The Granddaughter of Manhyang Escort Bureau Hides Her Magic - Chapter 70

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Team. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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Chapter 70

“Over here! Juhwa! Uncle Chilseon! It’s been so long.”

“I knew you’d be alive!”

Juhwa tightly embraced Shin Ah as she rose from her seat. So heartfelt was their reunion that anyone watching would think they were sisters reuniting after years apart.

Watching the passionate reunion scene between Juhwa and Shin Ah, Mugyeol’s cheekbones slowly lowered. The warmth that had been circulating in his eyes also became emotionless.

“Ugh, Juhwa. I get it, so let go of me.”

Shin Ah peeled Juhwa away. While Juhwa wiped her tear and snot-covered face with her sleeve, Shin Ah looked at Chilseon.

“Uncle, congratulations.”

“Thank you. More importantly, I’m glad to see you look healthy. Everyone was very worried, so congratulations on returning safely.”

“Yes, please sit down first. You all haven’t eaten yet, right?”

Shin Ah ordered additional food. Once again, Jeomso-i moved very quickly.

After Juhwa and Chilseon caught their breath, Shin Ah spoke up.

“How have you been getting along?”

“I volunteered for the search teams. Though I wasn’t helpful at all.”

Chilseon smiled bitterly.

This was the first time Shin Ah was hearing this story.

She knew the escort agency had organized search teams to find her, but to think they had hired someone who wasn’t even affiliated with the escort agency yet, not even a porter or anything.

As Shin Ah was blinking in surprise, Juhwa spoke.

“Well… when we heard the news that you had disappeared, we went to find the Biwongak Master.”

Juhwa and Chilseon had begged to please let them be used in the work of finding Shin Ah and Mugyeol.

Even without pay, they said they would help.

“What, why did you go that far?”

“We owed you a debt of gratitude.”

Juhwa and Chilseon had been able to return safely after meeting Escort Warrior An Sanho, whom Shin Ah had told them about.

Escort An was truly experienced and safely protected them from threats of weather, wild beasts, and poison. Not only that, he also taught them many things that porters needed to learn.

“Hey, that’s something to be grateful to Escort An for.”

“If it weren’t for you, young miss, we never would have met him. Anyway, we begged and pleaded until we were allowed into the search teams.”

The two who entered as nameless search team members had their wages separately provided by the Biwongak Master, not the escort agency.

“Considering how incompetent we were, it would be right not to accept payment, but the Biwongak Master was so insistent that we ended up accepting it.”

“Uncle! No work without pay, no pay without work. Never think like that again.”

Shin Ah immediately cut off Chilseon’s guilt and refreshed the atmosphere.

“Now, since we’re talking about money, let me make a proposal to all of you.”

Juhwa, Chilseon, and Mugyeol looked at Shin Ah with bright eyes.

“Would you like to work with me?”

“Work?”

“Yeah, Juhwa. I became an apprentice escort warrior. So I’m going to establish a Manhyang Express branch office in Chang’an, and I need porters. I’d like you, Mugyeol, and Uncle Chilseon to help me. For now it’s a temporary branch office, but I’ll work hard to definitely get it promoted to an official branch office.”

“I’ll do it!”

Juhwa accepted without thinking twice.

No one was even surprised by the fact that Shin Ah had become an apprentice escort warrior.

They had come to see Shin Ah as someone who made the impossible possible.

So becoming an apprentice escort warrior was certainly something to congratulate, but not something to make a big fuss about.

“Thank you. What about you, Uncle Chilseon?”

Chilseon urgently needed money for his daughter’s medicine.

Since he would become a porter for Manhyang Express, he would receive monthly wages. So that was one less worry, but he was also greedy for the additional compensation received when succeeding in large escort missions.

However, that was only possible if there was an escort warrior who would specially employ him.

To help Chilseon’s choice, Shin Ah added an explanation.

“I’ll give you performance bonuses every time. I won’t even consider things like escort mission scale or distance. I’ll divide the success compensation I receive equally.”

“Pardon?”

Typically, porters could receive performance bonuses upon successful escort missions in addition to receiving wages from the escort agency.

They didn’t give everything, and it varied according to the scale of the escort mission. The amount was also up to the escort leader of that mission to decide. There were many cases where they didn’t give anything at all.

Therefore, Shin Ah’s proposal was innovation beyond being groundbreaking.

If it was as Shin Ah said, they could earn substantial side income without going on large escort missions.

However, this was under the premise that there were clients who would entrust packages to Shin Ah.

“But young miss, you can’t go on escort missions, can you? I understand that people from your family clan can only go out to the Central Plains when they turn fifteen? Well, setting that aside, this might be presumptuous to say, but… may I?”

Juhwa knew a lot of things.

And what was her intention in laying the groundwork by saying it was presumptuous and then asking if she could say it?

At Juhwa’s unchanged attitude, Shin Ah chuckled and nodded.

“Who would entrust work to you, young miss? We know your abilities well, but other people don’t.”

Juhwa made a very sharp point.

