Chapter 185: v8c10 - Down to the Very Last Foundation Stone
Volume 8 Chapter 10 – Down to the Very Last Foundation Stone
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‘The Patriarch of the Lee Family must die.’
Yeon So-hyeon’s instruction was clear.
‘Even at the moment he surrenders and cooperates, he will secretly rally the remnants in some manner and grind the blade of counterattack.’
Yeon So-hyeon’s will was clear.
‘Therefore, by severing the head, I eliminate the enemies’ focal point.’
And next.
‘The active officials of the Lee Family, whose command system has collapsed, will start to move to seek their own survival or for revenge.’
There, Yeon So-hyeon presents his next hand.
‘By deploying the Kong Family, I completely crush them before they can even set up their board.’
* * *
The Luoyang Local High Court.
Magistrate Lee was pacing back and forth distractedly in his office.
“Ah… what should I do?”
Since a short while ago, he had been repeating the cycle of trying to take off his judicial robes, then adjusting his attire again, and trying to take them off once more.
‘Is it more advantageous for the family if I wear the judicial robes and guard the magistrate’s office?’
Or should I head to my wife’s family or my mother’s family to request help from outside even now…?’
The clothes he wore under his loose judicial robes were already damp with cold sweat.
He clutched his own face.
‘Why on earth is no instruction coming from anyone? The Patriarch? The elders of the family? Could it be that not a single person managed to escape the main house?!’
If there was no instruction from the family by now, there was no more time to hesitate.
Changing his mind, he took off the magistrate’s hat he was wearing on his head.
It was time to move immediately and do something.
At that moment, the door of the magistrate’s office burst open.
Magistrate Lee, who had been startled, breathed a sigh of relief upon confirming the face of the person who entered.
“Why, is it not Magistrate Kong?”
He wiped the sweat flowing down his forehead with his sleeve and suddenly flew into a rage.
“Hey! Even if it is you, to burst open the office of a fellow magistrate and walk in as if it were nothing! Just what about manners…?!”
His mouth, which had been grumbling, closed.
The expression of Magistrate Kong, who had always been gentle, was stiff and frozen cold.
It was like looking at a different person.
“Is, is something wrong?”
At his question, Magistrate Kong opened his mouth and answered.
“You must come along with our family.”
Behind Magistrate Kong, the investigators he led under his command revealed themselves.
They were in a state of full armament.
The moment he saw that sight, Magistrate Lee immediately put the magistrate’s hat he held in his hand onto his head.
“I am an active magistrate!”
He then shouted in a deliberately dignified manner, as if in a courtroom.
“To arbitrarily take away this official like that! I do not know what this is about, but you must know that arbitrarily kidnapping and detaining an active magistrate is a crime grand enough that inspectors from the Imperial Capital will be dispatched?!”
“Of course, since I am also a magistrate, I know it well.”
The magistrate of the Kong Family nodded.
If he were a magistrate of the Cheong Family, there would have been no way.
However, he was not of the Cheong Family, but the Kong Family.
And this matter was not an individual’s will, but the family’s will.
“However, since you are no longer a magistrate, it does not matter.”
If it was difficult to touch him because the opponent was a magistrate, could they not just make him no longer a magistrate?
“Wh-what does that mean?!”
He hurriedly retreated and shouted.
“A, a magistrate of the High Court cannot have their magistrate post stripped until going through all legal procedures—”
His voice was cut off by a finger wind flying from the hand of an investigator.
“Take him.”
The investigators who rushed in gagged and bound him, whose body was momentarily paralyzed as his acupoints were struck.
They did not forget to strip the judicial robes off his body as if tearing them away.
Bound in an instant, a hood was placed over his head so that others could not recognize his identity, and he was dragged out.
After he was dragged out like some piece of luggage, the magistrate of the Kong Family stared at the empty office.
“…Magistrate Kong.”
There was a voice calling him.
“Yes, President.”
The President of the Luoyang Local High Court looked at him with a reluctant expression.
“This time, I turn a blind eye because the Kong Family requested so earnestly, but a second time will be difficult. You must—”
“President.”
His words were cut off by the magistrate of the Kong Family.
“Nothing happened here today.”
“Y-yes, indeed. This High Court was the same as usual today. Of course.”
