Volume 3 Chapter 8 – A Pot of Meat Porridge

===================

Translated by Rain

Read it only at Novelbyu.com & Utoon.net

===================

The one who moved first, before anyone else, was Jeong-ah.

She approached Yeon So-hyeon and politely handed him a small bamboo tube.

It was a bamboo tube containing his golden needles, which had been sterilized in boiling water after the last treatment.

“You bastard…! You to Luoyang…! My family…!”

Yeon So-hyeon sat down beside the man and poked the man’s chest.

“Be quiet.”

At the pain coming from his broken ribs, the man could not even let out a groan.

Yeon So-hyeon drew a golden needle from the bamboo tube handed over by Jeong-ah.

“If you keep speaking, your lungs will be damaged.”

Before the man could make any response, Yeon So-hyeon inserted the golden needles into the man’s body.

“If you move with the needles inserted, you will truly become a cripple.”

The man’s movements stopped.

* * *

After Yeon So-hyeon’s treatment finished, Jeong-ah wrapped bandages around the man’s haggard body.

Meanwhile, those who cleared up the messy courtyard gathered again one by one.

They did not say anything and guarded the surroundings.

Yeon So-hyeon sat and said to the man, who was breathing much easier:

“While I was at it, I also fixed your ankle.”

At those words, the man tried to move his ankle.

Miraculously, his ankle, which would not even move properly, rotated.

“If you do not move excessively for just a few days, you will be able to work again like before.”

The man looked at Yeon So-hyeon with a trembling gaze.

“Y-You… You are…”

Yeon So-hyeon asked.

“Where did you serve?”

The man touched his shoulder where the tattoo was engraved.

“…The northern front.”

Yeon So-hyeon nodded.

“Many died. And even more were injured.”

At his words, the man flared up and glared at Yeon So-hyeon.

“Even so, when I somehow returned alive, my family had already lost their lives due to successive bad harvests.”

The man’s eyes widened.

Yeon So-hyeon said while packing up his needles:

“…Many did.”

The man’s head dropped toward the ground.

Yeon So-hyeon tapped the man’s shoulder.

“Still, you returned safely and well. You did well. Soldier.”

Tears burst and flowed from his eyes.

“You protected the country and your family.”

As the tears passed, they flowed down as grease and dirt.

No high-ranking person had ever commended him upon his return to his hometown.

No, even when the war ended, he had never heard a word of commendation from any commander.

“Seeing that you lived hard to the point that your ankle was twisted…”

Yeon So-hyeon continued calmly.

“Do you not still have family left to take care of?”

At his words, the veteran soldier nodded his head.

“So please live hard in the future too. Not for the Emperor or the Sword Family, but for your family.”

Yeon So-hyeon continued.

“By no means make a wrong choice. You are still standing under the bright sun.”

At those words, the soldier raised his head and looked at Yeon So-hyeon.

“You are…?”

At that moment, the people parted, and the triplet maids walked over carrying a pot of meat porridge in a small pot.

Yeon So-hyeon cradled that warm pot in the soldier’s arms.

The soldier could not say anything at that warmth and aroma.

The venom completely vanished from his eyes.

“Thank you… Thank you…”

The soldier only kept repeating those words.

Continuously.

* * *

Yeon So-hyeon watched the back of the veteran soldier who walked out through the main gate powerlessly.

He was cradling the pot preciously as if it were a treasure.

The Fourth Young Master held his eldest brother’s hand without a word.

Yeon So-hyeon held his hand in return and opened his mouth.

“Do you know? That soldier was conscripted and deployed to the northern front.”

“…Conscripted?”

Yeon So-hyeon’s gaze was still fixed on the soldier’s back.

“At the request of the Imperial Family and the government, the Sword Family directly stepped forward to conscript the youths of Luoyang. Those from poor families were the targets.”

The Fourth Young Master turned his gaze toward the soldier, but he had already vanished from view long ago.

“The reason was that they were easy to coax. They made a promise to those conscripted that they would look after their families.”

