The Hunting Dog of the Prestigious Family Has Returned Chapter 56

-Congratulations on your appointment, Young Master. The Administration, of all places…. Even hearing it, it doesn’t feel real.

“How are things on your end? All the major operations are wrapped up, so you shouldn’t be taking on anything new. Just maintaining what’s there.”

-I’m doing as instructed. Don’t worry about this side, Young Master. Just focus on your duties to the country.

“Duties to the country, please. I’m hanging up.”

After ending the call, I tucked the Choraengi mask back inside my robe.

With this, I’d handed off most of the casino’s management to the proprietress. The basic framework was already in place, so what remained was something they could handle on their own.

For now, as the proprietress had said, it was time to attend to my official duties.

“Hff…….”

As I drew the bowstring back, there was a creak, and tension ran through my shoulder.

Not the monstrous composite bow I normally used, but a traditional Korean bow crafted in the Joseon style.

Thwack!

The moment I released the string, a crisp sound rang out as the arrow shot from the shooting line drove itself into the dead center of the target.

The drone stationed at the archery range carefully confirmed the score, and a hologram red flag appeared and snapped in the air before me.

Gwanjung — a perfect bullseye.

I’d worried my skills might have rusted from lack of use lately, but the daily practice hadn’t been for nothing.

“Contraband?! Th-this is slander!”

I was leisurely enjoying the archery when a local official, drained of all color, came bursting out and threw himself on his knees before me without preamble.

He was this quarter’s primary inspection target, someone under investigation by the Royal Investigative Bureau on evidence of smuggling weapons to Japan.

“Please believe me. I swear there was nothing of the sort. Your honor! It’s true that people from Japan came and went, but that was simply…..!”

“Yes, yes. I’ve heard it many times by now. You simply let them in because you knew them — you had no idea the man was a smuggler registered on the Administration’s wanted list. You had no knowledge of any weapons going missing, and the fault lies not with you, the local official, but with the operational staff under you…….”

I listened to the local official’s pleas with thoughtful attention and hung the bow I’d been holding back on the rack.

They said it was a bow made from brass some hundreds of years ago, and I’d wondered what could possibly be good about it, so I gave it a try. In practice, it really didn’t suit me.

“So you want me to report it to my superiors along those lines?”

“That’s exactly right! As proof, the military supply depot showed no irregularities, did it?!”

“Yes. That’s true.”

I glanced at the cargo manifest on my interface and checked it against the Administration’s regulations, nodding slowly.

The paperwork was spotlessly clean, and my direct inspection had found no anomalies — under normal circumstances, I’d stamp it complete and move on.

But.

“Here.”

I tapped the floor of the archery range beneath my feet and spoke.

“Open this floor.”

The moment I said that, the local official who had been bowing and scraping all along froze in place and stopped moving.

Those clustered around us were the same.

Unlike before, when they had trembled at my every gesture, now they simply fixed their eyes on me, gazes turned red.

Rrrumble—

Two drones responding to my hand signal interfaced with the archery range’s internal system, and a hidden door concealed in the floor revealed itself.

The outer walls were lined with lead to scramble optical scanning devices.

When the door was opened, inside lay a mountain of various weapons and munitions designated as prohibited exports.

A confirmed hit.

Clang!

Taewoong, standing at my back, deflected a bullet that had come flying straight toward him with his bare hand.

It had been fired from a gun barrel that had emerged from inside an artificial body.

Simultaneously, the local official and his subordinates began drawing their weapons one by one.

A sigh came naturally.

“Threatening an inspector is a grave offense equivalent to treason. I trust you’re well aware of that.”

“The goods hidden underground have been discovered, so even if you let us go, we’re dead men. The only difference is whether we die here, or at the hands of Royal Investigative Bureau agents.”

In other words, killing me here and running was a far better chance at survival.

After working as a local official for years, his judgment was fairly sharp.

“That’s a fair point.”

But I twisted the corner of my mouth openly and laughed at the overconfident official.

“If you can make it out of here alive, that is.”

My tone shifted in an instant.

Perhaps he sensed something wrong in that — the local official raised his hand without delay.

In the next moment, combat drones and security guards armed with artificial bodies began encircling the archery range from every direction.

