My Father Is the Number One Under Heaven - Chapter 46

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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 46. A Wife’s Promise
A few promises, she said.
Paeng Seo-yeon held up two fingers toward Yeo Un-hwi, who tilted his head in confusion.
“Just two things—only two—I want you to promise me.”
“Tell me what they are.”
“First, you must stay as far back as possible from any dangerous mission. Ideally, you shouldn’t accept one at all, but if you absolutely must, you have to do exactly as I say.”
“But it’s not always possible to—”
She made a soft hissing sound.
Paeng Seo-yeon’s brow furrowed sharply.
Though it scarcely made her look fierce—to Yeo Un-hwi’s eyes, she merely looked endearing.
A smile tugged unbidden at his lips, and he struggled to suppress it, though he tried desperately to pull his mouth back down.
The moment hardly called for levity.
Paeng Seo-yeon forged ahead, her expression set in what she clearly meant to be an intimidating scowl.
Yul-i had already begun mimicking her mother’s expression, and Yeo Un-hwi found it nearly impossible to keep from smiling.
“I’m not saying you should throw yourself into harm’s way, but you know nothing of martial arts—you’ll only be a hindrance standing in front. For the sake of the other warriors, this is better.”
She spoke faster than usual, pushing forward.
“Instead, you should concentrate on making the best decisions for the Baekrang Unit during that time. That would be far more helpful.”
It was sound reasoning—if Yeo Un-hwi truly knew nothing of martial arts.
Paeng Seo-yeon had clearly made up her mind about this.
“The other members don’t say it outright, but they’d all want the same thing. So promise me. Promise you’ll do exactly this.”
“Promise! I promise!”
Paeng Seo-yeon had pressed her face close to his, her large eyes gleaming as she pressed her point—or rather, demanded his agreement.
Beside her, Yul-i was parroting her mother’s words.
A soft sound escaped him.
Yeo Un-hwi was helpless against his wife when she set her jaw like this.
“Haha. Well, well. Very good.”
“Good. And the second thing is quite easy.”
As Paeng Seo-yeon continued, Yeo Un-hwi’s expression grew wry.
What could this second request possibly be?
***
At that same moment.
“I see. Haha.”
“You find it amusing?”
In a neatly appointed room.
A man with sharp, clean features let out a light laugh.
Paeng Gyeong-ho’s face darkened at the sight.
He spoke with evident frustration.
“You don’t take offense to it?”
The man smiled broadly in response.
“What do you mean, sir?”
“The Baekrang Unit rejected you outright, in front of everyone. Did they not?”
This handsome man was none other than Paeng Gyeong-ho’s son, Paeng Do-hwan.
He answered his father’s words with apparent unconcern.
“Well, it was inevitable, wasn’t it?”
“What do you mean by that?”
“Consider it, sir. The Baekrang Unit returned with an unexpected triumph and received commendation. To make such a proposal before everyone at that moment was premature. Moreover, if they had accepted your suggestion, would the Clan Head truly have approved? Of course not.”
Paeng Do-hwan continued with unruffled composure.
“And Lady Seo-yeon would certainly have been deeply offended, thinking her husband had been insulted.”
“Mm.”
“In any case, that was not the opportune moment to raise such a matter. They had just established merit and their probation was lifted—the Baekrang Unit would hardly wish to fall into disfavor with the Clan Head and the lady.”
“Hmm, now that I hear you say it, you’re right. My thinking was indeed shortsighted.”
Though not possessed of deep cunning, Paeng Gyeong-ho was ordinarily quick to read situations.
This time, however, he had allowed sudden ambition and haste to cloud his judgment.
As he listened calmly to his son’s words, he recognized once again how foolishly he had acted.
Seeing his father’s expression of self-reproach, Paeng Do-hwan smiled slightly.
“Of course I understand that everything you do is for my sake, Father. But now that I think on it, there is something that strikes me as curious.”
It concerned the Baekrang Unit.
Not only had they rejected his proposal, but they had gone so far as to declare their intention to continue serving their current Unit Leader indefinitely.
Why go to such lengths? Something felt off.
He knew the Baekrang Unit better than anyone.