The Fourth Young Master’s complexion turned dark.

It was fully expected what story would follow.

“But far from taking responsibility for the families, they were in a state where even war funds were lacking right away.”

Strength entered the Fourth Young Master’s hand.

“The Sword Family, and the government, thought that taking responsibility for all their families right away was a waste.”

Those around held their breath and focused on Yeon So-hyeon’s words.

They calculated that they could just distribute the spoils to the survivors after winning the war.

But…

“The war was won, but it was a victory full of wounds, and there were no actual gains.”

The Imperial Family did not even mention that war again.

There was not even the common triumphal ceremony, and they were busy disbanding the conscripted army, which only consumed food and supplies.

And during that war, the Central Plains suffered from bad harvests.

There were almost no families left to welcome those who barely returned alive.

No one thanked them.

No one spoke of the war they fought risking their lives.

To protect at least the remaining family, the returned soldiers had to head to harsh labor sites.

Fearing that they might cause trouble, the government and the Sword Family eliminated all those who could become a focal point.

“Such…”

It was another secret history thoroughly hidden in the dark.

While no one could speak out due to the shock, the Fourth Young Master clenched Yeon So-hyeon’s hand tightly with both hands.

“Even though it is just one person, it is a relief that Eldest Brother could comfort at least him.”

Yeon So-hyeon raised his other hand and stroked the Fourth Young Master’s head.

“I did nothing. I only said the words he deserved to hear on his behalf.”

A bitter smile hung on his lips.

“Rather, a pot of meat porridge would have been of greater help to him.”

Yeon So-hyeon’s gaze turned outside the main gate.

“It was not my words, but because his family was still remaining that he could gain strength.”

Yeon So-hyeon’s voice was calm.

“And it was only because there was a pot of meat porridge that he could return carrying hope.”

His gaze directed at the Fourth Young Master.

“If you are to do great things in the future, remember this.”

It was a heavy advice for his youngest brother who was in charge of a group.

“A leader must never fall into self-pity or self-love and distort reality.”

The Fourth Young Master listened and paid close attention.

“Make sure to remember that a pot of meat porridge had greater power than a hundred words of mine.”

“Yes, Eldest Brother.”

The young scholars nearby also nodded their heads together, taking Yeon So-hyeon’s words to heart.

At that moment, a medical maid approached and said to Yeon So-hyeon:

“Eldest Young Master. It is time for the House of Benevolence and Love to close.”

In the western sky, the sunset was gradually hanging.

Yeon So-hyeon clenched and shook his youngest brother’s hand.

“Now, let us also return slowly.”

The Fourth Young Master smiled brightly.

“Yes!”

* * *

When everyone was preparing to leave, Yeon So-hyeon was meeting the old woman, the priestess of the Fairy Cult.

“Pardon?! Is that true?”

The old woman’s hand trembled.

Yeon So-hyeon shook his head slowly.

“I do not know well either. It was just that I had such a feeling…”

He stroked his chin.

“Pondering over the words that soldier babbled…”

The arch-criminal of everything is the Sword Family.

Luoyang is a giant cage for breeding.

A religion that sells its mother to delude the foolish.

“It was not content that a soldier from a poor background could easily babble. There is a possibility he learned it from someone.”

“…Indeed. There are similarities to ‘their’ way.”

Sighing at his words, the old woman nodded.

“I will send people to check. However, right now…”

“All resources are lacking. I know. For now, do to the extent of checking his house.”

The old woman bowed her head deeply.

“We are endlessly sorry for our lack of ability.”

Yeon So-hyeon wore a bitter smile.

“It is not your fault. How wide is this land of Luoyang, and how many are the people living in it.”

He turned around and said:

“Just wait a bit. Soon the situation will begin to improve.”

* * *

The soldier ran through the darkening alleys at one stretch and reached a dugout hut.

If his ankle had been twisted as it was, he would have feared spilling the porridge from the pot, and it would have taken ten times longer than now.

