Chapter 346
Chapter 346
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Translator: penny
Chapter: 354
Chapter Title: Slave Contract
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Hwangbo Seong's jaw dropped as he watched the Young Lord Hwangbo Chung and First Elder Hwangbo Ryun being dragged into the guest hall.
*These bastards really...*
At least pretend to play blind man's bluff or something, for heaven's sake.
How could they bring back those two missing people—barely half a day after the negotiations ended—looking perfectly fine like that?
Hwangbo Seong let out a groan as he eyed the pair being hauled in.
Even beggars didn't look this ragged.
Their once-fine silk robes were in worse shape than those of the Beggar's Sect tramps.
No, how much had they rolled around in the dirt for their skin to turn that pitch-black?
"Father! Fatherrrr!"
Hwangbo Chung burst into tears at the sight of Hwangbo Seong and the rest of the Hwangbo Family members.
Oh my god!
Father and all the heavyweights came marching here to rescue me!
"Aaaah! Father! Father!"
"Yes, yes! You've suffered so much."
"Sob sob! Fatherrrr!"
That's right, this is family!
How reassuring is this!
"You've been through hell. Truly."
Hwangbo Seong patted Hwangbo Chung and Hwangbo Ryun on the shoulders.
"It's all over now. All of it."
"Family Head!"
"Father!"
Hwangbo Seong was shedding moved tears when he suddenly snapped his head up.
He ground his teeth as he glared at Namgung Hyuk—who had been smirking while dragging them in—and the Thunder Dragon Squad.
It had been a long ordeal of humiliation and torment.
Now it was time to pay it back.
Laugh?
Keep laughing?
*Fine, let's see how long you can keep that up.*
"Father, that bastard right there..."
"Give them your thanks. The Namgung Family's help was crucial in finding you and the elder."
"Yes, than... What?!"
Hwangbo Chung freaked out. Hwangbo Ryun, standing beside him, gaped at Hwangbo Seong with his mouth hanging open.
Hwangbo Seong's lips twitched as he curled them into a smile.
"I said, thank them."
"F-Father? Those guys are the culprits who..."
"Yes, we'll catch the real culprits soon enough. Now thank your benefactors—thank them!"
Hwangbo Chung's mouth fell open at his father's words.
What the hell is going on?
How did the kidnappers, jailers, assaulters, and extortionists suddenly become benefactors?!
Namgung Hyuk grinned.
"What a heartwarming father-son reunion. Hahaha!"
"......"
"Didn't I tell you? We'd find them quick."
Hwangbo Seong closed his eyes as he looked at the chuckling Namgung Hyuk.
Hwangbo Chung's eyes trembled with unease.
*What's going on? Something's wrong. This is seriously messed up!*
No way justice exists if those villains are his benefactors!
Why isn't Father saying anything?!
Hwangbo Seong subtly gripped his stammering son's shoulder.
"Chung-ah."
"Y-Yes? No, Father..."
"I know how much you love and cherish the main family."
"Th-That's true, but that's not the point right now..."
"The future of the main family rests on your shoulders."
Wait, what?
That doesn't sound right!
"Come back safe."
Thwack!
With a light pat on the shoulder, Hwangbo Seong sent Hwangbo Chung stumbling toward Namgung Hyuk like a marble flicked away.
"Mmph! Mmmph?!"
Father, why'd you seal my pressure points and shove me?!
Come back safe? What the hell does that mean?!
Namgung Hyuk smoothly wrapped an arm around the panicking Hwangbo Chung's shoulder.
It was a chilling moment, like a snake slithering up his back.
"Mmmph?!"
"Kyahaha, let's get along. You've got plenty of work waiting at the Namgung Family."
"Mmph?!"
What the fuck is this bastard saying...?
At Namgung Hyuk's signal, the three Thunder Dragon Squad members quietly dragged away the flailing Hwangbo Chung.
Hwangbo Seong forced a wide grin as he watched the scene.
His massive fist trembled.
He bowed subserviently toward Namgung Hyuk.
"...W-Well then, we leave him in your hands."
"Hey, no need to worry."
"I'll trust you, then."
