Declaration - 4
The Lord of Mangeum. Jang Noya.
The founding master of the Mangeum Money Exchange, the mightiest banking empire in Hubei Province. Father-in-law to the head of the Zhuge Clan, and a man whose influence over Hubei bordered on absolute.
Even the highest-ranking officials tiptoed around the Mangeum Lord's moods, and even the most arrogant martial artists bowed their heads before the power of Mangeum gold.
And the successor to that man?
"There will surely be resistance. My daughters have been angling to seat their own sons in my successor's chair — they'll raise holy hell over this. Which is why you must be the one to convince them. With your abilities, I have no doubt you can teach my grandsons the meaning of knowing their place."
"Lord Mangeum... a successor, you say?"
I came here to get my debts forgiven, though.
Imagine walking into a bank branch to pay off your deposit loan, and the teller beams at you: Congratulations! You've been selected as the heir apparent to the chairman of the very bank you just borrowed from. That's the kind of mood I was being congratulated in.
"Did you think I attached my granddaughter to you for no reason?"
"I assumed you were simply rating me highly."
Best case scenario, I figured old man Jang Noya wanted to make me a relative so he could work me to the bone. Back in South Korea, decades ago, it was practically routine to introduce a marriage prospect to any man you wanted to nail down at the company for good.
"Beauty, if that's what you value. Talent, if that's what you need. The girl lacks nothing in either. And her family is none other than the Zhuge Clan, foremost under heaven — they will serve as a powerful backing for a man with no parents of his own. Did you truly believe I chose a daughter of the Zhuge Clan for some simple reason?"
These days we'd grown so comfortable with each other that I sometimes forgot, but Jegal Hyang was the youngest daughter of the Zhuge Clan's patriarch.
She was only overshadowed in beauty because she stood beside Lady Hayeon — anywhere else in Hubei, her looks would have been unmatched. On top of that, her abilities were outstanding; even after Fang Tong's departure, she had been filling the role of Zhuge Liang herself.
Right. Of course. She was never a woman you'd hand over on a mere high evaluation. Months of frantically putting out fires had made me forget that.
"Elder. Successor to the Mangeum Money Exchange? I am hardly made of such material."
"Not made of it? Where in all of Wuhan is there a finer piece of timber than you?"
The Mangeum Lord raised his voice, furrowing his brow as if the very notion were absurd.
"Lord Mangeum. I am nothing but a black-haired man with a few small talents."
Lord Mangeum, I'm Joseon. A black-haired barbarian, remember?
If you suddenly drag a foreign laborer who was selling food in a tavern into the CEO's chair of a bank, the backlash is going to be apocalyptic. I hinted as tactfully as I could.
"Heh heh. Is that so? Then answer me this. A man with no backing whatsoever, in a land with no connections — out of ten such men, how many do you suppose could succeed on money alone?"
"Two or three would manage it, wouldn't they?"
What kind of question was that? I answered without much deliberation.
"Not a single one succeeds."
The Mangeum Lord shook his head.
"I beg your pardon?"
"With no one to guard his money, he falls prey to bandits. With no one to trust, he falls prey to swindlers. Even if he manages to raise a business from nothing, most fail outright, and at very best he scrapes together profits a far cry from true success. That is what it means to build a business in a land where you have no ties. Two or three out of ten? No. I doubt you could count two or three out of a hundred."
"Two or three out of a hundred..."
Come to think of it, he wasn't wrong. When I first started my business in Yichang, if not for the connections of the late Lord of the Baek Family Manor — Hwarin's maternal grandfather — Daseogak would have collapsed in the blink of an eye.
"Heh heh. And you lacked more than connections and backing, didn't you? You were a Joseon man besides. I watched you with interest, but I never expected great success. And yet what followed? In a land where you knew no one, you rallied people who shared your hair color in an instant and became their head in the same breath. Then you launched a business no one else had ever conceived of, and generated revenue even I failed to anticipate."
"I merely made the fullest use of the opportunity you granted me."
"The world is crawling with fools who don't understand how precious an opportunity handed down by their own grandfather is."
The Mangeum Lord's frustration — curdled, somewhere along the way, into a hardened anger — was aimed at someone.
"..."
"And what came after that? Did you rest on a single success? Ordering food delivered to Wuhan by courier pigeon was marvel enough, but then you created franchisees — tenant farmers of your own enterprise, as it were. One of whom happened to be my grandson."
"I simply provide enough services that the earnings are decent. I don't squeeze my franchise owners dry."
You say tenant farmers and now I sound like some vicious landlord who works his serfs to the bone — just enough gruel to keep them from starving.
Yes, I squeezed them, but I left them room to breathe. Why, your own grandson Jeon Gilsan is so satisfied with his income that he's already talking about opening a third location.
My whole brand — business is about leaving people better off — would collapse if I let that stand. I carefully corrected the old man's phrasing.
"I'm not scolding you for making my grandson a tenant farmer. I'm simply stating facts."
"As long as there's no misunderstanding, Elder, I'm content."
