Chapter 12
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Translator: 8uhl
Chapter: 12
Chapter Title: Proposal or Lifetime Lackey Declaration, That is the Question
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“Huh? It was definitely this way. Where the heck is this?”
I gave the back of Namgung Seheon, who was grumbling irritably while looking around, a light tap.
“Hey, directionally challenged kid. Lost again?”
“I’m not directionally challenged!”
There was no way I’d miss the fleeting flicker of delight that crossed his flushed, yelling face.
“Where you headed?”
“Where you were yesterday.”
“That’s way over there, the complete opposite direction. What exactly were you looking for?”
“Doesn’t matter, I found you. You’re the one I came for anyway.”
Namgung Seheon and I sat side by side, leaning against the shadowed wall. The lush green branches overhanging the fence blocked the harsh sunlight.
Namgung Seheon hesitated, then asked unusually cautiously.
“You got a mom?”
“If you called me an orphan, doesn’t that answer it? No dad either.”
“…I got a dad.”
Bragging, are we? My flash of annoyance faded as I belatedly caught the meaning behind his words, and I scratched my head.
He doesn’t have a mom either. Wait, no—he just deduced it from my story. Why does it feel so much like a low blow?
A gentle silence settled between us for a moment. Namgung Seheon broke it first.
“I’m heading back to Anhui today.”
Anhui was the Namgung Family’s home base. He was going home.
“Yeah, okay. Safe travels.”
At my indifferent preemptive farewell, Namgung Seheon, who had been staring at me with his sparkling jet-black eyes, held out his hand.
“Let’s go together.”
Was he already itching to grab a sword like me? His small hand was dotted with scars and calluses here and there. I stared at it blankly before meeting his gaze again, and he beamed with a sunlit smile.
“If you stay here, you’ll keep hearing crap like that. I’ll make sure you never hear it again, for life.”
I couldn’t help but burst out laughing at his childish bravado and the arrogant grin befitting a young master of a prestigious clan.
“Being an orphan with no connections isn’t a problem here. But if I followed you, that’s when it’d become one.”
“Why? I’d be there.”
At his innocently—almost arrogantly—naive question, I smirked crookedly and flicked his forehead with my finger.
“That’s exactly the problem. You clueless brat.”
A life dependent on someone else’s kindness was the last thing I wanted.
Here, we were equals. But the moment I followed him, our positions would flip to superior and subordinate.
What else could an orphan with no ties become in the Namgung Family besides a young master’s playmate (aka servant) at best, or a retainer?
Right now, I lived like this because Mount Hua had taken me in as their one and only child.
I knew full well that once I left this place, I’d just be a nobody orphan.
“We’re the same age, so who’re you calling brat? And why wouldn’t it be fine with me there?”
I’d overestimated a four-year-old’s smarts by using myself as the benchmark. Four-year-olds can’t grasp context yet.
“Fine, let me spell it out for a dummy like you. This is my home, with my family. I’m not leaving my home.”
“I’m not a dummy! And you said you don’t have family. The people here are strangers to you.”
“So are a husband and wife family just because they’re blood-related?”
Outmaneuvered logically, Namgung Seheon clamped his mouth shut. With his head hung low, he mumbled in a gloomy tone.
“So you’re not coming with me….”
“If you like hanging with me that much, you join Mount Hua later.”
“No way. I like our house better than this rugged mountain.”
I turned to him with a look of utter disbelief at his firm refusal. Same here, you little punk.
Young master—! A faint voice calling Namgung Seheon drifted from afar.
I stood, brushed the dirt off my clothes, and extended my hand to Namgung Seheon, who was still leaning against the wall.
“C’mon. I’ll walk you back.”
This would be my last gig as his guide. Namgung Seheon, who had been staring up at me blankly, grabbed my hand tight.
“What’re you waiting for? Get up.”
“Pull me up.”
Bossy much? With a sigh, I yanked my arm, and he wobbled to his feet.
When I escorted Namgung Seheon to the front of the Jade Clarity Hall, the Namgung Family head and their retainers were already gathered with the Mount Hua disciples.
As I let go and waved him off, Namgung Seheon turned back and cupped both my cheeks with his hands.
His eyes curved into half-moons, making the two beauty marks under his left eye stand out even more.
“You better come to our house if you ever wanna visit. You’re welcome anytime.”
I shoved him away with a nonchalant shove.
“No plans to, so just go already.”
Namgung Seheon pouted and trudged toward his father. Halfway there, he spun around, charged back, and threw his arms around me in a fierce hug.
“See ya!”
After a quick embrace, he flashed a bright grin, waved wildly, and scampered to his father.
I took in the sight of the Namgung head chuckling wryly down at his son, then yawned and turned away.
“Whew, finally rid of that clingy pest.”
“Aw, really? He was a bother?”
Uiseong, back from who-knows-where in the outer halls, chuckled and ruffled my hair.
“Your hair’s a total mess. C’mere, let me redo it. What kinda hair tie is this? Looks like it’s one tug from snapping.”
