We left the Golden Rooster Pavilion, patting our overstuffed bellies.
I don’t know who the chef here is, but I seriously want them.
I should bring my parents here sometime.
Except for Escort Guard Jin Yu, to whom I’d given a separate task, everyone else headed toward our original destination.
Our destination was the ferry dock in Jinan.
Jinan is the most developed city in the lower reaches of the Yellow River and has the ferry dock closest to the sea.
Because of that, the seafood here is incredibly abundant.
It was pretty fun walking along, browsing the street market piled high with seafood.
“Why did we come here?”
Smiling, I answered Escort Guard Seo Wu’s question.
“Actually, this is today’s real destination. Now, let’s see…”
I looked around the dock, then pointed at a certain inn.
“Let’s go over there.”
When Palgap saw the place, he flinched and turned to me.
“You really mean to go in there?”
“Yeah.”
“You… you do know what kind of place that is, right?”
“I do.”
I grinned.
“It’s the inn the sailors use.”
“You know that and you still want to go? Can’t we just not go?”
The inns sailors used were almost always the same few places. First and foremost, they had to be cheap.
Whether you sail on sea or river, the tides are everything.
If the timing doesn’t line up, you might end up stuck in an inn for several days.
On top of that, most sailor jobs are short–term contracts.
When a contract ends, they hole up in an inn until they find their next job.
Given their wallets, they have no choice but to stay at the absolute cheapest inns. Naturally, the facilities and the food are terrible.
On top of that, after spending weeks on a boat, taking a proper bath is a luxury they can’t even dream of.
It’s a bit better on the Yangtze, but the Yellow River is nothing but muddy water, and plenty of them work out at sea too.
So not only does the luggage they haul into the inn reek, but they themselves smell awful.
There are a few who use sachets to cover the stench, but once that fragrance mixes in…
That was part of why Palgap was horrified, but more than that, the place was dangerous.
Sailing is brutally hard work, and the risk of dying is high.
So there are a lot of sailors who live only for today, blowing all the money they earned that same day.
Of course, there are also those who diligently save up to become shipowners or move on to other work.
Anyway, that kind of life means fights break out often, and when they do, they get really vicious.
In other words, Palgap was trying to stop me for my own safety.
But honestly, is there anywhere in the world that’s truly safe?
Besides, just sitting around quietly doesn’t suit me.
“Don’t worry about it. They have a kind of rule. If you’re not a sailor, they treat you like you don’t exist unless you talk to them first.”
“Sir?”
“If you’re not a sailor, you’re not one of them. Something like that.”
“That’s a pretty strange rule.”
They might look rough on the outside, but sailors have incredibly tight bonds with each other.
Which makes sense. When you’re surrounded by water on all sides, if you can’t rely on one another, you won’t last long.
Ah, of course, there are always exceptions.
“If you really don’t want to go, you don’t have to.”
“Ah, n–no, sir. I’ll go.”
Palgap clenched his fists.
No need to look that determined…
Just in case, I also warned the Escort Guards.
“And once we’re in there, don’t draw your swords carelessly.”
“Understood.”
We stepped into that nameless inn.
A wave of stench slammed into my nose.
I could immediately feel everyone’s eyes on us.
But those stares scattered almost at once.
They had realized we weren’t sailors.
Which was exactly why I’d dressed up a little better than usual today.
I scanned the interior, then stopped at one spot.
Ah, there you are.
In one corner, a man was hunched over a bowl of noodles, eating with serious focus.
The noodles here probably came with broth that barely tasted of meat and one or two fingernail–sized scraps of meat at best.
I pulled the chair out in front of him and sat down.
Only then did he look up at me.
His body was gaunt, but his eyes were blazing.
With that face, people had probably told him he was fairly handsome once or twice.
I ordered tea. He just met my eyes and stayed silent.
Soon the server brought the tea, and I dipped a finger into it, tracing a single character on the table.
“…!”
His eyes widened so much they looked about to split.
“I’ll pay for your meal. And this might be your last chance.”
He bit his lip.
“I’ll help you. So you help me, too.”
