Seok Myo-hee 2
Now that he understood everything, Seok Geum-ryong had no desire to speak in circles or wear a mask.
No, what he really wanted to know was whether Seok Myo-hee was truly the gentle, affectionate elder sister she pretended to be, or a cold-blooded woman through and through.
“...”
For a long moment, Seok Myo-hee remained silent, her expression oddly unreadable.
Then, in an instant, the face that had seemed so tender and beautiful twisted into something else entirely.
“So you knew all along?”
Look at that expression change, like a vicious witch baring her true face.
A boy of ordinary stock would have flinched at the sight, but Seok Geum-ryong was different.
He had only half-believed it before. Now that he was certain, there was nothing left to hesitate over.
“However well one hides it, malice can’t be concealed forever. How could I not notice? You pretended to care for me, while all the while scheming to kill me. I assume you know who Flying Horse Spear Woo Jun-rae is?”
Seok Geum-ryong may have been slightly surprised, but he gave no sign of it.
Right now, this was nothing less than a contest of momentum between Seok Geum-ryong and Seok Myo-hee.
Whoever was startled first, whoever’s spirit faltered first, would lose.
Fortunately, the Woo Do-min who now dwelled within Seok Geum-ryong was experienced, a middle-aged man who had tasted life’s sweetness and bitterness far more times than his opponent.
Vrrr!
Instead of wavering, Seok Geum-ryong met her head-on with such unwavering poise that it was Seok Myo-hee’s momentum that buckled first.
She was so flustered that even the fine, long lashes over her eyes trembled.
After that brief stalemate, Seok Myo-hee finally revealed her true self.
“That’s right. I was going mad with curiosity. How did this happen? Did you bring Woo Jun-rae back under your control?”
Having collected herself in that short span, Seok Myo-hee pressed him with that same seductive, dangerous air that never suited her age.
She was convinced that she could still toy with Seok Geum-ryong, who was, in her mind, nothing more than a soft, naive child.
Of course, that was nothing but wishful thinking.
“If you want that answer, then answer my question first, elder sister.”
The Seok Geum-ryong of now was not only completely different from the Seok Geum-ryong of the past, he was also desperate to protect this life at all costs.
“Wh-what?”
Seok Myo-hee’s pupils wavered. She had truly believed she could play him in the palm of her hand, but now that certainty was slipping.
“If you want the answer, then tell me first why you tried to kill me. Until you do, I won’t say another word.”
For a moment, Seok Myo-hee was too shocked and rattled by his crisp, decisive response to react.
She soon shot him a sharp, venomous look, but Seok Geum-ryong did not even blink.
“I asked first, didn’t I?”
“You did ask first. But you’re now a person who tried to have me killed, so you’ve lost all credibility. How am I supposed to trust you and answer first?”
“...”
Seok Myo-ryong’s logic was so unassailable that Seok Myo-hee couldn’t refute it.
At last, she let out a long sigh as though she had no choice, then smiled and spoke.
“My mother is a very jealous woman. When Lord Seok Ji-sung was locked in passionate, private love with your birth mother, my mother had to endure empty nights alone in her bridal chamber.”
“Y-you killed someone for something that trivial?”
Seok Geum-ryong found it hard to accept.
Even though they were blood relatives, even though a human life was at stake, he could not understand hiring an assassin over something so petty as jealousy.
“You still don’t understand. A woman’s jealousy is one of the most terrifying things in this world. I hated and resented you too, for being the sore spot in Lord Seok’s heart, the one he looked at with such affection. Do you know something? I’ve never once called Lord Seok my father.”
Seok Myo-hee laughed again, no longer wearing even the pretence of a mask.
As her mother had been, so too was Seok Myo-hee herself jealous of Seok Geum-ryong, who monopolized the Seok family lord’s attention.
“And there’s one more reason.”
In his previous life, he had not known it, but Seok Myo-hee’s true face was that of a born empress, a born ruler.
She completely dominated the atmosphere as she continued.
“I have no talent in martial arts, and I envied you for being born with a Heaven-Defying Body.”
The truth was, Seok Myo-hee was the very embodiment of self-loathing.
Her maternal family, the Geumhwa Merchant Group, was only a tiny affair compared with the maternal clans of the other siblings, and aside from her beauty, Seok Myo-hee herself was utterly ordinary in both martial talent and business acumen.
To soothe and hide those shortcomings, she had called for Seok Geum-ryong, whose position she believed was even worse than her own. But then what happened?
- A-Young Mistress! I learned a little medicine when I was younger, so I know for sure... Young Master Seok Geum-ryong is the legendary Heaven-Defying Body, the kind that appears only a handful of times in all martial history!
One day, her butler, the Smiling Elder Gu Jin-taek, had rushed to tell her in alarm.
At first, she had no idea what a Heaven-Defying Body was, but once she learned the truth, she realized it was an astonishing talent.
Seok Myo-hee had always thought of him as forever below her, and had even believed that so long as Seok Geum-ryong existed, her own inadequacies would never show.
From the moment she discovered the Heaven-Defying Body, she resolved to slowly break him down and turn him into a blood relative who would be forever beneath her.
Afraid her true feelings might be exposed, Seok Myo-hee added several other reasons as well.
“Besides, if Father, Lord Seok Ji-sung, were to pass away, all that immense wealth would be divided among the eight of us siblings. Of course, splitting it evenly eight ways wouldn’t make sense. If that were going to happen, either you or I would already be dead. The official heir would take most of it, and the remaining share would be divided among the seven of us... I imagine the same is true for the other older brothers and younger siblings as well. Rather than let a half-sibling steal what’s mine, I’d rather get rid of them first.”
