Grand Opening
While Europe's nobles came flooding into Pyeong-an Naru, Haneul was busier than ever.
The two Chamgorae transport ships that had arrived with her — bigger than the previous ones — would serve not only as cargo vessels but, with their interiors upgraded into something far more luxurious, as cruise liners as well.
After all, the things people bought at the department store were hardly one or two coins' worth, and hauling them home was going to be a serious undertaking.
Just ferrying them as far as their nearby home ports would earn a heartfelt *thank you*. And while running these regular routes, the ships would bring in fresh customers too.
"So I didn't bring a whole fleet — just these two."
Roughly speaking, a loop around Europe's northern coastline took about twenty days, while the southern route took twelve.
So she had announced that there needed to be rest time, and decided to run each route only once a month.
Once aboard, they could either linger for a month or find their own way home — their business.
"Well, once they ride it once, even that'll look like fun. Heh heh heh."
And besides, they could carry their precious purchases home safely. What excellent service was that? She'd even prepared some fun surprises aboard the ships.
The opening ceremony couldn't come soon enough.
On March 15th, in the year 4166, as dusk was settling over Pyeong-an Naru under a slightly chilly sky, an enormous crowd came pouring in.
Europe's nobility, along with countless merchants attending as proxies for those who couldn't make it themselves.
Clop clop clop.
"Carriages, this way please!"
"Proceed to the open lot and park in line!"
The people directing traffic outside were European defectors living around the port.
With fugitives from so many nations gathered in one place, someone who could speak the visitors' language had been paired up with each group to guide them.
And for those who didn't know the Daehan language, interpreters trailed along offering translation services — for a fee, of course.
Since this was pure income for the residents themselves, everyone was falling over each other to volunteer.
"Ahem. Hem."
"Heh heh…."
With nobles gathered from every corner of Europe, it was only natural that subjects of hostile nations were among them too. They merely exchanged awkward, throat-clearing glances and turned their backs on one another — apparently no one intended to start a fight here.
"Assembling us in a place like this without so much as a chair."
"Hmph. Let's endure the minor discomfort."
Nobles, wherever they went, expected to be treated as such.
Being herded into a plaza and made to stand and wait like this clearly rubbed them the wrong way.
But their eyes had already been caught by that astonishing bait product called *stockings* — which was why they were waiting.
Thud, thud.
Into the darkened plaza, a black figure ascended a platform about waist-high.
It was Haneul. Ignoring the murmuring crowd, she took hold of the microphone on the platform.
Haneul wasted no time on pleasantries, saying only what needed to be said.
There were people who didn't understand Daehan, after all, so there was no point in dragging it out.
Pop.
The moment she finished speaking, electric lights blazed to life in every direction.
"Ooh!"
"Ooooh!"
"It's like broad daylight!"
"That building ahead must be the department store!"
"Ohh… how tall it is!"
Five stories was, in truth, staggering. The early-modern crowds, who had long forgotten Rome's concrete, built their homes by stacking bricks and stone — a building of this height was beyond their imagining.
Following the glow of the lights, the crowd's gaze swept their surroundings — then returned to the platform.
Wearing an unusually composed expression, Haneul stood there adorned with jewelry, stockings on her legs.
"Gasp…."
"Ohh…."
"Wow…."
She had worn a skirt slightly shorter than the stockings to show them off properly — but the crowd's attention was riveted on the strip of bare skin showing between stocking and skirt.
You're supposed to look at the stockings, why are you staring THERE, of all things….
Remarkable. The first thing in history to defeat Haneul's beauty turned out to be thigh.
Floor 1: Health foods, medicinal ingredients
Floor 2: Men's clothing and sundries
Floor 3: Women's clothing and sundries
Floor 4: Furniture
Floor 5: Banquet hall and restaurant
It was called a department store, but it didn't yet stock an overwhelming variety of goods.
Still, it was more than enough. The rest of life's necessities were being sold in shops outside.
"Heh…."
"Hoh…."
These people already had zero interest in anything Haneul was saying….
Pop.
And with that, the two cruise liners moored at the harbor lit up from bow to stern.
"Gasp!"
"What IS that!"
"We get to ride a ship like THAT?"
The sight of the Chamgorae — two to three times longer than anything Europe could build at the time — left the onlookers utterly stunned.
It was the first time their eyes had torn themselves away from Haneul's legs.
Her logic — that sales would climb so long as the customers could come and go comfortably — was why she'd stationed the two ships here first.
Thud, thud.
Haneul stepped down from the platform and disappeared into the building ahead of everyone else.
"Ah…."
"She's gone…."
"Tsk."
The crowd, not yet thinking of going inside, was too busy lingering in the plaza and gawking at everything around them….
"Ah! Right — we're allowed in now, aren't we!"
"That's right! Let's go!"
Only after Haneul had vanished completely from view did they come to their senses and begin filing into the building.
Shopping time had begun.
The crowd flowed into the department store's first floor, strolling in with the studied composure of people who were, supposedly, nobility.
"Hmm. So this is where one may view Daehan's medicines?"
"Could the Holy Water be here as well?"
The rumors of the Holy Water were well known, and more than a few were browsing on the off chance of finding it.
