Following the Scent
It had been a long while since we last set foot in the Imperial Noble Consort's palace.
After listening to everything Cheon Su-gong and I had to say, the Imperial Noble Consort readily agreed with our cause and granted us permission to search the Court of Censors.
"For an imperial oversight body to abduct an innocent woman and lock her away here is a stain upon the dignity of the imperial family itself. If it is true, it must be set right."
She even told us we were free to invoke her authority for the search. Of course, her consent came from pure human compassion—nothing like Cheon Su-gong, who was already eyeing the whole affair as political blackmail and leverage.
With that powerful backer behind us, our party headed for the Court of Censors building, the imperial decree tucked safely away.
"Cheon Su-gong, that helper I mentioned last time—mind if I call her in now?"
An expert searcher who could dig through their deepest, most carefully veiled secrets. With Cheon Su-gong's go-ahead, I brought my reliable ally right up to the front of the Court of Censors.
"What the fuck is this situation now?"
The moment she arrived she jabbed a finger at the Court of Censors nameplate and spat out a curse, looking thoroughly dumbfounded. Especially once she noticed the high-ranking types clustered around me; she instantly shriveled into full "don't look at me" mode and started casting furtive glances every which way.
"I'm starting to regret ever telling you how to contact me…"
She shot me a look of pure disgust. Probably wondering why I kept dragging her into weird messes.
Too late for second thoughts, though. No refunds once the deal is sealed.
"Anyway, what's the job?"
"A young courtesan from Cheonhwaru got kidnapped and brought here. If we don't find her fast we'll never see her again, so I need your help, Yang Yang."
I told her her last trail ended at this place and casually pointed at the lavish Court of Censors building.
Cheon Su-gong, who had been quietly listening, cut in.
"Hmph. Yang Yang… isn't that the name of the thief who was jailed for looting the imperial palace vaults?"
I introduced him as the head of the Eastern Depot. Just like Ilhong last time, Yang Yang flinched and stared at Cheon Su-gong in pure shock—exactly the look of a thief who had just run into the police commissioner on the street.
"I still don't know how you vanished so cleanly that day, but the Eastern Depot's eyes reach everywhere. If you want to keep that head of yours attached, you'd best abandon any greed toward the palace for good."
A stern warning aimed at the thief who had once dared try to rob the Heavenly Treasure Pavilion. By rights the Eastern Depot should have taken her head the moment they found her, but since she had helped save the Imperial Noble Consort's party, her merit canceled the crime—this once.
"Y-yes, sir!"
The bold-as-brass thief bobbed her head furiously at the high imperial official, then whipped around to glare at me with pure resentment.
"What? You said call you for anything, remember? Said it was a life-debt."
"Urgh… I did say that, yeah… Fine, so what exactly am I supposed to do?"
She asked about her role with the face of someone who had already given up. We were walking straight through the front gate, so it clearly wasn't a theft job, and her expression said she had no clue what was going on.
"You're a thief, so you're an expert on hidden rooms, walls and floors that move, concealed spaces, that kind of thing, right?"
"Expert, sure. But I'm not a thief—I'm the Divine Thief."
Yang Yang put real emphasis on the title.
"We've got half a shichen to tear this whole building apart. That's where you come in."
I pointed at the massive structure that practically radiated imperial authority and asked if she could handle it. She immediately fired back asking why specifically half a shichen.
"Because that's what the Imperial Noble Consort wrote in the decree she issued. Given who we're dealing with, any longer than that is pushing it."
I fluttered the golden silk imperial decree right in front of her face.
"…And if we find nothing in that time?"
"Then the courtesan's in deep trouble, and so are we for barging in."
"…"
The Imperial Noble Consort might get away with nothing worse than some pushback for half a shichen of suspicion. Outsiders like us, though? The blowback would be massive. Realizing she had been dragged into something far messier than expected, Yang Yang's brow furrowed hard.
"I'm just gonna leave."
"Not a chance. Get over here."
I clamped onto the wrist of the woman who was already trying to bolt and hauled her straight toward the front gate of the Court of Censors. She shrieked at the overwhelming strength of my grip.
"Hey! Are you crazy?! Let go!"
A woman's fate hung in the balance. I filled my lungs to the brim, kicked the entrance open, and bellowed at the top of my lungs.
CRAAASH!
"You perverted bastard who kidnapped Ju Wolay! Where the hell are you?! Get out here right now!"
A pitch-black space where not a single ray of light could enter.
In a chamber where countless people had screamed until they spilled the truth, Censor Yang Gunjwa was stroking a woman's glossy hair.
Every time his thick hand brushed her locks, the beauty in the lustrous crimson silk robes trembled from head to toe in pure revulsion.
"Ju Wolay, do you know what I find most unpleasant?"
"Mmph… mmph?"
Ju Wolay made a faint sound through the cloth gag stuffed in her mouth. Fear filled her eyes, yet a spark of defiance still flickered there.
Yang Gunjwa's smile turned sinister.
"When I say no and some other man gets the yes."
