That evening.
The Crown Prince held a banquet for everyone who had accompanied him to Nanjing this time.
Since the Prohibition Decree still hadn't been lifted, everyone enjoyed the food while perfectly sober before eventually going their separate ways.
Of course, even if alcohol had been available, no one would have dared overindulge in front of the Crown Prince.
In any case, once the banquet was over, I headed to the inn where we always stayed whenever we came to Nanjing.
The innkeeper greeted us warmly.
"Welcome. I'm glad to have the honor of serving you again."
"The pleasure is mine. By the way, have the others arrived?"
"Yes. The Supervisors in charge of the tea have arrived."
"I see. Let's head inside."
The goods needed for overseas trade were transported to Nanjing by Supervisors from each region, timed to arrive before the departure date.
If their route passed through Hubei, they loaded the goods onto ships there and continued by water. Otherwise, they simply transported everything directly to Nanjing.
Even the goods brought down by ship from Hubei were reorganized once they reached Nanjing.
Everything had to be loaded again from the ground up so we could carry as much cargo as possible while still making the ships suitable for a long voyage.
We also had to make sure the weight was properly balanced.
As soon as I stepped inside, the men who had been drinking tea rose from their seats and welcomed me.
"Welcome, Deputy Merchant Lord."
"We greet the Deputy Merchant Lord."
I exchanged greetings with them.
"You've all worked hard coming this far. We still have some time before the agreed deadline, so make sure you get plenty of rest."
"Thank you."
I reached my room and was about to collapse straight onto the bed when…
"Young Master, shouldn't you wash up first? If you lie down like that, you're going to dirty the bedding. Are you really all right with that?"
Palgap stopped me.
Well, he had a point. I looked terrible right now.
After thoroughly washing myself with the scented bathwater and changing into fresh clothes, I immediately felt much better.
Once I finally lay down on the bed, my conversation with Eunuch A-jeong suddenly came back to me.
"Heh heh heh, and do you know something else? There's someone the Baekcheon Merchant Group planted inside the Eunhae Merchant Group too. But I'll never tell you who it… Cough! Who it is."
"I see."
"D–Don't pretend you're not shaken…"
"Sorry, but you just told me something painfully obvious. You really said that because you thought it would rattle me?"
"Cough! What… did you say?"
"Let's be honest. The Eunhae Merchant Group is doing rather well, isn't it? Of course the Baekcheon Merchant Group would be keeping an eye on us."
"…"
"And do you really think the Baekcheon Merchant Group is the only one that's planted spies in our organization? We know they're there. We leave them alone on purpose."
"What are you talking about…? Why wouldn't you get rid of them?"
"Why bother? If we can use them, why stir up trouble for no reason?"
Those spies gave us the perfect opportunity to feed false information back to the people who had planted them and inflict enormous losses in return. So why would we get rid of them?
They had been planted because their masters were already hostile toward the Eunhae Merchant Group in the first place.
If they suffered losses because of that, they only had themselves to blame.
We already had people assigned to watch every one of them so we could make use of them when the time came, so I wasn't particularly worried.
"Anyway, stop wasting my time with useless nonsense and tell me who's secretly operating inside the Imperial Palace."
Smack! Smack, smack!
"Urgh! Aaaaaagh!"
I'd been annoyed that he'd wasted my time, so I'd made his next round of pain considerably worse.
The reason that conversation came back to me was simple. One of the Supervisors I'd just seen was a spy.
Just then, Escort Guard Chang Un's voice came from outside.
"My Lord. Supervisor Oh has arrived."
I pushed those thoughts aside and sat up from the bed.
"Let him in."
"Yes."
The door opened, and Supervisor Oh entered.
He was one of the Supervisors who had brought Tieguanyin from Fujian this time.
Speaking of the tiger…
"I apologize for disturbing you while you were resting."
"It's fine. Come in."
Once he stepped into the room, the door closed behind him.
He immediately dropped to his knees and bowed low to the floor.
"Deputy Merchant Lord. This lowly one has committed a terrible crime."
"Why are you suddenly saying that?"
"This lowly one… is actually a spy planted inside the Eunhae Merchant Group."
"What? Is that really true?"
Even though I already knew exactly who he was, I feigned surprise as I questioned him.
"Who in the world ordered you to do such a thing, Supervisor Oh?"
"The Baekcheon Merchant Group."
I knew that too.
The real question was why he had suddenly decided to confess now.
The Baekcheon Merchant Group must have promised him a considerable reward.
Otherwise, he would never have taken the risk of acting as their spy.
"I see. What sort of orders were you given?"
"My orders were to periodically report on the Eunhae Merchant Group's activities."
"That's nothing particularly unusual. If you've come all the way here to tell me this, though, I assume something serious happened."
