Let’s Go Sell Drugs
The two of them headed for the smithy.
It was a cramped place where the heat of the forge mixed with the stink of metal.
Dang Ihyeon spread the blueprint out on the worktable and picked up a length of bamboo.
Swish—!
His blade moved without hesitation. As he shaved away the bamboo strips, the grain beneath came out smooth and clean. He sanded the surface, drilled the holes, and brushed on lacquer until it shone.
Then he kneaded clay into shape and set it inside the kiln.
After a while, a plate emerged.
Next, he melted down brass and formed the joints. The liquid metal hardened into the mold.
Clang! Clang!
Ihyeon hammered away.
Even with sweat dropping from his brow, his eyes never lost their steadiness.
At the end, he fit the finished parts together and assembled them.
Click.
The ridges and grooves meshed perfectly. Neither loose nor tight, it was the ideal fit.
Baek Wontae was impressed.
“Not bad. You can make something you’ve never seen before pretty well.”
“It was easy. Is it right?”
“Good. Make me one more just like it.”
* * *
Once he’d gotten the feel of it, the second one came together quickly.
Baek Wontae lifted the two smoking pipes.
Flawless.
It was as if the image in his head had been dragged straight into reality.
A smile tugged at the corner of Wontae’s mouth.
“Nice work.”
He was satisfied with the result, but his gaze had already moved farther ahead. One day, he’d teach them glass casting and have them making laboratory equipment. And when that day came—
There was no way he’d be satisfied with something as lame as Baekhyang.
Ihyeon wiped the sweat from his forehead with a towel.
“Anything else you need?”
“No. Rest up until Dang Ihwa gets back.”
Ihyeon nodded and left the smithy.
Baek Wontae headed for the library.
* * *
He turned pages.
He skimmed letters and sentences, taking in as much of this world’s knowledge as he could.
No matter how hard he thought about how he’d ended up here, he got nowhere.
In the end, he stopped trying to figure it out.
If he couldn’t understand it, then he’d just accept it.
This wasn’t a dream. It was reality.
If he wanted to live, he had to adapt to that reality.
Martial arts and the like being real is the one variable here…
But in the big picture, this world was still stuck in the old ways.
There was room for him to move, plenty of it.
After all, he was a chemist.
Ka-chak—!
Suddenly, a sharp crash rang out from outside.
Baek Wontae’s hand stopped in mid-page.
What was that?
He got to his feet and headed toward the sound.
In a corner of the yard, Ihyeon was swinging a pair of short swords at a log dummy.
Whoosh!
Where the blades passed, wood splinters burst into the air.
His arms moved so fast they left afterimages behind.
And around his forearms, a green light shimmered.
That’s…?
Wontae narrowed his eyes.
He remembered what he had read in the book last night.
Qi.
An unidentified energy that existed in this world. Martial arts, sorcery, and every other impossible phenomenon were ultimately said to manifest through that thing called qi.
What had only been words on a page was now standing right in front of him.
The lightning-fast sword strokes, the green glow wrapping around the arms.
At the sight of something so absurdly unreal, Baek Wontae clicked his tongue.
So this kind of monster-level power really does exist…
Fear didn’t come first. Calculation did.
I don’t know how many strong people are wandering around this world, but… for the force I need right now, this is plenty.
What the clan head had said didn’t sound like an exaggeration after all.
In any case, he went back to the library so he wouldn’t interrupt training.
* * *
By evening, Dang Hogyeom and Dang Ihwa returned.
Ihwa untied the bundle she’d laid on the table.
Inside were five geun of Hyeonrihwa, and beside it sat a single lump.
A white, dirty-looking block.
A bitter smell stabbed at his nose.
“What’s this?”
“Hyeonrihwa Emulsion Paste. The Hyeonrihwa latex gathered and solidified.”
Baek Wontae picked up the lump and held it up to the light.
Impurities were tangled all through the surface.
“Where’d you get this?”
“A medical shop.”
“So a medical shop only deals in stuff like this?”
“Right. I’ve never seen anyone do anything like boil it, strain it, and reduce it the way you do.”
So they didn’t even have the concept of purification.
Which meant he was the first and only Baekhyang producer in this world.
He called the children over to the refining room.
“Watch closely. This is what you’ll be doing from now on.”
Baek Wontae held up a Hyeonrihwa capsule pod.
With the tip of his knife angled slightly, he made a cut.
Scritch—
He drew a shallow line, and white latex began to seep out.
“About this much. The depth is roughly one-twenty-fourth of a mun. Since one mun is around 2.4 centimeters… this is about a millimeter deep.”
From the crease of his wrist to the tip of his middle finger, the distance was 18 centimeters.
He’d already converted that length into traditional units for convenience.
Ihyeon muttered as he took the knife.
“One-twenty-fourth of a mun… That is extremely fine.”
“A single mun is already small, and now you’re telling me to split that into twenty-four pieces….”
Dang Ihwa narrowed her eyes and drove the blade in.
