Namgung Wi was staying in the Clear Wind Pavilion, a detached building within the clan estate.
We sent the guards away and headed straight for the Clear Wind Pavilion.
When we kicked the door open and went in, a man who had been drinking tea by the window turned his head.
“Seol?”
It was a gentle voice.
“And...... even Mister Peng?”
The moment I saw him, my breath caught.
Damn it.
The world wasn't just unfair; it was cruel.
Namgung Wi was a man who truly shone.
A nose as if chiseled.
Eyes like a deep lake.
Clear skin without a single blemish.
Even the way he sat was like a painting.
He was such a handsome man that even my heart thumped, and I was a man too.
With a face like that, he's a murderer?
That makes no sense in terms of physiognomy.
No, don't be fooled.
The prettier the flower, the more poison it has.
I forced down my inferiority complex and glared at him.
“What is it? Why do you all look so grim?”
Namgung Wi asked as he set down his teacup.
Even his voice was sweet.
A mellow, low voice like jade beads rolling across a jade plate.
After hearing nothing but Peng Mu-gwang's rough shouting, hearing this voice made my ears feel purified.
But that was as far as the admiring went.
I received a signal from Peng Mu-gwang's eyes and stepped forward.
“Are you Mister Namgung Wi?”
“I am. And who might you be?”
“A waiter.”
“......A waiter?”
Namgung Wi's eyebrow twitched.
He seemed unable to believe that a waiter had come into a detached building of the Namgung Clan alongside honored guests.
But the reaction burst out from beside me first.
“What? A waiter?”
Peng Mu-gwang looked down at me with eyes that looked about to pop out.
“You bastard, you were a waiter? You said you were a subordinate of the Namgung!”
“I told you while we were riding here, didn't I? That I rolled noodles for ten years.”
“I thought you were just being modest!”
Peng Mu-gwang grabbed the back of his neck.
“Damn it, so I brought a guy who used to carry noodles along as my strategist and stormed into the Namgung Clan? Ha, the shame of it.”
Is that what matters to this man right now?
I ignored Peng Mu-gwang's grumbling and took the box out of my robes.
It was the poison box in question that had driven Hebei Peng Clan Head Peng Jin-ak to the brink of death.
Thunk.
I set the box down roughly on the table.
“Mister, I'll ask you straight out.”
Namgung Wi's gaze stayed on the box.
“Did you prepare this box?”
Tension hung in the air.
Namgung Seol bit her lip and watched only her Orabeoni's mouth, and Peng Mu-gwang tensed his muscles taut, ready to draw his great blade at any moment.
If he flatly denied it, saying he ‘didn't know,’ it would get messy.
We'd have to shove the handwriting comparison at him and get into a long war of words.
But.
“Ah, this?”
Namgung Wi nodded far too calmly.
“Yes. I prepared it.”
Whoosh!
Peng Mu-gwang's great blade split the air.
The heavy blade stopped right in front of the nape of Namgung Wi's neck.
The burst of wind pressure scattered Namgung Wi's hair and set the surface of his tea rippling.
An ordinary person would have wet himself and crawled across the floor.
But Namgung Wi didn't so much as blink.
If anything, he brought his teacup to his lips.
“Mister Peng.”
Savoring the fragrant aroma of the tea, he spoke languidly.
“Do you know where you are, to be drawing your blade?”
His eyes sank cold.
Far from being afraid, his eyes held contempt, as if looking at a beast that had burst into his own room with muddy feet.
“If you cut off my head, do you think you can walk out alive beneath the signboard of the Boundless Azure Sky, Mister Peng?”
With a single gesture of Namgung Wi's hand, the air beyond the window lattice changed.
Shhhk.
On the roof.
Behind the wall.
In the shadows of the garden trees.
Dozens of killing intents were aimed at Peng Mu-gwang's back.
They were the elite martial artists of the Namgung Clan.
Peng Mu-gwang's eyebrow twitched.
He was a bear that had wandered into a tiger's den.
“Do not change the subject, Namgung Wi.”
