Chapter 19
Chapter 19
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Translator: Ryuma
Chapter: 19
Chapter Title: Historically, That Was the Medicine, Right? (1)
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Yin Xia Lian welcomed the most vibrant morning in nearly a month.
'Feels like I finally got a good night's sleep.'
Of course, the tasks Radiant Prosperity Hall needed to handle remained unchanged, and the manpower shortage from just one day and night hadn't been filled.
As such, her sleep time was still less than an hour, same as the past month.
But to Yin Xia Lian herself, it felt refreshingly like she'd slept two or three hours solid.
Above all, the biggest factor in that refreshment was last night's dream.
'The content changed a bit.'
It was enough to mutter that the content had changed—for the past month, whenever she dreamed, she was always placed in the same location, the same moment.
Northern Deer Bandit Lair.
The very moment she faced Bang Cheon-deok.
In that moment, the dream-version of Yin Xia Lian was powerless.
She couldn't do anything, and amid self-recrimination for her own carelessness that led to the situation, she horrifically lost those around her. Finally, just as a sharp greatsword grazed her neck, she'd jolt awake with a gasp, soaking her bed in sweat. That had been the pattern.
'The background was the same this time too.'
The setting of last night's dream was no different from the past month's pattern.
Yin Xia Lian was once again placed in "that day," "that moment."
The situation was almost identical.
Even today in the dream, she couldn't move a muscle, as if bound by ropes.
But this time, there was one decisive difference.
'...Eon Gongzi.'
The man the world called the Pearl Eon Family's scoundrel had appeared in that place.
Eon Yong-un, who appeared in Yin Xia Lian's dream, effortlessly sliced through the moment that had steadily gnawed at her mind for so long, then approached her.
And roughly scolded her while giving her a knuckle to the forehead.
'...It was so vivid.'
Thanks to that, Yin Xia Lian had clutched her head amid a burst of stars and woken up.
She still couldn't move in the dream herself. Her breath had caught, and she'd even gotten hit.
'But it wasn't bad.'
If gauged by turmoil, it was plenty tumultuous—no passerby asked would hesitate to call last night's dream a branch of nightmares out of a hundred—but to Yin Xia Lian, it didn't feel that way at all.
"Haha. The real Eon Gongzi wouldn't knuckle me on the forehead."
No, it even made her laugh.
Because it felt so refreshing.
From cleanly resolving the stifling situation with one stroke, to punishing the stifling version of herself.
No matter what others thought, to Yin Xia Lian, it was a pleasant dream.
Thus, her day began vibrantly for the first time in ages.
Unlike before—when she'd shoo away the maids who rushed in at the rooster's crow with wash water, haphazardly throw on clothes, and bury herself in documents upon heading to Radiant Prosperity Hall—she now let the maids help comb her hair and chose a neat palace robe to wear.
Minor changes, but those actions provided ample mood refreshment, and that refreshment restored the vitality that had been fading in Yin Xia Lian as work nearly devoured her.
Thus, that day, the piled-up letters in Radiant Prosperity Hall's hall master's office began processing at unprecedented speed.
It was then.
As the entire hall, under the hall master's command, regained vigor for the first time in ages and churned through work relentlessly, with the sun past midday heading west.
"Hall Master! Hall Master!!"
One servant came rushing and pounded on Radiant Prosperity Hall's door.
"What is it?"
Stunned for a moment at the long-absent sight of her master looking hale(?).
"?!"
"I'm asking what it is!!"
At Yin Xia Lian's sharp retort, he quickly regained his composure.
"Ah! Th-that is!"
But his report didn't get to finish.
"No need. I don't even need to hear it. I know you're a servant under Escort Leader Eun. Your presence here means something happened in the annex, right?"
"Eh? Y-yes!"
"The VIP with the platinum frame received permission from the Hall Master, and that was notified to each hall and subordinate organization. The only one who would cause a commotion there is surely Seong Prosperity Hall Master, right?"
"Eh? Yes, that's right too!"
First, because Yin Xia Lian grasped the context of the incident in an instant.
"As of this moment, Radiant Prosperity Hall's routine operations are suspended. We will devote full effort to punishing the one who dared violate decorum in the Southern Jiang Merchant King's estate, offending the VIP, and tarnishing Silver Radiance Merchant Group's trust and honor. Leave only essential clerks in each hall; escorts, escort leaders, and escorts, arm yourselves and follow me under Escort Leader Jang's command. Escort Chae, convey my will to Internal Law Hall's Chief Jang; Hall Master, to the Hall Master's office."
"H-Hall Master?"
"What is it? Chief Jang?"
"P-Punish exactly how...?"
"Are you asking because you don't know? Isn't there clear precedent in the Merchant Lord's code?"
"...As written?"
"Cut off fingers."
Second, because Yin Xia Lian—who had maintained a consistently moderate attitude toward her half-brother—had drawn a sharp blade.
A while back.
Right around when I was getting kicked out of the Pearl Eon Family?
I'd thought something like: if Eon Yong-myeong is the hopeful side of the later-generation talent produced by the Eon Family's atmosphere, then former Yong-un is the despair side.
"This is my final warning, Eun Jeong-gil. Step aside quietly when I'm asking nicely. And if you say you'll serve me along with an apology for not knowing your place, I'll forget this rudeness and maybe use you as a gatekeeper later."
"My answer is the same as before. For the time being, this annex is under Radiant Prosperity Hall Master's control. This has the Southern Jiang Merchant King's permission. Seong Prosperity Hall Master may not enter."
Hearing the scuffle outside, today I suddenly thought of the hopeful and despair sides of the Eon Family's later-generation talent born from its atmosphere.
