Chapter 12 (2)
Chapter 12 (2)
"The volume is too large, I don't think it can be sorted in a day or two. And the price is 4 gold, 17 silver."
"4 gold... silver... hmm?"
Jincheon, who had been rummaging through his pocket, frowned.
He was short by 10 silver.
He felt annoyed that he couldn't make the request over a mere 10 silver, but in a way, it was fortunate.
"I'm short 10 nyang right now. You said it wouldn't be sorted in a day or two, right? Then I'll come back in a few days. Take this as a deposit."
Jincheon handed 4 gold to Sim Eun-nang, saying he would bring the remaining 10 silver later.
This kind of thing happened often because the value of information perceived by the customer and the value judged by the Black Spot were different.
However, it was standard to only pay about half as a deposit, yet Jincheon had handed over 4 gold as a down payment.
"This is truly ridiculous. You're practically half an enemy to Haomun, yet you're willing to leave this kind of money?"
"It doesn't matter if you try to swallow it and kill me. I've been holding back my strength while fighting because I was afraid of killing people, and it was incredibly frustrating. Honestly, I'd be grateful if you attacked me so I could see how far my power goes against you."
Gooooooo--!!
The moment Jincheon, who had been acting like a brat until now, wore a battle-maniac smile and began to radiate killing intent and aura, the complexions of the bodyguards, who had been ready to protect Sim Eun-nang just in case, changed.
Urr-rr-rr!
At the same time, those who had been hiding inside the walls burst through, turning the place into a mess in an instant.
'T-to have this kind of aura!'
'It's... dangerous...!'
The others were visibly tense at Jincheon's aura.
Generally, the aura emitted by a martial artist follows their personality.
Therefore, the aura Jincheon emitted was akin to that of a slaughterer who would kill everything in sight, leaving everyone no choice but to be on guard.
'He wasn't just all talk.'
However, Sim Eun-nang appeared even calmer at this sight.
Having been in a high position, she often faced experts, so this was easier to deal with than Jincheon's annoying, cheeky behavior.
'Wait. He has this level of skill, and despite being an expert, no one knows his face. If so...'
At that moment, thinking of something that had been bothering her while managing Haomun and the Black Spot, Sim Eun-nang opened her mouth in her usual voice, despite being suppressed by his aura.
"I have one important proposal to make."
"An important proposal?"
"If you accept my proposal, I will give you the information you want without charging a fee. Furthermore, I will add even more information than what you asked for."
As Sim Eun-nang suddenly made a proposal, Jincheon, who had reduced his aura, looked around and faced the bodyguards one by one.
"Well? In my opinion, this doesn't seem like a very suitable place to make an important proposal."
"I agree this time. Everyone, get out. No need for bodyguards."
"M-Miss! This guy is dangerous!"
One of those who had been preparing to escort her from the space beyond the wall spoke up.
"Are you... ignoring... my words... right now?"
"But..."
They were not high-level in martial arts, but they were intimidated by the pressure contained in her voice.
"This person is just overly arrogant, overly cheeky, and overly unlucky, but looking at his actions so far, he has kept to a minimum line. There are people who have been injured, but no one has died, have they?"
"Wow, you know me so well. It feels like I've been stripped naked?"
"Shut up, you're ruining the flow when you open your mouth."
"Yes."
Jincheon, perhaps knowing that being cheeky here would only waste time, kept his mouth shut this time.
"What are you doing? Didn't you hear me tell you to get out?"
"...Give us a signal if you feel it's dangerous."
Unable to win against her insistence, the bodyguards eventually all left, leaving only Jincheon and Sim Eun-nang in the room.
"If you want to talk this quietly, it means there's a problem that's hard to tell others."
"Haomun does various illegal things."
Sim Eun-nang began to speak quietly.
"From smuggling to illegal gambling dens not recognized by the government, there are many, but there is one thing we do not do."
"Let me guess. Human trafficking?"
"...How did you know?"
"Because if you buy and sell people, you'll get beaten to a pulp by the righteous factions. Especially, no matter how uncoordinated and large Haomun is, if a sect of this size engages in human trafficking, there's a limit to what martial artists or the government will overlook."
Jincheon added further explanation.
"And unlike the Western Regions, where the market for selling people as slaves is active because various countries are intertwined, here, isn't it a trend to consider the act of buying and selling people a taboo due to Confucian ideology? The level of risk regarding the slave market is like heaven and earth, so even for Haomun, it's a bit much to buy and sell people."
