The Ruler of Darkness

Book 3: Chapter 22

Inner Court Main Building, Ceremonial Room.

“Your Excellency, did the food suit your taste?”

“It was exceptionally good.”

The elderly lady who approached Yeon So-Hyeon smiled gracefully.

She was an old woman, who seemed perfectly suited to the role of a palace matron, her every movement filled with dignity.

“Your Excellency, please don’t be so formal with me. Call me as you used to.”

“Alright, Granny. It was delicious. Did you cook it yourself?”

At being called Granny, she beamed with joy.

“Of course! It’s food for the young master, so this old lady put in some effort for a change!”

“Heh, thank you.”

“Don’t mention it.”

She turned to look at the others ‘daring’ to sit at the same table as Yeon So-Hyeon.

“How was the meal for everyone?”

Her gaze was warm, but no one dared to meet her eyes directly, except for Jung-ah.

“We’re grateful for the wonderful banquet, even for us lowly ones.”

A twinkle appeared in the old lady’s deep eyes.

“Heh, it was the young master’s wish, how could this old woman refuse?”

Yeon So-Hyeon looked at her.

“Granny, from now on…”

“Yes, young master. I’ll make sure everyone leaves so you can have a comfortable conversation.”

She bowed politely and gracefully, leading everyone out of the ceremonial room.

As the ornately decorated large door closed, the trio of tense maidservants let out a collective sigh of relief.

“It seemed incredibly delicious but… was it really?”

“Maybe it was, I guess.”

“…Please don’t ask me. I don’t remember.”

Kang Ho spoke up.

“That lady just now…”

Il-ryeong nodded.

“Yes, that’s right. She’s the ceremonial secretary of the Inner Court. Did you see the six tassels interwoven with gold threads around her waist?”

“6th-rank.…”

“…She might look like just a kind and elegant old lady on the surface.”

“Ugh. Even when they smile, it doesn’t feel like the people of the Inner Court are genuinely happy.”

“While their own people are being tortured and screaming outside, how can they be so calm?”

“The Inner Court is truly a frightening place.”

Jung-ah cautiously asked Yeon So-Hyeon.

“Master, it seems you have a long-standing familiarity with the ceremonial secretary. Am I correct in thinking so?”

Yeon So-Hyeon chuckled.

“She can be trusted. At least, she is not the kind of person to poison food or bear grudges.”

Hearing this, the triplet maidservants shivered.

Kang Ho nodded affirmatively.

“It was truly a splendid meal after a long time. She is indeed skilled. It was worth staying close to your Excellency for this.”

Yeon So-Hyeon smiled at him.

“You didn’t stay here just for the banquet, did you?”

Kang Ho stiffened for a moment.

He adjusted his glasses and smiled awkwardly.

“…Well, I was curious about the rest of the story you started earlier today, your Excellency.”

The triplet maidservants also nodded.

“It was about the rotten shells you were mentioning.”

“Those who are arrested now are part of those rotten shells of the Inner Court, right?”

“Utterly disgraceful people.”

Jung-ah spoke up.

“Master, would you be willing to enlighten us, even just partially, about the true nature of the situation?”

Kang Ho hastily asked, “Why did the Inner Court’s accounting secretary have to die? Why did the Central Inspection Department reveal its presence in such a matter? And the involvement of part of the Law Enforcers and the Six Divisions simultaneously? And…”

“Enough, enough.”

Yeon So-Hyeon waved his hand, smiling, but Kang Ho persisted with his final question.

“…How are you, your Excellency, involved in all this?”

The gaze behind his glasses was earnest.

Yeon So-Hyeon looked at him and slowly began to speak.

“What is your guess?”

Sweat trickled down Kang Ho’s forehead as he faced Yeon So-Hyeon’s direct gaze.

“…I believe that perhaps, your Excellency might be behind everything that unfolded today.”

Yeon So-Hyeon grinned slightly.

“Having heard what the Central Inspection Department Chief said earlier, it’s understandable you’d think that.”

“That is… correct.”

Kang Ho lowered his reddening face.

If he hadn’t heard her words to Yeon So-Hyeon, he would still be clueless about the situation.

“Me, behind everything…”

Yeon So-Hyeon’s smile turned bitter.

“To be precise, all this started with me, the Supervisor of the Inner Court, and that old man.”

Kang Ho’s head shot up.

“Then, the Inner Court’s accounting secretary…!”

“Yes, that’s right. He was forced to commit suicide by the orders of the Inner Court’s Supervisor. Or rather, in such cases, isn’t it said he was ‘made’ to commit suicide?”

Yeon So-Hyeon chuckled.

“As soon as I revealed myself in the Inner Court, the old Supervisor made his move first.”

Jung-ah asked.

“…Why must it be the accounting secretary?”

“Was he perhaps the pinnacle of those referred to as the ‘rotten shells’?”

Yeon So-Hyeon shook his head in response to Kang Ho’s question.

“No.”

Yeon So-Hyeon fiddled with a teacup on the ornate table.

“He was just a ‘firebreak’.”

“A firebreak…?”

Il-ryeong recalled something she had learned in special training.

“…I remember hearing that in case of a wildfire, trees are cut down in advance to prevent the fire from spreading too far. They call it a firebreak.”

“Yes, that’s the kind of firebreak.”

Everyone’s expression turned grave.

