The Ignored Granddaughter of a Murim Family - Chapter 343

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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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Special Side Story Episode 13
Young Master Park spoke with an indifferent gaze.
“You weren’t planning to release those people either?”
“Oh, right. That’s true.”
Baek Li Se-ran suppressed her interest and proceeded to free all the others as well. Yet even after their restraints were removed, they merely exchanged uncertain glances, too bewildered to move.
Baek Li Se-ran gestured toward the door.
“Escape.”
“What, what? Escape to where?”
“Return to wherever you came from, or continue on your way… In any case, you can’t stay here, can you?”
The people exchanged confused looks with one another.
Then someone from the back suddenly shouted.
“That’s nonsense! You don’t care because your family is well-established, but do you know how troublesome it is for Jianghu Warriors like us to be marked by the authorities?”
“Do I know you?”
“I’ve seen you before! Baek Li Se-ran! You’re the youngest daughter of the Baek Family!”
“B-Baek Li Se-ran, you mean the Murim Alliance Leader’s…!”
“Ah, so that’s why such weapons…!”
“The Baek Li Clan! Ha, no wonder she was so fearless! The County Magistrate certainly chose his opponent poorly!”
Several of them wore expressions of dawning realization and reverence.
Baek Li Se-ran shrugged and wiped her face.
“I didn’t expect to run into someone who knew me here.”
Baek Li Se-ran was currently employing a simple disguise technique, and while it placed no burden on her body, it proved ineffective against those who had seen her true face before.
“Yes. I am Baek Li Se-ran. So what?”
The man blinked in bewilderment.
Another stepped forward past him and suddenly spoke to her.
“Young Lady Baek Li. Won’t you help us just a little?”
“That’s right! If you’re Young Lady Baek Li, surely you can handle the Mountain Tiger with ease? Why not just deal with it and be on your way?”
“Or perhaps speak well to the County Magistrate and have him release us…?”
“No! We can’t leave like this! If the rumors are true, there’s a high probability the Mountain Tiger possesses a Spirit Pill!”
“A Spirit Pill?”
“Let’s request support from the Murim Alliance! With Young Lady Baek Li here, they won’t be able to ignore us!”
Letting them continue, the conversation stretched on endlessly.
Baek Li Se-ran frowned and cut them off.
“What did you hear when I just spoke? I said escape.”
Then the man who had revealed Baek Li Se-ran’s identity suddenly shouted.
“If we just escape like this…! We’ll be hunted by the authorities! And you’re telling us to do that now?!”
“Why should I concern myself with your circumstances? Escape or don’t, it’s up to you. I have no intention of hunting the Mountain Tiger, so I freed you so you wouldn’t die pointlessly waiting for me to return.”
“What, what did you say?”
Then another pointed a finger at her.
“Don’t you feel pity for the people of this place?”
Baek Li Se-ran’s expression darkened.
“What are you talking about? You just mentioned Young Master Park a moment ago?”
“….”
Several faces flushed red.
Baek Li Se-ran smiled with a hint of disdain in her eyes and continued speaking.
“Besides, you all heard it too? That these people provoked Mountain Tiger first.”
She swept her hair behind her ear and went on.
“They bungled things themselves, and instead of sincerely asking for help, they resort to threats. I find it distasteful.”
“Do you hold human lives so lightly?”
It was the moment Baek Li Se-ran shrugged her shoulders and turned away.
“Ha! The child of Baek Li-yeon, who claims to be the greatest under heaven, is like this! What a waste of that name!”
The smile vanished from Baek Li Se-ran’s expression.
The moment her family and name became known.
People always harbored expectations of their own making and disappointment of their own making.
It was a tedious situation that repeated dozens of times over.
Baek Li Se-ran spoke in an icy voice.
“From Olyumun’s Makgo Fortress—shut your mouth. Who are you to mention my mother’s name? Are you prepared to pay the price for that?”
The man jumped back with a start. Shock was written across his face. He seemed terrified.
“H-how do you know my name…!”
The others who had sided with the man were also momentarily flustered.
That was the moment.
With a dull thud, the man collapsed to the ground. Behind the falling man, the Young Master Park spoke.
“Why are you wasting time on this fool? It’s pointless.”
Baek Li Se-ran, whose eyes had widened for a moment, let out a snort of laughter.
“Such a nag.”
* * *
Baek Li Se-ran encountered that nag again a month later, in the territory of the tiger, Mountain Tiger.
“Stop right there.”
It was that nag from before.
Baek Li Se-ran suppressed the urge to rush forward and made herself as inconspicuous as possible.
Grrrrrowl—.
