The Floodgate's Muddy Waters, Rising Past the Banks

The muddy waters of Gugok Floodgate churned violently, swollen almost to bursting from the storm that had poured down all night. The roar of water striking the great boulders rang in the ears like the ground itself screaming as it tore apart. The workers' palms, calloused hands gripping the ropes, had split open, oozing fluid mixed with mud and blood. Cha Yeonho pressed down on his throbbing left thumb and counted the beat. At his heavy call, the workers pulled the ropes together. An Sobin was untying a pouch of medicinal herbs, and Yeonho noticed her fingertips trembling faintly. The wound she'd taken at the settlement ceremony days ago hadn't healed properly, soaked as it was by the rain.

Do Gyeom cut through the driving rain and blocked the path in front of the Cheolmungwan disciples. He planted his wet sword in the ground and lowered his stance, wariness plain on his face. Nam Gyuhan of Cheolmungwan swept his eyes over the three exits nearby and the number of guards posted at each, frowning. Do Gyeom shouted at Gyuhan, one hand still gripping his sword's handle.

"Why does Cheolmungwan invoke the pretext of floodgate protection rights to shake up our sect's affairs? Protection rights are supposed to mean helping us, not waiting for us to collapse so you can dig through our ledgers."

Gyuhan drew a thin bundle of documents from inside his robe. He answered in a dry voice, stripped of emotion.

"Do Gyeom, that spirit of yours might save Hoeryu Gate. But fixing a floodgate takes calculation, not spirit. We need to confirm that the workers' wages, the unpaid treatment costs, and the expenses of maintaining the sect code all add up. Let's end this competition over protection rights right here, today. Instead of settling it by combat, if you accept the outside oversight rights we're demanding, we'll withdraw our bid."

Do Gyeom's eyebrows twitched. He lunged, aiming to strike Gyuhan's shoulder. Yeonho saw Do Gyeom's shoulder lift. If he tried to break through Gyuhan's guard in that stance, the force would inevitably return straight into Do Gyeom's wrist joint. Yeonho closed the distance quickly and caught Do Gyeom's wrist as if snatching it out of the air. When Yeonho's left hand came up to support Do Gyeom's elbow, Do Gyeom's body froze mid air. The strain of forcibly checking the motion sent a sharp jolt of pain up through Yeonho's thumb. He parted his tightly pressed lips and spoke.

"Stop, Do Gyeom. What you need to do right now isn't fight. It's keep time on that rope."

Do Gyeom exhaled roughly and shook off Yeonho's grip. Yeonho faced Gyuhan directly and set the ledger bag down in front of him.

"We accept the outside oversight rights. Hoeryu Gate's ledgers are transparent. I'll open up the unpaid wages, the records of the workers' injuries, and every settlement carried out under our sect code. But there's a condition. Cheolmungwan will also open, under the same categories, the manpower and debts committed to this floodgate project, and the profit structure you're trying to secure under the pretext of protection rights. Not one sided surveillance. Mutual verification."

Gyuhan fell silent. Below the floodgate, the workers kept pulling the ropes to the count. Sobin was packing in mud, and Seok Muan fixed the hinges in place with ragged breath. It was nothing like the powerless Hoeryu Gate Gyuhan remembered. Gyuhan thought of the quiet bond deal his own house had once struck with Hoeryu Gate. If that came out, Cheolmungwan would take damage too. But Gyuhan had staked his own name on setting up this game. He drew his seal from inside his robe and pressed it to the cover of the ledger.

"Fine. Cheolmungwan's ledgers will be opened right here, right now, as well. We'll cross reference Hoeryu Gate's ledgers against our own bid records and prove who's really acting in the name of fixing this floodgate."

Yeonho breathed out in relief. Exposing internal dirty laundry to an outsider was an act that would drag the sect's authority through the mud. The elders would try to pin a sect code violation on him. But the floodgate workers' wages and treatment costs would be settled, and they would have a reason to pick up the ropes again. Baek Miryeong had come out of the clinic and was watching the scene. She nodded toward Yeonho. She held the ledger that could prove the patients' records had been falsified.

Seok Muan bolted the floodgate's latch shut and shouted.

"Senior disciple, the floodgate's central axis is aligned. We can redirect the water now."

Yeonho looked at Gyuhan. Gyuhan's expression was still cold, but he was already giving the order for the Cheolmungwan disciples to withdraw. Yeonho rubbed his left hand, the feeling in his thumb going numb. He handed the ledger to Gyuhan and murmured low.

"This ledger holds the blood and sweat of countless disciples. The moment I hand it over, I lose face as Hoeryu Gate's senior disciple too. But you know as well as I do that fixing this floodgate matters more than that face."

Gyuhan took the ledger and answered briefly.

"Cha Yeonho, you know how to save your sect. But the moment this oversight takes effect, your sect won't be the Hoeryu Gate it used to be. Every process from here on will answer to outside judgment."

