Side Story 7. Baek Sang-ye (2)

A gnat that did not know its place.
That was what Geum Yang-bae, the young master of the Golden Measure Merchant Guild, looked like to So-ryu.
So-ryu had gone from being an orphan with no one in the world to being formally entered into the Baek Clan as an adopted daughter.
It was not that gaining the Baek surname had made her develop some sense of status-conscious authority.
Anyone who saw Geum Yang-bae right now would think the same.

Not every young master was the same.
There were genuine young masters like Baek Yi-gang, but there were far more who were not.
There were even playboy dandies who were flashy only on the outside.

But Geum Yang-bae was not even that.
In front of Baek Sang-ye, who carried a noble bearing even in plain clothes, he was no different from a dung fly before a flower.

His hair, which no one could tell when it had last been washed, was so greasy it didn’t even get wet in the rain.
She had just seen him slick it back with both hands after wetting them with spit.
That pathetic look on his face, unable to take his eyes off Baek Sang-ye’s face even while holding roast duck in one hand.
If he had feelings for someone, should he not at least learn to control his gaze a little.
Even so, So-ryu did not drive Geum Yang-bae away.

“Wow, this is delicious.”

Because he had shown some sincerity.
It was not that So-ryu was crazy about roast duck.
It was because Baek Sang-ye had gone quite a while without eating proper food.

The reason it had come to that was So-ryu’s mistake.
The bad weather had continued, dragging the journey out longer than expected.
For nearly a full day, they had gone about chewing on nothing but dry steamed rice.
It was not enough to harm her body, but it must have been difficult. Admirably, Baek Sang-ye had not whined.
Even so, it weighed on her mind, so So-ryu let Geum Yang-bae’s little play slide.

“A drink as well…….”

But his intentions in offering the liquor were painfully obvious, so So-ryu cut him off at once.

“Sang-ye cannot drink.”
“Uh……. Then perhaps the elder sister…….”
“I can drink just fine.”

So-ryu took the bottle and drained it in one go.

“Huh, th-the whole bottle.”

Geum Yang-bae could not bring himself to stop her and merely smacked his lips.
Then So-ryu faintly furrowed her brow.

“……This really is good liquor.”
“That’s what I was saying!”

Geum Yang-bae sipped carefully at the liquor left in his own cup.
So-ryu was very strong with alcohol.
Watching So-ryu, whose complexion did not redden in the slightest, Baek Sang-ye pouted.

“This duck is very good.”
“Isn’t it? You can tell from the thickness of the skin, but this is a first-rate duck. At this level, it would be hard to eat even in the Forbidden City in Beijing.”

As he said, the quality of the duck was quite good.
A thick skin meant it was rich in fat and the meat was moist.
Naturally, it was inferior to the ducks presented to the imperial palace, but Baek Sang-ye smiled faintly.

“That’s true.”
“Haha, please eat as much as you like.”

In truth, when one was camping out in the wild, eating roast duck like this was a luxury.
It was the same even for a merchant guild. They couldn’t roast meat throughout the entire journey.

When So-ryu glanced at Geum Yang-bae, he was peeking at Baek Sang-ye, having forgotten even to eat his meat.
Baek Sang-ye was displaying a skill one did not often see in the world.
She was dismantling the duck with chopsticks as though stripping bones from a fish.
It was the kind of refinement that showed through even when dressed in ordinary clothes and disguised under a new identity.
But all Geum Yang-bae was looking at was Baek Sang-ye’s beautiful face.
So-ryu thought to herself.

‘That is a disguise technique, though.’

Of course, her real face before using the disguise technique was quite beautiful as well.
But since she was going to tour Kangho anyway, Baek Sang-ye had changed her face into that of a peerless beauty, wanting to make a name for herself as a stunning female warrior.

“Hoho, why are you staring like that?”
“N-no reason!”

Geum Yang-bae very nearly drooled.

“Thank you for the meal.”

So-ryu cut in.

“Haha, it is not easy to have a proper meal while camping out like this. I am glad I could share it as well.”
“That is true.”
“In truth, this is only possible because we are the Golden Measure Merchant Guild.”
“……Pardon?”

She had been about to tell him to leave now, but Geum Yang-bae prattled on as though he had been waiting for that.

“It is only possible in winter, but our Golden Measure Merchant Guild possesses a special technique no other merchant guild has. Would you care to see it?”

There were men who, in front of a woman they fancied, would try hard to show off how impressive they were.
Once you started humoring them, they would boast without end, so normally you had to cut them off at the right point.

“Ah, sure…….”

Still, after being fed, perhaps listening to a little boasting would not hurt.
Geum Yang-bae sprang up as though he had been waiting for that.
Then he ran over to the carriage set by the wall.

“Now, take a look!”

