Monopolizing Fortunes (89)
Monopolizing Fortunes (89)
"Just treat him already."
Namgung Seol-rin, who had gone to the room where Do Tong-dal was resting, ran into the physician just as he was coming out.
"How is Tong-dal?"
"His qi is severely depleted. It doesn't seem to be merely physical exhaustion—did something happen?"
Eight times in one night was, after all, a number that tested the limits of human endurance.
"No. There's nothing seriously wrong with him, is there?"
"No. As long as he takes a proper tonic, he'll recover his strength within a month."
Namgung Seol-rin entered the room where Do Tong-dal was. Do Tong-dal, who had pulled the blanket up to his neck, was drenched in cold sweat.
"Ugh......"
He was frowning and even groaning as if having a bad dream. Namgung Seol-rin wiped the sweat beaded on Do Tong-dal's forehead with her hand.
"Are you remembering that night? Poor thing."
The groaning stopped, and a moment later he smiled softly, as if the dream had turned pleasant. Seeing that smile, Namgung Seol-rin gently curled the hand resting on Do Tong-dal's forehead into a fist.
"Is that smile from remembering that night? If you keep this up......!"
Namgung Seol-rin, whose hand had been trembling, wore a faint smile. Her hand once again wiped Do Tong-dal's cold sweat.
"Thank you. Thanks to you, my brother gets to live."
Namgung Seol-rin, who had been leaning her upper body on the bed and watching Do Tong-dal, also fell asleep. She had been on a forced march no less than Do Tong-dal.
And when she woke from sleep, she was lying on the bed. It was the very bed where Do Tong-dal had been sleeping, but Do Tong-dal himself was nowhere to be seen.
Startled, she sprang out of bed and was able to find Do Tong-dal in Namgung Cheol-hyeon's treatment room.
"You're here?"
Do Tong-dal greeted her casually.
"You should have woken me. How is my brother?"
The physician in black answered in Do Tong-dal's place.
"The treatment seems to be progressing smoothly. Look, the color has definitely returned to his face."
The physician had said the color had definitely returned, but Namgung Seol-rin still thought Cheol-hyeon looked pale.
"When will he wake up?"
"I don't know that."
Just then, Namgung Baek-jung came to the treatment room and expressed his gratitude to Do Tong-dal.
"I heard you'd woken up, so I came. You worked hard, and I wanted to say I'm truly grateful."
"The treatment isn't finished yet, so please save those words until Cheol-hyeon has fully recovered."
"You went to such lengths for my son, so that alone is more than enough reason to be grateful. I looked into it from various angles because I heard that go is a creature that can treat Cheol-hyeon, but it truly wasn't easy to obtain. Everyone shook their heads from the very first step of finding the Yeosan Tribe that raises go. They said that even if we found the Yeosan Tribe, we wouldn't be able to see so much as a single go hair. How in the world did you obtain it?"
"It's the product of bloody effort."
Namgung Seol-rin said.
"It wasn't blood that came out—it was something else. Eight times."
When Do Tong-dal jabbed Namgung Seol-rin's side with his elbow, she said "What?" and struck Do Tong-dal's side with her elbow in exactly the same way.
"Hmph! Anyway, I'd like to repay you somehow for this matter."
"No. Cheol-hyeon may be your son, Clan Head, but he's also my friend. I simply did what I ought to do...... Ugh!"
This time, Namgung Seol-rin's elbow genuinely hurt.
"Father, what are you planning to give him?"
"Well, from what I hear, Do Tong-dal already has so much that anything I give would seem insufficient."
"Did you investigate Tong-dal?"
"It's less an investigation and more that he's Cheol-hyeon's friend, and you...... you......"
"Like him."
Namgung Baek-jung let out a faint sigh.
"Right, I should know what kind of man my daughter likes."
"He's an impressive one. And a good one, too."
Namgung Baek-jung had no intention of denying that either. Even if he was from the Underworld, at nineteen he had unified Hangzhou. His official title was Coordinator, but everyone who knew anything knew that Do Tong-dal was the real head of the society.
On top of that, the roster of people under him was enough to make one's jaw drop. First, there was Namgung Seol-rin. He didn't want to admit it, but Namgung Seol-rin was already Do Tong-dal's person.
Jang Yu-seom was merely unknown in the martial world; within the military, he was renowned as a master. If he entered the martial world, he would clearly be an opponent that even the elders of the Nine Great Sects could not take lightly.
