Chapter 35
Chapter 35
-----------------------------------------------------------------
Translator: True Detective
Chapter: 35
Chapter Title: Incident Investigation
-----------------------------------------------------------------
I summoned the coroner O-jak to the house through Chief Steward Dam's wife, the one who had tampered with the examination of Dam.
Having already heard why he'd been called back, O-jak protested the moment he entered.
“Y-You say the examination was botched? That can't be. I've been doing this work for twenty years already.”
Doing the same job for about twenty years meant, at the very least, he was proficient in his field.
It was safe to assume O-jak wasn't incompetent.
That left only one possibility: external pressure.
Conveniently, O-jak's visit provided the evidence to confirm it.
Just as I'd suspected, an unidentified warrior had tagged along with him.
Judging by the aura I sensed, he wasn't some run-of-the-mill thug.
Most likely one of Tyrant Heaven Fortress's men.
I led O-jak into the room where the chief steward's body lay, signaled him to stay quiet, and turned to Namgoong Hyun.
Namgoong Hyun swallowed hard, looking slightly tense, then shouted loudly toward the window.
“You wretched fool! How dare you perform such a shoddy examination without even according the dead proper rites?!”
“Hic...?”
O-jak stared at Namgoong Hyun in shock as he bellowed at the window out of nowhere.
I signaled him to stay quiet again and urged Namgoong Hyun on.
“Do you think you deserve payment for this?! No matter how unseemly the chief steward's death, he served our Namgoong family for many long years! And you would dishonor his final journey like this...!”
Namgoong Hyun poured out his words without pause.
It was a bit awkward, but not terribly so.
I signaled him to keep going while keeping an eye on the Tyrant Heaven Fortress warrior.
As I'd said before, the man's mere presence was proof enough that O-jak had falsified his findings under pressure.
To hear it straight from O-jak's mouth, though, we had to chase off that Fortress thug first.
Come on, just leave already... We're only calling about the botched examination. Go... please...!
How long did I repeat that in my mind? The warrior's aura, hidden behind the wall, began to recede.
“Phew...”
I let out a sigh of relief.
If this hadn't worked, I'd have had to knock him out secretly and deal with the messy aftermath. Good thing it did.
“You're finished right now...!”
“Young Master, that's enough.”
I stopped Namgoong Hyun, who was still yelling at thin air, and turned to O-jak.
His face still showed he had no idea what was going on.
“Now then, shall we talk? Why did you falsify the autopsy report?”
At my words, O-jak's face drained of color. Without any excuse, he immediately prostrated himself flat on the floor.
“I-I've committed a mortal sin!”
It took some effort to calm the babbling, half-dazed O-jak, but the story he told was utterly absurd.
The moment he heard of the Namgoong family chief steward's supposed suicide, the county magistrate of Hefei had come in person and pressured him to rule it a suicide, no matter what.
For a mere coroner like him, defying the magistrate's order was impossible.
“I'm sorry. I knew it was wrong, but what power does a wretch like me have? I had no choice but to obey my superiors.”
“......”
Namgoong Hyun seemed too stunned to speak.
The magistrate's direct involvement meant the county office had hoped for this outcome too.
“...I knew the county office saw our family as a thorn in their side. But to stoop to such filthy tactics...!”
Namgoong Hyun ground his teeth, unable to contain his rage.
Yet his training wasn't so poor that anger would cloud his judgment; he quickly took a deep breath and regained his composure.
“In any case, it's fortunate. Thanks to Young Master Goon, we've uncovered the truth. If we report this to the branch leader...”
“Sorry, but you'll have to hold off on that for now.”
Namgoong Hyun's eyes widened at my curt interruption.
“W-Why? We have evidence and a witness. Why...?”
“Before I explain...”
I turned to O-jak.
His eyes shook endlessly, worried about his future.
Meeting his gaze, I explained the situation step by step.
“There was someone tailing you.”
“What?”
“Probably planning to kill you quietly if you spilled what you just told us.”
O-jak's face went deathly pale.
I reassured him there was no need to worry.
“Don't fret. He thought we just called you about a botched job and left already.”
“Oh, so that's...”
Realization dawned, and he let out an exclamation about Namgoong Hyun's shouting earlier.
