The Hunting Dog of the Prestigious Family Has Returned Chapter 65

“You’ve grown so much in the years since I last saw you. Do you remember me?”

“Oh, um, that is to say….”

Yoo Arin, reunited at last, had grown by about a head since the last time I had seen her.

Had it been two years or three.

It was remarkable to see her grown so much in that short a time.

But unlike me, lost in these sentimental thoughts.

Yoo Arin, meeting me for the first time in two years, was apparently embarrassed about something, face flushed deep red, head bowed sharply forward.

“Y-Young Master has changed a lot too. You’ve…. grown taller…. and your face….”

“I’m honored you recognized me. I had no idea you would step out onto the battlefield yourself. I was quite surprised.”

“W-Were you…. really?”

I had thought Yoo Sanghyeon would not simply keep her sheltered… but I had never imagined he would use her like this.

He had said he would raise her to be strong, and I had wondered how harshly he meant that, but who could have known she would actually be dropped from a low-altitude bomber.

On top of that, the people here did not even seem surprised, as if this were an everyday occurrence.

‘Well…. now that I think about it, there is no method more efficient than that.’

Yoo Arin was a powerful phase power wielder by birth, and the Iron Tiger Army was not a group with enough luxury to leave such a talent sitting idle.

And if I thought back to the Yoo Arin I had seen in my past life… operating her this way was not strange in the least.

Thinking back to that time, I felt for the first time the reality of who was standing before me right now.

Looking at her face, the sensation of the moment my life was severed.

The woman I had fought, to a degree that grew tiresome, over the hegemony of this nation called Joseon.

But only I knew that past.

This fear I feel now, to whom in the world could I ever complain.

“U-Um, I-I, uh!”

Oh, her voice cracked.

She seemed to notice it herself, her face going red a beat late.

‘I should be the one who’s nervous, why are you?’

While that thought crossed my mind, Arin, who had been mumbling as if trying to say something more, suddenly stepped closer and asked me outright.

“W-We’re meeting again and…. what do you think of me?”

“What do I think of you?”

“Oh, um, well, that’s……”

She seems a little flustered, is she all right?

Now that I think about it, the first time we met was a similar situation.

She had lost consciousness after using her ability, and was immediately dragged away by the royal guard and nearly killed.

The fact that she had only appeared three days after the funeral had surely been because of that.

‘The stronger the power she wields, the greater the backlash, it seems.’

Thinking ahead to when I would make use of her strength in the future, I could not afford to miss even a small detail like this.

“That you’ve gotten prettier, or that you look c-cute…. or about the promise from back then…. no, actually more than that, there’s…. that is to say…. oh, what do I do. What was I going to say when we met again……”

By the way, what has she been muttering about for a while now?

Her voice keeps getting smaller, so I cannot make out what she is saying.

Her manner, visible to the eye, is the same way.

When we first met she was quite spirited…. no. Lively.

Has something happened while I was not around?

I was standing there puzzled for a moment.

“Your n-name!”

“Oh, you startled me.”

Arin, who had been mumbling to herself about something further, suddenly raised her voice as if something had come to her.

“My name…. ?”

“Last time we met, I-I didn’t properly catch Young Master’s name! So…….”

“Ah. You’re right, that is true.”

An introduction.

She would be the one leading Iron Tiger Fortress in the future, so it would be better to observe at least some formality.

I glanced over my outfit for a moment.

A black durumagi and the formal suit worn beneath it. And dress shoes.

Clothes I had worn doubling as mourning attire, but the quality was nothing lacking… and nothing out of order.

‘No need to straighten anything.’

Having silently given it a passing mark, I bowed my head politely in accordance with the etiquette I had learned from the family.

“Following the long-standing customs of Joseon, I offer my formal greetings to the young lady. My name is Kim Changwoon. Having not yet held my coming-of-age ceremony, I have not taken a courtesy name, and having no aspiration I hold to, I have likewise taken no pen name. Please call me simply Changwoon.”

A greeting I had made dozens, hundreds of times before the family elders, and toward Kim Jungheon and Kim Hyunwoo.

