That's Not How You Use Martial Arts

Chapter 33
Investigating the Incidents (1)

『 Translator – Divinity 』

Namgung Hyeon looked troubled by my request.

“I apologize, but I can’t grant such authority to an outsider who doesn’t belong to the family. Besides, the investigation has already been concluded.”

“Don’t be so harsh. Think of it as repaying the favor you mentioned earlier and help us out.”

“Hmm…”

Seeing Namgung Hyeon deep in thought, I immediately pressed my point.

“Everyone already knows that Paecheon Fortress is behind this. There must be clues left somewhere, even if they haven’t been found yet.”

At my confident words, Namgung Hyeon, who had been contemplating, finally nodded.

“Alright. I was also frustrated with being helpless and just taking the hits. It’s better to do something than to sit still and suffer.”

“I’ll help too, Young Master Namgung.”

Miss Seol also stepped forward, offering to help with Namgung Hyeon’s resolve.

Hearing that, Namgung Hyeon smiled warmly and held Miss Seol’s hand.

“Thank you, Yak-bing.”

Don’t be envious. Envy is for losers.

Anyway, with the young master’s permission, we decided to reinvestigate the unfortunate incidents that had occurred in the Namgung family.

“Strike while the iron is hot, shall we go right now?”

“Where do you plan to start?”

I had already heard about the incidents in the Namgung family before the family head returned.

We would start with one of the two most recent incidents.

“Let’s investigate the incident of the head steward’s suicide first.”

***

Before we began the investigation, Hwa-ryeon suggested that it would be inefficient for all of us to investigate together and proposed that we split up and investigate different incidents.

We agreed, and Namgung Hyeon and I decided to investigate the head steward’s suicide,

Hwa-ryeon and Miss Seol would investigate the armory fire,

and Master and Seol-i would investigate the failed escort mission.

“Is this the head steward’s house?”

“Yes, although Head Steward Dam wasn’t a direct descendant of the Namgung family, his mother was from a branch family, so he lived near the estate.”

Namgung Hyeon and I visited the head steward’s house, which was right next to the Namgung estate.

I hadn’t realized it before, but it turned out that all the houses built near the Namgung estate were residences of the branch families.

Wow, so everyone around here was from the same family?

Thanks to that, we didn’t have to go far, but just how many of them were there?

Just counting the houses I could see, there were dozens.

It wouldn’t be an exaggeration to say that there was a Namgung village within Hefei.

“Well then, let’s go in.”

Lost in thought for a moment, I carefully stepped into the house at Namgung Hyeon’s urging.

And there we met the head steward’s wife, who was grieving the loss of her husband.

“You’re going to reinvestigate my husband’s death?”

“Yes, there are many things that don’t add up.”

The head steward’s wife looked overwhelmed with emotion at Namgung Hyeon’s words.

“Thank you… Please uncover the truth. My husband wouldn’t do such a thing. He wouldn’t take his own life and leave his family behind. Please…”

“Don’t worry. We will uncover the truth.”

Namgung Hyeon nodded with a determined look.

He had been so hesitant earlier, but now he was more eager than anyone.

I was inwardly amused by his passionate attitude when he suddenly grabbed me and said,

“This is the person I brought to reinvestigate this case. I’m sure he’ll be able to uncover the truth.”

…So he wasn’t being passionate, he was relying on me?

Suppressing my surprise, I whispered to Namgung Hyeon,

“…What makes you so sure?”

“Yak-bing spoke very highly of you. She said you possess extraordinary abilities. Yak-bing has a good eye for people, as beautiful as she is, so I trust your abilities.”

Wait, by extraordinary abilities, he probably meant my martial arts, right? What did that have to do with investigating a case?

And, a good eye for people… was that self-praise?

I wanted to retort immediately, but it didn’t seem appropriate to make a fuss in front of a widow who had recently lost her husband, so I kept my mouth shut.

Then, I carefully spoke to the head steward’s wife.

“I’m not yet familiar with the details of this case, so could you please explain it to me? It must be a painful memory, but I would appreciate it.”

“…Yes.”

The head steward’s wife, holding back her tears, explained what had happened.

According to her, Head Steward Dam Jin-bo was a diligent man who only cared about his work, besides his family.

It was the same on the day he died.

Her husband, who had returned home late, said he had more work to do and went into his room, not coming out all night.

“The next morning, when I went to his room, I found my husband hanging…”

The head steward’s wife burst into tears, unable to hold back as she recalled the horrific scene.

