The Hunting Dog of the Prestigious Family Has Returned Chapter 71

The funeral hall felt as if a festival had broken out.

People wore black, but the atmosphere was, if anything, brimming with life.

The occasional sound of sobbing could be heard, but what came more often than that was the clinking of glasses.

Listening to the jokes being passed back and forth with hearty laughter, it was clear that this was quite a good death.

Because if Seong Ryeoun had been a respected figure in life, this place would have been awash in tears.

“It ended far more cleanly than I expected.”

Imae mask, watching the funeral from a distance, said quietly.

He tilted his teacup once, then added.

“By wiping out the entire 3rd Forward Base and leaving no survivors at all, the cleanup afterward became much easier.”

“Thanks to our business partner doing such excellent work.”

I glanced briefly at the Jurchen settlement visible far beyond the funeral hall.

Jurchen chieftain Tuowen.

The method he had chosen was far more thorough, and far more ruthless, than even I had imagined.

Not the Secret Royal Inspector’s judgment, not the Jurchen’s revenge, but a monster incursion. A natural disaster beyond human will had swallowed everything whole.

The ambiguous possibility of friction that had remained between the 3rd Forward Base and Iron Tiger Fortress had been cleanly erased.

If anything, what became the issue was Secret Royal Inspector “Kim Changhwan,” who had blocked the other two bases from sending support to the 3rd Forward Base.

Thanks to that, I couldn’t even step outside, and had no choice but to hole up in Imae mask’s house. But apart from that one thing, everything had ended well.

“Still, it’s pretty strange when you think about it.”

Bune mask, watching the funeral hall, murmured.

“A regional Defense Commander is dead, and there are barely any people mourning like that. Even so, aren’t they all Iron Tiger Fortress people?”

“Well, if you don’t know what went on behind the scenes, you might think that.”

Imae mask set down his empty teacup and said calmly.

“The 3rd Forward Base was an independent-minded place from the start. They thought of themselves as different from the Iron Tiger Fortress people, and they didn’t want to live in the same space.”

“…Wait? They built a settlement right next to a Forward Base and lived there? With monster habitat practically on their doorstep?”

I asked back as if I couldn’t make sense of it.

Even with three Forward Bases in place, the heart of Iron Tiger Fortress’s defense was the Great Defense Wall.

The Forward Bases were positioned close to monster habitat precisely to serve as strongpoints for reducing the monsters’ operational range.

Which naturally made the areas around the Forward Bases the most dangerous places in Iron Tiger Fortress.

And yet people had gathered and lived there?

Imae mask let out a short sigh and added an explanation.

“Thanks to the suppression operations that had been carried out consistently for years, there were few monsters around the 3rd Forward Base. On top of that, the Jurchen under Seong Ryeoun’s direction were also regularly culling monsters in the area.”

“So the residents of the 3rd Forward Base had no real sense of what monsters actually were?”

“Exactly.”

Imae mask pointed a finger past the funeral hall, toward the north where the Great Defense Wall stood.

“From their perspective, the Great Defense Wall, getting hit by monster incursions every single day, was the more dangerous place. The area near the 3rd Forward Base had gone decades without anything resembling a real incursion.”

“Ha.”

I couldn’t help but give a short, hollow laugh.

In other words, this catastrophe had happened precisely because Seong Ryeoun, corrupt official though he was, had been genuinely capable in his own right.

Consistently culling monsters, providing people with a safe environment, while running military procurement corruption behind their backs.

And yet even Seong Ryeoun himself would never have imagined that someone would release monsters right into his own front yard.

Fine yesterday, fine today.

Decades lived under that assumption.

Thanks to that complacency, I had been able to cut Seong Ryeoun and the 3rd Forward Base out of Iron Tiger Fortress without difficulty.

Cleanly, at that.

“Still, watching it, I don’t feel great about it.”

Bune mask murmured quietly, watching the sound of drums from outside the window and the murmuring of the funeral hall.

“About what?”

When Imae mask crossed his arms and asked back, Bune mask’s voice twisted with displeasure.

