The Ignored Granddaughter of a Murim Family - Chapter 296

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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 296
My father’s grip on my hand tightened.
“That matter.”
“Yes?”
“Why did you keep it secret from me that Cheon-ma said you could be cured if you died? Surely you didn’t think I would tell you to die just so I could cure myself?”
“What? That’s not it at all!”
I cried out in startled alarm.
“Then why did you keep it secret?”
“It’s just… it’s just….”
I gripped the blanket tightly and fumbled for words.
“I didn’t want to burden you, Father. I thought it was something you didn’t need to know….”
“Yeon, since I met you, I have never once thought of you as a burden.”
My father exhaled softly.
“But even if I say this, you won’t be able to think that way.”
“No….”
The moment I opened my mouth, my father spoke first.
“Don’t say no. Even if you think of your father as a scarecrow, I can at least understand that much.”
“A, a scarecrow!”
My father ignored my protest and continued.
“Rather, I have always thought that I was insufficient in being your father.”
“That’s absolutely not true!”
“Even if you say so, I cannot think that way.”
“….”
I lowered my head with a stricken expression.
My father continued speaking.
“Ever since you fell into demonic cultivation, I have always carried regret in my heart.”
I bit my lip firmly.
I know. How could I not?
My father believed that because he brought me to the Baek Li Estate and was not by my side, I fell into demonic cultivation.
He tried by every means to restore what had been lost, and in doing so, his relationship with my grandfather became completely severed.
“Can you feel it? The physician told me. Your dantian has recovered.”
“What? What did you say?”
“The physician said that while it’s still too soon, once your body recovers, you’ll be able to cultivate inner energy like everyone else.”
I opened my mouth blankly.
‘It’s healed? My dantian?’
I had no idea.
Currently, my blood vessels and meridians were severely damaged, so I was forbidden from circulating vital energy for some time.
My father’s gaze, which had been fixed on my face, lowered to our intertwined hands.
“I truly did my very best. I even offered you my life. So now I have no more regrets.”
“….”
“And you did your very best as well. You even offered your own life to have me detoxified, did you not?”
“….”
“So now it is truly over.”
“….”
“I have no need to apologize to you, and you have no need to apologize to me.”
“Father….”
My father, a faint smile gracing his lips, reached out to stroke my head before drawing me into a gentle embrace.
“They say a child receives life from their parents at birth. I have never agreed with that sentiment until now. But with you—only with you—do I find myself accepting those words.”
With my head bowed, I gazed upon my father’s white hair cascading forward.
Even though the inner poison had been detoxified, the damage my father’s body had sustained from expending his vital energy remained unchanged.
His hair, now turned white, would never darken again, and how long it would take to recover to his former level of inner cultivation was unknowable.
He had lost all the inner power he possessed. It was not something one could dismiss so easily by saying it was fine because the poison had been cured. Yet I felt not the slightest resentment.
“Remember this going forward. I have given my life to save yours, so from now on, it is no longer your life alone.”
I barely held back the tears that threatened to burst forth, answering instead with a nasal whimper.
“Yes.”
My father, who had been gently stroking my head, released his embrace and spoke as his hand lost its strength.
“And know this as well.”
“What is it?”
“Should such a situation arise again, your father will not hesitate to do the same.”
“…What?”
“Not because I am sorry to you. Simply because you are my daughter, and I am your father.”
“….”
“So there will be nothing to stand in your way from now on. Do as your heart desires, and pursue what you wish to pursue.”
My father’s face, as he spoke, was utterly free of worry—the visage of one unburdened.
The sound of a door opening and closing echoed through the chamber.
My father’s presence receded into the distance. Then the scent of medicinal herbs drifted into the room.
After my father left, Namgung Ryu-cheong, who had tactfully withdrawn earlier, approached with a tray bearing a medicinal bowl.
“…You heard all of it, didn’t you?”
Namgung Ryu-cheong had waited outside the door without entering, so he would have heard the entire conversation as my father departed.
“I did.”
A soft clicking sound came from his tongue.
I bristled and cried out.
“What is that reaction supposed to mean?”
“Baek Li Dae-hyup is far too lenient, it seems.”
“What did you just say?”
“If it were my father, he would have ranted and raved about how there is no child who departs before their parents.”
