I went back to my room and flopped face-first onto the bed.
Watching me like that, Palgap asked.
“Young Master, you went to see the Commissioner of Land Affairs, so why do you look like that?”
“Ugh, that was so draining.”
Knowing the Commissioner was right there eavesdropping on our conversation, I just couldn’t speak freely.
So I wore myself out agonizing over every question and answer.
“What in the world was so hard about that, Young Master?”
But I couldn’t tell Palgap that.
It’s not that I don’t trust Palgap, but the fewer people know a secret, the safer it is.
So I just brushed it off.
“It’s just… you know. Stuff.”
What I’d just gone through felt like a man and woman having a premarital talk while the bride’s father sat there watching them like a hawk.
Hmm, that sounds weird when I put it like that.
Anyway, it was something along those lines.
I snickered to myself picturing the Commissioner like that, then stopped, because even though I wasn’t actually some groom–to–be under his future father–in–law’s scrutiny, I could really feel what that poor fellow’s heart must be going through.
Sigh.
Just like that, two days went by.
Thankfully, he didn’t summon me again, and I finally got to enjoy some rare free time.
Meanwhile, Palgap bustled in and out, bringing me all the information he’d managed to dig up.
The Commissioner supposedly had five sons and one daughter.
He had five sons in a row and finally a daughter at the end, and that daughter was Young Lady Jaryeong.
So just imagine how precious she must be to him.
“Then what about Young Lady Jaryeong’s older brothers?”
“They’re all married already and living at the family’s main estate here in Guizhou, I heard, Young Master.”
“I see.”
I couldn’t wait for the White-Haired Painter-Physician to get here.
If her five older brothers happened to misunderstand something, just thinking about the effort it’d take to clear that up made my head spin.
Anyway, after being holed up in my room for two days straight reading books, the back of my neck was starting to feel stiff.
When I rolled my neck from side to side and rubbed it, Palgap noticed and spoke up.
“Young Master, how about going for a walk? If you keep sitting still reading all the time, your posture will get ruined, you know.”
“Mm… you’ve got a point.”
I nodded and rose to my feet.
“I should step out for a bit.”
“Yes, I’ll go with you, Young Master.”
I left my room and strolled through the outer residence’s rear garden with two Escort Guards.
It wasn’t quite as impressive as the main residence’s garden I’d seen earlier, but this one was still nicely laid out.
Since it was visible from the outside, they’d clearly put some effort into it.
While we enjoyed the scenery and the breeze, we ended up walking much farther than I’d expected.
“We’ve come too far. Let’s head back.”
“Understood, Young Master.”
Just then, a voice called out to me from behind.
“Deputy Merchant Lord Eun Seo-ho.”
It was the Commissioner. I immediately turned and bowed to him.
“Greetings, Lord Commissioner.”
“I see you were out for a walk.”
“Yes. My body was feeling a bit stiff from reading, so I came out to stretch my legs for a while.”
“I know that feeling very well.”
So the Lord Commissioner was out walking too. But his expression didn’t look very good.
Noticing the worry shadowing his face, I spoke carefully.
“It seems you have a lot on your mind.”
“Ah… does it show that much?”
He touched his own face, then let out a sigh.
“Hmm… could you perhaps keep me company for a little while?”
“…?”
I followed the Commissioner of Land Affairs to his office.
So that was what he meant by keeping him company – sitting down over tea and listening to him vent.
But is this really okay?
Is it really fine for an outsider like me to hear all this?
“The truth is, I personally investigated where those poisons you mentioned came from.”
Of course he would. Someone being poisoned means there’s definitely a culprit.
I tensed up, wondering what he was going to say, but with this kind of topic, it made sense he’d bring it to me.
But if he was talking like this…
He let out another sigh.
“The problem is, the people who sent that tea as a gift are the very family engaged to Jaryeong.”
“…What?”
I blinked at the unexpected revelation.
Come to think of it, they had said everyone was delighted that Young Lady Jaryeong’s marriage had been arranged with such a good family.
And that very betrothed family sent her poisoned tea?
“That family… is the Hunan Commissioner of Land Affairs’ household.”
“…”
I actually already knew that from the information Palgap had gathered – she was engaged to the Hunan Commissioner’s third son.
With a troubled look, he continued.
