The World Met Again (2)
Nakseonggwan, first floor.
The very place where I had fallen for Cheon Su-a's trick and gotten thoroughly thrashed by Mother.
The pillar she had used to fool me by claiming a cat was hiding there, the reception room screened by thin cloth—everything stood just as it had been.
But then—
A soft, yielding squelch....
"Huh?"
"What business brings you in here, young master? This isn't a place one strolls into for a bowl of noodles at lunch~"
A plump, soft sensation suddenly pressed against my left arm. Turning my head, I found a woman I had never seen before linking her arm through mine and rubbing her breast against it.
An utterly blatant seduction.
Yet precisely because of that, it held little pull.
Knowing one's own strengths and pressing them is what makes a person shine. Makeup, dress, speech, and coquetry merely plastered on from whatever looked good on others... that only made her a common courtesan.
"A low-class courtesan, I see."
"No way~ Don't you see this silk dress? They don't even let you wear clothes like this unless you're a premium courtesan, you know?"
There was that far-too-affected "uhuuhu" laugh.
Even the rudeness of speaking casually to a "customer" without the slightest preamble or reserve.
Would Mother even know your name?
...Well, she knows the name of every person in Nakseonggwan, so she would.
Though she would hold no expectations of you.
"You look like a greenhorn who's never set foot in a place like this. Shall this big sister teach you something good today?"
"I don't need anything good. Just tell me your name."
"Oh my. Trying to learn a courtesan's name? That won't do, not at all."
Whether she wanted to keep me pinned longer in the lobby, she blocked my steps toward the door and kept tugging me toward herself.
Had she never even learned to redirect naturally so as not to obstruct a customer's movement?
The fundamentals weren't there at all.
"But since I'm kind, I'll specially tell you. My name is~"
"Forget it. No need to hear it. I was going to listen out of consideration for Mother, but learning about you wouldn't help me in the slightest."
"W-what...?!"
Her expression shifted from flustered to irritated as the words left my mouth.
She must have thought she had snagged an easy mark right from lunchtime.
But when that mark refused to move as she pleased, irritation set in.
Idiot.
Don't get angry that the customer won't follow your will—try thinking even once about moving to match his.
"You seem like you've heard some baseless rumor that 'you shouldn't look easy when you go to a brothel' and are putting on airs. But there are men by the dozen who pay their money and leave without properly enjoying a thing, stiff as wooden posts. I've seen them."
"Why should I pay money?"
"Uh... huh?"
"Why should I pay you money? Is there even a single thing I can expect from you?"
"Th-that's why you came into Nakseonggwan, isn't it? Or what, did you really come in just to eat a bowl of noodles?"
"What you mentioned is expectations for 'Nakseonggwan.' Not for a woman like you."
"You... 'a woman like you'??"
She yanked her arm free with a sharp twist, as if angered.
"You... you, do you know who I am, saying things like that?"
"No need to know."
"Ha, you looked like a greenhorn at a glance, and you're showing it to the end. Your face is decent enough that I was going to go easy on you..."
She let out a heavy sigh and glared at me.
"This won't do. You're never getting into Nakseonggwan again for the rest of your life. I'll report it upstairs and ban you, so tell me your name."
"Name?"
I couldn't help but snort.
"Fine. I'll tell you. But first, I want to hear yours."
"Earlier you said no need to know?"
"I changed my mind. I'm going to demote you."
"Pfft. Bluffing?"
Saying that, she tilted her chin up slightly.
"Wisol. It's Wisol. If you regret it later when they drag you out, come find Wisol."
With that, she shoved my shoulder hard with her palm.
"Who knows? If you get on your knees, prostrate yourself, and beg desperately, I might lift the ban on you?"
"Jin Yu. Hong Jin Yu."
"Hong... Jin Yu.... Ha, what a funny name. Your mother must have doted on you terribly, taking after Lady Cheong-hwa?"
"Yeah. You know well. My 'mother' is none other than 'Hong Cheong-hwa.'"
"......What?"
In an instant, her arrogant expression twisted and trembled.
There was nothing I could do but sneer at her.
"I'm the son of this Nakseonggwan, you stupid bitch."
"Uh... uuhh......???"
"Wisol. Low-class courtesan of the first floor, Wisol. I'll remember you."
"W-wait a moment... what? You... n-no, you are...."
From the start, everything you tried to seduce me with was useless.
Is your chest bigger than Wolbaek's?
Are you better at coquetry than Geumryang?
Are you even lewder than those two?
"The difference between a low-class courtesan and a Hui is... this vast."
"Hui... you mean. The ones on the fifth floor... those Hui??"
"Yes. I manage them."
"......"
A face seized by terror.
Yet she kept staring fixedly at me with those eyes.
Yeah.
At least seeing you try to distinguish lies from truth, it seems you haven't been a courtesan for just a day or two.
Judging by your guts, my words seem real, but believing them outright feels like too big a bluff, right?
But....
"What are you doing?"
"Y-young... mas...."
Do I have any reason to prove it to you?
To a dog that bites without even knowing its own master.
"Hurry up and prostrate yourself and beg. Only then might you keep your life."
"Young master...!!!"
