Repaying the Debt of the Past (5)
After some time had passed, Seok Geum-ryong and Seok Ho-in finally returned, and the family council was convened immediately.
As the meeting approached, Seok Ho-in’s shoulders lifted with smug satisfaction.
“Hahahahahat!”
Striding toward the main residence, Seok Ho-in wore an air of complete triumph. He was utterly convinced of a clean victory and carried himself with all the arrogance of a man already celebrating.
Then, just ahead, he spotted Seok Geum-ryong approaching with a calm, unruffled expression.
“Well, well. If it isn’t Geum-ryong?”
Seok Ho-in seemed to have erased from memory the humiliation he had suffered before the last family council, for he greeted him with his usual haughty air.
Seeing that, Seok Geum-ryong let out a dry laugh, amused despite himself.
“You’re laughing? Looks like you’re still alive and kicking. But you seem not to understand something...”
Seok Ho-in, taking that smile as mockery, bristled slightly and went on, “Father hates it when someone breaks a promise or makes bold claims and comes away with nothing. However favored you may be by him, this time you’ve overreached.”
Seok Ho-in was certain of his victory, having obtained as many as one hundred wild horses. For that reason, he had not even bothered to examine where Seok Geum-ryong had gone or what he had done.
He had no idea that very looseness would be the blade that cut into his own foot.
“Oh? Is that so?”
By contrast, Seok Geum-ryong knew exactly what Seok Ho-in was thinking and what sort of position he himself was in, so his composure came naturally.
“Hmph. Insolent brat. You’re going to be thoroughly crushed today. And before long...”
As befitted his epithet, the Mad Tiger Prince, Seok Ho-in stared at Seok Geum-ryong with the gaze of a frenzied man-eating tiger.
Though he had suffered a crushing defeat in their inner power contest because he had been careless, he was convinced that if he had not been careless, if this had been a proper martial duel, he would have been the superior master.
“You’ll be nothing but a bloody pulp in my hands.”
“You make an awful lot of predictions. Why don’t you become a fortune-teller instead of a martial artist or merchant?”
As Seok Ho-in continued to chatter on ahead of the family council, Seok Geum-ryong tossed out a remark far too sharp for a twelve-year-old and walked away at once.
“W-what did you say?”
Seok Ho-in gaped in disbelief and huffed in outrage, but he still believed, without the slightest doubt, that once the family council began, the balance of power would reverse itself.
* * *
Not long after Seok Geum-ryong and Seok Ho-in were the first to arrive, this month’s family council finally began.
“Oh ho, the two of you have returned.”
“Did you manage to bring anything back?”
“Indeed?”
Since they had given the same answer at the previous council and openly declared that they would each return with accomplishments, the talk of the town this time was inevitably Seok Geum-ryong and Seok Ho-in.
“Are the two of you prepared?”
As he had during the last meeting, the first butler and chief butler, the Sword Discussant Jo Seung-pyo, directed his gaze toward the two of them.
And naturally, Seokga Manor’s lord, Seok Ji-sung, watched with deep interest as well.
“Of course! This time, I’ll prove myself first!”
At Jo Seung-pyo’s question, Seok Ho-in stepped forward with unusual eagerness. Last time, Seok Geum-ryong had stolen the initiative from him and taken over the discussion, so this time he was determined to take the lead.
In the family council, where the third son, Seok Ho-in, and the fifth son, Seok Geum-ryong, were unusually taking center stage, the eyes of the first son, Seok Dong-seo, and the second son, Seok Ju-woo, turned toward them.
“Very well. Then let Ho-in begin.”
At the manor lord’s order, Seok Ho-in, delighted, strode past Seok Geum-ryong and stood in the center as if making a point of it.
“Yes, understood. The thing is... from the beginning of the last council, I believed that if we wanted to raise Seokga Manor’s second-half profits, we had to get involved in the horse market. Truly! It wasn’t that I was following Seok Geum-ryong’s idea; I had already thought of it first. As one example, I traveled to Liaoning Province, where the Murong Clan is located and where my maternal family is close with them!”
