Chapter 37
Chapter 37
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Translator: True Detective
Chapter: 37
Chapter Title: Incident Investigation
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After hearing the hall master's story, Hwa-ryeon spoke up.
“Sounds like a real headache on multiple fronts. Just the compensation claims alone must be costing a fortune.”
“...Yes. And on top of that, a truly vexing new issue has cropped up recently.”
“A truly vexing issue...?”
Right then, a loud commotion erupted from outside the gambling hall.
-Pay up the money, or hand over the golden Buddha!
“Hm...?”
“...Golden Buddha?”
The two turned toward the noise, and the hall master let out a deep, weary sigh.
“Speak of the devil. There's the headache.”
Hwa-ryeon and Yak-byeong followed the hall master toward the source of the shouting.
There, a man accompanied by a gang of rough-looking thugs was bellowing at the top of his lungs.
“So you're saying that guy racked up debt at our establishment?”
“Why demand repayment from the gambling hall for your chief steward's debt!”
“We're not demanding repayment from the hall—we're telling you to produce the golden Buddha that the chief steward said he left here!”
The man, with his snakelike eyes and goatee that gave off an oddly sleazy vibe, kept yelling.
“If the golden Buddha's gone missing, then naturally the hall has to cover its value!”
“Hoo...”
The hall master sighed as if the ground might cave in beneath him at the goatee's shouting.
“...What on earth is all this about? A golden Buddha? Debt?”
“Ah, well...”
Yak-byeong tilted her head and asked the hall master for the full story.
Just as he was about to explain, the goatee spotted him.
“Hey, if it isn't the hall master. Care to talk this out? Am I the crazy one here, or...?”
Spotting Yak-byeong and Hwa-ryeon belatedly, the goatee's eyes widened.
A sharp glint flashed in his eyes at the sight of not one, but two stunning beauties rarely seen.
Unlike him, who quickly masked his intentions with practiced ease, the thugs behind him didn't even bother hiding their lecherous stares.
-Whistle!
“Kehehe...”
They whistled and ogled the two women with creepy grins, like they were licking them with their eyes.
Hwa-ryeon's eyes twitched in irritation, while Yak-byeong calmly hid her feelings, but the hall master exploded in anger.
“What the hell do you think you're doing!”
“Whoops, sorry about that. These mutts are just poorly raised, you know? Makes 'em brutally honest about whatever crosses their minds.”
“You bastard...!”
The hall master's face flushed red and purple at the man's brazen nonsense.
Seeing the hall master's trembling fist, the goatee feigned ignorance.
“So, let's not get all heated and just handle this the proper way, yeah?”
“Proper way? What proper way? It's all just your one-sided claims!”
“Hold on, Hall Master.”
The hall master roared.
Hwa-ryeon stepped forward to stop him.
The goatee flashed a bright smile at her approach.
Added to his inherently sleazy look, it came off as deeply suspicious and unpleasant.
“Hmm? What is it? Gonna pay off the debt for us, pretty miss?”
“We're investigators from the Namgung family, here about the gambling hall fire.”
The goatee's expression shifted slightly at Hwa-ryeon's icy reply.
Coming directly from the Namgung family main house meant she was blood kin with the Namgung name—or close to it.
In other words, someone he couldn't afford to mess with.
“...Yes, miss. Go ahead.”
The goatee immediately switched to a humble tone.
Seeing his quick change, the thugs who'd been eyeing the women disgustingly cleared their throats and averted their gazes.
Ignoring their reactions, Hwa-ryeon asked for details.
“A golden Buddha? Debt? I have no idea what you're talking about. Care to explain?”
“Gladly. If it means getting my money, explaining's no trouble.”
The goatee launched right into his story.
His name was Jo Un-chil.
He ran a gambling house, and recently someone had borrowed a fortune there.
That someone was Dam Jin-bo, chief steward of the Namgung family.
He'd crawl into the gambling dens day after day, blowing money like water until he ended up in debt.
“How much debt are we talking...?”
“Twenty taels of gold.”
“...What?”
Hwa-ryeon’s eyes went wide at the astronomical sum.
Twenty taels of gold was enough for an ordinary commoner family to live off for three generations without working.
