I casually slipped into the drinking party with the Baekpa Merchant Group.
Then I naturally joined their conversation.
“Congratulations. I heard the Baekpa Merchant Group made quite a handsome profit this time as well.”
“Haha, thank you.”
“Not nearly as much as the Eunhae Merchant Group over there, but we still made a tidy sum.”
At that moment, one of the merchants cut in with a disgruntled grumble.
“What good does that do us? It all belongs to the state. We’ll probably get little more than a fee for our trouble.”
“That’s the problem.”
“Damn it! We do all the work, and the Empire takes the profit.”
As though those words had been a signal, complaints began spilling from the mouths of the other merchants.
I listened along while struggling to keep my expression under control.
Whew, gentlemen.
Did you somehow forget everything the Empire did to make this trade expedition possible?
I’m no different from them when it comes to refusing to back down where profit is concerned.
Even so, I hadn’t complained about this state-led trade expedition because there was simply no reason to.
First of all, the Empire had agreed to pay us for the goods we sold abroad.
It had also agreed to compensate us for the work of selling those goods and purchasing grain to bring back.
Because this was an official trade expedition organized by the Empire, foreign nations such as the Great Yue Kingdom and Maraeseo Kingdom had readily granted formal permission for large-scale trade.
On top of that, despite the Prohibition Decree, we had even been granted the special privilege of trading liquor, which allowed us to make a considerable profit.
The Baekpa Merchant Group had loaded liquor onto its ships too.
If this continued for several years, the merchant groups involved could establish a firm foothold in maritime trade for the future.
In other words, we weren’t losing anything even in the present, and once the future was taken into account, this was nothing but profit.
Tsk. Yet they hadn’t thought about any of that and were blinded by the money right in front of them…
Still, I kept those thoughts to myself.
“That must have been rather frustrating.”
“Hehehe. It’s quite all right. A capable merchant knows how to turn even a situation like this to his advantage.”
“Are you saying there’s another way to make a profit?”
At my question, the Supervisor from the Baekpa Merchant Group nodded.
“Please, I’d be grateful if you could enlighten me.”
When I bowed my head deeply, apparently putting him in a good mood, he readily answered.
“All you need to do is give the merchants of the Great Yue Kingdom a small gift. And then… you’ll have to figure out the rest yourself. You shouldn’t expect someone else to simply hand over the secrets of his trade, you know. Hehehe.”
“…”
I swallowed the sigh that nearly escaped me.
I already knew exactly what method they had used. I’d only wanted something that would confirm it.
But seeing everyone snickering at me made it obvious enough.
It wasn’t merely something I had seen in my previous life. This was a common trick among merchants involved in maritime trade.
The current arrangement was that goods worth ten silver taels in the Empire would be taken abroad and sold for a higher price, then the profit from those sales would be used to purchase an equivalent amount of grain to bring back.
But this was where the Empire’s merchants slipped in their little trick.
There was nothing wrong with selling an item to a merchant from the Great Yue Kingdom or Maraeseo Kingdom for twenty silver taels.
The problem came when the official documents recorded the price as eighteen silver taels instead.
They could get away with it because merchants in the Great Yue Kingdom weren’t under the Empire’s control.
Of course, those merchants had no reason to cooperate for free, so the Empire’s merchants gave them a small gift to smooth things over.
Even after paying for that gift, there would still be some money left over.
And considering the sheer quantity of goods being traded, that leftover money was by no means insignificant.
They would then use that undeclared money to buy grain and other goods, load them aboard alongside the tax-exempt cargo, and return to the Empire.
Goods privately traded by an individual merchant group weren’t eligible for tax exemption.
The problem was that if they brought back the exact same type of goods the state itself required, it became difficult to distinguish which portion was exempt from tax and which wasn’t.
They were exploiting that loophole to import their own merchandise without paying taxes.
With an expedition this large, there were bound to be people the Emperor had planted among them, so someone must have noticed that something suspicious was going on.
Whew…
Now that I’d confirmed they really had broken the law, I suppose I should give them the warning the Emperor ordered me to deliver.
If they still refused to understand after that, then they’d only have themselves to blame for whatever happened next.
Still, why had the Emperor specifically entrusted this matter to me?
And why had he done it so secretly?
The question lingered in my mind for a moment, but I quickly dismissed it.
.
.
.
Morning came.
I immediately sought out Lord Ak and requested a private audience.
“Regarding the letter you gave me before, I’d like to request your assistance.”
“Understood. What would you have me do?”
After hearing my explanation, Lord Ak smiled and readily nodded.
“If that’s the matter, then of course I should help.”
Lord Ak willingly agreed to my request.
I moved somewhere else, changed my clothes, and put on a mask that covered everything below my nose.
