Reunion at Oryujeong
“Young lady, let me say this one more time: you must absolutely, absolutely not do anything that draws attention. Do you understand?”
Chief Maid Yema emphasized it to us several times—or more precisely, to Sogyo.
“Ah, I got it already! If anyone overheard you, they’d think I cause trouble every single day!”
“You do cause trouble.”
“…No I don’t!”
Chief Maid Yema suddenly turned her gaze on me.
“What do you think, Warrior-nim?”
“Me… me?”
“Yes.”
Was there even anything to think about?
“I completely agree with the Chief Maid.”
“Ahjussi!”
“Where there’s smoke, there’s fire…”
I casually avoided the twin daggers of her glare. Feeling a little guilty, I added one more thing.
“As for rejecting the political marriage, I personally think you did the right thing. Of course, as a complete outsider I have no right to comment on family matters. This is purely my own opinion.”
…
The Chief Maid and Namgung Sogyo both stared at me.
I swallowed the rest of the sentence that wanted to follow—especially if it involved those bastards from the Hwangbo Family. After the brawl at Cheonsubaekryeonsa with Moyong Ryu and various other incidents, I already had more than enough bad blood with them.
“Do you really think that?”
Namgung Sogyo asked.
“Even when choosing a single sword, people say you should deliberate for at least thirty days. Yet when it comes to deciding the person you’ll face for the rest of your life, your own opinion isn’t even considered—and if it’s someone you despise that much, it’s not hard to understand.”
The Chief Maid spoke with a look of surprise.
“Warrior-nim… you look so petty and small-minded, yet you have a surprisingly open heart. Thanks to you, I’ve had a valuable chance to broaden my horizons today.”
Seeing my expression crumple, Chief Maid Yema hurriedly covered her mouth, realizing she’d spoken out of turn.
We crossed the inner courtyard and passed several ponds. Even the rear garden of the Namgung Family was vast enough to feel like a forest.
“Impressive, isn’t it? Oryujeong is especially precious to the family head of the Namgung Family. Whenever there are distinguished guests who must be treated with the utmost care, he always enjoys a light meal and some refined leisure here before the heavier banquet.”
Chief Maid Yema, leading the way, spoke to me as I looked around.
“Smells like meat. Looks delicious.”
Namgung Sogyo sniffed the air.
Chief Maid Yema shook her head as if she couldn’t do anything with her.
“Aigoo, young lady, do you really love meat that much? You’re a meat fiend, I swear.”
“I’m going to eat late when we get back to the dining hall. I clearly remember there are five kinds!”
“…Five… kinds?”
I quietly filed away in my mind the fact that the dining hall had five kinds of meat.
“Yeah, there’s a meat fiend here too.”
Mumyeong added quietly.
A noisy clamor drifted from farther ahead. There stood a pavilion with a signboard reading Oryujeong. We climbed the stairs.
Inside the pavilion, a table was laid with wine and food, and four people were seated.
“Family Head Namgung Hwiyul. I have brought Young Lady Sogyo.”
Chief Maid Yema bowed her head with the most respectful demeanor she had shown so far. Namgung Sogyo also offered a polite greeting beside her. I hurriedly lowered my head as well.
The man right in front of me.
The master of the Namgung Family, one of the Five Great Families of the martial world.
“Come. Raise your heads.”
His voice was cool and sharp. With a pounding heart I lifted my gaze.
An old man who looked well past seventy stood there, his hair pure silver-white. He was tall and powerfully built, his features fierce and imposing. A long beard that reached his solar plexus swayed. His gaze, sharp as frost, was difficult to meet head-on even for a moment. It had nothing to do with internal energy—it was pure presence, the force of the man himself.
Namgung Hwiyul nodded, looking first at Namgung Sogyo and then at me.
“And that one?”
“That gentleman is—”
As Chief Maid Yema hurriedly chose her words and bowed her head, Namgung Hwiyul nodded and stroked his beard.
