A Brother's Confession
I’ve heard the saying before—there’s no younger brother quite like his older one. Among kids my age, I wasn’t exactly talentless. But I could never measure up to my older brother, who had inherited every ounce of our father’s youthful looks and genius. Whether at home or at the academy, his shadow always loomed right behind me. No matter how hard I trained, people rarely called me by my own name. I was always Dokgo Hyeok’s little brother.
Resentful of that fact, I gradually twisted myself out of shape. I started hanging around the academy’s worst troublemakers, frequenting the taverns and brothels nearby, living a life of pure debauchery. After wasting my youth like that, I finally graduated and returned to my hometown of Sangam. But having tasted the pleasures of the city, I couldn’t stand the boredom of country life. I wandered around outside every single day.
That was when I first met my wife. She found me passed out drunk on the side of the road, took me in for the night, and even made sure I had a meal. What made me fall for her completely, though, was the warm consideration she showed—floating a willow leaf on my cup of water so I wouldn’t get indigestion from drinking too fast. After that day, I chased after her relentlessly, proposing over and over. At first she turned me down, saying I wasn’t her type, but eventually she recognized my sincerity.
But when it came time to actually get married, her status became the problem. I was a young master of the Dokgo Clan, while she was a commoner. Father said it was fine if I wanted to live wildly outside, but marriage had to be with someone of equal standing. For the first time in my life, I rebelled against him. As a result, he beat me so badly I nearly died. Still, when I refused to give up, Father eventually gave in. He told me he would treat me as a son he had disowned and that I could do as I pleased.
Thanks to that, I was able to marry her. After the wedding, once I came to my senses, I realized just how pathetic my life had been up to that point. It was terribly late, but I picked up the sword again and began living in a way that wouldn’t tarnish the Dokgo Clan’s reputation. That was when I came to one realization: the person who had been comparing me to my brother more than anyone else… was myself.
This was a story about Dokgo Seok that had never once been described in the original novel, The Heavenly Poison Witch. Even though he was nothing more than an extra who died in a single line in the book, here he was—a living, breathing human being. Because of the vague image I’d formed from the novel, I had been wary of him. But after this conversation, I felt a slight sense of relief. I could tell now that he was actually a good person.
Come to think of it, the original The Heavenly Poison Witch had been told strictly from Dokgo Rin’s perspective. The claim that Dokgo Seok had betrayed the family out of inferiority toward Dokgo Hyeok and sold out his own sister had only ever come from Wiji Cheon, the leader of the Murim Alliance, during the final battle as a way to provoke her. In other words, it had always been suspect information from the start.
Realizing this belatedly, I cursed my own stupidity and asked Dokgo Seok, “Then, Young Master, do you wish for Lady Rin not to suffer the way you did?”
He gave a bitter smile. “Well, I’m the hopeless scoundrel even our parents gave up on. But our little sister is someone Father cherishes with all his heart. She’s going to grow up into a beauty, so she’ll marry into a good family and live happily ever after.”
I’m sorry to say this to you, Chilbok, but I just want my little sister to be happy.
“I understand.”
Honestly, if my own little sister said she liked some random bonehead who’d rolled in from who-knows-where, I’d do everything in my power to separate them too. It seemed he was just clumsy at expressing affection.
“But if Rin really has no intention of giving up on you, as her older brother, I’m willing to help. Since I’ve been through it myself, I should be able to offer some advice.”
Having said that, Dokgo Seok glanced at me and asked, “So, what do you think? About my little sister.”
Just so we’re clear, I’m asking as a man to another man right now, not as her brother.
I couldn’t answer his sudden question right away and fell silent. It wasn’t that I liked Dokgo Rin enough to reply with a confident “Yes” without hesitation. But my silence seemed to please him. He let out a short laugh.
“Looks like Rin will have to work harder. To win over the heart of the person she likes.”
Flustered, I waved my hands wildly in denial. “No, it’s not that I dislike Lady Rin. It’s just… I’m not sure I fully understand what it means to like someone yet.”
