I tilted my head as I looked at the message.
Merchant Lord Bok has something to tell me about Snow Wind Palace?
What could he possibly have to do with Snow Wind Palace?
I’d have to talk to him first.
“May I go see him now?”
“Of course. He should be back by now.”
Together with Deputy Merchant Lord Bok Yun, I headed to the Gwangjun Merchant Group’s Merchant Lord’s office.
“Father, it’s Yun. Deputy Merchant Lord Eun Seo-ho wishes to pay his respects.”
“Come in.”
We stepped into the office.
Merchant Lord Bok, who had been sitting at his desk, rose to his feet and greeted me personally.
“Welcome.”
I had heard he had business to attend to at a nearby merchant group, so it seemed he had only just returned.
That was why he had been unable to attend the banquet.
He must have received a report about Young Palace Lord Bing Hae-rin’s visit as well, but since it was already late, he had probably meant to greet her tomorrow.
Yet now that I had come to him like this, he looked both pleased and slightly puzzled.
No matter how close we were, it was rather late for me to come merely to offer greetings.
“It has been too long.”
“I know perfectly well you’ve been so busy you can hardly breathe.”
He nodded as he spoke.
“So you’re heading to the North Sea.”
“That’s right.”
Then I looked at Deputy Merchant Lord Bok Yun.
Deputy Merchant Lord Bok Yun nodded and said to Merchant Lord Bok,
“I remembered something you told me before, Father, so I brought him here with me.”
I picked up from there.
“The Deputy Merchant Lord told me you had something to say to me.”
As I said that, I reached into my robes and took out a plaque.
“Ah! My apologies. Not this one…”
I apologized and tucked that plaque away again.
It was the proof plaque Lord Bang Hyo-myeong had recently given me, the one identifying me as the Sixth-Sense Duke’s successor.
It had been elaborately carved from ruby, and from a distance, it almost looked like raw meat.
Surely he hadn’t made it in that shape just to express the “Sixth-Sense Duke” part.
Still, judging by the way Geumryeong had coveted it, there was no doubt it was an expensive item.
In any case, I took out the white identity plaque that proved I was Snow Wind Palace’s Young Palace Lord.
“T-that’s…!”
Merchant Lord Bok’s eyes widened when he saw it, but he quickly regained his composure and asked me,
“How long has it been?”
“A while now.”
“Ha ha… To think I had you right in front of me and still failed to recognize it! But your father is certainly…”
Before he could finish, I sent him a Voice Transmission.
– My master is Snow Wind Palace’s Palace Lord.
“I see.”
Merchant Lord Bok nodded again, then said,
“If I were in his place, I would also entrust the next generation to someone as capable as you.”
“My abilities are nothing worth praising.”
“That joke goes a little too far.”
Merchant Lord Bok let out a faint laugh, then spoke again with a serious expression.
“Come with me.”
“Yes.”
“Yun, you stay here.”
I followed Merchant Lord Bok.
But even after we had walked for quite some time, Merchant Lord Bok showed no sign of stopping.
“Do we still have farther to go?”
When I asked carefully, the Merchant Lord nodded.
Ah, so we still had farther to go.
Still, the fact that we had walked this much and were still within the Gwangjun Merchant Group’s grounds made me realize all over again just how vast the place was.
Then again, Liaoning had a lot of land compared to its population.
It was a frontier region, and most of it was wasteland, which made it especially suited for livestock.
Thanks to that, even during the continued years of poor harvests, the damage here had been somewhat less severe.
Rice had never been their staple food to begin with.
How much longer did we walk like that?
In the distance, I saw a pavilion, and Merchant Lord Bok finally stopped in front of it.
A pavilion in the middle of this wide-open wasteland!
It looked rather out of place, but there had to be some meaning to it.
He would not have brought me, Snow Wind Palace’s Young Palace Lord, all the way out here otherwise.
“The current Snow Wind Palace Lord is Lord Myeong-hyeon, is he not?”
I flinched at the question, but after confirming that no one else was nearby, I nodded.
This place was an open wasteland.
There was nowhere to hide.
Was that why he had brought me here?
I asked Merchant Lord Bok in return,
“You know my master?”
“I met him once.”
“May I ask what relationship you have with Snow Wind Palace?”
“That is hardly difficult to answer. If you wish to conduct business in Liaoning for a long time, it is difficult without some connection to Snow Wind Palace.”
So that was how great Snow Wind Palace’s influence had been in the past.
“We also received a great deal of help from Snow Wind Palace… My father used to share cups of wine with the previous Snow Wind Palace Lord as well. Right here.”
After saying that, Merchant Lord Bok climbed into the pavilion and brought out a cane.
Shhng.
A sword slid out from within the cane. Then he began stabbing the ground around the pavilion with it, one spot after another.
Tuk!