“I don’t know what card you’re hiding up your sleeve…. but it’s not for nothing that previous inspectors turned a blind eye to me. Your honor — knowing without knowing, seeing without seeing. That kind of convenient looking-away is the secret to a long life, as they say.”

“I am a member of the Andong Kim clan. The fallout won’t be easy for you to manage.”

“I’ll be leaving Joseon. I can put myself under the protection of a Japanese city-state, or take an illegal entry route out to the Central Plains…. But whichever it is, it’s not your honor’s concern.”

Squeeze every last thing out of this place, then flee abroad at the first opportunity.

A thoroughly calculated life plan. An involuntary laugh escaped me.

Ah, leaving Joseon.

Should I abandon all this talk of revolution and do the same?

“Kill him.”

Not wanting to drag it out any further, the local official gave the order to his men without delay.

Just before those words finished, I swept my gaze around at those surrounding me once.

“Mooyoung.”

Swish!

In the next instant, the limbs of the dozens of people encircling me scattered into the air all at once.

Personal bodyguards with rifles aimed. Mercenaries hired from who knew where. Even combat drones imported directly from Japan.

All of it was being shredded apart and sent flying.

“……What?”

As if only then registering that they had been hit, the guards’ eyes went wide.

But it was already too late.

Before their eyes stood the black-armed guard, eyes gleaming, hwando raised.

Mooyoung was there.

“Aaaaagh?!”

“Wh-what?! What on earth is happening……!”

“What do you think. It means the one who came today was no ordinary inspector.”

As they floundered in the chaos, I stepped forward and brought out my identification tablet.

The hologram tablet projected from the visual output device.

The moment he saw it, the color drained from the inspector’s face.

“A secret royal inspector — step forward.”

In the next instant, Taewoong and Mooyoung, both having activated their artificial bodies, burst forward.

Killing the guards who had lost their weapons was Mooyoung’s responsibility.

Seizing the local official watching for a chance to back away and flee was Taewoong’s.

“Hk, hkk……!”

“This can’t be…!”

A human weapon clad entirely in Grade-1 artificial body, and a phase ability user.

The moment those two moved, clearing the area was no difficult task.

“I really am dying out here every single day.”

I let out a heavy sigh watching the battlefield where blood, steel, and machinery were flying through the air.

Secret royal inspector.

Originally, this was an important post by which the king would send the official he trusted most as an auditor, routing out corruption in the provinces.

But now?

The king was seated at the top of Geunjeongjeon Hall as a corpse, and my father, the head of the Andong Kim clan, was wielding that power in his place.

In that case, who dispatches a secret royal inspector in today’s Joseon?

Who else. A power clan, naturally.

Among them, the faction of the Minister of the Left who controlled the Royal Investigative Bureau and the royal guard. It had become standard practice for personnel selected by the Andong Kim to be the ones sent out.

Now, let me look once more at the post I had been given.

Junior Sixth Rank, Probationary Royal Inspector.

As the word ‘probationary’ implies, my duty was to assist a currently serving secret royal inspector in his work and learn the role as a trainee.

But for several months now, no secret royal inspector who was supposed to be teaching me had appeared.

Because the Administration had not appointed one.

No secret royal inspector, but a probationary inspector to learn the work of a secret royal inspector.

What in the world does that mean?

A strange situation, but when you think about it, it wasn’t actually so bizarre.

They needed someone to do the work of a secret royal inspector, but when it came to assigning a high-ranking official to the task of provincial inspection, there were no volunteers.

So they gave a convenient new official a temporary post called ‘probationary’ and had him take on everything a secret royal inspector would do.

That was me. Kim Changwoon, a product of this venerable Joseon tradition.

The one and only ‘contract secret royal inspector.’

“Kk…. hkk……!”

In the blood-soaked archery range.

I watched the local official writhing in Taewoong’s grip around his neck and put away the identification tablet I’d brought out.

Was it a real royal inspector’s tablet? Of course not.

This was the ‘Armored Taejong MK-77 Transformation Set #1’ that the orphanage children had given me as a birthday present.

“What shall we do, Young Master?”

“Wait a moment. Let me check the regulations.”

At Taewoong’s question, his face expressionless as he watched the scene, I pulled up the secret royal inspector manual file in a corner of my interface.

