novelraw Chapter 142 : The Prodigal Returns
Chapter 142 : The Prodigal Returns
Chapter 142: The Prodigal Returns
“Chief Steward Jin, do we have any martial uniforms left at the academy?”
Eun Hwaran looked over my ragged clothes with concern before calling out to Chief Steward Jin.
“Well, he is her only sworn brother—no way she'd let him walk around dressed like that.”
“I’ll pick out the stiffest and finest one for him.”
In this era, the best martial uniforms were those tough and durable.
How reassuring it was to have a sister determined to dress and feed me with only the best.
“But what’s that chest?”
As soon as she asked, I placed the chest on the table with a thud.
The jolt was strong enough to make the utensils tremble, and both of them looked slightly startled.
“Hefty.”
“Heavy, isn’t it?”
What’s inside was even more shocking.
When I clicked open the chest, a yellowish-golden light filled the room. Eun Hwaran and Chief Steward’s half-opened eyes widened like lanterns.
“Oh my, oh my.”
Eun Hwaran repeatedly exclaimed, lightly tapping her slender chin with her fan.
Chief Steward Jin, perhaps still unable to believe what he was seeing, picked up a few coins and let them drop. Thud. Thud.
“This should settle the debt situation, right?”
In response to my question, Chief Steward Jin nodded in Eun Hwaran’s stead, assuring me it was more than enough.
“Ho ho, I didn’t think you’d manage to recover all this. Honestly, I’d half given up and was ready to write it off as a loss...”
He couldn’t defy the Trading Lord’s whims and had resigned himself to never seeing the money again.
As I gave him a faint smile and a calm stare, Chief Steward Jin cleared his throat.
“Of course, it’s not that I completely distrusted you...”
“I understand. The Trading Company’s finances weren’t in great shape, and you were nervous about dishing out such a large sum.”
“Ahem, yes, something like that.”
Those managing the company’s accounts needed to be meticulous like that.
I too suffered Ilhong’s nagging whenever I made large expenses at the office.
“But Mujin, where on earth did you get all this money?”
“Thanks to that request you arranged at the gathering, Hwaran-noona.”
I shrugged as I replied. Her face slowly filled with confusion.
“You’re telling me the job I brokered brought in this much? That can’t be right…”
The job she mentioned at the gathering had just been a simple request to find a missing corpse.
But when I peeled it back, it turned out to involve a jiangshi, and even the Blood Cult’s Left Blood Law popped up.
I explained to her just how far things had escalated.
“…My goodness, so it was that dangerous of a mission?”
Indeed. There’s never an easy job handed to me.
Feels like every step I take hits a landmine. At this point, I’ve half-accepted it as fate.
Slide.
I nudged the chest slightly toward her as if insisting she take it.
“Mujin, you didn’t need to repay it this quickly.”
A smile briefly touched Eun Hwaran’s face, soon replaced by a flicker of doubt—“Should I really accept this?”
She tapped her cheek gently with the fan, staring at me.
Her expression asked if I’d be okay, since the office must still need quite a bit of money to run.
“It’s a matter of principle for me. I repay debts as soon as I can.”
The closer you are—like family—the more you need to handle money matters with clarity.
She said I could take my time, but the longer debt lingers, the more thoughts creep in. Eventually, you can't avoid the strange dynamic of creditor and debtor.
I’d seen too many cases like that in my line of work.
“No words can match the sincerity of repaying a debt—whatever it takes.”
Otherwise, it's time to prostrate yourself on a hot griddle.
A lesson I picked up from some media, somewhere.
“Fufu, seems I really lucked out with a brother like you.”
She gently set aside the fan covering her lips.
Perhaps it was a perfect answer—her face now bore a warm smile. No longer the formidable Trading Lord, but a sister truly proud of her brother’s growth.
“You definitely did. And if anything happens from now on, I’ll be there. You won’t find another brother like this in all of Beijing.”
“Fufufu.”
Remember when I first arrived in Beijing?
