The Declaration - 2
Heh heh heh.
It had been ages since her outing with Young Master Kang. Even now, in the morning light, Jegal Hyang lay on her bed utterly unable to contain her feelings.
"I'm soooo happy!"
I wanted to spend time alone with Young Master Kang. But what if he'd refused? I agonized over it for days. And yet the time was so happy, I hardly know why I worried at all.
Jegal Hyang remembered the day she'd once stepped into a bookstore to buy a book. A couple flaunting their affection by the shelves, heedless of everyone around them. How agonizing that eyesore had been.
Please, take it somewhere else.
She hadn't the courage to say a word. She'd even been too afraid of what looks she'd draw if she asked for the register, so she could only sneak glances until their display was over, feeling envy and misery all at once.
Yesterday, she had been the one doing it.
"To think I was canoodling by the register with Young Master Kang! Even thinking about it makes my heart hurt sooo much."
There was no way to describe the feeling of receiving praise from total strangers. And with Young Master Kang clinging close beside her, gazing at her with such trusting eyes—her heart was in genuine danger.
"I canoodled by the register too, which means I'm practically one of those popular girls, doesn't it? Hee hee."
It was true she'd never canoodled at a register—she'd only hidden and eavesdropped on the conversations—but that was hardly the point for Jegal Hyang.
She pressed her fingertips against the corners of her hopelessly stretched smile.
"Young Master Kang... his fingers. They were so very dependable."
Jegal Hyang gazed solemnly at the hand that had held Kang Yunho's just yesterday.
His hand had been large enough to swallow hers whole, firm and steady. And on his fingers was a writer's callus, similar to hers yet different, which inexplicably pleased her even more.
She had held that hand from the moment they left Daseogak all the way to the restaurant.
She'd felt people's stares, but how could she possibly have let go? Just remembering it made her heart race.
Jegal Hyang rose from her bed and, for the first time in a while, unfurled her fan.
"Monopoly is the best! Young Master Kang is the best! Monopoly is wonderful! Thank you, Hayeon-unni!"
When your mood peaks, there's nothing like a solo fan dance. Jegal Hyang intended to dance her heart out until the fluttering feelings were carried away on her fan.
"Miss Jegal, someone has come from Mangeum Hall to see—" The servant paused. "...Miss Jegal?"
"Absolutely amazing! Absolutely wonderf— ...huh?!"
It would have been fine if her eyes hadn't met Kang Yunho's through the open door.
Kang Yunho had to scramble to talk a blushing Jegal Hyang out of diving headfirst into a box.
***
"Uuuhh."
Miss Jegal had been drawn out by me to greet the guest in the parlor, but she couldn't lift her head.
"It's alright, Miss Jegal. I don't mind at all."
Why were you doing a fan dance? Let's not show that I'm curious. Miss Jegal, stop staring at the box.
I gave a word of comfort to Miss Jegal, who looked ready to bolt and hide somewhere at any moment, wearing what I hoped was a nonchalant expression.
"Uuuuhh. Comfort words that hover between indifference and attention hurt even moreeee."
As if declaring that if she couldn't get in the box, she'd become the box herself, Miss Jegal hugged her knees, muttering with a face on the verge of tears.
She's about to spiral into despair.
There's a method for moments like this. I smiled faintly and looked at her with deliberate cheer.
"No need to worry. That's all part of your charm, Miss Jegal."
The Infinite Positivity Strategy!
Miss Jegal glanced up at me furtively, eyes wide as if she couldn't trust her ears.
I mean it. If we were family, I'd scold you for being coy about it! One thing, though—what kind of person could possibly dislike a beauty like Miss Jegal dancing a fan dance out of sheer joy?
Seeing no falsehood in my face, her expression began to melt like snow.
"Huh?! I-is that so? Heh heh."
"Ahem."
An awkward cough cut through the strange atmosphere like a blade.
"Oh! I'm so sorry, we've gotten completely off track while our guest was waiting."
I jolted and apologized to the visitor from Mangeum Hall.
The man before me was Jeon Unyeop, son of the Head Manager of Mangeum Hall—the very man who'd come to help set up the Wuhan branch of Daseogak long ago.
"It's quite alright. I can see you two have grown rather close."
Jeon Unyeop smiled awkwardly at me. Somehow he wears the expression of a friend enduring lunch with a couple who keep drifting off into their own little world.
