"What is it?"

Chief Do-beom Hwang asked the steward Ung-hyeon Lee, on Tak-hyeon Lee's behalf, the reason he had come to the study.

"Forgive me for coming so suddenly."

"There's nothing to forgive. If you've come like this it will be no ordinary matter. It's quite all right, so simply say it."

Tak-hyeon Lee, who knew that Ung-hyeon Lee was a more careful and prudent man than anyone, thought from his having come to the study without so much as a knock that it would be no ordinary matter.

The steward Ung-hyeon Lee, receiving the gazes of Tak-hyeon Lee and Do-beom Hwang, opened his mouth with difficulty, wearing an awkward expression.

"That is… the prosecution have come."

"The prosecution have come? What is that supposed to mean?"

But when an answer he truly had not foreseen at all came out of Ung-hyeon Lee's mouth, Do-beom Hwang pressed him and asked again with a flustered face.

Ung-hyeon Lee, evidently unable to bring himself to look at Tak-hyeon Lee, turned to Do-beom Hwang and opened his mouth.

"The prosecution have come with a warrant, saying they will arrest the young master Jun-myeong."

Do-beom Hwang turned to Tak-hyeon Lee with a face gone white.

Tak-hyeon Lee covered his eyes with a hand and rested his head against the chair back.

"They've come with a warrant, even?"

"Yes. What… shall we do…?"

"Where are they now?"

The steward Ung-hyeon Lee watched Tak-hyeon Lee's face and spoke carefully.

"The staff are blocking the entrance so they haven't come in and are waiting outside. The elder madam and the younger madam have been making a scene, saying they absolutely must not be let in."

"And what is that fellow Jun-myeong doing?"

"That is… he's asleep."

Tak-hyeon Lee, who had been covering his eyes with a hand, raised himself upright.

"What was that?"

"Perhaps because he came in at dawn today, he doesn't get up though we wake him."

"That little—"

Tak-hyeon Lee had been a man who at least did not curse his grandchildren as this little wretch or that.

But even he could bear it…