That's Not How You Use Martial Arts

Chapter 34
Investigating the Incidents (2)

『 Translator – Divinity 』

We had the autopsy specialist who prepared Head Steward Dam’s body summoned to the house through his wife.

Perhaps having already heard the reason for being summoned again, the autopsy specialist protested as soon as he entered.

“Th-there’s no way the preparation of the body was done incorrectly. I’ve been doing this for twenty years.”

Having done the same job for twenty years meant he was at least somewhat skilled in that field.

It was safe to assume that the autopsy specialist wasn’t incompetent.

Then, the only remaining possibility was external pressure.

And as luck would have it, we were able to confirm that suspicion thanks to the autopsy specialist’s visit.

As I had suspected, the autopsy specialist was accompanied by an unidentified martial artist.

Judging from the energy I sensed from him, he wasn’t just any ordinary warrior.

He was most likely a martial artist related to Paecheon Fortress.

I led the autopsy specialist into the room where the head steward’s body lay, quietly signaled him to be silent, and turned to Namgung Hyeon.

Namgung Hyeon, who seemed slightly nervous and gulped, soon shouted towards the window,

“You bastard! How dare you prepare the body this way, without even showing proper respect to the deceased!”

“Huh…?”

The autopsy specialist stared at Namgung Hyeon, who was suddenly shouting towards the window, with a startled look.

I signaled him to be quiet again and urged Namgung Hyeon on.

“Do you think you deserve to be paid after doing this! Even if the head steward died under unfortunate circumstances, he served our Namgung family for many years! On his final journey…!”

Namgung Hyeon continued to pour out words.

It was a bit awkward, but not unbearable.

I signaled Namgung Hyeon to continue and kept observing the Paecheon Fortress warrior.

As I mentioned earlier, the mere presence of that guy was practically proof that the autopsy specialist had falsified the report under duress.

And to hear it directly from the autopsy specialist, I had to get rid of that Paecheon Fortress warrior.

Just go… We only called you here because of the issue with the body preparation. Go… please…!

How long did I repeat that in my mind? The warrior’s energy, hidden behind the wall, began to fade away.

“Whew…”

I breathed a sigh of relief.

If this hadn’t worked, I would have had to knock him unconscious and deal with the troublesome aftermath. It was fortunate that it didn’t come to that.

“You bastard…!”

“Young Master, you can stop now.”

I stopped Namgung Hyeon, who was still shouting at the empty air, and turned to the autopsy specialist.

He still looked confused, unable to understand what was happening.

“Now then, shall we hear your story? Why did you falsify the autopsy report?”

The autopsy specialist’s face turned pale as soon as he heard my words. Without any excuses, he immediately prostrated himself on the ground.

“I-I have committed a grave sin!”

After calming down the autopsy specialist, who was rambling in a daze, we heard a truly unbelievable story.

As soon as the news of Head Steward Dam’s suicide reached him, the magistrate of Hefei himself had visited and pressured the autopsy specialist to declare it a suicide, no matter what.

As a mere autopsy specialist, he would have had no choice but to obey the magistrate’s orders.

“I apologize. I knew it was wrong, but what power do I have? I could only do as my superiors told me.”

“……”

Namgung Hyeon seemed speechless.

The fact that the magistrate was directly involved meant that the government was also behind this.

“…I knew that the county office had it out for our family. But, but to stoop to such despicable tactics…!”

Namgung Hyeon gritted his teeth, unable to contain his anger.

However, he didn’t lose his composure completely, as he soon took a deep breath and regained his calmness.

“Anyway, this is fortunate. Thanks to Young Master Gun, we now know the truth. If we inform the Regional Commander about this…”

“I’m sorry, but I think you’ll have to put that on hold for now.”

Namgung Hyeon’s eyes widened at my interruption.

“W-why? We have evidence, we have a witness, why…”

“Before I explain that…”

I turned to the autopsy specialist.

His eyes were shaking incessantly, worried about his future.

Looking at him, I calmly explained the situation.

“Someone was following you.”

“What?”

“They were probably planning to kill you without a trace if you confessed.”

The autopsy specialist’s face instantly turned pale.

I reassured him that he didn’t need to worry.

“Don’t worry. He already left, mistakenly thinking that you were called here simply because of an error in the body preparation.”

“Ah, so that’s why…”

He exclaimed in realization as he finally understood why Namgung Hyeon had shouted earlier.

“So, you didn’t say anything to us today. You were simply reprimanded for a mistake in the body preparation. Do you understand?”