'Of course, Yin Xia Lian is the hopeful side, and that Eon Family bastard outside is the despair side.'
...Ah.
Eun Jeong-gil the Escort Leader is a collateral branch Eun, so calling the guy outside an "Eon Family bastard" might rub wrong?
'What was that kid's name? He was Ha-something too? Sounded like it started with S?'
...S
Ah, I remember!
Ha-seong! Yin Ha-seong!
Recalling the original story's Yin Xia Lian episode, this household selected jade amid material abundance and thorough neglect, picking those fit to manage the Merchant Lord later.
Yin Xia Lian converted that neglect into responsibility, while Yin Ha-seong seemed to sprout wings on it and fly straight into indulgence.
"I have no intention of harming the person inside. A VIP with the platinum frame, right? No matter if you got that token from my sister, in this situation where who inherits Silver Radiance Merchant Group is unknown, the VIP surely wants to build ties with me too."
Not at all?
Why grab a musty rotten rope when I have the golden lifeline called Yin Xia Lian?
As I thought that, Yin Ha-seong's tyranny escalated.
"How dare."
"!"
"You."
"!"
"Scum."
"!!"
"Block."
"!!"
"My path. Think you can handle the consequences later?! To begin with, with your low-tier first-rate skills, you couldn't handle me anyway, Eun Jeong-gil?"
Even just from the voice beyond the iron door, his tyranny was palpable...
- Is there such a mad dog? That kid supposedly the Merchant Lord's heir we saw yesterday, calling his sister "big sis" or whatever from his looks, seems way younger than this Escort Leader Eun Jeong-gil, yet pulling this crap? The Merchant Lord's gone to the dogs in a hundred years!
"No wonder even Master, who lived his whole life as he pleased turning the world upside down, calls him a mad dog."
- ?
"?"
- ??
"...Ah. The inner voice slipped out. Master."
- ???
Anyway.
Listening to Escort Leader Eun getting reamed, it grated on my nerves a bit.
'For one, my dharma protector is taking that crap while standing guard.'
Moreover, strictly speaking, Escort Leader Eun Jeong-gil was the closest person in this world to me, excluding Master and Yin Xia Lian.
'We've been through at least one brush with death together.'
Suddenly, old memories flashed through my mind.
I ended up called Necromancer King eventually, but started with a C-rank judgment as a porter, so I'd endured plenty of injustices and absurdities.
'Most got a proper lesson from me.'
Thinking that far, another thought came.
'Back then, it was an unprecedented crisis so even trash like that got nationally employed for their abilities, but why does the Southern Jiang Merchant King leave this guy be?'
When there's a perfect answer right there called Yin Xia Lian?
At that moment.
I saw the groundwork the Southern Jiang Merchant King had laid in my mind.
'...It's a trap.'
You know how in winter, you wrap straw around trees, bugs gather inside over the cold, then burn it in spring?
Sticking to Yin Ha-seong's side—thinking it through—is proof he wants a big chunk from Silver Radiance Merchant Group by backing an indulgent punk rather than escaping the Central Plains' two great merchants label to become the world's top tycoon. It's groundwork laced with deep schemes to incinerate him at once later.
'And to naturally give the current Yin Xia Lian—whose original personality hasn't fully ripened, lacking venom—the trial of cutting out her own blood kin, injecting that venom.'
The Yin Clan is scary.
Scary.
'Even the current successor situation being fifty-fifty is all the Southern Jiang Merchant King's intent.'
Anyway.
From my position, this meant injecting manners into Yin Ha-seong carried zero burden.
'Heh heh heh.'
What to do, our little Ha-seong.
Originally, he'd live happily as that trash a bit longer before getting schooled by his half-sister later, but he picked the wrong time and place, so today this big brother will inject some manners.
Having reached that inner conclusion.
But now that I had a sect, I should at least hear Master's opinion.
"Um. Master?"
- What is it?
"In Master's era, how'd you handle guys like that?"
- Since ancient times, madmen need the stick as medicine.
"Right? Historically, that was the medicine, right?"
- Indeed. Indeed.
Screeech—
As the annex's iron door opened, the eyes of Escort Leader Eun and Yin Ha-seong, who had been arguing outside, turned to me. The first reaction came from Escort Leader Eun.
"Already coming out? You said you wouldn't emerge for at least three days."
"Was planning to, but it's too noisy outside, isn't it?"
"...Ah. Sorry."
Eun Jeong-gil started like that, but he too was a martial artist eyeing the expert realm beyond first-rate.
He soon noticed my training garb and posture were entirely different from when I'd entered, and his eyes widened.
"...No way, even then?!"
I gave Escort Leader Eun an appropriate glance.
Shh.
Time to start "your kid's changed now."
'Pick up on it.'
Eun Jeong-gil didn't seem to fully grasp my glance's meaning.
But he hadn't wasted his escort leader experience; he tilted his head but stepped back anyway.
At once, Yin Ha-seong clutched his nose and opened his mouth.
"Eww, stinks. What?! Who's this beggar-lookin' punk? Hey, Eun Jeong-gil, why're you two whispering...? Ah. Wait. Then, no way this is the guy sis gave the platinum-framed token of gratitude to?"
Toward such Yin Ha-seong, I smirked and replied.
"Probably?"
"What the? Thought some renowned Murim elder or hidden master was here, hoping to ask for a lesson or two. What a letdown."
Such a person does exist.
At my waist.
But he dislikes you.
Well, in that sense.
"No letdown. This elder, unlike others skimping on a move or two out of indifference, plans to teach you thirty or forty moves."