novelraw Chapter 78 : Chapter 78
Chapter 78 : Chapter 78
Chapter 78 - This Time, You Try It, Senior Sister
At the same time.
O Geodon, the head of the O Family Manor, had to doubt his own ears.
“Today, the Diancang Sect intends to collect the full amount that was loaned to the O Family Manor.”
For him, who lusted after beautiful women, Jeong-i was a woman who perfectly met all the conditions.
But despite that.
O Geodon could no longer focus his attention on her appearance.
Because he had heard a word that he thought he would never hear in his life.
Diancang Sect.
And collection.
At the combination of the two words, O Geodon's sagging cheeks tensed.
“Did you say you came on behalf of the Diancang Sect?”
“That is correct.”
A wary gaze moved from Jeong-i's face to the booklet.
It was old and worn, but it was unmistakably a ledger.
O Geodon, who was flipping through the booklet with urgent hands, suddenly gritted his teeth.
‘Diancang Treasure Red Seal……!!’
He had desperately hoped it wouldn't be there, but the Diancang Treasure Red Seal was clearly stamped on each transaction.
The seal that proved all the authority of the Diancang Sect's Leader.
And right next to the Diancang Treasure Red Seal, the seal that the O Family Manor still used to this day was stamped.
‘What in the world is going on……!’
Over a decade ago.
Back when the O Family Manor had yet to establish itself in Yiliang County.
O Geodon had borrowed funds from the Diancang Sect to expand his business.
At that time, the Diancang Sect, led by the World's Fastest Sword, had its elite masters intact, and it was a time when they had ample funds from operating their secular branch and having exclusive trading rights in the outer regions.
The O Family Manor was able to expand its influence using the funds borrowed from the Diancang Sect as a driving force.
‘Foolish bastards. With only swordsmanship in their heads, they don't even know they're being taken for a ride…….’
When the contract was signed, O Geodon had to struggle to suppress his rising cheekbones.
Because he had borrowed the funds on much better terms than what was available in Yiliang County.
The maturity date was still a long way off, and the interest to be paid in the meantime was also much cheaper than the market rate in Yiliang County.
And a few years later.
An unexpected good fortune came to O Geodon.
“The Diancang Sect was attacked? Is that true?”
The expression O Geodon made at that time was said to be something that even the butler, who had worked for the O Family Manor his entire life, had never seen before.
It was only natural.
Because a huge debt that he would have had to repay later had disappeared in an instant.
The sect that had lent him the money was annihilated, so to whom was he supposed to go and repay it?
The annihilation of the Diancang Sect was a great blessing for the O Family Manor.
A few days after the Diancang Sect was annihilated, the O Family Manor held an unprecedentedly grand feast.
Only a very few, including O Geodon, knew why the O Family Manor had suddenly started spending money lavishly.
“They lent me the money at a cheap interest rate, and in the end, a situation arose where I didn't have to repay the principal. Isn't this truly a giving tree? Wahahahaha!”
O Geodon called the Diancang Sect a giving tree.
A tree that had now been burned to ashes, a tree he would never meet again.
‘How can this be…….’
But now.
That tree, which he thought had burned down and disappeared, had miraculously revived and appeared before O Geodon.
“The total amount that the O Family Manor must pay is written on the last page.”
Jeong-i's words and actions were extremely demure, but to O Geodon's ears, they sounded more grating than the sound of scraping iron.
Indeed.
As she said, the last page of the ledger listed the total principal and interest that the O Family Manor had to pay.
After confirming the amount, O Geodon's eyeballs bulged as if they would pop out.
“F-F-F-Five thousand gold nyang?”
“!”
At that amount, even the butler next to him was startled.
Typically, one gold nyang has the value of twenty silver nyang.
That meant that the total amount the O Family Manor had to repay to the Diancang Sect reached one hundred thousand silver nyang.
At that shocking amount, O Geodon revealed his hidden nature.
“You must be truly mad! To suddenly appear and demand five thousand gold nyang!”
The sight of O Geodon screaming and shouting looked quite vicious.
Sedong, who was next to him, flinched his shoulders, but Jeong-i's calm eyes were no different from usual.
