Chapter 64
Chapter 64
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Translator: MadScientist
Chapter: 64
Chapter Title: The Honored Guest and the Illegitimate Son 5
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The Hour of the Pig was drawing to a close.
The clouds had scattered, leaving the moonlight surprisingly bright. But Seo Moon-geuk lay slumped over, dead drunk from all the liquor.
Baek Moo-jin, who had been drinking with him, gazed at Seo Moon-geuk with a perfectly sober face.
"Brother Seo Moon, are you that wasted?"
There was no response from Seo Moon-geuk.
Passing out from drink was a rare occurrence for a heavy boozer like him. Baek Moo-jin drew in a breath of the night air and decided to let him sleep it off for a bit. He planned to wake him after about half an incense stick's time and head back.
Suddenly, Baek Moo-jin spotted something and curled the corner of his mouth upward. Right before blacking out, Seo Moon-geuk had been rambling on about why he used an iron wire as his weapon. Baek Moo-jin hadn't even heard the full story when Seo Moon-geuk lost consciousness, but the iron wire was still clutched in his right hand, head bowed low.
Baek Moo-jin crossed his arms and stared fixedly at Seo Moon-geuk's iron wire. Who could truly understand the feelings of a man from a palm technique family wielding such a thing?
Baek Moo-jin wanted to console him, but it was incredibly hard to find the right words.
'So what if you're a bastard? All Brother Seo Moon has to do is forge his own household someday.'
The pain Seo Moon-geuk carried was a completely different breed from the occasional resentful wishes Baek Moo-jin felt toward the Snow Mountain Baek Family.
At that moment, Baek Moo-jin, who had been eyeing the iron wire, turned his head and stared silently down the quiet street.
Far off in the distance, something like pitch-black darkness seemed to flicker.
Baek Moo-jin glared wordlessly at the shadows.
A moment later, unfamiliar figures emerged from the darkness, approaching with muffled footsteps. There were quite a few of them. They spotted Seo Moon-geuk with his head down and Baek Moo-jin as well but said nothing, heading straight toward the North Heaven Alliance.
Baek Moo-jin examined their attire and demeanor, tilting his head.
'Not Cloud Mountain Sect... the Seo Moon Family, maybe?'
But just as the group vanished like that—
A lone middle-aged man who had lingered behind stood with hands clasped behind his back, gazing at Baek Moo-jin and Seo Moon-geuk.
The middle-aged man approached with hands still behind his back, eyeing Seo Moon-geuk's back and the iron wire in his right hand before speaking to Baek Moo-jin.
"This drunken fool... is he Seo Moon-geuk, by any chance?"
2.
Only then could Baek Moo-jin get a good look at the middle-aged man's face.
Severity emanated not just from his features but from his attire as well. It was the kind of impression that suggested you could shake him upside down and not a speck of dust would fall out.
Baek Moo-jin replied.
"Yes, that's right."
Perhaps struck by the calm tone in Baek Moo-jin's voice, the middle-aged man's gaze shifted from Seo Moon-geuk to him.
Their eyes met in the air.
Baek Moo-jin thought as he regarded the man.
'The Seo Moon Patriarch.'
His face shape resembled Seo Moon Dan-cheon's sharply, and those piercing eyes were remarkably like Seo Moon-geuk's.
The Seo Moon Patriarch introduced himself neither nor asked who Baek Moo-jin was. He simply walked a bit closer and stared down for a long while at Seo Moon-geuk, who lay unconscious gripping his iron wire in drunken stupor.
Following that gaze, Baek Moo-jin realized it was fixed precisely on Seo Moon-geuk's iron wire.
"......"
Seo Moon-yeop never sighed at his drunken son or scolded him. He simply stared at the iron wire like a man devoid of emotion, finally addressing Baek Moo-jin.
"......A fine night for a drink."
"Indeed it is."
Baek Moo-jin knew full well who the man was.
But Seo Moon-yeop assumed Baek Moo-jin had no idea of his identity. It had been ages since he'd ventured into the martial world, and Baek Moo-jin looked far too young besides.
Seo Moon-yeop had intended merely to confirm the drunkard was his son and leave, but Baek Moo-jin's composure kept his feet planted.
Seo Moon-yeop eyed Baek Moo-jin up and down as if appraising his entire form, then asked.
"Care to pour me a cup?"
Baek Moo-jin nodded.
"Of course."
Seo Moon-yeop sat with Seo Moon-geuk to his left and Baek Moo-jin to his right. Baek Moo-jin picked up the酒 bottle.
