Abolition of the Wicked - Chapter 16

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

#016

The day’s host, Master Jang So-myeong, took the stage.
“I am most grateful to all of you for gracing my humble invitation.”
Jang So-myeong’s speech unfolded with all the tedium of a formal occasion.
No one could leave while the host was speaking.
“My words grow tiresome, I’m sure. Shall we hear instead from a lovely young lady’s performance?”
The figure who emerged on stage was Namgung Hye-yeon.
A pipa lay cradled in her arms.
“Remarkable! To hear the celebrated young mistress of the Namgung Clan perform—the journey here was worth every moment!”
“They say Miss Namgung excels in all the arts. My ears are in for a treat tonight!”
A murmur of anticipation rippled through the room until Namgung Hye-yeon settled into her chair, and silence fell.
Ting!
Her slender fingers drew across the strings. After a measured breath, the melody began.
“Magnificent! There’s no denying the refinement of the great houses—everything they touch becomes art.”
“At her age, to play with such skill—truly remarkable.”
Yet to Geom U-bin’s ear, the music fell short.
His standard had been set by Seo Seok-san, a master of the Eumgong, and Namgung Hye-yeon’s playing, though competent, paled in comparison. In truth, she played far beneath his own current level.
Of course, to ordinary listeners it was a respectable performance.
The piece—a melody set to verse from Du Fu—concluded to applause and admiration. Namgung Hye-yeon bowed with satisfaction and descended the stage.
He’d assumed she would mingle with the other guests, but instead her steps led straight toward him.
“Have you been waiting long?”
“Waiting? Not at all.”
“What?”
“I was just seated where the usher told me to sit. I didn’t even know you were coming.”
“You should have guessed. Why else would Seoyang Table have summoned you?”
“That’s what I wondered myself.”
“Did you bring the wine?”
Geom U-bin set four bottles on the table.
“Just a moment.”
Namgung Hye-yeon took the wine and approached Jang So-myeong.
“Uncle. I’ve brought you a gift.”
“Oh? What have we here? Wait—four bottles? Surely you don’t mean…”
“Isn’t Sagi Wine the most renowned spirit of Hangju?”
Jang So-myeong’s eyes widened in surprise.
“This is truly Sagi Wine?”
“Have you tasted it before?”
“Only a sip or two. It’s so rare that even wealth cannot procure it—Sagi Wine is the wine that slips through fingers. But where on earth did you find four bottles?”
“It’s your birthday, Uncle. I couldn’t do less.”
“Hah! I have only two sons, and they’ve never quite filled the silence. But my niece—she mends what was broken in my heart. I am truly grateful!”
Jang So-myeong’s face glowed with satisfaction.
As he turned to converse with his other guests, Namgung Hye-yeon moved to return to Geom U-bin when she was stopped.
“Miss Namgung. It has been too long.”
The man blocking her path, beaming widely, was Dong Chang-min, the young master of the Dongssi Doga.
“Is that so?”
She’d seen him a time or two and remembered his face, though he held no particular interest for her. She’d paid him little mind, but now he approached as though they were intimate friends.
Dong Chang-min, however, harbored different thoughts entirely.
To him, Namgung Hye-yeon was a prize to be claimed at all costs.
Though she was barely eleven, her face promised uncommon beauty in years to come, and more importantly, she was the daughter of the Namgung Clan.
What Dong Chang-min coveted was not merely Namgung Hye-yeon herself, but the prestige that came with her.
Even if the Dongssi Doga had recently entered the Murim Alliance through a Blood Oath, a vast gap still yawned between them and the Five Great Clans.
Dong Chang-min already understood that this disparity stemmed from far more than mere martial strength.
It was the power of time and tradition.
There was only one way to overcome it swiftly.
He had learned from his family that the answer lay in mingling blood. Even in Zhejiang Province, the Dongssi Doga wielded considerable martial might, yet in influence they could not match even this humble Seoyang Table—and he knew exactly why.
A marriage with Namgung Hye-yeon would bridge that chasm in a single stroke, or so Dong Chang-min believed.
If only she could be mine…….
‘Then our Dongssi Doga would truly claim a seat alongside the Five Great Clans.’
Of course, his own position would likewise become unshakeable.
“I understand you don’t visit Hangju very often.”
“No, actually I come quite regularly.”
“Ah, is that so? Still, they say Hangju’s nights are truly beautiful—’Above is paradise, below is Hangju,’ as the saying goes. You must have seen the evening lights…….”
“Yes. I have.”
“Ah, you have.”
“Was there something else you wished to say?”
Like facing an iron wall.
‘Tch! Infuriating. Once you’re mine, I’ll show you…….’
Before Dong Chang-min’s thought could finish, Namgung Hye-yeon offered a meaningless farewell and scurried away.
Where her steps halted, Dong Chang-min spotted a familiar face.
‘Geom U-bin? What’s that lowborn wine merchant doing here?’
Seoyang Table was no place for Geom U-bin.
And yet Namgung Hye-yeon sat before him, laughing brightly as they spoke.
By Dong Chang-min’s recollection, that woman rarely smiled so openly in front of others.
‘Why Namgung Hye-yeon? Why is she friendly with Geom U-bin?’
The two of them had almost nothing in common.
Even if circumstances had brought them together, Geom U-bin held no station worthy of Namgung Hye-yeon’s interest. Yet there she was, giggling and chatting with him.
What could possibly be so amusing?
‘Geom U-bin!’
A mixture of curiosity and fury flooded his chest.
‘I won’t let you off so easily!’
Unaware of Dong Chang-min’s seething rage, Geom U-bin left when the gathering was in full swing.
“Why are you leaving so soon? Stay a bit longer.”
Namgung Hye-yeon, unable to hide her disappointment, tried to hold him back, but her plea fell on deaf ears.
“It’s getting late. Uncle and Aunt will worry. I have other things to do, anyway.”
“That can’t be helped. Oh right! I’m having lunch tomorrow at the Cheonha Jeil Gaekjan.”
“Why? There are far more famous places downtown.”
“The food there is good. You can come if you’d like.”
“We’ll see.”
‘We’ll see?’
Namgung Hye-yeon shot a glare at Geom U-bin’s retreating back.
Countless young talents from the Murim—even some as old as seventeen—came bearing gifts and honeyed words, trying to win her favor.
Just today, Dong Chang-min had approached her with shameless directness.
To Namgung Hye-yeon, accustomed to such attention, Geom U-bin’s distant manner was unfamiliar.
‘Why do I keep taking an interest in someone like him?’
It was likely the intensity of that first impression.
The aura that boy had unleashed, despite possessing no martial arts, was vivid enough to raise the hair on her skin.
‘If he acts cold again tomorrow, I won’t meet him again. But will he even come?’

