The Essence of Social Skill
Princess Dohwa slowly swept her gaze across those assembled.
Eunuchs pale as blank paper, the bewildered Eun Hwaran and the laborers, and even the boy watching the whole situation with keen interest.
The tip of Cheon Su-gong's sword hovered just beneath the Adam's apple of the eunuch who had barked "you wench"—and it was wreathed in sharp blue sword qi.
"Y-Your Highness? Why would someone of such... humble station grace a place as precious as this...?"
Wang Jin-gong committed another verbal blunder, still reeling from the shock of her sudden appearance.
The princess did not answer. Instead she carefully surveyed the silkworm house.
It was far better than she had expected. To raise this many silkworms without even a sericulture master...
Before coming she had been certain it would have failed. She had come in person, as a member of the imperial family, intending to force the inspection through if necessary.
There's no need for that after all.
Who would look at this and think it a fledgling silkworm house? In such a short time they had achieved results that defied belief. She could only wonder how they had managed it.
Princess Dohwa stole a glance at the young female merchant head. Perhaps there truly was no such thing as a tiger father siring a dog of a daughter.
Coming to honor her promise with the former head of Chunhui had been the right choice.
"Wang Jin-gong! I have yet to hear your apology! Will you not drive that insolent mouth of yours into the dirt this instant!"
Cheon Su-gong flared with murderous light in his eyes, as if to say there were things to do before asking questions.
He unleashed a thick killing intent, declaring he would take every neck that refused to bend.
"I-I have committed a capital offense! Your Highness!"
Insulting the imperial family was a capital crime. Ignorance did not spare one from the charge.
Knowing this, the eunuchs who had held their necks so stiffly now prostrated themselves and begged for mercy.
Originally the princess had expected to draw backlash for forcing the golden seal through by imperial fiat.
But the silkworm house had proven excellent beyond expectation, and Wang Jin-gong's careless tongue had handed her both the moral high ground and a weakness to exploit.
In other words, the hilt of the blade had passed into her hands.
"If you've committed a capital offense, then you die, hmm?"
"Eek!"
Cheon Su-gong brandished threats, saying it wouldn't be so bad to take their heads while he had the chance.
Princess Dohwa watched the scene and smiled faintly.
The tide of battle had flipped in an instant.
Princess Dohwa had turned the stage upside down.
"W-we only acted under the Second Prince's orders because we had no choice...!"
"We never meant it that way!"
"Your Highness, please, spare our lives at least...!"
The power brokers who held the door-knobs of the Imperial Palace slammed their heads against the floor, begging for their lives.
A woman who, without speaking more than a few words, had overturned an unfavorable situation merely by appearing.
So this was the power that came of being the emperor's blood.
"Speak! Did the Second Prince order you to insult Princess Dohwa!"
"Huk—absolutely not...!"
"Then you mean you insulted Her Highness of your own free will, calling her 'you wench'?"
"Th-that is a misunderstanding as well!"
And there was the middle-aged man Cheon Su-gong, rampaging like a butcher.
Seizing the moment, he thrust his sword—thick with cloudy sword qi—this way and that, scaring the living daylights out of the eunuchs.
"...Mujin, just where did you find these people?"
At some point Merchant Head Eun Hwaran had sidled up beside Dan Mujin with the question.
Her voice was laced with unmistakable bewilderment.
"Beats me."
He had thought them rather unusual characters and tried to just usher them past, but who would have guessed a eunuch and a princess.
Dan Mujin felt keenly that his instincts were still sharp.
All those years of troubleshooter experience hadn't been for nothing.
"Big Sis, I saved you again, right?"
"...You just guided people who said they wanted to come."
He had tried to quietly claim the credit for himself.
Even after enduring every hardship of the day, Merchant Head Eun Hwaran still retained a merchant's keen edge.
"But what are you doing...?"
"This? My foot suddenly started itching."
