That's Not How You Use Martial Arts

Chapter 36
Investigating the Incidents (4)

『 Translator – Divinity 』

After listening to the armory manager’s story, Hwa-ryeon spoke up.

“This is quite a headache. Even just the compensation for damages will be a significant expense.”

“…Indeed. And recently, there’s been another troublesome issue.”

“Another troublesome issue…?”

Just then, a loud voice came from outside the armory.

“—Pay up or hand over the golden Buddha statue!”

“Hmm…?”

“…Golden Buddha statue?”

The two women’s gazes turned towards the commotion, and the manager sighed wearily.

“Speak of the devil. The troublesome issue.”

Hwa-ryeon and Yak-bing followed the manager towards the source of the shouting.

There, a man with a group of thugs was yelling.

“I’m telling you, that guy incurred debt at our establishment!”

“Why are you demanding the armory pay for the head steward’s debt!?”

“I’m not asking the armory to pay! I’m asking you to hand over the golden Buddha statue that the head steward supposedly stored here!”

The man with the goatee and shifty eyes continued to shout.

“If the golden Buddha statue is lost, then the armory should compensate for it!”

“Sigh…”

The manager sighed deeply at the man’s shouting.

“…What’s going on? A golden Buddha statue and debt?”

“Ah, that’s…”

Yak-bing tilted her head and asked the manager for an explanation.

Just as the manager was about to answer, the man with the goatee spotted him.

“Here comes the manager. Let’s have a chat. Am I the unreasonable one here, or…”

The man’s eyes widened as he noticed Yak-bing and Hwa-ryeon.

A sharp glint flashed in his eyes as he saw two stunning beauties together, a rare sight.

Unlike the man who quickly hid his true intentions, the thugs behind him didn’t even bother to conceal their lecherous thoughts.

Whistle!

“Khehehe…”

They whistled, leered at the two women with creepy smiles, and ogled them.

While Hwa-ryeon’s eyes twitched and Yak-bing calmly hid her emotions, the manager burst into anger.

“What do you think you’re doing!”

“Oh my, I apologize. These guys are just uneducated, you see. So they tend to be honest about their feelings.”

“You bastard…!”

The manager’s face turned red and blue at the man’s blatant nonsense.

Seeing the manager’s trembling fist, the man with the goatee pretended to look away and said,

“So, instead of getting all worked up, why don’t we just handle things smoothly?”

“Smoothly? What do you mean smoothly? It’s all just your one-sided claim!”

“Excuse me for a moment, Manager.”

The manager was about to explode.

Hwa-ryeon stopped him and stepped forward.

The man with the goatee gave a bright smile to Hwa-ryeon as she approached.

It was a suspicious and unpleasant smile, adding to his already sly impression.

“Hmm? Why? Is our lovely miss going to pay the debt for him?”

“We are from the Namgung family, here to investigate the recent fire in the armory.”

The man’s expression changed slightly at Hwa-ryeon’s cold response.

The fact that they were directly from the Namgung family meant that they were either blood relatives or close associates.

In other words, they were people he shouldn’t mess with.

“…Yes, young miss. Please speak.”

The man with the goatee immediately lowered his stance.

The thugs who had been leering at the two women also coughed and subtly averted their gazes at his quick change in attitude.

Ignoring their reactions, Hwa-ryeon asked for a detailed explanation.

“I don’t understand what you’re talking about with the golden Buddha statue and the debt. Could you explain?”

“Of course, young miss. If I can get my money back, explaining is no trouble at all.”

The man with the goatee immediately began his explanation.

His name was Jo Un-chil.

He ran a gambling house, and recently, someone had borrowed a large sum of money from him.

That person was Dam Jin-bo, the head steward of the Namgung family.

He had frequented the gambling house day after day, spending money like water, and eventually ended up in debt.

“Just how much did he owe…?”

“A whole twenty gold taels.”

“…Excuse me?”

Hwa-ryeon’s eyes widened at the unimaginable sum.

Twenty gold taels was enough for an ordinary commoner to live comfortably for three generations.

He owed that much in gambling debt?

“Can you prove it?”

“Of course. I have the promissory note right here.”

Un-chil pulled a piece of paper from his pocket and showed it to Hwa-ryeon.

After checking it, the handwriting aside, the contents certainly matched Un-chil’s claims.

And there was one concerning phrase.

