He does not know it on that very day.
Only when the years pass and he looks back does he finally realize.
Ah! That was the day my life changed.
That day had been such a day for Yong Jamyeong as well.
Not merely because he had saved a life on the verge of death, but because his heart toward life had changed.
"At that time, I was always full of confidence."
And rightly so. He was young, smart, and possessed such a gift for commerce that everything he touched succeeded time and again.
"I begrudged even the time I spent sleeping. Money was scattered all around—if I didn't pick it up first, it felt as though someone else would."
In his youth, he had been utterly intoxicated by the thrill of making money. No other emotion could surpass that joy.
"I succeeded time after time. It felt as though the world's fortune in wealth was concentrated solely upon me. Yet I was not arrogant. On the contrary, I was humbler and worked harder. Even so, the misfortune that was bound to come eventually found its way to me."
Yong Jamyeong silently gazed down at his wine cup. In its reflection, he saw the image of his younger self.
* * *
"My lord, you will become the God of Commerce!"
Manso said with a bright smile.
"Don't gild my face for no reason."
Yong Jamyeong shook his head and smiled. His smile, which put those who saw him at ease, had been the same even in his youth.
"It is no mere gilding. You know how many merchants I have met. Mark my words—you will surely become the greatest merchant."
He had known Manso for roughly three or four years. Manso had made his living by doing various jobs around merchants.
He would look up information on goods, arrange workers, or connect wanderers to the merchant group. Put nicely, he was versatile; put poorly, he handled menial tasks. Because he helped with the merchant group's affairs as if they were his own, everyone in the Eunha Merchant Group liked him.
Then one day,
"We've arrived."
The two men entered a small manor.
The reason they had come here today was that Manso was introducing someone to him.
"The merchant group has established its footing, so now we must recruit martial artists. This is no longer a matter to be delayed."
Before Yong Jamyeong had even formed a connection with Baekchong, at this time there had been no martial artists formally affiliated with the merchant group.
Goods transport could be handled through an escort agency, and there were people who had worked with the merchant group from the start. When guards were occasionally needed, he had dealt with the matter by having Manso introduce martial artists for the job.
However, as the merchant group's scale grew, the need for affiliated martial artists grew as well. The value and quantity of the goods they handled had increased. It was not something that could be solved by having sturdy men take turns standing watch in front of a warehouse.
But Yong Jamyeong could not easily come to a decision.
What if those martial artists harbored ill intentions?
That worry never left his heart.
It was due to his nature of not easily trusting others. In the midst of this, he had finally been persuaded by Manso to meet an expert.
"What sort of martial artist are you introducing?"
"He is someone you can trust. If he does not please you, my lord, you need not make a decision."
He figured that if Manso trusted the man, he was trustworthy. Never once so far had Manso disappointed him.
But he never imagined that disappointment would come this day.
The first impression of the awaited martial artist was not favorable. His sharp eyes exuded lust, and he bore an impression that was somehow cunning. Not to mention the scars on his face and his twisted lips.
"It is our first meeting."
The martial artist smirked at Yong Jamyeong's greeting. Seeing that smile, Yong Jamyeong felt displeased.
Yong Jamyeong looked at Manso, who stood beside him.
'This is the trustworthy person you introduced?'
Manso was smiling as always. Just as Yong Jamyeong was feeling that smile seemed strangely unfamiliar today, the martial artist opened his mouth.
"So you're the creditor?"
At those words laden with impure intent, Yong Jamyeong's heart sank.
The martial artist grabbed the wine bottle on the table and drank straight from it, then threw the documents beside it to the floor.
"Sign."
* * *
Yong Jamyeong returned to reality.
"It was the work of that bastard Manso, who had brought that martial artist in. Do you know what truly frightened me then?"
Geom Mugeuk poured wine into his cup and asked.
"What was it?"
"It was that I would die a dog's death."
Geom Mugeuk understood the exact meaning of those words.
"They were after a sum that was not even that large."
Yong Jamyeong nodded.
"The money they tried to seize amounted to merely a few thousand nyang. Of course, to some it might have been a large sum, but to me, who was solidifying the foundation of the merchant group at the time, it was not such a large amount. It must have been a plan to embezzle goods that had arrived at the warehouse. With documents bearing my signature, it would have been possible—after all, Manso had frequently helped with our affairs."
"That bastard Manso should have roughly known your financial situation, shouldn't he?"
"He would have known."
"Why didn't they aim for more?"
"The martial artist who schemed with him was no ordinary person. He was the notorious Yin Blood Ghost of that time."
Yin Blood Ghost.
He was a notorious lecher in the martial arts world at that time. A man who had ravaged and murdered women regardless of age, listed as a public enemy of the martial world by the Martial Arts Alliance.