As if not wanting to be pushed back in momentum, Peng Mu-gwang growled without withdrawing his blade.
“I came knowing full well that you are the one who gave Namgung Seol the case filled with poison. Save your excuses for the afterlife.”
“Poison?”
Namgung Wi asked back.
He truly looked like this was the first he'd heard of it.
He set his teacup down and chuckled.
It wasn't a sneer, but a laugh of disbelief.
“Is your head just for decoration, Mister Peng? What reason would I have to harm the Clan Head of the Hebei Peng Clan?”
“What?”
“And above all.”
Namgung Wi rose from his seat and brushed off his long sleeves.
It was an elegant motion.
“For the past month, I have not left the training hall, preparing for the Dragon and Phoenix Gathering. When would someone as busy with training as I am have gone out to obtain poison and whatnot?”
He gestured with his chin out the window.
“If you grab any of the servants lying around outside and ask, you will find out where I have been.”
His logic held.
The tip of Peng Mu-gwang's blade wavered slightly.
He had stormed in full of bluster, but his opponent was far too calm.
What's more, if what Namgung Wi said was true, the grounds for pushing him would weaken too.
I casually cut in.
“Um, Mister Namgung.”
Namgung Wi's gaze turned to me.
“Then where on earth did that case come from? It didn't just drop out of the sky, did it?”
Namgung Wi looked me up and down.
His face said, how dare a mere waiter cut in.
But he answered as if it were nothing.
“I had Steward Choi get it for me.”
“Steward Choi?”
“When I asked Seol, she said that for something like that, I should go through Steward Choi. So I asked him myself. Then he brought it to me with the agarwood already put inside the box. I was busy with training, so I simply delivered it as it was.”
In that moment, Namgung Seol spoke quietly.
“Steward Choi...... brought it himself?”
It was strange.
Rather than surprised, she spoke as if it made sense to her.
I turned to look at Namgung Seol.
“Do you know what that means?”
Namgung Seol slowly raised her head.
Awe and fear toward her elder sister flickered through her eyes at the same time.
“Steward Choi is not just a servant.”
Namgung Seol said, looking at Peng Mu-gwang.
“He is the shadow of my eldest sister, Namgung Yeon.”
Namgung Yeon.
The eldest daughter of the Namgung Clan.
The real power, possessing both martial might and authority.
“Steward Choi's words are my sister's orders, and Steward Choi's actions are my sister's will. If he moved... that means my sister got involved herself.”
The scattered pieces in my head fit together.
Namgung Wi wasn't the culprit.
He was just the courier.
The one who prepared the box.
Put the agarwood inside.
And could have swapped it along the way.
That was likely Steward Choi.
And behind him, Namgung Yeon.
Peng Mu-gwang ground his teeth and put away his blade.
“Where is this guy called Steward Choi?”
Namgung Wi answered indifferently.
“He will be in the storehouse behind the detached building. He likes hiding things away like a rat.”
We left the room without looking back.
Namgung Wi's sneering voice followed us from behind.
“Mister Peng. Let us mind our manners next time we meet.”
Peng Mu-gwang gripped the doorframe as if he would crush it.
I quickly pushed his arm.
“Young Master, please hold back. What matters right now isn't a fight over pride, is it?”
I calmed him down and went outside.
***
Steward Choi's quarters were in the northern part of the estate, in a spot that got little sunlight.
Old roof tiles.
Paint peeling off the eaves.
Even within the splendid Namgung Clan, it was a place that smelled especially old.
The moment I opened the door and stepped into the quarters, I frowned.
“......It's far too clean.”
There wasn't a speck of dust in the room.
The table gleamed with moisture as if it had just been wiped, and the straw mats on the floor were aligned in rows and columns as precisely as if measured with a ruler.
The books were sorted by color, and not a single speck of dust sat on the window frame.
Like the room of someone with an obsessive compulsion.
In the middle of the room sat Steward Choi.
He held a teacup and looked up at us.
Wrinkled skin.
A bent back.
On the outside, he was nothing more than an old servant.
Peng Mu-gwang strode over like a bear and slammed his blade into the floor.
