Senior Brother of the Sect Leader (5)
The second son of the Sahaesanghoe.
A man who, by birth alone, should have walked the path of a merchant rather than that of a swordsman.
Jo Gul drew in a slow breath.
Though he had abandoned the merchant’s road, the environment he had grown up in meant his knowledge of trade was by no means shallow. Among the Mount Hua disciples who had come to the North Sea, it would not have been an exaggeration to call him unmatched.
There was no way he wouldn’t understand just how important this meeting was.
He had taken a seat here with the firm resolve that, for Mount Hua’s sake, he would see this negotiation through to the most favorable outcome possible.
But…
Ever since he’d entered the meeting to discuss the terms of the trade, Jo Gul had been tormented by one fundamental question.
Was there really any need for me to be here?
“Nooooo!”
Chung Myung was glaring and shouting at the top of his lungs.
“Do you people not get it? That won’t solve the problem! Right now, the only thing the North Sea can sell is Ice Crystal, and what are you hoping to make by dumping it for pocket change like that?”
“B-but, Dojang… Ice Crystal doesn’t come out in large amounts. If it were something that easy to mine, the North Sea would have gotten rich long ago.”
“Then you should start mining more now and get rich!”
“Th-that’s not exactly as easy as it sounds….”
Chung Myung glared at Han Yi-myung, who was drenched in sweat.
“Hey, mister! No, wait, Chief Officer!”
“Yes?”
“Then when the hell is the Ice Palace going to get rich?”
“…….”
Han Yi-myung lost his words and shut his mouth.
“You keep saying there’s nothing you can do! That’s why the Ice Palace has stayed poor all this time, isn’t it?”
“Th-that’s not something we can simply….”
“Chief Officer.”
“Yes?”
Chung Myung said with a hard face,
“Of course, this isn’t your fault. It’s an unavoidable problem because of the North Sea’s environment.”
“That’s right.”
That was exactly what Han Yi-myung had wanted to say.
The North Sea was a barren place.
Just enduring that vicious cold was difficult enough; working while enduring it was even harder.
Why would the people of the North Sea not want to mine more Ice Crystal and more iron? There was simply a limit to manpower.
“But there’s a way, isn’t there? You can just put warriors to work mining.”
“D-Dojo—”
Han Yi-myung’s face flickered with alarm.
“The Ice Palace does bear the burden of the North Sea’s livelihood, but at its root, it is still a martial sect. If you divert those who are learning martial arts to other work, the foundation collapses.”
“Ah, right. That could happen.”
Chung Myung brushed the words off with obvious indifference, then gave him a meaningful look.
“But, Chief Officer.”
“Yes?”
“What exactly do you plan to leave to the next generation?”
“……Pardon?”
“When you’re gone and Palace Lord So-baek has to rule the North Sea on his own, what are you going to do then?”
At that, Han Yi-myung’s eyes trembled.
“Are you going to tell him that the Ice Palace must preserve a warrior’s pride, that he should never lose the soul of a martial man and just scrape by while barely feeding himself?”
“…….”
Han Yi-myung clenched his fist lightly.
To him, Seol So-baek was not someone who could be defined by a single word.
He was the Palace Lord he had to serve, the one to whom he must devote all the loyalty he had once given to the former Palace Lord… and more than anything else, he was his beloved son.
They were not bound by blood. And yet he had personally begged for milk to feed him, carried him on his back, and raised him as his own child. If anything, because they were not related by blood, the attachment ran even deeper.
“You mean you’re going to leave that poverty to the Palace Lord too? While telling him it can’t be helped?”
“Th….”
Han Yi-myung bit his lip hard, his face pained.
“No, we can’t do that….”
“Exactly!”
Chung Myung slapped his hands together triumphantly.
Watching him gradually reel Han Yi-myung in, Jo Gul let out a soft laugh.
What kind of negotiation is this?
In all his life, he had never seen one like it.
