The Name That Made Me Spit Out My Water
The next morning at the inn. I came down to the first floor with Gyeong-a to grab breakfast and found Dokgo Seok already chatting with someone I’d never seen before.
“Good morning, Second Young Master.”
“Morning to you too, Chilbok.”
I gave a deep bow and Dokgo Seok returned it with a warm smile. Meanwhile, Gyeong-a naturally slid into the seat beside him after ordering breakfast from the waiter and asked,
“So, Young Master, who is this esteemed elder sitting with you?”
Dokgo Seok laughed lightly. “Ah, I should have introduced him sooner. This is the man who serves as strategist for the Murim Alliance—Absolute Brain Jegal Gyun.”
“What? The Absolute Brain? The same one as the master’s… Hup! Forgive my rudeness! Elder Jegal Gyun!”
“It’s quite all right. These days that title is nothing more than an empty shell.”
The white-haired elder with the elegant bearing let out a hearty laugh. Still visibly tense, Gyeong-a asked carefully,
“Someone as great as you, sir—why are you talking with someone like our idle young master?”
It wasn’t Jegal Gyun who answered, but Dokgo Seok.
“I happened to run into him at a nearby guesthouse while I was out drinking last night. We got to talking, one thing led to another, and before we knew it we were drinking buddies. …And hey, why am I an ‘idle young master’?”
“Are you seriously asking that?”
When Gyeong-a glared at him with narrowed eyes, Dokgo Seok whistled innocently and looked away.
“Hahaha! What a perfect master-and-servant pair!”
Jegal Gyun burst into loud laughter, clearly amused by the two of them. The situation felt awkward to jump into, so I stayed a step back and simply watched the trio—until I felt a presence near the stairs and turned my head.
“Chilbok, what are you doing over there?”
“Ah, Lady Rin.”
Perfect timing. My savior had arrived. Dokgo Seok must have noticed her too, because he waved with a bright expression.
“Rin! Over here!”
Dokgo Rin narrowed her eyebrows in clear exasperation, let out a small sigh, and came down the stairs.
“What is it, Brother?”
“There’s someone I really wanted to introduce you to.”
Dokgo Seok pointed at Jegal Gyun sitting beside him. Dokgo Rin gave a small, polite bow.
“You must be the Murim Alliance’s strategist, Absolute Brain Jegal Gyun, correct?”
“Oh? How do you know me?”
“Didn’t you once visit Sangam to see my father? I believe I greeted you at that time.”
“Heh heh. It was quite a long time ago, so I assumed you wouldn’t remember. The girl has quite a sharp mind.”
Jegal Gyun looked at Dokgo Rin with open interest. She, however, remained utterly indifferent, maintaining only the bare minimum of courtesy. If there was nothing else, she said, she would take her leave.
“Chilbok, let’s go back up.”
“Huh? Me too? I haven’t eaten breakfast yet.”
“We can just order it to the room.”
“Then of course I’m coming.”
The moment I flipped my attitude, Dokgo Rin gave a small snort and grabbed the stair railing. But before we could escape, Jegal Gyun’s deep voice stopped us.
“Lady Dokgo, why not join us for the meal?”
“Me?”
Dokgo Rin pointed at herself with genuine surprise. Though she didn’t say it out loud, the gesture clearly screamed, Why me?
Despite her rude attitude, Jegal Gyun simply stroked his beard and smiled generously.
“I’ve taken a personal interest in you, young lady.”
“……”
Dokgo Rin looked thoroughly displeased, but in the Murim world where hierarchy was everything, she had no choice but to accept.
“Very well. Then I’ll join you.”
As she sat down in an empty seat, Jegal Gyun smiled with satisfaction.
“Haha, sitting with a beautiful young lady who resembles a flower makes the whole table feel brighter!”
“You speak truly, Elder.”
Dokgo Seok, completely ignoring how uncomfortable his sister looked, sat beside Jegal Gyun and shamelessly buttered him up. Watching this, the favorable impression I’d built of him during our journey plummeted in an instant. So he really was the bastard who sold his little sister to the Murim Alliance Lord?
I was busy cursing him inside my head when—
Ding-ling! Ding-ling!
The brass bells hanging at the inn entrance tinkled softly as a massive, muscular man who looked nearly eight feet tall stepped inside the Golden Star Inn.
