Chapter 53: Silver River Pawnshop (1)
"Can’t you raise your hands properly?"
Ha Daebung shot his arms up high. It had been nearly an hour since he’d been kneeling with his hands raised, so his arms were trembling uncontrollably, and he’d already lost all feeling in his knees. Pitifully, there were dark purple bruises around his eyes.
Anyone watching might think he looked quite wretched, but in truth, he wasn’t deserving of any sympathy.
"Tsk."
Wi Yeonho clicked his tongue as he looked at Ha Daebung.
"A person should have a conscience!"
Ha Daebung had nothing to say, even if he had ten mouths. No—he did have something to say, but he couldn't dare say it.
What could he possibly say in a situation like this?
The man before him was someone from the Royal Inspectorate, one of the three major powers of the Imperial Palace. Given the nature of the Royal Inspectorate, someone like Ha Daebung—just a merchant—found them far more terrifying than the Eastern Bureau or the Royal Guards.
Trying to swindle money from someone like that could bring ruin to his family and completely destroy the Silver River Pawnshop.
"If it were up to me, I’d send a letter straight to Beijing and settle this once and for all…"
"M-my lord, please spare me!"
Ha Daebung clung to Wi Yeonho’s leg with tears in his eyes.
Wi Yeonho kicked him away.
"Who told you to lower your hands!"
"Hiiik!"
Ha Daebung quickly dropped back into a kneeling position and raised his hands high again.
"Tch."
Wi Yeonho clicked his tongue again and let out a deep sigh. Ruining a single pawnshop like this was no trouble at all, but doing so would just bring about countless annoyances.
On top of that, if things got tangled, he might have to deal directly with the Grand Inspector. That was something he wanted to avoid at all costs. Wi Yeonho was full of chivalrous spirit but had less initiative than a three-year-old.
"Hey."
"Y-yes, my lord!"
Ha Daebung darted forward on his knees like lightning and came right in front of Wi Yeonho.
"You going to pull that again?"
"That’s unthinkable! I must have gone mad to ever consider doing that again!"
"And the interest?"
"I’ll immediately change it to the officially recommended Imperial interest rate!"
"You swear?"
"Oh heavens, my lord! I don’t have ten lives to risk lying to you! If you let me off just this once, I’ll live righteously and never forget your grace for as long as I live!"
Wi Yeonho looked at Ha Daebung with suspicion in his eyes.
"They say never trust a merchant’s word, you know."
He was suspicious, but he had no better options.
"The necklace!"
"Right here!"
Ha Daebung instantly held out the necklace.
"The money!"
"Sorry?"
"The money you swindled. Hand it over."
"Yes, sir!"
Ha Daebung took out a single tael of silver from his robe and offered it.
A tear slipped down his cheek, but this was the only way to settle the situation. Still, Wi Yeonho scoffed.
"Are you kidding me?"
"Sorry?"
"You lent it out for one tael when it was worth ten, so you swindled nine taels, didn’t you?"
"...Yes."
Ha Daebung tried to hide his flowing tears. He wanted to argue that no pawnshop in the world would return the full amount for a ten-tael pledge, and even so, since when did they strip someone of everything like this? But what could he do? Wi Yeonho held the sword.
Silently, Ha Daebung took out a ten-tael silver promissory note and placed it in Wi Yeonho’s hand.
He agonized several times over whether to retrieve the one tael he had already given, but he lacked the courage to pluck the beard of the King of the Underworld.
Still, Wi Yeonho remained unimpressed.
"You think this is a joke because we’re just talking?"
"W-what do you mean…?"
"You borrowed ten taels, but you pay back thirty. Got it?"
Ha Daebung’s hand trembled.
Thirty taels of silver meant a massive loss.
Even though the Silver River Pawnshop was nothing to scoff at, thirty taels wasn’t a sum they could take lightly. Worse still, Wi Yeonho’s logic was the very same one they’d used to trick others up until now, so there was no way out.
With trembling hands, Ha Daebung took out two more ten-tael notes and handed them over.
Only then did Wi Yeonho accept the notes and tuck them into his robe with a satisfied look.
"You need to keep your accounting clean. Now hand it over."
"Sorry? Hand over what…?"
Wi Yeonho scowled.
"Don’t make me stab you, seriously!"
"Aaah, my lord!"
"That was for the money you swindled from Sacred Hand Grounds! Now it’s time to settle the problem between us, isn’t it? Don’t you know how affection grows with money exchanged?"
He shamelessly demanded an illegal bribe. Ha Daebung cursed him silently—’may lightning strike the bastard’—but kept a wide, cheerful smile plastered on his face.
"Then how much would be…"
"Up to you. Do the right thing."
Swallowing dryly, Ha Daebung took out another ten-tael silver note and handed it to Wi Yeonho.
Wi Yeonho wordlessly took the note and stood up.
"M-my lord, I swear I’ll live a virtuous life from now on."
"No, you don’t have to."
"Sorry?"
"Some folks will come handle you now. Ten taels should be enough to send a letter to Beijing. And if not, I can throw in a little of my own!"
Ha Daebung lunged forward and clung to Wi Yeonho’s pant leg.
"My lord! That money was just for refreshments on your way out! The real payment is still coming!"
"Let go! My pants are falling!"
"My lord, please spare me!"
Only after coughing up five more taels of gold did Ha Daebung finally manage to calm Wi Yeonho’s fury.
"Live righteously."
"Of course, my lord! I’ll be the kind of man you couldn’t find a speck of dust on, even if you shook me!"
Wi Yeonho snorted at his reply, opened the door, and walked out.
Creeeak.
A short while later, the door opened and a servant entered.
“He’s gone?”
“Yes. He’s left.”
