That morning.

“Huh! Branch Chief, did you stay up all night?”

Mo Yong-woo smiled. His face looked a little tired.

“I had things to think about.”

Regret tinged Lee Geon’s face.

“Please rest today. I’ll handle the representatives of the merchants’ alliance.”

“It’s fine. It wouldn’t be the first or second time.”

“Are you sure you’re all right?”

“I’m the sort who’s carved out time to train martial arts even while busy. Don’t worry too much. If there’s truly no answer, I’ll just have to draw a blade.”

Lee Geon burst into a laugh before he knew it.

“Truly said. Better to draw the sword. Who could stop you, Branch Chief?”

In his heart, he truly wished he would.

Of course, Lee Geon also knew that mustn’t happen. Though their livelihoods had driven them razor-sharp, they too were victims, if victims.

“Then please sleep for a double-hour. I’ll wrap the morning matters.”

“Shall I?”

“Yes.”

But Mo Yong-woo did not sleep.

He was indeed tired, but his mind was clearer than ever. There was no need to force himself to seek sleep.

‘It feels like I’m under a spell.’

He thought of Yeon Hojeong.

Had he only just reached his early twenties? Granted, inner force helped, but the wrinkleless face brimmed with vitality.

Overall sharp—yet strikingly handsome. Somehow he seemed like he’d be stiff, and yet he had a strangely compelling charm that drew people in.

But that was only the outward form.

‘Just what is he?’

Mo Yong-woo was accustomed to seeing a person’s inherent bent rather than their outer look.

Naturally. The Mo Yong Clan was a hell-stage where even blood kin were killed for power. To survive there, the first thing to cultivate was an eye for people.

By that eye, Yeon Hojeong was already a man who would not be lacking even if he founded a school of his own.

A power dearer and stronger than martial skill: the eye to read the flow of the world, and the ability to sway that flow as one pleased.

‘Had his martial skill been stronger than my elder brother’s, I would have been less surprised.’

As it was, it was already startling enough. To Mo Yong-woo’s eye, Yeon Hojeong’s martial skill was at a level where even he could not guarantee victory or defeat.

Even that alone was monstrous talent.

‘Game... to drive?’

Suddenly, unease pricked him.

Yeon Hojeong—just what did he intend to do to the merchants’ alliance? To “make them come to grovel”—what did that mean?

‘Surely... not threaten them by force?’

He would not.

He looked rough, but he seemed at least a man who knew the minimum of benevolence and propriety. Mo Yong-woo chose to trust his own eye.

How much time had passed like that?

The sun was slowly climbing toward the meridian.

“B-Branch Chief!”

“What is it?”

“The representatives of the Merchants’ Alliance are here!”

A flash lit Mo Yong-woo’s eyes.

“I understand.”

“Only—the air is strange.”

“Strange? What do you mean?”

“I-I don’t know. For some reason, their faces are all white as sheets...”

No way...?

He hurried outside.

“Gasp! B-Branch Chief!”

“You’ve come!”

“Ah, we should have come to pay our respects long ago...”

Mo Yong-woo blinked.

What was this, this cringing to the utmost?

“Whatever this is, let’s go inside first.”

The three kept glancing at each other.

Mo Yong-woo tilted his head.

“Is there some problem?”

One of the men spoke carefully.

“Um... a-are you all right?”

“What do you mean?”

“No, it’s just...”

“...?”

“Will you... stay here for us?”

What on earth did that mean?

He looked at their faces.

They were ashen. Yet the cast was a bit odd.

‘Me?’

It wasn’t that someone had threatened them—they seemed to be overawed by Mo Yong-woo himself.

‘Stay here? Then...?’

Then, the oldest of them, who looked in his fifties, opened his mouth.

“We did not know how hard the Branch Chief has been struggling. Thinking on it, you’ve been taking on difficult tasks for our sake though you had no need.”

“...”

“It is all because we are worthless. Our oversight. Only—going forward we’ll somehow manage to coordinate among ourselves, so could you please remain in your seat?”

Inwardly, frustration welled up in him.

“I don’t understand. What meaning is there in my staying...”

He spoke in ignorance of the situation, but to the three, that single line might as well have been a bolt from the blue.

“We’re sorry! Please just spare us this once!”

“If you leave us, Branch Chief, we’ll truly starve to death!”

“We’ll even give up our shares!”

W-what?

He could not help but be taken aback by the merchants’ representatives’ fervent response.

At the same time, his head cooled.

‘Yeon Hojeong?’

That man had clearly played some stratagem.

Only, it did not seem to have been forceful intimidation. They were afraid not of Yeon Hojeong, but of him.

In that instant, he recalled what Yeon Hojeong had left him.

‘Don’t let them come to pound the table and demand their meal. Make them come to apologize, groveling.’

‘When you think it’s your chance, rip out the leash with your teeth.’

...Mm. I don’t know what, but shall I take a jab?

Feigning ignorance, he said:

“Aren’t you three the representatives of the merchants’ guilds? You can surely lead well enough without me.”

At once, he felt the air of the whole place snap frozen.

The three men’s faces went beyond white to blue. In extremity of fear, their wits seemed half blown away.

“S-sorry! We’re sorry, Branch Chief! Please, just this once!”

“Kh-hhuhh!”

“We will never fight among ourselves again! If anyone tries to meddle in profit disputes henceforth, we’ll cut them down first!”

