Chương 12: A Fair Price

Chae-ha took a deep breath, before forcing herself to sit back down in her chair. The moment of panic had passed, and rationality was returning. If she rushed out of the filing room right now ringing alarm bells, everyone would be alerted to the fact that she'd found something. Including the culprit. She needed to get the evidence out, without making the traitor suspicious.

But she couldn't just take the entire folio with her; if the culprit entered the room later and found it missing, they'd immediately know they'd been found out. So instead, the young girl positioned the volume in front of herself and took out a bookbinding needle from within her sleeve. The surgery began. Using the tip of her needle, Chae-ha loosened the knot at the end of the sloppy stitch holding the binding in place.

The young girl unthreaded the cover and removed one of the pages, the bamboo fibers clicking softly as the silk thread slid free. Then she passed the loose end through the eye of her own needle and rebound the volume using the original holes. Finally, Chae-ha sutured up the patient, finishing the operation with a tight, neat chain-stitch. A sigh escaped her lips as she looked at her work with pride, before rolling her eyes, undoing it, and stitching it up again more sloppily.

The effort wounded her pride so much it was almost physically painful. Chae-ha folded the large leaf of paper she'd extracted to make it more compact, placing it inside the back cover of her notebook. Then she forced herself to continue completing the audit as if nothing had happened, ultimately departing the Treasury at the same time she always did.

Less than an hour after she left, Mu-cheon burst into his father's study within the Obsidian Palace, causing a sudden gust of wind that made the flames in the braziers gutter. The Sect Leader sat enthroned behind his basalt desk, while a very anxious Disciplinary Elder lay prostrate before him. The dark look on Hyeon-je's face was clear evidence of how displeased he was with being interrupted.

Elder Gwak glided into the room immediately after, holding in his vise-like grip a piece of hand-pressed, bamboo fiber paper that was covered in dense writing. Chae-ha trailed behind the two of them, all but invisible in the moment. The Sect Leader's eyes locked onto Elder Gwak.

"There had better be a good explanation for this, Mun-su. Was there another assassination attempt?" The Archive Elder shook his head.

"Not as of yet. But a clue that might lead us to the traitor has been found – outside of the Disciplinary Court." Elder Noh whipped around at the Archive Elder's declaration, looking up from a position that was still mostly prostrate. His eyes were wide with terror, and his face was drenched in sweat. The Sect Leader glanced down at him with distaste, before gesturing for Elder Gwak to continue.

"Someone has been making tracings of the seed oil dispensations." The old man held the page up to the light of one of the braziers and highlighted the oil spots, before setting it down on the Sect Leader's desk.

"The same oil used to fuel the guard lanterns. Any culprit capable of doing this would also have access to other logistics data, including food and equipment checkout times. We believe someone used this information to reconstruct the guard rotation schedule." Hyeon-je looked at the paper, and then back down at the elder.

"Noh, get up. It seems you may escape today with your honor intact." The Sect Leader turned back to the group.

"Who found this?" The Archive Elder coughed.

"It seems the young sapling is already bearing fruit." Chae-ha stepped forward, her hands in her sleeves. She raised her arms and lowered her head in a deep bow. A dangerous smile grew upon the Sect Leader's face, underneath narrowing eyes.

"Well done, Inspector. It seems my old friend's faith in you was justified. Mun-su said you were worthy, and you've proven him right. But by itself, this is not sufficient to smoke out the snake."

"It is not, Sect Leader. But access to those logs is restricted. It is enough to narrow down the field of candidates significantly." Chae-ha's head remained lowered as she spoke, not daring to meet his gaze.

"There must be more evidence, and now that we know where to look, we may be able to find it. The hardest part will be not alerting the traitor ahead of time."

"Are you telling me you believe you, personally, can catch the culprit?" Chae-ha looked up in startled confusion, her eyes blinking rapidly as she thought, before quickly lowering her head again.

"That wasn't my intention, Sect Leader. But…yes. I believe I would be able to identify the one responsible." Unauthorized reproduction: this story has been taken without approval. Report sightings.

"Good. Then from here on out, you are in charge of this investigation. You have two weeks before the diplomatic convoy leaves – with you in it. Bring me a confession before then, so I am not forced to reduce the field of candidates to zero myself." Mu-cheon's face paled slightly.

"Sect Leader…"

"Yes, my disciple?" The young man's mouth went completely dry. He tried to speak, but no words came out.

"Never mind," he eventually managed, looking down at his feet. The Sect Leader turned back to Chae-ha.

"Do you understand the task at hand?"

"I understand your orders clearly, Sect Leader."

