So You Truly Were the Offspring of a Prestigious Clan?
The Grand Madame smiled warmly as she received Yi Yeok's morning greetings.
"Sit down."
She seated her grandson beside her. Today, it seemed, she had more to say than usual.
"The day after tomorrow is my eightieth birthday celebration. I used to grumble that growing old for no good reason was nothing to be proud of, but thanks to your return, I find myself looking forward to it."
The Grand Madame looked Yi Yeok over from top to bottom, marveling at how much he'd grown.
"When that day comes, guests from every great clan will be in attendance. There will be plenty of fine young ladies from good families, too. Keep your eyes open. If one of them catches your fancy, I'll arrange a match for you myself."
"Grandmother, I'm barely eighteen. Isn't that a bit early?"
The Grand Madame chided him gently.
"Not at all. Plenty of people your age already have children. Youngsters these days are all wind-blown leaves — marriage goes by the wayside and they care about nothing but their cultivation."
Then, in a tone that had suddenly gone wistful, she added, "Of course, if your sister were still here... in that case, it would be proper to find her a match first..."
Yi Yeok fell silent. He knew he had an older sister, but he couldn't remember her face. Which was only natural. When Yi Yeok was barely out of infancy, his five-year-old sister had been taken away by someone very special.
Beyond that, he had no idea whether it had been an abduction or an arrangement made with the clan's blessing. It wasn't that he felt no curiosity — but digging into it would only wound his grandmother's heart, and there was no need for that.
As if she understood his consideration, the Grand Madame changed the subject.
"I know what's on your mind. Once the birthday celebration is over, you intend to leave, don't you? Do you truly have no wish to stay?"
"I've realized once more, deeply, that I don't belong in this clan. You can see it in how the star of restlessness clings to my fate."
"You're still young. No — barely more than a child. There's plenty of time to change."
"But I have no desire to change."
The Grand Madame gazed at Yi Yeok for a long moment.
"What about following your brother to the Yiyun Sect instead? Those who join a sect are naturally given standing, but I hear that named disciples are treated all the better for it. You would surely excel. You may not have awakened an innate blood spirit, but do you think my grandson could be an ordinary man?"
"I've grown too used to a free life. I wouldn't survive a life bound like that."
"You wretched boy!"
Finally, the Grand Madame lost her temper.
"So you mean to go on living as a street beggar like you are now? Are you planning to throw away your future?"
"Grandmother, I'm not giving up anything. I'm simply choosing. And my choice is to follow the old man... no, my benefactor and adoptive father."
"You mean to live calling a thief your father?"
Yi Yeok said nothing. The Grand Madame, who had been breathing hard through gritted teeth, slowly calmed herself.
"Is it because of the injustice of that false accusation in your childhood? Are you doing this to hurt your parents and me out of sheer spite?"
"That's all in the past. I simply wish to serve and protect my aging adoptive father. He's the one who gave me the parental love I was never given."
For a moment, Yi Yeok thought of Yeo Gwi.
He, too, carried complicated feelings toward his own father. Yeo Gwi's mother had been violated by force, and she died giving birth to the child conceived that way. The child born from his dead mother's body was Yeo Gwi.
The reason Yeo Gwi felt so conflicted, no doubt, was that his father hadn't abandoned him — that, at the very least, the man had done the bare minimum of playing the part. Compared to the love ordinary parents gave their children, it was nothing, barely a crumb. But that crumb alone was enough to keep Yeo Gwi from ever hating his father completely.
Yi Yeok was different.
"Grandmother, I don't want to hurt you any further. Please, let it go."
The Grand Madame let out a sigh that seemed to sink the very floor.
"Do as you please, then. But I'll be waiting. Whenever you make up your mind, you'll always have a place to come back to. Don't you forget it."
The Grand Madame sank into thought for a long while. As Yi Pyeong's strength and standing within the sect grew, his father Yi Jo grew more arrogant by the day, barely bothering to listen even to his own mother, the Grand Madame.
"They say no parent is a match for their child, but still..."
Before she knew it, the Grand Madame was lamenting the helplessness of her own old age. She had been the matriarch who led the Yi clan as its grandmother and lord.
After her husband, the former clan head, vanished, the clan had flourished all the more, rising to become the most prestigious family in Wunso City. No one could deny that this was her achievement. In her prime, who would have dared defy the Grand Madame's will?
Yi Yeok, noticing the gloom and loneliness settling over her, deliberately nestle into his grandmother's arms like a small child.
"Grandmother, don't worry so much. I'll come visit you whenever I have the time."
"You're disgusting. A grown boy acting like this..."
And yet flowers of laughter bloomed across the Grand Madame's face.
Before long, the Grand Madame's handmaiden Im Yeong entered the room.
"Madam, the City Lord of Jin City has arrived."
"This early?"
The Grand Madame rose and made for the reception hall, taking Yi Yeok along. Yi Yeok looked less than thrilled, but the Grand Madame's manner was resolute.
"It's been far too long, Grand Madame. I trust you've been in good health?"
At the sound of a hearty laugh, a tall elder with a boyishly youthful face rose from his chair in the reception hall. Despite his age, his hair was jet black, and color bloomed high in his cheeks.
Hmph. No wonder — the man must have been gorging himself on elixirs.
So Yi Yeok muttered inwardly while the Grand Madame exchanged pleasantries with the old man.
And yet, something about the man's face felt familiar. As Yi Yeok tilted his head and rummaged through his memory, the City Lord turned to the girl standing beside him — a girl of modest, refined bearing and striking beauty.
"Eun-chae, this is the Grand Madame of the Yi clan. Pay your respects."
"I am An Eun-chae, granddaughter of City Lord Jin Ho-un. It is an honor to meet the Grand Madame of the Yi clan."
Only then did Yi Yeok start in surprise. It was the clumsy little thing he'd hauled to Jin City not long ago — An Eun-chae. Which meant the old man had to be Jin Ho-un, the City Lord of Jin City, the very man he'd crossed fists with that night.
At the sight of An Eun-chae, the Grand Madame's eyes sparkled in a way unbefitting an elder.
"What a well-mannered child. Has a match been arranged for you yet?"
"Grand Madame, I am only sixteen. Besides, I've devoted myself to my training — marriage has never even crossed my mind."
Disappointment crept across the Grand Madame's face. An Eun-chae was apparently a Cultivation Seed. A Seed would soon become a cultivator, and cultivators lived lives apart from ordinary people. Marriage was likely to be set aside from the start, and even those who did become engaged found their arrangements broken more often than not.
"Then allow me to introduce the grandson I recovered only recently. Come, pay your respects. This is the City Lord of Jin City."
Only then did Jin Ho-un and An Eun-chae turn their attention to Yi Yeok. Both pairs of eyes went wide. They were clearly stunned — though in An Eun-chae's gaze, a flicker of gladness mingled with the shock.
"You... you of all people... You were a member of the Yi clan this whole time?"
Having nothing in particular to say for himself, Yi Yeok simply managed an awkward smile.