Martial God of the Sun and Moon - Chapter 457

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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 457
“Sigh….”
Namgung Hun exhaled a long, weary breath.
The notorious visage of the Parrakho was nowhere to be found in him anymore.
“Why do you meddle so deeply in the affairs of others? To be frank, it doesn’t seem like something you should be involved in.”
“Is it so strange for a commander to concern himself with the matters of his valued subordinates?”
“It is strange. Most people don’t go to such lengths. That’s what people call being overly meddlesome.”
Dokgo Myeong chuckled softly.
“What does it matter what others do? I wish to do this. I may be ignorant of many things, but when it comes to meddling, I am unparalleled under heaven.”
Namgung Hun asked with an expression still grave.
“How much do you know of the Namgung family’s history?”
“I know even the inner details. Didn’t I say so? I am unparalleled under heaven when it comes to meddling.”
Namgung Hun let out a laugh—whether scornful or hollow, it was hard to tell.
“You truly are a peculiar one. In an age like this….”
He thought to himself: How fortunate it would have been if such a person had existed in the past.
The Namgung family was a house of righteous warriors. During the Heretical Sect Uprising, they rallied the Six Great Families and stood at the vanguard, resulting in the tragic severing of their family’s martial lineage and the decline of their fortunes.
Perhaps the ancestors believed the realm would never forget their sacrifice.
But the martial world turned away from them. When the remnants of the heretical sect sought revenge and brought annihilation upon the family, their allied martial clans fell silent and abandoned them.
“Still, when I was young, though the family had fallen, the bloodline endured.”
“I’ve heard. That was precisely the problem.”
“With the main branch weakened, jackals like them became desperate to tear off a piece of flesh. They thought the main branch must be hiding something.”
Deep resentment gleamed in Namgung Hun’s eyes.
Dokgo Myeong asked.
“You speak of the Mogyeong family?”
“The Mogyeong were merely those who revealed themselves.”
“There were others, then.”
“Very many. Your own family was among them.”
“….”
This is infuriating. Why does every layer of this family’s history reveal nothing but nightmares?
“My memory is hazy, but I was kidnapped once when I was young.”
“Kidnapped, you say?”
“It seems villains were after the Namgung family’s secret techniques or elixirs. It mattered not that such things didn’t exist. They threatened my father, demanding he surrender something in exchange for my return.”
“What did he do?”
“I vaguely remember that those I thought were mere beggars from the neighborhood helped us. It was likely Gaebangdo.”
Now that he thought of it, Bang Jong-san had once told him a story about helping the descendants of the Namgung family.
“Around that time, all our distant and near relatives cut off contact and scattered in all directions. Many changed their surnames and names, and I was one of them. Back then, we all resented the main branch. We thought them selfish—why did they allow the family to fall into such ruin….”
“Do you still think that way?”
“Think what?”
“Do you still hate your ancestors?”
Namgung Hun smiled bitterly.
“Isn’t that only natural?”
Natural, he says. Well.
A truly resentful person wouldn’t wear such an expression.
He understood his ancestors. Perhaps he even respected them. But right now, because I’m struggling, he’s merely pouting in protest.
“I had to eat and survive, so I endured my share of hardship. Woodcutter, innkeeper, servant, odd jobs… and around fifteen, I heard there was money to be made, so I started working at a transport station.”
Transport station workers handled various chores and carried cargo—work so grueling that no fifteen-year-old should have been doing it.
“I worked diligently. I’d picked up some martial arts, half-baked though it was, so my body grew strong. The station master’s eyes fell upon me before long.”
“That’s when you began building your enterprise?”
Namgung Hun threw a mouthful of wine down his throat and let out an exclamation of satisfaction.
“Fortunately, I seemed to have a talent for commerce. I started my business with the money I’d saved. I worked like a madman.”
“…”
“Back in those days, there was nothing I hadn’t done. Dirty work or clean work—I did whatever came my way. I didn’t care if others saw me shedding tears of blood.”
Namgung Hun slowly closed his eyes. Those days came rushing back as vividly as if they were yesterday.
They had been fierce and terrible times. Yet looking back, they were also longed-for and brilliant days.
“I’ve been telling foul-smelling old stories. Young people like you probably don’t want to hear such things.”
“I don’t dislike it. Rather, I’m impressed. You must have suffered greatly.”
“…”
Namgung Hun trembled slightly, never expecting to receive such consolation.
But he replied gruffly anyway.