“Yes, yes, sir! I understand. Thank you, thank you very much!”

The autopsy specialist repeatedly expressed his gratitude, realizing that I was trying to save him.

After he left, still thanking us until the moment he stepped out of the room, Namgung Hyeon asked me,

“Why did you let him go? What if something happens to such an important witness?”

“No matter how things unfold, we won’t be using him as a witness.”

“What do you mean…!”

Namgung Hyeon frowned, unable to understand my words.

I explained the current situation to him again.

“You just heard the story, didn’t you? This isn’t just a conspiracy by Paecheon Fortress, but something the magistrate of Hefei is also involved in.”

“So?”

“If we use this autopsy specialist as a witness, whether things go well or not, his life will be threatened.”

I didn’t know how Paecheon Fortress and the magistrate of Hefei were connected.

But there must have been some kind of deal between them, a price high enough for the magistrate to forget his duty and turn a blind eye to their crimes.

In such a situation, if we used this autopsy specialist as a witness…

No matter how things unfolded, the magistrate wouldn’t forgive him.

He would hold a grudge and try to kill him by any means necessary.

“We can just protect him within the Namgung family, can’t we?”

Namgung Hyeon said with a frustrated expression.

I asked him bluntly,

“Does the current Namgung family have the capacity for that?”

“…!”

Namgung Hyeon closed his mouth at my question.

His face visibly darkened.

“I noticed that most of the family members are absent. Where is everyone?”

“…That’s…”

Namgung Hyeon reluctantly revealed something he had been trying to avoid talking about.

I narrowed my eyes as I listened to his story.

***

Dae-un and Seol-i, who had split from the rest of the group, were walking through the streets of Hefei.

Seol-i, walking right next to Dae-un, asked her master a fundamental question.

“Master, where are we going?”

“You’ll see when we get there.”

Couldn’t he just tell her beforehand?

Seol-i pouted without her master noticing.

But Dae-un wasn’t finished.

“You remember what Hyeon said earlier, right?”

“Huh? What did he say earlier?”

“About what we’re going to investigate.”

Among the three groups, Dae-un and Seol-i were tasked with investigating the most complicated incident.

It was about the frequent failures of the Namgung family’s escort missions over the past year.

“He said they failed four out of ten escort missions in the past year, right?”

It was a surprisingly low success rate for an escort agency run by a family, especially one as large as the Namgung family.

The strange thing was that the escort failures, which had been less than 10% originally, had become frequent since last year.

“Paecheon Fortress must have done something, right?”

“Probably.”

“But it’s a bit odd, considering that.”

“What do you mean?”

Dae-un asked, feigning ignorance.

It was a long-standing habit of his to ask Seol-i questions even when he already knew the answer.

He said something about the importance of thinking for oneself.

Seol-i couldn’t understand why he bothered with such pointless things.

But as a good disciple, she answered to meet her master’s expectations.

“Why did they only make 40% of the missions fail? If it were 60%, or even 50%, people would stop using the Namgung family’s escort agency altogether.”

“Why do you think that is?”

Seol-i pondered for a moment, stroking her chin.

It was amusing to see a little girl who didn’t even have peach fuzz on her chin doing that, but Dae-un held back his laughter and waited for her answer.

“It must be one of two reasons. Either they lacked the manpower to increase the failure rate further, or there was a separate reason for maintaining that level of failure.”

“Hmm.”

At her master’s satisfied hum, Seol-i immediately asked,

“Which one do you think it is, Master?”

“It’s unlikely that Paecheon Fortress lacks manpower. They’ve been expanding recklessly for the past ten years, so they might lack quality, but not numbers.”

“Then you think there’s another reason?”

“Yes, I think so.”

The next question followed naturally.

What could that other reason be?

“I don’t know the answer to that yet.”

“Then what do we do?”

“We need to find someone who might know.”

“Someone who might… know?”

Seol-i tilted her head in confusion.

Dae-un ruffled his disciple’s hair roughly and stopped in front of a building.

Seol-i, grimacing as she fixed her messy hair, looked up at the sign of the building where Dae-un had stopped.

“Changcheon… Teahouse?”

“Let’s go in.”

The two of them stepped into the teahouse with a strangely familiar name.

As they entered, a tranquil space unfolded before their eyes.

Seeing a few customers silently sipping their tea, Seol-i cautiously followed behind.

Unlike her, Dae-un strode into the teahouse without a care.

At the end of Dae-un’s path stood a man who appeared to be the owner.

He greeted the new guests with a broad smile on his face.