The largest merchant group in Sunyang County, Hubei Province, was the Eunhae Merchant Group.
However, since the Eunhae Merchant Group didn’t have a monopoly over everything in Sunyang County, there were several other groups in operation.
One of them was the Black Wine Pavilion.
True to its name, it supplied liquor to small taverns, mostly operated by warriors of the Unorthodox Sect.
Well, they called it supply, but in truth, it was nothing short of coercion.
Owners of small taverns, too weak to resist, were forced to accept their oppressive terms.
That situation began to change three years ago.
The Eunhae Merchant Group had entered the liquor supply business.
They offered high-quality liquor at reasonable prices, and tavern owners began to prefer doing business with them.
Of course, the Black Wine Pavilion didn’t take kindly to this.
As the tavern owners grew hesitant under their watchful eyes, the Eunhae Merchant Group made them a proposal.
They’d commission the Changin Escort Bureau to protect the taverns from Black Wine Pavilion’s thuggery.
Though the Eunhae Merchant Group’s own martial force wasn’t weak, with the escort bureau backing them, the tavern owners were persuaded.
In the end, every tavern in Sunyang County switched to the Eunhae Merchant Group’s liquor.
That put the Black Wine Pavilion in a tight spot.
.
.
.
Bang!
Oh Dae-deuk, Pavilion Lord of the Black Wine Pavilion, slammed his fist on the table.
“Sons of bitches!”
He turned to the trembling subordinate in front of him.
“So, he got caught?”
“Y-yes, sir, that’s what I heard.”
“He took a hundred silver taels of my hard-earned money and got caught?”
“…”
“Why aren’t you answering, you worthless bastard!”
Oh Dae-deuk grabbed a bottle and hurled it.
Crash!
The bottle struck the subordinate’s forehead, splitting the skin. He collapsed, prostrating himself.
“P-please, spare me, Pavilion Lord!”
“Get up! Did I say I’d kill you?”
The bleeding man trembled as he stood. Oh Dae-deuk barked out a command.
“Explain in detail.”
“Y-yes, well…”
“Skip the fluff. Keep it short.”
“Got it!”
The subordinate quickly recounted the events at the banquet where the Eunhae Merchant Group’s eldest son, Eun Jeong-ho, had been announced as Deputy Merchant Lord.
Upon hearing the report, Oh Dae-deuk clenched his teeth.
“Idiots! What kind of assassin strikes in broad daylight with warriors everywhere?”
It wasn’t fair to the Faceless Assassin, but Oh Dae-deuk, unaware of the full situation, was too furious to care.
“Uh, Pavilion Lord,”
Another subordinate cautiously spoke up from the side.
“What if that idiot confesses we hired him?”
“Just deny it. Pretend you don’t know a thing. It’s not like we haven’t done that before.”
“I-I understand… but I’m just thinking, maybe we picked the wrong fight this time.”
“How many taverns were we supplying?”
“If I recall, it was one hundred sixty-eight.”
“And how many did we supply liquor to in the past month?”
“…Not a single one.”
“They took every last client from us! There should be some merchant honor, shouldn’t there? We’re left starving while they throw banquets, and that doesn’t piss you off?”
“…”
Snarling, Oh Dae-deuk went on.
“So this was a warning! Screw with us and even the eldest son of the Eunhae Merchant Group ends up like that. Get back to buying our liquor.”
“What I mean is… how do you plan to deal with the consequences of this?”
“You little shit! I already told you—we deny everything! Want to die? You trying to get yourself killed?”
“S-sorry! Please forgive me! I didn’t know my place!”
Clatter, clatter, clatter!
Just then, someone came running and shouted.
“B-big problem, Pavilion Lord!”
“What?”
“The constables! Government troops are coming!”
“Constables? Not guards, but government troops?”
“Yes!”
“How many?”
“At least several hundred!”
In the event of a major incident, the county magistrate could request government troops.
But hundreds meant someone higher up had gotten involved.