He was a middle-aged man who had wielded power closer to absolute than any non-imperial figure in recent memory. Whatever he wanted, he took. Whatever he desired, he obtained.
"A mere courtesan, rejecting this body's sincere proposal… and then brazenly accepting the Golden-Robed Young Master instead…?"
If that wasn't a deliberate provocation, what was it? His voice rose steadily.
Ju Wolay squeezed her eyes shut.
So the kidnapper really was the man behind the letter. He had sent gold and jewels and demanded she leave the trade in grand style; her firm refusal had crushed his pride.
The wounded middle-aged man stamped his feet and huffed in fury for a long while. Then he looked down at Ju Wolay at his feet, and his expression changed. A kind of manic delight spread across his face.
"But in the end you've fallen into my hands, so this isn't so bad after all."
He seized her chin and forced it up. She twisted and resisted, but the ropes binding her allowed nothing.
"Mmph! Mmph!"
Yang Gunjwa draped a coat of beast fur over her silk robes, then pulled something like a headband made of animal fur from his robes and began settling it onto her head.
"Huff… huff… Exactly the same. Just like that beauty painting!"
A full-blown pervert with a fetish. That was the thought that flashed through Ju Wolay's mind as she watched him pant with excitement.
In the quiet darkness she could only stare in stunned horror.
"Heh heh, it suits you. Yes, Ju Wolay—that wild animal look is perfect for you!"
Perhaps this was the price for using a lie to prod a man's sense of responsibility and lure him in. Who would have guessed someone who actually got off on animal ears would kidnap her?
She bowed her head deep in the dark, full of bitter regret.
"Now then, the cat ears this time… Where did I put them…"
Yang Gunjwa rummaged around and approached again.
To be forced into animal play at the hands of a pervert in a place this dark…
N-no…
Ju Wolay shuddered, despairing of her fate, and screamed through the gag—a scream no one would hear. It was a cry calling desperately for Dan Mujin.
And then—
CRAAASH—!
A shockwave that shook the entire building. And through it, a shout.
"…perverted bastard! Where the hell are you?! Get out here right now!"
The familiar voice made Ju Wolay's eyes light up.
Yang Gunjwa's face twisted with rage. Fury blazed in the eyes of a man whose pleasant time had just been interrupted.
"Who the hell is that now…"
Back in my wandering days I used to get nervous just collecting a debt from Old Man Jang because I was scared of a single constable.
Now I was storming the Court of Censors itself—the very heart of imperial power. All thanks to the Imperial Noble Consort and the Eastern Depot covering my back.
"Who goes there?!"
"What lunatic dares—!"
As the dust settled, officials and martial artists of the Court of Censors came pouring out. Shock and fury warred on their faces. I was probably the first outsider since the founding of the dynasty to smash through their front gate.
"I am Troubleshooter Dan Mujin! By order of the Imperial Noble Consort I am here to investigate the kidnapping of Ju Wolay!"
Without missing a beat I thrust out the imperial jade token and the Imperial Noble Consort's decree like a search warrant.
Their reaction was immediate and violent.
"What kind of bullshit—!"
"You insolent dog, a mere troubleshooter daring to touch the Court of Censors?!"
"Where did you forge that decree?! A man who needs his head cut off to come to his senses!"
A dozen Court of Censors martial artists had already surrounded me, closing in with the clear intent to crush both the genuine decree and the jade token into dust.
Then heavy footsteps sounded behind me. Thud. Thud. Cheon Su-gong strode in with Eastern Depot warriors in tow. His cold gaze swept the interior and the gathered men.
"W-wait… Cheon Su-gong…?"
One official faltered and lowered his blade.
Head of the imperial Eastern Depot and the Imperial Noble Consort's closest confidant—the very person whose token I had just flashed. The moment he stepped forward the entire atmosphere shifted. The decree and jade token they had been calling forgeries instantly became the real thing.
"By order of the Imperial Noble Consort. Make way."
Cheon Su-gong pointed at the decree and spoke in a low voice.
The Eastern Depot was famous for every single member being a formidable fighter, and Cheon Su-gong himself was rumored to be a master whose true strength was impossible to gauge. The officials who had been roaring moments earlier suddenly held their breath.
The Left Deputy Censor still tried to mediate with what courage he could muster.
"But Cheon Su-gong, this Court of Censors has been granted independence by His Majesty himself…"
"Does a mere Left Deputy Censor dare defy my words—and the Imperial Noble Consort's command?"
Cheon Su-gong spat the words while releasing a razor-sharp killing intent. His hand drifted toward his sword hilt; the Left Deputy Censor hiccuped and clamped his mouth shut at once.
Unless Censor Yang Gunjwa himself stepped forward—someone of equal rank—no one here could stop Cheon Su-gong. Yet for some reason the Censor's shadow was nowhere to be seen.
"Half a shichen."
Cheon Su-gong delivered the cold notice.
"If you truly never kidnapped any courtesan and have nothing to hide, you have no reason to stop us."
