Deal (2)
The night was deep and dark.
It was the hour of the rat, when everyone else slept.
Somewhere in the empty woods of Hamwon, a single lantern pushed back the darkness.
Rustle—
The Merchant Group Leader came walking through the trees, his long robe snapping behind him.
The bundle on his back looked heavy.
“Hoo… huff….”
Wiping the sweat from his face with his sleeve, he finally reached the meeting place.
On a battered old bench sat a masked man.
“You’ve come.”
The Merchant Group Leader strode closer.
“You came alone, just as promised, at the hour of the rat. You brought the goods, I take it?”
He took a pipe and a small pouch from his robes and set them on the bench.
The Merchant Group Leader’s eyes widened.
When he opened the pouch, he saw tiny white grains, shimmering with an almost lustrous light.
“H-heh, hehe…!”
Just looking at them made pleasure crawl up his spine.
“May I receive the balance?”
“Of course. You may.”
The man opened the bundle he had received from the Merchant Group Leader.
The dense, weighty clink of metal.
“Excellent.”
He immediately slung the bundle over his shoulder.
“To bring this in, I had to pay for travel, bribes, and the price of the Baekhyang itself. Altogether, that came to two nyang of silver. But since this is our opening transaction, I’ll only take back the original cost this once. From next time on, I’ll ask for seventy percent of the wholesale price. You can keep the wholesale profit from this batch. I don’t know how much I’ll be able to bring next time, so make sure you come prepared with enough money.”
At that, the Merchant Group Leader was startled.
Travel and bribes and the cost of the goods all added up to two nyang of silver, and he’s saying he’ll recover only the principal because it’s our first deal?
And he was even leaving the wholesale profit untouched?
Even for a black-market trade, it was an absurd windfall.
At that point, a sensible man would have grown suspicious.
But he had already tasted Baekhyang, and for a greedy man like him, suspicion had no room to take root.
Risk little, pocket thirty percent of the wholesale price, and walk away laughing.
He wanted to shout for joy on the spot, but he kept his face perfectly still.
“That is well enough… but there’s a problem with the Pavilion Owner. If I suddenly start bringing in some unidentified goods like this, he’ll surely ask where they came from.”
“Just make something up. Say you picked it up while traveling and doing business. If that doesn’t satisfy him, just have him smoke a little Baekhyang. After that, he’ll believe whatever you tell him without question.”
“Hm… understood. I shall do that.”
“Right now, we only have about four hundred grains, but as funds build up, the amount I can bring in will multiply. Naturally, your profit will grow with it. No need to be impatient.”
Then he added, “Ah, I should explain how to use it. Put the Baekhyang on the pipe dish, heat it over a flame, then inhale the smoke through the tube. Just as I showed you last time. But if you swallow the grains raw, the toxicity is strong enough to kill you. You must take it only as smoke, so make sure you tell the Pavilion Owner that.”
“Understood. I shall.”
“Then I’ll be taking my leave.”
“Very well. Until next time.”
The man cupped his hands in farewell and vanished into the darkness.
Left alone, the Merchant Group Leader stared after him for a moment before heading down the mountain path.
* * *
The man walked for some time.
Then a shadow cut across his path and blocked him.
“Finished with the deal?”
He removed his mask.
Baek Wontae.
He answered by tapping the bundle lightly, letting the metallic jingle speak for him.
Jingle— jingle—
Hearing the sound, the unknown man stepped forward.
Moonlight spilled across his face.
It was Dang Ihyeon.
“To think you’d disguise yourself as a smuggler… unbelievable.”
“I gave them a perfectly reasonable reason to hide my identity, then piled on a nonexistent risk premium. That completely severed the link between manufacturer and seller. Even if they buy a hundred or a thousand Hyeonrihwa, nobody will be able to trace the connection between the Hyeonrihwa buyer and the Baekhyang seller.”
“Your ability… it’s astonishing.”
“If you’re done admiring me, hand over the clothes.”
Wontae changed into the hemp garments and long robe Ihyeon offered him.
The masked smuggler disappeared without a trace.
Ihyeon nodded.
“Let’s go. I already reserved an inn.”
“Sounds good. We’ll stay there tonight and head out first thing tomorrow.”
The two of them took a different path from the one the Merchant Group Leader had gone down.
Wontae tossed the bundle at Ihyeon.
“You carry this. It’s heavy.”
“…”
* * *
The next day.
Baek Wontae and Dang Ihyeon entered the main hall of the Dang Clan residence.
Jingle!
A heavy bundle was tossed onto the table.
Wontae grinned brightly and shouted, “All right, brace yourselves! Let me show you how much I made!”
Clatter! Jingle!
When he upended the bundle, coins spilled out and rolled all over the tabletop.
The Dang family’s eyes went wide.
“One kan and one thousand mun, for a total of two nyang of silver!”
Wontae rubbed his shoulder.
“Man, that thing was heavy as hell.”
“T-two nyang of silver….”
Dang Ihwa’s lips trembled.
She couldn’t even finish the sentence.
Dang Hogyeom was speechless as well.
He had only been with the Dang Clan for a little over half a month.
In just two weeks, he had doubled one nyang of silver.
Wontae began counting on his fingers. “Travel expenses, hospitality, and material costs put us in the red this time. But now we only need to make Baekhyang and the smoking pipes, so as long as we cover the ingredient costs, we’re good. The next deal is on the first day of next month. Until then, just make a ton of it.”
After saying that with his usual shameless ease, he headed for the library.
Dang Ihyeon spoke to his father.