Yeonho didn't deny it. Just then, Seo Eunseol rushed over and pressed a note into Yeonho's ear. It was a record of the conversation the Settlement Hall elder had held with the sect leader that morning in secret. The sect leader had ordered that the moment the outside audit began, Yeonho would be held responsible and punished for illegally accessing the Reversal ledger. At the bottom of the note was the transmission elder's signature, confirming that the disciplinary disciples would move the instant the audit started.

Yeonho held the note and opened his palm flat. Looking at the paper with its bled ink, he turned his eyes to the floodgate. The floodgate had found its footing, but Yeonho was being pushed to the edge of a cliff. Nam Gyuhan's proposed outside oversight meant, in effect, the neutralization of Hoeryu Gate's sect code, and the sect leader had seized that opening as grounds to remove Yeonho.

"Senior brother, we need to wind the rope again. The current's picking up."

At Seok Muan's shout, Yeonho stepped back toward the rope. The pain in his left fingers had grown worse, but he showed no sign of it. He knew that from here on, it wasn't the sect's face at stake but a real war tangled up with the workers' lives and his own survival. Far off, Gyuhan lifted a brush, recording the rope's tension.

Darkness had settled over Gugok Floodgate, filled with the sound of rain. Yeonho thought as he pulled the rope. The sect leader's punishment, the elders' checks, and the agreement with Gyuhan. Everything was closing in around his neck. Still, he called out the four beat count again. The workers' breathing fell into rhythm with him.

"One, two, three, pull!"

The floodgate groaned shut with a screech. The river turned, bypassing the channel that led to Hoeryu Gate's main compound. The floodgate repair was a success. But what Yeonho got in return wasn't the sect's support, it was news that a messenger sent by the sect leader had reached the front gate. The disciplinary disciples, led by the Settlement Hall elder, were approaching through the rain. In their hands were an audit order and a summons, both stamped with the sect leader's seal. Yeonho met them without letting go of the rope. The floodgate's latch was fully down now, and Hoeryu Gate's fate had settled along with it. Gyuhan watched the scene and quietly closed his ledger. Yeonho stood before the disciplinary disciples. Just as he opened his mouth, Seok Muan stepped in front of him, blocking his way. The workers, still holding shovels and ropes, formed a half circle facing the elders. They weren't disciples of the sect, but they seemed to have decided, before anyone else, to stand by Yeonho's side. Looking at their backs, Yeonho understood. This was the new order he had wanted to build for the sect. Instead of bowing his head to the elders, he drew a bundle of keys from his waist and threw it to Nam Gyuhan.

"Authority to check the ledgers. Check them right now. See who saved this floodgate, and who should bear responsibility for this sect."

Nam Gyuhan caught the flying keys with one hand. He looked at Yeonho, checked the keys, and laughed coldly. The disciplinary disciples were caught off guard. The elders' eyes flicked back and forth between the keys and Gyuhan. The situation was unfolding exactly as Yeonho had intended. Now the order sent by the sect leader was nothing more than a scrap of paper. Yeonho wiped away the rain and walked toward Gyuhan. Gyuhan gripped the keys and started walking toward the sect archive. Yeonho followed behind him. The pressure of disciplinary action still loomed, but the structure to withstand that pressure had already been built by the workers' own hands. The night was long, and the audit had only just begun. Yeonho, wringing out the last feeling left in his left hand, walked toward the training ground where the sect leader waited. There, every elder had already gathered, waiting for Yeonho's downfall. But behind Yeonho stood the workers who had saved the floodgate, ropes still in hand. Gyuhan walked silently at his side. This wasn't mere oversight, it was the first piece of evidence that a new history of Hoeryu Gate was about to be written. Yeonho walked forward, eyes fixed ahead. The rain showed no sign of stopping, but the floodgate's current had settled at last. Yeonho knew. What mattered more than the sect's face was who, right now, in this place, would take responsibility and act. He looked toward the seat of honor where the sect leader sat in the training ground. It was empty. The right to sit there now belonged not to honor, but to those who had pulled the ropes at this floodgate. Yeonho opened the door to the training ground. The disciplinary disciples stepped aside. He stood before the sect leader and the elders. Yeonho took his summons in hand, tore it in half, and threw it to the floor. Then, pointing to the keys he'd handed Gyuhan, he spoke.

"Open the ledgers. The truth is there."

At that moment, the Settlement Hall elder drew out a proxy rule document stamped with a red seal. It was a declaration that a new charge had been added: that Yeonho had usurped the sect leader's authority. Yeonho's left hand throbbed again. From the strain of the Reversal, his knuckles had gone white. But Yeonho didn't flinch. He snatched the document from the elder's hand. Then he gestured toward the workers standing behind him.

"This is the law the sect leader speaks of for Hoeryu Gate. A law that saddles workers with debt instead of wages, and dumps the sect's responsibility onto its senior disciple. Now it's time to test whether that law holds up. Nam Gyuhan, while your Cheolmungwan verifies our ledgers, these elders will settle the truth of this document with me."