“…He said he would use the golden Buddha statue entrusted to the Namgung Armory to settle the debt?”

“That head steward bastard clearly said before he died that he had entrusted a golden Buddha statue worth thirty gold taels to the armory and that he would use it to pay off his debt.”

Hwa-ryeon and Yak-bing’s gazes turned to the manager, who desperately shook his head and glared at Un-chil.

“That’s impossible! There’s no way Head Steward Dam would entrust such an item here, and there’s no way I wouldn’t know if something like that had been brought in!”

“How can you be so sure? You said half the records were lost, can you prove that there was no golden Buddha statue?”

“Th-that’s…!”

The manager was speechless.

What Un-chil said was clearly a one-sided claim, but with no records remaining, the manager’s words were also just a one-sided claim.

A sharp glint flashed in Hwa-ryeon’s eyes as she listened to the whole story.

“…For now, we understand. We’ll compensate you after an internal discussion, so please leave for today.”

“Y-Young miss! What do you mean…!”

“Finally, someone who speaks sense. Can I trust your word?”

Hwa-ryeon stared coldly at Un-chil at his words.

Un-chil flinched momentarily at her cold gaze, then awkwardly smiled and nodded.

“Th-then we’ll take your word for it and be on our way.”

Un-chil and his group left the armory, seemingly pleased.

As soon as they disappeared, the manager turned to Hwa-ryeon and questioned her.

“Why did you say that! No matter how you look at it, what that guy is saying is…”

“Manager.”

Hwa-ryeon cut off the manager and looked at him.

The manager flinched momentarily at her chilling beauty.

Hwa-ryeon then asked him,

“Did you inform anyone outside about the loss of records within the armory?”

“…What? Of course not! If I did, those kinds of people would swarm us.”

As the manager said, if he had done that, people would see the loss of records as an opportunity and demand far more than they had originally entrusted, and those who hadn’t even entrusted anything would make false claims.

“I made sure the staff kept their mouths shut.”

“I see. Then how did that man know about the loss of records?”

“Yes…?”

At Hwa-ryeon’s question, the manager recalled what Un-chil had said earlier.

-How can you be so sure? You said half the records were lost, can you prove that there was no golden Buddha statue?

“Oh…!?”

The manager finally realized that Un-chil knew something he shouldn’t have and let out a cry of shock.

Hwa-ryeon turned away from the bewildered manager and looked at Yak-bing.

“…This is an unexpected gain.”

“Yes, let’s go back and discuss this with the others.”

***

We, who had scattered to investigate, gathered again.

The sun was already setting, casting a red glow across the sky.

I summarized the results of the investigation we had heard from everyone.

“To summarize, it’s highly likely that the recent escort failures were a scheme by Paecheon Fortress to weaken the Namgung family’s forces. And regarding Head Steward Dam’s suicide, those guys from the gambling house are suspicious. That’s about it.”

Bang!

As soon as I finished speaking, Namgung Hyeon slammed his fist on the floor.

His face was filled with uncontainable anger.

“To think that my uncles and great-uncles died because of their schemes…!”

“Young Master Namgung…”

Miss Seol gently held Namgung Hyeon’s fist as he tried to suppress his anger.

I turned my gaze from the two of them to Hwa-ryeon.

“The escort missions aside, what about the gambling house? Did you find anything?”

“It seems to be the largest one in Hefei. Apparently, that Jo Un-chil guy is quite famous in that world. He has a terrible reputation for chasing people to the ends of the earth to collect his debts.”

Well, that was to be expected of a gambling house.

I thought about Jo Un-chil, the owner of the gambling house.

The guy who claimed that Head Steward Dam Jin-bo owed a whopping twenty gold taels and that he had promised to hand over a golden Buddha statue worth thirty gold taels stored in the armory if he couldn’t pay.

I asked Namgung Hyeon, who had calmed down,

“What about the previous investigation? If the gambling issue came up, the family must have investigated the gambling house directly, right?”

“…At least according to the records, there were no problems. The ledger detailed how Head Steward Dam used his money for gambling and how much he borrowed.”

“And they just showed you the ledger when you asked?”

“Yes? Ah, yes. There wasn’t much resistance…”

They just showed him the ledger when he asked at the gambling house?

Was that right? That wasn’t usually the case.

Even ordinary shops would be reluctant to show their ledgers to others, let alone a gambling house.

Hmm. Suspicious, very suspicious.