51. The Black Market (2)

Mister Black wiped away the flicker of agitation that had clouded the corners of his eyes and gave a placid smile.

“I’d like to say I’m intrigued. If I may.”

“Not quite to your taste, is it?”

“As the gentleman lending the Madam his aid…”

“Cheon Yujin. I don’t carry a business card, so call me by name.”

At Yujin’s curt reply, Mister Black’s smile deepened, and he steered the conversation in another direction.

“Mister Yujin. Do you know how many people it takes to manage the interests the Red Spider held?”

“Twenty for the farm. As for the business up north, five guides or so ought to do it.”

“Distributing the Black Herb takes hands as well.”

“And so?”

“I have to wonder whether you can manage both the farm and the northern business at once, Mister Yujin.”

Mister Black laid out the plain logic in an even tone.

Arms folded, Yujin gave a snorting sniff.

“You’ve got a long tongue. What is it you’re trying to say?”

Then he twisted his face into a sour look.

He had the bearing of a man entirely unbothered to be sitting across from the head of the black market, the easy confidence of a strong man, the kind Mister Black had crossed paths with a few times in his life.

This man is the real thing.

There was a limit to how long a man could feign composure, unless he’d been born with a talent for hiding what lay inside, the way the Madam had, or trained to it over long years. Mister Black sensed at once that Yujin’s bearing was no bluff.

This was a man who had butchered two Red Spider officers and more than a hundred Hunters. And yet Mister Black did not waver.

“The black market will help you establish yourself in Ground Zero.”

“And in exchange there’s something you want?”

“Hand me the distribution rights to the Black Herb, and I’ll take care of the troublesome details for you.”

The Black Herb was the main ingredient of the narcotic cocktail ‘Black Moon.’ By the gram its price fell below blood-stone, but barring any disruptions the supply never ran dry, so over the long term the farm was worth more. There was always a reason when the Red Spider’s deputy boss stepped up in person.

“As you’re aware, it’s a narcotic. Finding the demand won’t be easy.”

“There’s the option of having the Madam broker me some people.”

“If you mean to do it yourself, I won’t stop you.”

Mister Black replied as though it were no loss to him.

“I still haven’t gotten my answer.”

“Sorry?”

“The trade routes up north, Kaesong included.”

Mister Black spoke as if it were nothing of consequence.

“I told you the Kaesong end doesn’t much interest—”

“Suit yourself. I’ll just leave the trade routes north of the peninsula to the Heuksang, then.”

Cutting in mid-sentence, Yujin rose from his seat.

“Leaving already?”

“The negotiation’s broken down. I’ll have to find a new buyer.”

“Hoho. I did my very best.”

“Consider your compensation paid in full.”

Yujin made for the door of the private room without a trace of regret.

— Tromp. Tromp.

The slow footsteps echoed through the private room, and the corners of Mister Black’s eyes, which had never once betrayed a feeling until now, twitched for the first time.

Yujin’s hand gripped the handle of the steel door.

“Would you wait just a moment?”

His voice was calm. But the faint tremor at his fingertips was past his power to control.

— Pfft.

The Madam glanced sidelong at the wavering fingers and gave a brief smile.

Yujin turned around. The gazes of the two men tangled in midair.

“You said you weren’t interested. Changed your mind?”

“Heh heh heh. To have met like this is a kind of fate, and here you’d be leaving already — I find it a touch disappointing, that’s all.”

“I’ve got nothing more to say.”

“Now, now, don’t be like that. Let’s talk a while longer.”

Mister Black gestured to the empty seat.

Yujin stared at him for a moment, then walked back at an unhurried pace.

I wondered how long you’d hold out.

Mister Black, master of the black market, was a man he’d had dealings with before the regression, too. He’d built his own Necropolis in Kaesong, not far from Ground Zero; it would have been stranger not to know the man.

The black market wants the northern route across the peninsula.

After the Great Cataclysm, the sea was no longer the domain of mankind. Gates had opened on the oceans too, and descending into the deep waters to seal one was all but impossible. When the Break incidents occurred, stretches of sea here and there turned into erosion zones.

No one lives out there anyway. The problem was the monsters.

