Byeon Hak-do punishing an official with flogging for the sake of commoners.
It was an action impossible to believe from a man who had, until now, stood on the same side as them and fattened his own belly by sucking the blood of commoners.
THWACK—!
“Three strokes—”
Even then, the flogging continued.
In the end, even after Special Military Officer Woo Hoe-jung, who was said to be more frightening than ghosts, could not endure it and fainted in a hideous state with his eyes rolled back, the flogging continued, only ending after exactly eighty strokes had been filled.
Jeong Yu-bong bit his lip. His body trembled at the thought that came upon him like instinct.
He had to decide here.
Would he pull his feet out around now?
Or would he follow that man as he was?
He had no particular interest in patriotism or love for the people. He himself was a petty bastard under heaven, satisfied as long as he could live with his own body safe and comfortable.
To begin with, would anyone with a properly functioning mind have served and followed that piece of human garbage as a superior for more than ten years?
In other words, even if he was not as bad as Byeon Hak-do, he too was nothing but ordinary trash with nothing to boast of.
‘But.’
On the off chance.
If he might not have to be trash......
A voice he had kept ignoring all this time whispered from deep inside his heart.
The reason he had not left Byeon Hak-do’s side all this time, despite the man being greedy, having a filthy temper, being outrageously womanizing, and being a piece of human garbage, was that Byeon Hak-do’s mind was brilliant enough to surpass all those flaws.
Passing the higher state examination as the top scorer at sixteen was not something just anyone could do. Moreover, the lightning-fast promotions that continued after that were not possible with family background alone.
In truth, if only his character had been proper, he was a bastard who could have aimed for even higher places......
No, a man who could have.
While Jeong Yu-bong was organizing his thoughts, Byeon Hak-do glanced at Woo Hoe-jung, who had fainted in a bloody mess, and opened his mouth.
“Listen.”
At his single short word, the murmuring crowd was swallowed by silence.
“I intend to carry out the duty of patrol and defense bestowed by His Majesty. Therefore, in recognition of Seong Chun-hyang’s great merit in taking the lead to deal with all Dire Species that appeared during this Dire Gate incident and sealing the Dire Gate, I appoint her here and now as a temporary Special Military Officer.”
At Byeon Hak-do’s words, the people’s gazes turned anew toward Chun-hyang.
What soaked the torn and ragged hem of her skirt was clearly the black blood of Dire Species. Moreover, from the beautiful face of Chun-hyang, famed as Namwon’s greatest beauty, there faintly emanated a cold aura, and no one dared open their mouth.
Byeon Hak-do continued to the quietly silent crowd.
“Also, the by-products of the Chief harvested from this Dire Gate will be discussed again tomorrow. Clerk Jeong.”
At Byeon Hak-do’s voice calling him, Jeong Yu-bong quickly popped forward and bowed his head to him.
“Yes, yes, my lord.”
“Consult with the six offices and provide Special Military Officer Seong with what she needs. Move that to the front yard of the barracks and make a careful record of its shape and condition. Begin processing it as soon as day breaks tomorrow.”
“Yes, my lord.”
After confirming Jeong Yu-bong’s answer, Byeon Hak-do looked around and spoke.
“Are there any among those gathered here who will lend a hand in moving the Chief to the barracks? Later, wages will be paid with the by-products collected from the Chief, so those who wish to help should raise their hands.”
“!!!!”
“Th-that kind of thing!!”
“Is that true!?”
At Byeon Hak-do’s words, the surroundings stirred greatly.
It was only natural. By-products from Dire Species fetched whatever price one named because of their outstanding durability.
And now, he was saying he would share by-products not from an ordinary species, but from a Chief.
“Me, I’ll do it, right here!!”
“Me too! Me too!!”
“I can do it too!!”
Seeing people competing to raise their hands, whether men, women, adults, or children, Byeon Hak-do grinned.
Because that smile somehow truly looked like the smile of a proper local magistrate looking upon commoners, Jeong Yu-bong forced down the corners of his mouth as they tried to rise on their own.
‘This is not bad.’
Good heavens, to think the day would come when he thought that damned lord’s smile was not disgusting.
Perhaps...... perhaps he might not have to live like trash again.
As if afraid someone might read his thoughts, Jeong Yu-bong deliberately rushed even more busily toward the people crowding around Byeon Hak-do.
***
East Hall of Namwon Protectorate.
“So, what is it that you want to say?”
I sat crookedly in my chair and looked over the faces of the six offices lined up in the East Hall courtyard.
Starting with the goat-bearded Personnel Clerk, that is, Scholar Yi, the faces of the six offices in charge of Namwon Protectorate’s practical administration stood in a row with their heads bowed.
