My Father Is the Number One Under Heaven - Chapter 20

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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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Episode 20. What is this? This small, cute little creature?
“Everyone, watch your tongues so that careless words don’t slip out. Stay at your posts and don’t abandon your stations. Today, especially, no one is to cause any trouble. If you value your health.”
“Yes!”
The Haebok Peng Clan was now facing what could only be called an emergency.
What in the world had happened at the Haebok Peng Clan, one of the Five Great Clans of the Realm?
“Good heavens, what’s all this commotion?”
The swordsman who served as gatekeeper of the Haebok Peng Clan had just arrived to take over his watch.
Then his colleague, who had been standing there before him, opened his mouth.
“Heh heh. You haven’t heard the news?”
“What news?”
“They say Peng Seo-yeon has returned.”
“Huh? Who?”
The man tilted his head in confusion.
His colleague clicked his tongue and added an explanation.
“Peng Seo-yeon. The Clan Leader’s daughter.”
“What? That Peng Seo-yeon?”
“That’s the one.”
In an instant, the man recalled the beautiful young woman who had always been spirited and lively.
He let out an incredulous laugh.
“She left the clan because she fell for some scholar or other, and now she’s suddenly come back? How does she have the nerve? And knowing the Clan Leader’s temperament too.”
“Hush, keep your voice down. What if someone hears?”
His colleague jumped at the unexpectedly loud volume and glanced around nervously.
Getting caught talking like this would invite nothing but trouble.
And if they were unlucky, they might have to go hungry for quite some time.
The Peng Clan here treated ordinary swordsmen fairly generously.
But there was one thing they were extremely strict about.
Speaking carelessly about the Clan Leader and his immediate family.
So whether sharing facts or anything else, one had to be extremely cautious.
Phew.
Fortunately, there seemed to be no one nearby.
Only then did his colleague speak in a low voice.
“Anyway, that’s why everyone’s been keeping their heads down and holding their breath, watching the Clan Leader’s mood. You know how sensitive he is about Peng Seo-yeon, don’t you?”
“Of course I know. Who in this clan doesn’t? It’s practically the Clan Leader’s only weakness, isn’t it?”
“Exactly. Hoo boy. I was planning to go grab a drink after work today, but that’s all ruined now. Ugh.”
“On a day like this, one careless move and all hell breaks loose. Mind yourself, mind yourself. I’d like to see you around for a long time, after all.”
Soon the clan elders passed by, and the gatekeepers quickly fell silent.
Quiet soon settled again.
‘Ah, so that’s what this is all about.’
The gatekeeper nodded as if everything now made sense.
‘What on earth is going to happen?’
His gaze turned toward the building where the Reception Hall stood.
With that Clan Leader’s fiery temper, he couldn’t help but imagine his angry face, and his whole body trembled.
He was already terrifying enough as it was… he certainly didn’t want to see him like that even in a dream.
He felt that today, more than any other day, he absolutely had to be careful.
For some reason, he was already feeling exhausted.
***
“…Father.”
The warm atmosphere that had filled the room moments before vanished, replaced by a suffocating heaviness.
It came from the oppressive presence of Peng Mu-gang, the Clan Leader who had just entered the room.
From his appearance to his aura, he reminded one of a legendary tiger from legend itself.
The Clan Leader’s gaze fixed on his daughter, Peng Seo-yeon.
She was the daughter who had kicked the Haebok Peng Clan away with her own feet long ago.
Much time had passed, but her face had not changed greatly from then.
Yet looking closely, Peng Seo-yeon’s face and hands were rough and chapped in places.
Small wonder.
How could one compare this to her days in the Peng Clan, bathed in love and affection?
And the fine silk robes she had once loved to wear had now been replaced by clothes that village women might wear.
Tsk, tsk.
As Peng Mu-gang’s eyes scanned his daughter up and down, his frown deepened further.
The more he thought about it, the more his anger rose.
Once, she had been the beautiful daughter whom everyone regarded as exceptionally brilliant.
There was even a time when she was called one of the Four Peaks, counted among the finest talents in all the Martial World.
That such a daughter would make a choice so utterly foolish and shortsighted — and that she now found herself in this predicament because of it — filled Peng Mu-gang with an anger he could scarcely contain.
His eyes had grown colder, sharper, and now he spoke.
“You’re quite a sight to see.”
Those first words from Peng Mu-gang froze Peng Seo-yeon in place.
She had harbored no expectation of warmth. And yet……
“Father.”
“You keep silent.”
“Yes.”
At Peng Mu-gang’s command, Peng Seo-jin reluctantly stepped back.
He understood that interference now would only feed the flame of his father’s rage.
So he had no choice but to stand by, his own face etched with discomfort, and watch.
Peng Mu-gang clicked his tongue and continued.
“Pathetic. You cast aside everything you enjoyed without lack or want, left on a whim as you pleased — and all for this? This is how you’ve lived?”