Since he clearly felt as though he had somehow stolen Seok Geum-ryong’s idea, Seok Ho-in strained himself to erase that impression. He emphasized over and over that he had prepared before Seok Geum-ryong had.
“And as a result!”
Snap!
Under the eyes of the many high-ranking figures gathered for the family council, Seok Ho-in snapped his fingers.
At once, what his faction had prepared in advance was displayed outside the hall.
Neighhh!
At that signal, Seok Ho-in’s subordinates, as if they had been waiting for it, presented one hundred excellent wild horses.
“Oh! Impressive!”
“These are better than the horses from the Red Horse Stable.”
“But... isn’t a hundred a little too few? The Red Horse Stable is moving several thousand, isn’t it?”
At first, the response to Seok Ho-in’s achievement was positive, but soon everyone had to face reality.
A mere hundred horses was not enough to stir much excitement when the Red Horse Stable, right next door, wielded such enormous influence.
“C-cough, th-that’s...”
Seok Ho-in, who had been expecting praise, grew dejected at the lukewarm reaction, but then he drew himself up again.
“What matters is not the number of horses, but the bloodline! These wild horses are excellent stallions, and most of them are males. We can breed them into a steadily growing stock, or sell their bloodline to the Red Horse Stable!”
Before long, he began speaking in a fairly merchant-like fashion.
It was not a bad line of reasoning. In fact, for a latecomer like Seokga Manor, it was exactly the kind of strategy they would have to adopt.
“Hmm, that does sound rather plausible.”
Even Seok Ji-sung, who did not hold Seok Ho-in in especially high regard as a merchant, said it with the sense that it was not bad at all and that he had done rather well.
“Thank you. What I want everyone to keep in mind is that we can continue supplying wild horses in the future.”
Seok Ho-in sensed this was his chance and worked hard to emphasize his strengths.
“Good. Well done.”
For the first time, praise followed. Seok Ho-in felt as though he had finally been recognized by the manor lord, and his face lit up with satisfaction.
Hmph. How about that, you bastard?
Then he sent a pointed glance toward Seok Geum-ryong.
Not only Seok Ho-in, but Seok Dong-seo, Seok Ju-woo, and the rest of the council’s leadership all looked on.
If Seok Geum-ryong had truly been an ordinary twelve-year-old boy, he would have collapsed under the pressure or burst into tears.
But Seok Geum-ryong was on an entirely different level from Seok Ho-in.
“Next is Geum-ryong. It’s Geum-ryong’s turn.”
At the manor lord’s call, Seok Geum-ryong gave a proper formal bow to everyone present, then said, “Please bring them in.”
And for this day alone, he revealed the fifty or so blood-sweat horses he had had guarded with such obsessive secrecy.
“Woah!”
Under Jang Sam’s guidance, and with Jang Sam’s extraordinary skill with horses, the men under Seok Geum-ryong’s command led in the dark red horses whose beauty carried an almost otherworldly splendor.
Ohhh! Ohhhhh!
The roar of astonishment that erupted then was something that could not even be compared to the response Seok Ho-in had received when his wild horses were brought in.
The uproar was so tremendous that even the magnificent, sprawling buildings of Seokga Manor seemed to tremble with it.
“Wow! Wow!”
Even Seok Ho-in himself was shaken into excitement at the sight of the blood-sweat horses. He knew enough about horses to understand how rare they were, and it was his first time seeing the legendary breed in person, let alone this many of them up close.
“My heavens!”
Even Jo Seung-pyo, who was seldom surprised by anything, and Seok Ji-sung, exchanged astonished looks.
Seok Dong-seo and Seok Ju-woo were equally stunned, their pupils trembling.
“Are those truly... blood-sweat horses? The real thing?”
Even Seokga Manor’s lord, Seok Ji-sung, a man said to command the world by wealth and authority, had never seen so many blood-sweat horses in his life.
