Chapter 146
Chapter 146
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Translator: Ryuma
Chapter: 146
Chapter Title: Let's Catch the Rat (1)
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Watching me dispel the curse, my master at my waist let out a sigh of admiration.
Your barrier techniques never cease to amaze me every time I see them. You drew out a spell formula from your upper dantian in an instant, rotated yin and yang energies between your palms to suck out the curse embedded in the idol, and then shattered the statue that only had its soul left behind?
‘…Yeah. Something like that.’
I humored my master’s words for a moment.
Then, the curse released, my maternal grandfather slowly blinked his refocused eyes and rasped out a name from his throat, cracked from disuse for so long.
“…Yeong-yeong?”
Yeong-yeong was the name of my mother, the Plum Blossom Madam.
The first thought that flashed through my mind was this.
‘Is he still not fully in his right mind?’
Then it hit me—I was currently wearing a mask that only exposed my eyes.
‘Is he mistaking me for Mother because only my eyes are visible?’
Either way, I needed to help him grasp the situation quickly.
And for good reason.
The sounds of the guards, who had sensed my presence through their senses when I leaped into the inner quarters, were drawing closer.
“I definitely felt some kind of presence! Form a perimeter and search the grounds thoroughly, closing in slowly!”
I quickly pulled down my mask and spoke up.
“It’s not Yeong-yeong. It’s your grandson.”
“…Yong-un, is that you?”
“Yes.”
If the gaunt old man before me were an ordinary person, the conversation would have naturally shifted here to something like, “What in the world is going on?”
But my maternal grandfather, the Southeast Golden Carp Yi Gil-hwan, was no ordinary old man.
Instead of asking such questions, he rolled his eyes and quietly surveyed his surroundings.
Having come to his senses, he took in his emaciated grandson before him, his own withered body, and the sounds from outside, roughly piecing together the situation.
At some point, his eyes fully regained their sharpness as he spoke.
“…Help me sit up. And give me some water from over there.”
I inwardly shouted, ‘Yes!’ as I propped up his upper body.
I found a water pitcher nearby and poured him a cup.
“Here…”
But as his bony arm reached out, I wondered if it could even support the weight of the cup, so I decided to assist him.
“Let your grandson help you.”
“…Thank you.”
As I helped him drink,
“No one’s in the physician’s quarters.”
“Not in the maids’ rooms either.”
“Then the only place left is the clan head’s chambers?”
The commotion outside was growing closer.
“Clan Head, this is the inner quarters escort captain. I’m coming in.”
Suddenly.
The man directing the clamor flung the door open with a thud!
At that moment, I removed the cup from my grandfather’s mouth.
Clink—
And cautiously reached for Regret.
Shing—
My grandfather meant for me to handle the traffic control.
I reached for Regret in case the guards had fully sided with my eldest uncle or the Demonic Cult.
“……”
Yet, for some reason, my grandfather delayed dealing with the man before him and looked at me with eyes that said, ‘Well, look at this guy?’
“?”
In response, my habitual chin gesture—used to direct Gyeong-ryong hyung or my younger siblings—slipped out unconsciously.
‘You should be looking over there, not at me.’
You need to rein in that escort captain over there, not me?
A dry smile crept across my grandfather’s face at my demeanor.
Well, at least the message got through, as he promptly turned to the man and spoke.
“You’re Sun-pyeong, the one I permitted to take the Yi surname.”
“Yes? Yes! Inner quarters escort captain Yi Sun-pyeong greets the clan head!”
“I heard you sending word, but I never permitted entry. So how dare you barge into the clan head’s chambers, Sun-pyeong?”
At my grandfather’s voice,
The escort captain named Sun-pyeong hastily dropped to one knee.
“Forgive me!”
The other guards behind him knelt hurriedly as well.
“F-Forgive us!!”
With that reaction, they were at least not Demonic Cult lackeys.
I first withdrew my hand from Regret.
Meanwhile, my grandfather’s voice continued.
“The answer to my question isn’t ‘forgive me,’ but why you acted that way.”
“…W-Well, after you fell ill, Clan Head, we couldn’t get permission, but while guarding the inner quarters, we sensed a suspicious presence, so I had no choice but to be rude.”
“Is that so? But Sun-pyeong.”
“Yes! Clan Head!”
“How could a grandson visiting his grandfather out of worry be suspicious?”
Well.
Because I was dressed in black and used Shadow Assimilation to scale the wall?
But my grandfather’s voice—his eyes hawk-like despite his withered body—wasn’t asking for simple reasons. It probed the root cause of why I had no choice but to choose that method.
‘Is this the Southeast Golden Carp’s pressure interview?’
Tough stuff.
Then again, in modern terms, it’s like a department head facing the chairman.
Understanding this, the man named Sun-pyeong stammered his response.
“…W-Well, even for blood kin, the young clan head ordered no entry to the inner quarters without his permission, so it seems Young Master Yeong-yeong’s eldest son had no choice but to do that.”
“That brat Jung-yeong did that, did he?”
Here, Sun-pyeong faced a crossroads.
A simple affirmation would tarnish my eldest uncle; explaining the details would implicate my youngest uncle.
In that dilemma, Sun-pyeong sided with my eldest uncle.
“There was a conflict between the young clan head and the Purification Hall Leader over methods to cure you, Clan Head, and since the Purification Hall Leader’s way involved bringing physicians into the estate, I believe that’s why the order was given.”
It seemed my eldest uncle had the better reputation among the estate staff than my youngest uncle.
As a result,
My grandfather instantly grasped how the household had been run in his absence.
At that sight, my master at my waist clicked his tongue in amazement.
- That old man’s no pushover.
