CLS-Chapter 92

Chapter 92

Money?

Did he say money?

What’s spread throughout the world, you ask?

Huh? You’re from the Beggar’s Sect and you don’t know that? Hey, you try traveling with that guy for just a little while. You’ll want to plug your ears the moment you hear the character “Wei” anywhere.

If you want to die a natural death, the second-best option is to hear about that guy but not let it stick in your memory. Ideally, it’s best not to hear about him at all.

What?

No desire for material wealth?

Clean and honest?

What bullshit.

This is going too far. No matter what, to package that incarnation of desire as clean and honest… I thought even wrapping it in golden paper wouldn’t work, but how impressive.

That guy is absolutely crazy about money.

What? How can someone lazy be money-crazy?

What are you talking about, you fool?

What does being lazy have to do with loving money?

He just won’t work himself, but who in the world doesn’t like money? Everyone likes money. That guy likes money, but he just won’t step up and work for it himself.

Huh? Then how does he make money?

Well, that’s…

He finds someone to work for him instead. Then he clings to that person like a tick and sucks their money dry.

Is there really such a sucker?

Kekekekeke.

Have you heard of a Divine Physician?

***

“Weren’t you going to pay for it instead?”

Wei Yan-ho looked at Jin So-ah with a blank expression.

“Pay for it instead?”

Just from that tone asking what kind of nonsense this was, Jin So-ah began to break out in cold sweat, understanding how the situation was turning.

“If you worked yourself to death for an entire year, could you earn one nyang of gold?”

“…It would be difficult, wouldn’t it?”

He had heard that successful physicians who worked in others’ medical practices received two gold nyang per year… but that was for experienced, top-tier physicians. There was no one who would pay Jin So-ah, who was still in the process of learning medicine, that much money. At most, he might earn half a gold nyang in a year.

So even considering future salary increases, twenty gold nyang was money that would take at least twenty to thirty years of deadly hard work to earn.

“You’re telling me to pay that back?”

“What? You borrowed someone’s money and planned to wipe your mouth clean without paying it back? And what was that about ‘your path’? Why should I pave your path with flowers bought with my money?”

When you put it that way, there’s nothing I can say.

Jin So-ah shut his mouth like he’d become a mute who ate honey. Everything Wei Yan-ho said was absolutely correct.

“So you’ve been talking about success without paying back other people’s money all this time? You have no conscience.”

“…I apologize.”

When even Ha Dae-bung beside him nodded his head, Jin So-ah felt strongly that he had committed some sin and unconsciously apologized.

“Does apologizing solve it? You have to pay back the money for it to be solved!”

“If you could give me just a little more time…”

“Until when?”

During this time, how should I put it…

It was the moment when Wei Yan-ho’s impression, which Jin So-ah had thought looked kind despite his inhuman behavior, instantly changed. How had he failed to recognize someone who wore such a mean expression on his face?

“When do I need to pay it back?”

“Well, you don’t have money, so what can you do? Just pay it back as you can manage.”

“Wei young master!”

Suddenly, Wei Yan-ho’s face began to look kind again.

A mean expression? Where could such a thing exist! Everything was Jin So-ah’s…

“However, if you can’t pay off the principal, interest keeps accumulating! Interest! That’s how money originally works! When you realize the terror of compound interest, it’s already too late to turn back!”

No.

This guy is a demon.

“I won’t be as harsh as that gentleman. Still, I’m someone who keeps what I need to keep. Jang-ju uncle, what’s the government-recommended interest rate?”

“It’s twenty percent annually.”

“Did you hear that?”

“…Twenty percent?”

Twenty percent per year…

Since the principal is twenty gold nyang, twenty percent per year means four gold nyang accumulates each year.

“Hahaha.”

Jin So-ah laughed heartily and then collapsed right there.

“I don’t care! Go ahead and cut my belly open, you bastards!”

Jin So-ah’s cry of anguish echoed throughout the Eunha Battle Hall.

“Sign it.”

“…”

Jin So-ah looked at the document placed before him.

‘So this is a slave contract.’

It was a pledge stating that in exchange for being allowed to use the Sacred Hand Hall name, instead of reducing interest, he could not work anywhere other than Sacred Hand Hall until he paid back all twenty gold nyang.

“Wei young master.”

“Yeah?”

“Must we really be so calculating between us?”

“It’s precisely because we’re close that I’m offering such exceptional conditions.”

Exceptional?

I’m about to be destroyed, what’s exceptional about it?

“So-ah.”

“Yes.”

“There are no brothers or sisters when it comes to money.”

“…”

“Money is what makes parents and children turn on each other. If you search the entire world, I’d be the only one who would tell you to pay back this much money without interest, whenever you can manage it.”

That doesn’t seem wrong, but why do I feel like I’m being deceived?

“Give up your foolish hopes and sign it.”

“…If I work at Sacred Hand Hall, what will my salary be?”

“Well, that…”

Wei Yan-ho grinned.

“Exceptionally. I’ll give you one gold nyang per year.”

“Are there salary increases?”

“Depending on how you perform.”

There won’t be any.

Since that guy would never come to watch him work, he could assume there would be no increases.

So this is…

‘A twenty-year slave contract.’

Jin So-ah turned his head to look out the window.

The sky was so clear that moisture kept gathering around his eyes. Who could have imagined that at age fifteen, he would be writing a twenty-year slave contract?

“Think of it positively. This is your chance to spread the Sacred Hand Hall name throughout the Central Plains again.”

“It feels like I’m trading my life for Sacred Hand Hall.”

“It’s good for you, good for me, good for everyone.”

