The Ignored Granddaughter of a Murim Family - Chapter 44

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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 44
* * *
The journey to Man Shin-ui was treacherous. Heavy downpours came and went in relentless cycles, and the carriage wheels sank into the mud-soaked road more times than I could count.
The carriage door creaked open, and Namgung Wan spoke.
“Get down.”
“Yes.”
The moment I grasped the doorframe to carefully descend, Namgung Wan suddenly seized the back of my neck.
“Ack!”
Without ceremony, he tucked me under his arm and strode forward. The gesture was so casual that for a moment, I couldn’t tell if I was a person or a sack of grain being hauled along.
“From here, we ride horses to reach that place and rest.”
I followed his gaze and spotted wisps of smoke rising in the distance. Finally, a place to truly rest. Father and Namgung Wan, along with the escort warriors, had been riding through the rain and standing watch through the night in shifts—their stamina was beginning to fray.
Namgung Wan asked.
“Do you know how to ride?”
“No.”
I did know how to ride, but I couldn’t pretend now—not when I’d never supposedly learned.
“I see. Then you’ll….”
I grabbed the hem of Namgung Wan’s robe as he turned toward Father.
“I want to ride with Uncle Namgung Wan!”
“With me?”
“Yes!”
If Yalyu’s inner energy were detected, it could raise suspicion. Better for Yalyu to avoid contact with others as much as possible—which meant Father should stay with Yalyu instead.
Just then, my eyes met Yalyu’s. Those glass-like black pupils were utterly unreadable, and I couldn’t tell if Yalyu understood my intention.
Namgung Wan lifted me onto his horse and spoke to Father with his chin raised.
“Tsk, tsk. Who told you to take your eyes off your daughter? I’ll take Yeon with me.”
“….”
Father fell silent, but I bristled on his behalf.
“Don’t say things like that to Father!”
“What? If you don’t like it, get down.”
“Hmph.”
After bickering for half a shichen, we arrived at a small mountain village. The smoke we’d seen from afar came from household hearths.
As we approached, a village woman who spotted our party first grabbed a basket and hurried toward the village. Moments later, people crowded out to the village entrance.
“Strangers we’ve never seen before. What brings them to this mountain valley?”
“Wait, doesn’t the atmosphere feel a bit like that man who came a few days ago?”
“The village chief?”
“The man on the horse in front. My, I’ve never seen anyone so handsome in all my life.”
“What about the man in back!”
“Hmph, pretty-faced like a girl—what’s so appealing about that?”
The simple folk murmured with curiosity, fled in fear, or peeked out from hiding.
I watched them and frowned.
‘Something’s off….’
Namgung Wan’s subordinate had not appeared. Around this point, I was supposed to meet with Namgung Wan’s subordinate who had arrived in the village beforehand and established a position. After that, we had planned to unpack our belongings here, rest for a full day, and then head deeper into the settlement where Man Shin-ui resided.
That settlement was such a small place that we couldn’t even find lodging for this many people. With the villagers pouring out to gawk, there was no way Namgung Wan’s subordinate wouldn’t know of our arrival.
Then, parting through the crowd of villagers, a stout elderly man stepped forward. The old man asked.
“You don’t appear to be folk from this village. What brings you here?”
Shim Bu-gwan stepped forward and asked.
“Elder, is there perhaps a man in his mid-thirties who arrived here about a week ago?”
“There is, but why do you seek him?”
“He is part of our group. Perhaps you haven’t seen him?”
“Ah! Then you’re the ones who rented the house at the Big House on the Hill?”
“That’s likely correct.”
“Hmm, well, that’s rather… hmm.”
The old man showed signs of deliberation before speaking.
“Wait a moment, if you please. I’ll have someone fetch the owner of the Big House on the Hill.”
The old man gestured to a child and sent them on an errand. Shortly after, the child returned with a dark-complexioned Village Woman. Upon seeing us, the Village Woman appeared somewhat frightened.
“It’s true that he rented my house…”
“But?”
“He hasn’t been seen for two days.”
“He hasn’t been seen?”
“Yes. He… disappeared, leaving all his belongings behind.”
The Village Chief stepped forward again and spoke.
“So we sent people to search for him, but we couldn’t find him. However, there is a child who saw that man hurrying off in the direction of another settlement.”
Namgung Wan’s face hardened like stone.
* * *
As I lifted my head slightly from Namgung Wan’s embrace, I caught sight of leaves blurring past at tremendous speed. The steep mountain path had only recently been rained upon, and an ordinary person would have found even walking treacherous.
But those wielding lightness martial arts showed no hesitation in their pace. Their movements were nearly as if they were flying. Twisting my head as far as I could to see ahead, I glimpsed Baek Li-ui-gang’s back figure racing far in front.
“Put your head back in.”
“Yes.”
I shrank back at Namgung Wan’s curt voice and obediently clung to him again. After running at such a pace that even Baek Li-ui-gang and Namgung Wan seemed as though they might tire, we finally came to a halt.
‘Have we arrived?’
I lifted my head from Namgung Wan’s embrace and gazed ahead, my expression turning blank.
The acrid stench of charring filled the air all around. Blackened roof beams lay collapsed and embedded diagonally into the ground. Along those beams, rainwater that had not yet dried dripped steadily into puddles where ash and earth had mingled.
