Chapter 59
Chapter 59
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Translator: uly
Chapter: 59
Chapter Title: Old Humans
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“Kong… al!”
“What’s wrong? Master, why are you crying?”
“Master? Has Lord Gwang-yu become Advisor Seol’s master?”
The sudden tears from Gwang-yu and Five Elements’ question turned the hallway into an instant uproar.
“Yes, Gwang-yu… no, Lord Gwang-yu has agreed to become my master. Sorry, but could I move the scrolls quickly and go to him? He looks really upset.”
At my request, Five Elements—who had been watching Gwang-yu cry like some disaster had struck—snatched the scrolls from me before I could even roll them up.
“This is the first time Lord Gwang-yu has shed tears. It seems serious, so leave the scrolls with me and go to him, Advisor Seol.”
‘But I can’t just leave my master crying alone!’
“I’m the one who offered to help first, so I’m sorry it turned out like this, Advisor Five Elements! Take care, then!”
Five Elements waved off my worries with his usual kindly smile and disappeared outside with the scrolls.
I hurried straight to Gwang-yu, who was crouched in the hallway.
“Master, why are you crying so pitifully? Did someone hit you?”
“No…”
“Then did the regular dumpling house lady refuse to sell you booze?”
“No, I downed drinks all night yesterday too.”
‘Downed drinks all night yesterday too? Ah, now I get why Master’s crying!’
“Come on, Master! You blew all your money on booze again, didn’t you? That’s why I told you to cut back on drinking!”
“I’ve got plenty of money.”
Even as he claimed to be rich, Gwang-yu was still sniffling.
“Argh, then what is it? Why’s a grown snake like you bawling in broad daylight?”
I yelled in frustration, and Gwang-yu pulled something from his bosom while sobbing.
“Th-this… thiiiis!!!”
“What’s that?”
Gwang-yu had pulled out a mysterious scrap of white cloth.
‘Huh? But that embroidery… it looks familiar somehow?’
Curious, I peered closely at the cloth in his hand and spotted a familiar embroidery pattern.
‘This is the embroidery from the handkerchief I gave Gwang-yu!’
I suddenly recalled how happy Gwang-yu had been when I gave it to him.
“No way… you’re not crying because the handkerchief I gave you got torn, right?”
“Sob! It’s the first handkerchief my Kong-al ever made for meee!!”
I’d asked half in doubt, but I’d hit the nail on the head. Gwang-yu clutched the torn handkerchief to his chest like a lover and wailed anew.
‘I suspected, but it really was because of that?’
“Master, are you feeling ill somewhere? Did you slip on ice and bump your head or something?”
“I’m fine! You just don’t know how precious this handkerchief is to me!”
‘Yeah, I really don’t.’
“Why did it become such a precious item to you?”
“Well…”
I’d asked to understand his feelings, but he trailed off, embarrassed to say it outright.
“Not gonna tell me? I’m your precious first disciple, you know?”
At the mention of “first disciple,” Gwang-yu continued, his eyes still glistening.
“It was the first time in my life a human—not my parents—worried about my wounds. The first time someone treated them too. And that someone turned out to be my first disciple… So I wanted to keep it forever, but…”
Tears like glass beads fell from Gwang-yu’s pumpkin-colored eyes.
‘What? That’s why?’
“So that’s why you asked me for the handkerchief?”
“Yeah, but I wanted to keep it clean, so I washed it and it ended up like thiiiis…”
Gwang-yu carefully placed the ragged cloth—which must have been a normal handkerchief before it got shredded—onto his palm and showed it to me.
‘Gwang-yu doing laundry… I can picture it without even seeing.’
He must have thought scrubbing hard would make it perfectly clean and rubbed too fiercely, tearing it.
“A torn handkerchief won’t stick back together. You gonna keep clinging to the past and crying?”
“I’ve got my own idea. If I find a tailor to mend clothes, they might fix it good as new! But seeing you, Kong-al, brought back that heart-wrenching sadness from when it tore…”
Gwang-yu clutched his chest as if it still ached and wore a grief-stricken face.
‘Anyone would think he got dumped. An eleven-foot-tall guy crying over a single torn handkerchief… How much did he treasure it?’
