Chapter 72
Part 22: Case Closed (1)
Inner Court main building, protocol room.
“Young Master. Was the meal to your liking?”
“It was excellent beyond words.”
The old woman who approached Yeon Sang-hyeon smiled beautifully.
She was an elderly woman to whom palace attire suited exceptionally well, and every one of her movements was filled with grace.
“Young Master, please do not call me so stiffly. Call me as you used to in the past.”
“Very well, Papa. It was very delicious. I suppose you cooked it yourself?”
When he called her Papa, she smiled brightly.
“Of course! It was food for you, Young Master, so this old woman put in some effort herself for the first time in a long while!”
“Hehe, thank you.”
“Not at all.”
She looked around at those who had “dared” to sit at the same dining table as Yeon Sang-hyeon.
“How was the meal for everyone?”
Her gaze was warm, but not a single person could properly meet her eyes.
Except Jeong-ah.
“Thank you for serving such a splendid dinner even to lowly servants like us.”
A faint light settled in the old woman’s deep eyes.
“Hehe, it was what the Young Master wished. How could an old woman like me refuse?”
Yeon Sang-hyeon looked at her.
“Papa, from now on…”
“Yes, Young Master. So that you may converse comfortably, we shall all withdraw.”
She gave a respectful and elegant bow, then left the protocol room with everyone else.
As soon as the large, splendidly decorated door closed, the triplet maids, who had been tense, all let out sighs of relief at once.
“It felt incredibly delicious, but… no, was it really delicious?”
“I think perhaps it was.”
“…Please do not ask me. I do not remember.”
Kang-ho opened his mouth.
“That person just now…”
I-ryeong nodded.
“Yes, that is right. She is the Inner Court’s protocol secretary. You saw the six tassels woven in gold thread around her waist, did you not?”
“Sixth rank…”
“…On the outside, she simply looks like an elegant and kind old woman.”
“Ugh, the people of the Inner Court do not seem like they are truly smiling even when they smile.”
“Even though people from the same Inner Court are being tortured and screaming outside, she was so calm.”
“The Inner Court truly is a frightening place.”
Jeong-ah carefully asked Yeon Sang-hyeon,
“Master. You seem to have been acquainted with the protocol secretary since long ago. Am I correct?”
Yeon Sang-hyeon chuckled.
“You may trust her. At the very least, she is not the kind of person to put poison in food or hold petty grudges.”
At those words, the triplet maids shuddered.
Kang-ho nodded readily.
“It was a truly splendid meal after a long while. Her skill was remarkable. It was worth remaining by your side, Young Master.”
Yeon Sang-hyeon smiled at him.
“The reason you are still here cannot have been the dinner.”
Kang-ho stiffened for a moment.
He adjusted his glasses and smiled awkwardly.
“…It is because I am very curious about the continuation of what you told us during the day, Young Master.”
The triplet maids also nodded.
“You were in the middle of speaking about the colored shells.”
“The people currently captured must be part of those colored shells of the Inner Court, correct?”
“They were absurd people.”
Jeong-ah opened her mouth.
“Master. Could you, even partially, enlighten us foolish servants about the truth?”
Kang-ho hurriedly asked,
“Why did the Inner Court accounting secretary have to die? What is the reason the Central Inspection Pavilion appeared in this matter? And for both the First and Sixth Divisions of the Protectorate Court to intervene at the same time? And…”
“Enough, enough.”
Yeon Sang-hyeon waved his hand with a laugh, but Kang-ho stubbornly threw out one final question.
“…How are you involved in this matter, Young Master?”
The gaze visible beyond his glasses was endlessly serious.
Yeon Sang-hyeon looked at him and slowly opened his mouth.
“What is your guess?”
Cold sweat flowed down Kang-ho’s forehead as he faced Yeon Sang-hyeon’s gaze head-on.
“…I think that perhaps you, Young Master, may be behind everything that unfolded today.”
Yeon Sang-hyeon smiled faintly.
“You were able to think that because you heard what the Chief of the Central Inspection Pavilion said during the day.”
“That is… correct.”
Kang-ho lowered his head to hide his reddening face.
If he had not heard what she had said to Yeon Sang-hyeon, he would still have been unable to grasp the thread of the matter.
“I am behind everything…”
Yeon Sang-hyeon gave a bitter smile.
“To be precise, all of this began with me and the Inner Court Chief, that old man.”
Kang-ho’s head shot up.
“Then the Inner Court accounting secretary…!”
“Yes, that is correct. By order of the Inner Court Chief, the head of the Inner Court, he committed suicide. No, in a case like this, should one say he was made to commit suicide?”
Yeon Sang-hyeon snickered.
“When I personally appeared in the Inner Court, the Inner Court Chief, that old man, moved first.”
Jeong-ah asked,
“…Why the accounting secretary?”
“Was he perhaps the peak of those called the rotten shells?”
At Kang-ho’s question, Yeon Sang-hyeon shook his head.
“No.”
Yeon Sang-hyeon toyed with the teacup placed on the splendid table.
“He was merely a firebreak.”
“A firebreak…?”
Mi-ryeong recalled something she had heard during special training in the past.
“…I believe I heard that when a forest fire breaks out, the trees cut down in advance to keep the fire from spreading beyond a certain point are called a firebreak.”
“Yes, that firebreak.”
“Then…”
Everyone’s expressions turned blank with shock.
“As far as I know, at least regarding today’s incident, he was not particularly responsible. It was simply…”
The Inner Court Chief could not do anything about Yeon Sang-hyeon having appeared.
