Warrior Jang Won’s words caught me off guard for a moment.
I had only meant to raise the Eunhae Merchant Group’s standing by securing a docking point on Hainan Island…
Yet the Sect Leader had gone and elevated my reputation right along with it.
Of course, I understood that he had done it out of gratitude, but this still put me in an awkward position.
“Why are you making that face?”
Unable to understand my reaction, Warrior Jang Won tilted his head.
Ah, had I looked that displeased?
I had better offer a plausible excuse for now.
“I simply find it a little burdensome. This humble merchant is hardly bold enough to accept such lofty praise without embarrassment.”
“Ha! What are you talking about? Are any of those deeds untrue?”
“That… isn’t the case.”
There was no exaggeration in the rumors. Every word was true.
That was precisely the problem. Damn it.
“Ah! There is one part that isn’t true.”
“And what would that be?”
“I didn’t… actually shed any tears.”
“…”
The mood suddenly turned strange.
“Ahem, ahem. I see.”
Warrior Jang Won continued.
“Too much humility is an illness in itself.”
“Everything I did was solely for the sake of elevating the Eunhae Merchant Group’s name. Hearing that my own name rose with it as well… merely caught me by surprise.”
“I suppose that’s understandable.”
“By the way, just how far have these rumors about me spread for you to say that?”
He thought for a moment before answering.
“Aside from His Majesty, your renown is probably the greatest in the empire.”
What…?
That meant my renown rivaled the Emperor’s—perhaps it even surpassed it.
The Embroidered Guard was fanatically vigilant against anyone who so much as coveted the Emperor’s throne.
I cautiously studied Warrior Jang Won’s demeanor.
The respect in his manner made it clear that he regarded me favorably, but to the Embroidered Guard, the Emperor was absolute.
If they decided that someone posed a threat to the Emperor, they could cast aside every favor and debt between them without a second thought.
I couldn’t hand them that kind of pretext.
I needed to play this very carefully.
I deliberately let anger show on my face.
“For a lowly merchant like me to command such renown? Something has gone terribly, terribly wrong!”
Then, as though I could no longer restrain myself, I raised my voice.
“For His Majesty’s name to be eclipsed over a mere twenty thousand silver taels! This is all because corrupt officials have prevented His Majesty’s grace from reaching the people. Am I wrong?”
“You are absolutely right, Great Hero.”
“No one must ever be allowed to overshadow His Majesty’s name. I personally swore as much before him. So, Warrior Jang Won.”
“Yes.”
“Help me. This time, I will uproot every last person obstructing His Majesty’s grace.”
“Of course! I will do everything in my power to assist you, Great Hero.”
The goodwill in Warrior Jang Won’s eyes deepened.
I breathed a silent sigh of relief and laid out my plan.
“I came here pretending to be a wealthy young master touring Hainan Island. But judging by the current situation, this disguise…”
“Is unlikely to hold.”
“I think so as well.”
After a moment’s thought, I addressed everyone.
“We’re changing the operation. From now on, I’m here to trade in Hainan Island’s pearls. The sightseeing and entertainment were merely diversions along the way.”
“Understood.”
“Then what should I do?”
At Lady Seohyang’s question, Warrior Jang Won asked,
“And who is this?”
“Ah, she’s my deputy. For the sake of our cover, we had been posing as an engaged couple traveling the empire together…”
Warrior Jang Won listened to my explanation, then made a suggestion.
“It would be better if you were married rather than merely engaged.”
“Is there a reason?”
At my question, he nodded with an uncomfortable expression.
“Yes. One of Hainan Island’s high-ranking officials is a notorious lecher.”
“Hmm. Then what if she simply disguises herself as a man?”
“The trouble is…”
He gave an awkward smile before continuing.
“That official’s tastes… are not limited by gender.”
“Ah… I—I see.”
“He apparently has at least a shred of decency, because he doesn’t lay a hand on married women. So for both your sake and your deputy’s, that would be the safer cover.”
“Thank you for the advice.”
That had nearly become a disaster.
“Then I’ll return later tonight.”
“Understood.”
A short while later, the waiters brought our meal to the room.
The dishes were excellent, and we enjoyed dinner together.
After dinner, Warrior Jang Won quietly came to my room as promised.
Earlier, we had been pressed for time and couldn’t speak in depth, but that was no longer an issue.
“I heard from Warrior Jin Yeong that seven people sent to investigate Hainan Island’s troubles have vanished.”
“That’s right. One of them was someone I knew rather well… It is a great pity.”
His face was filled with bitterness.