Paeng Gyeong-ho nodded at his son’s words.
“Now that I think about it, there was something different about the atmosphere today. How do I put it… a sense of everything being centered, you know? As if there’s a core holding it all together.”
“It seems something must have happened.”
But what could it be?
Surely not because of that scholar who was practically a scarecrow.
“So what are we to do? Are we really going to keep letting that fool who doesn’t even know martial arts stay on as Unit Leader of the Baekrang Unit just because he’s the son-in-law?”
Paeng Gyeong-ho stared at his son with exasperation.
“It’s not as though it’ll happen soon—waiting for the Crown Prince to become Clan Head and the Baekho Unit leadership to open up. And as for the Baekmu Unit, Elder Gu is still in fine health.”
“And Father, you were the one who rejected the Clan Head’s proposal for the Baekrang Unit position long ago.”
“That was when I still thought of the Baekrang Unit as nothing but a pack of brutes with strong muscles.”
In truth, much of the blame for this tangled situation lay with Paeng Gyeong-ho himself.
Years ago, when the Clan Head had made an unprecedented offer of the Baekrang Unit leadership to Paeng Do-hwan, Paeng Gyeong-ho had stepped in and adamantly opposed it.
So much so that even Clan Head Paeng Mu-gang had felt embarrassed.
With his father so firmly against it, the proposal had been quietly dropped, and afterward the Clan Head never brought it up again.
Paeng Do-hwan, too, had accepted his stubborn father’s wishes without complaint after a few arguments.
But now, for Paeng Gyeong-ho to bring the matter up first was undeniably shameless and absurd.
That was why originally he’d planned to wait quietly—whether for Crown Prince Paeng Seo-jin to become Clan Head or for Elder Gu to retire—however long it took.
But when the Baekrang Unit, that pack of fools, unexpectedly earned accolades and drew the attention of the entire Murim, Paeng Gyeong-ho’s thoughts had changed in an instant.
So he’d pushed ahead, and now they were in this predicament.
Paeng Do-hwan’s thoughts had grown complicated as well.
As a martial artist of the Paeng Clan, becoming the Unit Leader of one of the three great martial forces that represent the clan was a tremendous honor.
Of course, Paeng Do-hwan coveted the position too.
Especially the Baekrang Unit leadership.
The Baekrang Unit held a special place in his heart.
Both now and in the past.
He had simply been unable to pursue it because of his father’s opposition.
Had that opposition not existed, the Baekrang Unit leadership would have been his long ago.
Though his father’s change of heart was transparently self-serving, regardless of his reasons, Paeng Do-hwan found himself wanting the Baekrang Unit leadership now that his father was no longer blocking him.
Of course, even Paeng Do-hwan had been shocked that the Baekrang Unit had beheaded Geuk-ak So-ma, one of the Absolute Evils.
No matter how much he thought about it, it seemed impossible.
But in the Murim, a single moment of carelessness meant life and death.
Geuk-ak So-ma was human too, so he reasoned it must have been possible after all.
“Hmm.”
“Is there no way around this?”
“In a situation like this, the straightforward approach works best, doesn’t it?”
“The straightforward approach?”
“Yes. Make him realize his own insufficiency and withdraw on his own. In other words…”
Paeng Do-hwan broke into a knowing smile.
Hearing his son’s plan, Paeng Gyeong-ho too nodded with a satisfied smile on his face.
***
‘What is this? Why am I…’
In one of the Ha-buk Paeng Clan’s private training grounds, Noh Il-bong stood with a bewildered expression.
He couldn’t understand why he was in such a situation.
Why on earth should he be the one teaching martial arts to this man standing before him?
It was utterly absurd.
Of course, when asked before, he’d nodded without thinking—but that had been an unconscious acceptance born of confusion.
Yeo Un-hwi smiled brightly at Noh Il-bong, who stared back at him with an expression of helplessness.
“I’m counting on you then.”
“Surely you don’t need to learn from me? There must be far more skilled warriors in the Baekrang Unit than I am.”
“It seems it might not look so good to learn directly from his own subordinates, though.”
“From whom?”
At Noh Il-bong’s question, Yeo Un-hwi pointed a finger in a certain direction.
