The Ignored Granddaughter of a Murim Family - Chapter 298

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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 298
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“Jeggal Hwa-mu! Where are you!”
I bolted forward, my voice sharp and frantic. The family members dressed in white robes startled at the sight of me, hastily bowing their heads in deference.
I rushed ahead mindlessly before coming to an abrupt halt.
‘Where should I go? Is he in the Guest Room? Or perhaps the Pavilion I used to stay in? I think I heard that place has been repurposed now….’
At that moment, a hand caught and turned me around.
“He won’t hear you from here.”
Namgung Ryu-cheong, with his characteristic composure, draped the outer robe I had dropped on my way over across my shoulders.
I could not contain my frustration and snapped at him.
“Why would you drape a fur-lined robe on me in this pleasant weather!”
“Calm yourself. Why are you so angry?”
“Why am I angry? Because I was deceived!”
“Deceived?”
It was Namgung Ryu-cheong who first discovered Jeggal Hwa-mu. After dealing with the Left Envoy, he found him upon entering the Heavenly Demon Grand Vault.
The moment he saw Jeggal Hwa-mu, he sensed a connection between him and me and attempted to wake me, but apparently I could not be roused.
Afterward, in the chaotic situation of escaping the Heavenly Demon Grand Vault, my grandfather accepted Namgung Ryu-cheong’s opinion that there must be a connection between Jeggal Hwa-mu and me, and brought him to the Baek Li Estate.
Namgung Ryu-cheong bore no fault. He had no reason to bear the brunt of my anger.
Actually, he was not entirely without fault.
“Why didn’t you tell me!”
“You never asked.”
I covered my face with my palms and writhed in exasperation. I did not have time for this.
“Just tell me where he is. Take me there.”
Upon reflection, it struck me as somewhat absurd that I was being guided through my own residence by Namgung Ryu-cheong.
Jeggal Hwa-mu’s quarters were not far away.
As we approached the Pavilion, a Female Servant emerged carrying a bronze basin with a towel draped inside, and upon seeing me, she hastily bowed.
I pushed aside the hanging curtain at the entrance with the back of my hand and stepped inside.
A familiar Physician stood in the chamber. Startled by our sudden entry, he rose and greeted us with an expression of alarm.
“Young Miss? Namgung Prince, what brings you here?”
Only then could I see the figure on the sleeping platform that had been obscured by the Physician. It was truly Jeggal Hwa-mu.
He was alive.
My legs suddenly gave way, and I stumbled.
Namgung Ryu-cheong caught me immediately from beside me.
“Young Miss!”
I gestured to the startled Physician to continue his work and steadied my breathing.
‘He’s truly alive.’
Though gaunt and emaciated, he was unmistakably breathing and alive.
I turned to the Physician and asked.
“How is his condition?”
“It is not dire. However, strangely, he remains unable to regain consciousness.”
The Physician organized his acupuncture tools and continued speaking.
“I suspect it may be a matter of the spirit rather than the body, but without knowing what happened before he collapsed… However, if he continues to remain unconscious like this, he will inevitably weaken.”
The Physician left the inner chamber, and I collapsed into the chair where he had been sitting.
Why couldn’t he wake? I possessed his memories, his consciousness—or what one might call his soul—so there was no way he could possibly awaken.
Meanwhile, his incurable condition, the severed meridians, had only worsened because of the sorcery. Now that the spell crushing him had vanished, recovery was inevitable.
I gazed at Jeggal Hwa-mu’s face, which remained perfectly still with his eyes closed. I could feel the faintest breath escaping him.
I reached out and grasped his wrist, closing my eyes. I carefully channeled my vital energy into him. Though it had been a long time, I had done this countless times before, so I completed the energy guidance without difficulty.
When I opened my eyes after finishing the circulation, I saw Namgung Ryu-cheong’s expressionless face. He looked deeply displeased that I had attempted energy guidance before my body had fully recovered.
“Brighten up that face of yours.”
“Do I look like I can?”
I reached out and tucked the strand of hair that had fallen across Namgung Ryu-cheong’s cheek behind his ear.
His expression softened as if startled, and his ears flushed red, but he spoke as though he wouldn’t let the matter rest there.
“Why should I help this pallid wretch? You should recover your own strength first.”
I didn’t say I was fine and instead broached a different subject.
“How do you think I killed Cheon-ma?”
At the sudden topic, Namgung Ryu-cheong’s brows furrowed.
“When I entered the Heavenly Demon Grand Vault after leaving you behind, I encountered Jeggal Hwa-mu.”
I explained to Namgung Ryu-cheong everything that happened from the moment I met Jeggal Hwa-mu until we parted ways.
Omitting the complicated details about sorcery, I framed it as him having passed on to me the method to counter the Heavenly Demon’s martial arts—knowledge he had possessed since the time of the first Jegal Family Head.