At his question, Seok Geum-ryong bowed respectfully and answered, “Of course. Every single one is a genuine blood-sweat horse, without exception.”
Ooooooh!
As soon as he finished speaking, another great cheer swept through the hall.
Where Seok Ho-in had needed three inches of tongue to prove the value of wild horses, there was no need at all to explain how priceless and rare the blood-sweat horses were as breeding stock. Everyone already knew.
After all, the important figures gathered here were mostly merchants.
As merchants, they understood all too painfully just how valuable a single pure-blood blood-sweat horse could be.
“This is unbelievable! They really are blood-sweat horses!”
“A single one is difficult to see, and yet there are fifty of them?”
“Manor Lord! We should send them immediately as gifts to the imperial court and the government offices, to raise Seokga Manor’s honor at once!”
What had been a lukewarm, half-hearted family council during Seok Ho-in’s turn had become a storm of tremendous force.
Especially because the leadership understood the value of blood-sweat horses so well, they too were overcome with excitement.
“Well done, Geum-ryong. Truly well done, my son!”
At last, Seok Ji-sung, who was known for clearly distinguishing public from private matters, was so moved that he embraced Seok Geum-ryong and refused to let go.
This was not merely a matter of raising second-half profits. It was a massive achievement that would elevate the honor of Seokga Manor itself.
So this is where that lucky brat came from.
And here I thought he was nothing but a pain in the neck.
Seok Geum-ryong, who had already been a sore and guilty point in Seok Ji-sung’s heart, naturally became all the more lovable once he had secured such a feat with the blood-sweat horses.
The fifth son pulled off something this big?
Impossible!
The measure of the manor lord’s attention and affection was a sensitive matter for his children. Accordingly, Seok Dong-seo and Seok Ju-woo turned their eyes toward Seok Geum-ryong.
He had been the fifth son, a completely insignificant runt they had never paid proper attention to.
And yet that fifth son had managed to pull off such a spectacular coup.
“This is ridiculous...”
More shocked than anyone else by the unprecedented turn of events was Seok Ho-in, the Mad Tiger Prince.
He could hardly believe it and checked the blood-sweat horses again and again.
They were unmistakably genuine pure-blood blood-sweat horses.
“How in the world! Where did you get them?”
Seok Ji-sung, unusually excited, also raised his voice.
That was not because he was angry, but because he was deeply moved, and in truth his eyes, fixed on Seok Geum-ryong, seemed to be dripping with astonishment and affection.
“I, too, received intelligence and headed to Liaoning Province.”
“Lies! I never saw you while I was traveling to Liaoning!”
Was it surprise, or jealousy?
Seok Ho-in, in front of so many elders, raised his voice and denied it.
“It is not a lie. His Highness may not have seen me, but we saw your party.”
Seok Geum-ryong answered with all due courtesy, since this was a public gathering.
Seok Ho-in tried again to deny it, but once Seok Geum-ryong began describing the roads he had traveled, the inns he had passed through, and even the string of incidents and conduct along the way, there was no way to refute him.
“Will you still deny it?”
“Grr... that’s...”
“The only difference between Your Highness and me is this: your party headed to Jiangping in Liaoning, while ours went to Kaiyuan.”
Seok Geum-ryong at last explained the full story, drawing everyone’s attention completely.
In the midst of Seokga Manor’s lord, the first butler and chief butler, and the many elders and formidable retainers gathered there, the one controlling the atmosphere was none other than a child of only twelve years old.
“Kaiyuan!”
At the mention of Kaiyuan, Seok Ho-in rose in alarm.
Right. There are supposed to be good horses around Kaiyuan too. Should we stop by there?
One of his subordinates had suggested making a detour to Kaiyuan.
Kaiyuan, my ass. Securing a hundred horses here is already a tremendous result.
It won’t be too late to move once the wild horse bloodline dries up in Jiangping.
That was the place Seok Ho-in had rejected outright.