novelraw Chapter 76 : Chapter 76
Chapter 76 : Chapter 76
Chapter 76 - There is Something We Must Receive
“……I didn't expect you to come.”
He didn't bother to hide his displeasure.
The head of the Yi Family Clan, a man known to the people of Yiliang County as a symbol of the ‘Master of Intrigue.’
Yi Gwon-su called to the visitor with a sour face.
“Young Hero Biyoung. What brings you here on a day like today?”
The friendly face he had shown when he was with the people of the True Dragon Sect was nowhere to be found, no matter how hard one looked.
The philtrum, which was so long it looked comical, was now severely contorted.
To Yi Gwon-su, all things were classified into three types.
Are they the type that brings him profit?
Or are they the type that brings him harm?
Or are they the meaningless type, like a passing breeze?
Not only mere objects, but even people were no exception to Yi Gwon-su's classification.
In Yi Gwon-su's eyes right now, what type was Biyoung?
At the very least, he wouldn't be the profitable type.
If he were, he wouldn't look like a person who had just bitten into an unripe persimmon.
“What do you mean, what brings me here? Today is the day of the biggest event at the Yi Family Clan, isn't it?”
“That is precisely why I am asking.”
Yi Gwon-su's reply was as cold as a winter's grave.
He fully acknowledged Biyoung's martial arts.
He had sliced through the second-generation disciples of the True Dragon Sect like cutting radishes, so there was no room to doubt his skill.
If Biyoung had become a disciple of the One Heart, One Path as the True Dragon Sect's elder had suggested, he might have run out barefoot to greet him.
But Biyoung's choice was not the True Dragon Sect, but the Diancang Sect.
A group that was once an axis of the Nine Sects One Union, but had now fallen to the point of giving up its place to bandits.
At Yi Gwon-su's icy reaction, even Jeong-i, who was beside him, felt embarrassed.
But Biyoung puffed out his chest with a nonchalant face.
“Why are you being like this, when you should know better? I will be helping Young Master Sedong during the Awl Selection Period. Please recognize all the benefits I bring to the Yi Family Clan as Sedong's achievements.”
“………….”
This was an official procedure of the Awl Selection Period, so Yi Gwon-su only had to say one thing.
The words, ‘I will recognize it.’
Many people had come before Yi Gwon-su and declared that they would join hands with his two sons.
Of course, nine out of ten were those who said they would do business with Hae-dong, not Sedong.
He had been inwardly curious when someone from Sedong's side finally appeared, but to think the one who showed up would be Biyoung.
The lad's martial arts were outstanding.
But what the Yi Family Clan wanted was influence, not an individual.
As long as Biyoung belonged to the beggar-like Diancang Sect, it was safe to say that he would bring no significant profit to the Yi Family.
Would acknowledging this person truly benefit Sedong by even a single grain of rice?
Yi Gwon-su knew it was a waste of time, but he had to ask.
“In what way do you plan to bring profit to this family and to Sedong?”
“Hmm. It's a secret.”
At that insincere reply, a vein popped on Yi Gwon-su's small temple.
He exercised the utmost patience and asked again.
However…….
“The necessary funds?”
“I don't need any.”
At the subsequent reply, Yi Gwon-su's patience had no choice but to hit rock bottom.
“Halt! Are you mocking this Family Head!”
“Huh?”
But Biyoung shrugged his shoulders as if he himself couldn't understand.
“I said I don't need money, didn't I? Isn't that better for you, Family Head, and for Sedong?”
“…………!”
He wanted to twist that wicked mouth right away, but strictly speaking, it wasn't wrong.
In the Awl Selection Period, the most important evaluation criterion was basically ‘how much was spent to earn how much.’
It was good to borrow a large sum from the family head and make a large profit, but if one could make a lot of money with a small capital, that would be the greatest achievement.
In that case.
What if, as Biyoung said, he could make a large profit without spending a single coin?
That would be something worthy of being called the young family head of the Yi Family.
However.
Was anything in the world ever as easy as it sounded?
Yi Gwon-su was a man who had mastered the economy of scale.
