The Youngest Son of the Eunhae Merchant Group - Chapter 465

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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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The Youngest Son of the Eun Hae Trading Company Chapter 465

Chapter 465. Why Is This Happening? (1)

I was in my quarters.
The room was dark because I hadn’t lit any lamps—after all, I was officially supposed to be absent from this place.
“Fire! Fire!”
“There’s a fire!”
Using those shouts as my reference point, I began counting silently in my mind.
One, two, three…
When I had counted precisely to fifty, the door opened and Palgap entered.
Yet I felt no presence at all.
If I had been looking elsewhere, I might never have noticed Palgap’s arrival.
That’s precisely why I had entrusted this task to him.
He possessed the talents of Sal Wang, after all.
“Young Master, I’ve brought what you requested.”
“Thank you.”
Palgap handed me a pair of shoes—the very ones that Gong Ho had been wearing.
I quickly placed them inside my secret vault.
“Then, please proceed as we discussed earlier.”
“Yes, understood. You must be careful.”
“You too. Stay safe.”
I headed toward the Prison with Seo-woo Warrior, the same place we had visited yesterday.
The fire burned with considerable intensity, so everyone was consumed with extinguishing it.
Everything proceeded exactly as planned.
Since only the traitors and the warriors Gong Ho had brought remained in the Inner Quarters, I set the fire without hesitation.
Yeon Yu-mun was the only one staying in the Inner Quarters, but thanks to the hint I had given him, he was outside at that moment.
We arrived safely at the Prison under cover of the chaos.
Then we entered through the secret passage that Yeon Yu-mun had shown me before.
Soon we reached the place where the Imperial Prince was being held.
I immediately drew my sword and severed the iron chains binding the Imperial Prince.
Thud.
Seo-woo Warrior caught his body before it could strike the ground.
The impact caused the Imperial Prince’s eyes to open, though his gaze remained unfocused.
He tried to speak, but I quickly covered his mouth and whispered.
“Whatever you wish to say, I’ll explain everything later. For now, please remain silent.”
After removing his clothes, I applied Geumryeong’s salve to his wounds, which I had prepared in advance.
The wounds began healing rapidly.
Geumryeong’s saliva truly is the best.
And I changed into clothes that had been prepared separately.
No matter how secretly we left, I couldn’t take him out covered in blood.
I hoisted Crown Prince Ju Hyun onto my back.
– Let’s go.
– Yes.
Originally, Seo-woo Warrior had offered to carry the Crown Prince, but keeping pace with my speed while carrying him would be impossible, so I decided to carry him instead.
We emerged from the Prison and made our way discreetly toward the Chungyeong City Gate.
Han Seok was waiting for us there, having knocked all the gate keepers unconscious.
“Have you rescued the Crown Prince?”
“Yes. We only need to get him safely to Beijing, but given the circumstances, we must ride without rest. Are you prepared for this, Great Hero?”
“Of course. I will do my utmost.”
I nodded and pushed off the ground with all my strength.

