The Auction Gambit
After days of investigation with the steward, sifting through every variable we could find, we finally reached a conclusion. I declared it straight to the creditors.
“What the hell is this bullshit!”
“You think this is some kind of joke?!”
“Miss Hwarin is nothing more than a full-authority proxy. All actual rights and debts belong to her mother, who is currently absent.”
I laid out the hard facts before the enraged creditors.
“Exactly! That bitch of a mother ran off! So the daughter has to pay!”
I knew they would say that. Everyone who showed up here was thinking the same thing. But here’s the thing—your claims and reality don’t line up.
“For Miss Hwarin to become a debtor, she would have had to receive a substitutionary inheritance, with her maternal grandfather passing the estate directly to his granddaughter. But how can there be a substitutionary inheritance when the proper heir is still alive and well? No such law exists in this country’s codes.”
Substitutionary inheritance. For a granddaughter to inherit, the original heir—her parent—must already be dead. In other words, Dang Hwarin could never have inherited the debts in the first place.
“You little shit, you playing word games with us?! You think we’re easy marks?”
“You really think you’ll come out on top if this goes to court?”
“Law codes? I’ve collected debts from the brats of runaway bastards more times than I can count! Don’t make me laugh!”
Of course reality was different. If this world actually ran by the book, would there even be “untouchable officials” or the murim? The law was distant; fists were close. The furious creditors eyed us as if they might rise up and attack at any second.
I looked back at them and smiled inwardly.
“If you want a debt lawsuit, by all means let’s head to the magistrate’s office together. But if it’s a sword fight you’re after, I’ll bring observers from the Sichuan Dang Clan.”
You may be angry, but both the law and the fists are on our side.
“Don’t. Just don’t. We lose that lawsuit for sure. The magistrate here got help from the Baek household back when he was down on his luck.”
“Th-the Sichuan Dang Clan is a bit… right?”
At my words the creditors began to stir and mutter among themselves.
According to what the steward had told me, the magistrate of Yichang was an official who had once received patronage from Dang Hwarin’s maternal grandfather. Debts were a private matter, but if it went to trial, the man would treat us with perfect fairness.
On top of that, Dang Hwarin had the overwhelming bloodline power anyone could see at a glance. True, being an illegitimate child left some room for trouble, but they didn’t know that, and the fact that she was Dang Geoho’s disciple remained unchanged.
This was exactly why blood ties, regional connections, school ties—and parachute appointments—mattered so much.
“Wait! I heard the granddaughter inherited the bookstore! Doesn’t that mean she took the substitutionary inheritance and the debts along with it?”
One of the creditors raised his hand and pointed out the hole in my logic. I had hoped no one would notice. No choice now.
“How could anyone keep the inheritance while abandoning only the debt obligations? Miss Hwarin fully intends to renounce it on the spot.”
I spoke as if the question itself were ridiculous, even though the words weren’t from the heart.
To escape the master-servant dynamic, we had to keep them from knowing what we actually wanted. We needed to make it look like only they had something they desired.
“Tch! So you’re saying you won’t pay? Then why the hell did you invite us here?”
“To settle the debts.”
“What?”
“Originally Miss Hwarin has neither responsibility nor obligation. She possesses both the skill and the background to endure all of your anger. Yet she stands here today purely out of a sense of duty, to repay every last one of your debts precisely and completely.”
Legally, by background, and by force, none of you can casually lay a hand on Dang Hwarin. And yet she is right here in this room. Impressive, isn’t it?
I continued, transforming Dang Hwarin from a debtor into a noble young lady driven by pure responsibility.
“Gentlemen. Anger is fleeting, but financial loss lasts forever. Not long ago her maternal grandfather passed away and her mother vanished—tragic blows—yet here stands Miss Dang Hwarin, ready to fulfill her moral duty. Would you all set aside your rage for a moment and give her a round of applause?”
Clap quickly so everyone acknowledges we’re equals solving the same problem together.
Clap-clap-clap!
Unlike the beginning, every single creditor was applauding in the blink of an eye.
I erased the master-servant dynamic. Now it’s time to turn the other side into the servants.
We had escaped the inferior position; now our claims could actually land. All that remained was to pull out the simple yet rarely considered scheme I had prepared for settling the debts.
“I intend to dispose of every asset belonging to the Baek household by auction.”
Having leveled the field so our words would carry weight, I brought out the plan that was easy yet almost unheard of in this world for clearing debts.
