It’s Obviously a Bedmate Situation (1)
In a deserted, dark forest in Hamwon.
Baek Wontae, wearing a mask, sat on an old wooden platform.
A short while later, the Merchant Group Leader emerged.
“Hoo… huhh….”
Arriving at the meeting place, he set down the bundle he’d been carrying.
“How much did you bring?”
Baek Wontae took the goods out one by one.
A package of medicinal herbs, and five smoking pipes.
“I pushed myself a bit, but this time I brought 1,000 pills. As for the five smoking pipes, I’ll take them at cost—fifty mun each.”
“That’s a lot. Looks like you’ve got a real knack for this. Had some money to spare, did you?”
“Last time was just a taste. Though I was short on cash, I brought along some red tea from the Yeom Kingdom that I’d been saving just in case, and the reaction was pretty good. Since they’re ignorant nomads, I actually gouged them for a huge markup.”
“Red tea, huh… Sounds popular with those people.”
That caught his interest.
If I export red tea in bulk to Xinjiang… I can corner the market faster than the other merchants.
Baek Wontae had never even been to Xinjiang. That was just a lie he’d improvised because red tea sounded like a plausible product.
The Merchant Group Leader didn’t doubt him at all. In fact, he’d come to believe this man was an astonishingly capable smuggler.
“By the way, how much did you get for last time’s goods at wholesale?”
“Fifteen mun each. We split it seventy-thirty.”
The Merchant Group Leader pulled an abacus from his robe.
He began clicking the beads back and forth.
“Then all together….”
Tap, tap—
Baek Wontae watched him.
Tap, tap—
“……”
Tap, tap—
…What exactly was he doing?
Is multiplying a thousand by ten and a half really that hard?
A sigh almost escaped him.
How does a guy with a head like that even run a business…?
Finally unable to stand it, Baek Wontae spoke up.
“10,750 mun.”
The Merchant Group Leader flinched.
Awkwardness crept over his face.
“Uh… you’re quick with the math.”
He cleared his throat once, then shoved the abacus back into his robe.
After that, he took out a money pouch.
“Good thing I brought the larger denominations. If I’d carried this as copper cash, I wouldn’t even have been able to lift the bundle.”
The Merchant Group Leader pulled out eleven silver taels.
Baek Wontae tilted his head.
Is the extra 250 mun a tip? Huh, unexpected. He’s got some sense of service—
“Here’s your change. Two hundred and fifty mun.”
…As if.
Make as much as you can while you still can.
Baek Wontae rummaged through the bundle, took out 250 mun, and handed it over.
“Does Baekhyang sell well?”
“Don’t even ask. I heard the stock they brought in last month was gone within weeks. They only had two smoking pipes, and even then customers were lining up for them.”
“See? I told you it’d sell like crazy.”
He tucked the silver taels into the bundle and stood.
“Then I’ll see you again next time.”
With that brief farewell, he vanished into the darkness.
The Merchant Group Leader remained seated there.
Rustle.
He untied the cord.
Carefully opening the package, he took out the Baekhyang.
Four white pellets lay on his palm.
He picked one up and placed it on the dish of the smoking pipe.
Tilting the pipe into the lamp, he let the flame swallow the dish.
A sticky fragrance rose up—bitter, yet sweet.
Hssss—
He drew deeply on the stem.
The smoke seeped into every corner of his veins.
“Ah… hahah….”
Laughter slipped out of him.
His strength drained away, and the world in front of him blurred. This old wooden platform felt more comfortable than the imperial palace’s silk bed.
After smoking all four Baekhyang pellets, he rummaged in his robes and took out a milky-white pellet.
A fragment of a pill coated in white pigment.
Rolling it between his fingers, he snickered.
“Hm… this should fool him.”
He pinched a few dozen Baekhyang pellets from the package.
Then he stuffed the same number of fake pellets inside and tied the cord again.
Staggering, he made his way down the forest path.
* * *
Baek Wontae was sitting somewhere in the woods.
Looking at the silver taels in the bundle, he smiled.
At this rate, I’ll have the twenty gold taels for the contract in no time.
He covered the bundle, pulled a bamboo water flask from his robe, and took a drink.
“Hey.”
Spit!
He sprayed the water right out.
A voice had suddenly come from right behind him.
His body floated about an inch and a half into the air.
Dang Ihwa.
“C-cough, cough!”
“A-are you okay?”
He raised a hand, half-tempted to pat his back.
Baek Wontae waved her off.
“Y-you startled me….”
Wiping his mouth, he tried to calm his pounding heart.
There’d been no footsteps, no sign of presence.
…Of course, that was why he’d brought her along.
“Did you keep watch?”
She nodded.
“How was it?”
“Just like you said. He took out the Baekhyang and… started smoking it.”
“That so.”
Baek Wontae laughed quietly as he capped the water flask.
“Anything else?”
Dang Ihwa shivered.
It felt as if his mind extended far beyond ten li.
