"A plan?"

"That's right. A plan! In my head, Sima..."

"Sima?"

"Should I say a plan like Zhuge Kongming's flashed?"

Su Yeohyang, having brought up the word 'Sima', hastily corrected her words after hearing Zhuge Hwaryeong's muttering.

With a very confident look, Su Yeohyang beckoned to the party members.

"Come on, let's gather around first."

Su Yeohyang put her head together with the party members and then whispered quietly.

"Then, the first thing to confirm is that the magistrate is the highest person here and that people will listen to him."

At the very obvious words, the party members nodded their heads.

"That's right."

As soon as she received the party members' agreement, Su Yeohyang clapped her palms together hard.

"Then we just have to make the magistrate say what we want."

Su Yeohyang once again uttered a very obvious statement.

The problem was that that statement had no possibility of being realized.

Although the party members looked at her with a gaze that said 'what nonsense is this?', Su Yeohyang, without being intimidated at all, continued to speak.

"We have a weapon, don't we!"

"Are you suggesting we threaten him?"

"That's not it!"

At Cheon Suhye's words of 'threaten', Su Yeohyang shook her head vehemently and waved her index finger.

"Now, let's go over it one by one. First, Benefactor Tang has an anesthetic needle that can put an opponent to sleep without a sound, right?"

"I do."

"And Sister Hwaryeong is amazing at imitating other people's voices."

"W-well, that's true, but why...?"

At the sight of Su Yeohyang, where a slight madness was peeking, Zhuge Hwaryeong asked, fidgeting.

Perhaps because she had taken off the cross-dressing she always wore and was dressed as a woman, she looked even more shrunken.

Regardless, Su Yeohyang continued to speak with a tragic look.

"So it's like this. Benefactor Tang puts the magistrate to sleep with an anesthetic needle. Very secretly."

"What?"

At Su Yeohyang's absurd words, Tang Yuhwa showed a rare flustered look.

"You shouldn't abuse anesthetic needles carelessly."

"This is an emergency! And Sister Hwaryeong hides behind the sleeping magistrate and imitates his voice!"

Whatever Tang Yuhwa said, at the words of Su Yeohyang, who was saying everything she wanted to say, almost like an outrage, the party members were at a loss for words.

To put the magistrate to sleep with an anesthetic needle and solve the problem by modulating her voice.

It was a story that seemed as if it would come out of a strange tale that was circulating in the market.

"That's a bit..."

"No, then is there a way?!"

However, at the continuous, confident momentum of Su Yeohyang, the hearts of the party members began to waver a little.

'Why does it sound more plausible the more I hear it?'

Whether it was because Su Yeohyang was pouring out her words full of confidence, or whether it was because there was no other particularly good way.

'Why does it seem like it will work?'

The party members began to be persuaded more and more.

After a moment of silence, Cheon Suhye was the first to show an action.

"I will draw their attention, and in the meantime, Benefactor Yuhwa will put the magistrate to sleep."

Although Tang Yuhwa still looked reluctant, since two people were showing a sign of pushing forward with the plan, she reluctantly nodded her head.

'It doesn't seem like there's any other way...'

As even Tang Yuhwa was forcibly convinced, everyone's gaze turned to the remaining Zhuge Hwaryeong.

"W-well, I-I'll do it..."

Zhuge Hwaryeong also had no choice but to nod her head, unable to withstand everyone's gaze.

And so, with everyone's agreement, they held a simple meeting about the plan and began to act.

First, Cheon Suhye moved her feet around the investigation site, where the ruffians had collapsed.

With a wine bottle in one hand, which she had gotten from somewhere, she staggered and moved her feet in an exaggerated manner, as if she were drunk from the wine she had drunk beforehand.

"Stop!"

The magistrate's subordinates roughly blocked Cheon Suhye.

Cheon Suhye, without caring, continued to move her feet and opened her mouth with a slurred voice.

"Get out of the way! I have business in front, so how long are you going to block me!!"

Although it would have been enough to act as a moderately drunk person, Cheon Suhye, as if she were immersed, showed the very essence of a drunk difficult customer.

"I have to go in front! Continuously! Continuously!! Just dragging on the time!!"

In the moment when all the gazes in the inn were focused on the 'difficult drunk customer' Cheon Suhye.

"Now!"

With Su Yeohyang's short signal, Tang Yuhwa and Zhuge Hwaryeong moved secretly.

