“An expert?”

“Someone who specializes in something. That’s what it means. When it comes to spiritual beasts and insects, I’m the best in the Central Plains—well, something like that.”

It had been a while since I introduced myself as an expert.

With a slightly arrogant expression, I revealed my confidence.

Sure, I could act humble if I wanted to, but to gain the client’s trust, it was better to show confidence.

And honestly, I was confident.

“Ohhh... Is that so?”

As expected, Geum Gi-ryung’s gaze filled with trust as he looked at my confident demeanor.

He quickly pulled out his brush and inkstone set, brought it over to me, and spoke with a joyful expression.

“Then, shall we draft the contract? The conditions we discussed earlier will be honored as-is, and if you tell me the amount you want, I’ll negotiate and prepare accordingly.

Or perhaps you have something specific in mind? If it’s not money but an item, I am a merchant, after all, so let me know, and I’ll do my best to procure it.”

The paper Geum Gi-ryung brought out listed the basic contract terms, but I casually pushed it aside with a smile.

In my past life, I had done business with wealthy people who liked collecting venomous reptiles, but this wasn’t how you dealt with the rich.

You don’t bargain with money when dealing with wealthy clients.

You bargain with goods.

As long as you provide them with something real and tangible, the rich will pay any amount.

So there’s no need to haggle in advance.

If I handled the job properly, they’d take care of the money on their own.

‘I understand people like that really well.’

There was a middle-aged gentleman who once came to see me after I announced that I was selling reptiles I’d bred myself.

He was an older man, well-mannered.

「“Wow, seriously, Spicy Fabre’s specimens have unbelievable coloration.”

“I try to create conditions as close to natural sunlight as possible for basking. I also make an effort to feed them a wide variety of things. Not just mealworms and crickets—I even get bee larvae from an apiary I know, and I gather wasp larvae from people who go out hunting for hornet nests.”

“Wow, honestly, the coloration’s even better than wild specimens. No matter how hard I try to recreate the environment, I can’t get them like this. Which of these are up for adoption?”

“All of those are available, so feel free to take the one you want.”

“Really?”

“Yes.”

At my words, the gentleman who had been carefully inspecting the reptiles I’d bred smiled and said—

He’d like to adopt them all.

“Then... can I take all of these?”

“A-all of them? Then that would be... there are five, so at four hundred each, that’s twenty million won... Wouldn’t that be a bit much for you?”

I’d priced them relatively low, but the total still came out high. Worried, I asked him hesitantly, and then he scratched his head awkwardly and said something that left me shocked.

“Haha, it’s fine. I run a small company.”

“A... co-company.”

And what followed surprised me even more.

“Then I’ll take them all. Here’s the money.”

What he handed over were three ten-million-won checks.

I assumed he’d wire the money, since he hadn’t originally planned to take all of them—but he pulled three ten-million-won checks straight from his wallet. That alone was shocking.

There was another bundle inside, too.

And then he said something that threw me even more off guard.

“Looks like you gave me one extra?”

“No, for specimens this good, I should pay this much. If these were the best wild-caught ones, they’d probably go for around that much too.”

“Well, sure, but still, the amount is...”

“If I’m buying it, it shouldn’t be cheap. I want to buy something good, not something cheap.”

“Oh...”」

As I briefly recalled the memory from my past life and looked at Geum Gi-ryung, he had a confused expression on his face, like he didn’t understand what I was doing.

No wonder—suddenly pushing the contract away like that must’ve thrown him off.

Wearing a cocky smile, I offered a soft grin to put him at ease.

“If I handle the job in a way that satisfies the Gold Merchant Alliance, we can talk then. As for the wedding gift for the Ak Clan and Brother Gwiseong, let’s go with what we discussed, but everything else—we’ll talk about it later.

I don’t talk money before the job is done.”

‘Damn, that was a killer line—even I’m impressed.’

Geum Gi-ryung’s eyes lit up in an instant.

He asked, looking genuinely impressed—

“Would you ever consider going into business, young sir?”

‘Maybe I’ll keep in touch and eventually start selling exotic venomous pets through this guy.’

In the Central Plains, they even raised crickets for sale—why not lizards and spiders?

***

—Creak. Creeeeak.

