In Order to Prepare - 2
With our business with Ha-no concluded and a promise to meet separately later, I headed straight up to Cheonghoeru.
Chae Jin, who had been here once before, didn't seem to think anything of it, but Hong Ryeon watched me ascend the pavilion with unmistakable fascination.
"Is this really all right?"
"Of course it is."
And so we climbed, until at last we arrived at the fifth floor.
At the end of a corridor rendered utterly silent by a warding barrier, two men stood waiting, just as always.
"Hahaha! Master Yu, back again!"
"A pleasure, sir."
Gi Noya welcomed me with a delighted laugh, while Wi Yeol greeted me with a curt fist-and-palm salute. Watching the two military officers bow to me, Hong Ryeon tilted her head in puzzlement—then pounced.
"Those two gentlemen..."
"They once walked the murim, but in truth they are masters serving the military—Gi Noya and Wi Yeol. And allow me to make an introduction of my own: Hong Ryeon, chief disciple of Hongseong Sect."
"The pleasure is mine. I am Hong Ryeon, 'a very close friend' of Innkeeper Yu here."
Gi Noya chuckled heartily at her greeting, then his eyes gleamed with interest.
"Oh ho, so you're close with Master Yu! As it happens, I'm also quite close with Master Yu—"
"The General is waiting."
"Hey! I wasn't finished with my story!"
"Tell it later."
"Why, you—!"
I flashed an amused look at the pair as they squabbled as ever, then knocked on the door. When a voice bade us enter a moment later, I led the two women inside. Cheon Il-hwa—general of the Imperial Conscription Department, a middle-aged man toiling amid mountains of paperwork—rose to greet me, weariness hanging about his face.
"Welcome, Master Yu."
"It has been some time, General."
"Haha. Yes, it has. Come, have a seat... Hm? One more than last time, I see. The chief disciple of Hongseong Sect herself—the Sun-Falling Sword, Hong Ryeon."
"As you know, I do business with Hongseong Sect. I brought their chief disciple along so that you might see with your own eyes that the medicinal herbs I'll be delivering were grown by the sect itself."
"Hoh. If you vouch for them, Master Yu, I've no reason not to trust it."
"Even so, if it sets the General's mind further at ease, surely that is no bad thing?"
"Haha, that is also true. A pleasure. I am Cheon Il-hwa—guild master of the Cheonghoe Merchant Guild, and general of the Imperial Conscription Department."
Perhaps because he and Chae Jin had already exchanged greetings on a previous visit, the two of them merely shared a light nod, but Hong Ryeon was another matter. To his courteous greeting she returned an equally courteous bow.
Such a warm and friendly atmosphere. How nice.
"Now, to the matter at hand. First, the sale of those sachets. Far more people wanted them than I expected."
Joy settled over Hong Ryeon's face.
"We've entrusted consignment sales to our branch in Gaebong. Are you aware? The Cheonghoe Merchant Guild may seem to operate independently, but in truth a guild exists in every region, and their center is linked to the Cheonwang Merchant Alliance in Gaebong."
I did, actually.
It would come to light later, after all—that as a merchant house run directly by the state, its name would soon be turning up everywhere one looked.
"The evaluation committee of that Cheonwang Merchant Alliance has decided to treat the sachets produced by Hongseong Sect as premium goods. They're a limited item, a regional specialty, and a product with a story behind it."
Exactly. That was what I had aimed for from the start; Cheon Il-hwa had focused on those very points, and it seemed the Cheonwang Merchant Alliance had taken them into account as well.
"Goods like those will sell amply as premium items—and the actual quality of the product itself is by no means poor, either. The fragrance of the Thousand-Day Plum Blossom is rich, and there is no one unaware of what Hongseong Sect has done. Apparently the wives of high officials who believe that owning one will elevate their virtue, along with young ladies whose wedding days are fast approaching, visit often."
"So... how much are they selling for?"
"See for yourself."
Cheon Il-hwa held out the documents, and Chae Jin, Hong Ryeon, and I leaned in to look.
"Whoa... these are expensive?"
"A little more than I expected."
While Chae Jin and I marveled, Hong Ryeon simply stared blankly at the papers.
"Hong Ryeon?"
No answer.
Hong Ryeon had crashed.
I shook her, and she snapped back to her senses—then began trembling all over.
"...This much... so much..."
"In the end, what matters is how a product is sold. And when demand is high but supply is scarce, the price can only climb. The current figure includes the value of a limited edition, you see—so at that price, there's little to be shocked by. Besides, if you bear in mind that this is the revenue for a single quarter, or perhaps half a year, I would hardly call it an especially great—"
"E-even as a year's earnings, that's an incredible sum?!"
Was it?
Watching Hong Ryeon hurriedly protest my words, I gave a nod.
"Then how much will our side receive?"
"There would ordinarily be a commission... but you and I go back a long way, Master Yu. In the hopes that you'll lend me your aid in the days to come, the commission is on the house."
In other words, he meant to hand over every coin we earned.
Glorious news.
"Truly, I hardly know how to thank you."
"Haha, it is I who should be thanking you. And now... to the matter of the medicinal herbs. Those, too, will be treated as premium goods. The price should come to roughly two nyang of gold per geun."
"That's more than enough."
Unlike the sachets, there were no plans to market the herbs as a limited item.
Beneath the table, Hong Ryeon's hands were trembling. On top of the sachet prices from before, now the herbs as well.
She truly hadn't imagined they would sell for this much.
"I told you, didn't I? That we'd sell them high."
"You did say that, but... um. We did grow them with great care, but... are they really worth that... much?"
At Hong Ryeon's uncertain voice, Cheon Il-hwa smiled faintly, and I explained in her stead.
