Volume 3 Chapter 20 – The Price of Arrogance

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Translated by Rain

Read it only at Novelbyu.com & Utoon.net

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Butler Bang sat in front of a small table, her entire body trembling like an aspen leaf.

It was partly because the room was cold since it had no heating at all, but it was not just because of that.

She had been completely out of her mind since the moment the Central Inspection Department showed up.

After being dragged here and there, and then isolated alone, she had been brought to this place.

Nevertheless, she remembered the emergency protocol.

In fact, she had been repeating only the emergency protocol over and over in the midst of being out of her mind.

Seeing that there was another chair opposite the table, someone would likely enter soon to begin the interrogation.

When the door flung open, she jumped up from her seat.

“Oh dear. Why is it so cold in here?”

A good-natured man who was about to enter shouted to the outside.

“Hey! What are you doing, forgetting to put a brazier in here? The person is going to freeze to death!”

Butler Bang quickly checked the man’s appearance.

“Moreover, what on earth are you doing, having not a single oil lamp in this dark room?!”

He did not possess anything.

He had not brought the common writing brush, ink, and paper, nor did he carry any evidence documents to corner her.

“Aigo, I am sorry about this. Even if our kids look thorough, they have these sloppy sides to them when you actually get to know them.”

“…N-No, it is fine.”

He sat opposite her with a genuinely apologetic expression.

Just then, through the open door, personnel in red clothes entered carrying a brazier.

The room instantly grew warm.

A few oil lamps were also brought in, brightening the room.

“Guys, this young lady looks far too cold. Go bring a cup of warm tea as well. And you, take off your coat for her.”

“Yes.”

A red coat was draped over her shoulders, and soon, tea with steam rising from it was served before her.

The door closed.

She was confused.

The situation was moving further and further away from the scenario assumed by the emergency protocol she had been repeating to herself.

“Now, drink a cup of tea here and warm up your body. You might catch a cold otherwise.”

“T-Thank you….”

The man gestured toward her and smiled affably.

“Now, young lady of the Bang Family, let’s kill some time chatting with me.”

“Pardon?”

At her reaction, he was flustered for a moment, and then burst into a hearty laugh.

“Ah, look at my mind. I hadn’t even introduced myself.”

He pulled his chair closer.

“I am called Hwa-bok, someone who once received favors from the elders of the Bang Family within the Main Family.”

“Ah….”

She let out a sigh of relief.

The friendly smile on Hwa-bok’s face deepened.

* * *

“Then, are you saying you personally know nothing about all of this? Nor have any inkling?”

Butler Seomun nodded with a calm expression.

“Yes. I do not know.”

The special inspector investigator in charge of her interrogation spread the documents on the table.

A single oil lamp placed on the table dimly illuminated the room.

“Even with all this evidence?”

She turned her eyes away.

“I do not know.”

He leaned toward the table.

“Look here, doesn’t it show the budget allocated to Pavilion of Perfect Enlightenment for this year by the Elders’ Council?”

“Yes.”

“And here, it is written that the entire budget was paid to the Eldest Young Master.”

“I see.”

He picked up a sheet of paper.

“But in reality, doesn’t it show that not even half of it was paid to the Eldest Young Master?”

“I see.”

“Do you know nothing of this?”

“I do not know.”

“Then let us move on to another story for a moment.”

He backed down readily.

“Originally, is it authorized to pay the budget allocated to the Inner Courtyard in the form of cash to a specific direct bloodline?”

“Yes.”

“Even an amount this large?”

“…The internal regulations of the Inner Courtyard do not specify the exact amount.”

“How did that happen?”

“As the number of successors who declined the service of the Inner Courtyard increased, I only know that there was a decision from above authorizing this in the past.”

“By successors who do not receive the service of the Inner Courtyard, do you mean the Eldest Young Master, Second Young Master, Third Young Master, and Fourth Young Master?”

“Yes.”