The finishing touch was Won Dae-yeon. He was a supreme master once hailed as the greatest chivalrous hero in the martial world under the epithet Life-Stealing Twin Swordsman.
Namgung Baek-jung had also had dealings with him, and at one time they had been quite close. Even the Ten Great Masters of the martial world found his martial arts uncomfortable to face, so there was no need to say more.
Won Dae-yeon was the finest figure in both martial arts and personal connections, and that Won Dae-yeon was under Do Tong-dal's command.
With that much strength, he had more than enough to found a sect in the martial world and, depending on the region, could even dominate an entire province.
So Namgung Seol-rin's words that he was an impressive and good man were not merely the blindness of infatuation.
Namgung Baek-jung asked Namgung Seol-rin.
"What would you like me to do?"
"Give me the Namgung Daehyeondan."
He was so shocked he thought his heart had stopped.
"Wh...... what? The Na...... Namgung Daehyeondan? You, who know better than anyone what that is, are telling me to hand over the Namgung Daehyeondan?"
"It's the miraculous elixir that the Namgung Clan produces once every twenty years."
"Exactly! The ingredients are so rare, and the production method takes as long as growing a tree, so the Namgung Daehyeondan is a peerless elixir that can only be made once every twenty years! Even I, your father, have only ever taken one, and the one completed three months ago......!"
Namgung Baek-jung, who had been speaking, asked.
"How did you know the Namgung Daehyeondan had been completed?"
"If you roughly do the math, it's obvious."
"But......"
"I suppose the Namgung Daehyeondan is more important than my brother?"
"How can you judge it so harshly?"
At that moment, Do Tong-dal stepped in.
"I don't need the Namgung Daehyeondan."
Namgung Seol-rin scolded him.
"I'll handle this, so you stay quiet."
"I don't know what the Namgung Daehyeondan is, but it's not something I particularly need."
"What are you talking about? Your Internal Energy is about three gapja. If you take the Namgung Daehyeondan, you can raise it to four gapja. And it has all sorts of other beneficial effects too."
"What? Do Tong-dal's Internal Energy is three gapja?"
Namgung Baek-jung could not help but be astonished. He knew that Namgung Cheol-hyeon had given Do Tong-dal the Mujung Manbyeon Steps, the Heavenly Shadow Flash Kick, and the Three Severings Blade Art from the Namgung Clan's secret archive.
They were not particularly necessary to the Namgung Clan, and it was well within Namgung Cheol-hyeon's rights to do so, so he had simply turned a blind eye.
He had believed that even if Do Tong-dal learned those three martial arts, he would not rise above the first-rate level of the martial world. This was because martial arts without Internal Energy could not display their true power no matter how superb the techniques.
But three gapja of Internal Energy! This was information Namgung Baek-jung had not known at all.
Through his astonishment, Do Tong-dal's voice was heard.
"Three gapja or four gapja, it's all the same."
"It absolutely is not. The difference between three gapja and four gapja is as great as the difference between the hill behind the village and Mount Tai!"
'Indeed, that's exactly right.'
Namgung Baek-jung nodded.
"I've said it several times already. For an Underworld thug, what I have now is already more than overflowing. The Namgung Daehyeondan is more necessary for Cheol-hyeon than for me. Even if he recovers from the poisoning, his body won't be completely whole. Isn't that right?"
"That's true, but......"
"The Namgung Daehyeondan should go to Cheol-hyeon."
Having said that much, Do Tong-dal glanced furtively at Namgung Baek-jung.
"You will give it to Cheol-hyeon, won't you? Surely the Clan Head wouldn't......"
"Of course not! This Namgung Daehyeondan was Cheol-hyeon's share anyway."
"Then that settles it."
Do Tong-dal spoke to the physician in black.
"If we use that Namgung Daehyeondan thing, will Cheol-hyeon recover faster?"
"I'd need to know what it is before I can answer."
"Ask the Namgung Clan physician."
"That would normally be a clan's top secret, wouldn't it?"
"Come on, would they really be that stingy when it's for treating the Young Head?"
If he didn't share information about the Namgung Daehyeondan, he would become a stingy person.
"Hmph! I'll tell my physicians to cooperate as much as possible."
When word spread that Namgung Cheol-hyeon was recovering, the dark clouds over the Namgung Clan lifted and vitality returned.
Since he needed to see Namgung Cheol-hyeon make a full recovery, Do Tong-dal decided to stay at the Namgung Clan for a few more days.
When he had first come to the Namgung Clan, he had been tortured; now he was treated with the utmost hospitality as an honored guest. He could keenly feel how much had changed in that time.