BOOM!
“Are you this Choi?”
“......I am.”
Steward Choi quietly looked up at us.
“I do not believe we have met before. Who might you be?”
Steward Choi's voice was calm.
Even taking Peng Mu-gwang's killing intent head-on, the hand holding his teacup didn't tremble.
He was no ordinary old man.
As Peng Mu-gwang growled and reached to grab the old man by the collar, I stepped in front of him.
“Wait. Sir, don't touch him.”
“Move. If you want to get this old man's mouth open, a beating is the best medicine.”
“Sir. You're too hasty.”
I pushed Peng Mu-gwang back and slowly strolled around the room.
With my hands clasped behind my back, I swept my eyes over every corner of the room like a scholar out sightseeing.
Then I stopped right in front of Steward Choi's nose.
“Old man.”
I bent at the waist and looked into his eyes.
“Your room is very neat.”
“It is because I am naturally a tidy person.”
“A tidy person, huh.”
I chuckled and pointed a finger at Steward Choi's sleeve.
“A man that tidy just left a dried grain of rice stuck to the end of his sleeve?”
“......!”
Steward Choi hurriedly hid his sleeve.
“And what about under your fingernails? The grime's caked in there black and hardened.”
I looked around the room.
“A lazy old man who doesn't even take care of his own body wiped the floor so clean a fly would slip on it?”
A laugh came out.
“Doesn't that not add up?”
I rolled back the straw mat on the floor.
It was damp.
Moisture that hadn't dried yet had seeped into the cracks in the wooden floor.
“You cleaned up in a hurry.”
The corners of Steward Choi's mouth stiffened.
“You live sloppily most of the time, but it seems you heard we were coming and cleaned up in a rush. Why would that be?”
Peng Mu-gwang's and Namgung Seol's eyes focused on me.
I walked over to a corner of the room.
An incense burner carved with ornate designs sat there.
From the incense burner rose sandalwood smoke so thick it was almost pungent.
“You didn't clean just because it was dirty.”
I stopped in front of the incense burner.
“You must have spilled something, or had to erase some trace. And this awful smell of incense.”
I opened the lid of the incense burner and poured in the tea that was beside it.
Hisssss—.
The white smoke died down.
When the veil of sandalwood that had filled the room lifted, the smell hidden beneath it slowly raised its head.
<Yin Kill Secret Record>
Opening of the senses.
I tuned my sense of smell to be extremely sharp.
The stink of iron.
And a sweet yet nauseating smell of medicinal herbs.
“Found it.”
I scraped the cracks in the floor with my fingernail.
In a lump of wet dust was a dark red powder that hadn't been wiped up in time.
“The reason this room was cleaned in a hurry. It must be because this was spilled on the floor.”
I thrust the dark red powder in front of Steward Choi's eyes.
“Purple Mist Orchid powder.”
I said quietly.
“The main ingredient of the poison, Seven-Step Soul-Chasing Sand.”
Steward Choi's pupils shook as if struck by an earthquake.
Peng Mu-gwang's eyebrow twitched.
“How do you know about the Purple Mist Orchid? It is something even martial world folk can hardly see in their lifetime.”
“When you work at the Heavenly Fragrance Pavilion, you see every sort of person.”
I said as I rubbed the red powder on my fingertips.
“A few years ago, an old freak whose heart meridian had gotten twisted during isolated training came to the inn. A guy who gave off the smell of blood with every breath. He'd mix this powder in water and drink it instead of eating.”
I wrinkled my nose.
“A sweet yet nauseating smell. Once you smell it, it's hard to forget.”
That old freak had offered a pinch of this powder instead of silver to pay for a bowl of noodles.
Saying, ‘This is worth a tile-roofed house.’
Of course, the proprietor treated him like a madman, scattered salt, and chased him off.
I continued.
“Old man, you weren't cleaning.”
I looked straight at Steward Choi.
“You were trying to erase the evidence. You were just in too much of a hurry.”
Steward Choi's lips trembled.
He could no longer pretend to be calm.
The room's excessive cleanliness was, if anything, proving his crime.
