Hiring someone who can create fakes this sophisticated, and daring to pull something like this against the North Sea Ice Palace, is enough to make one thing certain.
Just from how Deputy Merchant Lord Bok Yun treats Young Palace Lord Bing Hae-rin, you can tell the North Sea Ice Palace’s reputation in Liaoning is terrifying.
Were they threatened, or did they go along willingly?
It’s still too early to decide.
For now, my plan is to sneak into Merchant Lord Im Cheong-mil’s residence tonight, the night before the Phantom Market auction opens.
If I’m right, something will definitely turn up.
.
.
.
I had breakfast with Merchant Lord Bok Im-gil.
Of course, Deputy Merchant Lord Bok Yun was there, along with Young Palace Lord Bing Hae-rin, Brother Jin-ho, and Escort Chief Ha Cheol.
I’d heard before that the Gwangjun Merchant Group always had breakfast together with their important guests.
So that was why our whole group shared breakfast with them.
After the meal, I met Deputy Merchant Lord Bok Yun separately.
“First, these are the documents on Merchant Lord Im Cheong-mil.”
He handed me a file.
Yesterday, I’d asked him to gather information on Merchant Lord Im Cheong-mil.
The Eunhae Merchant Group’s intelligence division is skilled, but in Liaoning, there’s no way we’re sharper than the Gwangjun Merchant Group.
“That’s impressively fast.”
“Of course. Here in Liaoning, there’s nowhere the Gwangjun Merchant Group doesn’t have eyes and ears.”
“Thank you. I’ll make sure to repay this favor.”
“Please don’t think of it as a debt. I certainly don’t.”
I couldn’t help but chuckle at that.
“Mind if I open it here?”
“Go ahead.”
I opened the envelope, pulled out the papers inside, and started reading.
His name was Im Cheong-mil.
He was fifty this year.
In the Liaoning region he was fairly well known, the Merchant Lord of the Cheongmil Merchant Group, which was named after himself.
His father had been a mountain herb gatherer, but died falling off a cliff while harvesting herbs.
So his widowed mother raised him with great difficulty, and he also worked as a mountain herb gatherer until he happened to get his hands on an elixir. Using that money as his starting capital, he opened a medicinal herb shop.
If the North Sea Ice Palace does business with them, that means it’s a sizeable operation and, more importantly, a trustworthy merchant group…
Then the next line of information caught my eye.
[Merchant Lord Im Cheong-mil has recently been attending Liaoning merchants’ gatherings far less often. He only shows up to important meetings.]
This is seriously suspicious.
For merchants, gatherings are very important. They’re a chance to build connections and, at the same time, gather information.
And information is money. There’s no way Merchant Lord Im Cheong-mil doesn’t understand that.
That night.
I left Deputy Merchant Lord Bok Yun’s residence with Escort Guard Jin Yu. There was somewhere we needed to visit.
Merchant Lord Im Cheong-mil’s house.
To clear up the doubts about his suspicious behavior, we needed to sneak in and take a look.
Since we weren’t going there to fight, I only brought Escort Guard Jin Yu, who’s specialized in infiltration.
Merchant Lord Im Cheong-mil’s house wasn’t far.
It was a fairly large tile-roofed compound, with the main building of the Cheongmil Merchant Group attached right next to it.
“Let’s go.”
“Yes.”
We immediately kicked off the ground and vaulted over the wall. And right away, we realized something was off.
– My lord, there are more fighters here than I expected.
At Escort Guard Jin Yu’s voice transmission, I nodded.
Naturally, a large merchant group needs to maintain fighters to protect it, but even taking that into account, this was too much.
At this level, it felt like they were preparing to go to war with another merchant group.
And they didn’t give off the feeling of moving in disciplined formation at all.
Not just martial clans and sects, even a merchant group’s escort guards usually show signs of systematic training.
They have to move together as an organized unit.
But I couldn’t see any of that in these people.
They all looked a bit rough and shifty, almost like…
Mercenaries?
Here and there were a few who looked properly trained, but those ones seemed strangely cowed.
– Let’s head for the office.
– Understood.
We made our way to Merchant Lord Im Cheong-mil’s office.
Thankfully, the lights were out, and the security wasn’t particularly tight, so we slipped in without trouble.
Inside, it looked like an ordinary office, nothing more.
Then something caught my eye – a mark on the back of the chair.
It was a small mark, but clearly the trace of some sharp weapon.