“And that’s how it happened. I thought he was dead.”
Yes, thinking about it, I had never actually confirmed Jeggal Hwa-mu’s corpse. When I came to, only Gyeol-i was there.
And I hadn’t given the body much thought or questioned it.
But wasn’t it natural to assume he had died in those circumstances?
‘Especially after he said something like that!’
I couldn’t bring myself to tell Namgung Ryu-cheong the delirious nonsense Jeggal Hwa-mu had uttered at the end.
I gently pulled Namgung Ryu-cheong closer. He reflexively moved forward, and I wrapped my arms around his waist.
Beneath the fabric of his clothes, I felt the firm, taut muscles tensing.
“Why… are you doing this?”
“Just…”
At times like this, he should embrace me in return, but Namgung Ryu-cheong’s hands remained awkwardly clenched into fists.
I rubbed my face against him as if burying it.
Namgung Ryu-cheong gently grasped my shoulder and spoke.
“C-could you stop moving for a moment?”
“Hm? Oh, do you dislike it?”
“…No.”
His voice had dropped to an oddly low pitch.
I sensed something amiss and lifted my head. Namgung Ryu-cheong, his neck flushed red, was glaring at empty space as if he could tear it to shreds.
‘Is there something there?’
There was nothing.
‘Was I being too forward?’
I felt slightly embarrassed and scratched my cheek as I straightened my posture.
“Then Namgung Ryu-cheong, I need you to stand guard for me.”
“What are you trying to do?”
“Wake him up.”
“Can you even do that?”
“Yes. And then I’m going to kill him.”
….
* * *
I had answered confidently that I could wake him, but I wasn’t entirely certain myself. However, there was nothing physically wrong with Jeggal Hwa-mu’s body.
‘Then couldn’t I restore him as well?’
Namgung Ryu-cheong left the chamber to stand guard, and I rose from my chair.
Though I had never attempted such a thing before, the moment I resolved to do it, the method Jeggal Hwa-mu had used came back to me naturally, along with the memories.
And the more I performed it, the more I understood just how insane his actions had been.
I slowly opened my eyes.
The oppressive weight that had pressed down on my mind since receiving Jeggal Hwa-mu’s memories vanished.
Jeggal Hwa-mu also exhaled a long, deep breath and slowly opened his eyes.
“Are you awake?”
His clouded gaze turned toward me, and he opened his mouth.
“Hello.”
I clenched my fists tightly.
Jeggal Hwa-mu smiled faintly.
I suppressed the surge of emotion welling up inside me and shouted.
“You deceived me so thoroughly!”
“Deceived you?”
“Ha!”
I was so exasperated that a hollow laugh escaped me.
My hands itched. I was not normally such a person, but a violent urge to strike Jeggal Hwa-mu seized me.
Yet, befitting my dignity, instead of striking him, I helped him sit up and brought him tea.
I waited patiently as he moistened his parched lips with the tea, then spoke.
“You say you didn’t deceive me? Then explain yourself. Why did you speak in such a way as to make me misunderstand?”
“I was sincere.”
“What?”
“I assessed the success rate at about ten percent.”
“Ten percent? But what does the success rate have to do with you spouting nonsense about surviving and all that?”
“Of course, I did intentionally make you misunderstand. Were you perhaps a little sad?”
I heard the snap of reason’s thread breaking in my mind.
“Ugh!”
When I came to my senses at the sound of my own cry, Jeggal Hwa-mu was collapsed with his face cradled in his hands.
‘Oh no, I didn’t mean to.’
No, he deserved it.
If I struck him with my bare hands any harder, he might actually die, so instead I grabbed his pillow and beat him with that.
“You deserve this! You deserve to be beaten! You deserve to die!”
After pounding him for a while, I gripped the side table and caught my breath.
“Huff, huff, huff.”
My stamina had run out; I couldn’t strike him anymore. If not for that, I would have beaten him far more thoroughly.
I righted the overturned teacup, poured fresh tea, and drank it down in one gulp.
‘I really need to resume my training soon.’
Though I had been bedridden for a shorter period than Jeggal Hwa-mu, his physical condition had recovered far better than mine—so much so that he could grip a teacup the moment he awoke.
‘My stamina had deteriorated to the point where I could barely lift my own body!’
While Jeggal Hwa-mu’s illness had improved significantly, the true difference lay between one who had cultivated martial arts through the orthodox method of accumulating inner force in the dantian and one who relied on spontaneous natural energy whenever needed.
‘That difference was why the inner force poison never took hold of me….’
Looking back on it now, the plan had been truly reckless.
If Cheon-ma had questioned why the contact point was burning, if I had noticed the existence of the inner force poison even slightly sooner, if the poison had caused problems for me as well.
It would have been I who died.
‘And Jeggal Hwa-mu would have perished without ever awakening.’

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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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