WeTried Translations
Translator: ZERO_SUGAR
Editor: Abstract
Discord: https://dsc.gg/wetried
Chapter 104: Hidden Weapons (2)
──────
‘Could it be?’
Academy Director Do Jeong-myeong stared at Vice-Master Dan Pil-hu in surprise.
Dan Pil-hu’s words had completely turned the situation around.
If only Inspector Censor No Ik-bong had died, they could have used it as a pretext to pressure Mumu and gain all manner of leverage.
After all, Mumu was the only one who could have influenced No Ik-bong’s death.
But the situation had changed.
‘Hah...’
Do Jeong-myeong knew for certain that Dan Pil-hu had arranged this.
It was a move unbecoming of someone from the force of justice, but it was a brilliant one.
A forest was the perfect place to hide a tree.
With No Ik-bong and the officers guarding his quarters all dead, suspicion had been lifted from Mumu, and it had become difficult to pin the academy administration down.
‘Vice-Master, you truly...’
An old memory suddenly came to mind.
Back when Changcheon Martial Academy had first been founded, Do Jeong-myeong had spoken to Hong Hwa-yun, the Southern Blade Imperial Uncle, who had wanted to recruit Dan Pil-hu.
["Imperial Uncle Hong. Dan Pil-hu, Audit Department Head of the Martial Artists' Association, is an ambitious man. You know how many people were stained with blood by his schemes during his days in the shadow agency. How can you..."]
["That is why he is suited for it."]
["Suited for it?"]
["The Mighty Conqueror Council has fallen, and an age of justice has arrived, but there is no telling how long it will last."]
["Then why?"]
["Only someone who has lived in muddy water knows muddy water. With Dan Pil-hu’s skill, he will be of great help to the academy no matter what happens."]
The Southern Blade Imperial Uncle’s foresight had proven true.
As someone who valued righteousness and moral principle, Do Jeong-myeong could never have used such a method.
It was a brilliant move that only Dan Pil-hu could make.
‘...Vice-Master.’
Yu Jin-sung, Mumu’s adoptive older brother and an Inspector Censor, was equally shocked inwardly.
Who would have thought Vice-Master Dan Pil-hu would use such a method?
["Do not step into the mud. Matters like this are this Vice-Master’s specialty."]
Had Dan Pil-hu not said that, Yu Jin-sung might never have realized.
Yet those words let Yu Jin-sung understand that Dan Pil-hu had dismantled Left Assistant Censor O Mu-yang’s trap with the same kind of underhanded trick.
Even Yu Jin-sung, with his upright nature, would not have chosen such a method.
‘He is telling me not to interfere.’
Yu Jin-sung understood why Dan Pil-hu had quietly given him that warning.
At present, Dan Pil-hu was the only one who could match the Left Assistant Censor in a battle of schemes.
“...”
Left Assistant Censor O Mu-yang silently glared at Dan Pil-hu.
There might have been shrewd people among the force of justice, but O Mu-yang had never expected someone to answer their move in this manner.
It was truly brilliant.
They had not expected every Censorate officer guarding No Ik-bong to be killed.
O Mu-yang had acted carefully at every stage, assuming they were under surveillance, yet Dan Pil-hu had broken their scheme in this way.
‘Dan Pil-hu. You would suit this side better.’
He was troublesome.
Thanks to him, they had lost their pretext for excluding Mumu.
Instead, the situation had turned into one where they needed to root out the spies still inside the academy.
And with things like this...
“Left Assistant Censor, why are Censorate officers surrounding Cadet Mumu?”
“That is...”
As expected, Dan Pil-hu seized on that point.
The Vice-Master glanced at Academy Director Do Jeong-myeong.
As if they had coordinated in advance, Do Jeong-myeong answered.
“Ah, Vice-Master. Chief Clerk Jong Gak of the Imperial Palace Medical Bureau said that Inspector Censor No Ik-bong’s wounds from his fight with Cadet Mumu had flared up, causing his death. They were attempting to arrest him.”
Dan Pil-hu raised his voice.
“Hah. What are you saying? Not only Inspector Censor No Ik-bong, but all four Censorate officers guarding that place are dead. How could a cadet suddenly become an officer killer? How could the Medical Bureau push matters in such a direction?”
“What are you saying? Are you claiming that this chief clerk gave a false report?”
Dan Pil-hu tilted his head and pressed on.