“…”
“If you’re interested, come to Green Mountain Inn within five days and ask for me.”
“…What’s your name?”
His accent was a bit clumsy, but his pronunciation was better than I expected.
“Eun Seo–ho. That’s my name.”
I set money for the tea on the table, rose from my seat, and walked out of the inn.
By the time we’d been walking for about fifteen minutes,
Escort Guard Seo Wu spoke up.
“Is that man a martial artist, by any chance?”
As expected, Escort Guard Seo Wu had sensed the man’s true nature.
“You felt it too?”
“Yes. When he saw we were wearing swords, he quietly drew up his Qi. But his Qi felt a bit different from the Empire’s usual martial artists.”
He continued.
“Also, his hands are the hands of someone who’s practiced martial arts since childhood. And when he realized we were martial artists, he instinctively searched for an escape route.”
I nodded.
“You saw him clearly. But instead of ‘martial artist,’ it’s more accurate to call him a warrior.”
“Sir?”
“Didn’t you hear it in his accent? He’s not a citizen of the Empire.”
A connection I knew of thanks to memories from my previous life.
He was from the Great Yue Kingdom.
As a foreigner, the reason he was working as a sailor here in Shandong was to make money.
He needed money to free his family, who had become slaves.
He was originally the son of a martial family in Great Yue.
But they were falsely accused of treason, and his whole house was destroyed.
By the kingdom’s law, the women of a treasonous family and the men under fifteen all became slaves.
He and his older brother survived only because both were under fifteen at the time.
He was sold as a battle slave, and during a sea battle, he fell overboard.
When he regained consciousness, he was on a remote island.
A passing ship eventually rescued him.
For him, that was an opportunity.
A chance to run away and live as a free person.
But he couldn’t stop thinking about his family. So he decided to earn money, pay their redemption price, and make them free people again.
Even if you become a slave for treason, if you pay redemption money, you can legally become free again.
Of course, the amount was enormous, and slaves had no real way to earn money, so in practice it was a meaningless law.
For a proud warrior, doing menial labor must have been unbearably hard.
But he had no choice.
Because Great Yue and the Empire are so close, if anyone realized he was a slave and reported him for the reward, his chance to earn the redemption money would vanish forever.
So he had to hide any martial arts that might reveal where he came from.
That was also why he worked here in Shandong, relatively far from Great Yue.
Then, an opportunity came.
He ended up rescuing a member of the Imperial family who’d been caught in a storm at sea.
With the help of that royal, who took pity on him, he managed to gather the redemption money and return to Great Yue, but his dream did not come true.
Everyone was already dead.
His older brother had died in the arena as a battle slave, and his mother and younger sister had both died from overwork.
What made it worse was that their deaths had occurred less than a year earlier.
In other words, if he had come back just one year sooner, he could have prevented the tragedy.
Escort Guard Yeo Eung–am spoke up.
“Then, my lord, did you call him to use him as a martial artist?”
“That’s not it.”
“Sir? Didn’t you say he was a warrior…?”
“He is a warrior, but I plan to entrust him with a different role. His face shows the traits of a future Trade Lord.”
“Sir?”
With a baffled expression, Palgap asked,
“Young Master, you can read faces too?”
“Yeah.”
“Then what does my face say, sir?”
“You’ll meet the right person to serve, eat well, live well, and enjoy a long life.”
Palgap tilted his head at my answer.
“Mm, that does sound about right, it does.”
Times like this, his simplicity is actually kind of nice.
While I was smirking to myself, Escort Guard Myeong Jong spoke up, sounding worried.
“As far as I know, the sea route to Great Yue is extremely dangerous.”
“That’s right.”
Escort Guard Chang Un cocked his head.
“Huh? Doesn’t Great Yue border Yunnan and Guangxi? Can’t we just go that way? Do we really have to go by sea?”
Seo Wu answered Chang Un’s question for him.
“Going overland is even more… ahem, even more dangerous.”
As expected of Escort Guard Seo Wu, who used to be an Escort Chief specializing in Yunnan routes.
“Carrying goods through those deadly jungles and sheer cliffs is a pilgrimage of suffering all by itself.”