He stopped probing. At this rate, he might kill a man by mistake.

Then the man in his fifties spoke, tears dripping.

“We didn’t know you were fighting alone, Branch Chief. From now on, we will stand up and protect you.”

“I...”

“So shameless as this is, we beg you. Please, keep the Mo Yong Clan from coming into Zhejiang!”

A chill ran up his spine.

‘The Mo Yong Clan? Why the main house’s name, suddenly?’

Keeping his tone even, he asked:

“Is someone from the main house coming to Zhejiang—that is so fearful?”

“Kh-huk! We have no face to speak.”

He felt the same. Not knowing how this had come to be, he had no words either.

At least he understood it could not be left as is.

“Come in for now.”

The three, faces flushed red, wiped tears and snot and went into the guest hall.

Just then, as if waiting, someone knocked at the branch’s main gate. A Beggars’ Union runner.

“A letter from Young Lord Yeon.”

Mo Yong-woo hurriedly opened it.

If you had truly set your resolve, you wouldn’t need this sort of help. But I understand—you must have spent your share of time full of anguish. You can leave this matter out of the deal.

It was tremendous confidence.

As if he could handle matters of this degree at any time, the bold line caught the eye. If nothing else, it made him think he had tied a line to an outstanding man.

Given Mo Yonggun’s nature, he’ll surely think to cut down every merchant in the alliance. Do not let them know that. They look weak on the surface, but they’ve lived hard and mean. If cornered in a lull, they’ll bare their claws. Then things get troublesome in every way.

Gooseflesh rippled along his arms.

At this level, you’d wonder whether Yeon Hojeong had even planted an agent here. Otherwise, how could he see through so cleanly?

‘Terrifying!’

If nothing else, one thing was clear.

Yeon Hojeong was a man one must never make an enemy of. His strategic mind was already speaking of the world. On top of that mind came frightening drive.

Could it be his elder brother had already made Yeon Hojeong an enemy?

I told them the Mo Yong Clan is about to pour funds and swallow the Zhejiang trade whole. And I made it clear that you are the one blocking it on the front line. Maybe later is another matter, but for the time being, they won’t give you headaches.

“Hah!”

Inwardly, he clicked his tongue.

The Mo Yong Clan, set on intervening in trade?

Then the Zhejiang merchants were finished. All the profit-shares they had held till now would be stripped and handed to the Mo Yong Clan—by hook or by crook.

When a group with astronomical capital wrests away profit-shares, it’s the small and mid-sized merchants who die.

Now he understood why the representatives were groveling so. That the Mo Yong Clan meant to swallow them—and that the one stopping the Mo Yong Clan, a scion of the Mo Yong Clan no less, was Mo Yong-woo himself—how could they not be grateful?

Only, sickened by their behavior, he now threatened to leave. To the merchants, that was thunder from a clear sky.

“To shake the board with a few words... In all my life, I’ve never seen someone actually do this.”

Shaking his head, his face suddenly hardened.

Do you see why I dragged the Mo Yong Clan in? When Mo Yong Yeonhwa comes, you must choose. Will you throw them away, or will you shoulder them? The lives of all of them hang on your judgment.

The bridge of his nose trembled faintly.

If you truly want to upend your clan, seize Zhejiang first. If you have neither the will nor the ability, kneel to Mo Yong Yeonhwa.

Choose the former, and you truly begin with me. Choose the latter, and from that moment, you are an enemy.

It was a stark, binary choice. Yeon Hojeong was openly testing the measure of Mo Yong-woo’s vessel.

‘Frightening!’

While testing him, he also made it so that, if Mo Yong-woo passed, he could lay a base in Zhejiang—and in one stroke, seize the Zhejiang trade market at a highly sensitive moment.

If Zhejiang stabilized, Jiangsu would naturally stabilize. Then the Yeon Clan of Green Mountain could carry out their work far more smoothly.

With a single move, he made it so he could reap double and triple gains...

Talent recognizes talent.

Clicking his tongue, he thought of the countless things Yeon Hojeong would gain from this affair.

If I fail... then he’ll bring the Yeon Clan’s forces and occupy by right of conquest.

Even in the worst case, he meant to take what could be taken.

Astounding. It was a drastic method that Mo Yong-woo would not dare even to conceive.

He read the remaining lines. 𝑓𝘳𝑒𝑒𝓌𝘦𝘣𝘯ℴ𝑣𝘦𝑙.𝘤𝑜𝑚

I’m thinking to stay about a month at the Lake Delicacies Grand Joy Pavilion to survey the Zhejiang market. If you succeed, come visit for a jaunt.

Folding the letter, he let out a long sigh.

‘Have I taken hands with a man more than I can bear?’

Just then, Lee Geon came running.

“B-Branch Chief!”

“What is it?”

“The merchant representatives want to acclaim you as the Grand Public Officer of the Merchants’ Alliance! Why are they suddenly like this?”

“Grand Public Officer...”

He gave a bitter smile.

“He told me to rip the leash when the chance came, and here they are, with fangs and teeth all pulled and sent to me.”

“Sir?”

“It’s nothing. Let’s go in.”

A glow of resolve etched itself in his eyes as he drew a deep breath.

“What can we do? Even if a flower has thorns—if ◆ Nоvеlіgһt ◆ (Only on Nоvеlіgһt) the fragrance is good, you pluck it.”