After I finished talking with Master, I clasped my fists and bowed my head. When I raised it again, Master had already vanished from my sight.
I asked Escort Guard Seo Wu,
“Has Master left?”
“Yes.”
Escort Guard Seo Wu nodded and said,
“This is just my humble opinion, but it’s a real shame that someone that great has to live as just an Escort Chief. The hero shouldn’t be me, it should be that person.”
“I agree.”
.
.
.
Time passed, and the day of the fourth round of the Dragon-Phoenix Martial Gathering’s main competition arrived.
On the bracket for the fourth round, with fourteen people remaining, Lady Zhuge Yu-ah and Lady Tang Su-bin both had their names up.
Tang Jo-ung, who’d advanced to the third round by default in the previous round, was eliminated as expected.
And Cousin Hyang-ok was eliminated as well.
Honestly, I’d already expected Cousin Hyang-ok to lose. In my previous life too, when she first entered the Dragon-Phoenix Martial Gathering, she was eliminated in the third round.
The next time she competed, she made it higher than that. Since she lost by such a narrow margin this time, she was really frustrated.
I looked at the bracket.
There were fourteen contestants in this fourth round, so there would be seven winners.
Which meant the numbers didn’t pair up evenly, so once again there were people who’d get lucky and win by default.
Actually, Lady Tang Su-bin drew a bye. But she went and declared, “I refuse the win by default!”
The Dragon-Phoenix Martial Gathering had a rule that let you refuse a bye.
It existed because of the Murim Alliance’s atmosphere that prized honor.
Thanks to Lady Tang Su-bin’s declaration, someone else ended up getting that free advancement instead, and at the same time any possible gossip was cut off at the root.
After all, if the Tang Clan’s juniors kept getting byes one after another, people would have every reason to suspect the matches were rigged.
I couldn’t tell whether she refused the bye purely because she wanted a fair fight, or because she wanted to eliminate any chance of rumors.
But remembering how she’d hesitated for a moment when she drew the bye token, the latter seemed more likely.
Lady Tang Su-bin was sharp.
“From this moment, we’ll begin the fourth round of the main competition! First up is…”
First up were Lady Zhuge Yu-ah and a warrior from the Jin Ju-eon Family.
The Jin Ju-eon Family was famous for its fist techniques.
At the same time, they were highly skilled with body-hardening techniques, which they applied to the body to harden fists, legs, and so on.
Once hardened that way, the body was almost like steel, dangerous even if it just brushed against you.
Lady Zhuge Yu-ah’s opponent was someone who’d been racking up wins using that style.
And Lady Zhuge Yu-ah excelled at strategy and feints.
I couldn’t help wondering who would win.
Just then, as she stepped onto the arena, Lady Zhuge Yu-ah looked straight over to where I was and gave me a quick grin.
She looked completely confident. I was curious what kind of plan she had in mind to wear an expression like that.
Boom!
With a resounding beat of the drum, the match began.
Every time Lady Zhuge Yu-ah’s sword met the Jin Ju-eon Family warrior’s fist, it rang like cold weapons clashing, even throwing sparks.
Clang-!
Kraang-!
So the fist really is as hard as steel. How else would it make that kind of sound?
The Jin Ju-eon Family warrior’s attacks were definitely fierce, but Lady Zhuge Yu-ah’s eyes stayed calm from beginning to end.
An expression that gave nothing away.
Maybe that got under the Jin Ju-eon youth’s skin, because his movements grew wilder.
In other words, he was opening up more and more gaps.
Lady Zhuge Yu-ah’s sword sliced through the air, going straight for one of his vital points.
“Gah!”
He failed to block in time, and his shoulder split open, spraying blood.
Even so, he didn’t give up and charged in again, but Lady Zhuge Yu-ah was colder than I’d expected.
Smack-!
She spun through the air and kicked that wounded shoulder, dislocating it. They could harden the skin, but not the joints.
No matter how hard you make the skin, if you stiffen the joints too, you can’t move freely.
That’s exactly what Lady Zhuge Yu-ah had targeted.
Seeing this, the referee declared,
“Zhuge Yu-ah wins!”
“Woooaahhh!”
The crowd roared.
“Hundred Stratagems Cold Sword (百略冷劍)! Hundred Stratagems Cold Sword!”
A cold sword that carried a hundred stratagems.
That was the new title they’d given Lady Zhuge Yu-ah.
