Chapter 33
Translator: penny
Chapter: 33
Chapter Title: No Payments Until Payday
"Really... you mean I don't have to pay it back?"
Eun Garyeon blinked her large eyes, as if she simply couldn't believe it.
It was the kind of expression that might look foolish on anyone else, but on a beauty like her, it came off as utterly adorable.
"Psh, you think I'd actually go through with collecting it?"
"But..."
She started to say something, then closed her mouth.
'She knows full well that honesty isn't always the best policy.'
Unlike that fool Jang Yunho, she was plenty wise.
"That said, Miss Eun, there's something important."
"Yes? What is it?"
Relief washed over her face, as if a huge weight had been lifted, only to be replaced by a puzzled look.
She quickly composed herself, as if ready to agree to just about anything reasonable.
I flashed a grin and took back what I'd just said.
"I'm going to collect that money."
"...Pardon?"
The way she stared at me was like she was looking at a lunatic.
I guess I needed to explain a bit more.
"You don't have to pay the money. But I have to collect it."
"...?"
Eun Garyeon still wasn't getting it.
Frustrated, I smacked my chest and spelled it out.
"Come on, is that so hard to understand? Don't pay it! You don't have to! But I'm going to collect it, got it?"
"What kind of cra... I mean, what do you mean?"
She hurriedly corrected herself, but I'd heard it clear as day.
'She almost said "crazy talk," didn't she?'
It was pretty amusing, but time to drop the jokes.
I straightened up and got serious with the explanation.
"First off, the Eun Merchant Group has quite a few debts right now, right?"
"...Yes."
She looked displeased but nodded anyway, fully aware of their vulnerable position.
I pulled out the paper I'd brought from my pocket.
Then I started reading it slowly in front of her.
"Hmm, let's see. 40 gold nyang to the Sando Sect, 50 gold nyang to the Geumyeol Merchant Group..."
Eun Garyeon's initial confusion turned to shock as I went on.
"20 gold nyang to miscellaneous merchants under the Dosik Merchant Association, and to the Gyeongwol Merchant Group..."
I got tired of reading after a while.
The amounts just kept getting smaller and more trivial toward the end.
I crumpled up the paper from the Shadow Gate Sect and tucked it away, then turned to her.
"...Eh, too annoying. Anyway, roughly 200 gold nyang in total."
"How did you... Young Master Mok?"
"Plus 180 gold nyang owed to the Sichuan Tang Family. Back pay for salaries totals 30 gold nyang, and the money I'm owed is 10 gold nyang."
"...Pardon? 10 gold nyang?"
Even in her daze, she caught the bit about my debt that I'd slipped in.
I just brazened it out.
"Didn't you hear outside earlier? With interest, it's 200 silver nyang, which makes 10 gold nyang."
"But that's... And you just said I didn't have to pay it back."
"Right. But the key point is that I need to collect my 10 gold nyang."
The existing debts were too small.
You had to match their weight class if you wanted to throw your weight around.
"You don't have to pay my debt. But before you pay mine, no money flows to anyone else."
"You mean...?"
"Don't pay the employees' salaries, don't pay the Tang Family, and especially don't pay off those other creditors over there."
"What...?"
Finally grasping my meaning, Eun Garyeon's eyes wavered.
I added more explanation for her.
"Two months from now, the goods from the Tang Family arrive, right? Sell them and pay everything off then. Until that day, not a single coin to anyone."
"That's impossible..."
I knew that.
How outlandish it sounded.
I knew how tough it was to hold out against creditors hounding you for money.
'I've been there.'
Ah, not as the one who got screwed—I mean, I'd gone around collecting debts myself.
No idea how it is now, but back when I was with the Red Serpent Sect, they ran a loan shark operation there.
And it was grunts like me who went around collecting.
We'd wreck the place until they paid.
Even if they truly had nothing, we'd squeeze it out of them somehow.
People are amazing like that—say they have nothing, but most scrape it together eventually.
And if they couldn't?
'Beats me.'
That's when the human traffickers would show up.
I knew what came next, so I always tried harder to collect the cash myself.
Getting roughed up by me had to be better than ending up trafficked, right?
Anyway, since I'd done it before, I knew the drill.
How vicious creditors could be.
How terrifying money made people.
But,
'Doesn't matter. It won't work on me.'
I was Mok Jimyeong.
About an hourglass's worth of time.
That was how long it took Mok Jimyeong to convince Eun Garyeon.
She was still half-doubting, but realizing there were no other options, she reluctantly agreed to go along with him.
Only then did Mok Jimyeong spring into action.
