Volume 5 Chapter 8 – Decisive Move

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Translated by Rain

Read it only at Novelbyu.com & Utoon.net

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The Eldest Young Master’s voice welcomed Elder Yeom who entered the office.

“Did you like the meal?”

Elder Yeom, who sat down, faced the Eldest Young Master with a straight gaze.

“It was excellent.”

“That is pleasing news. Our maids’ skills are excellent.”

Unlike his favorable attitude, the Eldest Young Master was piercing through Elder Yeom with a gaze like a sharp-edged surgical blade.

As if he would rummage through everything of Elder Yeom’s to look into his insides in detail.

Elder Yeom did not show the slightest agitation and bowed his head in a respectful manner first.

“Come to think of it, I was in such a rush that I could not even express my gratitude for your efforts on my mission.”

The Eldest Young Master, who received the gratitude by lightly raising his hand, asked.

“How did it look to you? This Eldest Young Master’s tact.”

“It was impressive.”

“Was it?”

“Yes, very much.”

The gazes of the two people crossed in the air.

“I see. If so…”

Just as the Eldest Young Master was about to say something, Elder Yeom bowed his head once again.

“Therefore, I can only say I am sorry to the Eldest Young Master.”

“What do you mean?”

Elder Yeom replied in that bowed posture.

“It seems that favor of the Eldest Young Master will now become useless to me.”

“Those words mean…?”

Elder Yeom closed his eyes.

* * *

The moment he entered the Eldest Young Master’s faction, at that moment, the footing he held in the Elders’ Hall would vanish.

Even if he entrusted his daughter to the Eldest Young Master solely for treatment, it was no different from being held hostage.

Therefore, regardless of the factual relations, he would be regarded as part of the Eldest Young Master’s faction.

If so, all that remained was how dearly he could sell himself, but seeing the power the Eldest Young Master displayed, even that was difficult now.

Closing his eyes, Elder Yeom recalled the Eldest Young Master’s voice he had heard at the House of Benevolence and Love in Walnut Village that day.

‘I am only a mere physician and a swordless one, but you? Can you be just the father of a child?’

He firmed his mind.

* * *

Elder Yeom opened his closed eyes, raised his bowed head, and looked at the Eldest Young Master with a straight gaze.

At his determined eyes, the Eldest Young Master’s expression also grew interested.

Just what kind of decision had Elder Yeom made?

Before long, Elder Yeom’s mouth opened.

“I think I will step down from the position of elder now.”

* * *

A heavy silence settled.

Now, looking at Elder Yeom, the Eldest Young Master’s gaze looked almost burning.

“….”

“….”

However, Elder Yeom did not turn his gaze away.

He only faced that gaze as calmly as possible.

“…Is that so?”

Ultimately, the first one to open his mouth was the Eldest Young Master.

Instead of an answer, Elder Yeom asked the Eldest Young Master.

“I know it is rude, but by any chance, could I get a drink of alcohol?”

The Eldest Young Master pulled out a bottle of alcohol from under his desk.

And he brought a newly prepared teacup, personally pouring the alcohol for him as he spoke.

“This alcohol is alcohol my mother brewed.”

Elder Yeom received the cup with a polite attitude.

“It is alcohol that cannot dare to be measured by a price. Thank you.”

He drank the alcohol.

When the cup emptied, the Eldest Young Master filled the cup again, and Elder Yeom drank three cups of alcohol in succession on the spot.

“It is the finest alcohol I have ever drunk in my life.”

The Eldest Young Master only smiled instead of answering.

He sat quietly and waited for Elder Yeom’s mouth to open.

“…Since before I became mature, I held the sword, and governed that sword with the blood of plunderers in the frozen soil of the north.”

Feeling a pungent intoxication rising, Elder Yeom directed his gaze to a distant place.

“When I was young, I tried hanging onto making exploits, and felt pride in advancing ahead of my peers. In that way, I became the youngest squad leader in the history of the Luoyang Sword Family.”

His tone was gloomy.

“However, it was not long before such childish thoughts disappeared.”

The Eldest Young Master listened to his words silently.

“The endless, sporadic engagements unique to the north, warriors who never forget even inherited grudges, a continuation of battles where a conclusion cannot be reached because no base even exists…!”

Elder Yeom’s huge and thick hand trembled.

“…In the end, I was the only one who survived with intact limbs.”

He raised the newly filled cup high.

“If dying in battle, die for the glory of the Sword Family; if living by fighting, live within the honor of the Sword Family!”

That was the slogan of the Luoyang Sword Family’s Northern Combat Patrol Unit, which has now vanished.

The ringing voice of the warrior echoed through the wide office space and scattered.

“The Sword Lord of Mount Hua was indeed a terrifying opponent.”

He could vividly remember the sword clashes of that day even now, if only he closed his eyes.

From the first move to the very last move.

“He was a rare genius who embodied the essence of the Great Mount Hua Sect in his body.”

A sneer hovered at the corner of Elder Yeom’s mouth as he recalled that day.

“I thought that the one falling that day would surely be me.”

However, the result was the opposite.

“It was the same during the Northern War.”

He recalled the grim records of the war.

“Our supply lines were long and thin, and were always prone to being cut, and the excessively wide front line seemed impossible to even maintain.”

A prolonged war. Conscripts whose morale hit rock bottom. A military and Governor’s office that did not coordinate. Tribes within the autonomous region that consistently maintained an attitude where it was unknown whether they were allies or enemies.

“Yet, in the end, I survived and won.”

He burst into a laugh as if finding it absurd.

“Although it was a victory full of wounds, I was satisfied just to have survived, and everyone was excited at the thought of returning home.”

