The reason I’m asking this favor is that if we’re going to build and operate a docking facility on Hainan Island, we’ll need to hire workers locally.
Naturally, we’ll have to dispatch the people handling the core operations from the Eunhae Merchant Group itself.
Even so, hiring will go much more smoothly if the locals view the Eunhae Merchant Group favorably, and that will help us stabilize the operation far more quickly. That’s why I’m asking for his help.
At my words, the Hainan Sect Leader broke into a broad grin.
“Don’t worry about that. Hahahaha!”
The Hainan Sect was practically the spiritual pillar of Hainan Island. If the Sect Leader personally stepped forward, the Eunhae Merchant Group’s reputation among the islanders would become excellent.
But… why did I suddenly feel so uneasy?
I forced down that sense of foreboding and continued.
“Actually, there’s one more thing I’d like you to do.”
.
.
.
The next day.
Cousin Hyang-ok came to see me.
“Ah! Cousin!”
“How are you feeling?”
“Fortunately, I’m recovering quickly.”
But unless I remembered wrong, this morning wasn’t supposed to be her turn to visit me.
“Cousin, I’m sorry, but there are other people waiting to see me right now, so I can’t give you too much time.”
“Yeah, I know.”
She nodded as though she had expected that.
“I was going to put my name on the list, but everyone told me to just go inside.”
“Ah…”
Well, she might have been my cousin in private, but no one would dare make the runner-up of the friendly martial competition wait her turn.
“And I never planned on taking up much of your time in the first place.”
“I see.”
“Things turned out this way, so I didn’t get to spar with you, but that’s fine. There’ll be other chances.”
Cousin Hyang-ok flashed a grin.
“So look forward to it. Next time, I’m definitely going to spar with you.”
“Cousin, I’ve been wondering… why do you want to spar with me so badly? Most people would just shrug and say, ‘It can’t be helped,’ if the match never happened. But you seem almost obsessed with fighting me.”
Even Cousin Hyang-ok couldn’t give me a clear answer.
“Well… because I want to?”
“What?”
“Every time I see you, I get this strange feeling that you’re stronger than I am. I suppose I want to find out whether I’m right.”
I’d noticed it long ago, but Cousin Hyang-ok was frighteningly sharp about things like this.
“Hahaha.”
I couldn’t think of a good response, so all I could do was laugh awkwardly.
“Once the awards ceremony ends later today, we’re heading straight back to Sichuan. I came to say goodbye in advance. Take care of yourself and stay well. Uncle and Aunt worry about you.”
“Of course. You don’t need to worry about that. Also, will you have some time later?”
At my request, she tilted her head.
“Why all of a sudden?”
“There’s something I need your help with.”
“What is it?”
“I can’t tell you the details yet. But you’re the best person for the job.”
“Well, I’m sure you know what you’re doing. Fine.”
She readily nodded.
She really was refreshingly straightforward.
“Then have a safe trip.”
“Yeah.”
Only after watching Cousin Hyang-ok leave the inn did I let out a breath.
There were many reasons I feared Cousin Hyang-ok, and one of them might have been that razor-sharp intuition of hers.
“Young Master. Young Clan Lord Zhuge Yu-a has arrived.”
“Hmm?”
The next person to visit me after Cousin Hyang-ok was Young Clan Lord Zhuge Yu-a.
“I didn’t think I’d have time if I didn’t come now.”
“I see. Cousin Hyang-ok just left…”
“I saw her. We greeted each other too.”
“I see. Congratulations on winning.”
“Thank you. But if you hadn’t injured your leg, you would’ve won, Deputy Merchant Lord.”
“What would I even do with first place?”
“…Is that so?”
“You’re the victor, Young Clan Lord, so enjoy it. That feeling won’t last forever. If you waste this moment dwelling on guilt or apologies, you’ll only regret it later.”
At my words, she gave a faint smile.
“You really are unusual, Deputy Merchant Lord. We’re only a few years apart, yet you talk like my father.”
Well, that was because I had already lived several decades longer than she had.
After we talked for a little longer, she said goodbye and left.
Come to think of it, if the awards ceremony was today, we would soon be preparing to leave as well.
Those who reached the main round were supposed to receive prize money and a treasured sword.
They wouldn’t refuse to give me mine just because I didn’t attend the ceremony, would they?
That was the whole reason I entered the friendly martial competition!
.
.
.
I had worried just in case, but fortunately, I received my share of the prize money and treasured sword without incident.
Commander Geon Man-seok, who had visited me earlier, brought them personally.
“Greetings, Commander.”
“How are you feeling?”
