Chapter 76
Chapter 76
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Translator: uly
Chapter: 76
Chapter Title: Part 1: The Result of What Was Heard
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The resounding voice of the gate-guarding warrior announcing the opening of the gates rang out, and the main gates of the Inner Residence began to swing open all at once.
Ceremonial housekeepers clutching various instruments poured their hearts into playing them.
Flag-bearers holding an array of banners followed behind the Eldest Young Master and the maids.
Among them, the largest flag—symbolizing the Luoyang Sword Clan's Eldest Young Master—fluttered in the wind.
Amid everyone's disciplined movements, the Eldest Young Master's distinctive swaggering gait stood out.
“Is it your claim that the Inner Residence's highest-ranking members have no need to participate in the gate-opening ceremony?”
The head of the Six Bureaus directed his gaze toward the Inner Residence's top officials lined up in front of the main building.
“Then what reason do they have for...?”
* * *
Luoyang Sword Clan, Second Young Master's camp.
The sharp light of the dawn sun illuminated the stacks of documents filling the walls.
“The Inner Residence Chief Steward and the Swordless One...”
Han Myeong-hwi, the Second Young Master's strategist, kept reviewing his deductions over and over.
“The Inner Residence Chief Steward is expected, of course, but...”
A deep suspicion clouded his face.
“...why on earth the Swordless One?”
Just then, one of his close aides entered his open office.
“Uh, we just received a strange report.”
Han Myeong-hwi didn't respond, but the aide delivered the report as usual.
“They say the Eldest Young Master left the Inner Residence with a full gate-opening ceremony.”
Irritated at having his thoughts interrupted by such a trivial report, Han Myeong-hwi scowled.
“What's so strange about that to report to me?!”
The aide flinched but hurriedly continued.
“B-but the Inner Residence's highest officials came out and attended the ceremony.”
“What of it...?!”
Han Myeong-hwi, about to snap, froze in place.
“Were they supposed to attend originally?”
Seeing Han Myeong-hwi take interest, the aide quickly relayed the rest.
“According to the source, no. Moreover, they were chatting amiably with the Eldest Young Master before the ceremony even started. And...”
He reported with half doubt.
“They say laughter could be heard now and then—the atmosphere was quite friendly. That's the end of it.”
The aide finished and gauged Han Myeong-hwi's reaction.
“The main culprit who turned the Inner Residence upside down until dawn this morning chatting amiably with them...? We'll need to reassess the reliability of that informant. For now, let's verify later with other sources.”
“...No.”
“Pardon? No need for reassessment?”
Han Myeong-hwi stared at the document-filled walls, his lips trembling.
“That report is true—no need to verify!”
“But why...?”
The aide, about to question further, shut his mouth.
Han Myeong-hwi's demeanor was far from normal.
“Yes. Now it all makes sense. It fits!”
His hands trembled violently.
“Gather all my strategists under me! Right now! Even those outside—bring them all in!”
“Y-yes! Understood!”
The aide bolted from the office.
Left alone, Han Myeong-hwi approached the wall.
Now everything was falling into place.
“Yes... the Swordless One—no, Eldest Young Master Yeon So-hyeon.”
The way he referred to Yeon So-hyeon had changed.
Who were the ones who had seen the young Eldest Young Master up closest in the past?
Many could be named, but the Inner Residence—those who served the Family Head most closely—could not be excluded.
And among them, the higher-ranking ones would have been closest to the Retired Family Head and the Eldest Young Master.
What reason would they have to gather together now, after living like the dead all this time, just to see the Eldest Young Master's face?
Not yesterday when he visited, but today, with the pretext of a gate-opening ceremony?
“Those madmen, the Inner Residence's top brass, gathered to see with their own eyes! Precisely...”
In that moment, he even realized the source of the rumor that 'the Eldest Young Master would end his seclusion.'
“To witness the moment another heir emerges in this clan!”
He cried out as if in anguish.
“To see for themselves the one they might one day serve!”
He shouted in a frenzy.
“This incident! The entirety of this incident! It was the Eldest Young Master's expedition ceremony!”
* * *
The elderly woman wrapped elegantly in palace robes, the Ceremonial Secretary, smiled.
She gazed at the Eldest Young Master passing through the final gate in the distance.
At the moment the gates closed, it felt as if their eyes met when he turned back.
She smiled brightly.
Others might not know, but she was certain.
And surely, some among them shared her thoughts.
To those people, this was no mere gate-opening ceremony.
This was a welcoming ceremony heralding Eldest Young Master Yeon So-hyeon's return.
*Welcome back, young master.*
Her gaze remained fixed on the gates, as if nailed there, until they fully shut.
*This old servant is certain the day will come when I serve you, young master.*
The eyes of the elderly woman, once Yeon So-hyeon's exclusive housekeeper in his childhood, grew moist.
* * *
The Triplet Maids' spirits soared as if they walked on clouds.
Now at Won-gak Pavilion with no one following, the gate-opening ceremony had been the moment they had dreamed of.
“It truly was a moment befitting maids serving the Luoyang Sword Clan's Eldest Young Master!”
