The Chancellor’s Wife (3)

“Now where was the Chancellor’s Residence?”

The first thing Neung Je-gang needed to do was find out whether the ones who had joined hands with the Chancellor were truly the Necromancer Cult.

Neung Je-gang went to the Chancellor’s Residence and slipped in under cover.

He was the sort who could roam even a place packed with legendary martial masters as if it were his own home. No matter how many guards the Chancellor had posted, if he truly set his mind to it, he could enter whenever he pleased.

Neung Je-gang lay hidden in the Chancellor’s Residence and watched for two days, but there were no secret visits to the Chancellor, nor any exchanges of covert letters.

All that came and went were high officials of the same faction, arriving to discuss politics—and not once did any talk of killing someone surface.

“Did I take this too lightly? Well, with the Eastern Depot crawling everywhere, maybe it’s hard to talk about that kind of thing in a place like this where they might be under watch. Then what? If I only shadow the Chancellor, I may not be able to uncover who they really are….”

Neung Je-gang left the Chancellor’s Residence.

Two days wasn’t exactly long, but he hadn’t caught a single useful thread.

“Is it someone among the Chancellor’s underlings who’s acting as the contact?”

Neung Je-gang decided to examine the people around the Chancellor. There might be someone serving as the go-between between the Chancellor and the assassins.

“If there’s anywhere that’s already investigated the Chancellor in detail, the Eastern Depot is the best place to get information, isn’t it?”

Neung Je-gang tapped the plaque of the Eastern Depot General Inspector of Imperial Edicts tucked in his robe.

“Shall I test this thing’s power?”

Neung Je-gang headed not to the Beijing Branch, but to the Central Plains Headquarters.

The gold plaque he casually displayed from time to time made even the hidden sentries stationed at key points feel like they couldn’t breathe.

‘So this is why people go mad for power.’

Neung Je-gang was satisfied with the plaque’s authority.

Within the Central Plains Headquarters also existed the Field Agents Bureau headquarters.

This was where information gathered across the Central Plains was filtered again and again until only the most critical pieces remained.

“Who goes there?”

As expected, the Field Agents Bureau was different.

Here, the plaque alone didn’t get him through easily.

In other places he’d walked right in, but here four people appeared and blocked his path.

“You don’t recognize this?”

Neung Je-gang raised the gold plaque high so it was unmistakable.

“We recognize it. But what brings you here…?”

“I’ve never heard there was any place in the Eastern Depot I couldn’t go as I pleased.”

Neung Je-gang felt irritation flare.

If this was how it worked, the plaque might as well be worthless.

It might actually be easier to sneak in.

“This is the Field Agents Bureau. Since we handle information, even if we know your rank, we must know your purpose.”

“Oh? So if I tell you what I want, you’ll let me in?”

“Yes.”

“Then move. What I want is to enter.”

“…Pardon?”

“Didn’t you hear me? I’m here to enter the Field Agents Bureau. That’s my purpose. Still not clear?”

“We can’t allow it. Not until you state a concrete purpose.”

They had been trained brutally well.

“Really not?”

“No.”

“Really?”

“Really.”

“Even if you die for it?”

“Even if I die for it.”

“Fine. Killing you feels a bit excessive, so I’ll do something else. You there.”

“Yes?”

“You’re no longer Eastern Depot.”

“…What?”

“You obstructed my duties as the Eastern Depot General Inspector of Imperial Edicts. Do you even know what my job is? It’s to weed out incompetents like you—people who don’t even understand what they’re doing and still can’t do the work. From this moment, you are formally notified you’ve been dismissed from the Eastern Depot. You are ordered to surrender all issued belongings and leave within half a shijin.”

“Th-that’s…?”

“Half a shijin. If you haven’t left the Eastern Depot by then, I’ll kill you with my own hands.”

Still stunned into blankness, the man was shoved aside as Neung Je-gang walked in.

But three others were still holding the line.

“Will you block me too?”

They exchanged glances.

They didn’t know the full situation, but it was clear the General Inspector before them held a post that could wield personnel authority.

No matter how high someone’s position was, you couldn’t exercise power you didn’t actually possess.

“…No.”

Slide.

One of them, gauging the mood, stepped aside. The other two grudgingly opened the way.

