Outlined Scheme (3)

The vengeance for the deceased family; the plan to dethrone the king, and assassinate him before the coronation of the prince. Hyun Sik had asked for the help of the two men from the rival country of the Hwangmok Kingdom.

Sungho neither knew those two people who promised to support Hyun Sik came from nor their real objective why they decided to offer a hand.

Sungho remained seated on the chair, leaned a bit while he was looking at the blurry figure on the other side of the table.

"Why don't you tell me the plan, brother?" he asked as he pushed further to gain the clues from the upcoming plan that would be set in the night before the coronation.

"I don't want you to get harmed," Hyun Sik replied, followed with a sharp sigh.

"If you don't want me to get hurt, then tell me the plan, brother."

"No," Hyun Sik refused firmly in what he said.

"What you fear will definitely bring harm to me. You are putting me in danger if you won't tell me the plan." Sungho brought a hand on his chest while he was trying to persuade him from what he was doing.

However, even how hard Sungho tried to convince the man, he turned a cold response to him. "The other night, I told you to let me handle this and you agreed. The plan is sealed and I won't give you any information about it."

Sungho clicked his tongue and felt irritated by the refusal he was receiving. There was no other way he could wheedle the person's cold heart to tell him the details of the plan.

"If so, then can you at least tell me who these people are and where they came from?"

"I already introduced them to you. They are my men."

"I will refuse to be part of this plan if you would not tell me their identity. Brother, do you think I can trust these individuals I merely met in a day?" Sungho remained calm as he denounced.

"You are the reason why I proceed with this plan; you are already a part of it even if you disagree or not."

Another frustrating defeat after the other, Sungho could not win over the person before him and he could no longer think of any to debate back so he decided not to argue any farther, to lessen the disappointment from his losses.

"You are cruel, brother." Well, Sungho might as well throw the explosive if he kept up like such, and ignore him until the plan worked successfully.

The room went silenced once again after the intense argument from the siblings. However, it did not take long when Sungho heard a frustrated sigh. "Are you wary of these two men from the rival country?"

'Ha-ha, would you look at that? I know your weakness now, foolish brother.' Sungho gave his greatest efforts to hide the smile forming on his lips. 'He's such a fool for his sister.'

"Yes, brother," he answered and bobbed his head a little while doing so.

Hyun Sik exhaled from his mouth and started, "The Hwangmok is on good terms with the Duchy of Iseul and they were known to loathe the Empire. The clueless ruler of Hwangmok thought that Iseul is still viable but the truth is, it was previously defeated three years ago."

Sungho moved his eyes to the two people who were seemingly bobbing their heads.

"Henceforth, General Lee So is from the conquered Iseul. Although he is originally a minister of the Hwangmok Kingdom working for ten years, he is also holding the representative seat of the Empire for three years at the same time."

"If so, then the conquered Iseul is working with the Empire to gain control over Hwangmok as well?" Sungho could barely believe the cleverness of the empire by not announcing the annihilation of the country they had conquered. It must have been difficult to silence the people who were intending to unveil the truth. "How?"

"The men of the Empire did not conquer the Iseul by preparing a war outside and carelessly making noises. Instead, they welded inside the men of the Iseul and waited for the right time to blow. Therefore, even the common people of Iseul have no clue of the incident," the toneless voice coming from So chatted, "With that, they could obtain Hwangmok without them drawing unspecified defenses."