***

“What? The Namgung Clan’s daughter is flirting with our senior?”
“That’s what they’re saying. How does that little girl already know how to look at men like that?”
When Geom U-bin mentioned he was going to Seoyang Table to deliver wine, Yeon Geum-hong followed him just in case.
Though the place was crowded, she moved through the throng like a whisper, able to catch every word between Geom U-bin and Namgung Hye-yeon.
“Hehehehe! Just as I’d expect from our senior. Winning a woman’s heart at eight years old? Two years faster than me.”
Yeon Geum-hong sighed at Seo Seok-san’s words.
“Don’t let him end up like you.”
“What’s wrong with being like me?”
Yeon Geum-hong promptly plucked a strand of hair from the table.
“Oh dear! Whose hair fell out again? Is there some beast molting in this house?”
“Hey! Yeon Geum-hong! You really……!”
Seo Seok-san’s trembling fists soon fell still as he suppressed his anger with a sigh. It happened every time, and if he got angry over each incident, he’d never die a natural death.
“I’ll take today’s training with our senior.”
Do Pyeong-su spoke up.
“It’s my turn today.”
“Concede it to me. There’s a right time for everything in learning. Today our senior needs to learn something from me.”
“What are you planning to teach him?”
“The foundation to become the greatest musician under heaven. Hehehehe…….”
Yeon Geum-hong let out a sharp cry.
“We don’t want him to be some mere greatest musician! We want him to surpass you — the finest of all ages! Have you forgotten that’s our goal, to raise him that way?”
“Why not have both?”
Do Pyeong-su agreed with Seo Seok-san’s words.
“There’s nothing wrong with being popular.”
“Goodness! Spending ninety years of my life with these beasts! All these wrinkles around my eyes are because of you lot!”
“True. Your wrinkles are all crinkled up. Like you’re a hundred years old.”
Yeon Geum-hong picked up the teapot to hurl it at Do Pyeong-su when Geom U-bin’s voice rang out.
“Disciples! I’m here!”
Do Pyeong-su greeted Geom U-bin with the most enthusiasm.
“Master! You’re a bit late.”
“Yes, that’s how it turned out. I bought some fruit for you disciples.”
“Oh my! The apples are plump and red — they look delicious.”
Geom U-bin distributed an apple to each of the disciples, but all eyes fixed on Do Pyeong-su’s apple.
At first glance, his was clearly the largest and had the best color.
Seo Seok-san grumbled.
“Master, aren’t you favoring Pyeong-su a bit too much?”
“What? Oh, it just happened that way. Besides, Do has earned the right to eat the biggest and best, hasn’t he?”
“Master, if you favor me too much like this, it won’t be good for educating these younger disciples. Hahahaha!”
Do Pyeong-su laughed with delight.
The saying went that a sister’s warning felt worse than her scolding — and this was exactly that picture. The three of them locked eyes simultaneously and thought the same thing.
‘We should flatten that bastard’s nose!’