“So now, everyone, let's hold a gate-opening ceremony of our own!”
“Hold the flags like this! Blow the trumpets! March in perfect step!”
The special duty agents guarding Won-gak Pavilion's main gate were flustered.
“N-no, young ladies. What are you suddenly talking about?”
“Gate-opening ceremony? Does anyone know what that is?”
All middle-aged men, they were particularly soft on these girls young enough to be their daughters.
Then, the Life-Seizing Ghost Sword sighed and spoke.
“Forget the ceremony or whatever...”
He pointed to the forest path of Won-gak Pavilion.
“The Eldest Young Master has already entered with the head maid.”
Only then did the Triplet Maids snap to their senses, squealing as they dashed inside.
“Wait!”
Samryeong turned at his call.
“About that 'stepping on the line.' The Eldest Young Master said he was 'going to step on the line.' What does that mean?”
Samryeong shrugged.
“The master just said that now he's stepped on the line, things will move on their own.”
* * *
Jeong-a, who had been quietly following her master, spoke up.
“Master.”
“Hm?”
“About what you told Inspector Gang Ho yesterday.”
“Ah. Why?”
Jeong-a's downcast eyes sparkled.
“Your maneuvers in the Inner Residence were brilliant. But weren't they not just for this incident alone?”
Yeon So-hyeon's steps halted.
“...As expected, I can't fool the head maid's eyes.”
He turned to Jeong-a.
“Now we can watch things spin out entertainingly from beyond our hands.”
A thick smile spread across his face.
A mischievous smile, yet for some reason, Jeong-a felt chills run through her body.
* * *
Luoyang Sword Clan, Central Plaza.
With noon still an hour away, many gathered in the Central Plaza—some willingly, some not.
Even the probationary maids who had picked a needless quarrel with Won-gak Pavilion's head maid Jeong-a and been ordered to reeducation were present.
It was part of their training.
The training housekeeper from the Housekeeper Bureau had brought them here.
*Oh my, have you heard? The trial we're here to observe is the one about that Eldest Young Master's book payment.*
*Oh, oh. To make such a disgrace public with an open trial?*
*Our clan would have handled it quietly.*
*This means that Won-gak Pavilion head maid will be publicly humiliated once again.*
*Indeed.*
They had chattered excitedly on the way.
But now, they wept streams of tears, hands over ears, heads bowed low.
“Forgive meee! Forgive meeeee!”
Seomun Housekeeper, bound to the rack, screamed as if her throat would tear.
She writhed like a fish impaled on a spear.
At her screams, the presiding enforcer bellowed with inner force.
“That wench still refuses to repent her sins! What are the enforcer lions doing?!”
His roar echoed thunderously across the plaza.
The enforcer's grotesque makeup evoked an image of a judge freshly risen from hell.
The training housekeeper scolded the probationary maids.
“Probationary maids, open your eyes and remove your hands from your ears at once!”
The Housekeeper Bureau maids standing behind moved.
They forced the probationary maids' heads up, prying eyes open to make them watch.
The training housekeeper surveyed them.
“Remember this! This is the final fate of those who violate the main house's solemn laws, dare mock the Eldest Young Master, and undermine the clan's discipline!”
The enforcer lions, in flashy robes and terrifying facial makeup, moved their hands.
“Gaaahhhh!”
With a horrific scream, Seomun Housekeeper's skin was peeled off alive.
Merciless handiwork.
“Urk...!”
Some probationary maids vomited, but the bureau maids held them firm.
The spewed filth soiled their fronts.
Beside Seomun Housekeeper, another was undergoing punishment.
“Aaah! I was wrong! I was wrong!”
Begging till her throat tore—it was Bang Housekeeper.
“Good! You're repenting splendidly!”
The enforcer on the high dais nodded, somewhat satisfied.
“Maintain that attitude and repent your sins right up to the moment your life ends!”
The enforcer lion stared straight into her terror-stricken eyes and poured boiling water over her lower body.
A gurgling death rattle escaped her mouth, but it was only the beginning.
Wielding an iron comb, the enforcer began scraping off her cooked flesh.
Screams burst from her.
The Bang Family servants, there to retrieve even her corpse, squeezed their eyes shut.
The enforcer commanded them.
“You Bang Family servants, return and tell them! The price for presuming to lobby because some of your kin serve in the main house!”
The servants collapsed to their knees.
“Watch and listen clearly, then report! Show them the fate of those who dared disrupt the main house's discipline!”
Not just them—everyone under Seomun Housekeeper had been sentenced to extreme punishment.
All screamed in unison, enduring excruciating torment with their bodies.
Those gathered willingly or not in the Central Plaza watched in fear, trembling in horror.
Some mocked the sinners, pointed fingers, sneered.
Seomun Housekeeper, her skin fully flayed, was hung like a flag at one of the plaza's entrances.
The Bang Family servants carried back only the young lady's limbless torso, flesh stripped, head severed.
The sinners' heads, preserved in their agony-twisted death throes, were displayed in high-traffic areas.
Beside them, their crimes were listed in detail, awakening vigilance in all who passed.