Volume 5 Chapter 13 – Reviewing the Game (1)

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Translated by Rain

Read it only at Novelbyu.com & Utoon.net

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The Luoyang Sword Family,

The Fourth Young Master’s office.

Despite being late at night, the lights were bright in the Fourth Young Master’s office.

Even so, not a single word of conversation was heard inside the office, only the sound of regularly turning paper and the thudding sound of stamping approval seals echoing.

At the Red Venom Spider’s desk, documents waiting for approval were piled up like towers, and at the opposite side where the Fourth Young Master sat, even more documents were piled.

A document is turned, and a seal is stamped once.

Another document is turned, and another seal is stamped.

Meanwhile, a scribe with hollow eyes would walk in carrying another armful of approval documents to pile them up.

“…”

“…”

Snap. The seal the Red Venom Spider was holding broke.

Lifting his head, the Fourth Young Master stared blankly at the sight and muttered.

“…That seal is really expensive.”

No sooner had he finished speaking than the Red Venom Spider slammed the desk.

“Kyaaaaak!”

The towers of documents collapsed, and documents rained down from the sky.

“Oh dear!”

The Fourth Young Master’s Maid Captain, who had been dozing off in the corner, startled awake.

“I must have dozed off for a moment.”

The Fourth Young Master glared at the Red Venom Spider with a reproaching look, but she began rolling around on the floor.

“I can’t do this anymore! I can’t do this anymore!”

Gazing pityingly at the middle-aged woman struggling like that, the Fourth Young Master lightly clapped his hands.

At that, administrative maids entered and began organizing the papers the Red Venom Spider had scattered.

Rebuilding the towers in an instant made it seem as if this was not the first or second time it had happened.

“Send me home! I miss my babies! I want to go home! I miss my honey!”

The Fourth Young Master spoke with an expression as if he were looking at an eyesore.

“…Even if you go home, there is no one there. Your twin sons are already married and independent, and your husband is currently on a business trip.”

“Send me anyway! I said send me! My family, my family is waiting for me anxiously at home!”

At the sight of the Red Venom Spider (mother of twins) practically begging now, the Maid Captain coaxed her to sit down.

“There, there, just a bit more and it will be finished. There is not much left now.”

As the Maid Captain opened the drawer, new seals revealed themselves.

And beside them, the remains of the seals the Red Venom Spider had previously broken were piled up.

“Kiaaaaaaa!”

Previously, coaxing her like this would work somehow, but now she had truly reached her limit.

The Red Venom Spider shouted at the Fourth Young Master.

“Why?! How?! Why is the work not ending?! You clearly said three days ago that you would send me home!”

Her unwashed hair was matted with oil, and her heavy makeup was now closer to camouflage than cosmetics.

“…I will definitely send you home tomorrow.”

At the Fourth Young Master’s words, which carried zero conviction, the Red Venom Spider clutched her head and shrieked.

“Liar! You liar!”

Then she jumped up and stood on top of her desk.

“You, Lord, certainly spoke like this before!”

With that, she put on a solemn expression and began mimicking the Fourth Young Master.

“I am the descendant of the most cruel family! I am the legitimate line of a great family!”

The Fourth Young Master immediately turned red and bowed his head.

“Now, this Sword Family will not be able to turn away from our existence!”

The Maid Captain tightly hugged and patted the Fourth Young Master.

“It is alright, Master. At that age, one can act impulsively like that.”

“…That is not comforting at all.”

The Red Venom Spider pointed around and shouted.

“At that time, I thought we would invade the Second or Third Young Master’s side and create a sea of blood, but what is this endless continuation of documents?! Are we training in a martial art that stamps enemies to death with a seal?!”

Of course, a brilliant and capable talent like her could not possibly be ignorant of the importance of the work they were doing now.

“Kiaaaaaaa!”

…Probably.