* * *

Several hours later, the fire at the Chungyeong City Lord’s Residence was extinguished.
Only then could people catch their breath.
“My shoes! My shoes!”
Gong Ho, who had wanted the fire extinguished more than anyone, quickly rushed into his chamber.
And began searching for his shoes.
But no matter how much he searched, his shoes were nowhere to be found.
“Where… where did they go? My shoes…”
He couldn’t hide his bewilderment. One of the Imperial Envoys asked him.
“What is the matter?”
“My shoes have disappeared!”
“Why make such a fuss over mere shoes?”
At that rebuke, Gong Ho cried out in frustration.
“Damn it! These aren’t just ordinary shoes! My shoes are a treasure item! A magical artifact called Thousand-Li Stride!”
“A, a magical artifact, you say?”
Then someone pointed to a corner of the room.
“Here, there appears to be something that looks like it used to be shoes…”
At those words, he rushed over. But what met his eyes was a shoe that had been almost completely burned.
In truth, it was another shoe that Palgap had placed there on Eun Seo-ho’s orders.
But Gong Ho, unaware of this, could only believe it was his magical artifact shoes.
He collapsed.
He sank to the ground right there.
A treasure as precious as his own life had been consumed by flames.
His vision turned white and sorrow welled up within him. In his panic, he could only stare blankly into empty space.
Then the Thunder Prison Guard came running and shouted.
“Cr-critical news! The Imperial Prince imprisoned in the Prison has vanished!”
“What?”
“The chains have been severed. It appears someone infiltrated the facility.”
At those words, everyone forgot about the fire and other concerns, rushing urgently toward the Prison.
Just as reported, the chains lay severed, and in the place where the Imperial Prince should have been, only blood-soaked undergarments remained.
Then another figure came running with a report.
“The Gate Keepers have been rendered unconscious! There’s no doubt—someone infiltrated the facility.”
“Then who on earth could it be?”
“Let us think calmly. If the Gate Keepers were knocked unconscious before the escape, then surely they must have been struck down during the infiltration itself, correct?”
“But we confirmed the Gate Keepers were fine just before the fire broke out.”
“That means someone from within has betrayed us?”
“Who! Who would do such a thing!”
The first suspects to be named were the recent outsiders—Eun Seo-ho and his group.
However.
“Our Small Guild Master left immediately after meeting with the Military Officer earlier.”
“Is that true?”
“The Gate Keepers saw him leave, and… didn’t you personally escort him out just moments ago? Why are you asking?”
“Hmph, yes, that’s right.”
“Then who could it possibly be…?”
At that moment, the Yeo Eung-am Warrior spoke.
“I… there was someone who seemed rather suspicious earlier. The man with a scar on his cheek.”
“Dae-chul?”
“Yes. I don’t know his name, but he was carrying some sort of bundle and kept glancing around nervously, hurrying about as if on some urgent errand. It seemed odd.”
“Find that man.”
At Gong Ho’s command, everyone dispersed to search, but no matter how hard they looked, he could not be found.
Gong Ho erupted in fury.
“Now it is certain. Jin Dae-chul, that Gold-Clad Guard, is the traitor!”
.
.
.
Thus, with Jin Dae-chul’s betrayal confirmed, an hour or two later.
In a secluded corner of the Lord’s Residence.
Jin Dae-chul was bound to a pillar in the place that Eun Seo-ho had borrowed—a location known only to the Fortress Lord and Yeon Yu-mun.
‘Where is this? Where am I?’
He remembered losing consciousness. When he came to, he found himself here.
His eyes were bloodied and covered, so he could not discern where he was or what situation he faced.
As he waited in fear for his eyes to be uncovered.
The sound of a door opening was followed by a voice he recognized.
“Well, well. How pleasant to see you like this.”
“…!”
My vision cleared, and I could see the owner of that voice.
Kwon Jik, my fellow Geumui Guard, stared at me with a cold expression.
“So, did you have a pleasant dream?”
“….”
“It’s time to wake up from that dream now. By the way, I hear you tortured the Crown Prince?”
He was the very one who had tortured Prince Ju-hyeon.
Kwon Jik and his men had learned this fact through today’s commotion and were furious.
But soon they regained their composure.
They realized why Eun Seo-ho had not told them about it.
‘He was warning us not to act recklessly.’
They worried So-un might cause trouble, but the effects of the mental discipline Eun Seo-ho had instilled in them remained—they merely clenched their teeth.
‘He would be even more furious than we are, not less….’
Kwon Jik spoke to Jin Dae-chul.
“It seems I’ll need to provide some assistance to wake you from that dream of yours.”
He drew a short blade, and Jin Dae-chul shuddered at the sight.
He knew all too well that Kwon Jik was far more skilled at torture than he was.
“And I suspect we’ll only get the answers we want if we provide such assistance.”
Immediately, an overwhelming agony flooded through me.
Because my pressure points were sealed, I couldn’t even scream.
Yet no one pitied me.
Kwon Jik’s voice reached my ears.
“Don’t worry. We won’t torture you to death. The Emperor will be the one to judge your crimes.”

* * *

Prince Ju-hyeon’s fading consciousness gradually became clear.
He clenched his teeth.
Soon, another round of coercion and threats accompanied by torture would begin.