Because that eunuch uncle over there had blasted killing intent in front of the Heavenly Killing Star.
The cursed star was thrashing wildly inside his body. He couldn't sit in lotus position in this situation, so as a stopgap he was spreading his pupils to quiet the thing down.
Tssss—
The Heavenly Killing Star fell back into slumber with a discontented air.
"Wang Jin-gong of the Directorate of Imperial Manufactories, hear me."
After a silence, Princess Dohwa opened her mouth.
From beyond the veil came a slender yet dignified voice.
"The selection for the sericulture industry is entirely the purview of the Directorate of Imperial Manufactories. Yet having witnessed the process myself today, I have come to realize it was far from fair."
Every word was perfectly just.
Merchant Head Eun Hwaran nodded vigorously beside him in agreement.
She even clenched her fists; she must have built up quite a lot while enduring the malice poured on her earlier.
"This is a silkworm house that has raised silkworms so splendidly without even a sericulture master. Had the examination been fair, approving it would have been common sense."
There were still many questions about how they had succeeded... but in the end, what mattered was the result.
And that result was outstanding.
"H-however..."
Victory had completely tilted their way. The eunuchs, their capital spent, offered a final resistance.
"However?"
The princess's tone curved upward, clearly displeased. That alone made the eunuchs flinch hard.
"Cheon Su-gong, what is the punishment for insulting the imperial family?"
"Immediate beheading, Your Highness."
Cheon Su-gong's eyes bulged as if to ask whether they truly wanted to die. The sword that had barely returned to its scabbard rose halfway out again.
The moment the order fell, he looked ready to draw a straight line across the eunuchs' necks.
"Think carefully, eunuchs."
Having used Cheon Su-gong to drive the assembly into terror, Princess Dohwa then urged them from behind toward the wise choice.
"If your heads fly off here, will the older brother who put you up to this even care? You who failed his command and even insulted the imperial family?"
"..."
An opinion that struck with painful realism.
Their plan had been to crush the Eunseong Merchant Group in spectacular fashion and rise as grand eunuchs. Now even keeping their lives was in jeopardy.
"Khuh!"
Wang Jin-gong let out a groan and hung his head.
Who would have thought Princess Dohwa, who had been so carefully keeping a low profile in the Princess's Palace, would come here in person.
Just as she said, the Second Prince would click his tongue and promptly forget the existence of these incompetent eunuchs.
In short, holding out only meant a dog's death.
"Wang Jin-gong of the Directorate of Imperial Manufactories... humbly accepts Princess Dohwa's counsel..."
Wang Jin-gong spoke as if swallowing a sharp thorn. Nearby, the other eunuchs squeezed their eyes shut as if it was all over.
"You accept it, you say?"
She left no escape hatch. Thorough to the bone.
In the end, Wang Jin-gong had to utter, before every silkworm house staff member, the words that put an end to his ambition and his rise.
"The Eunseong Merchant Group's golden seal is... approved."
A grudging business approval. He had come to smash the Eunseong Merchant Group, and instead had given them wings.
And at that declaration, the silkworm house laborers shot to their feet with brightened faces.
"Ohh!"
"We got the business rights...!"
"Finally, finallyyy!"
Their eye sockets were darkened from nights of overtime. But thinking their hardships so far had been repaid, they threw their arms around each other and roared with joy.
With this, the Eunseong Merchant Group could breathe a little easier.
"We did it, Mujin, we did it!"
In her soaring joy, Eun Hwaran suddenly threw her arms around Dan Mujin beside her.
He couldn't breathe, it was soft, and a faint lotus fragrance drifted from her.
Thinking him an ordinary little boy, she had no restraint in physical contact.
But after Eun Hwaran, another wave of people came crashing over him.
"Thank you, you little rascal!"
"Because of you I can feed my family!"
"Sorry for ignoring you at first—you're the hero of the silkworm house...!"