At her sight, threatening and letting out weird shrieks like a primitive tribe’s shaman in the Sichuan jungle, the Fourth Young Master and the Maid Captain sighed.

“Just last week, we were in a frenzy because there was no progress on the business plan. Because the Luoyang administration wouldn’t cooperate at all…”

The Red Venom Spider, who had been shrieking, pointed her finger at the Fourth Young Master.

“That is exactly it! I cannot make sense of that either!”

She leaped over the documents and landed on the floor.

“The Luoyang administrative authorities threw every possible administrative obstacle they could at our business plan! Even bringing up regulations of a bizarre kind that would make one marvel!”

What awaited them, having successfully secured the transfer to a new business site, was a feast of red tape that was obviously intentional to anyone.

Far from breaking ground, a crisis had come where they could not even get approval for the business plan in the first place.

“Yet the Eldest Young Master, I don’t know what kind of spell he cast, but suddenly all the procedures went through at once!”

The result of that was the mountain range of approval documents like now.

When the story of his beloved and highly respected eldest brother came up, the Fourth Young Master grinned and laughed.

“Haha. So you recognize it too? Eldest Brother is great.”

“That is not what I mean!”

The Red Venom Spider trembled.

“For so many Luoyang administrative departments to simultaneously block a single business in the first place means that immense external influence was exerted!”

Her eyes were rolled back to the point where the whites were visible.

“But just what kind of trick did the Eldest Young Master use to move those high-ranking officials!”

The Fourth Young Master smirked as if asking how she didn’t know.

“Because that is Eldest Brother.”

“I mean, by what method?!”

“I don’t know either.”

The Fourth Young Master stroked his beard-less chin.

“But if I were to guess…”

Just then, the door opened, and an elderly woman of robust build showed herself.

“It is work carried out using the guests Elder Yeom brought in.”

She was an old lady whose long, snow-white hair was impressive.

Despite the wrinkles leaving traces of time, her beauty still had not lost its luster, and at her appearance, the Red Venom Spider quickly clasped her hands to greet.

“Greetings to Elder Yu!”

At her highly disciplined appearance, the old lady called Elder Yu clicked her tongue mercilessly.

“You… You are a child who will see grandchildren soon. Are you still throwing tantrums to the Fourth Young Master?”

“…”

Unable to dare make any reply, the Red Venom Spider merely hung her head in embarrassment.

Normally, the Fourth Young Master would have watched the Red Venom Spider getting scolded while eating snacks, but now, satisfying his curiosity came first.

“Elder Yu. If so, did Eldest Brother and Elder Yeom, as I expected…?”

The old lady nodded.

“Yes. It seems the Eldest Young Master met those who were politically hanging off a cliff through Elder Yeom.”

She took a tobacco pipe from her chest and bit it.

Then, without her even touching it, the tobacco caught fire, and smoke rose long.

“Once trust was established in the ‘Eldest Young Master’s deals,’ their numbers seemed to have become substantial now. To the point that passing a single business plan was nothing.”

Knowing her personality of never jumping to conclusions without certainty, the Fourth Young Master expressed doubt.

“How did Elder Yu confirm that fact?”

Exhaling smoke long toward the ceiling, Elder Yu spat out words as if chewing them.

“Because that crazy Eldest Young Master turned today’s elders’ meeting upside down.”

“Yes?”

* * *

Going back in time, late afternoon.

Elders’ Hall, Great Hall.

It was an exceptionally long and tedious meeting.

Since the closing time was slowly approaching now, the elders were all stealthily packing their things first.

“Now, now, it is the last agenda item. So concentrate until the end.”

The little giant, the Lord of the Elders’ Hall, who spoke like that, looked the most bored himself.

“Now, let’s see…”

It was also because the elder who was supposed to host was absent due to illness, so he, the Lord, had to host the entire day.

“The last one is nothing special. Meeting adjourned.”

The Lord of the Elders’ Hall threw the document he was holding backward.

