Last time I went to Luoyang, I stopped by Daebyeol Mountain and obtained the Heavenly Fragrance Nectar.
An elixir that could cure any kind of meridian severance syndrome.
The Heavenly Fragrance Nectar I got from there totaled three bottles, and one of them was given to supervisor Min-ik’s son to cure his illness.
Then half a bottle was mixed into other liquors and given as gifts to the people around me.
I had promised to hold a banquet originally, but I just didn’t have the time.
At that time, I gifted one bottle each to the people who were with me, their families, and the Pavilion Lords.
The reason it was possible to gift that many people with just half a bottle was because the flavor and aroma of the Heavenly Fragrance Nectar were that intense. It was fine even mixed in ratios of dozens to one with other liquors.
So even after gifting like that, a fair amount of the diluted liquor remained in my warehouse.
Of course, everyone who received the liquor praised it unanimously.
So the remaining pure Heavenly Fragrance Nectar was one and a half bottles.
Escort Guard Ha Su-min’s illness was the Three Yin Meridian Severance.
It was the same meridian severance, but not as severe as the Nine Yin Meridian Severance. Normally, with meridian severance, one doesn’t live past eighteen, but since Escort Guard Ha had Three Yin Meridian Severance, she passed away around twenty.
In that case, half a bottle of Heavenly Fragrance Nectar should be more than enough.
No matter how good an elixir is, taking too much isn’t good.
I experienced it firsthand after eating the Icy Blue Snow Plum Fruit.
I nearly ended my life right then.
But I have no intention of giving it to Escort Guard Ha myself.
Every story has a protagonist. And the protagonist of the story between Brother Jin-ho and Escort Guard Ha is Brother Jin-ho, not me.
So Brother Jin-ho should be the one to give it to Escort Guard Ha.
After finishing my training, I headed to the dining hall to eat breakfast.
Later, before work starts, I can go to Brother Jin-ho’s quarters and give him the Heavenly Fragrance Nectar.
When I got to the dining hall, Father was already seated.
“I’m late.”
“No. I just arrived too. Sit.”
“Yes.”
As I sat down, the other family members started gathering one by one.
But… even after everyone was seated, Brother Jin-ho didn’t show up.
“Jin-ho is really late.”
“I’ll check.”
At Grandfather’s words, Father called an attendant.
A moment later, Father’s attendant came running back with a flustered expression and said.
“Uh… there’s a problem.”
“What is it?”
“Well… they say the Second Deputy Merchant Lord isn’t in his quarters. And…”
He hesitated and held out a letter.
“They said this was on the table.”
Father took it and read it, then placed a hand on his forehead and sighed.
“Ha, this kid…!”
“What’s wrong, Father?”
At Brother Jeong-ho’s question, Father handed over the letter he was holding, and Brother took it and opened it.
I quickly stood up and read the letter over Brother’s shoulder.
[I am leaving to find an elixir. Escort Guard Ha Su-min has Three Yin Meridian Severance. And to save the her, an elixir with Yang Qi is needed. I can’t live without Escort Guard Ha Su-min…]
Ah…
I forgot. About Brother Jin-ho’s drive.
No, even so, this is too fast.
I already have an elixir that can cure Three Yin Meridian Severance, but he went off to find it.
Oh man, Brother Jin-ho. That’s not it.
That’s a wasted effort.
On the other hand, I could see how sincere Brother Jin-ho was toward Escort Guard Ha.
Because of Brother Jin-ho’s sudden departure…
Wait… Is this considered running away from home?
Anyway, because of Brother Jin-ho’s sudden action, there was a brief commotion, but everyone calmed down and ate breakfast.
Everyone in the family knew Brother Jin-ho wasn’t the type to die somewhere out there.
.
.
.
After breakfast, I started handling work in the Virtuous Wind Department office.
But I couldn’t focus at all.
Still, I forced myself to concentrate and continued with the tasks when Deputy Jo Yeong-yeong came to find me.
“The Merchant Lord is calling for you.”
“Yes?”
I tilted my head and followed Deputy Jo Yeong-yeong to Father’s office.
By the way, it seems Deputy Jo still has feelings for Chief Administrator Yu… I’ll have to look into that later.
“Virtuous Wind Department Chief has arrived.”