"The value of medicine rises depending on where it comes from and who grew it. If herbs steeped in the spiritual qi of Mount Hongseong were cultivated by Hongseong Sect—a sect that has spent long years performing good deeds and building virtue—then there are more than enough people willing to pay dearly. The saying that medicine takes better hold when made with a sincere heart is already common knowledge even in Gaebong."
In other words, those with money and a fondness for minding their health would be falling over one another to buy.
Cheon Il-hwa nodded at my words, then added one caution.
"And one point to bear in mind: from now on, your products must be sold exclusively through the Cheonwang Merchant Alliance. I cannot promise that no one will try to exploit Hongseong Sect's good name."
He was warning us to watch out for counterfeits.
And if we dealt only with the Cheonwang Merchant Alliance, then the moment anyone else tried to sell our goods, the alliance could stake its own name on smashing them to pieces.
At which point, I suspected, the people working there would likely find themselves conscripted and dragged off to the army as well.
"Ah... yes. We've already agreed to supply to Innkeeper Yu alone."
"And I intend to deal only with the Cheonghoe Merchant Guild—with you, General."
"Heh heh. That is most reassuring to hear."
There was nothing to worry about.
Not that there was likely to be any trouble, but we had even drawn up a separate contract—stipulating that the Cheonwang Merchant Alliance would assist in preventing both price gouging and unauthorized resale by dealers—and tucked it safely away. With our hearts considerably lighter, we sipped our tea.
"Ah, that's right. Miss Chae, Miss Hong—would you step downstairs and have a drink or two while you wait? I have some personal matters I'd like to discuss with Master Yu."
Chae Jin and Hong Ryeon gazed at me anxiously, but I shook my head. I had a fair idea why Cheon Il-hwa wanted to speak with me alone.
Once they had gone, Cheon Il-hwa came to the point.
"A while back, I made the acquaintance of Ha-no of the Hao Gate. He told me that a stratagem came to him mid-conversation with you, and that he used it to even out the balance among the unorthodox sects."
"Haha. That worked out well, then."
"Thanks to it, we obtained quite a wealth of manpower and resources. Naturally, we made certain your name never surfaced in the process..."
"Thank you."
"The problem is that I don't believe they'll simply stop moving. And moreover... it seems someone stands behind the New Four Black Lotus Alliance Leader."
Just as I thought. The New Four Black Lotus Alliance Leader had the Iron Blood Dan behind him—which meant, in all likelihood, the Iron Blood Golden Emperor.
"Truthfully, I'd like to investigate and throw every last one of those bastards threatening the safety of the empire and the imperial family into prison—Non-Aggression between Bureaucracy and Martial World be damned. But to do so without a shred of evidence would shake the empire's currently stable state of affairs to its core. The demonic sects would seize upon it to strike at loyal ministers, and beyond that, they could launch attacks claiming the military was needlessly stirring up trouble."
"I understand."
And I truly did—things had played out much the same in Cheonsang Myeongwol.
The one mercy was that around Part Three of the story, the empire itself would sense the crisis and begin moving in earnest. Until then, all I needed was to keep my relations with Cheon Il-hwa warm.
Our own scenario, too, was built on securing the cooperation of the officials and the military around that time, depending on how circumstances unfolded—so there wasn't the slightest problem.
"Thank you. And allow me to apologize for being unable to step forward myself. Which is why I say this: the political climate of late is uneasy, and the movements of the New Four Black Lotus are anything but ordinary—so I would like to place a few of my men in your care for the time being."
"Your men, you say..."
"Gi Noya and Wi Yeol. I intend to lend you some troops as well. And if managing soldiers proves too burdensome, you may hand that duty over to the magistrate. From what I've seen of his results, he's quite capable."
"Yes. He truly is excellent at his work."
"If Seomhwachon falls, Yangwi Fortress sits right next door—it would grow uneasy as well. And... I heard that Hongseong Sect recently defeated a strange faction called the Iron Blood Dan. Am I mistaken?"
"You are not."
"Several places where spiritual qi gathers have been attacked of late, and the name Iron Blood Dan surfaced there as well. All the more reason that a little vigilance can do no harm. Mount Hongseong is famous for being saturated with spiritual qi, is it not?"
"Hm..."
"So I ask you, Master Yu—if the New Four Black Lotus or those Iron Blood Dan villains attack Seomhwachon, could you join forces with Hongseong Sect and bring them down? Truth be told, this is work for the empire's sake, and I feel rather guilty palming it off on you. Even so, I ask for your aid. I will not forget this debt."
Cheon Il-hwa made the proposal in earnest, and I received it just as earnestly.
"I will do my utmost for the empire."
"Haha... my thanks."
What was he saying? I was the one who should be grateful.
I had been planning to ask for just one of the two—Gi Noya or Wi Yeol—and now it looked as though I'd be getting both of them, troops included.
With the main business concluded, our talk turned to the mine. It concerned a gold mine near Yangwi Fortress, and perhaps because it represented a fine opportunity to secure funding, Cheon Il-hwa took a keen interest—mentioning that he too had once heard gold dust had been panned from a river in that vicinity.
With that short but pleasant conversation at an end, I headed downstairs—and on the fourth floor of Cheonghoeru, I found the two of them seated across from each other, sipping their drinks.
"Oh? Finished with your talk?"
"That's right."
"What did he want, calling you away like that?"
"Haha. I'll tell you once we're home. More importantly..."
I looked between the two of them and opened my mouth slowly.
"I need to go meet Ha-no for a moment. If you two would like to keep drinking here, I'll take Gi Noya or Wi Yeol along and be on my way."
"Can we come too?"
"I don't mind, but you'd only be bored. It's hardly a place for sightseeing. Not a dangerous one, either."
But the two of them rose from their seats without a word of protest.
Here's hoping the Hao Gate doesn't faint from the shock.