Chapter 160
Chapter 160
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Translator: True Detective
Chapter: 160
Chapter Title: The Reason for the Obsession
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Jegal Sun's face turned pale in an instant at Geunyeong's words.
He sprang up from the seat he had just been sitting in, unable to hide his shock.
"Young Master Il... how?"
"...So you knew. About what was happening there."
"......"
Jegal Sun clamped his mouth shut, unable to speak a word in response to Geunyeong's words laced with certainty.
Seeing that, Geunyeong could no longer hold back and raised his voice.
"How could you not tell me!?"
"...I didn't want you to know, Young Master Il. I knew you'd react exactly like this."
Geunyeong let out a deep sigh at Jegal Sun's evasive gaze, as if ashamed, and rubbed his face with his palm.
Then, in a low voice, he added,
"...The Elder Council Leader is dead. All the Yin Fiend Great Bandits too."
"What!?"
Jegal Sun's eyes widened in shock at Geunyeong's words.
"N-No. How...?"
"We had help from a benefactor. And we won't stop here."
Jegal Sun flinched at Geunyeong's icy tone, which he had never heard before, then wore a look of realization as something dawned on him.
"No way...? You're defying the Family Head?"
"It's about setting everything right."
Jegal Sun's mouth opened and closed wordlessly at the resolute words.
Geunyeong looked him straight in the eye and stated the purpose of his visit.
"Hand over the ledger."
"......"
"I heard you fed livestock blood to the Explosive Blood Technique practitioners. That must have cost a fortune. You must have made double books to hide it."
"...You're going to use embezzlement as the pretext?"
Jegal Sun bit his lip hard as he watched Geunyeong nod silently, then finally stood up.
"I'm sorry, but I can't do that."
"Chief Steward!"
"It's something I've clung to for twenty years already. I can't give up now. Not after all this time."
"Don't you know how many clansmen have been sacrificed in the process!?"
"I know how many clansmen were trampled before that too."
"...!"
Jegal Sun looked at the startled Geunyeong with a heavy expression.
"Do you know, Young Master Il, how we ended up taking in those guests?"
"...No. I only know it was to strengthen the family's forces."
"That figures. No one from our generation wants to speak of what happened back then."
What on earth had happened?
Geunyeong couldn't hide his confusion.
Jegal Sun met his gaze.
As expected from close kin, traces of 'her' lingered on his face too.
'It's been over twenty years already.'
Time had passed enough for babies from back then to grow into adults like this.
Yet the memory of that day remained an unhealed wound in his heart.
"Do you perhaps remember the name Jegal Suhyang?"
"Jegal... Suhyang? No, was there someone by that name?"
Jegal Sun sighed inwardly at Geunyeong's puzzled reply.
It saddened him that so few people remembered her now.
"Jegal Suhyang was the Family Head's older sister by blood. Just a year older, they grew up together since childhood."
"Then that would make her my aunt...? Why didn't I know about her?"
"...Because twelve years ago, she took her own life."
"...!?"
Geunyeong's eyes widened at Jegal Sun's shocking answer, and he stammered as he asked,
"N-No...? What on earth happened that she would end her own life?"
At that question, Jegal Sun recalled a particularly vivid scene—one that felt all the more nightmarish for it.
Eyes that had lost their spark in death.
A hollow expression, as if all will to live had vanished.
And finally, the cold face that had closed its eyes forever.
Jegal Sun spoke of a memory he would likely never forget, even in death.
"At that time, there was a sect in Nanzhang Plain called the Radiant Sword Sect. Its leader, Heo Jung-su, was renowned as the top expert in all of Huguang."
"The Radiant Sword Sect...? You mean that Radiant Sword Sect?"
Geunyeong had heard the name Radiant Sword Sect before.
It was the only sect that the Jegal family had utterly destroyed, about a dozen years ago.
As the Jegal family expanded its influence over decades, clashing with various sects large and small.
Geunyeong had always wondered why the Radiant Sword Sect was the only one exterminated.
'No way... Is the Radiant Sword Sect connected to my aunt's suicide?'
Feeling an ominous premonition, Geunyeong held his breath and focused on Jegal Sun's continuing words.
"At that time, the Radiant Sword Sect's young master, Heo Do-gyeong, was infamous as a lecher. In Nanzhang Plain, any woman would hesitate to step outside because of him."
No one could stand against the Radiant Sword Sect, which dominated Nanzhang Plain by bribing the corrupt local magistrate with heaps of silver.
Everyone swallowed their rage in silence.
"Then, Suhyang had to go to Nanzhang Plain on family business."
"No way...?"
By that point, Geunyeong could guess what had happened.
And the response that followed was exactly as he feared.
"That bastard set his sights on Suhyang. She never dreamed the young master of a sect like the Radiant Sword would stoop to such a thing, and in the end, it happened."
A direct daughter of the Jegal bloodline had been violated by another sect's young master.
The family was thrown into uproar by this unprecedented scandal, and all demanded immediate retribution.
