Nhu Yayen shouted at front of the guesthouse. There was large table on the open area inside the guesthouse, where seven middle aged man with blue silk clothes were sitting down. They all had same faces.
‘Masks?’
He heard Huan Yi was best craftsman for creating such skin mask, but didn’t think it would be this precise. All of them looked natural and even felt like if they were the same person. As Yeowun got up to the floor, one man sitting on the highest ranking seat got up and bowed.
“Welcome. I am Huan Yi, leader of the Ghost Illusion Clan.”
Mun Ku then became confused. The face wasn’t what she saw before. With the nick name of ‘Thousand Faces,’ it was known that no one other than the Lord saw real face of Huan Yi.
‘What is he doing? I know he was weird but this is…’
Mun Ku heard lot about Huan Yi from her grandfather already. She knew Huan Yi was weird person, but didn’t think he will do something weird in the first visit.
[Prince, his face is different than last time I met.]
Mun Ku sent telepathic message but Yeowun didn’t respond and just bowed.
“I am Chun Yeowun, new 12th elder.”
“I know. Come on and sit down. We’ll talk while we drink some teas.”
The table was filled with sweet snacks and hot teas. Mun Ku then looked at Huan Yi suspiciously and bowed.
“Long time no see, Uncle Huan. I’m Mun Ku from the Demon Dragon Clan.”
At Mun Ku’s introduction, one of the man who was sitting down with Huan Yi’s face slightly turned to look at Mun Ku. But Huan Yi who greeted himself to Yeowun looked back as if he had seen Mun Ku for first time. But the word that came after relieved Mun Ku.
“Oh! Long time no see. Was it before you entered the academy, that we met with Mun Yun? So you’ve been taking good care of it, I see.”
“Oh! Yes. You remembered, uncle.”
Mun Ku’s face brightened at that.
[He sure is Huan Yi!]
Only person who knew she was wearing a mask was Huan Yi the Thousand Faces who created the mask.
‘Hmm…’
But unlike Mun Ku’s relieved telepathic message, Chun Yeowun didn’t seem all that satisfied. Huan Yi then offered Yeowun to sit down.
“What are you doing? Come sit down.”
“Can I ask you something first?”
“What is it?”
“Do you know why I came here to meet with you?”
Mun Ku became surprised as Yeowun brought up the question already. Unlike her thought, that he will talk with Huan Yi to create good mood before going into the important matter, Yeowun just brought it up ricetly. And at the question, Huan Yi answered casually.
“Of course. You came to take my medal.”
And surprisingly enough, Huan Yi too knew why Yeowun had visited him. There were two ways to become the heir of the throne. One was to have clan leaders of twelve high ranking clans to support him. And another was to be approved by three current elders. The proof of such approval was to receive the medal. By giving this medal to the candidate, it meant the elder had acknowledged the prince as a rightful heir and pledged allegiance.
“So… you knew then.”
“You, who have came victorious over at the competition, come out of the academy and visits me… will there be other reason?”
Huan Yi was able to guess that Yeowun would not have come straight to himself if Yeowun had found twelve suppoerters already. This was best time for Yeowun to persuade other elders, while the Lord and elders from six clans were missing.
“Good. Then I will not talk to you as an elder. I request to be treated as candidate to the heir.”
This meant much. As an elder, they were equals but as for a candidate, it meant that Yeowun was here to receive support from Elder Huan Yi. Huan Yi then smiled and spoke.
“I’ve been treating you as such from the beginning.”
“Pardon?”
“Didn’t you know? Elders are allowed to test the person if he is worthy to receive the medal of allegiance.”
“Meaning?”
“I am already testing you if you are worthy to the throne.”
Huan Yi had been waiting to meet Chun Yeowun, a candidate not from six clans since long time ago. Candidate who had passed the sixth test in 70 years. He was also very curious as to what kind of man Chun Yeowun was, who had defeated Baek Oh the Poison Man who was known for his ability to kill.
“I want to test you regarding two things. One is to see your perception. I was going to give you some time by drinking tea, but since you dive right into the topic, I’ll get to mine too. Can you find the real Huan Yi in this place?”
Huan Yi then pointed at other six men sitting down next to him. There were total of 7 Huan Yi’s here.
‘Huh?!’
Mun Ku frowned. All seven Huan Yi had almost equal power and energy that was hard to differentiate one from another.
‘This is too difficult.’
And the mask that Huan Yi created was too detailed that even wrinkles to the beard was exactly same that it was impossible to tell the difference.
‘I trained years for such charade, not to mention about the mask. No one will recognize this me.’
It was definitely enough to have confidence in the test.
“I won’t make you just pick right now. We can drink some tea and take time to…”
“I found you.”
“What?”
Chun Yeowun was looking at somewhere. But the person he was looking wasn’t among seven Huan Yis sitting down at the table.
“Huh?”
The person Yeowun was staring at was Nhu Yayen, standing toward the entrance of the guesthouse.