A sort of game that had started among the noblewomen of high-ranking officials and aristocrats.
The rules were simple.
The time limit was one month.
The noblewomen would take turns, and when it was someone’s turn, she had to acquire the item named by the previous turn’s participant.
If she failed to obtain the item, she had to treat the other ladies to a lavish meal.
And the item she failed to find would become the task of the next lady in line.
There were no restrictions on the items they could name, but they always picked things that were difficult to obtain.
After all, the real purpose of this game was to take turns hosting extravagant gatherings.
The harder the item, the more thrilling the game became.
But if someone actually did obtain the item, that lady would be treated like an empress by the others for a whole month.
So it was supposed to be a light-hearted game you could laugh off even if you failed.
However, once pride became involved, things began to spiral.
More and more people were mobilized to find increasingly difficult items, and reckless methods were employed.
Because of these pride-driven games, countless commoners suffered.
Eventually, the Emperor, after receiving a petition from the Hanlin Academy, issued a royal decree banning the practice.
But that was still in the future.
And the object Lord Song just mentioned would be acquired by one of those noblewomen about half a year from now.
The name of the item was the Self-Dancing Doll (自舞人形).
Its popularity spread across the region in an instant, and everyone scrambled to get one, throwing money at the chance.
The merchant group that sold the dolls made an absolute fortune.
Lord Song spoke.
“Do you think it can be procured?”
My father looked slightly troubled, but it would be impolite to refuse him directly.
He responded gently.
“We’ll do our best to locate it.”
“Please. I must have it by the end of this month, no matter what.”
With that final plea, Lord Song left the reception room, and my father stepped out to see him off.
Only now did I begin to understand the full story behind Lord Song’s downfall.
He must’ve searched desperately for the item the Commissioner of Land Affairs wanted.
More precisely, the item his wife wanted.
The Commissioner doted on his wife. If Lord Song had delivered the doll, the Commissioner likely would’ve overlooked Lord Song’s misdeeds out of gratitude for saving his wife from embarrassment.
But Lord Song had failed to obtain the item, and because he’d already fallen out of favor, he was destroyed.
We remained in the reception room, waiting for my father to return.
“I figured it was only a matter of time before this came up.”
Said Division Chief Yeon with a smirk.
I chuckled softly.
She clearly already knew about the noblewomen’s game and that the latest item was the Self-Dancing Doll.
And that Lord Song was trying to find it.
Which meant my father also knew.
‘He’s a great actor, really.’
Chief Administrator Yu shook his head like he had a headache.
“A doll that dances on its own every hour? Where are we even supposed to find something like that…”
“It won’t be easy, but we have to search everywhere we can. Otherwise, we’ll take the damage too.”
At my words, Chief Administrator Yu said,
“You’re exactly right, Young Master. Lord Song is one of our key clients. If he collapses, we’ll suffer considerable losses.”
Just as he said, Lord Song’s downfall wouldn’t be good for the Eunhae Merchant Group.
He was a major landowner in the area, and the volume of grain he supplied wasn’t insignificant.
Still, because I knew how we handled that loss relatively easily in the future, it didn’t feel too serious to me.
‘There’s something far more important.’
I recalled a day from the future I’d lived.
It was the day when the leaders of the Hundred Great Merchant Groups gathered for a summit.
I’d attended that summit with my father and eldest brother.
There, I met the Merchant Lord of the Jinkyeon Merchant Group, who had joined the Hundred Great by selling the Self-Dancing Doll.
Just then, the topic of the doll came up, and the Merchant Lord of Jinkyeon, flushed red with strong liquor, eagerly recounted his glory days.
“Oh, that young craftsman was such a genius with his hands! He could whip up the strangest contraptions in no time!”
“Where in the world did you find such an artisan?”
“You know that mountain pass between Hubei and Jiangxi? There’s a big marketplace in a village by that pass.”
“Ah, I see!”
“And I offered that artisan’s doll as a tribute.”
That merchant earned the favor of the Commissioner’s wife, who governed Jiangxi Province, and made an absolute fortune through that item.
In the future I lived, the artisan belonged to the Jinkyeon Merchant Group, but this time, I planned to bring him under the Eunhae Merchant Group.
It wasn’t stealing someone else’s craftsman.
Doing so would make that artisan happier.
Despite creating the Self-Dancing Doll, the artisan never lived a happy life—instead, he was worked to death under relentless pressure.
When he died from overwork, the Jinkyeon Merchant Group could no longer produce the dolls, and quickly collapsed. Their Merchant Lord had never been particularly shrewd, nor was their foundation solid to begin with.
They hung on for a bit, but didn’t even last half a year before falling.
Because I made them fall.
I’d been curious about how they’d secured that craftsman, so I commissioned the Hao Clan to investigate.
Through them, I learned how the group had exploited and bled the artisan dry.
They’d kidnapped his family and tortured them in front of him.
And when he couldn’t produce a new item that satisfied the noblewoman, they threatened him with his family and tortured them again.
Imagining how much guilt, pain, and silent suffering that artisan endured made my skin crawl at the thought that a group like Jinkyeon had ever been considered one of the Hundred Great.
People say they’d do anything for money, but this was something else entirely.
Money might be cold, but it’s meant to serve people.
Those who committed such cruelty weren’t people—and didn’t deserve money.
My brothers were furious too, and I started making plans to rescue the artisan.
But before I could act, he died.
I’d tried to at least rescue the artisan’s family from that merchant group’s hands, but by then, it was too late. The group had already killed them all to silence any witnesses.
That truth weighed heavily on me with guilt.
