The Granddaughter of Manhyang Escort Bureau Hides Her Magic - Chapter 81

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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 81

While So Ilbi was making poison, news of Shin Ah’s success flew to the Escort Agency without missing a single day.

“Have you heard? The vegetables delivered from the Chang’an Branch don’t wilt.”

“Is that all you heard? I heard that even if you leave meat outside, it doesn’t rot for five days.”

“What kind of miraculous method could she possibly be using…?”

“That’s not the only amazing thing. All the small deliveries are completely finished by dawn, right? How is that even possible?”

“Well, she must have her methods. More than that, I’m envious.”

“Of what?”

“The Jaengjeasu at the Chang’an Branch. Since their work finishes early, they go home and rest in the afternoon. And that’s not all? I heard they receive generous compensation too.”

“Huh? What are you talking about? New Jaengjeasu wages are obvious. How could they receive generous compensation?”

“They contracted a certain portion of the escort fees as success bonuses. The four of them split it equally. The Jaengjeasu receive as much as the Escort Warriors do.”

Gasps could be heard from here and there. The eyes of those who had been quietly conversing gleamed with jealousy and greed.

And they all regretted it.

They should have applied right away when the Chang’an Branch was recruiting Jaengjeasu!

One Jaengjeasu who had been listening quietly asked casually.

“Don’t… don’t they need more Jaengjeasu at the Chang’an Branch?”

Just then, the bushes a few zhang away rustled.

A figure suddenly appeared from behind the bushes, but the Jaengjeasu were too absorbed in their conversation to notice.

‘No, we’re not hiring for the time being.’

The one who answered silently with her chin raised triumphantly was Danmi.

After that, the Jaengjeasu continued chattering noisily about wanting to transfer to Biwongak and how the Chang’an Branch Head would accomplish great things soon.

Before anyone knew it, Shin Ah’s title at Manhyang Express had progressed from Young Miss and So Escort Warrior to Chang’an Branch Head.

Having heard plenty of pleasant words, Danmi hurried back to Biwongak.

“Young Miss, Young Miss!”

Shin Ah, who had gotten up early in the morning to do Next-Day Express deliveries or something, was deep in sleep.

She asked to be woken up around this time, but she’s still in dreamland.

The sight of her sleeping sprawled out with her blanket all kicked off was truly pitiful.

While delivering food ingredients early in the morning was an unwritten rule, Shin Ah left far too early.

‘It’s because there aren’t enough people, so she has to move two or three times.’

It wasn’t difficult at all thanks to teleport, but Danmi, who didn’t know this fact, misunderstood on her own.

She thought Shin Ah was suffering alone due to the shortage of Jaengjeasu.

But there were others who were actually suffering.

Namely Juhwa, Mugyeol, and Chilseon.

While Shin Ah handled deliveries to small shops, they took charge of supplying large inns and restaurants.

Juhwa carried one container on her head, Chilseon held two containers in both hands, and Mugyeol was responsible for four containers.

The three Jaengjeasu naturally accepted carrying cargo, but Shin Ah seemed to be secretly concerned about it.

“Mmm, just… suffer a little more… I’ll buy a horse cart…”

She even talked in her sleep about it.

“Really, what are we going to do with our kind Young Miss.”

Danmi misunderstood again.

Shin Ah buying a horse cart wasn’t just for the Jaengjeasu.

‘I’m going to handle the Seomun Inn deliveries too.’

Moving just five or six containers wouldn’t even come close.

Because Shin Ah’s dream was to get her hands on Manhyang Express!

“Horse cart, horse cart…”

In her dream, Shin Ah was racing through Chang’an on a horse cart piled high with cargo like a mountain.

“Oh my? She’s smiling.”

Danmi smiled along with Shin Ah.

She needed to wake Shin Ah up, but she seemed to be having a good dream and didn’t want to disturb her.

But if she delayed any longer, there would be scolding later.

“Young Miss, you need to wake up.”

“Ugh…”

“Yes, if you want to buy a horse cart, you need to earn money.”

Shin Ah’s eyes snapped open.

What woke her up – was it the horse cart or the money?

Without even wiping the drool from her lips, she said.

“Paper, brush, and ink!”

“You’re going to draw again?”

Shin Ah was currently absorbed in studying drawing.

‘She said she wanted to become an Escort Warrior, but now does she want to become a painter too?’

Danmi swallowed a sigh as she prepared the paper, brush, and ink.

She could picture the drawing with circles, triangles, and squares randomly overlapped with worms drawn in between.

In her view, Shin Ah had no talent for drawing.

* * *

“Yawn.”

Before dawn had even broken, Shin Ah came out of her bedroom with shoes on her small feet.

Delivery was easy, but getting up early in the morning was something she could never get used to.

Shin Ah rubbed her eyes vigorously as she opened the bedroom door.

“Ugh.”

The bitter smell of herbal medicine stung her nose.

“Drink this before you go.”

So Cheonrim was waiting for Shin Ah with a medicine bowl in one hand and sweets in the other.

“I don’t need to drink it. I’m healthy now.”

“You must not be overconfident about your health.”