As expected of a member of the Embroidered Guard, however, he quickly brought his expression under control and continued.
“That is why coming in your current guise was the right choice.”
“Hahaha. Thank you.”
I continued.
“As I said earlier, I’m going there to purchase Hainan Island’s pearls. You will travel with me as my guide.”
“Understood.”
“By the way, when the grain secured by the Hainan Sect was shipped to Hainan Island this time, did all of it arrive safely?”
“No. Unfortunately, I was told that two ships ran aground.”
Yet his expression held anger, not regret.
“Just as I thought.”
“Indeed.”
In other words, they had stolen two entire shiploads of food.
“But the ships could truly have run aground. How are you certain they didn’t?”
“That is…”
He furrowed his brow and continued.
“I examined the body of a boatman from one of the ships said to have run aground after it washed ashore. But… there was something suspicious about the corpse. If the wreck had been violent enough to destroy the vessel, there was no way the body would have remained unscathed… yet it was remarkably clean.”
“Meaning he was killed on the shore?”
“That is my suspicion.”
“I see.”
.
.
.
Before I knew it, morning had arrived. After a brief session of Breathing Meditation, I headed down to the first floor.
“Great Hero! Did you rest well last night?”
The innkeeper I had greeted yesterday came over to ask after me.
He wasn’t a member of the Embroidered Guard, but I had been told that he was one of their collaborators.
“I rested comfortably, thanks to you.”
At that moment, Palgap stepped forward beside me.
“Our Young Master has business on Hainan Island, sir. Could you arrange passage for us?”
“Of course. I’ll find you a comfortable vessel.”
“And we’d also appreciate someone who knows Hainan Island well, sir.”
At Palgap’s request, the innkeeper mentioned someone.
“That fellow Jang over there knows Hainan Island well.”
The Jang he meant was Warrior Jang Won. Everything was proceeding as we had arranged.
“Ah, then could we borrow him as our guide for a while, sir?”
“Of course.”
“Then we’d be grateful if you could find us a ship as quickly as possible, sir.”
“Understood.”
I idly fanned myself.
“Palgap.”
“Yes.”
“Find out whether there are any places nearby worth visiting.”
“Right away, Young Master.”
Palgap asked the innkeeper about nearby sights on my behalf and received a detailed answer.
“Hmm. Since we’re borrowing that man as our guide anyway, I assume there’d be no problem taking him with us starting today?”
“None at all. I’ll let him know.”
After breakfast, we left the inn with Warrior Jang Won.
We claimed that we were going sightseeing nearby, but our true purpose was the investigation.
We were currently in Xuwen County, the closest point on the mainland to Hainan Island.
According to the documents the Emperor had shown me, it wasn’t only the supplies being shipped from here to Hainan that had vanished.
The taxes sent from Hainan to Beijing had disappeared as well.
It was frustrating enough that the goods the capital sent south had vanished, but now someone was also stealing what Beijing was supposed to receive.
From the Emperor’s perspective, there was no way he wouldn’t be furious.
That was why he had continued dispatching investigators.
In any case, ships traveling in both directions had disappeared. That meant there was a strong chance something was wrong here in Xuwen County as well.
That was why I had deliberately come down to the first floor and told the loud-voiced Palgap to ask about places to sightsee.
Then, even if someone saw me coming and going around Xuwen County, they would simply think, ‘Ah, he’s just sightseeing!’
“You’re rather more shrewd than I expected.”
I smirked at Warrior Jang Won’s remark.
“A man who can’t manage this much has no business calling himself a merchant.”
“Hahaha. Is that so?”
“Then what nearby sight would I regret missing for the rest of my life?”
“The pavilion on that mountain is quite famous. And…”
He introduced several notable sights in the area.
“Then we can visit those first and head to the marketplace afterward.”
“Why do you want to visit the marketplace?”
“I’m a merchant. To a merchant, no place is more fascinating—or more revealing of a region—than its marketplace.”
“I see.”
I may have come here under the Emperor’s orders, but I was still a merchant.
I couldn’t pass up a chance to study Guangdong’s markets.
Of course, I had another reason as well.
With that, I climbed into the carriage and set off for the places Warrior Jang Won recommended.
Dressed in extravagant clothes and playing the sightseer, I sent a Voice Transmission to Escort Guard Jin Yu.
– Someone seems to have been tailing us since we left the inn. Am I right?
– Yes. What would you have me do?
– Follow him without letting him notice.
– Understood.
After receiving my order, Escort Guard Jin Yu quietly slipped away, and I made an even greater show of enjoying myself.
