The Clan That Does Not Forget
The Dang Clan Leader had cast aside his first love—who carried his child—for the sake of the clan and his seat as its head.
Whether it had been by his own will or forced upon him did not matter. Yet one day the child of that first love appeared before him and said:
I did not come seeking recognition as your son. I stand here having staked everything for the sake of my love—unlike you.
Is there a father anywhere in this world who would not be shaken by those words?
"My woman? You share that sort of relationship with the Dokin child?"
"What other reason would a man and a woman have to stake their lives for each other?"
I faced the Dang Clan Leader with an unflinching expression.
His eyes trembled, ever so slightly. Yes—it was working. Even a master capable of perfect composure would not be human if that statement left him unmoved.
Of course, the Clan Leader was not the only one shaken by my declaration of "my woman."
"So the rumors were true."
"I heard from the Medical Pavilion disciples that the two of them never stopped their displays of affection even on the way here."
"From what I gathered, they'd already set up house together."
"Hmm. Isn't that a problem? Two children sharing the Dang Clan's blood engaging in such..."
"One is a bastard of a collateral branch of a collateral branch, and the other is a bastard of the direct line. By degrees of kinship, there's no issue."
"Ah, I see."
Thank goodness. Hwarin was distant enough from the direct line that the kinship difference ran to dozens of degrees. In the modern world even two people sharing the Kim surname were complete strangers if the bloodline was far enough removed, but this world was different.
Even South Korea only abolished the law forbidding marriage between those of the same surname and clan origin in the late nineties. How much more so here?
If I had made that statement in another great Murim house like the Namgung Clan or the Zhuge Clan, it would have been grounds for an immediate investigation.
Thank the heavens it was the Sichuan Dang Clan.
An isolated basin in Sichuan Province, a Murim clan whose culture had been shaped by a deep reluctance to let their secret arts leak outside. The Sichuan Dang Clan was one of those houses that permitted love between distant relatives who shared only a surname—far-removed degrees of kinship. Lucky for me.
"I heard the rough outline from the Head of the Medical Pavilion. Did you truly write this book in order to contact the spies in secret?"
The Dang Clan Leader held up a copy of Dangga Pungun as he spoke.
Honestly, I never expected things to turn out this way. It was the karma I myself had sown, so there was nowhere to complain. Swallowing the small urge to answer with the unvarnished truth, I nodded and opened my mouth.
"It was the only way to save Hwarin. If I had delayed even a little longer, Dang Geoho would have dragged her away."
No one inside the Sichuan Dang Clan was unaware of the bloody battle between Dang Geoho and the Medical Pavilion. Even if my actions had spread the clan's secret history, no one would doubt my purpose.
"Even knowing that spreading the clan's secret history could be a crime."
I had no idea. Who would have expected that writing something from a diary would get me hauled before the Sichuan Dang Clan for interrogation as if it were classified history?
"I was fully prepared for it. The crime of spreading secrets. Or perhaps being quietly murdered over succession issues, vanishing without a trace. But what did that matter? My woman was suffering. My woman might die. So I had to find the one way that could save her, didn't I?"
"You wrote it even knowing you might die."
A faint tremor colored the end of the Clan Leader's voice.
I could not let this chance slip. Pouring strong will into my voice, I firmed my throat.
"A real man stakes even his life to protect his woman."
Clan Leader, you could not do it—but I did. Unlike you, your son threw everything away for love.
I looked at him as if reproaching him. Perhaps he understood the meaning in my gaze; for a fleeting instant, guilt flashed across the face he was struggling to keep composed.
Suffer more. Feel more guilt. Shake harder. Hand over the Human-Faced Spider's Poison Core already.
He's avoiding my eyes?
I stared the Clan Leader down with a silent, confident face, and in the end he could not endure my gaze. That's right. I am the man who won a staring contest with the Dang Clan Leader. I could brag about this at any drinking party.
Done.
