The Reincarnated Hunter Sweeps Up All Fortunes - Chapter 10

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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Episode 10
10
Im Gang was furious to a degree he’d never experienced before.
His home getting ransacked?
Okay.
Not often, but it happened frequently enough that he could accept it.
But the mockery—that he couldn’t stand.
The thief who’d broken into his house had left exactly five coins on his bed.
This was an insult, a deliberate provocation.
It was the same as Kim Jeong Eun’s taunting that hadn’t stopped even after the Gate opened.
Of course.
He hadn’t lost everything.
His stash of Martial Secret Manuals and money was kept in a different location.
Right.
Only his coins were stolen.
More precisely, his Silver Coins hadn’t been taken.
But given his circumstances, Silver Coins weren’t easy to use either.
‘If word gets out that I’m converting them, I’ll get robbed again, discipline breaks down, families crumble, nations fall…….’
It all came down to weakness.
If he’d been strong, his house wouldn’t have been ransacked like this. That’s why he’d planned to keep quiet for a few days and then train in Martial Arts for a few months.
And now look—he’d walked straight into this.
“Why does your expression look so troubled?”
“I…….”
He’d almost said something he’d regret, but caught himself.
The one asking was the idol of the Ronin Circle.
His features were sharp yet refined, with a gentle quality that stood out.
The moment he stepped into the Geogan-so, the few female Ronins present had trailed in after him like obsessed fans.
“Did something happen?”
“Kyaaaa!”
“I want to fall asleep buried in that smile!”
Im Gang wondered idly how one could be “buried” in a smile rather than in, say, an embrace.
“It’s nothing—I mean, don’t worry about it. Just go.”
“This rude bastard dares tell our precious one to leave?”
“Worry? Don’t worry? Your speech pattern’s grating.”
“Watch yourself at night.”
“Heheheh…… hehehehe…… Yeah, that creep does look like a lizard, but his body’s pretty good. If he and our precious one were in the same bed…… Mmm, yes…….”
Why did women even exist?
The world seemed to tilt before his eyes.
“Look…… I’m just in a foul mood because of something that happened yesterday.”
“Yesterday?”
“……I’ll explain later. Please, just go.”
The Ronin Circle’s idol blinked, then nodded in understanding.
The female Ronins glared at him with murderous intensity, clearly displeased even with that.
So it was true—be beautiful and you’re innocent; be ugly and you’re guilty.
It felt profoundly unfair.
Before his reincarnation, before becoming an orphan at ten, his parents had worried, saying ‘Our son is too handsome, what will we do?’ So perhaps there was some cosmic balance at work.
‘Yet I’ve never heard anyone call me ugly anywhere I’ve gone.’
He was muttering this to himself when a Geogan-so staff member appeared.
“……There are fewer Ronins than usual.”
The staff member murmured uneasily at the depleted numbers.
Those with criminal records from recent events had been arrested by soldiers or were lying low, so the turnout was less than half the usual count.
Including the female Ronins, they numbered only eleven.
The Geogan-so’s primary income came from brokering commissions on jobs.
They took quite a hefty cut too.
In other words, if the number of commissioned Ronins fell short or if the broker failed to fulfill the contract, they’d face losses.
Why not simply refund the commission?
‘……As if they would.’
Heterodox Sect operatives wouldn’t dream of it.
The moment money entered their pockets, that was the end of it.
“The Dae Ho Bang is requesting three Ronins for cleanup work…….”
I listen to the Geogan-so employee rattle off the job details, but nothing grabs my interest.
I know what you’d say — broke as I am, why be picky? — but honestly, every job here screams danger.
Even just the cleanup work means assassination and extermination.
They want you to ambush and kill people the Dae Ho Bang has marked. At night.
Oh, and if a third-rate ronin dies during the job, they don’t pay anything but the broker’s fee.
It’s completely predatory work.
“……An unidentified gang in the forest north of Hang Zhou is blocking the road, robbing and murdering passing merchants, so an extermination order has been…….”
Unidentified gang.
Clearly heterodox sect members mixed with ronins. They were dangerous inside Hang Zhou, so they fled outside, and now they’re just preying on hapless merchants.
Damage is mounting, so the Merchant Alliance issued the extermination order…….
‘The money’s there, but the risk is too high — nobody takes it.’
Only ronins ready to leave Hang Zhou completely or those cornered with no options would touch it.
“Finally, from Wol Hyang Ru…….”
“Me! Me!”
“I’ll take that job!”
“…….”
The moment Wol Hyang Ru was mentioned, every ronin in the room — without exception — raised their hand.
Im Gang raised his too.
There wasn’t much else worth taking on anyway.
“……Two guards for the front gate, employed for one month, but only ronins with no prior experience visiting pleasure houses…….”
Ah…… this one’s going to be tough.
What ronin with no money would ever have been to a pleasure house?
Or so he thought.
“……?”
“Wait, you’ve never been to a pleasure house?”
“With that shady face of his…….”
Im Gang looked around in confusion.
What?
Why is my hand still up?
Even the female ronins were lowering theirs.
Confusion wasn’t just Im Gang’s burden.
“We need one more person…….”
The Geogan-so employee muttered, bewildered.
Right then.
The Ronin Circle’s idol raised his hand.
* * *
Im Gang felt the killing intent from a distance stiffen the back of his neck.
“What’s wrong?”
“……What was your name again?”
“Baek Cheon. I’m a bit hurt. I never thought you wouldn’t remember my name.”
“Do you know mine?”
“Im Gang, of course.”
‘Huh, why does he know it? Does this bastard have weird tastes……?’
