Chapter 58
Dae-ang.
The bell rang out through the main hall. I was still seated behind Dang Bo’s place of honor. It wasn’t a proper position, of course, but this wasn’t the kind of place just anyone could attend in the first place, and Dang Bo himself hadn’t said a word about where I was sitting.
When Dang Bo’s hand moved lightly, three stretchers were laid out before the candidates. Then three Dang clan members were placed on them.
Dang Bo rose and extended a hand toward the three of them.
At a single gesture from Dang Bo, all three began to tremble violently.
The distance had been considerable, and there had been no visible sign of him administering poison, yet they had all been poisoned.
One gesture.
That was all it took for him to prove his strength.
Among poison users, no one could compare to him.
The title of Dang Clan Head was no empty name.
“The second test is to detoxify the patients. You’ll use the poison distributed in the first test for the antidotes. Time limit: one shichen.”
There was no signal. Still, all three moved quickly.
Medicine wasn’t really my field, so even if I watched what was happening, I wouldn’t understand much of it. Which was why I stared at Dang Hye for a while before speaking to Dang Bo.
“Is your body all right, Clan Head?”
“It’s not something you need to worry about.”
“Still, I can’t help worrying.”
“You’re noisy. Keep quiet so I can concentrate.”
“If you want me quiet, what am I supposed to do? I can’t even tell what I’m looking at. I’ve only ever killed people. When have I ever tried saving one?”
“Haa……”
Dang Bo let out a short sigh. So I spoke again in a teasing voice.
“If you hate noise that much, why don’t you explain the situation to me?”
“……”
He seemed annoyed and said nothing. So I went on.
“Ahem. That thing Dang Hye’s doing over there—is that right? Doesn’t seem like it……”
“If I don’t explain, you’ll pester me all day, won’t you.”
“You do have sharp eyes.”
“The poison Dang Pae’s patient was afflicted with is……”
“No. Men aren’t my type. I’m only curious about Dang Hye’s patient.”
“……”
Dang Bo turned slightly toward me. I didn’t sense any poison aura or anything like that, but a brief chill still ran through me. It felt a bit like being a rabbit hunted by a serpent.
“As for Hye……”
“Yes? As for Hye?”
“Nothing.”
Dang Bo turned his gaze back to the three treating the patients. Then he began explaining slowly.
“The patient Dang Hye is responsible for has been poisoned by a toxin called Heuktu. Its symptoms are muscle paralysis and stiffened hands and feet. If treatment is not carried out quickly, the patient will be left crippled.”
“What? Crippled?”
“Yes.”
“You’re telling me someone can end up crippled in a test to choose the young clan head?”
“Correct.”
Dang Bo’s voice did not waver in the slightest. For a moment, the thought flashed through my mind: Are these bastards really righteous sect people? Wasn’t that what this meant?
At a young clan head succession test, as many as three people could end up crippled……
“Come on. Even if it’s the Dang family, they must have taken precautions in case someone fails, right?”
“Baek Mugeuk. Do you know the difference between a poison master and a benevolent doctor?”
“A poison master kills people, and a benevolent doctor saves them?”
“Correct. Then what do you think they have in common?”
“Hmm……”
I thought about it for a moment. The common ground between a doctor and a poison master. A lot of things passed through my head, but none of them seemed right.
“I don’t know.”
“One must know how to kill in order to save. And one must know how to save in order to kill. That is why this test exists.”
To me, what Dang Bo was saying sounded like the same thing phrased two different ways. So why was he saying it like this? My answer was simple.
“You’re talking about duty?”
“Yes. Whether killing or saving, it is entirely the duty of the one who uses poison.”
“I find that hard to understand.”
“Then do not try to understand it. The Dang family must, at its core, be both poison masters and benevolent doctors.”
What Dang Bo was saying was surely the accumulation of everything the Dang family had learned over the years. It was a realm I couldn’t grasp at once, since I had never seriously thought about it before.
Still, if I were to explain it in the language of martial artists, then maybe the most important thing was not administering poison, but detoxification. Probably.
Though right now, Dang Bo himself couldn’t do that.
“Well, this is beyond what a swordsman like me can really understand. Keep explaining. Is Dang Hye doing well?”
“She seems to have confirmed both the patient’s condition and that the poison was Heuktu. Judging by the fact that she has Yeongdam in her hand.”
As Dang Bo said, Dang Hye was carefully grinding Yeongdam in a mortar.
“Yeongdam induces internal heat and causes problems with digestion and metabolism. Its effect as a poison is slight, but when combined with other toxins, it isolates the poison within the body and……”
The explanation was dull and uninteresting. What was interesting, though, was Dang Bo’s expression as he talked about poison.
His face looked impassive, but he was clearly enjoying himself. Watching him like this reminded me of the first time Dang Hye had discovered poison.
“Like parent, like child.”
“What?”
“Since it’s not getting through to me, I’ll keep it short. So she’s doing well, right?”
“I’d say it’s an accurate treatment.”
Dang Bo’s answer was satisfying.
“One kyon remains!”
That was, until I heard that one kyon remained.
“First Young Master Dang Pae. Treatment complete.”
