Early morning.
In the cold winter air that sharply brushed their cheeks, there were men passing by on the street.
Dressed in black, they all had a dignified build and sharp eyes, exuding an ominous aura that would make anyone hunch their shoulders and lower their gaze.
But that wasn’t all. Even though they were clearly walking, they seemed to disperse at a speed that made it seem like they were running.
And among them, the man at the forefront spotted an old man who happened to be standing in front of his house and stopped in front of him.
“Oh, no?!”
The old man’s eyes widened as he saw the man. He opened his mouth as if he couldn’t believe what he was seeing.
“No, how can this be so fast…!”
The man’s hand moved quickly, and what was clenched in his hand was pushed forward in front of the old man. The old man quickly turned around and shouted urgently.
“Hey, hey! Come out quickly with the seal and receipt! The deliveryman has arrived!”
“What? Already?”
The old man couldn’t believe that the item he had ordered just a few days ago had arrived, but he had no choice but to believe it when he saw the ‘Luck and Fortune’ embroidered in neat black letters and the actual goods in front of him.
“Five brushes and three roots of angelica dahurica, right? Make sure to check before stamping the seal. Are the items and quantities correct? Is the condition good?”
“Y-yes… Thank you.”
After carefully checking his granddaughter’s seal, brush, and herbs, the old man handed over the receipt and stamped the seal.
The man who checked if it was stamped properly nodded his head satisfactorily and said.
“I have confirmed the receipt. The Luck and Fortune delivery service adheres to the principles of speed, accuracy, and kindness, so please use us often in the future.”
And the sight of the deliveryman who disappeared like the wind while the old man was still dazed was no longer a rare sight among the people living in this business.
Deliverymen of the Luck and Fortune delivery service, commonly known as the deliveryman of Luck (as they were expected to be more than just a deliveryman, but rather a fortune-teller), were gradually spreading their roots starting from Honam.
Most people were amazed by this new business model that suddenly appeared and enjoyed its convenience, but of course, not everyone could be pleased with it.
“This stupid bastard! Don’t you know where those Luck and Fortune guys are connected to yet?!”
For example, the middle-aged man from the Yongun delivery service in Honam who threw a brush bucket and his subordinate who was flipping his anger upside down were like that.
“I-I’m sorry. Those guys are so tightly connected… As our deliverymen, we can’t even catch up with them…”
“Who told you to stop them on the street and ask them directly? They’re our men too. Whether they drink or sleep with women or gamble, they’ll do it anyway! If you just give them some money and coax them a little, they’ll say something. It doesn’t make sense that they’ve been trembling all this time without saying anything!”
The anger of Yongun’s delivery service owner, middle-aged Dan Jae-moon, was intense.
At first, he thought that the small-scale organization that he had never heard of before would engage in an unreasonable business and self-destruct.
If you could sit quietly in a house in the north and buy sugar from Gangnam, wouldn’t anyone have tried it before if it were possible?
Even the Gupa, who were watching his back as a disciple of a shaman, thought it was impossible. No, even if all the masters above the first-class came forward, it might be possible, but if he tried to ask those arrogant people to do that, Dan Jae-moon’s neck might be in danger.
“Darn it, it’s already so difficult to collect money these days…”
He was already struggling under the strict scrutiny of the headquarters, which was demanding payment, and if he ruined his good business, he didn’t know what kind of disaster would strike.
However, the subordinates who were receiving Dan Jae-moon’s anger also had something to say.
Hadn’t they worked under Dan Jae-moon for a few years and understood his reasoning? The problem was that even if they wandered around such places, they had never seen the deliverymen of Luck, who were supposed to be fortune-tellers, act arrogantly.
“Since the time when the owner gave orders, we’ve put some people in a few alleys. But…”
“But?”
“No one has seen them. They didn’t even recognize them even though they changed their clothes and we even showed them their faces. It’s probably not that our guys didn’t see them, but…”
“Are those guys really not coming?”
As his subordinate nodded as if to say so, Dan Jae-moon’s anger grew hotter.
He wanted those who had suddenly caused a sharp drop in the sales of his delivery service, whether they were the deliverymen of Luck or whoever, and those who were babbling in front of him as if they had done enough work, to disappear.
And just before that quarter burst out of his throat, his sensitive subordinate quickly spoke up.
“O-of course, that doesn’t mean we’re just sitting around! We’re doing something about it!”
Seeing Dan Jae-moon’s twisted eye corner relax, his subordinate spoke slowly and carefully, taking deep breaths.
“As you know, we don’t have enough manpower to pursue the same business right now, do we?”
“That’s right.”
“We, who have the Gupa behind us, are in the same situation. Even if those guys have the backing of the most powerful forces, it won’t be easy to find enough manpower. Then where else could such a faction exist?”
Dan Jae-moon was lost in thought for a moment before frowning.
“Hey, they can’t be affiliated with the Magyo, can they? Does that even make sense?”
“But realistically, there’s nowhere else where this could be possible except for the Magyo.”
“This is so frustrating…”
Dan Jae-moon shook his head.