In proper trade between sects, a battle broke out to ensure not a single coin was lost. It was basic practice to pile up a mountain of calculations in one’s head while layering the conversation with every pleasant word imaginable so as not to bruise the other party’s pride.
And this was… what?
Then Chung Myung raised his voice again.
“What’s there to hand down to the next generation in the first place?”
“…….”
“Good martial arts? Great fame? The pride of the Ice Palace?”
Then he openly snorted.
“They’re all good. Sure, they’re all great. But what good is any of that if you can’t even properly put food on the table? It’s fine for the next generation to pursue their own pride and honor. But the previous generation has no right to make them starve for it!”
“…….”
“If I have to suffer now, then my children shouldn’t go hungry! Isn’t that the role of the older generation?”
Han Yi-myung slowly nodded with a calm expression, his tone resolute.
“There is nothing wrong with Dojang’s words.”
“Exactly!”
BANG!
Chung Myung slammed his hand on the table hard enough to make it shudder.
“Put your pride aside for a moment.”
“…….”
“A warrior has pride. And a warrior has duties. Yes, I know that too. But….”
Chung Myung’s eyes had turned serious.
“A father doesn’t have pride.”
Han Yi-myung closed his eyes.
If it were the former Palace Lord, how would he have answered?
He probably would not have agreed to this negotiation. That man had placed the Ice Palace’s honor above everything else.
Han Yi-myung had been the same once. If this proposal had come to him just a few years ago, he would have refused without even a moment’s thought.
But now he understood.
That pride and dignity were sometimes worth nothing at all.
Hadn’t he learned that while raising Seol So-baek with his own hands, with all the hardship that had entailed?
“Dojang.”
Han Yi-myung looked straight at Chung Myung and said,
“I would like to ask just one thing.”
“Go ahead.”
“I understand very well that Dojang intends to profit through the Ice Palace. And I also know that, as one who has received your grace, I have no right to question that.”
A sigh leaked from Han Yi-myung’s lips.
“But I am the Ice Palace’s Chief Officer, and as Dojang said, I am the one responsible for building the Ice Palace into something complete for the young Palace Lord to govern one day. So I beg your pardon and ask this despite my shame.”
His eyes fixed on Chung Myung were solemn beyond measure.
“Is this trade truly one that will help the Ice Palace?”
Chung Myung bared his teeth in a grin.
“I only follow one rule.”
“…….”
“Blood for the one who makes me bleed. Grace for the one who shows me grace.”
The serious expression on Chung Myung’s face made him seem, unusually, dependable.
“I don’t need any of those half-baked relationships built on pretext and familiarity. What we need are relationships that truly benefit each other, that genuinely look out for one another. The kind of bond where, if the other person is in danger, you can throw everything else aside and run to them without hesitation. Real friends.”
“…….”
“If the North Sea is ever in danger, Mount Hua will come running again, just like this time.”
Han Yi-myung nodded slowly.
“Then what about the North Sea?”
“That doesn’t seem like my decision to make. It depends entirely on the Palace Lord’s choice.”
“Ah, yes, of course.”
“Still….”
Han Yi-myung gave a small smile and nodded as he extended his hand.
“I will never do anything to stop the Palace Lord’s choice. How could I block him from helping a close friend under any pretext?”
Chung Myung grinned and took his hand.
“Good call.”
The two of them gripped each other tightly, looking straight into one another’s eyes.
After exchanging that firm look for a while, they finally sat back down.
“Hmm.”
Han Yi-myung let out a soft groan, as if a little worried.
“Now the problem is convincing the warriors and putting them to work. They have pride too….”
“Ah, don’t worry about that.”
“Pardon?”
Chung Myung flashed a confident grin at the bewildered man.
“From now on, I’m going to teach you how to handle people.”
“…….”
“Forget warrior pride and all that nonsense. That’s exactly the problem, worrying about that from the start. So first, just beat them senseless without warning….”
As Chung Myung’s special lecture began, Jo Gul chuckled helplessly.
Well, that’s over too.
Dark clouds were drifting over the North Sea Ice Palace.
