The Little Demon King (1)
The autumn wind in Yichang, with winter just around the corner, was bitterly cold.
And yet Wang Jin, the chief escort of the Hubei Escort Bureau, was breaking out in a cold sweat so profusely that he seemed to have forgotten what season it was.
"Miss, please, I’m begging you. Go back home already, will you?"
He rubbed his hands together, looking as if he were one step away from tears.
It was one thing for a middle-aged man—moreover, the chief escort of a fairly reputable bureau in the Hubei region—to be reduced to this before a girl of barely seventeen. If rival escort bureaus saw this, they’d laugh themselves sick.
But to Wang Jin, it was a matter of life and death.
Before him, bent almost to his knees, sat a girl gently fanning herself with a white feather fan.
Her features were delicate and precise, like a marten’s. Her skin was so pale it seemed to sting the eyes, made all the more striking by the matching white fox-fur coat she wore. And then there were those mysterious violet eyes, so at odds with her fragile beauty.
As if Wang Jin’s pleas didn’t reach her at all, Jegal Yeona idly stroked the feathers of her fan and gazed out the window.
"Uncle Wang."
A clear voice like a jade flute slipped from Jegal Yeona’s lips.
"You’re noisy. Keep quiet."
"M-Miss!"
At last Wang Jin dropped to his knees with a thud.
The sound rang so loudly the floor seemed to shake, but Jegal Yeona didn’t even blink.
If anything, she only let the corner of her mouth curl upward, as though the noise amused her.
"Didn’t we make an agreement? If I doubled the bureau’s wealth, you’d escort me safely and comfortably all the way to Zhangjiajie. Would it kill you to keep your word?"
"Th-that’s…!"
Wang Jin was at a loss for words.
She wasn’t wrong.
During the past two weeks since Jegal Yeona had taken up residence at the Hubei Escort Bureau, they had handled sums of money so large it hardly seemed possible.
Three days after her arrival, she had stolen the ledgers exposing the officials at the yamen taking bribes over the salt monopoly rights and used them to seize their weakness, then secured virtual control over Hubei’s salt transport rights.
A week after her arrival, using the fact that the Jegal Clan had to visit the Marquis Wen temple in Chengdu on a regular basis and the resulting close ties with the Tang Clan of Sichuan, she leveraged their frequent dealings to land a six-month contract to transport Sichuan rock salt through the Hubei Escort Bureau.
She even sent a letter to the Namgung Clan proposing a meeting with the deputy chief of the Yangtze River Water Sect.
Ten days after she arrived, she met in person with the deputy chief of the Yangtze River Water Sect and the patriarch of the Namgung Clan, and cut the Hubei Escort Bureau’s Yangtze transit fees in half.
Then, just one day ago, the Namgung Clan patriarch—taken with Jegal Yeona’s silver tongue—entrusted part of the spice transport business not to the Puwei Escort Bureau in Fujian, but to the Hubei Escort Bureau instead.
Thanks to that, the Hubei Escort Bureau had nearly monopolized salt transport in Hubei and, as a bonus, was now responsible for part of the spice trade in the Jiangnan region as well.
The warehouse had filled up with twice as many gold ingots as had been there before Jegal Yeona arrived. No, more than twice as many.
But no matter how wonderful money was, could it outweigh one’s life?
"Miss, please, take pity on us! Things are in chaos back at the main house right now! The clan head himself sent a messenger dove and ordered me to seize you at once—no, to bring you back! How am I supposed to disobey that?"
Wang Jin pleaded as he pulled out a crumpled note from his robe.
It was a letter bearing the unmistakable seal of the Jegal Clan patriarch, Jegal Seon.
No matter how gentle and generous Jegal Seon might be, once one fell out of his favor, a place like the Hubei Escort Bureau could be erased from the map overnight.
After all, the Hubei Escort Bureau was run with the Jegal Clan as its backing.
And now, to make matters worse, the other support he had been counting on had vanished as well.
"Even the Wudang Sect’s chief is away right now! If he were here, I could’ve used him as an excuse to keep hiding you a little longer, but now we’ve got no shield left to stand in front of you!"
For a while, it had been possible to soften the Jegal Clan’s pressure thanks to Jegal Yeona remaining in Baekhyeon’s shadow.
But of all things, Baekhyeon had left just one day after Jegal Yeona arrived in Yichang.
"We’re practically a subcontractor to the Jegal Clan. If the clan head’s order comes down and we smuggle you off to Zhangjiajie, my whole family will be left out on the street!"
"Come now, my uncle isn’t that cruel. Still, if that happens, I’ll introduce your family to the Beggars’ Sect."
"Miss!!"
Wang Jin’s wail was heart-wrenching.
But Jegal Yeona was enjoying that wail as if it were a cheerful tune.
He really is easy to handle.
She covered her mouth with the white feather fan and snickered inwardly.
