The Seomun Clan, located in the Pungsan region of Hubei Province.
There was a time when they were considered a prestigious clan, enough to be counted among the Five Great Clans.
However, after suffering great damage during the past War of Good and Evil, they were now barely maintaining their existence as a small merchant group.
The current patriarch is Seomun Dam.
He was the one who set right the collapsing clan and merchant group, and he had three sons under his care.
The first son is 24-year-old Seomun Jin-gang.
Since childhood, he had an extraordinary mind and was adept not only at numerical calculations but also at reading people's hearts.
He is a man of strong convictions who walks the path of a scholar rather than a warrior, and he has been designated as the successor to the Seomun Merchant Group.
The second son is 20-year-old Seomun Jang-cheon.
Unlike his older brother, his academic knowledge is lacking, but he has a grand physique, a magnanimous personality, and exceptional martial talent.
He received training early on as a lay disciple of the Mount Hua Sect and has now risen to the ranks of a first-rate martial artist.
And then, there was the problematic third son, Seomun Hwan.
When he was young, he excelled in both intelligence and martial talent, receiving the clan's expectations all at once.
Not only the patriarch but also the elders of the merchant group spared no praise, calling him the 'Hope of the Seomun Clan'.
But Seomun Hwan had a very big problem....
That was precisely that he was extremely lazy.
He only studied the parts that were fun, and only repeated martial arts movements that required no effort.
Even when the patriarch issued an order to invite famous teachers, he would doze off during classes, and it was a common occurrence for him to quietly disappear when invited masters were instructing martial arts.
At first, they waited, thinking 'he'll change when he gets older', but even now that he has turned eighteen, he has not changed.
Now he was called a nuisance or a headache.
Today as well, only when the sun was high in the sky did he rub his sleepy eyes and step out the door.
"Yawn!"
Seomun Hwan, letting out a long yawn as he opened the door and came out, shielded the sunlight reflecting off the tiled roof with his hand and squinted his eyes.
"Is it because my dreams were unsettled? I slept for a long time, but I'm still tired."
As he scratched his butt with his hand, a servant rushed over urgently.
"Young Master!"
"Walk slowly, Deok-heum. You'll fall if you do that."
"Surely... are you just now getting up? Just how much do you sleep in a day?"
"The weather is cozy, so sleep comes easily."
Seomun Hwan answered and looked toward the end of the yard with one eye.
Flowers were in full bloom on a lush tree, and a wooden bench was placed in the shade beneath it.
Seomun Hwan's beloved napping spot.
"Young Master, your older brothers went out early in the morning."
"The first brother went to look at the accounting ledgers again, and the second brother went to meet the elders of the Mount Hua Sect, right?"
"Yes, that is correct. Today, Young Master should also briefly greet the master...."
"Deok-heum."
Seomun Hwan turned his head.
"...Yes?"
"Greetings are only genuine when they come from the heart. It's not polite to go visit forcefully with sleepy eyes, is it?"
"...Does it work like that again?"
Seomun Hwan stretched his body fully and began walking toward the wooden bench.
Sluggishly, one step, and another step.
With every step, annoyance seemed to ooze from his entire body.
Watching his master flop onto the wooden bench, Deok-heum asked as if he found it pathetic.
"Young Master, when do you plan to resume martial arts practice?"
Seomun Hwan answered nonchalantly.
"You see, there's something I realized recently."
"Yes?"
"Whether it's martial arts or whatever, doing it forcibly makes it no fun."
"...So you're saying you won't do it?"
"That's right. Haha, Deok-heum, you really are clever."
Deok-heum shook his head from side to side.
He realized once again that the master who was once called a genius had now become a nap expert.
Just as Deok-heum sighed deeply and was about to leave, Seomun Hwan called him again.
"Deok-heum."
"Yes, Young Master!"
Since he kept calling, Deok-heum's voice was tinged with irritation.
"You know well about the recent situation of the Kangho, right? You originally like stories like that."
