That's the Right Answer
Dad was born the youngest of the Dan clan, in the direct line of the clan head. When he came into the world, he drew a great deal of attention. A second child from the head was almost unheard of.
Why? Because the seed of a clan head who carried Life in his body at all times was more than an ordinary woman could bear. The vessel could not hold. Even if she conceived, she miscarried before the child could ever come to term. In the whole history of the Dan clan, a head who fathered more than one child was exceedingly rare.
At any rate, born late, Dad came to stand at the center of the clan. If that had been love, it would have been a fine thing. It was not love. They meant to use a child who knew nothing of the world, however they could. There were so many people determined to swallow the Dan clan whole—collateral branches, the direct line, outsiders. It made no difference.
In those days the clan was in the middle of a rampage. Liberation from Japanese rule had come. The war between our own people was over. The country was still in chaos, not yet settled into itself, and that was when Dan Hocheol conceived an ambition: to lead this nation with his own hands. It sprang from the confidence that the Dan clan, rooted in this land for thousands of years, was the very house that could make Korea great.
It isn't a feeling I fail to understand. Your grandfather had lived through everything from the Korean Empire to the war, and he had lost all faith in the men who led the country. He was sick of them to the bone. Then the chance arrived, and he changed his mind. I have to do it. I can.
In truth, it is not impossible for the Dan clan to rule Korea. We cannot step into the open, but guiding matters from behind is something we still do even now. Dan Hocheol, though, wanted the front. He did not mean to bare the whole of the Dan name, but he intended to put a piece of it forward. That was when the rampage began.
The moment he decided, he moved fast. He cleared the factions he called impure elements from inside Korea, forged ties through business and politics, and swelled his power around blood kin. In the process, the number of ability users in the country dropped sharply. He showed no mercy. That is why Korea has so few gifted ability users. It is also why the government won the Crime War so easily. Most of the capable ones had already been cleaned out. Those who remained had their growth plates sealed shut by law and regulation.
Elder Hwang Seokgu was probably a direct victim of that affair. Given his age, there was no way he failed to live through it. I don't think the old man knows the details either. If the chance comes, I ought to apologize.
Anyway, Dad was born into that. What do you think happened? Eyes went wild. Because he was a late child, Dan Hocheol was already as old as old gets, and a clan that had grown in size alone wanted to seize power the moment he was gone. Anyone who knew, knew: become head of the Dan clan, and you became the absolute power in Korea.
The heir then was the eldest son, Dan Mihyeong. Dad's only brother. Mihyeong was so exceptional it was hard to believe he had been born under Dan Hocheol. Pen and sword alike, a man of every grace, gifted in all things—as if every one of those phrases existed only for him. They knew it too. If Dan Mihyeong inherited the kingdom Dan Hocheol had built, then no scheme of theirs could ever bring it down. They would never take that seat for themselves. So they set their sights on Dad. They poured favor over him under the mask of love, to keep Mihyeong in check and fill Dad's head with empty wind. They set about making a puppet, from before the child could even speak.
Was it hard? It was. It really was. Dad thought there was no one who loved him. Dan Hocheol saw his children as tools, and his mother was nowhere to be found. There was no one truly his in any direction, and water ran thicker than blood. But the irony is that what raised him was all that attention. He ate whatever he wanted and bought whatever he wanted. For an unhappy childhood, he lacked for nothing. Only feeling was missing.
A day, two days, years of living like that, and Dad was losing every manner he had and turning into a hellion. Looking back, that was a defense he chose—a choice so he would not lose himself.
Then one day—
"Miryu. Is that any way to talk to your brother? You trying to die?"
"...Yes?"
"First time meeting my little brother. Let's have a look at that little dick."
"...Yes???"
"Don't you yes me. That's cheek. Ah, forget it—first, you're getting hit."
The day he met his brother for the first time, Dad learned his manners.
His age then: ten.
"...You're embellishing this, aren't you?"
"...Dad's memory is a little hazy, too."
Ahem. Moving on.
