Just Because I Stepped Out?
“Just because I... stepped outside?”
“Yes, people couldn't come inside the estate, after all...”
Ryeon trailed off and turned to look at Danmok Cheon-gi.
“Ordinary folks can't lift a fallen giant back up.”
The giant has to rise on his own.
Danmok Cheon-gi slowly mulled over Ryeon's words.
And Ryeon gazed up at the back of Danmok Cheon-gi as he took a step forward.
Was it because of her?
Did watching his granddaughter, who had even undergone the Balsa Sesu, vomit blood every day without any reward plunge him deeper into despair?
Was that why he never set foot outside the Danmok estate, quietly wasting away like a crumbling stone until he breathed his last?
Because he couldn't muster the strength to stand.
If he had just stepped out once, even without fully recovering his power, people would have flocked to him. There would surely have been those who traveled a thousand ri just to catch a glimpse of his robes brushing by.
They were all here now.
People who had set aside their livelihoods, their work, everything, just to run here and bow once to Danmok Cheon-gi who had emerged.
Their cheers didn't stop until the gates of the Namgung estate finally closed.
Through the narrowing gap in the gates, Ryeon caught sight of a warrior sobbing.
In her previous life, he must never have seen Danmok Cheon-gi again.
As the gates shut and the outside clamor cut off abruptly, Ryeon thought.
Was it all because of her alone...?
* * *
Family head Namgung Hwan wasn't particularly burly. He was a bit short, on the slender side, but the weight of his presence made it impossible to gauge his stature accurately.
With the outside clamor and murmurs fading behind them, everyone held their breath as Danmok Cheon-gi lightly dismounted from his horse.
The two giants faced each other in silence for a long while. Everyone from both families watched that majestic quiet with trembling eyes.
Namgung Hwan, meeting his old friend after so long, parted his quivering lips.
He had pushed forward the nearly canceled Kyunghang Yunryeon just to see Danmok Cheon-gi again, yet now that they truly faced each other, his heart was in turmoil.
Yangju in Yangjik Rye-seong Province and Hangzhou in Jeolgang Province were in different provinces—far if you considered the distances, but close when thinking of the gaps between other murim families. Naturally, the two clans were in endless rivalry and vigilance, but as the saying goes, familiarity breeds affection. Decades ago, when Danmok Cheon-gi took up his sword to unite all of murim against Blood Valley, the Namgung family had been the first alongside the Jeogal clan to support him.
“You...”
“What, you're still alive?”
“...!”
Namgung Hwan's face crumpled at Danmok Cheon-gi's blunt words.
And he immediately shouted back.
“What, you thought I was dead? I thought you were! Holed up in your house, never showing your face outside, rotting away until mold grew on you...!”
“Father!”
Namgung Gyeong-hae, standing beside him, jumped in alarm and cried out.
At the same time, Danmok Cheon-gi burst into loud laughter at the words.
“Hahaha! If you were that worried, you could've just come to Hangzhou.”
“You think I've got nothing better to do?!”
“Taeheo Jin-in came all the way from distant Kunlun Mountain to Hangzhou. He even said he'd stop by the Namgung estate on his way—did you meet him?”
“Ahem.”
Namgung Hwan coughed awkwardly and averted his gaze.
Danmok Cheon-gi didn't press him further.
Sometimes, for those sharing the same pain, merely facing each other could wound rather than comfort.
That was the case for Danmok Cheon-gi and Namgung Hwan.
Both had lost their eldest sons in the battle against Blood Valley.
For years, they hadn't been able to face each other.
If not for this Kyunghang Yunryeon, we might've only met after death.
Danmok Cheon-gi murmured inwardly and glanced down at his petite granddaughter beside him.
If he hadn't attained enlightenment, if rumors of him shaking off his old wounds hadn't spread, Namgung Hwan never would have mustered the courage to reopen the Yunryeon.
In a way, it was thanks to his granddaughter that he got to see his friend's face one more time in this life.
