Surviving as the Sacheon Dang Clan’s Servant - Chapter 16

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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 16
Dang Jung noticed me trembling and tucked me away out of sight. It seemed he was muttering something about how children were fragile and easily frightened.
I wanted to protest that I wasn’t fragile—that my body was shaking against my will—but my voice wouldn’t come. The fear was genuine, after all.
A body that had collapsed just yesterday kept sending out signals to flee from this new crisis. My heart hammered so violently I thought it would burst from my chest.
Seeing my pitiful state, Dang Jung cut short the conversation.
“Never mind all that talk about bloodline succession. Handle it as you see fit. So Hye will be raised by me.”
“Grandfather!”
“I will hear no more of it.”
Dang Mu Hyuk shouted, but Dang Jung ignored him and turned away. His son’s fury erupted against his retreating back.
“I’ve already told you—I cannot do such a thing. I merely followed protocol. You would trample my authority as Clan Leader just to take her in?”
Calling me “her” like I was some object. Some thing.
Suddenly reduced to that, I buried my face in Dang Jung’s robes.
I wanted to curse loudly, but the sharp edge in Dang Mu Hyuk’s presence made it impossible to move even a finger.
Dang Jung, patting my back in a soothing gesture, spoke quietly.
“Is this truly a matter of authority? This is absurd. Mu Hyuk, remember where your authority comes from. The Elder Council granted it to you—and the Elder Council can take it back at any time.”
“What do you mean—”
Dang Mu Hyuk, enraged by the naked threat, slammed the table.
Dang Jung’s words were a warning: he could have you stripped of the Clan Leader’s position whenever he wished.
The sound of the solid wood table shattering echoed through the hall. Yet Dang Jung didn’t blink once as he left the Clan Leader’s Hall.
As we moved farther from the hall, the crushing pressure that had been bearing down on me gradually lifted.
My skin prickled and tingled as if electricity had run through my entire body.
Dang Jung soothed me with a gentle voice.
“Breathe. That’s right. Keep breathing. Little one.”
When I still couldn’t catch my breath, he quickly pressed points on my head, back, and waist—what looked like pressure-point technique.
My airways opened at last. I coughed harshly, gasping for air.
“Are you alright?”
“Yes, I… I’m fine.”
Aside from the fury threatening to burst out of me, I supposed I was.
I wiped my mouth and glared back toward the Clan Leader’s Hall, teeth gritted.
The way he showed himself to his own daughter—that shameless display. Not a shred of responsibility in that wretch.
The veins stood out on the back of my hand from gripping so hard. Unable to contain my anger, I ground my teeth together, and Dang Jung chuckled with satisfaction.
“Good. When you’re angry, you should show spirit. That’s what it means to be of the Dang bloodline. The world belongs only to the ruthless, little one.”
Coming from him, such common sense went flying out the window, and I felt deflated.
Why is he pleased? Telling me to throw tantrums when angry—this household’s education is a complete disaster.
Still, there was something rather pleasant about having someone take my side. I smiled faintly, echoing his warmth.
My smile seemed to reassure Dang Jung. He made a suggestion.
“Would you like to see the flowers?”
“Flowers?”
“Yes. Training is off for today, so let’s take a walk. The Lim family girl… Ah, that old eccentric must have already gone to Mu Hwan. How about a stroll through the Backhill?”
“I’d like that.”
Anywhere beyond the Dang clan compound would suit me just fine.
I was grateful for Dang Jung’s effort to lift my spirits.
Cradling me in his arms, Dang Jung lightly vaulted over the wall.
The scenery blurred past so quickly it made me dizzy. Unable to bear it, I closed my eyes, and that helped a little.
Though my stomach lurched with vertigo, my spirits soared. The wind whistling past my ears seemed to sweep away all my troubles, opening my chest wide.
“You can open your eyes now.”
When I opened them at Dang Jung’s word, a quiet forest surrounded us. I slowly gazed about.
Wild flowers bloomed in scattered patches between towering trees that seemed to pierce the sky. Bird calls echoed from all sides, and warm sunlight poured down.
Lifting my head, I saw a squirrel bounding up through the soft green shoots of a pine tree.
I reached out to touch a branch heavy with flower buds. Spring had crept so fully into this place.
“Do you like it?”
“Yes.”
While I looked around the forest, Dang Jung, perched on a tree stump, began rummaging through his sleeve and withdrew something—a pristine tea cup and a water vessel.
He poured tea leaves and water carelessly into the cup, covered it, and cradled it in both hands. Hot steam immediately began rising from it.
How had he done that?
They said the Samadhi True Fire burned through internal force, but if you used less power, could you boil water with it?
At the level of finely controlling inner force, it seemed you didn’t need a kettle at all.
“Take it.”
“Sir, I mean… Grandfather.”
“What is it?”
“Did you heat the water with your inner energy?”
“Yes.”
“Then could you freeze it too? Like the Freezing Art?”
“Are you mocking your grandfather? You can do that without learning the Freezing Art at all.”
Dang Jung shrugged and lifted a fresh tea cup. At once, a thin layer of crystalline frost bloomed across the ceramic surface.
