the untraceable medicine came from, or what the children had to give in its place. I only hope they aren't abandoned."

When evening fell, a main sect elder blocked the entrance to Eunseol's quarters. He demanded she swear an oath of loyalty and threatened her into handing over the ledger. Eunseol opened the door and stepped outside. She folded down two fingers and called out loudly.

"Is this the main sect's order, or the disciples' survival? Choose one. If you mean to take this ledger, prove first that you're worthy to sit in this empty seat."

The elder's face flushed red. He tried to condemn Eunseol for daring to set conditional terms without the Senior Brother's permission. But with everyone's eyes on him, he couldn't easily reach for her. Yeonho watched the scene from a distance. Eunseol wasn't standing there as a supporting player. She was the one shaking the board herself.

Gyeom came up beside Yeonho and murmured low.

"So this is the monster you raised. I didn't know she'd be this bold."

"Not a monster. A survivor."

Yeonho answered briefly. He checked the ledger again. Two small dots left beside a child's name. They were the trace of a secret lineage trade the sect had kept running, holding children hostage to sustain it. If the main sect's archive could be opened again, a larger truth would surface.

At that moment, Yeonho felt a sharp pain in his left wrist. It was the price of having taken on too much of the Reversal the day before. He suppressed the pain and picked up the brush again. Now it was time to put Eunseol's proposed conditions on the official agenda.

"Tomorrow morning, convene a meeting of the teaching elders. We are launching a full reinvestigation into the branch's seating authority and the source of its medicine funds."

At Yeonho's order, the teaching elders exchanged bewildered glances. This went beyond a disciplinary scribe's authority. It was an act that shook the sect's very right to teach. Gyeom let out a scoffing laugh and cracked his knuckles.

"So you've decided to stand at the center of the storm after all. Fine. I'll be there too. I'll prove my victory wasn't a lie, through those children's testimony."

Gyeom's words carried provocation, but his eyes alone were serious. Yeonho nodded. Night deepened. Yeonho paced in front of the archive. Inside lay the original ledger, the one he needed to compare against the copy Eunseol had brought that day. Instead of a key, Yeonho looked at his own left hand. He steadied his breath for a moment and rested his palm against the wall.

Just then, a faint rustling sound came from inside the archive. No one but the sect leader was permitted to enter that place. Yeonho lowered his stance. He shifted his weight onto his heels and examined the floor. A little dust had been scattered around. It was proof that someone had broken in just moments before. Yeonho carefully slid his hand through the gap in the door. What caught his fingertips wasn't cold metal, but a torn scrap of paper.

He picked up the scrap. It was part of a ledger. Held up to the light, it showed the same handwriting as the branch ledger, with the medicine cost entry erased. Beside it was a trace soaked in salt. Bloodstains mixed with salt, left behind by whoever had stolen the ledger.

Yeonho looked around with a hardened expression. No one was there. But the archive's seal was still closed. Someone from inside was smuggling the ledger out. He tucked the scrap into his robe and headed back toward the main hall.

Choi Yul was standing at the hall's entrance. He saw the scrap of paper in Yeonho's hand and spoke with a heavy expression.

"Senior Brother, the sect leader has said the three day audit right ends here. The archive's ledger is scheduled to be disposed of through official procedure tomorrow morning."

Yeonho didn't stop and walked straight into the hall. Eunseol was sitting there. The moment she saw the scrap of paper Yeonho had brought, she folded down one finger.

"There are two options. Reveal this scrap now and turn the entire main sect upside down, or use it as bait to catch whoever is behind this inside the archive."

Yeonho set the scrap of paper on the table without a word. The seat Eunseol had demanded was right beside it. He picked up the cushion resting on that seat and handed it to her.

"I choose to catch whoever is behind this. Your branch disciples, and Sobin's fingertips. I'll fold every one of those reasons into this scrap of a ledger."

Eunseol didn't take the cushion. Instead she took hold of Yeonho's left hand, lifted her teacup, and set it down on top.

"Then your left hand is mine now, Senior Brother. For the next three days, anyway."

At her cool little joke, Yeonho let out a short laugh. But the laugh didn't last. Dozens of footsteps sounded outside the hall. The law enforcement disciples. Choi Yul burst through the door in a hurry.

"Cha Yeonho, hand over the ledger this instant. By the sect leader's order, your authority is stripped effective immediately!"

The situation turned in an instant. Yeonho stood on the edge of isolation. He rose slowly from his seat. He pressed his aching left hand against his chest and stared straight into Choi Yul's eyes. Past Choi Yul's shoulder, he saw the back of the old physician emerging from the darkness. It was the old man carrying the medicine that could stop the pain in Sobin's fingertips. But to get that medicine, he would have to apologize to Choi Yul right now and give up the audit rights himself.

Yeonho's gaze turned to Sobin. She was breathing hard, in pain. Yeonho clenched his left hand tight again. The sound of bone shifting out of place rang in his ears.

"Elder Choi, give me the chance to prove that this scrap of ledger predates the main sect's own records. That's the last courtesy I can offer any of you here."

At Yeonho's firm refusal, the tension in the hall reached its peak. Choi Yul's hand went to his sword hilt. At that moment, Seo Eunseol slammed the ledger down on the table and stood up. The pages fluttered open. There, a new disciple's name that hadn't been recorded as of that very morning appeared, along with two small dots stamped clearly beside it. It was the oldest debt Hoeryumun had kept hidden.

Yeonho looked at the name. It was one he remembered, one he'd forgotten because of some minor discrepancy. He held his breath and read the name aloud.

"Why is this child recorded here?"

To Yeonho's question, Eunseol didn't answer. Instead she pointed outside the door. There sat a bundle marked with a worn insignia. It was something brought up from deep beneath the main sect. The document resting on top of the bundle bore the acting sect leader's seal, ordering that Hoeryumun's right to teach be restricted through the end of the audit period and that a private correction be made by the Hour of the Boar tomorrow.

Yeonho tucked the document into his robe. Sobin's pained breathing sounded behind him. He looked at Miryeong. She nodded without a word. In her hand was the ledger scrap Yeonho had brought from the archive earlier.

Yeonho opened the hall's door and stepped out. The night air was cold. Ahead of him, the law enforcement disciples stood waiting with torches raised.

"If you mean to erase the record, cut me down first. As Hoeryumun's Senior Brother, and as this sect's last disciplinary scribe, I will hold you to account."

Yeonho snatched a torch from one of them and drew a line on the ground before himself.

"Whoever crosses this line will pay the price of the Reversal alongside me."

In the silence that fell over the hall, the worn archive door creaked open. Darkness poured out from within. Yeonho walked into that darkness. Eunseol followed behind him.

"Senior Brother Cha, now it truly begins. It's time to reckon what price we still owe."

In the darkness, Yeonho clenched his left hand tight. Inside his palm, the ledger scrap he'd tucked away earlier rustled. It was evidence that would shake the entire sect by tomorrow morning. Jin Mugyeol sat leaning to one side, one seat over, looking down at Yeonho with cold eyes. He said nothing. He only smoothed his sleeve and waited for Yeonho's next decision. An old copy of the Hoeryumun sect charter fluttered on the table.