In her short life, she had learned a way of handling people.
Every person had weaknesses and desires. If you struck those points, you could control them like moths flying toward a flame.
To deal with righteous heroes, you needed legitimacy and justice.
To deal with martial artists, you needed power and honor.
And to deal with merchants…
Jegal Yeona rose from her seat and padded over to Wang Jin.
Then she crouched down and stared straight into his terrified eyes.
"Uncle."
"Y-Yes? Miss, please…"
"So, you hate money?"
"…Pardon?"
Wang Jin’s eyes flew wide open.
"The salt business is a smash hit, isn’t it? What was our split supposed to be again?"
"Th-that would be… forty-sixty, yes. Miss gets forty, and we get sixty…"
From the start, it had been an absurd contract.
Jegal Yeona had devised every scheme and every move, yet she had agreed to take only forty percent.
When she first claimed she would double the bureau’s wealth, they had laughed in her face.
But as the money had piled up, Wang Jin had been ready to dance in the streets, convinced they’d hit the jackpot.
"Bring it here. We’ll settle accounts."
"N-Now?"
"Yes. Right now."
Jegal Yeona’s violet eyes glinted coldly.
Wang Jin swallowed hard.
He had no idea what she was planning, but for now it was best not to offend her.
"R-Right away. Wait just a moment. You there!"
"Yes!"
"Bring everything we made this time. All of it, now!"
At his order, his subordinates sprang into motion.
Before long, a heavy wooden chest was set down with a loud thud.
When the lid was opened, the room seemed to brighten with the glitter of gold.
Salt—the so-called white gold—had been sold, and this was the price they had reaped.
For a moment greed shone in Wang Jin’s eyes, but reality quickly returned and his shoulders sagged again.
What good was wealth if he might die before he could even spend it?
"This is the Miss’s share."
Wang Jin pushed the pouches stuffed with gold ingots toward Jegal Yeona.
It was an absurd amount.
Enough to match half a year’s budget for a middling sect in the martial world.
And since more profits would keep coming in, if one did the math it was close to the two-year operating budget of a major sect.
Jegal Yeona picked up one gold ingot. Its weight was satisfyingly cold in her hand.
She tossed it upward as if playing with a gravestone, caught it, then took a playful bite out of it. A neat little set of teeth marks remained on the ingot.
"That’s a lot."
"It is indeed. Thanks to you, Miss. So now, please, take your money and go back to the main house…"
Fsshh.
Jegal Yeona reached out her hand.
And then she began pushing the sacks of gold in front of her toward Wang Jin.
One.
Two.
Three.
Wang Jin’s eyes grew wider and wider.
"M-Miss? What are you doing?"
Jegal Yeona didn’t stop.
She pushed over more than half of her forty percent in gold ingots toward Wang Jin.
"Eighty-twenty."
She smiled brightly.
"You take eighty, Uncle."
"…Hah!"
Wang Jin sucked in a sharp breath.
His mind began to whirl with calculations.
The original sixty percent alone was wealth he would never have expected to touch in his lifetime, and now she was adding another twenty on top of that?
It was enough to expand the bureau by half again, and after that, every one of the bureau’s people could live with oil in their bowls for at least a year.
"Y-You’re really… giving this to me?"
"Mm-hm. And if my uncle tries to drive you all out on top of that, I’ll empty out my entire fortune and buy the bureau myself."
"Hah…"
At Jegal Yeona’s sudden declaration, Wang Jin felt his lungs fill with air.
Whether it was from overwhelming joy or sheer terror, he couldn’t say. Perhaps it was both.
"Don’t want it? If you don’t want it, fine. I’ll take it back."
As Jegal Yeona reached toward the gold again, Wang Jin nearly jumped out of his skin and snatched the pouches closer to him.
"N-No! Of course I want it! How could I not? That’s absurd!"
It was the instinct of a merchant. Fear was forgotten.
The sorcery radiating from the gold before his eyes ruled his mind more strongly than the clan head of the Jegal Clan ever could with his scolding.
Jegal Yeona smiled as though she had known this all along.
"That’s more like it?"
"More than enough! More than enough!"
"And if someone comes from the Jegal Clan’s main house?"
"We’ll report that they ran into bandits on the road and lost contact!"
"What if Baekhyeon returns and tries to take me away?"
"That old man should be worrying that the Wudang people might drag him off instead! Please, Miss, don’t you worry!"
"Then will you help me go to Zhangjiajie?"
"I’d carry you there on my back if I had to! We’ll attach the finest carriage and the best bodyguards in Hubei today itself!"
"Good. Then recite your loyalty for me, for this little demon king, Jegal Yeona!"
"Long live Her Highness, the Little Demon King Jegal Yeona! Your humble servant will follow you with all loyalty and sincerity!"