The fact that someone with that face had never been to a pleasure house was strange in itself.
Of course, he was an exception.
It was because he had no money to go!
‘Does he really have unusual tastes?’
Im Gang rationally put distance between himself and Baek Cheon.
Above all else, he wanted to protect his purity.
“Im Gang, have you learned an Inner Energy Cultivation Method by any chance?”
“No?”
Im Gang denied it reflexively.
He didn’t even know why he was denying it.
……Actually, he knew exactly why.
During those hidden days, practicing Martial Technique Forms in the dungeon was awkward to use in actual combat.
Except for Flying Blade Throwing, everything else was basically useless.
Even if he’d learned an Inner Energy Cultivation Method, he’d still be a half-baked second-rate ronin, and there was nothing to gain from drawing attention in a situation like this.
“If I’d learned an Inner Energy Cultivation Method, would I be sniveling around at the Geogan-so?”
“Hmm. I must have been mistaken. My apologies.”
When Baek Cheon apologized, Im Gang shrugged and accepted it.
Nothing extraordinary about it.
‘Second-rate ronin, then….’
Once you reached Second-rate Ronin status, you didn’t go to the Geogan-so to take commissions.
The Geogan-so came looking for you instead.
That’s how vast the difference Inner Energy made.
“But why did you ask about the Inner Energy Cultivation Method?”
“There’s a tremendous gap between martial artists who’ve mastered the Inner Energy Cultivation Method and those who haven’t. Through the circulation of inner energy, the senses transcend the five conventional ones and awaken the sixth sense——”
After that point, I couldn’t follow what he was saying.
Well… I was self-taught, after all.
As long as I read it, it automatically converted to a skill, whether I understood it or not.
“Ha ha. This is genuinely fascinating.”
“……Are you actually listening to me?”
“You just hit on exactly what matters.”
Before long, our casual conversation carried us all the way to the Wol Hyang Ru. When I approached the martial artists guarding the main gate and handed over the letter of introduction, their eyes went wide.
The warriors’ faces lit up instantly.
“A replacement! Finally, a replacement has arrived!”
“Our shift is finally over——!”
The martial artists murmured among themselves.
Looking closer, their undereye circles were no joke.
Their gaunt, haggard faces belonged to people who’d gone sleepless for days.
“Come now. Head inside quickly.”
“The Chief Steward is waiting for you.”
“Pardon? The Chief Steward?”
Im Gang asked, taken aback.
The Wol Hyang Ru was one of Hang Zhou’s three premier pleasure houses—a genuine eight-story building.
One might think an eight-story structure hardly impressive in a medieval wuxia realm where martial arts and martial artists roamed, but the tallest building in all the Central Plains stood at nine stories.
And.
There was only one nine-story building.
They’d tried to construct several more, but they’d all collapsed catastrophically, killing only people in the process.
Remarkably, this was one area where the Ming Dynasty historical accuracy held up perfectly.
In any case.
An eight-story structure like the Wol Hyang Ru could be considered a major enterprise.
The Chief Steward held the rank directly below the Proprietor—in my past life’s terms, something like a vice president or executive director.
Normally at job interviews, the human resources department handled things. How often did a vice president or executive director show up, much less for hiring?
And this wasn’t even for a full-time position—it was part-time work.
“That’s right. The Chief Steward awaits you. Head on in quickly now.”
“……Understood. Hyun Ah, let’s go.”
“Hyun Ah?”
“Since we’ll be working closely together for a while, let’s keep it casual.”
“Hmm…… suit yourself.”
Baek Cheon nodded, seeming not to mind.
The moment we stepped inside the Wol Hyang Ru, the atmosphere transformed completely.
Outside had been the bustling bustle of Hang Zhou’s commerce, but inside was ornate and sensual—or rather, to put it less delicately, lustful.
A subtle fragrance of flowers hung in the air, yet it wasn’t entirely unpleasant.
‘Huh. Fascinating.’
The courtesans moving about with their robes draped low to expose their collarbones, the countless attendants hurrying to prepare for guests.
The central atrium opened from the first through fifth floors, so when you looked up, you could see all the way to the ceiling.
For Im Gang, visiting a pleasure house for the first time, everything was a wonder.
As the two of us walked, an elderly man approached.
“Welcome, welcome. I am Do Bu Eok, Chief Steward of the Wol Hyang Ru.”
“I am Im Gang, come with a letter of introduction.”
“I am Baek Cheon.”
Im Gang and Baek Cheon bowed respectfully, pressing their palms together.
The kind of power play meant not to look down on someone at first meeting—that was something you did with rowdies and uncouth thugs.
There were three groups in the martial world you had to be especially careful with.
Moreover, Im Gang harbored a living conscience and carried a Confucian dragon in his heart, so deploying the etiquette of respecting age and hierarchy was only natural.
“Im Gang…… Baek Cheon…… you certainly haven’t set foot in a pleasure house before.”
The elderly man Do Bu Eok stared intently at both their faces, muttering to himself.
“Two things to remember. First, you must not lay hands on the courtesans. Even if they try to seduce you, nothing can happen while you’re on duty. However, after your shift ends, I’ll turn a blind eye. That said, if you do sleep with someone, your commission ends that day—so avoid it within the Wol Hyang Ru itself. Second, you must not resort to force against guests. No matter how much they provoke, you cannot strike first. However, you may restrain them as long as no serious injury results.”
“I shall bear it in mind.”
“The former I said to Baek Cheon, the latter to Im Gang—keep that in mind.”
“…….”
That’s hardly fair…….
Im Gang glared at Baek Cheon with eyes burning with jealousy.

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