Chapter 3
Chapter 3
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Translator: MadScientist
Chapter: 3
Chapter Title: I Spent the Night with the Murim Alliance Leader's Youngest Daughter
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"What did you just say?"
Namgoong Hyeok's single remark.
It was a low rumble, yet it carried a heaviness that made the entire building tremble.
"I wish to marry Yeonhui. I seek your permission, Alliance Leader, to pledge our future together."
"That's too much. If you beg forgiveness now, I'll pretend it never happened."
Namgoong Hyeok's eyes brimmed with anger and utter disbelief as he spoke.
"How could I treat a marriage proposal as a joke? I truly admire Yeonhui. And she..."
"Enough!"
Namgoong Hyeok cut him off, as if he couldn't bear to hear more.
He was subtly raising his aura, binding me in its grip.
Namgoong Hyeok rose from his seat on the raised dais and strode toward me.
"You have no sense of your place."
Namgoong Hyeok was stubborn.
And right now, that stubbornness was my only key to salvation.
'I can't let him string me up by the nose like this.'
I still didn't know what had happened last night.
But no matter the circumstances, the fact that I'd seen Yeonhui naked wouldn't change.
Murim's views on chastity were grave.
I had to take responsibility.
But come on, really?
I'm just a gatekeeper now on my master's orders, but I still had so much I wanted to experience.
I couldn't become a married man yet.
Besides.
Would Namgoong Hyeok marry off the daughter he'd raised like precious gold and jade to some lowly gatekeeper?
Impossible.
As Alliance Leader, he might even unleash the Secret Shadow Unit to assassinate me.
So the only option was to prevent the engagement from forming in the first place.
'I have to act with utmost boldness!'
I had to exploit Namgoong Hyeok's fiery temper.
From this moment on,
I was the insolent wretch daring to defy the World's Strongest, Namgoong Hyeok.
I had to make him despise me to escape this engagement's shackles!
"Father, how can you say that?"
"You stay out of this!"
"Honey and I love each other."
"Honey...?"
At that moment, Yeonhui, who had been watching from the side, joined in.
No, just call me 'big brother' like always.
"Honey" feels way too cloyingly sweet.
"'Honey'? You can't just call anyone that!"
"He's not just anyone. And no matter how much you object, Father, we've already..."
"Already?"
"Already promised each other our futures, Father!"
"Who's your father?!"
As the Alliance Leader pressed her, Yeonhui looked ready to drop a bombshell.
Probably something like we'd already consummated, right?
I'd begged her not to say it...
Or maybe she'd planned to get me killed from the start?!
It was heavy.
Namgoong Hyeok's gaze bearing down on me, his words crushing me.
But I had to endure.
"Please give your permission! I won't move a single step until you do!"
I had to go for the kill.
A son-in-law he didn't want to approve, a father-in-law who didn't want to yield.
A confrontation between two men with no room for compromise.
For the record, there'd be no winner!
"You bastard!"
That was when it happened.
Namgoong Hyeok let out a lion's roar, channeling his inner energy.
The perfect opportunity.
If I failed to withstand his aura now, I'd just be a pathetic fool...!
'Huh?'
The moment I sensed Namgoong Hyeok's aura, my vision flipped.
He'd gone from arms crossed to hand on his sword hilt.
"Impressive. To spout such nonsense before me, you must have some guts."
"?"
"To withstand this seat's pressure without batting an eye. I'll commend that spirit. However..."
No, you're misunderstanding.
I passed out with my eyes open.
Shouldn't you give me a chance to drop to my knees?
His eyes flashed with a dangerous glint, as if thinking, 'This punk...'
"Daddy, I hate you! I don't even want to look at you!"
"!"
At that moment.
The words from Namgoong Yeonhui, who'd been using formal speech until now.
A simple outburst, but to Namgoong Hyeok, it seemed like a fatal dagger.
"Honey, let's go. Talking more will just hurt our mouths."
Namgoong Hyeok's expression crumbled beyond mere distortion.
'So close...!'
No, you can't stop now.
Push a little harder!
But Namgoong Hyeok stood there, soul drained, blankly watching as Namgoong Yeonhui took my hand and left.
◇◇◇◆◇◇◇ "Yeonhui. Wasn't that a bit too harsh?"
"Not at all. Father deserved it."
"Heh."
"More than that, I didn't know you could withstand Father's pressure."
I didn't withstand it.
I was planning to collapse right there, but your father's aura exceeded my expectations.
"To think Honey's skills are at that level."
"How long are you going to keep calling me 'Honey'?"
"What?"
"No. 'Honey' is just... a bit much."
"It's natural for the man who's going to be my husband. Or should I call you young master?"
We weren't communicating.
"I swore to take responsibility, but are you really okay with this?"
"I heard from Mother. Things will work out in time anyway. Are you thinking of backing out now?"
"No, that's not it."
Her venomous glare stung my face.
Yeah, I'm the criminal here.
It was my fault for getting so drunk I lost my memory.
"By the way, Father was way too stubborn."
"Not Father—Father-in-law."
"Right, Father-in-law was."
