Book 13: Chapter 18: Justification

The Supreme Executive Council.

Once the detention order from the current supreme decision-making body of the Luoyang Sword Family was revealed, the elders who had stood blocking the Central Inspection Department to protect the authority of the Elders' Hall hesitantly stepped backward.

“...Ahem.”

“Ahem.”

They had to make way, but as they had their own dignity to maintain, it was because they felt deeply humiliated to cleanly give way after stepping forward so high-spiritedly.

However Dokgo Ya-yeon, the Chief of the Central Inspection Department, was not one to wait around idly.

“Then.”

With her white hair fluttering, she walked with steady steps, pushing her way through the hesitating elders.

“Uh, uh?”

Before the elders, who were physically pushed aside, could even show any sign of protest out of absurdity and bewilderment, her frost-like command fell, and the waiting red-clothed members of the Central Inspection Department began to cross the entrance of the Elders' Hall like a wave.

“Everyone, begin the execution.”

“As you command!”

“Begin the search!”

Lest they incur personal grudges from the elders, the members of the Central Inspection Department were covering their faces with red masks.

“How dare you...!”

“Where do you think you are, barging in so recklessly?!”

Doors were thrown open repeatedly, and shouts of elders could be heard here and there, but no one dared to block the Central Inspection Department, which was executing the command of the Supreme Executive Council.

“The external standby squad must seal off the Elders' Hall tightly to ensure no criminal dares to escape.”

“As you command!”

However, the sight of those who were not even elders freely roaming and trampling through the Elders' Hall was a spectacle that no elder could watch comfortably.

“......”

“......”

“Chief of the Central Inspection Department.”

“Speak.”

The elder of the Third Young Master's faction, who had first blocked Dokgo Ya-yeon, said while glaring at her “...That evidence you obtained. I do not know who provided it, but” anger and shame.

At the continuous defeats today, the voice of the Third Young Master's faction elder trembled violently.

“there must absolutely not be even the slightest, the tiniest problem with it.”

His gaze looked as if it would pierce her alive.

“......”

“Because the Elders' Hall will not forget this shame and humiliation received from the Central Inspection Department today.”

Dokgo Ya-yeon, the Chief of the Central Inspection Department felt that the elders who had slunk back into the corners were still keeping their spots, and that their gazes were all directed toward her.

“......”

“......”

Given the circumstances, they could not help but merely watch, but when considering what kind of treatment and power they held in this Luoyang Sword Family, in Luoyang, and in the State of Zhongyuan, it was a situation where it would be natural to feel fear.

‘...Did I incur a personal grudge?’

A direct conflict.

A grudge-filled relationship with the Luoyang Sword Family's Elders' Hall.

A situation she would have wanted to avoid in the past.

“My, my.”

However she was no longer afraid now.

“Who dares to fearlessly threaten the Main Family's inspection organ?”

The voice that came out of nowhere broke the taut tension of the gathering.

“Why, if it isn't the elders of the Main Family?”

If those gathered in the Elders' Hall were not elders, who else would they be?

Beyond being calm, it was a tone that was sly, mocking the elders, and even felt somewhat arrogant.

“Oh dear...! In that case, were the elders of the Main Family making threats to the head of the Main Family's inspection organ?”

Who in this place would not know the owner of that voice?

“...The Eldest Young Master!”

The elders, who had hesitated even at the arrest warrant of the Supreme Executive Council as if they had been burned, parted like an ebbing tide in an instant.

“Do those who call themselves the Main Family's elders not know that that is a very serious criminal act?”

As he spoke, the Eldest Young Master, Yeon So-hyeon, swept his gaze all around with exaggerated movements, and...

“...Ahem. I suddenly remembered an urgent matter.”

“...I will go with you.”

As if fleeing from the Eldest Young Master's gaze, the elders who had parted to avoid him completely disappeared just like that.

“......”

At that sight, without realizing it Dokgo Ya-yeon, the Chief of the Central Inspection Department, shook her head in amazement.

‘...Should I say, as expected of the Eldest Young Master?’

Since she herself was merely an outsider to the Elders' Hall, she could never know in detail what had happened here today or how things were unfolding, but it had only been a few shijins since the Eldest Young Master set foot in this Elders' Hall.

‘seeing that sight, I can tell even without seeing or hearing.’

And yet, the Eldest Young Master was already overwhelming the elders.

“Oh my, really.”

At the now empty entrance of the Elders' Hall Yeon So-hyeon shrugged his shoulders as if it were absurd.

“How embarrassing, to think they would all just leave without a word like that.”

Contrary to his words, a smirk was hanging on his face, which was secretly gratifying.

“...Chief of the Central Inspection Department.”

The last remaining elder of the Third Young Master's faction spoke to Dokgo Ya-yeon in a low voice.

“Do not think you will be safe under the Eldest Young Master's shadow forever.”

“The Eldest Young Master's shadow?”

Even at that voice filled with killing intent she raised her eyes, which were as unwavering as glass, and spoke while looking straight at the Third Young Master's faction elder.

“I do not know what you are talking about, but...”

She spoke clearly.

“The Central Inspection Department always maintains political neutrality.”

“......”

Conversely, at that confidence the face of the Third Young Master's faction elder, who met her white eyes, twitched.