Why would there be a mark like this here… Ah. He was threatened.
If someone pressed a sword to your neck, the blade would leave a mark exactly at this height.
I recalled one of the notes in the dossier Deputy Merchant Lord Bok Yun had given me on Im Cheong-mil.
[About two months ago, strange weapon noises were heard coming from the Cheongmil Merchant Group.]
This merchant group and this residence had been taken over by those people.
Now I finally understood why Merchant Lord Im Cheong-mil had no choice but to act that way.
They must have used overwhelming force to threaten him into following their orders.
From the Merchant Lord’s perspective, to protect his own life and his family’s, he would’ve had no choice but to comply.
Which raises another question.
Just who is the one threatening Merchant Lord Im Cheong-mil into doing all this?
And what exactly is their goal?
We’d already gotten everything we could from the office.
I could tell there was some hidden, secret place where something might be stashed, but I didn’t bother checking it.
No one being watched this closely would be foolish enough to touch a secret vault.
And even if there had been a secret vault, those people would have stripped it clean by now.
We left the office and were moving to another area when I sensed fighters approaching, probably on patrol.
We quickly hid ourselves and suppressed our presence.
“I wish they’d cut us in on some of that money from selling the elixirs.”
“They’re going to get a ridiculous amount of money for them.”
“The auction’s tomorrow, right?”
“To be precise, it’s tonight. It’s already past midnight.”
Well, those elixirs really are a headache, so it’s better for them to dispose of them at the Phantom Market.
Just having those elixirs is proof that they’re the ones who orchestrated this whole affair.
From the sound of it, those elixirs aren’t even their real objective.
But did something like this happen in my previous life too?
Thinking it over carefully, I sighed inwardly.
Back then, I was too busy scrambling to survive the famine to have time to look into what was going on elsewhere.
The only thing I remember is that a few years from now, the Palace Lord of the North Sea Ice Palace appeared in the central plains.
The entire martial world trembled back then, so that event is burned into my memory.
At the time, the North Sea Ice Palace’s forces rampaged across the land, so their purpose wasn’t well known, but one thing was certain – wherever they went, a storm of blood followed.
Now I think I finally understand why.
Something like this must have happened around the same time in my past life.
Which means the Ice Palace’s situation kept growing more and more desperate.
In other words, they were swindled not just once or twice.
You can solve food problems with hunting and gathering for a day or two, but there’s no way you can keep that up for several years.
In any case, the North Sea Ice Palace isn’t stupid. After investigating on their own, they must have realized this was all some scheme targeting them.
That’s why the Palace Lord of the North Sea Ice Palace personally stepped forward.
If it were me, I wouldn’t have been able to endure it either.
Those Mercenaries or the forces behind them who took part in this must have been the targets of that revenge.
If so, the purpose of this incident becomes clear.
They pulled all this to slowly strangle the North Sea Ice Palace.
To think they’d dare do something like this to the North Sea Ice Palace.
For this to be possible, either they needed enough power to withstand that wrath, or a grudge so deep they’d burn everything they had to get revenge.
Suddenly, I remembered something Young Palace Lord Bing Hae-rin had said before.
“Our North Sea Ice Palace has more enemies than you might think. Every time we step into the martial world, we stir up a bloodstorm, so our ties of gratitude and resentment are complicated.”
“Gratitude might not last fifty years, but a grudge can easily endure for a hundred.”
I still don’t know whether this is driven by old resentment or just a struggle for power.
But I’d rather they just swing a sword and chop off someone’s head than pull this kind of stunt. This kind of thing really rubs me the wrong way.
I sent a voice transmission to Escort Guard Jin Yu.
– Let’s head back.
– Yes.
.
.
.
Morning came.
Today was the fifteenth, the day of the Phantom Market auction.
I went to see Deputy Merchant Lord Bok Yun.
“Looks like you’re busy.”
“Not at all.”
He rose from his seat, leaving the documents he’d been reviewing in his office.
“I can spare a moment to talk.”
He invited me to sit, and I took a seat at the low table in his office.
He personally brewed tea and poured me a cup.
“What brings you here?”
“I have a few questions. Have any new groups come into Liaoning recently?”
“Hmm…”
He thought for a moment, then nodded.
“Now that you mention it, one merchant group did come into Liaoning and set up shop. I hadn’t heard their name before.”
“Did the people in that merchant group all carry weapons on them, by any chance?”
At my question, he flinched.
“How did you know?”
I answered calmly.