Small money brings relatively small profits, and large money brings large profits.
For this Awl Selection Period, Yi Gwon-su had decided to lend his sons five thousand silver nyang each.
Considering that a sack of rice was about one silver nyang, it was a truly fearsome amount of capital.
Yi Gwon-su even thought it wouldn't matter if he lost all that money.
He thought it was much better than seating an unqualified person as the family head and facing ruin.
“You seem to have a lot of questions, but I'll be brief. We're busy people.”
“B-Busy?”
Yi Gwon-su doubted his own ears.
Busy?
You're calling yourself busy in front of me, who has been dealing with guests all day for the Awl Selection Period?
Towards the dumbfounded and speechless Yi Gwon-su, Biyoung showed a picturesque smile.
“There are two ways to win in a competition, right? Either I do well, or my competitor stumbles. The Yi Family Clan's biggest competitor is the O Family Manor, right?”
“……So?”
“The O Family Manor will soon face a financial crisis.”
“?”
Even if he were grasping at clouds, it wouldn't feel this absurd.
The O Family Manor was a merchant family that vied for the top spot with the Yi Family Clan in Yiliang County.
If one were to only consider the history of their activity in Yiliang County, they were an older family than the Yi Family Clan.
Considering its scale and history, it was a place that didn't quite fit with the ‘financial crisis’ Biyoung mentioned.
And yet, Biyoung was saying that a calamity would befall the O Family Manor as if he was certain.
“Prepare a hefty amount of cash in preparation for that time.”
With those words, Biyoung turned his back and walked towards the door.
“Hey, Young Hero Biyoung. What does that……”
At this point, Yi Gwon-su couldn't help but be curious.
It was clear that more than ninety percent of it was nonsense, but Yi Gwon-su was able to become the top merchant in Yiliang County because he did not easily dismiss even that ten percent.
Towards Yi Gwon-su, who was asking with a doubtful face, Biyoung slightly turned only his head.
“It's about time you start buying tea, isn't it?”
“!”
Yi Gwon-su's expression hardened as if struck by lightning.
***
“Who did you say has come?”
If Yi Gwon-su's appearance made it difficult to read his inner thoughts, the appearance of O Geodon, the head of the O Family Manor, was the exact opposite.
With a body plump with fat from head to toe, his ill-tempered face was filled with the two words ‘greed.’
His cheeks, which drooped on both sides, were reminiscent of a dog living in a distant foreign land.
At O Geodon's question, the butler answered cautiously.
“Young Master Yi of the Yi Family Clan has come to visit.”
“Young Master Yi…… are you referring to Yi Sedong?”
“That is correct.”
“Why is that fellow here……”
O Geodon, lost in thought while scratching his sagging cheeks.
He suddenly flashed his eyes.
“Wait. Wasn't yesterday the day of that so-called Awl Selection Period?”
“That is correct.”
“Heo…… look at this audacious friend……”
O Geodon laughed, baring his yellow teeth, as if he knew something.
‘An alliance with the enemy. Something like that.’
O Geodon was also well aware of the situation at the Yi Family Clan.
Not only the fact that the two sons were competing for the position of young family head, but also that there was no way Sedong would win unless the sky split in two.
The day after the Awl Selection Period began, Yi Gwon-su's son came to see him?
Even a stray dog in the marketplace would notice the suspiciousness of his intentions.
“Indeed. Without some drastic measures, it would be difficult to overturn the current situation.”
As it was a large family, his eyes and ears were naturally open everywhere.
He already knew that the majority of the guests who had entered the Yi Family Clan the previous day were Hae-dong's connections.
It seemed that a desperate heart, cornered, had brought Sedong's footsteps here.
Considering Yi Gwon-su's personality, Sedong would not openly make a pact with him.
If he were to extend a hand through the back door, what should he do?
Should he refuse flatly and then go to Yi Gwon-su and humiliate him?
Or should he cooperate secretly and dig into the weaknesses of the Yi Family Clan?
“Whatever it is, it'll be fun.”
Just thinking about it was interesting, and O Geodon nodded readily.
“Let him in.”
