Chapter 23 - {The Merchant of Escar City}
{The Merchant of Escar City}
Translator : Elizabeth
The sun of the South was hot.
In contrast to the North's flesh-cutting biting wind and perennial snow, the sunlight here in Escar was blazing hot.
"Phew."
Kang Jin-ho lay on a sunbed and let out a long breath.
Emerald-colored ocean spread endlessly before his eyes.
On the white sandy beach, beauties in bikinis and tanned sailors were mingled, strolling leisurely.
It was a scenery completely opposite to Winter Castle, where tension like sheets of ice lingered.
'This is heaven.'
Kang Jin-ho picked up the tropical juice placed next to him.
Colorful fruit pieces were stuck in the glass filled with ice.
As he sucked a sip, coolness and sweetness passed down his esophagus.
"Money is the best after all."
Kang Jin-ho giggled and adjusted his sunglasses.
He was currently enjoying a vacation using part of the blank check he secured from the North.
The number he wrote in the amount field was beyond imagination.
It was enough to make the Winter family's annual budget stagger, so with that money, even renting an entire top-grade resort in the South and staying for months would leave plenty to spare.
'I wonder if rumors about capturing Mammoth Prime alive have already spread.'
Probably the North was in an uproar.
The news that the ancient demonic beast called a calamity was caught alive and tied up in the front yard of Winter Castle would have become a propaganda tool raising the status of the Winter Grand Duchy.
But Kang Jin-ho wasn't interested in how far the rumor spread or if it was distorted.
'They probably didn't spread rumors about the Grand Duke getting his teeth knocked out.'
It would be truly funny if that rumor spread.
The Northern bastards have strong pride.
There was no way they would blabber about the humiliating incident where the Head of the Family had all his front teeth knocked out and the knights were smashed.
It was obvious they packaged it as "suppressed the demonic beast after friendly cooperation with the Fist Emperor."
And whatever the bastards blabbered, as long as they didn't annoy him, it was none of his business.
'I made a lot of money. Thanks to that, I'm resting comfortably here.'
The South here is a city of commerce and tourism.
A place where merchants and tourists form the mainstream rather than mercenaries or martial artists.
Therefore, there were almost no people who recognized the face of Fist Emperor Jin, who was infamous in the Capital, Central, and Northern regions.
Kang Jin-ho liked that anonymity.
The gaze where no one feared or revered him, but just saw him as a rich idler, was comfortable.
But it seemed the time to end that comfort had come.
Swish.
A dark shadow was cast over Kang Jin-ho's face.
At the shadow disturbing his sunbathing, Kang Jin-ho frowned and slightly lowered his sunglasses.
Judging by the presence felt, it was definitely a woman.
But right now, whether man or woman, he didn't want his own time disturbed.
"Move. You're blocking the sun."
He waved his hand as if annoyed.
But the owner of the shadow didn't move.
Rather, a voice that was polite yet tinged with desperation was heard.
"Excuse me. Are you perhaps Fist Emperor Jin-nim?"
Kang Jin-ho's hand stopped.
He barely felt comfort, but that comfort was broken.
He slowly raised his upper body and checked the opponent.
"……."
A woman was standing in front of him.
Pale white skin that seemed like it wouldn't melt even under the Southern sun.
And deep blue hair, deeper and darker than the sea, flowed down to her waist in waves.
She was wearing a neat suit-style dress, but the curves revealed underneath were undeniably seductive.
But what caught Kang Jin-ho's gaze wasn't her appearance.
'I've seen her somewhere.'
It was a face in his memory.
No, to be precise, he knew her from the novel's description.
The helper who supported female lead Han Seol-ah with funds and information whenever she was in crisis in the original story <The Regressor Saintess Only Walks the Flower Path>.
The tycoon leading the Empire's number one merchant guild.
The woman who would later be called <Golden Queen Serafina>.
"Serafina Lapis?"
As Kang Jin-ho spat it out, the woman's eyes widened roundly.
"Do you know… my name?"
"You're famous. The Guild Master of the Lapis Merchant Guild."
Kang Jin-ho answered nonchalantly and leaned back on the sunbed again.
Actually, at this point in time, she wouldn't be that famous.
She wasn't the 'Golden Queen' yet.
It was the period when her father met a mysterious death, and she inherited the merchant guild and was struggling alone.
Right now, 5 years ahead of the original story, she was still an incomplete vessel.
"I am honored. That Fist Emperor-nim knows a mere merchant like me."
Serafina bowed her head politely.
Her attitude was elegant, and her voice had the composure glimpsing the qualities of a tycoon.
But Kang Jin-ho's eyes couldn't be deceived.