It was the sound of the blade striking something.
Merchant Lord Bok pointed to that spot and said to me,
“Dig here.”
“Pardon?”
“You’re the young one. You should be the one digging. Ah, my back.”
Watching him put on that shameless act while patting his lower back made me let out a faint laugh.
Merchant Lord Bok, perhaps you should look in a mirror before saying that.
You’re a man who could subdue a raging horse with one hand!
By contrast, Merchant Lord Bok’s wife was truly graceful and beautiful.
Deputy Merchant Lord Bok must have taken after his mother.
“Do you have a shovel?”
Merchant Lord Bok brought a shovel from beside one of the pavilion pillars, and I used it to dig up the spot.
What came out from the ground was a small iron box.
Judging by Geumryeong’s total lack of reaction, it did not seem to be anything valuable.
“What is this?”
“Something my father hid.”
“Pardon?”
“That story is already more than twenty years old.”
Come to think of it, it had already been about twenty-one years since Snow Wind Palace was destroyed.
“At the time, my father returned from the North Sea with a grave look on his face.”
“He must have seen what remained.”
“Most likely. He said he had found it there, then placed it inside this box. He did not tell even me what it was. He only told me to keep it secret and reveal it only to someone trustworthy who was connected to Snow Wind Palace.”
“So that is why you have kept it secret until now.”
“That is correct.”
“You kept that secret for more than twenty years! That is remarkable.”
“He said it was repayment for all the grace our merchant group received from Snow Wind Palace. And the Gwangjun Merchant Group is quite sincere when it comes to repaying debts of gratitude.”
So that was why he had sent me those fine horses before, saying he was repaying a debt.
There were many other things he had done for me as well.
“From the look on your face, it seems you honestly want to ask why we would repay a debt so thoroughly when we could simply pretend we knew nothing.”
“There are many people who would do exactly that.”
“Of course there are. But in Liaoning, you cannot live that way. It is too difficult to endure unless people band together. That is why we make a point of never forgetting kindness and repaying it completely.”
“I understand what you mean.”
“Take the box back to your lodging and examine it there. My father told me not to look at what was inside either.”
“Understood.”
A short while later.
I returned to my lodging.
“Huh? What’s this, sir?”
Palgap tilted his head as he looked at the dirt-covered box.
But instead of explaining, I said,
“Unless you want the tea table covered in dirt, you’d better put a cloth underneath it quickly.”
“H-heuk! Y-yes, sir.”
Palgap swiftly spread out a cloth, and I set the box down on top of it.
Then I let out a sigh.
“What is the matter?”
At Young Lady Seohyang’s question, I scratched my cheek and said,
“I’m a little confused too, since I don’t know what this is.”
It would have been nice if Young Lady Seohyang could tell me what it was before I opened the box, but her Ice Crystal Eyes could reveal things hidden by special powers. They could not see what had been placed inside an ordinary box like this.
Whew. Fine. As Snow Wind Palace’s Young Palace Lord, I should be the one to check it.
Everyone currently in my room knew I was Snow Wind Palace’s Young Palace Lord.
That was why I had not sent them outside. They would find out about it anyway, and explaining it separately later would only be a hassle.
I carefully opened the box.
Creak.
The rusted hinges gave a shrill groan.
Inside, something had been wrapped in an old, faded white cloth.
I carefully unfolded the cloth.
“…!”
What lay inside was something I had never expected.
“Huh? Isn’t that a whetstone, sir?”
A whetstone was one of the essential tools for warriors.
During fights or training, a weapon’s edge would dull, and to keep it sharp, it had to be ground regularly.
But the interesting thing was that a whetstone held quite a lot of information about the weapon its owner used, as well as that person’s habits.
Then why had the Gwangjun Merchant Group’s previous Merchant Lord hidden this thing so carefully?
And why had he told his son to show it only to someone trustworthy from Snow Wind Palace?
He had probably found it in Snow Wind Palace’s ruins, but why had he considered it so important?
In truth, I had seen plenty of whetstones, but I had only used one myself a handful of times.
That was because the Internal Power accumulated through the Supreme Yin Ice Sea Divine Art was sharpness in itself.
It also strengthened a sword’s cutting power, so the edge rarely dulled.
On top of that, if a sword was frequently exposed to the Supreme Yin Ice Sea Divine Art’s Qi, it did not even rust.
Ah!
A spark flashed through my mind.
The previous Merchant Lord Bok, who had maintained relations with Snow Wind Palace for many years, must have known that as well.
Which meant he had believed this did not belong to Snow Wind Palace, but to the culprit who attacked it.
Then was this evidence that could lead us to the murderer?
My master and the North Sea Ice Palace’s Palace Lord had said there had been nothing in the ruins that could be called evidence.
He had somehow managed to find this.
And hiding it like this had truly been the right decision by the previous Merchant Lord.
