The Hunting Dog of the Prestigious Family Has Returned Chapter 26

From the moment construction on the casino building started, I no longer stayed at the Andong Kim main house.

I was living in my exclusive space I’d made in the building’s basement.

“Young Master Kim Changwoon.”

The Andong Kim main house I’d visited after a long time.

When I passed through the antique wooden corridor and approached the central training hall, two gatekeepers blocked my path.

“I’ve come to see Young Master Kim Hyunwoo.”

“You’re not registered on the visitor list…”

“Well of course. Because officially I was never here.”

Having said that while waiting briefly, lights came on in the communicators equipped to the gatekeepers.

-It’s me. Let him in.

Kim Hyunwoo’s voice.

At the sudden instruction, the gatekeepers who’d swallowed gasps opened the door without a word.

When I entered inside the training hall, a space completely different from the main house with its characteristic hanok style appeared.

Bulkheads of alloy material sealed in double and triple layers and shock absorption devices installed everywhere.

Dedicated machines that could adjust phase power wavelengths and various measurement equipment.

This place was the training hall the Andong Kim main house boasted.

It was a special space permitted only to the main house’s phase power wielders.

Thud—! Thud—!

Vibrations transmitted all the way here at a distance.

The impact growing larger the closer to the training hall’s center.

At the center of that impact and vibration was Kim Hyunwoo in pure white training clothes, controlling his rough breathing.

“Young Master Kim Changwoon. This way.”

Instead of Kim Hyunwoo who didn’t even look toward me, his guard guided me.

The place I was guided to was a rest area prepared in one corner of the training hall.

While tilting the teacup a maid offered and waiting, before long Kim Hyunwoo who’d changed clothes entered inside.

“Ghosts would weep. I didn’t expect you to come find me first.”

“…”

I didn’t particularly respond to Kim Hyunwoo’s words as he sat across from me. Just leisurely tilted my teacup.

“I know well that the Young Master views me like a thorn in his eye, but we can’t keep going like this forever.”

As if telling him to keep babbling, Kim Hyunwoo gestured with his chin.

“To begin with, I have no intention of defeating the Young Master, and no intention of aiming for anything within the clan.”

“Really? For that, your attitude toward the clan was quite insolent.”

“I was attacked on the street, and my guard almost died. Wouldn’t it be stranger to treat them warmly?”

“…”

The attack incident that had occurred at Kim Hyunwoo’s instigation.

Kim Hyunwoo who’d been silent briefly soon brushed it off as if it had nothing to do with him.

“I don’t know what you’re talking about.”

“Yes. What does it matter anyway.”

Right. It didn’t matter at all.

It was an incident I’d covered up from my side to begin with, and thanks to that I’d bought time to create my forces.

When I briefly stopped talking and sipped the tea placed before me, Kim Hyunwoo who’d been observing me intently opened his mouth.

“If you’re not interested in the clan’s succession structure, what do you want?”

He’d taken the bait.

I answered while putting down my teacup as if it didn’t matter.

“Surviving. What else could there be.”

“Surviving?”

“Yes. I don’t care at all about power clans or succession structures—I just want to survive alone.”

“…”

“And to do that… no matter what, I need money.”

Money enough to live independently and swagger around.

Hearing my words mixed with a degree of sincerity, Kim Hyunwoo’s eyes narrowed.

“You babble as if it’s grand, but in the end it’s mere wealth.”

“Yes. I plan to live looking only at that one thing. I’m not interested in great causes, ambitions, whatever.”

“Huh.”

Kim Hyunwoo’s eyes changed.

Contempt, ridicule, and relief hidden beneath them.

Those aristocrat tribes were always like this.

Outwardly they babbled about integrity or whatever while detesting wealth, but they tried to firmly hide the desire seated in their own hearts.

“Fine. I’ll grant it.”

Having finished judging in his own way, Kim Hyunwoo spoke.

“What do you want?”

“There’s a business I’m conducting—please add some funds to it.”

“A gambling den, was it? I don’t want to be involved in such a place.”

“There’s no need to sponsor it directly. Just give me money.”

Of course, I had absolutely no intention of just receiving money.

The fact that Andong Kim clan funds entered the casino establishment.

Just letting that news leak slightly would make Joseon’s power elites not even dare to touch my business establishment.

“The price?”

“I’ll give you justification.”

“Justification?”

After pausing once, I continued speaking.

“The Pungyang Jo clan that continually challenges the Andong Kim clan’s authority.”

“…”

“I’ll give you justification to completely crush that Pungyang Jo clan.”

Having said that, I handed over a data chip.

An illegal chip that hadn’t received official authorization.

Kim Hyunwoo looked at it as if it were something dirty, but I recommended it to him again with a gentle smile.

Kim Hyunwoo with a reluctant expression slowly checked the chip’s contents.

“This is…!”

Kim Hyunwoo’s eyes who’d checked it grew as large as lanterns.

What I’d handed over was memory data extracted from Dokgo Seong’s brain.

Among them, it was footage with the crimes and misconduct of the Pungyang Jo clan’s successor, ‘Jo Seonghwan,’ recorded in vivid detail.

“Doom seems to have fallen on Joseon. For nobles who should show an example to all people to commit such heinous acts.”

“…!”

“Moreover, it’s not just the Pungyang Jo clan. Multiple families are entangled. For example…”

I lifted the teacup I’d been drinking from earlier.

Not mass-produced items like from a 3D printer, but a teacup an artisan made by hand.

“Lord Nam Daewook who gifted me this teacup was also included in the client list.”

Crack.

When I sent the names of several additional aristocrats, Kim Hyunwoo who’d finished checking ground his teeth.

“For members of distinguished families who should lead Joseon’s future to commit such foolish acts…!”