“Last revision year…. 2172?”

A manual over a hundred and thirty years out of date.

But this was the operational guidelines that every secret royal inspector was required to commit to memory, and negligence in memorizing it was not permitted.

So many things to memorize, and none of it usable.

This is what it looks like when a country is heading to ruin.

“By the book, he should be handed over to the Royal Investigative Bureau to purge everyone connected to this. But….”

The completely subdued local official. The military supplies intact.

I glanced back and forth between the two, then smiled with satisfaction.

“Kill him.”

Hearing my words, Taewoong put pressure into his hand without objection.

Crack! The local official who had been struggling went limp.

Situation resolved.

With the upper echelons of the power clans in such turmoil, incidents like this were an everyday occurrence in the areas around Hanseong.

“Contact the proprietress for me, Mooyoung. Send people here and let’s take all these supplies for ourselves.”

“Are you not planning to report directly to the Royal Investigative Bureau again this time?”

“Of course.”

As the word ‘again’ suggested, there were countless local officials siphoning off military supplies from the Five Military Commands to line their own pockets.

The one caught this time simply happened to be a particularly large fish among them.

I rattled off the report to the Royal Investigative Bureau without batting an eye.

“The smuggled goods had mostly already been moved to Japan, with only a small amount remaining. When pressed on this, the local official and local personnel launched an attack on my person. Thanks to the capable guards provided by the Andong Kim main house, I escaped unharmed, and I convey my thanks to the Andong Kim main house for their cooperation with the inspection work…. How’s that?”

“The same as always, I see.”

Taewoong shook his head.

In the meantime, Mooyoung appeared to have gotten through to the proprietress — he turned my way and raised a thumb.

Meaning people would be arriving shortly.

“Mooyoung’s skill improves by the day. When he first came in, I could manage him to some degree…. Now it’s beyond what even I can handle.”

“And his methods have become considerably more cruel along with it.”

As I said this and turned my gaze, Mooyoung was sheathing his sword after shaking the blood soaking the hwando clean.

Apparently, the people who had aimed guns at me couldn’t just be killed plainly, and this was what he’d made of them…. at this point it was getting a little frightening.

In my previous life, he hadn’t been like this — what had gotten into the kid.

Beep.

While tidying up the scene and preparing the report, a notification appeared in a corner of my interface.

An official dispatch from the Administration.

After reading it for a good while, I opened my mouth with a satisfied smile.

“Taewoong, Mooyoung. Time to start preparing.”

“Pardon?”

“Preparing…. did you say?”

What had come down to me was a royal command issued in the name of the Administration.

To summarize its contents, there were two main points.

First, in recognition of the results I had produced while serving as a probationary inspector, I was being appointed as a full secret royal inspector rather than remaining a probationary.

Second, as my first posting in that role, I was ordered to travel to the fortress city on the Northeast Frontier where the Iron Tiger Army was stationed, assess their current state, and report any irregularities.

“The Northeast Frontier as my first posting — they really don’t hold back, do they.”

Three weeks of not a single day off, being run into the ground, and now they were driving someone all the way to the most remote of remote postings — the Northeast Frontier.

I’d expected them to use me hard, but I never thought I’d be rolling around the field like a hoop like this.

In my previous life I’d have been spitting out my frustrations with ‘just how much do they need to grind a person down before they’re satisfied!’ — but….

“My, I’m so grateful I don’t know what to do with myself.”

Right now I couldn’t stop the laughter from spilling out.

Orders to dispatch to the Northeast Frontier.

I understood perfectly well what the intent was.

With Hanseong’s upper echelons in this much turmoil, they’d be looking to check on the movements of the insubordinate ones they’d shoved up north.

But Kim Jungheon, you’ve made quite a blunder here.

The one planted there as a watchdog was born a traitor plotting to bring the clan down from the very beginning.

And that traitor had finally obtained a chance to make direct contact with the Iron Tiger Army — the very heart of the revolution.

And one more thing, while I was at it — a hope on my wish list….

‘Young master! Be my husband!’

“Pfft.”

Recalling that absurd line, a laugh came out on its own.

The country bumpkin who would one day become the spark of revolution.

It would be nice to at least catch a glimpse of her face and see how she’d changed since I last saw her.