The Mad Dog Inspector of the Martial Alliance

A carriage passes over the underpass late at night. Do Jibaek said nothing until the sound of the carriage wheels faded away. This silence was not because he had nothing to say, but because he had too much to say. His reddened face and the veins standing out on the back of his neck proved it.

He's going to collapse at this rate, Yang Gwan thought and asked Jang So-gil casually.

"Guild Master So, aren't you being too direct? There are ways to say it more gently."

"We're both busy people. If we just get to the point, there's no need for either of us to be tired. I know him, and he knows me. So there's no need for us to introduce ourselves, is there?"

"Still, to just demand money out of the blue... it's like a robber."

"What problem could there be between him and me, other than a monetary one? For him, it's over once he gives the money, and for me, it's over once I receive it. So what's the problem with being brief?"

What's the problem with that?

"Where did you sell off your manners?"

"The Alliance Lord said he'd buy them at a high price, so I sold them off quickly."

It meant that only someone of the Martial Alliance Lord's stature was worthy of his manners.

Do Jibaek's face, who was listening to the conversation, gradually turned red.

Thinking he looked like a ripe persimmon, Yang Gwan took a slight step back and raised his guard.

Then Jang So-gil waved his hand and pushed Yang Gwan away.

"That man is a Three-Knot Beggar, but I hear he hasn't learned martial arts. You don't have to be so guarded, so you can step back and give the children some food."

"Guild Master So, what if that fiend suddenly throws a hidden weapon?"

"You have to block that, you fool. I told you my safety is the most important thing, didn't I!"

"No, so I stepped forward to protect you, but didn't you push me away?"

"My safety is the most important, but the next most important thing is that the kids don't go hungry. Is it so hard to protect me while feeding the kids?"

"...I really can't win against you with words."

Yang Gwan grumbled and put some distance between them. Then he shook the bundle tied to his spear shaft and approached the children. They were children who had been buried in the ground for more than half a day. Their faces were already pale, and their eyes were dull. It must be because their bodies were cold.

Yang Gwan set fire to a pile of straw someone had made with his Fire Wheel Art. Then he lifted the children one by one and had them sit in front of it, and they all shivered with pale faces. They must have been very cold.

"Are you alright?"

"Thank you. Thank you."

With their short learning, they didn't even know how to express their gratitude other than those words. The children just kept repeating, "Thank you." Yang Gwan, looking at them with pity, untied the bundle. There was enough fried dough twists and duck soup for twenty people to eat. The children, seeing the food, let out a cry of admiration.

"Can we eat this?"

"Of course."

"Thank you, my lord!"

"My lord, what..."

Yang Gwan smiled slightly and waved his hand. The children, as if they had no time to refuse, immediately reached out and grabbed the fried dough twists. Perhaps because they had been placed on top of the duck soup, they were still warm. How long had it been since they had eaten freshly made food, and how grateful they were to put warm soup into their cold bodies. If they had been ordinary children, they might have burst into tears. But they were beggars of the Beggars' Sect, and they were children with that much stronger survival skills, so they thanked their luck and Jang So-gil's grace and moved their hands and mouths without rest.

Jang So-gil, who was watching the children eat so voraciously with a pleased expression, now turned his gaze to Do Jibaek. He was sending hand signals with a flushed face, probably giving instructions to his subordinates scattered here and there.

"I asked for money, but you're just making strange hand gestures."

"Y-y-y... y-y-y...!"

"Should I say it again? Give me the money."

As Jang So-gil urged him, Do Jibaek flared his nostrils. It seemed he had made up his mind. Indeed, even if it was hereditary, he had the skill to be a Three-Knot Beggar. To have composed himself and even prepared a countermeasure in that short time. While Jang So-gil inwardly clicked his tongue, Do Jibaek managed his expression even more brazenly.

"Money? What money are you talking about!"

"Hah, what money?"

"Yes. I don't know what money you're telling me to give you. What money do I owe the Martial Alliance that you come here and cause such a ruckus!"

