Chapter 7
The Youngest Son of the Eunhae Trading Company Episode 7
Episode 7. Prevent a Fire at the Ministry of Finance (3)
When Chief Administrator Yoo died, his father blamed himself for his son's early death, saying that it was because he was not a good father.
“Can he trust me?”
He felt happy for a moment, but that feeling quickly disappeared.
I remembered the piles of documents precariously stacked on Chief Administrator Yoo's desk.
“I must prevent Chief Administrator Yoo from working himself to death.”
.
.
.
Before I knew it, it was time to go home.
And I continued to rack my brains.
Tonight. I had to come up with a very natural reason to enter the Jaegyeong Hall.
I already had dozens of ideas floating around in my head.
All I had to do was decide which one was best.
Just then, one of the clerks handed a ledger to the female clerk.
“Here is the duty log.”
“Yes.”
Seeing this, I asked the female official.
“It looks like you're on duty tonight.”
“Yes, that's right.”
“There are usually two people on duty, right?”
“Yes, I'm on duty with my senior, In Dae-soo.”
I tilted my head at his words.
That's strange.
It's a little different from what I remember.
One of the people on duty tonight was indeed a female officer. However, the other person was not Officer In-dae-soo.
The reason I remember this is because the female officer died in a fire that occurred today.
The other officer had to retire due to serious injuries.
At that moment, a chubby officer approached us and asked, "Is anyone here on duty tonight?
“Is there anyone who can take my place on duty today? I'll buy you a drink later.”
Judging from his expression, he seemed to be in a hurry.
It was In Dae-soo.
“So that's why. He switched shifts with someone else, which is why it was different from my memory.”
Then, a good idea came to mind.
“This is perfect timing.”
I quickly called In Dae-soo.
“In Dae-soo.”
“Yes! Young master. What is it?”
“It seems like you are in quite a predicament.”
“Ah... Actually, my wife is about to give birth today.”
“Then you should hurry.”
“Yes, but I am on duty today...”
I said with a smile.
“I'll take your place on duty.”
“What?”
“I don't have anything to do tonight.”
“But how can you, young master...”
I waved my hand and said, “Even though I am a special apprentice, I am still a member of the Jaegyeonggak, so I think I am qualified to be on duty.”
I looked at the official in charge of the duty log and asked.
“Isn't that right?”
“That's right. There's no problem with you taking the night shift.”
Hearing that, I said to In-dae-soo.
“That's what they said. So I'll take the night shift for In-dae-soo today.”
“Thank you so much, young master!”
The reason why I was thinking of a way to enter the Jaegyeonggak naturally today was because the perpetrator who started the fire in the Jaegyeonggak this time was very cautious.
That's why, in the future I experienced, no one realized that he was the culprit until he left a confession and committed suicide.
So, I was being careful and pretending not to know anything, and then a good opportunity came up.
That's how I naturally gained a reason to stay inside the Jaegyeonggak.
* * *
It was late at night.
The Jaegyeonggak of Eunhaesang Trading Company.
A man looked around.
Confirming that no one was around, he hurriedly moved on.
He was heading for the night duty room.
He turned on the dim light in the duty room and opened the lid of the teapot.
He took a piece of paper wrapped around white powder out of his pocket and poured the powder into the teapot.
He quietly walked over to the teapot.
Just then, he heard footsteps.
The man quickly opened the other door of the duty room and pressed himself against the wall.
Two men dressed in Jaegyeonggak uniforms were walking toward him, chatting cheerfully.
“Oh, that happened.”
“It was really scary.”
“I would have done the same.”
They were people the man knew well.
They were Ye Chang, a member of the Jaegyeonggak, and Eun Seo-ho, the third son of a Trading Company captain who was learning the ropes as a special apprentice.
They entered the duty room while chatting.
“Are you working overtime today?”
“Yes. It ended up that way.”
“Let me help you.”
They busily searched for documents in the reference room.
After working hard for a while, the two took a break.
“Would you like some tea?”
“Sure.”
They shared a cup of tea.
A moment later,
as they were looking at a book, they began to nod off like sick chickens, and eventually fell asleep with their heads on the desk.
“It's done!”
The man rejoiced.
Considering the amount of sleeping pills he had put in the teapot, they would be out cold for at least an hour.
He had planned this so that no one would know he had entered the document storage room.
The document storage room was located inside the duty room, and it was a quiet time of day when no one else was around except for those on duty.
He let out a quiet sigh as he entered.
“I shouldn't have gone to the gambling den in the first place...”
It was too late for regrets.
He had started gambling out of curiosity and at the urging of his friends, and ended up with a huge debt.
He tried to sell the land he had inherited and his household goods, but it was not enough.
If things continued like this, he would lose his family.
In that situation, he received a proposal from a subordinate of the gambling ring's money lender.
“If you do one thing for our boss, he will forgive all your debts.”
“What? Are you serious?”
“Yes, I am.”
“What is it? I'll do anything you ask. Please, just spare my family...”
The money lender's subordinate replied.
“What you have to do is very simple. You said you were a member of the Eunhae Trading Company, right?”
“...Yes.”
“Set fire to the document storage room.”
“...What?”
The man was shocked.
“Why there?”
“Are you going to do it or not?”