“The amount loaned to the O Family Manor. And the interest for that period. The period after the maturity date when the benefit of time was lost, and the interest on that. There are no errors in the calculation, so please check again.”
“Shut up! I have never seen such a fraudulent calculation in my life!”
In fact.
O Geodon knew.
That the calculation written in the ledger was correct.
There was no way a man who had lived his whole life as a merchant could not understand a mere interest calculation.
But he did not try to look at the booklet again.
If he were to acknowledge this ledger, he would have to repay all the principal and interest that had snowballed.
“The calculation is correct. It has been thoroughly verified, so there are no errors.”
Let's put O Geodon aside.
What was the reason for Jeong-i, who was unskilled in financial transactions, to be so confident?
It was thanks to the man Biyoung had met before coming down from Kongtong Mountain.
A former loan shark who was undergoing hellish training after eating the Six-Flower Pill.
The reason Biyoung had gone to see Uma was precisely for this interest calculation!
‘So…… the reason he brought Yi Sedong here was to collect the money?’
O Geodon's hand holding the ledger trembled.
In business, the most important thing was credit, and the second was also credit.
What if a rumor spread that the O Family Manor was ignoring the money it had borrowed from the Diancang Sect?
In a situation where he was already having a headache with the commercial power struggle with the Yi Family Clan, it would be like adding another burden.
‘Damn it. I'm surrounded on all sides.’
If he were to deny ever having borrowed the money, the two clearly stamped seals were binding his hands and feet.
He wanted to tear up the ledger and burn it right away, but since Young Master Yi of the Yi Family was watching with wide eyes, that was also impossible.
‘In that case…….’
O Geodon's head began to spin at high speed.
He had heard a rumor that the Diancang Sect had reclaimed its main mountain.
But it was merely a matter of driving out some bandits.
How great could the remaining forces of the Diancang Sect be?
Around the O Family Manor, there were numerous friendly sects and swordsmen.
It would be several times cheaper to hire them and eliminate the remnants of the Diancang Sect than to cough up one hundred thousand silver nyang.
‘First, buy some time, and then…….’
As a solution began to appear, a fiery greed began to dwell in O Geodon's eyes.
His heart began to flutter at the thought of taking the woman before him after resolving the matter.
“Ahem. Miss Jeong.”
“Please speak.”
“It seems we need to carefully examine whether this calculation is correct. Besides, five thousand gold nyang is not money that can be easily taken out like buying sweets in the marketplace. Even if this calculation is correct, I cannot repay the money right now. I need time to gather the tangible assets.”
“I heard that the O Family Manor is a leading merchant family in Yiliang County. Yet you say you do not have that much in tangible assets?”
Depending on how one heard it, it could be interpreted as a remark that looked down on the O Family Manor.
But O Geodon nodded his head with a shameless expression.
“Even the Yi Family Clan would find that amount of tangible assets difficult. Besides, it is now the once-a-year tea harvest season in Yunnan. Because we are spending funds on that, right now, the tangible assets……”
“Here it is!”
“Here it is…… Who are you!”
At the sudden interjection, O Geodon almost blurted out his true intentions.
His gaze turned towards a single figure running from afar.
A man with a slender body and a handsomeness rarely seen these days was running over.
With two shining chests tucked under his arms.
“Who is that fellow……”
Just as the Yi Family Clan did, only authorized individuals could come and go inside the O Family Manor.
And even if entry was permitted, they could only frequent designated areas.
But the man's path completely ignored such rules.
Who in the world was that fellow, to be strutting around the O Family Manor as if it were his own room?
No, before that.
Was he even an authorized entrant?
“The money's right here, you know?”
The man who had arrived in a single bound showed a most gallant smile.
His handsome appearance was enough to captivate the eyes of all, regardless of age or gender.
But only one person.
O Geodon's gaze was different.
Because the two chests he was carrying under his arms were objects he had seen many times before.
“Th-th-th-that……!”
O Geodon was repeating foolish words, unable to even speak properly.
He probably wouldn't have been this surprised even when he saw the Diancang Sect's ledger.
The ornately embroidered dragon and tiger.
It was a chest that could not be mistaken, as it had been commissioned from a famous artisan in Sichuan.
