The Favor - 2
Imperial Inspector. Jeong Munwon.
Empowered by the Emperor's own mandate to root out official corruption, an Inspector was an official even the mightiest magnates dared not treat carelessly. And yet I knew a future in which Jeong Munwon would be kicked around like a rag doll.
The man assigned to clean up after the future Imperial Princess.
To borrow an example from a special-effects monster show, Jeong Munwon was the official whose job it was to tidy up the wrecked aftermath whenever the giant robot carrying the hero flattened the monster of the week.
Certainly an official bearing an imperial command, serving a personage of tremendous stature — and equally certainly, a man fated to suffer for all eternity. And he had come to borrow money from me.
Covering my eyes with both hands, I wailed,
"Sob, sob. To think the great Imperial Inspector himself should want my money — even if it means nothing but a rock-hard morning loaf and plain water tomorrow, I shall see the sum provided, I shall!"
"No, no! I never heard that!"
At my exaggerated crying, Jeong Munwon startled and waved his hands frantically.
"Haha! Just a joke."
"A j... a joke, you say?"
You looked so miserable I figured I'd crack a joke to lighten the mood.
"I can't provide the full sum you named. But a quarter of it — that much I could put together on the spot."
The money Jeong Munwon had asked for was not truly beyond my means. Neither, however, was it small enough to hand over cheerfully to one's workplace superior, no matter how generous one felt.
So Jeong Munwon really is one of the incorruptibly clean ones after all.
This was a world steeped in graft. Even a bailiff like me, who held no official rank whatsoever, could shake money loose in all sorts of colorful ways — wielding public authority to extort market merchants, dining on the public's coin, demanding sweeteners from anyone touched by a case. How much more so an Imperial Inspector, whose entire office existed to sniff out official misconduct?
If I said, pay up and I'll bury your misdeeds, there was not a single official alive who would refuse. For him to be so strapped that he came to borrow meant he was an honest official who had never once accepted a bribe.
No wonder the Emperor had appointed him Inspector.
"Is... is that truly so?"
"I don't know what your trouble is, but I'll write you a promissory note. I only hope it will put out the most urgent fire."
Without a moment's hesitation, I held the note out.
"..."
Apparently unable to convince himself he could really accept it this easily, Jeong Munwon's gaze darted back and forth between me and the paper.
"Is it not enough even for the urgent fire?"
"N-no. That's not it..."
"Then please, speak."
"You're not... going to ask why?"
So that was what made him hesitate — after being the one to ask for the loan in the first place.
Certainly it was strange. However much we had worked together during the Shadowless Divine Thief affair, we were hardly close enough for me to lend him money so readily, no questions asked.
Trusting what, exactly, to hand over money? Of course he'd find it odd. But you see, Inspector — I happen to know your future.
"If a man comes running to you with his house in flames, would you really interrogate him about how the fire started?"
"Huh?"
"An incorruptibly honest Imperial Inspector has come to me in need of money. Which clearly means you have fallen into something terribly awkward. Naturally, the solution comes first."
Befriending a man who will one day be hauled to the very top by a golden rope is never a loss. I said it with a smile, trust laid on thick.
"It may be awkward for me, but is that a reason for you to lend?"
"Did you not think of me, Inspector?"
"What is that supposed to mean?"
"When you needed help, Inspector, was it not this Kang Yunho you thought of as a man to be trusted? An Inspector so favored by His Majesty the Emperor placed his faith in me — surely I must answer that faith in kind."
The blue-chip stock of officialdom. A chance to invest in a man whose fortunes are bound to soar — what joy could possibly compare?
"...You."
Of course, to Jeong Munwon, who knew nothing of the truth, I must have looked like a benefactor trusting him for no reason whatsoever.
It was all quite calculated.
"Haha. Stare all you like, no more money will appear. Spend this on whatever burns most urgently, and I'll have more ready if it falls short — come back within two days if you need it."
I held the promissory note out to him a second time.
"..."
"And if your heart is still heavy, you may tell me the whole story when you come next."
Something hovered on the Inspector's lips. Then he bowed his head.
"Thank you."
"Are you mad, lending money out like water? One small success and you spend without a care — you'll ruin yourself."
And just who was lecturing whom about reckless spending?
The moment the Inspector left the estate, I explained what had just happened to Young Lady Jegal and Jeon Gilsan, who had been waiting with undisguised curiosity.
"Money can be earned again anytime. But the chance to win the goodwill of an Imperial Inspector in need? That doesn't come along often."
In the original story, Jeong Munwon was a supporting character who cropped up everywhere like a pinch of licorice in a prescription. He might look like the lowliest of functionaries, but he was an official who carried out every imperial command without a hitch.
For him to ask for help was a chance to earn his favor — there was no reason on earth to coldly refuse and make an enemy of him.
"...Fair enough. Still, wasn't that a chance to try a little debt collection?"
