Chapter 72
Chapter 72
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Translator: uly
Chapter: 72
Chapter Title: Part 22: Case Resolution (1)
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Inner Residence Main Hall, Reception Room.
“Eldest Young Master. Did the food suit your taste?”
“It was splendid beyond words.”
An elderly woman approached Yeon So-hyeon with a gentle smile.
She was a palace steward through and through, every movement brimming with elegance.
“Eldest Young Master, don’t be so formal with me. Call me like you used to.”
“Very well, Granny. It was delicious. You made it yourself, didn’t you?”
Called Granny, she beamed brightly.
“Of course! For food meant for you, young master, this old woman rolled up her sleeves after so long!”
“Heh. Thank you.”
“No need for thanks.”
She turned to those who had dared to sit at the same table as Yeon So-hyeon.
“How was the meal for everyone?”
Her gaze was warm, but not one of them could properly meet her eyes.
Except for Jeong-a.
“We low ones are deeply grateful for such a fine feast.”
A glint of light flickered in the old woman’s deep eyes.
“Heh. It was what the young master wished for. How could an old thing like me refuse?”
Yeon So-hyeon looked at her.
“Granny. From now on…”
“Yes, young master. We’ll all withdraw so you can converse freely.”
She offered a polite and graceful bow, then led everyone out of the reception room.
The moment the ornately decorated grand doors closed, the rigid Triplet Maids let out sighs of relief in unison.
“It seemed incredibly delicious…. Or did it?”
“Maybe it was.”
“…Please don’t ask me. I don’t remember.”
Gangho spoke up.
“That lady just now…”
Ilryeong nodded.
“Yes. She’s the Inner Residence Ceremonial Secretary. You saw the six strands of gold thread at her waist, right?”
“Sixth Rank…”
“…She looks like nothing more than an elegant, kind old lady on the surface.”
“Ugh. People from the Inner Residence don’t even seem to smile sincerely.”
“They’re torturing and screaming out there with their own Inner Residence folk, yet she’s so serene.”
“The Inner Residence is truly terrifying.”
Jeong-a cautiously asked Yeon So-hyeon.
“Master. You seem to have a long-standing connection with the Ceremonial Secretary. Am I right?”
Yeon So-hyeon chuckled.
“You can trust her. At the very least, she’s not the type to poison the food or hold grudges.”
At his words, the Triplet Maids shuddered.
Gangho nodded readily.
“It was a truly excellent meal after so long. She has real skill. It was worth staying by your side, Eldest Young Master.”
Yeon So-hyeon smiled at him.
“The reason you’re still here isn’t just for the feast, is it?”
Gangho stiffened for a moment.
He adjusted his glasses and forced an awkward smile.
“…It’s because I’m dying to hear the rest of the story you told me earlier today, Eldest Young Master.”
The Triplet Maids nodded as well.
“You were talking about the rotten shells.”
“The ones captured now must be part of those rotten shells in the Inner Residence, right?”
“What absurd people.”
Jeong-a spoke.
“Master. Could you enlighten us, however partially, on the truth of the matter?”
Gangho hurriedly asked.
“Why exactly did the Inner Residence Accounting Secretary have to die? Why did the Central Inspection Pavilion get involved in something like this? And the Protection Hall’s involvement alongside the Six Departments… And…”
“Enough, enough.”
Yeon So-hyeon waved his hand with a laugh, but Gangho managed to squeeze in one last question.
“…How are you connected to all this, Eldest Young Master?”
His gaze, visible through his glasses, was utterly serious.
Yeon So-hyeon met his eyes and slowly opened his mouth.
“What’s your guess?”
Sweat beaded on Gangho’s forehead as he faced Yeon So-hyeon’s gaze head-on.
“…I suspect you might be the mastermind behind everything that happened today, Eldest Young Master.”
Yeon So-hyeon smiled faintly.
“You heard the Central Inspection Pavilion Lord’s words earlier today, so you came to that conclusion.”
“That’s… correct.”
Gangho bowed his head to hide his flushed face.
Had he not overheard her words to Yeon So-hyeon, he’d still be grasping at straws.
“I’m the mastermind behind it all…”
Yeon So-hyeon gave a wry smile.
“To be precise, all this started with me and the Inner Residence Chief Steward—that old man.”
Gangho’s head snapped up.
“Then the Inner Residence Accounting Secretary…!”
“Yes, exactly. He killed himself on the orders of the Inner Residence Chief Steward, the head of the Inner Residence. Or rather, he was forced to kill himself.”
Yeon So-hyeon snickered.
“The moment I showed up at the Inner Residence, that old Chief Steward made the first move.”
Jeong-a asked.
“…Why the Accounting Secretary of all people?”
“Was he the pinnacle of those called rotten shells?”
Yeon So-hyeon shook his head at Gangho’s question.
“No.”
Yeon So-hyeon fiddled with a teacup on the lavish table.
“He was just a ‘firebreak.’”
“A firebreak…?”
Ilryeong recalled something from her special training.
“…When a forest fire breaks out, they preemptively cut down trees to prevent it from spreading too far. I think that’s called a firebreak.”
