Chapter 45
Translator: penny
Chapter: 45
Chapter Title: Eun Garyeon's Confession
In the room that Eun Taehyeok had once used, a modest drinking session unfolded.
Only two people attended this gathering.
Just me and Eun Garyeon.
Noisy chatter drifted in from outside.
I casually spread a qi veil to silence the surroundings.
Noticing it, Eun Garyeon smiled brightly.
"Finally, it's a bit quiet now."
"Yeah. Here, have a drink first."
Eun Garyeon demurely accepted the cup.
Even after we'd each downed a glass, she didn't bring up her business.
For the hesitating woman, I decided to offer a little nudge.
"How's the Eun Merchant Group been lately?"
"Great. Really great. It's so good now that I can barely remember how grim things were just a little while ago."
Her expression was indeed much brighter than before.
Just like when we first met.
-We're heading back after a huge success this time, so soon our group's name will be known even in Taewon.
She had dreamed of an optimistic future after sealing the deal with the Tang Family, but everything changed once she arrived at the Eun Merchant Group.
And it had to change.
'The situation was utterly hopeless right then.'
Wages were overdue for the employees, and debts were piling up.
There was no way she could smile through that.
But now, her eyes sparkled with hope once more.
'Much better this way.'
In the first timeline without my help, she probably never made an expression like this her whole life.
Thinking about it filled me with a sense of pride.
"If you need anything, tell Somwol. Oh, if Somwol's not around, tell Eun Hwaruju."
"Got it. Ah, Mok Young Hero! That... who is this Somwol person?"
"Somwol?"
I hadn't told Eun Garyeon about the Shadow Gate Sect.
Of course, she might have guessed it was someone connected to them, but I'd never said it outright.
It wasn't that I didn't trust her...
'The Shadow Gate Sect has way too many enemies.'
It was just in case of any risks.
Truth be told, helping her as much as I already had put us in quite a dangerous spot.
Somwol showing her face and moving around directly was part of it.
As I pondered whether to explain or not, she continued.
"No, I wasn't asking about her position or anything. Just... are you two lovers, by any chance?"
Eun Garyeon's face flushed slightly.
I chuckled at the sight.
"Lovers? Nah."
We'd shared our bodies and grown close, but it wasn't quite a romantic relationship.
To begin with, I wasn't the type to think about just one woman.
Hesitating at my words, Eun Garyeon asked,
"Then what kind of relationship is it?"
"If I had to put a label on it... like my relationship with you?"
The details and circumstances differed, but Somwol called me Silver Lord anyway.
And Eun Garyeon...
'I saved her life.'
Literally pulled her from the jaws of death.
In that sense, weren't they similar?
"Like... your relationship with me?"
She swallowed hard.
Her throat must have been parched, because she downed drink after drink.
After three or four cups in a row, she posed another question.
"You two have... been intimate, right?"
"Of course."
Her face reddened even more at my shameless reply.
No foolish thoughts crossed my mind, like her being drunk.
She held her liquor incredibly well to begin with.
'The mood's ripening nicely.'
Eun Garyeon took a deep breath and opened her mouth with a serious expression.
"Mok Young Hero."
"Yeah?"
"I have to run the Eun Merchant Group."
"I know."
"Won't you... join me?"
The phrasing was a bit ambiguous for a confession.
I grinned teasingly.
"What, is this a confession?"
"..."
She nodded faintly without a word.
Her already flushed face looked ready to burst.
This was my first time receiving a confession from a woman like this.
Back in my Flowery Playboy days, it was only the false affections of courtesans, and as the Lecherous Demon, no woman could truly confess to me sincerely.
It might be her way of trying to tie me to the Eun Merchant Group.
Even so, something tugged at my heart.
'But I can't, so I can't.'
Mok Jimyeong couldn't settle for just running a merchant group.
"Sorry, Eun Merchant. I've got things I have to do."
"...Meeting other women?"
Recalling something I'd said before, she frowned and grumbled.
I replied shamelessly.
"Heroes are supposed to be lechers, right?"
"Mok Young Hero... that's not a line you're supposed to use yourself."
Whatever.
Anyone can use it.
Eun Garyeon let out a deep sigh.
"Sigh, fine. I've known you were like this for a while now. I just... had to ask, in case."
"That's it?"
She called me here just to say that?