Ha Daebung exploded.
“That damn bastard! Filthy scum feeding off flea livers! I swear, all those leeches living off government funds are rotten to the core! Compared to scum like that, we’re saints, saints I tell you! Damn brat already knows the taste of money… hope he trips and breaks his nose, that rotten bastard!”
Bang!
At that moment, the door was flung open and something flew past, grazing Ha Daebung’s cheek.
“……”
Drip.
The door had been hurled with such force that Ha Daebung’s cheek split slightly, and a single drop of blood slid down.
With a pale face, Ha Daebung stared at the door.
Behind the thrown door stood Wi Yeonho, his face twitching with suppressed fury.
“How did you…”
Ha Daebung tried to speak, but the words caught in his throat.
Wi Yeonho raised a hand and pointed toward the desk. A small golden ritual blade was glowing there.
“Forgot something on my way out.”
Ha Daebung looked back and forth between the gold blade on the desk and Wi Yeonho, then managed to open his mouth with a half-laugh, half-cry expression.
“I-I could have brought it to you.”
“Could I burden someone so young with such a task? A rotten official like me forcing someone else to do that would be struck down by heaven, wouldn’t he?”
“...Hehe, my lord… That’s not what I meant…”
“You see, trouble always starts with words. You didn’t do anything wrong.”
“Y-you’re right, my lord!”
“It’s that damn mouth of yours that’s the problem! Let’s see how long it takes for it to apologize on its own!”
“Hiiik! My lord, I’m sorry!”
“You shut your trap! It’s not you that has to apologize—it’s your mouth! If you say it, it doesn’t count!”
“What does that even mea—urk! Please, my lord, have mercy!”
“I said it’s your mouth that has to say it, not you!”
“Hiiiiiik!”
Screams like a pig being slaughtered rang out from the Silver River Pawnshop.
Concerned by the strange noise, nearby residents began to murmur among themselves, but no one knew what was actually happening inside.
* * *
Bang!
The door that had been attached during winter was shattered cleanly.
Beggar Sect's Gaebong Sub-Branch's High Beggar, Jang Il, looked like he might shed a tear.
‘That door did a good job of blocking the wind …’
Now where was he supposed to find a door like that again?
But Jang Il had no time to mourn.
A disaster far worse than sorrow was upon him.
“Is it true?”
“Calm down! Hey, I said calm down!”
Jang Il stared at the man who had busted through the door and grabbed him by the collar.
The young man was seething with killing intent as if facing a sworn enemy from lifetimes past. He had to be calmed down first.
If not, the entire shack might get blown away.
Even if Jang Il was the High Beggar of the Gaebong Sub-Branch, dealing with this young man was no easy task. Who could remain unscathed when the famed Demon-Banishing Sword, said to be the most talented of the younger generation, was charging in like a madman?
“I asked if the letter was true.”
Jang Il nodded.
“It’s true.”
The young man glared at Jang Il with eyes wide open for a long while.
“For real?”
“I said it is.”
Slip.
The young man, as if dazed, loosened his grip and stared into space. Jang Il let out a deep sigh.
‘If I deal with the Wi Clan again, I’m no better than a beast.’
Whether he understood Jang Il’s feelings or not, the young man stood silently for a long time before muttering,
“He’s alive.”
Jang Il almost lost his temper.
Was that how one reacted to someone delivering news about a brother not seen in five years? Did he have no manners?
He wanted to shout at the young man for being too rude. But then he saw the overwhelming swirl of emotions in the young man’s eyes and closed his mouth.
‘Right… his brother came back after five years. I’ll be the bigger man and let it go.’
Jang Il forced himself to think that way.
At that moment, the young man, Wi Sanho, looked at him.
“So where is he now?”
“Huh?”
“Where did he go?”
“Well… he said he was headed to the Confucian Forest, but I don’t really know where exactly.”
“Which direction?”
“Well…”
Sparks flew from Wi Sanho’s eyes.
“You don’t know?”
“No, it’s just… he took some documents he asked me to look into, so I think it was one of those…”
“The documents?”
“He took them with him…”
“So?”
“Look, saying that to me won’t change anything…”
“He got his information here, and you don’t even know where he went?”
Jang Il wanted to cry.
‘What am I supposed to do?’
Why did every last one of these Wi Clan bastards never understand a word?
If anyone else from any other clan had come to the Gaebong Sub-Branch of the Beggar Sect and pulled a stunt like this, they would’ve been chased out like a dog on the summer solstice. But he couldn’t do that to this young man.
If he tried, he’d probably end up with bite marks in his backside from the dog he tried to kick.
How was a sub-branch like his supposed to deal with a figure as fearsome as the Demon-Banishing Sword, whose reputation shook the world?
Wi Sanho looked ready to draw his sword at any moment.
“I also got information from the Hao Clan, so maybe you could…”
“Let’s go.”
“Huh?”
“Let’s go to the Hao Clan. Why are you stalling?”
“I mean, I’m kind of done with them now…”
“Move!”
Jang Il stood up, firming his resolve once again.
‘From today on, I won’t even pee in the direction of Guangdong!’
And so, Jang Il headed toward the Kaifeng Hall of the Hao Clan with the feeling of a cow being led to the slaughterhouse.
And at the Kaifeng Hall of the Hao Clan, another thunderous curse echoed out.
“Out of all people, you brought the Demon-Banishing Sword? If we die today, we die together, you beggar bastard!”
“No! That’s not what I meant! Calm down, Gui Nangnang!”
“Shut up! I’m settling this once and for all today!”
“I said that’s not what I meant! Aaargh! I’m losing my mind!”
And so, Jang Il’s other eye was destined to swell up into a bruise this time.