Her words were correct.
If the Seok family lord died, the official heir would take nearly eighty percent of the estate, and the remaining twenty percent would have to be split among the other seven.
So even if Seok Geum-ryong lacked any power base and seemed insignificant, as the official heir and direct bloodline, he was an eyesore in every respect.
“How...”
Even after hearing her true feelings, Seok Geum-ryong still could not shake the shock.
Some people would gladly give up their own lives to save another’s, while others would kill someone simply because they disliked them. The contradiction of it all was sickening.
For a wicked person, there were countless reasons to hate someone.
“Now it’s my turn. That incident from before, what on earth happened? And how did you learn the identity of the medicine that suppresses your constitution? Speak.”
Seok Myo-hee pressed him impatiently, her tone suggesting that Seok Geum-ryong had too many reasons to deserve death for her to bother with explanations.
Seok Geum-ryong looked at her easy, untroubled expression for a long time, then gave a faint smile.
He had no intention of being manipulated by the witch Seok Myo-hee any longer.
“I’ll sell it.”
That was why he had come looking for Seok Myo-hee in the first place, and it was now time to land a proper blow.
“What? What did you say?”
Thrown off by his abrupt declaration that he would sell it, Seok Myo-hee stared at him in bafflement.
“Didn’t you hear me? I said I’ll sell the answer you want.”
“Th-that...”
“Am I obligated to answer you for free?”
“You said it yourself. We were supposed to answer each other once...”
“How naive.”
The situation had completely reversed.
Now it was Seok Myo-hee sweating and flustered, while Seok Geum-ryong stood there with his arms folded, looking entirely at ease.
“I don’t feel any need to keep faith with the person who tried to kill me. And from the start, I came here to sell you the answer. We’re merchants’ blood, aren’t we? Heirs as well? There’s no reason the truth itself can’t be sold.”
The Seok Geum-ryong faction was currently short on funds.
To break through that hardship, he had come up with a scheme: a private meeting with Seok Myo-hee.
If, during that meeting, his elder sister proved herself a true villain, he would sell her the truth like this. If she turned out to be misjudged and actually a decent person, then he had intended to ask her for help.
Unfortunately, Seok Myo-hee was a complete villain.
In that case, Seok Geum-ryong had decided to become a ruthless merchant.
He would sell her the answer she wanted for a steep price.
“Ohohoho!”
For a moment, Seok Myo-hee was frozen by his declaration that he would sell the answer, but before long she snorted and laughed.
“If you don’t want to answer, then don’t. There’s no reason I should go out of my way to pay a large sum of gold just to find out.”
Her words made sense.
She would certainly lose sleep over it out of curiosity, but if she simply endured it for a while, that would be the end of it.
But Seok Geum-ryong had anticipated even that.
“What you pay me for, elder sister, is effectively... your silence about what you’ve done to me.”
Seok Geum-ryong was sitting above her head, so to speak.
“Even if no one believes it, you wouldn’t want rumors spreading that you tried to have me killed, or that you schemed to suppress the constitution I was born with, would you? I’ll keep everything secret. So...”
Even if he exposed it to the world, most would side with Seok Myo-hee, and there was a good chance no one would believe him.
Even if she had indeed done those things, she could simply harden her face and plug her ears, but the Seok Myo-hee he knew was different.
She cared deeply about public opinion, and that was what made it impossible for her to bear.
“Send me the funds and grain right now to keep my estate running peacefully for the next five years.”
“What? Five years?!”
“Come now. With your maternal family’s wealth, the Geumhwa Merchant Group, that’s hardly anything, is it?”
Even if his manor and faction were small, five years of operating expenses was no small sum.
“Now then, choose. Will you keep pretending to be the usual innocent, beautiful woman, or will you become the cold, vicious woman who tried to kill the brother you could at least once speak to?”
Gnash.
Under Seok Geum-ryong’s demand that she choose one of the two, Seok Myo-hee finally collapsed.
* * *
“A-ah, good heavens! Young Master! What in the world is all this?”
Butler Gong Sang-pil, the Scholar in Blue, had been working himself to the bone to manage Seok Geum-ryong’s estate with a shoestring budget.
Then, just as a procession of carts loaded with gold and grain arrived alongside Seok Geum-ryong, he could no longer tell whether he was dreaming or awake.
“Heh. Enough to feed us for the next five years.”
Unlike Gong Sang-pil and Deung Chon, who were on the verge of clutching the backs of their necks in shock, Seok Geum-ryong remained utterly calm.
What he said was no boast. He meant it.
And I’ll use this as my seed money to invest in several places.
Originally, Woo Do-min had been a man far removed from merchant houses and investment, but now he would have to become familiar with them.
And because he knew all the major events and future developments tied to the Seok family over the next ten years, if he only followed that path well enough, there would be no shame in calling him an investment prodigy.
“Who on earth supported you with all this?”
Even Deung Chon the servant looked dazed, as if he could hardly believe it.
“Seok Myo-hee.”
Seok Geum-ryong was not the timid, weak child he had once been.
He had told Seok Myo-hee that if she wanted the truth, she would have to pay the full price up front, or there would be no deal. As a result, Seok Myo-hee had yielded completely and sent the promised supplies.
“Young Master, truly, you are remarkable. To negotiate with Young Lady Seok Myo-hee and bring back support like this... as expected, you possess exceptional business talent.”
Gong Sang-pil bowed low, genuinely awed.
At this point, he would no longer have the nerve to harangue him about studying merchant affairs.