When Chief of Internal Affairs Yoo died, I could still vividly recall the look on Father's face as he blamed himself, thinking Yoo had died early because he wasn't competent enough.
'Does that mean he believes I can be trusted?'
For a moment, I felt a brief flicker of joy. But that feeling vanished almost immediately.
Because I remembered the teetering pile of documents on Chief Yoo's desk.
'I should see it as preventing Chief Yoo from overworking himself to death.'
.
.
.
Before I knew it, time had passed, and it was about time to get off work.
And I had been racking my brain nonstop.
Tonight. I needed to create a natural reason to enter the Finance Pavilion.
Dozens of ideas had already popped into my head.
Now I just needed to decide which one was best.
At that moment, one of the staff handed a ledger to Staff Member Yeo Chang-ui.
"Here is the duty log."
"Yes."
Seeing that, I asked Yeo Chang-ui.
"Looks like you're on duty tonight?"
"Yes, that's correct."
"Isn't night duty usually handled by two people?"
"Yes, I'll be on duty with my senior, In Dae-soo."
At that, I tilted my head.
That's strange?
That's not what I remembered.
I was sure one of the night shift members was Yeo Chang-ui. But the other wasn't In Dae-soo.
I remembered this because Yeo Chang-ui died in the fire that would occur tonight.
And the other staff member was severely injured and had to retire.
Just then, from a distance, a plump staff member approached and asked around.
"Is there anyone who can take my night shift tonight? I'll buy you a good drink later."
Judging by his face, it looked like something urgent had come up.
It was Staff Member In Dae-soo.
'So that's what it was. He swapped shifts with someone else. That's why my memory didn't match.'
Then, a good idea struck me.
'This is perfectly timed.'
I quickly called out to him.
"Staff Member In Dae-soo."
"Oh, yes! Young Master. What can I do for you?"
"You look like you're in quite a predicament."
"Ah… actually, my wife is due to give birth today."
"Then you'd best go to her right away."
"Yes, but I'm scheduled for night duty today…"
I smiled and said,
"I'll take your place for the night duty."
"Pardon?"
"I happen to have nothing to do this evening."
"B-but how could I let you, Young Master…"
I waved my hand and replied.
"Even if I'm just a special trainee, I'm still part of the Finance Pavilion. I believe I'm qualified to take night duty."
Then I turned to the staff member in charge of the duty log and asked,
"Am I wrong?"
"No, sir. There is no issue with you taking the duty."
Hearing that, I told Staff Member In Dae-soo,
"Then it's settled. I'll take the night shift in your place."
"Thank you so much, Young Master!"
The reason I had been thinking so hard about how to naturally gain access to the Finance Pavilion tonight was because the person who would set the fire was extremely cautious.
In the future I had experienced, no one realized who the culprit was until he left a confession and took his own life.
So I had also been pretending to know nothing, just being cautious—and now a good opportunity had presented itself.
With that, I had a solid reason to remain inside the Finance Pavilion.
***
Night had fallen deep.
The Finance Pavilion of the Eunhae Merchant Group.
A man looked around carefully.
After confirming that no one was nearby, he quickly moved his steps.
He headed toward the night duty room.
Lighting the lamp in the dark room, he opened the lid of the teapot.
He took out a folded paper from his pocket, containing white powder, and emptied the powder into the teapot.
Step, step, step…
Then, the sound of footsteps echoed.
"...!"
The man quickly opened the other door of the night duty room and pressed his body against the wall.
Two people wearing the Finance Pavilion uniform were approaching, chatting casually.
"Ah, so that's what happened."
"I was completely dazed in that moment."
"I would've been too, in your place."
The man knew them well.
Staff Member Yeo Chang-ui of the Finance Pavilion, and Eun Seoho, third son of the Merchant Lord, currently training as a special apprentice.
They entered the night duty room while chatting.
"Oh, are you working overtime tonight?"
"Yes, things just ended up that way."
"Let me help you."
They went into the archive room, retrieved documents, and busied themselves with their tasks.
After working hard for a good while, the two took a break.
"Would you like some tea?"
"Sounds good."
They each had a cup of tea.
And shortly after,
As they looked over their books, their heads began to droop like sick chickens. Eventually, they fell asleep right on their desks.
'It worked!'
The man clenched his fist in triumph.
Considering the amount of sleeping agent in the teapot, they would be out cold for at least one hour.
The reason he planned this was to enter the document vault unnoticed.
The vault was inside the night duty room, and this was a quiet time when no one else would come—unless they were on night duty.
He sighed quietly as he entered.
'I should never have gotten involved in gambling in the first place…'
It was a regret that came too late.
He had started gambling out of curiosity, egged on by smooth-talking shills, and ended up buried in an enormous mountain of debt.
He tried selling his inherited land, and even his belongings, but it wasn't nearly enough.
At this rate, he would lose his family.
In that desperate moment, a subordinate of the gambling den's money master made him an offer.
"If you do our master a little favor, he'll forgive all your debts."
"Wh-what? Really?"
"Yes, really."
"What is it? I'll do anything. Please, just don't involve my family…"
To that, the money master's subordinate said,
"What we need is very simple. You said you work in the Finance Pavilion of the Eunhae Merchant Group, right?"
"…Yes."
"Set fire to the document vault."
"…W-what?"
The man was shocked.
"Why… why that place?"