‘Tell me about it. He figured out in one sitting what I learned after all my legwork.’
- Impressive as that is, he just woke up on the brink of death, and from that banquet earlier, your eldest uncle seemed to have built some influence in the meantime. Even more astonishing is how he crumbled that influence like a sandcastle while doing it.
‘Yes. Even if they’re inner quarters guards, I doubt others are different. Those reveling happily at the banquet? That was probably their last supper.’
- Indeed. That’s why you said everything would resolve once your grandfather wakes up.
As I exchanged words with my master,
At some point, my grandfather’s hawk-like eyes turned to me.
“Yong-un.”
“Yes?”
And he threw out a curveball.
“I just regained my strength, but talking too much has left me a bit fatigued. Could you relay to that Yi Sun-pyeong captain over there what I just told you?”
The only things my curse-freed grandfather had said to me upon opening his eyes were to help him sit up and give him water.
‘Oh, he did ask if it was Yeong-yeong.’
Anyway, none of that was meant for the escort captain.
‘…So this is…’
A test question from the Southeast Golden Carp Yi Gil-hwan.
‘What would I do in this situation?’
- The old man’s testing your caliber. But is it wise to leave such a decision to you?
‘Yes. No loss for him either way.’
He could watch my words; if he liked them, affirm them. If not, one sentence denying he ever said it flips everything.
‘Wow. Even now, sizing me up.’
I’d have to discuss the newsletter business with him after purging the Demonic Cult infiltrators from Taewon and the household anyway, so I’d anticipated he might test me.
Thus, it wasn’t displeasure but genuine admiration.
‘Didn’t expect him to do it like this, though.’
Well, from the moment I left the guest quarters in Sorung-i and night travel clothes, I’d envisioned the big picture after waking him, so voicing an opinion was easy.
“Grandfather instructed to announce that he has risen from his sickbed and to gather all household members in the inner quarters.”
As I finished,
Escort Captain Yi Sun-pyeong turned to my grandfather for confirmation.
“Is there any mistake in the young master’s words?”
My grandfather silently nodded.
“I shall obey the command.”
The guards stood busily, but I gave a slightly different order to one at the back.
“You there at the rear—go to the guest quarters right now and tell the guests from the Righteous Martial Academy that I said to come here quickly.”
“Yes! Understood!”
“Oh! They might not believe you, so end with the word ‘Flowerborn Squad,’ and they’ll know it’s from me.”
* * *
As the guards left the chambers, my grandfather’s eyes gleamed as he questioned me.
“What’s ‘Flowerborn Squad’?”
“A fun memory with academy classmates. In this case, it verifies it’s from me since it’s our private joke.”
I first thought he was just curious about the unfamiliar term.
But then,
“So, Yong-un, how did you come up with that method you just told the escort captain?”
He was curious about something else.
“And how did you know to nod in agreement, Grandfather?”
I couldn’t understand, so I asked back.
“Because your words matched my thoughts.”
“Then why ask why I thought that?”
My grandfather blinked innocently as he replied.
“I need to check if you arrived at the same answer or followed the same process.”
Pushing the newsletter business won’t be easy.
“In my humble view, there’s a mastermind behind your illness, Grandfather, and household members complicit in their scheme.”
He nodded but fired back sharply.
“Sound reasoning. But why not hide your recovery and proceed that way?”
“I would have if your condition was poor. But seeing you bend the escort captain to his knee in an instant changed my mind. No need for a method that limits your options.”
“…Continue.”
“Announcing your recovery will send the low-level culprits running to their mastermind. Gathering everyone filters them out first.”
Hm.
Did I imagine my grandfather smacking his lips?
Anyway.
I pressed on.
“If I may be bold, even among Taewon Merchant Group executives you trusted, some are involved. They’ll rush to verify if it’s true.”
“Many will gather. How to distinguish the disloyal?”
“Do we need to right away?”
“You gathered them without a method?”
“Not without a method, but no immediate need to distinguish. Seeing you recovered, they’ll overplay their hand on their own.”
“……”
“The time and money invested isn’t trivial. With you awake, it’s all for naught. Won’t desperation to recoup kick in?”
There’s a saying about sprinkling ash on cooked rice.
Truth be told, I’d just thoroughly sprinkled ash on the cooked rice that the Demonic Cult and household traitors had prepared.
‘But what if it’s the last rice in the house?’
People scrape off the ash and eat anyway.
That’s when it happened.
As I pondered,
My grandfather, who’d been listening quietly and interjecting questions, suddenly burst into hearty laughter.
“Hahaha. A dragon born from a bear of a father.”
He pointed northwest.
“Trying to slip such a greeting into a destitute martial family’s customs, no wonder it spread outside.”
…Huh.
So the bear father is Eon Jeong-ung, and the destitute martial family is the Pearl Eon Family?
“Anyway, your father’s so stiff—that’s why I tried to call off the marriage. Hm. Though if I had, you wouldn’t exist.”
How long had that hearty smile lingered on his face?
The inner quarters grew noisy,
Then my uncles’ voices rang out.
“Father, it’s your son Jung-yeong.”
“Yun-yeong here.”
“Gwon-yeong.”
At those voices, my grandfather’s eyes sharpened like never before.
“I’ve said my time is gold time and again! And you come running so quickly! Wait outside!”
Seeing him, I thought inwardly that while I didn’t know his physical state, his vigor was fully restored.
‘With that voice and gaze, it’s hard to believe he was bedridden.’
Mistaking my reaction for surprise at his other side?
“Not talking to you.”
His expression softened contentedly toward me, patting my hand before gripping it firmly and rising.
“Let’s go catch the rats.”