“Auction? This isn’t some antique calligraphy or painting. Why the hell would you hold an auction?”
“We need cash now! Just sell it fast to whoever wants it at a fair price. What’s this auction nonsense?”
The pushback was only natural. In this place, auctions were something used for trading old books and paintings and little else.
In the modern world, when a debtor defaulted, putting the property up for auction to repay the debt was the rational approach—but even arguing that rationality was a problem.
They all want to snatch up the Baek estate at dirt-cheap prices, of course.
People might understand a rational method, yet if irrationality and unfairness put more profit in their own pockets, they would choose that every time.
To men who wanted the Baek household’s assets for a song, an auction offered nothing. But I had already accounted for this situation as well.
I pulled out a book, held it high, and began reading aloud to the crowd.
“Three-Way Intersection Fabric Shop. Creditor Lee over there took it and wrote off only about seventy percent of the market value toward the debt. If he had taken the remaining thirty percent, Creditor Ok’s entire debt could have been cleared.”
“What? Lee? Is that true?”
The man called Ok pointed an accusing finger at Lee, face full of shock.
“N-no. I just meant we should liquidate anything valuable as quickly as possible—”
“You son of a bitch! You claimed you hadn’t taken a single coin!”
“A five-hundred-year-old celadon that was in the Baek household. Creditor Chu took it and treated it as roughly half its market value. And the shop down by the ferry landing…”
I listed every unfairly seized piece of property exactly as the steward had organized them.
“Cough it back up!”
“Why the hell should I cough anything up, you bastard?!”
In an instant the hall turned into a brawl of grabbing and shouting.
“Enough! What is this disgraceful spectacle!”
A sharp-featured old man barked the order, and the bodyguards at his side swiftly restored order.
I had been planning to watch the fight a little longer before deploying the escorts I had hired in advance. Pity it ended so soon.
“As you have all just heard, there were numerous cases in which far more of your debts could have been repaid, yet were not. Fortunately, only a tiny fraction of the Baek household’s assets have been disposed of so far. Therefore, to prevent any further situations like this, I propose we liquidate everything through a public auction! Debtors in favor, raise your hands.”
I circulated energy through the Soyun Shimsanggyeol so that my words drove straight into the ears of the men still scuffling. They returned to their seats and began eyeing one another.
“Is an auction really better?”
“It… does seem pretty good.”
Hard to oppose openly, isn’t it? Humans are creatures who get a stomachache the moment they hear someone else has profited from something unfair and unjust.
Come on, raise those hands. Let’s make this easy.
“Heh-heh-heh. What an amusing young friend, coming up with such a clever method. Excellent. I am in favor.”
The sharp-featured old man who had restored order chuckled and was the first to raise his hand.
“Wait—now that I look at him, that man is—! Why is he here…?”
“H-he’s in favor? Then I’m in favor! Absolutely!”
“Me too!”
“And me!”
“In favor!”
Just who was he, for everyone to be so startled? Once the old man raised his hand, others followed one after another until every single person had their hand in the air.
“Heh-heh. Even if you clear the debts through auction, some will remain. What do you intend to do about those?”
Once the creditors lowered their hands, the sharp-faced old man who had raised his first asked me the question.
He was right. Even if we received full market value through the auction, it would still fall short of wiping out every debt.
This is the final piece.
Everything until now had been preparation to reach this moment.
I hadn’t arranged this gathering simply to volunteer. The atmosphere I had built today merely allowed me to unfold the logic. If any debt remained, who knew what harm might come to Dang Hwarin?
Even if we abandoned the bookstore and somehow cleared every last debt, a woman afflicted with a skin disease and a black-haired barbarian would still be left penniless, wandering the world.
We had to keep the bookstore.
And we had to disguise our selfish desire as noble responsibility so perfectly that no one would ever notice.
“I will take responsibility.”
I answered the old man with an unshakable expression.
I was declaring that I would shoulder something I did not have to shoulder.
“Take responsibility? For what, exactly?”
“Naturally, for the remaining debts. However!”
I had insisted Dang Hwarin bore no responsibility for the debts—yet we would take it on. In exchange—
“However?”
“Only half of the remaining debts. On the condition that we inherit the bookstore left by Miss Hwarin’s maternal grandfather, I will take responsibility for that half.”
In the eyes of others, a trivial compensation in return for something that looked like nothing at all.