Chapter 344
The Youngest Son of the Eunhae Trading Company Chapter 344
Chapter 344. Things Gone Astray (7)
The Hunan Province Pojeongsa frowned and continued.
“I've been thinking something was strange. There were people who came to me knowing about the things I was working on in advance.”
“You mean they had information beforehand?”
“Yes. All sorts of people came to see me. It seemed clear that they had obtained information from somewhere.”
In my opinion, the Martial Alliance must be giving them that information in exchange for something.
“Actually, I was planning to call you aside to ask you for a favor.”
“Me?”
“I've heard a lot about you. Besides, aren't you recognized as a hero by the Martial Alliance?”
That means they trust the name of the Martial Alliance.
Oh no, this is bad.
Well, on the surface, the Martial Alliance seems like a fair and just organization.
But behind the scenes, they do all kinds of evil deeds.
And when they get caught, they always have the same excuse. They had no choice for the greater good.
But what about the few good people who were sacrificed for that?
There is one blind spot that people who accept this reasoning fail to see. That is that they themselves could one day become one of the few who are sacrificed.
I didn't tell the Hunan Martial Alliance that the Martial Alliance was actually evil.
They would find out naturally later.
“Is that what you want me to do?”
“That and what you mentioned earlier. Looking at this letter, I can't say that the two are unrelated.”
He continued.
“In return... First, let me ask you something. Are you a martial artist or a merchant?”
“I am a merchant.”
“Then I will give you 500 nyang in return.”
As expected of the head of the martial arts association, he made a generous offer. However, there was something more valuable to me than 500 nyang.
“Thank you for your offer, but I will decline the money.”
“Then do you want honor?”
“Honor is useless to a merchant and only causes trouble.”
I continued.
“I just want you to help us once when our Eunhae Trading Company is in trouble here in Hunan Province.”
“Is that all?”
“Yes.”
What I have just said will be worth much more than 500 nyang in the future.
All right. I'll screw over the Martial Alliance and get paid for it.
“But it has to be something I can do. You understand that, right?”
“Of course. I will ask for something that will not cause any trouble for you, Po-jeong-sa.”
“All right. Let's do that.”
Po Jeong-sa readily accepted my proposal.
“First, we need to investigate that tea... Isn't a gift sent to another family the domain of the lady of the house? I would like you to look into this.”
“Let's do that.”
“Then I will find out where this letter was supposed to be sent. First, I will spread the rumor that I found this letter.”
* *
Lim Do was satisfied with his current situation.
He had no hard work, he was treated well, and his salary was generous.
“But this life will soon come to an end.”
The fourth son he served seemed to have begun to notice that something was wrong.
He knew that the fourth son was obtaining information about the work carried out by the Pojeongsa through him.
Once the Pojeongsa received the letter he had sent, orders would surely come down to remove the fourth son.
“And then I can get rid of that unlucky woman.”
Working as a maid for Dongja-ryeong, the 26th guard who poisoned her continued to surpass him, and he was not happy about it.
According to the letter he sent, he would be able to stop her rise.
When Lim Dao was crossing the fourth son's quarters on an errand, he overheard a conversation between a maid and the kitchen maid.
“Did you hear? Young Master Eunseo, who is visiting us, found a letter in the inner chambers.”
“A letter?”
“Yes. A bird sitting on a tree flew away and dropped a letter.”
Lim Do's heart skipped a beat upon hearing that conversation.
That letter was clearly the one he had hidden to send to his superiors.
He listened intently to their conversation.
“That's strange. What did he do with the letter?”
“He just threw it away, didn't he?”
He breathed a sigh of relief.
He was extremely relieved that the letter had been discarded. If it had fallen into the hands of Po Jeong-sa or someone else, it would have been a disaster.
“You fool!”
He gritted his teeth.
“Anyway, I must hurry and write another letter!”
The news of Dongja-ryeong's recovery, which he had received yesterday from the Pojeongsa's house in Gijuseong, was a surprise.
