A Baby Cat Who Commands the Dog Clan - Chapter 115

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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Chapter 115
“I see.”
Dang Song Baek nodded, then turned to Hong Seol and Nam Goong Baek with a warm tone.
“Please be careful. The Dang Sect has poisonous plants scattered about in various places. Well then, I’ll take my leave.”
Dang Song Baek picked up a short blade and a few flowers beside him, gave a slight nod, and turned to go.
Though his face was utterly harmless, his careful footsteps left no trace—the mark of a true martial artist.
Only after he disappeared into the distance did Nam Goong Baek ask.
“Who is that person?”
“Pardon? You just said he was the Poison Chamber Master….”
“I’m asking what your relationship is to him.”
At that, Dang Yi Woon’s face contorted with discomfort.
“…He’s Dang Bo Young’s father.”
“What?”
Hong Seol’s eyes widened in surprise.
“Dang Bo Young—you mean….”
One of the candidates for the next family master, a girl currently teetering on death’s door from poison.
Now, Poison King Dang Yi Mu, Dang Yi Woon’s grandfather, had been identified as the culprit who harmed Dang Bo Young.
Dang Yi Woon’s expression grew somber.
“That’s right. The Poison Chamber Master can’t possibly have good feelings toward me. Of course, being an adult, he tries not to show it, but….”
But Hong Seol’s surprise stemmed from something else entirely.
‘His daughter’s life hangs in the balance, yet he tends to the flower garden?’
After tilting her head in confusion for a moment, Hong Seol found herself drawn forward, stepping closer to the garden as if enchanted.
Then someone grabbed her sleeve. It was Nam Goong Baek.
“Stop, Seol Ah. What if there are poisonous plants?”
“Brother, there are no poisonous plants in that garden.”
“What?”
Nam Goong Baek shot a sharp look at Dang Yi Woon, whose words carried such certainty.
His gaze seemed to demand: Can you stake your life on that claim?
This time, Dang Yi Woon didn’t back down easily.
“I’m certain of it. My grandfather said so himself.”
“The Poison King said that?”
“Yes. Whenever my grandfather spots a new plant or flower, he always examines it without fail.”
At those words, Nam Goong Baek released Hong Seol’s sleeve.
Hong Seol hurried over to admire the garden.
The Poison Chamber Master had just finished tending to it, and it was lovely to behold.
I observed carefully: hollyhocks towering a hand’s breadth taller than my own height, trumpet flowers in a riot of colors, and various other unnamed blooms.
Several stems bore the fresh marks of recent cuts from the blade.
“…Was he planning to place flowers at the head of Dang Bo Young’s sickbed?”
“What?”
“Oh, it’s nothing. Just thinking aloud!”
Hong Seol brushed the grass blades from her clothes and hurried back to where her brothers were waiting.
It was time to end their evening stroll.
* * *
The moment Dang Yi Woon and Nam Goong Baek returned to the Guest Hall, they disappeared into their sleeping quarters.
Between the morning’s martial contest and Nam Goong Baek’s bout with the paralysis toxin, exhaustion was well-earned.
“Yawn! I’ll just pay my respects to Grandfather and head to bed.”
Hong Seol stretched in the corridor, glancing toward the reception room, when her eyes suddenly widened.
She’d spotted candied fruits arranged with tea on a table where Nam Goong Ho and Dang Yi Mu sat facing each other.
Hong Seol poked her head cautiously into the reception room.
“Grandfather, I’m here!”
“Ah, there’s my Seol Ah!”
At Nam Goong Ho’s delighted response, Hong Seol crept closer and settled before the table.
Nam Goong Ho contentedly stroked the crown of her head.
“Where have you been wandering so late?”
“An evening walk with my brothers. We visited the Poison Chamber and met the Dang Family Master there.”
As she spoke, Hong Seol watched Snake Grandfather’s expression carefully.
As expected, Snake Grandfather was a step ahead of Brother Yi Woon—his face betrayed not the slightest change.
“Dang Song Baek, you mean. He appears simple-minded, but the boy’s quite shrewd.”
Dang Yi Mu stroked his chin once before continuing.
“He earned a reputation as a prodigy from childhood. He even contested fiercely with the current Dang Family Master, Dang Won Pyung, over the position.”
“Really? Truly?”
Hong Seol was somewhat surprised by this unexpected revelation.
‘From what I could see, he showed no hunger for power whatsoever.’
Rather, he seemed like a single-minded obsessive devoted solely to toxins—so much so that he’d even invented something called ‘spectacles’ to aid his poison research.
That such a Dang Song Baek had coveted the position of Family Master was astonishing.
Hong Seol reflected that one truly shouldn’t judge people by appearances.
“It was quite some time ago. He was so exceptional that had fortune favored him even slightly, he might well have become Family Master.”