“I see.”
“So that’s why that man…”
I nodded.
“But, my lord.”
Escort Guard Yeo Eung–am turned to me again.
“Wouldn’t it be better to recruit or hire people already active on that route instead?”
After all, trade with Great Yue was still steadily happening.
“Up until now, trade with Great Yue has always worked by them visiting the Empire.”
Why?
Because there was no need for us to go.
Bringing goods to Great Yue is far less profitable than just trading with the Great Yue merchants who come to the Empire.
“But from now on, we need to take a slightly different approach.”
That was possible before because trade focused mainly on luxury goods, but now the situation has changed.
Whether they’re Empire merchants or Great Yue merchants, none of them want to lose money.
If we try to buy grain from Great Yue merchants who come to the Empire, they’ll sell it for several times the local price.
So it’s cheaper for us to go directly to Great Yue and buy grain there.
“And the sea route is the shipowners’ lifeline. Do you really think they’d just hand it over? Besides, right now it’s hard to even find a shipowner in the Empire who still knows the route to Great Yue. No one’s sailed there in a long time. He’s the key person who can solve that problem.”
He knows the sea routes connecting the Empire and Great Yue better than anyone.
That’s how he saved that Imperial royal in the storm, and later made his living trading between the Empire and Great Yue.
Anyway, after learning of his family’s deaths, he fell into despair and tried to take his own life, but he couldn’t ignore the rest of his clan who had become slaves.
So he used the remaining redemption money as seed capital and started trading.
To earn more money and free the other enslaved members of his clan.
He hadn’t realized it himself, but he had a real talent for trade, and within just a few years, he became a well–known merchant.
By the time I died in my previous life, people were calling him Great Yue’s Trade Lord.
“But, sir… do you really think he’ll come within five days?”
“Yeah. He’ll definitely come.”
I answered with certainty.
“Because he’s a proud warrior who loves his family.”
I returned to the inn.
“You’re late.”
At my father’s words, I clasped my fists and bowed my head.
“My apologies. Things took longer than I expected.”
“It’s fine. Judging from your face, it seems whatever you went to do went well.”
“Yes. And there’s something urgent I’d like to discuss with you.”
My father studied my expression, then nodded.
“Let’s talk in my room.”
“Yes, Father.”
A little later.
I entered my father’s room.
“Now that I think about it, I don’t see Mother. Where did she go?”
“Ah, she went to visit the senior madam of the Gwangjun Merchant Group. They arrived yesterday, apparently.”
“Ah, I see.”
So Deputy Merchant Lord Bok Yun is here too.
Father personally brewed the tea and poured a cup for me.
“Thank you.”
I drank the tea.
As expected, my father’s tea–brewing skill was excellent.
Rather than the polished skill of a Merchant Lord who trades tea for a living… it felt more like the skill you get after being nagged half to death by Grandfather.
“So, what did you want to talk about?”
“Father. Our Merchant Group needs to build a ship.”
“A ship, all of a sudden?”
Father tilted his head.
“We already have several ships in our Merchant Group, don’t we?”
“Not riverboats. We need a large trading vessel that can sail all the way to Great Yue.”
“…”
My father fell silent for a moment, then calmly nodded.
“Very well, let’s build one.”
Huh?
Honestly, I’d expected Father to stare at me in shock and ask what on earth I was talking about.
This reaction, though… what is this?
Why is he taking it so calmly?
In my previous life, large–scale trade with Great Yue started a little later.
The Emperor, hearing his ministers complain that it would hurt his dignity to trade directly with Great Yue, came up with a different plan.
He hired several merchant groups and ordered them to conduct the trade on his behalf.
The merchant groups that started trading then were extremely successful.
I remembered the uncommonly bitter look on Father’s face when he heard the news.
“Why are you looking at me like that?”
“Sir?”
I quickly pushed those thoughts aside and spoke.
“It’s just… you’re being so calm. Almost like you were expecting something like this to happen.”
“Ah…”
Father nodded.
“Seo–ho.”
“Yes, Father.”
“Do you know why our Merchant Group is called the Eunhae Merchant Group?”
–TL Notes–
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