The monsters bred from the erosion zones, the marine beasts that spilled out of the gates, bared their hostility whenever a ship passed. The sea lanes weren’t shut entirely, but avoiding the eroded zones cost more time and fuel, and because escorts had to be posted against monster attacks, the price of overseas trade soared far higher.

The peninsula took the worst of it, since its land routes are blocked too — so I learned.

Thirty-five years on from the Great Cataclysm, things had stabilized considerably. But even now, moves to recover the routes into the northern region beyond the borderlands were hardly rare.

And Mister Black proposed that very deal to me, too.

When Yujin had turned the whole Kaesong area into a domain of death, the first to come with a bundle of bribes in hand had been this very man before him.

No interest in the northern region? Sure you don’t.

What. Something not working out for you?

This is what they call being clever.

Making use of knowledge of the future was a regressor’s privilege. Ahh, so sweet. So very sweet.

“The Heuksang are China’s underground traffickers.”

“I know.”

“And even so, you’d hand the northern route to the Heuksang?”

“Where did our man with no interest go off to?”

Yujin dug at his ear with his little finger.

“Don’t go begging for some half-baked patriotism. If you’ve got something to say, say it.”

“I need to be certain — that you can truly drive out the man-hunters.”

“Not drive out. Eliminate.”

“Either way is fine by me. What matters is whether it can be done or not.”

“It’ll take some time, but two years at the latest.”

The man-hunters’ strength surpassed the Red Spider’s. They held a vast territory stretching across western Kaesong, through Yeonan County, and on to the city of Haeju, and because they dominated or bred monsters to use as soldiers, they commanded the greater combat power in the borderlands.

If Yujin could drive out the man-hunters as he claimed…

Not just the northern route — I could seize the commercial rights along the whole Gyeonggi coast, too.

Damn it all. Mister Black swallowed back a curse inwardly.

On what grounds, exactly, did he bring up the northern route?

Yujin’s proposal bundled carrot and stick into one. Not even inside the black market did anyone know that Mister Black wanted the northern route. Had Yujin read clean through to his innermost thoughts?

Pressing down as hard as he could on the agitation spreading through his heart, Mister Black asked his question.

“Mister Yujin. What will you do if you fail to drive them out within two years?”

“Am I really to be the one to explain that investment carries risk?”

“So whether I believe you or not is my own affair, you mean.”

“Be grateful you were given the choice at all.”

Mister Black fell silent a moment, then parted his lips.

“On the condition that we’re guaranteed right of passage near Kaesong, the black market will back you, Mister Yujin.”

Three great powers gripped the currents of Ground Zero. After the Galaxy Pub, now the black market too had raised Yujin’s hand.

Mister Black left the private room with a dazed look on his face. The instant the steel door shut, the Madam let out a great peal of laughter, hoho.

“Thank you. Thanks to you I got to see something rare.”

“What is it you’re thanking me for?”

“It’s the first time I’ve seen the head of the black market this flustered.”

“You’ll be seeing it often.”

Yujin answered indifferently and got to his feet.

Mister Black had said he’d take all the troublesome business on himself. While Yujin firmed up the Necropolis’s hold over the farm and the nearby borderlands…

Working alone keeps me busy.

At 3rd Rank he could obtain a more powerful undead-crafting skill. If he made an undead with a self of its own, even one short of Fafnir’s caliber, managing the Necropolis would get easier.

“Just a moment.”

“As for the Red Spider’s remnants…”

“That’s not it.”

The Madam’s finger pointed at Yujin.

“Me?”

“Arahan has taken an interest in you.”

The Arahan Guild was the country’s number-one Hunter enterprise, and Fafnir’s sworn enemy. In his past life they’d achieved their goal of founding a Hunter family, and by joining hands with House Romanov, one of the Seven Great Families, they’d even handed it the pretext to intervene in Korea.

“Seongcheon Enterprise asked me to pass it along.”

“The Arahan Guild wouldn’t have moved sloppily. You managed to dig that up rather neatly.”

“The Chairman keeps a constant eye on your movements too, Mister Yujin.”

“Quite the way to dress up the fact that you sold my information to Seongcheon Enterprise.”

The Madam only smiled and gave no answer. Yujin fiddled with his chin.

“This business. Does the chairman of Seongcheon Enterprise know about it?”

“The matter being a large one, I didn’t tell him separately.”

“So no one knows but the black market.”