Magistrate Kong spoke while tearing off the nameplate engraved with Magistrate Lee’s name that was attached to the door.
“Magistrate Lee wrote his resignation letter himself this morning and vanished after grave personal misconduct was exposed.”
Under normal circumstances, that was an action and a tone that a mere magistrate would not dare to show toward the President of the Court.
“Y-yes, indeed. You are correct.”
However, he was not a mere magistrate now, but one acting on behalf of the will of the Kong Family, one of the Sixteen Imperial Capital Families.
“Well then. I also have a backlog of duties today, so I will take my leave first, risking rudeness.”
Returning to his usual gentle expression, he politely bowed to the Court President.
Toward him who had turned around, the Court President opened his mouth with difficulty.
“…M-Magistrate Kong!”
“Yes, President. Did you call?”
The Court President scanned the surroundings once more and asked cautiously.
“…From what I heard, the former patriarchs of Mount Beimang have different intentions from the main houses of the Sixteen Families, so how did this happen?”
Since he was a figure of the level of the Local High Court President, he was one who had received a visit from the Second Young Master’s side yesterday.
The visitors from the Second Young Master’s side had certainly said that the former patriarchs of the Sixteen Families were moving regardless of the current patriarchs’ wills.
In doing so, they had made it clear that he should not even dream of intervening in the political struggle between the Luoyang Sword Family and the Sixteen Families.
However, the judge with the surname Kong today was clearly moving with the will of the entire Kong Family, not just as the former patriarch of Mount Beimang as an individual.
“…I will tell you just one thing.”
Magistrate Kong approached the Court President and whispered in his ear.
“The Patriarch of the Kong Family is not in the Imperial Capital, but the one residing in Mount Beimang.” “……!”
The Court President’s two eyes widened.
“Th-that means…?!”
Magistrate Kong raised his index finger and placed it against his lips. “…….”
The Court President shut his mouth and hurriedly nodded his head.
His wrinkled face was already drenched in cold sweat.
“You only need to stay still. You have absolutely no need to worry about anything else.”
Magistrate Kong spoke in a friendly tone and a low voice.
“Right now, today’s attendance book is being rewritten, and no one who saw Magistrate Lee present will open their mouth.”
From the court forces guarding the entrance at the time of arrival, beyond those who assisted Magistrate Lee, even to the colleague magistrates who chatted with Magistrate Lee today.
All.
Were now making an oath of silence by the members of the Kong Family.
Just like the Court President.
“…P-please convey to the Patriarch that I ask for his kind favor.”
At the Court President’s words, the judge of the Kong Family smiled faintly, turned around, and vanished beyond the corridor.
* * *
And not only at the High Court, but similar events were unfolding across Luoyang.
“L-let me go! Do you know who I—!”
As the active official of the Lee Family collapsed with his eyes rolled back after being struck in the abdomen, they bound him, put him in a sack, and then placed him in a wooden chest with breathing holes.
“Please! I do not care who you are, please spare my life…!”
The one who was heading to his wife’s family to seek help surrendered submissively, was gagged, had a hood placed over his head, and was loaded onto a carriage.
“How can you do this to me?!”
There was also one who shouted as if screaming while being dragged out by unidentified people.
He was betrayed by a trusted close friend.
“I am sorry. Did you not also know that I am from the Kong Family’s Grand Academy?”
“K-Kong Family’s Grand Academy?! Just why on earth is the Kong Family…?!”
In that way.
Every single person who confirmed the hand Yeon So-hyeon had revealed realized that, from the beginning, there was no loophole to escape.
Everyone who kidnapped and transported the active officials of the Lee Family was heading toward the Kong Family’s residence in Mount Beimang.
* * *
Mount Beimang, the Kong Family’s residence.
“It is said that the operation at the Luoyang Local High Court was just completed.”
“The operation at the Luoyang Second Pier has been completed.”
“The operation at Mangyang Avenue is proceeding smoothly…”
“The one who was hiding in the Hwang Family, with the cooperation of the Hwang Family…”
All final reports were coming in to a single person.
“Good, very good.”
The old man sitting in a wheeled chair nodded his head repeatedly with a satisfied expression.
It was Gong Ryang, the Patriarch of the Kong Family, whom the outside world knew as the former patriarch.