Was he at least going to show them the carriage?
So-ryu and Baek Sang-ye approached without much expectation.
Geum Yang-bae puffed himself up and flung open the carriage’s rear door.

“What do you think?”
“……It’s cramped.”

So-ryu replied that way.
The inside of the carriage was narrower than expected.
It was so small that it would be full with just one person inside.
It was not a carriage meant for people to ride in to begin with.
There was another small door inside, and that seemed to be what Geum Yang-bae had really wanted to show them.

“Come and see.”

It was a door plated over with metal.
When he opened that inner door, cold air surprisingly flowed out from within.
When they shone a torch inside, they could see what was stored there.

“Ice……?”
“Yes, it is a refrigerated carriage.”

Refrigerated carriage.
Just hearing the name made its purpose obvious.

“The ice inside this will not melt even after a month. It is one of our secret techniques.”
“Wow, that’s fascinating.”
“Huhuhu, is it not amazing? This is one of only two such carriages in the Golden Measure Merchant Guild, made with the help of the Tang Clan of Sichuan.”

So-ryu let out a snort.
The Tang Clan making a carriage for some merchant guild?
It had to be bragging.
But Geum Yang-bae, not noticing So-ryu’s snort, continued boasting enthusiastically.

“This time, the Nam Family Manor is hosting a banquet, so we received an order for especially precious ingredients. You know the reputation of the Nam Family Manor as well, do you not, miss?”
“Yes, a truly illustrious house.”

Baek Sang-ye lied as smoothly as breathing and pretended to know.

“Huhu, all the ingredients in there are things the Lord of Nam Family Manor personally requested. Huhuhuhu.”

Why was it that when men tried to act cool, they always went ‘huhuhu?’
As So-ryu thought that, something caught her eye.
There was a long wooden box among the ingredients.
Baek Sang-ye seemed to have noticed it as well.

“What is that box?”
“Hm? Ah…….”

The grin on Geum Yang-bae’s face froze for a moment.
Then his eyes darted about as though he were deeply troubled.
Baek Sang-ye’s eyes sparkled with curiosity.

“Oh my, does it contain something unusual?”
“Well…….”

Geum Yang-bae hemmed and hawed.
Right then, his escort warrior appeared.

“Young Master!”
“Ah, Warrior Jang.”
“No matter what, how can you just show guild goods to outsiders like this. The cold air is escaping. Close the door quickly.”
“You’re right. That’s true.”

Realizing his mistake, Geum Yang-bae quickly shut the door.
Warrior Jang rubbed his hands together and answered in his place.

“What is inside there is lamb. The Lord of Nam Family Manor especially likes young lamb, so we selected the finest cuts and packed them separately.”
“Ah, I see.”

Baek Sang-ye nodded.
It did look a little suspicious, but what of it. At most, the goods supplied by some small merchant guild could only be so special.

So-ryu spoke.

“Sang-ye, let’s go back now.”
“Yes, Sis.”

Now it really was late into the night.
They needed to sleep if they were to set out in the morning.
They went back to their sleeping places.
Baek Sang-ye must have been getting tired too, because she quietly lay down.

“Aren’t you sleeping, Sis?”
“You sleep first. I’ll sleep a little later.”

So-ryu smiled softly.
Soon, Baek Sang-ye fell fast asleep, breathing in a steady rhythm.

Meanwhile, So-ryu sank into thought.
That box.
She didn’t know what was inside, but the shape of the box itself was the problem.
It was clearly.

‘……A coffin?’

“Get a hold of yourself!”

Warrior Jang scolded Geum Yang-bae with a twisted expression.
Of course, he could not actually bark at him, so he whispered very softly instead.

“S-sorry.”
“Does sorry fix it? This is a disaster waiting to happen.”

As one could tell, their relationship was not one of strict superior and subordinate.
Geum Yang-bae was the heir to the Golden Measure Merchant Guild, but Warrior Jang had long served his father and was effectively more like a friend.
So whenever Geum Yang-bae made a mistake, Warrior Jang would scold him until he was near tears.

“You showed outsiders an item Nam Family Manor repeatedly ordered us to keep secret? An item even the Guild Master does not know about.”
“……”
“All because you wanted to look good in front of a woman. Good grief.”

Geum Yang-bae lowered his head, thoroughly dejected.
Perhaps he looked a little pitiful.
Seeing Geum Yang-bae so downcast, whom he inwardly regarded almost like a son, Warrior Jang softened.

“Well, she was pretty, I’ll give you that.”
“Right?”

Geum Yang-bae’s spirits revived at once.
At that sight, even Warrior Jang let out a helpless laugh.

“I think I’ve fallen in love.”
“Puhuhu.”

Warrior Jang finally burst out laughing.