“No need. I remember now. Our Danju kept his promise. Well… I made the deal because he had that kind of capacity.”
His deep-set eyes looked me up and down.
“But it seems the Danju doesn’t have much of an eye. Why does he look so unimpressive?”
…!
As if he had no interest in the likes of me, he turned his head back to Namgung Sogyo.
“Have you been well?”
“Yes, Family Head.”
Namgung Sogyo answered politely and lowered her head.
…
Namgung Hwiyul said nothing more. Yet the eyes looking down at Sogyo held complicated feelings.
“Regarding this recent matter…”
His mouth opened and closed several times.
“I am… so—”
The rest of the word never left the mouth of the Namgung Family Head.
“Once tomorrow passes, the entire Namgung clan will go to perform the rites at Musin Yeongneung. You’ll be the only one left in the empty main house. You’ll still be all right, won’t you?”
“Yes, Family Head.”
Namgung Sogyo smiled brightly and bowed her head.
Namgung Hwiyul drew a deep breath and let it out.
“Resent me.”
…
“I was the one who first brought you into this house, the one who decided on the adoption, and the one who finally decided on the annulment as well… Rather than resenting this family, just resent this old man.”
“You weren’t the one who pushed the marriage, Family Head.”
“That is…”
Namgung Hwiyul could not continue. Namgung Sogyo smiled brightly again.
“I don’t resent you at all. My height was small because I never got enough to eat before, but now that I’m here and eating so well, I’m going to grow and grow from now on.”
“…Yes. You do love meat. You should eat plenty of it.”
Namgung Hwiyul pointed at me.
“The warrior beside you is someone this old man requested from a martial artist of the jianghu I can trust. He will protect you no matter what while we are gone. Isn’t that right, young man?”
It was a question that already had its answer. He looked at me with the eyes of a family head about to make a deal—completely different from when he looked at Sogyo. I also had a reward riding on this. I had no intention of treating it lightly even if I wanted to.
“Of course…”
“Wait. You.”
Something else came up.
“Have I seen you somewhere before? Why does the atmosphere feel so familiar? The face is new, yet… no, the face also seems somehow familiar…”
He began tilting his head as he carefully examined my features. A chill ran down my spine. The five senses of a head of one of the Five Great Families far exceeded imagination. My face, as I well knew, was a human-skin mask. I panicked, wondering if some seam had come loose.
“Host, do not grow anxious. That kind of anxious psychology is easily read by someone who has dealt with people his entire life.”
Mumyeong quickly warned me. But it was already too late.
“Why are you so anxious?”
Namgung Hwiyul’s eyes grew strange. He took one step closer down toward me. I barely stopped myself from stepping back. My heart felt ready to burst. Even with this much distance between us I felt stripped bare. If he came any closer, I was certain everything would be exposed.
“Family Head Namgung Hwiyul?”
Someone walked out from inside Oryujeong and spoke.
“Aigoo, the food’s all going cold. You should come in already! I went to the trouble of warming the wine nicely for once, hmm?”
The tone was extremely flippant, and he even held a wine bottle in his hand. Yet there was an irresistible force in that manner of speaking that made it hard to dislike him. Namgung Hwiyul’s expression eased.
“Ah, yes. I was entertaining an important guest. I forgot for a moment.”
At those words the voice rang out in a sly, raccoon-like drawl.
“Wow, you forgot? Me?! Family Head, that’s too much! You can forget the Hwangbo Family, but you mustn’t forget me and my family!”
“Right, right. You’re someone who shouldn’t be forgotten. Honestly, the older you get, the more cautious you become about everything.”
Namgung Hwiyul looked at me blankly and said,
“Come to think of it, I was interrogating someone the Danju himself sent—not just anyone.”
“You mustn’t suspect people! My little brother I mentioned earlier is so suspicious all the time it drives me crazy! Hmm? He doesn’t even understand this older brother’s heart!”
At last Namgung Hwiyul burst into hearty laughter.