"At that time, the bastard was urgently fleeing from someone. He had joined hands with Manso right when he was trying to secure funds for his escape. The two had known each other from before."
All of that was revealed later.
"Can you believe it? I had lived a life completely unrelated to lechers, yet I became entangled with one like that."
Geom Mugeuk silently listened to him. For now, his role was simply to listen.
"I asked Manso. Don't you roughly know how much wealth I have? And yet you committed such acts for a mere few thousand nyang?"
As if recalling that moment, Yong Jamyeong's face flushed.
"And so that bastard brazenly smiled and said this: 'Then give me more.'"
Rage gathered on Yong Jamyeong's face.
"I was truly furious. Not angry at him—angry at myself for being deceived by such a scoundrel. He was an unsavory fellow who associated with lechers from the start, yet I had failed to notice even the slightest sign."
"What happened then?"
Yong Jamyeong drank his wine, and Geom Mugeuk refilled it. These were words he could not speak without alcohol.
"First, they beat me to a pulp."
* * *
Thud! Thud!
Under the continuing blows, Yong Jamyeong cried out.
"I'll sign! I will!"
The one beating him was not the Yin Blood Ghost, but Manso.
He ignored Yong Jamyeong and simply rained down blows. Yong Jamyeong realized he was trying to break his spirit first.
Merchants, too, sometimes have to break their counterpart's spirit when making a deal. He had chosen the most extreme and fastest method.
Someone who has never once fought will easily succumb when first exposed to violence. Surprised, in pain, and afraid—'Will I truly be beaten to death?' The heart inevitably collapses in an instant. It was a terror that those who haven't experienced it could never know.
"Please! Stop!"
Yong Jamyeong crouched, covering his head and face.
He despaired. Not because of the beating, but because they had shown their faces and carried out their deeds openly.
'In the end, they will kill me.'
Manso stopped the beating and abruptly pulled Yong Jamyeong to his feet.
"Now, sign."
Yong Jamyeong knew that the moment he signed, he would die.
"I'll give you more money. A truly large amount..."
Thud!
Manso's fist flew in again. A beating more severe than before began. Manso knew Yong Jamyeong well. He knew a smart man would not sign easily. That was why he was trying to beat the defiance out of him.
Even as he screamed, Yong Jamyeong had but one thought.
'I have to live. I won't die at the hands of bastards like these!'
The bastard pulled Yong Jamyeong up again.
Meanwhile, the Yin Blood Ghost was looking out the window. As if being chased by someone, he appeared anxious.
"Hurry up and finish this!"
At his words, Manso urged Yong Jamyeong.
"Sign."
"I'll give you my entire fortune. So please..."
Thud! Thud!
The pain could not overcome the fear of death.
Tears streamed from Yong Jamyeong's eyes. Tears from the pain, and tears from the injustice.
How hard he had lived. Working while cutting back on sleep. He had done his best to treat the people of the merchant group well.
Was the end of that effort to be a death like this?
He shouldn't have trusted people. He had said he didn't.
'You will become the God of Commerce!'
It was the result of being intoxicated by those sweet words. Coming to his senses after being deceived, the situation was already over.
What if it had been a choice between losing all his fortune or not?
Would he have felt somewhat better?
'Please save me.'
He prayed to the heavens. If there was a god of merchants, he prayed to that god as well.
'If you save me! If you save me!'
He hadn't even finished his promise when the door opened.
* * *
With an ecstatic face, Yong Jamyeong spoke.
"That man entered through there."
Geom Mugeuk recalled that moment. The image of his father in his youth.
"When that man entered, I felt the air in the room change."
Yong Jamyeong closed his eyes and recalled that time. If the earlier memory was pain, from here on it was a memory of joy and longing.
"How should I describe that man?"
Watching Yong Jamyeong agonize over it, Geom Mugeuk smiled.
"It would not be easy to describe from such a brief meeting."
"First, I thought he was handsome."
"More than me?"
At Geom Mugeuk's question, Yong Jamyeong nodded firmly.
"You seem to have forgotten who I am for a moment."
"I apologize, but he was my savior."
"I shall take it that my debt of gratitude has increased."
At his jest, Yong Jamyeong smiled. Now that it was a pleasant story, he was at ease.
"He was handsome, yet gave off a powerful feeling. Cold somehow, and haughty. I don't know how to express him."
The sight of my father in his youth—I too want to see it terribly. To the point that I wish I had been there then.
"The moment he saw him, the Yin Blood Ghost trembled in terror. That was the first time I had ever seen such extreme terror on a person's face. I realized that the reason the bastard had been anxious the entire time he was there was because of that man. And what followed was instantaneous. A brilliant light flashed, and that lecherous bastard was shattered beyond recognition, collapsing into pieces. As a martial artist, you might enjoy such tales, but in truth, my eyes could see nothing."