The target was behind a pillar in a corner of the inn, which was a blind spot that avoided people's gazes and where the magistrate's figure could be seen.

As soon as they arrived behind the pillar, Tang Yuhwa aimed her right sleeve at the magistrate.

The Thousand Medicine Needle Case shone, receiving the light through the sleeve.

Swoosh.

The anesthetic needle fired from the Thousand Medicine Needle Case was stuck in the back of the magistrate's neck.

"Keok! Ugh..."

The magistrate, who had been hit by the needle, let out a strange groan, staggered, and then spun around as if dancing a strange dance.

Then he collapsed into a chair that happened to be behind him.

His head was bowed deeply, a posture as if he were lost in deep thought.

Although it was a coincidence, it was an exquisite sight, as if it had been arranged.

Taking that opportunity, Zhuge Hwaryeong moved near the magistrate, covered her mouth, and turned her back to the wall.

"I!! want to go!! whyyy!!"

While Cheon Suhye's loud shouting was still shaking the inn.

"Everyone, stop."

The magistrate's voice echoed in the inn.

Naturally, it was Zhuge Hwaryeong, who was nearby, who had imitated the magistrate's voice.

A tone that was a little more serious and weighty than usual.

Thanks to that, the magistrate's voice, which had a strange charisma, captivated the audience, and everyone's gaze naturally turned to that place.

The people swallowed their saliva, looking at the magistrate, who seemed to be lost in deep thought with his head bowed.

It was the appearance of a wise judge who seemed to have seen through all the truth.

"Magistrate, what all of a sudden...?"

"This official has grasped the truth of the case after a long thought."

Although the magistrate's subordinates were flustered by the magistrate's sudden words, they could not dare to continue their words at his serious appearance, which was different from usual.

'Why is he sitting down and setting the mood?'

The sight of him sitting with his head bowed deeply, as if in deep thought.

That, combined with his serious tone, captivated the audience.

Of course, the truth was that the magistrate was just sleeping, having been hit by an anesthetic needle, and Zhuge Hwaryeong was just imitating his voice.

"This case is not food poisoning. It is poisoning!"

"I-is that so?!"

"Just before, the magistrate himself said it was food poisoning...?"

As one of the magistrate's subordinates raised a question, Zhuge Hwaryeong flinched, but.

"That was an act to make the culprit let his guard down! The truth is that someone fed that man poison!"

As befitting a bloodline that used the surname 'Zhuge', she shamelessly regained her composure quickly.

Zhuge Hwaryeong was slightly running wild, imitating the voice.

Originally, she was going to borrow the magistrate's authority and hand over the right to examine to Tang Yuhwa.

Tang Yuhwa was already looking at Zhuge Hwaryeong with her eyes wide open, as if saying 'what are you doing now?' with her eyes.

However, Zhuge Hwaryeong, who was riding the atmosphere, did not receive Tang Yuhwa's protest sent with her eyes at all.

She was just busy racking her brain and finding out the truth.

'The time the men came out and then entered the room, I don't know what was there, but to have been poisoned then and to have collapsed now, the time is a little ambiguous.'

Since Zhuge Hwaryeong had been sticking to Tang Yuhwa particularly lately, she had gained some knowledge about poison, and among that knowledge was the knowledge that an instant-acting poison was very difficult to obtain.

Although it was a village at the foot of Mount Emei, in this village, which was not very large, it seemed difficult to obtain such a deadly poison.

Therefore, the medicine the victim had eaten was not an instant-acting one.

'It means that it acted after a certain amount of time had passed after taking the medicine...'

The moment Zhuge Hwaryeong remembered that could have been when the medicine was taken was only one moment.

The moment the ruffians were eating dumplings.

Since it was food, it was a very good material to mix poison with.

"That man ate poison along with the dumplings. Looking at his collapsed state and his symptoms now, he must have used something like arsenic, which is easy to obtain anywhere! That would also match the time of his collapse."

"If so?"

"Is the culprit the inn owner?!"

The gazes of the magistrate's subordinates turned to the inn owner.

"N-no!! I-I didn't kill him!!"

The inn owner, who was flustered by that gaze, immediately prostrated himself on the spot and pleaded his innocence.

"This shameless!" 𝗳𝚛𝗲𝕖𝚠𝚎𝚋𝗻𝗼𝕧𝗲𝐥.𝚌𝚘𝐦

"How dare you kill a person and then deny it?!"

