“Why?! Why would you want to burn the secret ledger?!”
It feels like he’s about to grab me by the collar any second now. What a good reaction. Thanks to this, the deal will go smoothly.
“I’m not Un-hyeon.”
I took a sip of tea and calmly responded.
“Not Un-hyeon?”
Jung Mun-won seemed to sense something underlying my calm demeanor and sat back down in his chair.
“I’m not a hero, I’m Ho Pil. My job isn’t to catch corrupt officials; it’s to catch thieves.”
“Catching the country’s biggest thief is something those on the country’s payroll should do.”
“Ah! I haven’t received my salary yet.”
The head of the Right Guards said that due to a budget shortfall, there isn’t any money to give the specially appointed Ho Pil, so can it be paid later?
“Ugh! How much is a Ho Pil’s salary?”
Was that an unexpected counterargument? The inspector’s face flushed for a moment.
“Haha. It’s too much to expect this appointed official to catch a thief when even the one appointed to catch the country’s thieves can’t do it.”
I’ve teased the inspector enough to calm him down. Now, let’s steer the conversation back on track.
“…Just give it to me. I’ll use it.”
“I refuse.”
I shook my head firmly.
“What did you say?”
“Unlike you, who at just thirty managed to pass the civil service exam and gain the emperor’s trust to become an inspector, I’m just a black-haired nobody who can easily be trampled on. It’s better to burn the problems I have than to keep them.”
I made it clear why I wanted to burn the secret ledger.
“I can be your problem too! It would be no trouble to throw you in jail right now!”
Upon my firm attitude, the inspector stood up and shouted. Maybe he’s just read books his whole life—doesn’t know how to negotiate.
“Inspector, threats are for when you’re sure about getting what you want.”
This conversation needs to be led by me from start to finish. I have no intention of getting sucked into the inspector’s pace.
“Ugh!”
“As soon as you leave this mansion to call for someone, I will burn the ledger. I’ll get caught, and The Shadowless Thief will run wild. People will search for Ho Pil, and you’ll be the one being pointed at. Before long, you’ll be the one getting cursed at more than the head of the branch.”
I calmed the inspector’s rage with a thin smile mixed with sarcasm.
“What do you want me to do about it?”
Did you just meet your nemesis? Why are you glaring so much? The inspector glared at me as if he’d encountered a life-or-death situation and plopped back down in his seat.
“I’m not a hero, but I’m Ho Pil, a merchant. And merchants like to engage in transactions.”
“Are you suggesting we trade?”
Bingo.
“I’ll place the ledger on my scale. The counterweight would be you, Inspector.”
I mimed a scale with my arms as if placing the ledger on one side.
The secret ledger of the head of the branch.
A weapon that could deal the finishing blow to my nemesis. I need an enormous counterweight to convince the black-haired Ho Pil.
I could feel the inspector’s gaze shifting towards the imaginary ledger on the scale. Countless thoughts must have been whirring in his head.
What answer will you come up with?
“Do you want a government position?”
“Having a place to lie down without worrying about starving tomorrow is enough for me.”
Wrong answer.
“Do you have something you want to ask for?”
“Avoid being too close, avoid being too distant. Merchants who rely on power may grow quickly, but they rot from the inside.”
My business must be built on my own abilities.
“Then what do you want?”
Are you really clueless? The inspector asked me in exasperation.
Why do I want to burn the ledger? How eager is the inspector for the branch head’s ledger? I’ve sufficiently raised the value of the trading items, so it’s time to get to the main point.
“The Shadowless Thief.”
“What?”
The inspector’s eyes widened in surprise at my unexpected answer.
“From now on, say all the credit for uncovering your corruption is thanks to The Shadowless Thief.”
“I can’t say I got help from a mere thief!”
Why hit the table as if you’re going to smash it?
Sir, I’m not the owner of this mansion but a tenant. If you ask me to return what I owe at Man Geum Battlefield when I move out, I won’t be able to pay it back. Handle it carefully.
“You can report to the court that you discovered it yourself.”
I spoke up to protect my lease option.
“What then?”
“It won’t work in Wuhan. In Wuhan, it was The Shadowless Thief who uncovered the corruption, and you, Inspector, must act as The Shadowless Thief’s right hand behind the scenes.”
Inspector, please work hard for the reputation of The Shadowless Thief.
That was the condition for handing over the secret ledger.
“…Do you perhaps have some sort of relationship with The Shadowless Thief?”
Jung Mun-won looked at me with suspicious eyes.
That’s a natural question to come up.
Why ask the inspector to work for a thief when you have no desires for power or wealth? This is obviously suspicious.
How can I alleviate the inspector’s suspicion?
I originally thought of various ways to dispel the inspector’s doubt, but if the inspector is Jung Mun-won, it would be easy to keep the conversation going.
I have the perfect method to use against the character Jung Mun-won in the story.
“For the Emperor. For the sake of this country.”
My loyalty, directed towards the nation.
Although I was a government official suffering from taking care of the princess, my loyalty to the emperor and the nation was genuine.
“What do you mean?”
Look, the doubtful gaze is slowly dissipating. But I can’t stop here.
“As you saw, I have a small talent as a Ho Pil. Using this talent to chase The Shadowless Thief, I gradually came to realize what The Shadowless Thief desires.”
I needed to explain why what I want is for our benefit small enough.
“What does he want?”
“Inspector, what do you think about The Shadowless Thief?”