Honestly, she was surprised.
She never imagined that Jincheon would have this level of judgment and intelligence.
Moreover, the way he explained it in an easy-to-understand manner, even adding the situation in the Western Regions, was so different from the image of the man named Jincheon she had seen so far.
'His tone is typical of an uneducated person... but the explanation just now was only possible if one had broad knowledge, even up to the Western Regions. I'll have to investigate his background...'
"So? What is the connection between human trafficking and the request you're going to make?"
Sim Eun-nang, who decided to investigate Jincheon later, decided to solve the problem in front of her first.
"For several months, various disappearance cases have occurred in Agyang. At first, it was just a few women or children from the slums disappearing, but as time passed, the numbers began to increase, and even the courtesans from the brothels we manage began to vanish."
Jincheon sat comfortably and listened to her quietly.
"As a result of our investigation, we found out that some nameless thugs gathered and were doing this. So, we sent people to stop the human trafficking, but..."
"If you had solved it there, there would be no reason for this story to come up."
"Everyone we sent disappeared. Later, a corpse with a similar appearance to one of the people I sent was found in a corner of Dongting Lake."
They sent people a few more times, but each time they disappeared and were found as corpses in Dongting Lake, so Sim Eun-nang, enraged, pushed with numbers through a large-scale operation.
They suppressed the human trafficking ring that way, but those they caught were just small fry.
The real ones had already heard the news and escaped long ago.
The small fry they caught were just thugs hired because they paid well.
As time passed, the human trafficking ring popped up again, and when they sent people, they were dealt with by the trafficking ring, and when they mobilized a large number of people, they cut off their tails and ran away, which she said had happened several times.
"There's a spy inside Haomun."
"Yes. But Haomun is a sect where courtesans, thugs, and all sorts of lower-class people gather. Therefore, finding a spy is next to impossible."
There, she got to the point.
"Large-scale operations are meaningless, so I plan to attack the human trafficking ring with a small elite team once again. That's the only way we can catch their head, or their arms or torso."
"And you want me to participate in that surprise attack with the small elite team?"
"Yes. To be precise, it's a diversion. I will let you know the operation start date and time, so please attack the location I tell you at that time. I intend to keep this work to myself, and I will not even tell the experts I will dispatch."
In other words, Sim Eun-nang intends to use Jincheon as a trump card that only she knows about.
"I understand what you're saying. Ah, then since I'm risking my life, can you grant me two small favors? If it's Haomun, it should be a problem that can be easily solved."
"What are they?"
"Can you upgrade this to a Black Tablet or Gold Tablet? It's a waste of time to have to accept Wood Tablet requests with my skills."
Jincheon showed his Ronin Tablet.
Through that, she could intuitively feel that Jincheon was a rookie who had just come out into the world after training somewhere.
Since he was a Wood Tablet despite having this level of skill, that was the only answer.
"That's a simple matter. If you solve the mission, I'll upgrade it to a Black Tablet. Gold Tablets are for famous ronin who all have titles, so it's impossible for you to get in there without a title and reputation."
"Kek~ As expected, you're easy to talk to. Then the second one. Can I borrow a forge for a few days? It would be better if it's a place with good equipment."
"Do you know how to handle metal?"
"To the point where the Imperial Palace would try to recruit me if they knew my skills?"
"I guess you have the basics."
"No, I'm telling you, the Imperial Palace would really try to recruit me?"
"Yes, yes, I understand."
Sim Eun-nang thought he would have the skills of an average blacksmith.
It was natural.
No one could believe that a young man like Jincheon had reached the pinnacle of blacksmithing, a skill that requires long training and experience to improve.
In this era, one has to learn skills over the shoulder, and even if the best blacksmith teaches the skills completely, one must accumulate experience for a long time to digest them.
Jincheon, who looked like he had just passed his twenties, could not fall into that category, and it was impossible to think so.
"The mission start date is tomorrow. The time is..."
Sim Eun-nang explained in detail to Jincheon the time of the attack, the composition of the personnel, the location, and so on.
A nameless young expert with no reputation.
She wondered if this young expert would be helpful in punishing the mysterious human trafficking ring that even Haomun couldn't catch, but since there was no other option, she had no choice but to entrust it to him.
