The Favor - 9
"Eheheh. Nothing steadies the heart quite like painting."
Inside a darkened room, before the glow of a single lamp, the silver-haired, blue-eyed beauty wore a sinister little smile.
Was the woman plotting some scheme? Anyone curious enough to peer closer would have discovered a canvas taller than she was spread out before her.
Jegal Hyang laid the final brushstroke onto the painting.
"The moment Yunhyeon of Tale of the Wind and Cloud Chivalric Hero attains enlightenment! It's fiiinished!"
She nodded in satisfaction at the piece, painted in a style wholly unlike her usual work.
Yunhyeon, standing utterly alone upon a vast river. Everything within the image belonged to Yunhyeon—and yet it was an obstacle to be surmounted, an ally, and a friend.
Jegal Hyang had succeeded in capturing it all: a martial artist attaining enlightenment at last with a single step across the great river, only to find that the road ahead stretched on without end.
"I simply must show this to Young Master Kang."
I'm so glad I painted it, even if it did cost me days of sleep. Jegal Hyang kept nodding at the work she found so deeply satisfying, pointlessly shifting her viewing angle this way and that.
I can't wait to show it off to Young Master Kang. She pictured Kang Yunho marveling at the painting again and again.
When he pointed at a corner of the canvas, she would calm her pounding heart and explain it to him. And then their fingertips would brush, and Young Master Kang would turn to look at her with smoldering eyes, and—
"Eheheheh."
Jegal Hyang utterly failed to contain the giggle that escaped her.
I have to show him right away! Wriggling helplessly, flustered by her own scandalous imagination, Jegal Hyang rolled across the floor—until she came to an abrupt stop at someone's feet.
"My lady. May I begin cleaning now, then?"
Sibi asked in a voice as cold as ice.
"Ah?! W-wh-when did you get there?!"
Absorbed for days on end, you didn't even notice me cleaning, my lady. Sibi considered saying this to her flustered mistress, then thought better of it and walked to the window with a businesslike expression.
"You are no child of darkness, my lady. One ought to ventilate while working."
Sibi swept the window covers aside in a single motion.
"Aaaaaaah! I'm ascending to heaven!"
The sunlight is too bright! Jegal Hyang covered her eyes and writhed in agony, but Sibi granted no mercy.
"Young Master Kang left work early for the first time in days. Are you certain you won't go see him? Lately he keeps going back and forth between the magistrate's office and the pleasure house—whatever could he be doing, I wonder."
"The pleasure house...?"
Jegal Hyang looked up at Sibi, bewildered.
"You hadn't heard?"
"The pleasure house... the pleasure house... cour—courtesans...?! Ah?!"
Now I remember. Jegal Hyang's jaw hung open as though she'd been struck by a hammer.
"My lady?"
Why did it take me this long to remember?! Jegal Hyang knocked her head against the floor in anguish.
In fairness, some of the blame belonged to Kang Yunho, who had never explained things properly. Her face had looked so stricken with shock that he'd mumbled something vague, told her to rest for a few days, and bolted out the door.
"He told me to rest for a few days, and I was just so haaaaappy!"
After all, how long had it been since she'd been freed from that miserable hell of paperwork?
The spirit she had kept bottled up under the noble pretext of helping Kang Yunho—an artistic soul in name, but a fangirl's soul in practice—had erupted all at once. Who could have known she would forget everything else and lose herself in painting for days on end?
Jegal Hyang could not lift her head.
No, no. So Young Master Kang is visiting the pleasure house right now? Don't tell me he's been playing around with courtesans.
Jegal Hyang conjured up a version of Kang Yunho too horrifying to contemplate.
— "Heh heh. Didn't you say you have a fiancée waiting at home?"
— "You amuse me far more than that dull little woman."
— "My, my."
"Aaaaaaah!! Anything but thaaaat!!!"
My stomach burns. My heart aches. My place as the one and only wife is under siege! Jegal Hyang was on the verge of collapsing from sheer anguish.
"My lady? Shall I tell Young Master Kang that you're unwell?"
"Nooooooo! I'll—I'll go see hiiiiim!"
I cannot just sit here. Jegal Hyang rolled herself across the floor and sprang upright in front of the door.
There must be some kind of misunderstanding.
Paying no mind to her ink-stained sleeves, she hurried out toward the living room.
Surely it was nothing but her own needless worrying.
He did seem rushed. She couldn't make out the words properly, but it sounded like something about work. As Jegal Hyang drew near the living room, the voices of Kang Yunho and Jeon Gilsan reached her ears.
"So you brought her home in the end?"
"Got the seal down before any gossip could spread, and brought her straight here."
"What's this about asking to wait until quitting time in a situation like this?"
"The man I love has always been that sort of person."
"He said it's fine, didn't he? Let's just wait."
Who is that? A woman's voice. Jegal Hyang cautiously poked her head toward the living room.
