Chapter 58
Chapter 58
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Translator: MadScientist
Chapter: 58
Chapter Title: Paeng Daesan
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"Hey, Paeng Daesan. Snap out of it."
I shook his shoulder and checked his condition. He was still breathing, but he was unconscious. His already messed-up face looked even worse. His eyelids were bruised black and blue, swollen so badly he probably couldn't even open his eyes properly, and fresh blood was oozing from his split lips again.
How the hell did this idiot get beaten into this state in such a short time?
I placed my hand on his forehead.
'Heal.'
A faint warmth carried by my mental energy flowed from my palm into his body. As I focused, his physical state became even clearer through my expanded senses. His body was covered in minor bruises and internal injuries everywhere. It was the mark of a one-sided beating. He hadn't even been able to resist.
In exchange for my mental energy, Paeng Daesan's wounds began to heal slowly. The deep bruises faded, and the swelling on his puffy face gradually went down. Only after confirming that the torn wounds were faintly closing did I pull my hand away.
"Ugh..."
A moment later, Paeng Daesan let out a faint groan and opened his eyes. His unfocused gaze wandered through the air before spotting me, and his eyes widened in surprise.
"B-Brother...?"
He tried to sit up, staggering. I pressed down firmly on his shoulder and laid him back down.
"That's enough. Lie still. Tell me what happened."
At my words, Paeng Daesan's eyes flickered. He averted his gaze and clamped his mouth shut. He was clearly hesitating to speak.
I slowly clenched my fist.
"This guy's really asking for it."
Three Visits to the Thatched Cottage.
Even Zhuge Liang, the brilliant genius of the world, ended up spreading his legs for the local thugs weaving straw sandals when they persistently knocked three times.
But this blockhead had ignored the questions from the man he called "brother" three times, despite being too dumb to know better.
Krunch—
No helping it. I judged that I had no choice but to deliver a reforming punch to straighten out this guy's twisted stubbornness. As I slowly raised my tightly clenched fist, Paeng Daesan's face turned sheet-white.
"W-Wait, Brother! I'll talk! I'll tell you everything!"
He cried out desperately.
You should've done that from the start.
I lowered my raised fist with a displeased expression. Only then did Paeng Daesan let out a sigh of relief and steady his ragged breathing. Then, he began to speak with effort. His voice was heavy and subdued.
"I have... 'brothers'."
"My father, the current head of the Paeng family, and my grandfather, who has now stepped down as the retired head... both were notorious womanizers. They chased after any woman they saw, without discrimination."
There was no emotion in his voice. He was simply reciting dry facts. I listened silently to his story.
"Because of that, I have many half-brothers. I'm the youngest among them."
"But... maybe because I was lacking, I've been hated by my brothers since I was little."
"Of course, when I was very young and my mother briefly had my father's favor, I received some protection. But... after my mother suddenly passed away, my father's attention naturally drifted away from me, and my brothers' bullying... got even worse."
"Then one day, my father called my brothers and me together and said that one of us had to go to the Murim Alliance."
"In truth, 'go' was just a euphemism—it was no different from being abandoned. Everyone in the Paeng family knows the open secret that my father had a woman he adored stolen from him by the Alliance Leader in his youth."
"Naturally, none of my brothers stepped forward. There was no way they'd welcome going to the Murim Alliance—a place no better than enemy territory—as a hostage under the Paeng family name."
"But... I thought differently. Since I was constantly bullied and hated by my brothers at home anyway... I figured it would be better to go to the Murim Alliance where no one knew me."
"Honestly, after my mother died, I'd never once felt any family affection. I'd hardly ever even thought of myself as a member of the Paeng family."
"So I volunteered to go. My brothers rejoiced and clapped their hands in approval... and for a very brief moment—just a fleeting instant—my father looked at me. But... that was it."
"That's how I ended up coming to the Murim Alliance with a few servants who had at least treated me like a young master of the Paeng family. And... I thought that was the end of it."
"But... my brothers' persecution didn't end there."
"My brothers... could freely come and go from the Murim Alliance because I was a member of the Azure Dragon Squad, their family. And every time they came here, they sought me out and said things like..."
"'Aren't you a son of the Paeng family? Don't you need to avenge your father? Act like a spoiled thug on purpose to tarnish the reputation of the Azure Dragon Squad and the Murim Alliance—that's your duty as a son of the Paeng family.'"
"Of course... I couldn't do that."
"Even if my martial prowess was lacking and my knowledge was insufficient, I didn't want to do anything harmful to Squad Leader Byeok, Senior Physician, the other physicians, or the squad members who treated me as one of the Azure Dragon Squad. So... I ignored my brothers' demands."
"But... my brothers were persistent. When no matter how much they beat and yelled at me, I wouldn't listen... eventually, their arrows turned toward the servants who served me."
"For those ordinary people who weren't martial artists, my brothers' beatings... were too much to endure. It was one-sided violence under the pretext that they had served their master poorly. But... none of the servants blamed me. On the contrary... they encouraged me, saying that what I was doing was right and to hold on until the end."
"And... then one day."
"One of the servants... died. Unable to withstand my brothers' beatings..."
A single tear like a chicken dropping fell from his eye. Kinda juicy.
"That's when... I finally realized. The people I'd been ignoring... were my family too. They were the ones I needed to protect..."
"Haha!"
"So... I decided to play the spoiled thug as my brothers wanted, at least on the surface. I pretended to go along with them while secretly giving money to the servants and sending them far away... and once everything was sorted, I planned to kneel and apologize to everyone in the Azure Dragon Squad. That's what I thought."
"And... the first person I picked a fight with that way was you, Brother."
"Then you beat the crap out of me... and your fierce fists snapped me awake. For real. It hurt, but more than the pain... it cleared my mind. Even though your fists were just painful... it felt like my common sense had been flipped upside down. Haha... weird, right? And I thought, if my late mother were in this situation, would she have acted like this?"
"No. My mother never would have yielded to my brothers' words. She would have protected her people to the end. Just like in the past, when she never bowed to the bullying and insults from the other mothers to protect me."
"From that day on, I resolved to follow you, Brother, and secretly hid all the servants in a safe place. After that, my brothers could no longer touch them, and their outlet for frustration turned back to just me. They asked every day where I'd hidden the servants... but I never answered."
"I could endure my brothers' beatings thanks to sparring with you, Brother! Getting pummeled by you every day built up my durability so much that their punches didn't hurt at all!"
Like hell they didn't. His face was completely wrecked.
I clicked my tongue and asked,
"So you just got beat up like that again?"
Paeng Daesan scratched his head and laughed.
"Haha... I was coming back with the wooden tub you told me to get, and my brothers saw it and stubbornly tried to take it... so I had a rough time this time. But luckily, some Azure Dragon Squad members heard the commotion and blocked them, so my brothers couldn't come inside the squad barracks."
I silently clenched my fist and delivered a resounding knuckle-flick right to the center of his forehead.
Thwack—!
"Gah!"
"You really need a good hit to come to your senses, you idiot."
"B-Brother..."
I looked down at him clutching his forehead and groaning, then asked,
"Where are those so-called brothers of yours right now?"