Were the by-products harvested from the Dire Gate being handled properly as instructed? What was the condition of the barracks? How were the subordinate counties and surrounding towns reacting? Even without this, there was a mountain of things I had to confirm.
And yet, the working officials who should each have been busy carrying out all those tasks had gathered in the East Hall from the early morning and were standing there saying they had something to say.
There was no way I could be in a good mood.
Perhaps flustered for a moment by my attitude, which was expressing with my entire body that I was displeased right now, the hesitant Personnel Clerk cleared his throat and opened his mouth.
“Ahem, hm. Th-that is to say...... we cannot continue like this, my lord.”
As soon as the Personnel Clerk finished speaking, the other five offices bowed their heads all at once.
I quietly stared at the six heads lowered as if they might touch the ground, then slowly raised my upper body from where I had been leaning against the backrest and said,
“You cannot continue?”
A full strike by the working officials two days after I took office.
I had expected it, but they must have been rather desperate.
I muttered inwardly as I looked down at the six heads gathered close together.
Even if a magistrate with upright thoughts took office, the difficulty of correcting the bad customs and old practices rampant in the provinces did not lie elsewhere.
In truth, real power was held not by the magistrate, but by the six offices standing before my eyes—in other words, by the petty local clerks.
If the men who had a firm grasp on local administration declared a full strike, it was no different from saying they would cut off all my hands and feet from now on and turn me into a scarecrow.
In other words, this was a kind of battle of nerves.
Since I had shaken the board on a large scale, now it was their turn.
Judging by the signs, if they left things as they were, they probably thought their own turn would come next, so they intended to strike first.
But what a pity.
“Shall I hear your reason?”
I asked quietly, my eyes shining.
Whether it was a battle of nerves,
Or a dogfight.
I had never lost one.
When I smiled brightly at the Personnel Clerk whose eyes met mine, his face went pale.
Tap.
Tap.
Tap.
Only the sound of the folding fan in my hand tapping against the armrest of the chair echoed across the wide East Hall courtyard. Perhaps because it bothered them greatly that this was the very folding fan that had crushed a Special Military Officer’s nose, six pairs of eyes were moving up and down, following the tip of the folding fan I held.
For all the nerve they had shown by storming in from dawn and abruptly declaring a full strike, the six faces somehow seemed full of fear. I looked over each of them one by one, then slowly opened my mouth.
“So, your argument is that if distributing the by-products of Dire Species to commoners becomes customary, they will abandon their livelihoods and chase only Dire Gates, causing the regional economy to fall into ruin. Is that it?”
At my question, the Personnel Clerk nodded his head vigorously up and down and answered.
“Th-that is correct. Commoners naturally have livelihoods they ought to pursue, and on the basis of those livelihoods, do they not bear the duty of tribute tax to the state? If such people refuse their livelihoods and chase only Dire Gates, the harm will return entirely as a decrease in tax revenue, and if tax revenue decreases—”
“Then you will no longer be able to fatten your pockets?”
When I asked back without even hearing him to the end, the Personnel Clerk jumped and waved his hands.
“N-no, that is not what I meant......”
“If not, are you saying that by-products of Dire Species are something we should have divided among ourselves in the first place, and if I give them all to the commoners, we will have nothing but our fingers to suck on? Is that what this is?”
When I made it even more explicit, the Personnel Clerk now shook his head violently while sweating cold sweat.
“Th-that is not it either......”
“If not that either, then is this something like, ‘You joined us in stripping them bare, yet now you are pretending you did not, and that is utterly outrageous, so if you do not want to see us cut open our bellies and make trouble, you had better make your position clear now’? Is that it?”
“Th-that is not so! We were only concerned that you may find yourself in a difficult situation going forward, my lord—”
“Did it not occur to you that I would have no difficulty if only you lot did not come out like this?”
“Th-that is......”
I looked for a moment at the Personnel Clerk as he mumbled, as if I had struck the mark, then swept my gaze over the other five and asked,
“Enough. Who was the Works Clerk again?”
“W-Works Clerk Jo Deok-hun greets the Lord Magistrate.”
“What items can be made from the by-products taken from the Dire Species harvested this time?”
From the corpse of a Dire Species, even a piece of claw or a strand of fur could be turned into money. And the management of by-products harvested from Dire Species was the Works Clerk’s responsibility.
Of course, that was only in name. In reality, the Works Office did not have many opportunities to handle by-products of Dire Species. To begin with, Dire Gates that appeared in Namwon Protectorate were closed in one of two ways: by commoners through human sacrifice, or by ruffians they hired with money they had gathered.
In the former case, there was no opportunity to collect corpses of Dire Species in the first place, and in the latter, the ruffians took everything as their wages...... so likewise, the Works Office had no room to step in.
“Th-that has not yet been ascertained—”
I knew it.