"Young Master Kang?"
"Lady Jegal."
"Wh-who might you beeeee?"
Jegal Hyang asked Kang Yunho, shooting anxious glances at the woman who was, even at a single glance, a stunning beauty.
"Ah! The pregnant courtesan I mentioned some time ago. I went and redeemed her contract in the end, and brought her home."
"...P-pardon meeeee?"
Jegal Hyang froze solid all over again.
"I-I'll stamp it! I'll redeem Hongran's contract—just tell the Imperial Inspector I'm sorry, that this wretched fool's greed ran far too deep! Please, put in a good word for me!"
With the negotiation settled, the matter of Hongran's courtesan registry proceeded at a full gallop.
The terms I had offered were hardly cruel, and after days rotting in a cell, the owner of Hyewol Pavilion was in no state to haggle—so the paperwork went through without a hitch, seal and all.
There was one small matter at the very end that invited a trifling misunderstanding, though.
"My lord Jeong!"
"Hongran."
Like the Cowherd and the Weaver Girl, granted their reunion but once a year on the seventh night of the seventh month, the two of them had at long last managed to meet—and the air between them was unbearably tender.
"My lord! I'm so sorry. Truly, it's all because of me... because of a wretched creature like me..."
"The fault is mine for failing to notice your heart. How could any of it be your fault? Say no more of it."
"My lord!"
"When we return to my hometown, we shall pay a formal visit to my parents. ...Mmph? Mmmmph!"
Whoa. They are really going at it.
Come to think of it, Hongran wasn't the one being devoured—she was the one doing the devouring. As if vowing never to be parted again, she staked her claim all over the Inspector's face.
Should I step outside and give them some privacy? I deliberated for a moment, but I had a feeling that if I left the room now, the rating might just leap from all-ages to adults-only—so I held my ground with the grim endurance of a crow under a salt rub.
"Ahem. S-sorry to keep you waiting."
Jeong Munwon barely pried himself away from Hongran—who remained gloriously oblivious—and took the seat across from me.
"You may want to wipe around your mouth first."
It was gleaming, slick as fresh varnish.
"G-goodness!"
The flustered Inspector hastily scrubbed his mouth with his sleeve.
"It was a sight that made the past few days of running around worth every step. Think nothing of it."
"Thank you..."
Composing himself, the Inspector bowed his head to me.
"The redemption fee came to half the original asking price, with the transfer of the distillery settling the rest. Not a single stain will fall upon your name, Inspector."
"Thank you. Truly, thank you. If it hadn't been for you..."
Jeong Munwon clasped my hand tight in both of his.
"I merely ran around for a few days applying a little cunning. Now, here is the money returned from paying the redemption fee."
The promissory note and the money were laid upon the table. The assets the Inspector had liquidated to save Hongran, the sum borrowed from Mangeum Hall—combined, they amounted to a considerable pile.
And now I have to ask the man to repay it all.
The problem was the overdue interest.
He had borrowed that much, yes, but the due date had long since passed. A tidy sum sat on the table, yet once the principal and interest were recovered, only a modest amount would remain.
Which meant, in effect, that the Inspector would be left penniless.
"The money borrowed from Mangeum Hall must be repaid. Thanks to you, I can cover the principal and every day of accrued interest besides."
Had he noticed me fretting over the money? Jeong Munwon pushed the pile toward me without a moment's hesitation.
"Once the overdue interest is tallied, there won't be a great deal left."
"With what sits on this table, you brought back my beloved woman and my child—the ones I had very nearly lost forever. What is there to feel sorry about?"
Jeong Munwon spoke with a face full of happiness, glancing back at Hongran, who waited behind him.
"If it is no burden to you, Inspector, then I suppose it's no burden..."
Truthfully, I would have taken it even if he had refused. But if one wishes to leave a fine impression to the very end, humility and courtesy are essential, are they not?
I did my utmost to convey the bearing of a man who had to take the money, yet hesitated out of genuine concern for the Inspector's welfare.
"My salary is more than sufficient for daily life. It will be plenty for living in Wuhan with Hongran. Besides, I only came out to Wuhan alone for my posting, to earn what I could—my family estate back home is quite comfortable. So there is truly no need to worry on my account."
"If you say so, then I'm relieved, but..."
So the money he had brought along on his overseas posting ran short, but the family estate back home was doing just fine. Then there was nothing to worry about.
"However..."
"Is something the matter?"
If you're about to go back on your word, we are going to have a problem.
Jeong Munwon's shoulders suddenly sagged, weighed down by some unspoken worry. Surely it wasn't that he'd gone from bachelor to father of a household overnight and was only now feeling the weight of it.
What could be troubling him? Praying his next words would not be I can't pay you after all, I waited.
"Goodness only knows what my wife will do when she finds out..."
"I'm... sorry? Ah! You're married!"