“Really? I thought kids these days were all precocious and knew everything already.”
Dokgo Seok gave a small chuckle, then poked me right above the heart with his index finger. “That ‘thump’ you feel in your chest when you look at someone—that’s love.”
“Thump?”
What a vague description.
“You’ll probably figure it out naturally when the time comes.”
With that, he ruffled my hair, said the night air was getting chilly, and suggested we head back inside. I rubbed the spot on my chest where he had poked me and followed him into the inn.
It was pure coincidence that I saw the two of them talking alone.
After drinking several cups at Dokgo Seok’s insistence during the evening drinking party, Chilbok had stepped outside for some fresh air. I had followed a beat later, planning to surprise him, only to find someone already there.
Dokgo Seok. Her biological older brother.
In her memory, he had been considered a genius in his youth, but out of jealousy toward his eldest brother Dokgo Hyeok, he had contacted the leader of the Murim Alliance—who had once desired her—and tried to seize control of the clan. That was the pathetic man she had known as Dokgo Seok.
But the story he told Chilbok was completely different from what she knew. A younger brother constantly compared to his brilliant older sibling since childhood. The reason he had gone astray and then turned his life around was because of the wife he met outside the clan. And the fact that he cherished her deeply. Everything he said was so different from the information she possessed that Dokgo Rin fell into confusion.
So that’s why he had been living alone outside the clan?
When she thought about it, she realized she barely knew anything about Dokgo Seok. By the time she had developed any sense of self, he was already living away from home. He would only return occasionally, eat a meal by himself, and leave again.
The reason she had believed he was the traitor who ruined the family was because their father, Dokgo Jin, had always spoken of him with visible discomfort, and because of what the Murim Alliance leader Wiji Cheon had said.
‘Do not speak of that child.’
‘Hahahaha! Do you know who it was that destroyed your clan and tried to sell you to me? It was none other than your own older brother, Dokgo Seok!’
“……”
Perhaps the version of herself before regression truly hadn’t known anything at all. As that possibility occurred to her, memories of how coldly she had treated Dokgo Seok all this time flashed through her mind like a panorama.
“…That can’t be.”
But Dokgo Rin shook her head vigorously. While it was a plausible story, there was still no concrete evidence. And she didn’t want to cling to the vain hope that he might not actually be the enemy of both her and the clan. If that guess turned out to be wrong, the person who would be most devastated would be herself.
Still, because she had felt sincerity in the conversation he shared with Chilbok, Dokgo Rin decided to at least leave open the smallest possibility that he had not betrayed them. After all, she couldn’t make a final judgment until she had solid proof.
The sixtieth birthday banquet for Wiji Cheon, leader of the Murim Alliance, was scheduled for the eleventh day of the seventh month. However, the invitation had arrived at the Dokgo Clan at the beginning of the year. Given how vast the continent was, simply traveling from one place to another took an enormous amount of time. It seemed they sent invitations well in advance to account for that.
Sichuan was relatively close to Shaanxi, but sects like the Kunlun Sect from faraway Qinghai or the Hainan Sect from the southern seas would have needed to depart several months earlier. Those who received invitations would arrive in Chang’an a few days before the banquet and simply wait for the day itself.
About three days after we arrived in Chang’an, I began to sense that martial artists were gradually gathering at the once-peaceful Geumseong Inn. By the time a week had passed, the place was so packed there wasn’t even room to stand. The same phenomenon was probably occurring at every other inn in the city as well.
Whenever people of all kinds gathered, fights were inevitable. But when it was martial artists—who lived by the sword—instead of ordinary people, there wasn’t a single dull day. They said enemies were fated to meet on a narrow bridge, and sure enough, factions with deep grudges who had come for the Alliance Leader’s birthday banquet fought almost every single day.
Anyway, I spent my time watching these bloody brawls that broke out in the inn whenever boredom struck. Before I knew it, the eleventh day of the seventh month had arrived.
At last, I would be able to see the face of Wiji Cheon—the final boss and main villain of The Heavenly Poison Witch—with my own eyes.