Jin So-ah felt an impulse to grab Wei Yan-ho’s grinning mouth and tear it apart. But Wei Yan-ho was a master, and he was a powerless physician, so what could he do?

“Won’t you sign?”

“I’ll sign.”

Jin So-ah let out a groan and stamped his seal on the document.

“Hehehe.”

Seeing this, Wei Yan-ho reached out and retrieved the document.

“However!”

“Yeah?”

Jin So-ah’s eyes blazed with fire.

“Since we’ve gone this far, you’ll properly invest in Sacred Hand Hall, right! What about the money shortage right now! If you don’t set up a proper medical practice for me, I’ll go on strike too.”

“Why would money be short?”

“Didn’t you say the money you have wouldn’t be enough!”

“It’s not insufficient though?”

“You said sixty nyang wouldn’t even come close!”

“Who said the money I have is sixty nyang?”

“…What?”

Jin So-ah tilted his head.

No matter how he thought about it, his calculation was correct.

“Did you have more original wealth?”

“Do I look like someone who carries money around?”

Probably not.

And that guy didn’t look like someone who could earn money either. He was the type who would lie down and sleep even if offered one gold nyang per day, not per year, because it was bothersome.

How could someone who doesn’t work earn money?

“Then do you have hidden wealth?”

“There’s no way such a thing exists.”

“Then where on earth did the money come from?”

Wei Yan-ho clicked his tongue.

“When I came out of the gambling house, where did I go?”

“What?”

Coming out of the gambling house? Are you talking about the Geumhwa Hall?

After coming out of Geumhwa Hall…

“You went to the Black Paper Tavern.”

“That’s it.”

“Ah…”

So that’s why that guy went through the trouble of going all the way to Black Paper Tavern and cleaned them out completely – he had a purpose!

Jin So-ah’s eyes trembled as if an earthquake had struck.

Black Paper Tavern was part of the underworld.

Wasn’t the underworld a place that made money through usury and collecting booth fees? No matter how much people said the underworld lacked substance compared to its outward appearance, there was no way the Black Paper Tavern, considered the top underworld faction in Muhan territory, would be without money.

It was a place that gathered money through all sorts of illegal activities.

“They had saved up quite tenaciously, hadn’t they?”

“You swallowed all of that?”

“Yeah. Since I cleaned them out.”

Jin So-ah shouted in outrage.

“That was money those bastards earned by sucking the lifeblood of innocent people – how can you just swallow it, Wei young master!”

“Then what?”

“You should distribute it!”

“That’s the right thing to say, but…”

Wei Yan-ho clicked his tongue.

“Those people also earned that money through their own money games, so isn’t it legitimate?”

“What about the booth fees?”

“Even the government doesn’t say anything about it, so it’s not for me to say that collecting booth fees is illegitimate. That’s for them to figure out themselves.”

Though Jin So-ah wanted to protest, Wei Yan-ho continued without pause.

“Besides, the original owners told me to take it, so what’s the problem?”

“Did you threaten them?”

“Threaten them? I just brought those guys and asked them what they planned to do about this.”

“…With the safe opened, weren’t those people all crawling around?”

“There wasn’t anyone standing.”

That’s intimidation!

What else would intimidation be! Do you have to hold a sword for it to be intimidating?

Jin So-ah looked at Wei Yan-ho before him with fresh eyes. The more he looked, the more new aspects appeared, like peeling an onion.

At first, he thought he was just the world’s laziest person, but surprisingly he was a master, and he was good at gambling too…

“Evil.”

“That’s slander.”

Wei Yan-ho waved his finger, denying Jin So-ah’s words.

“No one was harmed. I burned all the usury loan certificates in there. People shouldn’t suffer from such things.”

“You speak the truth.”

“Hey, what about me! Shouldn’t you burn my loan certificate first?”

“Eh, that’s why I exchanged yours for a normal one. With the government-recommended interest rate.”

“Ugh.”

Leaving Jin So-ah, who had stretched out and buried his face in the table, Wei Yan-ho and Ha Dae-bung began to converse.

“So how much do you need?”

“I believe more than one hundred nyang will be necessary.”

“Hmm…”

Wei Yan-ho nodded and said.

“I’ll give you one nyang as a service fee, so please handle all related matters.”

“How could I refuse?”

Watching the two who worked in perfect harmony, Jin So-ah sighed.

“Then, I’ll head home for now.”

“Huh? Already? We have a lot more to discuss.”

“…The shock was too great.”

“Tsk tsk, young people have such small capacity.”

This from Wei Yan-ho, who constantly called others young despite not being that much older himself.

Jin So-ah’s resentment rose, but thinking that continuing to converse with Wei Yan-ho wouldn’t be particularly meaningful, he silently got up from his seat. He waved his hand in a half-hearted greeting and walked outside with dragging steps.

“Tsk tsk, kids these days are so weak.”

When Wei Yan-ho clicked his tongue, Ha Dae-bung, who had been quietly keeping his mouth shut, casually asked.

“Inspector sir.”

“Hey, don’t call me that. I told you I’m not an inspector.”

“Then Young Master Wei.”

“That’s a bit ticklish too.”

Ha Dae-bung asked in a serious tone.

“Why did you do that?”

“What? What do you mean?”

“There’s no contract more foolish than this. Why are you showing such favor to young master Jin?”

“Heh?”

Wei Yan-ho smiled awkwardly.

Jin So-ah, who had collapsed outside with his legs giving out, was slightly startled by the sound coming from inside and pressed his ear close to the door.

‘What on earth is this about?’

Favor?

What favor had Wei Yan-ho shown him? All he had received was a document that was no different from a slave contract.

Jin So-ah listened intently to the voices coming from inside.