The Eldest Young Master of the Luoyang Sword Family said that if he rested for a few days, he would be able to use his ankle properly like before.

Then he no longer had to fear his wages being cut in half.

If that happened, he could stop worrying about his younger brother and him not even being able to put food in their mouths.

Holding the still warm pot, he carefully opened the door of the shack.

“Yeong-ah, look at this. What did this brother bring?”

Inside the shack, there was no warmth at all.

But he did not mind at all.

In Luoyang, where even firewood was money, it was also a funny thing for the poor to look for warmth.

“Yeong-ah, are you sleeping?”

He moved his steps carefully inside the dark shack, lest he spill the porridge.

He wanted to show the porridge to his younger brother as soon as possible.

He wanted to see a bright smile hang on his younger brother’s face.

“Yeong-ah?”

His steps stopped.

His younger brother usually liked to lie down in a place where the sun shone.

Therefore, his younger brother was lying in that very spot.

“Yeong-ah?”

Having experienced war, he could tell at a glance.

His younger brother lying down without any movement was no longer a person of this world.

He was a younger brother who had suffered, discarding his body to support the family while his older brother was away.

But in the end, what remained for his younger brother was two useless legs and family members who starved to death.

The pot held in his hand fell to the floor.

The meat porridge splattered in all directions.

An incomprehensible shriek leaked from his mouth.

He hugged his younger brother’s cold body.

On his younger brother’s wrist, several distinct cuts were made, and the blood that flowed had already hardened sticky.

It was suicide.

For the sake of his older brother who injured his ankle and could not receive proper wages, it was the only thing the useless younger brother could do.

He was cradling a clumsy carving he had carved himself in his other hand.

‘Brother! It is a carving of the Medicine Fairy!’

His younger brother had said with a bright smile.

‘From now on, she will protect us brothers!’

With a trembling hand, he picked up the carving of the Medicine Fairy that had been cradled in his younger brother’s arms.

An unknown scream and shriek burst from his mouth.

The carving of the Medicine Fairy was shattered.

The pot he threw rolled crumpled.

The meat porridge spilled on the floor mixed with his younger brother’s clotted blood.

‘They’ were right.

There was no such thing as salvation in this world.

The true sinners were not punished.

The worst evil-doers did not suffer.

‘By no means make a wrong choice. You are still standing under the bright sun.’

The words the Eldest Young Master of the Sword Family said lingered in his head for a moment, but soon vanished.

With his younger brother’s death, he was reaching the ‘truth’ they had spoken of.

* * *

The sun had set long ago, and his younger brother was only rotting slowly in the cold night air.

He dug the ground with both hands.

Although his fingernails were all broken and his fingers were all torn from digging the frozen ground, he could not feel pain.

He pulled a small box out of the pit.

Inside that box, there were talismans engraved with bizarre and ominous characters, and a candle red like blood.

As he chanted the spell he had learned from them, a dark blue flame arose from the candle.

‘Nirvana is a lie.’

Talismans spun around his body.

‘There is no paradise.’

A wild wind blew, and the candle burned even more violently.

‘The Bodhisattva is dead.’

The dark blue flame caught onto his body, and he felt terrible pain.

‘The Immortals have left.’

But his lips did not stop.

A spell containing a gloomy and terrible resonance flowed out on its own.

He wanted to scream, but what came out of his mouth was only a spell of meaning he did not even know.

While his entire body was burning, the words they had told him last came to his mind.

‘Remember, brother. The time of the end has now approached.’

The flame consumed his entire body, not touching the surroundings even a bit.

The flame even consumed the last tear flowing from his eye.

‘Remember, brother. The time of salvation has now approached.’

His body became black ashes.

And scattered somewhere.

‘The truth is only one!’

In the place where he had been, only the pit and the small box remained.

‘Only the Demonic Cult will purify this dirty world to its primeval state!’

Silence came.

Frost was gradually settling on a boy’s corpse.

And by the side of the corpse, the head of the Medicine Fairy statue was rolling.

For some reason, that carving looked as if it were crying.