“Let him in.”
When I entered the office, Father was frantically looking over documents.
“…”
After waiting a moment, Father looked up and set down the document he was reading.
Then he rubbed his dry face and asked me directly.
“Geumryeong, was it?”
“Ah… yes.”
“I heard you need silver taels to assign it a task.”
“That’s right.”
I think I mentioned it once before, but he remembered.
Thud.
Father took out a few silver taels and held them out.
“Go find Jin-ho.”
“Yes?”
“Even from that far away, it delivered the letter accurately to me, so I think it has the ability to find anyone no matter where they are. Isn’t that so?”
That’s right.
Thanks to that ability, we were able to rescue Chief Supervisor Geum last time when he was kidnapped.
“So go and bring your brother back.”
Just what I hoped for.
I was already unable to focus on work because I wanted to go find Brother Jin-ho, and now he’s giving me the justification.
“I knew Jin-ho admired Escort Guard Ha, but I didn’t realize his feelings ran this deep.”
“…”
“But acting without any plan isn’t helpful. If it’s an elixir, we can look into it through the merchant group.”
Father’s words are correct.
Our Eunhae Merchant Group’s main product is medicinal herbs.
That’s why we can obtain things called elixirs at the merchant group level.
Brother Jin-ho probably knows that too, so his sudden action must mean he doesn’t want to burden the merchant group.
But by leaving without a word in advance, he’s already caused plenty of trouble.
“There’s still about a year left, so we can start looking now.”
“Yes?”
How does Father know that?
At my question, Father cleared his throat awkwardly.
“Actually, the Chief of Changin Escort Bureau and Escort Chief Ha came by a little while ago. So I asked them about various things.”
They must have come to request help in obtaining the elixir.
“And they knew Jin-ho had left home.”
The rumor that Brother Jin-ho ran away to find an elixir for Escort Guard Ha had spread there already.
Wait…
Our Eunhae Merchant Group’s security isn’t that lax, so how did the rumor spread this fast?
Father sighed.
“They said he sent a letter to Escort Guard Ha. That he would definitely find the elixir.”
“…”
Oh man, Brother Jin-ho.
“We agreed to help find the elixir through our merchant group.”
“I see.”
“Anyway, with Geumryeong’s ability, it shouldn’t take long to find Jin-ho. It should be possible before your birthday banquet. So hurry and bring him back. Before he causes trouble.”
“Yes.”
“Ah, and when you find your second brother, give him a good kick in the shin for me.”
As soon as I returned to the Virtuous Wind Department, I instructed Palgap and the escort guards to prepare to leave tomorrow.
And I started processing work as quickly as possible.
.
.
.
The next morning.
After preparations were complete, I greeted the family and left the merchant group.
Then I flicked my sleeve.
“Geumryeong. Come out.”
“Kui?”
“I need to find Brother Jin-ho.”
“Kui?”
I held out the silver taels Father gave me yesterday to Geumryeong.
Geumryeong swallowed them eagerly and sniffed.
It wants something Brother Jin-ho used.
When I took out one of Brother Jin-ho’s clothes, Geumryeong sniffed it and soon determined the direction.
“Ah! Wait!”
I quickly tied the prepared letter to Geumryeong’s tail.
“Now you can go.”
Geumryeong ran off toward the southeast, and we quickly moved in that direction.
And around lunchtime, Geumryeong returned.
It came back after about three hours, so it seems it went farther than expected.
Still, if Brother Jin-ho stays put, we should be able to meet him soon enough.
- * *
Eun Jin-ho scratched under his ear while looking at the letter.
It was just delivered to him by a strange animal.
‘It’s from Seo-ho. Come to think of it, Seo-ho said he was raising a little pig, but that must have been a spirit beast, right?’
Even to himself, Eun Seo-ho was a truly mysterious guy, so it made sense that he’d raise one or two spirit beasts.
The letter was written in a familiar handwriting.
[Brother Jin-ho, I understand the situation, but what are we supposed to do if you just run off like this? The whole family is worried right now.]
When he heard that Escort Guard Ha had Three Yin Meridian Severance and would die soon, he couldn’t think of anything else.
By the time he came to his senses, he had already left home to find an elixir with Yang Qi.
