The Time-Limited Elixir of the Ruined Clan - Chapter 51

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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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The Declining Clan’s Limited-Time Marriage Alliance — Episode 51

“What if I’m not good at it?”
“Try it, and if it’s not fun, do something else.”
“Not about fun. What if I have no talent for it?”
“Is that why you’ve been refusing to learn all this time—because you’re afraid you might not have talent?”
Even the future leader of the Ma Cheon Gyo worried like this as a child. There was something oddly endearing about it.
But Hwa Ryun didn’t answer; she only looked at Dan Mok Ryeon.
“What? Are you worried that if you have no talent, you’ll hate doing it?”
At Dan Mok Ryeon’s question, Hwa Ryun opened her eyes wide in embarrassment, then tapped her chest.
“Ugh, this is frustrating. That’s not what I meant. I was asking if you’re all right.”
Dan Mok Ryeon didn’t understand Hwa Ryun at first but realized what she meant a moment later.
“Whether I’m all right or not isn’t something you need to worry about. If you have no talent for martial arts, I’ll protect you instead.”
“But——”
It would never come to that, but Dan Mok Ryeon briefly imagined Hwa Ryun not being able to do any martial arts at all. The picture wasn’t entirely unpleasant.
“If you can’t do martial arts, you’ll have something else you’re good at, won’t you? Find that and do it instead.”
“What if there’s nothing I’m good at?”
Does puberty hit this early? Dan Mok Ryeon touched her cheek thoughtfully.
“There’s no way you have nothing you can do. You’re already good at something.”
“What is it?”
Dan Mok Ryeon looked around and, confirming that aside from Jung Young standing at a distance there was no one else nearby, spoke.
“Growing.”
“Pardon?”
Hwa Ryun stared at Dan Mok Ryeon with an incredulous expression. But Dan Mok Ryeon replied with a serious face.
“When you first came here, you were this much shorter than me, and now you’re almost at my eye level. I was really shocked.”
“I wasn’t that small. And the small one is you.”
Though Hwa Ryun grumbled, she didn’t seem displeased.
“So you really will learn martial arts from Baek Ryeon?”
“……Normally, people have to pay money before they ask someone to teach them martial arts, don’t they? It’s strange to just offer to teach like this.”
“True. But you’re not normal.”
“Why, because I’m not normal?”
“Because you’re my sister!”
Dan Mok Ryeon said this with a bright smile.
Hwa Ryun blinked repeatedly as if dazzled by the sunlight, then whispered softly, “I’ll just learn the basics……”
“Really. Only the basics.”
“Got it, got it!”