There, Paeng Seo-yeon held Yul-i’s hand as they crouched by the wall, secretly spying on the scene.
“Ha… haha…”
Only then did Noh Il-bong grasp how the situation was unfolding.
“But there are plenty of other warriors. Why specifically me?”
“Well, we’re fairly close to each other, aren’t we?”
“Us? Close? How could that be?”
If anyone in the Ha-buk Paeng Clan went out of their way to avoid Yeo Un-hwi, it would be none other than himself.
Noh Il-bong had no idea why Yeo Un-hwi thought they were close.
In fact, Yeo Un-hwi’s request that Noh Il-bong teach him had come before Paeng Seo-yeon’s demand that he begin learning Martial Arts bit by bit.
Yeo Un-hwi himself had started to think it was time he learned the Basic Martial Arts of Paeng Clan.
After that, his time had been too scattered because of the Baekrang Unit affair, but with his wife’s request now, he’d decided to seek out Noh Il-bong again.
Yeo Un-hwi asked the somewhat reluctant Noh Il-bong.
“Why do you object?”
“Ah, no. It’s not that.”
“Good to hear.”
Then you do object?
“It’s just that the situation felt so sudden to me. I was caught off guard.”
“Well, in any case, things have come to this, so I’ll be grateful for your help.”
Yeo Un-hwi spoke lightly while shifting his body into position.
“I’ll handle the basics on my own. I’d like you to demonstrate each of the Paeng Clan’s fundamental Martial Arts, one by one.”
“Of course. Will that be sufficient?”
“Absolutely.”
He’d learned no Martial Arts, yet now he claimed he had the basics down and asked for demonstrations of fundamental techniques—
Somehow, to Noh Il-bong’s ear, Yeo Un-hwi’s words sounded like a request to help him skate by without doing the work.
The truth was, Yeo Un-hwi’s exceptional basic constitution had already become common knowledge once he earned the nickname Nine-Step Ghost.
But even so, beginning Martial Arts training from scratch at his age was not a particularly promising prospect.
So Noh Il-bong simply nodded in agreement.
‘Yes. This is better, all things considered.’
What troubled him more was the thought of Yeo Un-hwi eagerly throwing himself into the work, insisting he’d become a master somehow or other from this point forward.
The odds of that happening were nearly zero.
Martial Arts required that one build its foundation from childhood; nothing was more important than that.
And Internal Energy accumulated alongside it had to be carefully layered to maintain balance.
So he had to conclude that, for all his relative youth, Yeo Un-hwi was starting far too late.
If he set such lofty ambitions without understanding this reality and threw himself into training regardless, it would become exhausting for the one teaching—if not for the student himself.
Fortunately, though, it appeared that Yeo Un-hwi had long understood his own limits, which was a relief beyond measure.
Not that it mattered much—the best outcome would have been to avoid this entanglement altogether, but circumstances being what they were.
“Very well.”
Noh Il-bong, his thoughts quickly organized, let out a short breath and spoke.
“Then I shall demonstrate them for you, one by one from the beginning. If any questions arise, I’d appreciate it if you could hold them until after the demonstration is complete.”
“Of course.”
Noh Il-bong soon drew out a Wooden Sword and began demonstrating the fundamental Martial Arts of Paeng Clan one by one before Yeo Un-hwi.
“Mm-hmm. Good. Very good.”
Paeng Seo-yeon, watching the scene unfold, wore a satisfied smile, pleased.
She found it slightly odd that he didn’t teach the fundamentals from the very beginning, but that was the teacher’s prerogative—there was no need for her to pry.
What mattered was that he had begun.
Paeng Seo-yeon thought that if her husband trained consistently like this for over a decade, he might at least begin to pass for someone of the Murim.
Then he would gain at least some strength to protect himself.
That was what mattered.
The moment you think it’s too late is the earliest moment to begin.
And so Yeo Un-hwi officially began his Martial Arts training.
Hah! Tsk-tsk!
Noh Il-bong did his very best to demonstrate the Paeng Clan’s Martial Arts.
Even at this moment, Noh Il-bong did not know.
How his life would change because of this connection.

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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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