“Understood.”
A short while later, Sedong appeared before O Geodon.
And his eyelids shot up to the sky.
“Hm?”
There was nothing surprising about Sedong, as he sometimes encountered him in the marketplace.
The reason he was surprised was because of the woman who had come with him.
Was the term ‘moon palace goddess’ created because of the woman before him?
A woman with a face so radiant it was blinding stood before him.
“Greetings to the Family Head.”
Even after receiving Sedong's greeting, O Geodon's blatant gaze was still fixed on the woman.
“Family Head?”
“Oh. Yes. Young Master Yi. Welcome. Who might this young lady be?”
At O Geodon's words, the woman slightly bowed her head.
“My name is Jeong-i. I am an acquaintance of Young Master Yi.”
‘An acquaintance, you say…….’
Indeed, Jeong-i looked three or four years older than him to be considered a peer.
She didn't seem to be a member of the Yi Family, and since Sedong himself said they were acquainted, they seemed to be close.
For O Geodon, it was difficult to easily grasp Jeong-i's identity.
However, there was one thing that was certain.
That she was a peerless beauty, the likes of which were rarely seen these days.
O Geodon's greed was not directed only at money.
A sticky and blatant gaze scanned Jeong-i from top to bottom.
Whether she knew it or not, Jeong-i just met O Geodon's gaze with calm eyes.
‘It would be great if she were a gift brought by that fellow Sedong for a close relationship…….’
Only after his thoughts reached that point did O Geodon's gaze move to Sedong.
“So. Young Master Yi. I hear the Awl Selection Period began yesterday?”
“So the Family Head was aware.”
“Hehehe. Of course I know. Although we are competitors, in the grand scheme of things, are we not in a symbiotic relationship, living together in Yiliang County? If there is anything I can help you with, please speak without reservation.”
A symbiotic relationship, he says.
If the one in front of O Geodon had been Yi Hae-dong or Yi Gwon-su, they would have snorted and raised their middle finger.
What symbiosis between those who fight viciously, unwilling to lose even a grain of millet's worth of profit?
At the unexpected kindness, Sedong's eyes widened.
O Geodon looked like a person desperate to show off his ‘magnanimity.’
Sedong was still too innocent to know that all that kindness was in fact because of the woman standing next to him.
“Thank you for your generosity, which is as vast as the sea, Family Head.”
Seeing Sedong bow his head in greeting, O Geodon bared his yellow teeth.
But Sedong's subsequent words were not what he had expected.
“However, with all due respect, I believe my father would not be very pleased if I were to participate in the Awl Selection Period with the help of the Family Head.”
“Hm?”
I thought he came here in a hurry, not caring about the consequences, but that's not it?
At the unexpected development, the smile vanished from O Geodon's face.
“In that case……”
If he wasn't here to ask for help with the Awl Selection Period, then why had he come to this place?
“May I provide the answer to that?”
Like a rolling jade bead, a soft and sweet voice tickled O Geodon's ear.
“I wished to see the Family Head, but I could not find a way. So I made a request to the Young Master.”
“You wanted to see me?”
A hint of anticipation was evident in O Geodon's voice.
It seemed he had seriously misunderstood.
But that misunderstanding did not last long.
Because the name of a sect he had never expected to hear came from her mouth.
“Yes, Family Head. I have come here on behalf of the Diancang Sect.”
“Diancang…… Sect?”
She took out a thin booklet from her bosom and presented it to O Geodon.
“What is this?”
O Geodon was as shrewd in his calculations as he was greedy.
That sense.
His instinct as a merchant.
It was giving O Geodon an indescribable sense of unease.
A feeling as if he was missing something tremendous.
It did not take long to realize that feeling was not a simple delusion.
“There is something we must receive. This booklet is a ledger in which the silver loaned by the Diancang Sect to the O Family Manor in the past is recorded.”
“A-A ledger?”
Jeong-i's posture was demure, and her voice was still soft.
But her words contained an undeniable, firm will.
“Yes. Today, the Diancang Sect intends to collect the full amount that was loaned to the O Family Manor.”