“It looked like he was taking some of the Baekhyang out… and stuffing something else in its place from inside his robe.”
Baek Wontae nodded.
“As expected.”
If it was the Merchant Group Leader, he’d figured the man would skim off the top. Whether he was obsessed with money or with Baekhyang, Baek Wontae would rather he sold the stolen stock far and wide.
That way, rumors would spread faster.
Baek Wontae held out a hand toward her.
“?”
“The clothes.”
“Ah.”
Dang Ihwa took out a set of clothes from the bundle and handed them over.
Fresh garments for getting rid of the masked man.
She had heard about what happened last time from Dang Ihyeon.
To go this far hiding himself.
He’s almost terrifyingly thorough…
The moment Baek Wontae took the clothes, he stripped off his own shirt without hesitation.
“……!”
Dang Ihwa jerked around in shock.
Even the tips of her ears turned red.
A man who knew proper etiquette would never casually undress in front of an unrelated woman.
Even watching it was against decorum.
For someone raised on those rules, the sight was both embarrassing and improper.
Baek Wontae, still adjusting his clothes, tilted his head.
“What are you doing?”
“…Do you have no shame?”
“Shame?”
He stared at her blankly for a moment, then snorted.
She was making such a fuss just because he changed his shirt.
Still, it was his mistake. When in Rome, do as the Romans do.
“Ah, sorry. I was a bit insensitive.”
He finished straightening his clothes and spread his arms to show her.
“See? All dressed.”
Only then did Dang Ihwa turn back and look at him.
Baek Wontae asked, “You booked the inn, right?”
“Yeah. Like you said, two rooms.”
“Good. There’s that saying about men and women not sharing a seat once they’re seven years old, right? No matter what, I’m not some bastard who’d book the same room with an unrelated woman.”
“…….”
Dang Ihwa nodded in silence.
“Then let’s go.”
They descended the forest path and headed into Hamwon.
Once inside the city, they found it packed with people.
Merchants shouting, the clatter of hoofbeats—everything tangled together in one noisy knot.
“It’s especially crowded today.”
“This time of year it usually is. There’s a major festival coming up in Seongdo soon.”
Dang Ihwa explained.
“Hamwon is below Sichuan, so merchant groups and travelers from farther south usually stay around here.”
“Then it couldn’t have been easy to reserve a room.”
“I got lucky because I knew the innkeeper. If I hadn’t worked there before, we wouldn’t have even gotten one room.”
* * *
“Oh dear, I’m really sorry about this….”
The innkeeper, a middle-aged woman, scratched her head.
“One of the rooms Miss Hahou booked suddenly had the ceiling collapse in it… The repairmen are on it now, but there’s no way it’ll be ready today.”
“…….”
They both stood there speechless.
They only glanced at each other out of the corners of their eyes.
Baek Wontae asked the innkeeper, “Do you have another room?”
“We’re completely full. I’m sorry, but there’s nothing I can do.”
“Hmm. Just a moment.”
The two of them moved to the back and whispered.
“Should we try another inn…?”
“…That’ll be hard.”
Dang Ihwa pointed outside.
Beyond the window, the street was jammed with people. There were even folks wandering around searching for vacant inns, and some were trying to outbid each other for a single room.
“…….”
Baek Wontae let out a sigh.
“No choice, then.”
Dang Ihwa’s heart dropped.
“N-no choice…?”
Was this guy planning to sleep in the same room as an unrelated woman?
Had he been pretending otherwise, all the while waiting for a chance like this?
He literally said he wasn’t that kind of bastard…!
Dang Ihwa trembled with indignation.
She wasn’t some naïve country girl, either. Having studied medicine, she understood a fair amount about how the male and female body worked.
Merely sleeping in the same space wouldn’t somehow ruin “physical chastity.”
And even if he tried something, she could simply overpower him.
His contract even included a clause forbidding mutual threats.
Perfectly legitimate self-defense.
She could crumple the whole thing up like scrap paper and throw it away.
But simply sleeping there was also a problem.
A matter of morality.
Since joining Baek Wontae’s business, she’d always felt heavy in the heart. So whenever the day’s work ended, she’d cling to books on Confucian, Buddhist, and Daoist propriety and steady herself.
And now, out of nowhere, she was being told to share a room with an unrelated man.
It would violate her moral chastity.
By etiquette, a woman could only sleep in the same room as family or her husband.
But this was a man she’d known for barely a month—one who was, to put it mildly, the embodiment of immorality.
So now I’m being forced to break etiquette like this….
Even she, with her revenge as her goal and murderous martial arts trained into her, was still a woman of this era in the end.
Her ever-dazed-looking face flushed bright red, and her thoughts tangled.
As her eyes wavered, Baek Wontae spoke.
“So.”
“W-wait…!”
With her eyes squeezed shut, she cried out softly.
Rustle—
“...What are you doing?”
She opened her eyes cautiously, only to see Baek Wontae holding out the bundle.
“Take this and go to your room.”
“…?”
Dang Ihwa stared at him, completely dazed.