The Time-Limited Elixir of the Ruined Clan - Chapter 19

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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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A Fallen Martial Clan’s Borrowed Time – Episode 19

“Brother Hwaryun and I left this for you, Sister…….”
Baek Ryeon’s face grew tender with emotion before she placed a Yong Su Tang into Danmok Bi’s chattering mouth.
“Oh! No, I was supposed to give it to you. I wasn’t supposed to eat it…….”
Even as the sweetness drew an involuntary smile to his lips, Danmok Bi fought to keep his expression sorrowful. Baek Ryeon smiled softly at the sight, then gestured toward Hwaryun. Hwaryun shook his head.
“No, Sister, I’m fine.”
“Come now, come here at once.”
Her tone was that of someone coaxing a small child, and Hwaryun seemed ready to protest. But in the end, he shuffled reluctantly to her side. Baek Ryeon placed a Yong Su Tang fairly into his mouth as well.
“There. Isn’t it delicious?”
“…….”
Hwaryun appeared to have much he wanted to say, but he swallowed both the sweet and his words together, nodding his head instead.
In the meantime, Danmok Bi had finished his Yong Su Tang and leaned close to press his lips against Baek Ryeon’s cheek in a kiss. A sweet fragrance drifted from the child’s breath.
Baek Ryeon caught sight of Hwaryun watching with an expression of barely concealed distaste, and she burst into laughter.
“Don’t you like sweets, Hwaryun?”
Baek Ryeon understood now why there were three Yong Su Tang. Danmok Hyunwoo must have given two to each of them, but if Danmok Bi had eaten only one and brought the rest, then Hwaryun must have forgone both of his.
Danmok Bi stared at Hwaryun as if he couldn’t believe it. Hwaryun finished his Yong Su Tang and rolled his eyes.
“No, I mean. They’re nice. But the last one is for you, Sister.”
“That’s right! For Sister.”
The boys chattered on. Baek Ryeon observed the two youths, who seemed to have an oddly good rapport.
Danmok Bi would have appeared notably mature compared to his peers, yet in Hwaryun’s company he came across as a spoiled youngest child.
Though Hwaryun himself didn’t behave in any extraordinarily grown-up way, either…….
“But you didn’t come just to give me these sweets, did you?”
“Ehehe…….”
Danmok Bi puffed his cheeks and smiled with the coy expression of a child seeking indulgence. Baek Ryeon moved toward a small basket near the brazier.
“Ohhh…….”
A small white cat lay sleeping peacefully in the basket, its round belly protruding, even with a hot water bottle tucked inside—oblivious to the three children peering down at it intently.
The cat’s soft fur stood up in downy tufts, making it look like a stuffed toy.
“What name have you given her?”
“I thought of calling her Hayan, but Mother suggested Baek Ryeon instead…….”
To name the white thing that Baek Ryeon had brought “Baek Ryeon”—such love for a daughter, though she couldn’t bring herself to voice her objection.
Even the wet nurse Jang had clapped in approval, and this little kitten pricked up her ears only when called “Baek Ryeon,” not when they used the name “Hayan.”
“I like it too!”
At Danmok Bi’s excited cry, the kitten’s ears twitched. Seeing this, Danmok Bi quickly covered his own mouth with both hands.
“What about you, Hwaryun? Do you like that name?”
Hwaryun, startled to be asked, looked back at Baek Ryeon, then nodded with a lukewarm expression.
“Well, anything’s better than Hayan, isn’t it?”
“One careless word from you costs a thousand pieces of silver.”
Hwaryun sat stunned for a moment, then laughed loudly.
While Baek Ryeon threw up her hands in exasperation, the kitten awoke and mewed pitifully, over and over.
Baek Ryeon nudged the still-laughing Hwaryun aside, gathered the kitten into her arms, and soothed it. Danmok Bi also wiggled his hands about, trying to calm the cat.
“Come help me do something about this.”
“What exactly would I be able to do?”
Hwaryun hesitated and stepped back. With a mischievous expression, Baek Ryeon seized his hand and drew him forward.
“Stroke her gently. You understand? Softly. As though you were touching a flower petal.”
Hwaryun’s expression suggested he found the notion of touching flower petals strange, but he didn’t dare pull his hand away. Instead, he placed his fingers lightly on the kitten’s crown. His hand trembled slightly, and Baek Ryeon smiled at it.
“Why are you so afraid?”
“I’m not afraid!”
Hwaryun cried out with an aggrieved expression, his lips protruding stubbornly.
“I’m just worried that if I accidentally hurt her……you might…….”
“Nothing’s going to happen. And I wouldn’t strike you even if you did cause some trouble.”
“I’m not saying that’s what I was worried about.”
Hwaryun looked at Baek Ryeon in bewilderment, then let out a sigh that seemed too weary for a child his age, and gently stroked the kitten Baek Ryeon.
Across the boy’s face swept a strange, peculiar light—whether of unfamiliarity or bitter sorrow, it was difficult to say.
‘Is the vessel of the Maecheon Sect’s new leader truly so different? Can he find even petting a kitten so difficult to bear…….’
The kitten mewled softly and surrendered itself to Hwaryun’s hands. Within moments, as if it had never fussed at all, it slipped back into sleep, breathing gently.
“Sleeping…….”
“Sister, when do we feed this little one?”
“Just before you two arrived. Maybe later. Should we feed it together with our meal?”
“Yes!”
“But you can’t spend all your time playing with the cat. I’m going to begin learning Martial Arts now. You two should hurry and memorize all the characters, then we can learn Martial Arts together, yes?”
“Yes, yes! I’m going right now to memorize the characters!”
Danmok Bi whined earnestly, saying he wanted to learn together with his sister.
Meanwhile, Hwaryun merely savored the lingering sweetness of Yong Su Tang on his tongue and picked the white fur from his fingertips, his expression utterly uninterested.

