That was the one thing Juyang hated hearing most.
You’re nothing but peddlers of Hell King loans.
It was what people usually said when they looked down on them.
But even if everyone in the world said it, there was one person who absolutely must not. The very person who had come to borrow a Hell King loan.
“I said, if you’ve got a demonic practitioner, bring him here.”
Geom Mugeuk provoked him once more.
At that moment, Geom Mugeuk read Juyang’s emotions. What showed in his eyes and expression was this:
If I could really do as I pleased, I’d just—!
He clearly had someone on the Demonic Cult’s side he was relying on. Was it the Jiangxi Branch Leader? Or some other demonic practitioner? Tell me! Who is it you’re counting on?
But Juyang, who had dealt with all manner of debtors for many years, was no pushover.
He had a firm conviction when it came to tormenting others.
The Young Cult Leader of the Demonic Cult? What would be the point of bringing swordsmen to beat up a bastard who spouted such ridiculous lies? What plunged slippery bastards like this into hell was not violence or threats. It was giving them the suffocating reality of having to work for the rest of their lives to repay the money—of having no choice but to work.
“With the Demonic Cult Leader as your father, I suppose you can afford to be this bold.”
It was sarcasm, but Geom Mugeuk took it purely.
“You people had even greater nerve, going to see my father.”
“You intend to insist to the very end that you really are the Demonic Cult Leader’s son?”
“That’s right. I am the Young Cult Leader of the Demonic Cult. I’ve told you clearly, so don’t say anything absurd later. How could I have believed that, would you have believed it if you were me? Let me say this clearly. If it were me, I would have believed it. My life is precious, after all.”
Of course, Juyang did not believe him. He had already come today after receiving word from the investigator on that side. This bastard was an unprecedentedly shameless man who had impersonated the Demonic Cult Leader as his father.
“Very well, our Young Cult Leader.”
“So you finally believe me.”
“Starting tomorrow, I’ll send someone every day to collect the interest.”
“Every day? Wasn’t it supposed to be collected once a month?”
“The rules have changed.”
Starting tomorrow, this hateful bastard’s life would change from shameless to threadbare.
“Can you change it so arbitrarily?”
“It’s written on the loan contract. The method of collecting interest can be changed however we please.”
After checking the clause written in letters as tiny as eye grit on the contract, Geom Mugeuk shook his head.
“Did you lend money to an ant? This is truly too much.”
“We’re acting according to the established rules. You should have read it carefully before signing.”
The poisonous clauses had truly been hidden with astonishing skill. This was how usurers sucked the marrow from people who had no money.
“For someone who is, after all, the Young Cult Leader, this much money should be easy to repay if you put your mind to it, no?”
“Can you really handle my interest?”
At that, Juyang smiled as if asking what that was supposed to mean, and asked back.
“Have you ever seen anyone who hates money?”
* * *
The next day, while Geom Mugeuk was eating at the inn, a vicious-looking man strode over and abruptly held out his hand.
“I’m here to collect the interest.”
When he looked up, it was the very man who had taken the money from Pyeonjung before. The very bastard who had beaten Pyeonjung in front of his wife and children, and had even held a dagger to the child’s throat.
Among the customers eating nearby, a few set down their chopsticks, quietly paid their bills, and left. Those who remained turned their eyes away, avoiding his gaze. Just from that, one could tell how this bastard usually behaved.
“My nickname is Mad Dog. Then you should know very well what to do from now on. When you see me walking over from a distance, take out the interest in advance. Got it?”
This Mad Dog, who knew how to torment people and enjoyed tormenting them, was the hardship Juyang had bestowed upon him.
Geom Mugeuk looked up at him and asked.
“But aren’t you afraid? Your opponent is a martial artist wearing a sword.”
Mad Dog was carrying a blade, but he was not a martial artist with internal energy.
“Why? Because you’re some pathetic martial artist, you’re going to draw that sword and kill me? Go on, kill me! Then you and your family are finished that very day. You think our organization will let you live? We start by tearing your family limb from limb.”
As if to make his attempt at intimidation meaningless, Geom Mugeuk said with a smile.
“Then you won’t even be able to start.”
Mad Dog’s face hardened fiercely. At that, his face truly looked like that of a savage dog.
“They said you were a bastard lost in the delusion that you’re the Young Cult Leader of the Demonic Cult. Looks like it’s true.”
Mad Dog threw the bowl of food Geom Mugeuk had been eating from onto the floor and shattered it. A sense of crisis flowed through the place, as if a fight might break out at any moment.
The innkeeper and the waiters watching all wore looks of pity. They knew better than anyone that no matter how kind and diligent a person was, once they got tangled up with the Tongjeonso, they could never return to their original life.
And of all people, Mad Dog was in charge of him? There was almost no one in the village who had not been beaten by that Mad Dog, so violently did he go around throwing his weight about.