No one would give me a single job—a cold and heartless place.
And yet here was someone who loaned me a massive sum, without interest, and without even setting a repayment date.
I didn’t want to drift apart from someone like that. So I’m playing the long game. This is Dan Mujin’s method of maintaining guanxi.
“Um, Trading Lord. You might want to secure that soon…”
Chief Steward Jin, seeing the mood get overly sentimental, seemed worried she might do something impulsive again.
Eun Hwaran let out a chuckle at his nervous expression.
“Little brother, I’ll make good use of this money.”
“It was yours to begin with, no need to say that.”
Anyway, the debt was now paid in full. That was the end of our creditor-debtor relationship.
Just the fact that I had kept my word filled me with a swelling sense of pride and completeness.
Now that the guilt was gone, I could help her without shame and keep racking up righteous deeds.
“If anything comes up, call me. This little brother’s always ready to help.”
Isn’t that how family works—give and take?
If only that brat from the Murong Clan could learn that.
“Hm.”
But it seemed trouble was already brewing on her end.
When I asked if anything was wrong, Eun Hwaran’s expression turned slightly somber.
Apparently, it was something hard to talk about. So I gently nudged the conversation forward.
“Something going on? Try telling this Troubleshooter.”
Whether it’s rooting out discord within the Trading Company, chasing down corrupt insiders, or conducting high-level audits—
This Troubleshooter had resolved it all.
With that in mind, I flashed a big grin.
“Well, the thing is…”
But maybe she still lacked a bit of faith in me—she couldn’t quite bring herself to say it.
“Come on, what is it? We don’t keep secrets in this family.”
“You’re right. You’re the only family I have left now…”
We may not share blood, but still.
In this heartless Central Plains, we were a relationship built on more than mutual gain—we actually looked out for each other.
“Have you ever heard of someone named Eun Yanggon?”
She fiddled with the edge of her fan as she cautiously asked.
Eun? I vaguely recalled hearing that name back when I was a warehouse assistant.
Word was, he got caught up in gambling and women, racked up massive debt, and was disowned and kicked out by the previous Trading Lord, Eun Jincheong.
That was why Eun Hwaran, the only remaining direct heir of the Eun Clan, rose to the position of Trading Lord.
“He’s come back to Beijing.”
“…Oh, boy.”
News of Eun Yanggon’s return had come through one of Eun Hwaran’s many connections spread throughout Beijing.
Just as the Trading Company had barely managed to overcome a major crisis, the prodigal son decided to return home.
“That’s... certainly troublesome.”
“…Yes. Very troublesome.”
Is there anything harder to deal with in this world than conflict between family?
Even for me—when I run into Murong Cheonghye or Murong Cheon—my heart races, and my emotions and demeanor go all over the place.
“And there’s an even more infuriating part.”
“What else is there?”
There’s more to make this worse?
Unlikely. I tilted my head and asked back.
“The first place he visited after returning was…”
“Was?”
“…Man Geum Trading Post.”
Eun Hwaran sighed and rubbed her brow.
Of course. Just how much worse could this situation get?
“Mm.”
Of all places, he went straight to the one that tried to swallow the Trading Company whole through a political marriage.
Whether it was intentional or a coincidence, either way, if not handled swiftly, it could lead to serious trouble.
“Urgh… Mujin, what should I do?”
Even she—who always handled internal company matters with decisiveness—was at a loss when it came to family.
The fan she usually never let go of had been set aside, and her delicate hands now covered her face.
“Please leave this to me. I’ll take care of it.”
I couldn’t bear seeing that tired look on her face.
I patted my chest firmly, as if to say: just trust me.
“…You really think you can handle family matters like this too?”
A lot of requests that come into the Troubleshooter Office are family-related. Gambling, missing persons, inheritance disputes, and so on.
There were legal limitations back then, but here, no such restrictions apply—so my means are limitless.
And with these kinds of problems, it’s often better to leave them to someone like me, a third party. I can stay detached and handle things with cold objectivity.
