Chapter 70
Part 20: The Price of Arrogance
Steward Bang sat with a small table before her, her entire body trembling like an aspen leaf.
Part of it was because the room had no heating at all and was cold, but it was not merely because of that.
From the moment the Central Inspection Pavilion had appeared, she had been completely out of her mind.
She had been dragged here and there, isolated alone, and then brought to this place.
Even so, she remembered the emergency protocol.
In truth, amid her dazed state, she had been doing nothing but repeating that emergency protocol to herself.
Judging by the fact that there was another chair on the opposite side of the table, someone would soon come in and begin the investigation.
When the door suddenly burst open, she sprang up from her seat.
“Good grief. Why is it so cold in here?”
A pleasant-looking man was about to enter, but instead shouted toward the outside.
“Hey! How could you forget to put a brazier in here? Someone’s going to freeze to death!”
Steward Bang quickly examined the man’s appearance.
“And what are you doing in this dark room without even a single oil lamp?!”
He carried nothing with him.
He had not even brought the common brush, ink, and paper, nor any evidentiary documents with which to interrogate her.
“Ah, I’m sorry about this. Our people may look thorough, but once you get to know them, they all have sloppy sides like this.”
“…N-no, it is all right.”
With a sincerely apologetic expression, he sat across from her.
Just then, through the open door, people in red uniforms entered carrying a brazier.
The room immediately grew warm.
Several oil lamps were also brought in, and the room brightened.
“Hey, this young lady looks very cold. Go and bring her a cup of warm tea too. And you, take off your outer robe and drape it over her.”
“Yes, sir.”
A red outer robe was placed over her shoulders, and before long, steaming tea was set in front of her.
The door closed.
She was confused.
The situation was growing farther and farther away from the circumstances assumed by the emergency protocol she had been repeating to herself.
“Now, have a cup of tea and warm yourself up a little. You might catch a cold at this rate.”
“Th-thank you…”
The man gestured toward her and smiled affably.
“Now then, Miss of the Bang family, let us simply pass the time by having a little chat together.”
“Pardon?”
At her reaction, he seemed momentarily flustered, then burst into a hearty laugh.
“Ah, my goodness, look at me. I had not even introduced myself.”
He pulled his chair closer and sat down.
“My name is Hwabuk. I once received kindness from the elders of the Bang family within the main family.”
“Ah…”
She let out a sigh of relief.
The friendly smile on Hwabuk’s face deepened.
***
“Then you are saying that you know absolutely nothing about all of this? Not even anything you can guess at?”
The Western Gate Steward nodded with a calm expression.
“That is correct. I know nothing about it.”
The special inspection investigator in charge of questioning her spread the documents out on the table.
A single oil lamp placed on the table dimly illuminated the room.
“Even with all this evidence?”
She turned her gaze away.
“I do not know.”
He leaned toward the table.
“Here, it states the annual budget that the Council of Elders assigned to Wongakjeong, does it not?”
“Yes.”
“And here, it says that the entire budget was paid to the Young Master.”
“So it does.”
He picked up one document.
“Yet in reality, it appears that not even half of it was paid to the Young Master, does it not?”
“So it does.”
“You know nothing about this?”
“I know nothing.”
“Then let us move on to another matter for a moment.”
He backed down readily.
“Originally, is it permitted to pay the budget assigned to the Inner Court to a direct blood relative in the form of money like this?”
“Do you mean such a large sum?”
“…The Inner Court’s internal regulations do not specify the exact amount.”
“How did this come about?”
“All I know is that, in the past, as more heirs began refusing the service of the Inner Court, a decision permitting this was made from above.”
“By heirs who do not receive the Inner Court’s service, do you mean the eldest young master, second young master, third young master, and fourth young master?”
“Yes.”
“As that decision was a matter handled by the Upper Bureau, you would not know the detailed process.”
“Yes.”
He gathered the documents.
“Do you know what charges you are currently suspected of?”
The Western Gate Steward narrowed her eyes.
“Charges? Was this not simply a witness questioning?”
He gave a faint laugh.
“Did you think the Inspection Department was a place that only conducted investigations?”
“Manipulation of ledgers, creation of double books, embezzlement…”
He looked into her eyes and began listing the charges one by one.
“And treason.”
At the word treason, the Western Gate Steward leapt up.
“What do you mean?! Treason?!”
When she shot to her feet and shouted, he instead looked dumbfounded and leaned back.
“No, are you the one who does not understand the situation right now?”
“What situation?!”
His gaze turned toward her.
“Do you truly not know whose money the inspection targets, including yourself, have laid hands on?”
“I… I…”
She looked utterly devastated.
Just then, someone lightly knocked on the door and entered.
“Are those the statements?”
“Yes.”
They had laid hands on the money of a direct blood relative of the Yeon family.
They had manipulated ledgers, pocketed some of it, and arbitrarily decided how the budget would be used.
These were actions that clearly amounted to the crime of treason.
The strength drained from her legs, and she sank back down into the chair.
The door closed, and as he flipped through the documents, he opened his mouth.
“To be honest, speaking frankly, I am actually the one who finds this absurd.”
He let out a sigh.
“No, how could you commit such a grave crime and handle the matter this sloppily?”
He shook his head.
“And all this by men and women of such low positions, at that?”
She could not say a word.
He flipped through the written statements and began roughly reading only the parts he needed.
“…At first, the full amount of the budget was paid to the Young Master, but even after that, the Young Master began making additional expenditures.”
He turned a page.
“…So the budget assigned to Wongakjeong was held back to respond to those additional expenses.”
Another page turned.