If he delayed reporting this...
The thought alone was terrifying.
He wrote another letter to his superiors.
However, he had no intention of hiding it in the same place again. He was afraid that someone who was curious about the rumor might find the tree suspicious and search for it.
“Actually, that bird is trained to come to a specific place depending on how I blow the horn.”
This time, he hid the letter in a tree directly opposite the other tree.
Then he took out the horn and blew it.
Peep!
The whistle sounded, and after a moment,
a black bird flew down from the sky. The bird flew quickly and landed on a tree.
He attached the letter directly to the bird's leg. This time, he made sure not to miss.
Flutter!
As he was about to return to his quarters, watching the bird fly high into the sky, he heard someone's voice.
“So it was you. You sent that suspicious letter.”
Startled by those words, Lim Dao turned around. There stood a young man and... the provincial governor of Hunan.
* *
You're caught.
The reason I asked him to spread the rumor that I had found a suspicious letter and thrown it away was to catch him red-handed.
If he heard the rumor, he would try to send the letter again.
And he did exactly as I intended.
“What are you talking about? I was just enjoying the breeze...”
Hearing this, the Hunan Province police officer standing next to me said, "You are the fourth son of the governor of Hunan Province.
“You are the fourth son's servant. And the fourth son's quarters are quite far from here, so why did you come all the way here to get some fresh air? Your words don't make sense!”
Hearing this, the servant prostrated himself and said,
“I apologize for criticizing my master, but I have my reasons.”
“What reasons?”
“Actually... the fourth young master has been subtly bullying me... So I've been hiding here for a while.”
“I see. Heh heh. Why would the fourth young master do that... Did you think I wouldn't notice?”
“What?”
At the words of the Hunan Province Police Chief, he raised his face and looked embarrassed.
What a mess.
I couldn't help but snicker.
There was no way that Po-jeongsa would fall for such a story.
“He is not the type of person who would bully someone. He is weak and timid by nature. Of course, as a father, I may not see my son clearly, but he is not that kind of person.”
He continued with a cold expression.
“How insolent! You try to obscure the truth with such clever words! What matters now is that you tied a letter to a bird's leg and sent it somewhere.”
The Hunan Po-jeong-sa looked behind him and said.
“Arrest him.”
“Yes!”
Immediately, the warriors behind him rushed forward and arrested him.
“Tell the truth! Where did you send that letter?”
Thinking that his excuse was no longer valid, he showed his true colors.
“Huhuhu, do you think I would tell you?”
“You bastard!”
The Hunan Provincial Police Chief was furious.
A moment ago, I heard from the Hunan Provincial Police Chief about the source of the tea that Miss Jaryeong drank.
He said that the tea was personally obtained by his third son, who was engaged to Miss Jaryeong.
When I questioned my third son, he said that he was busy and asked his younger brother to get it.
When I asked my fourth son about the tea...
“My servant, Lim Do, got it for me. It was a fragrant and delicious tea.”
That's right.
The man named Lim Do in front of me was the mastermind behind this family.
Therefore, in order to find the person behind him, we had to get Lim Do to talk.
By order of the Hunan Provincial Police, the warriors who had arrested Lim Do tortured him in every way possible, but he kept his mouth shut and refused to talk.
I expected this.
Liege, we have found their hideout.
I heard Jin-yu's telepathy in my ear.
Kui!
It's Geum-ryung's telepathy.
Yes, yes, I'll give you a silver coin later.
Actually, when Lim-do sent the bird earlier, I asked Geum-ryung to follow it.
I also told Jin-yu to inform Jin-yu of its location.
So, even if Lim Dao didn't say anything, it wouldn't have mattered.
Then why did you let the Hunan Provincial Police Chief torture Lim Dao?
Because I was angry that he made me suffer so much. He also caused hardship to many people.
We also have to catch the runaway maid and punish her.
I wanted to make him suffer more, but we have to hurry. We don't know how the superiors of those who received the letter will react.
“Your Highness. You can stop now.”