If so, it'd be disappointing.
But,
"Even if my confession was rejected, I still have to repay the favor you did me. This place isn't ideal... want to come to my room?"
Eun Garyeon didn't let me down.
As she led Mok Jimyeong to her room, Eun Garyeon's heart began to pound.
She knew what was about to happen.
'Soon, Mok Young Hero and I will...'
Suddenly, she recalled their first meeting.
Mok Jimyeong approaching her like a thug while she was eating, suggesting they share a drink.
'I never imagined it'd come to this back then.'
She'd thought she'd get scolded by Jang Yunho as usual and run off.
But he easily defeated her bodyguard.
Realizing his skills belatedly, she invited him to join the Eun Merchant Group.
Up until then, she'd believed the group would thrive, and for that, she needed talented people.
Truth be told now, her first impression of Mok Jimyeong hadn't been great.
His looks were flashy and handsome, sure, but
'I wondered if he was right in the head.'
Asking for escort fees to Beijing, then offering to lend her the money for those fees.
What kind of logic was that?
Still, he didn't seem like a bad person, so she'd agreed to recruit him.
And so their connection began.
Mok Jimyeong was quite the womanizer.
Taking her along to brothels while keeping her by his side was proof.
Actually, that was a good thing.
It gave her a way to hold onto him.
'Of course, back then I never dreamed it'd lead to this with Mok Young Hero...'
She'd planned a grand feast, summoning beautiful courtesans to win his favor and recruit him.
But upon arriving in Beijing, all her plans changed.
The Eun Merchant Group's situation had deteriorated terribly, and Mok Jimyeong turned out to be far bigger than she'd imagined.
Lost in reminiscence, she arrived at her destination before she knew it.
Entering Eun Garyeon's room, Mok Jimyeong looked around with a playful tone.
"What's this, Eun Merchant? You cleaned up in advance? It's way tidier than last time."
"When would Mok Young Hero even come to my room... Ah!"
Come to think of it, he'd wandered every corner of the Eun Merchant Group while collecting debts.
"Last time, papers and mess were everywhere, but today it even smells nice? Did you light incense for me?"
Eun Garyeon blushed as he exaggeratedly sniffed the air.
Because he was right.
'Just pretend you didn't notice...'
He was such a tease.
Even when he knew Im Jungdo was a traitor but didn't tell her, or when he left the signal flare with Jang Yunho upon departing the group.
Hiding the important stuff, revealing the trivial.
Yet she'd been saved by a man like this,
'That's just how Mok Young Hero is.'
She couldn't bring herself to hate him.
If someone asked if she harbored feelings for Mok Jimyeong, she'd say she wasn't sure.
She wasn't entirely without feelings for him.
Otherwise, she wouldn't have made that confession-like statement earlier.
But if it was deep affection, shouldn't it occupy the biggest place in her heart?
For now, the most important thing to her was still the Eun Merchant Group.
But since she'd been saved by Mok Jimyeong, and the group had been saved too, how should she repay that grace?
Even giving everything she had wouldn't be enough.
"So, Eun Merchant, how do you plan to repay me?"
Mok Jimyeong asked with his usual playful smile.
Eun Garyeon blushed and gave the response she'd prepared.
"In the way you want most, Mok Young Hero."
If even giving everything wasn't enough, she should offer what he desired most.
And Eun Garyeon knew exactly what Mok Jimyeong wanted.
'My body.'
Eun Garyeon took a small breath and slowly began undoing her clothes.
At that, Mok Jimyeong's playful expression turned serious in an instant.
His gaze was so intense that she felt it piercing through the clothes she still wore.
'Hehe, so easy to read.'
How could there be such a straightforward man?
How could there be such an endearing one?
Suddenly, she recalled what he'd said while offering to escort her to Beijing.
-Because you're a beauty, Eun Merchant.
And his words at the brothel, with a woman by his side.
-Nah, just because you're pretty.
Eun Garyeon had always scoffed.
Sweet talk like that was something she'd heard endlessly since childhood.
But suddenly, she wanted to hear those honeyed words from Mok Jimyeong.
Her clothes slipped away, revealing her beautiful bare form.
Stark naked, she cautiously spoke.
"What do you think, Mok Young Hero? Am I... pretty?"
Eun Garyeon's face, as she asked, was flushed red all the way to her earlobes.