The Treasure Vault - 1
The front of the government office was thronged to bursting. Merchants had flooded in, desperate to reclaim the goods the bandits had stolen from them.
Among their plunder, the bandits had freely used anything related to food, clothing, or shelter, so a considerable number of merchant caravans had taken real losses. The scramble to recover what the bandits had seized had turned the office gates into pure chaos.
"My lord! This is not my axe!"
"Hmm... Then which is yours? This gold one? The silver?"
"No — mine is a battle-axe forged of black iron!"
"Nothing of the sort was on the inventory list... Fill out a lost-and-damaged report for now, and a claim form as well, just in case. I'll have someone look into it."
"Ugh... It was supposed to be delivered to the Seong family estate..."
From those who couldn't find their own goods filling out paperwork in a corner, to laborers hauling cargo after the officials had verified it — the whole scene was a mess. I hadn't set foot near the government office in some time, having spent every day training at Sama Yeom's residence, and this place was nothing short of a war zone.
Come to think of it, had the wood-attribute elixir from the Cheonyu Merchant Group been recovered? Sama Yeom knew I needed elixirs of the Seven Luminaries attributes, and he'd even said he would purchase the wood-attribute one from the Cheonyu Merchant Group on my behalf.
Distribution was still in full swing — maybe I should wait a little longer.
With those thoughts turning over, I stepped inside the government office.
Even within, officials hurried about with armfuls of documents. The dark circles under every pair of eyes made it plain they'd been grinding through all-nighters and overtime for the past week.
When I entered Sama Yeom's office, I found him leisurely enjoying tea with Hyeok Gi-rin. A glance at his desk showed not a single document stacked on it — a sight that would have made the junior officials scrambling below weep tears of blood.
"The office looks rather busy."
"Indeed it is. Between merchants reclaiming their goods, rounding up the Hwanggeumga's serious offenders, and sorting the inventories of confiscated assets from Yu Ji-gyeong and the Hwanggeumga, we have our hands full."
Sama Yeom was clearly a ruthless boss. Well — if the Prefect said jump, the junior officials had to jump.
"So what was the reason you called for me today? Is Hero Hyeok Gi-rin joining us as well?"
"Yes. Having a martial artist around makes the work easier."
Work? The suspicious word made me glance at Hyeok Gi-rin, but she was staring back at me with equally bewildered eyes.
Without further explanation, Sama Yeom led us onward. We headed toward an area of increasingly tight security — yet when we reached the door itself, no one was there. Had Sama Yeom dismissed the guards in advance?
"This place is...?"
I couldn't say exactly what it was, but I knew at once this was no ordinary chamber. Even the thickness and material of the walls were extraordinary. I had a feeling that even a murim master would struggle to break through them.
The crowning touch was the door. A sliding design with no frame at all, fully integrated into the wall, forged of sturdy metal and fitted with several locking mechanisms. Sama Yeom drew a set of keys from his robes and began unlocking them one by one.
"This is where we've stored the treasures initially seized from the Hwanggeumga's warehouses."
So it really was a treasure vault.
After pushing open the impossibly heavy iron door with internal energy, the full vista of the vault came into view. Treasures gleaming from their places on neatly arranged shelves made for a spectacular sight.
Even to an outsider like me, the array of fine furniture, lavish garments, ornaments, and all manner of valuables was impressive — and even I could tell these weren't mere gems or gold trinkets. Every single treasure here felt as though it deserved a name of its own.
"Oh..."
Hyeok Gi-rin, too, kept letting out soft exclamations as she examined the items. Unlike me, who'd never had much to do with valuables, she would have some familiarity and a trained eye for such things. That she was still gasping in admiration told me these pieces were extraordinary.
"Last time, Hero Ho mentioned seeking elixirs of the Seven Luminaries attributes."
"I did."
"I purchased the Cheonyu Merchant Group's Nine-Root Three-Flower Pill for fifty taels of gold. It should arrive at my residence once their affairs are settled."
"Ah... Thank you for going to such trouble."
It wouldn't have been a simple half-price discount — he'd clearly done the Cheonyu Merchant Group some favor. I'd put Sama Yeom in a rather awkward position. I'd only meant for him to keep an eye out a little...
Distributing goods plundered by bandits was an extremely delicate matter. And I'd forced him into some kind of backroom deal with the Cheonyu Merchant Group — meaning Sama Yeom had taken a political risk just to grant my request.
Sama Yeom pointed to one corner of the vault. Herbs of every kind and wooden cases were piled there in abundance.
"Please search here for the remaining attribute elixirs as well. I'm a complete novice when it comes to elixirs, which is why I've brought you here in person."
That was quite a surprising offer.
"Isn't this a government vault? Won't there be trouble?"
"Haha — I am the Prefect. What is there to worry about?"
Sama Yeom laughed heartily and went on.
"We've cleanly confiscated the entire fortune of Yu Ji-gyeong, the Seongrak Pavilion master who committed every manner of illegality. The value of the pavilion itself, his other business holdings, the illegally concealed funds — the total was enough to astonish even me."