“What do you mean?”
“My bodyguard tracked down where the letter was delivered.”
.
.
.
A moment later.
I headed to my quarters and met Jin-yu.
I told Po-jeong-sa that I would investigate that place and report back.
“Are you here?”
“Yes. Where is it?”
“Do you know a place called Seo-un-pa?”
Where is that?
“I've never heard of it either, but it was behind this whole thing.”
“I see. We must hurry and deal with that place. If that letter fell into their hands, they will kill Miss Jae-ryung...”
Jin-yu made an awkward expression at my words.
“Ah, I don't think you need to worry about that...”
I looked down, following Jin-yu's gaze.
There sat Geum-ryung.
“...?”
Noticing our gaze, Geum-ryung spat something out.
It was a black bird, drenched in saliva and unconscious.
Was that the bird that flew away with the letter earlier?
I untied the letter from its leg and unfolded it.
Yes, it was.
“No! How did you bring this back?”
“Kui! Kui kui! Kui!”
I thought I knew what Geumryong was saying.
He had entered the Seungwon and secretly approached the bird sitting on the perch there and swallowed it.
“Did anyone see you?”
“Kui!”
“No one saw you? Good job.”
That means there's no need to rush. What a clever girl.
I gently stroked Geum-ryeong's head.
“Kui?”
It's not working. I was just going to stroke her head and let it go.
I smiled wryly and took out the silver coin and held it out to Geum-ryung, who swallowed it in one gulp.
That's strange.
Geum-ryung is smaller than this bird, so how did he swallow it?
“What should we do with this bird? It seems to be alive, but wouldn't it be safer to kill it?”
Then a thought suddenly occurred to me.
Maybe there was a reason why Geum-ryung didn't kill this bird and brought it here alive.
At that moment, Geum-ryung approached the bird and hit its head with her front paw.
Pudduk!
The bird was startled and jumped up.
Geum-ryung glared at the bird, and under her gaze, the bird froze in place...
Huh? It lowered its eyes?
Geum-ryung nodded with satisfaction as she watched the bird.
Huh...
Could Geum-ryung have made the bird her subordinate?
In any case, Geum-ryung made it her subordinate. Then I cannot decide its life or death as I please.
.
.
.
That night.
I headed to Seo-un-pa, the group behind this incident, with my bodyguards.
It wasn't very far.
It took about an hour to get there using movement arts.
They had a fairly large estate as their base.
The reason we came here was to find out the number and skill level of Seo-un-pa's martial artists.
If it was small, we could handle it ourselves and report back.
We carefully infiltrated the compound and surveyed the interior.
I sensed a sickening aura of black Dao.
The problem was...
There were far more of them than I had expected.
We decided to retreat for the time being.
“What do you intend to do?”
Seo Woo asked, and I sighed.
“Let me think about it for a moment.”
Then I sat down on a tree stump and fell into deep thought.
There were quite a few people gathered there, but I didn't sense the aura of black swords from any of them.
That meant that the majority of them were ordinary people.
Why were ordinary people gathered there? This was a fertile area, so most of the ordinary people were farmers.
They should be busy farming at this time of year, so why were they carrying weapons?
Ah! I thought I knew.
They were refugees from a famine. And the fact that they were gathered like that meant...
A word popped into my head.
A civil uprising.
That would explain everything.
If a civil uprising broke out, it was possible that Po Jeong-sa's house would be set on fire.
No, how far does Miss Ja-ryeong's poisoning case go?
Like last time, why is the Martial Alliance leading a civil uprising?
In any case, this is not a problem I can solve on my own.
“Let's go back to Po Zheng's house.”
“Yes, sir.”
We returned to Po Zheng's house in Hunan and reported what had happened to him.
He immediately sent a letter to Beijing.
This was because Po Zheng did not have full military authority, and he needed the emperor's permission to preemptively suppress a civil uprising that had not yet occurred.
And the person who brought the emperor's letter was an unexpected figure.
“Huh? Master Jin?”