The Empty Seat at the Public Inquiry

The seat of honor at the public inquiry stood empty. Jin Mugyeol had set aside the authority of sect leader and sat instead in a chair level with the elders, his sleeves drawn fully over his hands. The elders of the Settlement Hall cleared their throats, glancing back and forth between the record book Choi Yul had spread open and the back of Cha Yeonho's neck. Cha Yeonho pressed down on his left thumb and stared straight ahead. The scar on his left palm throbbed. He drew a breath and straightened his body.

"Breaking the forbidden restriction. Breaking into the archive and reading the backlash ledger. I, Cha Yeonho, planned and carried out every one of those acts alone. If you mean to charge anyone with breaking the sect's law, put me on the stand first."

Yeonho's voice carried clearly to every corner of the inquiry hall. One of the elders unrolled an old scroll and glared at him.

"Senior Brother, shouldn't we set that matter aside for now and deal first with the harm done to the disciple An Sobin. Given the shock she suffered at the settlement ceremony, her condition is far from steady, and keeping the matter small would serve the sect's dignity as well."

With every step, An Sobin gripped her own right hand tight inside her sleeve with her left. When she took her place at the witness stand, the elders spoke.

"An Sobin, you have suffered greatly. Tell us in detail about that terrible pain you endured. If you weep as you speak, we elders might join together to discuss some form of compensation."

Instead of tears, An Sobin lifted her head and looked at each elder in turn. Their eyes were fixed not on her face but on her wrist.

"Before we discuss compensation, I would like to first confirm why I was the one who had to take the full backlash at the settlement ceremony. Elders, please open your hands, all of you."

An Sobin spoke clearly. The elders' eyes narrowed.

"Open your hands right now. Take the same posture the disciples had to hold at the settlement ceremony, the one for receiving qi, and reproduce it here, exactly as it was."

One elder flushed and slammed the desk.

"How dare you! Why should someone in a teacher's seat take a disciple's posture."

An Sobin drew her right hand out from where she had hidden it in her sleeve and raised it into the air. Her fingertips trembled faintly, but she kept her back straight.

"A posture is honest. Bend your wrist to the same angle I did, and hold your breath the way I did. Then you will understand. Why only my wrist turned black with bruising, while not a single mark appears on any of yours."

The silence in the inquiry hall deepened. Every one of the elders' wrists was wrapped in a thick leather guard. It was a device that blocked part of the backlash from the settlement. An Sobin spread her hand out as if slapping it down against the floor and added.

"You are all wearing those guards right now. While I held that posture and the vessels in my wrist screamed, you must have been quite comfortable thanks to them. Are these guards mere decoration, or are they a coward's shield, proof that you cannot bear the disciples' backlash in their place?"

One elder, flustered, pulled his sleeve down to hide his guard. An Sobin did not miss the movement and pressed him at once.

"Do not hide it. That guard is supposed to prove the fairness of the settlement. Instead it has become a mark that conceals the disciples' pain. While I felt that pain and held my breath, what peace did you enjoy inside that guard?"

Choi Yul stopped his brush and quickly wrote something onto the record. He checked the elders' guards against An Sobin's wrist and took out his seal. Jin Mugyeol still sat with the seat of honor left empty, his face set. One elder forced a laugh and spoke.

"That is only a sect code that sets the order of things. Isn't it only natural that someone bears the transmission right, and someone else pays the price of learning it."

Do Gyeom rose to his feet and spoke coldly.

"Then explain why that natural order happens to fall entirely on the wrist of the youngest sister among us. Elder, I too am a candidate for the Transmission Seat. Do you think I never noticed that every time I won, two invisible marks appeared in the records of the disciples beneath me?"

In Do Gyeom's hand was a copy of the ledger he had been investigating. He spread it open toward the elders and went on.

"Look. Three years ago, during the settlement term when I won three matches in a row, a red mark was stamped beside my name in this record. But that mark was never mine. It is the trace of the backlash that passed to Sister An's wrist, to the girl standing behind me. My victory cost my own sister an injury. Is this the sect's glory?"

Watching this shift, Cha Yeonho felt the pain in his left hand ease a little. The brand of victim was being wiped away, and in its place a seat was forming for investigators who dug into the violence hiding under the name of sect code. When recess was announced, Cha Yeonho followed An Sobin toward the stairs. Her hand was trembling. He reached out on instinct to steady her arm, then stopped himself. He was afraid that touch would fix her once again as someone who needed protecting.

"Sister An. Do you want water, or do you want to check the next ledger entry. Or would you rather rest here for a moment."

An Sobin took the water cup in a trembling hand. It rattled and shook, but she lifted it herself, without Cha Yeonho's help. After one sip, she looked him straight in the eye.

"Senior Brother, while I was testifying, I watched the elders' eyes. It unsettled them badly that I would not cry. When I bring out the ledger next, they will try to stop me again."