“………Oh my.”

When I glanced up at the quiet exclamation, Arin was looking at me with a briefly dazed expression.

My head grew complicated for a moment wondering whether there was something wrong.

Fling-!

Arin, who had suddenly thrown the door open, ran straight out of the room.

After asking me to introduce myself.

So I offered a formal greeting, and now where are you suddenly going?

While that thought passed through my mind.

“Excuse me.”

Garrison Commander Hyoyeong, who had been watching from beside me, took hold of both my shoulders with an expression that could not have been more serious.

“Oh.”

There was a problem.

Under ordinary circumstances I would have naturally acknowledged Yoo Arin, and through her made contact with Yoo Sanghyeon in a smooth and natural flow.

But the Yoo Arin who actually mattered had just run away.

This is maddening.

How am I supposed to explain this?

While I was struggling to compose the tangled thoughts in my head.

Eyes rolling wide, Garrison Commander Hyoyeong asked me.

“Just now, Inspector. Did you say your name is ‘Kim Changwoon’?”

“Um, yes?”

What is this business with formal address.

A moment ago he was using plain speech, why has he suddenly switched to honorifics?

But I could not very well leave the question unanswered, so I nodded readily.

“Is that so…. yes…. so that’s why you came here…. why you concealed your identity too…….”

What is he trying to do?

Both Yoo Arin and this garrison commander.

Is talking to oneself their hobby?

What are you thinking so intently about without me?

I was on the verge of asking when I could no longer hold back the question.

“Garrison Commander Jeong! Garrison Commander Jeong!”

Boom-!

With a voice thick and fleshy, a portly-looking officer barged in.

“The Defense Commander, sir…?”

When he entered, the garrison commander’s expression, which had been relatively human until now, immediately twisted.

The reason was easy enough to understand.

By the looks of it, this man was Defense Commander Seong Ryeoun.

He was, after all, the root cause of this monster invasion, the very subject of the conversation we were having just before Arin burst in.

“I told you to contact me if anyone came from Hanseong…! Oh my!”

Tsk, he saw me.

The Defense Commander, face breaking into smiles the instant he spotted me, came over.

“Excuse me, are you the secret royal inspector who has come from the capital?”

“Yes, yes, that is correct….”

“Welcome. Inspector! I am Seong Ryeoun, the Defense Commander responsible for the external security of Iron Tiger Fortress!”

The Defense Commander immediately lowered himself and out of nowhere seized my hand and began shaking it.

“How much hardship you must have suffered, stationed at such a humble military base the very moment you arrived! And to think, detaining a secret royal inspector! How can I begin to apologize for treating an official who works tirelessly day and night for the peace of Joseon this way…….”

The Defense Commander’s words flowed out like a river without a pause, nearly scattering my wits for a moment.

Delivering all that flattery without pausing for breath once.

My instinct as a fellow schemer was crying out.

This pig was no ordinary corrupt official.

“Come, come, none of that now, why don’t you come to our 3rd Forward Base. I happen to have prepared a fine setting at the base, and if I could share it with such a distinguished person from the Administration, it would be this family’s honor…..!”

“Defense Commander!”

But just before I was led out of the room by the Defense Commander’s hand.

Garrison Commander Jeong’s voice, erupting suddenly, blocked the Defense Commander’s steps.

“Why is it that someone who should be commanding the 3rd Forward Base is here?”

“Why else? I had some personal business and took a little time.”

A voice dripping with cold.

But the Defense Commander only gave him an annoyed look, without showing any particular feeling.

“I was supposed to come in yesterday, but pushed it back a day because of the funeral or whatever it was. Do I have to report even that?”

“That is not what I’m asking!”

The frigid Garrison Commander Jeong began pressing him through gritted teeth.

“The monster invasion three days ago! That happened at the 3rd Forward Base under your command! And yet not a single word of warning, not even observation results were sent! Do you know how many of the wall garrison soldiers almost died because of your mistake?!”

“Ugh, you are so loud!”

The garrison commander’s expression grew worse and worse at the light, dismissive way the Defense Commander spoke.

