Myst, Might, Mayhem (Novel) - Chapter 269 - Office of Penal Service (4)
Chapter 269 – Office of Penal Service (4)
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Translated by Jinmu
Read it only at Novelbyu.com & Utoon.net
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“Mmff, mmff.”
Deputy Thousand-Household Commander Im Gyu-wol groaned and tried to twist his body.
That poisonous needle wavering before his eyes was enough, but when he heard that the instant it dug into his eyeball his mind itself might become crippled, he desperately wanted to avoid at least that much somehow.
At that moment, Mok Gyeong-un snickered and lightly pulled one of the needles embedded in his spine.
As the needle was withdrawn, Im Gyu-wol’s waist, which had bent like a bow, straightened.
“Hah……hah……y, you bastard!”
“You bastard? I think it would be better if you watched your attitude.”
-Gnash!
At Mok Gyeong-un’s low warning, Deputy Thousand-Household Commander Im Gyu-wol ground his teeth.
He wanted to subdue the bastard immediately and yank out the needles, but if by some slight mistake he really became crippled, then his life in the imperial palace would be over.
“……Why in the world are you doing this? Are you not afraid of future consequences?”
“Future consequences? Did you just say future consequences?”
“No, I did not mean it in that sense……”
“If even your mind becomes crippled, I am curious how exactly you would pay back future consequences.”
“……”
At Mok Gyeong-un’s mocking words, Im Gyu-wol could say nothing.
As the bastard said, if he fell into a state where he could not even perceive things, then future consequences or anything else would be meaningless.
As he glared at Mok Gyeong-un in resentment, he opened his mouth.
“What in the world do you want?”
“I am glad you are someone with whom words can be exchanged.”
“……”
What kind of nonsense was this about words being exchanged, when he had needles thrust into his spine and a poisoned needle held before his eye?
His insides boiled with rage, but Im Gyu-wol forcibly suppressed it.
If only he could get past this crisis, the opportunity for revenge would come whenever he wanted.
“Before I say what I want, shall we first hear what Deputy Thousand-Household Commander Im was trying to do?”
At that question, Im Gyu-wol flinched.
That was only natural, because before coming here he had been the very one scheming to trap Mok Gyeong-un wearing the face of Cadet Bae Ji-seok and Cadet Ju Un-hyang through the Forbidden Prison Battle Maps.
Naturally, when asked about it, he could not help but feel inwardly flustered.
So he feigned ignorance.
“……What are you talking about?”
“You are not going to say you do not know what I mean.”
“What do you mean? I am the examiner testing you apprentice cadets. Are you saying that I would try to do something to you?”
“Hmm.”
“If this is because of what happened earlier, I have already forgotten it. So……”
-Grip!
“Mmff.”
Mok Gyeong-un seized both his cheeks with one hand.
Then he slowly tightened his grip.
As a result,
“Uuuuuugh!”
With such force driven into both cheeks, it felt as if his cheekbones and even his teeth would break.
To the suffering man, Mok Gyeong-un said into his ear,
“For someone who says he forgot it, your eyes were poor the whole time, so it bothered me. And a person making eyes like that would just let it pass without doing anything.”
“Mmmff……it……was……real.”
“I cannot believe it. Becoming crippled seems a little excessive, so if I end it at making your mind crippled, then I suppose I will not need to worry about the Deputy Thousand-Household Commander very much, will I?”
-Slide!
Mok Gyeong-un brought the poisoned needle near his eye.
Deputy Thousand-Household Commander Im Gyu-wol judged that this was a threat meant to force him to open his mouth, and resolved that he had to endure it no matter what.
But that did not last very long.
That was because of the expression on Mok Gyeong-un’s face as he smiled at him.
He was smiling as if he enjoyed it, but inside that smile was filled with nothing but malice.
‘He will do it. This bastard will absolutely do it.’
Ordinarily, one would think it was no more than a threat.
After all, anyone who wanted to become part of the Embroidered Uniform Guard would know that they must not make an enemy of an examiner who judged them.
But this bastard’s face and eyes said plainly that he did not care about that in the slightest.
So Im Gyu-wol hurriedly spoke.
“I, I was going to give demerit points……and have you thrown out of the Embroidered Uniform Guard selection……”
“You were going to give demerit points and have us dropped from the Embroidered Uniform Guard selection?”
“T, that’s right.”
Im Gyu-wol lied in the most plausible way he could.
If he told him about the real plan, not only would this bastard never leave him alone, but any chance of later revenge for what had been done to him now would disappear as well.
Even so, though he thought he had said something convincing, he could not help but feel tense.