“From what I’ve found, they appear to be Mercenaries disguised as a merchant group.”
“Whoa… That explains it. Their behavior was a bit different from ordinary merchants. But a little later, I heard Merchant Lord Im Cheong-mil from the Cheongmil Merchant Group had called them in asking for help, so I decided not to think too much of it…”
He now wore the expression of someone who’d finally grasped the whole picture.
“So, can you tell me about the person who brought that merchant group in?”
“Of course. As it happens, I still have the file I compiled on them.”
Deputy Merchant Lord Bok Yun stood up, walked over to the bookshelf, and fiddled with some mechanism.
A hidden shelf swung open, and after searching through it, he took out a file and handed it to me.
“Good thing I didn’t destroy it, just in case.”
“That bookshelf is a secret, isn’t it?”
He answered my question without hesitation.
“It’s a secret archive, yes. You can’t leave this kind of background investigation material lying around in the open.”
“And you’re fine showing it to me?”
“Hahaha. I don’t see how Deputy Merchant Lord Eun knowing about this would do me any harm.”
Such deep trust in me.
We might be friends, but I was still grateful he believed in me this much.
“I’ll make sure to live up to that trust.”
I cupped my fists to thank him, then started reading the file.
Along with a description of the man’s appearance, there was some basic information.
His name was unknown, but his family name was Cho.
He was said to be in his forties, a merchant who used to operate in Shanxi.
Overall, there wasn’t much information at all.
If this little is known about him, it’s highly likely that identity is a cover.
Just then, Deputy Merchant Lord Bok Yun asked,
“Are you going to the Phantom Market tonight?”
“Yes, that’s the plan.”
“Then may I go with you?”
“I doubt there’s anything there you particularly want to buy. So is it for my sake?”
At my question, his eyes wavered.
Bullseye.
“I appreciate the thought, but I can’t allow that.”
“What? Why not…?”
“That place is dangerous. You’re about to get married. If you went somewhere that risky and something happened to you…”
That place does have its own sort of order.
But since illegal goods are trafficked there, knife fights break out fairly often.
You can’t say there’s no chance you’d get caught up in something and get hurt.
Smiling gently, I spoke softly.
“Your body isn’t yours alone anymore, Deputy Merchant Lord Bok.”
He thought for a moment, then nodded.
“You’re right, Deputy Merchant Lord Eun. I’ll be more careful from now on.”
“Wise decision.”
“Then are you going alone?”
I shook my head at that.
“Of course not. I have reliable escort guards with me.”
.
.
.
When midnight came, I left the Gwangjun Merchant Group with Escort Guard Seo Wu and Escort Guard Jin Yu.
We were all dressed in pitch–black clothes.
There were a few conditions for entering the Phantom Market, and one of them was that you had to wear black.
Probably to keep people’s identities from being recognized by their clothing.
I asked my two escort guards,
“Have either of you ever heard of the Phantom Market?”
At my question, both guards nodded. Escort Guard Seo Wu answered first.
“I’ve only heard stories. During an escort job, someone from the merchant group said they’d gone to look around the Phantom Market.”
Escort Guard Jin Yu answered next.
“I’ve actually looked into it a bit more. There was a target I had my eye on who was said to be attending the Phantom Market, so I investigated whether I could carry out the job there. In the end, I concluded that killing someone inside the market is impossible.”
At that, Escort Guard Seo Wu asked,
“What do you mean, it’s impossible to kill someone inside the Phantom Market?”
“It’s because of the one who hosts it – the master of the Phantom Market.”
“Master?”
“That’s right. The only reason order is maintained there is because of that person. They’re that terrifying.”
Escort Guard Jin Yu was exactly right.
The Phantom Market had a master, but no one knew their real name. They were only known as ‘Blood Sea’.
They earned that title because whenever they drew their sword, the bloodshed turned into a sea.
And because they ruled the darkness like a king, people also called them the Dark King.
Put together, that made them the Blood Sea Dark King.
As fearsome as the title was, their strength was just as terrifying.
It was rumored they’d reached the Transcendent realm.
Why someone that powerful chose to host the Phantom Market and gather people there is anyone’s guess.
I spoke to my two escort guards.
“Once we’re inside, you absolutely must not draw your swords recklessly.”
“Understood.”
“I’ll keep that in mind.”
After we walked for about fifteen minutes more, I stopped.
Staring into the darkness, I asked,
“What brings you here?”
–TL Notes–
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