I Run a Convenience Store in the Martial Arts World

Baek Jin-yong arrived.

“Ugh! The smell!”

Somehow a foul smell had been wafting from a distance.
I never dreamed it would be the smell coming from Baek Jin-yong.

His once clean sky-blue martial clothes were now stained with feces and urine marks.

“How did the innkeeper get here…”

Baek Jin-yong looked at me with an expression of disbelief as I pinched my nose, then suddenly rushed over and grabbed my hand.

“Ah, ahhh!”
“Indeed! You’ve brought my winning prize money? You came to save me, right?”
“Y-yes… but first, how about we talk a bit further apart…”

Baek Jin-yong hugged me tightly.
With his body covered in fecal stains.

“Wahaha! Thank you, great hero! Someone who understands righteousness and justice like this, what else could you be but a great hero! Hahaha!!”
“No, please move aw…”
“Thank you! Thank you!”
“I said move away!!!”

With my kick, Baek Jin-yong rolled far away.

Argh.
It got on my convenience store vest.
It smells…

Completely unaffected by the impact, Baek Jin-yong stood up abruptly and assumed an arrogant posture.

“Ahem, hmm! Didn’t I tell you! Didn’t I say that paper was worth 100 gold ingots? As a martial artist of the righteous sect who understands righteousness and justice, if I receive a formal apology, I am willing to forgive you all… huh?”

No sooner had Baek Jin-yong finished speaking than two martial artists each grabbed his arms.

“W-what? Wasn’t the debt paid?”
“It’s not paid until the money comes in.”
“W-what? Innkeeper! Didn’t I pay my debt?”

As if.
I left the convenience store to Yu Hwa-yeon,
how am I supposed to bring 100 gold ingots while protecting them by myself?

Cheon-hyang ignored Baek Jin-yong’s foolish words and turned to me.

“Now that you’ve seen he’s safe, shall we talk business?”
“But I can’t bring it myself even if I go back to the convenience store. If you lend me some sword-carrying guys… I mean, martial artists, I can go and,”
“No.”

Cheon-hyang smiles at me.

“I was curious. I was too busy to be surprised then, but the inn was quite mysterious. Let’s go together. To that convenience store or whatever inn.”

It seems I’ll have a pretty customer.

Meanwhile, Baek Jin-yong,

“W-what about me?”
“There’s an order to work until she returns.”
“B-back in that latrine?”
“Hurry up.”
“Aaaah! I won’t go! I can’t go! You tiger nose bastards! You try it yourselves! I feel like I’m going to vomit… ugh! Just thinking about it makes me sick! I want to go too! You sons of bitcheeeees!!”

Screech-

On the ground, a straight line was drawn long from dragging Baek Jin-yong away.

I got on the carriage Cheon-hyang had prepared.
She entered the carriage with a smile, and soon the carriage slowly began to move.

Honestly, from my perspective, it was a very strange experience.
I had ridden in cars before, but never a carriage in the martial arts world.

Seeing my expression heightened by the rough movement, Cheon-hyang asked in her elegant voice.

“Is this your first time riding a carriage?”
“Pardon? Ah, yes. I suppose so.”
“Since when have you been running the inn?”

Why is she asking that?

Even for a general question, it’s difficult for me to answer.

Suddenly crash-landed into this martial arts world just three months ago.
Should I say from three months ago, or should I include the time I spent in the modern world?
This is quite a difficult question for me.

“I’ve been working since I became an adult.”
“And your age this year?”
“I’m twenty-eight.”
“I’m four years older than you.”

As she said this, Cheon-hyang smiled at me.

‘!!!’

Incredible.
How can someone be so beautiful?
They say when you see someone too beautiful, you can’t help but admire them, and that’s exactly how I felt seeing Cheon-hyang smile.

Feeling uncomfortable making eye contact, I just looked out the window.

They always say to be careful of alcohol and women.
Get a grip, Kim Jung-hyun.
You’re now a wealthy person with 100 gold ingots.
Do you really think this woman is smiling because she likes you?
Not at all.
I’ve never received a woman’s smile in my entire life, and suddenly a beautiful older woman I just met is smiling at me? Does that make any sense?
Yeah, that’s right.
It’s probably a scheme to completely rob me of my 100 gold ingots, like a fox spirit bewitching me.
Absolutely, absolutely don’t be enchanted.

Women are not to be trusted.

Slap- Slap-

Cheon-hyang was startled when she saw me suddenly slapping my own cheeks.

“Oh my. Why are you suddenly…”
“Ah. It’s nothing. By the way, how much is the debt?”

Cheon-hyang leaned back against the backrest, moving her body away from me, and muttered to herself, “I wanted to talk more…” before continuing.

“10 gold ingots.”
“He’s accrued quite a debt.”
“He’s quite behind. Even though the interest is only 10%, it’s already grown to 10 ingots. Since we’re talking business, let me ask. What exactly is that piece of paper that has the value of 100 gold ingots?”

Cheon-hyang was a very intelligent person.
Until now, the martial artists who visited the convenience store understood things in their own way, calling fluorescent lights night-luminous pearls, Tylenol a special medicine, and ramen as lamian.
But Cheon-hyang was different.
She was asking fundamental questions.
She didn’t try to understand it on her own.
That made me even more wary of her.

