Where was the Namgoong Clan?
It was a prestigious martial clan that had produced the current Murim Alliance Leader.
On top of that, it was an old and storied martial clan, so the Namgoong Clan’s standing in today’s martial world was extremely high.
And the Namgoong Clan Lord’s son was a suspect?
Warrior Jin Yeong took a piece of paper from inside his clothes and showed it to me.
“Something like this poem was written on the wall.”
The poem was, unmistakably, condemning the dead poet Na Jeong-su for criticizing other people’s poetry.
It also said that death would be the price, and that he would be torn apart and die.
“And the victim was found leaning against the wall where that poem was written, his wrists severed and his entire body slashed apart.”
“…”
The method was so cruel that I unconsciously frowned.
“Some of the people who discovered him even fainted.”
“I can see why.”
“And… the bigger problem is that he was murdered on Beijing’s Five-Way Street.”
As the name suggested, Five-Way Street was a road that led in five different directions, and it was famous for being one of Beijing’s most confusing areas.
If you took one wrong turn, you could easily end up on a completely different road, so people also called it the Five-Way Maze.
“What? On Five-Way Street?”
The reason I was startled was because that place was inside the Inner City.
Beijing had an Inner City and an Outer City.
Since the Imperial Palace was located in the Inner City, public security there was strictly maintained.
A horrific incident had happened in a place like that. There was no way it could be quietly brushed aside.
“His Majesty has ordered a thorough investigation into this matter. No matter what it takes, we must catch the culprit.”
The dead man’s criticism may have been a little harsh, but he had not committed any serious crime, nor was he a martial artist.
And the fact that a man who had come to Beijing to participate in the Poetry and Prose Competition held under the imperial name had been murdered inside the Inner City was the real problem.
As the emperor, His Majesty simply could not turn a blind eye to it.
“But why did a young lord from the Namgoong Clan become the prime suspect?”
“The biggest reason is that the marks left on the victim point to the Namgoong Clan’s martial arts. Also, he was one of the people targeted by the poem critique, and there was testimony that he had said he would kill the victim one day because of it.”
Warrior Jin Yeong continued.
“On top of that, his whereabouts last night are unclear. He won’t give a proper answer about where he was.”
That was definitely enough to single him out as the culprit.
“But even so, he keeps insisting flat-out that he absolutely didn’t kill the man.”
Warrior Jin Yeong let out a sigh and clutched his head.
“This is a real headache. He is the strongest suspect, yes, but what do you think the Namgoong Clan will do if we punish him and the real culprit is revealed afterward?”
“Ah… that really would be a headache.”
From the way I saw it, the emperor seemed to be planning to use this incident as an excuse to suppress the Namgoong Clan and the Murim Alliance Leader’s influence.
But if this went wrong, it could instead deal a heavy blow to the emperor’s side.
And in that situation, could Warrior Jin Yeong possibly come out unscathed?
There was no need to even ask.
“So… could you help me with this?”
“Isn’t there someone far more suited for this than I am?”
“Do you mean Minister of Justice Bang?”
“Yes.”
Wasn’t Lord Bang Hyo-myeong, the Minister of Justice known as Sixth-Sense Duke, famous for finding culprits?
“Of course, I went to him first. But…”
“…?”
“He said he already had a matter in his hands and told me to ask you.”
“What?”
“He said you would be more than capable of solving it.”
“…”
Sigh. Lord Bang… why would you do that?
I’m incredibly busy, and I don’t want to get involved in anything connected to the Namgoong Clan.
Yes, that was how I honestly felt.
Merchant Lord Namgoong Gang, who had killed me in my previous life, and the Murim Alliance Leader were both Namgoong Clan members.
Maybe that was why I had no desire to involve myself in anything related to the Namgoong Clan.
“Please. I’m begging you.”
But I also couldn’t pretend not to see Warrior Jin Yeong clinging to me so desperately.
There was the moral issue, of course, but destroying the trust I had worked so hard to build over the past several years would also be an enormous loss.
“I’m asking you like this.”
“Sigh. All right.”
I nodded.
“I’ll lend what little help I can.”
“Thank you. Truly.”
“Then I’ll ask you this first. Why did that young lord from the Namgoong Clan come to Beijing?”
The Namgoong Clan was in Anhui. There shouldn’t have been any reason for a Namgoong Clan member to come all the way to Beijing.
“That’s… apparently, he came to participate in the Poetry and Prose Competition.”
A Namgoong Clan member came to participate in a poetry and prose competition?
It wasn’t common for someone from a martial clan to attend a poetry and prose competition, but it wasn’t unheard of either.
The Zhuge Clan’s Grand Clan Lord also loved poetry and prose.