***

The river, bathed in moonlight, flowed like gold, and the silver grass along the riverbank swayed in time to the wind’s song.
Seo Seok-san, who had come out with Geom U-bin, settled himself on the grassy bank.
“I fear I’ve been too focused on technique lately, and neglected to teach you about the true nature of music.”
“The true nature of music?”
“Close your eyes and listen carefully.”
Geom U-bin closed his eyes as instructed.
“What do you hear?”
“The sound of flowing water, the wind, the rustle of grass…….”
“Isn’t it beautiful?”
“Yes. But I like your pipa music better.”
“Your kindness is appreciated, but as you deepen your understanding of the Realm of Sound, you’ll come to realize that my pipa playing cannot match even the whisper of wind brushing a single blade of grass. Music, in the end, is merely a journey of following nature’s voice. No matter how brilliant a musician’s performance, it will never surpass the sound of a stream flowing around a stone.”
Of course, Seo Seok-san’s true musical journey was nothing like what he told Geom U-bin.
―Our music, ultimately, is a journey to remove a woman’s skirts.
That was the truth, but he could not say such a thing to the young Geom U-bin.
“Now that you’ve heard nature’s voice, shall we try playing with a natural instrument?”
“There are instruments in nature?”
“With just what surrounds you now, I can make six different instruments. Stones can be struck to produce sound, and soil can be rubbed to create beauty. But the finest of all is this.”
A blade of grass, about a hand’s width long, was held up.
“I’ve heard grass whistle before.”
“It’s so common that anyone can blow through it, but few can actually produce a proper tone.”
Seo Seok-san placed the grass blade between his lips and began to play.
A clear, pure note pierced through the night air, ringing out gently. By nature, a grass whistle’s sound should be sharp and shrill, yet Seo Seok-san’s playing held no jagged edges whatsoever.
It was as soft as this night embracing the trees, as gentle as wind cradling a boy’s shoulders.
‘Seok-san must be a warm-hearted person by nature.’
Geom U-bin had no idea that Seo Seok-san’s lips had cracked and bled twenty-two times to produce this sound.
The fierce determination to strip away the skirts of the woman who had captured his heart sustained him through a hundred and fifty days of agony — eating only rice porridge while his lips healed.
Only after Seo Seok-san’s performance ended did Geom U-bin realize he had been holding his breath.
“It’s just a grass whistle, yet you can make such a sound! That’s amazing!”
“With a little effort, you could play even better than I do. Shall we begin learning now?”
Producing sound was not difficult.
But turning sound into actual music was another matter entirely.
By the time thirty grass blades had accumulated at Geom U-bin’s feet, a tone finally emerged that was worth listening to.
Even so, Seo Seok-san said it was insufficient and continued to press him.
When the grass pipe notes had surpassed fifty and Geom U-bin’s lips were about to give way, Seo Seok-san spoke.
“That much will do. I can at least appreciate the effort.”
I’d never known a grass pipe could leave someone breathing so hard.
“Your training today was unusually demanding, Master Seo.”
Usually it was almost lax by comparison.
The moment Geom U-bin showed the slightest sign of strain, Seo Seok-san would halt the lesson.
―Sound isn’t a technique—it’s something the heart understands. Enlightenment might come to you sudden as a dream, so rest well today.
Those were the words I heard most often from him, yet today he drove me forward until a proper rendition finally emerged.
“Tomorrow you’re to meet the Namgung Clan’s daughter. You’ll need to use this at once, won’t you?”
“What? How did you know I’m meeting Namgung Hye-yeon?”
“Ah!”
He possessed the power to turn a river’s flow backward, yet he lacked the power to gather back words once spoken.

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