“Wow.”
I wanted that. I wouldn’t need an ice water filter anymore.
At my admiration, Dang Jung chuckled and stroked my head.
“I’ll teach you later. You’ll pick it up quickly enough.”
His voice was gentle, but the promise was utterly unrealistic.
Surely only masters could do that. In novels, they’d say someone was a master just for sparking a match at their fingertip, and everyone would run away.
Dang Jung’s “quickly” and my “quickly” operated on completely different scales. Ten years, maybe.
As I forced a smile and nodded, Dang Jung studied my face with an unreadable expression before speaking.
“So Hye. From now on, listen carefully to what your grandfather says.”
“Yes.”
“I meant it when I said I would teach you. I made that resolve even before I knew you carried the Dang clan’s blood. Now that I know our blood flows through you, I cannot let your talent wither away.”
His voice grew heavy, and I straightened my spine. I had a premonition that what Dang Jung was about to say would be tied directly to my life and death.
By then, Dang Jung had steeped his own tea. He opened the cup’s lid and breathed in the fragrance with refined appreciation before speaking softly.
“You possess the Perfect Poison Immunity Body. You were born with the kind of physique everyone in the Dang clan dreams of—a body against which no extreme poison can take hold, utterly flawless.”
A physique everyone dreamed of.
To a clan that raised immunity by feeding children poison from infancy, an inborn perfect poison resistance must have seemed like a gift of talent.
I waited quietly for what Dang Jung would say next.
“From now on, I will teach you the Poison Technique. Though you begin later than your brothers, there’s no need to worry. You won’t have to roll around eating poison like those fools, so your training will advance far more quickly.”
“Yes.”
“But maintain your servant status. Stay out of sight until you become strong enough to protect yourself. Be especially wary of your father’s third wife. Her methods are rather vicious.”
At the mention of a third wife, my jaw fell open. Before I could help myself, I blurted out.
“Father—no, does the Clan Leader have three wives?”
Is this man in his right mind? He has three wives and still sired a bastard outside the family?
“Yes, three. Haven’t you met them?”
“No. I haven’t.”
Even if So Hye hasn’t, I certainly never have, sir.
Dang Jung nodded as though he understood.
“That’s fine. You lived quietly and lost your memory besides, so it’s natural you wouldn’t know. Then let’s consider this our first lesson.”
Dang Jung set down his cup and picked up a fallen twig. With it, he drew a large circle in the dirt.
“We are the Hegemon of Sacheon. But we do not rule over Sacheon alone. Cheong Seong and Ami exist as well. To keep from being outmatched by two of the Nine Great Sects’ powers, what must we do?”
“I’m not sure. Increase the military?”
“The military? Ha, you speak as though you’d read a treatise on warfare. That’s not wrong either—assembling the martial force that everyone fears is certainly a fine approach. But the most crucial thing is expanding our influence throughout Sacheon.”
Only then did I understand why Dang Jung had called this a lesson.
He was explaining that the Clan Leader’s three wives existed not out of debauchery, but for the clan’s gain.
“So you’re saying he formed political marriages to establish alliances with powerful forces and expand his influence?”
“Yes. You’re quick.”
Dang Jung sounded pleased.
Sir. You said I was foolish just yesterday.
He continued his explanation, drawing on the dirt.
“The current Clan Leader’s first wife, Je Gal Mo Ran, is the Precious Gem of the Je Gal Family. His second wife, Lim, is the accomplished daughter of Baek Pung Merchant Guild, Sacheon’s most influential trading company. His third wife, Jo, is the youngest daughter of Jo Gwon, a great magnate of Honam. Most of the grain and cotton produced in Honam belong to Jo’s family. Tell me—what do you see?”
I turned it over in my mind, absently handling the cup. The daughter of one of the Five Major Noble Families, the daughter of a merchant house, the daughter of a wealthy magnate.
Just because they’re all linked to the Five Major Noble Families doesn’t mean they’re equals. The marriage to the Je Gal family would have been a sort of alliance, a political transaction to balance power.
And the reason for taking the other two wives was…
“Was it to secure capital and supplies, and to control the flow of goods?”
“Tell me one thing, and you understand ten. Correct. That’s what the Dang clan’s marriages are. Calculated, always seeking advantage.”
……So is he telling me to understand why I became a bastard? So Hye’s mother, a courtesan, brought no profit to the Dang clan.
I bit my lip.
Dang Jung hadn’t done wrong, but I couldn’t help finding their way of thinking repulsive.
“But do you think they’ll simply have their profits taken? The three families are just as calculating. The Clan Leader’s three wives likely have one overriding goal in their lives: to place their own blood children in the position of Clan Leader and seize the Dang clan’s power. So guard yourself well.”
What does making one’s child Clan Leader have to do with me?
As I puzzled over it, I saw the truth. The problem wasn’t me—it was Dang Jung.
If word spread that a reclusive Retired Supreme Elder was teaching a bastard, those three families would view me as an eyesore. They might even go further and try to eliminate me.
Right now, I had been dropped squarely into the middle of a power struggle between three families.

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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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