“Being killed by monsters. Thanks to that, Seong Ryeoun is dead and he’s become a hero.”

Bune mask continued.

“‘A fierce commander who faced death’s door with insufficient forces, yet rose up undaunted and fought to the very end!’…… Tch, isn’t that a bit too good for that piece of human garbage?”

“It is too good.”

Listening to that, I set down my teacup and answered briefly.

In fact, Defense Commander Seong Ryeoun’s funeral was proceeding on a grander scale than expected.

A scale of funeral I had never seen before.

But the most absurd part was something else entirely.

“Word came down from the Administration. In special recognition of his valor in this battle, they are conferring the posthumous title ‘Lord of Martial Righteousness’ upon the Defense Commander.”

“……What? A posthumous title?”

Bune mask’s voice went up a pitch at that.

“Why, all of a sudden? Since when has the Administration had so much interest in this frontier?”

“They don’t. The suggestion to grant a posthumous title was mine.”

When I answered, Bune mask stared at me as if in shock. Since he had his mask on the whole time, I had no way of knowing what expression he was making.

“……Are you insane?”

“Of course, it wasn’t just the posthumous title alone.”

I shrugged and added.

“I quietly let slip the fact that the Defense Commander and his faction had been committing military procurement corruption.”

“…No, wait.”

Bune mask shook his head, as if he hadn’t followed all of that.

But having apparently pieced together the full picture by then, Imae mask said quietly.

“So the Administration mourned a single incompetent corrupt official with a posthumous title…. while leaving not a single word of condolence for the deaths of the thousands upon thousands of soldiers who died in the meantime.”

“What do you think. Isn’t that a perfect picture?”

This was why Seong Ryeoun’s death was drawing so little sympathy.

I smiled slyly and turned the teacup in my hands.

“Do it this way, and you can kill Seong Ryeoun while simultaneously turning whatever supporters he had left inside Iron Tiger Fortress into public enemies.”

“……So what, in the end the people of Iron Tiger Fortress were dancing in the palm of your hand?”

“More or less. But it all ended well, didn’t it?”

I smirked and leaned back.

“Look at the late Defense Commander too. Burned to a crisp, yes, but he achieved his long-cherished dream of advancing to the capital, so he got his wish granted even in death. He might be waving at me from hell to say thank you.”

“Wow…….”

Hearing that explanation and finally grasping the situation, Bune mask murmured.

“You really are a vicious bastard.”

“That I am.”

A Secret Royal Inspector shielding a corrupt official, and an Administration granting that official a posthumous title.

Thanks to that, all the ill feeling here landed squarely on the Administration’s shoulders, which is why there was almost no internal backlash within Iron Tiger Fortress even after killing the Defense Commander.

That’s how you pull off a scheme like this.

“So now, my work here is roughly wrapped up.”

Defense Commander Seong Ryeoun.

And the source of instability that had remained inside Iron Tiger Fortress had been cleanly removed.

I had assessed Yoo Arin’s growth and grasped the current state of Iron Tiger Fortress, and the internal enemy I had been worried about was eliminated.

My work here was, for all practical purposes, finished.

There was no longer any reason to stay in the Northeast Frontier.

Then what remained?

Simply stamp out, clock off, and head back to Hanseong without a care in the world.

‘Once I’m back, I’ll need to get my hands on the casino operation first. There are things I haven’t properly looked after while I was away. On top of that, I should start making connections with the companies in the middle tier……’

I was mentally drafting my schedule for the return trip and stretching when.

“I don’t know what you mean by ‘wrapped up.'”

“What?”

Bang!

With a heavy sound, the door of the temporary quarters flew open roughly.

Standing there were ordinary Hahoe agents wearing Choraengi masks.

In their hands were stacked mounds of paper, enormous in quantity at a glance.

“Imae mask. Can we start bringing them in now?”

“Yeah. Bring all of it.”

Bringing in? What?

I was about to ask back. But before I could, the agents acting on Imae mask’s direction immediately began setting stack after stack of paper down in front of me.

Documents that overflowed the desk, filling every corner of the room.

As I stared at the scene in stunned silence, Imae mask smiled and said.