Once again, Dang Pae was the first to finish. And then, shortly after.
“Second Young Master Dang Ho-yeop. Treatment complete.”
Dang Ho-yeop finished as well. And then, just as Dang Hye was about to raise her hand for the last time—
“Aaaagh!”
The patient Dang Hye had been treating suddenly twisted his body grotesquely and screamed. Dang Hye hastily checked his condition.
“Clan Head? What is this? You said it was the correct treatment.”
“……”
Dang Bo said nothing for a while. He only stared at the patient intensely.
“I didn’t inspect the body, so I can’t be certain, but……”
Dang Bo still did not answer easily. In the meantime, the screams kept coming, relentless.
Even to me, Dang Hye looked flustered. It must have been because the treatment she thought was flawless wasn’t working properly.
“Clan Head!”
I turned my gaze back to Dang Bo. He was still watching the patient. But I could see it: Dang Bo’s throat bobbing rapidly.
That was clearly a transmission of inner speech.
And when the movement of his throat finally stopped, Dang Hye stood there staring at Dang Bo for a moment before collecting herself.
She checked the patient’s condition again and took out another poison.
Then she started grinding the mortar again.
“It seems the patient had an unusual constitution.”
“An unusual constitution? Was that part of the test too?”
“No. There was nothing like that in the rules.”
“Then……”
I looked at Dang Pae and Dang Ho-yeop. Dang Pae’s expression hadn’t changed, but Dang Ho-yeop was grinning with obvious delight.
“It seems someone wants Dang Hye to fail.”
“That would appear to be the case.”
Unlike me, who was scanning the surroundings, Dang Bo’s eyes never left Dang Hye and the patient. Then his explanation continued.
“It seems the patient had a constitution that reacted badly to Yeongdam. Qinglian……”
“She’s handling it well, right?”
“We’ll have to keep watching.”
“What do you think of her treatment, Clan Head?”
“Qinglian has a calming effect on the nerves and eases convulsions……”
“Make it simple!”
“It seems flawless.”
At Dang Bo’s words that it seemed flawless, the patient’s screams stopped. His breathing gradually began to steady.
But Dang Hye did not stop there.
She began placing needles into the patient’s chest. There were quite a lot of them, and she was sweating so heavily her face was soaked, as if she were pouring everything she had into the task.
Dae-ang.
The final needle in Dang Hye’s hand struck home just as the bell rang to signal the end of the second test.
“Hoo.”
Just as I let out a breath of relief, Dang Hye exhaled as well. Dang Bo stepped down from the honored seat and began checking the patients’ conditions.
The patients treated by Dang Pae and Dang Ho-yeop had already regained consciousness and seemed unharmed.
But the patient treated by Dang Hye still had not come around.
Dang Bo checked the patient’s pulse, then immediately turned around and went back to the honored seat.
“First place, Dang Pae. Second place, Dang Ho-yeop. Third place, Dang Hye. That is all.”
At the announcement of the results—
“Waaah! That’s our First Young Master!”
—cheers erupted. It was different from when Dang Hye had placed first earlier.
“Prepare for the final test.”
With those words, Dang Bo sat back down in the honored seat.
I was probably the only one who couldn’t accept the result of this test. It was true that Dang Hye had finished her treatment last, but she had done it perfectly.
And she had done so despite being clearly and maliciously targeted.
“Clan Head, are you saying Dang Hye can’t become the young clan head because of that? Is that why you judged her like this?”
“You’re lucky. If your body were intact, I’d have torn out that foul mouth of yours.”
“Since you say you’re not the kind of man who’d do that, I’ll ask instead. Why is she in third place?”
“What the situation was like is not important.”
“Why isn’t it important? Isn’t this supposed to be a fair test?”
At my words, I could feel Dang Bo’s aura shift. He openly released a sharp killing intent toward me.
“Let’s say that patient had been your family. The patient died. Then a doctor comes along and says,”
Dang Bo drew in a breath and went on.
“The patient died because they had an unusual constitution. Would you stand for that?”
“That’s……”
“That is what a doctor is. Whether the constitution is unusual or not, you had to confirm it. No, even if it had not been an unusual constitution, whatever else it was, it would not be an excuse.”
Dang Bo was right. And I didn’t argue with him.
Because I was a martial artist, not a benevolent doctor.
But the martial artists of the Dang family were both martial artists and benevolent doctors.
That was not something I, as a simple martial artist, had any right to refute.
Having finished speaking, Dang Bo rose after a short while.
Dae-ang.
“The final test is a three-way spar between the candidates.”
The first two tests had also placed Dang Hye at a disadvantage. But the final one was different. As far as I knew, the Dang family’s young clan head selection was originally decided through one-on-one matches.
Even without knowing the details, judging by what Dang Pae and Dang Ho-yeop had shown so far, it was obvious Dang Hye would be eliminated first.
“In this spar, slaughter is forbidden. However, murder is not forbidden. That is all.”
What kind of absurd rule was that? Slaughter was forbidden, but murder was allowed?
I glared at Dang Bo for a moment.
“Was this why you said Dang Hye couldn’t become the young clan head?”
“……”
But Dang Bo gave no answer.