They had said the culprit’s side seemed to have kept watching the area around Snow Wind Palace even afterward.
One wrong move, and the Gwangjun Merchant Group might have been swept up by that culprit as well.
And this evidence would have disappeared too.
I showed the whetstone to Escort Guard Seo Wu.
“Escort Guard Seo Wu.”
“Yes.”
“Is there any information you can infer from this whetstone?”
At that, Escort Guard Seo Wu took the whetstone and began examining it from every angle.
“Mm. The owner of this whetstone likely used an ordinary longsword. And while the whetstone is quite worn down, judging by how accustomed the owner was to using it, I would place them somewhere between Second-rate and First-rate.”
“I see.”
“But this whetstone is rather high-quality.”
From that, we could tell that the owner of the whetstone had been fairly wealthy.
For those who lived by the blade, whetstones were essential, but they were also consumables.
That meant poor swordsmen had to use even their whetstones sparingly.
“And based on the marks left on this whetstone, its owner is one of two things. Either someone who uses Blazing Fire Art, or someone who lives in an extremely hot region.
Escort Guard Seo Wu continued.
“See how this part of the whetstone is cracked? When it is exposed to heat, the stone cracks like this, though the pattern differs depending on whether the heat came from the environment or from something artificial.”
“I see.”
Then there was no doubt this was evidence tied to the culprit.
A hot region or Blazing Fire Art had nothing whatsoever to do with the North Sea.
“That is all I can say.”
At those words, I asked the other warriors,
“Does anyone have another opinion?”
The other warriors shook their heads. That meant they had nothing to add.
As expected of Escort Guard Seo Wu.
With all his experience, he had been a great help again this time.
So first, I needed to meet the people of Zhurong Palace.
Another purpose had been added to this journey.
.
.
.
The next day.
“Please take care of yourself.”
“Yes. I will.”
We left the Gwangjun Merchant Group under Deputy Merchant Lord Bok’s send-off. Thanks to the supplies Deputy Merchant Lord Bok had generously prepared for us, our own spirits felt well stocked too.
We rode swiftly across the grasslands.
Thanks to Young Palace Lord Bing Hae-rin, none of the grassland tribes approached us.
And after riding peacefully through the plains, we arrived at the North Sea Branch.
Since we were heading to the North Sea anyway, I planned to deliver operating funds to the North Sea Branch along the way.
The North Sea Branch Manager, whom I had not seen in a long time, had somehow become a local through and through.
“It’s been a long time, Deputy Merchant Lord!”
The sight of him laughing heartily as he looked at me made it seem like he could slaughter a pack of North Sea wolves in one blow.
No, had he been doing nothing but physical training here?
The muscles in his arms were as thick as Palgap’s legs.
“You have changed quite a bit. You look younger.”
“Please don’t say such things. You’re teasing this old body of mine.”
No, I’m being serious.
Who would look at you and think you were close to retirement?
“First, please take this.”
I took a pouch filled with money from my robes and held it out.
“These are operating funds. I look forward to your continued work.”
“I will devote myself with utmost loyalty.”
“Ah, and…”
I said to him,
“If there are any Elixirs that can be obtained in the North Sea, please procure them for me.”
“Elixirs?”
“Yes. And should you happen to find an Ice Lotus, please be sure to secure it.”
Thanks to Master Brewer Yeong Gu-jin, I had become able to make White Heron Wine, so if I could obtain Ice Lotus, I intended to try making Ice Lotus Wine as well.
“And I will take a look around the North Sea Branch’s situation.”
“Yes.”
So I inspected the North Sea Branch and pointed out the things they were still lacking, and before I knew it, dawn had arrived.
Since there was not much time left until the Ice-Fire Conference, we headed straight for the North Sea Ice Palace the next day.
“Deputy Merchant Lord, the Snow Wind may make things difficult for you.”
When the Branch Manager tried to dissuade me, I spoke as if there was nothing to worry about.
“I will be traveling with the little master of the Ice Palace. Why would I fear something like the Snow Wind?”
“Now that you mention it, that is true. Then please travel safely.”
And so we advanced into the North Sea…
Whoooooosh–!
And came face to face with the terrifyingly fierce Snow Wind.
“We’re supposed to push through that, sir?”
“That’s right.”
“Good grief…”
Palgap trembled as if the sight had drained the courage out of him. The others looked worried as well.
But I was not worried.
My master had taught me a way to break through the Snow Wind and roam the North Sea without being attacked by Spirit Beasts tainted by another bloodline.
It was a secret technique only Snow Wind Palace’s Young Palace Lord could use.
I drew the Silver Mist Sword, thrust it toward the Snow Wind ahead, and released my Qi.
Whirr!
At that instant, a path opened in front of us.
Wow!
Isn’t that amazing?
–TL Notes–
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