"The taxes you have to pay to the Martial Alliance haven't come, have they? You haven't given a single coin this year."

"Didn't I already report that to the Alliance Lord in a letter! I wrote in the letter, 'Due to the drought and bad harvest, the people's hearts are not good. If the people's lives are not prosperous, it is even harder for us beggars who live off their generosity to make a living. Compared to last year, there is no income, and it is difficult to even take care of myself, so I cannot pay taxes this year.' And the Alliance Lord even sent a reply saying he understood. How dare a bastard like you be rude to me!"

As he said that, he received a letter from his subordinate who had run up in a hurry and showed it to Jang So-gil as if to show off. It was a real letter with the Alliance Lord's seal, and the content was exactly as Do Jibaek had said.

"Oh, this is real."

"Of course it's real, what are you talking about?"

"No, since you guys can even forge seals, I was just checking, just in case."

Do Jibaek was flustered, as if he had been struck. Forgery was something he did on a daily basis. But this letter was really a handwritten letter from the Alliance Lord, so he puffed out his chest even more confidently.

"If you've checked, then get lost. Otherwise-!"

"Otherwise, what are you going to do?"

"What?"

Jang So-gil snatched the letter that Do Jibaek had proudly taken out. Then, without giving Do Jibaek a chance to stop him, he blew his nose loudly on the letter and then threw it back into the bonfire where the children were gathered.

"Ah, ah, ahhh! That bastard, the letter! The letter-!"

"What's the big deal about a letter like this?"

It was a truly arrogant and disrespectful attitude. While Do Jibaek was stuttering in disbelief, the letter burned up in an instant with a whoosh. He wouldn't even be able to retrieve a piece from the ashes. His get-out-of-jail-free card had burned up.

"You bastard! How dare you burn the Alliance Lord's handwritten letter! Are you prepared!"

"Prepared for what? You'd better know this well. From now on, in any money matters related to the Martial Alliance, I am the one in charge. I am the decision-maker, and I will be the one to judge. Even if the Alliance Lord let it slide, I won't. Because the Alliance Lord's judgment is meaningless."

"H-how arrogant! Are you saying you are above the Alliance Lord!"

"It's true that the Alliance Lord is good with a sword and has a dignified presence, but what does he know about commerce? He knows that well too, so he called me and made me an inspector. So if I say no, then it's no. So stop with the bullshit and give me the money."

"You robber! You're no different from a thief, just without a knife!"

"Taxes are originally a form of robbery, so it's only natural. So, the money?"

Jang So-gil's pressure was intense. With the powerful move of burning the letter and belittling the Alliance Lord, Do Jibaek seemed unable to escape the pressure at first glance. Even to Yang Gwan, who was watching from a short distance, it seemed so. A slightly trembling hand and eyes trembling with anxiety. His spirit was broken. He shouted.

"I don't have it! Didn't I tell you from the beginning! Do you have evidence? Do you have evidence!"

"Oh-ho, so that's how you're going to play it."

Unlike with merchants, escorts, or those with sects, collecting taxes from beggars was a very difficult task. Beggars did not know how to read, so all transactions were carried out secretly without ledgers. They didn't store their funds in a bank, nor did they invest anywhere. It was managed entirely by the treasurer of a single branch, which in other words meant that if that one person had a change of heart, there was no way to find out.

So Do Jibaek's last line of defense was the Beggars' Sect itself. The belief that the Beggars' Sect's money management left no traces, and that Jang So-gil had no way of knowing. That belief was what made Do Jibaek hold on.

"It's certainly difficult to collect from the Beggars' Sect. That's why the previous manager, Strategist Sama, advised to give up, and the Alliance Lord probably accepted that advice and sent you that letter."

"Hehehe."

Do Jibaek let out a low laugh, licking his lips that were dry with tension. No matter how great this fellow named Jang So-gil was, what's not there is not there. If he holds out, what can he do? That was the meaning of his laugh.