“You need to clean up after yourself before you leave.”

I opened and closed my mouth, then finally lost the words.

No, I still had something to say.

“What did I do that needs cleaning up? I didn’t personally touch any of…”

“With a regional Defense Commander now dead, the Administration’s official, the Secret Royal Inspector, must take over the Defense Commander’s duties. On top of that, you need to mediate the contract to be concluded between the Jurchen and Iron Tiger Fortress, settle the assets seized from Seong Ryeoun. And you’ll need to report the results of the wall garrison and 1st and 2nd Forward Base audits to the Iron Tiger General.”

I know.

I know there’s a mountain of miscellaneous paperwork waiting for me.

But that wasn’t why I was frozen.

“These, don’t tell me…. paper documents?”

I crumpled my face and picked up one of the files.

The stiff texture under my fingertips was…. genuinely paper.

“Document review and approval, and additional reports…. you want me to write all this by hand?”

“That’s how it works at Iron Tiger Fortress. Apparently there are so many hacking incidents from the Central Plains warlords that exchanging things on paper actually has better security.”

Administrative work and reports done in paper documents?

In this twenty-third century, where wireless communication and data sharing happen as naturally as breathing?

“Wow, look at his face. He looks like an elementary schooler trying to do homework he put off all vacation.”

Bune mask looked at the documents piled up in front of me and cackled.

“……Bune, you’ve never been to school. How do you even know what vacation homework is?”

“Oh, come on!”

Bune mask stomped his feet, but that was neither here nor there.

I stared at the mountain of documents in front of me and let out a deep sigh.

Killing Seong Ryeoun and threatening the Jurchen had both been fun.

This was not.

This was genuine torture.

Revolution or whatever, I just wanted to throw everything away and quit.

---

“Ughhhh…….”

Holding a pen in my hand for the first time in my life, I spent nearly three full days buried in paperwork.

The work itself was one thing, but more than anything else, what was driving me mad was this uniquely inefficient method.

The sheer unreasonableness of spending five minutes on something that would take ten seconds with a neural interface.

“Backwards country people. You’re fighting monsters and doing something this inefficient at the same time?”

“Young Master, someone will hear you.”

“Let them hear! Where in all eight provinces of Joseon is there a government office that works with pens and paper in the twenty-third century! I can’t do this! I won’t do any more! Kieeeeek!”

“Goodness.”

I had been gripping Mooyoung and letting out a howl when.

Tap tap tap tap.

Small footsteps from the corridor caught my ear.

“Mooyoung.”

“Yes. I heard them too.”

Infiltration? Surveillance?

But no particular sense of alarm rose in me.

Even listening casually, the footsteps were helplessly clumsy.

Besides, with Mooyoung standing guard, no one could approach easily.

Then whoever was trying to sneak in….

“Young Master! Going out alone is…!”

“Shh.”

I put a finger to my lips, then slowly rose from my seat and moved to the door.

Meanwhile, the footsteps drew closer and closer toward my room.

The footsteps stopped in front of the door.

A presence drawing near.

One… two… three.

Now!

Fling!

“Ow, eeeek?!”

I suddenly threw the door wide open, and a small figure that only came up to about my chest came tumbling straight into the room.

Thud!

A dull sound rang out as the floor took the impact, and a cloud of dust rose pale and hazy.

“Ow, ow… if you just suddenly open the door, that… it hurts, you know….”

A girl sitting on the floor and rubbing her head.

Yoo Sanghyeon’s daughter, Yoo Arin.

I looked down at her in bewilderment, then muttered quietly.

“……Young lady.”

Phase power rising lightly from her forehead.

Small cracks stamped into the floor.

Deep fracture lines below them were slowly spreading outward.

The concrete floor had begun to crack from the spot where Yoo Arin had hit her head.

Watching that, I slowly opened my mouth.

“Pretending to be hurt may be a bit… difficult to pull off, given the circumstances.”

“Huh…. yes?”

A brief silence.

Yoo Arin, startled, turned her gaze to where my finger was pointing.

“……Eep.”

She swallowed a tiny scream as she stared at the cracked floor.