Grandfather's Cherished Gift
Ryeon's starry eyes sparkling with anticipation—Danmok Cheon-gi quietly interpreted their meaning, and his energy began to ripple subtly.
"What are you thinking about, with your mouth pursed like a baby duckling?"
Startled, Ryeon quickly covered her mouth with both hands. But inwardly, she chuckled a little. Even Grandfather finds his granddaughter cute, it seems.
"Hmph. Come closer, will you?"
Danmok Cheon-gi spoke as if issuing a difficult task. To Ryeon, though, it was a welcome invitation. She tilted her head inwardly but strode forward without hesitation.
Seated on the grand chair, Danmok Cheon-gi seemed caught off guard that she approached so boldly after he'd invited her. "Y-Yes... Since you've come to pay your respects with such sincerity, I can't very well send you away empty-handed."
With that, he untied a jade ornament from his waist and handed it to the steward at his side. The steward's eyes widened in recognition before returning to normal; he carefully cradled the jade ornament and offered it to Ryeon.
"Thank you, Grandfather!"
Crafted meticulously from fine jade and carried for years by someone of Danmok Cheon-gi's stature, the glistening ornament seemed to emanate a refreshing aura.
Ryeon accepted the jade ornament from the steward without refusal and tied it swiftly to her waist. In that instant...
'Spiritual energy capacity? What does that mean?'
Store Spiritual Energy?
Help: Fine stones can hold spiritual energy. The better the stone, the more it can store.
'Yes! Store it!'
She felt spiritual energy draining from her fingertips, and in an instant, the red glow vanished from her Spiritual Energy gauge. Her body felt noticeably lighter as a result.
'Good stones can store spiritual energy?'
This was news to her. Ryeon looked down again at the jade ornament Danmok Cheon-gi had given her.
'Ah... Before, the family was in decline, so we rarely had chances to handle jewels like this...'
And she'd never been this close to her grandfather either. Suddenly, the jade seemed to sparkle more brilliantly than diamond, and it was only natural that Danmok Cheon-gi appeared to glow with a halo.
Ryeon's face lit up so radiantly as she gazed at the jade ornament that Danmok Cheon-gi grew flustered instead.
"A-Ahem. D-Do... do you like it?"
"Yes! Grandfather! I love it so much! So... so much! Thank you so much. Really, truly..."
Overjoyed, Ryeon nearly burst into tears. Figuring out how to get her spiritual energy below 50 had been a real headache, and now it was solved in one go!
"G-Good, if you like it, fine—but why the tears and fuss? As the eldest grandchild of the clan, show some composure! Stop it at once!"
"N-No, I'm not crying!"
Danmok Cheon-gi cleared his throat awkwardly at his sniffling granddaughter.
"That's enough, then. Is there anything else you need?"
"No, Father. You've already given Ryeon medicine..."
Wijicheong smiled softly, trying to decline, but Ryeon's mind raced even faster. Didn't she have something urgent right now?
"Ah! Grandfather! I do have something!"
"Hmph. What is it? Stay put, my lady. As the clan's heir, you must speak your desires boldly and with poise."
Ryeon's outburst seemed dignified rather than rude to him. Wijicheong looked troubled but couldn't scold her.
"Grandfather, I want to learn martial arts!"
But a chill wind seemed to blow from all sides at her shout. No one responded.
'Wh-What?'
She'd thought declaring her wish to learn martial arts right after waking would earn praise.
"...You want to learn martial arts?"
"Yes, I'm already eight years old, but I still don't know anything..."
As Danmok Cheon-gi merely worked his lips silently, Wijicheong pulled Ryeon close.
"Ryeon-ah, how about we wait until you're a bit healthier before learning martial arts?"
"But Mother, I'm already..."
Her body felt a bit off when spiritual energy built up, but otherwise, she was perfectly fine, wasn't she? Yet Ryeon trailed off, lips moving wordlessly.
Wijicheong's eyes brimmed with tears.