It's the Infinite Positivity Strategy, sir. It's not what you're imagining.
"You said you wished to see how I run my business?"
Rather than offer excuses that wouldn't land no matter what I said, I hurriedly steered us back to the purpose of his visit.
"Yes. I wish to see how your businesses are actually being operated."
"Did the Mangeum Lord instruct you to do so?"
The Mangeum Lord. Jang Noya.
The master of Mangeum Hall, who had once used my debts from Yichang Daseogak as a pretext to put me through a trial.
There could be only one reason for a sudden visit from Mangeum Hall. I asked Jeon Unyeop with a grave expression.
"Yes. He told me to inspect not just the paperwork, but whether the businesses are genuinely, properly being run."
Jeon Unyeop nodded in confirmation.
"That's a bit sudden. Was there something lacking in my business reports, perhaps?"
Was there something suspicious on paper? I reviewed those reports over and over to make sure nothing could be picked at.
I glanced at Miss Jegal, seeking her view.
"W-we pulled an all-nighter writing them together."
Miss Jegal, too, spoke up cautiously, looking puzzled.
Why bother a young man doing perfectly well for himself? If you've got nothing to do, go rest somewhere with clean water and fresh air.
As I looked at Jeon Unyeop, barely concealing my displeasure, an unexpected answer slipped from his lips.
"This is merely a confirmation procedure. If the Mangeum Lord is satisfied, he says the next report will be the last—he will no longer require business reports at all."
"You mean the trial is nearly over?"
That's Elder Jang for you.
No wonder he's the Mangeum Lord. Come to think of it, if I pass the trial, my debts are all forgiven too. Truly the famed magnate of Hubei Province.
After all, he is the maternal grandfather of Jegal Hyang, whose heart is as lovely as her face.
"If the Mangeum Lord finds himself satisfied, that is."
"......"
Oh, right. He's also that rascal Gilsan's maternal grandfather.
Typical tycoon—golden holidays mean nothing to him. I dread meeting him, but meet him I must, I suppose.
It's surprising, though. I thought he'd keep wringing me forever, yet he's telling me outright there's an end in sight.
"Of course, I know it's sudden. But it had to be an unannounced visit like this, or—"
"That works out nicely."
I could finally finish the trial with the Mangeum Lord. At the welcome news, I sprang energetically to my feet.
"Excuse me?"
"As it happens, I have something to show you today. Come along."
Today was perfect for showing him the businesses in motion.
——
"The Association Head's carriage! Alert the shopkeeper that he has arrived!"
"This is...?"
Jeon Unyeop looked around, flustered by the unexpected destination as he stepped down from the carriage.
"A new franchise of the Wungi Inn. It opens tomorrow, you see. I thought it best to explain things in a quiet, newly opened establishment."
Explaining in a bustling inn would be noisy and disruptive. With the new store opening and everything else lately, I really have been swamped, but fortune smiled in an unexpected place.
"I see."
"We'll only explain things here. Later I'll take you around the branches to show you the operations themselves."
"Association Head, you've come!"
As I approached the shop, a middle-aged man hurried to the door, his face beaming.
"Uncle Choi! You're finally carrying yourself like a proprietor. Anyone can see it now."
The man was Uncle Choi, the new inn's manager.
"Heh heh! You flatter me. What is this place to me? It all belongs to our Hometown Association—it's thanks to you, Association Head. I couldn't have dreamed of this until so recently..."
Emotion seemed fresh upon him; Uncle Choi looked up at his inn again and again with a face ready to weep.
"Congratulations once more. Might I show my guest around the shop for a little while?"
"Your guest is my guest, Association Head. I'll have a meal prepared."
Uncle Choi smiled generously and gestured inside.
"We've already eaten. There's really no need."
"If the Association Head leaves without so much as a bowl of rice, the members will call me a wretched skinflint. Please don't refuse—once you've finished looking around, I'll bring the meal straightaway."
"Very well. We'll look around with my guest first, then."
That's why I can never go anywhere without being stuffed to bursting. I almost argued further, but I just nodded and entered the inn.
—--
"Association Head, you're here!"
Inside the shop, a crowd of young employees was gathered before a large map.
"Is everyone's opening preparation going well?"
"We're having them memorize the map of the surrounding area! In a little while, they'll walk the streets themselves to learn the geography."
So the map is what they were studying.
"Good. The first trip down an unfamiliar road is always the hardest. Do it well in advance. Keep at it, all of you."