"Shall we spar for the first time in a while?"
Do Tong-dal had also recovered his strength, so Namgung Seol-rin proposed a spar.
"Sure."
In the Namgung Clan, a family of the sword, blades were hard to find. What they barely managed to obtain was a single crude saber that had been lying around carelessly.
"This'll do."
"Do? I need to get you a proper blade from somewhere."
"This much is enough."
"Are you saying that after fighting that giant ape? If you'd had a good blade, you wouldn't have been hurt even a hair."
"How many times in a lifetime does something like that happen?"
"In the martial world, it's the kind of thing that can happen all the time."
"I'm an Underworld thug, not a martial artist."
"I'll let that slide for now. Here I come!"
The two's sparring was fierce, as always. They fought without rest for a full half shichen, until both were gasping for breath.
As soon as the spar ended, the two lay down side by side on the ground. Namgung Seol-rin, catching her breath, asked.
"The tribe chief...... was she pretty?"
"Does that...... matter?"
"I was just...... curious."
Do Tong-dal changed the subject.
"Have you found the one who poisoned Cheol-hyeon?"
"No. I think we'll only know once my brother wakes up."
"Well. I'm not sure we can be certain even then."
"Why?"
"According to the physician in black, poisoning someone with Blue Snake Poison is harder than making it. The taste is so distinctive that you'd notice it the moment you ate it. So to poison someone, you have to feed them tiny amounts over a long period."
Namgung Seol-rin abruptly sat up.
"Are you saying someone close to my brother is the culprit?"
"I'm saying the culprit could be inside the Namgung Clan."
"That means Father and Uncle could be in danger too, doesn't it?"
"The physician in black already checked, and they're fine."
Namgung Seol-rin let out a sigh of relief and said.
"If the culprit is in the clan, we have to catch them."
"We should."
"How are you going to do it?"
"Huh?"
"I'm asking how you're going to catch them."
Do Tong-dal wore a baffled expression.
"Why are you asking me how to catch them?"
"Because you're going to catch them."
"Me? Why?"
"They're the one who poisoned my brother. Of course you have to catch them!"
"You're not wrong, but this is Namgung Clan business. It'd be ridiculous for an outsider like me to step in."
"Why are you an outsider?"
"If I'm not an outsider, then what?"
"You're half an insider."
"What's the half?"
Namgung Seol-rin sprang up and said as she left the sparring ground.
"Only your body hasn't come—your heart has already come to me. So you're half an insider."
"Wh...... what is that girl talking about?"
Because of Namgung Seol-rin's words, Do Tong-dal seriously agonized over a method to catch the culprit who had poisoned Namgung Cheol-hyeon.
That evening, Do Tong-dal received a dinner invitation from Namgung Baek-jung. Around the table laden with a sumptuous feast sat Namgung Baek-jung, Namgung Sang-yeon, Namgung Seol-rin, and also Baek Ha-ryeon, the mistress of the Namgung Clan.
Baek Ha-ryeon was from the Mount Hua Sect, and in her youth she had been beautiful enough to be called the foremost beauty of Mount Hua. Namgung Seol-rin seemed to have inherited Baek Ha-ryeon's beauty in full.
The meal was unexpectedly warm and harmonious. He had expected a martial clan's dinner to be stiff, but it was no different from any close-knit ordinary family.
"Son-in-law, have a drink from me."
Baek Ha-ryeon held out a bottle of liquor toward Do Tong-dal and said that.
"Pardon? S...... son-in-law?"
At that form of address, Namgung Baek-jung and Namgung Sang-yeon's chopsticks stopped.
"From what Seol-rin tells me, his heart has already come over to her?"
Namgung Seol-rin nudged Baek Ha-ryeon's arm.
"That's why I said it's only half come."
"Oh, if the heart has come, then it's all come. A man's body comes on its own—the hard part is the heart. It's not half; it's eighty percent come. Isn't that right, son-in-law?"
While Do Tong-dal stammered, unable to find words, Baek Ha-ryeon poured the liquor.
"Our girl is such a tomboy that I worried a great deal about how she'd ever find a match. She'd obviously refuse any matchmaking, and if she passed twenty-three, she'd be an old maid with no one to take her. I was so desperate I even agonized over whether I'd have to send her off to a widower eventually."
"Mother!"
"You brat, that's how much grief you've caused me. If I'd known you'd bring home such a fine son-in-law, I wouldn't have had those worries."
* * *