“Young Cult Leader. What will you do now?”
“What else? He broke the Young Cult Leader’s rice bowl, so he must be punished. Now, when I send a signal, the Demon Venerables outside over there will make their entrance.”
At the words Demon Venerables, not only Mad Dog but everyone in the inn flinched. There was a primal fear carried by that title.
“Not there. Look over there.”
Mad Dog’s gaze followed where Geom Mugeuk was pointing. The customers in the inn looked that way as well.
“One, two…”
Geom Mugeuk began counting as though about to send the signal. At that, Mad Dog tensed for an instant. Surely they wouldn’t really appear?
Just then, as a tension flowed through the room as though someone truly might appear—
“Three!”
But no one appeared. Everyone’s eyes turned to Geom Mugeuk.
“You believed that? You think the noble Demon Venerables would come here to deal with the likes of you?”
With the tension released, Mad Dog was dumbfounded. The fact that he had been tense even for a moment made him furious to the tips of his hair. Just as he was about to spew curses, Geom Mugeuk took money from his robes.
“Here, here is the interest!”
At his courteous attitude, Mad Dog’s urge to explode in anger subsided. Yet for some reason, he felt as if he was being swept along by the other man.
You bastard, I’ve got my eye on you now.
“You should have done that from the start. A young bastard like you, not knowing how scary money is.”
Geom Mugeuk dropped a coin onto his palm.
It seemed as if the coin fell lightly.
Whoooosh.
Bang!
The moment the coin landed on his palm, it was too heavy to withstand. The coin crushed down on his hand and slammed it into the ground.
“Aaaaargh!”
From the impact, the bones in Mad Dog’s hand shattered and were crushed.
He tried to use his other hand to lift the coin away, but the coin did not budge.
“It hurts, it hurts! Someone get this off me! Aaaaagh!”
His hand hurt terribly. The weight grew heavier and heavier, to the point where it felt as if a hole would truly be punched through his palm.
“There’s still interest left. Give me your other hand.”
Mad Dog looked up at Geom Mugeuk while lying face down. In that instant, he understood. There was no way a coin could be this heavy, so Geom Mugeuk had used some sort of trick.
Mad Dog said in a trembling voice.
“Please spare me.”
The dog that had been incomparably savage until just now had turned into a puppy that looked ready to burst into tears at any moment.
“No! You said if I didn’t pay the interest, you’d go looking for my father. Take it.”
Mad Dog tried to flee, but because of the hand pinned by the coin, his body would not move.
An unknown force compelled his other hand forward.
“Uuuugh! Please spare me!”
“What are you talking about? I’m telling you to take the interest.”
He lightly placed a coin on the other hand.
Whoooosh!
Bang!
This time as well, unable to withstand the weight of the coin, his hand was slammed into the floor. An even louder scream burst from Mad Dog’s mouth.
Mad Dog ended up flattened on the floor as if bowing, both palms pressed to the ground. Those watching looked at one another. Unconcealable joy flickered across their faces. Truly, even for someone throwing his weight around, the bastard had gone too far.
“Uuuugh. It hurts so much.”
Geom Mugeuk tilted back his cup of wine, using his screams as a side dish.
“That’s right. You should know how scary money is.”
* * *
Upon hearing the news, Juyang rushed to the inn with his hired blades.
He had expected that Geom Mugeuk would not hand over the money meekly, but he had not imagined an incident would occur from the very first interest payment.
“If you all swarm over here just to collect two coins, aren’t you taking a loss?”
Pretending not to hear Geom Mugeuk, Juyang first kicked Mad Dog, who had collapsed unconscious on the floor, to wake him.
“What are you doing?”
When Mad Dog came to, the coins on his palms had become light.
“Uuuugh. My hands hurt so much.”
Juyang examined Mad Dog’s hands. The bones in both hands were crushed, and he would no longer be able to live normally.
“Please treat my hands first.”
“It’s too late. You’ll have to live as a cripple for the rest of your life.”
At that, Mad Dog let out a monstrous cry.
Juyang slapped Mad Dog across the face without mercy.
“Get a hold of yourself! What exactly happened? Were they smashed with stones? Or trampled underfoot?”
“It’s just that the coins were too heavy, so I couldn’t lift them.”
“What are you talking about? Were you dreaming?”
If he had simply been beaten, that would be one thing, but he could not understand the claim that the coins had become heavy at all.
Juyang glared at Geom Mugeuk.
“What trick did you pull?”
“Trick? He came to collect the interest, so I gave it to him. Then he rolled around on the floor by himself, making a huge fuss about how much it hurt.”
On top of that, Geom Mugeuk added another spoonful.
“Do you people commit fraud and extortion too? Trying to squeeze money out of me with this kind of stunt? How much will you raise it from one hundred taels this time?”