“Since that decision was a matter of the upper levels, you wouldn’t know the detailed process.”

“Yes.”

He gathered the documents.

“Do you know what charges you are currently facing?”

Butler Seomun narrowed her eyes.

“Charges? Was this not simply a reference witness interrogation?”

He chuckled.

“Did you think the Inspection Department was a place that only conducts investigations?”

“….”

“Document falsification, creation of double ledgers, embezzlement….”

He began listing the charges one by one while looking into her eyes.

“And treason.”

At the word treason, Butler Seomun jumped in surprise.

“What do you mean by that?! Treason?!”

As she stood up abruptly and shouted, he backed away in mock bewilderment.

“No, don’t you personally know what kind of situation you are in right now?”

“What kind of situation is it?!”

His gaze directed toward her.

“Do you say that because you do not know whose money you and the other subjects of inspection laid hands on?”

“….”

They had laid hands on the money of a direct bloodline of the Yeon Family.

They had falsified ledgers, embezzled parts of it, and decided the usage of the budget at their own discretion.

They were acts clearly corresponding to the crime of treason.

Strength left her legs, and she slumped onto the chair.

“I…, I….”

She wore a look of utter despair.

Just then, someone knocked lightly on the door and entered.

“Are these the statements?”

“Yes.”

The door closed, and as he flipped through the documents, he opened his mouth.

“To speak frankly, even I am dumbfounded.”

He let out a sigh.

“No, how can you handle things so sloppily while committing such a huge crime?”

He shook his head.

“And to think it was committed by mere low-ranking wretches like you?”

She could say nothing.

He flipped through the statements, beginning to scan only the necessary parts roughly.

“…At first, the entire budget was paid to the Eldest Young Master, but even so, the Eldest Young Master began to spend additionally.”

He turned a page.

“…Therefore, we kept the budget allocated to Pavilion of Perfect Enlightenment to cope with that additional consumption.”

Another page was turned.

“There is also the word revenge here. When the Eldest Young Master spent the Inner Courtyard’s money at will even after taking the budget, we grew angry. So, with the intention of taking revenge, we kept more of the budget.”

Yet another page was turned.

“Even so, since no one questioned it, we began keeping more and more of the budget.”

He gave up reading the statements any further.

“No, are you guys really in your right minds? What does Pavilion of Perfect Enlightenment’s budget have to do with the Eldest Young Master spending the Inner Courtyard’s money?”

He slammed the table.

“To begin with, wasn’t the entire property of the Inner Courtyard meant for the Patriarch and his direct bloodline?”

She only stared at him blankly.

“Did you really not know things would turn out like this? Did you not know it would turn out like this if the Eldest Young Master just said a word? Good heavens, to think those who have grown old in the famous Inner Courtyard would…”

“…know.”

“What?”

“We didn’t know. We didn’t know.”

“You didn’t know things would turn out like this?”

“No.”

Her blank gaze directed toward him.

“…We didn’t know the Eldest Young Master would act like this.”

* * *

Inner Courtyard Main Hall,
Temporary Investigation Headquarters of the Central Inspection Department.

“I’m back~.”

The door opened and Hwa-bok entered, waving the documents.

“Did Butler Bang confess?”

Dokgo Ya-yeon, the Chief of the Central Inspection Department, asked as she looked down at the documents placed on her large desk.

“Yes, she cleanly admitted to all charges.”

He placed the documents on her desk.

“You did well.”

“It was no hard work at all. It was merely twisting a child’s wrist, you see.”

“Indeed.”

He shrugged his shoulders.

“The evidence is overflowing, the testimonies are overflowing, and even the method was sloppy.”

He smacked his lips.

“To begin with, it seems this wasn’t a matter for us to step in.”

There was no reply.

Dokgo Ya-yeon only verified the documents.

“…Well, it couldn’t be helped, could it? If the superiors tell us to do it, we do it. It was a command directly issued by the Inspection Department Head, wasn’t it?”