He had been invited to judge this competition as well, and he had readily accepted.
“In that case, I’ll look at the scene first, then the victim’s body, and after that, I’ll meet the young lord from the Namgoong Clan.”
This was to keep my judgment from being swayed while speaking with the Namgoong Clan’s young lord.
In matters like this, I had to look at the situation objectively.
I continued.
“But as you know, the Poetry and Prose Competition is only a few days away, so I can’t devote all my time to this.”
At my words, Warrior Jin Yeong said,
“Ah, you don’t need to worry about that. His Highness the Crown Prince has already arranged to explain the circumstances to Young Lord In Gye-seong from the Sebin Merchant Group.”
“…”
How thorough.
.
.
.
A short while later.
After preparing to go out, I followed Warrior Jin Yeong, and soon we arrived at Five-Way Street.
A boundary rope had been set up, and Imperial Guards were keeping watch over the place.
And judging by the fishy scent of blood that still lingered in the air, there must have been a considerable amount of bleeding.
The fact that Imperial Guards, not ordinary constables, were guarding this place also showed just how seriously the emperor was taking this matter.
“Ugh. This is pretty damn awful, Young Master.”
It was just as Palgap said.
Blood had splattered across the poem written on the wall, and the bloodstains on the ground in front of it were still vivid, not yet cleaned away.
Behind me, Escort Guard Yeo Eung-am spoke.
“With this much blood, I think we should assume the killer deliberately avoided striking a vital point and made him die in pain.”
“I think so too.”
They had probably cut off his wrists first, then left the victim writhing in agony until he bled to death.
That meant the culprit’s grudge had been just that deep.
I raised my head and looked at the writing on the wall.
As I examined the words, I found something in the dried ink.
“This is… a piece of a tree stem.”
“A tree stem?”
“Yes. They crushed a tree stem and used it as a brush to write this poem.”
“Why would they use a tree stem, of all things?”
“To hide their handwriting.”
Because it was stiff and difficult to control, the strokes would not come out properly.
“See how the characters break off so abruptly like this?”
“So that was why.”
But the poem on this wall was important evidence.
Poems usually hid a kind of signature mark inside them.
That was why, when Chu Il-gong stole Poet Song Rok’s poem the year before last, the audience had found it strange.
The person who had actually composed the poem wouldn’t be able to recognize that mark.
Even if the person who wrote this poem wasn’t the one who killed him, there was no doubt the person who composed it was the culprit.
And that person would definitely participate in this Poetry and Prose Competition.
I searched the surrounding area thoroughly with my guards. Then I said to Warrior Jin Yeong,
“Then let’s go see the body now.”
“This way.”
The place Warrior Jin Yeong guided me to was Beijing’s Magistrate’s Office. When we headed to the annex prepared there, the fishy scent of blood drifted over.
But a strange smell of incense was mixed into it.
“The scent is quite strong.”
“It helps slow the body’s decay. We also mix in Samju Root to remove the stench.”
At the voice that came from behind me, I turned around and saw a man standing there.
Warrior Jin Yeong introduced me to him.
“This is Deputy Merchant Lord Eun Seo-ho of the Eunhae Merchant Group. I brought him with me to receive his help.”
“It is an honor to meet you. I am Cheon Suk, a coroner at this Magistrate’s Office.”
Coroners specialized in handling corpses, and they also recovered bodies and determined the cause of death.
“Show us Na Jeong-su’s body.”
“Yes.”
He nodded, then looked at me and asked,
“It’s quite gruesome. Will you be all right?”
It was probably because I looked fragile on the outside.
“I’ll be fine.”
“Please come this way.”
He guided us into a room.
Inside, a corpse lay on a long table.
Wow…
They really did it exactly the way the poem on the wall said they would.
“May I touch it?”
At my question, Coroner Cheon flinched. He probably hadn’t expected me to say that.
“Ah, yes.”
Unlike ordinary people, martial artists did not consider touching a corpse especially unusual.
I was a merchant, but I was also a martial artist.
“Mm… this is definitely the Namgoong Clan’s martial arts.”
I could say with confidence that I knew the Namgoong Clan’s martial arts extremely well.
Why?
Because I had died at a Namgoong Clan member’s hands.
The Namgoong Clan’s martial arts were Hard Yang martial arts. And the Namgoong Clan’s martial arts could be explained with one word: thunder.
The speed and destructive power of lightning striking down from the sky, combined with a dazzling brilliance, formed the foundation of the Namgoong Clan’s martial arts.
The Namgoong Clan’s martial arts were sword arts that blended two types of swordsmanship: Heavy Sword and Swift Sword.