The first gate was passed. I had bought a little time, at least.
Having shaken the Clan Leader once, it was time to shake the Elder Council.
I turned toward the elders watching me and spoke.
"I know you of the Elder Council have much on your minds because of me as well."
To obtain the Human-Faced Spider's Poison Core from the Elder Council, I needed to strike a deal.
No one would deny that I was the Clan Leader's son now. That meant I could use the easiest bargaining method in the world against them.
"Do you think I am after the position of Young Clan Head? No. I have no need for anything like that. My sole purpose in coming to the Sichuan Dang Clan is one thing only. I need nothing else."
The method of taking what I most desired by offering something I did not even possess and did not need.
"You're saying you'll renounce the Young Clan Head position."
"No intention of joining the succession structure..."
Everyone looked surprised. Of course they would not understand. Cases where a bastard became heir because there was no legitimate son were surprisingly common. If the Clan Leader clearly acknowledged me as his son, the Young Clan Head seat could be mine.
But look. I had zero interest in that seat. The odds of dying if I stayed in the Dang Clan were higher than the odds of living, so why would I remain?
"I wrote that book filled with the chivalrous heroes of the Murim that my mother told me of when I was young."
I took Dangga Pungun from my robes, glanced briefly at the Clan Leader, then looked back to the Elder Council as I continued.
"The people of the Dang Clan I first met were true chivalrous heroes without a doubt. In a situation where all they needed to do was hand over my woman, they staked their lives fighting the underlings of the Demonic Cult. Each and every one of them was a hero far beyond anything I could capture in Dangga Pungun. And I believe that all of you looking at me now are heroes every bit their equal."
What was actually in their hearts did not matter. For the sake of logic I would forcibly frame them as chivalrous heroes.
"It's just that I believe my own circumstances are clouding your eyes. So I will lay down everything I might claim. If you are of the Orthodox Path, if you are chivalrous heroes, if you are people of the Sichuan Dang Clan, then I beg you—do not turn your backs on a child of the clan who is in dire straits."
You're the Orthodox Faction, aren't you? A Murim great house that cherishes its own people more than anyone. Frame it that way, remove myself as the obstacle, and lead them so that they have no choice but to go that route.
My appeal was met by a silence thick with the Elder Council's anguish.
I can't let them think for too long.
Silence was fine, but if their thoughts stretched on they would realize there were other paths.
So I needed one more method.
"Is it hard to believe the words of a black-haired bastard? Then I will place my mother's keepsake on the scales in your hearts."
I took out a single weight that could move the hearts of the Sichuan Dang Clan's people and set it on the table for all to see.
"Bulmanghwan..."
Someone recognized the weight I had produced and murmured in a pained voice.
"The Sichuan Dang Clan does not forget."
Keeping the Bulmanghwan in my field of view, I invoked the clan maxim of the Sichuan Dang Clan toward the Elder Council.
"Are you saying you'll return the Bulmanghwan in exchange for the Human-Faced Spider's Poison Core?"
That's right. But if I put it that way, it becomes begging. I came here to make a deal. I shook my head without a word, then spoke.
"Having lived even a short life, I've learned how easy it is for people to forget. The people of the Sichuan Dang Clan must have known that too, which is why they made tokens of gratitude and the Bulmanghwan—to remind themselves not to forget. But what must truly never be forgotten is not a bracelet like this."
"Are you saying we must not forget you, who brought that bracelet?"
One among the Elder Council pointed out sharply.
"No. You may forget a black-haired bastard like me. However..."
I chose my words carefully for a moment, then looked around at everyone gathered here.
The Clan Leader's bastard. The Dokin of the Sichuan Dang Clan. And the Bulmanghwan.
Even placing so many things on the opposite side of the scales to obtain one of the Sichuan Dang Clan's treasures, their balance remained level.
I had nothing more of my own to place.
Should I give up?
Should I simply wait in a daze until their weight shifted?