“Then what exactly did you see? Why did Chief Clerk Jong Gak come here alone and accuse a cadet while every officer guarding the quarters suffered such a tragedy? Could it be that you are involved with the spies...”
“Spies? What are you...!”
Swoosh!
As Chief Clerk Jong Gak panicked and tried to explain, the Left Assistant Censor raised a hand, stopping them from saying any more.
With so many eyes watching, letting Jong Gak speak further would only make things more complicated.
‘Dan Pil-hu.’
O Mu-yang’s brow twitched.
This person was as skilled in plots and underhanded tricks as anyone.
The situation had already tilted against them.
O Mu-yang could guess that Dan Pil-hu had killed the officers, but could not expose that fact here.
Doing so would mean admitting they had deliberately acted against No Ik-bong.
‘There is no choice.’
O Mu-yang glanced at the unconscious Kang Mu-i.
They had wanted to place him in their debt, but acting now would also carry great risk.
Clack!
The Left Assistant Censor raised a hand and spoke.
“Arrest Chief Clerk Jong Gak of the Medical Bureau at once!”
“Yes, sir!”
As soon as the order was given, the officers who had been surrounding Mumu instead surrounded Chief Clerk Jong Gak and moved to arrest them.
“Left...”
Jong Gak looked stunned for a moment, but after meeting O Mu-yang’s cold gaze, they submitted without resistance.
Academy Director Do Jeong-myeong stepped forward and asked, “Why are you arresting Chief Clerk Jong Gak?”
“They deceived this office with false information and attempted to frame an innocent cadet. They may be working with the spies, so I intend to arrest them and conduct a thorough investigation.”
‘They made the first move.’
Do Jeong-myeong clicked their tongue inwardly.
O Mu-yang was no easy opponent either.
With so many people watching, they were severing the connection in advance, making it clear that they had nothing to do with Jong Gak.
Dan Pil-hu stroked his beard and spoke.
“Left Assistant Censor, your authority must be remarkable. In a situation like this, most people would protest their innocence or offer some sort of explanation, whether guilty or not. Yet the instant Chief Clerk Jong Gak met your eyes, they could not even make a peep.”
It sounded like praise, but it was clearly mockery.
Dan Pil-hu was deliberately provoking O Mu-yang, trying to force them to act.
The Left Assistant Censor’s eyes narrowed.
‘This mad dog is going to keep biting until the end.’
‘Did this lone gambler, Dan Pil-hu, seem like someone who would let go so easily?’
Their eyes traded a brief exchange.
O Mu-yang gave a light snort, then led the Censorate officers away.
Yu Jin-sung also had to follow, since he belonged to the Censorate.
Before leaving, though, he made a request of Dan Pil-hu.
“While pursuing a suspicious cadet, Hae Ryang was severely injured. My younger brother Yu Jin-hyeok and Mo Il-hwa, the daughter of the Minister of Justice, are guarding him outside the infirmary. Vice-Master, please see to it.”
A glint appeared in Dan Pil-hu’s eyes.
That information alone told him that the enemy’s reach still lurked within the academy.
Dan Pil-hu quietly nodded.
“Do not worry. More importantly, will you be all right?”
He was more concerned about Yu Jin-sung.
Left Assistant Censor O Mu-yang was deliberately orchestrating matters.
Every Censorate officer was part of the same group.
Yet judging by the situation, Yu Jin-sung, who could be called a true investigator, knew nothing about it.
Put simply, he was putting his head into a snake’s jaws.
“You are suffering by being caught in the middle.”
“Do not worry about me. Please take care of my younger brothers.”
“Understood.”
After leaving that request behind, Yu Jin-sung followed O Mu-yang.
Once Yu Jin-sung was gone, Dan Pil-hu looked at Mumu with puzzlement.
The reason he had used the methods from his shadow agency days for the first time in a long while was because he had feared Mumu might lose control and clash with the officials.
Yet why was Mumu sitting there so uncharacteristically quietly, looking deep in thought?
‘...Did that brat eat something strange?’
* * *
Academy Director’s office.
“Hah...”
Academy Director Do Jeong-myeong let out a heavy sigh while looking at Dan Pil-hu, seated across from them.
After the earlier incident, they had heard a detailed account from Master Dan Baek-yeon, Tang So-so, and Mumu, from the collapse of the Old Teaching Hall to everything involving Kang Mu-i.
They had also learned that the death of Young Chun, the third disciple of the Eastern River Sword Sage, might be connected to those behind the arson incident.
