TEDNCGUH 35

Chapter : 35

However, Hu In-jeong was taken aback. He had expected the young lady—if not to jump around in delight—at least to show some sign of pleasure, but she showed almost no reaction at all.

“This is an incredible opportunity, my lady.”

“If I must seize it, then it’s an opportunity. But if I don’t have to, then it’s a choice. And right now, I’ve chosen the latter.”

Yeonhwa’s reply pierced Hu In-jeong’s heart.

He had always believed that good things were simply good, and that if he didn’t have something, it was only because he couldn’t obtain it.
He had never experienced a situation where he needed to judge for himself and make a different choice—so he had assumed the young lady would be the same.

‘So this is the difference between a prestigious noble family and a third-rate warrior like me.’

For the first time, Hu In-jeong realized that it wasn’t poverty or lack that set them apart, but a fundamentally different way of thinking about life. A sudden sense of inferiority washed over him.

But pride was a luxury for the well-fed.

Afraid the atmosphere might grow worse, he quickly backed down and vented the rest of his dissatisfaction through grumbling instead.

“Well… it’s just… no matter how amazing a fish is, if one meant to swim in a river gets trapped in a small basin, there’s only so much it can do, right? That’s what this place is like. The Inspection Corps really is like that. There’s barely any room to move—it must be frustrating. That’s why I said it. I thought you’d like it.”

He scratched his head vigorously, and when the mood didn’t seem too bad, he began talking as if a dam had burst.

“Come to think of it, something like this happened once before. Food kept disappearing from the mess room, and we got a report that maybe a spy had snuck in and was secretly stealing it. I got all fired up for the first time in ages and lay in wait for a long time.”

Curious about what happened next, Yeonhwa’s hands slowed, and Ji Won-hyeong glanced at him too.

Encouraged by the attention, Hu In-jeong perked up and raised his voice.

“Something flashed by and rushed at the food bowls—and what spy? It was a cat!”

“Ha!”

Ji Won-hyeong let out a hollow laugh.

After waiting so long, it turned out to be a cat.
It must have felt not only anticlimactic but also deeply embarrassing.

But apparently, that wasn’t all.

“This is an older story, but once…”

Someone had reported seeing strange phrases and unfamiliar symbols drawn on official reports, though they were later found erased. The Inspection Corps had turned everything upside down because of it.

“They said it was a huge case, a chance to revive the Corps. Instead of handling it internally, they even raised it at the Alliance Council meeting and made a massive fuss.”

Hu In-jeong shuddered as if the memory alone made his teeth grind.

By then, Yeonhwa and Ji Won-hyeong seemed to recall something too.

Seeing their expressions, Hu In-jeong nodded.

“That’s right—the legendary act of stupidity everyone talks about!”

The culprits were two officials working as junior officers in the Central Secretariat.

The problem was—they weren’t spies.

The two, known publicly as superior and subordinate, were actually having an affair. It turned out they had been using official reports to secretly exchange romantic messages. They had written prearranged code phrases into the reports, read them, erased them, and used them to arrange meetings.

When the investigation revealed this, everyone was horrified.

The Inspection Corps tried desperately to find any other wrongdoing, but to no avail.

“Strangely, every time the Corps tried to gain momentum, something would go wrong.”

“Either they were unlucky—or someone made them unlucky,” Yeonhwa replied, not Ji Won-hyeong.

Hu In-jeong swallowed dryly, unsure she would respond.

“That’s right. The original members gradually lost motivation, and the new recruits weren’t very capable. The vicious cycle continued until things ended up like this.”

After listening, Yeonhwa asked, “How long have you been with the Inspection Corps?”

“Ten years.”

“Ten years…” she murmured, nodding.

“Even if we don’t receive help from Mount Hua or other higher-ups, how about seniors and juniors within the Corps cooperating with each other?”

When he fell silent, she added, “You may refuse if you don’t like the idea.”

“N-No! Of course I wouldn’t dislike it! I truly… sincerely… w-want that!”

Hu In-jeong raised his voice enthusiastically, but when Ji Won-hyeong shot him a sharp look, he quickly lowered it.
Still, the brightness in his expression remained, revealing his inner joy.

That seemed to conclude Yeonhwa’s business. She returned to her work, and only after helping longer than usual did Hu In-jeong finally leave the warehouse.