“Do not probe me.”

“…Ah, yes. I am sorry.”

He scratched his head.

“Anyway, that Eldest Young Master must have been ignored tremendously. For the Inner Courtyard, which should serve the direct bloodline at the closest distance, to treat him like this.”

He whispered so that others could not hear.

“…No matter how much the opponent is the ‘Swordless One’.”

She replied indifferently.

“Because they regarded him that way, they fell so easily.”

“That is true.”

He clapped his hands.

“By the way, how did it go when the Chief personally interrogated the Eldest Young Master?”

“It went well.”

He nodded.

“As expected, right? Since it was an incident he complained about, there was no reason for him not to cooperate.”

He rummaged through the documents placed on her desk.

Dokgo Ya-yeon spoke to him.

“No matter how much you look, there is no testimony of the Eldest Young Master.”

“Pardon?”

There was no reply.

“Well….”

He stroked his short beard and deduced on his own.

“No matter how poorly treated the Eldest Young Master is in the Main Family, who knows what will happen later if we include a direct bloodline in the investigation records.”

Still, there was no reply.

He leaned against the desk and smacked his lips.

“I also want to try dealing with the Eldest Young Master once, though.”

He smiled.

“In the past, the Eldest Young Master was that famous, wasn’t he? Looking through the records of the Inspection Department, his name was mentioned quite frequently. Of course, with my rank, I couldn’t see the details.”

He leaned toward the desk and asked in a low voice.

“By any chance, have you heard the rumor that the Eldest Young Master will break his confinement?”

“Yes.”

His eyes took on a dangerous light.

“Do you have no intention of investigating the truth of that rumor? Since it is a matter related to the Grand Patriarch’s command, isn’t it something worth investigating for us?”

There was no reply.

He smacked his lips.

“Or if you allocate the mission to me…”

“Hwa-bok.”

When her white eyes turned toward him, he quickly corrected his posture.

“Yes, Chief.”

He was exceptionally clever, and he also knew that it was very dangerous for the Chief to look at someone with ‘that kind of gaze’.

“You have been doing very well until now. I felt it was worth selecting you and bringing you to the Central Inspection Department.”

“Thank you.”

Without relaxing his posture, he grinned.

It was rare for his supervisor, who perfectly fit the word cold-blooded, to offer praise.

However, her subsequent words dragged his mood down to the floor.

“So do not crawl into a place of death on your own accord.”

“…Yes.”

Seeing the subordinate reply while not being convinced at all, the Chief of the Central Inspection Department let out a small sigh.

“I am telling you not to push your head in without even judging what kind of board you are stepping into.”

It was almost the same thing Yeon So-hyeon had said to Kang Ho.

He asked cautiously.

“…Are you saying that the matter related to the Eldest Young Master is such a dangerous board?”

After a moment of silence, she spoke.

“That is a lesson I personally learned from the Eldest Young Master in the past and realized later. Do not forget it.”

“…Yes, I will keep it in mind.”

If a supervisor, who rarely spoke of stories related to herself, went as far as to bring up a past story, it was indeed something to keep in mind.

After looking at him with her white eyes for a moment, she lowered her gaze to the documents.

“…The incident within the Inner Courtyard is simple, but we won’t be able to handle all the budget that has leaked outside the Inner Courtyard on our own.”

“Is that so?”

She let out a small sigh.

Everything was flowing exactly as the Inspection Department Head had told her when he issued the command.

“…It is not a chunk we can eat alone.”

“Then, we must request backup.”

He picked up his coat.

“I ask of you.”

“My pleasure.”

Humming a song, he stopped his steps as he walked toward the door.

“…Uh, Chief?”

“Why?”

He blinked his eyes and asked her.

“Back when you learned that lesson. You must be talking about before the Eldest Young Master went into confinement. If so, how old was the Eldest Young Master who gave the teaching back then?”

There was no reply.