It seemed to Peng Mu-gang that he would never understand his daughter, not then, not now, not ever.
“And now you return without shame? Looking like that?”
“What do you mean, the way I look?”
“What?”
“I asked what you meant by how I look.”
Peng Seo-yeon had lifted her head and was now looking directly at her father.
He still frightened her.
But his words seemed to deny everything she had cherished and protected all these years, and Peng Seo-yeon could no longer remain silent.
So she stepped forward.
The woman who had trembled with fear before meeting Peng Mu-gang was gone.
Though she stood here in the humble garb of a commoner, she was Peng Seo-yeon — once counted among the Six Dragons Four Peaks, and the daughter who had been thought to resemble her father more than anyone.
“I left this place and began everything anew somewhere where no one knew me. There were moments that were difficult and painful, I’ll admit that. But I was truly happy in every moment of it. For the first time, I felt as though I was living my own life — not the life someone else demanded of me.”
“Seo-yeon.”
The air in the room had grown heavy with menace.
Dan Hee-young watched her daughter confront her father and called out to her anxiously.
“And yet Father judges that entire life of mine by nothing more than the clothes I wear and how I appear now?”
“How dare you suggest you’ve done something right!”
“Husband.”
Dan Hee-young turned to her husband this time, trying to stop him.
But it was no use.
“Do you know how many people have laughed at our Haebok Peng Clan because of you? Do you comprehend how many have suffered because of your pathetic, foolish play at love?”
Sharp words began to spill from Peng Mu-gang’s lips, each one a dagger to Peng Seo-yeon’s heart.
“So let me ask you plainly. You shamed our family name and left so boldly — why have you returned now? What audacity, what nerve!”
“Husband, please stop. You’re far too agitated right now.”
“You stay out of this! Now speak. Tell me why you’ve come back. Is it for money? Is that it? Then I’ll give it to you. But once you take it, you’ll never show your face before me again—”
It was at that moment the situation was about to spiral into something irredeemable.
“HUSBAND!”
A voice so loud the air itself seemed to ring.
Peng Mu-gang, in the midst of pouring out everything he felt without restraint, suddenly started at the sight of his wife.
“Wh—why do you do that?”
Peng Mu-gang’s face showed no small measure of shock.
Dan Hee-young, who always wore a gentle smile, now glared at him with blazing eyes.
“Husband! Why are you saying such harsh things to her when you don’t mean a word of it?”
“Who says I don’t mean—”
“Enough!”
Dan Hee-young struck her husband Peng Mu-gang’s thick forearm with a sharp slap.
“Are you going to stop or not?”
“Well, even so—”
A hissing sound.
……
“Listen, I’m going to tell you the truth, all right? When Yeon disappeared, you didn’t sleep properly for half a year. You’d wander into her room and just stand there staring blankly, tears running down your face—”
“Ahem! Ahhh-hmph!”
Peng Mu-gang’s face turned crimson and he let out an exaggerated cough.
“What are you talking about? When did I ever do such a thing? You must have imagined it, yes, that’s all!”
“Imagined it, my foot!”
“Ha, ha. Now, you two really must stop.”
Unable to bear it any longer, Crown Prince Peng Seo-jin stepped forward with an awkward expression to mediate.
Muttering softly, “Because it’s embarrassing.”
That was the truth.
A fact known to all who belonged to the Haebok Peng Clan. An open secret.
It was this: the absolute ruler of Haebok, the crouching tiger of Haebok, possessed a dignity beyond measure — and yet he was utterly devoted to his wife.
As a martial master, he possessed an icy clarity and an overwhelming pressure that few could withstand. But before Dan Hee-young, he became a gentle lamb.
In the end, Peng Mu-gang, thus scolded by his wife, ceased his barrage of words and closed his mouth firmly.
Yet it was not as though the tension that had escalated to its peak would simply dissipate at once.
Neither Peng Mu-gang nor Peng Seo-yeon spoke again.
An awkward silence settled over them.
Unable to watch any longer, Dan Hee-young took the initiative once more.
“Husband, don’t be like that. Why don’t you hold your granddaughter?”
“…Eh? What do you mean? A granddaughter?”
Peng Mu-gang regarded his wife with a puzzled expression.
Then,
“Yul-i! Grandfather’s here. Grandfather.”
Peng Seo-jin swiftly lifted Yul-i and held her directly before Peng Mu-gang’s eyes.
Yul-i tilted her head curiously, her gaze fixed on the great patriarch’s enormous face with evident wonder.
“Huh? Grandfather?”
Thump.
In that instant, Peng Mu-gang’s eyes widened immensely.
He stared at Yul-i with an expression of pure bewilderment.
And he thought to himself:
‘What is this? This small, adorable little being?’
Peng Mu-gang of Haebok — the master of the realm, the fierce and towering force whose presence commanded like that of a great tiger made flesh.
In that moment, he became utterly, hopelessly besotted.

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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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