He emptied the alcohol Yeon So-hyeon poured and continued speaking.

“I returned with such an excited heart, but the Main Family I came back to was as good as another battlefield.”

That was because he was no longer a single warrior, but an elder of the Luoyang Sword Family.

“Well, I still endured diligently. Because there was fun in seeing my subordinates gain weight in their thighs, get married one by one, and raise their children.”

He laughed, ‘Hehe.’

“Since my close associates are all people who only know about fighting, in fact I was practically struggling alone, and because of that, a mere butler bastard ended up causing trouble to the Eldest Young Master.”

Another cup was emptied.

“But one day, I realized.”

His drunken gaze turned toward the Eldest Young Master.

“The fact that my body was longing for that battlefield where blood and flesh splattered.”

The Eldest Young Master felt sincerity in Elder Yeom’s gaze.

“That whether I live or die, in the end, I love most of all hanging around with the grim reapers and wielding my sword.”

He emptied the last cup.

Not a single drop of alcohol remained in the bottle now.

The Eldest Young Master asked.

“…So you mean you want to return to being a mere warrior?”

Elder Yeom nodded.

“Because that is what I am best at.”

Silence settled down again.

And a stream of sound transmission flew into the Eldest Young Master.

‘…What he said is all true, Master.’

It was the sound transmission containing the conviction of the Head Maid Jeong-ah.

Elder Yeom bowed his head again.

“So I have become sorry. Although you kindly did me a favor, it ended up becoming a useless effort…”

“…It is a lie.”

“Yes?”

The Eldest Young Master smiled, leaning back in his chair.

“How about putting an end to the lies there, Elder Yeom.”

Elder Yeom’s two fists ended up having strength enter them.

“…May I accept the Eldest Young Master’s words as an insult?”

A sound transmission flew in urgently from the outside.

‘Elder Yeom’s story just now was completely sincere, Master.’

Jeong-ah’s sound transmission felt urgent.

She must have judged that there was a problem with the sound transmission due to her lacking ability.

However, the sound transmission had been clearly heard by the Eldest Young Master.

It was just that he ignored the sound transmission.

“Saying it is a lie might have been a bit harsh. However…”

The Eldest Young Master shrugged his shoulders.

“I think at least my mother’s precious alcohol was wasted.”

‘Master!’

For a moment, Elder Yeom looked as if he were frozen solid.

However, before long his mouth opened, and a shout like lightning burst out.

“ELDEST-YOUNG-MASTER-!!”

The very earth shook, and the paper door screens burst open.

The marble floor heaved, and the massive pillars vibrated.

Worthy of a guard warrior of the Luoyang Sword Family, a truly formidable momentum shook the office inside out.

* * *

The first to react was the Life-Snatching Ghost Sword, who was at the closest distance.

At the same time as the sword light generated by three swords flashed, the office door blew apart.

And in an instant that an ordinary person could not even properly perceive, he was already inside the office.

A sword was held in each of his hands, and three swords floated in the air, pointing at Elder Yeom.

The second to rush in was Jeong-ah.

Appearing while shedding streams of golden radiance from her eyes, a killing intent to the extent she had never shown before was raging from her.

Due to the energy pushed to its limit, the sword she pointed at Elder Yeom flashed as if it were incandescent.

* * *

A quiet garden located in a secluded area of Pavilion of Perfect Enlightenment.

Yeom Baek-ha was sitting in a pavilion set up in the garden, stroking the white tiger that had taken the form of a cat.

“Father is doing well, right?”

Having feasted on high-quality meat thanks to the maids of Pavilion of Perfect Enlightenment, the white tiger purred and agreed pleasantly.

Even while she tried to control her mind, her hands trembled faintly, and her face was pale.

The white tiger, sensing something strange, looked up at her, but she only stroked the tiger.

Behind her, Elder Yeom’s warrior captain asked Pavilion of Perfect Enlightenment’s maid, I-ryeong.

“…By any chance, is there medicine to help digestion?”

I-ryeong opened her eyes round and asked.

“Is it perhaps the lady…?”

The warrior captain hastily shook his head.

“O-Oh, no. It is not our lady, but I overate lunch a bit…”

At that, I-ryeong, who was about to send maids to fetch medicine, sighed.

“To think a nobleman who is a warrior of the Main Family searches for medicine over just that much.”

At the tongue-clicking maid’s reaction, the warrior captain flared up.

“When you get down to it, this is all because your master…!”

At that moment, the white tiger jumped up from Yeom Baek-ha’s embrace, its fur standing on end all over its body.

The warrior captain also jumped up in surprise.

“Everyone, stay right where you are!”

The place where everyone’s gaze directed was the direction of the office.

“…Could it be Father?”

Yeom Baek-ha’s two eyes shook anxiously.

* * *

The dust that had accumulated on the office’s main beam slowly drifted.

While the dust sparkled in gold under the sunlight, dozens of swords flashed.

The Life-Snatching Ghost Sword, Jeong-ah, Sam-ryeong, and even the maids.

Everyone’s swords were pointing at the giant man standing tall, Elder Yeom.

“….”

Elder Yeom’s momentum had softened, yet no one withdrew their sword, and no one let down their guard.

While dozens of sword lights and dozens of pairs of eyes watched him like that, Elder Yeom’s shoulders slowly heaved.

“Heh, hehe…”

And that sound soon became a loud laugh.

Elder Yeom, who laughed for a long time, ignored the dozens of swords pointing at him and plopped down onto the chair.

He asked.

“How did you know, Eldest Young Master?”

The Eldest Young Master, who was smiling in a relaxed posture, replied.

“It was not all that difficult.”