“There is also mention of revenge here. When the Young Master took the budget and still used the Inner Court’s money as he pleased, they became angry. So, with the thought of getting revenge, they withheld even more of the budget.”
Another page turned.
“And when no one took issue with it even then, they began withholding more and more of the budget.”
He gave up reading the rest of the statements.
“No, are you people truly in your right minds? What does Wongakjeong’s budget have to do with the Young Master using the Inner Court’s money?”
He slammed the table.
“Was the entirety of the Inner Court’s property not meant for the family head and his direct blood relatives from the very beginning?”
She merely stared at him blankly.
“You did not know things would turn out like this? You did not know that if the Young Master said even one word, this would happen? Good grief, for people who have supposedly spent their lives in that renowned Inner Court, just what in the world…”
“…know.”
“What?”
“I did not know. I did not know.”
“You mean you did not know things would turn out like this?”
“No.”
Her dazed gaze turned toward him.
“…I did not know that Young Master would do this.”
***
The Inner Court’s main building.
The Central Inspection Pavilion’s temporary investigation headquarters.
“I’m back~.”
The door opened, and Hwabuk entered, waving some documents.
“Did Steward Bang confess?”
The Chief of the Central Inspection Pavilion, Dokgo Ya-yeon, asked while looking down at the documents placed on the large desk.
“Yes, she cleanly admitted to all the charges.”
He placed the documents on her desk.
“Good work.”
“It was hardly work. It was like twisting a child’s wrist.”
“I suppose so.”
He shrugged his shoulders.
“There is overflowing evidence, overflowing testimony, and even the methods were sloppy.”
He smacked his lips.
“From the start, I do not think this was a matter worthy of us stepping in.”
There was no reply.
Dokgo Ya-yeon merely checked the documents.
“…Well, there is nothing we can do about it, is there? When those above tell us to dig, we dig. It was an order personally issued by the Head of the Inspection Department, was it not?”
“Do not try to sound me out.”
“…Ah, yes. My apologies.”
He scratched his head.
“In any case, it seems that Young Master was greatly underestimated. For the Inner Court, which should be observing a direct blood relative from the closest distance, to treat him like this…”
He whispered so others would not hear.
“…Though the opponent was the ‘Swordless,’ after all.”
She answered indifferently.
“Because they thought that way, they collapsed this easily.”
“That is true.”
He clapped his hands.
“Come to think of it, what happened with your personal investigation of Young Master?”
“It went well.”
He nodded.
“As expected, right? Since it was a case he himself reported, there would be no reason for him not to cooperate.”
He rummaged through the documents on her desk.
To him, Dokgo Ya-yeon opened her mouth.
“You will not find it. There is no testimony from the Young Master.”
“Pardon?”
There was no answer.
“Well…”
He stroked his short beard and reasoned by himself.
“No matter how poorly Young Master is treated within the main family, who knows what might happen later if a direct blood relative is included in the investigation records?”
Again, there was no answer.
He leaned against the desk and smacked his lips.
“I would like to face Young Master at least once myself.”
He smiled.
“They say Young Master was quite famous in the old days, do they not? When I searched through the Inspection Department’s records, his name came up rather often. Of course, with my position, I could not see the details.”
He leaned over the desk and asked in a low voice,
“Have you perhaps heard the rumor that Young Master will break his seclusion?”
“I have.”
A dangerous light entered his eyes.
“Do you not intend to investigate whether that rumor is true? It is a matter related to the Grand Supreme Family Head’s command, so is it not something we ought to investigate?”
There was no reply.
He smacked his lips.
“Or, if you assign the task to me at least…”
“Hwabuk.”
When her white eyes turned toward him, he hurriedly straightened his posture.
“Yes, Pavilion Chief.”
He was excessively sharp, and he also knew that it was extremely dangerous when his Pavilion Chief looked at someone with “that kind of gaze.”
“You have done very well until now. I have felt that it was worth selecting you and bringing you into the Central Inspection Pavilion.”
“Thank you.”
Without breaking his proper posture, he grinned.
His superior, who was perfectly suited to the word cold-blooded, almost never gave praise.
But her next words drove his mood straight into the ground.
“So do not crawl into a place where you will die on your own.”
“…Yes.”
Seeing the subordinate who answered but clearly did not understand at all, the Chief of the Central Inspection Pavilion let out a small sigh.
“I am telling you not to shove your head in first without even being able to judge what kind of game you are getting involved in.”
It was almost the same thing Yeon Sang-hyeon had said to Kang-ho.
He asked cautiously,
“…Are you saying that matters related to Young Master are such a dangerous game?”
After a brief silence, she opened her mouth.
“That is a lesson I learned directly from Young Master in the past, and later came to understand. Do not forget it.”
“…Yes, I will keep it in mind.”
If his superior, who almost never spoke of matters related to herself, had gone so far as to bring up the past, then it was indeed something he needed to keep in mind.
After looking at him for a moment with her white eyes, she lowered her gaze back to the documents.
“…The incident within the Inner Court is simple, but it seems difficult for us to handle all of the budget that has flowed outside the Inner Court.”
“Is that so?”
She let out a small sigh.
Everything was flowing exactly as the Head of the Inspection Department had told her when he gave her the order.
“…This is not a piece we can swallow by ourselves.”
“Then we will have to request support.”
He picked up his outer robe.
“I leave it to you.”
“Of course.”
Humming a work song as he walked toward the door, he suddenly stopped.
“…Um, Pavilion Chief?”
“What is it?”
He blinked and asked her,
“That lesson you learned. You mean it was before Young Master went into seclusion, correct? Then, how old exactly was Young Master when he gave you that teaching?”
There was no answer.