At that, another subordinate shouted.
“Shit! That means the Commissioner of Land Affairs is acting, doesn’t it?”
“You mean all the stuff we’ve done till now got exposed?”
Oh Dae-deuk sprang to his feet and yelled.
“Resist them!”
“What?”
“They’re government troops! What do you think happens if you get caught? Would you rather die in battle, or be tortured for days and then publicly executed?”
The subordinate who had brought the news bit his lip.
“I’d rather die fighting.”
He ran out.
The moment everyone turned to watch him leave—
Slice!
Stab!
Stabstab!
Oh Dae-deuk drew his sword and cut down the remaining subordinates in the room.
“W-why…?”
One of them groaned in disbelief. Oh Dae-deuk sneered.
“Because you lot know about the secret escape tunnel.”
Slice—!
Having killed them all, Oh Dae-deuk quickly packed his bundle.
A warrior of the Unorthodox Sect never knew what might happen.
So he always kept a go-bag ready for escape.
From afar, the sound of Black Wine Pavilion fighters clashing with government troops rang out.
“Idiots. Fight all you want. I’m outta here.”
He opened the hidden passage beneath the desk and dove in.
He crawled through the narrow tunnel for a long while.
How far had he gone?
Eventually, light came into view. He cautiously peeked out.
No one was there.
‘Of course not! Who’d know about this place? Hahaha.’
He slipped out of the secret passage and started walking the route he’d scoped out in advance.
But then he had to stop.
A voice came from beside him.
“Knew it. There was a rat hole after all.”
I pointed my sword at Pavilion Lord Oh Dae-deuk.
Just as expected, he’d slipped out the rat hole and was trying to flee.
I was almost too late because of the little scuffle I had with Palgap earlier.
Speaking of which, Palgap should be hiding in the bushes…
Wait a second.
Why can’t I sense Palgap’s presence at all?
Anyway, a moment slower and I’d have missed him.
“Who the hell are you?”
I chuckled.
“That’s not really the important question here, is it?”
At that moment, Oh Dae-deuk charged at me.
His blade tore through the air, aiming for my shoulder.
Clang—!
But I wasn’t about to let such a feeble attack land. I swung my sword upward, deflecting his.
Clangclangclang—!
Oh Dae-deuk backed off, gritting his teeth.
“Not an ordinary brat, are you?”
He readjusted his grip on his sword.
Looked like he was ready to go all out.
Then it was only proper that I face him with full force as well.
I recalled the First Form of the True Snow Twelve Form Sword, which I’d learned in my previous life—or rather, recently.
Snowfall (降雪).
Snowfall marks the beginning of winter.
The land turns white, and the harsh winter wind forces all life to shrink away.
Just like that, the First Form—Snowfall—is the opening and most important stance of the sword art.
Clang—!
Clangclang!
Our blades clashed.
My hand stung from the impact, but it wasn’t over yet.
I began stepping methodically with No-Trace Step and unleashed the Snowfall form.
“Urgh…”
Strength started to drain from Oh Dae-deuk’s blade, and the tide was turning in my favor.
If he had been vastly superior to me, he would’ve recognized the intent behind this sword form and tried to break the flow rather than match blades.
Because the Snowfall form was meant to draw the opponent’s momentum into my own.
Of course, without my memories from my previous life, I wouldn’t have been able to guide the fight like this.
The truth of this technique can’t be grasped just from learning the First Form.
But having practiced this sword art for over ten years in my past life, I understood Snowfall’s purpose all too well.
It was the most domineering of the twelve forms.
Clatter!
Oh Dae-deuk’s sword flew from his hand, spinning through the air.
Clack—!
And my blade touched his throat.
“Ready to surrender?”
“F-fine, I surrender.”
He muttered and reached into his robe.
But of course, I wasn’t going to let him follow through.
I’ve dealt with too many Unorthodox Sect bastards to fall for that.
I struck the object from his hand, drove my knee into his gut, and slammed his neck with my sword hilt.