Then Seo Moon-yeop lifted the cup his son had been using, spilled the remaining liquor onto the floor, and held it out to Baek Moo-jin.
In that instant, their eyes met once more.
This was a situation where Seo Moon-yeop could test Baek Moo-jin's martial prowess. A mere burst of internal energy upon clinking the cup and bottle would suffice.
He wouldn't have even considered it with an ordinary youth. Yet experience and instinct piqued his curiosity about Baek Moo-jin.
Baek Moo-jin didn't know his intent but had no intention of letting his guard down, thanks to Seo Moon-geuk's prior warning.
As tension hung in the air, Baek Moo-jin extended his hand and slowly poured the liquor.
The gap between bottle and cup was perilously narrow.
Yet Seo Moon-yeop's eyes were intently watching Baek Moo-jin's hand pour. Seo Moon-geuk had drunk enough to collapse in a heap, but Baek Moo-jin's hand showed not the slightest tremor. Before he knew it, he'd forgotten to clash the cup and found himself staring at the now-brimming vessel.
Baek Moo-jin had already set the bottle aside and was filling his own cup.
Watching this, Seo Moon-yeop said.
"Let's have a drink."
The two men raised their cups slightly toward the sky, eyes locked on each other, and downed them in one gulp.
Seo Moon-yeop sensed the youth revealed not a single opening.
Baek Moo-jin felt the same. It was as if Seo Moon-yeop's gaze was scrutinizing every inch of him.
Even as he drank, wary of any trick, Baek Moo-jin never took his eyes off the Seo Moon Patriarch.
Seo Moon-yeop held out his empty cup.
"One more."
Baek Moo-jin shook the bottle a few times.
"Just finished it off."
Seo Moon-yeop turned to survey the empty tavern, then said to Baek Moo-jin.
"A pity. Shall we share another next time?"
"By all means."
There was no trace of regret on Seo Moon-yeop's face.
"Very well."
With that, Seo Moon-yeop said nothing more about who he was, who Baek Moo-jin was, or where they'd meet again. It was as if he was certain they'd cross paths regardless.
Only then did Seo Moon-yeop turn to Seo Moon-geuk, reaching out to stroke the back of his head.
"Geuk-ah, even if someone killed you, no one would notice."
Even in his drunken haze, Seo Moon-geuk jolted awake at his father's voice, startling like he'd met a ghost in his dreams.
"Father."
Seo Moon-geuk blinked up at Seo Moon-yeop. The man spoke with an expressionless face.
"How did the one who handled his liquor best end up this smashed?"
"Ah, I didn't sleep well last night, I think."
Seo Moon-geuk was gradually coming to his senses as he spoke. Seo Moon-yeop continued.
"This is right in front of the North Heaven Alliance. Aren't you getting too complacent? Drinking till you black out."
It wasn't wrong, so Seo Moon-geuk had no ready retort.
"My apologies."
Seo Moon-yeop glared at him.
"You think this is about apologizing to me? It's your life on the line."
With that, Seo Moon-yeop rose silently.
"You'll reek of booze till tomorrow. Don't show your face at the meeting with the North Heaven Alliance Leader."
"Understood."
Seo Moon-yeop departed for the North Heaven Alliance without a backward glance. Once he was gone, Seo Moon-geuk closed his eyes briefly.
"Haa......"
Then his eyes snapped open.
"Nothing happened with Father, right? When the hell did he get here?"
Baek Moo-jin shook his head.
"Nothing at all. He arrived just moments ago and shared a drink."
"What?"
Seo Moon-geuk stared down at the table in shock. Just as Baek Moo-jin said, his cup should have been right in front of him, but it sat where his father had been.
As Baek Moo-jin watched him, Seo Moon-geuk swallowed hard and muttered.
"He hates liquor."
Baek Moo-jin tilted his head.
"I doubt that."
"What do you mean?"
"He said... 'A fine night for a drink.'"
Seo Moon-geuk stared at Baek Moo-jin incomprehensibly. Recalling Seo Moon-yeop's peculiar gaze, Baek Moo-jin added.
"He stared wordlessly at the iron wire you were holding for quite a while."
At those words, Seo Moon-geuk's face twisted ever so slightly. As if he didn't want Baek Moo-jin to notice...
Baek Moo-jin averted his gaze from Seo Moon-geuk's face and patted his shoulder.
"Let's go. It's late."
Seo Moon-geuk nodded silently, unable to reply.
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