Seeing him smashed to pieces, it seemed Father had been enraged. He must have raped and murdered a woman from the Heavenly Demon Cult.
"So what did you do?"
"At first, I froze and couldn't say a word. When that man looked this way, I shouted. Please save me. I am not one of these bastards."
Yong Jamyeong returned again to that day, to that very spot.
* * *
He still remembered it. That gaze which had looked at him.
The gaze was asking for a reason. Why should I believe you? Why should I save you?
Yong Jamyeong had an intuition that his life or death hinged on his answer. What should he say? Though his mind pondered, his mouth was already speaking. He hoped his instincts were working properly.
"That man who tried to kill me always said it. That I would become the God of Commerce. I want to achieve that."
He could not know why he said those words. They had escaped him without his awareness.
The man did not handle matters by feeling alone. He went to the table and looked at the contract placed there. From the contract, he confirmed that it was a situation where they were trying to force a signature.
This time, the man looked at Manso.
"He is lying. He is..."
The man waited, but the next words did not come. Manso possessed the eloquence to concoct plausible words even in such situations, but today was different.
The moment he met the gaze of the man silently staring at him, strangely, words failed him.
He had lived his entire life in hypocrisy and lies, but in this final moment, he could not utter a single lie and died truthfully.
With a flash of light, his body was bisected.
"Please tell me the name of my benefactor."
But the man left that place without a word.
"I will become the greatest merchant under heaven and surely repay you!"
He made to that man the promise he had failed to make to the heavens.
It was regrettable. If only he had said a word to boast of his deed, or at least smiled at him.
Just as he had come without warning, he left in the same manner.
"That is what happened that day."
Geom Mugeuk raised his wine cup to him. Yong Jamyeong toasted his cup against it. The two men drank in silence.
For a moment, they thought of the same person.
“You kept your promise to become the greatest merchant under heaven.”
“But he does not know that, does he?”
That was what he found so regrettable. He wanted to meet that man and tell him.
Do you remember me? I am the one you saved back then. Just as I told you then, I became the greatest merchant.
If only he could say those words, he felt he would have no lingering regrets. It was something he could have simply brushed off with, “I was lucky,” and moved on, yet for some reason, that man kept coming to mind. To the point that he felt as though they were bound together by the chains of fate.
“I tried every possible means to find my benefactor, but I could not. There was no one who had seen him. At times, I even think this: was it all a dream?”
It was so regrettable. Year after year, he was growing older like this. That man, too, must have aged. How had he changed? What was he doing with his life?
“Do you happen to have a portrait of him?”
At that, Yong Jamyeong took a sheet of paper from inside his robes. He took it out with such care, as though it might crumble at the slightest touch.
“I always carry it with me.”
The paper, folded carefully inside a silk cloth, was old and discolored, its edges looking as though they might tear at any moment.
“This is the original that was first drawn back then. I had hundreds of copies made and was about to use them to search for him, but I stopped. I thought it might cause him trouble.”
Geom Mugeuk looked at the face drawn on the old paper. It was so faded that someone seeing it for the first time would not be able to recognize it, but Geom Mugeuk saw his father within it.
Father.
So this is how I come to see you in your youth.
“I can no longer remember his face clearly.”
He had thought he would never forget it. No, he had been certain he would never forget it. But like the paper on which that portrait was drawn, as the years passed, it had gradually faded away.
Yong Jamyeong watched Geom Mugeuk as he gazed at the portrait.
In his deep, clear eyes, he saw longing.
‘Why is he looking at it like that?’
The next moment, Yong Jamyeong flinched.
The face of the man that had been growing indistinct, as though shrouded in mist, began to surface.
It was a face that had only grown hazier of late, yet now it came to mind as clearly as if that incident had happened yesterday.
‘Benefactor!’
When that face surfaced so vividly, he was overwhelmed with joy. It felt so lifelike, as though the man were standing right before him.
‘Why on earth?’
What did the reason matter? What mattered was this joyful feeling.
‘I have grown this old, yet you remain the same. Benefactor, where are you now, and what are you doing? You are not suffering because you have no money, are you? I have plenty of money. Hurry and come find me, and tell me to repay the kindness from back then!’
Then, without thinking, he looked at Geom Mugeuk.
“!”
Goosebumps rose all over his body. It was because he felt that the benefactor from back then and Geom Mugeuk before him now gave off a similar impression. As though that very man from that time were sitting in front of him now. Though their appearances were certainly not that similar.
At that very moment!
“……Surely not?”
Over the face of his benefactor in youth, another person’s face began to overlap.
The face of the person who had summoned him here.
The face of the absolute ruler of this era.
And so, the face of the Demonic Cult Leader, Geom Ujin, crossed the long years and overlapped with the face of his young benefactor.
The two faces became exactly one.
Absolute Regression, Chapter 464