“So, as far as anyone knows, you didn't tell us anything today. You were just called in to account for screwing up the examination. Got it?”
“Y-Yes! I understand. Thank you, truly thank you!”
O-jak realized I was trying to save him and bowed repeatedly in gratitude.
Even as he left the room, he kept thanking us. Once he was gone, Namgoong Hyun asked me,
“How can we just let him go? What if something happens to such an important witness?”
“No matter how this plays out, we won't be putting him forward as a witness.”
“What do you...!”
Namgoong Hyun frowned, unable to grasp my meaning.
I explained the current situation again for him.
“You heard him. This isn't just Tyrant Heaven Fortress's scheme—Hefei's county magistrate is involved too.”
“So?”
“If we use O-jak as a witness, whether things go well or not, his life will be in danger.”
We still didn't know how Tyrant Heaven Fortress and the Hefei magistrate were connected.
But there must have been some deal between them, one big enough for the magistrate to overlook a crime.
Put O-jak on the stand in that scenario?
No matter how it unfolded, the magistrate wouldn't forgive him.
He'd harbor a grudge and find some way to kill him.
“We can protect him with the Namgoong family's resources, can't we?”
Namgoong Hyun looked frustrated by my explanation.
I asked him point-blank.
“Does the Namgoong family have the capacity for that right now?”
“...!”
Namgoong Hyun fell silent at my question.
His face noticeably darkened.
“I noticed earlier most of the family members were absent. Where are they all?”
“...That's...”
Namgoong Hyun finally opened up about what he'd been avoiding.
I narrowed my eyes as I listened.
*
Having split from the others, Dae-un and Seol were walking the streets of Hefei.
Seol, walking right beside her master, posed a fundamental question.
“Master, where are we going?”
“You'll see when we get there.”
Why not just tell me ahead of time?
Seol pouted behind her master's back.
But Dae-un wasn't done.
“You remember what Hyun said earlier, right?”
“Huh? What did he say?”
“About what we're investigating now.”
Of the three groups, Dae-un and Seol had drawn the trickiest case.
It concerned the Namgoong family's frequent escort mission failures over the past year.
“He said four out of ten escorts failed last year.”
For an escort agency run directly by a major clan like the Namgoong family, that was an alarmingly high rate.
What was strange was that failures, which used to be under one in ten, had spiked starting just last year.
“Probably Tyrant Heaven Fortress pulling some strings?”
“Likely.”
“But for that, it feels a bit half-hearted.”
“What do you mean?”
Dae-un feigned ignorance and asked.
It was his old habit to make Seol think for herself, even when he knew the answer.
Something about how thinking for oneself was key.
Seol couldn't fathom why he bothered with such pointless exercises.
Still, as a dutiful disciple, she responded to meet his expectations.
“Why only fail four out of ten? If they'd botched six, or even five, no one would touch the Namgoong escorts anymore.”
“Why do you think?”
Seol stroked her chin thoughtfully for a moment.
It was amusing seeing a girl too young for peach fuzz do that, but Dae-un held back a laugh and waited.
“Probably one of two things. Either they lacked the manpower to sabotage more, or they had some reason to keep the failure rate at that level.”
“Hm.”
Pleased with her answer, Dae-un nodded, and Seol pressed on.
“Which do you think it is, Master?”
“Low chance Tyrant Heaven Fortress lacks manpower. They've expanded wildly over the last decade, so quantity shouldn't be an issue, even if quality is.”
“So you think there's another reason?”
“Yeah, that's my take.”
Her next question followed immediately.
What could that other reason be?
“I don't know the answer to that yet either.”
“Then what do we do?”
“Find someone who does.”
“Someone who... knows?”
Seol tilted her head.
Dae-un roughly ruffled her hair, then stopped in front of a certain teahouse.
Seol grimaced and fixed her mussed hair, then looked up at the sign where Dae-un had halted.
“Firmament... Teahouse?”
“Let's go in.”
The two stepped into the teahouse, whose name rang strangely familiar.
Inside was a serene space.
Watching a few patrons sip tea in utter silence, Seol walked carefully.
Unlike her, Dae-un strode boldly toward the back without a care.
At the end of his path stood a man who appeared to be the proprietor.
He greeted the new customers with a beaming smile.