This was a completely different life from the Yu-ah who’d been Merchant Lord Yu Gang’s escort guard, Smilingless Jade Maiden Yu-ah, in my previous life.
Yeah. The honor she was enjoying now was exactly what Lady Zhuge Yu-ah should have had in the first place.
Watching her wave back at the cheering crowd, I couldn’t help smiling in satisfaction.
.
.
.
Today, in the fourth round of the main event, Lady Tang Su-bin was unfortunately eliminated.
If she hadn’t given up her bye, she would’ve made it to the fifth round.
But this was as far as Lady Tang Su-bin could go.
To be precise, it was the limit of Lady Tang Su-bin with her poisons and hidden weapons sealed.
If she could’ve used poison and hidden weapons, she would’ve climbed much higher with far less trouble.
Now only the final eight remained.
Two who’d advanced with byes, and six who’d fought their way through.
And finally, tomorrow, the overall winner would be decided.
In my previous life, the warrior of the Peng Family of Hebei had won.
When I watched him fight earlier, the skill was impressive.
I could tell that he wasn’t like the other orthodox sect geniuses who’d been protected and sheltered in their fights.
He’d gone through a lot of real combat.
To reach that level, you’d have to wander the martial world for at least five years. I found myself wondering what had made him live that kind of life.
But I wondered, would the Peng Family of Hebei warrior take the championship this time too?
Things had already diverged a bit from my previous life, so I couldn’t be sure.
That evening.
I headed for our the Eunhae Merchant Group’s temporary shop.
There wasn’t a line stretching out anymore, but customers still kept coming.
“Deputy Merchant Lord! You’re here!”
“You’ve worked hard.”
I listened to Supervisor Yun of the shop report on how things were going.
“So we still have stock of fish bone powder and lime powder left, right?”
“Yes. At this rate it’s enough.”
“We don’t need to restock any more?”
“Right. If we bring in more and it doesn’t sell, it’ll be a pain to haul back. As you know, if fish bone powder and lime powder get exposed to moisture, they harden into a rock.”
“True.”
Getting it here without any damage had been a real headache.
Still… I really had no idea why Baekcheon Merchant Group had chosen fish bone powder and lime powder of all things to hoard.
One of the reasons merchant groups didn’t usually monopolize fish bone powder and lime powder was exactly because they were so tricky to store and transport.
So they usually just bought what they needed at the time and sold that.
For the same reason, warriors never bought them in large quantities either.
Thinking along those lines, I glanced up at the sky.
Rumble.
The sky had looked suspicious for a while now. This really felt like rain.
Baekcheon Merchant Group had bought up a huge amount of fish bone powder and lime powder from the area. There was no way they’d managed to get all of it under a roof.
Oh no, what a shame. Baekcheon Merchant Group.
So why did this feel so satisfying?
I said to Supervisor Yun,
“We only have about two days left. I’ll be counting on you to see things through to the end.”
“Of course.”
In two days, we’d be closing up this temporary shop.
The Dragon-Phoenix Martial Gathering would end tomorrow, but the following day there would be a festival celebrating the heroes it produced.
And on that festival day, every merchant group’s goal was to sell off all the goods they’d brought.
Shipping costs for taking leftovers back weren’t cheap.
I started toward the inn, then stopped short.
Wait…
One of the causes of the poor harvest this fall… was the rain, wasn’t it?
A drought had dragged on, then suddenly there had been a downpour so heavy it flattened all the rice.
I turned around and headed back to the temporary stall.
“Supervisor Yun.”
“Ah, yes!”
“Doesn’t it feel like it’s going to rain?”
“I was thinking we’d get a shower too, so I prepared plenty of tarps.”
“Tarps aren’t going to be enough.”
“You don’t need to worry that much. It normally doesn’t rain that hard in the fall.”
“I know that too, but…”
I said, my expression hardening,
“I’m giving an order. Right now, pack up all the goods tightly and move them indoors.”
“What? If we pull out now, we’ll lose…”
He meant we’d lose money because it was still early evening and we wouldn’t be able to sell during the rest of the night.
But it didn’t matter. If a torrential rain came down, who would even come outside?
“I’ll take responsibility. Just follow my instructions.”
When I spoke so firmly, Supervisor Yun bowed his head.
“Understood.”
Then I spoke to the other temporary stalls nearby as well.
“Tonight, it’s going to rain really hard. You should bring your goods inside now.”
