“Ugh, Eunho, you’re not seriously saying the one Pungbaek and Usa served was Cheonshin…?”

“Yes. It’s unclear before 4,500 years ago, but at least at the time we asked the question of Hojok, that was the case. In hindsight it’s strange. A Cheonshin who was going to rain down fury on the usually-favored Hwang Ho instead made a bargain with the person he hated most, Yeongin, and showed mercy.”

The Hojok who handled stormclouds had a power superficially similar to Yeongin’s, tied to shadow, and so he was hated.

So he knew well how Cheonshin treated others and could not contradict Eunho’s words.

“At the time, Pungbaek and Usa even cooperated with the Waek in making the Cheon-balance. It’s clear the one they first served was tied to the Waek. But the Hojok’s victory succeeded in driving the Waek out. And then, about five hundred years later, what if Cheonshin lost to Yeongin but, refusing to submit, absorbed the Waek remnants or made allies with them and slowly gained power? In that process, Pungbaek and Usa could have been re-subordinated.”

“If that hypothesis holds, then it makes sense in sequence. But there’s no evidence Cheonshin resorted to any means necessary and acted like that.”

Wonsa, who had been captured by the enemy and trapped in a brazier; Eunho, who had slept a long sleep; Baekho, who had often run about — by contrast, Hwang Ho, who had remained on the peninsula the whole time, felt the sense of discord most sharply.