"Of course, the real catch is Hwanggeum-seon. Need I even speak of the wealth of the Hwanggeumga, once Sichuan's greatest merchant family? Not everyone bearing the Hwanggeum name committed crimes, so we aren't seizing every last asset — but those guilty of serious offenses number far more than a few. The confiscated fortune is correspondingly vast."
"What you see here are the named treasures confiscated from the Hwanggeumga. Ordinary metalwork, gems, and gold can be stashed away and laundered easily enough — but famous treasures are a poisoned chalice. Dispose of them carelessly and your identity is exposed at once."
In other words, everything that could be called a true Hwanggeumga treasure had been gathered into this vault.
"Wait, this is..."
Hyeok Gi-rin's expression said she had plenty to say. If it had just been Sama Yeom and me, we might have high-fived — but of all people, the imperial princess Hyeok Gi-rin was standing right here. Plotting to embezzle government property in front of a member of the imperial bloodline made the awkwardness inevitable.
"Mmm... Without Wanderer Ho's plan, none of this wealth would exist, so I approve of rewarding him — but the method is a bit... No. I won't say a word. I know nothing about this."
"Hahaha. No need to worry. Cases of something stored as an elixir turning out, upon appraisal, to be nothing more than a Heart-Clearing Pill are hardly rare."
"That's still called embezzlement! Aaaah...! Let's drop this subject!"
Hyeok Gi-rin, as a member of the imperial family, writhing under the pangs of conscience at the thought of siphoning off government property — and Sama Yeom, delighted to see this new side of her.
Yeah. Better not dwell too deeply on that part.
At any rate, Hyeok Gi-rin and I began our search. Whether from lingering guilt or not, she kept muttering to herself, shaking or nodding her head as she appraised the elixirs.
"Hmm."
Honestly, if someone asked whether I had any skill at distinguishing elixir attributes, I'd have to say no. I knew which opportunities yielded which rewards, but dump a pile of elixirs in front of me and ask what attribute each one was? I wouldn't have a clue.
Still, some elixirs could be identified by outward characteristics alone.
"This one's definite."
I picked up an elixir and shook it before my eyes. A crystal vial holding no more than a thumb's joint of liquid contained a solution that looked like molten lead.
This was definitely Stone Oil. What kind of Stone Oil I couldn't say, but it was unmistakably metal-attribute.
There were dozens of elixirs, but the more exquisite an elixir, the closer it tended toward no attribute at all — that was the rule.
"Hmm... This elixir could be called yin-attribute."
Hyeok Gi-rin seemed to have found something among the elixirs as well.
"You specifically need elixirs with clear Seven Luminaries characteristics, right? The rest all have mixed properties."
"Is that so."
Securing even two elixirs was already a remarkable haul.
"Haha — beyond the Seven Luminaries elixirs, have you no need for ordinary ones?"
"Having them would be nice, of course."
Internal energy was fundamentally a case of more-is-better. But my situation was different. The energies of seven elixirs would remain in my body, and I'd have to balance them — adding more on top of that felt... problematic.
Unlike the Jade Wine Purple Spirit Elixir I'd obtained legitimately, merely possessing the elixirs here carried a certain risk. And Sama Yeom's burden had to be considered as well.
Was it right to greedily claim elixirs I might or might not even consume?
While I was wrestling with that, Sama Yeom picked up one more elixir and held it out to me. I found myself staring at him blankly.
"I'm sure Hero Ho will handle things properly, but please be careful with the remaining elixirs."
"...Of course."
It was true that Sama Yeom had earned enormous merit through the bandit suppression. He'd brought the murim people under control, earned the merchants' gratitude, wiped out those who'd been parasitizing Sichuan for fifteen years while amassing wealth, and returned that fortune to the national treasury.
But for every merit, he'd also taken on political burdens of various kinds. Calling the Tang Family into Sichuan, intervening actively in murim affairs — whether things went well or poorly, the mere fact that Sama Yeom had made these choices could come back to bind his feet someday.
Offering me a third elixir was, from Sama Yeom's perspective, a rather dangerous act.
No matter how carefully you covered your tracks, there were limits. As long as the three elixirs smuggled out today remained in the world, they were physical evidence of Sama Yeom's corruption — proof he'd siphoned off Hwanggeumga property.
The metal-attribute and yin-attribute elixirs I needed could be assumed to be disposed of quickly — but the last one was different. There was no guarantee of when it would disappear. Frankly, this elixir could sit around for ten years, twenty years, serving as evidence of Sama Yeom's misconduct.
Just as the treasure called the Seven-Jeweled Jade Belt had eventually seized Mak Yeo-bu by the scruff of the neck.
Sama Yeom was no man to be ignorant of such risks... Did handing over the elixir mean he trusted me that much?
That trust was unnecessarily heavy.
"No need to look at me like that. I intended from the start to hand over about three elixirs."
I had my doubts about whether he'd truly planned it that way from the beginning, but Sama Yeom pulled three wooden cases from his sleeve and set them in the empty spots.
"Shall we head back?"
Watching Sama Yeom laugh so freely, a thought occurred to me.
This gentleman almost certainly wanted something from me.