“Everyone listen.”
He raised his slender hand.
The gazes of the crowd focused on him.
“You must make everyone in Luoyang know.”
An spirit, unbelievable for someone who was sick in bed, overwhelmed the crowd.
“Just what kind of family this Kong Family is, and what kind of person this Gong Ryang is.”
The members of the Kong Family bowed their heads even deeper.
“That even active officials can disappear without a trace…”
Gong Ryang bared his teeth.
“You must engrave that terror clearly.”
Although he was the leader of the reformists of the Central Plains, he was far from a clean-handed official who insisted strictly on the Orthodox Way.
In the first place, how could a simple clean-handed official possibly guard the Emperor’s side for such a long time?
He too was, without a doubt, one of the old devils.
One who had also borne and endured for such a long time, grinding his blade.
To the extent of having maintained balance as the leader of the reformists, who were a mere minority in that corrupt politics of the Imperial Capital.
The most ferocious old devil.
“Now everyone will clearly know that our Kong Family stands behind the Eldest Young Master, Yeon So-hyeon.”
* * *
The Lee Family’s main house.
[Here are the documents of the Lee Family you spoke of.]
An investigator approached while avoiding the gazes of others and reported in a close-range telepathic transmission.
The chief investigator, who received the documents from him, checked them and replied in a close-range telepathic transmission in like manner.
[These documents were never discovered in the first place. Understood?]
[Of course. I collected them myself and did not even put them on the evidence list.]
[Good. Return to your original duty.]
Nodding his head, the chief investigator turned and walked away.
What that investigator brought just now was the last.
Now he had to report to the one who had issued the secret command.
[Patriarch.]
The chief investigator with the surname Cheong approached his Patriarch and handed over the documents wrapped in a shabby cloth bundle.
“Is this all?”
[Yes. Practically, it is the maximum we could gather up to this point.]
The Patriarch of the Cheong Family, Lord Cheong, opened the cloth bundle to check the contents.
Land deeds of various places in the State of Zhongyuan including Luoyang, documents related to building ownerships, bonds held by the Lee Family, bills of exchange, various certificates, bundles of high-value notes, and so on.
They were documents directly related to the assets of the Lee Family.
“Well done. You manage the scene in person until the end.”
[Yes, Patriarch.]
Lord Cheong approached Yeon So-hyeon, who was reviewing various ledgers along with the magistrates.
“Eldest Young Master.”
“Lord Cheong.”
Yeon So-hyeon turned around after checking the bundle held in his hand and exchanging eye contact with the magistrates.
When the two arrived at a place blocked from the sight of others, Lord Cheong immediately handed that bundle over to Yeon So-hyeon.
“As requested by the Eldest Young Master, excluding bulky items like various gold coins or treasures, I packed all the rest.”
Receiving the bundle, a mischievous smile filled with playfulness hung on Yeon So-hyeon’s face.
“To think that the Patriarch of the fair, just, and upright Cheong Family would siphon off assets that should be recovered by the state treasury.”
Without even a change in his expression, Lord Cheong shrugged his shoulders.
“I have absolutely no idea what the Eldest Young Master is talking about; the investigation results have already shown that the assets of the Lee Family were all taken by the Patriarch of the Lee Family when he vanished.”
Yeon So-hyeon laughed at those words.
“For the investigation results to have come out already, as expected, the magistrates of the Cheong Family are indeed the most competent in Luoyang.”
At that joke, Lord Cheong also laughed.
“Our family is the best in the State of Zhongyuan in this area.”
There was no way the investigation results, which normally would take days, had already come out.
It was only that Lord Cheong had let him know that the result was already predetermined.
Stroking his beard, he turned his gaze far away for no reason.
Renowned Judge Cheong Hyo.
Truly, this kind of thing was actually a first in his life.
“…Even if we confiscate these assets, it is obvious they will just be handed over and used by bastards identical to those of the Lee Family.”
In that case, it was right to hand them over to Yeon So-hyeon.
“Please, Eldest Young Master, use them in a meaningful place.”
Yeon So-hyeon shook the bundle.
“Thank you for your cooperation, Lord Cheong.”
Saying so, he smiled, baring his teeth.
“Now it is time to pull out even the very last foundation stone of the Lee Family bastards.”