Even Theft Needs Teamwork (1)

“Her Highness Princess Jang-ok has arrived.”

Neung Je-gang still had not been able to leave the Eastern Depot. He had promised to remain until the new Director took office. Thanks to that, he had obtained a great deal of important information he had been eager to learn.

Yet the one thing he most wanted—anything about Dam Ja-cheon, his daughter, and the blood calamity that had befallen their household—yielded no information at all.

“What happened to what we asked the Martial Alliance to look into? Once things here are done, I should stop by the Martial Alliance. But if I go there, they might order me to do something weird again… Maybe I should just find Elder Shingae myself?”

It might actually be easier to go directly to the Beggar’s Sect and investigate. Back when he was only Secret Shadow, meeting Elder Shingae would not have been easy, but now he had a gold plaque that signified the Eastern Depot General Inspector of Imperial Edicts.

“And how far has the back-tracing progressed—figuring out where the culprits in the Director incident came from and what route they used to enter Beijing?”

Whenever people moved, traces were always left behind. Especially if as many as four were moving, there would be even more traces and witnesses. If he tracked those backward, he could learn where they had come from.

That kind of reverse-tracing was an advanced technique no one could even attempt unless they were specialists or an intelligence organization like the Eastern Depot.

“If I learn which mountain it is, dealing with the Necromancer Cult will get a little easier.”

All of the Necromancer Cult’s masters were gathered in a place simply called “the Mountain.” If he eliminated them, the rest would be rabble. As long as he did not let the Cult Leader slip away like before, he could uproot them entirely.

He was thinking that when Princess Jang-ok barged in out of nowhere.

Hustle—hustle.

The people working beside Neung Je-gang sprang to their feet, flustering as they cleared and organized documents.

“Phew.”

Neung Je-gang also rose and straightened his posture. This was what was bad about being close to the imperial palace—too many high-ranking people. They came to bother you at all hours.

And now Princess Jang-ok too?

Neung Je-gang worried she might pick a fight over the past.

“Well, I already confirmed her temperament is decent. She wouldn’t… right?”

“What are you thinking so hard about?”

While Neung Je-gang was having those thoughts, Princess Jang-ok was already inside.

“Yes? Ah—this humble one greets Your Highness.”

Neung Je-gang offered his greeting belatedly.

Perhaps because of his irreverence, the Eorim Institute guards escorting Princess Jang-ok glared at him with scowls, but Neung Je-gang was not the type to be cowed by that.

Still, the faces of the Eastern Depot Central Plains Headquarters Chief and Yeon Bo-pyeong, the Beijing Branch Chief, turned pale. If Neung Je-gang—who might not know court etiquette well—made a mistake, it could bring great calamity.

“Were you thinking about some woman? To the point you didn’t even notice me coming in…?”

The Princess asked lightly. It was, in her own way, an attempt to soften the atmosphere.

“How did you know? I was indeed thinking of a woman.”

“Th-that so?”

Princess Jang-ok flustered. How could she have known he truly was thinking about a woman?

And even if he had been, wasn’t it polite to deny it?

The people inside felt their stomachs drop. If the Princess got angry here, another bloodstorm would sweep the Eastern Depot.

“That’s right. A woman who screamed while fighting and drank without paying for her liquor—do you happen to know her?”

“Ah…!”

Princess Jang-ok’s face reddened.

“Inspector-General! Do you dare joke with Her Highness?”

An Eorim Institute guard roared at Neung Je-gang. With that answer to the Princess’s question, it could certainly sound like a joke.

“It wasn’t a joke.”

But for Neung Je-gang, it truly was not. He really had been thinking of Princess Jang-ok from that time. The fault lay only in eyes that refused to accept truth as truth.

“Stop it. I know it isn’t a joke.”

“Your Highness!”

The Chief Attendant Court Lady, who had been watching as if the guard’s outburst was only natural, called to Princess Jang-ok.

“Have you been well all this time?”

Ignoring the court lady, the Princess asked Neung Je-gang. It was an intensely personal question, and every pair of eyes in the room went wide.

The Central Plains Headquarters Chief and Yeon Bo-pyeong’s expressions also turned strange. They had never imagined Neung Je-gang had any acquaintance with Princess Jang-ok. Was he not, plainly, a wild man of the Jianghu?

“I have not been well.”

Neung Je-gang answered curtly.

“Why?”

“Look around. Because the Director hasn’t arrived, the work has piled up like mountains. The Beijing Branch Chief asks me to stay until then, but it isn’t my job, so neither my body nor my mind can rest.”

Neung Je-gang pointed at the stacks of documents he had dragged multiple people in to help process. Because of it, the room where the Director once worked alone was now crawling with people.

“Hoho! Then it seems I brought good news at just the right time. His Majesty appointed someone as the Eastern Depot Director.”

“Ah!”

“Oh!”

It was good news. For Neung Je-gang—who was due to leave—it was especially welcome.

A man of the Jianghu being bound to the Eastern Depot like this was abnormal to begin with. It was a burden he had been forced to shoulder after mistakenly accepting that gold plaque.

“Then when will the new Director…?”

“She is already here.”

“She is here?”