Then I used the Novel Disguise Art to alter the shape of my eyes as well.
It was to prevent anyone from recognizing my face.
If I openly exposed what they had done while revealing my identity, I could easily earn their lasting resentment afterward.
Lord Ak stared at my disguise in admiration.
“Oh! You look like a completely different person.”
“It’s only a minor trick.”
“You certainly have a lot of tricks up your sleeve. It looks like we’re ready, so let’s be on our way.”
Lord Ak personally led a group of soldiers toward the harbor, while I followed at his side as though I were one of his aides.
“Everyone, stop what you’re doing!”
“What is the meaning of this?”
A Supervisor approached with a sour expression, apparently still nauseated from drinking himself senseless the previous night.
“We’re here to search for goods that aren’t covered by the tax exemption. Anything listed in the manifests you submitted is exempt. Anything else will be taxed. Is there anything about that you don’t understand?”
“N–no. But a search? You’ve never done anything like this before, have you?”
“What are you talking about? Isn’t it the law that all goods traded overseas are subject to taxation?”
“Y–yes, that’s true, but this is so sudden…”
“We didn’t conduct searches before because the grain had to be distributed to the people as quickly as possible. But the harvest has only just ended, so we have a little breathing room this time. We’re simply following the proper procedure.”
Lord Ak spoke with finality.
“Search for anything that doesn’t match the submitted reports!”
“Yes, my lord!”
At Lord Ak’s command, the inspection began immediately.
I examined the goods unloaded from the Baekpa Merchant Group’s ships, only to find myself bewildered.
Huh? Why isn’t there anything?
Everything unloaded from the ships matched the goods listed in the report exactly.
That shouldn’t be possible.
Then I noticed the Supervisor from the Baekpa Merchant Group nodding toward someone.
Who was he signaling…?
I quickly followed his gaze.
The man nodding back was a fairly high-ranking soldier from the Nanjing Provincial Command Office.
Ah…
So that was why the Emperor had secretly delivered his letter to me through Lord Ak.
Even though we’d finished our preparations quickly and descended on the harbor without warning, they had received word through an inside man and prepared for us.
Given a little more time, they probably would have destroyed every last piece of evidence.
But they shouldn’t have had enough time to erase everything just yet.
I scanned the area around the ship and smirked when I spotted a rope hanging over the side.
So this was how they hid the evidence.
“What is this rope for?”
“That’s the rope attached to the anchor.”
“It seems rather thin for an anchor rope.”
I pulled on it, and the faces of the Baekpa Merchant Group’s people immediately began to change.
Soon, whatever had been tied to the other end rose into view… sacks of grain.
There was a method known as brine selection.
It was a way of separating dead seeds before planting rice by soaking them in saltwater concentrated enough that only part of an egg would float above the surface.
Of course, leaving rice submerged for too long wasn’t ideal, but that only mattered if you intended to germinate it.
If the rice was meant to be eaten, there was no problem at all, which was why they had hidden the evidence by submerging it in the sea like this.
“Pull up every sack of rice immediately!”
“Yes, my lord!”
While the soldiers moved at Lord Ak’s command, I began searching the ship itself.
Rice took up too much space, so they had hidden it in plain sight, like hiding a tree in a forest. But there had to be other goods concealed somewhere aboard.
Some of the Great Yue Kingdom’s specialties included water buffalo horns and pepper.
Both fetched high prices in the Empire.
And I was supposed to believe they had simply walked away without trying to make money from those?
At least tell me something believable.
Those goods didn’t take up nearly as much room, so they were probably hidden somewhere inside the ship.
And the sort of place they would hide them was…
Knock, knock.
I walked over to one side of the ship and rapped my knuckles against the wall.
Just as I thought. It sounded hollow inside.
I drew my sword and pried away one of the wooden planks making up the wall, revealing an empty compartment behind it.
Found it.
The hidden space was packed with water buffalo horns.
I turned to the soldier who had followed me.
“Confiscate all of these.”
“Yes!”
After that, goods seemed to appear everywhere I touched.
There were more water buffalo horns hidden behind another wall, and sacks of pepper concealed beneath the ship’s floor.
By the time we finished pulling everything out, there was an enormous pile.
When I brought the contraband outside, the already pale faces of the Baekpa Merchant Group’s people turned utterly ashen.
Seeing that, Lord Ak fiercely interrogated them.
“And what, exactly, is all this?”
“Th–that is… well…”
“The rice you hid beneath the seawater isn’t in the report, and neither are any of these goods.”
“…”
“As I said earlier, private goods not listed in the report are subject to taxation. I might overlook the rice itself, but water buffalo horns and pepper… How much tax is levied on these?”
I immediately answered.