“Even if it’s mere flattery, I’m grateful. But it’s all ancient history anyway. After that, I squandered money recklessly and lived like a wastrel.”
“Your reputation in that city was quite notorious.”
“The greatest wastrel of Hefei—one who accumulated money like a dog and spent it like a dog, a man mad with wealth. That was me, Gwan Wi-hun.”
Namgung Hun spoke as if joking, asking if it wasn’t amusing, but Dokgo Myeong didn’t laugh and opened his mouth.
“I think I’m beginning to understand you now.”
“What?”
“Why you played the role of a wastrel. I think I understand now.”
“…!”
Namgung Hun’s eyes widened.
Dokgo Myeong chuckled softly and continued.
“At first, you truly wanted to forget your clan and all such things. But there was an emptiness, a hollowness in one corner of your heart. And then, by chance, you encountered something connected to your clan.”
“…”
“At first it was just ‘this one time.’ But that one time became two, and two became ten. Am I right?”
Namgung Hun seemed at a loss for words, his eyes merely blinking.
He hesitated before speaking slowly.
“…One day, while traveling on business, I encountered a distant relative from my family home. The guilt I’d forgotten came flooding back. That’s where it began.”
Perhaps it was shame over those past days when I never looked back.
Or perhaps it was hypocrisy for having turned away from it all.
“Whether by heaven’s jest or not, after I helped that relative, news about my clan strangely kept reaching my ears.”
“It was simply that your heart had turned toward it, so only then did you begin to hear.”
“Is that what they call—the hardest part is beginning?”
Dokgo Myeong nodded slowly.
Things I would have let pass before now caught in the filter of my mind.
“To gather the remnants of a scattered clan and care for bloodkin across the land, you’d need considerable funds. But money leaves traces—perhaps more than anything else.”
“…”
“If there was any risk of suspicion, you’d have disguised the funds through a front operation. Isn’t that right?”
Namgung Hun stared at Dokgo Myeong with bewildered eyes.
I hadn’t even hinted at such things, yet somehow he’d seen through everything.
“Truly worthy of your reputation. Have you mastered mind-reading?”
“Just intuition.”
Dokgo Myeong chuckled softly.
“We’re similar in some ways.”
Dokgo Myeong seemed to understand Namgung Hun’s thoughts perfectly.
It wasn’t some lofty or self-sacrificing sentiment.
The world had only tormented him, yet it was still the world he had to live in—he couldn’t abandon it. He simply built towers of hope day after day, thinking “someday it will get better.” Perhaps that was what life truly was.
“Why did you incur such debts?”
“Because I’m a man without sense of proportion. At first, I only meant to do what I could afford…”
Namgung Hun continued with a self-deprecating laugh.
“But every time, things would appear that felt too important to miss. With no money on hand, I borrowed to acquire them.”
“If it were me, I’d have bragged about it to Sohwa with great pride. Why did you act so miserably?”
“Listen here.”
Namgung Hun’s eyes held the resolve of a man who had already made his decision.
“How could someone like me exist in the newly reborn Namgung clan?”
“…”
“Though there were reasons, I’ve stained these hands with filth while earning money. And after that? Someone like me would only be an obstacle to the clan’s restoration.”
“Then why didn’t you search for Sohwa?”
“I heard news of her. If she’s grown so well, I thought she’d find me eventually. If worst came to worst, I considered sending word through contacts… but beggars were searching for me first.”
The wine had run out at that moment.
Namgung Hun offered his half-filled cup. Dokgo Myeong filled his last cup to the brim, and the two toasted in silence.
Dokgo Myeong drained his cup in one gulp and set it down with a sharp clink.
“May I offer one observation?”
“By all means.”
“That’s pathetically sordid—I can’t stomach it.”
What?
What did he say? Sordid?
Thunk!
Dokgo Myeong’s posture suddenly became slovenly.
One leg propped up with an arm draped over it, his brow furrowed sharply as he clicked his tongue—like…
‘Some street thug spitting in an alley.’
The moment Namgung Hun flinched, Dokgo Myeong shot at him with a crooked voice.
“Until just now, I thought the Namgung bloodline was quite impressive, but what’s with this villainous act? Aren’t you embarrassed at your age? Ugh, I’ve suffered holding back.”
“….”
“Is it your family’s nature to be unnecessarily solemn and serious about everything? Good is good, really.”
“Ah, now wait just a moment!”
“Isn’t it?”
What? What are you looking at while saying that?