Wang Jin pressed his head to the floor and bowed low, his change of allegiance so complete it was like watching Lü Bu switch masters.
A true slave to capitalism.
That was Wang Jin in his natural state.
Jegal Yeona covered her mouth with her feather fan.
It was hard not to laugh.
To handle a merchant, all you needed was money.
If they refused to make the deal, offer them more money.
That was the lesson in "how to handle people: merchant edition" Jegal Yeona had mastered.
"Good, good. Uncle Wang’s loyalty has been duly received."
She stood.
Then she looked down at Wang Jin and gave him a playful, sparkling command.
"But there’s one thing I should tell you."
"Name it! I’ll do anything!"
"I’m not going to Zhangjiajie."
"Pardon?"
Wang Jin blinked.
What was this girl saying now, after all the trouble she had caused insisting on going to Zhangjiajie?
"I’m staying in Yichang a few more days. Naturally, Uncle Wang will serve me tea, prepare delicious meals for me, and post sturdy bodyguards to protect me, won’t you?"
"O-Of course! Of course! How could there be any doubt? If you wish it, I’ll present every delicacy Hubei has to offer!"
"Good. Then offer up a tribute for this body of mine, right now."
"Y-Yes, ma’am!"
After that final reply, Wang Jin shot out of the room like an arrow.
From beyond the corridor, his voice could be heard barking orders at his subordinates and servants.
Jegal Yeona gave a light giggle and looked out the window.
In her mind, the constellations she had seen in the night sky last night rose once more.
It was absurd, really.
The power of reading heavenly signs that dwelled in her Jami-an.
And the fate of the stars she had seen through it.
Jegal Yeona recalled the night sky she and Yu Seojin had looked up at two weeks ago.
Usu, the Ox Mansion.
A star born of sacrifice, endurance, and stubborn destiny.
A star that arranged the offering needed to open the gate of heaven.
The light of that star was already fading.
Death’s shadow had fallen over it so heavily it seemed ready to drop away at any moment.
And what opened its mouth to swallow Usu was Cheonkwaeseong.
The foremost monster of heaven. A baleful star, and at the same time the symbol of domineering, tyrannical power.
It was unmistakably the aura of the Demonic Cult, and the jaws of an inescapable ruin.
By all destined logic, Usu should have been dragged into Cheonkwaeseong’s maw and vanished without a trace.
That was the future as it had been written.
And yet.
Reversing heaven.
Jegal Yeona unconsciously tightened her grip on the fan.
Even now, remembering that moment made gooseflesh rise along her arms.
Somewhere, a tiny nameless star had appeared.
So faint it was almost embarrassing to call it a star at all—a speck of light no bigger than dust had entered the heavens.
That light, ignorant of its own place, barred the way of Cheonkwaeseong’s jaws.
And it held onto the fading Usu with desperate force.
A star that defied heaven.
That star burned away its own light to breathe life into Usu.
Enduring the agony of its own shattering and splitting, it ultimately broke Cheonkwaeseong’s teeth and tore Usu free from the maw.
The currents of fate were twisted.
Death that had been sealed became merely a delay.
Usu did not die—it slept.
And beside it, the battered star of reversal blazed with a dazzling blue light, huffing and puffing as though furious with the world.
I want to see it.
Jegal Yeona’s eyes gleamed with curiosity.
The phenomenon of defying heaven, seen only in books.
The variable said to exist only in legend, the one that twisted heaven’s decree itself.
Even Baekhyeon-ssi seemed to take it very seriously.
The moment he heard Jegal Yeona’s story, Baekhyeon had immediately set up a scheme with her to leave Xiangyang and head for Zhangjiajie together.
Of course, Baekhyeon had vanished alone and without warning just one day after meeting Jegal Yeona in Yichang.
When he comes back, I’ll stuff a poisonous frog down the front of his trousers.
She’d like to see whether that frog would poison the old man’s wrinkled groin or not.
Jegal Yeona ground away at the thought of Baekhyeon in her mind and returned to considering the star of reversal.
What kind of mad bastard refused the death heaven had ordained?
What kind of fool risked his own life to save another?
And if such a thing truly existed…
"Could it change what little life I have left, too?"
The words slipped out of Jegal Yeona’s mouth in a flat, matter-of-fact murmur.
Unlike her usual mocking, playful tone, this one was utterly colorless.
Her gaze drifted naturally beyond the window, toward the south.
Toward the place where that star had risen.
Toward Zhangjiajie.
"Last night I read the heavens, and they said you’d come here on your own two feet, little star."
The corners of Jegal Yeona’s lips rose.
A light she couldn’t quite name—interest, delight, obsession—shimmered in her violet eyes.
"Please don’t go and fall in love with Seojin. If you do, I’ll tear your body to a thousand pieces."
Jegal Yeona giggled and let the white feather fan sway lightly in her hand.
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