The Byeok Clan's Gift
"The Eastern Depot will take full charge of this investigation. Withdraw the Imperial Army, Commander of a Thousand."
The authority in Cheon Su-gong's voice pressed down on everyone present.
The Eastern Depot—the imperial intelligence service and secret police. An organization that could charge a man with crimes, wipe out his entire family, confiscate every last scrap of property, and bring even a thriving clan to ruin overnight.
And Cheon Su-gong, the head of that very organization, was staring them down with cold eyes and ordering an immediate retreat.
"…I cannot do that."
The Imperial Army's prestige might be famous throughout the land, but that reputation only held against commoners and martial artists. Defying the director of the Eastern Depot was a heavy burden even for a Commander of a Thousand; he voiced his refusal, yet his lips were bitten raw with tension.
"We arrived first and began the investigation. Even for you, Director Cheon, to demand we withdraw so forcefully is…"
"First or last has nothing to do with it. Since when has the Imperial Army been running around conducting investigations in place of the Eastern Depot? There is a reason each organization of the Imperial Palace has its own distinct role."
Cheon Su-gong's heavy tone cut the commander's excuses clean in half.
In short: stick to protecting the Emperor and stop sticking your nose where it doesn't belong.
"And you call bombarding the capital 'investigating'? Do you intend to turn all of Beijing into a battlefield?"
He clicked his tongue, pointing at the ruined estate and the burning buildings left by the cannon fire.
"Well said! Well said!"
A young man nearby tossed in a flippant cheer, but the two adults ignored him and pressed on.
"That was… those shameless rebels left us no choice when they resisted."
"Resisted, you say. From what I hear, they merely asked you to wait while they dealt with the risk of exposing black powder—an imperial secret—to outsiders. And you, Commander, answered that request by raining cannon fire on them without mercy."
"…"
Under Cheon Su-gong's calm, relentless pressure, Commander Jang Son of the Thousand grew quieter and quieter.
"And you specifically demanded that Byeok Jinsang be handed over. Is there a reason?"
"In a crisis of this sort—a political upheaval—I thought it proper to secure the family head first…"
"Family head? The head of the Byeok Clan has been Byeok Soja for a full thirty years."
"But that man was taken by the Embroidered Uniform Guard on suspicion of disloyalty."
Cheon Su-gong let out a short snort of laughter.
"Yes. The son who brought suspicious martial artists into the house produced suspicious evidence linking him to the Blood Cult, and so the father was hauled away under highly suspicious circumstances. Now that I say it out loud, you yourself are looking rather suspicious as well."
In his view, the one who had staged the coup was more likely Byeok Jinsang—and the commander defending him was every bit as suspect.
"Do you have some ulterior motive? Pushing this hard makes me deeply suspicious."
"…Nothing of the sort."
"Nothing of the sort, is it. Shall we strip you bare and search you before you come to your senses? Do you truly wish to be dragged to the Eastern Depot for a thorough 'investigation'?"
At the word investigation, every drop of color drained from the commander's face.
Long ago, when the treacherous minister Qin Hui framed the general Yue Fei as a traitor and had him killed, the only "evidence" he offered was three characters: mo xu you—"there may or may not be." That vague little phrase was also how the all-powerful Eastern Depot disposed of anyone who became inconvenient.
"No. I will withdraw…"
Unable to withstand the pressure any longer, the commander tucked his tail between his legs and signaled the Imperial Army to fall back.
"You should have done that from the start."
Only when they began to vanish like a defeated force, dragging their cannons with them, did Cheon Su-gong allow himself a look of genuine satisfaction.
"Wow. You drove off an entire army and its general with nothing but that silver tongue of yours?"
To brandish authority, run his mouth, and scatter that many troops without spilling a single drop of blood—he was practically the reincarnation of Seo Hui. I spoke up from beside him, a touch of genuine admiration in my voice.
Cheon Su-gong shot me a sharp sidelong glare. His eyes made it clear that his interrogation was far from finished.
"I already knew how reckless you are, but I never imagined you would blow up a black-powder magazine in the middle of the capital. You lunatic."
The moment the commander named Jang Son was gone, the scolding and the censure flew straight at me.
Cheon Su-gong fixed me with a stare that asked whether I still had any of my wits left.
I scratched my cheek and laid out the unavoidable circumstances.
"Hey, look. There were reasons."
It had been a client's request.
I glanced around, hoping for a little help, and found Byeok Nana. She edged closer, fidgeting, and carefully poked me in the side.
"T-Troubleshooter. You… you have connections with the Eastern Depot as well?"
Her whispered question was thick with fluster.
"It just kind of happened. Yeah."
A strange fate that stretched all the way back to Jamsil. Her eyes went round at my answer.
"Connected even to the director of the Eastern Depot… You really are no ordinary man, Troubleshooter."