“Ever since Jaryeong first fell ill, they’ve been regularly sending their regards and gifting that tea.”
This was a seriously troublesome mess.
Not only Guizhou, but Hunan as well were far from the capital, so the local officials there held significant authority and had a fair amount of military power.
If things went wrong, it could easily spark unexpected chaos.
“So it’s a situation where we have to be careful on every front.”
He was absolutely right.
In my previous life, Young Lady Jaryeong had died suddenly thanks to the Five Stars Merchant Group’s schemes, so there’d been no direct clash between the two provinces.
Could that be what the Murim Alliance is aiming for?
But something didn’t quite add up.
If the Murim Alliance really wanted chaos, they wouldn’t have used a poison that expensive, hard to administer, and nearly impossible to identify as poison.
They would’ve used something that obviously screamed poison.
Man, I really don’t know.
The Murim Alliance is impossible to figure out.
But I do know its insides are pitch-black.
And that it doesn’t care what means it uses to achieve its goals.
I quietly listened to the Commissioner pour his heart out.
“…In any case, I’m convinced the Hunan Commissioner’s household is behind this, but I have no idea how to prove their crime.”
Just then, a thought popped into my head.
“Forgive me for asking, but when you say the Hunan Commissioner’s household is the culprit, who exactly do you mean?”
“Hm?”
“Are you referring to the young master engaged to your daughter? Or his father? His mother? Or perhaps some third party altogether?”
At my question, the Commissioner blinked a few times.
Had that really not occurred to him?
“Ah… now that you mention it, you’re right.”
“And right now, instead of chasing the culprit, it would be better to focus on treating your daughter. Shouldn’t saving her come first?”
“Of course. But I’m anxious that in the meantime, they might destroy the evidence.”
“You don’t need to worry too much about that part. There’s not much chance of it.”
“How can you be so sure?”
“Because you haven’t confronted them yet. And as you know, that poison leaves almost no sign of poisoning. So the culprit will be feeling pretty secure.”
“Mm, that does make sense.”
Just then, his Deputy came in to announce that a guest had arrived.
Time for me to take my leave.
The Commissioner smiled and said goodbye.
“Thank you for humoring an old man’s whims today.”
“Not at all. Thanks to your consideration, I’m staying here very comfortably. Call for me anytime.”
I left the Commissioner’s office and headed back to my room.
Still, the Commissioner really was rattled – jumping straight to blaming the entire Hunan Commissioner’s household like that.
Then again, what father would stay completely rational after hearing his daughter’s been poisoned?
But thinking back on what I’d seen while traveling with him, there was something I couldn’t quite reconcile.
He’d once taken first place in the imperial examinations, proof of his brilliant learning, but he didn’t seem particularly capable when it came to real administrative work.
Yet in my memories from my previous life, Guizhou had been remarkably peaceful.
Did he have some brilliant administrator working under him?
But Guizhou covered a huge area.
When you oversee a region that large, unexpected incidents are bound to pop up all the time.
Even if you handle everything well, there’s no way you avoid all disorder.
And yet, it had always felt like problems were resolved immediately, almost as if they’d been predicted in advance.
Of course, it hadn’t been like that for everything – just look at the South Lake Merchant Group’s medicinal herb poison monopoly incident from my previous life.
It really was strange.
Considering how long it took them to get involved back then, it didn’t seem like there was some genius administrator around that I’d be amazed by.
Ugh, my head hurts.
“What’s wrong, Young Master?”
“Nothing, I just gave myself a headache overthinking things. Times like this, I need something sweet.”
Guizhou was inland and didn’t even have things like rock salt, so the food here tended to be on the plain side.
There were plenty of dishes that leaned on sour and spicy flavors instead.
Of course, this was the Commissioner’s residence, so they certainly weren’t short on salt.
But because of the region’s character, the seasoning was still generally mild.
And with its higher elevation, the land wasn’t ideal for farming; the area was mostly forest.
That was why it was famous as a source of medicinal herbs.
“Hehehehe.”
At my words, Palgap’s eyes lit up.
“Young Master, who do you think I am?”
“Hm?”
“I’m Palgap, you know. I figured you’d say that, so I made arrangements in advance.”
“…?”
A short while later.
I returned to my room, and soon after, Palgap came back in and set a plate down on the low table.
“Oh? This is…”
It was rice cakes hardened with melted sugar poured over them.