“You’re the one who did it! Who told you to mess with my hair? Lelemme gooo! I gotta go to the girls’ dorm!”
Uiseong scooped up my flailing self and carried me to my room, where he set me down and rummaged through the box of hair ties, bracelets, and ornaments.
Most were gifts from disciples who’d returned from trips outside Mount Hua, handed to me and my senior sister.
Uiseong frowned slightly as he checked the precarious hair tie barely holding my hair together.
“Kiddo, where’d you toss the one I got you?”
Right—my number one treasure, the flower hair ornament!
That punk Namgung Seheon undid it and took off with it! And I never got it back.
I rushed to the sect gates and peered down the endless stairs toward Harmony Pavilion, but of course, only the steep steps stared back.
Overwhelmed with frustration, I stomped my foot and yelled.
“Give back my hair tie, you thief!”
* * *
The Sect Leader’s office.
I was diligently copying scriptures as punishment for breaking that main troublemaker kid’s finger.
The Sect Leader elder stroked my head gently, offering words of comfort.
“Don’t let those little scratches from the haters get to you too much.”
“Not really bothered.”
Despite my blasé reply, the Sect Leader gazed at me with ‘oh, my poor baby’ eyes, as if my pretending to be tough was both admirable and heartbreaking.
But honestly, it hadn’t fazed me at all.
For one, Mount Hua had plenty of other orphans besides me, and there was no reason to grieve over parents who’d abandoned me. I was just curious what kind of people they were to dump a kid right in front of Mount Hua, of all places.
“Puhaha! So that’s why you got punished—you broke his finger? Attaboy, kiddo! You gotta show punks who underestimate you the bitter taste of reality!”
Uiseong, who’d been out in Harmony Pavilion during the incident and only just learned of the flaming trash-talk drama, predictably praised my actions.
“But what’s with the blood?”
“Oh, this? Got a bit splashed somehow.”
Uiseong wiped the blood from his pale cheek with the back of his hand and shrugged. Looked like he’d gone and decked someone.
As we walked side by side to the training grounds, Do-un came sprinting up and smacked Uiseong’s head with a whack!
“You little punk! Why’d you go beating up the outer disciples headed to repair the Selection Hall!”
The ones headed to repair the Selection Hall… weren’t those the jerks who trashed me behind my back? No way—he’d done that for me?
I looked up at him with newfound admiration, and Uiseong’s ear tips flushed pink as he whipped his head toward Do-un.
“Hey, what can I do? Their faces were begging to be punched.”
“You’re not even sorry!”
I’d figured he’d brag to high heaven about beating them up for me.
But keeping it secret and quietly handling it? Guess this guy could be a proper adult sometimes.
I tugged at Do-un’s clothes as he kept slapping Uiseong’s back.
“Sahyung Uiseong did a good deed for once. Let it slide?”
“Kid, turning people into bloody messes isn’t a ‘good deed.’”
“Even if they’re scum who deserved it?”
Do-un blinked as he caught my meaning. The irredeemable trash’s fiery insults toward me had long since spread through the upper halls.
“That wasn’t enough of a beating? You should’ve hit ’em harder!”
His scolding flipped directions on a dime.
As Uiseong and I scratched our heads sheepishly, Do-un advised us warmly not to hold grudges.
“But I’m really fine. I’m just curious why they dumped me right in front of Mount Hua.”
I mumbled while watching Do-un walk away. Uiseong shook his head.
“If they climbed all the way to Lotus Peak just to ditch a kid, they must’ve been some real crazies.”
“My parents were crazies?”
“No, don’t make me the trash badmouthing your parents…. The ones who left you here might not even be your real folks.”
Oh, right. Could’ve been someone who pitied a lone infant after their parents died and tossed ’em here for Mount Hua to raise.
“Climbing the upper halls with a baby in tow means they sure as hell weren’t ordinary folk…. Narrow it down to folks who know where Mount Hua’s upper halls are… still a damn wide net.”
Uiseong, who’d just given me a fresh perspective and was narrowing down suspects for who might’ve dumped me at Mount Hua’s doorstep, suddenly asked.
“Wanna find ’em?”
“Eh… not really.”
Curious, sure, but not enough to scour the Central Plains for them.
“My family’s right here anyway.”
My family wasn’t my past life’s neglectful parents or these life’s unseen ones—it was the people of Mount Hua, right here.
Mount Hua gave me my name, their love, and the education to survive.
In this short life, Mount Hua was my everything.
Well, except those irredeemable human trash who pissed me off—not counting them as family.
“Sniff…!”
I turned at the choked sob. Uiseong was rubbing his eyes furiously.
“Sahyung, you crying?”
“Crying my ass….”
I giggled at Uiseong sniffling and turning away. Heh, got all emotional hearing ‘family,’ huh?
* * *
A few days later.
As I wandered the upper halls, I ran smack into that main troublemaker kid coming out of the Repentance Hall.