'This woman, she's pushing herself quite a bit.'
Dark circles under her eyes were covered with makeup, and her clasped fingertips were trembling minutely.
Outwardly pretending to be confident, but inside, the desperation peculiar to a person driven to the edge of a cliff seeped out.
It was quite a different appearance from the original Serafina, whose trademarks were composure and slyness.
Rather than the fox feeling of the original, she almost reminded him of a pitiful puppy.
"So? What is it? Want an autograph?"
Kang Jin-ho asked, sucking a sip of juice.
"I wish to offer a request."
Serafina brought up the main point.
She seemed to know well that Fist Emperor Jin hated dragging things out.
"I need Fist Emperor-nim's martial power. I will give you a reward that won't disappoint."
"I refuse."
Kang Jin-ho answered without hesitating for even 1 second.
"I'm on vacation. Thanks to the last request, I have enough money to rot, so I have no thoughts of earning more right now."
"Please, I beg of you! It must be you, Fist Emperor-nim!"
Serafina's mask came off.
The elegant attitude was nowhere to be found, and she urgently approached Kang Jin-ho's sunbed and tried to kneel.
"Hey, what are you doing?"
Kang Jin-ho slightly pushed her away with his foot before her knees touched the ground.
It was obvious that surrounding gazes would focus if they saw her kneeling on the sand.
He didn't want to ruin his vacation.
"Sit. Don't put people in a difficult spot."
Kang Jin-ho pointed to the empty chair next to him with his chin.
Serafina sat on the chair with tearful eyes.
Seeing that appearance, Kang Jin-ho felt interest arising.
'Lucky.'
If interest hadn't arisen, he wouldn't have gone easy on her just because she was a woman.
The current situation, which seemed different from the original story, drew out his curiosity.
"Let's hear the circumstances. Why does the Guild Master of the Lapis Merchant Guild of the world have such a dying face?"
At Kang Jin-ho's question, Serafina sighed deeply.
She wet her dry lips with trembling hands and opened her mouth.
"…The merchant guild is about to go ruin."
"Ruin? Lapis?"
It was a situation incomprehensible with original story knowledge.
Lapis Merchant Guild is a leading merchant guild of the Empire.
It was a place with a structure hard to fail even if one wanted to fail.
"Our guild's main product is a special potion that produces 'Elixir'-grade efficacy. You know that, right?"
"I know. Heard you can't sell it because you don't have enough."
"Correct. There are thousands of backorders, and we've even received advance payments. But… we cannot obtain the ingredients."
Serafina's voice trembled thinly.
"Moonlight Grass, the core ingredient of the special potion, grows wild only in the Frost Mountain Range, the border mountain range between the North and the Central region. It's a rare herb that grows only in very picky environments."
"And?"
"That place… was devastated."
Serafina continued with a despairing expression.
"It was 3 years ago. Because Fenrir, the ancient demonic beast who was the ruler of the Northern Snow Mountains, was subjugated."
"……."
The juice glass held in Kang Jin-ho's hand stopped abruptly.
The Fenrir subjugation 3 years ago.
It was something he did.
"So? What about it?"
"Fenrir was the apex of that region's ecosystem. Because of the bastard's energy, because they feared the bastard, other demonic beasts didn't dare invade that territory, let alone the vicinity. But when Fenrir disappeared…."
Serafina clenched her fist tightly.
"Suppressed lower demonic beasts began to wage a territorial war. Ogres, Wyverns, Basilisks flocked to the mountain range and waged a slaughter killing each other… In that process, even the Moonlight Grass habitat on the border line of the North and Central region was all trampled and burned."
"Ah. So that was it."
Kang Jin-ho understood the situation going around.
This time too, it was a butterfly effect.
The incident where he blew away Fenrir's head because it cried loudly 3 years ago, in his 2nd year of mercenary life.
Thanks to that, it became an opportunity for his fame to rise further.
But that collapsed the balance of the ecosystem of the North and Central region, and went around leading to the bankruptcy crisis of the Southern Merchant Guild.
It was a similar context to Mammoth Prime waking up because he caught the dragon Azhdaha.
'Was I the destroyer of the original story and the ecosystem.'
Again, he destroyed the original story and made an original character fall into trouble.
But Kang Jin-ho didn't feel anything like guilt.
'None of my business.'
He killed Fenrir, but the demonic beasts fighting for land afterward is their business.
Did he have an obligation to preside over the peace treaty of demonic beasts too?
"So? Are you hoping I'd feel guilty and help? If it's something like that, wake up from your dream. Even what demonic beasts did after I subjugated Fenrir isn't something for me to care about."