I sighed inwardly and called the next bastard.
“Military Clerk.”
“Y-yes. Military Clerk Yi Jung-dal greets the Magistr—”
“Have you identified how many commoners listed for military service have experience suppressing Dire Species?”
“Th-that is, there are probably none......”
This too was as expected.
Next.
“Rites Clerk.”
“Yes, Rites Clerk Bak Chung greets the Magist—”
“What is the current status of ritual goods that are supposed to be paid to the families of those sacrificed to close Dire Gates?”
“Th-that, that is, because their number is so vast......”
“Did you pay them at all?”
“That is, because the tax revenue collected is far too insufficient to pay them all......”
“Revenue Clerk.”
“R-Revenue Clerk Kim Dal-pae.”
“How many people in Namwon Protectorate owe tribute tax?”
“Th-that is, last summer, a flood came during the drought, so the number greatly decreased—”
“A flood, during a drought?”
“Th-that is, I mean, that is not......”
“Justice Clerk.”
“Y-yes, yes, my lord.”
“What did I say I would do with the crime of negligence?”
At my words, all six men’s faces turned blue. Their reaction made it clear they had not expected me to openly bring up ‘that matter’ against them, no matter what.
“Th-that......”
“Do not mumble. Answer accurately.”
When I urged the Justice Clerk, who was opening and closing his mouth with a deathly pale face, he mumbled with a face that looked about to cry.
“E-eighty strokes of heavy flogging.”
“You all heard that, did you not?”
When I tried to rise from my seat, the startled Revenue Clerk cried out as if shrieking.
“Oh my, my lord!!! I-I-I had no intention of joining them from the beginning. I merely came to pay my respects to the Magistrate. S-since I have seen your honored face, I shall now take my leave.”
Before anyone could say anything, the Revenue Clerk fled without looking back. The Works Clerk, who had been blankly watching his back, quietly stepped backward.
“Th-this lowly one also has work piled up, so I shall be going now.”
“I-I too must check the ledgers, so...... I-I shall excuse myself.”
“Oh my, Rites Clerk, my friend, should we not look at those ledgers together? Let us go together, together!!”
The Justice Clerk, who had been watching for a chance, ran after the Works Clerk and Rites Clerk. At that, the Military Clerk, who had lost the contest of reading the room, rolled his eyes and suddenly shouted.
“The barracks!! Th-this humble servant was on his way to the barracks!!”
Who said anything?
Before I could say a word, the Military Clerk bowed and ran off as he was. Left behind was only the Personnel Clerk, who had clearly taken the lead because he had been unable to resist everyone’s pressure from the start.
“Th-that is, that is to say. That is......”
I stared at the Personnel Clerk, who could only open and close his mouth with a pale face, unable to find words, then slowly opened my mouth.
“The Personnel Clerk has had it hard.”
“I-I have committed a crime worthy of death...... Pardon? Wh-what did you just......”
The Personnel Clerk, who had been about to prostrate himself and beg, looked up at me with a dazed expression.
I said it to him once more.
“I said the Personnel Clerk has had it hard.”
“Pardo-on?”
“I already know roughly how things work with local clerks. From what I have experienced, wherever one goes, every time a new magistrate comes, the one who suffers to death is the Personnel Clerk.”
The Personnel Clerk’s eyes widened as if he had never expected me to say something like that.
“If you suit the new magistrate’s temper well, they will whisper that you are flattering him to survive on your own. If the timing goes badly, like this time, they will badger you as if they are ready to eat you alive. Even if you barely gather everyone’s opinions and bring them all to one place, once things go wrong, everyone will busy themselves fleeing separately and pretending it has nothing to do with them. In the end, will cleaning that up not fall to the Personnel Clerk again?”
Wherever one went, middle managers had a hard life.
The Personnel Clerk, who had been listening to me with a blank face as if he could not believe what he was hearing, soon began twitching his goat beard.
“......H-hic.”
“S-see here.”
No, I did not mean he could cry.
“Huuuuuh, my lord, my lord. Huuuh, huuuh.”
Was Scholar Yi in the original work such an emotional person?
No, that was not it. This damned world only shared the same names; it did not resemble The Tale of Chunhyang I knew even by a hair, so there was no reason the Personnel Clerk had to be like that.
Still, this was a bit......
“Huuuuuh, my lord. To think you understand in such detail the difficulties of a single local clerk like this lowly student, huuuh.”
......Stop, please. I was just trying to coax you a little while I had the chance.
Do not be that moved. It is embarrassing.
“Those lowborn bastards—no, sniff. I mean, the local clerks did not know their place and dared to encourage me to test the Lord Magistrate’s capacity, so—”
“They told you to test me?”
“Sniff. Th-that is, because the sight you showed us yesterday was so, well, shocking.”