“What do you think?”
The moment I turned my head to follow Dokgo Myeong’s gaze.
“Gasp!”
Namgung Hun jolted backward in surprise, leaping to his feet.
Beyond the fence hastily woven from branches stood a woman with a grave expression, perfectly still.
‘A, a ghost?!’
No, it wasn’t a ghost.
It was a familiar face. Namgung Sohwa herself.
* * *
Namgung Sohwa answered calmly.
“Exactly. I think so too.”
“See?”
Namgung Hun glared at Dokgo Myeong and cried out.
“You, you! So this was your plan…! You deceived me!”
Dokgo Myeong shrugged.
“She came here of her own accord and eavesdropped. Why are you blaming me?”
“What, what….”
Didn’t she storm off because she’d lost her temper? So why has she returned?
Dokgo Myeong grinned wickedly at the bewildered Namgung Hun.
“My captain is not as easy to deal with as you might think.”
Namgung Sohwa strode forward to the platform.
She then dropped something before the hesitantly standing Namgung Hun with a thud—a thick stack of papers densely covered in writing.
“These are documents tracking the flow of funds that Uncle borrowed under various aliases. I was delayed investigating these.”
“Investigated what?”
“The person who purchased the old family estate—that would be you, Uncle?”
“…!”
Thunk!
Several more documents were added to the pile.
“In years of poor harvests, you purchased grain and sent it to various regions. The grain would disappear bit by bit as it passed through certain areas. Common knowledge says bandits robbed it during transport, but… in reality, it arrived at its destination intact.”
Thud!
A thick bundle of documents was placed on top once more.
“This is a partial list of goods purchased from black markets across various regions. You bought quite a lot of useless things, actually. Yet you never purchased a single rare luxury item.”
Thunk!
Namgung Sohwa continued stacking documents on the platform one after another.
Her piercing blue eyes fixed upon Namgung Hun with unwavering intensity.
“I see with my own eyes and judge by my own standards. Even if that person tries to deceive me. That is….”
Namgung Sohwa glanced sideways at Dokgo Myeong before continuing.
“What I learned from the Cheonma Sect, and how I choose to live.”
“What in the world is this….”
“Please don’t say anything more unnecessary.”
Namgung Sohwa spoke with finality.
“The main house was betrayed in their faith in sacrifice and suffered annihilation. Are you asking me to do the same thing they did, Uncle?”
Namgung Hun drew in a sharp breath.
He cried out, visibly flustered.
“N-no, that can’t be! Why would you think such a thing!”
“Or was it because you feared the reconstructed main house would be tainted by your past?”
“Yes, that’s it. Since things have come to this, I’ll say it plainly—I only needed you to understand….”
“I don’t like that.”
Namgung Sohwa cut off Namgung Hun’s words sharply, her eyes blazing.
“You must become a great contributor to the main house. Even if you refuse, I will make it so. So that dedication receives its reward, and future generations of the Namgung can take pride in it.”
“…!”
“I will teach them. That the main house could stand tall again thanks to a certain man who dirtied his hands over all these long years. That this must never be forgotten.”
“I, I never intended to do something so grand….”
“I do.”
Namgung Sohwa spoke with absolute conviction.
“That’s what I believe.”
Namgung Hun’s eyes trembled.
“I….”
Something welled up in his throat, choking him.
Words would not come.
It felt as though all his past years were being compensated for.
She was acknowledging the long austerity that no one had ever recognized, that he himself had thought he continued only through guilt and obligation.
“The Namgung clan I will build will not be shaken by the eyes of others. The pointing fingers of the world? Let them try. Such things cannot shake the foundation of the main house.”
Namgung Sohwa’s gaze was unwavering, upright, and resolute.
Namgung Hun opened his mouth with a voice thick with emotion.
“…Thank you.”
“Those are words I should say.”
A warm atmosphere settled between them.
Until a sudden sound of applause erupted from the corner, followed by an exclamation.
Clap clap clap!
“Ah, how touching.”
“….”
“….”
Namgung Sohwa and Namgung Hun’s heads slowly turned toward Dokgo Myeong.
“Hm? Don’t mind me—please, continue with what you were doing.”
Would you do it if you were me?
“That was truly touching and wonderful. Separated families reuniting in such emotion—wouldn’t you embrace each other?”
Did she have some terminal illness that would kill her if she didn’t ruin the mood?
Namgung Sohwa ground her teeth together in frustration.

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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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