Thud—
Wisol dropped into a full prostration in the blink of an eye.
Those trembling shoulders were quite a sight.
"I-I apologize...!! For daring not to recognize Lady Cheong-hwa's son and committing such a g-grave discourtesy...!! Just my life... p-please spare my life!!"
"Why should I?"
"Eek...!!"
"These days any dog or cow can peel off the trainee tag and become a courtesan, I see?"
"N-no, sir...!!"
"But why is a bitch with no fundamentals like you on the first floor."
"I'm sorry!!"
"Sorry, so what—I should just put up with it?"
"No, sir!"
"Then I don't have to put up with it, right? Should I go get a knife?"
"Th-that alone...!!"
Hehe.
This is fun.
This is why power is terrifying.
Like a cat killing a mouse for sport, I might end up doing the same if I'm not careful.
But it shouldn't be today.
I looked around.
Fortunately, the courtesans and customers passing by seemed to think only that one courtesan had made some major mistake with a guest, and were moving along with unconcerned faces.
Tsk....
Even if she had wronged a customer, for this scene of her flat on the ground begging forgiveness to be nothing out of the ordinary...
A courtesan's life isn't easy either.
"Wisol."
"Y-yes, sir!!"
Well, that's that.
This is this.
You're guilty of insolence, but more than that, your bearing and mindset as a courtesan are the bigger problem.
With you playing gatekeeper on the first floor, how is this Nakseonggwan supposed to draw customers in steadily?
"I will demote you to trainee."
"......!!!"
"Any complaints?"
"J-just a moment ago... unlike usual, I was a-arrogant and rash...!! Please, please show mercy...!!!"
Look at this bitch?
Do you not grasp the situation right now?
You're talking back to this?
"Your head and the things soaked into your body are far too rotten to receive mercy."
"......"
"Presuming about the customer. Failing to hide your ego and clashing with the customer's opinion. Not following the customer and making him turn toward you, but dragging him along as you please. Blocking a customer based on your mood. And above all."
You must not forget your duty.
"Treating customers as easy marks."
"Ugh......"
Strictly speaking, we are people in the service industry.
But in the service industry, ignoring customers and treating them as suckers?
That place will inevitably decline and perish.
"Any complaints?"
"...N-no... none... sir...."
"Go learn again."
Without even accepting her prostration, I headed toward the door.
I could have killed her.
I could have thrown her out entirely.
But I sent her back as a trainee who receives three meals a day at this Nakseonggwan.
Courtesans are made to earn their share somehow, so they help Nakseonggwan's finances...
But trainees are, in a way, real freeloaders.
Well... that kind of welfare is what brings in many raw gems.
And those raw gems have filled the seats of countless premium courtesans, so in the end Mother's investment was right.
Notably, the Hui Wolbaek and Gyeonghwa are also former trainees.
Though ever since Wolbaek had a falling-out with my mother, the Hui have been thoroughly chosen by Mother from the start.
Still, most of Nakseonggwan's courtesans are former trainees.
Who knows?
A second or third Wolbaek might appear among them again.
When I stepped out the door, bright sunlight poured down onto the crown of my head.
How long had it been since I felt sunlight falling on my crown?
Not since my childhood days when I was so short that the light coming in when I stood right against the window reached the top of my head.
Always having to stay inside rooms, inside buildings, the only light that ever reached my head was the long stretch of dawn and dusk.
Taking a few steps forward from Nakseonggwan's entrance and looking around...
The vast grounds of Nakseonggwan came into view.
As I had learned from Mother, the reason the grounds were so wide was because so many people lived and worked here.
Living quarters for the trainees and the first- and second-floor courtesans.
Workspaces for the trainees.
Living quarters for laborers, cooks, and other staff.
And temporary lodging for people who could not—or should not—be brought into Nakseonggwan itself.
For example, the Emperor's direct Embroidered Uniform Guard who had come to investigate the "Imperial Princess" nickname incident in which Mother had been severely put through the wringer, or officials from the government office arriving for tax inspections, and so on...
People who might harm Nakseonggwan were made to stay at the lodging at the very end of the grounds.
There was only one person who did not harm Nakseonggwan yet was still given lodging on the grounds rather than inside:
The mysterious man Mother always called "that annoying Dokkaebi Halabeom," who called Mother "that persistent old fox hag."
A young man who always arrived with half his face covered by all sorts of masks.
I still do not even know his name.
He seems like someone holding an important post in some merchant guild....
He seems connected to Mother, so no matter how much I try to meet his eyes and speak to him, he never responds—what can I possibly learn?
"Here it is, Sangseheon...."
Whether they were giving that Dokkaebi Halabeom special treatment, or simply wanted to lock him in a small room because they could not stand the sight of him.
From the day I first saw him, that man had only stayed here, at Sangseheon.
Then on the day he left, he would vanish as suddenly as he had come.
Anyway, it was not far from Nakseonggwan's entrance, so it was easy to find.
I had always only watched him enter here through the window, but coming down to the first floor like this, the size was more substantial than I had expected.
No matter how I looked at it, it seemed a bit too large for one person....
Were they planning to use it together with the merchant guild people?
But for that it also looked a bit narrow—a place built rather ambiguously.