“You just need to know that I have 100 gold ingots.”
“I know all the local notables in Hubei Province inside out, but I’ve never seen someone like you. 100 gold ingots couldn’t have just fallen from the sky.”

It did fall from the sky.
Because it’s a lottery.

How should I explain this?

As I was racking my brain, Cheon-hyang said.

“Your Excellency is a truly strange person.”

The air suddenly seemed to sink heavily.
I couldn’t fathom the intention behind her gaze.

What does she mean by a strange person?
Does it mean she doesn’t trust me?

“I don’t dislike men with secrets… but hiding too much reduces one’s charm.”

And Cheon-hyang leaned back against the backrest as if it wasn’t a big deal.

“Everyone has their circumstances. I’ll wait until you can talk about it. Anyway, I’m done once I get the money.”

I inwardly sighed with relief.
Did I manage to get past it somehow?
It’s more that the other party allowed it to pass.

I couldn’t go around talking about the convenience store system.
Not only would it be incomprehensible, but it could also easily make me a target.
The moment I become a target of martial artists, my life would be ruined.
I had to protect the convenience store somehow.
It was the minimum safety measure for my survival in this martial arts world.

“Thank you for understanding.”
“It’s nothing.”
And Cheon-hyang looked out the window.
People in the marketplace were passing by.
Looking at her profile, I stared at her for a moment.
How could someone so beautiful and young be the mistress of an entertainment house?
And a mistress who runs a gambling den on top of that.
In modern terms, wouldn’t that be equivalent to the boss of gangsters running a nightclub?
What story led her to become the owner of Manyokru at the age of thirty?
“How did you end up becoming the mistress of a gambling den?”
Cheon-hyang looked at me with a start.
It was a gaze whose thoughts I couldn’t discern.
“Why? Is being a gambling den mistress not good? Does it look too bad?”
“Eh? Ah, no, I didn’t particularly mean it that way…”
“It’s just the ordinary story of parents selling their preciously raised daughter to an entertainment house because they needed money when she was young.”
That’s an ordinary story?
I felt unnecessarily sorry.
I shouldn’t have asked.
“Why are you looking at me like that?”
“I’m sorry. I inadvertently ended up prodding an old wound.”
Cheon-hyang, who had been listening to my words carefully, suddenly burst into loud laughter.
“Hahaha!! Indeed, Your Excellency is even stranger than I thought.”
Is that something to laugh about?
“Don’t feel too sorry. Such stories are common among courtesans. Usually, men only desire the body without paying much attention to the story. I’ve never met someone like Your Excellency before.”
Thinking that there might be wounds of hers that I don’t know about,
I saw her a bit differently.
No matter if she runs a gambling den and is a loan shark collecting debts, everyone has their own circumstances.
While I was thinking this,
suddenly the carriage stopped.

“Mistress. We’ve arrived.”

We got out of the carriage.
Like a drop of ink accidentally dropped on a well-painted picture, a modern convenience store stood prominently in the desolate atmosphere of the bamboo forest, not fitting in at all.

“Please wait a moment.”

I hurriedly entered the convenience store and scanned the barcode of the first-prize winning lottery ticket on the POS terminal.

[Claim Prize Money]

The claim button flashes as if asking to be pressed quickly.

If I press this, 100 gold ingots at once.
Having never won a lottery in my twenty-eight years of life, my heart was pounding for no reason.

Even though it’s not my money.

When I pressed the button,

[Starting prize payment! Please keep distance from the POS terminal!]

A warning message appeared.

I quickly moved away from the counter, and then,

Clatter-!!

The cash drawer opened automatically, and several gold ingots shining with golden light began to pop out as if they really fell from the sky.

“Wow.”

Even though I thought it wasn’t an ordinary convenience store, seeing a sight incomprehensible to the human mind, admiration naturally flowed out.

Thud-!

After the last gold ingot came out, the cash drawer closed by itself.
On the counter floor, 100 gold ingots were piled up, each emitting its own light.

I collected 10 of them and went outside.
Cheon-hyang’s lips gradually parted as she saw the 10 gold ingots in my hand.

“So it was true.”
“What would you have done if it was a lie?”
“Then it wouldn’t have ended with just destroying the inn.”
“Haha… that’s fortunate then.”

Is the inn that disposable!

“Baek Jin-yong’s debt has been repaid with this.”

As Cheon-hyang gestured to the martial artist behind her, the martial artist approached.

“Go and release Baek Jin-yong.”
“Yes.”

Soon, the martial artist’s figure disappeared without a trace.

“Now that the business is done.”
“Pardon?”
“Would you like to take a walk?”

What kind of development is this?

“I’d like to talk a bit more.”

She took out a well-polished liquor bottle from the side where her chest was.

“They call it drunk truths, don’t they? Hehe.”

Cheon-hyang sticks right to me with a gesture impossible to refuse.

A rich, unknown fragrance wafted heavily from her body.
I met the gaze of Cheon-hyang, who was looking at me as if waiting for my answer.
And then,
“I don’t want to.”
I said I didn’t want to.
Crash-
The liquor bottle Cheon-hyang was holding fell and shattered into pieces.