Juyang calmly asked the innkeeper and the waiters what had happened. They answered exactly as Geom Mugeuk had said.
“He gave him the coins, and then he rolled around on the floor saying it hurt.”
It was not something only one or two people had seen.
Juyang could tell that Geom Mugeuk had done something with the coins. After all, he had never in his life heard of coins becoming so heavy that one could not move.
“Do you know who we are, acting like this?”
When Juyang lowered his voice, Geom Mugeuk imitated him.
“Do you know who I am?”
But he soon spoke playfully.
“Ah, right, you do know, don’t you? That I’m the Young Cult Leader of the Demonic Cult.”
Juyang’s expression hardened. He had thought him a madman lost in delusion.
‘So he’s someone with a move up his sleeve, is that it?’
As the hired blades tried to carry Mad Dog out, Geom Mugeuk picked up what had fallen on the floor.
“You have to take the interest with you.”
Geom Mugeuk held out the two coins Mad Dog had dropped again.
Because of what he had heard, Juyang did not dare extend his hand.
“It’s the interest you like so much, isn’t it? You’re not going to take it?”
There were many eyes watching nearby. If they returned like this, the authority of the Tongjeonso would suffer greatly. In particular, the head of the Tongjeonso was a man who believed that if a debtor ever looked down on them, the business was finished. It was obvious that the thunderbolt would fall on Juyang himself.
Juyang gave a look to one of the hired blades beside him. The man who had been chosen stepped forward with a reluctant expression.
“Now, here comes the interest!”
At the very moment Geom Mugeuk dropped the coin—
Whoooosh!
Bang!
His hand, too, was slammed into the floor. This time as well, he could not withstand the weight of the coin.
“Aaaaaaargh!”
At the pain of his bones being crushed, the hired blade screamed. Another hired blade rushed in and struggled to lift the coin away. But the coin did not budge.
Seeing this with his own eyes, Juyang was startled out of his wits. It was the first time in his life he had witnessed such a sight. This was no simple trick.
‘He was an expert!’
The hired blades all drew their swords at once. It was not because they intended to avenge their comrade, but because they were frightened and had drawn them reflexively.
Juyang raised his hand to stop them. With the opponent being an expert like that, there was no way mere Tongjeonso swordsmen could handle him.
Geom Mugeuk held out the remaining coin to him.
“You came to collect the interest, so why are you drawing swords instead of taking the money?”
Juyang asked in a trembling voice.
“What was your purpose in approaching us?”
There was no way an expert like this had borrowed money from them because he lacked ten taels.
“Purpose? I simply borrowed because I needed money, didn’t I? You were the one who increased it to one hundred taels, and you were also the one who said you’d collect the interest every day. If you hadn’t changed the rules, we wouldn’t have met today.”
Juyang could not refute him. It was indeed he who had created this situation.
“Now, take the interest.”
Geom Mugeuk held out the remaining coin.
Since the hired blade who had taken the coin before was screaming that he was going to die with his hand stuck to the floor, no one dared step forward to receive that money.
Juyang looked around at the hired blades, but no one stepped forward. They all avoided his gaze.
In the end, Juyang passed it off to the hired blade lying on the floor and screaming.
“That man agreed to take it, so give it to him.”
“Let’s do that.”
Geom Mugeuk strode over.
“Aaaaagh! Please! No!”
The coin fell, and the man’s other hand was crushed as well. The man, who had been screaming, fainted on the spot. Everyone was frightened by that merciless, unhesitating sight.
“How could you people, who carry swords around and do nothing but extort money, ever know? Money earned through labor is this heavy.”
Juyang instinctively knew that things had gone wrong—terribly wrong.
But this was not the end. Geom Mugeuk picked up the coin from the man’s palm.
“You said there’s no one who hates money, so why is everyone refusing to take it?”
Geom Mugeuk once again held the coin out in front of Juyang.
“You have to take the interest.”
The moment his eyes met Geom Mugeuk’s, goosebumps rose all over Juyang’s body. He had dealt with all manner of bastards until now, but this was the first time he had ever felt this frightened.
“Hold out your hand.”
Geom Mugeuk’s attitude had changed completely from before.
Juyang did not dare disobey. The fear that he would die if he refused dominated him.
Juyang’s outstretched hand trembled violently.
The coin fell into Juyang’s hand. Juyang squeezed his eyes shut, but fortunately, this time it was not heavy.
Opening his eyes, Juyang spoke urgently.
“I won’t take the interest, nor even the principal. Let’s consider it all repaid.”
As he hurriedly turned away, Geom Mugeuk spoke coldly behind him.
“Says who?”
When Juyang turned back, Geom Mugeuk had newly placed two coins on the table.
“Come collect the interest tomorrow too. If you don’t come, I’ll go find you.”