“Oh! That looks delicious! Palgap!”
“Yes. I’ll go buy some right away, Young Master.”
We gorged ourselves on delicious food.
“The view from up here really is beautiful, wouldn’t you agree, my dear wife?”
“It is.”
We took in the magnificent scenery as well.
By the time I had thoroughly devoted myself to enjoying the day, the man tailing us had disappeared.
He must have finally decided that I was staying here solely to sightsee.
Escort Guard Jin Yu would track down his movements, so it was time for me to handle my own work.
“Then let’s start making our way to the marketplace.”
“Yes.”
With Warrior Jang Won guiding us, we headed to the largest marketplace in Xuwen County.
Countless merchants were selling all manner of goods, most of them local specialties rarely seen in Hubei or Beijing.
“What are those, sir?”
“Those are lychees preserved in sugar. The ones beside them are dried lychees.”
Warrior Jang Won explained everything in detail, living up to his role as our guide.
“Lychees are delicious fruit on their own, but they’re also made into tea and used as medicinal ingredients.”
As he said, lychees had a wide variety of uses.
That was why the Eunhae Merchant Group’s medicinal warehouse stocked dried lychees as well.
Though not in especially large quantities.
“There is even a record of an ancient Emperor whose favorite consort loved lychees so much that, every summer, he had them rushed from here to Beijing for her every single day.”
“What?! All the way from here to Beijing, sir?”
“Though in the end, she was blamed for causing a rebellion, and her husband, the Emperor, ordered her to take her own life so that he could escape the consequences.”
We continued through the marketplace, exchanging such stories.
All the while, I searched every corner for one of the things I had come here to find.
Back in Luoyang, I had quietly asked the Hainan Sect Leader to do something for me.
Smear the Tracking Incense I gave him over the grain sacks.
Paint a distinctive symbol on those same sacks.
And if anyone tried to ‘seize’ them, offer no resistance.
Because if my guess was right, the stolen grain would inevitably be resold.
The fact that seven members of the Embroidered Guard and Eastern Depot sent by the Emperor had been eliminated meant that the culprits had connections inside the Imperial Palace.
Otherwise, how could they know which investigator would come and when?
Especially when every one of those investigators had received specialized training.
It was only reasonable to assume that the enemy was privy to the Imperial Palace’s inner workings.
For example, they likely knew that the Prohibition Decree would soon be lifted.
To the common people, that news would be a ray of hope.
More importantly, grain imported through renewed foreign trade would soon send grain prices tumbling.
They would still be far higher than in an ordinary year, of course, but they would fall dramatically compared with current prices.
So if the thieves wanted to wring as much profit as possible from the grain they had stolen, they needed to unload it as quickly as possible.
Which meant that the stolen food should be trading in this marketplace by now—or had already passed through it.
The crucial issue was the location.
The grain had been brought in for the people of Hainan Island.
It would be strange for it to cross back over from the island and be sold here.
In other words, if grain from those sacks was being traded here in Guangdong, then it had never crossed to Hainan Island in the first place.
Suddenly, Escort Guard Lee Pil looked at me with a broad grin.
Escort Guard Lee Pil had modified the Tracking Incense on those sacks so that only he could detect it.
He had evidently caught the scent.
That could mean only one thing.
They had taken my bait.
“My Lord, I can detect the incense coming from several grain merchants in this marketplace. But the traces are extremely faint…”
With rice prices this high, they probably hadn’t been able to acquire much at once.
“Where is the scent strongest?”
“Over there. Shall I take you to it?”
I nodded at Escort Guard Lee Pil’s words.
“Please do.”
Escort Guard Lee Pil led us away, and we soon arrived at an inn.
An inn provided both food and lodging.
Which meant that no matter how expensive grain became, it had no choice but to buy in bulk.
“Welcome.”
“Can we get a meal?”
“Of course.”
We gathered around a table on the inn’s first floor.
Then we deliberately ordered several dishes made entirely from rice.
Before long, the dishes began arriving one by one.
After examining them, Escort Guard Lee Pil nodded.
Meaning the dishes had been made with rice that came from one of the incense-marked sacks.
While eating, I called over a waiter.
“Did you call for me?”
“This rice is exceptionally good. I called you over because I was curious where you bought it.”
“I’ll find out. Please wait a moment.”
The waiter soon returned with an answer.
“There’s a merchant group nearby called the Mu Merchant Group. They said the rice came from there.”
The Mu Merchant Group of Guangdong…
Ah! Now I remembered!
It seemed I would have to ask the Emperor for a little extra compensation.
–TL Notes–
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