If I’d just found out a little earlier, if I’d acted just a bit faster, that artisan and his family wouldn’t have died.
So, in part to avenge the artisan, I brought down the Jinkyeon Merchant Group.
And that decision hadn’t changed even now.
Which meant I had to bring that artisan under our wing before he suffered and died.
Because someone with that kind of talent deserved to be treated accordingly.
And it wouldn’t hurt if the Eunhae Merchant Group profited along the way.
Originally, I’d planned to recruit the artisan a little later.
But now that things had turned out like this, it felt like something unseen was telling me—
Move now.
‘The problem is…’
The artisan lived in Jiangxi Province.
Of course, Sunyang County in Hubei, where we were located, bordered Jiangxi, so the distance wasn’t all that far.
But I was still only fifteen years old, and I couldn’t travel there without my father’s permission.
How could I get myself to Jiangxi?
As I pondered, a good idea suddenly came to mind.
I decided to sacrifice my upcoming holiday—for the sake of the overworked and doomed artisan of the Eunhae Merchant Group.
After seeing Lord Song off, Eun Gil-sang, Merchant Lord of the Eunhae Merchant Group, returned to the reception room with a sigh.
“A doll that dances by itself every hour, huh…”
He’d never even heard of such an object before.
‘The woman who gave that task, the one trying to find it, and the fool trying to help her—they’re all out of their minds…’
Of course, he only thought that to himself.
As Merchant Lord, Eun Gil-sang paid close attention to the flow of things around him, and he’d already grasped the situation.
He knew Lord Song had fallen out of favor with the Commissioner of Land Affairs who governed Hubei, and that the man was looking for a self-dancing doll.
Lord Song had claimed the omission of ten gyeol of land from his tax records was a mistake, but Gil-sang didn’t believe that for a second.
‘He should’ve stopped skimming while he was ahead. And what’s funny is that after running around checking everything himself, he only now comes crawling to us.’
He probably didn’t want to expose the situation or take on losses by involving others, so he tried handling it alone.
And in the end, when things got tight, he knocked on the Eunhae Merchant Group’s door.
‘Troublesome…’
Besides, Lord Song had surely asked for help from other connections too, not just the Eunhae Merchant Group.
If he collapsed, that’d be a problem, but it wouldn’t be any better if he got bailed out by someone else—especially since the rice trade with him might shift to another group.
‘Still, how are we supposed to find something even he couldn’t after all his efforts…’
As he wrestled with that thought, Eun Seo-ho called to him.
“Father, may I have a word?”
“What is it?”
“I’d like to visit the Jiangxi Province during the Winter Solstice break.”
Jiangxi Province?
Such a sudden request made him ask for a reason.
“Why? It’s not just for a pleasure trip, is it…?”
“I want to see the grand marketplace there with my own eyes.”
Eun Gil-sang studied his son carefully.
Lately, his third son had been… unusual.
He’d always been frail and sickly, but now he was suddenly in perfect health.
His posture, once hunched from burying himself in books, was now upright.
And his practical skills left nothing to be desired.
Although he’d personally brought him in, even the picky and exacting Yu So-ak had chosen him as an assistant.
Then, after the Fire Lotus Inn incident, Yu So-ak had said this:
— How did the Young Master know exactly which ledger held evidence of Baek’s embezzlement?
— What do you mean?
— The ledger he pinpointed was remarkably well-done. Chief Administrator Seo Su-chang is quite capable.
— Is that so?
— Yes. Even seasoned merchants wouldn’t have caught on so easily.
— …
— I think the Young Master is far more capable than I’d initially assumed.
That prompted Eun Gil-sang to look at the Fire Lotus Inn’s books again—and sure enough, Yu So-ak had been right.
‘Come to think of it, Seo-ho even proposed a novel use for the inn that none of us had considered. Does the boy truly have talent for business?’
Recently, Eun Seo-ho had also started learning martial arts.
Not from Go Il-pyeong, the External Chief, but from someone else, which prompted Gil-sang to ask Go to meet the man.
Go had returned with this:
— Young Master Seo-ho’s body is suited for ice-based techniques. That means the only suitable teacher for him is Escort Chief Gwak.
— He’s not a suspicious character, is he?
— No. I can’t say much about him, but he’s someone you can trust.
— I see…
— And the Young Master is very lucky. If he’d started training with yang-based techniques, he might’ve been in danger.
— Danger’s a bit dramatic… you would’ve figured it out before that happened.
— No, I wouldn’t have. I only understood after hearing the full details. Without this incident, I’d have just taught him my own martial arts.
— Now you’ve got me even more curious. Arrange a meeting with Escort Chief Gwak.
— Understood.
And so Eun Gil-sang met Gwak Myeong-hyeon.
He’d seen him before, of course. The man was the Escort Chief of the Changin Escort Bureau, which had a contract with the Eunhae Merchant Group.
Every time he saw him, Gwak had seemed… not ordinary.
Even though Gil-sang’s sources couldn’t find a trace of Gwak’s past before he settled in Hubei.
But Gil-sang’s instincts, honed over decades of experience, were telling him something.
Gwak Myeong-hyeon was no ordinary Escort Chief.
— Gwak Myeong-hyeon greets the Merchant Lord.
— Raise your head. There’s no need for such formality from my son’s master
— Then I’ll dispense with it.
— So you’ve agreed to take my son as your disciple?
— I have.
That day, they talked for quite some time, and formally, Gwak Myeong-hyeon became Eun Seo-ho’s master.
Recalling that moment, Eun Gil-sang looked at his son.
‘What could’ve drawn a man like that to take Seo-ho as a disciple?’
–TL Notes–
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