A Baby Cat Who Commands the Dog Clan - Chapter 61

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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 61
‘That footstep… it’s a martial artist!’
Hong Seol, who had witnessed countless warriors at the Nam Goong Family Estate, could tell.
Even amid the absence of tension, the instinctive deadening of sound was unmistakably the hallmark of those trained in martial arts.
Soon, a listless voice echoed from beyond the door.
“Food.”
Thunk.
A hand thrust through the feeding slot abruptly deposited water and barley porridge in a broad wooden bowl, then vanished.
“Food!”
The starving children scrambled over one another toward the wooden bowl.
They devoured the barley porridge—seasoned with nothing but salt, devoid of any garnish—ravenously with their hands.
The innocent children who had wept for their mothers were nowhere to be found.
“Move!”
“It’s mine!”
It was commonplace to see their eyes bulge red as they shoved or fought with the child beside them, desperate to consume even a morsel more.
“How… how could this be…?”
Yang Do Jin, a beggar boy passing beside the visibly shocked Hong Seol, spoke in passing.
“You should eat too while you can. After just one day, you’ll be desperate enough to devour the mud from the floor.”
His words proved prophetic.
The following evening, when the wooden bowl appeared once more.
Hong Seol too was frantically scooping the thin barley porridge into her mouth with her hands.
Hunger was that terrifying, that merciless.
Yet still, no one had come to rescue Hong Seol.
* * *
“I have no strength at all…”
With only thin barley porridge once a day, my body could scarcely muster the strength to rise.
I curled my small frame into a ball and lay in the corner of the room, thinking.
‘Why did those mysterious villains bring me here in the first place?’
No matter how much I pondered, no answer emerged.
What terrified me more were the dark thoughts creeping insidiously into my mind.
‘Has Grandfather Nam Goong Ho, the Patriarch, or the Medicine Master been searching for me by now?’
My eyelashes drooped weakly.
‘A full day has already passed, and still no one has come to find me…’
Huddled in this darkness, my heart shriveled along with my body.
‘Could the Nam Goong Family have abandoned me?’
Perhaps because I was troublesome, or because I wouldn’t obey…
Suddenly, I regretted using the reverse technique and going to Anhui Region.
I lifted myself up and wrapped my arms around my knees, trembling. My forehead was buried deep between them.
‘Maybe the Patriarch deliberately gave me the access token because I wouldn’t listen.’
To let me wander off on my own and lose my way.
Just as my mother had deliberately sent me to Dae Chuk Mountain back then….
“No!”
The words escaped my lips before I could stop them. The children, scattered about, turned to look at me.
“Oh, just talking to myself….”
At my excuse, the children returned to their respective tasks.
Embarrassed, I buried my face between my knees again.
‘That’s right, everyone from the Nam Goong Family truly cared for me.’
Grandfather Nam Goong Ho, who brought me ten-thousand-year-old Polygonum multiflorum to eat and opened the path for me to learn martial arts.
Uncle Nam Goong On, the family head, who sewed me silk robes that spanned more than an armful.
The Medicine Master, who always ended his words with ‘little one’ and wrapped me in the folds of his robe.
Uncle Heuk, who gifted me Squeaky, and little Jeok, my youngest brother who followed me around.
And… Uncle Nam Goong Baek, who fought for me in An Hui Province.
‘If I just wait a little longer, they will surely come to rescue me.’
Soon the day would come when we would all gather again, spooning egg porridge into our mouths, laughing and chattering away.
I was fighting this battle alone.
* * *
“Changcheon Master Nam Goong Ui Gyeol!”
Nam Goong Ho’s thunderous command resonated through the Estate Grounds of the Nam Goong Family.
It was hard to recall a time when Nam Goong Ho had been this angry.
“Please execute me, Grand Patriarch!”
The bear-like Nam Goong Ui Gyeol was pounding his head into the ground before Chang Cheon Pavilion.
Beside him stood three members of the Changcheon Division.
They had torn through Hefei for an entire day and failed to find even a single strand of my hair.
“To fail to protect something so delicate! And yet you dare call yourselves the pride of the Nam Goong Family!”
Killing intent permeated Nam Goong Ho’s aged voice.
“Father!”
The family head Nam Goong On and the Medicine Master Bing Yu Hua, who had rushed over upon hearing the news, arrived. Nam Goong On quickly pleaded.
