“…Why is the Central Inspectorate here?”

As he asked the question, the Treasury Director’s eyes, which had been merely observant, suddenly sharpened.

“Now that I think of it,” the old man continued, as if to show off a memory undulled by age, “I had heard that the Head of the Central Inspectorate, Dokgo Ya-yeon, has a particularly brilliant confidant. I believe that person’s name was… Hwa Bok.”

“Oh, my! Such a rumor exists?” The man who had introduced himself as Hwa Bok grinned, scratching the back of his head with an air of amiable modesty. “I, Hwa Bok, am hardly so impressive.”

He crinkled the corners of his eyes into a soft, disarming smile, but the Treasury Director saw right through it. Hwa Bok’s eyes might have crinkled, but they were not smiling. They were not soft at all.

The eyes of an interrogator.

It was a gaze that sought to dissect the person before him, to peer into their very core. From his long and storied experience, the Director knew this type of man well.

“Your type is skilled at digging into a person’s very soul, all while expertly feigning humility.” Though his own circumstances had forced him to ride the Grand Young Master’s coattails, the old man was still the undisputed head of the largest single-family treasury in the Central Plains. “How about you drop those petty tricks, at least for now?”

Just as the rumors said. He’s a formidable man.

Hwa Bok’s assessment was complete. He stopped probing.

“My apologies, Director.” He dropped the mask of affability in an instant. “We are bound to follow the Grand Young Master’s orders faithfully, but nevertheless…” He bowed his head respectfully and continued, “We felt it necessary to judge for ourselves the kind of person we are being asked to… rescue. I apologize for the rudeness.”

His intent was clear: he needed to know the Director of the Treasury’s value before cooperating.

“You… just now…”

But the Treasury Director’s mind had already moved past the Central Inspectorate’s intentions. He seized on a different point entirely.

“Did you say you ‘faithfully follow the Grand Young Master’s orders’? Does that mean…” The Treasury Director rephrased the question, his voice tight. “The Central Inspectorate of the Luoyang Sword Clan… that Dokgo Ya-yeon… has pledged her sword to the Grand Young Master?”

The scattered pieces in his mind began to snap into place. The Grand Young Master’s casual, dismissive attitude when he heard the Head of the Court of Judiciary was meeting the Head of the Inspectorate Bureau. And now, the men from the Central Inspectorate, waiting for them in the Sixth Department’s reception room as if it had all been planned.

“Does this mean the Central Inspectorate has already broken free from the Inspectorate Bureau’s control?”

This time, Hwa Bok’s smile was genuine. “You are precisely correct.”

“Then, the Head of the Court of Judiciary’s actions right now are…?”

Yeon So-hyeon, who had been sitting in the seat of honor reviewing the investigation files handed to him by the Sixth Department Head, looked up and drove the nail into the coffin.

“A fool’s errand.”

***

Within the Luoyang Sword Clan, in a certain garden.

A beautiful, expertly manicured forest blocked the increasingly hot sun, allowing a cool, refreshing breeze to pass through its leaves. But for the two men holding a secret meeting within it, this forest was nothing more than a convenient shield from prying eyes.

“What do you mean…?” The speaker, unable to hide his shock, was the Head of the Court of Judiciary. “The Central Inspectorate is no longer under your control?”

“That is correct.” The one who replied, his face wrapped in black cloth, was the Head of the Inspectorate Bureau. “The Central Inspectorate… or more accurately, Dokgo Ya-yeon, is completely out of my hands.”

His tone was flat, but the Head of the Court of Judiciary could feel the molten rage simmering beneath it. “I can no longer exert any control over their investigation into the Treasury.”

This only infuriated the Head of the Court of Judiciary even more.

“And you are only sharing this critical information now?! Why?!” His voice grew harsh, matching his rising temper. “If you had told me this earlier, I could have formulated a counter-plan instead of wasting my time on this pointless trip!”

Rumble.

The roof tiles of the garden pavilion they sat in vibrated, shaking loose a fine rain of dust.

“What hidden motive did you have for hiding this?!”

“Motive…?” From within the black cloth, the Bureau Head’s eyes flashed with a strange light. “You are… overly excited.”

At that cold, materialized gaze, the Head of the Court of Judiciary fell silent. Their relationship was not one of superior and subordinate. Just as the Bureau Head’s own energy membrane had effortlessly deflected the dust shaken loose by the Head of the Court of Judiciary’s aura, they were equals. They were the heads of the two most powerful investigative bodies in the family.

“Like you, I only learned of this fact today.”

This statement was more effective at calming the Head of the Court of Judiciary than any display of martial prowess.

“You only learned today…? Does that mean…?!”

It was a moment that revealed just how fundamentally political the Head of the Court of Judiciary was.