This was Palgwae Village. In other words, Palgwae Village—entirely consumed by fire.
* * *
‘I never imagined something like this.’
They say that when one receives too great a shock, one becomes strangely calm instead. That was precisely my state now. On the way here, I had imagined many scenarios—what if Namgung Wan offered payment but Man Shin-ui refused treatment, whether treatment was truly possible, and so forth—but among them was no image of an entire settlement burned to ash.
“Have you found them all?”
“Yes. We’ve searched the immediate vicinity thoroughly. These are all of them.”
The warriors, having conducted their investigation with methodical precision, had gathered all the corpses.
Thirteen bodies in total. The faces of Namgung Wan and Baek Li-ui-gang, already rigid, became even more stone-like.
‘All the corpses bore knife wounds.’
The rain had prevented the corpse from burning completely, making the wound even more apparent. The blade had pierced straight through the throat in a single, decisive strike.
Baek Li-ui-gang spoke.
“Yeon, step back a little.”
“Yes.”
This was a sight that would be terrible for children to witness. My father would have preferred to keep me far from the corpse, but with unknown dangers lurking nearby, he couldn’t afford to separate me too much.
Still, I was grateful that I could easily grasp the situation unfolding before us.
I glanced subtly at Yalyu beside me.
‘Yalyu is… handling this well.’
Most children would have been terrified by the corpse and the circumstances, but Yalyu was no ordinary child. His expressionless face showed no interest whatsoever in either the body or the situation.
I had been staring too long—our eyes suddenly met. I quickly turned my head away.
Shim Bu-gwan returned from surveying the area and spoke to Namgung Wan.
“The surroundings of Palgwae Village are secure. Shall we expand the search radius?”
“Yes, expand it a bit more. What about Jo Chung?”
“We haven’t found him.”
Jo Chung was the name of Namgung Wan’s subordinate who had arrived at Palgwae Village first and was supposed to wait there.
“However, there is a location where traces of combat remain.”
“Is it Jo Chung?”
“The rain has made the traces too faint to be certain.”
I listened to their conversation while examining the corpses again.
‘Two, four, six… thirteen. Five children and eight adults. We’re short.’
One adult and one child were missing from the count. Palgwae Village had always been small, and many had died in a landslide before. Most of those who survived had left.
Those remaining barely numbered twenty in total. And I had stayed here for more than ten days previously. I couldn’t help but remember how many people lived here.
Namgung Wan asked Shim Bu-gwan.
“Do you know how many people lived in this village?”
“Around twenty, as far as I know. I didn’t anticipate something like this would happen, so I didn’t ask for an exact count. I apologize.”
“Tsk, where on earth did Jo Chung go? He should have known about Palgwae Village.”
“Fifteen people!”
I interjected hastily.
Namgung Wan looked at me with puzzlement.
“How do you know that?”
“I asked about it at the village we stopped at before coming here!”
“Is that so?”
Namgung Wan tilted his head but seemed to accept it, perhaps thinking I had gathered the information while he wasn’t by my side. However, Yalyu, who had stayed close to me throughout our time in the village, looked at me with suspicion.
Shim Bu-gwan spoke.
“If the young lady’s account is correct, then two people are unaccounted for.”
“Either survivors or undiscovered corpses…”
Thinking this was sufficient, I spoke to my father.
“Father, may I move about now?”
“Yes. But don’t go far.”
“Understood!”
Yalyu followed in my footsteps as I moved forward. I pretended to walk wherever my feet took me, but I was actually heading toward the house where Man Shin-ui had once stayed—or rather, what remained of it.
When the inferno had consumed much of the structure, rain had poured down, leaving partially charred remnants scattered throughout the collapsed building.
Books burned but not entirely were now soaked through, their contents completely illegible, and the medicinal herbs that remained lay scattered among ash and muddy water.
‘One adult and one child.’
For some reason, I had a feeling that Man Shin-ui was still alive. Beside Man Shin-ui was a small child who served him.
The child had lost all relatives in a landslide and suffered from mutism, having nearly died from severe injuries before Man Shin-ui saved him. Perhaps because of this, the child’s attachment to Man Shin-ui was unusually profound.
When Man Shin-ui delayed my treatment and slipped away from this settlement, we needed someone to hold us back and buy him time. And that child willingly deceived us, sacrificing himself to give Man Shin-ui time to escape.
‘I was absolutely stunned at the time.’
I headed toward the place where the child had hidden for an entire day after deceiving us.
‘I think it was this tree….’
If the child had hidden safely, it seemed likely to be the same location. However, since I hadn’t discovered it myself, I had to rely on vague memories I’d heard secondhand. It was when I rounded a particularly large tree.
Yalyu pointed to the tree roots.
“Is this what you’re looking for?”
“Huh?”
There was a small crevice in the tree roots that one could easily overlook.
‘Surely not in such a tiny gap?’
As I peered into the small opening, difficult as it was to examine, I found a small child crouched inside.
‘How did he even get in here? No wonder we couldn’t find him easily… but more than that….’
Despite sensing our presence, the child remained completely motionless. My heart sank, and when I placed my finger beneath his nose, I felt a faint breath and warmth.
Slightly relieved, I grasped the child’s shoulder and shook him.
“Hey, wake up!”
In that instant, the child’s head drooped limply. When I placed my hand on his forehead, I felt a scorching heat.

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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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