“So, words passed around that before it was too late, they should try to break my spirit?”
“Th-that is......”
At my words, I saw Scholar Yi unable to bring himself to answer, only rolling his eyes.
“It is fine. I told you, did I not? I know enough about how this works.”
“I-I said it that way, but they truly did not intend to completely put down their work.”
“I expect so.”
I leaned crookedly back in my chair and let the silence draw out for a moment before opening my mouth again.
“I may not know much else, but I do have a fairly accurate eye for people. And somehow, I feel as if the Personnel Clerk and I can communicate.”
At that, the Personnel Clerk, who quickly noticed my intention, stepped one pace closer and asked,
“Do you have any o-order for me......?”
Facing the Personnel Clerk as he looked up at me with eyes that had not yet fully lowered their guard, I continued.
“In truth, human affairs are not things that can be carried out rigidly according to rules, are they?”
“......”
“A capable local clerk is one who understands the logic of how things flow. Stubbornly following the rules alone is not always the best method.”
“Th-that means.”
The Personnel Clerk’s face loosened slightly as he grasped the meaning hidden between the lines.
It was only natural.
After all, I had openly declared that I would overlook a certain degree of corruption.
I observed his face carefully, then added one more thing.
“But as the Personnel Clerk knows, everything has its ‘proper degree,’ does it not?”
I asked the Personnel Clerk, whose shoulders flinched.
“Tell me. In your eyes, who has crossed that proper degree?”
At my question, the startled Personnel Clerk only rolled his eyes. He seemed to be calculating the profit and loss of sticking with me or not.
After remaining silent for a moment, the Personnel Clerk soon swallowed dryly as if he had made up his mind and opened his mouth.
“Th-that is—”
***
In other words.
‘Everyone is bloodshot trying to grab a share, without exception.’
I muttered inwardly as I organized what I had just heard from the Personnel Clerk.
Driving the six offices into a corner, dividing them, and extracting internal information from one of them was a tactic Byeon Hak-do enjoyed using. It was a bit underhanded, but its effect was certainly reliable.
Indeed, Byeon Hak-do’s mind was extraordinary.
The proof was that, despite his trash-like character, he had passed through important posts and was running along the path of promotion.
It felt as if even the stats that should have gone into his character had been poured entirely into his brain.
In any case, thanks to that division, I was able to obtain important information this time as well.
The Works Clerk was doing backroom dealings with fences. The Revenue Clerk was intercepting substitute payments for military service obligations. The Military Clerk was in league with the ruffians. The Rites Clerk had fattened his own pockets with the shares that should have gone to those sacrificed as offerings.
Well, if one dug into the Personnel Clerk himself, he would surely have his own shady corners.
But what was urgent for now was reorganizing the system to block Dire Gates, which burst open at all times and places.
Of course, replacing all six offices wholesale with new people could be one method, but there was no guarantee that the newly arrived people would be more honest than the ones now.
If it would be the same old vegetables in the same old rice anyway, it was much better to recycle the existing personnel who already possessed administrative capacity.
‘The problem is whom to recycle first, and how......’
While I leaned back in my chair and sank into thought for a moment, a loud noise came from outside the Three Gates.
“This is terrible! Something terrible has happened!!!”
A personal attendant I had sent to the barracks came running in as if rolling and shouted.
“What in the world happened that you are making such a fuss!”
When the Personnel Clerk shouted with a fairly dignified face, the attendant flinched at the scolding, bent at the waist until his head nearly touched the ground, and said,
“A-a fight has broken out at the barracks.”
“At the barracks?”
While the Personnel Clerk tilted his head and asked back, I rose from my seat and strode forward.
“My lord?”
“What are you doing? Lead the way.”
“Pardon? Yes! Yes, yes!!!”
The attendant startled, looked at me once, startled again, hurriedly bowed his head, then turned around and began leaving the East Hall.
“M-my lord?”
“Did you not hear him? A fight has broken out at the barracks. We must go at once.”
“M-my lord, shall we prepare a palanquin, a palanquin—”
“What palanquin for going that short distance? Personnel Clerk, you follow quickly too.”
“My lord? My loooord!!!”
Letting the Personnel Clerk’s voice following behind me flow past my ears, I began running after the attendant.
Chun-hyang should be at the barracks right now. The only place large enough to place the Chief’s corpse was the training yard of the barracks, so I had ordered it moved there and told her to keep an eye on it for a while.
If I had not wasted time in a battle of nerves with the six offices, I would have been there too.
‘It seems pests gathered there because they could not even wait that long.’
That would not do, not at all.
How hard had I worked to bring in that rookie? If she says on her first day that the job is too hard and quits, are you bastards going to take responsibility?
With anxiety gripping me, I pushed my running speed faster.