If you simply judged by the size of their influence, regardless of whether or not they were members of the Jeongsapa, the Magyo was one of the top factions. If they were a master of that Magyo, their pride would be higher than that of the masters of the Gupa Ilbang, and certainly not lower.
It had been a long time since the conclusion was reached that those skilled fortune-tellers were clearly gathering unknown Nangin or small Mu-gwan factions, but why were they suddenly saying something so absurd?
But Dan Jae-moon’s ears perked up at the words of his subordinate that followed.
“Even if they’re really not part of the Magyo, what difference does it make? The important thing is that if the world thinks they’re part of the Magyo, then that’s all that matters, isn’t it?”
Come to think of it, he had forgotten.
Even if the other party wasn’t part of the Magyo, there was a way to make them appear to be and make the footsteps of their customers stop.
It had been a long time since they stopped expanding and focused on their internal affairs, so there hadn’t been any such incidents recently, but wasn’t it a method that they used when there was a competing faction that was bothering them during their expansion?
“And not only spreading rumors that they’re part of the Magyo, but we need to investigate. If those guys are really not part of the Magyo, they’ll cooperate with the investigation.”
“If they refuse to cooperate, that’s fine, and even if some of the documents we have can’t be used because they cooperated with the investigation, it’s not our responsibility, is it?”
If they didn’t cooperate, they could call the masters of the Gupa to condemn the Un-ga faction, and if they did cooperate, they could make it impossible to use the information they had, which would paralyze their business and take a considerable amount of time to normalize.
If the damage was significant, they might not be able to recover from it and could collapse.
“That’s right. Just one word from you and you understand all these circumstances. You truly are a wise man, Dan-ju.”
“This guy! What’s there to praise me for? Didn’t you think of everything yourself?”
In the minds of the two men who burst out laughing as if their lies had been exposed, there was certainly no calculation of what they would do if the other party was truly part of the Magyo.
Hoo-woooong
A giant sword was moving smoothly and powerfully, cutting through the air.
It was like a predator that crushed everything in all directions, leaving no place to escape, but there was no target in front of the sword, only a lot of dust rising.
“Haah…”
Hwangbo Hyosun looked at the chaotic battlefield through the swirling dust and felt the anxiety that had been momentarily forgotten resurface as she swung her sword.
It had been about four days since she first met with the leader of the Magyo and the cooperation between the Magyo and the Gaebang seemed to be going smoothly.
She didn’t know anything about the situation in Sanggye, so it was just a guess, but if there was active exchange of opinions and no coercion could be found, then things were going well.
So there was nothing that was troubling her at the moment. No, there shouldn’t have been.
“But why is this happening…”
“I am disappointed.”
Once again, the cold voice echoed in her head and Hwangbo Hyosun felt her shoulders slump.
A few days ago, after interrogating Kang Yoon, she only received cold contempt. The memory of that moment was still haunting her, even though she was swinging her sword, she couldn’t help but recall it.
“It’s better this way. It’s better…”
She was already married and had children. She repeatedly told herself that she didn’t need the mixed feelings of a young foreign man’s affection, it was better not to receive it at all.
But it seemed that she was more accustomed to the kindness of men than she thought. Even if the form was not correct, when he suddenly stopped showing his one-sided kindness and didn’t even look at her, it was unbearable and her heart felt cold.
That’s not all, the words Kang Yoon pointed out hurt her to the bone. While she was worried that the Magyo would threaten the Jeongsapa with money, she had never thought that someone in the Saapa would be worried about the opposite.
It was because she was dominated by the thought that the Jeongsapa would never do such a thing, which was close to arrogance. And now that she thought that such thoughts were read by someone in the Saapa, Hwangbo Hyosun felt ashamed.
“Hwangbo Siju, are you here?”
After repeatedly stepping into the swamp of contemplation that disturbed her mind, Hwangbo Hyosun belatedly realized that someone was standing at the entrance of the battlefield and turned her head.
“What’s going on with the Monga incident?”
Externally, whatever the situation was, she didn’t know anything about it, so there were only two people here who had nothing to do.
There might have been many things for the two of them to talk about, but it was difficult to make contact with Monga, who always hid whenever there was a chance.
Hwangbo Hyosun, who unconsciously sensed that Monga’s attitude had changed recently, which used to be quite friendly, felt awkward when she came to her.
“We came to the training ground because there’s nothing else to do, and Hwangbo Siju is here too. But you don’t look so good, are you okay?”
Monga replied nonchalantly, and Hwangbo Hyosun quickly wiped her cheek, which didn’t look good enough to show.
“Oh, it’s nothing to worry about. It’s just that while I’m here, I mean… um…”
“Magyo leaders, show yourselves!!”
Hwangbo Hyosun’s excuse, which was trying to avoid revealing her chest pain, was drowned out by the thunderous screams coming from outside.
Hwangbo Hyosun was relieved that she could be silent for a moment because of the screams, but belatedly recognized the content of the screams and looked at Monga with wide eyes.
Of course, Monga was also looking at her with a similar expression.
