Chapter 104
The Youngest Son of the Eunhae Trading Company Chapter 104
Chapter 104. The Decision (5)
In his previous life, he had heard from Pal-gap.
“There was a fire at the Martial Alliance headquarters, and people were burned to death.”
“What? The Martial Alliance?”
“The culprit was caught, and his name is Koo-shi.”
“What was the reason?”
“I don't know.”
That was the end of the story.
Was there someone else with the same name, Koo-shi?
I had too much to do to think about it.
I was finishing the dishes and getting ready to do the laundry when Man-gyeol approached me.
“I don't think Seolhoncho alone will be enough. We need to inform the Martial Alliance and ask them to provide the necessary medicine.”
What? The Martial Alliance?
No way...
I remembered the name Koo-shi from my previous life and the arson he had committed.
Why was his name Koo-shi?
Why did he set fire to the pavilion?
Why did he choose the Martial Alliance's building?
The Martial Alliance is a place where masters stand guard, so he must have endured and prepared for a long time to set the fire.
What could he have endured for so many years to do such a thing?
There are emotions that enable people to endure such things.
One of them is revenge.
Among the many forms of revenge, I was struck by the fact that they burned down the hall and burned the people inside to death.
He is a pure child who believed his senior brother's promise to give him the name Kushira.
I wondered what could have caused such a child to go mad, but as soon as I heard Man-gyeol's words, “I will inform the Martial Alliance,” I understood.
In my previous life, Man-gyeol must have come to the Hyeongmun Sect.
And he must have found out that this was a contagious disease among martial artists.
Naturally, he needed medicine, so he sent a letter to the Martial Alliance asking for medical supplies.
Man-gyeol did so because the Martial Alliance had always provided support when he requested it in the past.
However.
This time was different.
The Martial Alliance came up with a much more extreme solution than Man-gyul had expected.
It was called “cutting the grass and removing the roots.”
The Martial Alliance did exactly what the name implied.
Perhaps they were afraid of a disease that could infect those who had mastered the inner arts.
If they weren't careful, the disease could have spread throughout Murim.
Even so, they shouldn't have done that.
If they had provided medicinal herbs, they could have cured them.
I watched from the sidelines, so I can say this with certainty.
If Man-gyeol had been given enough time and resources, or if they had provided him with medicine, he could have cured them.
But...
What awaited the child, who was excited about receiving a new name and a new affiliation, was not the warmth he had expected.
Burning buildings.
The desperate screams of those burning alive.
The cries and pleas for mercy.
Countless swords wielded at those who managed to escape.
And those dying at the tips of those swords.
How powerless must he have felt, watching that and unable to do anything but hide?
Bastards.
Somehow...
When I died, they burned my carriage, my horse, and my corpse. They weren't amateurs; they had done this many times before.
Some may accuse me of exaggerating.
They may say that the righteous Martial Alliance would never do such a thing.
Justice be damned.
I can make such assumptions because I experienced it myself.
And in the midst of all that, Man-gyeol must have been killed as well.
The reason I didn't know about this was because it was the shame of the Martial Alliance, so they hid it thoroughly.
That's why the arson case that Gu-sa caused in his previous life was also covered up.
I asked Man-gyeol.
“Does Seolhoncho not work?”
“Perhaps because he is a martial artist, medicine made for ordinary people does not seem to work well on him.”
“What other medicine do you need?”
“Why? Will your Trading Company provide it?”
“Hahaha.”
I laughed awkwardly.
“Don't worry about it. Even if your trading company was lucky enough to have Seolhoncho, that kind of luck won't continue.”
“That's true.”
“We need Baekho-ryeong to calm his inner arts and Seol-sam to help his body absorb the medicine, but do you have those magical herbs in your trading company?”
“....”
Elder, it seems that the Eunhae Trading Company has been blessed with good fortune.
When I smiled, Man-gyeol's expression changed.
“What? Are you saying that your trading company has those items?”
Instead of answering, I asked him a question.
“How many do you need?”
“Just one of each.”
“I see.”
The problem was how to request them.
Those who entered this place could not leave freely.
There was also a risk that the news would spread to others because my disciples had gone down to the village below the mountain.
Therefore, measures needed to be taken.
“This is a problem.”
“Yes, we have the medicine, but there's no way to request it...”
While I was thinking about it.
“Koo?”
Geum-ryeong poked her head out from inside my sleeve. Then she pointed at herself with her wriggling tail.
“Huh? You?”
“Koo-koo!”
“You want to go?”
“Koo-koo!”
As a spiritual beast, Geumryung would not spread the disease, but I wondered if this little creature could travel so far.
“But you have to go quickly. How can you go by yourself?”
“Kui kui! Kui!”
“You can go?”
With eyes sparkling with confidence, Geumryung nodded.
“Well, what the heck.”
Nothing ventured, nothing gained.
I wrote a letter and tied it to Geumryeong's tail.
“It's okay. You can go now.”
As soon as I finished speaking, Geumryeong shot off faster than an arrow.
Whoosh!
Before I could even count to ten, he was out of sight, and I muttered to myself.
“Wow... He's so fast.”
And the next day.
“Kui!”
Geum-ryung returned.
A letter was tied to his tail, and I untied it and read it.
“I understand. I will send the medicine you requested.”
It was my father's reply.
Geum-ryung had delivered the letter properly.
As my father had said, the medicinal herbs I had requested arrived seven days later.
Man-gyeol prepared the medicine, and those who took it gradually began to show signs of improvement.
.
.
.
I finally had some free time.
Man-gyeol and I sat in the front yard and looked up at the moon.
The autumn sky was high and clear.
The night sky was the same.
That's why the moon was so clear.