“I apologize for not informing you in advance.”
At Dan Pil-hu’s apology, Do Jeong-myeong shook their head.
“Even I would have done the same. If there are still spies within the academy who need to be rooted out, then naturally the information must be kept to a minimum.”
“Thank you for saying so.”
“But the fact that spies were mixed in among the cadets has put us in the most difficult situation.”
Tracing information back to its source was even harder with cadets than with masters.
Unlike the academy’s hired staff and masters, most cadets had been selected solely for their martial talent, regardless of status.
The enemy had exploited Changcheon Martial Academy’s entrance examination.
“Then may I ask something of you, Academy Director?”
“What is it?”
“Please leave the handling of this matter to me.”
“To the Vice-Master?”
“Yes. The Imperial Palace has clearly revealed its intent to intervene through this incident. If there are spies among the cadets as well, responding according to procedure and rules is meaningless.”
“...”
Do Jeong-myeong found it difficult to deny that.
Dan Pil-hu had put it mildly by speaking of procedure and rules, but the Academy Director understood that he was pointing to a problem with their methods.
‘We must answer schemes with schemes?’
The Imperial Palace Censorate and the spies were tightening their grip around the academy through plots.
Perhaps the person best suited to this was not the Academy Director or the Discipline Bureau, but Dan Pil-hu, who had worked in the shadow agency and the Martial Artists' Association Audit Department, navigating countless schemes and political struggles.
Do Jeong-myeong clasped their hands in salute.
“Vice-Master, I will entrust this matter to you.”
“I will live up to your expectations.”
Dan Pil-hu returned the salute with clasped hands.
Things had gone as Mumu requested.
["Vice-Master... could you leave learning something from Kang Mu-i to me?"]
["Kang Mu-i?"]
["Yes."]
Dan Pil-hu did not know why Mumu had made that request, but there seemed to be something between Mumu and Kang Mu-i.
That was why he had taken full authority over handling this incident.
He did not know what lay between them, but if everything remained under his control, he could respond quickly if trouble arose.
‘Mumu. You must hurry.’
Though he had been entrusted with the matter, the situation was urgent.
Before the Eastern River Sword Sage arrived at Changcheon Martial Academy, Dan Pil-hu needed to make Kang Mu-i confess who had truly killed Young Chun.
‘Then shall I handle one matter of my own?’
There was one urgent problem that needed dealing with.
Gaining authority over this matter was not solely for Mumu’s sake.
Dan Pil-hu’s lips curled into a sharp smile.
* * *
“Hae Ryang...”
Mumu’s expression darkened as he looked at Hae Ryang, who still had not regained consciousness.
He had never expected the person who followed Ha Ryun to end up like this.
If he had known, he should have gone with Hae Ryang then.
“This is my fault.”
Grip!
Jin-hyeok placed a hand on Mumu’s shoulder.
“It is not your fault. It is everyone’s responsibility.”
“That’s right. It is not your fault. If we are assigning blame like that, then it is also my fault for telling Hae Ryang to go ahead when he said he would follow someone.”
Mo Il-hwa comforted Mumu as well.
She had been blaming herself too, so she understood how he felt.
Anyone would feel bitter when a friend was hovering between life and death.
Mo Il-hwa held up a sheet of paper covered in writing.
“Instead of sitting here depressed, let’s put our heads together and find the person who did this to Hae Ryang. That way, we can avenge him and catch the real person who killed Young Chun.”
“What is that?”
“It is what Hae Ryang wrote before collapsing. I think he was trying to tell us who tried to kill him.”
Mumu looked at the writing on the paper.
[Jade Medallion... I x... ↑ Il Hyeon]
‘Jade Medallion? I x? Il Hyeon?’
Mumu’s eyes shifted to the Jade Medallion.
Had Hae Ryang heard something about the Jade Medallion while following them?
Mumu touched the Jade Medallion inside the pouch at his waist.
‘Could I really be connected to them?’
It weighed on his mind so heavily that he could not easily mention the Jade Medallion, even to Jin-hyeok and Mo Il-hwa.
Unaware of his thoughts, Mo Il-hwa continued.
“I do not know what the Jade Medallion means, but the character after ‘I’ means ‘kill.’ So it means the person who tried to kill him is in our dorm, Northern Heaven Residence. I do not know what ‘Il Hyeon’ means, though. I checked whether any Northern Heaven Residence cadets had a name like that, but there were none.”