“How did you manage to get this?”
Sugar came mainly from Guangdong, which wasn’t all that far from Guizhou.
So it was relatively easy to obtain, but thanks to the humid climate here, it was hard to store.
That was why sour-tasting foods were so common.
“I’ve gotten pretty friendly with one of the kitchen maids, Young Master.”
“How?”
“I’m actually pretty popular with the ladies, you know. It’s not just a pretty face that wins a woman’s heart.”
“That’s true enough.”
“So I turned on a bit of my charm for your sake, Young Master.”
I couldn’t help but chuckle.
Yeah, Palgap really was talented in his own way.
Right then.
I heard Escort Guard Lee Pil’s voice from outside the door.
“My lord, the Lord Commissioner has sent an attendant.”
Since it was an attendant sent by the Commissioner himself, I went out to meet them personally.
“This is food sent by the Lord Commissioner.”
The attendant held out the tray as they spoke.
When I took it and opened the lid, inside were sweets coated in syrup.
“The Lord Commissioner heard that the Deputy Merchant Lord was craving something sweet, so he specially ordered these to be made.”
“Thank you. Please tell the Lord Commissioner I’ll enjoy them gratefully.”
After the Commissioner’s attendant left, I glanced over at Palgap and said.
“Word really travels fast around here.”
“Y–yes, it really does, Young Master.”
I took the tray back inside. I should share these with the Escort Guards later.
But Palgap tilted his head, puzzled.
“That’s strange. I clearly said I wanted to get those rice cakes because I felt like eating them myself, Young Master.”
“You did?”
Now that I thought about it, there had been a few people passing by when I mentioned craving something sweet…
Could they have passed the message along?
I really needed to watch what I said around here.
The next morning.
After waking up, I asked Palgap to stand guard for me, then sat on the bed and circulated my Qi.
I didn’t want anyone else seeing how I trained my martial arts.
When I finished my breathing cultivation and opened the door, Escort Guard Seo Wu and Escort Guard Myeong Jong greeted me.
“Did you sleep well, Young Master?”
“Yes. Good morning. Thank you for your hard work last night.”
“We only did our duty.”
“Um, but…”
Escort Guard Myeong Jong continued, looking a bit awkward.
“During the night, some people left these in front of your quarters.”
He picked up the basket sitting beside him.
Inside, it was packed full of honey jars and things like candy.
There were letters tied to them as well.
I untied one and unfolded it.
[The moment I saw Young Master’s face, my heart fluttered before I even realized it…]
The rest of the letters all said pretty much the same thing.
I quietly turned my head to look at Palgap.
He was staring at me with the look of someone who’d just taken internal damage.
“You okay?”
“As expected, this rotten world only remembers the handsome ones, Young Master.”
He was sulking. Really sulking.
I ended up spending quite a bit of effort that day trying to cheer Palgap up.
“Kui!”
But Geumryeong, why are you so excited?
.
.
.
That afternoon.
The guest we’d all been waiting and waiting for finally arrived at the Guizhou Commissioner’s residence.
“Welcome. It’s been a long time.”
“Oh my! Young Master Eun Seo-ho!”
The White-Haired Painter-Physician looked genuinely surprised to see me.
He must not have expected to run into me here.
“Circumstances brought me here, so I’m staying for a little while.”
“I see.”
“And to be honest, I was the one who asked them to invite you, Painter-Physician.”
I said it with a serious expression.
“Because the poison we faced at the Zhuge Martial Family has appeared here as well.”
The White-Haired Painter-Physician went straight to Young Lady Jaryeong’s quarters and, with a grim face, took her pulse.
After that, he asked for a quiet place and was shown to the receiving room.
As if his throat were parched, he gulped down several cups of cooled tea in a row.
“Well? My daughter’s condition… it really is poisoning, isn’t it?”
At the Commissioner’s question, he nodded heavily.
“Yes. It is.”
“Heavens…!”
“And as Young Master Eun said, the poison is indeed the Fourfold Compound Poison.”
He went on.
“I heard she first fell ill at sixteen.”
“That’s right.”
“And I also heard she fainted recently.”
“That is also true.”
The White-Haired Painter-Physician furrowed his brow for a moment, then tilted his head and asked.
“But tell me, what in the world did you do to halt the progression of the poison?”
–TL Notes–
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