That was why people struck by the Namgoong Clan’s martial arts tended to bleed quite heavily.
At the same time, the wounds were difficult to treat.
For Orthodox Sect martial arts, they were on the cruel side.
I turned my head from the wound and examined the face.
The horribly twisted expression showed plainly just how much pain he had been in when he died.
Coroner Cheon said,
“He must have been chased around for about two hours before he died. When a person runs, their heart beats faster. In that state, they bleed even more heavily.”
“You’re saying the culprit did that on purpose?”
“Yes.”
Coroner Cheon continued.
“And as you can see, it looks like both hands were cut off first before his body was slashed. I don’t know the reason, but I believe that was also meant to inflict pain.”
“Why is that?”
“When people get injured, don’t they instinctively try to cover the wounded area with their hands?”
“Ah…”
“No one would do something like this unless they held an extraordinary grudge.”
I thought the same.
But did a young lord from the Namgoong Clan really have that much of a grudge?
It was time to meet him myself.
A short while later.
I headed to the interrogation room attached to the Magistrate’s Office.
“Ah! Seriously! I told you I didn’t kill him!”
“The investigation will reveal everything.”
“Then investigate! Please! Investigate first and ask me after that!”
At the sound of that voice, Warrior Jin Yeong explained.
“It seems he’s being interrogated. Please wait a moment.”
Warrior Jin Yeong went inside, then soon came back out and beckoned to me.
“You can come in.”
“Yes. I’m sorry, but may I go in alone?”
“Do that.”
Warrior Jin Yeong readily accepted my request, and I went inside by myself.
The reason I went in alone was to lower his guard.
This was when I put my face to good use.
The interrogation room had exactly the atmosphere I had imagined.
A hard chair and a writing desk.
And in the chair in front of it, a bound suspect.
When I entered, he looked at me, and his face immediately brightened.
“Oh! I know who you are. You’re the Great Hero, Handsome Young Hero, right?”
“That is what people call me. But I don’t know who you are. What is your name?”
I already knew, but exchanging names like this was important when building a relationship.
“My name is Namgoong Yang.”
“Then may I call you Young Lord Namgoong Yang?”
“Yes.”
“First, may I briefly check your internal power?”
“My internal power?”
He hesitated with an awkward expression.
That was only natural. Unless they trusted each other, no martial artist would allow someone else to examine their internal power.
In that situation, the other person could suddenly attack, and one’s true ability could also be exposed.
“Why are you hesitating?”
“Well…”
“You may be able to clear yourself of suspicion. And while I’m embarrassed to say this with my own mouth, I am called the Handsome Young Hero… I won’t do anything wicked, even if only for the sake of that name.”
At my words, he let out a sigh and nodded.
“Go ahead.”
I approached him, took hold of his wrist, and checked his internal power.
Uh…
Was I really feeling this correctly?
I let go of his hand and asked him,
“How old are you, Young Lord?”
“I’m nineteen.”
He was nineteen, and he was already at the Peak realm?
No matter how many Peak warriors the Namgoong Clan had, there were probably almost none who had reached Peak at nineteen.
– Are you truly at the Peak realm, Young Lord?
At my Voice Transmission, he flinched, then replied through Voice Transmission as well.
– Yes.
– That is astonishing.
– Since you’re surprised, it seems the Embroidered Guard really didn’t realize it yesterday.
Well, Warrior Jin Yeong had reached Peak, but it hadn’t been long.
Measuring someone’s internal power like this was only accurate when one’s realm was comparatively higher.
His Voice Transmission continued.
– Um… could you keep it secret that I’m at Peak?
– Why?
– I don’t want the clan members to know I’ve reached Peak.
– Then tell me where you were and what you were doing last night, and I’ll keep it a secret.
– That’s…
At my question, he merely lowered his head.
Just where had he been and what had he been doing that made him unable to say?
Just then, Warrior Jin Yeong came inside.
“Ah, is the interrogation going well? I couldn’t hear anything, so I came in.”
“My apologies. We were in the middle of a psychological battle.”
“Ha! Oh no. I’m sorry.”
“It’s all right. More importantly, I have a request, Jin Yeong.”
“What is it?”
“I need a list of the people the deceased criticized.”
I returned to Beijing Branch.
After meeting him, I was certain. Young Lord Namgoong Yang was not the culprit.
If he was at the Peak realm, the victim’s wounds would never have been that shallow.
The culprit was someone with a lower realm than him.
I didn’t know why he wanted me to keep his realm secret, but to clear him without revealing his internal power, I needed to find out where he had been last night.
Only then could I find the real culprit.
I’ll need to call the Intelligence Unit.
–TL Notes–
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