“Not fond of him, but I understand why the common people are so enamored. He’s a righteous thief, like in Chronicles of the Wind and Cloud Heroes.”
As a government official, he might not be pleased, but he must have been glad about the head of the branch incident.
But here’s the thing.
“I don’t see him as a just thief.”
I don’t see him that way.
“Not a righteous thief?”
“There’s one thing I’ve come to realize as Ho Pil. Even if a criminal acts in a peculiar manner, their essence remains bound to human instincts. If he indeed partook in righteous thievery with pure intentions, would he have left behind black paper cranes like those in the chronicles?”
“Certainly…”
“He’s a martial artist before being a righteous thief. And if you think of him as a martial artist, you can consider the principles behind his actions from the perspective of a martial artist. Inspector, what do you think is one of the values that martial artists cherish?”
The inspector pondered my question for a moment before opening his mouth.
“…Fame?”
“Yes. The principle of his actions is fame.”
“What does that have to do with anything?”
“We should use him.”
In order to draw out the inspector’s help, I had to eliminate not only his suspicion of me but also his aversion to The Shadowless Thief.
An elusive thief whose actions cannot be understood. A phantom thief never seen in the history of the Central Plains. I need to strip away all the modifiers and make the inspector mistakenly think of him as a being he can manipulate.
“We use him?”
The inspector tilted his head, confused.
“Though The Shadowless Thief may be a martial artist, it’s also true that both the inspector and Ho Pil cannot confront social decay—the ‘righteous thief’ label is justified. We are helping his reputation establish itself throughout Hubei Province.”
“Uncovering the corruption of bad officials through The Shadowless Thief…”
“Grant The Shadowless Thief a noble name, and you, inspector, will carve out society’s rotten tumor.”
Understanding the principles behind The Shadowless Thief’s actions allows us to move him in our intended direction.
If he’s willing to get his hands a little dirty, I could make the inspector into a collaborator.
“Helping The Shadowless Thief for the nation…”
If he’s sufficiently shaken, it’s time to extend my hand for the last time.
“Will you accept this?”
I offered the ledger like a baited fishing rod dangling in the water.
Jung Mun-won stared at the newly revealed secret ledger with wide eyes.
Such a tempting proposal. If he was willing to put up with a bit of a bad reputation, he could only gain from this offer. However, there was one blind spot.
Jung Mun-won was a man capable of being patient to resolve the lingering doubts of his position as inspector.
“You never intended to burn that ledger from the start, did you?”
“Well…”
A positive smile. But I had no idea what he was thinking inside. It felt like I was dealing with a treacherous minister or a loyal subject.
Jung Mun-won felt like he was standing before an elderly official in the court.
“The very concept of a transaction was deceitful. A trade must involve benefit. You gain nothing from all this. Why would you do such a thing?”
It’s definitely a fine proposal. Both The Shadowless Thief and himself stand to gain, but the one placing the items on the scale gains nothing.
Kang Yoon-ho spoke of the transaction as a merchant, but from the beginning, it wasn’t a transaction at all.
Could it be that there really is some sort of relationship with The Shadowless Thief?
As a fleeting doubt crossed Jung Mun-won’s mind, the declaration that would dispel all his uncertainties burst forth from the lips of the black-haired Ho Pil.
“I am not Un-hyeon. I am Ho Pil, and I am a citizen of this nation.”
Kang Yoon-ho smiled as if it were the most natural thing, once again displaying his loyalty to the nation.
The Ho Pil, who catches the nation’s thieves. The Ho Pil who can’t remain idle when witnessing crimes. He was never approaching Jung Mun-won as a merchant initially; that was already sufficient for an answer in the eyes of the inspector.
“Why me? There was the head of the Right Guards.”
“I trust the head of the Right Guards, but he lacks the capacity for greatness. Having started as a constable and sitting in that position, he’s accustomed to wagging his tail for power. I wanted someone with enough capacity to place the secret ledger on the scale.”
“How am I to judge if my capacity is great or small?”
What if you were indeed too small to place the secret ledger on the scale? If you were instead someone who turned in the black-haired Ho Pil for colluding with The Shadowless Thief, what on earth would you have brought this up for?
Jung Mun-won looked at Kang Yoon-ho with a questioning expression.
“Why should I have to determine whether your capacity is small or large?”
“What?!”
“Surely, nothing used directly by the emperor could be small, right?”
“…!”
Overwhelmed by his loyalty so fervently, Jung Mun-won could no longer doubt Kang Yoon-ho.
“Please. Use it well.”
Jung Mun-won cautiously accepted the ledger from the hands of Kang Yoon-ho.
An item he desperately desired enough to visit the mansion in person. A weapon that could stab the heart of the corrupt official, who he could call his enemy.
The inspector finally got what he wanted, yet his attention wasn’t on the secret ledger.
“Perhaps…”
The treasure he needed to obtain stood right in front of him, even more valuable than the secret ledger.
An instinct he had never experienced before.
The unparalleled reputation of the black-haired Ho Pil that no other had in Wuhan. His unwavering loyalty to the country. His immense trust in the emperor.
A figure who despises corruption, covets no treasure, and yet fulfills his duties as a citizen of the emperor, even as a black-haired one.
Inspector Jung Mun-won found himself involuntarily blurting out a single proposal before the Ho Pil whose presence had captivated his gaze.
“Do you happen to be interested in working with me?”