"Come on, I said don't worry. Just don't forget those regular tribute payments—er, shows of sincerity."
"H-Hahaha. Th-Thank you. Installment payments are a first for me."
"It's all about know-how. You'll get the hang of it after a few times."
Hwangbo Seong swallowed bloody tears as Namgung Hyuk kindly explained.
*A once-in-a-decade golden sucker—that's me.*
The kind of profitable day merchants dream of, actually existing!
And it had to be him and the Hwangbo Family!
Just the one-sided terms Namgung Hyuk had dictated could fill a whole book.
The conditions that Hwangbo Cheol had jotted down began as follows:
Hereinafter, the Namgung Family shall be Party A, and the Hwangbo Family Party B.
H-Hahaha...
Hwangbo Seong could only let out a hollow laugh at the sight of a true superior-subordinate relationship forming where the Five Great Families had once been equals on the surface.
But what could he do?
The Hwangbo Family was too weak to go to total war against the other four.
A beggar can become rich, but a rich man can't become a beggar.
Better to swallow grass down their throats than face extermination—no, annihilation.
His gaze turned to First Elder Hwangbo Ryun, who was standing off to the side, dumbfounded by the whole affair.
*First Elder, I'm sorry. So sorry.*
Hwangbo Seong shed tears of remorse.
What kind of fight had they picked with this devilish bastard?
If he could go back in time, he'd slap himself for calling this man's competence incompetence.
"...W-Well then, we leave it to you. H-Hahaha!"
"Yes, do well, and we'll treat you well. You're not gonna stab us in the back again, right?"
"N-No way! Like I said from the start, that was the scheme of some Namgung Cheong or whatever..."
"Just send the goods on time."
Hwangbo Seong clenched his fist and raised it high.
"A tr-true man keeps his word! Right? Word of honor! I, Hwangbo Seong, am a man of honor!"
Namgung Hyuk nodded vigorously.
"Then off you go."
"H-Hahaha! We leave it to you. And please, take good care of my son..."
"Don't worry. We'll look after him real good."
*You won't at all...*
But Hwangbo Seong couldn't bring himself to say it.
He and the Hwangbo Family members turned away, their faces pale and drawn.
With the missing ones accounted for alive, there was no reason to stay.
No, they wanted to escape this place as soon as possible.
This was hell.
"W-Well then, we're off!"
"See you next time!"
"...Y-Yeah."
Hwangbo Seong and his people fled outside like refugees and boarded the ferry.
Sogeolgae shook his head as he watched the Hwangbo Family depart on the ferry.
*Probably no one else in the world could make the Hwangbo Family Head dance like a puppet like that guy.*
The mighty Hwangbo Family, reduced to the Namgung Family's lackeys!
Feeling faint, Sogeolgae asked,
"But you're really done with this?"
"Why?"
"I mean, it looked like you were gonna completely ruin that clan."
He'd expected them to loot the warehouses clean like they would with unorthodox sect scum, but it ended with just a massively unfair agreement.
Namgung Hyuk clicked his tongue.
"That's why you're a beggar."
"...What's wrong with being a beggar? That hurts real beggars' feelings."
"You think orthodox and unorthodox are the same? You think a place like the Hwangbo Family would really get wiped out after a few warehouse raids?"
The Hwangbo Family were hegemons of Shandong Province.
They'd taken a critical hit to their funds, but they could recover eventually.
"If they shriveled up and got exterminated over that, they wouldn't deserve the Five Great Families name!"
"...But they submitted, didn't they?"
"That's different from the entire other Four Great Families turning their backs and pressuring them. Plus, we sealed off Hangzhou."
Everything Namgung Hyuk had done was to maneuver into this situation.
Sure, it was frustrating and annoying as hell, but so what?
"We got ourselves a slave Hwangbo Family—that's what matters, right?"
"They won't rebel?"
"Rebel?"
Heh heh, Namgung Hyuk laughed wickedly.
"I've got their bloodline in my hands—what can they do?"
Dude, that's villain dialogue right there.
Sogeolgae's mouth fell open.
Namgung Hyuk added,
"And you don't gut the goose that lays the golden eggs."
"...Pardon?"