And that he faced all those people who had been waiting for him.
He might have died without ever knowing he hadn't been forgotten.
“So you gathered all those people just to give me a welcome?”
“You think I gathered them? The moment word got out that you were leaving your estate, flies started buzzing around the Namgung estate!”
He'd caught some out of curiosity, and they hemmed and hawed before admitting they'd heard the great Danmok Cheon-gi would attend the Kyunghang Yunryeon at the Namgung estate.
“Why would the Namgung estate be looking for Danmok Cheon-gi, tch!”
Once he let them go after hearing he'd agreed to come, the crowds swelled like pollen on a spring day.
“And you just let them gather like that?”
“Hmph, I'll even throw a feast, so don't meddle.”
Namgung Hwan grumbled on.
“Even so, how could you stay cooped up in your estate all this time...? And once you'd recovered a bit, why not announce it far and wide instead of hogging it all to yourself? Feels good, does it? Does it?!”
“Father, please... please...”
Namgung Gyeong-hae pleaded desperately, his face nearly in tears.
But Namgung Hwan shook off his much larger son's hand and kept jabbing a finger at Danmok Cheon-gi.
“Just how much miraculous stuff did you stuff yourself with to surpass the realm at your age? How much more are you gonna block the path of the young ones! Don't you know about golden basin hand-washing? No plans for that?!”
Golden basin hand-washing meant washing one's hands in a golden basin, symbolizing a murim warrior severing all ties and retiring. Of course, grudges didn't vanish overnight just because one washed their hands, so it was mostly nominal.
With enemies still harboring hate, retiring fresh as a daisy wouldn't even be forgiven by Buddha!
“Oh? Then how about a match with one of these young ones?”
Namgung Hwan's bewildered expression flushed beet red as he belatedly remembered he was five years younger.
Decades of close friendship had made him forget completely!
“Damn it, how long are you gonna milk that age difference! People will think I'm the older one now!”
“Now? Hasn't it always been that way, even when we were young?”
“Y-You...!”
As Namgung Hwan's hand trembled, his son and vice family head, Namgung Gyeong-hae, quickly interjected.
“Elder! It's been well with you?”
“Gyeong-hae, isn't it? It's been ages.”
At Danmok Cheon-gi's low words, Namgung Gyeong-hae composed his complex feelings and offered a formal bow, standing frozen like that for a while.
Danmok Cheon-gi approached, lifted him by the shoulder, placed his hand over Gyeong-hae's, held it there a long moment, then released.
“Have the others arrived?”
“Most have. Only those from the distant Moyong estate remain. Elder, please come inside.”
As he stepped aside, Namgung Gyeong-hae looked down at Ryeon and Danmok Bi with a face full of mixed emotions.
“You're... Ryeon, right? And Bi too?”
“This rascal snuck into the carriage baggage to come, saying he wanted to join the Yunryeon.”
Danmok Cheon-gi spoke sternly as if scolding, but warmth lingered at the end of his voice.
A child of a martial family ought to rush toward such gatherings with courage, not flee.
“I was wrong!”
Danmok Bi shouted spiritedly, clutching Ryeon's hem and sticking close, grinning broadly—a sure sign of the pampered youngest.
“Vice head, could you guide the guests to the manor?”
Namgung Gyeong-hae ruffled Danmok Bi's hair once, then turned to the young man behind him and said.
The tall youth with slightly hunched shoulders was Namgung Gyeong-hae's younger brother, Namgung Gyeong-mu.
‘Traits: Observation and Kaleidoscope?’
The Observation trait was intuitively clear. It seemed like the ability to keenly scrutinize others.
‘Bamboo and Tendon Collector make sense too.’
Bamboo meant unyielding once resolved, and Tendon Collector implied unmatched stubbornness.
Together, once he set his mind, nothing could break him—not even death.
But Kaleidoscope was a new one.
And the state of his cultivated arts was a bit unusual too.