No. Now was the time to place on the scales the things that were not mine—but that they must never forget.
"Do not forget the dozens of bastards who died from your indifference."
At my single sentence the entire assembly froze.
Dozens of children had died under the pretext of Dokin experiments. The crime had been committed by Dang Geoho and his faction, but it was also the fault of the Sichuan Dang Clan for their indifference toward the bastards.
I raised my right hand and placed the children's tears upon their scales.
"Do not forget the Medical Pavilion disciples who died protecting a child of the clan."
Thinking of the Medical Pavilion disciples made my heart heavy. The people who had wanted to read volume three of Dangga Pungun. The people who had not hesitated to stake their lives for Hwarin.
With my left hand I placed their sacrifice upon the scales.
"Do not forget my woman, who lived her entire life in suffering and returned to the clan's embrace while hovering between life and death."
If only you help, Hwarin can live.
I have given everything I can give.
What are you hesitating for?
Why do you try to forget? Is there not something you must never forget?
Even if you try to forget everything else, I beg you—do not forget this one thing.
"I beg you. Do not forget that you are the pillars of the Orthodox Path. That you are the Sichuan Dang Clan."
The Sichuan Dang Clan does not forget.
With a voice full of resolve, I brought my clenched right fist to my heart as I spoke.
Crushed by the weights I had placed, the people of the Elder Council swallowed their groans in silence.
The first to break the silence was the Dang Clan Leader, who had been watching me without a word.
"Hyang-a... is she dead...?"
The Clan Leader's voice trembled so badly that no one could fail to hear the turmoil within. At the news of his first love's death he could no longer maintain even his stern expression.
"She passed from illness long ago."
"I see... So that's how it was."
Perhaps the shock was too great. The Clan Leader closed his trembling eyes, briefly lifted his head as if swallowing tears, then opened his mouth again.
"Give him the Human-Faced Spider's Poison Core."
Yes!
"Clan Leader! This is not a matter to be decided so unilaterally..."
"First Elder!"
"I will no longer deny that child's bloodline! No—that makes it even more of a problem! Succession issues are not something that can be renounced with a mere word. Think of the Young Clan Head, who is still hovering between life and death on his sickbed!"
"That is not a matter to be raised here."
"Too much time has already passed. Even if the Young Clan Head recovers, no one can guarantee he will rise again as a martial artist. If that happens, this Dang Clan will fracture into four or five pieces over succession, just as it did twenty-odd years ago! Do you truly intend to pass that twenty-year-old pain on to the Young Clan Head as well?"
"That's right!"
"Saving a child of the Dang Clan is the issue—what do you mean 'that's right'?!"
"Let's save the child first!"
"You never supported the Young Clan Head, and now you're seizing this chance!"
"The Sichuan Dang Clan does not forget! Of course we must save the child!"
"Hand over the Poison Core for now!"
What a mess.
My words must have landed, because most of the voices I heard were calling to hand over the Poison Core, but the remaining opposition faction still had plenty of volume.
"...He lived so diligently, yet nothing has changed from twenty-odd years ago to now."
The Clan Leader gazed at the Elder Council and muttered low, almost as if making an excuse, just loud enough for me to barely hear.
Was he remembering the old days? On the Clan Leader's face, where the mask had cracked, expressions of desolation and agony were mixed.
So this is the weight of being Clan Head. He seems to have done his best in his own way. Succession problems are ones that even Joseon's greatest general and king could not solve, after all.
In the end, I will have to solve this last problem too.
I circulated my internal energy, projecting my voice so that all could hear.
"If you give me the Human-Faced Spider's Poison Core right now, I will resolve the Young Clan Head's problem."
"What do you mean by that?"
Everyone stopped their arguing and turned to look at me.
In the end this problem only resolves if the Young Clan Head recovers fully and I renounce the succession.
"I have a way to make the Young Clan Head recover completely."
Now let's wrap this up.