Chapter 68

“Mm? Is that so? Understood.”

Although good news kept flying in one after another, Steward Seomun’s face remained deathly pale.

Part 18: The Rotten Outer Shell

Steward Seomun’s office.

“Elder Ham’s close aide has also sent word. They confirmed that they will help as much as they can.”

“We have sent a letter to the Second Young Master’s side as well. A reply will arrive soon.”

“Those who have connections in the Inspection Department also said they would try to exert their influence.”

Steward Bang, too, spoke to Steward Seomun with an excited face.

“The elders of our family who are in the Sword Clan said they will definitely help, so they told you to steel your heart.”

But Steward Seomun, seated in her chair, gave no answer at all.

“Steward Seomun?”

At that moment, one of the stewards rushed into the office.

“A group has just departed from the Inspection Department. They are probably personnel for the formal investigation.”

Everyone looked at Steward Seomun, but she said nothing.

“Now, now. Everyone, pay attention.”

Then the most senior steward among them stepped forward and gathered everyone’s attention.

“The Inspection Department moved faster than expected, so we failed to stop them from departing altogether, but that is fine.”

Everyone’s expression turned determined.

“The result of the formal investigation will depend on how much more effort we make in the time we have left. Let us all do our utmost until the very end.”

“Good!”

“Let us do it!”

Everyone clapped, shouted vigorously, and focused again on writing letters.

They had already sent letters to every person on the list they had prepared for emergencies.

Therefore, they racked their brains as much as possible, trying to recall even the thinnest thread of connection.

Still, Steward Seomun did not move.

The sight she had seen a short while ago would not leave her mind.

‘…What were those broken scissors?’

Until now, while working in the Inner Court, she had seen countless corpses of those who had taken their own lives.

When she had been a newcomer, there had even been times when she had to deal with the corpses herself.

One could tell just how accustomed the personnel of the Inner Court were to handling such matters simply by looking at the current situation.

If a person with a position as high as the Accounting Secretary had taken his own life in any ordinary organization of the Luoyang Sword Clan, the entire department would have been thrown into chaos.

But no one coming and going through her office had even heard that the Accounting Secretary had killed himself.

It was the first time she had seen someone in such a high-ranking position become the tail and be cut off.

‘What on earth is happening with this matter?’

She bit at her fingernails.

‘Was this not about Wongakjeong’s budget? Were they not using the book costs as a pretext to dig through Wongakjeong’s budget details and take revenge on us?’

Bright red drops of blood welled up from the fingertips she was biting.

‘Why… just why…?’

Suddenly, she looked at the stewards and attendants running about in a frenzy.

The way they were acting felt like a puppet show, like marionettes dancing wildly on a stage.

The Inner Court was that sort of place.

The Inner Court was the department that assisted the family head, the strongest authority in the Luoyang Sword Clan, and it was also the organization that held the most secrets.

In such a place, incidents were bound to break out at all times, and the highest-ranking officials of the Inner Court had always cut off the tail.

‘But the Accounting Secretary is one of those highest-ranking officials…’

***

“First Young Master! The formal investigation has been confirmed!”

Kang Ho, who had rushed breathlessly into the waiting room, widened his eyes.

“Oh, you have come. Sit here.”

Yeon Sang-hyeon pointed to an empty seat.

“Were you in the middle of a meal…?”

Inwardly, he could not help but be astonished.

The First Young Master was calmly eating in a place that was practically enemy territory?

He adjusted his sliding glasses and sat in the seat Yeon Sang-hyeon had offered him.

Once he sat down, the stewards and maids in charge of ceremony within the Inner Court began preparing his meal with trembling hands.

He hurriedly refused.

“Ah, no. As an investigator, I cannot eat here…”

Yeon Sang-hyeon waved his hand.

“You were not allowed to take part in the formal investigation anyway, were you? Eat comfortably.”

“H-How did you know?”

As it happened, he had been quite dispirited because of that.

Yeon Sang-hyeon chuckled.

“All of you may leave now.”

At his words, all the personnel who had been attending them left.

When the sound of their footsteps could no longer be heard, Yeon Sang-hyeon opened his mouth again.

“If the Inspection Department intends to conduct a formal investigation into the Inner Court, there is no way they would entrust it to a novice like you.”

“…That is true.”

“Besides, the credit they will give you should be more than enough for having conducted the preliminary investigation.”

“…That is what I was told.”

“Other novices would not have received even that much credit. You were able to receive it because of your grandfather’s prestige.”

“…That is correct.”

Looking at the dispirited Kang Ho, Yeon Sang-hyeon smiled meaningfully.

“Instead, you must have received some separate instruction from a high-ranking official in the Inspection Department, did you not?”

“…That is corr—?!”

He jumped from his seat.

“No, sir! This lowly one has not received any instruction from anyone whatsoever!”

The triplet maids watched him and giggled softly.

Seeing them, Kang Ho realized it was already hopeless and covered his face with his hands.

“…I absolutely cannot tell you the contents of my mission.”

Yeon Sang-hyeon shrugged.

“That much is obvious anyway. I expected it from the moment you said you had entered the ledger archive.”

“…Pardon?”

Yeon Sang-hyeon smiled as he looked at the prodigy, whose expression had gone blank.

“The contents of the ledgers you saw today. With your memory, you must undoubtedly remember them all, no? So it must be a mission related to that.”

