Chapter 50
Chapter 50
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Translator: True Detective
Chapter: 50
Chapter Title: Preparation
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“Is this... is this really true?”
“I found it in Ji-hyun’s room in the prefectural office.”
At my response, clear anger settled on Namgoong Hyun’s face.
Seol Sojeo, her own face hardening at the sight, took the letter from him and read it. Her eyes widened.
“Good heavens...!”
Before long, the slender hand clutching the letter began to tremble.
The face of Seol Sojeo, who had always maintained her gentle demeanor since we first met, twisted in rage.
“H-how could they commit such an outrageous act...!”
It was obvious which part had enraged the two of them.
It had to be the method of transferring the Namgoong Clan’s assets to Ji-hyun.
“Falsifying the land survey report to frame us for tax evasion...!”
That was right.
The method to seize the Namgoong Clan’s assets.
It was to manipulate the land survey records and frame the Namgoong Clan for attempting tax evasion.
I shook the ledger I had brought along—the falsified land registry—and spoke.
“Since they even prepared a pre-falsified land registry, they must have planned to execute this right after the Namgoong Clan lost the martial tournament and was expelled from Hefei.”
In fact, there was one unresolved suspicion amid the incidents at the Namgoong Clan.
The assassination of the chief steward.
More precisely, the question of why they ‘bothered’ to kill the chief steward.
If the intent was to frame him for embezzling gambling funds from the battlefield, there was no need to kill the chief steward.
They could have targeted the head of the Namgoong Battlefield Division instead, or even killed the escort leader of the Namgoong Escort Service for leaking information to Jo Woon-chil and pinned the blame on him.
That might have caused less fallout afterward and been more convenient in many ways.
Yet they had chosen to bear the burden of killing the chief steward, who oversaw the clan’s administrative affairs. That had always been the question...
“...So there was a reason to kill Chief Steward Dam.”
I nodded at Seol Sojeo’s grim words.
“With the chief steward—who would have reported the land survey to the prefectural office—out of the picture during the chaos, their response would inevitably be delayed. They must have planned to exploit that gap to wrap everything up.”
Namgoong Hyun refuted my words with a face that showed he couldn’t comprehend.
“No matter that the chief steward is dead, he wasn’t handling all the clan’s administrative duties alone. How could they possibly pull that off?”
“We’ll have to return to the clan and find out, won’t we?”
“What? Return to the cl... You don’t mean?”
Catching my meaning immediately, Namgoong Hyun’s face grew grave.
“...You think there’s a traitor within the clan?”
“I hope not, but we already have an escort leader who betrayed the clan over gambling debts.”
“...That’s.”
Namgoong Hyun trailed off, unable to finish.
He clamped his mouth shut and sank into contemplation.
He was probably praying inwardly that there was no traitor.
Of course, I was skeptical about that.
These were people who had meticulously prepared for the Namgoong Clan’s downfall over an entire year.
Would those who went so far as to falsify land registries to steal the clan’s assets really not plant a traitor inside?
If anything, it would be stranger if there wasn’t one.
I was convinced of it deep down but didn’t voice it.
I wasn’t so tactless as to say that in front of someone lost in anguish.
“Clan heir...”
With Seol Sojeo’s worried voice for Namgoong Hyun marking the end, silence fell inside the carriage.
*
“A solution has come up, you say? What on earth does that mean?”
Cheol-woo was beyond puzzled at Chil-ji’s sudden remark—he was utterly baffled.
Flirting with the woman who had come with the Namgoong young heir, and now a solution?
Under Cheol-woo’s baffled gaze, Chil-ji looked toward the spot where the Namgoong young heir’s group had left.
“Do you know who the woman next to the Namgoong young heir just now was?”
“...She introduced herself. Seol Yak-byeong of the Seol Clan.”
And something about being Anhui’s top beauty?
She was certainly strikingly beautiful.
Among the people he’d seen so far, the most beautiful was this suspicious woman right in front of him, and Seol Yak-byeong was on par with her.
But what did that have to do with anything right now?
Chil-ji inwardly sighed as she looked at Cheol-woo, who knew one thing but not the other, and opened her mouth.
“That’s all on the surface. But from our Paecheon Fortress’s perspective, she has another identity.”
“What is it?”
“She’s one of Young Fortress Lord’s fiancée candidates.”
“...What?”
Chil-ji shrugged at Cheol-woo’s stunned expression.
“To be precise, just one among many concubine candidates.”
“N-no... What are you talking about? Didn’t you just say she’s the Namgoong young heir’s fiancée?”
Chil-ji explained the situation to the flustered Cheol-woo.
Cheol-woo heard how Seol Yak-byeong’s father, the head of the Seol Clan, had unilaterally broken off the engagement with the Namgoong Clan.
He immediately grasped what had happened and frowned.