“As far as I know, he was not directly responsible for today’s incident. Just…”

The Supervisor of the Inner Court had no choice but to accept Yeon So-Hyeon’s arrival.

If he had to accept damage, at least he should avoid being unilaterally victimized.

Thus, he decided to use Yeon So-Hyeon’s appearance to his advantage.

He had resolved to carry out a ‘task’ that had been necessary for the Inner Court.

That task was the removal of the ‘rotten shells’ from the Inner Court.

However, he couldn’t directly undertake ‘that task’ due to political problems.

“…Are you referring to a political issue?”

Yeon So-Hyeon nodded at Jung-ah’s question.

“Yes. They are followers of the second and third young masters. Directly removing such people would stir up political problems.”

“…But aren’t they just serving their masters at their whim?”

“The problem is that those masters might become the future heads of the family.”

“Ah…”

So, the Supervisor of the Inner Court used this crisis as an opportunity, employing others’ hands to start peeling off the ‘rotten shells.’

“For that reason, the old man directly eliminated his most loyal high-ranking officer, the accounting secretary. It was his way of signaling his intentions to the outside world.”

Yeon So-Hyeon drew a line on the table.

“Anyone below this line is dispensable.”

The maidservants and Kang Ho felt as if the space below the line Yeon So-Hyeon had drawn turned red.

“Then…!”

Kang Ho suddenly raised his head.

“Did the Supervisor of the Inner Court predict exactly what your Excellency would do as soon as he heard that you had arrived at the main building of the Inner Court?!”

“Such a cunning old man.”

Yeon So-Hyeon clicked his tongue.

“In such a brief moment, to devise an executable plan and to sever the neck of a subordinate who had followed him all his life…”

Everyone listening to the story felt a chill run down their spines.

“So…”

Yeon So-Hyeon grinned bitterly.

“It was the old man’s doing that involved the Chief of the Inspection Department and the head of the Law Enforcers. There must have been some kind of deal.”

Kang Ho swallowed dryly and spoke.

“…Without the Inner Court’s violent resistance, they exchanged the achievement of exposing and annihilating large-scale corruption related to the direct descendants for maintaining the firebreak.”

“Such…”

The triplets opened their mouths in shock without realizing it.

“That old man is a monster who has been loyal to the Sword House since my grandfather’s time, the previous previous family head.”

He was someone who should have retired long ago due to his age.

“If we were to create a list in the Sword House of people fitting the term ‘behind-the-scenes manipulator,’ that old monster would undoubtedly be near the top.”

Everyone listening swallowed dryly.

Yeon So-Hyeon took a sip of his tea.

The tea was still warm, thanks to the cup embedded with a heat-retaining crystal, which slowly lowered the temperature.

“…Now that the old monster has made his move, for now, I too must be content with peeling off the annoying shells as needed.”

No one could easily open their mouth.

And of course, the most shocked of all was Kang Ho.

‘This is… the Grand Young Master of the Luoyang Sword House.’

This Grand Young Master was the reason he had defied all the dissuasion from those around him and entered the Sword House of Luoyang.

He wanted to meet the Grand Young Master in person.

What had his grandfather seen in him, known to the world as the Swordless Swordsman?

Why did his illustrious grandfather hold him in such high esteem?

How could his grandfather, who was seventy years his senior, become friends with him?

He wanted to verify it personally.

And he dared to dream of someday challenging him.

And now, he was feeling what it meant to be in a different league, in front of the Grand Young Master, who was two years younger than himself.

Then Jung-ah spoke up.

“…Although it’s just a guess from this humble girl, surely you, your Highness, must have predicted that much?”

“Of course.”

“…!”

Kang Ho was astounded.

“How could you have thought of that, Chief Maid?”

Jung-ah remained calm.

“Have you forgotten? It was Master who first requested an investigation from the Inspection Bureau. That was before the deal between the Chief of the Inspection Bureau and the Supervisor of the Inner Court.”

“So, knowing about the Inner Court’s investigation request, the Chief of the Inspection Bureau might have approached the Supervisor first…”

“If he was that kind of person, Master wouldn’t have requested the investigation from the Inspection Bureau in the first place.”

“Then that means…?”

Yeon So-Hyeon nodded.

“Yes. Involving the Central Inspection Department and mobilizing two divisions of the Law Enforcers was my doing. I prepared for any contingency.”

“If the Supervisor of the Inner Court had tried to pin all the blame on the suicidal accounting secretary and cover up the matter at Wongak Pavilion, there would have been a major clash with the Central Inspection Department.”

And such a clash would have inevitably led to a massive bloodshed.

That’s why the Chief of the Central Inspection Department was so furious.

Kang Ho swallowed dryly.

“Then how did you, your Excellency, manage to influence the Chief of the Inspection Department? And how about the head of the Law Enforcers….?”

Jung-ah spoke up first.

“Master had specifically named you, Kang Ho, as the Inspection Bureau investigator to request your summoning.”

“The confidential report!”

Kang Ho clasped his head.

“The Chief of the Inspection Bureau remembered me because of your Excellency’s nomination! That I have a photographic memory! The chance for someone like me to enter the Inner Court’s ledger storage! The Chief of the Inspection Bureau couldn’t miss that opportunity!”

He suddenly stood up.

“And if something went wrong and I didn’t return from the Inner Court, they had to be stopped. So, the Central Inspection Department was prepared in advance! They were the only ones who could confront the entire Inner Court head-on!”