The Imperial Envoys who had been with him from the beginning were not the ones who came forward.
They tempted him with far greater wealth and honor than before.
They urged him to establish a nation in Chungyeongseong and become its king.
But he could not do it.
He knew he must stop exploiting Chungyeongseong, and more importantly, he understood how terrifying his father, the Emperor, truly was.
When he refused their temptation, they resorted to extreme measures.
They forcibly subdued him and imprisoned him in the Prison.
In the process, the Eunuch Officials and Warriors who tried to stop them and save him were killed.
Without time to mourn their deaths, days of torment began.
Tortures he had never heard of nor witnessed—methods that could inflict such suffering upon a person.
Though he endured them with his own body, he could never give them the answer they sought.
Because his father, the Emperor, terrified him far more than any torture.
As a father, he was incredibly tender, but as a sovereign, he was utterly fearsome.
Having witnessed this directly at his side, he knew it all too well.
And he trusted his father.
He believed his father would surely rescue him.
But the intensity of the torture only increased, and his body reached the point where it could endure no more.
Still, he never opened his mouth.
He persevered through willpower alone.
His mind grew increasingly hazy, and when he thought he was dying.
Someone fed him something. It was extraordinarily sweet.
He wondered if this was what the legendary Amrita tasted like.
He felt his parched and aching body beginning to recover.
And at the same time, a voice reached his ears.

“You must not die under any circumstances. You must endure to the very end. Soon you will receive your reward for this suffering.”

Bolstered by that voice, he held firm the next day, but eventually lost consciousness.
Sensing something strange, he opened his eyes.
The face visible through his blurred vision was extraordinarily beautiful.
So he thought it was a celestial maiden.
He tried to ask for her help, but her hand covered his mouth.
And the voice came again.

“I will hear whatever you have to say later, but please remain silent for now.”

That voice was the same one he had heard before—the one urging him to endure.
Somehow reassured, he lost consciousness again, and now he had awakened.

‘Huh?’
But something felt off.
Instead of the usual scent of earth and blood, I detected the fragrance of medicine.
The pain was gone.
‘Could I be… dead?’
That thought crossed my mind.
As my consciousness grew clearer, I felt something like needles inserted into my body, and I heard someone’s voice.
“Why hasn’t the Crown Prince regained consciousness yet?”
A familiar voice.
It was the voice of an Eunuch Official who had remained in the Imperial Palace among those who attended to me.
“His vital energy has been severely depleted. It is only thanks to the elixir we administered beforehand that he still lives.”
At this, the Eunuch Official spoke with hope in his voice.
“Ugh….”
“Crown Prince!”
“Crown Prince! Are you awake? Crown Prince!”
“Is that… Man-woong?”
“Yes! Crown Prince! It is I, Man-woong! Do you recognize my voice?”
“Where… where am I right now?”
“This is the Imperial Palace, your quarters, Crown Prince.”
“What? How is this possible? I’m in my own quarters?”
The place where I had been held was Yunnan.
It was so far from Beijing, the Imperial Palace, that they might as well be opposite ends of the earth.
“The Gold-Clad Guard Masters, acting under the Emperor’s command, rescued you, Crown Prince.”
“Then who carried me here?”
I recalled a moment when I had briefly regained consciousness—someone carrying me on their back while running.
Their back was drenched with sweat from the exertion.
And I remembered someone saying, “Small Guild Master, allow me to carry him.”
To this question, the Eunuch Official Man-woong answered.
“It was Eun Seo-ho, the Small Guild Master.”
Eun Seo-ho—I knew of him. My father, the Emperor, held him in great favor.
“According to Han Seok, a Gold-Clad Guard Master, he played a crucial role in your rescue, Crown Prince.”
“Where is he now?”
I needed to thank him for saving me and explain that Chungyeong City Lord was innocent, that they had been wronged, and ask him to help them.
“That is… he is not here at the moment.”
“Not here?”
“He has led the Imperial Guard back to Yunnan Province.”
At this news, the startled Crown Prince bolted upright and cried out.
“No, wait! The Chungyeong City Lord is innocent!”
“Yes, I know.”
“What? You know?”
“Yes, Crown Prince. Their purpose in heading to Yunnan Province is to apprehend and punish those shameless traitors responsible for this atrocity, and to honor the sacrifices of the Chungyeong City Lord and the people of the city.”
“Ah… I see.”
Upon hearing those words, Prince Ju-hyeon’s tension dissolved, and he collapsed back onto the bed, losing consciousness.

* * *

I was now heading back to Yunnan Province once more.
Alas, such is my fate.
How many times must I traverse the road between Beijing and Yunnan?
At least I managed to save Prince Ju-hyeon before it was too late.
If not for Seo Hyang’s counsel, this could have ended in true disaster.
But the matter is far from concluded.
Palgap and the Guard Warriors remain in Chungyeong Castle, and the traitors still require dealing with.
As for the Emperor, he asked me to name my reward, but I deferred my answer for later.
Truth be told, I already had something in mind as my reward.
To be left alone.
I am a merchant, not a member of the Geumui Guard.

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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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