The Hunting Dog of the Prestigious Family Has Returned Chapter 58

A cold interrogation room situated in one corner of the Northeast Frontier’s entry checkpoint.

Between the mechanical hum of the air filter, two large men were bellowing at the top of their lungs.

Military officers of the Iron Tiger Army, armed with massive artificial bodies, and a menacing atmosphere.

Anyone else would have been so terrified by that atmosphere alone that they’d have blurted out everything there was to say and more.

“…….”

My assessment of the “interrogation” being conducted on me was simple.

‘What is wrong with these idiots?’

I was someone who had handled affairs by intimidating countless people in a past life.

I had knocked around the Royal Investigative Bureau’s examination rooms for decades and had seen no shortage of experts who had mastered torture and interrogation.

From my perspective, what these fellows were calling an interrogation looked like nothing more than a children’s talent show, no matter how hard they tried to set the atmosphere.

“Listen here, you damn bastard, are you going to talk or not?! I’m asking you who sent you, you son of a bitch?!”

“I’m sorry, but… Officer?”

I looked up at the large man bearing down on me and spoke with an unimpressed expression.

“You’re not from Hamgyeong Province, are you?”

“Huh?! Wh, how do you know that?”

“How else! Because that’s not a Hamgyeong dialect! Hey, mister over there, does this person go around talking like that in front of the locals too?”

I turned and pressed the question on the middle-aged man sitting nearby, and the officer who had been hollering in a baseless fake dialect sent a questioning look, as if asking whether it was really that obvious.

And a moment later.

“…Honestly, it did feel a bit unnatural.”

“You can’t be serious! You said I’d become a proper Hamgyeong man and praised me for it, brother!”

“Ah, that was because I was deliberately being considerate so you wouldn’t feel bad!”

Hearing that confession from a trusted colleague, the large man with enormous mechanical arms hanging on both sides flushed with embarrassment.

To think I would live to see a giant over two meters tall turn red in the face.

‘Why does that have to be so charming? It’s infuriating.’

While I was thinking that, a staff member came charging in from somewhere, fuming, and began raging at the officers.

“I told you to interrogate the suspect, so why are you two bickering with each other?! And Uncle Jangchun, why are you just sitting there getting involved?! Interrogate him. Interrogate!”

They’re quite enjoying themselves.

Tying a person up in an interrogation room was all well and good, but the sight of them floundering about because they didn’t know what to do next and just resorting to shouting.

“Haah…….”

Watching that, I could dimly guess what was going on, and I opened my mouth with a deep sigh.

“You people… have never actually interrogated anyone before, have you?”

“Pfft!”

The dignified middle-aged man, who had been sipping cinnamon punch while trying to project an imposing air, suddenly spat out what he had in his mouth.

After that, the three of them came out of the interrogation room for what they called a strategy timeout, debating amongst themselves how to interrogate me.

I stared blankly at their pathetic display and revised the image I had been building of the Iron Tiger Army in my head.

Tigers of the frozen north, inscrutable and unknowable. Not a chance.

They were just fools.

“Damn it, as expected of a secret royal inspector from the Administration. Won’t budge an inch.”

“Right. I knew he wouldn’t be easy, but to this extent…”

“So what do we do then? Let him go?”

“…Wait, hold on?”

A single line drifting past in conversation nearly caused my mind to drift right along with it.

‘They already know I’m a secret royal inspector?’

Why on earth?

That puzzlement lasted only a moment. A voice coming from outside the interrogation room seized my attention in an instant.

“The Administration has ears everywhere, and beyond the Administration there are even more. If the checkpoint officer is selling location information to the Jurchen, why would rumors of a secret royal inspector’s arrival not also be for sale?”

There were corrupt officials selling information here in the Northeast Frontier, and there were people selling information in Hanseong and in the Administration too.

A sort of law of corrupt official conservation.

I was sitting there marveling at that remarkable logic when a very tall man stepped into the interrogation room.

“I’ll handle the suspect’s interrogation. Please return to your posts.”

“Ah, would you?”

“I thought my neck would stretch waiting for you to show up. Good luck!”

The two steel giants sprang to their feet without hesitation and dashed out, while the staff officer shook her head at the pair and followed them out.

I watched the scene in bewilderment, and then the last to arrive, the tall man, settled into the chair across from me.

“I wonder how long it’s been.”

He said this and showed me his teeth in a grin.

I studied that face carefully, then let out a short laugh of disbelief.

“Imae mask?”

“It’s been a while. Kim Changwoon.”

Sitting across from me was Imae mask, Gwak Jaehyeon.

One of Hahoe’s senior members, who had rescued Yoo Arin and killed Jo Seonghwan alongside me.

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“What brings Hahoe all the way out to this remote posting?”

“Working. While you were grinding away in Hanseong’s underground district, we weren’t exactly sitting idle either.”

Saying that, Imae mask began to slowly recount what had happened in the meantime.

In summary, Hahoe had been collaborating with the Iron Tiger Army all along, working toward their own vision of the future in their own way.

“Our operations in Hanseong are limited to intelligence gathering, while we provide information useful to the Iron Tiger Army’s monster hunts, broker intermediaries from various nations, and grow the size of the organization.”