“Did he lose to the current Dang Family Master through the Bamboo Forest Circular Path trial?”
“Precisely. He fell victim to a hidden poison needle concealed in a palm strike and lay collapsed by the Pond Area for an entire day.”
“Ah, so that’s how it was… He lacked the character to be Family Master, it seems. Seol Ah, you little rascal!”
Taking advantage of the grandfathers’ engrossment in conversation, Hong Seol stealthily reached for the candied fruits—and flinched.
Nam Goong Ho opened his eyes wide and scolded her.
“Didn’t Wan Li Yi Xian expressly forbid you from eating sweets!”
“…I-I’m sorry.”
Hong Seol mumbled apologetically and set down the candied fruits.
“Hmph.”
Watching Nam Goong Ho push the dish of candied fruits far beyond Hong Seol’s reach, Dang Yi Mu spoke.
“Yet Dang Song Baek himself seems to believe he was wrongfully robbed of the position due to lacking proper backing.”
“Is that so?”
“Whenever he drinks, he apparently goes on about it endlessly.”
“Then Dang Bo Young must be devastated by this outcome in the Young Master Selection Tournament. He must have believed his daughter would fulfill the dreams he couldn’t achieve himself.”
“Indeed. Moreover, the Poison King didn’t merely dote on his daughter—he cherished her dearly.”
At those words, Hong Seol recalled the image of Dang Song Baek tending to the Flower Garden in the dead of night.
‘So that was meant to be placed at Dang Bo Young’s bedside after all.’
Was that what a father’s love looked like?
Hong Seol tilted her head in confusion.
A father’s love.
It was an emotion I could never comprehend—one who had never been loved.
My father, Myo Wi Heon, the Master of Myo Family Estate, was a man of few words and stern demeanor. Especially after it was revealed that I couldn’t cultivate inner energy, he became difficult to even glimpse.
‘Yet he gave my younger sister Ga Ryung a bracelet adorned with jade….’
For a moment, something sharp pricked at my throat.
Just as I raised my sleeve to wipe away tears threatening to spill.
I felt a heavy, cold presence.
Its source was the golden bracelet clasped around my wrist.
The jade—no, the luminous green stone set at its center—gleamed brilliantly.
And that wasn’t all.
The fragrant sachet hanging from my garment also released its fresh, delicate scent.
Gazing upon them, my sorrow dispersed like morning mist beneath the rising sun.
“After the mother disappeared, the Poison King doted on his daughter even more.”
At those words, my ears perked up.
“Disappeared? What do you mean by that?”
“The girl’s mother left Sichuan entirely not long after the Young Master Selection Tournament concluded.”
“Why?”
“How should I know? There must have been incompatibilities between husband and wife. This is why marriage is nothing but trouble!”
“You stubborn old fool. I’ve always said the best decision I ever made was marrying my wife.”
“Yes, yes. I’m sure that’s true.”
Does this man never tire of boasting about his wife? That’s his family history!
Dang Yi Mu muttered quietly.
Then Hong Seol asked carefully.
“Why didn’t Dang Bo Young leave Sichuan with her mother?”
Seeing my small fist clenched tightly around my sleeve, Nam Goong Ho and Dang Yi Mu understood what I was thinking.
In their eyes, I remained that trembling kitten shivering atop Dae Chuk Mountain.
“…Did… her mother… abandon her?”
At my hesitant words, Dang Yi Mu shook his head.
“No. It was because Dang Bo Young had already begun learning the martial arts of the Dang Sect.”
The Sichuan Tang Family was more reclusive than any clan in the Orthodox Sects of the Martial Arts World.
Therefore, when arranging marriages, it was customary to take in a son-in-law to prevent their martial techniques from spreading outside.
“They would never willingly let go of a child who had already begun learning the family’s martial arts.”
Not unless they severed her limbs and sealed her dantian.
At Dang Yi Mu’s murmured words, Hong Seol clenched both fists and trembled violently.
Indeed, the Sichuan Tang Family was a terrifying place.
Noticing Hong Seol trembling, Nam Goong Ho cleared his throat and shifted the conversation.
“In any case, this is troubling. We still haven’t identified what poison harmed that child Dang Bo Young.”
“That’s what’s strange about it.”
“What do you mean, strange?”
“No matter how much I think about it, there’s no poison that fits perfectly. Fever accompanied by chills, cholera alongside an unusually slow pulse. As far as I know, no poison in this world causes all these symptoms simultaneously.”
“Remarkable—there exists a poison even you don’t know.”
In that moment, both of them harbored the same thought.
The medicinal spirit poison still threatening Nam Goong Baek’s life.
It too was a poison that the Poison King Dang Yi Mu—who claimed to know every poison in existence—had failed to identify.
Yet now another such poison had appeared in the world?
Perhaps the same person had created both.

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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