"So are you doing it, or not?"
"B-but…"
"Do you want to lose your family?"
"…I'll do it."
The man bit his lip.
Today was the last day of the deadline given by the money master.
During that time, he had meticulously surveyed his surroundings.
He was worried that someone might find his behavior suspicious.
But so far, no one had suspected him.
'Could it be… I have a talent for this kind of thing?'
The money master had promised to keep him employed within the Eunhae Merchant Group, and to protect his back.
So, for the sake of his future, no one could find out he was the culprit.
That's why he was being so careful.
The man entered the document vault and began inspecting the shelves.
'This is it!'
A bundle of transaction records bound like a single book.
This was the exact document the money master had instructed him to destroy completely.
He had once asked the money master's subordinate,
"Can't I just steal it? Arson is too risky."
"No. If you steal it, people will be able to narrow down who did it. That's why it has to look like an accident. Burn the book—and all the others around it too."
It wasn't wrong, so he could only nod in agreement.
That's why he had prepared oil.
Ssshhhhhhh.
He poured oil around the area and pulled out the firestarter.
At that moment—
"Let's stop right there."
Startled by the sudden voice, the man whipped around in shock.
Because it was a voice that absolutely, positively, should not be here.
***
I clicked my tongue as I looked at the arsonist holding the firestarter.
His name was Ah Seung.
He was a Rank 6 staff member of the Finance Pavilion.
He had always been so quiet, to the point people often forgot he was even there. So when it was revealed that Ah Seung was the culprit, everyone in the Finance Pavilion was in utter shock.
Ah Seung looked more frightened than if he had seen a ghost.
"W-w-why aren't you asleep? You definitely drank the tea…"
"That was just acting."
"H-how did you kno—?"
"How did I know? What would you do with that answer?"
I grinned.
"First, how about we start with a punch?"
Thwack!
Thud!
I threw my fist at him, and he crashed backward.
In the future I had experienced, both night duty staff who drank the tea fell asleep.
The fire spread quite seriously, Yeo Chang-ui died, and the other staff member was critically injured.
The next day, Ah Seung was found hanged in the back mountain, cold and lifeless.
Lying beneath him was a confession letter.
It claimed he had been suffering under heavy workloads and, in a fit of rage, put the night duty staff to sleep with sleeping pills and set fire to the document vault.
That was how the case had closed, but I—and the rest of the Eunwol Pavilion involved in the management of the Eunhae Merchant Group—never believed that confession.
It didn't make sense that someone acting in a sudden rage would obtain sleeping pills and premeditate arson.
Then, Ah Seung's family disappeared.
Anyone could tell something was off, but we didn't have the resources to investigate deeply.
There were no clear leads, and recovering the documents lost in the fire was more urgent.
For nearly a year, we worked overtime every day—including me.
Even after all that time, we couldn't recover half of what had been burned.
It was truly a painful time.
The punch I threw at Ah Seung just now carried all the rage from back then.
As I punched him, I quickly snatched the firestarter from his hand and stored it safely.
Then I picked up the document that had been lying on top of the pile.
"T-that's…!"
Seeing the paper in my hand, Ah Seung's face turned deathly pale.
"So this is it. The document you really wanted to destroy."
Written on it was: [Lotus Courtesan House].
In the future I experienced, it was confirmed that Ah Seung was the arsonist—but we never discovered who was behind him.
No—there were three suspects who had benefitted the most from the Finance Pavilion fire.
But we had no evidence.
So we had no choice but to let it go with unease—but not this time.
"You really used a lot of this precious oil. At this point, there's no room for excuses. Right?"
Just then,
Ah Seung suddenly pulled out another firestarter from his sleeve.
"Don't move!"
I was caught off guard by the sudden turn of events.
I hadn't expected him to be carrying another firestarter.
That was my mistake.
"I—I have to burn it! If I don't, my family will be sold off!"
"Sold off? What do you mean by that?"
At those words, I realized there was more to this.
'Come to think of it…'
While investigating Ah Seung back then, there was something I found out.
His assets had been transferred to someone else just days before the incident.
And his family disappeared as well.
There's only one situation where both one's wealth and family vanish at the same time.
"Do you have debts?"
"..."
And judging by the way his eyes shook at the word debts, it was clear.
He had fallen into a loan shark trap.
But why had he gone to a loan shark?
The Eunhae Merchant Group paid generously.
And from what I knew, Ah Seung had always been a decent person—but recently, there had been testimony that he'd been associating with dangerous people.
In that case…
"Gambling debt, isn't it?"
"…!"
Ah Seung flinched.
'Bingo.'
I could only give a bitter smile.
He was truly a pitiful man.
He had never been the center of attention, but he'd quietly lived a decent, ordinary life—until he lost everything and fell into ruin.
In the end, his family was sold, his wealth was taken, and he himself was killed.
That's right.
He didn't commit suicide—he was murdered.
Of course, there was no evidence that Ah Seung was murdered, and it had been recorded as a suicide.
But all the circumstances pointed to his death being homicide, not suicide.
I looked at the trembling Ah Seung.
"Staff Member Ah Seung. Look at me."
"..."
"Please look at me."
At my words, he raised his head.
"You want to protect your family, right?"
He didn't answer, but his eyes said everything.
"Then, please tell us the whole truth. If you do, our Merchant Group will protect your family."