“That’s something new. Hahoe and the Iron Tiger Army working together.”

“Surprised? I was even more surprised when our elder first brought it up.”

Imae mask gave a short laugh and raised the cup of cinnamon punch sitting on the table to his lips.

That had been the stuff the middle-aged man from earlier was drinking, but I decided, for the sake of his peace of mind, not to mention it.

‘Come to think of it, even the officers I met at first had artificial bodies in reasonably good condition.’

I recalled the officers who had been clowning around in front of me until just a moment ago.

Older models, but well-maintained artificial bodies, and their expressions weren’t bad either.

Completely different from the Iron Tiger Army I had seen in my past life.

The sight of them as I had witnessed it myself had been that of literally starving tigers.

No, more like the ravenous, haunted look of the spirits that cling to those tigers, hardly any different from that.

“The fact that this barren land looks reasonably livable suggests that logistics and supply lines are running fairly smoothly….”

I immediately organized what I had seen and heard so far.

The traveling merchant who had guided me here.

The various precision machines packed inside his armored vehicle.

Even the checkpoint officers at Iron Tiger Fortress receiving him as though it were perfectly routine.

If I put all of this together, what these people were up to was…….

“Smuggling.”

“Correct.”

Iron Tiger Fortress, situated against the great wall, was barren land bordering the contaminated zones, but it was not a completely sealed-off world.

Take the Jurchen we had encountered on the way here.

They were the type who came to the Northeast Frontier periodically to trade byproducts of monsters hunted in the contaminated zones, or plundered goods, in exchange for food.

In other words, Hahoe had developed smuggling routes centered on Iron Tiger Fortress and was using them to supplement the shortage of supplies.

“The great Iron Tiger Army engaging in smuggling. If you reported this to the Administration, it wouldn’t end at death, you know.”

“You’re not going to report it anyway. Besides, isn’t the truly surprising thing over on your end?”

Imae mask pointed at me as he spoke.

“To think you changed that underground district, which was as good as barren wasteland, to look like that. I saw it and still couldn’t believe it. Do you know what the people there are calling you these days?”

“I’ve heard as far as the Jade Emperor and the future Buddha. Any more of that and I think I’d lose my mind.”

“You were the first to rally people together to that degree.”

“Sorry to spoil the moment, but I didn’t expect it to turn out like this either.”

Truly didn’t.

All I had wanted was to do a reasonable amount of good so that the people there wouldn’t hold a grudge against me.

But I found I had a taste for spending money, and the proprietress got absorbed in raising the children, and so… by the time I came to my senses, it had already become what it was.

“You and your people became heroes of the underground district. If your reputation continues to rise like this… before long, they will willingly take part in the revolution.”

“That’s a grand dream. Right now they treat me like royalty because I’m pouring money into them, but… that’s only a matter of time too, isn’t it?”

People forget kindness quickly and hold grudges for a long time.

Keep giving, and it becomes expected. Once it becomes expected, it starts to feel insufficient.

“At most, a job here, a home there. That’s all it is, a pittance of charity. What kind of fool would lay down his life for something that small?”

“Probably far more than you think.”

“What?”

“Of course, to you, having lived your whole life as an aristocrat, it probably doesn’t hit home all that much….”

Looking at me as if I simply didn’t understand, Imae mask smiled meaningfully.

“Surprisingly, it’s things like that which move people’s hearts.”

“…….”

Ugh, goosebumps.

I waved my hand to shake off the atmosphere that was unnecessarily turning heavy.

“Anyway, it’s fortunate to meet a familiar face. Hurry up and untie me. This is suffocating.”

“Ah, that’s a bit awkward, actually.”

“How is it awkward?”

My expression shifted, and Imae mask let out a sigh and spoke.

“Your background check results came back. Kim Changhwan…. If you’re going to use a fake name, at least make it convincing. Why would anyone release a ghost who doesn’t show up in the citizen database?”

“No, wait. They’re being that strict about it? Now of all times?”

I asked back, but the reason wasn’t difficult to guess.

A secret royal inspector come from Hanseong.

To the people of the Northeast Frontier, who had lived their whole lives as the neglected, I was nothing more than an unwelcome stranger.

“I thought it was a checkpoint, but what you’re really saying is it’s territorial hazing.”

“After about three days in detention you’ll be willing to hear what they have to say. You’re a distinguished official, so they’ll at least get you proper meals.”

“There’s nothing distinguished about how I’m being treated.”

“You’re not going to freeze to death in here, are you. In the Northeast Frontier, that already makes you distinguished.”

We traded remarks and chuckled for a moment.

Then Imae mask composed his expression and asked me.

“That’s enough small talk. What are you here for?”

“What am I here for?”

Tap, tap.

Two knocks under the table, and Imae mask’s eyes shifted slightly.

A signal asking whether there were any listening ears.

Imae mask glanced at one wall of the interrogation room for a moment, then gave a nod visible only to me.

Meaning there were none, at least inside this interrogation room.

I opened my mouth immediately.