“….”
Namgung Ryu-cheong spoke with conviction.
“You were in the wrong.”
“….”
Perhaps because of my sullen expression, Namgung Ryu-cheong spoke in a gentler tone.
“And you understand what Baek Li Dae-hyup meant by those words, don’t you?”
It meant I should stop clinging to my father. We had both done our best for each other, so now I should let go and live my own life.
I gripped the blanket tightly.
Yes. From the moment I first opened my eyes in this life, I felt sorry toward my father. That’s why I made him my highest priority—above my own life.
And my father had known of this strange debt I carried all along.
Ever since I fell into demonic cultivation, my father felt guilt whenever he saw me. We were debtors to each other.
And now he was saying that we had repaid all our debts to one another, so I should stop making him my priority and make myself my priority instead—to live doing the things I wanted to do.
‘The things I wanted to do….’
Then Namgung Ryu-cheong’s cautious voice pierced through my thoughts.
“You’re not going to tell Baek Li Dae-hyup?”
There was no subject, but I understood what he meant.
The truth about my regression.
If I told him that, my father would understand why I carried this debt toward him.
My deliberation was brief.
“No. I won’t.”
“Why?”
“I saw it for the first time. My father smiling like that….”
He had truly let go of his burden.
But if I told him about the regression on top of that, wouldn’t it trouble him again?
Before, I couldn’t bring myself to speak because I didn’t want to burden my father. But now, something felt different. It wasn’t so much that I didn’t want to burden him….
“It’s all over now.”
Yes. It truly is all over now.
“It’s not a pleasant story anyway. It’s better not to know of misfortunes. There will only be good things ahead from now on.”
“But what about your heart?”
“Hm?”
“Who will understand the pain your heart has endured all this time?”
“You will.”
“….”
“You understand, so what more is there?”
Seeing his eyes widen in surprise, I laughed.
I could see Namgung Ryu-cheong’s ears turning red.
‘This fellow is really cute, I have to say.’
I gave him a chance to escape by shifting my gaze to the medicinal bowl and asked.
“Where did the Female Servant go, and why are you here? What about Geum-swe and So Nok?”
“Do you hate that I’m here?”
“No, that’s not what I meant. I was just asking.”
“Then just drink it.”
I picked up the medicinal bowl and stared at it for a moment. My face reflected faintly in the dark decoction.
“You know, Ryu-cheong. What if….”
Namgung Ryu-cheong looked at me as if waiting for me to speak.
“No.”
I drained the medicinal broth in one gulp.
I sent Namgung Ryu-cheong away with words urging him not to keep vigil at my bedside.
After tossing and turning in the sleeping quarters several times, I curled my body inward, pressing my hand against the area where my dantian lay.
‘It’s completely healed?’
It was something I had long since abandoned without hesitation, yet the sudden recovery left me bewildered.
‘More disorienting than joyful, really.’
How had I even recovered?
The things I had endured were not experiences an ordinary person could survive.
I retraced my final memories. After Taego Jinperson and the others from the Murim Alliance departed, my recollections became fragmented.
I collapsed onto the altar, closed my eyes, and someone gripped my hand firmly.
And that voice.
“When I’m before you, I don’t feel like a worm.”
That was unmistakably Yalyu’s voice.
Moreover, the power of Cheon-ma had vanished.
The memories Jeggal Hwa-mu had transferred to me, the Golden Eyes that Man Shin-ui had given me—they remained intact.
Only the true essence of Cheon-ma, refined through the Absorption Technique, had disappeared.
And I, who had been dying from insufficient innate qi. The direction that situation pointed to was singular.
Someone who knew how to use the Absorption Technique had stolen both Cheon-ma’s true essence and mine together.
It could only be Yalyu. No one else could have done such a thing.
Yalyu had surely come and gone from that place.
I could not bring myself to ask Namgung Ryu-cheong. Whether he had heard any news about Yalyu.
I hesitated to ask him about it more than I would anyone else.
If he saw my interest in Yalyu, he would surely be wounded.
“Sigh.”
A breath escaped unbidden from my frustrated heart.
‘I wondered if I had merely imagined it.’
I opened my hand to look at it.
Then I buried my face in the pillow.

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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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