Why were the chests that should have been safely stored in the Treasure Vault, being held under that man's arms?
“That's from the Treasure Vault……!?”
“Hello, Family Head! Yes, these are from the Treasure Vault!”
The man greeted O Geodon with a sway, but what returned was only a roar full of anger.
“You baaaaastard!”
“Aigoo. So loud. Your voice is as big as your cheeks.”
The sight of O Geodon, with bloodshot eyes, in a rage, was truly fearsome.
But the man before him, far from being scared, was gently teasing him.
“How did you bring that here!”
While shouting, O Geodon searched his inner pocket.
It was definitely there.
The one and only key that could open the Treasure Vault.
In that case.
How did that fellow open the Treasure Vault, which was made of Ten-Thousand-Year Cold Iron?
“Well…… my Senior Brother told me.”
“Senior Brother?”
“Yes. There's a Senior Brother who used to lend money to this person and that person. That Senior Brother said that the bigger the loan, the more time it takes to repay it, you know?”
Kung.
Biyoung casually placed the expensive-looking chest on the floor.
O Geodon felt his own heart sink with a thud.
How much did it cost to make that chest!
“So I brought it myself. I hate wasting time.”
At Biyoung's words, not only O Geodon but also Sedong's mouth fell open.
He said he had a place to stop by, and that place was the Treasure Vault?
And he even brought the items from inside the Treasure Vault?
“Look at this thieving bastard! Is the Diancang Sect full of nothing but swindlers and thieves!”
O Geodon shouted convulsively.
The reason the Treasure Vault was robbed was unclear, but in any case, it was a clear fact that the man before him had smuggled out the chests.
But Biyoung, far from being intimidated, puffed out his chest instead.
“Ahem. A thief, you say. Watch your words. Why am I a thief?”
“The way you are acting right now……”
“A thief is someone who steals things and runs away. How is bringing things to their owner a theft?”
“Uh……?”
Because O Geodon made a foolish expression, Sedong had to quickly cover his mouth with one hand.
In fact, it couldn't be said to be wrong.
Biyoung hadn't run off with the chests he had brought; he had just placed them in front of their owner.
“And since the gold inside the chests is money we are supposed to get back, strictly speaking, it's not wrong to say it was ours from the beginning, right?”
“Cut the sophistry!”
O Geodon, whose anger had reached the top of his head, roared once again.
Originally, O Geodon liked to argue the rights and wrongs of matters related to calculations, but this time he couldn't.
His words were so cunning that nothing came to mind to refute them.
‘This rat-like bastard…….’
The circumstances of the loan were clear, and the lie he had told about not having the tangible assets was immediately exposed.
At this rate, he was in a situation where he had no choice but to return the money.
Thus, O Geodon had no choice but to make his last remaining option.
“Summon all the escort teams! Immediately!”
At the words ‘escort team,’ Sedong was startled and asked.
“Family Head. What do you mean by escort team? Are you saying you're going to subdue us by force?”
“Young Master Yi, please stay out of this. I will not lay a hand on the Young Master. However, I cannot leave alone those who have swindled this family and stolen our property.”
“Ha……”
Biyoung shook his head and let out a sigh.
“Senior Brother Uma is a real ghost when it comes to things like this. Isn't that right, Senior Sister?”
“Indeed.”
‘The O Family Manor will never just return the money they borrowed. Never.’
That was the last thing Uma had added after telling Biyoung about the interest calculation method.
Dudududududu.
Raising a cloud of dust, a group of escort team members was running towards them.
Biyoung, who was staring blankly at the escort team, suddenly flashed his eyes.
That shining gaze turned towards Jeong-i.
“This time, you try it, Senior Sister.”
“Me?”
“We've been building up our internal energy together all this time. I just tested it a little while ago. The effect was amazing, you know?”
For the past few days.
Jeong-i had absorbed the spirit pill using the Profound Heaven's True Energy Unification Art method, and had learned the Eagle Talon Twelve Swords one-on-one from Biyoung.
But because she had no real combat experience, there was no way to confirm how much she had improved.
“………….”
Looking at the escort team rushing towards them in a group, Jeong-i grasped the hilt of her sword.
“I was curious.”