Peng Mu-gwang grasped the situation and readjusted his grip on his blade.
“This old man...... dares to make a mockery of the Peng Clan?”
Steward Choi looked at me with a dazed expression.
“A lie... there is no way you could know that from the smell alone......”
“I've got a dog's nose.”
I said it like a joke, but no one in the room laughed.
Peng Mu-gwang stepped forward.
“Speak.”
His voice sank low.
“Who? Who put you up to this?!”
Steward Choi trembled, but bit his lip hard.
His eyes quickly swept over Peng Mu-gwang, Namgung Seol, and me.
His eyes were a mix of fear, despair, and one last resolve.
“......I did it alone.”
Steward Choi made a rasping sound.
“What?”
“I did it. I schemed all of it.”
He raised his head and glared at Namgung Seol.
“I hated that wench Namgung Seol! Everything was my own doing!”
A lie.
An obvious lie anyone could see through.
He'd definitely been acting on someone's orders.
And yet to the very end, he was volunteering to play the loyal dog.
What a vicious old man.
I sighed, then squatted down to meet him at eye level.
“Old man. Who's going to believe that?”
“......Shut up.”
“Doesn't it feel unfair to take all the blame and go alone?”
Steward Choi's eyebrow twitched.
I lowered my voice.
“Listen carefully. If you tell the truth now, I'll try my best to persuade Mister Peng. You're just a servant who did what he was told, aren't you? There's room for leniency. You've got to save your life, don't you?”
Persuasion.
That was what was needed right now.
The evidence that Namgung Seol wasn't the culprit had come out.
The evidence that Steward Choi was involved had come out too.
But it still wasn't enough to reach Namgung Yeon.
That name had to come out of Steward Choi's own mouth.
Namgung Yeon.
Those three syllables.
Steward Choi's eyes wavered.
His instinctive attachment to life was gnawing away at his resolve.
His lips twitched.
Just a little more.
Just a little more pushing would do it.
“Th-that is......”
In that moment.
“Noisy!”
CRACK—!
A flash of light gleamed.
A dull bursting sound.
The view of Steward Choi, who had been right before my eyes, tilted crookedly.
No, it wasn't his view that tilted.
His head had separated from his body and rolled onto the floor.
Spurt!
Bright red blood shot up like a fountain from the severed neck.
Hot drops of blood soaked my face and shoulders.
“......Ah?”
I stared with my mouth hanging open.
I couldn't grasp the situation.
A person who'd been talking just a moment ago had become a lump of meat in an instant.
Peng Mu-gwang shook the blood off his blade and breathed raggedly.
“I cannot stand watching this, it is so frustrating!”
He growled.
“He is the culprit, is he not! We could just kill him and be done with it, so why are you playing word games?!”
I fell back on my butt and scrambled backward.
Crazy bastard.
He's a real crazy bastard.
“Mister Peng!”
I screamed.
“Have you lost your mind?! What are we supposed to do if you kill the witness?!”
Peng Mu-gwang snorted.
“A witness? No need. The culprit is dead.”
“The culprit may be dead, but what about who's behind him?!”
My voice grew louder on its own.
“We didn't hear anything—who ordered it, or where the antidote is!”
“It will turn up if we search that body.”
“How would it ever turn up there?!”
Simple, brainless guy.
The stench of blood filled the room.
Steward Choi's blood had spattered on all of us.
Me.
Peng Mu-gwang.
Peng Sa-ryang.
And....
“......”
Namgung Seol.
She stood there blankly, her white face drenched in red blood.
Drops of blood clung to her fine silk clothes and to her trembling fingertips.
Her gaze was fixed on Steward Choi's head rolling on the floor.
The old man's face, eyes wide open, filled with the terror of the moment before death.
Namgung Seol's beautiful face slowly crumpled.
Was it fear?
Disgust?
Grief?
No. An emotion that couldn't be described in a single word was crumbling inside her.
Slowly, very slowly, she raised her hand and wiped away the blood on her cheek.
Swipe.
A long red streak was left on her white skin.