Her touch was delicate, and fine lines appeared across each pod.
White latex beaded up and dripped down.
It fell, drop by drop, into the small bowl on the table.
Baek Wontae dissolved the emulsion paste in hot water.
As it gradually melted, scum rose to the surface.
He added the latex they had scraped together as well.
Bubbling—
Boil, strain, and boil again.
The liquid steadily reduced until what remained was a pure white mass.
Wontae cut it apart and divided it with the children into pieces about the size of a pinky fingernail.
Little white grains lined up neatly on the table.
One, two, three…
About four hundred of them.
He left them somewhere with good ventilation.
“Preparation’s done.”
He looked back at the children.
“Go to bed early tonight. Tomorrow the real work starts. It’s a proper business from here on out.”
* * *
Before sunrise, in the predawn dark, Baek Wontae was changing clothes.
Black clothing.
The same kind Ihyeon had worn.
From now on, he’d be meeting outsiders.
Going around in training clothes would make him stand out like a beacon.
The fabric was rough, and loose threads stuck out here and there.
It didn’t even sit properly against his body.
Once I make some money, first thing I’m doing is changing my whole wardrobe.
He fastened the collar awkwardly and stepped out into the yard.
The siblings’ eyes landed on him at once.
Both of them tilted their heads.
Dang Ihwa asked in confusion, “Why are you wearing it like that?”
“Why? What’s wrong with it?”
“The knot’s a mess, the collar’s crooked… nothing about it is right.”
“Ah. I’ve never worn clothes like this before.”
Ihwa strode over.
“Lift your arms.”
“Huh?”
He raised them awkwardly, and her hands slipped around his waist.
He flinched at the sudden closeness.
Ihwa untied the knot and smoothed out the collar. She retied the cord at his waist, binding it neatly, then tugged the hem straight and flattened out every wrinkle.
“There.”
Baek Wontae stared for a moment before answering awkwardly, “Th-thanks.”
Ihyeon came over and handed him a woven hat.
“You’d better cover your head.”
He took it.
A short hairstyle like his only looked strange here.
Once he’d pulled the hat low, he finally looked like someone from this place.
He slung the bundle of money over his shoulder and nodded.
“Good. Everyone focus. Today we’re going to Hamwon. We’re not selling anything yet—we’re checking the market first.”
He held up two fingers.
“First, we check the distribution of Hyeonrihwa shops in Hamwon. Then we identify the merchant houses we can use as a distribution network. If we get that far, today’s mission is clear.”
The siblings didn’t bother asking about the strange words he used.
Ihyeon asked, “I don’t know what that means exactly, but those two things are the goal, right?”
“Bingo.”
He pulled a sheet of paper from his chest and shook it.
“The list the clan head gave us mentioned Hamwon. We should be able to buy a certain amount there fairly freely. The more stock, the better.”
He turned toward the gate.
His steps were light, but his eyes gleamed coldly.
“Then let’s move.”
* * *
They walked along a forest path.
Stones kicked underfoot, the dirt road lumpy and uneven.
It was a complete unpaved mess, and his knees and calves ached from the trip.
The air was cool, but his whole body was slick with sweat.
“Haa… this is rough. Really rough.”
Swish—
One finger appeared beside his head.
It was Ihyeon, pointing toward Ihwa walking ahead.
“Follow that one closely, and watch your footing.”
Baek Wontae shot him a look.
They were only half a step apart. He could feel his body heat at that distance.
His annoyance was written all over his face.
“But… why are we walking glued together like this?”
“That’s—”
Click.
A cold sensation rose under his foot.
Something slipped beneath the ground.
“Huh?”
He looked down on reflex.
Bang!
Fft!
Wind brushed his temple.
He turned his head, and Ihyeon was holding an arrow in his hand.
“Because something like this could happen.”
“Y-yeah, uh—”
His mind went blank.
It had all happened too fast; he hadn’t even had time to sweat.
When he finally got his senses back, rage surged up belatedly.
“What do you mean ‘safe path’?! I followed you properly, so why the hell was there a trap!”
“Who said anything about a safe path?”
He pointed again at Ihwa walking in front.
The moment Wontae’s eyes followed the gesture—
Bam!
Fft!
A trap triggered beneath Ihwa’s foot.
She caught a flying dagger and casually tucked it into her clothing.
Wontae’s face hardened past shock and straight into deadened disbelief.
“…What the hell is wrong with you people?”
“We travel using lightfoot techniques, so we won’t actually be caught by these traps. The problem is… we’ve planted so many that even we can’t remember where half of them are anymore. So until we clear them out, this is how we have to move. It’s for your own good, so bear with it.”
“You’re talking like someone stepping on landmines is supposed to be normal….”
Baek Wontae rubbed his arms.
“Am I gonna die before I even get down there?”
Memories of the time he’d been dropped in this forest surfaced.
How the hell did I walk all the way to the main hall?
How had he crossed this trap-filled forest when he hadn’t known a thing about martial arts?
The more he thought about it, the colder his skin felt.