“…At this rate, I think we really can secure the funds before the year is out.”
Dang Ihwa added, “The method is distasteful, but… if it’s for our long-cherished wish, there’s no helping it.”
“…I see.”
Darkness settled over Dang Hogyeom’s face.
“You two have both worked hard. Go and rest.”
As he turned toward the inner chamber, the siblings watched his back, then shifted their gaze to the library.
The man who sold such vile drugs, who never hesitated to cheat or threaten others.
He was little different from a villain of the righteous sects.
But when they looked at the money on the table, they could not deny the truth.
The Dang Clan…
…needs him.
Even if it was a filthy rope, if you wanted to climb a cliff, you had to grab hold of it.
Even if that meant committing filial impiety and betraying their father’s teachings.
They believed that if they could only gather the funds needed for their long-cherished wish, then their father’s suffering—and this life of theirs—could finally end.
That day, the siblings decided they would not let go of his hand.
* * *
Dang Hogyeom’s inner chamber in the main hall.
He sat before a table, his fingers trembling.
“…Hyang. You told me to forget everything and go on living.”
He muttered low under his breath.
“But… but I couldn’t. How could I forget that they… that they did such things to you, who had done no wrong at all? How could I ever forget that?”
His eyes reddened.
“And in the end… my own stubbornness brought disaster. I made the children suffer, and now, for the sake of revenge, I’ve laid my hands on filthy and despicable means, dragging the children into that mire as well.”
Every breath carried anger and regret together.
“I never wanted to carry out your revenge like this… and yet, in the end, haven’t I accomplished nothing at all from start to finish…?”
Thud.
His trembling fist came down weakly on the table.
“What face would I ever have to stand before you… If only I could have ended it all with my own life… no, if only I had listened to you from the start….”
* * *
Geumgangru.
In the Pavilion Owner’s office, the Merchant Group Leader and the Geumgangru Owner sat facing each other.
“What matter required such a secret meeting?”
“The truth is… I have a special business proposition this time, and I needed to show you in person.”
“If it’s a matter of business, you could have passed it through the manager. Why insist on meeting me alone?”
The Merchant Group Leader took out the goods and set them on the table.
The Pavilion Owner’s eyes narrowed.
It was a long pipe with a dish attached, unlike anything he had ever seen.
“Hmm… unusual-looking. What sort of object is that?”
“It’ll be faster if you experience it yourself than if I explain it with words.”
He placed the white grains on the pipe dish and heated them over a candle.
Smoke rose in curling threads.
“Please draw it in through this tube. Then simply exhale.”
“Smoke…? Inhale it?”
The Pavilion Owner tilted his head.
But this Merchant Group Leader, who had clearly fallen headfirst into greed, wouldn’t have brought some worthless trinket here.
He put the tube to his lips.
Slurp—
The moment the smoke plunged into his lungs, the world tilted.
“Ghk—!”
As if his consciousness had been snuffed out, he collapsed onto the table.
* * *
A little later.
The awakened Pavilion Owner panted and glared at the Merchant Group Leader.
“Wh-what… is this thing?”
The Merchant Group Leader smiled calmly and asked in return, “Please, Pavilion Owner, first tell me what you felt.”
“What I felt….”
The Pavilion Owner’s eyes flew open.
“It was as if I were floating up into the heavens, with pleasure seeping into all five senses… I can’t even describe it in a few words. It was a sensation I’ve never experienced in my life.”
“So in the end, you felt good. That’s what you’re saying.”
The Pavilion Owner nodded.
The Merchant Group Leader gave a low chuckle.
“This is Baekhyang, a substance I painstakingly secured while traveling through the Central Plains. It’s a precious drug said to come only from a far-off foreign land, so it isn’t easy to get your hands on. Fortunately, I managed to connect with a supplier and secure a steady supply. Would you be willing to handle it yourself, Pavilion Owner?”
“B-but….”
The Pavilion Owner hesitated.
“I have no idea what price I should put on it.”
“Simple.”
The Merchant Group Leader’s eyes flashed.
“Charge twenty mun per grain to your customers. That should leave you with plenty of profit.”
“Twenty mun? Per grain? Even if its effects are excellent, isn’t that a bit excessive?”
“Then do this instead. First, give one grain away to regular customers as a ‘sample.’ After that, if they want more, quote them the price then.”
The Merchant Group Leader dragged his chair closer and added, “But after tasting this, who could possibly haggle and say the price is too high?”
“No… they won’t be able to….”
“There are roughly four hundred grains here. I’ll let them go to you at fifteen mun each. You sell them at twenty, and pocket five mun per grain. If you sell out everything… that comes to about two nyang of silver in profit.”
“Two nyang of silver…?”
The Pavilion Owner’s eyes widened.
“A single pouch this small, and it brings in two nyang of silver….”
“And—”
The Merchant Group Leader lowered his voice.
“Next time I come, I can bring even more. A larger volume, one only someone like you could handle.”
“Deal…!”
His hand shot out and seized the Merchant Group Leader’s hand in a rough grip.
* * *
The training forge of the Dang Clan.
On the stove, a pot boiled furiously.
The bitter scent of the Hyeonrihwa solution filled the room.
Baek Wontae stirred the bubbling liquid.
The thickened fluid gathered into white clumps.
Clang! Clang—!
From the forge came the sound of hammering metal.
Dang Ihyeon hammered the iron stock, while Dang Ihwa held the mold for the dish.
The iron heated, the ceramic fired.
And when the parts were assembled, a single smoking pipe was born.
The next deal.
For that day, the three of them continued preparing in their own ways.
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