The white tiger, as massive as a house and luminous, possessed an aura that struck terror into the hearts of all who beheld it. And facing the white tiger, which seemed ready to pounce at any moment, stood that nag.
‘What on earth is he trying to do?’
Within Mountain Tiger’s growl lay pain, resentment, and sorrow. It was not something that could be understood by mere words. Yet the boy before it was no easy prey to face alone.
Then the boy hurled something he was holding toward Mountain Tiger. Baek Li Se-ran narrowed her brow and heightened her focus.
A cloth bundle rolled through the undergrowth, unwrapping as it tumbled, revealing a human head. Upon recognizing the face, Baek Li Se-ran covered her mouth with one hand.
‘Insane…!’
The head belonged to the County Magistrate who, a month prior, had threatened the Jianghu warriors to capture Mountain Tiger.
The boy spoke.
“It’s over now.”
Baek Li Se-ran bit her lip.
That’s right. The one who caught and killed Mountain Tiger’s child, then sold it, was none other than the County Magistrate.
Originally, the Mountain Tiger of this region had roamed the vast forest territories in quiet solitude.
And the people of the nearby villages had regarded Mountain Tiger almost like a divine spirit, permitted to carefully harvest medicinal herbs or gather mushrooms within its domain.
However, the newly appointed County Magistrate harbored different intentions. Upon hearing tales of Mountain Tiger, he conceived a plan to capture and sell it.
The villagers initially opposed this, but eventually found themselves in agreement, and tragedy descended upon them.
Mountain Tiger stared unblinking at the County Magistrate writhing on the ground. With each breath drawn and released, a low growl reverberated through the air.
That rumbling sound gradually subsided as moments passed.
As the fury seemed to wane, the Young Master Park’s shoulders, tense for so long, finally relaxed. It was that very instant.
[No, this cannot end here!]
A howl erupted, accompanied by a voice that resonated through his mind—something akin to pure will. Simultaneously, Mountain Tiger pushed off the ground and launched itself. In a flash, Mountain Tiger and the Young Master Park’s forms became entangled.
Crash!
And Baek Li Se-ran burst frantically through the undergrowth.
“Wait!”
At her appearance, Mountain Tiger nimbly twisted its massive frame away from the Young Master Park and retreated. It then lowered its body, poised to charge at them both at any moment.
“Who are you…?”
The Young Master Park’s startled voice trailed behind as Baek Li Se-ran spoke.
“I didn’t come to fight.”
Baek Li Se-ran moved slowly enough not to provoke Mountain Tiger, releasing the energy barrier she had been maintaining. Then she whistled softly.
Interpreting her actions somehow, Mountain Tiger suddenly halted its advance.
The rustling of the undergrowth behind her indicated something approaching. Mountain Tiger’s gaze remained fixed in that direction.
Soon, a Young Tiger not yet fully grown emerged from between the bushes.
The Young Tiger, surveying its surroundings, alternated its gaze between her and Mountain Tiger before bounding toward Mountain Tiger’s embrace.
“The dead child… I’m sorry. I couldn’t find it.”
It had already become a hide, and there was no way to determine what had become of it.
“…”
“…”
Mountain Tiger’s gaze alternated between her and the Young Master Park. A searching look lingered for a long while, as if assessing them.
She felt sweat trickling down the back of her neck from the tension. At last, Mountain Tiger withdrew into the undergrowth with its child.
Only after Mountain Tiger’s form completely vanished from sight could she finally exhale a breath of relief. She understood now that it would no longer attack people.
Baek Li Se-ran turned to look beside her. In the brief exchange that had occurred just before she burst forth, blood had somehow soaked the tattered fabric at the Young Master Park’s waist.
The strength to tear through protective energy like ripping paper, combined with a will and intellect that could be perceived as a voice—it was already a creature of spirit.
“Are you alright?”
The Young Master Park nodded, but in doing so, dropped to one knee and collapsed to the ground.
Baek Li Se-ran was startled and quickly knelt beside him.
“I have medicine. Just wait…”
She tried to examine the wound, but the Young Master Park covered it with his arm as if hiding it.
“Is this really the time to be stubborn?”
After a brief struggle, Baek Li Se-ran was able to inspect the Young Master Park’s wound.
And she was horrified. She had suspected it from when the protective energy was torn like paper, but the internal injuries ran deeper than she had anticipated.
‘If I had faced this directly, it would have been truly difficult…?’
It seemed I would need to be at least at the level of an older sister or brother to be worth fighting.
The fortunate part was that the wounds weren’t fatal.
By the time I finished stopping the bleeding, applied medicine, and wrapped the bandages, considerable time had passed, and both she and the young master were completely exhausted.