Even if they got scolded later for letting him through, it was far better than getting fired on the spot.

“Once you pass the entrance, there’s nothing stopping you.”

Neung Je-gang went down underground.

He didn’t know the layout well, but every door clearly labeled what work was done inside.

“Archive Room? Is this where they store information?”

He opened the door and stepped in.

In that instant, his mind went blank.

It was vast—too vast.

Documents were packed in so tightly there wasn’t even room for a finger, and he had no idea where to begin.

“Th-this… I think I came to the wrong place. Should I just meet the Field Agents Lord and ask for it directly?”

Neung Je-gang hurriedly shut the door and went back out.

He climbed back up.

The information storage and sorting were underground, but the Field Agents Bureau’s high offices were, of course, up where sunlight reached and warmth lingered.

“How may I help you?”

At the entrance to the second floor, another operative blocked him.

“Pass word that I’d like to see the Lord.”

Neung Je-gang spoke while showing the gold plaque.

“Understood. Please wait a moment.”

The man opened the nearest door, went in, and soon returned.

“You may enter.”

Neung Je-gang strode to the indicated door and flung it open.

“Welcome.”

A man greeted him as if he’d been waiting.

For an instant, Neung Je-gang nearly swung his blade at that face.

The face of Gye Yu—a man he had not been able to see at the Beijing Branch—was sitting right here.

“Who are you?”

“I am Gye Yu, the Field Agents Chief Clerk.”

Chief Clerk was a post that might as well be the Lord’s hands and feet.

‘So the bastard’s inside headquarters now. Looks like he really climbed the ladder.’

Neung Je-gang stared daggers at Gye Yu for a moment, then walked past him without replying.

Bang—

He threw open the Lord’s office door and walked in.

Perhaps a report had already been delivered, because the Lord sat calmly, expression unchanged even at this abrupt intrusion.

“Welcome. I heard you were coming, but I didn’t expect you to be this young.”

If Neung Je-gang hadn’t held the gold plaque, this Lord would have been calling him this and that in an instant.

But the plaque’s authority stood above everyone except the Director.

The advancement and power Gye Yu craved were all contained inside that piece of gold.

“I’ll be direct. I want all information on the Chancellor and the people around him.”

“Heh heh! You’re in a hurry, aren’t you…? Have a cup of tea while you wait. We’ll prepare it shortly.”

He summoned Gye Yu and told him what Neung Je-gang wanted, then returned to his seat.

He didn’t make conversation.

Neung Je-gang’s demeanor made it hard to speak to him.

Instead, he studied Neung Je-gang up and down.

Whether it was curiosity about this “Secret Shadow,” or an attempt to glean information about him, the gaze was not pleasant.

After a short while, Gye Yu returned carrying a bundle of documents.

“These are what you requested.”

“Thank you.”

Neung Je-gang said nothing else and began reviewing each document carefully.

The Eastern Depot had investigated the Chancellor—its political enemy—in meticulous detail.

Moreover, if the Chancellor had met someone even once, that person had been investigated as well.

Only one thing was missing: information on the very figures carrying out the assassinations.

After a long time, having finished reading, Neung Je-gang sat still as if organizing his thoughts.

Then he stood, gave the Lord a polite greeting, and left.

He had no intention of befriending the man, so he maintained a purely formal posture.

Neung Je-gang returned to the inn.

He was reexamining the documents he’d read, reconstructing them from memory.

“That’s it. That person is missing.”

He found one crucial point.

The Field Agents Bureau files covered everyone the Chancellor had met—except one person.

“Why would they omit her? Because she’s worthless? Or on purpose? If it’s because she has no value, that makes sense. But if she was deliberately omitted… then does that mean the Field Agents Bureau is tied to the Chancellor?”

If so, he could understand why the Eastern Depot Director was struggling against the Chancellor.

How could you win if the enemy held the information here?

“The Brocade Guard and Eastern Depot figures weren’t people who showed themselves in the open. Yet they were found and killed. The witnesses said the assassins always moved in a group of four or five, didn’t they?”

A number that would guarantee dominance against one or two targets.

“Someone is feeding the Chancellor information. And the Field Agents Bureau is part of it. The question is whether it’s the entire bureau—or only a faction.”

Neung Je-gang’s thoughts were leaping, one supposition stacking on another.