Ignoring Kang Ho, who gave no answer, Yeon Sang-hyeon continued his meal.

After sitting silently for a while, Kang Ho let out a voice that sounded almost like a sigh.

“If it was entrusted to you, it cannot be a large mission. At most, it would be something like compiling a confidential report related to the Inner Court’s budget execution details.”

“Your report will probably be used by someone at the Council of Elders of the main family. Naturally, your name will be omitted from the report, but elders of that level will all know who made it.”

“I do not know who gave you the opportunity, but it seems to be someone with considerable ties to your grandfather.”

“…I think I now understand why every letter my grandfather sends me contains mention of the First Young Master.”

“Who opened the Inner Court’s ledger archive for you?”

After a brief silence, Kang Ho answered.

“…It was the Accounting Secretary of the Inner Court.”

“He is probably dead by now.”

“…!”

“Judging from what the Inner Court has always done, it would be suicide.”

Kang Ho, and even Yeon Sang-hyeon’s maids, looked at him in shock.

“Wh-What do you mean by that?”

At Kang Ho’s words, Yeon Sang-hyeon smiled.

“Fledgling. When you write your report, do not stand out too much. It is enough for you to make yourself known to a certain degree.”

Yeon Sang-hyeon lifted his chopsticks and pointed them at Kang Ho.

“I mean that until you can at least grasp, with your own strength, what sort of board you have stepped onto, you should not thirst for merit.”

To Kang Ho, it felt as though not chopsticks, but a cold blue blade was being pointed at him.

“Do you understand?”

“Yes, yes! I understand.”

As he hurriedly nodded, his loose glasses finally slipped off and fell.

“If you were found as a corpse in some corner of Luoyang, or if you disappeared without even leaving a corpse behind, I would have no face to show your grandfather. That is why I am giving you this special warning.”

Kang Ho could not even think to pick up his glasses.

“Th-Thank you.”

He sat ramrod straight, cold sweat pouring down his body.

In truth, deep down, he had felt jealousy toward the First Young Master of the Luoyang Sword Clan.

This was the First Young Master whom his grandfather, famed for his eye for people, had praised until his mouth ran dry.

After Kang Ho had moved farther away, his grandfather had written until his brush nearly ran dry, repeatedly urging him to stay close to the First Young Master.

Kang Ho had taken the palace examination before His Imperial Majesty and proudly placed first.

He had heard countless times that he was a prodigy among prodigies.

Even so, in his grandfather’s eyes, he was still nothing more than an immature grandson.

“Master.”

The Head Maid, so exceptionally beautiful that he could not even meet her eyes, opened her mouth.

“Could you tell us, even roughly, what is happening right now?”

The maids who looked like triplets also spoke together.

“We are curious as well.”

It was just as Yeon Sang-hyeon finished his meal and set down his spoon and chopsticks.

“Mm.”

Yeon Sang-hyeon began speaking as he tapped the table with his finger.

“What sort of place is the Inner Court?”

Jeong-ah answered.

“Is it not the department that assists the family head of the main family and his direct blood relatives from the closest position?”

“Correct. But where is the current family head of the main family?”

“He is on his sickbed.”

“Yes. Furthermore, he stepped down from the position of family head and became the Grand Family Head. Then what happens to the Inner Court?”

“…Having lost its focal point, the cohesion among its internal personnel would fall, and its power would scatter.”

“Half right and half wrong.”

“Is that so?”

“The Inner Court was already the most bloated organization in the main family, and even now, it is one of the departments that uses the largest budget.”

Jeong-ah nodded.

“I was taught that where there is money, there is power, and where there is power, there is money.”

“Yes. But what happens when such people have no focal point?”

“…If I may dare to guess, those who needed power would cling to power, while those who needed money would be ruled over by power.”

“As expected of my Head Maid.”

“You praise me too much.”

Yeon Sang-hyeon tapped the table as he reached his conclusion.

“That is why the outer shell of the Inner Court had been rotting away. That is practically the cause of this entire commotion.”

“The outer shell, you say…?”

“Yes. They are the outer shells. Do you remember the people we saw today? They are people who stood out and rose rapidly within the last ten years or so. Is that not right, Investigator Kang Ho?”

Kang Ho, who had been listening blankly, hurriedly nodded.

“Yes, yes! That is correct.”

“Ten years or so would mean after the Grand Family Head collapsed…?”

“That year.”

Yeon Sang-hyeon tapped the table.

“They are people more accustomed to forming and breaking alliances and to muddy power struggles than to the original values of the Inner Court.”

Yeon Sang-hyeon smiled crookedly.

“They each cling to the successor they have chosen, lift them up, push away the Fourth Young Master, who may possibly become a threat to them, and ignore the First Young Master, who is of no use to their power.”

No one could easily open their mouth.

Unable to suppress his curiosity, Kang Ho asked Yeon Sang-hyeon, his palms damp with sweat.

“…I now understand the background of the board you spoke of, First Young Master. Then, the truth behind that board is…”

Yeon Sang-hyeon raised the finger with which he had been tapping the table.

His Head Maid was looking toward some point on the wall.

“Someone is approaching.”

A short while later.

Along with the sound of footsteps, a steward appeared with a pale face.

“The personnel dispatched from the Inspection Department have entered the Inner Court.”

Yeon Sang-hyeon sprang up from his seat.

“Now then, shall we go see who came from the Inspection Department?”