Save Deungchon (1)
To Seok Myo-hee, who had her maternal family’s immense merchant group behind her, this much money was hardly a significant expense.
“Now it’s your turn to keep your promise. If you lie to me again, I won’t let it slide.”
Having kept her side of the bargain first, Seok Myo-hee boldly came to Seok Geum-ryong’s room with her own bodyguards in tow and pressed him for an answer.
Seok Geum-ryong told her, “You’re wondering how I saw through your plan and your intent to kill me, aren’t you? Rest assured. As I suspected, there are no informants inside.”
“Then how did you know?”
“My dead bodyguard told me.”
That was as far as Seok Geum-ryong could go.
He did not want to lie to her, and what he meant was that his former self had told him. But Seok Myo-hee interpreted it entirely differently.
“What? So in the end, Woo Jun-rae confessed on his own? Figures.”
At a glance, her conclusion was not completely wrong either.
After all, the Flying Horse Spear, Woo Jun-rae, had revealed that he had taken the request from the Smiling Elder, Gu Jin-taek.
“Anyway, I trust you’ll keep this secret.”
“A man’s word is worth a thousand gold.”
With that, all business between them was finished.
And so was whatever family tie they had once claimed.
“I hope you live long and well. Of course, I intend to do the same.”
Before leaving, Seok Geum-ryong stood and tossed out a pointed remark.
“Oh, and if I’m ever having trouble in the future, I’ll come by now and then. You are a gentle older sister who helps out a penniless younger brother, after all, aren’t you?”
“You, Geum-ryong!”
Those words, sharp with hidden barbs, made Seok Myo-hee so furious she trembled all over.
If it had been up to her, she would have stormed over and clawed Seok Geum-ryong’s face right there, but for the sake of appearances she held back.
“How dare you speak to Miss Seok Myo-hee like that?”
“No matter how close the blood relation, you should mind your manners.”
The bodyguards who protected Seok Myo-hee stepped forward on her behalf.
In truth, they were martial artists from her maternal clan, the Geumhwa Merchant Group. Their skills had only just reached the threshold of the First-class realm, but they were reliable enough that no rumor would leak out afterward.
Whoosh.
Sensing Seok Myo-hee’s anger, they lifted their hands toward Seok Geum-ryong in her stead.
If necessary, they meant to seize his arm and make him suffer a little, but such a crude tactic had no chance of working.
Grip!
As the other side reached out, Seok Geum-ryong simply extended his own hand in return and clasped it.
Northern Dipper Cultivation Technique!
Then he unleashed the vast internal energy he had already brought to the Peak Realm and crushed that hand mercilessly.
Crack-crack-crack!
A sound like a great boulder collapsing onto a palm rang out.
“Agh! Aaaagh!”
The Geumhwa Merchant Group martial artist whose hand Seok Geum-ryong had seized struggled violently, but no matter how hard he tried to pull free, he could not.
The difference in their inner energy was simply too great.
“You fools! Geum-ryong has only just begun learning martial arts. What is this disgrace?”
At the sharp rebuke of their beautiful mistress, Seok Myo-hee, the other martial artists hurried to restrain Seok Geum-ryong as well.
Crack! Crunch!
They fared no better.
Before long, every single guard protecting Seok Myo-hee had their arms twisted or broken in a shocking tragedy.
And all of it had been done by Seok Geum-ryong alone.
Which meant...
If Geum-ryong had wanted to kill her here and now, he could have done it whenever he pleased.
Seok Myo-hee had never dreamed Seok Geum-ryong was this strong, and so she had come with bodyguards she believed would keep their mouths shut and preserve her secrets rather than with men chosen for their skill.
Yet the moment a Geumhwa Merchant Group martial artist folded like an old straw sandal, she was thrown into complete confusion.
“Don’t worry. I’m not planning to kill you today.”
Seok Geum-ryong seemed to read her mind and smiled with easy composure.
Of course, it was not because he pitied her or felt any affection for her.
Given that she had sent him supplies and funds, he intended to keep her alive at least for today.
“Today, I’m going to erase from my heart the one person I once thought was my only true family.”
Instead, he would sever the tie.
With a face colder than ever, Seok Geum-ryong declared it to her.