At that moment, Mok Gyeong-un nodded and said,
“Well, you did at least turn your head a little. A method of revenge like that……”
-Release!
Mok Gyeong-un let go of the hand that had been gripping him.
“Hoo……hoo……”
At that, Deputy Thousand-Household Commander Im Gyu-wol felt relieved inwardly.
He had worried this bastard might not believe him and pry further, but fortunately it seemed he had been tricked well.
Just as he was thinking that, however,
-Flick!
Mok Gyeong-un bent his middle finger against his thumb and aimed it at his forehead.
Seeing that, Deputy Thousand-Household Commander Im Gyu-wol frowned.
‘A flick?’
-Ppak!
The next instant, the released middle finger struck his forehead.
The impact was so tremendous that it felt as if it pierced through his forehead and ran through his brain, and Deputy Thousand-Household Commander Im Gyu-wol’s eyes opened so wide they seemed about to split apart while a scream tried to burst from his mouth.
Of course, Mok Gyeong-un covered his mouth, so he could not scream.
“Nnghhhhhh.”
To the suffering man, Mok Gyeong-un said with a smile,
“Did you think I would believe that? If you had really intended that sort of childish revenge, then earlier you would have given demerit points instead of merit points.”
“Nnghhh.”
“Tell me, step by step, what you had originally planned. I only overlook things once.”
With those words, Mok Gyeong-un held up the poisoned needle and waved it.
After a single finger flick, Im Gyu-wol had gone half numb with shock, drool running from his mouth as he stared blankly at it.
It was called only a finger flick, but the power packed into it had been so great that for an instant he had even hallucinated that the bone of his forehead had cracked, no, shattered.
“Your answer is slow.”
“I, I was going to let you see false Forbidden Prison Battle Maps when you entered the underground prison and make you lose your way.”
“False Forbidden Prison Battle Maps?”
“That is right.”
Come to think of it, he had heard that the underground prison was so enormous in scale that it was like a maze.
Without a Forbidden Prison Battle Map, one could lose one’s way and even end up dying by falling into the prison’s mechanism formation.
At that, the corner of Mok Gyeong-un’s mouth slowly rose.
“Now that sounds at least plausible.”
“……”
“Where are those false Forbidden Prison Battle Maps?”
“In……the Office of Penal Service office.”
“If they are not there, then instead of wasting time, it should be fine if I simply drive this needle into your eyeball, right? I am starting to find talking bothersome.”
“I am not lying. There are two maps marked with red thread unlike the other Forbidden Prison Battle Maps. Those are the ones.”
At those words, Mok Gyeong-un became convinced that this time he was telling the truth.
Words alone naturally could not be trusted.
But if he had prepared such things in advance, then it was certain.
And not one map, but two.
His target was perfectly clear as well.
‘Me and Ju Un-hyang.’
At that, Mok Gyeong-un placed a hand on his shoulder and said,
“If you had told me this from the start, neither of us would have had to grow tired.”
“……If you leave it at this, I absolutely will not do anything foolish. Nor will I give you demerit points or anything like that.”
“Naturally, that is how it should be. But I have not even brought up the main subject yet.”
“The main subject?”
“Yes. In truth, I have no interest at all in this Embroidered Uniform Guard selection or anything of the kind.”
“What?”
What in the world was this supposed to mean?
The Imperial Guard Bureau Martial Examination was part of the process for selection into the Embroidered Uniform Guard.
And yet this man had joined it and now said he had no interest in it at all?
To the puzzled man, Mok Gyeong-un said calmly,
“Rather than that, I would like to quietly take out a certain person from the underground prison. If Deputy Thousand-Household Commander Im Gyu-wol, the head of the Office of Penal Service that manages it, helps me, I think it would become much easier.”
‘!!!!!!!’
At Mok Gyeong-un’s utterly unexpected words, Deputy Thousand-Household Commander Im Gyu-wol’s eyes widened.
Was this not literally saying he intended to help a serious criminal imprisoned in the underground prison escape?
And now he was asking him, who managed that prison, to help?
In utter disbelief, Im Gyu-wol said,
“Have you gone mad? Even if you and I have become enemies and I am suffering this humiliation because of it, I am the overall person in charge of the Office of Penal Service. Do you think a man like me would help free a prisoner from the underground prison?”
For the first time, Im Gyu-wol showed the pride and vigor he possessed as part of the Embroidered Uniform Guard.
It was as though he was showing a firm resolve that this alone he absolutely could not help with.
To him, Mok Gyeong-un said with a smile,
“I said there would not be a second warning.”