“That’s right. You’re absolutely correct. Who would entrust things to me? That’s why I’m going to find clients directly.”

“Pardon?”

Juhwa opened her mouth in a strange shape.

“Don’t worry about finding clients. Juhwa will do well at it.”

Shin Ah said while looking back at Chilseon. Juhwa’s shoulders jerked up.

“M-me?”

“Yeah, you.”

“I… don’t know anyone. Moreover, people who would entrust packages…”

“Do we necessarily need to go on distant escort missions? It’s perfectly possible within Chang’an too. And there are always people anxious about not receiving their goods on time. Just look here.”

Shin Ah pointed toward the kitchen with her chopsticks.

In a corner not easily visible to customers, a pot-bellied cook was pressing Jeomso-i.

“When exactly is the bok choy coming! Huh? They’re growing the bok choy to bring it? You said it would come today!”

“Ah… Uncle Yu definitely said he would bring it.”

“You’re telling me to just wait believing those words? When orders are piled up like mountains? If we can’t serve food and lose business, are you going to make up for all of it? Why don’t you just tell them to ruin the inn completely?”

Jeomso-i was in trouble because of ingredients that didn’t arrive on time.

Shin Ah tapped the table with her chopsticks, tap, tap.

“See?”

Unlike Chilseon and Mugyeol, who still had question marks on their faces, Juhwa’s eyes lit up.

“I understand. You want to do deliveries to inns, taverns, and restaurants within Chang’an, right? But… trading companies are already doing all of that.”

As one of the three major escort agencies of the Central Plains, Manhyang Express didn’t take on trivial work like ingredient deliveries within Chang’an.

Since escort warriors were skilled personnel, it was natural to entrust small requests that couldn’t charge high escort fees to errand runners living near the destination.

So distribution of goods within Chang’an was being handled by trading companies themselves.

“I know, I know. That’s why I need you. We don’t necessarily need to deal with such huge inns either. If we unnecessarily interfere with trading company business, it’ll only cause trouble.”

“You know well.”

Juhwa nodded.

“What exactly do you want to do?”

Even though trading companies dominated deliveries within Chang’an, there were definitely gaps.

In reality, logistics supply within Seomsu wasn’t smooth, and problems arose as some trading companies monopolized distribution.

Rising distribution costs were basic, and since buying in bulk was profitable, small restaurants routinely over-ordered ingredients and ended up throwing them away.

“Do you think goods circulate well? Even Seomun Inn shows they don’t. I have no intention of fighting with trading companies, but if we fill the gaps they miss, they can’t exactly complain, can they?”

“So what you’re saying is to travel on escort missions within Seomsu, is that it?”

“Exactly that.”

“If that’s the case, I can look into finding clients.”

Juhwa was a child born and raised in Chang’an. From a young age, she had grown up going from house to house doing odd jobs and running errands. Among them were restaurants too.

“I can’t just ask them to entrust things to us out of nowhere. When you think about it, it’s changing business partners, so the benefits they can gain from working with us need to be clear.”

She really is so clever.

Shin Ah nodded vigorously.

“Moreover, transporting ingredients doesn’t require escorts either.”

“Right. You can’t hire sword-wielding escort warriors just to transport some bok choy. But we have other advantages besides that.”

“What is it?”

“We’re fast.”

At most, it would be deliveries using horse carts.

How fast could that possibly be?

The anticipation in Juhwa’s eyes gradually turned to disappointment.

“Do you have a thousand-li horse or something?”

“Instead of a thousand-li horse, we have Mugyeol and me.”

Mugyeol’s lightness skill had improved greatly. Also, thanks to the internal energy gained from the spirit medicines Vermillion Bird had given him, he could easily carry heavy objects.

Though his small frame meant he couldn’t transport much at once, moving quickly multiple times was enough to compensate.

‘And I can use short-range teleport.’

If she set several fixed locations and created warp maps, ten times a day would be easy.

‘With well-made warp maps, it won’t even take 10 minutes to go from one end of Chang’an to the other.’

Warp maps didn’t refer to physical maps. It meant marking precise coordinates in Shin Ah’s mind.

Hiding her teleport use from Juhwa and Chilseon would be easy with Mugyeol, who knew about Shin Ah’s magic.

“Next-day express delivery.”

“Pardon?”

“That’s what our escort missions will be called from now on.”

“Next-day express delivery… I don’t really understand, but I’ll do it.”

Chilseon, whom she thought would be the hardest to convince, was the first to accept the proposal.

“As expected of Uncle Chilseon, you’re amazing. So loyal.”

Mugyeol suddenly jumped up. Everyone looked up at him in surprise.

Finding himself the center of attention, Mugyeol gulped and said.

“…What should we start with, Miss?”

Following Chilseon, then Mugyeol, now only Juhwa remained.

Shin Ah looked at Juhwa.

What will you do?

“I’ll… do it too!”

“Great!”

The Manhyang Express Temporary Chang’an Branch was formed.

A 10-year-old escort warrior, a branch office with the “temporary” label, and within Chang’an at that—all of this was unprecedented.

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Team. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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