“He must have shortened it because he had almost no strength left. What could it mean?”
At Jin-hyeok’s speculation, Mumu tilted his head.
Why had Hae Ryang written Il Hyeon?
Mo Il-hwa hummed as she repeated the words.
“Me-kill... Northern Heaven Residence... Il Hyeon... Who was he trying to name? Northern Heaven Residence... one...”
Then, perhaps because her nose tickled...
“Achoo!... Hyeon...”
Mumu and Jin-hyeok spoke at the same time.
“Could ‘one’ mean the first floor?”
“I think we need to separate ‘one’ and ‘Hyeon.’”
They looked at each other.
Both had reached a similar conclusion.
Mo Il-hwa’s eyes went wide as she checked the Northern Heaven Residence roster she had received.
She scanned the list for the first floor and kept murmuring names containing Hyeon.
Then...
“First floor, Hyeon... Hyeon... Hyeon... Ja Muk-hyun!”
Ja Muk-hyun’s name left her lips.
He was the only resident of Northern Heaven Residence’s first floor whose name contained Hyeon, and he was also the floor leader of the first floor.
“It is Ja Muk-hyun. It has to be Senior Ja Muk-hyun.”
Mumu seemed to remember something as well.
“Ah... now that I think about it, I think Senior Ja Muk-hyun said Master Sa Mu-heo was his assigned master.”
That was information he had heard from Secret Agent No. 2.
Mo Il-hwa clapped her hands together and spoke excitedly.
“Now it all fits. Sa Mu-heo, the mastermind behind the arson, is his assigned master. If Hae Ryang’s clue is right, then Senior Ja Muk-hyun was the one who tried to kill him.”
Jin-hyeok sprang to his feet.
“I do not know about the Jade Medallion, but now that we know who the culprit is, we need to catch him.”
Mumu grabbed Jin-hyeok’s sleeve.
Jin-hyeok looked at him in confusion.
Mumu reached into the pouch at his waist.
“Before that, there is something I need to tell you both.”
“Something to tell us?”
Mumu hesitated briefly, then took something out of the pouch.
They were the Jade Medallion he had worn since he was a baby and the Jade Medallion taken from Kang Mu-i.
[Mumu]
[Mui]
“I think the Jade Medallion Hae Ryang wrote about... is this.”
‘!?’
Mo Il-hwa and Jin-hyeok stared back and forth between the Jade Medallions and Mumu, their eyes wide.
* * *
Changcheon Martial Academy’s holding cell.
Creeeak!
Sa Mu-heo, who had been lying with his eyes closed, opened them at the sound.
When he shifted his eyes, he saw Vice-Master Dan Pil-hu entering the holding cell.
Sa Mu-heo spoke when he saw him.
“Have you come to see my face one last time?”
Dan Pil-hu’s eyes turned cold at those words.
Sa Mu-heo sneered inwardly at the sight.
Dan Pil-hu was burning with anger at him for pinning the blame on others and killing his retainers.
But Sa Mu-heo had acted first.
King Jin, the person currently holding power in the country, had personally ordered that Sa Mu-heo be escorted away.
Even if Dan Pil-hu wanted to interrogate him and exact revenge, it was already too late.
“You are good at slipping away from everything.”
“...”
Sa Mu-heo gave no answer, as usual.
Remaining silent would only frustrate Dan Pil-hu further.
Dan Pil-hu snorted at him.
Then...
Swoosh!
He placed a palm beneath Sa Mu-heo’s navel.
‘!?’
Sa Mu-heo’s eyes shook.
That was where the dantian was located.
“What are you...”
Smack!
“Mm!”
Dan Pil-hu covered Sa Mu-heo’s mouth with his other hand.
His lips curled into a cruel smile as he whispered.
“I told you. You had best prepare yourself.”
“Mmph! Mmph!”
“Did you think this Vice-Master would leave behind such a loose end? King Jin ordered that the criminal be escorted away. He never said not to touch your dantian.”
Crunch!
The moment he finished speaking, Dan Pil-hu’s fingers dug into Sa Mu-heo’s abdomen.
Sa Mu-heo’s eyes bulged as though they would burst, and veins rose across his entire body.
“Mmghhh!”
As Sa Mu-heo writhed in agony, Dan Pil-hu sneered into his ear.
“You provoked the wrong person. I promise you this. I will drag in every bastard connected to you, one by one, and crush them all.”
Footnotes:
Join our discord at https://dsc.gg/wetried