So Cheonrim spoke firmly.

Shin Ah didn’t know exactly about her body’s condition.

Doctor Ju, who had examined Shin Ah’s pulse when she woke up from her long sleep in the past, had said:

‘The Young Miss of Biwongak’s dantian is malformed.’

Unless she was going to become a martial artist, having a malformed dantian wasn’t a big problem. But Shin Ah was an Escort Warrior.

For an Escort Warrior, who was fundamentally a warrior, a malformed dantian was fatal.

It was even more so because no one knew what kind of damage learning martial arts with that defect might inflict on her body.

In fact, hadn’t she collapsed suddenly while doing fine?

When he recalled how his heart had sunk at that moment…

So Cheonrim said nothing more and brought the medicine to Shin Ah’s lips.

While eating well and resting well would be better than medicine, since that wasn’t possible, she had to at least take medicine.

This was all he could do as a father.

Shin Ah, who had been pouting her lips, accepted and drank the medicine. She also ate the sweets So Cheonrim put in her mouth.

Only then did the deep wrinkles in So Cheonrim’s brow fade.

Shin Ah chewed the sweets while staring intently at So Cheonrim.

Normally, she would have rushed out saying she was in a hurry before he could even put the sweets in her mouth.

“Do you have something to say?”

Shin Ah’s cheeks bulged alternately left and right. She seemed to be rolling the sweets around in her mouth.

“If you have something you want to say, say it.”

“Um… you don’t have to get up early because of me. I heard Father has a lot of work to do too.”

Cheonrim was incredibly busy with Bogukgak affairs and secretly ongoing investigations into the disappearance case, without a moment to spare.

The reason Shin Ah stopped worrying about the unpleasant incident during the Heir Selection Test and the possible Demon Cult members who might have infiltrated Manhyang Express was because she trusted Cheonrim, who worked day and night.

‘Father’s bedroom has candles burning past midnight every day.’

Cheonrim swallowed a groan inwardly.

How incompetent must he have seemed for his ten-year-old daughter, who goes to work from dawn, to worry so much about him.

“I’m fine. So just think about yourself. I hear you’re busy studying drawing these days. Whether it’s drawing or work, I wish you’d focus on just one thing at a time.”

“Th-that, Rim? Ah…”

Shin Ah smiled awkwardly. What Shin Ah was drawing wasn’t actually drawings.

‘Magic Scrolls.’

Magic Scrolls.

They were a type of talisman in this world’s terms, where magic circles were drawn on paper to cast single-use magic.

Shin Ah attached scrolls with cold preservation magic circles drawn on them to the package boxes.

That was the secret behind how the packages Shin Ah delivered stayed fresh.

Originally, scrolls should be drawn on specially treated paper, but such materials weren’t available in this world. So when she drew them on ordinary paper, the magic’s effect was short-lived.

Thanks to this, Shin Ah had to constantly draw magic circles, which somehow became the subject of rumors.

Shin Ah thought she should research ways to make the scroll effects last longer before Cheonrim worried more, and answered cheerfully.

“Yes, I’ll do that from now on. But Father.”

“Yes, Shin Ah.”

“That… you’re not angry anymore, right?”

Cheonrim flinched.

When Shin Ah said she would make a contract with Geumwa Trading Company and establish a temporary Chang’an Branch, Cheonrim had strongly opposed it.

It had only been a few days since she returned from being missing, and the child wasn’t even fully recovered yet, talking about work!

Anyone would have had to oppose it in that situation.

However, as no parent can win against their child, Cheonrim simply trusted Shin Ah’s promise not to overdo it and let her do as she wished.

Instead, he made her promise firmly.

If anything felt wrong with her body, even slightly, she must tell him. And she agreed to take her medicine without fail.

‘Did I get angry then?’

He had never once raised his voice, yet the child seemed to be reading his mood.

‘What a pathetic father.’

When Shin Ah was sleeping for so long, he thought if she would just wake up, he’d give her the entire world. If she would just get healthy, he thought he could do anything for her.

Yet he kept opposing the child’s opinions and making her feel like she had to read his mood.

‘Terrible.’

He was unqualified as a father.

If Shin Ah’s mother saw him now, she would surely click her tongue and tease him as a ‘fool.’

‘Is there no place that teaches how to be a father?’

Raising Shin Ah and Cheondo, he felt anew that it was like facing a wall at certain periods.

“I’m sorry.”

“Huh? Why are you apologizing, Father? I’m the one who doesn’t listen. I make you very upset, don’t I?”

It was upsetting, but not in the way Shin Ah thought.

“No. I’m so proud of our daughter I could die. I want to brag about you to everyone, but I’m scared someone might steal you away. You’re doing well, Shin Ah.”

At Cheonrim’s sudden praise, Shin Ah smiled brightly.

Seeing him smile made Shin Ah happy too.

Wasn’t Cheonrim one of the biggest reasons Shin Ah wanted to succeed?

What would be the point if Cheonrim got upset in the process of pursuing success?

The sweets tasted especially sweet today.

Shin Ah snuggled deep into Cheonrim’s embrace.

“Father is such a doting parent.”

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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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