Between snatching cannonballs out of the air earlier and everything else today, Byeok Nana had already had more than her share of shocks.
"It's a long story. More of a bad connection, really."
Normally the appearance of a single Eastern Depot agent was enough to make anyone tense; with their supreme leader standing right in front of her, Byeok Nana went deathly pale.
Come to think of it, the Embroidered Uniform Guard and the Eastern Depot were the Ming equivalents of the Defense Security Command or the National Intelligence Service back in Korea. Which meant the gentleman before me was roughly the director of the NIS—and in an age where violence and barbarism were everyday facts of life. No wonder she was terrified.
"It's fine. He's not going to force-feed you chili soup or anything."
"…Pardon?"
I gave her trembling back a couple of reassuring pats and told her he was surprisingly reasonable once you got talking.
"Dan Mujin. Hand Byeok Jinsang over to the Eastern Depot."
But the instant the words left my mouth, Cheon Su-gong made the exact same unreasonable demand the Imperial Army commander had.
"Can't do that."
My client had been clear: only with this Byeok Jinsang in hand could she dig out the truth of the case and rescue her father.
So I shook my head firmly from side to side and refused.
"Oh-ho. Look at this one. First the Embroidered Uniform Guard, then the Imperial Army, and now you're ready to stand against the Eastern Depot as well?"
Cheon Su-gong snorted as if he could scarcely believe it.
"And just why not?"
"Our client needs the bastard too. The head of the Byeok Clan is still being held, you know."
I pointed at Byeok Nana, who was stuck between us, wringing her hands and unable to decide which way to lean.
"Because of a client. The more I look at you, the more absurd you get. Even the Imperial Army knows better than to cross me."
"I take a certain pride in this line of work."
"What, has your family been troubleshooters for generations or something?"
Not generations, exactly—but it had somehow carried over from my previous life.
"Anyway, what do you want him for? Don't tell me it's the same 'protection' the Imperial Army claimed?"
"Protection, my foot. I intend to interrogate him thoroughly, dig out his hidden purpose, force a confession about the evidence, and use that to free the head of the Byeok Clan, you idiot."
Ah. In that case…
I shrugged as if I understood perfectly.
"I am not telling you to wash your hands of this entirely. From here on it appears to be a matter of the Imperial Palace. The Eastern Depot will step in and settle it quietly without letting the affair grow larger. Do you understand, young lady of the Byeok Clan?"
Having decided I was a stubborn mule who would not budge without my client's word, Cheon Su-gong switched his attack to Byeok Nana at my side.
"Pardon? Ah—y-yes, of course!"
And just like that, my client was completely won over by the persuasion of a man of such lofty rank.
She added a plea that her father had clearly been framed and begged him to uncover the truth and bring him out safely.
"Do not worry. I will have to drag him out of prison simply to ask a few questions of my own."
It looked as though Cheon Su-gong would take care of the hardest part of this commission for me. Framing the innocent or freeing them, the push-and-pull of power games—that was his specialty. I could leave it in his hands with confidence.
Back when I was a troubleshooter in my old life, if I was looking for something and a body turned up, I used to hand the case over to the police myself.
"You will bring him back safely, won't you?"
"Of course. So in the meantime, try not to cause any more incidents."
He sounded exactly like my master.
After giving me one last disapproving look, Cheon Su-gong kicked off the ground and vanished into the distance.
"He's right, Boss."
"Mujin, listen to the man."
Sensing their chance, Ilhong and Jo Harang each put in their two cents.
What a cold-hearted crew.
I pulled a honey cake from my robes and crunched the rest of it down.
Two days later.
The fruit of the case transfer we had been waiting for finally arrived.
Byeok Soja, head of the Byeok Clan, returned to the estate in one piece.
"Father!"
A tearful family reunion unfolded between Byeok Nana, her brother Byeok Mujin, and their father.
They clung to one another for a long while, letting the emotion settle. Members of the clan who had been repairing the ruined manor watched the scene with faces full of quiet feeling.
"I heard you and the Embroidered Uniform Guard are mortal enemies. How did you manage to pull him out?"
At my question, Cheon Su-gong gave a dismissive little laugh, as if it had been nothing.
"There are always ways."
With that, he shoved Byeok Jinsang in front of me—thoroughly worked over. Or rather, covered in the unmistakable marks of interrogation.
"Through this one we obtained proof that the evidence had been fabricated, and we secured a full confession as well. With both of those locked down and a certain weakness of theirs already in our hands, they could not keep stonewalling forever."
Byeok Jinsang looked as if he had suffered far worse hardships than the clan head who had been locked away. Just how hard must they have interrogated him for that stiff-necked bastard to turn this meek?
"Are you the troubleshooter Dan Mujin?"