"Secrecy is the most important thing in this work. You must never, to anyone, even if you're drunk, talk about it."
"I understand. Then I'll stay at a decent inn for a day and move according to the plan."
Jincheon put the gold he hadn't accepted back into his pocket and headed outside.
"By the way, shouldn't I at least know who the people attacking the human trafficking ring are?"
"No. Those people are experts I gathered with great difficulty. If their appearances are known even by a slight chance, the next opportunity will disappear."
Because Jincheon might not be able to keep the secret, Sim Eun-nang never told him about the experts she had painstakingly invited.
"Okay, okay. Then see you later."
What he witnessed after going outside without information about those he would fight with was a group of warriors surrounding the entrance.
It was a tense situation, but before either side could speak first, Sim Eun-nang's voice was heard through the opened door.
"Let him go! I have no more business with him!"
"You heard that? Business is done, so stay well."
Jincheon squeezed through the wall of warriors and went outside, and the Haomun warriors frowned at his arrogant attitude.
"Are you alright, Miss?"
"I'm fine. And have a few people with excellent stealth skills follow him and report on where he goes and what he does."
"Ah, yes!"
Sim Eun-nang was not a naive person who could trust the other party with just a simple verbal contract, and from the beginning, it was not a relationship where such things would work with Jincheon.
He seemed to have some brains, but his personality was so arrogant and frivolous that she couldn't easily trust him even if she told him it was a secret.
'But if he succeeds...'
If he just moves according to the plan, they could cut off the head, or the torso or arms of the human trafficking ring.
And further, through the traces left by the enemy, they might even be able to find out the mastermind.
'Whew, I don't like low-probability gambles...'
It's a gamble.
A low-probability gamble at that.
However, she evaluated the human named Jincheon too much by his appearance.
In the first place, Jincheon was only frivolous in his actions, but in reality, he also had the aspect of a strategist who knew how to use his head through numerous experiences.
It's just that the problem is that there are many irrational actions that move for the "second heart" between his legs, not cool-headed reason and judgment.
Still, since he himself is aware that it is irrational, he is not a fool who runs wild without thinking.
To emphasize, I will say it twice, the only problem is the "second heart" attached between his legs.
Hum hum hum~ Got a good quest~
Free information on female martial artists, an upgrade, plus a reward for using a high-quality forge.
Yosh! I will definitely solve this quest!
And I should melt the blade of the Heavenly Demon Divine Sword and make it into my gauntlets.
What am I going to do with this? Make soup with it?
If I used a sword, I could keep it and find the other half to use the Heavenly Demon Divine Sword, but for me, who uses fist techniques, the blade of the Heavenly Demon Divine Sword is not a good item to carry around.
If I carry it around and get caught by someone, the problem becomes serious.
I could be mistaken for a lackey of the Demonic Cult, or the Demonic Cult guys could come.
I'd like to use it to call Ha-yeon, but if the guys who were trying to use this blade find out, the work becomes fucking annoying.
But it's too wasteful to just hide or throw it away.
Solid Cloud Iron!
I can't throw away this much Cloud Iron, right?
So I have to melt it and use it as my gauntlets.
But I was worried because I needed a high-quality forge, but since it's solved with this mission, I should look forward to it.
By the way, I feel like someone is following me, are they the kids sent from Haomun?
They don't trust me, huh. Well, it doesn't matter. I wasn't going to talk anyway.
The request is from tomorrow, so should I kill time?
Come to think of it, I skipped lunch?
Since I'm in Agyang, I should eat while watching the scenery of Dongting Lake, right?
I looked for a place where I could enjoy the charm of Dongting Lake and found a suitable place.
Gakjangru
The 1st and 2nd floors are blocked by other buildings, but at the height of the 3rd floor, there are no buildings of a height that obstruct the view, so it looks good for enjoying the scenery of Dongting Lake.
A setting where the price jumps double for each floor would be applied to a place like this, but 4 gold should be enough for me to eat.
The waiter greeted me as I entered Gakjangru.
"Welcome! Are you alone?"
"3rd floor."
I said my business straight to the point while showing the pouch containing gold.
"You are a young hero who knows elegance! Follow me! I will guide you to the 3rd floor!"
The waiter's eyes, which had judged me as a 1st or 2nd-floor customer just by looking at my clothes, changed in an instant.
Yes, this is the power of money.
I have no intention of picking at my food like a stingy protagonist in other novels.