“If I’ve got free rein, I’ll take care of that Eun Yanggon person myself.”
“Mujin, you can’t kill him though…”
Maybe my tone came off a little too sharp. She flinched and quickly told me that killing wasn’t an option.
Of course I wasn’t going to kill him. Why would I go that far for someone I don’t even hold a grudge against?
‘For my own sake…’
Because of that bastard, I’d vowed never to commit meaningless murder.
Of course, in this sword-and-blade Murim, the day may come when I have no choice.
But until that day, I’ll do my best to hold out.
“Please trust me. I’m the kind of Troubleshooter who gets the job done just right.”
Most clients babble a list of overly complicated demands when making a request.
But when you really listen, what they’re saying is, ‘just handle everything for me without hassle.’ And I’m a seasoned pro who gets that nuance.
“Really? From what I’ve seen, you always seem to escalate things.”
“…It’s never me who escalates it.”
Weirdos show up. Unexpected stuff blows up.
I swear, it’s never my fault.
Anyway.
“Well then, I’ll leave it to you, little brother. As long as you don’t kill him… you may deal with it as firmly as you need.”
Now that she’d sorted through her emotions toward her brother, she once again wore the face of a proper Trading Lord as she entrusted me with the Eun Yanggon situation.
Yes, that’s the noona I know—Eun Hwaran.
“Got it. Just leave it to me and focus on managing the Trading Company.”
Like those sworn brothers who made oaths beneath the peach tree…
Sometimes, those bonds run deeper than blood.
“I’ll take care of the rest for you.”
Debt? Gone. Guilt? Gone. Cleared them both.
Feeling light as a feather, I returned to the office.
Ilhong, who’d been training with Jo Harang, turned to look at me with a puzzled expression.
“Boss, didn’t you leave carrying that money chest?”
“Yeah, I did.”
“Then… why don’t you have it now…?”
That was a chest full of gold coins, and the look in her eyes said, where the hell did you sell it off?
Ah, right—I hadn’t told her about that yet.
“I paid off all our debts. We’re free now.”
I shrugged, as if asking, doesn’t that feel great?
In response, Ilhong broke her training stance and jumped to her feet, with Jo Harang following suit.
“What do you mean you gave it all away?! We can barely keep the office running as it is!”
Maybe it was because she handled our finances—she reacted to this just like Chief Steward Jin would.
“Mujin, I really wanted to eat sweet and sour pork with shredded meat…”
Jo Harang also pouted and whined at me.
If I recall, that’s a dish with thinly sliced pork stir-fried with wood ear mushrooms, salt, syrup, spices… all expensive ingredients.
She really has refined taste for someone who calls herself a second-rate wanderer.
“Let’s have dumplings, Harang. You like dumplings, don’t you?”
“Dumplings again? They’re so empty. I’m sick of them.”
She’d rather forage for wild greens than eat that dry stuff again.
In this city paved with grey stones and walls, where was she even going to find wild herbs?
“So you just gave it all to Trading Lord Eun Hwaran?”
“Hey, it was her money in the first place.”
We borrowed it to establish our presence here in Beijing, among its big-money clients.
Sure, the amount might’ve been absurdly high—but that’s just how steep the capital’s wall is. The Central Plains’ obsession with real estate is no joke.
Even if you won the lottery, buying a house would… wait, what the hell am I rambling about?
“Anyway, the point is—our debt’s no longer weighing the office down.”
“Yeah, but now we’re broke.”
Come on, how can we have an office in Beijing and still be called broke?
Ilhong, unaware of my Righteous Deeds System, grumbled, asking if it was really necessary to give all of it back.
“But I got a job lined up right away. The client? None other than Trading Lord Eun Hwaran herself.”
As if I’d come back empty-handed.
I had accepted a request from my sister, who promised to throw in a fat bonus for her sworn brother.
“Oh? What kind of job is it?”
Only then did Ilhong and Jo Harang’s faces brighten as they perked up with interest.