The Lifetime Ban
A vast estate.
A group of people crossed the stone bridge spanning water closer to a stream than a pond.
Thud, thud, thud……
Their destination was the seven-story main palace—the place that always grew noisy whenever a matter of grave importance to the family arose.
At the very rear of the solemn procession, one sharp-eyed warrior spotted a familiar face from afar.
"…Isn't that the Second Young Master?"
At once the heads of the warriors gathered at the entrance of a distant pavilion snapped around.
"You're right. I heard he ran away."
"Came back yesterday, apparently."
"Dragged back, more like. Off to grovel and beg again today, no doubt."
They all snickered. How could they not? The man trailing at the end of that line—Gwak Yeon—was nothing more than a laughingstock to the warriors who served the master of this pavilion.
Samho-gak
Every sword-bearing man in this pavilion served the third son of the Seoho Gwak Family.
Gwak Ho-shin.
Though the youngest, he was already called the jewel of the great families in Hangzhou—a genius. His swordsmanship, overflowing with confidence to the point of arrogance, and his uncharacteristic silence for his age, made him the very picture of a true martial artist of the jianghu in their eyes.
"Pathetic."
"How is that man even the second son of this family?"
"Born of the same womb, yet how can they be so different?"
"Going to kneel and beg again?"
"Who knows. This time he claims he lost his memory."
"What a pitiful excuse!"
"Means he has no shame."
"Who's arguing?"
To them, Gwak Yeon—who showed only disgraceful sides of himself—was a man who could barely even be called "Young Master" with any respect.
"No matter how terrifying our Young Master is… what kind of coward runs away from a spar with his own little brother? If it were me, I'd stand my ground even if it meant a broken bone. Embarrassing as hell."
He was nothing more than cheap entertainment destined for another public humiliation in the upcoming spar against Gwak Ho-shin.
"Or maybe he'll just hide behind Cheon Gang again?"
"Does that even make sense?"
"And if he does hide? You think Cheon Gang can even measure up to our Young Master? Street-level trash at best."
Exactly. To them, Gwak Yeon was chaff already eliminated from the succession race. His bodyguard was worth more discussion than he was.
Now they only needed to surpass the first son. With that eccentric currently away from the family, if their Young Master took more commissions and raised his reputation higher, the atmosphere in the pavilion was that he could become the next family head.
—Clack.
The great doors of the main hall slowly opened. The sharp-eyed warrior who had first spotted Gwak Yeon from afar let out a small sound.
"Hmm."
Something was different.
For nearly a year he had watched that fool being "dragged" to the main hall more times than he could count.
"…What is it?"
"…Nothing. Just…"
Legs trembling like aspen leaves. An expression on the verge of tears. Even from a distance, Gwak Yeon had always worn his terror plain on his face.
Yet now—from his gait to his posture—there was a strange confidence about him that none of them had seen before. One warrior tilted his head.
"Something… feels different from usual."
Gwak Yeon disappeared into the main hall.
The council chamber of the main palace.
The moment Gwak Yeon entered, every head around the great central table turned toward him.
Whoosh.
Meeting those gazes, Gwak Yeon felt it.
…Impressive.
From the middle-aged men to the white-bearded elders, every member of the family who faced him radiated an extraordinary aura of qi.
At this level… they could easily be called one of the Five Great Families.
In his previous life Gwak Yeon had visited many prestigious houses. Even from the standpoint of one who had been called a gosu, the crystalline light in their eyes and the natural energy rising from their bodies told him these men could stand shoulder to shoulder with those of the great sects.
A family I never even heard of in my past life.
It was strange. Even houses like the Sichuan Tang Family or the Namgung Family had needed vast stretches of time to grow to such heights. For a family unheard of eighty years ago to wield this much prestige…
Honestly, it was fascinating.
I should have listened more carefully.
That talkative fellow Cheon Gang. Just hearing the recent news about the original owner of this body had taken half a day, so Gwak Yeon had judged there was no time left for the full history of the family.
Forget it. There wasn't even enough time to properly examine this body.
A single day had not been enough. The vampire abilities. Gwak Yeon still suspected there were more new powers in this body he had yet to grasp.
Then a cool voice cut into his ear.
"You look well."
"…!"
The one who spoke those icy, razor-edged words was the middle-aged man seated in the highest place.
…Gwak Seo-ryong.
There was no doubt. According to Cheon Gang, whether he had lost his memory or not, this was the family head before whom he must bow his head and beg forgiveness without fail.
"Not a single wound."
"…"
"Quite strange for someone who supposedly suffered a shock severe enough to erase his memories."
"So."
Gwak Yeon looked at him and slowly opened his mouth.
"Family Head believes I am lying."
"…!"
"…!"
"…!"
The atmosphere shifted in an instant. Several eyes widened. Gwak Seo-ryong's gaze and Gwak Yeon's locked in the air, and a peculiar tension settled over the room.
"Is that the only thing you're good at?"