If you have money, shouldn't you spend it to your heart's content and enjoy the elegance?
The quality of life doesn't depend on how much money you have, but on what kind of experience and life you enjoy through money.
When I went up to the 3rd floor, people of various ages, all dressed in high-quality silk, were mingling and eating while enjoying the charm of Dongting Lake.
"The menu is here. Please call me anytime."
The waiter went down with those words.
So there's a separate waiter in charge of the 3rd floor.
Let's see, what should I eat first?
The unique thing is that unlike a normal inn, they sell not only alcohol and food but also tea?
But I have Silver Needle tea from Mt. Gun and dried Shennong's Tea Leaves that I looted from the transport, so I can eat tea whenever I want.
Naturally, let's choose alcohol here.
And for the meal... oh, river shrimp seasoned with Dragon Well tea leaves?
Good, I'll set this as the base and what else...
Kwadang!
"Argh!"
What the fuck?
I like random events, but when I'm eating, I want to focus on the meal quietly, you know?
But why are some damn things making a scene and acting like assholes?
As I turned my head to the place where the commotion occurred, I could confirm that others were also turning their heads in the direction of the sound due to the sudden commotion.
And,
"L-l-let go! Let go!"
A guy who looked like a rich man's son was caught by a woman wearing a bamboo hat combined with a veil, and his arm was twisted.
"I told you. Don't move your hands carelessly."
The veiled woman's voice is a passing grade.
It's a haughty yet clear voice.
Based on the fact that an excellent figure could be felt even beyond the clothes that were appropriately combined with blue and red... she's a beauty with sharp eyes!
"You bitch!"
"How dare you touch the young master!"
As the rich man's son they were escorting was whining with his arm twisted, two bodyguards stepped forward and tried to attack the veiled woman.
Ah, if it were me, I would be more careful.
They are guys who lack attention.
Swish swish!
Three women who looked like maids, who were near the veiled woman I had been eyeing since earlier, quickly drew their soft swords and subdued the necks of the bodyguards in an instant.
Seeing that the bodyguards couldn't react properly, it seemed like there was a difference in skill.
"H-h-how dare you...! Do you know... who I am...!"
"Doesn't matter. Why would I care about the family of someone who drugs people in the first place."
What? He drugged them?
On top of that, he's trying to pressure her by saying where his family is?
Ah, fuck, he's gathering only the things I hate the most?
If you're a man, you should conquer a woman with your dick fair and square, why use cowardly things like drugs or threaten with the power of your family?
I wouldn't say anything if he threatened with his own ability, but threatening with the family's power is cheap!
Just cut his dick off already!
If it were a typical novel, it would be normal for the woman's side to mumble through the pressure of the family and clan,
"M-my family is...!"
"Stronger than Sura Blood Palace?"
"W-what...?!"
Wow, so that's what it looks like when the blood drains away.
"Name that family. I will test it with the power of Sura Blood Palace."
"L-lies..."
"Didn't I tell you to say it. Now, say it. Which family is it? What kind of great family is it?"
"T-t-that is..."
That's the end of it.
The man's side was suppressed by fear first.
"S-sorry, Miss! Please forgive me...!"
"Disappear. If you try to grab the veil carelessly again, I won't end it like this."
When the woman let him go, the rich man's son started running away with his bodyguards.
"Sura Blood Palace..."
"Isn't that the heinous group that tries to kill men on sight..."
"Ugh..."
Sura Blood Palace protects women who have been hurt and abandoned by men and teaches them martial arts.
Because of that, the women of Sura Blood Palace all hate men.
The other guests on the 3rd floor were scared by the heinousness of the name Sura Blood Palace and started calculating and running away one by one.
What am I doing, you ask? I'm going to eat, why run away?
I don't fear Sura Blood Palace, I pity them.
Poor women who haven't felt the true taste of a cock and don't know the greatness of men.
If it were a secluded place with no people, I would have knocked them down right away and made them feel the greatness of a man, but since this is a downtown area, let's hold back for now.
By the way, they say Sura Blood Palace is reclusive and doesn't easily show itself outside, so why are people from Sura Blood Palace here?
Ugh~ I would follow them if I had time, but I have a request, so I can't help it.
This request is an important one that will be the guideline for my future travels, so I can't just cancel it.
I grumbled inwardly at the regret and waited for the meal to arrive.