Thunk.

When the door closed, Ji Won-hyeong looked at Yeonhwa.

Hu In-jeong had offered to tell her, without ulterior motives, about the group that had mocked her earlier—yet she had refused again.

Yeonhwa had a specific suspect in mind, but Ji Won-hyeong still seemed bothered.

Sensing his gaze, she spoke without stopping her hands.

“If it were the Three Spirits, the method would be too crude. The Nine Sects don’t have that kind of relationship with me. That leaves the Five Great Families—and among them, only the Namgung Family has deep ties with me.”

The direct lineage probably wouldn’t bother with something like the Inspection Corps…
They would have used a collateral branch, so if she wanted, it wouldn’t be hard to find them.

“Shall we track them down?” he asked.

“No need. If we stay still, they’ll come back on their own.”

“…Pardon?”

“If they were smart enough to retreat after one failure, the Namgung Family wouldn’t have declined so badly.”

At her words—that there was no need to waste effort—Ji Won-hyeong nodded.
He didn’t fully understand, but if it was his lord’s will, that was reason enough.

“Hm?”

Just then, Yeonhwa picked up an old ledger and let out a small sound of curiosity.

“Is that what you were looking for?” Ji Won-hyeong asked, approaching quickly, thinking they had finally found something meaningful.

“Not exactly. But finding materials related to the Medical Pavilion itself is significant.”

When conducting an investigation, it was normal to examine not only the specific time period but also several years before and after—sometimes over a decade. The range varied by investigator; something unnecessary at the time might now be a treasure to Yeonhwa.

She held close a ledger listing medicinal herbs purchased by the Medical Pavilion.

“Seven years ago was more chaotic than now. Then my elder brother died, and the Three Spirits rose to power. With the system changing, many records were poorly kept or lost.”

What Yeonhwa sought was everything related to the mission her elder brother had undertaken with three others seven years ago…
as well as the physician who opened his coffin and prepared his body, the trainee who assisted, and the laborers who helped with the funeral.

“Many tried to find weaknesses in the Three Spirits through information about that incident, but all failed. We don’t even know whether the records never existed—or existed and were erased.”

That was why she had no choice but to stake her hopes on this neglected place everyone else dismissed as worthless.

“They say the one who killed Brother Seonyu was Dan Gwang, Left Protector of the Demonic Cult, known as the Blazing Flame Guest. Those who die by his hand always bear unmistakable marks.”

Born lame, he used a pointed Hwarin Staff as his signature weapon. Channeling blazing internal energy into the staff, he delivered single fatal strikes to vital points—and once he missed, it was hard to catch his opponent again, which shaped his fighting style.

You might mistake someone else’s work for his—but never the reverse. Dan Gwang’s killings were unmistakable.

“…After my brother’s tomb was made, there was a brief rumor once,” Yeonhwa said.

“That after someone checked the clothes he had worn before being dressed for burial, they found the wound marks had missed his vital points?” Ji Won-hyeong asked.

“Yes. But the rumor quickly vanished. The mouths that spoke of it fell silent and never opened again.”

The incident had been famous and seemingly clear-cut, yet few detailed facts were publicly known.

It had been a painful event for everyone, and the Three Spirits themselves had found it too agonizing to discuss, making people reluctant to speak of it. Over time, assumptions hardened into accepted truth.

In a world where even a simple question could be branded a conspiracy, who would risk danger by speaking out?

“We must be cautious—and bold. It sounds like those can’t coexist, but they can if you set the order right. Judge cautiously, and be bold in facing the results. Then we’ll eventually obtain what we seek.”

“Until then, we lie low in a place like the Inspection Corps, rummaging through warehouses and looking like a strange master-and-servant pair wasting time?” Ji Won-hyeong said lightly, though his heart ached for the harsh road his lord would walk.

But Yeonhwa’s reply was unexpected.

“Of course not. You don’t think I came to the Inspection Corps just for this warehouse, do you?”

“There’s something else?”

“Plenty. We could have found another excuse to access a warehouse—but the Corps’ missions are things only the Corps can do.”

“Does the Inspection Corps even have real missions?”

“That depends on how you use it.”

Isn’t that true of everything in the world?

Yeonhwa shrugged.

It didn’t take Ji Won-hyeong long to realize what she meant.