"Family Head."
"You remember well enough that I am the family head."
"Fragments… come back to me."
"How convenient. You can pretend not to know every deed you'd rather forget."
"Now that you mention it, there are memories I would rather forget."
"What are they?"
Looking straight into Gwak Seo-ryong's eyes, Gwak Yeon continued.
"The memory of you roaring at me in front of everyone after I fell from a horse. The memory of locking me out of the house for a week after I lost a friendly spar with another family. The memory of ordering me to fast for three days when I choked during a family meal. Most of them… are from my childhood."
In truth he had heard every one of them from Cheon Gang. More precisely, they had been told to him as a warning: he was so far out of the family head's favor that he must tread carefully today.
…This feels strange.
It truly did. Looking at the family head, a peculiar emotion rose in him—as if it belonged to the original owner of this body. A sense of injustice and defiance. Curiosity mixed with several other reasons had made him speak, yet—
"Were those memories so important to you?"
"It seems so."
"You little—!"
Suddenly crystalline light flashed in Gwak Seo-ryong's eyes.
Crack!
A hairline fracture raced across the stone table as his furious roar exploded.
"You brainless, half-witted fool! How! How could such things matter to you! The day you disgraced your dead mother's name and the family's honor! The day you spent your whole life in laziness and were overtaken by your younger brother! The day you knelt to a worthless pack of black-path scum! Those are the memories you should never forget!"
"…"
"Worthless whelp! Foolish whelp! So you truly mean to abandon the blood you were born with and live as a dog or a cat!"
Rage so fierce it made the hair stand on end and the air itself tremble. Yet not a single retainer seated around the table rose to defend Gwak Yeon.
"…"
"…"
"…"
How long did the silence last? The family head reined in his aura and spoke again in a dry, emotionless tone, as if announcing an official family event.
"In half a month you will spar with your younger brother before the entire family. The winner will represent our house in the spar against the heir of the Jusan Baek Family. Whatever state your memory is in, this event proceeds as planned."
"…Yes. I am aware."
"I will increase the watch on you until the day of the spar. Do not even think of running away again as you did this time."
"…Understood."
Gwak Yeon answered calmly and nodded. A few retainers' faces showed faint puzzlement at his composed attitude. Meanwhile Gwak Yeon recalled the meaning of this spar.
He said it was an official family event.
According to Cheon Gang, this was no mere contest of skill between the young masters of the house. The winner would stand for the family's name against the most outstanding heir of the other great power that, together with the Gwak Family, ruled Zhejiang Province as the two great houses.
With the first son currently away with his men at "that place," the public spar had to be fought between the second and third sons.
He begged and pleaded to give it up any number of times… but it never worked on the family head.
This must have been the pressure that finally drove the original owner of this body to flee.
They're putting a watch on me until then, so I'll have to go through with the spar at least.
Victory, defeat, reputation—none of it mattered. To the current Gwak Yeon, rooting out the great evils that had taken hold in the world and digging through every corner of the jianghu was far more important than becoming head of this family.
Therefore—
"If."
He had no particular desire regarding the spar itself.
"If you lose that spar."
The next words came.
"I will place a lifelong ban on you leaving the estate."
"…!?"
Bang.
After the meeting ended, several retainers who had left the main hall first walked with measured steps, speaking in lowered voices.
"A lifelong ban on leaving… truly?"
"He's trying to push the Second Young Master that hard. Only then will the boy pick up a sword even if he doesn't want to."
"I don't know. The family head is not one for empty words."
They all knew. Once Gwak Seo-ryong set his will, it was harder than ten-thousand-year cold iron and almost never broke.
"Still, the atmosphere today felt a little different, didn't it?"
"True enough."
They also knew that the Second Young Master—who was even called "a dog under a tiger father"—should by rights already have been reduced to tears and snot.
"Because of the Second Young Master's attitude, right?"
"He definitely changed."
"Did he really lose his memory? I think it's an act."
"It can't be a complete lie. A person couldn't change this much otherwise."
"True… he didn't make a single tearful face earlier."
The retainers, long accustomed to Gwak Yeon's usual behavior within the family, sensed it faintly. Something had changed. Not only had he faced the family head without flinching and looked him straight in the eye, he had taken Gwak Seo-ryong's furious aura head-on and answered without shedding a single tear.
And that was not all.
"That last thing he said—was he serious?"
"Nothing else has worked so far, so maybe he just blurted out whatever came to mind."
"Could be."
After hearing the punishment for losing the spar, Gwak Yeon had worn a brief look of disbelief before asking one question. It was a question that would have drawn hollow laughter from anyone in Hangzhou, let alone the family.
"In my opinion the Second Young Master really did lose his memory. Otherwise how could he even put something like that in his mouth?"
Watching Gwak Yeon stride quickly toward his own quarters in the distance, one of them muttered with an incredulous expression.
"Asking about the reward if he wins the spar… truly, the man has lost his mind."