As the wind swept through, the partial sail flapped, and the trees groaned as they brushed together, letting out eerie creaking cries.

And it was aboard the ship, sliding down the yellow waters of the Yellow River, that Geum Gi-ryung once again expressed his thanks to me.

“Hoho, truly, if this is handled perfectly, I don’t think any amount I offer will be enough.”

“Everything must be handled in person. Relying only on hearsay or issuing commands has its limits.”

“Every word and action you take inspires such trust...”

Even though our relationship was strictly transactional, the reason he was so grateful was simple—

I was heading to the site myself.

He must’ve thought I’d just tell him how to fix things. But I’m not a con man—I’m not going to babble some nonsense and take money for it.

Sure, giving instructions on how to handle the grain infestation could be done with words alone, but to be thorough, I had to check the site myself.

No matter how well I explained the method, its effectiveness could vary depending on the situation at the location. Variables could prevent proper execution, so field verification was essential.

And no matter how well you explain it, some people completely botch it and still claim they followed directions perfectly.

Even in my past life, there were tons of people who didn’t follow the treatment methods I gave them, then turned around and complained that it didn’t work.

I’d encountered some seriously dumbfounding situations.

「“You’re saying someone posted on Spicy Fabre’s café that their pet died after following my treatment method?

No way. Let me see.

Ah, is it this post?”

Title: Our Bokdori died after trying that treatment method Spicy Fabre bastard suggested.

He clearly said to remove the film from the eyes if it failed to shed, so I did, and then its eyes started bleeding and it died shortly after.

—No way, newbie...

—Holy shit... He meant remove the failed shed, not the freaking cornea, you maniac.

—People like this shouldn’t be allowed to own pets.

—Wow... I didn’t think someone like this actually existed.」

I told them to remove the shedding skin, and they ripped off the cornea.

The world’s big and full of villains, huh?

That’s why confirmation is non-negotiable.

Geum Gi-ryung’s base of operations was in the city of Taean, in front of Mount Tai, which we passed on the ship—not far away. Just a couple hours by boat, so it wasn’t even that much trouble.

Strike while the iron’s hot.

Leaving Hwa-eun behind to care for the rest of the creatures, I boarded Geum Gi-ryung’s ship with Sister Seol, Cho, Hyang, and Bini, and we set off immediately.

By the time the sun had set and night had fallen, we reached the harbor near Mount Tai, passing ships on the river glowing red in the dark.

Because of an island in the middle of the river, the harbor was just as crowded as when we’d first arrived.

Fortunately, lights had been set up along the riverbank to serve as markers for passing ships.

—Boom boom boom boom.

This translation is the intellectual property of Novelight.

Just as we were wondering how we’d get into the harbor, a drumbeat echoed from Geum Gi-ryung’s ship, and several small boats shot out from the harbor and began clearing the traffic.

“Because of the newly emerged island, the harbor’s gotten a bit congested. Please wait a moment—my merchant group will handle the arrangement of ships.”

“Yes, we had to be careful of that island even when we came upstream. If this is your base of operations, it must be quite inconvenient,” I said.

Geum Gi-ryung nodded at my words.

With a face full of frustration, he spoke.

“Frustrating? If only it were just that. Inconvenience is the least of it—we have to move goods, and with the harbor this crowded... At this rate, we’ll have to invest a huge sum to build a new port.

At first, it would appear and disappear, but now it’s taken root completely.

We should’ve done something when it first started forming...”

Apparently, the sand had started piling up and washing away in the beginning, but since they left it alone, it became what it is now.

As I nodded along, small boats approached and began guiding our ship into the harbor, likely because the clearing work had been completed.

***

Upon arrival, we spent the night at an extremely luxurious guesthouse Geum Gi-ryung had arranged.

As soon as morning came, after breakfast, we headed straight to the location of his warehouse.

“This way, Young Sir So.”

“That’s one massive warehouse.”

The warehouse he took me to was a truly enormous structure built from brick.

It looked like a fortress, and we entered through gates flanked by the signboard "Pungwon Euichang" on both sides. Once inside, a courtyard shaped like the character for “mouth” came into view.

Inside, many people were waiting.

“Oh, y-you’ve arrived, Elder. Huh-!”

One large man ran forward to greet us but stopped abruptly, shocked by the sight of Cho, Hyang, and Bini following behind me.