"Heh heh. When I told you your talent for writing, which I'd forbidden, could be put to use again, the sheer absurdity of it. Scholars who wouldn't deign to call your serialized fiction a book at all — now they're stomping their feet demanding to know when the next volume drops. I attend gatherings of the highest officials, and it's nothing but talk of your books. And that wasn't the end of it. Somewhere along the way you became a bailiff, solved case after case, and now they call you the Famous Bailiff."
"Elder..."
"Association Leader Kang. Franchise magnate. Hopil. Famous Bailiff. That is what you accomplished in Wuhan in half a year. Tell me — in the past six months, has a single soul in this city raised his name higher than yours?"
The Mangeum Lord looked at me as if to say: and you still claim I misjudged you?
Well, I'll be. Hearing it all laid out like that — somebody sure lived hard.
Ever since arriving in Wuhan, I'd been running myself ragged trying to survive the Mangeum Lord's trials and untangle Lady Hayeon's troubles.
Things got so bad that when I watched the Do Gate Branch Master die before my very eyes, my first thought was, ah, now I can finally rest.
True, I collapsed and lost consciousness right after — but when I came to, I felt more refreshed than I had in ages.
"Measured against the reputation you've spent a lifetime building, Lord Mangeum, I've merely thrashed about trying to stay alive. A successor? You rate me far too highly."
"I have spent my entire life studying people, deciding whom to lend money to and whom to refuse. And right now, before my eyes, a raw gem just beginning to shine sits priced absurdly cheap. I have every confidence this investment will never fail."
Flatter me any harder and I might just float up into the sky.
The relentless praise was scrambling my brain. He really does mean it, doesn't he.
With his only son dead, it hardly matters to him whether his grandson by a daughter succeeds him or a grandson-in-law does.
I understood why he was making me this offer. But it wasn't a simple matter.
There was one thing I absolutely had to address first.
"Elder. I am Hwarin's betrothed — the grandson-in-law of the late Lord of the Baek Family Manor."
Explaining everything that's happened lately to Hwarin is already enough to make the world go dark before my eyes. And now marriage?
A man has a conscience, Elder. How could you covet the grandson-in-law of your departed friend?
An invincible justification that even the great Mangeum Lord would struggle to counter. How do you answer that, hmm?
The Mangeum Lord curled one corner of his mouth, gave a dry little laugh, and spoke.
"So this 'betrothed' of yours turned all of Wuhan upside down to protect a single runaway courtesan, did he?"
"How do you know about that?"
He knew about Lady Hayeon and the Haomen affair. For a moment I froze, staring at him.
"All those grand, sweeping gestures you made to save one courtesan. Who do you suppose cleaned up the aftermath behind the scenes?"
"You smoothed it over, Lord Mangeum?"
No wonder the other sects had barely reacted, even when Haomen threw its tantrum across Wuhan.
Why? Why would you do such a thing? When I couldn't wipe the bewilderment from my face, the Mangeum Lord answered with a look of deep satisfaction.
"A man throws the whole city into chaos over his feelings for one runaway courtesan — I thought, surely he can do at least that much and more for my own granddaughter."
Excuse me? A man has a conscience. How long has it been since he parted from his betrothed, that he'd raise all that hell over another woman?
Wow. That's... actually a fair point. I have no rebuttal.
You've been waiting all this time just to set me up with Lady Hyang?
When your own logic runs short, you borrow your opponent's. He really does deserve to be called a master merchant, this Mangeum Lord.
"Elder. I promised Hwarin I would wait for her."
He'd landed a blow, but let's not get carried away. Tu quoque is a fallacy, after all. My sins are mine to answer for to Hwarin — pointing out his doesn't make his disappear.
"Who ever told you to betray that child Hwarin?"
The Mangeum Lord snorted, as if he'd anticipated this answer too.
"I beg your pardon?"
"The moment you finish treating that child Hwarin, take her as your wife. Love and cherish her all your life, want for nothing in how you treat her. But can a man bent on great deeds live ten years without a wife at his side? Marry my granddaughter first."
"Elder..."
"Love my granddaughter as much as you love that child Hwarin. Shield my granddaughter from Hwarin's jealousy when the time comes, live happily, and where's the harm in that?"
"I have already sworn marriage to her. It is not a matter so easily settled."
"No need to overcomplicate it. Since when does a man with several wives answer for it, so long as he keeps his center? A man who holds his household firmly has done his duty."
"..."
"Show your ability before my daughters and my grandsons. Then I will declare it: the successor of Mangeum is Kang Yunho. You."
Take Jegal Hyang as your lawful wife, and the succession to the Mangeum Money Exchange is yours.
It was, admittedly, a seductive offer. Become the Mangeum Lord's successor, and I could plant Daseogak across the entire Central Plains. If Hopil's books grew famous alongside it, my reputation problem would surely resolve itself too.
But, I mean.
There's one rather large problem.
This would be my second marriage, not my first.
He wants me to take her as my lawful wife. One wrong step and the family registry turns into a labyrinth.
The Mangeum Lord, taking my silence for consent, said something entirely unexpected.
"One condition. If you become my successor, you will put down the pen for good. Inheriting the Mangeum Money Exchange means much to learn and much to experience. From this day forward, you will devote yourself diligently to your lessons as heir."
There are words you simply cannot let pass without a word of protest — and this was one of them.