He knew the family would worry about him, but he rationalized it as unavoidable.
And he even left a letter explaining why he was leaving.
Among the escorts from Changin Escort Bureau who came for the escort mission, he thought it was just how it was when he first saw her.
But as the journey continued, she started to capture his heart.
Now, he was completely filled with the woman named Ha Su-min.
The thought of her disappearing from the world made his chest ache so much he couldn’t breathe.
He furrowed his brow and continued reading the letter.
[You don’t even know where an elixir with Yang Qi is, and if you wander around like that, you’ll really get into big trouble.]
At that sentence, Eun Jin-ho sighed.
“I can’t help it. I have to do something. If I ask around, I’ll find the elixir. I can’t shamelessly ask the merchant group to get it for me… Huh?”
He couldn’t finish his complaint.
The last sentence captured his attention.
[I know where the elixir is, so stay put and wait there!]
- * *
How far had we gone?
My group and I rode hard following Geumryeong’s lead.
Since Brother Jin-ho wasn’t appearing no matter how far we went, I started to slightly doubt if Geumryeong was guiding us properly.
But Geumryeong does its job reliably once it eats the money.
That means Brother Jin-ho went pretty far.
How much farther did we go like that?
The sky was getting dark.
“Lord, we should start looking for a place to camp soon.”
At Escort Guard Seo Wu’s words, I nodded.
“Yeah. Just how far did this brother go…”
As I grumbled like that, a small light appeared in the distance.
What’s a light doing in these mountains?
At that moment, Geumryeong, who saw it, wagged its tail.
Could it be?
I hurried toward it, and soon I felt a familiar presence.
I found him in just one day!
“Brother!”
“Huh? Seo-ho?”
I dismounted and approached Brother Jin-ho, who had been sitting by the campfire and was just standing up.
Then I kicked that leg hard.
Thwack-!
“Ugh!”
There was a tiny bit of my own grudge in it, but I was just faithfully carrying out Father’s order.
“Father said to kick you in the shin when I see you.”
“Heh…”
Since he knew he was guilty, Brother Jin-ho just rubbed his leg.
“You know what you did wrong, right?”
“Ahem, sorry.”
“Have you… eaten dinner?”
“Not yet…”
I turned to look at the horse Brother Jin-ho rode. He must have left in such a hurry that only the bare essentials were loaded.
Still, it’s something that he didn’t leave empty-handed.
When I looked at Palgap, he nodded and replied.
“I bought some steamed buns at an inn on the way. I’ll prepare them right away.”
A moment later, we ate warmed tea and steamed buns by the campfire for dinner.
“By the way…”
As we ate the steamed buns in silence, Brother Jin-ho finally spoke.
“Is it true?”
“What?”
“Well, you wrote in the letter that you know where the elixir to cure Escort Guard Ha’s illness is. Is that for real?”
“Yeah. It’s true.”
“So where is it? That place?”
At his question, I sighed and asked.
“Why? If I tell you, you’ll go find it?”
“Of course! I’m going to save Escort Guard Ha! If there’s no Escort Guard Ha, I…”
Since I remembered what Brother Jin-ho was like after Escort Guard Ha died, I made a bitter expression.
“Why that face?”
“Oh, just… make sure you marry her.”
“I will.”
I hesitated for a moment before speaking.
“Actually, that elixir… it’s with me.”
“What?”
“I have it, that elixir.”
“…”
Brother Jin-ho blinked as if he couldn’t quite understand what he’d heard.
“I got it by chance before. As soon as I heard Escort Guard Ha had Three Yin Meridian Severance, I thought of that elixir and was going to give it to you… but you were already gone from the merchant group.”
“…”
“You were too fast. Way too fast.”
At my words, Brother Jin-ho slowly said to me.
“So what? That means I…”
“Yeah. It was a wasted effort.”
“…”
Brother Jin-ho buried his face in his knees just like that.
He must be embarrassed even to himself.
I gently patted his back and said.
“Take this.”
“What’s this?”
“Heavenly Fragrance Nectar. It’s an elixir with the effect of curing any meridian severance syndrome.”
At my words, Brother Jin-ho’s eyes welled up.
“So, Brother. Since it’s come to this, how about we put on a little play?”
–TL Notes–
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