If he was forced into a situation where he had to accept damage, he at least had to avoid being struck one-sidedly.
And so, he decided to use Yeon Sang-hyeon’s appearance.
He resolved to push forward the “work” that the Inner Court had needed to do all along.
That work was none other than removing the colored shells from the Inner Court.
But until now, because of political problems, that was not something he could do with his own hands.
“…Political problems, you say?”
At Jeong-ah’s question, Yeon Sang-hyeon nodded.
“Yes. They are people who follow the second young master and the third young master. Removing such people directly would cause political problems.”
“…But are they not people who serve masters as they please?”
“The problem is that those masters are heirs who may become the heads of the family in the future.”
“Ah…”
That was why the Inner Court Chief had turned this crisis into an opportunity and begun using another’s hand to strip away the “rotten shells.”
“For that reason, that old man personally blew away the accounting secretary, a highest-ranking official who followed him faithfully. With that, he announced his intention to the outside.”
Yeon Sang-hyeon drew a line on the table.
“Anyone below this line may be disposed of.”
The maids and Kang-ho felt the illusion that the space below the line Yeon Sang-hyeon had drawn was turning red.
“Then…!”
Kang-ho suddenly raised his head.
“Are you saying that the moment the Inner Court Steward heard that you had arrived at the Inner Court’s main building, he accurately predicted what action you would take, Young Master?!”
“That cunning old man.”
Yeon Sang-hyeon clicked his tongue.
“To think that in that brief instant, he devised an executable plan and cut off the head of the subordinate who had followed him his entire life…”
The necks of everyone listening to the story grew cold.
“How could…”
Yeon Sang-hyeon gave a bitter smile.
“Dragging in the Head of the Inspection Department and the Head of the Protectorate Court was also that old man’s doing. It must have been a kind of deal.”
Kang-ho swallowed dryly and opened his mouth.
“…He exchanged the achievement of uncovering and destroying large-scale misconduct related to a direct blood relative, without fierce resistance from the Inner Court, for protecting the firebreak.”
“How could…”
The triplet maids unconsciously opened their mouths.
“That old man is an old monster who has devoted his loyalty to the Sword Clan since the time of the family head two generations ago—in other words, since my grandfather’s time.”
He was someone who, under normal circumstances, would long since have been old enough to retire.
“If one were to make a list within this Sword Clan of people suited to the word ‘black curtain,’ that old monster would naturally belong near the top.”
Everyone listening swallowed dryly.
Yeon Sang-hyeon took a sip of tea.
The tea was still warm.
It was thanks to the teacup, which had a Warm Water Crystal embedded in the base to slowly lower the temperature.
“…Since that old monster has come out like this, for now, I too will have to be satisfied with moderately stripping away the shells that annoy me.”
No one could easily open their mouth.
And naturally, the one who received the greatest shock among them was Kang-ho.
‘This is… the eldest young master of the Luoyang Sword Clan.’
This eldest young master was the very reason he had shaken off everyone’s attempts to stop him and entered the Luoyang Sword Clan.
He had wanted to meet the eldest young master in person.
What had his grandfather seen in the one known to the world as the Swordless?
Why did his famous grandfather praise him so highly?
How could his grandfather, who was seventy years older, have become friends with him?
He had wanted to confirm it for himself.
And he had even dared to dream that someday, he might compete with him.
And now, before this eldest young master, who was two years younger than him, he was feeling what it meant for their levels to be different.
At that moment, Jeong-ah opened her mouth.
“…This is only the guess of a humble maid, but if it is you, Young Master, did you not surely predict at least that much?”
“Of course.”
Kang-ho was shocked.
“H-how did you think of that, Head Maid?”
Jeong-ah was calm.
“Have you forgotten? The one who requested an investigation from the Inspection Department in advance was our master. At the very least, that happened before the deal between the Head of the Inspection Department and the Inner Court Chief.”
“Then there is also the possibility that the Head of the Inspection Department, having learned of the request to investigate the Inner Court, contacted the Inner Court Chief first…”
“If he had been such a person, our master would not have made the request to the Inspection Department.”
“Th-that is true. Then…?”
Yeon Sang-hyeon nodded.
“Yes. Drawing in the Central Inspection Pavilion and making the Protectorate Court mobilize two divisions was my doing. I prepared for the unexpected.”
“If the Inner Court Chief had tried to dump all responsibility onto the accounting secretary who committed suicide and bury the matter of Wongakjeong, there would have been a major clash with the Central Inspection Pavilion.”
And that clash would have been accompanied by an enormous amount of bloodshed.
That must have been why the Chief of the Central Inspection Pavilion had been so furious.
Kang-ho swallowed dryly.
“Th-then, Young Master, how did you move the Head of the Inspection Department? And how did you move the Head of the Protectorate Court as well…?”
Jeong-ah opened her mouth first.
“Master specifically named Inspection Investigator Kang-ho and requested that he be summoned.”
“…The confidential report!”
Kang-ho clutched his head.
“The Head of the Inspection Department investigated me because I was named by you, Young Master! He found out that I possess perfect memory! And there was a chance for someone like me to enter the Inner Court’s archive of ledgers! The Head of the Inspection Department could not pass up that opportunity!”
He sprang up from his seat.
“And he had to prevent a situation where something went wrong with me inside the Inner Court and I failed to return! That is why he prepared the Central Inspection Pavilion in advance! Only they could clash head-on with the entire Inner Court!”