When another person was trying to kill him, pretending to laugh it off and saying, “We’re family, so I’ll endure it,” was not Seok Geum-ryong’s way.
From this point on, it was war in the truest sense.
At those words, even Seok Myo-hee, so cold and ruthless only moments before, flinched.
“Take care of yourself, Lady Seok Myo-hee.”
The fact that he no longer called her “older sister” was a clearer statement than any number of words.
At the same time, he released the guards he had been holding, and only then did they hastily scramble to their feet.
Whoosh.
Having been denied the title of older sister, Seok Myo-hee also turned on her heel and returned coldly to her residence, Geumhwa-won, one of the most beautiful estates in all of Seokga Manor.
She had come hoping to uncover the truth and perhaps the existence of an internal traitor, only to be utterly defeated and forced into retreat.
“……”
After Seok Myo-hee left, cold silence and heavy sorrow filled Seok Geum-ryong’s room.
He had not shown it to Seok Myo-hee, but he had been hurt, in his own way, by the betrayal of the one person he had trusted and grown closest to.
Though they had different mothers, he had believed they were still family, and yet now they had become worse than strangers.
Seok Geum-ryong remained in sorrow for quite some time.
“Young Master. It’s me, Deung Chon.”
The servant Deung Chon came in carrying a large bundle of something.
Seok Geum-ryong had wondered what it was, but it turned out to be lunch.
“You’re long past the time for a meal. Why haven’t you eaten? Didn’t they say that if you eat well, you grow taller, and if you grow taller, you’ll be loved by the pretty girls in the marketplace?”
Deung Chon was quick-witted.
He had noticed that Seok Geum-ryong’s relationship with Seok Myo-hee, the one person among his seven brothers and sisters he had treated most especially, had gone wrong.
There was no such thing as support without a cost.
More than anything, he had noticed that Geum-ryong no longer called her “older sister” and instead addressed her as Seok Myo-hee.
“I don’t feel like eating.”
“No, no. Meals are exactly what you should eat properly when you don’t feel like it. If you chew each bite carefully with your front teeth and molars while thinking of those who make you forget even your hunger, won’t your anger vanish before long and leave only your appetite behind?”
Deung Chon smiled with simple warmth and held out the still-warm noodles to Seok Geum-ryong.
“More importantly, if you skip a meal, I’ll get scolded by Butler Gong. Please help me out here.”
It was the Scholar in Blue, Gong Sang-pil, who had prepared the meal, and the one trying his hardest to get Seok Geum-ryong to take even one bite was the servant Deung Chon.
Watching that, Seok Geum-ryong felt something in his torn heart begin to ooze back to life in the form of affection.
Do you really have to share blood to be family? The ones who love you and care for you are the ones who are truly family.
Seok Myo-hee had merely shared blood through their father, but Gong Sang-pil and Deung Chon, especially Deung Chon, had been with Seok Geum-ryong since he was an infant, carried on their backs and raised by hand.
Exactly one year from now, on my eleventh birthday, the servant Deung Chon will die in my place.
On Seok Geum-ryong’s tenth birthday, he would be left with a limp. On his eleventh, servant Deung Chon would die protecting him, leaving behind a ghastly corpse.
What worried him more than anything was that the threat to his life at age eleven was not even remotely comparable to something like Woo Jun-rae, the Flying Horse Spear, who had attacked not long ago.
That meant there was only one year left.
Slurp.
Determined to protect Deung Chon by any means within that year, Seok Geum-ryong ate in full view of him.
If he was going to grow stronger and faster, better nourished, then eating well was essential.
“Oh! Good, good. Eat up and grow big and healthy, Young Master.”
Deung Chon looked at Seok Geum-ryong with the tenderness of a man watching his younger brother, or even his own son.
Seok Geum-ryong intended to protect that kindly-faced servant at all costs.
* * *
After the unforgettable confrontation with Seok Myo-hee, Seok Geum-ryong threw himself into training.
Then, one day, he had a dream so vivid it felt more real than reality itself.
Hah, hah, hah!
A carriage raced madly onward.
There were two forks in the road.
The assassins had already caught the scent and were closing in from behind.