“No… This crazy fellow. No matter how bothersome it is.”

The Deputy Lord sighed, approached, and picked up the document.

Then, pushing the Lord aside, he stood on the platform.

“The last agenda item is…”

He scratched his thinning hair.

“This is an agenda item that does not require a vote. Still, I will read it for now.”

Boos flew from all directions toward the Deputy Lord, who was strict in handling matters.

“Now, don’t be like that, everyone. Isn’t procedure still procedure?”

It was the Deputy Lord, smiling forcedly to appease the elders.

“Er… so, this is an agenda item regarding the emergency decree of the Supreme Executive Council.”

Everyone sighed at those words.

It was because there were incredibly many agenda items passed without a vote due to those emergency decrees for the Eldest Young Master.

At least at that moment, even the elders of fastidious nature sympathized with the Lord’s action of throwing away the documents.

Whether they booed or not, packed their things and stood up or not, or chatted or not, Elder Ham, the Deputy Lord, steadily read through the document.

“Therefore, the Inner Courtyard must pay the full unpaid operating expenses to the Eldest Young Master. For prompt payment, the Sword Family Bank will pay the amount instead and hold a claim on the Inner Courtyard for that amount.”

It was a content of no consequence.

A minor content about the Sword Family Bank paying instead the amount the Inner Courtyard had not paid in the past.

“Er, then, in accordance with the procedure under the emergency decree, this agenda item is passed without discussion of yes or no…”

However.

“Wait.”

The gazes of the elders, who wore expressions of relief that it was finally over, slithered toward the elder who was raising his hand.

Ignoring the gazes that struck down like lightning, that elder spoke uprightly.

“Although those who committed corruption in the Inner Courtyard were punished, the Chief Manager of the Inner Courtyard and the Inner Courtyard, who are actually responsible for management, faced no separate punishment whatsoever.”

The air froze.

The gaze of the Chief Manager of the Inner Courtyard, who had sat without saying a word from the start of the meeting until now, directed toward that elder.

The elder, who normally would have immediately avoided that gaze, steadily continued what he had to say.

“I believe there is a need to make a compensation to the Eldest Young Master and Pavilion of Perfect Enlightenment to the extent of deeply feeling that responsibility.”

The elders looked at that elder with expressions as if looking at a madman.

For they could not understand his action of touching that fearsome Chief Manager of the Inner Courtyard, and over a matter that was already finished at that.

But that was only the beginning.

“…I agree as well.”

One elder, hanging his head, raised his hand to agree.

“I agree.”

“I agree as well.”

Hands gradually began to rise.

The elders who did not raise their hands were busy looking left and right with confused expressions.

“No matter what, letting it slide just like that is a bit off. In truth, didn’t the Chief Manager of the Inner Courtyard not even lift a finger while someone else blew his nose for him?”

“Indeed. Because of that, those who created noise within the Inner Courtyard vanished completely…”

The face of the Chief Manager of the Inner Courtyard began to distort like a ghost, but those who raised their hands here and there already exceeded half.

“Uh, then, this resolution now becomes an agenda item on the punitive damages the Inner Courtyard must pay to the Eldest Young Master.”

The Deputy Lord smirked.

His ‘gold tooth’ glinted exceptionally.

* * *

“More than half?!”

The Red Venom Spider jumped up.

At her frivolous appearance, Elder Yu sighed and shook her head.

“In truth, those who promised to raise their hands through deals with the Eldest Young Master must have been a minority. Probably the ones who raised their hands early on. The rest…”

The Fourth Young Master nodded.

“The rest must have been those who wanted to keep the Chief Manager of the Inner Courtyard in check. It makes no sense for those of elder status to miss an opportunity to bite such a powerful figure.”

The Red Venom Spider cut in again.

“No, so how much did the compensation amount turn out to be?”

Elder Yu exhaled smoke long.

“Four times the unpaid amount.”

“Four times?!”