"We won't make a single mistake!"
"Follow me. I'll show you where the Giosugu are kept."
"Those people are...?"
Jeon Unyeop turned his head back and asked about the employees.
"They're the deliverymen."
"Ah! So those are the deliverymen trained in lightfoot arts. There was no Wungi Inn where I live, so this is my first time seeing them in person."
"Haha, is that so? Then we simply must expand faster. You'll be able to have piping-hot food delivered to you in no time at all."
"I'll be sure to order sometime. But if your deliverymen can use lightfoot arts, wouldn't that mean their martial skill is considerable?"
"It's called the Leaf-Carrying Divine Method. I taught them a lightfoot art usable with modest internal energy, at the cost of draining it quickly. As orthodox movement arts go, it's sorely lacking—but for deliverymen, no art suits them better."
"They've learned martial arts, then. Won't they grow dissatisfied with a deliveryman's lot?"
Jeon Unyeop's gaze sharpened.
You mean: they learn martial arts and then just quit, don't they? It only looks impressive, and it'll collapse in no time, won't it? Is he asking whether the business can be sustained?
So much for a mere confirmation procedure.
It seems he intends a proper inspection after all.
"An excellent question. But most of the deliverymen's martial skill is modest. They've learned no other arts, or at best barely rank as third-rate. And the pay is generous enough that changing jobs is hardly an easy temptation."
"I see... A lightfoot art that sounds like mere third-rate skill becomes, for deliverymen, the perfect martial art."
The woman who created the Leaf-Carrying Divine Method was a genius who could walk on water, you know. It's an art she painstakingly refined—she'd be cross to hear that.
"While one deliveryman returns to recover the internal energy he's spent, another departs. Because of that, deliveries are never late."
Our delivery riders run on internal energy instead of motorcycles. And the best part—no fuel costs per liter, because it simply refills itself.
"This franchise system is fascinating. You might call it a tiny alliance of its own. But without a relationship of master and vassal, wouldn't your influence as its head be so easily lost?"
Meaning: right now they follow your word, but once they're making money, won't they leave you behind? Today's profit doesn't guarantee tomorrow's, does it?
A criticism much like the one before.
"You simply monopolize what matters most."
"Which is what, exactly?"
"I hold an exclusive monopoly on supplying the delivery pigeons. As for the deliverymen, an inn attached to the system may be a franchise, but the men themselves belong to the head office. Without those two things, no store can operate—so I need never worry about losing my influence."
"You monopolize the two things most vital to the trade. It's rather like how silk can be woven anywhere, but the raw silk for making Shu Brocade grows only in the land of Sichuan."
"Precisely."
No wonder he's the Head Manager's son. He understands quickly—it's refreshing.
"I've heard you use other methods to secure your margins as well."
"Ah, as it happens, a supply wagon is arriving over there now."
I stood at the window and pointed at the cart approaching the inn.
"A wagon?"
"Under the head office's name, we purchase food ingredients in bulk at low cost and resell them with a margin. The franchises need not shop for their own provisions, and we become inns supplying food of uniform quality. And since the ingredients are bought in bulk and supplied to every location, each shop's revenue is easy to track."
"You handle ingredient costs that way..."
"Because I hold the exclusive rights, I can take margins in any number of places."
I also mentioned, rather casually, a few other streams of income: interior renovation fees, the monthly franchise dues, and so on.
"I took you for a simple middleman, but I've never seen methods like these. Did you truly conceive of all this yourself?"
Jeon Unyeop looked at me, unable to close his mouth.
The franchise system was my own creation, the first of its kind in this world.
Must I tell the man who came to inspect me that I invented it? Behold my brilliant idea, how do you like it? There's no need for that. No reason to show off facts the other party already knows.
"How could anything under heaven be entirely new? I merely found a way to make use of what I had."
Deliberate humility.
Show him a merchant who always makes the best of the situation he's given. Let him report to the Mangeum Lord later that my attitude was admirable.
"Truly worthy of the Mangeum Lord's—"
"Pardon?"
"Ah—no, nothing. The Mangeum Lord asked me to verify a few more things."
Jeon Unyeop gave an awkward smile and quickly changed the subject.
"And what would those be?"
"Your enterprise has grown, he said, so you must now be observed in how you govern people as well."
Not how I run the business, but how I handle people?
I turned around with a confident look.
"Follow me."
Because I've got something to show you.