The magistrate's subordinates surrounded the inn owner.

At that moment.

"Stop!"

At the magistrate's, to be precise, Zhuge Hwaryeong's, shout, the subordinates flinched.

"The inn owner is not the culprit!"

"You just said that the food was poisoned."

"But if the inn owner is not the culprit, what do you mean?"

At the magistrate's declaration, the audience murmured.

Then they naturally began to ask questions among themselves.

"Hey. Is it easy for an outsider to enter the inn's kitchen?"

"That's not it. Hey, owner! Was there anyone else who entered the kitchen besides you?"

"No! Only I entered the kitchen..."

The inn owner, who was answering the question of the magistrate's subordinate, realized the meaning of what he had said and hastily shut his mouth.

Cold sweat formed on the inn owner's forehead, and the eyes of the people around, who were looking at him, gradually narrowed.

"No. As I just said, the inn owner is not the culprit."

Fortunately, since the magistrate had re-emphasized that he was not the culprit, the suspicious gazes on the inn owner decreased.

However, since he was still the most likely, dissatisfied voices burst out from here and there.

"No, he said only the inn owner entered the kitchen!"

"Isn't there no place to secretly put poison in the food other than the kitchen?!"

Dissatisfied voices from all directions.

The magistrate kept his mouth shut in the midst of that, and when the commotion had subsided a little, he opened his mouth.

"What if there is a way to put poison without entering the kitchen?"

The magistrate's meaningful statement.

At that statement, the audience became noisy again.

"He could put poison secretly without being in the kitchen?!"

The scale of the inn was not very large.

The path from the kitchen to the table was not very long, and no matter how one looked at it, there seemed to be no place to secretly put poison in the middle.

While everyone was engulfed in a question, the magistrate's voice echoed quietly again.

"That man has a strange habit when he eats."

"A habit, you say?"

"He wipes the dumplings and eats them. And he entrusts the handkerchief he wipes with to his subordinate."

"He wipes the dumplings with a handkerchief?! This outrageous!!"

Although the people's anger was directed at the guy who wiped the dumplings, not the culprit, Zhuge Hwaryeong, who was imitating the magistrate's voice, continued her story without being flustered.

"At this point, can't you tell? The dumplings were not poisoned in the first place! He just took it in because he wiped the dumplings with a handkerchief with poison on it!"

"Such a!!"

"This vicious!"

At the magistrate's declaration, the audience was startled.

And the gazes of the ruffians turned to one man.

The sly ruffian who had handed the handkerchief to the leader.

His impression had not been very good from the beginning, but with this declaration from the magistrate, his complexion turned pale, to the point of being close to that of a corpse.

"Damn it!!"

The sly-looking ruffian kicked off from his spot.

The appearance of a culprit who was running away, no matter how one looked at it.

"The culprit is running away!!"

The magistrate's subordinates belatedly chased the man, but perhaps because the man had learned martial arts, he shook off the magistrate's subordinates and headed for the door of the inn.

As the sly man showed a sign of relief and was about to step towards the door of the inn.

"Stop!"

Someone blocked his way.

"Get out of the way!"

Although the man tried to push away the opponent in front of him without even having the time to confirm him, the opponent moved a notch faster.

Thwack!

"Keuhak!!"

The man, feeling a dull pain on the top of his head, collapsed on the spot.

"Where are you running to, you villain."

The opponent who had suppressed the man in an instant, Cheon Suhye, was looking down at the man with a cold gaze.

At that icy momentum, the man felt as if he would freeze.

Feeling a crisis of life, he shouted with all his might.

"I-I didn't mean to kill him!!"

"All villains say that."

"I said no!!"

At Cheon Suhye's urging, the man showed his resentment as if he were very wronged.

A sight as if the culprit had been switched, if one saw it.

Cheon Suhye was just at a loss for words.

Regardless, the man, suppressed by Cheon Suhye, was prostrated on the floor and continued to vent his resentment.

"I said no!! Th-that's not poison!! That's just...!!"

"It's not poison?"

While the man was venting his resentment, Tang Yuhwa scurried over to him and rummaged through his bosom.

And having found a shabby handkerchief, she held it up.

"A weapon."

Since even the crime tool had been revealed, it was a situation where he was a culprit, no matter how one looked at it, and he could not deny it.

Even in that situation, the man continued to struggle.

"I said no!! That's not poison, it's...!!"

(End of Chapter)