* * *

Word came that the first snow had fallen in the north, and several days later.
“Young Miss, Young Miss!”
“Nursemaid? What is it?”
“The Great Treasurer of Mansong Trading Company has just arrived—that is, the Trading Company Leader. So the Patriarch asked me to bring you to him. Right now.”
“The Leader of Mansong Trading Company?”
At the mention of Mansong Trading Company, Baek Ryeon’s eyes gleamed. The week before, Danmok Hyunwoo had decided to send Cheong Ryeon Su to the Trading Company Leader, and they had wrapped and sent it together.
While Nursemaid Jang searched for Baek Ryeon’s formal robe, Danmok Bi asked the steward what a “Great Treasurer” was. The steward was explaining to Danmok Bi that the “Great Treasurer” referred to the highest authority in a Trading House, when Hwaryun, who had crept up beside Baek Ryeon, whispered a question.
“But Young Miss, will you really begin learning Martial Arts now?”
Hwaryun was always scrupulously formal with “Young Miss” when others were present.
“Yes. It’s been a month since I finished memorizing the Thousand Character Classic. And I’ve been training my body hard all that time. I was planning to start today, but since we have a guest, it’ll probably be tomorrow…….”
“Will you be all right?”
Baek Ryeon’s eyes widened.
“Me?”
Hwaryun nodded.
“When we went up the mountain to find Heuk-wol not long ago, you were gasping so hard by yourself.”
“I’m better than I was then! And besides, I…….”
Baek Ryeon fumbled for words, then finally spoke.
“I’m young, that’s why. I’m still…… still just a child.”
“But you’re eight years old.”
“That’s exactly why…… why I need to learn now and grow up and become stronger…….”
“But Mansong Trading Company’s people have come seeking you, haven’t they? What if you learned commerce from that person instead?”
Baek Ryeon narrowed her eyes. Hwaryun’s words inevitably drifted in one direction.
He had no genuine interest in commerce itself—it was clear he wished she would learn something, anything else. Anything but Martial Arts.
“Why do you hate Martial Arts so much?”
“What good does it do, except to swing a sword?”
“But we’re a Martial Clan. We can’t just not learn it.”
“What’s the difference between a Martial Clan and a powerful Trading House anyway?”
“…….”
Truthfully, he wasn’t wrong.
Why is a clan called a clan? Not because they cultivate martial prowess to seek enlightenment through the Way—but because they pursue personal advancement, family honor, wealth and glory. That is why they are called a clan.
But…….
“If you go elsewhere and say things like that, you’ll bring trouble on yourself.”
Since it was Baek Ryeon, she could only shake her head at such talk; if she had said such things in another clan, she might have faced Punishment.
“Where else would I go, and to whom would I speak?”
Hwaryun replied with a slight smile to her concern, then was dragged away by Danmok Bi, who had grabbed his wrist, insisting that he would memorize the entire Thousand Character Classic and learn Martial Arts.

* * *

Mansong Trading Company was the foremost merchant house in Zhejiang Province, so much so that it was said one could not tour West Lake without treading in Mansong’s shadow.
At the same time, it had once been one of the sturdy pillars upon which the Danmok Clan might have become the dominant force of Zhejiang Province.
When the current Trading Company Leader was still a boy, he had encountered bandits on the road to Hangzhou and nearly perished—until a young Danmok Cheongi, who happened to be nearby, saved him. Thus began their bond.
Even now, as the Danmok Clan dimmed under successive tragedies, Mansong Trading Company spread its wings ever wider.
And this revealed the very limitation of a Martial Clan. For a house that arose through martial prowess alone, if it could not demonstrate its physical strength, it had no other means by which to establish its authority.
When the strong of a clan fall, the clan itself falls. Though worldly Martial Clans may resemble Trading Houses, they can never be wholly the same.
Upon entering Wol Young Jae, two elderly men were tilting their teacups toward each other.
“Make your greeting. This is the Great Treasurer and Trading Company Leader of Mansong. I have been his old friend for many years.”
Baek Ryeon approached in quick, small steps and bowed, bending her knees slightly then straightening.
“I am Baek Ryeon.”

Gyeon Eonjo
Falling Star Twelve Swords: 5 stars
Worries: Unable to decide between his eldest son Gyeon Wigung and second son Gyeon Wiyun as his successor. His heart aches watching his inadequate eldest. Concerned about his third child, Hyang Si. Awaiting the moment to repay the debt owed to the Danmok Clan.

Baek Ryeon glanced casually at the Great Treasurer’s ledger of the Mansong Trading Company and nearly stumbled backward in shock.

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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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