"I expected opposition, but not to this degree."
Contrary to her worry, I harbored the opposite concern.
Namgoong Hyeok's eyes had gleamed before Yeonhui intervened.
As a fellow martial artist, even a minor one, I could feel it.
It was the gaze of a senior approving a junior's spirit.
A subtle sign of recognition.
'If that's how it is, no helping it! I'll test you once!'
He looked ready to say something like that any second.
Thinking back, it was a good thing Yeonhui stepped in.
'What now?'
The reliable Namgoong Hyeok had become unreliable.
My attempt to make him hate me had won his favor instead.
Wait.
"Yeonhui. Let me ask one thing."
"What?"
"What does your mother like?"
"Mother?"
"Yeah. There's a saying: to topple a general, strike the horse first."
"Hmm?"
"How about convincing Mother first?"
"Great idea!"
A brilliant stroke.
Even if Namgoong Hyeok suddenly changed his mind, her mother could veto it.
No husband in the world beats his wife.
'I'll twist myself into knots to make her hate me!'
Wait for me, Mother-in-law.
I'm coming.
◇◇◇◆◇◇◇ "Hoo..."
The Murim Alliance was filled with solemn silence.
Namgoong Hyeok, seated on the raised dais, let out a deep sigh of frustration.
No one was there to console him.
-Daddy, I hate you! I don't even want to look at you!
His only daughter's cry.
It pierced his heart like a needle.
'To think Yeonhui would say something like that...'
It was a shock.
His daughter, whom he cherished more than his own eyes.
-Daddy's the best! When I grow up, I'm going to marry Daddy!
Her radiant smile had been so beautiful.
The daughter he'd raised with boundless love adored him fiercely.
She'd never strayed, always composed and sensible.
He'd felt a pang at her growing formality, but to hear her casual words again only to find them laced with resentment...
'It's all that guy's fault!'
Flames of rage surged in Namgoong Hyeok's chest.
Yi Se-woong.
He was the problem.
Just recalling that parasite big-brother face made his blood boil.
That smug mug must have bewitched his pure Yeonhui.
'To become my son-in-law, he needs to be at least strong enough to defeat me.'
An utterly absurd thought...
But Namgoong Hyeok was serious.
Family background, wealth—none of it mattered.
'Without strength, you can't protect anything.'
Namgoong Hyeok's reputation was like wildfire.
A brute who smashed anything that displeased him.
But that was the image he'd deliberately cultivated.
Before becoming Alliance Leader, countless events had shaped him.
The pivotal figure.
In the murim tangled with factions and interests, a powerhouse like Namgoong Hyeok was unwelcome.
Checks against him crossed orthodox and demonic lines.
Before he was called invincible under heaven.
His wife and eldest son had been kidnapped.
Swift action prevented tragedy, but from that day, Namgoong Hyeok changed.
Or rather, resolved to show a changed face.
'No one touches my family.'
Those involved in the kidnapping—orthodox or demonic—were slaughtered without mercy.
Their sects and families too.
Under the banner of protecting his kin, his actions knew no bounds.
Afterward, a saying emerged in murim.
'Never provoke the Murim Alliance Leader.'
He tolerated no slights, however minor.
The tale of how the Eighteen Yangtze River Gangs became Eleven because he mentioned his family was legendary.
Namgoong Hyeok played the role of an explosive thunderbolt.
All to protect his family and loved ones.
If he'd truly had that fiery temper, he'd have slapped Yi Se-woong silly on the spot.
The Alliance Leader's seat wasn't for a brute unable to control his rage.
'I can't entrust Yeonhui to just anyone.'
So he had no choice but to reject Yi Se-woong outright.
'I'll acknowledge that he withstood my pressure.'
Namgoong Hyeok was a transcendent powerhouse.
Yet that guy.
Yi Se-woong had faced his aura head-on.
'Fighting Ghost, was it?'
A master who'd once rocked the jianghu.
Didn't he say he'd cut down anyone who obstructed him, righteous or wicked?
Why such a man would volunteer as a mere gatekeeper was a mystery.
'Maybe I should observe him a bit longer.'
The martial artist Namgoong Hyeok somewhat recognized Yi Se-woong, but as Yeonhui's father, he refused.
"Young master?"
Days later, as his worries deepened,
His wife, Dang Aryeon, visited.
"What has you looking so troubled?"
"Something came up."
"Is it because of the man Yeonhui brought, saying she wants him as her husband?"
"How do you know already?"
It hadn't even been four days since Yi Se-woong and Namgoong Yeonhui came.
Word had already reached his wife?
"Give your permission."
Namgoong Hyeok's eyes bulged at Dang Aryeon's casual remark.
"What did you just say?"
"I said give your permission."
"What kind of talk is that?!"
He shouted before he knew it.
"Did you just raise your voice to me?"
"No, dear. It's not..."
Even an invincible master had to cower before his wife.
As Dang Aryeon scolded him, Namgoong Hyeok's insides burned.
His daughter's resentment followed by his wife's words.
'What trick has that guy pulled!'
It felt like the sky was collapsing.