She calmed herself, wiped her tears with her sleeve, and continued,

“And there was my husband’s will, spread open on the table.”

“Would it be alright if I see the will…?”

At my question, the head steward’s wife got up and returned with the will.

I unfolded the neatly folded will and checked its contents.

It stated that the head steward had been addicted to gambling for many years, embezzling the family’s assets, and that he had taken his own life because he couldn’t bear the overwhelming gambling debt.

“…Gambling?”

“My husband would never do that! He was a man who only cared about his family and the estate…!”

The head steward’s wife reacted to my mumbling as if having a seizure.

I calmed her down and turned to Namgung Hyeon.

“It says here that he embezzled the family’s assets. Has that been confirmed?”

“Well, there’s no way to confirm it.”

“No way to confirm it… Ah, don’t tell me?”

Namgung Hyeon nodded at my words.

“Yes. If the head steward embezzled the family’s assets, the easiest way would be to secretly take money from the armory, but…”

“And coincidentally, there was a fire in the armory.”

I shook my head in disbelief.

Wow, that was way too obvious.

Whoever orchestrated this wasn’t very bright.

To leave things so blatantly obvious…

“…No.”

I immediately corrected my thought.

This was about ousting the Namgung family, a local clan that had been established in Hefei for generations.

Handling such an important matter so carelessly didn’t mean the orchestrator was stupid, but rather that they were relaxed enough to be sloppy.

For example, if they had a powerful backer like the Regional Commander…

—My father… he went to the Regional Commander’s office for some business regarding the family.

“……”

What did the Regional Commander say to the Namgung family head?

I wonder if Namgung Hyeon had heard anything.

I wanted to ask him right away, but it wasn’t something to discuss in front of the head steward’s wife.

I decided to ask him separately later and continued with the investigation for now.

Well, there was only one thing left to do here.

“I understand the situation roughly. Lastly… could I examine your husband’s body?”

“…Yes. Follow me.”

Namgung Hyeon and I followed the head steward’s wife to where the body was.

***

The head steward’s body had already been dressed in burial clothes.

Perhaps it was painful for her to see her deceased husband, but the head steward’s wife left the room without a word, saying she would wait outside.

I carefully examined the head steward’s body and couldn’t help but let out a hollow laugh.

“Huh.”

“What’s wrong? Did you find something suspicious?”

“Yes, there’s blatant evidence of murder.”

Namgung Hyeon’s eyes widened at my words.

“Wh-what is it?”

I let out a small sigh and pointed to the ligature mark on the body’s neck.

“Do you see this?”

“Isn’t that a mark from strangulation? What about it?”

“Look closely.”

I carefully lifted the body’s upper half and showed Namgung Hyeon the back of the neck.

Specifically, the ligature mark that completely encircled the neck.

“The mark goes all the way around the neck, right?”

“It does. But what’s wrong with that?”

Namgung Hyeon didn’t immediately notice the inconsistency.

Well, it was natural for him not to know if he didn’t have knowledge in this area.

I explained in detail.

“Now, think about it. They said the head steward hanged himself, right?”

“Yes, that’s right.”

“When someone hangs themselves, the front of their neck is pressed against the rope due to their body weight. So, it’s normal to have a ligature mark on the front of the neck. But on the nape…”

“…There shouldn’t be a ligature mark!”

Fortunately, he understood quickly with a little explanation.

The fact that the ligature mark went all the way around the neck was clear evidence of murder, that someone else had strangled the head steward with a rope.

Hearing this, Namgung Hyeon looked at me with admiration.

“You’re truly amazing. To notice something that even the official autopsy specialist missed…!”

“That’s the problem.”

“…The problem? What else is there?”

I nodded at Namgung Hyeon’s question.

He was supposedly an autopsy specialist, a coroner.

And yet he missed such obvious evidence of murder?

There could only be two reasons.

Either the autopsy specialist was so incredibly incompetent that he genuinely missed it.

Or there was external pressure to falsify the autopsy report.

“I think we need to talk to the autopsy specialist who examined the body.”

“Oh, you mean visit him directly?”

“No. He’s probably being watched. It seems like we’ll have to summon him here…”

The excuse… I could just say that the preparation of the body for burial was done incorrectly, right?

“Young Master, for a moment…”

“Yes? What is it…?”

Before that, let’s have our young master practice his voice projection a bit.