“Orders from Lord Kim Jungheon. Survey the situation in the Northeast Frontier and return with the information. Troop deployment, unit composition, the state of weapons and the battle situation… bring back everything possible, he said.”

“The reason?”

“To gauge their intentions. If they continue defying him, he plans to leave them to wither and die here in the Northeast Frontier, and if they grovel the way they did last time they met, he plans to use them as chess pieces again.”

“The Andong Kim clan wants to join hands with the Iron Tiger Army?”

I nodded, and Imae mask let out a short laugh of disbelief.

“To ask them to make common cause with the man who killed his daughter. How bold of him to make such a lunatic proposal.”

“By your people’s standards, perhaps. But by the Administration’s standards, it’s entirely possible. In fact, there are people under Kim Jungheon who have done worse.”

‘In politics there are no permanent enemies or allies; what stands before you is merely a tool.’

As I recalled those words, picked up from Kim Jungheon at some point, the eyes looking back at me from Imae mask grew deeper.

“Whether it’s a blood feud with the killer of one’s parents or a mortal grudge with the defiler of one’s parents’ graves, none of that matters. Pursuing political gain, serving the clan’s interest, joining hands without hesitation when there is benefit to be had, that is precisely what the Andong Kim clan is.”

To be precise, that’s what the Andong Kim clan led by Kim Jungheon is.

A rationality that could feel almost inhuman.

That was where their strength to maintain the foremost position among the power clans lay.

“Do you know what Hanseong’s situation looks like right now?”

“The power clans have split in two, the tightly built cooperative networks have crumbled to pieces. Dozens of aristocrats dying every day, more than ten businesses going bankrupt… it’s all unfolding exactly as you said.”

“Then think about it carefully. In this situation, with the power clans split down the middle, what if Lord Yoo Sanghyeon were to side with Kim Jungheon? From the Andong Kim clan’s perspective, that would be quite useful, wouldn’t it?”

Imae mask’s face hardened for a moment.

It meant there was no denying it.

“With the Iron Tiger Army’s military force at the forefront to crush the opposing power clan families, and all the blame and the burden placed on Yoo Sanghyeon. After all the work is done, if Yoo Sanghyeon and his faction are handed an appropriate reward?”

“The Andong Kim clan can suppress the chaos without using the main family’s own strength. And Lord Yoo Sanghyeon gains a foothold through the Andong Kim clan’s support to make his advance into the central government….”

“In purely transactional terms, there is no more excellent deal than this.”

A result of laying out nothing but interests and losses, stripped of any emotion.

And so Imae mask shook his head and said.

“Excellent it might be. If only Lord Kim Jungheon hadn’t tried to kill Miss Yoo Arin.”

“Ha.”

It was a statement correct in every possible respect, so I only laughed without reply.

Watching me, Imae mask continued.

“Lord Yoo Sanghyeon has no intention of doing that. No, the one who eliminated that option in the first place was you.”

“True, it was.”

I had grabbed Yoo Sanghyeon by the shoulders when he was sunk in despair and said those words.

To raise his daughter to be strong.

So that she could break through every hardship that would unfold in the future.

To build in her the strength to carve out her own fate by her own hand.

And that when the time came, we would help her and together set Joseon right.

To a father who only wanted a peaceful life for his daughter, I had said those things without hesitation.

“You’re well aware of that, so what’s the reason for bringing it up?”

“Because if Yoo Sanghyeon doesn’t move as intended, Kim Jungheon has a Plan B he’s thought up.”

“Plan B?”

I spoke without delay.

“The Northeast Frontier is a dangerous place, isn’t it? A harsh land where monsters appear several times a day, where one must face the threat of death at every turn.”

In a place like that, Iron Tiger General Yoo Sanghyeon was famous for personally standing at the vanguard and leading his soldiers.

Truly a model for Joseon’s military officers, and a brilliant general this wretched Joseon doesn’t deserve.

For that very reason.

“If some unexpected misfortune were to befall General Yoo Sanghyeon at any time, that wouldn’t be such a strange thing, would it?”

“……!”

The main reason I had asked earlier whether there were any listening ears.

As though sensing my voice beginning to harden, Imae mask opened his mouth gravely.

“They intend to eliminate General Yoo Sanghyeon? The Andong Kim clan?”

“They won’t kill him directly.”

Most likely they would force upon him an impossible mission and drive him into a death trap, then fill the vacancy left by the fallen Iron Tiger General with someone else.

“All the Andong Kim clan does is hold a grand funeral to soothe public sentiment… then appoint a new Iron Tiger General at an appropriate time. A compliant kitten.”

A compliant kitten.

Hearing those words, Imae mask’s face went rigid.

“Wait. What you’re saying now is….”

“Not every soldier in the Iron Tiger Army trusts and follows Yoo Sanghyeon like a father, do they? There has to be at least one wildcat lurking and waiting for a chance, coveting the garrison commander’s position Yoo Sanghyeon holds.”

What I was speaking of now was internal intelligence from the Administration that even Hahoe had not managed to obtain, and the true mission written in Kim Jungheon’s sealed instructions.

“That person is the traitor inside Iron Tiger Fortress.”

Once again, I was about to greatly alter the fate of the Iron Tiger Army.