“The Family Head is laughing…”
Chief Maid Yema’s expression looked ready to faint. I tilted my head. That booming, drunken voice—I was certain I knew it.
“Danju-nim? Ah aa, that warrior the family head is attaching to his cherished fourth daughter? I was curious about his face anyway. Keuh, I’m getting drunk.”
The man inside Oryujeong came walking out while blowing on the bottle like a trumpet.
“Heeey, you mutt of a warrior! We’ve even got Azure Dragon Wine brought all the way from the Moyong Family—if we can’t share a table, at least let me pour you a cup— puaaak!!!!”
Wine droplets scattered and embroidered the winter sky.
Yeah. That way of talking could only belong to one person.
The sociable guest who had been dancing over with Azure Dragon Wine in hand was none other than the third son of the Moyong Family, Moyong Ryu. I had no idea managing my expression would be this hard. Looking down at me as I averted my gaze, Moyong Ryu’s face was filled with extreme confusion.
Namgung Hwiyul spoke.
“Moyong Ryu, what’s wrong?”
“Ah, th-that. Well, you see.”
“Do you know him, by any chance?”
“That’s…”
I was flustered too. I was wearing a human-skin mask. No matter that he was my blood brother, and even though the mask was molded from the bone structure of my own face, there was no way he could have recognized me.
But still… what if?
Moyong Ryu looked extremely careless on the surface. He was always flippant and acted loosely, like a raccoon. But—
I get serious when it counts. For real.
That frost-like declaration that had flashed for an instant between jokes was still lodged in my mind like a shard of ice. He was the survivor who had endured decades of frontal confrontations in the wolf-and-dog power struggles of the Moyong Family. The razor-sharp keenness and eye for detail that occasionally showed between the laughter and the flippancy were unmatched.
He might have recognized the human-skin mask. From the build, or the atmosphere, or something like that.
Confusion seized me. Common sense that it was impossible collided with the rational possibility that he might have. If he recognized me here… if he, knowing nothing of the circumstances, bluntly asked what the connection was, what was I supposed to do…!
Before I could reach any decision, Moyong Ryu shouted.
“Wow, this is the first time I’ve ever spit out wine just from looking at someone’s face! This Moyong Ryu! How can facial features be arranged so independently like that?!”
…
Haha. Of course that’s what you’d say, you bastard. This mix of relief and anger—what was it?
Moyong Ryu shouted again.
“But that guy somehow looks like my mutt of a little brother! It pisses me off! Our little brother has to be uglier than that! The Moyong name has to be the best no matter where we go!”
…Should I just kill this older brother?
My overheated brain felt as if it had cooled in an instant. The others hurriedly gathered him up and dragged him away.
“You’ve had far too much to drink, Moyong Ryu-nim.”
“Family Head! I love you! Do you know how stifled I was while locked up in Cheonsubaekryeonsa?! I had to use even a family event like this as an excuse to get out—!”
“Moyong Ryu-nim, please just shut your mouth. The embarrassment is ours to bear!”
“Hahaha.”
Namgung Hwiyul laughed in good spirits and climbed the stairs after them. Then he looked back. He casually gestured toward us.
“I’ve had a meal prepared below Oryujeong, so take it with you. Especially eat plenty of meat. I told them to prepare a lot.”
“Family Head.”
Namgung Sogyo politely raised her eyes and looked at the head of the Namgung Family.
“Wasn’t there something special you wished to say?”
The smile vanished from Namgung Hwiyul’s face.
“…Is it true you leave in a week?”
Namgung Sogyo lowered her head and murmured.
“Yes. Now that I’ve been disowned, I no longer have any justification to remain in this house.”
Namgung Hwiyul gripped the railing for a long while.
“I see.”
As he climbed the stairs he spoke in a voice that was barely audible.
“…I wish that week would never come.”
With those words he turned away again. Just before entering Oryujeong, his voice rang out from far away.
“Make sure you eat the meat before you go. I told them to prepare a lot.”