“Has this happened only once or twice?”
“This time it’s real.”
“You’re going to get burned like that. One look tells you they’re Murim people, and not from an ordinary house either.”
“Is our Golden Measure Merchant Guild that beneath them? If we build proper ties with Nam Family Manor, we’ll enter the Twenty Great Merchant Guilds Under Heaven someday.”

Since more than half of the old large merchant guilds had gone under over the past decade, it might not have been impossible.

“Honestly……”
“Besides, you know me too, Warrior Jang.”

Geum Yang-bae’s eyes sparkled.

“I’m Geum Yang-bae! Once I decide I’m going to have something, I get it one way or another. That’s how I’ve lived, and that’s how I’ll keep living.”

It was a bold declaration from a frog that had lived all its life in a well.
To Warrior Jang’s eyes, Geum Yang-bae’s behavior must have looked rather endearing.
But there was someone who did not see it that way.

The two probably thought they had lowered their voices enough.
But a master’s five senses were more sensitive than ordinary people could imagine.
All the more so if that person had been active in the Red Dragon Corps and the Shadowless Squad of the Murim Alliance.
As a master who had operated in the darkness of the world and broken through countless moments between life and death, she could hear all of it.

So-ryu held her sword in her arms and thought.

‘For rudeness, the wrist. If he crosses the line, the neck.’

Geum Yang-bae had made it onto So-ryu’s ledger.
Though he sat there grinning without a clue.

And so the night deepened.
Fortunately, when morning came, the rain had stopped.

If Geum Yang-bae really had pestered Baek Sang-ye too much.
Or if he had reached out and tried to touch her, So-ryu’s punishment would have come immediately.
So-ryu had resolved it, and once she resolved on something, she was someone who always carried it out.

So-ryu knew very well how much excessive power immature fools like Geum Yang-bae wielded in the areas where they lived.
She knew well how that led them to become arrogant, not knowing how high the sky was, and to commit all sorts of abuses.

Geum Yang-bae did indeed make advances toward Baek Sang-ye.
However, he did not display the kind of behavior So-ryu had half expected.

“Do you see this?”
“Oh my, what is it?”
“This is a gold necklace that is all the fashion in Hangzhou. Isn’t it beautiful?”
“Is it?”
“I’ll give it to you.”

Then he held out the gold necklace.
Baek Sang-ye smiled sweetly.

“I don’t need it.”

She showed not the slightest interest.
If she sold just one of her earrings, rings, or necklaces, she could probably buy twenty such gold necklaces.

“Ah…….”

Geum Yang-bae’s face wilted at once.
He had already been rejected five times.
That was Geum Yang-bae’s strategy in romance.
Nothing more than trying to win a woman’s favor by giving her beautiful things.
The problem was that it had always worked on the women he had met until now.

“Then, I have a bolt of silk with me. If you look at my clothes, this sheen……”
“I’ll pass.”

This time, Baek Sang-ye rejected him without even looking.
Seeing that, So-ryu thought.

‘What an idiot…….’

It made her feel foolish for having been so on guard.
If Geum Yang-bae tried anything stupid, she had been ready to tear his limbs apart, roast duck or not.
But like this, there was nothing for her to step in over.
The real problem, instead, was Baek Sang-ye.
She was smiling right now, but So-ryu, who had watched her for a long time, had already noticed.
Baek Sang-ye was slowly starting to get annoyed.

If she let her temper show, it would instead be Geum Yang-bae and his party who would end up pitiful.

“Wait.”

Warrior Jang, who was at the front, stopped the group.
Since they were headed to the same destination, they had been traveling together for the time being.

So-ryu saw at once why Warrior Jang had stopped.

“What’s this?”

What had appeared in the middle of the road was a baby wild boar.
The baby boar, not even up to knee height, stood there squealing and doing nothing else. It was directly blocking the carriage’s path.

“Why is a baby all alone…….”
“It isn’t even running away.”

Wild animals normally avoided people.
But the boar just stood there blankly, continuing to squeal.

“The mother might be nearby.”

People tended to underestimate wild boars, but they were dangerous beasts even to seasoned hunters.
But for some reason, no mother could be seen nearby.

“Squeak, squeeeak!”

The baby boar cried out.
Geum Yang-bae, already in a bad mood after being repeatedly rejected by Baek Sang-ye, stomped forward.

“What’s with this little boar……!”

His rough manner made it obvious he was about to kick it.
It was then that Baek Sang-ye murmured.

“Oh my, how cute. Did it lose its mother?”
“You little thing! Why are you all alone!”

Striding over, Geum Yang-bae abruptly scooped up the piglet and hugged it to his chest.

“You don’t even know to be afraid of people, you cute little thing.”
“Squeak! Squeak!”
“Huhuhu!”

Geum Yang-bae stroked the struggling piglet as though it were adorable.
So-ryu let out a weary sigh.