"Local black道 thugs can't make money to save their lives, but those Hwangbo oxen? They'll cough up tribute on their own. That's way better than raiding ten black道 strongholds."
Sometimes it's more profitable to keep 'em alive and squeeze 'em to the bone.
That was Namgung Hyuk's hard-earned wisdom.
Everyone, including Sogeolgae, felt the same.
*...What the hell's in this guy's head?*
They sighed as they watched Namgung Hyuk plot to exploit the Hwangbo Family.
Namgung Hyuk cackled as he took in the sight of the receding ferry.
"Time for a drink. Man, using my brain after so long is exhausting."
He stretched languidly and turned away.
Namgung Ryong, Paeng Jung-hyuk, Tang Myeong-ok, and the Thunder Dragon Squad all thought the same.
*How did it end up like this...*
It was a result they couldn't have imagined, let alone achieved.
Faced with this absurd turn of events, they were speechless.
If Namgung Hyuk did it, somehow it worked—that fact burned itself into their minds.
* * *
Go Dong-gil cried out in awe at the flood of goods and laborers pouring into Oga Village.
"Captain! More workers incoming!"
"Whoa! An inn like this getting built! This is on a scale you rarely see even in the capital!"
"Merchant Group Head! Goods from Shandong Province are arriving! L-Look over there!"
It had been less than half a month since the meeting(?) wrapped up.
Just when bustling activity had started stirring in the ruined Oga Village, it had transformed into a bustling district in the blink of an eye.
A wide road for carriages stretched out, lined with inns and estates.
Tens of thousands of workers threw themselves into a massive construction project.
Skilled artisans and laborers from Shandong worked at dazzling speed, turning the remote Oga Village into a thriving hub.
"Move it, faster!"
"Haul that lumber! Hurry!"
"Send workers this way! No slacking—run!"
The elders and warriors dispatched from the Hwangbo Family bellowed orders.
Every day the construction dragged on meant more burden and losses piling up for the Hwangbo Family.
They had to finish fast, solid, and withdraw.
Their movements surpassed imagination.
Go Dong-gil's mouth hung open.
"A-All this... for free...?"
They'd been at a loss on how to develop the abandoned Oga Village, and now it was solved in a flash!
On top of that, the Changcheon Merchant Group hadn't lifted a finger—just spectating the work.
"Yes, Captain! Not a single coin from us!"
"They're even taking the junk we couldn't sell!"
"Hahaha! This is all thanks to that young master!"
The Changcheon Merchant Group members chattered excitedly.
Their headaches had vanished in an instant!
Unbelievable things were happening.
Who could've guessed the Hwangbo Family warriors would come to this backwater to mop floors and haul timber!
Were these the same guys who'd strong-armed them out of Oga Village before the meeting?
Go Dong-gil, marveling at the sight, remarked,
"...It's a slave contract, alright."
Nothing else explained that meeting.
The Hwangbo Family as slaves...
*Just how did that young master rope in the mighty Hwangbo Family!*
No matter how much he saw or heard, it didn't make sense.
Did he really grab some weakness?
He was pondering that when—
"Captainnnn!"
The chief steward bellowed.
"Iron from the iron mine—incoming, iron!"
A massive ferry was maneuvering into the already-completed dock.
The Yellow Dragon Ship, symbol of the Hwangyong Merchant Group, entered in all its glory.
It looked waterlogged and heavily modified, but that didn't matter.
Rumble! Boom!
Refined iron from the southern Shandong iron mines poured out of the Yellow Dragon Ship.
Neatly processed bars stacked up in perfect order.
Go Dong-gil touched it with trembling hands.
"Ah..."
That cool, heavy feel.
"Tw-Two months at last."
It was right around when the Changcheon merchants expelled from the iron mine had returned.
It felt like recompense for the humiliations since.
Hangzhou was swiftly regaining stability.
No, it was booming beyond compare to just months ago.
The Changcheon Merchant Group had rocketed to rising star of the eastern martial world with one meeting.
"Hahaha!"
Go Dong-gil's laughter echoed loudly through Oga Village.
The storm Namgung Hyuk had stirred was propelling the Changcheon Merchant Group full speed ahead.