"Then go and get to work. And… Noh? Send the men you interrogated to the medical bay. Tell them their loyalty was tested and found to be steadfast. As heroes of the sect, they will each be receiving ten mu of land and five taels of silver – a fair price, I think, for a few broken bones." Chae-ha sighed as she left the Sect Leader's study. The young girl hadn't expected to be thrust into the center of things so suddenly, but there was no changing what had just happened. And there was really only one way forward.

She knew better than to go storming into the Treasury with a warrant; panic would only send the traitor underground. Instead, Chae-ha spent the first day of her assignment maintaining her usual routine – auditing the books in the morning, sparring with Mu-cheon in the afternoon, and visiting the Medical Pavilion at night. In between, she compiled a master list of the twenty-two sect members who had regular access to the filing room.

On the second day, between cross-checking grain accounts, she quietly pulled the Treasury's internal access logs. She began ticking names off the list, one at a time, as she found ones that hadn't been in the room long enough to copy anything. She made notes of the dates and times at which all the suspects had entered, and she whittled the list of names down to sixteen in the process. The third day was even more productive.

Just before her afternoon training session with Mu-cheon, Chae-ha finished cross-referencing the sixteen remaining entries with each other. All workers were required to enter the filing room in pairs, specifically to prevent fraud and abuse like this. Therefore, the suspect must have either stayed behind after their partner left – or else entered the room alone, in violation of protocol. That analysis reduced the number of names to five.

Four days after she had first discovered the oil stains, Chae-ha found herself sitting in the Gatehouse that guarded the main entrance. The young Inspector needed to know who had left the sect… and when. The building was drafty and cold, sparsely furnished, and constructed entirely of dark brown ironwood. It was made to be functional, not comfortable. Outside stood several mildly annoyed guards, unhappy about both her requests for interviews and her insistence that they wait out in the cold while she worked.

Whoever the traitor was, it was likely they had travelled to the outside world recently. Although not completely impossible, it would be difficult to pass the guard schedules to an enemy operative from within the sect. And leaving would give someone an opportunity to procure perilla oil without creating an internal record. Her finger traced the inky marks on the logbook, scanning the names and check-out times with surprising alacrity. Every few breaths, she turned another page with a quick snap.

When the young girl finished processing the volume, she closed it and stared at her open notebook. Three names remained. Chae-ha put the eye of one of her bookbinding needles in her mouth and started to chew on it, the metallic tang of the steel helping her to focus. These three were the most likely candidates: two suspects who had left the sect, and one who had requisitioned perilla oil directly. She took the needle out of her mouth and tapped the end of it next to the first name.

Manager Song (宋) The head of external procurement. He had entered the filing room alone, in violation of protocol, and left the sect only twelve hours later. He never requested perilla oil, but he could easily have purchased some at a local village and brought it in. His reason for leaving the sect was to attend a previously scheduled trade meeting, which seemed to have been a legitimate part of his work.

He had been in the filing room alone for nearly an hour, but his reason for leaving the sect was well justified, and there was no clear link to the perilla oil. She tapped on the second name. Head Clerk Rim (林) One of the senior clerks responsible for supervising the others. He entered the filing room in the company of a junior associate, but then stayed for almost a ke after his partner had left. A few days later, he left the sect on personal leave – allegedly to visit a family shrine.

One of the gate guards recalled seeing him carry a small bundle with him as he left, which could have been a tribute intended for the shrine. He never made a request for perilla oil, but he too could have picked it up outside the sect. The bundle was never inspected, making it a way he could have smuggled the tracings out. There was also no proof that he had actually visited any shrines after he had left. She tapped on the third and final name. Manager Jo (曺) The head of the grain repositories.

He entered the filing room early in the morning alongside a partner, but his partner checked out of the room and then back in shortly after, possibly because they'd needed to relieve themselves. As a result, Jo was left alone in the room for a brief time. Also, suspiciously, he had requisitioned several cups of perilla oil from the sect dispensary. This by itself wasn't incriminating; perilla oil could be used for other purposes, including lubrication, cooking, and even treating wooden storage bins to prevent rot.

But his confirmed possession of it, along with his time alone in the filing room, made him the only other candidate who fit the profile. The young girl placed the needle back in her mouth and resumed chewing. These three were the remaining suspects, although the evidence did seem to clearly implicate one in particular. Still, logic was not the same as a confession. It would be nice to be able to tie the traitor directly to the crime – especially if doing so could also help defang the next assassination attempt.

No matter how much Chae-ha thought, only one idea for how to do all that came to mind. She decided to return to the Archives and work on her plan a bit before presenting it to the Sect Leader, however. She had a sneaking suspicion he wasn't going to like it.