The Talk About the Quiet Village
“Even for a newly discovered gold vein, the village feels far too quiet.”
Ju Yu-ryeon’s words struck Eunhyeon as so ridiculous that he paused his work, brushed the dirt from his soil-stained hands, and turned to face her.
“Is this what quiet looks like? Then what was it like before? Doing silent cultivation or endless chatter?”
“I don’t know what it was like before, so I can’t say if it was silent cultivation or just gossip. But come on, a brand-new gold vein and this silence is just too weird.”
Eunhyeon had to admit he was the bigger outsider when it came to this kind of thing. As he narrowed his eyes, Ju Yu-ryeon continued without missing a beat.
“First off, mining isn’t something that gets developed in a single year. You have to consider profitability and reserves. Unless it’s a special case, countries usually handle and run the operations themselves. Whether they take it in-house or auction it out, either way, the traffic and money coming in will dwarf what we’re seeing now, right?”
“…When you put it like that, yeah, I guess it makes sense. Still, people have gathered here, haven’t they? There must be some reason we’re missing. Maybe they’ve already dug a certain amount, or something.”
“…I guess so?”
In the end, Ju Yu-ryeon also seemed short on information, so she trailed off with a dismissive snort and shrugged her shoulders.
Eunhyeon, who was in the same boat, didn’t take it too seriously.
“But if there’s a warehouse, no one should be coming, right? Then what if the owners of these things show up?”
“Owners? They’d have to take everything with them. We haven’t even been charging rent all this time, so where exactly are they?”
“That’s obvious from your side. Um… but if they’re just supposed to come and go, then…”
Ju Yu-ryeon’s hesitant tone made Eunhyeon ask back.
“What are they supposed to do if they don’t go?”
“It’s just that. According to what you said, how long has it been since you and Auntie have been farming here? We could make even ordinary types listen if we really wanted to.”
He answered with a rough tone full of irritation about the fact that his house had been occupied, but Eunhyeon understood Ju Yu-ryeon’s worries to a certain degree.
Although he was a farmer himself, among the people who did this kind of work, there were plenty who relied more on their fists than on words.
And it wasn’t just any gold. Clearly, these weren’t ordinary workers; the Heavenly Martial Alliance or some guild would be moving things in an organized way, with the country itself involved.
“I have no intention of leaving. Do you think I’ll let them scare me twice?”
He had thought of it as a natural disaster and simply let it go, but of course he never wanted the same thing to happen again a year from now.
*
“Here. Eat up.”
After three days of house cleaning, the three of them sat down to a table facing each other. The meal spread before them was a full feast that Su Hwa-seon had prepared for the first time in a long while. At first it had been basic dried provisions because the house wasn’t finished, but now that everything was in its proper place, she could cook properly.
“By the way, where did all the money for this come from?”
Eunhyeon asked Su Hwa-seon while looking at the new chopsticks and the new furniture he had noticed around the house.
Eunhyeon had lived in this house for twenty years, but using such new things was the first time. Because the village was far away, they rarely bought anything new unless it was absolutely necessary.
“I told you before, didn’t I? We grew the crops for the village relief, remember? I saved every last grain.”
“We never spent money back then, either.”
“That’s because we didn’t need to spend it. Now that we do, we’ll spend it.”
“If we didn’t spend any, then we must have saved quite a lot, right?”
“A lot? Just enough to live on. If we had extra money, would we even live in this tiny house?”
Eunhyeon nodded without suspicion, but Ju Yu-ryeon was sending him a meaningful look.
And Su Hwa-seon lightly raised one finger at her as a warning.
Ju Yu-ryeon didn’t feel the need to say anything more, so she picked up a piece of ŭyangyuk with her chopsticks and held up one finger.
“It’s delicious!”
Ju Yu-ryeon kept exclaiming in delight, her chopsticks flying, while Eunhyeon, who hadn’t caught the signal, grinned and picked up his own.
Su Hwa-seon watched them eat with a fond smile, then gently tapped the table when the meal was halfway through to get everyone’s attention.
“Yesterday and today I went back to the village to buy supplies and heard a few more details. There’s something strange about it.”
“Strange part?”
Ju Yu-ryeon wiped her mouth and asked.
“It turns out the gold vein was never discovered.”
“Really?”
Ju Yu-ryeon’s eyes widened in surprise at Su Hwa-seon’s words, then she gave Eunhyeon a pointed look: See? I told you so.
But Eunhyeon had already heard the rumor once, and he didn’t believe it was the only reason, so he turned to Su Hwa-seon.
“Just a rumor?”
“People have been digging everywhere, apparently.”
Su Hwa-seon’s expression carried a hint of seriousness, but Ju Yu-ryeon’s face turned pale with shock.
“The Heukryeon Shanghoe?! They’re the biggest financial backbone of the Demonic Cult! Does that mean the Demonic Cult is involved in this?”
“Looks like it. Not confirmed, but the Cheonhwang Paeundae from the Chukhobang is showing up as escort.”
“Really? Even one of the Six Pillars of the Demonic Heaven, the Chukhobang? With the Heukryeon Shanghoe involved, that makes sense… but still.”
The Six Pillars of the Demonic Heaven—the Mateonyukju—were the six greatest demonic sects supporting the Demonic Cult, the strongest force in Murim.