Baek Li Se-ran, sitting against a tree with a weary expression, asked upon noticing something in her field of vision.
“But will this be alright? This person isn’t just some rural County Magistrate. He’s from an incredibly prestigious family. I heard his grandfather is a Minister of the Six Ministries.”
There was a reason she had acted so boldly upon hearing the name Baek Family.
He had come down to the countryside due to some incident, but originally he wasn’t the type of person who should be in such a place.
“I know.”
“So did you kill him? Do you have some plan? Or were you confident no one would find out?”
“Someone found out.”
Baek Li Se-ran jumped to her feet.
“What?!”
Contrary to her reaction, the young master answered calmly.
“But there was no other way.”
“….”
Baek Li Se-ran fell silent.
Indeed, the Mountain Tiger’s rage when we faced him directly was formidable.
She had thought that if she could somehow retrieve the Mountain Tiger’s offspring, it might be resolved, but it was a fury that would never end unless the County Magistrate was eliminated.
If she had brought only the Mountain Tiger’s child without the County Magistrate’s head, it would have been she who suffered the Mountain Tiger’s wrath.
‘I was thinking of it too simply as just an animal.’
Baek Li Se-ran, who had been silent for a moment with her head bowed in contemplation, spoke.
“Let’s do it this way. We both killed the County Magistrate together.”
The young master looked at Baek Li Se-ran as if questioning what she was saying.
“My mother has a highly-placed friend. If I say I did it, I’ll get scolded a bit… but it should be manageable somehow.”
“Why?”
Baek Li Se-ran smiled evasively as if she understood but pretended not to.
“What?”
“Why are you helping me?”
“And you killed the County Magistrate? It’s obvious you’ll end up with trouble.”
From what he said in prison, he didn’t seem to have a grudge against the County Magistrate, nor did he appear to have any particular desire to help the people or feel sympathy for them.
“My master ordered me to.”
“Your master?”
“He said to quiet things down since the tiger was causing a commotion and come back.”
“Causing a commotion?”
“Killing the Mountain Tiger is impossible with my current skills, so I had no choice but to kill the County Magistrate.”
“….”
Is he insane….
Baek Li Se-ran was momentarily at a loss for words.
After observing him for a moment, Baek Li Se-ran asked a different question.
“What’s your name?”
“I don’t have one.”
“…What? You’re saying you don’t have a name?”
“Yeah, I don’t.”
“Ah, that explains it…”
Baek Li Se-ran wiped the corners of her eyes.
She possessed an ability to read the threads of fate. It was an inborn gift, and she had come to understand it alone—that it was best to never reveal this power to anyone.
Only her mother had ever sensed her ability. Her mother had gazed at her with pitying eyes and embraced her.
“It seems right that you inherit that power.”
Thanks to this ability, she could instinctively discern those who spoke with her—their names, their ages, how they were raised, whether they lied or spoke truth.
But this boy remained shrouded as if by mist, utterly opaque and unknowable.
“Still, you said you have a master, didn’t you? There must be some way he calls you?”
“Disciple.”
“…”
Baek Li Se-ran asked with a bewildered expression.
“Where exactly is your master?”
“It’s a secret.”
“…”
The boy who had silenced her pushed himself up from the tree he’d been leaning against. Baek Li Se-ran started and rose to her feet as well.
“Where are you going?”
“I have to leave.”
“You’re leaving right now? In that condition? Wouldn’t it be better to rest a bit?”
“This place isn’t only dangerous because of Mountain Tiger. The scent of blood will draw other beasts. Don’t stay here either—you should leave too.”
The boy gave a slight nod as if he had nothing more to say, then turned away.
Baek Li Se-ran watched him depart in a daze.
And as the boy walked steadily through the deep forest where no path existed, moving with practiced ease, he narrowed his brows slightly and glanced back.
The girl whose eyes met his smiled brightly.
The boy asked flatly.
“Why are you following me?”
“I’m curious about your master.”
“…”
“If you tell me, I won’t follow you anymore.”
“…”
“Honestly, I helped you, so you could at least tell me that much, right? You don’t have a sword, and from the way your hands are trained, it looks like you mainly practice internal cultivation techniques. Am I right?”
“I told you I can’t tell you.”
“Then I’ll keep following you. Until I find out.”
The boy’s eyes, which held crimson irises, twisted with what seemed like bewilderment.
Baek Li Se-ran felt something stir within her. It was as if she were being guided by the heavens themselves.
If she followed him, she could find it—that which was uniquely hers, that which she had long sought.
It was the beginning of a new story.
【Epilogue 5 – The End】

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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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