There was no time left, and the martial artists escorting Seok Geum-ryong had fallen into a trap and were wandering somewhere else entirely.
In the midst of that life-or-death crisis,
“Young Master. Young Master! From here on, you must stay fully alert!”
Deung Chon, who had never once raised his voice at Seok Geum-ryong under any circumstances, was somehow speaking loudly now, serious-faced and grave.
“Y-yes... yes.”
Only eleven years old, the young Seok Geum-ryong wiped tears from his childlike face and leaned on Deung Chon and Gong Sang-pil as much as he could.
In truth, it was already admirable that he had not fainted in such a situation.
“Butler Gong. I’ll take the carriage and draw the assassins away.”
In the midst of that one-second emergency, Deung Chon must have made his decision, because he informed Gong Sang-pil with a steady expression.
“What? Nonsense. If you do that, you’ll surely...”
Gong Sang-pil could not even finish the sentence. His face had gone pale as he fell silent.
He was silent because he had realized that this was the only path that could save Seok Geum-ryong.
To be more honest, it was the method Gong Sang-pil, who was far smarter than a servant and known as the Scholar in Blue, had realized first.
“The Young Master needs you more than someone as ignorant and useless as me, Butler Gong. Besides, I’ve lived longer than you have, haven’t I?”
Grin.
Even in this situation, Deung Chon wore his usual warm smile.
That smile held not only kindness, but also a great deal of resolve.
“Deung Chon, you...”
Seeing that smile, Gong Sang-pil felt his heart tear into a thousand pieces, and tears spilled out.
While the cowardly man like himself was turning away from the only road to survival, the servant who had learned almost nothing and knew little of the world willingly threw away his life in order to save his master.
“Please take good care of the Young Master.”
Deung Chon repeated the plea to Gong Sang-pil, and in the end Gong Sang-pil burst into tears, lifted the young Seok Geum-ryong into his arms, and stepped down from the carriage.
“Butler Gong? Why are we getting off? Why isn’t Deung Chon getting off too?”
The still-young Seok Geum-ryong did not yet understand what that meant.
He only thought Deung Chon was taking a different road.
“Young Master Geum-ryong. The world is a harsh place.”
How could anyone do this to such a young young master...
As Deung Chon climbed up onto the driver’s seat of the empty carriage himself, he gave Seok Geum-ryong his final words.
Though emotion had welled up so strongly he could barely speak, he had to make sure he said goodbye.
“No matter how cruel and brutal the world may be... there will come a time when you think, ‘I’m glad I was born. I’m happy I was born.’ So hold on until the very end and keep living with a strong heart.”
Drip, drip.
Only after Deung Chon realized this would be his last moment with Seok Geum-ryong did tears begin to fall without his even noticing.
When their eyes met, memories of everything passed before him like flashes of lightning: the day Seok Geum-ryong lost his mother and entered Seokga Manor, and all the years since then, when Deung Chon had carried him on his back and raised him as his own.
Just as Deung Chon had felt like the only blood family Seok Geum-ryong had ever known, so too, for Deung Chon, who had no sons and no brothers, the only blood family he had was Seok Geum-ryong.
“Young Master. Happy eleventh birthday, from the bottom of my heart. Live long and well!”
Only after hearing those words did Seok Geum-ryong sense that something was terribly wrong. He reached out to grab Deung Chon, but by then it was already too late.
“Hya!”
Using the skill he had gained from driving donkeys in the countryside, Deung Chon whipped the carriage forward.
Silently, with tears streaming down his face, Gong Sang-pil hid young Seok Geum-ryong in his arms with all his strength.
Then he sprinted madly in the opposite direction from the moving carriage and concealed himself.
Long, long dawn finally passed, morning broke, and the Seokga Manor guards arrived in force.
“Over here!”
Thanks to Gong Sang-pil’s quick action, they were rescued, and Gong Sang-pil immediately asked them, “Deung Chon, servant Deung Chon, what happened to him?”
In response to Gong Sang-pil’s question, the guards said nothing and merely pointed at the carriage.
The carriage lay wrecked, collapsed like a house crushed flat by an earthquake, and in its broken remains was the horribly mangled body of Deung Chon.