“Gaaagh!”
He let out a strangled cry and collapsed.
I quickly bound the unconscious man.
The reason I didn’t kill him here was simple—killing him now would be too merciful.
He needed to suffer every punishment possible before death.
I turned toward the bushes and called out.
“It’s over. You can come out now.”
At my words, the bushes rustled and Palgap stepped out.
I hadn’t sensed him at all…
What was that about?
Unaware of my thoughts, Palgap looked at me with wide eyes and said,
“Young Master? Are you really the Young Master?”
“Of course. Who else would I be, a ghost?”
“N-no, I just meant…”
He scratched his head, then glanced at the unconscious Oh Dae-deuk and asked,
“Young Master, you’re way stronger than I expected… Were you hiding your true ability?”
“I was. If word gets out, people might start being wary of me.”
Mainly the Murim Alliance and the Baekcheon Merchant Group.
“Well, that makes sense… But when did you get this strong?”
“Since I took the Elixir.”
“Ah…”
Knowing about the strange phenomenon that occurred back then, Palgap accepted it without further question.
“So I’d like you to keep this a secret.”
“Of course. Understood, Young Master.”
He nodded, then asked,
“But what should we do with this bundle?”
Oh Dae-deuk’s pack.
It looked like it held something important.
“Let’s open it.”
Palgap undid the bundle at my command—and we were stunned.
“Whoa!”
“Sweet heavens!”
It was stuffed full of gold and silver taels.
If we turned this over to the authorities, would it be returned to those harmed by Oh Dae-deuk?
No.
Assets confiscated from criminals are always reclaimed by the state.
Which meant it was right to return this to the victims ourselves.
I rewrapped the bundle and picked it up.
“Palgap.”
“Yes.”
“We’ve got a busy task ahead.”
Several days passed.
“Young Master, did you hear?”
Palgap’s words made me tilt my head.
“Hear what?”
“They say the Pavilion Lord of the Black Wine Pavilion’s been captured.”
“Really?”
“Yes. They found him dangling from a tree.”
“Good thing we hung him up there.”
I’d originally planned to just leave him, but then I realized wild beasts might get him or he might crawl away, so I hung him up on a tree.
Palgap continued.
“Now people are speculating it was someone who had a grudge against the Black Wine Pavilion.”
“I thought they’d say it was some wandering hero…”
“Even you must admit that makes no sense. Late at night, in a remote place—how would a passing hero know who he was?”
“Fair point.”
“Anyway, they’re trying to find out who did it.”
Palgap and I exchanged faint smiles.
After all, we were the ones who did it.
“And those silver taels we handed out to the victims of the Black Wine Pavilion…”
“Oh, how’d that go?”
“The Pavilion Lord claimed his treasure bundle was missing, and based on that, they suspect the one who took him down was the one who distributed the silver.”
“Well, that checks out.”
“The authorities were about to seize the silver as criminal proceeds, but…”
That lit a fire in my gut.
After all the work we did to split that treasure into silver taels?
“But the old man asked them if they had any proof it was loot brought by the Pavilion Lord. After all, there wasn’t a single gold tael—only silver.”
“So?”
“So they decided to leave it alone.”
“Oh, good.”
That was welcome news.
“I should go visit the general store later and thank him.”
All that effort to convert the gold into silver was worth it.
“Well, I’m off to work.”
“Yes, sir.”
Leaving Palgap behind, I headed for the Finance Pavilion.
Telling Palgap the truth about my martial arts level had been the right move.
Otherwise, I’d be stuck using the Mirror of Illusory Echoes to leave a decoy every time I snuck out.
And if he ever found out later, sulking Palgap would be a nightmare to deal with.
So… was buying that mirror a waste?
Well, I’m sure it’ll come in handy someday.
Thinking that, I arrived at the Finance Pavilion before I knew it and made my way to Chief Administrator Yu’s office, receiving respectful bows from the clerks along the way.
Time to start work.
–TL Notes–
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