At those words, Deok-heum scratched the back of his head as if embarrassed and said.
"Well, for a guy like me, wouldn't there be no proper fun without such rumors?"
"So? How is the Murim situation you hear about these days?"
"Well, is there anything? It is always peaceful. Aside from the Green Forest and the Yangtze River Water Fortress clashing once, there isn't anything special."
"Is that so?"
Seomun Hwan continued in a languid voice.
"What about the Heavenly Demon Cult? How are those guys these days?"
At that question, Deok-heum asked back in surprise.
"Yes?! Why are you mentioning those vicious Demonic Cult bastards?"
"Well, just curious. Are those guys still stuck in the Heavenly Mountains and not coming out?"
"Those guys were on the verge of annihilation because of the rebellion caused by the Phantom Demon in the past. They say they need at least another 20 years to recover from that damage and regain their past power. So they have no choice but to be quiet for now."
"...Is that so?"
"It is something that happened even before the Young Master was born. You do not need to worry. Then, I will go to work."
As Deok-heum bowed and left, Seomun Hwan muttered while still lying on the wooden bench.
"Hmm! They aren't guys who would stay quiet like that."
Deok-heum's words weren't wrong either.
Tens of thousands of martial artists were mobilized to catch him, who was the Phantom Demon in the past, but the survivors numbered merely a thousand.
They had devised a meticulous trap, but that was probably because they didn't know he was hiding more than half of his power.
So the Heavenly Demon Cult would indeed need dozens more years to recover its original prestige.
"But if it's them...."
The Cult Leader and disciples, who were smarter and more ambitious than anyone else, came to mind.
Were they truly patient enough to hold their breath for that long stretch of time?
"I don't know. It has nothing to do with me now. They say the power of the Murim Alliance is mightier than ever these days, so they'll take care of it."
But perhaps because he recalled bad memories?
Seomun Hwan, who would normally sleep soundly as soon as his head touched anything, absolutely could not fall asleep.
Eventually, after tossing and turning repeatedly, he sluggishly got up from the wooden bench.
"Shall I go see what everyone is doing?"
Seomun Hwan moved while scratching his butt.
The inner room of the Seomun Clan merchant group.
Seomun Jin-gang, the eldest son of the Seomun Clan, closed the ledger heavily and sighed.
"I just can't get a grasp on it."
Next to him, two accountants in charge of the merchant group's accounting had their heads bowed.
"We are sorry, First Young Master. But the ledger is definitely correct."
"The figures are perfect no matter who looks at them. It's structured to be in the black, and the profit rate is actually higher than usual."
Seomun Jin-gang, who was promised the position of the next patriarch and next merchant group leader, had already been in charge of organizing the ledgers since three years ago.
Dealing with numbers is a tedious task, but the diligent and meticulous Seomun Jin-gang did not push it onto others and managed the ledgers himself.
But starting from a few months ago, profits were strangely decreasing.
He thought he would be able to identify the cause quickly if he checked the ledgers, but no matter how much he searched, he couldn't find the problem.
Seomun Jin-gang rested his chin on his hand and spoke in a low voice.
"They say inventory shrinkage loss is unavoidable when doing merchant work, but...."
Seomun Jin-gang sighed.
Rather, the ledger being too perfect was the problem. It was so normal that it was suspicious.
At first, he suspected double ledgers, but there were no such signs either.
"This really feels like a ghost has possessed the ledger."
At that moment, someone entered with a familiar yawning sound.
"Yawn! Brother, you were still looking at that?"
Loosely tied hair, a robe half-peeled off, and a peach rice cake in his hand.
The third brother, the incarnation of laziness, appeared.
Seomun Jin-gang, who was already tired, waved his hand shooing him away and said.
"Hwan-ah. Everyone is busy right now. If you are bored, go outside and play."
"I know, I know. Since everyone is wrapping their heads around it and sweating, shouldn't I help out a bit too?"
Seomun Hwan sat familiarly on a chair and began flipping through one of the ledgers casually.