“Luxury goods like these are taxed at twenty percent of their current market value. If they’re discovered during an inspection, an additional penalty is imposed at ten times the normal tax.”
“I see.”
Lord Ak turned toward the merchants who had gathered around.
“If any of you have illegally imported goods hidden away, declare them now. If you come forward voluntarily, then just this once, I’ll use my authority to reduce the penalty from ten times the normal tax to five times.”
Lord Ak turned his head toward the Baekpa Merchant Group.
“That offer does not apply to you.”
“…”
Lord Ak’s warning proved remarkably effective.
The other merchant groups brought out every little item they had secretly smuggled in.
A tenfold tax penalty was terrifying, after all.
Fortunately, the Eunhae Merchant Group had nothing to surrender.
I’d warned them about this over and over again.
And so, the Baekpa Merchant Group and the others who had attempted to deceive the Emperor received a very painful warning in the language merchants understood best – money.
There went all the profit from this expedition.
Still, it was far better for them to pay the price now and learn not to deceive the Emperor.
Because the Emperor was genuinely terrifying.
Hopefully, they would carve this warning into their bones and never forget it.
.
.
.
Once everything had been settled, the merchant ships gradually began preparing to depart.
However, Lord Ak, who had already returned to the Provincial Command Office, came back to the harbor.
“What happened?”
“Ah! The Baekbuik Merchant Group sent an urgent request for assistance. They said it looks as though a diplomatic incident may be brewing.”
The Baekbuik Merchant Group was the merchant group that had returned from trading with Maraeseo Kingdom.
“May I come with you?”
“Of course.”
And so, I accompanied Lord Ak to the Baekbuik Merchant Group’s ship.
The Baekbuik Merchant Group’s ship was in complete disarray.
Apparently someone had informed them that Lord Ak had arrived, because Deputy Merchant Lord Ji Seok-mun hurriedly came down from the ship.
“This humble merchant greets you, my lord.”
“What happened? I came because I was told this could turn into a diplomatic incident.”
“Well… the chest His Majesty the King of Maraeseo entrusted to us for Princess Shina has disappeared.”
“What?”
Lord Ak wasn’t the only one caught off guard. I was equally stunned.
I had thought the task the Emperor gave me was already finished, only for an enormous incident to erupt from a completely unexpected direction.
“Could it have been put somewhere else? Or perhaps it was never loaded onto the ship in the first place?”
Recognizing the seriousness of the situation, Lord Ak questioned him in a grave voice. Deputy Merchant Lord Ji Seok-mun shook his head.
“No. I’m certain it was inside my office aboard the merchant ship.”
I stepped forward.
“My apologies for interrupting.”
“Not at all. If you have something to say, go ahead.”
Lord Ak looked at me indulgently.
“We need to retrace everything that happened from the beginning. Deputy Merchant Lord Ji Seok-mun, would you please explain?”
He nodded at my request and began his account.
Before departing after completing their trade, they had visited the King of Maraeseo again at his request, and the king had given him a chest to deliver to his daughter.
“Inside the chest were gold, silver, jewels, and a single letter.”
“So it contained gifts and a letter intended for Princess Shina?”
“That is correct.”
Deputy Merchant Lord Ji Seok-mun continued.
“I brought it aboard and placed it in my office, then ordered the guards never to leave their posts for even a moment. But… the chest was definitely still there yesterday, yet when I checked this morning, it was gone.”
“Then someone stole it.”
“That is what I believe as well. That is why I asked for your help, my lord.”
His expression was anguished.
“To be frank, I can replace the gold, silver, and jewels with my own money. It disappeared because I failed to safeguard it properly, so I should bear that loss myself. But there is nothing I can do about the king’s letter… Please, if nothing else, help me recover that letter.”
I asked him a question.
“Do you know what the letter says?”
“No. I couldn’t possibly open a letter intended for Her Highness without permission.”
He had a point.
“Then who knew what was inside the chest?”
“Well…”
He let out a sigh.
“Most of the people who traveled aboard this ship knew.”
That certainly made things difficult.
In other words, practically everyone who had been aboard the ship was a suspect.
If the chest had disappeared this morning, then the theft must have taken place sometime between late last night and dawn.
But that was when everyone had been attending the banquet Lord Ak hosted, wasn’t it?
“We’ll need to question them. Has anyone who traveled on the merchant ship gone missing?”
“No. Everyone is accounted for.”
The questioning began immediately.
Meanwhile, I boarded the Baekbuik Merchant Group’s ship and headed toward Deputy Merchant Lord Ji Seok-mun’s office.
Fortunately, perhaps because not much time had passed, I could still faintly sense Unorthodox Qi.
Then that would mean an Unorthodox martial artist was responsible?
Hm?
That was when something caught my eye.
–TL Notes–
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