He bit his lip at my words.
"It's just… I couldn't possibly bring myself to carry out the latest order."
"What did they ask you to do?"
"They ordered me to put dead rats into the Tieguanyin we're transporting this time."
These lunatics…
He seemed to be thinking much the same thing, because his expression twisted with distress as he continued.
"My conscience simply wouldn't allow me to do it. Do you have any idea how many people's hard work goes into producing that tea and bringing it to market? And they told me to throw dead rats into the product! Wouldn't that be trampling all over everything those people worked for?"
Judging from that reaction, he seemed like a decent enough man.
"You're right. That is absolutely unacceptable."
I took him by the arm and helped him to his feet.
"The floor is cold. Please get up."
"How could I possibly… I don't deserve such consideration."
"I don't see it that way. You must have struggled with this decision for quite some time before coming here. Despite that, you found the courage to tell me the truth. I'm grateful that you did."
My gentle words made his eyes redden.
"Sob… Deputy Merchant Lord…"
"Don't worry too much. As you know, the Eunhae Merchant Group has a policy called the 'Good-Faith Confession,' doesn't it?"
The Good-Faith Confession.
It was one of the Eunhae Merchant Group's policies. Anyone who voluntarily confessed to wrongdoing or corruption they had discovered would have their identity kept confidential.
The same applied if someone confessed after having been bribed by an outside party.
In addition, the merchant group reduced the punishment of anyone who came forward voluntarily.
It was one of the systems I'd introduced early in this life, using the failures I had witnessed in my previous life as a lesson.
Thanks to it, quite a few spies had switched sides over the years. From the perspective of those who had planted them, it had to be an enormous headache.
After all, anyone competent enough to be planted as a spy inside another merchant group was bound to be a capable person in their own right.
And we could simply hire those capable people for ourselves.
"That's why I've come to you. Please punish only me, and show enough mercy that my family can still make a living."
At those words, I grinned inwardly.
There were many reasons why spies planted within our organization eventually switched sides, but the biggest was unquestionably the Eunhae Merchant Group's employee benefits.
Once they started working for the Eunhae Merchant Group, they couldn't help but seriously reconsider their situation.
They had to ask themselves which side they would actually be better off continuing to work for.
And when they eventually found themselves at a crossroads like Supervisor Oh had, the answer became obvious.
"Why would I punish you, Supervisor Oh? I'm well aware of how hard you've worked for us until now. So I hope you'll continue doing your best for the Eunhae Merchant Group from here on as well."
"Deputy Merchant Lord…"
"I'll have to tell Father and Eldest Brother about this, but don't worry. Nothing serious is going to happen to you."
"Thank you. Thank you so much."
He repeatedly bowed his head with an overwhelmed expression, only for his face to suddenly darken.
"But if the Baekcheon Merchant Group contacts me again…"
"Tell them you failed because the surveillance around the cargo was too strict. After that, simply follow whatever instructions our Intelligence Unit gives you. You don't need to worry."
"Thank you."
"By the way, I heard your wife recently gave birth to a healthy baby boy."
"That's right. But how did you…"
"As Deputy Merchant Lord, I should at least know a little about the families of our Supervisors."
I grinned, then took a single Gold Tael from the pouch resting on the writing desk and handed it to him.
"Gasp! I–Isn't this a Gold Tael?"
Supervisor Oh stared at it in shock.
Even if he saved several months of wages, he still wouldn't be able to put together that much money.
I gently pressed it into his hand.
"Children cost a fortune to raise, don't they? Use this to help raise your son."
"N–No! I can't accept this! How could you give something like this to a sinner like me…"
"Come now! A sinner? You had the courage to come forward and confess all of this yourself. From the Eunhae Merchant Group's perspective, you're practically a hero."
From the Baekcheon Merchant Group's perspective, he was a traitor.
"I'm giving it to you because I'm grateful. So take it."
With me insisting so firmly, he could no longer refuse.
"Thank you. Thank you so much."
"Then stop worrying, return to your duties, and continue giving your best to the work entrusted to you."
"Thank you. Thank you, Deputy Merchant Lord."
After thanking me again and again, he finally left my quarters.
"Phew…"
That was exhausting.
Truthfully, hearing a spy confess to betraying us and still forcing myself not to get angry, instead comforting and reassuring him, wasn't exactly easy.
Still, I'd gained another piece I could use against our opponent, so this was something to be pleased about.
With a faint chuckle, I was about to lie back down when the door opened and Palgap entered.
"Would you like some more tea?"
"No. I haven't even touched what you already brought me. More importantly, your timing's perfect. There's an Intelligence Unit here in Nanjing too, right?"
"Of course there is."
I sat back up, wrote a letter, and handed it to Palgap.
"Take this to the Intelligence Unit."