Worried word might leak, he dispelled the barrier he'd set up and bellowed with infused inner energy.
"Get the ledgers here, now!"
A Lion's Roar that shook the entire building.
A swarm of people rushed in at the sound.
"What is this?!"
There was Eun Taehyeok, the chief steward and Red Serpent Sect lackey,
"What kind of power...!"
and Im Jungdo, the deputy manager and disciple of Chu Munrak.
Im Jungdo, who arrived late, was especially shaken.
The building-shaking roar felt just like his master.
'This can't be real.'
How could a young punk, barely past twenty, have such profound inner energy?
When he'd dragged Jang Yunho in by the collar, Im Jungdo had smugly thought, 'He won't be a match for me.' But now? He knew he was outclassed.
That was when Mok Jimyeong's gaze turned to him.
"Hey, you. The deputy manager, right? Bring the ledgers right now."
"L-Ledgers, you say...?"
Honorifics slipped out unbidden.
Im Jungdo was already cowed by Mok Jimyeong.
"I'm giving you a quarter-hour. If they're not here by then, I'll make you just like Jang Yunho."
Im Jungdo's mind flashed to Jang Yunho passed out earlier—face swollen like a steamed bun.
As he scrambled to move, Eun Taehyeok cut in.
"What is the meaning of this?! How can a young hero like you act so unreasonably...!"
Gulp.
Im Jungdo swallowed hard at those words.
'Young? Because of his age?'
No way.
He was more like an old monster who'd reversed his aging.
Eun Taehyeok didn't practice martial arts, so he wouldn't know, but that Lion's Roar had surpassed peak realm.
Not even the Five Dragons and Five Phoenixes could pull that off.
'Youth Restoration Technique? No way it's actual age reversal...?'
As Eun Taehyeok stalled by eyeing Mok Jimyeong, he muttered without even glancing his way,
"Time's ticking. I said a quarter-hour."
That tiny voice hit Im Jungdo's ears like thunder.
'Hup! What...'
It wasn't telepathy.
Nor Voice Transmission of the Six Unions... More like a sound-based technique.
Survival instinct kicking in, Im Jungdo bolted out.
Eun Taehyeok could only gape in confusion.
'Why's he acting like that...?'
The Red Serpent Sect terrorized northern Hebei.
And Im Jungdo was the one they'd insisted he serve well.
Eun Taehyeok didn't train in martial arts, but he knew Im Jungdo's skill roughly.
Especially since he'd watched him kill his own older brother, the former caravan leader, up close.
He knew the man's terror all too well.
'Like a tiger in human form.'
Countless escorts had died by his hand.
They said experts could split boulders and fell great trees in one strike, but Im Jungdo went beyond that.
'So why...?'
Eun Taehyeok found himself glancing around nervously.
"Young hero... please calm down."
"Calm down? You're not paying me my money!"
Watching Mok Jimyeong rant like a madman, Eun Taehyeok swallowed his pride once more.
"We'll pay 20 silver nyang by the end of the day..."
"Not 20 silver—200 silver nyang! Hand over 10 gold nyang!"
Grind.
Eun Taehyeok ground his teeth at Mok Jimyeong's arrogant attitude.
The punk was barely half his age, yet acting like this.
About to snap back in anger,
"Here, the ledgers! I brought the ledgers!"
Im Jungdo came rushing back, forcing him to shut up.
"Hm, hand them over."
Mok Jimyeong took the ledgers, sat in a chair, and leisurely began reviewing them.
Watching his relaxed demeanor made Eun Taehyeok's blood boil.
"Deputy Manager, a word?"
Not knowing the full situation, he quietly called to Im Jungdo.
But Im Jungdo ignored him and cautiously asked the young man in the chair.
"May I go now?"
"Yeah, go ahead."
Mok Jimyeong waved him off dismissively.
Im Jungdo let out a sigh of relief and headed out.
Eun Taehyeok caught up and asked,
"What's going on? Is that young punk someone important?"
"Shh, keep your voice down. He's an incredible master."
"A master?"
"The kind who could kill someone like you without a trace."
Eun Taehyeok gulped at Im Jungdo's grave words.
So it was true—the deputy actually acknowledged him as a master.
Eun Taehyeok glanced around and whispered,
"Even so... isn't this too much?"
20 silver nyang ballooning to 200 overnight?
No loan shark charged like that.
Im Jungdo squeezed his eyes shut and replied,
"Just wait it out for now. If it gets bad... we'll call for backup."
"Backup?"
"You don't need to know. But at most a month—we'll drive him out."
And every word of their conversation reached Mok Jimyeong's ears, sitting casually in that distant chair.