“Chief Ha, it’s fine—come closer. I was surprised at first too, but they’re very gentle creatures,” Geum Gi-ryung said.

The man hesitantly approached.

Bini, clearly amused by the man’s reaction, decided to scare him for fun.

—Chrrr! 『Scary, right?!』

“Eeeeek!”

—Tstststst! 『Ahahaha.』

He’d been coming closer but fell flat on his rear in shock.

I chuckled, patted Bini’s head, and spoke.

“Bini, you shouldn’t scare the nice man like that. He’s just surprised because it’s his first time seeing you. It’s alright—he was just joking.”

“J-joking?”

“Yes, she’s quite the mischievous one.”

We waited a bit for the startled Chief Ha to calm down, and once he’d regained his composure, he gave a formal greeting.

“I-I apologize for the scene. I am Chief Ha Huseong. I oversee the management of this Pungwon Euichang.”

“Nice to meet you. I’m So-ryong.”

“Well then, please take a look.”

Now composed, Chief Ha opened one of the doors in the warehouse structure shaped like the character 口.

Inside, a massive pit came into view.

A large hole had been dug in the ground beyond the door, and it was filled with grain almost up to the entrance.

“There’s one storage pit per door, fifty in total. Each pit can hold 450 seom of grain. Currently, ten are filled with rice, and twenty with wheat.”

“Incredible. But... is there no issue with humidity when storing it underground?”

“No, the soil here is dry.”

I was concerned about moisture damage, but he explained that the ground here was arid, making long-term storage possible with minimal risk.

“Well then, let me examine the grain a bit.”

“Yes, please forgive me—it’s not in the best condition.”

I walked over to the pit and examined the state of the grain.

—Crunch crunch.

A strange experience—walking on a bed of grain.

I bent down and looked closely. It seemed to be wheat—and it was a mess.

I scooped up a handful, spread it out in my palm, and took a closer look.

“Ah, well now. The barley moth and flour moth have laid their eggs.”

“Barley moth and flour moth? They have names?”

The {N•o•v•e•l•i•g•h•t} chief seemed surprised that such pests even had names. I smiled and explained.

“When storing grain, the insects that typically fly in to lay eggs include the barley moth, the flour moth, the striped moth, the rice moth, and the single-spot rice moth.

And right now, it’s the breeding season for the barley moth and the flour moth. But there’s no need for excessive worry. These ones disappear once the season passes.”

“A true expert indeed!”

“Ohhh, is that so?”

Geum Gi-ryung and the chief, impressed by my professional explanation, beamed with joy.

But it was too soon to celebrate.

The real problem lay elsewhere.

Squirming black things covering the surface of the wheat I held in my hand—

My old childhood friends, back when Spicy Fabre used to catch and play with bugs—

Rice weevils.

These pests are commonly called grain weevils. They breed endlessly in warm conditions, regardless of the season, and bore into rice or wheat grains, hollowing them out completely—which makes them the biggest threat.

“Yes, but the real issue is the Sitophilus oryzae—the rice weevil. If left alone, they’ll continue breeding until all the wheat is eaten.”

“Yes, exactly. That’s why we’ve been spreading the grain out in the sun to kill them, but there’s just too much of it...”

He was right—the weevils were weak to heat, so drying them under the sun would definitely kill them.

But that only applied to the ones that had come out and were crawling around. The ones still inside the grains couldn’t be caught that way.

You think you’ve got them all after sun-drying, but then after a while, more come crawling out again.

Also, when wheat is laid out in the sun for too long, the kernels dry out and crack, ruining their market value.

“We’ve also tried garlic and chili peppers, but they haven’t worked well.”

People often recommend garlic or peppers as solutions, but to be precise, garlic doesn’t kill weevils that are already present.

Extracts from peas and hot peppers have been shown to have a reliable insecticidal effect, so chili might help to a degree, but the repellency isn’t strong enough to completely eliminate them.

I brushed the wheat grains off my hand and stepped out of the pit. Geum Gi-ryung looked at me expectantly.

“Is there a way?”

I smiled and nodded.

“Yes. Since we’ve got guests attending a banquet, we should serve them some liquor.”

“Liquor?”

“You mean... actual liquor?”

Both of them tilted their heads in confusion at my words.