“But...”
“Do you want to lose your family?”
“...I'll do it.”
The man bit his lip.
Today was the last day of the deadline given by Jeonju.
During that time, he had carefully observed his surroundings.
He was worried that someone might notice something suspicious about him.
However, no one had suspected him yet.
“Maybe I have a talent for this?”
Jeonju said he would cover for him so that he could continue working at Eunhae Trading Company.
Therefore, for the sake of his future, no one must find out that he was the culprit.
That was why he was moving so cautiously.
The man entered the document storage room and began looking through the bookshelves.
“This is it!”
A transaction statement bound in a book.
Jeonju, who had given him the job, had instructed him to completely destroy this book.
He had asked Jeonju's subordinate.
“Can't we just steal it? Arson is too dangerous.”
“No. Then we won't be able to identify the culprit. That's why we have to burn the book and make it look like an accident. And the other books too.”
He couldn't help but nod in agreement.
That's why he had prepared the oil.
He sprinkled oil around him and took out a box of matches.
At that moment.
“Is that all you're going to do?”
Startled by the sudden voice, the man turned around in shock.
He heard a voice that he should never have heard.
* * *
I clicked my tongue as I looked at the culprit holding the fire starter.
His name was Asung.
He was a member of the Jaegyeonggak, a group of guards who protected the royal family.
He was usually so quiet that no one knew he was there, so when it was revealed that Asung was the culprit, everyone in the Jaegyeonggak was shocked.
Ah, the guards looked more shocked than if they had seen a ghost.
“How did you stay awake? I'm sure you drank tea...”
“It was just smoke.”
“How did you know...”
“How did I know? What are you going to do with that information?”
I smiled slyly.
“Should we start with a beating?”
Bang!
Thud!
I threw a punch at him, and he fell backward.
In fact, in the future I had experienced, the two night watchmen who had drunk the tea had fallen asleep.
The fire spread quite badly, and one of the guards died, while the other was seriously injured.
The next day, the guard was found dead, his neck tied, in the back mountain.
Below him was a confession letter.
It said that he had been under a lot of stress due to his heavy workload, so he gave sleeping pills to the night watchmen and set fire to the document storage room in a fit of rage.
The case was closed, but the truth is that I and the other members of the Eunhae Trading Company did not believe the confession.
It didn't make sense that someone who committed such a crime in a fit of rage would go out and buy sleeping pills and set the fire.
Then, the families of the members of the Eunhae Association disappeared.
It was obvious to anyone that something was wrong, but we didn't have the resources to conduct a lengthy investigation.
There were no other leads, and it was more urgent to recover the documents that had been destroyed in the fire.
For almost a year, I worked late every day, and I was no exception.
Even after working late every day for a year, I was unable to restore half of what had been burned.
Anyway, it was really hard.
The fist I threw at A-Gwon was filled with the anger I felt at that time.
As I threw my fist at A-Gak-won, I quickly grabbed the file folder and put it away.
Then I picked up the document that had been placed on top of the pile of documents.
“That's it!”
A-Gak-won's face turned pale when he saw the document in my hand.
“This is it. The document you really wanted to get rid of.”
The document had “Hwaryeonru” written on it.
In the future I experienced, it was revealed that A-gwon was the arsonist, but I was unable to find out who was behind him.
No
There were those who benefited the most from the fire at the Jaegyeong Hall, and there were three places that were suspicious.
However, there was no evidence.
That's why I had no choice but to let it go, but not this time.
“You wasted so much oil. There's no excuse for this. Right?”
That was when it happened.
A-gakwon suddenly took another fire starter out of his pocket.
“Don't move!”
I was taken aback by the unexpected situation.
I didn't know he had another oil lamp.
This was my mistake.
“I have to burn it! Otherwise, my family will be sold!”
“What do you mean, sold?”
Those words made me realize that something was going on.
“Come to think of it...”
I had learned something while investigating A-Gwon.
His property had been transferred to someone else a few days before the incident.
On top of that, his family had disappeared.
There was only one case where all of one's property and family disappeared at once.
“Do you have any debts?”
“...”
And when I asked him if he had any debts, I could see it in his wavering eyes.
He had taken out a loan.
Then why did he take out a loan?
The salary at Eunhae Trading Company was generous.
And the A-gakwon I knew was a person without any problems, but there had been testimony that he had recently been associating with people who seemed dangerous.
Then...
“It's gambling debts.”
“...!”
A-gakwon flinched.
“That's the answer.”
I couldn't help but smile bitterly.
He was a truly pitiful person.
He wasn't someone who attracted much attention, but he had lived a quiet, ordinary life until he lost everything and fell into ruin.
In the end, his family was sold off, his property was taken away, and he himself was murdered.
That's right.
He didn't commit suicide; he was murdered.
Of course, there was no evidence that A-gakwon had been murdered, and it was concluded that he had committed suicide.
However, all the circumstances pointed to his death being murder, not suicide.
I looked at A-gakwon, who was trembling.
“A-gakwon. Look at me.”
“....”
“Look at me.”
A-Gwon raised his head at my words.
“A-Gwon, you want to protect your family, don't you?”
He didn't answer my question, but his eyes answered for him.
“Then tell me everything, and our Trading Company will protect your family.”