Gwang-yu seemed foolish, but I understood on some level.
‘When I lost the sachet Daddy made me, I cried all day like someone died.’
“Star, Daddy’ll make you a new sachet, so don’t cry.”
“No, it has to be that sachet!”
I’d thrown a fit that it had to be the original, and Daddy had brought me an identical new one.
“Star, this sachet says it’s friends with the one you had before, and it wants to protect you in its place. Is that okay?”
‘At first, it was hard to open up, but as time passed with the new one, I grew attached.’
Thanks to that, the sadness over my first sachet faded with time.
‘Maybe Gwang-yu needs something like that too.’
“Master, give me that handkerchief.”
“This? Why?”
Gwang-yu eyed me suspiciously, as if I might snatch it and run.
‘Should I really just grab it and bolt?’
I hesitated for a second, but I didn’t want to see him wandering around crying anymore, so I steeled myself.
“I’ll fix the handkerchief for you, so hand it over.”
“Kong-al can fix this?”
The doubt in Gwang-yu’s eyes deepened as he looked at my hands.
‘I’d fix those eyes first before the handkerchief.’
But truth be told, I didn’t have embroidery skills good enough to counter his doubt, so I swallowed my irritation.
“It won’t be exactly like new, but since I made it in the first place, wouldn’t it mean more if I fixed it?”
“That’s true…”
After pondering, Gwang-yu finally handed over the cloth scraps—once a handkerchief—with great care.
“Take good care of it, Kong-al.”
“All sorted now? Don’t go crying around like that when you’re supposed to be my master! Got it?”
“Got it.”
‘Who even knows who’s the master and who’s the disciple anymore.’
I sighed in relief seeing Gwang-yu finally smile again.
“There’s the Eleven Elders’ meeting today, so you can’t go with that face. Go wash up quick.”
“Why? Don’t I look charming as a pitiful, tear-streaked man?”
Gwang-yu, back to his usual self, struck a pathetic pose.
‘Clowning around like that means he’s back to normal.’
I naturally turned away, pretending to search for something.
“Where’d I put my wooden sword?”
“Okay, I’ll go! Washing up’s all it takes!”
Apparently intimidated by my Seven Demon Sword Arts, Gwang-yu vanished from sight with Void Step in an instant.
‘Wasting inner energy on pointless stuff.’
I wanna live wasting inner energy like that too!
Wonder when I’ll get there?
Dreaming of the day I could wield inner energy as freely as Gwang-yu, I headed to the Young Cult Leader’s office to handle advisor duties.
As I entered the office, I saw Five Elements and the Young Cult Leader bustling about, preparing for the Eleven Elders’ meeting.
“What should I do?”
“Other tasks are mostly done, so when we enter the meeting hall, place one scroll at each of the Eleven Elders’ seats.”
Five Elements handed me eleven scrolls.
“Understood.”
As I organized the scrolls to carry, I felt someone’s gaze.
‘What? The Young Cult Leader?’
The Young Cult Leader was staring right through my scarf.
‘Does he like it that much? It is top-grade embroidery, after all. Young Cult Leader’s got good taste.’
“Seol, that.”
The usually silent Young Cult Leader spoke to me then.
“Yes?”
“That scarf. A gift?”
He nodded toward my scarf.
‘Yup, he was definitely staring at my scarf.’
“Yes, it’s a gift.”
“From whom?”
As soon as he asked, his eyes shifted to the embroidery on the scarf.
“No need to ask. The golden lotus embroidery says it all. Golden Immortal Lotus, right?”
For some reason, the Young Cult Leader’s gaze as he asked seemed dissatisfied.
“Yes, Lotus thinks humans are frail. So he gave it to keep me from catching a cold.”
“True, humans are fragile. Especially the old ones. Perfect timing, actually. Five Elements caught a cold and’s been coughing badly, but forgot his scarf or something? If it’s okay, could you lend it to him?”
“Advisor Five Elements has a cold?”
‘He looked healthy even this morning. Even now…’
The moment I glanced toward Five Elements.
Five Elements, who’d been standing blankly, awkwardly clutched his throat and slumped down.
“Advisor Seol, I’m fiii… Hack! Cough! Hack!”