“Yes.” The Bureau Head’s voice returned to its flat, dispassionate tone, as if he’d never manifested his energy at all. “The moment I heard what the Grand Young Master did at your Court, I summoned Dokgo Ya-yeon. She showed no particular resistance, merely repeating the textbook answer that ‘the Central Inspectorate is guaranteed independent investigative authority’…”

“…but in the end, she refused all your orders and requests.”

“Correct.”

It was, terrifyingly, the exact same situation that had happened with the Sixth Department Head.

“…Then, the Head of the Central Inspectorate, too…?” The question was short, the implication clear.

“Yes.” The Bureau Head understood him perfectly. “She has, without a doubt, sided with the Grand Young Master.”

The Head of the Court of Judiciary had initiated this secret meeting to find a breakthrough. Instead, he felt as if he were sinking even deeper into a quagmire. No. He shook his head internally. I’m not sinking. I was already at the bottom… I am just now realizing it.

A suffocating tightness gripped his chest. He pressed his fingers to his temple and spoke. “…Were there no warning signs?”

“Warning signs?”

“An organization the size of the Central Inspectorate… they must have left some traces, no matter how hard they tried to hide it.”

“No,” the Bureau Head replied. “On the contrary. It was because it was the Central Inspectorate, and because it was Dokgo Ya-yeon, that it was impossible to know.”

She was famously, stubbornly principled.

“She and I often clashed, and I’d felt she’d become particularly prickly this year, but…”

The Head of the Court of Judiciary couldn’t see it, but he knew the Bureau Head’s face must be contorted in rage.

“For that Dokgo Ya-yeon to abandon her precious principles and pledge loyalty to an individual… It was unimaginable.”

His own face was surely just as contorted.

The Bureau Head’s gaze turned to him. “And you, Head of the Court of Judiciary? Did you not sense anything from your Sixth Department Head?”

At the question being turned back on him, the Head of the Court of Judiciary let out a long, low groan. “…Umm.”

Normally, they would never “honestly” reveal their inner thoughts to each other. But now, they shared a ‘common problem’ named Yeon So-hyeon.

“…Come to think of it,” the Head of the Court of Judiciary said, frowning as he combed through his memories. “I recall the incident with the Third Young Master’s ‘Dragon and Phoenix Assembly Stadium Construction’ plot. The Sixth Department Head’s behavior… it was a little strange back then.”

As a man at the pinnacle of the greatest family under heaven, his memory was precise, even without records.

“I clearly gave him a secret order to request cooperation from the Grand Young Master’s side.”

The Bureau Head nodded slowly, his own memory stirring. “That was the arrest cooperation for the ‘Spring of Luoyang,’ the martial artist group that joined the uprising, correct…?”

At this near-muttered confirmation, a shiver ran down the Head of the Court of Judiciary’s spine. The Inspectorate Bureau knew about that secret order…? He pushed the disturbing thought aside and nodded. “…Yes.”

He recounted the result. “He reported that no evidence could be found, so no arrest cooperation was possible.”

“Indeed…” the Bureau Head affirmed. “That was the result of his initial investigation.”

“That was the first and last time,” the Head of the Court of Judiciary said, his voice growing more certain as he spoke. “The first and last time the Sixth Department Head ever produced an investigative result that so directly contradicted my will.” He said, as if in lament, “That must have been when the Grand Young Master contacted him.”

The Bureau Head’s eyes narrowed. “…You didn’t find it strange at the time?”

“No, I did not.” The Head of the Court of Judiciary shook his head. “There was no evidence. And in fact, no one was ever caught. We can ‘fabricate’ evidence, but we cannot fabricate an entire organization of that size out of thin air.”

It was possible to find one or two “actors” to take the fall, but creating an entire anti-social martial artist group from nothing was impossible.

“And decisively—”

The Bureau Head finished his thought. “—the Grand Young Master had no direct, tangible benefit from spiriting them away.”

That was it. What ‘profit’ could the Grand Young Master possibly gain from hiding a group of anti-social thugs? At the time, he wasn’t even directly involved in the stadium incident. In their framework of thinking, the pieces simply didn’t connect.

“So, at the time, I had no choice but to accept it,” the Head of the Court of Judiciary continued. “But looking back now… a completely different picture emerges.”

From his birth mother, the Medicine Fairy, and the House of Benevolence… to fending off the pirates… to the complete rebirth of the Valley of Sins, once home to the Five Fiends.

“…It’s all connected. A single, consistent line.”

Now, considering that one of Yeon So-hyeon’s greatest foundations of power was the overwhelming support of the common people…

“…He must have known. It was crucial for him that the cause of the stadium uprising was not the instigation of an anti-social group…”

“…but was instead pinned as the sole responsibility of the Third Young Master’s faction.”

“Only then,” the Head of the Court of Judiciary concluded, “could he, himself, gain the support of the people without any ‘noise’.”

They felt a sense of clarity as the pieces clicked into place, but at the same time, it was a clarity so sharp it left them chilled to the bone.

“But… for that to be true…”

“Just how long ago…”

“Just how far… was he seeing?”