Crack!
Chung Myung burst out through the door, his face glistening in the sunlight. Baek Ah, perched on his shoulder, stretched luxuriously as if sunbathing and wore an expression of utter satisfaction, as though there were no place more comfortable in the world.
“Finished!”
“……That bastard’s ruthless.”
In the end, Chung Myung had succeeded in doubling the volume Han Yi-myung had proposed. With the contract stamped and sealed, the Ice Palace would now have no choice but to supply Mount Hua with Ice Crystal, iron, and all sorts of local specialties.
Of course, the purchase price had been set higher than expected, but Jo Gul knew that this was by no means because of any special consideration for the Ice Palace.
In other words, they’re going to keep draining them dry.
When taking profit in the short term, one didn’t need to care about the other party’s circumstances. But in long-term trade, the other side also had to gain something. Only then could the trade continue without breaking down, allowing even greater profit over time.
“So what are you planning to do with all the goods you’ve procured?”
“What else?”
To Jo Gul’s question, Chung Myung lowered the arm he’d been stretching and answered casually,
“There’s such a shortage of Ice Crystal in the Central Plains right now that once it’s released, there’ll be plenty of people willing to pay a fortune for it. We keep what we need, and sell the rest of the scraps to those gentlemen.”
“And the iron?”
“The Tang Family will buy that at a high price, obviously.”
Chung Myung snickered as he recalled the expression Tang Gun-ak had made when he saw the iron.
“They’ve already gotten a taste for it while making the iron sword this time, after all. They finally figured out how to make proper weapons with iron, and then they suddenly have none of the material? That’d drive anyone crazy.”
“True.”
“Now imagine dumping a pile of iron right in front of them. Their eyes would go wild.”
“B-but didn’t you say the Tang Family were your friends? You’re still going to sell it to them at a high price?”
“Tsk, tsk, tsk. Look at that attitude from a man who comes from a merchant family. You’re hopeless, completely hopeless.”
No… Chung Myung.
This wasn’t about being a merchant or not. This was about being human, wasn’t it? Huh?
“Senior brother doesn’t get it, does he!”
“…….”
“The closer your friends are, the more firmly you’ve got to handle money between you. If you start casually discounting things or just handing them over all half-assed, feelings pile up later. I’m not doing this to make a quick buck! This is about relationships and trust!”
“……What a load of bullshit.”
Whether Jo Gul muttered bitterly or not, Chung Myung just kept laughing. Then he suddenly went serious and jerked his head toward Jo Gul.
“This is a secret from So-so.”
“…….”
“Ahem!”
Before long, Chung Myung was puffing out his chest as he headed toward their quarters, and Jo Gul shook his head again and again.
That scheming bastard, honestly.
And then he hurried after him.
Chung Myung walked at an easy pace, then suddenly glanced up at the distant sky.
“This should do it.”
“Huh?”
“All the North Sea’s problems start with the fact that it’s far from the Central Plains and the land is barren as hell.”
“…….”
“If they keep up uninterrupted trade and steadily bring in grain and wealth, they’ll end up changing themselves.”
“…….”
“Then that kid will be a little better off too.”
At the end, Chung Myung muttered softly, “And if I happen to make a little money in the process, even better,” before striding forward.
Jo Gul quietly watched his back, then finally let out a snort of laughter.
He really is impossible.
More often than not, he couldn’t understand what Chung Myung was thinking when he moved.
But…
What does it matter?
The path walked by that troublesome junior would never stray from the direction he had chosen. At least, Jo Gul had that much certainty. And it only grew stronger with time.
“Let’s go together, Chung Myung….”
“Ah!”
“Hmm?”
“Come to think of it, that bastard Seol Cheon-sang probably didn’t just hoard Ice Crystal alone. Want to search a little more? If we’re going to loot the place, we should loot it properly so there’s no regret! We have to give it our all, obviously.”
“…….”
No.
Sometimes it did seem like they strayed a little.
Quite a lot, actually….