Chapter 68
Chapter 68
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Translator: uly
Chapter: 68
Chapter Title: Part 18 Rotten Outer Skin
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Seomun Housekeeper's office.
"A close aide of Elder Ham has also sent word. They have firmly promised to help as much as they can."
"We've also sent a letter to Eldest Young Master. A reply should come soon."
"Those with connections to the Inspection Department have said they'll lend their strength as well."
Steward Bang spoke to Seomun Housekeeper with a flushed face.
"The elders of the family within the Sword Clan will surely help, so keep your resolve firm, they said to convey."
But Seomun Housekeeper, seated in her chair, gave no response.
"Seomun Housekeeper?"
"Hm? Yes. I understand."
Good news kept arriving one after another, but Seomun Housekeeper's face remained deathly pale.
At that moment, one of the stewards burst into the office.
"The Inspection Department has just dispatched a group. They might be the ones for the main investigation."
Everyone looked to Seomun Housekeeper, but she said nothing.
"Come now, everyone, pay attention."
Then the most senior steward among them stepped forward to gather their gazes.
"The Inspection Department's movements were faster than expected, so we failed to stop them from departing altogether, but it doesn't matter."
Everyone wore determined expressions.
"The outcome of the main investigation depends on how hard we all strive in the time we have left, so let's give it our all until the end."
"Right!"
"Let's do it!"
They clapped, shouted energetically, and refocused on writing letters.
They had already sent letters to everyone on the lists prepared for emergencies.
Thus, they racked their brains to come up with even the slimmest connections.
Seomun Housekeeper still did not move.
The scene she had witnessed moments ago lingered in her mind.
'...What were those broken scissors?'
Having worked in the Inner Court all these years, she had seen countless suicide victims.
As a newbie, she had even handled corpses herself.
How adept the Inner Court's personnel were at such tasks was evident from the current situation.
If an accounting secretary—a position as high as any in accounting within any ordinary organization of the Luoyang Sword Clan—had committed suicide, the entire department would have been in chaos.
Yet no one passing through her office had heard of the accounting secretary's suicide.
That was the Inner Court.
The Inner Court was the department that most closely assisted the family head, the strongest power in the Luoyang Sword Clan, and it was also the organization harboring the most secrets.
In such a place, incidents were bound to happen, and the highest-ranking officials of the Inner Court always cut off tails.
'But the accounting secretary was one of those highest ranks.'
It was the first time she had seen a highest rank become the tail that was severed.
'Just how is this affair unfolding?'
She bit her nails.
'Wasn't this about Won-gakjeong's budget issues? Weren't they digging into Won-gakjeong's budget details over book costs to get revenge on us?'
Crimson droplets trickled from the tips she gnawed.
'What in the world..., why....'
She suddenly gazed at the stewards and servants rushing about frantically.
Their antics felt like puppets dancing wildly on a stage.
* * *
"Eldest Young Master! The main investigation has been confirmed!"
Gang Ho burst into the waiting room, his eyes wide.
"Ah, you're here. Sit."
Yeon So-hyeon pointed to an empty seat.
"Were you in the middle of a meal...?"
He couldn't hide his inner shock.
The Eldest Young Master was calmly eating in what was practically enemy territory?
He adjusted his slipping glasses and sat in the seat Yeon So-hyeon indicated.
As he sat, the Inner Court protocol stewards and maids began preparing his meal with trembling hands.
He hurriedly refused.
"N-No, I can't. As an investigator, I can't eat here..."
Yeon So-hyeon waved him off.
"You wouldn't have been involved in the main investigation anyway, right? Eat comfortably."
"H-How did you know?"
He had been quite dejected over that very fact.
Yeon So-hyeon chuckled.
"You all, leave us."
At his words, those attending him vacated the room.
Once their footsteps faded, Yeon So-hyeon spoke again.
"If the Inspection Department is conducting a main investigation into the Inner Court, they wouldn't entrust a task to a mere rookie like you."
"...That's true."
"Besides, the merit they've allotted you from the preliminary investigation is more than enough."
"...So I've heard."
"That merit is something other rookies wouldn't receive. You get it because of your grandfather's face."
"...You're right."
Watching the crestfallen man, Yeon So-hyeon gave a meaningful smile.
"But in exchange, you've received separate instructions from one of the Inspection Department's highest ranks, haven't you?"
"...What...?!"
He jumped up from his seat.
"No! This lowly one has received no instructions from anyone!"
The Triplet Maids giggled softly at his reaction.
Feeling it was already too late from their reactions, he clutched his face.
"...I absolutely cannot disclose the details of my mission."
Yeon So-hyeon shrugged.
"That's obvious anyway. I've suspected it since you mentioned accessing the account archives."
"...Pardon?"
Yeon So-hyeon smiled at the genius wearing a dumbstruck expression.
"The contents of the ledgers you saw today. You'd remember them all perfectly, wouldn't you? So it must be a mission related to that."