"How can there be so much?"
"It seems all the medicinal liquors are on the first floor, hahaha."
"And all those plants and herbs over there as well, I take it?"
Liquor and tobacco on the first floor were familiar enough even to these customers.
"Eh? They classify *tea* as medicine?"
"Hoh… no wonder it seemed to work so well."
She'd only stashed it on the first floor because building a proper sundries section was a hassle — but since it genuinely had some effect, it could pass.
"Hm? And what might this be?"
A man who had stepped up to the medicine counter asked, eyeing a certain golden pill.
"Welcome! This is called Woochwong-Simsimwon — an emergency remedy that cools heat in the heart and calms the mind."
"Hm?"
An *emergency remedy*? The concept was still unfamiliar to the West.
"Does this medicine actually work?"
"Of course it does~"
"Hm…."
The word *medicine* drew his interest, but it was something he'd never laid eyes on, and he simply couldn't bring himself to believe it.
This was his first encounter with Daehan medicine. And hadn't hospitals offered nothing of the sort either?
"If anyone here feels tightness in their chest or a racing heart, please try one — you'll know its effect immediately."
"Immediately?"
An instant-acting remedy, on top of everything else? People began to gather little by little.
"I… I should like to try one myself."
The man who stepped forward reeked not a whit of alcohol, yet his face was bright red and his breathing ragged.
Even at a glance, something was clearly wrong with him.
"Here, please take this and have a seat while we wait a moment."
The clerk opened a box and handed over the Woochwong-Simsimwon.
"I simply eat it as is?"
"Chewing it thoroughly is best."
"Understood."
And into his mouth it went, chewed with abandon.
Crunch crunch.
"Ugh… bitter and thick on the tongue."
"There's a saying, you know — good medicine tastes bitter."
"Right. It *is* medicine."
Grumbling for a moment, the man dutifully chewed and swallowed it all.
Then he sat and waited. Five minutes. Ten.
"Hm? Is it working?"
"How long has it been since he took it?"
"Perhaps Daehan's medicine simply doesn't suit us?"
It was around the fifteen-minute mark. The impatient ones were just starting to drift away, muttering that it must be a fraud —
"Eh?"
"What is it?"
"His face — that crimson face is settling down."
Sitting there, the man's expression grew easier by the moment, and the red slowly drained from his cheeks.
"Eh? What — the headache, the dizziness, it's all gone! The tightness in my chest too! Gasp! What IS this!"
"Hahaha. It's called Woochwong-Simsimwon."
Well. In the modern era, one might suspect this was a card game where you lose if you laugh — but no such thing existed yet. And besides, these were all nobles who knew one another only by a single step removed.
"Gasp?"
"What did they say the effects were?"
"Ohh…. I should buy some too?"
The crowd began to take the bait all at once. Didn't they say people would drink lye water if it was good for the body?
Ah? Lye water was something else entirely?
Anyway, the crowds started surging toward the medicine counter.
"This Gongjindan here is also excellent. Do take a look."
"What is that one?"
"The tonic of emperors — a medicine that floods the body with strength!"
"Gasp! The Emperor's medicine!"
It was, they said, none other than the medicine of emperors. The crowd, hooked by those words, swarmed over in another rush.
Red ginseng, regular ginseng — the stampede started right on the first floor, and the money began to flow.
Explaining the effects and dosage mattered too, so the clerks were going hoarse — but their faces were all smiles.
Seeing foreigners this frenzied over Daehan's goods meant their homeland was being praised, and these people were looking up to it.
Nibble nibble.
"Hmmmm. Why are they carrying on like that from the first floor already?"
"They're in a frenzy buying medicine?"
"Liquor and tobacco?"
Haneul, watching the scene from the railing while munching on an ice treat, simply could not understand.
Stampeding like that — over liquor and tobacco?
"Going by the location, looks like pills?"
"Eh? Medicine?"
"Fascinating."
"Seriously — they're not even selling Holy Water, so why is everyone packed over THERE?"
"Maybe Europe just doesn't have much medicine?"
"You think? Well, if it sells, good for them."
The thoughts of Europeans were incomprehensible to Daehan's people. Haneul was no exception.
"Let's go check out that vigor tonic next to it."
"Why?"
"If it were your husband, wouldn't you buy him something good for his stamina?"
"Ah…."
"Can't feed him what you don't have, can you?"
"Th…that's true…."
Moses herself was hardly in a position to point fingers — whenever she heard of something good for nighttime activities, she would trek however many days it took to buy it and feed it to her man.
"Gasp! Did you hear! Something good for stamina!"
"Eh! Me too!"
"Wait there, save some for me!"
Apparently someone had come back with word that a stamina booster was on sale.
Dada-da-da!
"Move!"
"I was here first!"
A running stampede bordering on outright riot broke out. Bodies jostling, the crowd sprinted for the stall.
"Everyone, please! This is just a tonic! It is NOT a vigor medicine!"
"You said it would help!"
"W-well, yes, it does help…."
These were people who would eat a cockroach if it helped even a dust-grain's worth.
From the very first floor, the department store was a smash hit.
"There's even better stuff upstairs — will people really spend it all down here?"
Their department store shopping had only just begun.