Health Festival Day 3 – Treatment Room (1)

The head of Changwei (Information Bureau) was called Widok, a careless title meaning ‘the one who oversees Changwei’. The current Widok, Baron Mirten, was tearing at his hair. As a commoner, he entered Changwei and achieved remarkable feats, so he was handpicked by the Emperor and even received the title of Dansung Baron, making him a self-made man.

His short-cropped, grizzled hair, long, thick eyebrows, and prominent cheekbones exuded a strange sense of dignity. Usually, he hid his true feelings and enjoyed intimidating others with his smooth voice. When his tongue leisurely mocked someone, the pitiful prey would freeze up, unable to speak properly. At such times, a light tap would shatter the other person’s heart, vividly revealing everything hidden inside.

However, as one of the most dangerous moments in Mirten’s bureaucratic life arrived, he couldn’t control his anger and blurted it out. Like a beast caught in a trap, his words flapped wildly out of his mouth.

“Why… why did such a crazy bastard come out of the personnel we selected!”

The executives of Changwei flinched, unable to even twitch a finger. A chill, as if breath would turn to frost, dominated the room. Baron Mirten slammed his desk, rattling the objects on it.

“What happened?! If you have mouths, speak up, you bastards!”

He threw the documents on his desk, and the bundles of paper fell to the floor with a thud, scattering, but no one dared to make a sound. It was as if a bucket of water had been poured over them. Beads of dry sweat formed on their foreheads, and dry scabs appeared on their lips.

“Wi, Widok-nim, I don’t even know how that guy got on our list. He definitely wasn’t in the initial draft, but he was inserted in the middle.”

Mirten’s burning gaze turned to the speaker, who turned pale and couldn’t say a word. Widok was in a position to find fault and kill someone just for clicking their tongue, if necessary. For generations, the most important thing for Widoks was always ‘justification’. There were very few things they couldn’t do with justification.

“Is that what you’re going to report to His Majesty? I told you to think if you have a head on your shoulders, not just a hat rack. Should I really turn it into a hat rack this time?”

If the criminal’s name had been in the initial draft, the Emperor would scold, “How can Changwei select such a person? How is this organization even working?” And if he had been inserted in the middle, he would rebuke, “How lax is the discipline that you didn’t even know the documents were manipulated in the middle?” Just thinking about the aftermath of facing the monarch’s anger made him feel like the sky was spinning, and his hands trembled.

Either way, he couldn’t avoid the Emperor’s wrath. Perhaps he would be demoted and become a cast-off gourd, and Changwei might be reduced in size. Since the incident had already occurred, it was as good as certain that the sparks would fall on Changwei. Therefore, as Widok, his job was to preserve the organization as much as possible from the Emperor’s anger and to protect his position.

“That bastard was dragged to the Ministry of Justice, right? What did they say?”

Then, one of the executives lined up in the front, a man with a vague impression, opened his mouth. He had eyes as thin as a rat’s.

“I heard from our contacts in the Ministry of Justice that he’s just a puppet. He had squandered his remaining fortune on alcohol and drugs after ruining his business, but suddenly, he received a call from the palace and went there. While touring the palace, a court lady suddenly handed him a knife, and he hasn’t been in his right mind since. He doesn’t even remember trying to attack Mirabilis-nim.”

“He grabbed the knife, and then?”

Mirten tilted his head, still a little curious even in this situation, while frowning. The other person bit his lower lip slightly, briefly organizing his thoughts before carefully speaking.

“That knife was cursed with a low-level curse. One part was to attack a blonde woman, putting pressure on his mind, and the other was to prevent the cut wound from healing well for about a day. The former is such a trivial and low-level curse that it would only work on children, but this guy’s mind was so messed up from alcohol and drugs that he was ridiculously affected.”

Mirten groaned, hitting his throbbing forehead with his palm and exhaling deeply.

“Blonde woman? Damn it, so he ran at Mirabilis-nim when he saw her.”

The subordinate nodded. While blonde hair is common among children, very few people retain it as adults. Mirabilis was one such rare case. Even searching the entire palace, there was no other blonde hair as noticeable as hers. Moreover, the Rose Palace garden was on the path where commoners toured the palace, so it was easy to spot Mirabilis. Whoever planned this must have intended to target the Princess.

Mirten dismissed all his subordinates. In the empty Widok’s office, he let his expression crumble and slumped into his chair. Various thoughts wandered chaotically in his head, but he just let them be. After sitting blankly for a while, his breath, which had been making his shoulders heave, gradually calmed down. He suppressed his anger and slowly organized the outline of what he had to do.

‘There’s a mole hidden. Who could it be… The perpetrator is in the hands of the Ministry of Justice, so we must first follow the line from the mole and find the instigator. But… what do I tell His Majesty…’

Since someone had tampered with Changwei’s documents, he had no choice but to assume that a mole was hidden within Changwei. Changwei was not an easy place for just anyone to come in and manipulate. But if the mole was also affiliated with Changwei, they would have fully utilized the knowledge they learned from Changwei to avoid being caught. Just thinking about catching this bastard made his already throbbing head feel like it was being pricked with needles.

It was then. A knock on the office door was heard, followed by the creaking of the door opening. The person who opened the door and entered reported while watching Widok’s expression.

“Widok-nim, a low-ranking mage from Naemawon (Inner Demon Garden) who identified himself as ‘Arion’ wishes to see you.”

“A low-ranking nobody dares to see me?”

Mirten raised his eyebrows nervously, but the reporter, while flinching at Widok’s expression, did not stop speaking.

“That’s…”

He lowered his voice.

“He said that he was the only official mage at the scene where Mirabilis-nim was attacked, but there was another magic user besides him.”

“What?”

A lifeline descended before Mirten’s eyes.

****************

It wouldn’t be right to laugh at the incident where the Princess was attacked, but Minister of Justice Achilles inwardly wanted to burst into laughter and have a drink. Thinking that he had seized one of the few opportunities to gain an advantage over Changwei, the muscles in his face kept twitching like an overturned boat.

“Changwei’s bats must have stolen information from our Ministry of Justice, but it’s a shame we don’t know their information.”

Since the Changwei organization has fewer personnel than the Ministry of Justice, it was much more difficult to plant underlings than vice versa. Achilles took out dried herbs from the drawer, put them in a teapot, gently boiled water, and brewed tea. The fragrant tea scent that filled the entire office seemed to intoxicate him, and a reddish joy was subtly revealed on his hardened face.

“Still, I don’t know what benefit there is to be gained from attacking Mirabilis-nim. The culprit is definitely someone from inside the palace, and they put a lot of thought into not getting caught, but I don’t understand why they targeted the Princess.”

The plan was too sloppy. They put a lot of thought into it, but they only schemed to prevent the mastermind from being identified. The attack plan itself was so sloppy that it would have been stranger if it had succeeded.

‘It seems like the attack itself was the goal, and they didn’t care about whether it succeeded or not. It’s as if it would be good if it succeeded, but it doesn’t matter if it fails.’

Even as a seasoned Minister of Justice, he couldn’t figure out the culprit’s intentions. As he poured tea into the teacup in front of his subordinate, the subordinate supported the bottom of the teacup with his left hand and sipped it, savoring each mouthful. He wore a generous smile on his face to ease his subordinate’s tension, but inwardly, he rummaged through his warehouse of thoughts, pondering the true intentions of the culprit.