Inspector Jeong Munwon was a man in his thirties. No rising imperial censor in the empire stayed a bachelor—it was simply not done.
"Don't worry, my lord. I will work hard so that the lady of the house does not resent me."
Hongran scooted over and clasped the hand of the visibly anxious Inspector.
"The trouble is, my wife's temper is... not what you would call ordinary."
"It... it wasn't intentional, so surely she will understand."
This was a world where even the neighborhood herbalist kept three or four wives when business was good. A man who had passed the highest examination young and risen to Inspector would surely manage.
"As long as nothing explodes behind my back, I'll count myself fortunate..."
A deep sigh spilled from Jeong Munwon's lips.
"Haha..."
So you live in captivity.
"And now that I think of it, aren't you the one with three fiancées?"
"What?! My lord, is that true?!"
"Just exactly which good-for-nothing with the surname Jeon went and told you that, of all things?"
Not many people knew about Hwarin as well.
That bastard Jeon Gilsan.
"Don't be too hard on him. He reassured me—said, 'That rascal's already at three himself, so a mere two will be fine'—and told me not to worry."
"Somehow... that is how it turned out."
In truth it was five, not three. But there was no need to go that far.
"If you happen to have any good advice for me, might you share it?"
Jeong Munwon asked with a desperate expression, even seizing my hand, as though the future utterly terrified him.
Advice, is it.
The situation before us was this: a husband goes off on an overseas posting and takes himself a local wife, and the money sent so he would not suffer abroad—so he could keep himself healthy on proper meat side dishes—I had shaken out of him down to the very last coin, all to buy the man a courtesan.
There was only one piece of advice I could offer.
"Postpone the day you die for as long as you possibly can..."
"Ah..."
It's not as if I'm in any position to worry about other people's problems myself.
"Inspector. The sum has been verified. The moment you stamp the documents, everything will be sent on to Mangeum Hall without a hitch."
The Inspector and I confirmed the promissory note, the documents, and the amount together, then I set the seal and placed it all in the box bound for Mangeum Hall.
Once every last document was finished—from Hongran's redemption to the repayment of his debts—the Inspector smiled like a man with the world lifted off his shoulders.
"Thank you. Truly, I will never forget this debt of gratitude."
As the Inspector took my hand in both of his and bowed his head, Hongran stepped forward and bowed to me as well.
"Constable Kang. You are the benefactor of my entire life. I will never forget this kindness—and I will raise the child in my belly to become a person like you, Constable Kang."
"Not at all. It was my pleasure to settle the requests of the Mangeum Lord and the Inspector both in a single stroke."
That made two successes.
From a ledger where even one win had seemed hopeless, I had somehow collected from two debtors already. And my marks were the Three-Eyed Sword Jo Cheol and Imperial Inspector Jeong Munwon—anyone who heard the story would be floored.
Still, I couldn't help feeling a small twinge of regret.
One more success, and it would be perfect.
There was still a little time before the deadline, but a great obstacle now stood in my path.
The odds for everyone remaining were far too slim.
When I had ranked the Impossible Ledger by likelihood of success, Jo Cheol had been first and Jeong Munwon second. The rest hadn't even merited a ranking.
They were genuinely Impossible difficulty.
So—should I simply be satisfied with this?
If the results of this trial suddenly included some madman who had collected on dozens of toxic debts all at once, that would likely cause a scene.
It's not as if there's no way to claim one more.
There was, in fact, a way.
Provided I had someone's help, that is.
"You seem to have something weighing on you."
Had I brooded too long? Jeong Munwon must have caught my expression hardening, because he asked me what was wrong.
"It's nothing."
I hurriedly rearranged my face into a smile, but the Inspector's expression only grew graver.
"Are we truly going to be like this, after everything?"
"I beg your pardon?"
"You saved my woman and my child. Do you think I cannot hear out a single worry of yours?"
"It is not the sort of worry a man can say out loud."
I shook my head again and again, but the Inspector showed no sign of backing off.
"You have been fretting while looking straight at me this entire time. Which would mean you have business with me."
"..."
"And since you say it cannot be spoken aloud, it must be a difficult favor indeed."
"Haha."
Sharp as a tack. Unable to deny it, I laughed awkwardly.
"Is this a matter that requires my name?"
Jeong Munwon—no, Imperial Inspector Jeong Munwon—asked me with the utmost gravity.
"...Yes, Inspector. There is something I would like to ask of you."
I nodded.
"Would it sully my name?"
"It is nothing that would bring disgrace upon your name, Inspector."
"Would it require my name to serve as a shield?"
"Yes. And it may place you in a somewhat difficult position."
To carry out my plan, I would need to borrow the skin of a tiger. Would an official as incorruptible as this man lend it out so easily?
Jeong Munwon studied my eyes in silence for a long moment.
"Very well."
Then he broke into a hearty, unhesitating smile.
"I'm sorry?"
"Use it. This time, I shall be your shield."