But even seeing that laugh, Jang So-gil smiled.

"But there is evidence. They're eating over there, aren't they?"

"What? That trash is the evidence?"

"...You'd better be a little more careful with your words. Anyway, now, shall we unfold the evidence a little?"

Jang So-gil took out a small book from his bosom. Do Jibaek looked at it with curious eyes.

"This is a book where I've written down the information I've gathered over the past five days in tiny letters. I've transcribed what the children told me one by one."

"What's the use of that?"

"Calm down and listen. It will be very enjoyable."

He began to read in a clear voice.

"On the day the moon was very big, sister Maeyong was sold to the west. The pig was happy, saying he received 20 silver taels. On the day the festival sounds were loud, brother Seoseo died of a stomachache. A crazy guy came, saying he would make a jiangshi out of brother Seoseo's body, and the pig was happy that he could even sell a corpse."

"What...!"

Jang So-gil's voice was gentle and his face was smiling, so he looked happy, but his aura was truly menacing. The content of his words was even more heinous. Sparks flew from Yang Gwan's eyes, and his grip on his spear tightened. Jang So-gil's reading continued.

"On a hot day, the pig brought rice. There were over a hundred sacks of rice, and the pig told us to move it to the mountain. The next day, when we went to steal the rice, the rice was gone. Where could it have gone?"

Even if he listened to the words of an uneducated child and wrote them down, the content would not change. Even with that short sentence, Yang Gwan knew that Do Jibaek had monopolized the relief rice given by the government during a drought, embezzled it, and then sold it back at a high price less than a day later. If even Yang Gwan understood, how could Do Jibaek, who had sold it himself, not know? His complexion turned deathly pale.

Jang So-gil put the book in his bosom and smiled coldly.

"Even if there's a drought, your money-making doesn't change, does it? You sell children, sell information, sell corpses, you sell everything you can to turn it into money. Selling the relief rice provided by the authorities would be a natural thing to do."

"U-ugh, ughh. It's a misunderstanding. There's a misunderstanding."

"There are hundreds of such circumstantial evidences. There are twenty children who testify. Are you still going to deny it, saying there's not enough evidence?"

"You're making a big mistake. I can explain everything. Don't misunderstand and listen."

This was a different story. It wasn't just about tax evasion of the taxes to be sent to the Martial Alliance and its collection. It was embezzlement of public rice. Since the embezzlement of public rice was discovered, he couldn't expect the next relief rice, and he would have to pay a huge fine. The constables of the government office might come to beat him. But that was nothing.

Unless it was related to the imperial family, the laws of the martial world were more terrifying than the laws of the government.

Selling corpses and human trafficking were vicious acts that only the most wicked among the Unorthodox faction would do. It was even more unthinkable for the Orthodox faction. If this fact was discovered, Do Jibaek would die. He would die at the hands of the Martial Alliance, or at the hands of the Beggars' Sect. He could even be killed by a passing chivalrous man.

So Do Jibaek had no choice but to be desperate.

He rubbed his hands together earnestly to live.

"H-here, let's not do this here. First, let's go to a brothel. I'll explain everything in detail there."

"A brothel... I'm not in the mood to be entertained, so no thanks."

"Then first, let's go to a quiet place where there are no people..."

"If you were me, would you go to a secluded place with you? Aren't you a completely crazy bastard?"

As if the thought alone gave him the creeps, So shivered. Then he grinned and beckoned to Yang Gwan. Yang Gwan approached, shaking his spear.

"Gwan-ah, if that bastard doesn't give me the money, stab him."

"Can't I stab him even if he gives me the money?"

"Well, well? What's gotten into you?"

"A beast like that shouldn't be alive."

"That's what he says, so what do you think, Beggar Do Jibaek?"

With the good head that had even taken the provincial examination in the past, could he come up with a wise answer?

Jang So-gil stared at Do Jibaek with eyes full of anticipation.

(End of Chapter)