"M-Mother... why... don't cry..."
"No, I'm not. It's just... Ryeon-ah..."
With her mother on the verge of tears and her grandfather speechless, how could she press the martial arts topic further?
'Are they that worried?'
After their daughter had been little more than a living corpse, every step must fill them with anxiety. Ryeon concluded as much.
"Th-Then I'll learn martial arts later!"
"Yes, that's good. Our Ryeon is such a good girl."
"...When the time comes, I'll teach you myself. Ryeon-ah, don't be impatient, my lady—focus on recuperating."
"Yes, Grand Patriarch."
Wijicheong bowed deeply in greeting, wrapping Ryeon in her arms. At the sight, Danmok Cheon-gi waved them off dismissively.
It was a dismissal order, but without a trace of sharpness.
"The child... walks quite steadily."
"Heo Uiwon said her body hasn't fully matured yet and her vitality is still weak, so caution is needed, but there's no other issue—and he was astonished at how remarkably bright she is."
Chief Steward Gang-rip quickly responded.
"Over the past seven—nearly eight—years, how much effort has my lady put in?"
Gang-rip's voice cracked uncharacteristically as he spoke. Raising a child who never turned at her name and never cried from pain had been possible only through Wijicheong's devotion as a mother.
Before bearing Danmok Ryeon, Wijicheong had been frail and medicine-dependent, yet she'd insisted on childbirth against all advice. Then, to everyone's shock, she'd grown robust and poured everything into caring for her child.
"From what she said, she doesn't seem foolish."
"Oh, come now. Heo Uiwon was amazed at her brilliance."
"Hmph. Staring straight at my face without flinching and speaking clearly—that took guts."
Twenty-five years ago, facing Blood Valley and doused in their poison, his untreated wounds had left massive scars. Even before, his fierce countenance had intimidated; now, no one dared meet his gaze directly.
"Isn't that so?"
"But the young master Hyeon-seong was the same."
"No, Patriarch..."
"Even as Grand Patriarch!"
Gang-rip stared blankly at Danmok Cheon-gi comparing his now-deceased genius son—famed as a once-in-a-millennium prodigy—with his granddaughter, awakened mere months ago, then quickly lowered his eyes.
Danmok Cheon-gi's gaze had turned fierce.
"If speaking well and walking steadily makes one 'brilliant,' then where in Hangzhou isn't there a brilliant child?"
"That's true, but..."
Gang-rip trailed off. 'But the young miss has only been awake a few months.'
Still, Danmok Cheon-gi's expression lately was worlds apart from before. He was overjoyed at his granddaughter's awakening, of course—his own flesh and blood.
"As for Ryeon learning martial arts... we'll decide based on her condition going forward. Make sure no one brings it up first—keep mouths shut."
"Yes!"
Gang-rip bowed low. Danmok Cheon-gi's eyes drifted to the window, toward where his granddaughter and daughter-in-law had gone.
Jeon ssi, a kitchen servant in the Danmok Family Estate, was still new and with few hands around, handled various odd jobs. Every dawn, he checked and sorted ingredients, swept inside and out, and harvested fresh eggs daily from the small coop in the back yard.
But deep in Jeon ssi's heart burned a long-nurtured flame. Now just a kitchen drudge in a declining clan, his grand dream was to become Zhejiang Province's top chef.
"Mix it like this?"
'At this rate, my head will roll before I become the world's greatest chef.'
It was just before noon. A small girl in white appeared before the chicken coop he tended.
Jeon ssi recognized her instantly. The pristine white garment, neatly finished to the cuffs, was permitted only to the Danmok bloodline. Once embroidered with silver thread on fine silk, now simplified, but such pure white was rare.
Ignoring the panicked Jeon ssi, the young miss declared boldly.
— When do we give the chickens their feed?
She'd come to help with feeding the chickens. For Jeon ssi, mixing feed alongside the clan's heir felt like a pitch-black future. Her wet nurse seemed to feel the same.