〈East Gate〉
When the Signal Guard rushed toward the East Gate, they first judged it to be a mere disturbance.
They thought it would not compare to the fighting at the North Gate.
What they met inside the gate was not an unfamiliar enemy.
They were soldiers in the same uniforms, bearing the same insignia.
Men of the Gate Inspection Guard—those who normally stood watch in rotating shifts.
They were the ones who guarded the palace gates.
The Signal Guard shouted,
"Why are you doing this!"
No answer came back.
Instead, spearpoints bristled upward.
The hostility without words sent a chill down the spine.
At the meaning carried by that silence, a tremor ran along the back.
This was civil war.
No one knew how far it would spread.
The enemy of this war was not outside the walls.
It stood right beside them.
They wore the same Goryeo armor.
If friend and foe could not be distinguished, this place would soon become an asura's pit.
Lee In-jung decided at once.
"Red bands on shoulders and upper arms!"
At the shout, the Signal Guard's soldiers quickly tied on the markings.
They were items carried for night combat and confusion.
At this moment, they became lifelines.
Inside the East Gate, blades and shouts were already tangled together.
Someone was shouting—words that sounded like incitement.
"Fight."
"Turn it all upside down."
"The world is wrong."
Soldiers who had been guarding the gate suddenly drew their blades in the middle of a watch change.
The same movement followed at other posts.
Some of the forces inside the city had already gathered around them.
The East Gate's foothold was in the rebels' hands.
The Signal Guard tried to form ranks.
But the surprise attack from within was meticulous.
In the narrow alleys by the gate, blades struck blades.
Daggers and spears tangled together.
Screams and the clang of metal rebounded off the walls.
Lee In-jung stood at the front.
Before him was a familiar face.
A soldier he had encountered many times while moving through the fortress.
Without a word, the man leveled his spear.
"This can't be… you—"
The words did not finish.
The spear moved first.
Lee In-jung stepped in at once.
His body was already in motion.
"Follow me!"
He twisted the spearpoint aside, spilled the opponent's center,
stepped in, and cut him down in a single stroke.
As the man fell, blood splashed across the stone pavement.
At that sight, several nearby faltered.
The Signal Guard did not miss the opening and pressed forward all at once.
The internal rebels were organized.
Their numbers were limited.
Lee In-jung had brought out nearly the full strength of the Signal Guard, including troops gathered in haste.
Because it was a battle between soldiers of the same country, the collisions were brutal.
The Signal Guard's counterattack was fiercer still.
Under the firelight, Lee In-jung's sword carved open a path.
Through the breach, troops poured in.
Those at the center of the chaos fell one by one.
"Do not stop here! Reclaim the East Gate!"
At Lee In-jung's roar, Yun Gyeongbok came running, drenched in blood.
It was not a wide space.
There was nowhere to retreat.
There, the final blood battle was fought.
At last, the East Gate returned to the Signal Guard's hands.
Some threw down their weapons and surrendered.
Much blood had already been spilled.
The price of victory, however, was heavy.
Several posts inside the walls had already fallen into enemy hands.
The embers of betrayal were not fully extinguished.
That night, inside the East Gate, Lee In-jung ended many lives.
His name was carved deeply into the Signal Guard that day.
A courier, soaked in blood, burst into the private hall.
"Your Majesty! The East Gate has been recovered.
It was an internal uprising.
Many traitors have been identified, and some have fled.
General Lee In-jung has subdued the core of the enemy and strengthened inspections inside the city."
The king received the report without rising.
Beside him, the Grand Princess Noguk turned pages with a cold expression.
"Betrayal from within… more serious than expected."
A short while later, Lee In-jung himself entered the private hall, still splashed with blood.
His blood-soaked waist was revealed beneath the lamps.
The king looked at him.
"You have done well."
Lee In-jung dropped to one knee.
His breathing was rough, but his voice was firm.
"Your Majesty, the East Gate has been secured and the internal rebellion suppressed.
The remnants are being pursued."
The king studied him for a long moment, then spoke slowly.
"If it arose from within, the justification grows complicated.
We must uncover whether there was collusion with the Ki faction.
If links to the arms and supplies of the Ssangseong Regional Headquarters are revealed, this will not end as a simple rebellion."
The Grand Princess added, her voice low and cold,
"Internal betrayal shakes the people's hearts.
If we delay, the fire will grow larger.
Deal with it swiftly and decisively."
The king's hand clenched around the document.
The lamps trembled, stretching his shadow long across the floor.
How far must one purge?
Without hesitation, the king said,
"But blind slaughter will not be permitted.
If we lose our justification, we become no different from them."
Hearing the weight of those words, Lee In-jung bowed deeply.
In the night light, his face looked harder still.