The uncles of the silkworm house took turns hugging Dan Mujin with hearty laughs, as if he were something to be proud of.
The sour stench fermented through nights of overtime, and thick chest hair stabbed at his face.
"...Ah, please."
A musty stench boring into his nostrils.
It was the height of summer.
Power is crushed before greater power.
With Princess Dohwa's appearance, the rotten eunuchs bowed and scraped and withdrew.
Thanks to that, the silkworm house had turned into a full-blown festival atmosphere.
Amid the clamor I glanced at the veiled woman called Princess Dohwa.
"I heard much about you from the former head of Chunhui, yet today is the first I see you in person, Merchant Head Eun Hwaran."
The princess mentioned her acquaintance with Chunhui's previous merchant head.
"...I am overwhelmed by Your Highness's grace."
Merchant Head Eun Hwaran lowered her posture, saying it was a story both grateful and humbling.
It was a conversation between the two women who currently held the most sway in this silkworm house.
"I never dreamed Your Highness would come all the way here in person..."
Wang Jin-gong hadn't expected it either.
That she, so extremely careful about her movements, would suddenly surface like this.
"How could I not come? I heard the death of Chunhui's former head was most suspicious. If that is true... then I too bear no small responsibility."
Of course, that former head of Chunhui had leaped into the darkness of the imperial house of his own will, drawn by the princess's great cause.
But his daughter had been swept up against her will. So Princess Dohwa explained that she had come in person despite the many enemies watching her.
"...Father always said that when you receive a kindness, you must repay it properly. This grace of risking danger to aid Eunseong—I will repay it with the spirit of binding grass to repay a kindness."
It seemed the answer she had longed for; the princess nodded, making her veil flutter.
"So if Your Highness ever needs help with matters of money in the future, please call on me."
"Kind words. I shall remember them."
It was the moment when the link between imperial authority and financial power, nearly severed by unfortunate events, was reconnected.
The princess had probably come in person aiming for this as well.
And Eun Hwaran, having set foot in imperial business, must have decided to place herself under the Third Princess's protection, knowing something like this could happen again.
Thus the two women sorted out their mutual interests and discussed what came after the sericulture business rights.
Then the princess suddenly asked:
"So, what was the secret?"
She seemed to have been curious all along about the secret of revitalizing the silkworm house in such a short time without a sericulture master.
Eun Hwaran pointed toward me.
"It was thanks to that child."
The veiled woman's head lifted slightly, as if surprised.
"...Remarkable. No wonder he answered those difficult questions so readily earlier."
So Her Highness had remembered my performance.
I puffed out my chest with pride.
"But knowledge of sericulture is known only to a very few even in the imperial house. Just what is that child's identity...?"
At the question about my identity, I pulled my chest back in.
I couldn't exactly explain I was a guy who flew in from modern Earth.
"As for that... Elder Hwang asked that the child's origins be kept secret..."
Elder Hwang was a Murim expert helping the merchant group, and the child was his disciple. So it was a Murim matter—would she kindly let it slide? That was Eun Hwaran's request.
"Do you know that concealing one's identity before the imperial family is a great disrespect, Merchant Head?"
"That is..."
Before the imperial family, even the principle of non-interference between officials and Murim was empty talk. Eun Hwaran let out a soft groan.
"However, today is a fine day of meeting you, and the merit of his earlier deeds offsets the fault. So I shall be generous and overlook it, nameless boy."
A stern gaze from beyond the veil seemed to settle on me.
Honestly I had been at a loss for how to answer if they pressed the source of my knowledge, but thanks to Merchant Head Eun Hwaran I seemed to have escaped the crisis.
A sigh of relief escaped me on its own.
Anyway, the awkward problem was resolved, so I seized the chance to promote myself to Princess Dohwa, a figure of imperial power.
"My name is Dan Mujin."
Remaining a nameless boy in her memory didn't sit right.
Who knew when we might meet again.