"What do you think happened?"
"...We couldn't do anything."
As mentioned earlier, the Radiant Sword Sect was wiped out a dozen years ago.
In other words, it took a full ten years after the incident for retribution to come.
"Yes. The martial world is a place where the strong devour the weak. Compared to the Radiant Sword Sect, led by Sect Leader Heo Jung-su and boasting numerous experts, all we had back then was the empty prestige of being one of the Five Great Families, an old lineage."
They couldn't guarantee victory, and a wrong move could shake the family's very foundations.
In the end, revenge remained a distant dream.
And,
"...In despair over it all, Suhyang took her own life."
"......"
Geunyeong fell silent upon learning of this tragedy from the previous generation that he had never known.
A small sigh reached his ears.
"Only then did everyone realize it. In this martial world, weakness is a sin. All the accumulated oppression and humiliation exploded with that incident."
The Jegal family changed. It resolved to change.
It would pursue power relentlessly.
"After that, we gathered strength. We invited experts as guests by offering family tributes. After a dozen years or so, we were finally able to avenge Suhyang. The Family Head personally made that bastard Heo Do-gyeong suffer before killing him."
*A gentleman's vengeance is not too late even after ten years.*
" But what good did it do?"
Jegal Sun smiled bitterly.
"In the end, it was revenge borrowed from another's hand. Half-baked retribution bought with wealth because we lacked power."
Geunyeong looked at Jegal Sun's eyes in bewilderment.
From within his pupils, the darkness hidden beneath warmth and kindness began to creep out.
Darkness seeping from the cracks in a shattered, broken soul.
Who would have thought Jegal Sun harbored such pain within.
'Jegal Suhyang... My aunt's death was the beginning of it all.'
Feeling pity inwardly, Geunyeong tried to shake it off and shouted loudly,
"...Even so, the method was wrong! Sacrificing clansmen...!"
"They volunteered."
"Pardon? What do you...?"
Geunyeong couldn't close his mouth at the completely unexpected words.
"If you went to that cave, you must have seen the faces of those locked in the prison cells. Did you recognize them?"
"Uncle Cheonkyeong and... other elders of the family..."
Geunyeong answered reflexively, then asked back with a look of disbelief.
"No way, did they...?"
"Yes, they volunteered to become test subjects themselves."
It was shocking.
Like Elder Ja-seong had said, he had thought the Elder Council Leader had deceived them unilaterally, but they had volunteered?
Jegal Sun wore a grim expression as he looked at the stunned Geunyeong.
"Our rage and resentment ran that deep."
They threw the family's young women into the guests' rooms, seized whatever martial arts they could, and pursued power ruthlessly.
Otherwise, they couldn't face Suhyang, who had ended her life in despair.
Jegal Sun recalled Suhyang's image.
The wild foal of a girl who had caused all sorts of mischief since childhood.
Her pure laughter had brightened everyone's faces in the family, only to vanish far too soon.
'I can barely remember what that laughter sounded like anymore.'
Jegal Sun swallowed a bitter sigh with effort, then Geunyeong's words reached his ears.
"Isn't the revenge already over? The Radiant Sword Sect was destroyed, and you said the Family Head personally executed the enemy. If that's the case... "
At those words, Jegal Sun shook his head.
"We can't stop there. Without power, the same thing will happen again someday."
"......"
Geunyeong fell silent once more.
Jegal Sun hoped he would understand them.
*In this martial world, lacking power is a crime. We had no choice.*
But against that hope, what came from Geunyeong's mouth was not agreement, but rejection.
"I understand that the Family Head and you, Chief Steward, have your own pains. But even so, this isn't right. Tormenting the people living in the present because of past tragedies."
At that rejection, Jegal Sun pleaded desperately.
"It's just temporary pain. A little more, just a bit longer, and everything will be fine. It's almost over."
"There was someone who couldn't endure that pain and died. Have you forgotten Ahyoung?"
"......"
Jegal Ahyoung.
Jegal Sun's face hardened at the name he didn't want to hear.
It was the name of a collateral branch girl who, a few years ago, had been assaulted by a guest she spent the night with and couldn't bear it, so she took her own life.
Jegal Sun had deliberately ignored her death all this time.
Her corpse, and the other deaths, felt like they were mocking them, as if to say they were wrong.
'We are not wrong.'
No, they couldn't be wrong.
The efforts and sacrifices of the past twenty years couldn't all be for nothing.
Whether he sensed Jegal Sun's inner turmoil on the verge of explosion or not, Geunyeong's words continued.
"What about the Blood Ghost Unit? Even if others did, did kids from our generation like Hochan and Daeheon volunteer willingly too?"
"...That's."
Geunyeong stared straight at Jegal Sun, who was at a loss for words.
"And you even tried to sacrifice my younger brother Muyoung."
"......."
"Both the Family Head and you, Chief Steward—you've already lost your way."
Jegal Sun's fists trembled at Geunyeong's declaration, as if it were an immutable truth.