"No, if you touch that as you please like that...."
Seomun Jin-gang was about to say something but sighed as if giving up.
"Fine, do as you please."
It was a matter where the answer couldn't be seen anyway.
Couldn't Seomun Hwan discover something by luck? He wasn't the type to listen if stopped anyway.
He would probably look at it roughly and leave when he got bored.
Contrary to Seomun Jin-gang's thoughts, Seomun Hwan flipped through the books for quite a while.
At first, he seemed to look roughly, but his gaze gradually changed.
"Hmm!"
Seomun Hwan's fingertip stopped at a specific page of the ledger.
"This is the problem."
"What?"
"Brother. Look here. This transport record, the return of specific goods is recorded at one-month intervals."
"...So?"
"But you see, the returned goods aren't actually restocked. On the ledger, it's passed over to the warehouse clearance item."
"No, what did you say?"
As Seomun Jin-gang adjusted his seat, Seomun Hwan pointed at the ledger with his finger.
"This isn't a double ledger. The ledger wasn't manipulated. They designed the ledger so there was no need to manipulate it in the first place."
One of the accountants asked with surprised eyes.
"What do you mean by that?"
Seomun Hwan spoke while munching on the peach rice cake.
"So, they created a completely new depreciation item. They classified some materials among logistics items as value reduction processing due to long-term storage. It sounds nice to call it loss processing, but in reality, it's an inconspicuous clearance. The materials that slipped out from there are goods that are already gone according to the ledger, so no one looks for them."
"Then...."
"The actual goods were secretly resold and pocketed privately."
Seomun Hwan flipped the ledger one more time.
"Here. This is the adjusted value item, but there is a strange gap between the purchase price and the evaluation price. It keeps getting adjusted by just 1 jeon difference, but if this repeats, a large profit margin is created from the total transaction amount. The remaining profit from there was siphoned off again into an item called return costs."
The accountants shuddered.
"Is such a method… possible?"
"This is… beyond clever, it's art."
Seomun Jin-gang checked the ledger Seomun Hwan had pointed out with an expression of disbelief.
Surprisingly, Seomun Hwan was right.
A very covert method that he and the accountants wouldn't have noticed if Seomun Hwan hadn't pointed it out.
Seomun Jin-gang, gritting his teeth, asked sharply.
"The culprit? Can you identify the culprit?"
"A person who cuts items in such detail, knows the actual logistics flow, and even has the authority to adjust purchase prices...."
Seomun Hwan trailed off and placed his finger on the cover of the ledger.
"Branch 3 Warehouse Manager, Han Man-deuk. This is his method."
Seomun Jin-gang looked at Seomun Hwan for a moment, then immediately issued an order.
"Capture Han Man-deuk immediately. I will interrogate him myself."
Seomun Jin-gang left the room huffing, with the spirit to beat Han Man-deuk to death right away.
Even after he left, the accountants compared the ledgers for a while and couldn't speak.
Only after a long time did someone open their mouth.
"Young Master, by any chance... do you study ledgers separately in your spare time?"
"Huh? Me?"
Seomun Hwan blinked his eyes and said.
"How annoying would that be. I just got lucky."
"...Is that so?"
The accountants, who knew Seomun Hwan's usual conduct well, nodded their heads.
Of course, it wasn't a problem that could be found by simple luck.
'They said he was the smartest when he was young....'
'What a waste. If he had just kept making an effort with that head....'
Leaving behind the gazes looking at him with pity, Seomun Hwan left the door.
"Yawn! The Seomun Merchant Group must remain healthy for me to play and eat for the rest of my life."
To Seomun Hwan, the clan was a money line that would never dry up.
Doesn't the merchant group have to be healthy for him to live lazily for the rest of his life?
"Yawn! I used my head after a long time, so I'm sleepy again."
Seomun Hwan, who stretched languidly, walked ploddingly again toward his room.
"As expected, inside the blanket is the best.
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