He still didn’t know if he was right.

“First, I need to investigate the person missing from the Field Agents Bureau files.”

Only now did Neung Je-gang feel he’d finally found the path.

From here, he could dig in one step at a time.

A pitch-black night.

Whether heavy clouds had gathered, not a single star was visible in the sky.

Even the moon only barely marked its presence at one edge.

It was the perfect environment for moving in secret.

Neung Je-gang vaulted the Chancellor’s Residence wall again.

Seeking only blind spots beyond the watchers’ lines of sight, he slipped past the Chancellor’s quarters and penetrated deeper.

The inner court of the Chancellor’s Residence.

Even at this late hour, countless lamps still shone brightly.

“Which one is the Chancellor’s wife’s quarters?”

That was the place Neung Je-gang sought.

The one person missing from the Field Agents Bureau information was the Chancellor’s wife.

What made it even stranger was that records of the Chancellor’s concubines were complete.

If it had been omitted simply because it concerned women, the concubines should have been absent too.

When you didn’t know the layout, there was no choice but to wear out your feet.

He moved from building to building, listening to people’s conversations.

From maids and servants’ trivial chatter to the Chancellor’s concubine’s affair with a servant, the voices drifting from all directions showed that even this small space was a world turned upside down.

“This is it.”

At last, from a large building standing slightly apart, he caught the words “Old Madam.”

If the Chancellor’s parents were not alive, there was only one person who could be addressed that way.

Neung Je-gang went there and slipped into the space between the ceiling and the roof, settling in.

He lay back and loosened his tension.

He was prepared to live like this for days.

That night, a visitor came to the Chancellor’s wife’s quarters.

Unexpectedly, the visitor was the Field Agents Lord.

“Elder brother, what brings you here?”

The Chancellor’s wife addressed him as elder brother, an unmistakably intimate form.

Neung Je-gang tilted his head at her voice.

He’d heard it somewhere before—again.

“The Director has drawn someone in from the martial world.”

“Is that so?”

The Chancellor’s wife didn’t look particularly surprised. Was it nothing to her?

“He’s a young one called Secret Shadow. Have you heard of him?”

The Field Agents Lord seemed flustered by her indifference.

“Secret Shadow? Oh? I see. Of course I’ve heard of him.”

“You have?”

His expression shifted with every flicker of her reaction.

“Yes. I’ve even seen him once before. Hohohoho!”

“So-hee?”

Listening from above, Neung Je-gang nearly sprang up.

The woman named So-hee—the proprietress of Taepyeong Pavilion in Luoyang, who had vanished—had transformed into the Chancellor’s wife.

With that, there was no longer any room to doubt that the Chancellor and the Necromancer Cult were connected.

“This time the Director chose well. Secret Shadow is someone the Cult has been struggling with….”

“Still, I’m always grateful to you, elder brother, for being so attentive.”

At So-hee’s words, the Field Agents Lord’s mouth fell open in a grin.

“Rest here tonight. The girls will serve you well.”

“Thank you.”

The Field Agents Lord rose quickly and left.

Neung Je-gang let out a bitter smile.

So-hee was So-hee, all right.

Even while occupying the Chancellor’s wife’s seat, she seemed to be secretly running a pleasure house within the Chancellor’s Residence.

It might even be that Taepyeong Pavilion had moved here in its entirety.

Clink—

“Did you call for me?”

“Send in two girls for the Field Agents Lord. He earned merit by being the first to report that Secret Shadow has appeared.”

“Understood.”

“And send word to the Mountain. Tell them Secret Shadow has appeared in Beijing. Include my message as well—this time, they must catch him.”

“Understood.”

So-hee seemed to have seized far greater power than before.

“Secret Shadow… You helped me by making that fox-bitch in the Black Alliance swallow her pride, and now I have to call people to catch you. Hohoho! If you show up right in front of me, I’d hug you once before you die. Hohohoho!”

Just thinking about Neung Je-gang seemed to excite So-hee; she twisted her body in delighted wriggles.

Neung Je-gang, if it were up to his temper, wanted to smash through the ceiling, drop down, and slap her across the face.

But not yet.

Now that he knew the Chancellor’s wife was So-hee, the information he could extract from this place was endless.

He could always hit her after he squeezed every last secret out first.