“Seems like the Demonic Cult itself isn’t directly involved yet. Maybe they’re just using the rumor of a real gold vein. The Heukryeon Shanghoe does whatever makes money.”
Su Hwa-seon spoke calmly, but Ju Yu-ryeon’s face remained tense.
The Heukryeon Shanghoe was the Demonic Cult’s largest financial artery. On the surface they obeyed the law, but behind the scenes they walked the tightrope for maximum profit.
Since they had ties to the Demonic Cult, rumors swirled about bribes, blackmail, even assassinations. Yet they were also known for generous discounts and fair prices, earning them the title of one of the Central Plains’ two great trading houses alongside the Gongryu Shanghoe.
“They don’t look that strong. The Cheonhwang Paeundae level isn’t something even Chukhobang disciples can fake.”
Eunhyeon, though not as skilled as Su Hwa-seon, had trained a few times in Dorim-hyeon and recognized the men.
But compared to the Cheonhwang Paeundae warriors he had seen last year, these men looked weaker.
“The Chukhobang is a major sect, so their disciples vary in skill. Normally that’s fine. Managing and supervising mine workers only requires that level.”
“Really? Why the sudden rumor, then?”
Eunhyeon sounded incredulous, but Su Hwa-seon smiled gently at him.
“Rumors always start small. If it’s just idle talk, that’s one thing, but if the Heukryeon Shanghoe is involved, it’s not just empty gossip.”
“What will happen if a real gold vein is discovered and development begins?”
“It’ll get noisy. Not good for us. Farming near a mine will be impossible—soil will keep being dug, dust will choke the leaves, and water will get polluted.”
Su Hwa-seon was right. A mine would keep digging, shaking the ground and threatening the water supply.
“That can’t be helped. What do we do?”
“The best is for it never to be found. Failing that, we can only hope it stays hidden far away.”
“Is there nothing we can do?”
“Go and disrupt it? That would only make things bigger. We don’t know the outcome yet, so we should just watch quietly.”
Su Hwa-seon offered a lukewarm solution since she had no better one, and Eunhyeon, who couldn’t come up with anything better, reluctantly nodded.
“By the way, one more thing. This is only a rumor, but recently I also sensed movements from the Heavenly Martial Alliance.”
“The Heavenly Martial Alliance, too?”
“It’s not impossible. Looking at the current state of Murim, the Heukryeon Shanghoe and Chukhobang would naturally draw the Heavenly Martial Alliance’s attention.”
“Who did they send?”
“I don’t know the details. Information about the Heavenly Martial Alliance is very scarce. Since the Heukryeon Shanghoe and Chukhobang came first, they probably won’t interfere directly and will gather intel quietly instead.”
Eunhyeon frowned at that, his earlier good mood gone.
“So even they aren’t sure?”
“Seems so. If there was a real reason or a genuine find, they would have stepped in.”
“Looks like our only option is to stay quiet.”
But while everyone else had been speaking, Ju Yu-ryeon had been listening quietly. Then she muttered, voicing everyone’s unspoken worry.
“…Quietly watching would be nice, but…”
Su Hwa-seon and Eunhyeon hadn’t said anything, yet they both knew deep down that this matter would not end quietly.
After all, the tools scattered inside were the owners’, and they would return someday.
*
After the house cleaning was finished, Eunhyeon’s natural task became clearing the ruined fields.
He didn’t know how long it would take, but since he had come back prepared, he simply took his time and slowly restored the fields.
“Still, you saved money on the seedlings.”
Eunhyeon was transplanting saplings whose positions had been wrong.
He had decided to start with the ones closest to the house, moved a few, fixed their directions, and pruned useless branches.
After some time, Eunhyeon straightened up, glanced toward the house, and frowned.
“Where did Yu-ryeon go, anyway?”
The house Eunhyeon lived in was only one building, but it was large enough for a family of four.
Ju Yu-ryeon wasn’t family, of course, so she lived in the open one-story house with a makeshift wall added to Su Hwa-seon’s bedroom.
“Here I am! Hehehehe!”
Ju Yu-ryeon suddenly appeared behind him with a hand on her hip, laughing loudly.
Eunhyeon was about to frown at her when she handed him a water jug, and he sat down with a thud.
“You seem pretty happy. I’ve been working hard all day.”
Eunhyeon took two sips from the jug, handed it back, and Ju Yu-ryeon did the same before smiling lightly.
“Not bad at all. New places are better, aren’t they?”
“Where did you go? You weren’t even home last night.”
“I went to the village. There were plenty of fun places.”
Ju Yu-ryeon’s face was bright and cheerful, the kind of smile someone got after really enjoying themselves.
“Even if it’s gotten a little more developed lately, Dorim-hyeon is still just a countryside village. How could there be that many places to have fun?”
“Well… compared to where I used to go, it’s pretty shabby.”
Ju Yu-ryeon had gotten used to the culture enough that a rural village should have bored her, but apparently it hadn’t.
“But I wasn’t just having fun the whole time. I was gathering information too, and having fun at the same time.”
“What? Information gathering while you were having fun?”
“Tsk. Order doesn’t matter.”
“So what did you find out?”
Ju Yu-ryeon clicked her tongue, but Eunhyeon had secretly been curious himself. Ju Yu-ryeon smiled meaningfully and held up one finger.
“I found out something for sure.”