“And if it is the evidence you spoke of just now,” taking advantage of the moment the elder was speechless, she continued.

“measures have been taken so that the Main Family's elders can visit the Administrative Pavilion of the Supreme Executive Council at any time to verify the evidence. So...”

Gathering her hands, politely she bowed.

“I would be grateful if you could direct your inquiries there.”

With those words as her last she brushed past the shoulder of the Third Young Master's faction elder with a thud and walked straight into the inner parts of the Elders' Hall along with the Eldest Young Master.

“......”

The elder of the Third Young Master's faction clenched his fists and glared at their retreating backs until the end, but there was nothing he could do about it right now.

* * *

The corridor of the Elders' Hall.

Not a single ant was visible in that magnificent corridor.

It was because the elders had all holed themselves up in places like waiting rooms under the pretext of making plans or having meetings, but Dokgo Ya-yeon, the Chief of the Central Inspection Department, knew that it was merely an excuse.

“......”

The elders simply did not want to awkwardly bump into the personnel of the Central Inspection Department.

Moreover, here now was the person they wanted to avoid the most.

Since the Eldest Young Master, Yeon So-hyeon, was here.

“Walking through the world-famous Elders' Hall like this,” he suddenly spoke.

“doesn't it feel utterly refreshing?”

“......”

At the question that flew in as if reading her mind she raised her eyes with their impressive white pupils and looked at the Eldest Young Master, Yeon So-hyeon, who was walking ahead of her.

Whether she answered or not he continued speaking while walking with his back to her.

“Until now, the Elders' Hall has never once been cooperative with the Central Inspection Department's inspections. Is that not so?”

“......”

For a moment pondering the Eldest Young Master Yeon So-hyeon's words, she opened her mouth honestly.

"...That is true. And," she added briefly, true to its name and reputation, the Central Inspection Department only poked its nose into major cases, and in such major cases, naturally, a major power holder—namely, an elder—could not help but be involved.

"rather, it was always them. The elders were the biggest obstacle."

“Indeed, it must have been so.”

At her sigh-filled answer, Yeon So-hyeon laughed softly and said, she thought she knew what the Eldest Young Master found funny.

“but isn't it funny?”

However, because she did not want to say it with her own mouth, she simply asked back.

"...What do you mean?"

Yeon So-hyeon glanced back at her, then turned his gaze forward again and replied via sound transmission.

[When you were keeping a lonely political neutrality among powers and loftily maintaining the ideal of the head of an inspection organ, a proper investigation was actually close to impossible.] Dokgo Ya-yeon silently listened to Yeon So-hyeon's sound transmission, which pulled out her feelings one by one.

“......”

[However, after drawing close to this power called the Eldest Young Master, rather...] he raised his hand and pointed to the empty corridor of the Elders' Hall.

[Haven't you become able to enter this core center of power directly and do your job without hesitation?] she bit her lip instead of answering.

“......”

If she had been as before observing rules and principles as she had until now far from resolving the case of the Sword Family Bank, she would not have even properly touched it yet and even if she had somehow started the inspection, it was a contradiction she was facing.

‘...only the blameless Bank Director, who had been working hard, would have been cut off, and the case would have ended with that.’

“Keep agonizing like that.”

At first, she wondered if it was mockery, but as the face of the Eldest Young Master, Yeon So-hyeon, who stopped walking and turned around, was extremely serious, she opened her mouth.

“......”

"...Will you not present the answer as you usually do, Eldest Young Master?"

Was that not what Yeon So-hyeon was best at?

“No.”

However unexpectedly, Yeon So-hyeon shook his head.

“The answer to that contradictory situation cannot be defined by a sentence or two, but rather...”

His gaze, straight enough to sting, looked directly at Dokgo Ya-yeon.

“That continuous agonizing. That anguish that you have no choice but to undergo again every time in every new situation.”

Yeon So-hyeon raised a finger and tapped his own head.

“The answer does not lie in the result of the judgment, but in the process of agonizing itself.”

At those words, Dokgo Ya-yeon understood.

How the Eldest Young Master, even after directing those schemes to save the Bank Director could possess such a straight gaze unlike herself.

‘...The Eldest Young Master never justifies or rationalizes his actions.’

The Eldest Young Master, Yeon So-hyeon had never once made excuses like saying it was an unavoidable choice due to reasons, or that he had no choice because it was inescapable.

The reason he could have such straight and confident eyes was because he was facing all of his judgments and actions head-on.

“Eldest Young Master.”

“Hmm?”

Addressing the Eldest Young Master, the Chief of the Central Inspection Department, Dokgo Ya-yeon, conveyed her thoughts via sound transmission.

[...I think I chose my lord well.]

At her sudden remark, she who was usually boundlessly blunt, Yeon So-hyeon quickly turned his head.

"...Good for you."

As he began walking in the lead, Dokgo Ya-yeon smiled inwardly and asked.

“Eldest Young Master. But where are you heading right now?”

“Weren't you here to catch the Deputy Director?”

Dokgo Ya-yeon's eyes widened slightly.

"...Does the Eldest Young Master know where he is hiding?"

“No. But...”

Without looking back Yeon So-hyeon raised a finger and pointed to his own nose.

“I can smell it.”

He laughed softly.

“Because a very delicious smell comes from that fellow.”