And he'd racked that up gambling?
“Can you prove it?”
“Of course. Here's the IOU.”
Un-chil pulled a sheet of paper from his bosom and showed it to Hwa-ryeon.
It matched his claims perfectly—handwriting issues aside, the contents lined up.
And there was one particularly eye-catching clause.
“...Repayment to be made using the golden Buddha deposited at the Namgung gambling hall?”
“The chief steward said it himself before offing himself: he'd left a thirty-tael golden Buddha here, and it'd cover the debt.”
Hwa-ryeon and Yak-byeong turned to the hall master, who frantically shook his head and glared at Un-chil.
“No way! Chief Steward Dam never deposited anything like that, and I'd know if something that valuable came in!”
“How can you be so sure? Half the records burned up, didn't they? Can you prove there was no golden Buddha?”
“Th-that...!”
The hall master was at a loss for words.
Un-chil's claims were one-sided, sure—but with the records gone, so were the hall master's.
A sharp glint passed through Hwa-ryeon's eyes as she took it all in.
“...Understood for now. We'll discuss internally and handle compensation later, so head out for today.”
“M-miss! What do you...!”
“At least someone’s talking sense. You mean that, right?”
Hwa-ryeon shot Un-chil a cold look.
He flinched under her icy gaze but soon nodded with an awkward smile.
“R-right. We'll take that and be on our way.”
Un-chil's gang left the hall grinning ear to ear.
Once they were gone, the hall master immediately confronted Hwa-ryeon.
“Why would you say something like that! Everything that scumbag said was...!”
“Hall Master.”
Hwa-ryeon cut him off and turned to face him.
He flinched at her chilling beauty, like ice carved into form.
She asked him.
“Did you happen to announce the loss of internal records to anyone outside?”
“...What? No way—I'd never. That'd bring swarms of those types crawling out of the woodwork.”
Just as the hall master said, doing so would invite opportunists demanding far more than they'd deposited—or even fabricating claims for non-existent ones.
“I've got all the staff's mouths sealed tight.”
“I see. Then how does that creep know about the record loss?”
“What...?”
At Hwa-ryeon's words, the hall master recalled what Un-chil had said.
-How can you be so sure? Half the records burned up, didn't they? Can you prove there was no golden Buddha?
“Wha—!?”
Only then realizing Un-chil knew something he shouldn't, the hall master bellowed.
Hwa-ryeon turned from the flustered hall master to Yak-byeong.
“...An unexpected windfall.”
“Yeah. Time to head back and discuss with the others.”
*
The group, scattered for their investigations, reconvened.
By now, the sun was setting outside, casting a red glow.
I summarized the investigation results from everyone.
“To sum up: the past escort failures were likely a scheme by Tyrant Heaven Fortress to weaken Namgung family forces. And the chief steward's suicide looks fishy thanks to those gamblers. That about covers it.”
-Bam!
As soon as I finished, Namgung-hyeon slammed his fist on the floor.
His face was twisted in unbearable rage.
“Thinking of my uncles dying because of their schemes...!”
“Namgung...”
Seol Sojeo carefully clasped the fist of the seething Namgung-hyeon as he fought to contain his fury.
I turned from them to Hwa-ryeon.
“Escort side aside, what about the gambling house? Dig anything up?”
“Seems like the biggest operation in Hebi at least. Turns out that Jo Un-chil guy's somewhat infamous in those circles. They say once you owe him, he'll chase you to the ends of hell to collect.”
Yeah, typical gambling house thug.
I thought about the gambling house owner, Jo Un-chil.
The guy claiming Chief Steward Dam owed twenty taels of gold, repayable with a thirty-tael golden Buddha supposedly stored at the hall.
I asked the now-calmed Namgung-hyeon.
“What about the prior investigation? With gambling coming up, surely the family checked it out directly?”
“...Records showed no issues. The ledgers detailed exactly how much Chief Steward Dam spent gambling and borrowed.”
“They just handed them over when asked?”
“Yeah? Oh, right. No real resistance...”
They showed the ledgers just like that when asked?
That right? Usually not.
Even normal shops hesitate to show books to outsiders, let alone a gambling house?
Hm. Suspicious. Very suspicious.