"If a man comes to borrow money, are you going to demand repayment on top of it? And anyway, he's bound to come back."
"Huh? Why?"
Jeong Munwon and I had ridden in the same boat during the Shadowless Divine Thief affair, but truthfully we were not that close. He was flustered enough when I handed the money over so readily — what does that tell you?
Then why, of all people, had an Imperial Inspector come to borrow from me?
There was a reason for everything.
I began explaining to the two bewildered listeners.
"An Imperial Inspector holds an imperial mandate, so his power dwarfs his official rank. That's why they're always posted somewhere far from home, without hometown ties or connections. Jeong Munwon was assigned to Hubei Province that way — and no sooner had he taken office than he had corrupt officials dancing on blades, went so far as to prod the Provincial Governor himself..."
The next answer was easy. Smiling, I invited Young Lady Jegal to provide it.
"Oh, um...! He... he won't have any friends!"
"So he has no friends!"
"Right. No friends at all."
Gilsan and I stared at someone in silence.
"Why... why does everyone keep looking at meee..."
Young Lady Jegal looked back at me with the face of someone who felt wronged, yet half-suspected she deserved it, and could not bring herself to protest.
Young Lady Jegal. It's a misunderstanding. I stared because your answer was so excellent. I wanted 'he has no one to borrow money from' — and when you said 'no friends,' I was absolutely not staring because it was funny.
"I didn't deliberately send him off with only a quarter of the sum for nothing. I told him more would be lent if he returned within two days. He'll come back. Mark me."
"Eep!"
I took the slightly sulking Young Lady Jegal's hand and settled her into the seat beside me.
Fear not. I too wandered so long that I have few friends. Of course, there is a rather vast difference between zero and one.
Fortunately, she hadn't been all that upset; when I gave her hand a playful squeeze, her expression melted at once.
A tongue clicked right in front of me, loud enough to call the sight an eyesore — but it was no business of mine.
"Then the reason you sent the Inspector away was..."
"Shaking him down until he coughs up the truth is one road. But wouldn't it look far better to win his trust, until he pours his heart out freely?"
"So the Inspector's our next target, then?"
Jeon Gilsan asked, reaching his chopsticks toward the laid-out dinner table.
This guy. Is he planning to stay the night after all?
When I shot him a pointed look, Gilsan popped a side dish into his mouth and added, "All this quarreling is making the food here taste awfully salty. Someone ought to look into that." A remark made entirely for nothing.
"It's a dilemma," I said with a small sigh.
"Wouldn't it be easier precisely because you know him?"
Imagine saying, 'Your friend walked off with a few hundred million — go shake him down.' When your boss at work raises his voice, you'd normally just promise you won't. Who would actually try it?
Debt collection was, at its core, work that forced you to witness plenty of ugliness.
Granted, with Mangeum Hall behind us, I could probably collect while keeping relations with the Inspector merely cool. But one must never move carelessly against an Imperial Inspector.
Because there was a reason only I knew — a reason no one else in the world did.
"...No fool opens his windows knowing an unstoppable natural disaster is coming."
The golden calamity that summons typhoons. The golden dragon that stirs up waterspouts. The name Kang Yunho, the ruthless debt collector must never, ever reach the ears of the woman who travels at the head of irresistible natural disasters.
I had no idea how the impossible-difficulty ledger at Mangeum Hall had graded the Imperial Inspector, but of this much I was absolutely certain.
One person. Worst possible difficulty. If the ledger had to name the single soul never, ever to be touched, it would be the Inspector, Jeong Munwon.
"What are you on about? You mean it'd be hard because his authority is so overwhelming?"
"Sure. Something like that. I'd rather not make an enemy of an Imperial Inspector if I can help it."
I didn't know the Inspector's backstory from the original work, but he was the sort of man — a detective straight out of fiction — who kept his sense of justice even while living in poverty. The odds were good that he would pass over Mangeum Hall's little problems without a fuss.
I would have liked to slip in between and get the money back without friction, but rather than risk a clash, better to hand over the money and buy trust instead.
"Shall I look into the other side, then?"
Young Lady Jegal asked carefully, refilling my empty cup.
"Thank you. I've already cast out a few feelers, so it seems I'll have to rack my brains quite a bit. And there's one thing I don't understand."
"And what's that?"
"Unlike during the Three-Eyed Inspection, the ledger records no reason the money was lent. No collateral was taken, either. And it's not as if the Inspector's salary is generous. A loan that size must have had some basis behind it — yet nothing whatsoever was written down. I find it strange."
This was an Inspector who had taken up his post in Wuhan alone.
Far too much money for living expenses. Gambling would be the obvious guess — but neither in my memory of the original nor in our earlier investigation was there any word of him enjoying a wager.
"Hm... now that you mention it, that is odd."
Gilsan apparently had no bright ideas either, and simply picked up his chopsticks again.
During the Three-Eyed Inspection, at least, the business angle had given us a thread to pull. This time, I was completely in the dark.