"If they try to stop you, I will use my authority as disciplinary scribe to force the reading through."

"No. Forcing it creates a cost of its own. I will do it myself. For the next round of questions, I will work with Brother Do. You only need to stand behind us and lock the door so no one can run when we bring the record out into the open."

At her firm words, Cha Yeonho gave a short, stiff nod. An Sobin set down her empty cup and headed back to the witness stand. Cha Yeonho took the paper she held out to him. On it, the correlation between the settlement ceremony's order and the transfer of backlash had been laid out in numbers. He gripped the paper tight.

"These numbers... the elders won't be able to argue against this. Well done, Sister An."

By afternoon the inquiry hall had grown even more chaotic. Choi Yul no longer sided with the elders. He pointed out the discrepancies between the repeated marks in the ledger and the actual records of backlash, and pressed on with a strict review. Do Gyeom laid out his own record of consecutive wins and recited, in precise numbers, whose backlash had flowed downward from him every time he won.

"This is not my victory. It is a record built on someone else's injury. So this ranking must be recalculated as well."

The elders' faces turned the color of ash. Jin Mugyeol still said nothing, but the seat of honor he had left empty had become a void that no one else could occupy, drawing every eye in the hall toward it. Do Gyeom opened the ledger and held it out to the elders.

"Tell me. If my victory was earned fairly, why does this ledger record someone else's pain right behind every win of mine? You elders who oversee the discipline of the Settlement Hall, explain to us yourselves what these red marks mean."

Do Gyeom did not stop there.

"I will take your silence as agreement. When I hand this ledger over to Scribe Choi Yul, what excuse will you have ready?"

As the inquiry drew toward its end, Choi Yul brought out the final document. It was the most closely guarded backlash ledger, sealed under the sect leader's own stamp. When Choi Yul broke the seal, inside were name after name, each stamped with two red ink marks in vivid relief.

"By the record, these marks appear to indicate targets for concentrated backlash. And beneath them are written the names of certain disciples."

Cha Yeonho's eyes widened. Choi Yul handed him the document.

"Disciplinary Scribe Cha, if the responsibility behind this ledger is not established by midnight tonight, this inquiry will be voided. The sect leader has said he will transfer ownership of this document to you."

Cha Yeonho took the ledger with a trembling hand. The pain in his left hand surged back in another spasm. The moment he opened this ledger, he would have to open war against every lineage inside the sect. Outside, Seo Eunseol paced the corridor with a copy of the branch hall ledger in her hand. She was waiting for Cha Yeonho, demanding one seat in the Transmission line as her price. Time was flowing toward midnight, and the red marks inside the ledger throbbed like his own left hand, forcing the next choice on him. Cha Yeonho opened the ledger and looked at Sobin and Do Gyeom. Now, through this ledger, whom would he bring to judgment. Cha Yeonho drew a deep breath and turned the first page, and made up his mind. He would no longer look away from anyone's sacrifice. He nodded toward Sobin. The evidence she had prepared was the very key that would open the ledger's last page. Cha Yeonho ran his left thumb over a red mark and turned to face Seo Eunseol, waiting outside. He had to admit now that without paying the price of a seat in the Transmission line, he could not open the back of this ledger. The door of the inquiry hall opened and a cold wind rushed in. At the end of the corridor, Seo Eunseol met Cha Yeonho's eyes and gripped the branch hall ledger tighter in her hand. Only three shichen remained until midnight. Cha Yeonho had to decide whether to open the ledger, or accept Eunseol's deal and let one whole line of the lineage collapse. Cha Yeonho picked up his brush and wrote his own name into the blank space in the ledger. The moment he chose to become the first one responsible, the red marks in the ledger seemed to overlay themselves on the back of his hand. Eunseol came close and murmured low into his ear. One seat in the Transmission line, and on top of that, the ledger of another sect he would have to pay as well. He hadn't forgotten, had he? Yeonho looked at Seo Eunseol and folded the ledger in half. There was no going back now. He handed the ledger to Sobin and gave a short order.

"Verify the record. This is our last transmission right."

Sobin reached out with a trembling hand and took the ledger. Its heavy leather surface was cold. Before she opened it, she ran her thumb along its edge and glanced at Do Gyeom. He had already come to stand behind her without her noticing. He rested a light hand on her shoulder and cracked his knuckles toward the elders.

"Sister An, open it as freely as you like. I'll cover you from behind."

Without looking away from Seo Eunseol's gaze, Yeonho untied the ledger's binding cord. The red marks inside seemed to bulge outward one after another, like living blood vessels. Sobin turned the first page without hesitation. The ledger's record tore through the silence of the inquiry hall and rang out.

"Settlement ceremony, first rank. The backlash cost recorded behind Brother Do Gyeom's victory was not his own. It was forced onto my wrist."