“Thanks to your concern, I’m recovering quickly.”
“That’s good. Here, take these. They’re the prize money and treasured sword awarded to everyone who reached the main round.”
I accepted them.
The prize was fifty silver taels.
Because I was accustomed to dealing with much larger sums, it didn’t look like much to me, but it was a considerable fortune by ordinary standards.
“The sword is quite impressive too.”
“Of course it is! That treasured sword was forged by none other than that old Hammer Master.”
He was such a renowned artisan that people called him the Hammer Master, an epithet that meant one who ruled the hammer.
Even the ordinary iron swords he forged were fine enough to be counted among treasured blades.
“He really showed what he could do with this one.”
“It’s excellent.”
But I already had the Silver Mist Sword.
“Can I sell it?”
“Hmm?”
Commander Geon Man-seok stared at me in shock.
“What are you talking about? Sell it?”
“It’s expensive, isn’t it?”
“…”
At my answer, he sighed.
“I thought people were exaggerating when they said you loved money, but they weren’t.”
“I don’t say things I don’t mean.”
“There’s no rule forbidding you from selling the sword, but the blade has already been engraved. I’m not sure anyone would buy it.”
At that, I examined the blade.
“…”
Just as Commander Geon Man-seok had said, the blade was engraved with my name and epithet, along with a commemorative inscription noting that I had reached the main round of the Murim Grand Assembly’s friendly martial competition.
“I can’t sell this.”
I set it down and continued.
“I’ll keep it at home as a decoration. Then if anyone thinks they can look down on me because I’m a merchant, I can show it to them.”
“Please, at least use it for that.”
Judging by his expression, my suggestion that I sell the sword had genuinely shocked him for a moment.
Was it really that shocking?
“And I’m glad you came, Commander. I had a letter for the Alliance Leader and was wondering how I should deliver it.”
I handed him the letter I had prepared in advance.
The letter said I was sorry that I had failed to live up to the Alliance Leader’s expectations.
I didn’t mean a word of it, but I had to preserve the favorable impression I’d built.
Honestly, I’d had to stop writing several times just to get my anger under control.
“Don’t worry about that. I’ll deliver it myself.”
“Thank you.”
He took the letter and left.
Then should I start getting ready to leave?
The Murim Alliance’s Alliance Leader Hall.
The Alliance Leader was listening to Commander Geon Man-seok’s report after sending him to visit Eun Seo-ho.
“…and you can’t imagine how badly that startled me.”
The Alliance Leader couldn’t help chuckling at the report.
An ordinary martial artist would never even consider selling a treasured sword received as a symbol of achievement.
Yet Eun Seo-ho had asked whether he could sell it. The exchange reminded him once again that Eun Seo-ho was a merchant through and through.
‘He really is an amusing fellow.’
With a broad smile, he said,
“You must be disappointed that he rejected your offer to work together.”
“To be honest, I am. But this made one thing clear to me. He may be a decent man, but he isn’t suited to the Murim Alliance.”
“I agree.”
“Ah, he also asked me to give this to you, Alliance Leader.”
The Alliance Leader accepted the letter and immediately opened it.
“Hmm…”
It was filled with line after line of apologies for failing to live up to the Alliance Leader’s expectations after he had gone out of his way to recommend him.
“I see. You may leave.”
“Yes.”
After Commander Geon Man-seok left, the Alliance Leader gave a quiet chuckle.
Eun Seo-ho apologized in words, but not once did he even offer the polite fiction of asking to be recommended again.
The letter practically read, ‘Farewell. I’m returning to my ordinary life now, so please never come looking for me again.’
In truth, recommending Eun Seo-ho for the main round of the friendly martial competition hadn’t been a spur-of-the-moment decision.
The Alliance Leader had sensed something dangerous about him and wanted to confirm the nature of his martial arts and his true level.
Even for a practitioner of the Heavenly Flow Art, Eun Seo-ho’s Qi had been far too clear and pure.
To his knowledge, only those who had once made their home in the North Sea possessed Qi that pure.
But he had eradicated every last one of them more than twenty years ago.
They had been the greatest obstacle to his plans.
Still, there was always a chance that some trace of them remained, so he had used the martial competition to test Eun Seo-ho a second time.
But while watching Eun Seo-ho fight, he had found no trace of them.
The match had ended early because Eun Seo-ho injured his leg while rescuing people from the fire, but what he had seen was enough.
‘I shouldn’t need to pay him any more attention.’
He already had a mountain of other problems without adding Eun Seo-ho to them.
As time passed, the number of people coming to visit me gradually dwindled.