I told Escort Guard Lee Pil to inform Father about this, and also to notify Yeonjun, Hongnang, and the other merchant groups friendly with our the Eunhae Merchant Group.
I stood beside the Eunhae Merchant Group’s temporary shop, watching them pack and carry in the goods.
In the meantime, the supervisors of the other merchant groups who heard me were split about half and half in their reactions.
Some ignored me outright, while others immediately sent people to their merchant lords.
A little later, their reactions after hearing back were also about half and half.
Among those packing up just as I’d said was the Eight-Person Pharmacy, across from the Eunhae Merchant Group’s temporary shop.
When Supervisor Yang Jin-su looked my way and nodded, I nodded back.
There were a few reasons I told the surrounding merchant groups that it would pour tonight.
First, so they wouldn’t curse me out later. If I knew it would rain and didn’t warn them, I’d be in trouble in a different way.
Second, because of the Eight-Person Pharmacy.
That place was my hidden purse. I couldn’t let somewhere like that take a loss.
Third, to raise the credibility of my words.
The ones who packed up just as I said would avoid losses, feel very grateful, and trust me from then on.
Those who ignored me and left their goods out would take quite a heavy hit this time.
And then they’d think, ‘If I’d known, I should’ve listened to Deputy Merchant Lord Eun Seo-ho. Next time, I’ll do what Deputy Merchant Lord Eun Seo-ho says.’
Merchant Lord Namgoong Gang had been in a foul mood lately.
Things hadn’t gone the way he’d planned.
He’d hoarded fish bone powder and lime powder, planning to sell them at ten times the price.
If people didn’t want to die from their injuries at the martial gathering, they’d need those supplies, so they should’ve sold like crazy…
“They’re complete highway robbers.”
“Tell me about it…”
“They’ve got no merchant ethics at all!”
But all he got was a storm of curses.
Because somehow the Eunhae Merchant Group had gotten hold of fish bone powder and lime powder and was selling them at the original price.
In that case, all he had to do was get rid of the Eunhae Merchant Group’s stock!
He tried sending people to buy the goods up, but the line was too long for it to work.
His next idea was to set fire to the warehouse where they were being stored.
Of course, he didn’t handle it personally. Thanks to the Dragon-Phoenix Martial Gathering, the city was crawling with warriors.
So he had one of his trusted men commission the job.
The man had jumped up in protest at first, but once a large sum of money was waved in front of him, he accepted.
But… the attempt failed.
And somehow, Luoyang started buzzing with the rumor, ‘the Baekcheon Merchant Group tried to burn down the Eunhae Merchant Group’s warehouse.’
‘That damned Du-seok must’ve either screwed up, or told someone else about the job!’
Du-seok, one of Merchant Lord Namgoong Gang’s close aides, denied it was anything to do with him.
But once suspicion starts to sprout, it doesn’t fade easily.
Pitter-patter.
At that moment, raindrops began to fall from the sky. Big, heavy drops.
The supervisors went into a panic.
They’d thought it would only drizzle, but it was pouring far harder than they’d expected.
There usually wasn’t much rainfall in the fall, but that expectation had missed the mark.
The drainage was so bad that water rose up to their ankles.
So they rushed desperately to carry the goods that only had tarps over them into the buildings.
“Damn it! The rain should’ve stopped by now!”
“Hey, you bastards! Get it inside, now! Fish bone powder and lime powder are useless once they get wet!”
“If that stuff gets ruined, you’re dead!”
Merchant Lord Namgoong Gang was boiling inside.
Then one of the supervisors spoke up.
“Please calm down. If you think about it, the Eunhae Merchant Group will be taking losses from not anticipating this rain too.”
“Well, that’s true.”
“But we still had a pretty large stock, so we’ve managed to save more than half. With this rain, most of the fish bone powder and lime powder they had will have become unusable.”
At those words, Merchant Lord Namgoong Gang calmed his anger and his eyes gleamed. This was a chance to recoup his losses.
“Heaven is on our side! Even if we sell fish bone powder and lime powder at fifteen times the price, they’ll still buy it, right?”
–TL Notes–
Tired of seeing Ads? Then please support me on Patreon! Any tier of subscription will make it so you won’t get any ads!
If you want to support me or give me feedback, you can do it at patreon.com/InsanityTheGame
Join my Discord! https://discord.gg/BWaP3AHHpt