"...."
"What they'd entrust to you wouldn't be anything major. At most, compiling a confidential report on the Inner Court's budget expenditures."
"...."
"Your report will likely be used by someone in the family elders' council. Naturally, your name won't be on it, but the elders will know who made it."
"...."
"Whoever gave you this chance must have considerable ties to your grandfather."
"...."
Ignoring Gang Ho, who gave no reply, Yeon So-hyeon continued his meal.
After sitting silently for a while, a sigh escaped Gang Ho's lips.
"...Now I think I understand why every letter from Grandfather mentions you, Eldest Young Master."
"Who showed you the Inner Court account archives?"
After a brief silence, Gang Ho answered.
"...The Inner Court accounting secretary."
"Probably dead by now."
"...."
"Given what the Inner Court always does, it'll be ruled a suicide."
Gang Ho and even Yeon So-hyeon's maids looked at him in shock.
"W-What do you mean by that?"
Yeon So-hyeon smiled thinly at Gang Ho's question.
"Rookie. Don't get too cocky when writing your report. Just enough to make your name known is plenty."
"...."
Yeon So-hyeon pointed his chopsticks at Gang Ho.
"At least until you've grasped what game you're inserting yourself into with your own power, don't thirst so desperately for merit."
Gang Ho felt as if it were not chopsticks but a sharp blade aimed at him.
"Understand?"
"Y-Yes! I understand!"
In his haste to nod vigorously, his loose glasses finally fell off.
"If you end up a corpse in some Luoyang alley or vanish without a trace, I won't have the face to meet your grandfather. That's why I'm telling you specially."
Gang Ho couldn't even think to pick up his glasses.
"Th-Thank you."
He sat ramrod straight, sweat pouring down.
In truth, he had secretly envied the Luoyang Sword Clan's Eldest Young Master.
He was the one his grandfather—famed for his sharp eye for people—praised without end.
As distance grew, his grandfather had repeatedly urged him in every letter to get close to him.
He was the one who had performed before the Emperor and boldly claimed the top seat.
He was the one of whom he had heard countless tales as the genius among geniuses.
And yet, in his grandfather's eyes, he was still just an immature grandson.
"Master."
The stunningly beautiful head maid, whom he couldn't even meet eyes with, spoke.
"Could you perhaps tell us, even roughly, what is happening right now?"
The maids who appeared to be triplets chimed in.
"The Heavenly Maidens are curious as well."
It was the moment Yeon So-hyeon finished his meal and set down his utensils.
"Hmm."
Yeon So-hyeon tapped the table with his fingers as he began to speak.
"What is the Inner Court?"
Jeong-a answered.
"It is the department that assists the family head and his direct bloodline from the closest vantage, is it not?"
"Correct. But where is the family head now?"
"He is bedridden."
"Right. And he has stepped down from the family head position to become the Supreme Family Head. So what does that make the Inner Court's situation?"
"...Having lost its center, the internal unity of its personnel weakens, and power scatters."
"Half right, half wrong."
"Is that so?"
"The Inner Court was originally the oldest organization in the main family, and it still uses the largest budget of any department."
Jeong-a nodded.
"I've learned that where there is money, there is power, and where there is power, there is money."
"Yes. But with no center, what happens to them?"
"...If I may presume, those needing power cling to power, and those needing money have power imposed over them."
"As expected of my head maid."
"You overpraise me."
Yeon So-hyeon tapped the table as he reached his conclusion.
"That's why the Inner Court's outer shell has all rotted away. That's practically the root of this mess."
"Outer shell...?"
"Yes, the shell. Remember those we saw today? Ones who rose rapidly and prominently in the last dozen years or so. Isn't that right, Investigator Gang Ho?"
Gang Ho, who had been listening dazedly, nodded hurriedly.
"Y-Yes! That's right."
"A dozen years—since the Supreme Family Head fell ill...?"
"Exactly."
Yeon So-hyeon drummed the table.
"Rather than the Inner Court's true value, they're accustomed to forming and scattering alliances and fighting like dogs in the mud."
Yeon So-hyeon grinned crookedly.
"They attach themselves to their chosen heirs, prop them up, push aside the Fourth Young Master who threatens them but has slim chances, and ignore the Eldest Young Master who offers no benefit to their power."
No one could easily open their mouth.
Unable to contain his curiosity, Gang Ho gripped his sweaty hands and asked Yeon So-hyeon.
"...Now I understand the background of the game Your Young Mastery described. But what is the truth of that game...?"
Yeon So-hyeon raised the finger that had been tapping the table.
His head maid was staring at a spot on the wall.
"Someone is approaching."
Moments later.
Accompanied by footsteps, a steward appeared with a pale face.
"Th-The personnel dispatched from the Inspection Department have entered the Inner Court."
Yeon So-hyeon abruptly stood.
"Alright, shall we go see who from the Inspection Department has come?"