After taking a loving thrashing from his brother, Dad felt curiosity and delight more than anger. He had been hit, and yet it didn't hurt. No one had ever scolded him before. From then on he started toddling after his brother—into the shower, into his room, along to his work. He followed so relentlessly that his brother tore at his own hair.
"If you and I go around together, we're done for, you brat!"
"I'm ten. I don't know about that."
"You know perfectly well, you little—!"
"I'm bored. Play with me."
"First, let's take a dump!"
Desperate to pry himself away from Dad, his brother at last seemed to surrender to that persistence, and began to keep him company. The lonely brothers leaned on each other, and stopped being lonely.
But once they got along without fighting, nobody was pleased. Every trick was pulled to force the two of them apart and stir up hatred. The brothers, of course, weathered those ordeals well, and Dad grew stronger and stronger. The blood of the clan head is a proven winning ticket. Under the influence of Life, the eyes and hair that had turned green only deepened as time passed, and the body grew far sturdier. Was he about fourteen? A car could slam into Dad, and the car would crumple.
By then his very existence had become a danger to them. One was already more than they could handle, and now they had to deal with two? They could not accept that. To kill Dad, now that he had outlived his use, they hired the greatest assassin of the age. A legend of the underworld. The assassin of assassins. Codename: Major.
And who was that? Our lady of the house. I'm not lying. Your mom has grown a lot softer. Back then she was a stone Buddha. A blade wouldn't even go in, kid. What—you didn't see your mom when she fought the Ilshikgyo faithful? No interest at all, so you don't even think about it.
Setting that aside. Your mom took the contract and came to assassinate Dad. It was a deep night, even the crickets holding their breath, everyone asleep. The instant he was about to lie down in bed, she struck. He ducked the slash from behind. He did not breathe the poison and the sleeping smoke. He held out, burst into the yard, and waited for her.
Your mother had not even put on a mask. Black hair hanging long, she came walking out, step by steady step. When she showed herself under the moonlight, Dad lost his soul. Emotionless black eyes, hair like a curtain. Skin whiter than porcelain, a waist so slender it looked ready to snap. He had never seen anyone so beautiful.
So, right away—
"I confessed."
"......What?"
"First confession of my life."
"What the— don't joke. Say something that makes sense!"
"You have no idea how nervous I was. My heart nearly burst."
"Of course you were nervous. You almost died!"
"That's because you've never been in love. Fall in love, and you'll understand."
"...Fine. Mom turned you down, obviously?"
"She accepted."
"Don't exaggerate. There must have been some insane twists!"
An assassin and the man she was sent to kill—a love story?!
"When your mom accepted, she did mean to stay my girlfriend and kill me once she saw her chance. As time went on, I wooed her in spectacular fashion."
"I'm asking Mom later."
"...Since even your mom failed to kill me, things quieted down a little."
With the greatest assassin on their side, the work grew much easier. They quickly cut out those eating the clan away from the inside, shut outsiders off, and stayed busy.
But—
"My brother and I had forgotten."
That in the end they were only children of the clan. That the one who truly controlled the house was the clan head.
"What did Grandpa even do...?"
"Chu Yeon, how long do you think our clan has lasted?"
"...A thousand years?"
"We've been around since Qin Shi Huang."
"...!"
"And what our clan has guarded, all that time—"
—was the elixir of immortality that Qin Shi Huang hunted so desperately.
"...You've guarded it for that long?"
"Yes."
Chu Yeon. I'll give you a question.
"If this stone sat beside someone as arrogant and eaten up with ambition as Qin Shi Huang, what would happen? If that person felt himself slowly dying, what then?"
"...He'd want to live forever."
"That's the right answer. And?"
"...He'd cross the line."
That's the right answer.
"Your grandfather betrayed the clan's mission."
To obtain eternal life, he researched the Stone of Resurrection without leave.
"He gathered patrons who wanted eternal life and carried out horrific experiments."
A coward wearing a patriot's mask, fleeing from death, became an ugly mass of brain.
"My brother and I only learned the truth too late."
And the two of them decided.
"The Dan clan of this generation—"
—would leave only one who would keep the family precepts, and slaughter all the rest.
"And there, by chance—"
Only Dad survived.
"From here on, I'll tell you how Dad lived through it."