Kim Hyunwoo was the entrenched evil monopolizing Joseon’s power, but that didn’t mean he was an insane bastard who’d commit such crimes.

Rather the opposite.

He had the old aristocrat-style thinking that valued the clan’s dignity and honor.

Yet the fellows who’d been sponsoring and loyal to him were doing such dog behavior behind his back?

His eyes couldn’t help but roll back.

“This information was obtained from Hanseong’s lower levels, the so-called places where lowly things operate.”

“And by having this information, I’ve essentially grasped the power of life and death over the aristocrats on this list.”

Kim Hyunwoo who’d checked the materials in the data chip without omission immediately recognized this information’s value.

A place most aristocrats wouldn’t even look at, calling it dirty.

Information I’d dug up by directly jumping into such a place and rubbing shoulders with lowly things.

An item that could never be obtained from other sponsors.

“While operating the business establishment, I plan to sell information to the Young Master.”

Aristocrats who came to my business establishment to gamble, corporate heads, foreign envoys, and other wealthy classes.

What they scattered wasn’t just money.

When alcohol and drugs entered, high-grade information that would flow out between them.

Each other’s shame, weaknesses.

Those might become even more precious resources than the money obtainable from the casino.

“I’d like to make the Young Master my main trading partner. Since we’re members of the same clan, I’d feel at ease, and it seems I could make decent money.”

“You’re saying you’ll cooperate with me? None other than you?”

“Of course. If you give me money, what couldn’t I do?”

Did revealing the purpose of money conversely inspire trust? Kim Hyunwoo’s mouth slowly curved.

“You’re displeasing from head to toe, but there was one thing. One thing I liked.”

“What?”

“That you don’t call me older brother. And that you don’t call Father ‘Father.'”

Twitch.

“Don’t other aristocratic families’ illegitimate children often say this? They can’t call Father ‘Father’ and can’t call older brother ‘older brother’… thinking about it, it’s ridiculous talk.”

This bastard, suddenly grating on people?

While I listened quietly with hidden expression, Kim Hyunwoo spoke to me with a leisurely attitude.

“Even though they give aristocratic family status and provide that much treatment, they’re not satisfied with that and seek more beyond it.”

“…”

“As if the fact that the blood forming half of themselves was a commoner’s doesn’t even matter.”

Ungrateful types.

Having muttered that, Kim Hyunwoo continued speaking.

“But you’re not like that at all. You know well where your position is.”

Having finished what he wanted to say, Kim Hyunwoo raised his arm and called his guard.

Was his name Hocheol?

When he whispered to the guard wearing a black visor, he who’d nodded immediately manipulated the interface and deposited money to me.

“Ha, counting how many zeros there are is also work.”

Befitting someone positioned at the very top of power clans, his spending was also extraordinary.

“I’ll accept your deal. If you have useful information, continue reporting to me. The more you help me, the greater the reward will be.”

“Thank you.”

I bowed my head while humoring Kim Hyunwoo who’d lowered his voice. Seeing him babble, it seemed he already thought the clan had entered his grasp.

‘Well, it would be so.’

The king’s body enshrined in Geunjeongjeon Hall.

The fact that Kim Jungheon had directly shown him that appearance meant he recognized him as the clan’s successor.

At this point where everything was already prepared, someone like me wouldn’t even seem like a competitor anymore.

But seeing that arrogant appearance, I had to use all my strength to hide the laughter flowing out.

‘I’m so grateful I don’t know what to do with myself.’

The business establishment to be newly created.

Loyal humans to operate and maintain it.

And even investment from the Andong Kim main house.

‘Thanks to you, I’ve obtained everything I need.’

The massive revolution that would burn all the power clans.

Groundwork to intervene in that revolution was beginning.

---

“Young Master.”

When I came outside the main house after finishing the deal with Kim Hyunwoo, Mooyoung and Taewoong who’d been waiting outside greeted me.

“You’ve come.”

“Yeah. But I think there might be another place to go.”

“Go where?”

The deal with Kim Hyunwoo was completely finished—what was this about going somewhere else?

While Taewoong with a puzzled expression asked back.

“Senior.”

Mooyoung who was with him called Taewoong while touching his sword hilt as if sensing a strange presence.

“Ooh, they’re coming over there.”

Where Mooyoung’s gaze headed.

There, a group of men were approaching toward me while emanating an ominous aura.

“Are you Young Master Kim Changwoon?”

“Uh-huh. I am Kim Changwoon though.”

A man dressed in Western-style clothes rather than Joseon’s characteristic hanbok spoke to me.

A clean body without a single artificial body and a characteristic arrogant atmosphere.

It was an appearance that made it very easy to tell where he’d been sent from.

“Why would guards from the Pungyang Jo clan family be looking for me?”

“…”

Was it unexpected that I recognized them immediately?

The men who’d briefly exchanged glances among themselves slowly bowed their heads and opened their mouths.

“Our young family head wishes to invite the Young Master to the main house.”

“Me?”

“There was an order from our young family head to escort you as quickly as possible without discomfort.”

Along with those words, other guards waiting beside him surrounded me.

“Young Master!”

“U-uh, it’s fine, Mooyoung. Put away your sword.”

I calmed Mooyoung who was about to draw his sword right then.

Blocking all directions and calling it an ‘invitation.’

Seeing them handle things so unreasonably felt newly familiar somehow.

Jo Seonghwan.

That crazy bastard always treated people this way.

“Today’s really a good day. To meet two such esteemed people.”

Having received their guidance, I boarded the vehicle the Pungyang Jo clan had prepared.

Having succeeded in handing the knife handle to Kim Hyunwoo, one thing remained.

All that was left was putting Jo Seonghwan’s neck on the cutting board.