Having finished reuniting with his children, Clan Head Byeok Soja sought me out among the crowd.
"Yes. You may also call me the Dog-Beating Dragon."
The moment I answered, he seized both of my hands in his and poured out heartfelt thanks.
"Nana has told me everything. Truly, truly, I thank you. Because of you, our clan and all its people escaped a terrible calamity!"
He bowed again and again—not as the head of a great house, but simply as a father of two children.
Something ticklish and warm began to well up inside me, only for Salsung to vanish again with a disgusted ugh.
"It was nothing. I get paid for this, after all."
"Nothing? I hear Nana even made a grave mistake midway through because of a misunderstanding."
"Ah, that. She already paid for it with a grand slam."
Byeok Soja tilted his head as if wondering what on earth that meant. Byeok Nana quietly avoided her father's eyes.
"In any case, thanks to you seizing the estate peacefully with that new bomb of yours and even snatching flying cannonballs out of the air, not a single person was hurt—except one fellow who got singed by the flames. It was nothing short of a miracle."
He thumped my shoulder hard, asking how he could ever repay such a debt.
Now, who was that one unlucky casualty who got scorched by the flames?
"Ah, that one. Big Brother Ddong-sik."
Byeok Mujin answered my muttered question from the side.
"Aigoo, Ddong-sik."
A sigh escaped me of its own accord. The sentry with the strangely endearing nickname had really been through a lot.
After the grand banquet celebrating the clan head's safe return, it was finally time to leave the Byeok Clan.
Every part of the commission seemed to have ended in success, and we walked away with a hefty reward from the family head.
"With this much money we could even try that expensive inn Harang was talking about."
The one with the gourmet spread of mountain and sea delicacies, she had said.
"Let's skip inns for a while, Boss."
"Yeah. Our luck's been rotten."
They were terrified of getting dragged into another incident like this one. The agency staff looked thoroughly sick of the idea.
"Fine by me. More money in my pocket."
Before we left, though, Byeok Nana asked us to stop by once more, so I paid a visit to her private chambers.
The room I was shown into looked less like a young lady's quarters in a great house and more like a chemistry lab.
Finely ground black-powder dust was scattered everywhere, along with the traces of countless experiments. And heaped in one corner—despite the magazine we had blown sky-high—were barrels of black powder and thunderclap bombs I had thought would now be in short supply.
"My hobby is making things and blowing them up. With the family head's permission I've been collecting a little at a time, and it just… ended up like this."
Byeok Nana muttered the excuse as if she had read the look of pure disbelief on my face.
A little at a time? Who was she kidding.
Come to think of it, that experimental impact fuse she had thrown at me must have been made right here. Which meant this room was the spearhead of black-powder weapons development.
"The reason I called you is… you've helped us so much, I wanted to give you a personal gift."
Gifts of money or gold were always welcome. But no matter how hard I looked, everything in this room was the kind of thing that exploded.
What exactly was she planning to give me?
"The bomb I developed together with Young Heroine Ilhong—the Tear-Inducing Bomb. Exchanging ideas with her broadened my horizons the entire time."
She had spent years developing thunderclap bombs and always felt as though she had hit a wall. Reverse-engineering complex hidden weapons had given her mechanical knowledge, and Ilhong's deep expertise in medicines and materials had been an enormous help.
"So I'll give you this. From the heart."
And the heartfelt gift she pressed on us turned out to be barrels of black powder and a full set of tools for making thunderclap bombs.
A thoroughly dangerous and inconvenient present—one hard to convert into cash.
True to form for someone who had started flinging bombs the moment we met.
"You bomb-fiend."
"…P-please don't call me that."
The words had slipped out before I could stop them.
"Young Heroine Ilhong is quite knowledgeable about black powder as well. Whenever you like, think of it as chatting with a friend and drop by my workshop now and then. Let's put our heads together again."
She said it had been ages since she last met a kindred spirit.
"Of course, Miss Nana."
Ilhong accepted the gift with a bright, delighted face.
Then she bundled every last piece of it up and hauled the lot all the way back to our office on the outskirts.
Clank, clank.
And right there on the table in the middle of the office she began assembling those vicious things.
"Hey. Be careful with that. It's scary."
Black powder in this era could go off if you mishandled it. Even if she was working under the protection of the Byeok Clan, this building was one I had only just managed to secure. My heart was pounding.
Yet Ilhong kept handling the dangerous materials with a sunny smile. When I asked what she was concentrating so hard on, she answered:
"I'm going to blow Heuk Jin-jo to pieces with this."
Her eyes blazed as she vowed to smash him into fragments.
Somewhere during this commission, it seemed, she had found a new purpose.
Honestly, this one isn't entirely normal either.
Hwang Geolgae, who dotes on her so much, really ought to know about this.