The Left Deputy Censor clearly had plenty to say, but the look on his face said he now understood that speaking up would mean personally opposing the Imperial Noble Consort's order. After all, she was the wife the Emperor cherished most. One whispered mention of the Left Deputy Censor's name in the imperial bedchamber and the man could vanish from the Central Plains the next day.
"Hmph. Eastern Depot—begin the search!"
Seeing them frozen solid, Cheon Su-gong snorted and issued the command.
"All units, turn the place inside out!"
The Eastern Depot men he had brought scattered in every direction and began methodically searching every corner of the building like seasoned professionals.
I took Ilhong and Yang Yang and started tearing through the rooms and corridors of the Court of Censors myself. Bang, crash—we pounded walls and kicked doors like a demolition crew.
The deeper we went, the more the true face of the Court of Censors emerged, and Yang Yang clicked her tongue in disbelief.
"They claim they root out corruption, so why is there so much hidden money?"
She muttered at the piles of gold and silver stacked in what looked like a secret vault. Expensive jewelry filled the drawers; once we picked the locks, the wall cabinets were packed with fine porcelain.
How had they scraped it all together? Clean channels? Not a chance.
The country doesn't lack taxes—it just has too many thieves. The old saying floated through my mind.
"Someday when I've sharpened my skills, I'm definitely going to rob this place."
Yang Yang, the Divine Thief, ground her teeth, certain the wealth had been sucked from the blood of ordinary people. She declared it a sight no righteous thief could overlook.
"And when you do, half of it goes into the righteous thief's own pocket, right?"
"Obviously. That's the service fee."
She answered my teasing with complete confidence.
"Yeah, yeah. First let's find Ju Wolay."
I nodded and told her to start hunting for any space where Ju Wolay might be hidden. That was when she truly began showing her professional expertise.
"Look at this wall. From outside it looked thick, but from inside it's thin, right? That means there's a secret space."
She pressed her ear to the wall, rapped it a few times, then grinned with an "I knew it" expression.
BOOM!
I demolished the wall with fist force and another space stuffed with slush funds appeared. These bastards were thorough—what we saw in the vault wasn't even the half of it. The building seemed riddled with places like this.
"Check this out too. The shape's weird, right? Looks like a mechanism that uses the way things fall downward."
THUD!
Another concealed space opened, but Ju Wolay wasn't there either.
Like that, Divine Thief Yang Yang meticulously uncovered the Court of Censors' secrets. Her talent for sniffing out what people tried to hide was truly impressive—almost like a detection hound. We still hadn't found Ju Wolay, but she was steadily exposing the Court's corruption piece by piece.
Unfortunately that also meant our limited time kept ticking away. On top of that, the Court of Censors officials threw up constant obstacles—claiming they had no keys when we asked them to open locked rooms, or deliberately failing to explain the layout of certain chambers.
Before long our search warrant time was nearly gone. Among the officials watching us like hawks, one was openly measuring the time with a small sundial. When it looked like we would fail to find the supposedly kidnapped woman, quiet triumph crept onto their faces.
"Damn it all."
I clenched my teeth. The Beggar Sect disciples had clearly confirmed that Ju Wolay's trail ended right here. Had the information leaked without even the Beggar Sect noticing?
Given how thoroughly we had planned to gut their spaces, missing this chance could mean never seeing her again.
Just then Ilhong grabbed my shoulder hard.
"Boss, there's a weird scent around here."
She had been dazed after meeting Cheon Su-gong and the Imperial Noble Consort, but she finally seemed to have snapped out of it.
"What scent?"
I asked urgently.
Ilhong hesitated, glancing at my face before speaking.
"W-well… I actually put some thyme on Ju Wolay…"
Thyme—a special tracking scent that only trained people could detect. Ilhong had gone through that kind of training in the Haomu Gate. She had even used it on me in secret once, gotten caught, and promised never to use it again.
"Hey, you said you wouldn't use that anymore."
"…Yeah, I promised."
When I called her out she scratched her cheek awkwardly.
"So why is thyme coming up again?"
"I promised not to use it on you, Boss. I never said anything about not using it on Ju Wolay."
She rolled her eyes and offered a weak excuse.
"…"
So she had taken a loophole. Was she that insecure about me spending time with Ju Wolay?
"A-anyway, I just caught the scent around here, so…"
She hurriedly changed the subject and started sniffing around like a tracking dog. Before long she pointed at a section of wall. It looked completely ordinary at a glance, but on second look the pattern of the wallpaper was ever so slightly different.
Without a second's hesitation I blasted the wall with fist force.
BOOM! RUMBLE!
Under everyone's eyes the wall collapsed with a roar, revealing the secret space within for all to see.
Inside, a repulsive middle-aged man was clamping a hand over Ju Wolay's mouth to stop her from making a sound, staring at us in pure panic. He had dressed her in a beast-fur coat and held a headband that looked just like cat ears in his other hand.
"Got you, you perverted bastard!"
I roared in fury.
Censor Yang Gunjwa's face turned deathly pale.