“Please restrain yourself, Father.”
“What? You dare ask me to restrain myself now?”
“Clear your mind and look around you.”
Only then did Nam Goong Ho’s eyes register the people around him.
The innocent servants who knew nothing of martial arts were clearly in pain.
His beloved daughter-in-law Bing Yu Hua was barely holding on, gripping Nam Goong On’s arm with one hand.
“Ah, enough!”
Upon seeing this, Nam Goong Ho immediately withdrew his killing intent.
“Thank you, Father.”
Nam Goong On cleared his throat at his father’s words.
“But how do you intend to find Seol?”
Beneath the urgency in Nam Goong Ho’s voice lay a small glimmer of hope.
After all, his son was second to none when it came to cleverness.
“Surely you’ve devised some stratagem?”
“Yes, I have made preparations.”
As Nam Goong On answered, Bing Yu Hua gasped and covered her mouth with her hand.
“Patriarch, the sachet you gave the child—could it be!”
“Indeed. What I placed inside were petals of the Hundred-League Flower.”
“Oh!”
In that instant, hope kindled among those listening.
The Hundred-League Flower earned its name because its fragrance was said to carry for a hundred leagues.
The Nam Goong Family possessed a secret tracking technique utilizing the flower’s petals—the Hundred-League Pursuit Art.
It was a family secret technique that only wolf-kin with exceptional olfactory senses could master.
“Brilliant!”
Nam Goong Ho’s face brightened considerably. His son was indeed a treasury of wisdom for the Nam Goong Family.
“Well done, well done! Summon Baek, Heuk, and Jeok at once and form a tracking team!”
The Hundred-League Pursuit Art possessed one peculiar characteristic—the younger the practitioner, the better the results.
It was because the instinct to hunt and pursue remained most vibrant in youth.
“Yes. I have already sent word to Baek, Heuk, and Jeok. Though I cannot say whether Baek will actually do it.”
Nam Goong On’s expression darkened slightly as he finished speaking.
“Tsk.”
A sharp clicking of the tongue sounded from above. The source was Nam Goong Ho.
“You, with such a clever mind, yet you understand nothing of your own son’s heart.”
“Pardon?”
“Mark my words. When it concerns Hong Seol, Baek will be the first to rush forward, before Heuk or Jeok.”
“That indifferent Baek? Of course, he has changed somewhat lately, but….”
Nam Goong On’s expression was one of disbelief.
Then a maidservant, her face pale with urgency, came running.
“A terrible matter, Patriarch!”
“Speak without panic. What has happened?”
“Young Master Nam Goong Baek has disappeared over the wall!”
“What!”
Even Nam Goong Ho and Bing Yu Hua gasped in shock.
“Baek?”
“How did this happen?”
“I merely conveyed that the Patriarch had summoned him for the Hundred-League Pursuit Art. He questioned me thoroughly about the details, and the moment he heard that Miss Hong Seol had disappeared, he vaulted over the wall!”
A stunned silence fell over the gathering.
Nam Goong Ho stroked his chin with an embarrassed expression.
“So that rascal Baek actually rushed out…?”
I thought he might do it, but to have acted so immediately.
As Nam Goong Ho’s prediction went awry in the most unexpected way, he closed his mouth, and the hesitant maidservant offered an additional report.
“…And he did so while transformed into a wolf!”
“Ha!”
Nam Goong Ho rested his forehead against his hand.
Nam Goong On, at a loss for words, stood rooted to the spot.
Seizing the moment, Bing Yu Hua quickly questioned the servant.
“Who followed Baek?”
“Two of Wi Sa’s men are pursuing him using the Lightness Technique.”
Boom!
Just then, blue smoke rose in the distance.
The Wi Sa operatives, their bodies made light for speed, had launched a signal flare.
To alert the Nam Goong Family members to the First Young Master’s location.
Nam Goong Ho’s lips curved upward in a crooked smile at the sight.
“Besides, if we’re going to deploy the Hundred-Li Pursuit Formation, there’s no one in our family who can match Baek.”
Starting the pursuit a little early would hardly matter.
Nam Goong Ho rose decisively, brushing off his sleeves.
“Let’s go, Ui Gyeol!”
“Yes!”
Nam Goong Ui Gyeol answered loudly and followed him with the Changcheon Division members.

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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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