But whether or not he knew or cared.

The Defense Commander, now the one raising his voice in anger, began shouting at the top of his lungs.

“So what do you want me to do about it? Hm? You held them off! Isn’t that enough? Those people who were just killing time on the wall day after day even got some real combat experience out of it, if you ask me it worked out just fine!”

“What did you say…!”

“And you want to talk about responsibility over something that’s all done and finished? How arrogant can you get! Who do you think you are, a mere military officer, daring to raise your voice at me-!”

Ugh, so loud.

The shouting was more unpleasant than even the monsters’ cries on the wall.

And take a look at Garrison Commander Jeong’s face right now.

If he had a pistol at his hip he’d have emptied three magazines by now.

“Sir…! How many soldiers died today, and you’re running your mouth like that…!”

“That’s far enough.”

But there was nothing to be gained from a brawl here.

“I fully understand that field commanders will not always see eye to eye, but at least in front of me.”

When I stepped between the two, the Defense Commander clicked his tongue quietly in my direction.

‘Ah. So if Garrison Commander Jeong had laid into him here, it would have been caught in the act.’

It appeared he had deliberately been goading Garrison Commander Jeong, and I felt an inexpressible kinship seeing how every single action was laced with scheming.

Scoundrels recognize scoundrels.

In that case, was this unpleasant feeling rising in me as I looked at the pig right now self-loathing?

“My, what an undignified sight to show in front of a distinguished guest. I can only offer my apologies. Inspector.”

While that thought passed through my mind, the Defense Commander had already changed his expression entirely and was bowing obsequiously in my direction again.

“As you can see, the officers of our Iron Tiger Fortress are an unlearned lot, not well versed in the customs of Hanseong…….”

“Yes, well, so it seems.”

I replied vaguely and let it pass through one ear, then turned a smile full of pretense toward the Defense Commander.

“To meet someone of like mind in this remote frontier, what a fortunate thing. And to receive a direct invitation like this, I hardly know what to do with myself.”

“Ha, hahaha! Is that so?! Then there is no need to delay further! Come, come, the vehicle is prepared, this way…….”

When I accepted the invitation, the Defense Commander laughed heartily, patted my back, and went out of the room.

“Inspector. Do you truly intend to follow him? Did you not see just now. That Seong Ryeoun, our soldiers…!”

“I know full well. That is exactly why I’m going.”

Saying that, I recalled the memories of my past life and wore a faint, grim smile.

‘Kim Changwoon…? You’re telling me he sent you, not Young Master Hyunwoo?! Well, I’ll be! For all that they’re the Andong Kim clan, to welcome the military commander of an entire region with this half-wit….’

Defense Commander Seong Ryeoun.

The traitor of the Iron Tiger Army, preserved in the memories of my past life.

I had been wondering how to ensnare and destroy you.

And here you are, crawling in on your own two feet.

---

“Aah, just look at this. What a mess.”

An officer’s quarters near the wall.

In a private room set aside in one corner of it, a young girl sat huddled.

A small hand mirror worn with use, and her own reflection in it.

On the mirror appeared a face as beautiful as a painting, but the face in the glass, for all its dissatisfaction, kept twisting its hair around and around with a sulky expression.

“The bombing scorched all my hair, and my clothes are a wreck. I was going to come looking nice when we met again and surprise him, and now look at this, I can’t believe it…….”

The girl, Arin, muttering with a blanket yanked over her head.

But even that lasted only a moment.

“Still….”

Picturing the way he had greeted her, Arin’s face kept flushing over and over.

She had known, because her father had told her.

That she had nearly died that day.

That it was that person who had saved her, and who had saved her father.

So she had wanted to meet him again.

She had wanted to meet him and talk.

She had wanted to ask how he had been, and to thank him properly for saving her.

In return for that day, she would take him all around Iron Tiger Fortress, and do this and that together like before….

And last of all… she had wanted to ask.

With a slightly dazed look and a faint flush on her cheeks, Arin hugged her knees and thought.

“That promise from that time. Does he still remember it?”