People instinctively recognize strength. When that strength is also overwhelmingly obvious from the outside, simply looking at the person is enough to feel oppressed. Wuxia novels often look down on external arts, but from a modern perspective that’s completely wrong. If two martial artists have the same internal energy, the bigger one has the advantage. If they have the same internal energy and the same size, the one with longer arms and legs wins. Physical conditions can never be ignored in a fight, so someone who looks strong at first glance usually is.
“Grandfather!”
The giant who approached us waving with a happy expression was literally a ‘born powerhouse.’ He drew every eye in the inn the moment he entered.
“Welcome, Dam-ah.”
Jegal Gyun greeted the muscular man warmly. Dokgo Seok, having overheard their conversation, seemed to realize something and asked cautiously,
“Could this gentleman perhaps be Elder Jegal Gyun’s…”
“My proud grandson. We promised to meet here.”
“Huh…”
Dokgo Seok stared at Jegal Gyun’s grandson with a stunned expression. He clearly had a mountain of things he wanted to say. I felt exactly the same.
Someone from the Jegal Clan?
No matter how you looked at it, the guy had the physique of a pumped-up bodybuilder. Wasn’t the Jegal Clan famous for being a family of intelligence specialists? This felt like watching a wizard who had dumped every single stat point into Strength instead of Intelligence.
“Greetings.”
Jegal Gyun’s grandson walked up to our table and bowed politely.
“Ah, yes. Hello.”
Dokgo Seok, as the representative of our group, returned the greeting with a dazed look. Jegal Gyun smiled proudly and patted his grandson’s thick forearm.
“My grandson’s grown quite large, hasn’t he? Even I never expected such a general to be born from the Jegal bloodline, which has always been known for producing frail bodies!”
It wasn’t just ‘quite large’—the guy looked like a walking human weapon. But since it was our first meeting, I kept my mouth shut rather than say anything rude.
“Come, sit down. You must be starving after running all the way from Hanzhong since early morning.”
“I’m fine, Grandfather. I only ran for two hours.”
“Haha, two hours is nothing to you, is it?”
Listening to the cozy conversation between grandfather and grandson, I desperately held back the flood of comebacks threatening to burst out of me. Just then, the waiter came out from the kitchen carrying our food.
“Order up! Beef noodle soup!”
“Thank you.”
Even though she’d had noodles last night, Gyeong-a had ordered them again. I wasn’t in any position to complain, so I gratefully accepted the beef noodles. Honestly, anything was better than porridge.
But even after the ordered breakfast arrived, Jegal Gyun’s bragging about his grandson showed no signs of stopping.
“This boy actually took first place in the physical fitness test at the academy this time! When I heard that, I thought my eyes would pop out!”
“Haha, that’s impressive.”
Dokgo Seok’s mouth was starting to twitch from the strain of dealing with Jegal Gyun’s excessive chattiness. Even while listening to the endless praise, the noodles in his bowl were steadily going soggy.
After glancing back and forth between his bowl and Jegal Gyun, Dokgo Seok finally couldn’t take it anymore. With a determined expression he spoke up.
“Elder, bragging about your grandson is all well and good, but shouldn’t we start eating soon? It looks like your grandson has been eagerly waiting for you to pick up your chopsticks…”
As Dokgo Seok pointed at the grandson sitting beside Jegal Gyun, the old man slapped his own forehead.
“Aigo, look at me. I tend to talk too much when it comes to my grandson.”
“It’s all right, Elder. It’s nice to see how much you love him.”
“Then let’s eat… Ah, but may I say just one more thing?”
“…Please keep it as short as possible.”
“Haha, don’t worry. It really is just one thing.”
Jegal Gyun patted his grandson’s shoulder.
“Since this is our first meeting, shouldn’t we at least introduce ourselves before eating?”
“Ah, now that you mention it, I still haven’t heard your grandson’s name.”
When Dokgo Seok looked at the young man with a relieved expression, the grandson bowed politely and said,
“I apologize. My grandfather does tend to talk a lot.”
“Haha, this kid. That serious face while throwing shade is exactly like his mother.”
“…This is what I have to deal with.”
“I completely understand how you feel.”
When Dokgo Seok nodded in sympathy, the grandson cleared his throat lightly, placed a hand over his chest, and spoke.
“Then allow me to introduce myself properly. I am called Geondam, using the characters for ‘strong’ and ‘gallbladder.’”
“Ooh! Jegal Geondam! What an excellent name!”
Pfffft!
I spat out the water I’d been drinking.