We finished closing down the Eunhae Merchant Group’s temporary shops, and Father told me how much revenue they had brought in.
“What? Really?”
“Yes. Running two temporary shops this time was certainly worth the trouble. Hahahaha!”
The results were satisfying enough to make Father laugh so heartily.
We had also forged connections with those who distinguished themselves during the friendly martial competition.
And with that, our work in Luoyang came to an end.
The next day.
It was the day the Eunhae Merchant Group left Luoyang.
Father and Mother were returning directly to Headquarters in Hubei.
Once there, they planned to share our accomplishments with the Eunwol Council members and discuss the Luoyang Branch.
Brother Jin-ho had also decided to travel to Beijing with me.
Thanks to all the elixir-grade medicinal herbs I’d made him consume, his broken ribs had nearly healed. Besides, our parents were worried about me heading to Beijing with only my companions.
“I’ll carry you over, Young Master.”
“Thanks.”
Palgap picked me up and placed me inside the carriage.
I was supposed to have a broken leg, so it would look strange if I were already riding a horse by myself.
Brother Jin-ho and I said goodbye to our parents, and they departed first.
“Then we’re off!”
The carriage began to move, and I looked through the window at Luoyang.
An incredible amount had happened in less than a month.
So please, let me never get tangled up with the Murim Alliance again.
Seriously, that was exhausting.
.
.
.
Before long, we arrived in Beijing.
Since an official road connected Luoyang and Beijing, the journey was fast and comfortable.
Along the way, I removed the splint from my leg.
I’d kept up the act long enough.
If anyone thought it was strange, I could simply say an elixir had healed me.
“Deputy Merchant Lord, you’re back?”
“Deputy Merchant Lord!”
The people in Beijing gave me an enthusiastic welcome.
“We heard the news. You went far in the friendly martial competition!”
“I heard you had to withdraw after being injured while rescuing people from the fire.
“Are you all right?”
“I’m fine.”
Come to think of it, the Eunhae Merchant Group’s intelligence network had seriously improved.
They already knew all of this.
“Then I’ll hear the reports from while I was away.”
I headed to my office and received the reports from Deputy Pavilion Lord Yeo Chang-ui.
Then Deputy Gal Hyeon arrived carrying a stack of documents.
“Whoa… That’s a lot.”
“You were gone for a long time.”
I had no answer to that.
With Young Lady Seohyang and Deputy Gal Hyeon’s help, I immediately began working through the paperwork.
“Ah, come to think of it, Artisan Yeong Gu-jin’s wedding is this fall, isn’t it?”
Deputy Gal Hyeon answered my question.
“Yes. That’s right. It’s scheduled for the end of this month.”
Let’s see…
I checked the almanac and counted the days.
Fortunately, I would be able to attend his wedding before leaving.
After handling every urgent matter, I asked Escort Guard Lee Pil to deliver a letter.
The recipient was Warrior Jin Yeong.
He probably already knew I had returned to Beijing, but I still needed to report in.
Besides, I also needed to meet His Majesty.
The following evening.
Warrior Jin Yeong came to visit.
“It’s been a long time.”
“Yes, it has. I heard you made quite a showing in the friendly martial competition at the Murim Grand Assembly.”
“Hahaha. You’re embarrassing me.”
“But I heard you injured your leg. You look perfectly fine.”
“I was faking it.”
“Hmm?”
“I thought that if I kept fighting, someone might realize I’d learned an Imperial Palace Martial Art.”
“Ah! So that was why…”
Warrior Jin Yeong looked convinced by my explanation.
Truthfully, there was another, far more important reason I had faked the injury, but I couldn’t reveal that to Warrior Jin Yeong.
So I gave him the explanation he was most likely to accept.
“I’m glad you’re able to walk. His Majesty has summoned you.”
“Yes. I’ll prepare at once.”
Before long, I entered the Imperial Palace and met the Emperor.
After I offered the most formal bow possible, the Emperor asked with a sour expression,
“So, did you enjoy playing around with the martial artists in Luoyang?”
“No. It was exhausting.”
I smiled.
“Why else would I have gone so far as to pretend I’d broken my leg?”
“You certainly have a clever tongue. So why did you ask to see me?”
I quickly dropped to my knees again and declared,
“Your Majesty, benevolent and just, father to all the people of the empire, who watches over them with boundless compassion!”
“What in the world happened for you to begin with such a mountain of flowery praise?”
“The story I heard from the Hainan Sect Leader was so appalling that I could barely bring myself to eat.”
“For someone who could barely eat, you look remarkably healthy.”
Ah… I should’ve skipped a few meals before coming.
–TL Notes–
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