"And as you saw today, I have quite a few talents. If a moment ever comes when you need help, please call on me without hesitation as well."
Back on Earth, commissions from the powerful—people with gold badges—started at an entirely different price tier.
Dig up scandals or weaknesses on opposing candidates and fat commissions of thousands would come rolling in.
So I took the chance to stamp my handsome face into her memory.
"Ha! Laughable. Her Highness has the Eastern Depot, so what use could the likes of you be!"
Then the eunuch uncle Cheon Su-gong snorted and blocked my approach.
Though he didn't mention the Embroidered Uniform Guard separately, this guy.
"Bold. Yet somehow I don't find it distasteful. How curious."
I could feel her studying me steadily from behind the pure white veil.
At minimum the disciple of a Peak Realm martial artist, and a boy with a talent for raising bugs.
"You say you will help me... How truly commendable. Very well, I shall remember."
My serious sales pitch seemed to have been treated as a child's whimsy.
But you can't fill your belly with the first spoonful, and I had expected as much to some degree.
In game terms, it was like meeting a late-game big shot early thanks to an event.
Just getting her to remember my name meant I had achieved my main objective.
"I find you distasteful, brat. So I'll remember you too. In a different sense..."
The eunuch uncle's meaningful declaration.
Whether my meeting with that man was auspicious or ill, I couldn't tell.
"Merchant Head, then I shall take my leave. My identity has been exposed, so lingering longer will do no good."
And with the succession of the promise with the previous merchant head and the mutual understanding settled, Princess Dohwa bid a swift farewell.
She informed them she would send someone to coordinate the details and that she would dissolve the gathering here.
Would something unsettling find her if she stayed still? No wonder she so rarely left the Princess's Palace.
Being of imperial blood must come with all sorts of hardships, I thought.
"Well then, until we meet again someday, Merchant Head. And the boy there as well."
Princess Dohwa offered her farewell with a flutter of her veil.
And Cheon Su-gong stuck to her back like a shadow.
Judging by those mysterious movements and footwork, that man too seemed an extraordinary master.
"But I never did get a look inside the veil."
They say the face is an identity badge. Even with the veil only slightly lifted, the eunuchs had recognized her august countenance at a glance and prostrated themselves flat.
"Right? Rumor has it she's the foremost peerless beauty in the Imperial Palace."
She was another of those the gossips numbered among the Three Flowers of Beijing. Eun Hwaran's explanation only doubled my regret.
"She's that beautiful? More than you, Big Sis?"
Because so far I had only seen one of the Three Flowers of Beijing.
"...You have to measure long and short to know, don't you?"
Normally she didn't much care for the title that compared people to flowers.
As expected, beauties unconsciously took enormous pride in their looks.
So I ought to make use of that.
"You're much prettier, Big Sis."
"Hmph, you haven't even seen inside the veil... Well, the words are appreciated."
The princess was far away and Eun Hwaran was near.
Pretending otherwise, she didn't seem entirely displeased; the corners of her mouth twitched.
This was precisely the secret essence of Mujin's school of social skill.
When a commission ends successfully, the settling of accounts begins.
That was a law of money that didn't change from Earth to the Central Plains.
And after a short banquet celebrating the inspection's passage, silence settled over the merchant head's office of the Eunseong Merchant Group.
"Will this do?"
Eun Hwaran abruptly set a golden yuanbao that flashed a dull yellow onto the desk with a thud.
"...!"
It was only a small gold yuanbao the size of two thumb joints. But even that alone far surpassed my years of salary as a junior beggar many times over.
I froze solid in shock and couldn't react at all.
Across my previous life and this one, receiving a gold lump of this size was a first. Wasn't gold extremely precious on Earth too? How many nyang was that even?
"...I see. This isn't enough, then?"
Misreading my reaction, Eun Hwaran set down another dull yellow one with a thud.
"...!!"
My mouth split open as if it would tear.