“That’s right. Exactly that.”
“Then…”
Everyone’s faces went slack with shock.
“As far as I know, he bore no real responsibility for today’s incident. It was just…”
The Inner Residence Chief Steward had no choice with Yeon So-hyeon appearing.
If he had to accept losses, he wouldn’t go down without striking back.
So he decided to use Yeon So-hyeon’s arrival to push forward a necessary ‘task’ for the Inner Residence.
That task was purging the rotten shells from the Inner Residence.
But that ‘task’ had been a political impossibility for him to handle personally until now.
“…A political issue?”
Yeon So-hyeon nodded at Jeong-a’s question.
“Yes. They’re followers of the Second and Third Young Masters. Purging them directly would stir up political trouble.”
“…But aren’t they servants who follow their masters as they please?”
“The problem is that those masters are potential heirs who might one day lead the family.”
“Ah…”
That was why the Inner Residence Chief Steward turned the crisis into opportunity, borrowing others’ hands to strip away the rotten shells.
“For that reason, the old man sacrificed his own loyal top subordinate, the Accounting Secretary. That signaled his intentions to the outside.”
Yeon So-hyeon drew a line on the table.
“Anyone below this line can be dealt with.”
The maids and Gangho felt an illusion as if everything below the line Yeon So-hyeon drew was staining red.
“Then…!”
Gangho jerked his head up.
“You’re saying the moment the Inner Residence Chief Steward heard you’d arrived at the main hall, he already predicted exactly what you’d do?!”
“Scheming old fox.”
Yeon So-hyeon clicked his tongue.
“In that short time, he devised an executable plan and slit the throat of a subordinate who’d followed him his whole life…”
Everyone listening felt a chill down their necks.
“How ruthless…”
Yeon So-hyeon gave a wry smile.
“Pulling in the Inspection Department Lord and Protection Hall Lord was that old man’s doing too. A sort of deal.”
Gangho swallowed dryly and spoke.
“…In exchange for exposing and crushing large-scale corruption tied to direct blood kin without fierce resistance from the Inner Residence, he preserved his firebreak.”
“Exactly…”
The Triplets unwittingly gaped.
“That old monster has been loyal to the Sword Clan since the time of the great-grand patriarch—my grandfather’s father.”
He was of an age that should have retired long ago.
“If you made a list of black幕 figures in this Sword Clan, that old monster would rank near the top.”
Everyone listening swallowed dryly.
Yeon So-hyeon took a sip of tea.
It was still warm.
Thanks to the thermal crystal embedded beneath, slowly cooling the teacup.
“…With that old monster making his move like this, even I can only be satisfied with stripping away the bothersome shells for now.”
No one could easily speak.
And as expected, Gangho was the most shocked among them.
‘This is… the Eldest Young Master of the Luoyang Sword Clan.’
This was precisely why he’d ignored everyone’s advice and entered the Luoyang Sword Clan.
He wanted to meet the Eldest Young Master himself.
What had his renowned grandfather seen in the one known as the Swordless One?
Why did that famous grandfather praise him so highly?
How could a man seventy years his senior become friends with him?
He wanted to confirm it firsthand.
And one day, he dared to want to measure himself against him.
Now, before this Eldest Young Master two years his junior, he felt what it truly meant to be on another level.
That was when Jeong-a spoke.
“…Merely the Heavenly Maiden’s guess, but surely you predicted at least that much, Eldest Young Master?”
“Of course.”
“...!”
Gangho was stunned.
“H-How did you come to that conclusion, Head Maid?”
Jeong-a remained composed.
“Have you forgotten? It was the Master who first requested the Inspection Department to investigate. That was before any deal between the Inspection Department Lord and the Inner Residence Chief Steward.”
“Then the Inspection Department Lord, learning of the investigation request, might have approached the Chief Steward first…”
“If he were that kind of man, the Master wouldn’t have requested the Inspection Department.”
“Y-Yes, you’re right. Then…?”
Yeon So-hyeon nodded.
“Exactly. I brought in the Central Inspection Pavilion and mobilized two departments from the Protection Hall. Just in case.”
“If the Inner Residence Chief Steward tried dumping all blame on the suicidal Accounting Secretary and burying the Original Pavilion incident, there would’ve been a massive clash with the Central Inspection Pavilion.”
And that clash would have involved tremendous bloodshed.
That must be why the Central Inspection Pavilion Lord had been so furious.
Gangho swallowed dryly.
“Th-Then how did you move the Inspection Department Lord? And the Protection Hall Lord…?”
Jeong-a spoke first.
“The Master specifically named Inspector Gangho for the summons in the investigation request.”
“…Confidential report!”
Gangho clutched his head.
“The Inspection Department Lord thought of me because of your naming, Eldest Young Master! My perfect memory ability! The chance for someone like me to enter the Inner Residence’s ledger archives! The Inspection Department Lord couldn’t pass that up!”
He shot to his feet.
“And to ensure I didn’t come back wrong from the Inner Residence, you prepared the Central Inspection Pavilion in advance! Only they could clash head-on with the entire Inner Residence!”