Neung Je-gang looked around. But he saw no new face. It couldn’t be one of the Eorim Institute guards, and the court lady was even more out of the question.

“…!”

Then, as he looked around, Neung Je-gang saw something odd. The Princess’s finger was pointing directly at the Princess herself.

“Your Highness…?”

“That’s right. I begged His Majesty to let me do it. So I feel sorry. If I hadn’t stepped in, I heard he was going to promote you to Director….”

“Your Highness!”

Neung Je-gang called out loudly.

“Yes?”

She answered reflexively, startled.

“You did extremely well. That was an exceptionally wise decision, Your Highness!”

Neung Je-gang let out a long breath of relief.

Director—just sitting in that seat temporarily already made his skin crawl and his head ache. If he were formally appointed, he could rot in that place for years, even decades. Princess Jang-ok was practically his new benefactor.

“It’s strange how happy you look. In any case, I won’t be able to hold the post for long. But while I do, I ask you to help me well. And all of you—within these walls, treat me not as a princess, but as the Director.”

News that Princess Jang-ok had become the Eastern Depot Director soon swept through the entire imperial palace. To those who had been keeping the Eastern Depot in check, it was like a bolt of fire from the sky. If they needlessly nitpicked Eastern Depot affairs, they could end up ruined by the Emperor.

Until Princess Jang-ok stepped down from the Director’s seat, it was time to lie low and stay silent as if dead.

Of course, this too was one of the Emperor’s strategies to strengthen imperial authority. If he fully controlled the Eastern Depot, the court could not help but quiet down—so he placed his own blood relative in the position.

After everyone withdrew, only key figures remained in the Director’s office.

“…So we believe the Inspector-General’s senior brother, Neung Je-gang, should be pardoned—and if he is alive, restored.”

Yeon Bo-pyeong and the Central Plains Headquarters Chief kept their promise. They brought up Neung Je-gang’s pardon first.

“Then what happened to that man named Gye Yu?”

“He is still in the prison cells. We will soon put him into the Forbidden Demon Prison.”

“Is that so? Then when you send him there, search for someone named Neung Je-gang as well. If he is alive, you must rescue him.”

“Yes.”

“And I heard that, in truth, the Inspector-General was only a temporary post?”

“That’s correct.”

At last, Neung Je-gang could return the gold plaque. He took it out and extended it forward.

“Headquarters Chief—retrieve the plaque.”

The Central Plains Headquarters Chief quickly took it.

“Then…!”

Now that the plaque had left his hand, Neung Je-gang had no connection to the Eastern Depot. He was no longer Inspector-General, and he returned to being a mere wild man of the martial world.

As Secret Shadow….

Neung Je-gang stood, bowed his head lightly in greeting, and turned to leave. He had been sick of it, but as he actually moved to go, he felt a twinge of regret.

“Wait. I heard Secret Shadow rendered merit by catching the assassins of the Director and the Grand Preceptor. And that you exposed the Chancellor and his group’s conspiracy. His Majesty ordered that you be rewarded—do you have anything you want?”

Those were exactly the words Neung Je-gang had wanted most. It could be said that he came to Beijing and suffered so much for this very moment.

Slide.

Neung Je-gang did not answer with words. He drew a scroll from inside his robe and set it on the table.

“Everything I want is written in here. Then I will take my leave….”

With only that offered, Neung Je-gang walked out. In any case, it was not something he could receive immediately. It was merely the promise he had once made with the late Go Tak, written down.

And the information he needed was already stored in his head, so there was nothing more to ask for.

“Heh heh heh. On the way back, I should start with the Hyunhyeon Clan—the ones who humiliated me last time.”

Sajalim in Suzhou. It was the first place that had blocked his steps after he became Secret Shadow, so he would never forget it.

“Boss!”

As Neung Je-gang was about to leave the Eastern Depot, Cheong Yeon ran up and called to him.

“Huh? What is it?”

“I’m going with you.”

Cheong Yeon approached as he said it.

“What? The Eastern Depot is your calling.”

“Well, after getting a taste of the martial world, I got bored quickly.”

“What about your oath?”

“Even if I’m not in the Eastern Depot, aren’t there many ways to keep an oath? Like your master—catching wokou. And if that doesn’t work, I can hunt bandits. Fighting the Necromancer Cult is fine too.”

“Haha!”

Neung Je-gang laughed at Cheong Yeon’s words. It truly sounded like he had become a martial man through and through.

For both Neung Je-gang and Cheong Yeon, after tasting the waters of the Jianghu, the world had grown too vast to settle inside the small space called the Eastern Depot.

“Did you say you’re quitting?”

“I already got permission from the Branch Chief. I told him I’d leave on the day you leave.”

“Yeah? Then we can just go like this. Let’s go, then.”

“Yes.”

Just like when they came to Beijing, the two of them set out on the road with the same lightness. There was no urgency; they walked slowly as if sightseeing.

“Kyaaak! Kyaak!”

It happened on the way in, and now it happened again on the way out.

“Could that be the Princess again?”

“No. The voice is slightly different.”

“Yeah? Then let’s hurry and check.”

Whoosh—whoosh.

The two of them ran toward where the sound came from.