The wine tasted faintly bitter. This was the very day we had closed out the Three-Eyed Inspection — there was no need to darken the mood over it. I raised my cup with a smile, and found Young Lady Jegal staring straight at me.
"Um..."
"I'm listening."
She looked like she had something to say. I waited quietly until Young Lady Jegal had gathered her thoughts.
"My... my family's elders once told me something."
"The elders of the Zhuge Clan?"
"They said there are relationships where people give and take rat poison, knowing full well it is poison."
"Rat poison?"
"Rat poison? Hyang, what nonsense is this?"
Perhaps finding it hard to put into concrete words, Young Lady Jegal only flustered at Gilsan's question.
Rat poison. The kind of thing you swallow and die. Could she possibly mean...?
"Do you mean a bribe?"
"S-something like that."
"Aha! Money given to an official — repaid or not, it's profit either way. I see what you mean."
More or less.
"What's this about? Explain it to me too. And pour me a drink while you're at it."
So greedy. I poured a cup for Gilsan, who had suffered so, and carried on.
"From Mangeum Hall's point of view, if he repays, they collect interest — all well and good. If he doesn't repay, the loan becomes a shackle around his neck. Being able to put a shackle on the great Imperial Inspector who won't so much as touch a bribe? That's a win no matter how you slice it."
It was like a gift too weighty to accept. Once you had taken it, then at some point, someday, when they came asking a small favor, you would find yourself unable to refuse.
"Oh!"
"Yes. Exactly so."
Whether my understanding was correct or not, Young Lady Jegal nodded with a bashful smile.
It struck me anew — we truly did grow up in different worlds.
To me, a tycoon house bankrolling politicians was a tale from a far-off land; to Young Lady Jegal, it was everyday life she had watched with her own eyes.
Having her always at my side, it was easy to forget — but the smiling Young Lady Jegal was, after all, the youngest daughter of the Zhuge Clan, the foremost martial family in all Hubei Province.
"First, I'll set someone to finding out how the Inspector fares."
We had gleaned no fresh information yet, but the riddle itself was solved. Time to move.
"Sorry to come calling so soon."
The man had arrived faster than the information.
"Not at all. I've been waiting to see when you would come."
Though I hadn't imagined he would come the very moment morning broke. Hiding my surprise, I ushered Jeong Munwon into the parlor.
"I-is that so?"
"I'll bring tea."
Worry was written plainly across Jeong Munwon's face.
I brought the tea out, and even as the water in his cup went cold, Jeong Munwon stared in silence at me and the tea alike.
Explain your circumstances. That was what I had told him — so naturally, he was now agonizing over whether he could truly say it. I kept the air comfortable and waited without a word until Jeong Munwon opened his mouth.
"There is a child I hold dear. Personally, I mean."
At last, the Inspector's lips loosened.
"A woman, by any chance?"
There was a peculiar tenderness in his voice. Jeong Munwon did not deny it.
"Before you appeared in Wuhan, I was going about undercover, gathering information. Courtesan houses, taverns — I had to make the rounds, so I needed a partner who would seem natural. Which meant a woman I could take along without rousing a single suspicious eye."
"You took a courtesan about with you?"
Courtesans were the idols of this world. If the price was right, one could be booked the way a troupe might arrange a provincial concert tour.
Jeong Munwon nodded carefully.
"Thanks to that child, I did lay hands on some rather decisive evidence. The Provincial Governor's power nearly buried the whole thing — I nearly lost my post over it, in fact. So while I was doing that undercover work, I made the child one promise."
Affection bled through his every word. He even owed her, no less. A promise to a courtesan.
There was only one possible conclusion.
"You meant to buy her out of the courtesan registry."
"...That was my intent."
"Was your intent?"
"Well... something exceedingly troublesome came up."
Unable to go on, Jeong Munwon trailed off, his face pinched with embarrassment.
Buying a Pure Courtesan outright. A fairly common thing, among the rich and among officials alike. The reason for borrowing such a large sum made perfect sense now.
Then why couldn't he meet my eyes?
Jeong Munwon couldn't hold my gaze, as though the words simply refused to leave his mouth.
But why on earth not?
Wait. A memory surfaced unbidden in my mind.
"One carp, inside a chest. I shall repay you — might you hand it over to me?"
The memory of meeting the Imperial Inspector while I was with the Three-Eyed Inspection.
It couldn't be.
"Forgive me for asking, but..."
I looked at the Imperial Inspector with taut eyes.
Please, let it not be so.
"Hm?"
The house of Kang Yunho was a merchant family that dealt in ginseng; naturally, I had some learning in medicinal herbs. And as far as I knew, one thing about carp was beyond all doubt —
"Inspector, did you... get the Pure Courtesan with child?"
— it was a medicinal ingredient that did an expectant mother's body good.
"..."
Jeong Munwon answered by squeezing his eyes tightly shut.