“I didn’t know how the negotiation would turn out. It’s still under control for now.”

“Then keep it under control a little longer.”

The corners of Yujin’s mouth twitched up.

The backwater riffraff will kindly keep quiet.

Anything I can put to use, I’ll use every last scrap of it.

The reason Arahan was taking an interest in him was obvious. He’d beaten the rookie-training instructor in a spar, and he was a party tied to the mass-produced Mid-grade Potion.

“Are you waiting for Arahan to make their approach?”

“They’ll come nibbling before long.”

“Hoho. Then I’ll put in a bit more effort.”

“It’s fine to tell Seongcheon, but for anything major, get my permission first.”

“I’ll be sure to ask about selling it to other parties as well.”

“Well, that’s mighty touching of you.”

Yujin grinned and stepped out of the private room.

— Tok. Tok.

A man tapped the armrest with his finger, a habit Baek Seonghyeon, vice-president of the Arahan Guild, fell into whenever he sank into thought.

A single name hovered about his lips.

“Cheon Yujin. Cheon Yujin.”

Here was a promising talent who, at a mere 1st Rank, had beaten the rookie-training instructor Jeong Jinsu, and on top of that a Hunter who seemed tied to the maker of the mass-producible Mid-grade Potion.

The moment the spar’s outcome was reported to him, Baek Seonghyeon had ordered a background investigation into Yujin.

“It’s been a little over a month since I gave the order, hasn’t it?”

“That’s correct, Vice-President.”

“The information you’ve gathered is quite the spectacle.”

“I could see why you’d taken notice of him, Vice-President.”

He’d formed a 1st-Rank party and gone in and out of the borderlands, no less. He’d supplied the alchemist with the key source for mass-producing Mid-grade Potions. And recently he’d gone so far as to cure the youngest daughter of Seongcheon Enterprise’s chairman, who’d been stricken with Mummification Disease.

“Kik. I hardly know whether to believe this or not.”

“We ran cross-verification, but it was all true—”

“I’m not doubting it. I’m the one who told you to investigate him precisely because the man is no ordinary figure.”

Baek Seonghyeon glanced sidelong at the tablet holding the data.

“Are we certain he belongs to no organization?”

“Yes. There’s a Hunter team that moved together with him in the borderlands, but they too had no guild affiliation.”

“The Scraps team, was it.”

“Just in case, I’ve prepared their data as well.”

“Worthless vermin, the lot of them.”

His tone had turned cold. Hunters of the Scraps’ caliber were as common as pebbles on the road, and his sole interest lay in Hunters of high potential.

“How did the matter of recruiting Alchemist Shin turn out?”

“He accepts no proposal whatsoever, save for receiving the initial batch of mass-produced Mid-grade Potions.”

“So even thirty billion won didn’t change his mind.”

Baek Seonghyeon’s face cooled to ice.

He hadn’t even demanded to be taught the potion formula; the offer had been made with the intent to invest in Shin Junseok’s alchemy workshop. To think even an investment proposal would be refused.

“Quite the spirit. Alchemist Shin Junseok.”

“I’ll submit the proposal once more.”

“That’s enough. It would be awkward for Arahan to bow its head twice.”

The secretary grasped the true meaning behind the words.

“I’ll apply pressure during the potion distribution process.”

“Better still if defects turn up. Verification cases are in short supply, after all.”

If he couldn’t have it, he’d destroy it. Arahan’s number-two had held fast to that iron rule.

“When Alchemist Shin comes to need Arahan, comfort him warmly.”

“Understood.”

“And by the way — have you arranged a means of recruiting the Hunter Cheon Yujin?”

“Yes. According to the report the recruitment division submitted, this method would be the most effective.”

Having heard the secretary’s explanation, Baek Seonghyeon let out a short laugh, kik.

“My. Even vermin have their uses, every one of them. The investigation wasn’t for nothing after all.”

“Thank you, Vice-President.”

“Then proceed.”

At Baek Seonghyeon’s dismissal, the secretary withdrew with a look of relief.

“I’m looking forward to it. How much it’ll profit the guild to take in talent that shines this brightly.”

A photograph remained on the tablet screen. Yujin’s face, one corner of his lips slightly raised, was mirrored on Baek Seonghyeon’s retinas.