“Tch. Using his own daughter for his ambitions, huh.”
“Yes. It seems Young Lady Seol Yak-byeong rejected her father’s wishes and came to the Namgoong Clan on her own.”
“That’s... bold of her.”
Cheol-woo was inwardly impressed by Seol Yak-byeong’s actions.
At least she acted far more like a martial artist than her father, who tried to use his daughter as a tool.
Nodding, he soon tilted his head.
But so what? What did that have to do with them?
He shot Chil-ji a look conveying exactly that, and the corner of her mouth curved into a small smile.
“The key point is that Young Fortress Lord is currently in Anqing.”
“What? The Young Fortress Lord is?”
Chil-ji nodded at the startled Cheol-woo.
“Yes. For whatever reason, he came to see Seol Yak-byeong and has stayed put there. The Seol Clan head is probably hiding his daughter’s flight and stalling for time.”
Accurately guessing the Seol Clan’s situation, Chil-ji rose from her seat.
“Thanks to them giving us a fortnight, we have time on our side too. I’ll head to Anqing and bring back the Young Fortress Lord.”
He went to see Anhui’s top beauty and ended up staying—tell him that, and he’ll surely come to Hefei.
That’s what Chil-ji thought.
“You’re not thinking of asking the Young Fortress Lord to participate in the tournament, are you?”
“...What nonsense is that?”
Chil-ji looked at Cheol-woo pitifully for asking such an absurd question.
Feeling indignant under her gaze, Cheol-woo shot to his feet and demanded.
“Then why bring the Young Fortress Lord here!”
“Sigh... Have you forgotten who’s by his side?”
“By the Young Fortress Lord’s... side?”
Cheol-woo mulled over Chil-ji’s words for a moment before his eyes widened.
Now he got it.
Chil-ji nodded.
“Yes. One of the Fortress Lord’s Four Great Guards, Sun-chang Cho Un-yeop. I plan to ask him to participate in the tournament.”
Sun-chang Cho Un-yeop—the current martial world’s fastest spear wielder, a renowned expert.
A master clearly a cut above even Heavenly Light Division Leader Sagong Chan.
With such a high master’s help, all their problems would surely be solved.
But,
“How do you plan to convince him? He won’t abandon his duty to guard the Young Fortress Lord.”
Within Paecheon Fortress, no one was unaware of Cho Un-yeop’s famous loyalty to the Fortress Lord.
It was unthinkable that such a man would neglect the direct order from the Fortress Lord to guard the Young Fortress Lord.
“I’ll handle that somehow. Deputy Leader, please keep the Heavenly Light Division and the lower martial artists from getting restless until I return.”
“...Got it.”
Chil-ji didn’t explain the details.
But her firm declaration that she’d make it happen left Cheol-woo nodding without further protest.
‘If she says she’ll do it, she’ll pull it off somehow.’
Ah, there he went thinking like that again.
Cheol-woo scowled, displeased with himself for holding Chil-ji in such high regard.
Turning her gaze from him, Chil-ji looked past the awkwardly seated Ji-hyun to the low-ranking official standing there awkwardly.
“Excuse me, could I have a word with you?”
“Y-yes? Oh, sure...”
Chil-ji stepped out of the medical office with the official and led him to a secluded spot.
The official, faced with a stunning beauty he’d never seen before taking him somewhere out of sight, couldn’t think straight.
Blushing with embarrassment at his own thoughts, he soon saw the red glow in Chil-ji’s eyes and his mind went blank.
A sweet voice wormed into the dazed official’s ear.
“That man you brought in—did he seem suspicious in any way?”
Her voice was so enchanting that he wanted to answer any question.
The official responded honestly, following his heart.
“No... nothing like that...”
“...And did he try to bribe you with money or anything? Nothing of the sort?”
“Nothing like that happened...”
“...”
Chil-ji frowned at the official’s answer.
‘...Nothing at all?’
She had grown suspicious because of his sudden complaints of a stomachache, but was it really just that?
Her instincts whispered otherwise, but reality denied them.
A misunderstanding born of ignorance about pressure points and overconfidence in her own abilities.
Unaware of this, Chil-ji had no choice but to accept reality.
“...Understood. And forget everything that happened when you entered the medical office earlier.”
“Yes... understood...”
The red light faded from Chil-ji’s eyes, and she promptly left the spot.
Anqing was two days away even if one rode hard all day on horseback.
And that was alone, at full speed.
Returning to Hefei with the Young Fortress Lord would naturally take even longer.
Thinking of that, a fortnight wasn’t all that much time.
In the spot Chil-ji had hastily left.
The official, who had been dazed, suddenly snapped to.
“Wh-where am I...? What was I...?”
As per Chil-ji’s command, he had forgotten everything from the medical office.
Bewildered, he had no memory of why he was standing there.