"Understood."
"Come to think of it, I heard Agent Ha Hwa was recognized for her abilities and promoted to Team Leader in the Intelligence Unit."
"That's right. Young Lady Ha is quite capable."
"Young Lady Ha?"
Palgap's face turned bright red in an instant, and he suddenly had no idea what to do with himself. I couldn't help but chuckle.
Actually, I'd happened to notice something before we left for Nanjing.
Ha Hwa had been wearing the hairpin Palgap had bought back then.
"So? How far have you two gotten?"
"H–How far? Wh–What are you talking about, Young Master?"
"You'd have better luck trying to fool a ghost."
"…We've only held hands."
That was honestly impressive in its own way.
Even while attending to me as I ran all over the empire in every direction imaginable, he'd somehow managed to make that much progress already.
In my previous life, Palgap had remained alone until the day he died.
Whenever I told him to find a good woman and get married, he'd answer, "How could I possibly have the nerve to get married when you haven't married yet, Young Master?" leaving my conscience thoroughly wounded.
"But are you sure you're all right with it?"
"With what?"
"Agent Ha Hwa is a courtesan, isn't she?"
I only asked because I wanted to know how Palgap truly felt. Was he approaching her out of simple curiosity, or was he genuinely serious about her?
At my words, Palgap dropped to his knees.
"Young Master, this lowly one has a request!"
What the hell? Why was he suddenly kneeling…?
"W–What is it?"
I was genuinely caught off guard.
In all the years we'd been together, Palgap had never acted like this before.
"If you'll lend me the money to buy Young Lady Ha's freedom and remove her from the courtesan registry, I swear I'll repay every last coin!"
"…"
So he was serious.
"Get up."
"This lowly one will not rise until you promise to lend me the money."
"Ha Hwa's name isn't on the courtesan registry anymore."
"…What?"
"Do you really think we'd leave someone that capable tied to a pleasure house? We bought her freedom and removed her from the registry ages ago."
I laughed at Palgap's blank expression.
"You could've looked into it properly before dropping to your knees, you know."
Normally, Palgap would have known something like this already. The fact that he hadn't found out only proved how sincere his feelings were.
To him, she hadn't been someone to investigate.
She'd been someone he'd approached with his heart.
Palgap lowered his head, looking mortified with embarrassment, while Geumryeong slipped out from my sleeve and began patting him consolingly on the shoulder.
* * *
Chaotian Palace.
The Crown Prince was reviewing documents in his office. After a while, he looked up and called for the eunuch who had accompanied him all the way from Beijing.
"Eunuch Jang."
"Yes, Your Highness."
"Did you send Eunuch A's body back to Beijing?"
"Yes. His remains are currently being transported to Beijing."
"I see. By the way, when I chose Eunuch A, didn't you find it strange?"
"This servant merely follows Your Highness's will."
The Crown Prince looked at Eunuch Jang before casually dropping a startling statement.
"That man used an Evil Art on me."
"Excuse me?"
"From what I heard, I dismissed the man who had already been chosen and selected Eunuch A-jeong instead."
"…"
"I don't know why, but at some point my mind suddenly became clear again. So I disposed of him. He was someone who could not be allowed to live."
The coldness in the Crown Prince's eyes softened slightly.
"Eunuch Jang, what do you think of Deputy Merchant Lord Eun Seo-ho?"
"I do not understand Your Highness's reason for asking."
"What reason would I need? Just tell me what you genuinely think of him."
Eunuch Jang thought for a moment before answering.
"He appears soft on the outside, but underneath, he is an exceptionally firm man."
"I think so as well."
The Crown Prince nodded as he looked at Eunuch Jang.
After all, Eun Seo-ho had been the one to tell him that Eunuch Jang could be trusted.
That was why he was willing to speak so candidly in front of him.
"He said sinister people are operating in secret here at Chaotian Palace in Nanjing. Now that I've experienced their methods myself, I know they're people who need to be dealt with as quickly as possible. Deputy Merchant Lord Eun is remarkably capable, so I tried acting desperate in hopes of convincing him to handle the matter for me, but he wasn't buying it."
The Crown Prince gave a bitter smile.
The reason he had clung so shamelessly to Eun Seo-ho wasn't because he himself lacked ability.
He simply wanted to borrow Eun Seo-ho's.
"Well? Do you have any good ideas?"
Eunuch Jang considered the question for a moment before speaking.
"Forcing him will be impossible. Even among us eunuchs, his abilities and integrity are already quite well known."
"I see…"
"However, that does not mean there is no way."
The Crown Prince's eyes lit up.
"And what would that be?"
"He is a merchant. And when dealing with a merchant, one must negotiate. If we want something from him, shouldn't we first offer him something in return?"
–TL Notes–
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