“T, this much at least I cannot do. Even if you threaten me.”
“Oh. It seems you want to show me some backbone. Then shall I change the method of that threat a little?”
“What?”
“All this time, whenever you were helping Grand Preceptor Hang Yun-pa move the Buddha, you have continuously embezzled funds, have you not?”
‘!?’
At those words, the eyes of the once defiant Im Gyu-wol shook.
He had been the sort who manipulated the ledgers as subtly as possible and gathered funds.
Until now, no one had noticed it, so how did this bastard know?
“W, what are you talking about?”
Im Gyu-wol denied it strongly.
Then Mok Gyeong-un pulled a book from his chest.
Seeing it, Im Gyu-wol’s expression froze.
It was none other than the secret ledger he had hidden in his office.
‘Huh?’
Why was that in that bastard’s hand?
Of course, this was because,
[This is part of the secret ledger that had been hidden in a secret place in the Office of Penal Service. It looked as though it would be useful, so I took it.]
Mong Mu-yak, one of Mok Gyeong-un’s subordinates, had secretly entered the Office of Penal Service office and taken it.
This was because he judged that a ledger of embezzled funds would be enough to pressure the head of the Office of Penal Service.
And now it was proving useful like this.
“If those above Deputy Thousand-Household Commander Im were to learn of this, it would not seem to end well for you. If fortune turns ill, might you end up imprisoned in the imperial palace’s forbidden prison? That would be amusing. The official in charge of the prison being locked up in the very prison he once managed.”
Those words from Mok Gyeong-un became the final nail.
Deputy Thousand-Household Commander Im Gyu-wol, as if finally broken, lowered his head deeply.
In that way, the man who agreed to do everything Mok Gyeong-un wanted wrote out the document and stamped it with both the official seal of the head of the Office of Penal Service and his own handprint.
Of course, it did not end there. Just as he had done with Superior Commander Sang Ik-seo, Mok Gyeong-un also poisoned him.
At this vicious thoroughness, Deputy Thousand-Household Commander Im Gyu-wol clicked his tongue inwardly.
As Mok Gyeong-un was about to leave the lodging, he seemed curious and asked,
“By the way, why are you targeting Cadet Ju Un-hyang?”
He had been curious about this from the beginning.
He knew Ju Un-hyang secretly had many enemies, but he found himself suddenly wondering why this man was targeting him.
At Mok Gyeong-un’s question, Im Gyu-wol did not want to answer, but in a situation where his weaknesses had already been seized to the limit, he reluctantly replied.
“……Because of Deputy Thousand-Household Commander So Ye-rin.”
‘!?’
Mok Gyeong-un tilted his head and asked back,
“Deputy Thousand-Household Commander So Ye-rin?”
“That is right.”
“Did something happen between you and her?”
“……There is no problem between me and her. It simply annoyed me that Deputy Thousand-Household Commander So Ye-rin, who is strict in both public and private matters, was paying attention to that bastard Ju Un-hyang.”
“Ha!”
He thought there might be some other reason, but at that unexpected answer Mok Gyeong-un let out a scoffing laugh.
To think that the reason he had suddenly acted emotionally stemmed, in the end, from emotion itself.
‘Jealousy, then.’
Humans truly seemed inefficient because of emotion.
Mok Gyeong-un shook his head and then left his lodging.
* * *
Not long after Mok Gyeong-un left like that, once Deputy Thousand-Household Commander Im Gyu-wol judged that he had truly disappeared, he lost his temper and vented his rage by smashing everything inside the lodging.
-Bang, bang!
In all his life, he had never before experienced such humiliation.
Not only had he been threatened and had his weakness seized, he had even been poisoned.
It felt as if he could not endure it unless he vented this anger somewhere.
-Crash!
He even smashed his own bed.
Only after he had broken nearly everything in the room did he calm down somewhat, and then, as he slumped to the floor, Im Gyu-wol ground his teeth and muttered in a low voice.
-Gnash!
“Do not think this ends here. One way or another, I will definitely pay you back.”
He vowed a future reckoning.
For now he would do as the bastard wanted, but the revenge of a great man was not late even if done after ten years.
To that bastard who had inflicted such humiliation on him, he would absolutely repay it the same way, no, double it, triple it…
“Pay back what?”
‘!?’
At the voice suddenly sounding from behind, Im Gyu-wol’s expression hardened.
There had been no trace of any presence behind him at all.
Had he heard something?
As he turned his head stiffly, Mok Gyeong-un was standing by the door to the lodging, holding two rolled false Forbidden Prison Battle Maps.
‘Ah……’