It was almost the Mid-Autumn Festival.
“What are you planning to do for the Mid-Autumn Festival?”
“Me?”
Man-gyeol-seon thought for a moment and then replied.
“I'll just treat people here and there and eat some moon cakes.”
He smiled wryly and turned his head away.
“It's not like people don't get sick on Chuseok.”
“That's true.”
I nodded.
I don't know why Man-gyul became a doctor. But there must be a reason.
That's why he chose this difficult path, isn't it?
What did Man-gyul-seon think when he was killed in his previous life?
Did he regret his life?
Or...
I don't know.
“Why are you asking me that?”
“If you have time, I'd like you to stay at our trading company for a while.”
“For free?”
I chuckled.
“It's not free. If word gets out that Man-gyeol-seon is staying at the Eunhae Trading Company, people will take an interest.”
Man-gyeol-seon also chuckled at my words.
He understood what I was thinking.
“I'm curious about the Eunhae Trading Company, so I'll go check it out. How did you know about the elixirs I mentioned?”
“I was just lucky.”
I replied with a smile, and Man-gyeol grumbled at my answer.
“Don't laugh like that. You'll get used to it.”
“Hahaha.”
“But listen.”
In an instant, Man-gyeol's face became serious.
“No matter how I look at it, the epidemic spreading in the sect is not natural.”
“What?”
“There are signs that the disease was spread artificially. They must have improved the epidemic in Uichang and spread it here artificially.”
“What?”
I could feel the anger in Man-gyeol's voice.
I'm angry now, so how must Man-gyeol be feeling?
“Who on earth did this...”
“Do you have any suspects?”
“There aren't many people capable of doing this, so it's obvious. It's either the Sichuan Tang Clan or Myo-gang.”
“...”
“But Myo-gang is a poison researcher. He couldn't do something like this.”
“Then is it the Sichuan Tang Clan?”
“That's my guess.”
Man-gyeol's voice sounded very bitter as he said this.
That can't be.
The Sichuan Tang Clan would never do something like this.
They are already looked down upon by the public for using poison.
Would they deliberately spread an epidemic in such a place?
Unless they were determined to destroy their own clan, there was no way they would do something so insane.
And even if they did cause trouble there, the Martial Alliance didn't use that as an excuse to take the initiative. Instead, they took the initiative and burned everything down...
Wait a minute.
To be honest, after learning about Koo-shi's story, I was furious at what the Martial Alliance did.
However, there was something I didn't understand.
They could have provided medicine to cure the disease, so why did they do that?
They had no choice.
That is, if the contagious disease here was caused by the Martial Alliance.
They conducted some kind of research here, and along with Man-gyeol, who discovered the truth, that would have been the best way to bury the secret of this place.
The research they conducted on the members of this sect must have been on an epidemic that was deadly to martial artists.
Then what were they researching it for?
No, there was something more important than that right now.
I stood up from my seat.
“Where are you going?”
“I'm going to catch the moon.”
“Huh?”
I pointed at the moon and said.
“Isn't there someone watching us, just like the moon is watching this sect?”
“...!”
Mankyeol, who looked surprised at my words, also got up from his seat.
“That's right.”
* * *
Late at night.
While everyone was asleep, someone was secretly moving around.
He was wearing clothes engraved with the word “Hyeongmun,” which meant that he was a member of the Hyeongmun sect.
He looked around nervously as he moved.
He slipped out of the gate and ran down a mountain path, soon reaching a tree.
It was a tree standing next to a rock.
He hated this small sect. He wanted to go to a wider world.
He resented his master, who had found him as a child and brought him to this sect, and who had died while leaving him there.
Then, someone approached him.
It was the Martial Alliance.
The Martial Alliance knew what he wanted and filled him with dreams and illusions.
At first, he was horrified at the idea of spreading a deadly disease to the sect where he had grown up and learned martial arts.
“How can you ask me to do such a thing?”
“This is for the greater good.”
“What about my senior brothers and junior brothers? And... my fellow disciples?”
Although he resented his master, he was not on bad terms with his fellow disciples.
They had spent a lot of time together.
“How can you achieve the greater good by thinking about such petty feelings?”
“....”
“I promise. If you do this, I will make you the captain of the Martial Alliance.”
To be the captain of the Martial Alliance, one must have martial arts skills at least at the peak level.
He hadn't even reached that level yet, and now he was being offered the position of captain!
However, he took the bait.
“Are you sure this won't harm my life?”
“Of course. Just write down the details of the progression of the disease and leave it at the agreed-upon place.”
He took a bamboo tube from his robe and put it inside a hole in the tree.
It contained information about the progression of the disease and a report that Man-gyeol had cured him.
“How many more times do I have to do this?”
Just as he was thinking that, he turned around.
“...!”
He was terrified.
A handsome face was right in front of him.
It was Eun Seo-ho, known as Seonhyeokmi.
Cold sweat poured down his face.
“What are you doing?”
“Nothing, nothing...”
At that moment, someone standing behind him moved. It was Man-gyeol.
He took out the bamboo tube he had put into the hole in the tree.
He took out the report inside and read it, then clicked his tongue.
“If you're going to write a report, write it properly. What kind of sloppy report is this?”
“...”
“By the way, who ordered you to do this?”
“....”
Eun Seo-ho asked, but he did not answer.
“What did you promise to get in return for spreading disease here and writing this report?”
“....”
“Did you get promised the position of Captain?”
“...!”
He was startled. It was accurate.
“But will they keep their promise?”
“Of course they will!”
“What makes you think so? Their name?”
“....”
“Have you never considered that they might wipe this place off the map to keep their name, including you?”
No.
That couldn't be true.
They existed for the justice of Murim.