* * *

“So you’ve broken out of your Closed Retreat Training too.”
“You’ve come as well?”
The two siblings spoke quietly. Seok Ban An, sitting beside Dan Mok Hyeon Yo, flinched slightly with some unease, but he made no addition to his wife’s words.
Dan Mok Hyeon Yo raised her eyebrows.
“I’ve been here for several days.”
“It’s been months since I broke out of my Closed Retreat Training.”
While Dan Mok Cheon Gi was being awaited, Dan Mok Hyeon Yo, who had been bickering briefly with her brother, brushed a strand of hair back from her face. In that moment, Dan Mok Hyeon U spoke.
“Don’t say anything.”
“……What’s so funny about you? What did I do that you suddenly want me to be silent?”
“Because whenever you brush your hair back like that, you always say something strange.”
“When have I ever——”
“You did it before we went to Ha Nan Province when you asked for the Acting Family Head position. And then——”
Dan Mok Hyeon U fell silent. He had been about to say, “You did it when you suddenly said you were going to marry,” but Seok Ban An was present at the table.
“Why is that strange talk?”
“Then what are you trying to say now?”
“Nothing……”
Dan Mok Hyeon Yo fixed her younger brother with a slightly embarrassed look, cleared her throat a few times, and spoke.
“Don’t you think it’s time for Se Ga to appoint a new clan head? Hasn’t Father said anything about it?”
……
Dan Mok Hyeon U stared at his sister with wide eyes. ‘She said she wouldn’t bring up strange things.’ Dan Mok Hyeon Yo’s gaze flickered away. ‘It’s not that strange.’
“He hasn’t mentioned it?”
Appointing a clan head meant choosing the future successor and master of Se Ga, and with the Family Head still alive and well, it was a matter no one dared broach lightly.
“Who did you want it to be? You, perhaps?”
“No, what do you mean, us becoming clan head?”
Neither Dan Mok Hyeon Yo nor Dan Mok Hyeon U had ever entertained the thought of becoming clan head themselves.
The shadow of their dead brother gripped their ankles that firmly.
“Of course not. It would be Ryeon.”
“Does your niece have no other options besides Ryeon?”
“There’s also Bi, and Seong.”
Dan Mok Hyeon Yo’s brow furrowed with effort—a protest that Dan Mok Hyeon U wasn’t saying what she wanted to hear.
“Ryeon’s only just gotten up after lying ill for so long. How could you entrust such a grave responsibility as clan head to someone so frail?”
“Seong has been living away from Zhejiang Province all this time, dragged along by her sister. She knows nothing about what’s here—what could she possibly do?”
“Father told her to stay in Hang Zhou now. She’ll learn quickly as time passes.”
“Ryeon’s recovered now, so she’ll learn quickly too.”
“Are you siding with the Internal Branch leader?”
“Is the Internal Branch leader a stranger? She’s our sister-in-law and one of our Se Ga people—don’t talk about taking sides.”
“You know that’s not what I’m saying.”
Dan Mok Hyeon U scratched his cheek. In some sense, he understood both his sister’s words and her dilemma.
The position of clan head for Se Ga had remained vacant ever since Dan Mok Hyeon Seong’s death.
Appointing the next Family Head was tantamount to declaring Se Ga’s future, and until now, no one had dared to settle the matter.
“What’s all this chatter about?”
The door opened then, and Dan Mok Cheon Gi and Wi Ji Cheong entered side by side.
Dan Mok Hyeon Yo’s lips curved upward in a smile even as Wi Ji Cheong caught sight of them and broke into a radiant grin. Dan Mok Hyeon Yo’s eyes slipped away as though caught.
“Ah, Father.”
“People will think you two are the Family Heads, the way you’re going on about clan heads this and that! Even the sparrows outside have heard it all.”
Dan Mok Hyeon Yo’s face flushed crimson. She reflexively glanced at Wi Ji Cheong’s expression, but he continued to smile warmly at her.
“And what nonsense are you speaking, discussing children not yet ten years old?”
“I understand they’re young, Father. But since Elder Brother passed, and it’s been so long now……”
Dan Mok Hyeon Yo pressed her lips firmly together, avoiding Wi Ji Cheong’s eyes as she continued.
“There’s been a vacancy ever since.”
“……And you think placing a child not yet ten in that empty seat serves any purpose?”
“Still. I myself have stepped down from the position of Acting Family Head.”
Dan Mok Cheon Gi regarded his daughter with a stern gaze.
Dan Mok Hyeon Yo held his eyes without flinching, her lips pressed shut. Dan Mok Cheon Gi waved his hand dismissively.
“It is premature. When the children have grown sufficiently, we shall appoint the next Family Head and transfer the position to them.”
“But Father, it’s already so late……”
“Are you wishing me dead, then, offering prayers for my demise?”
In an instant, Dan Mok Hyeon Yo’s face went pale. Even as she stammered in denial, Dan Mok Cheon Gi spoke with finality.
“I shall observe and assess the children’s qualities twice each year. The decision regarding a successor comes after that.”
The decision would be made only after the children had come of age.
Dan Mok Hyeon Yo drew a long breath, but soon found she could accept it.
For her, the very fact that she had not heard a confirmation that Dan Mok Hyeon Seong’s firstborn would be the successor to Se Ga was harvest enough.

* * *

Shreeee!
Ryeon’s skill with the Fragrant Bamboo Flute was improving, albeit slowly.
The primary problem was insufficient lung capacity, which caused her tone to be somewhat harsh.
Yet of late, she had begun producing something resembling proper notes.
“Are you not disappointed?”
After tiring herself out with persistent squeaking, Ryeon set the flute aside and, while stroking Baek Ryeon, lifted her head.
Across from her, Dan Mok Hyeon U had been skillfully plucking the Pipa to match Ryeon’s impossible melody and now adjusted the strings as he posed his question.
Ryeon tilted her head.
“About what?”
“That your grandfather didn’t immediately make you clan head.”
Ryeon shook her head.
The affair stirred quite a commotion in the household. Nursemaid Chang’s eyes glistened with tears as she pulled Jung Young aside and privately aired her grievances.

─ How could the external branch leader turn around and drive out young Ryeon like this…….

Yet Ryeon herself seemed unbothered.
“I’m fine with it.”
“Fine with it? Even if Bi becomes the next clan head?”
Dan Mok Hyeon U asked, his expression mingling concern with amusement. Ryeon gently stroked the white cat’s head.
“Grandfather said he’d decide after we all grew up anyway, didn’t he? We’ll know when the time comes, won’t we?”
Ryeon actually thought it was fortunate that Dan Mok Hyeon Yo had raised the succession question—it had officially postponed the matter in a way that suited her.
In her previous life, she had been too sickly, and Dan Mok Bi was still too young, so she had appointed Dan Mok Seong as clan head on a provisional basis.
Dan Mok Seong, driven by ambition and pride, had worked hard to meet the expectations of the previous family head in her role as clan head.
She was the sort of person who achieved more when given expectation and purpose, though even that had its limits.
Neither the previous family head nor her mother Dan Mok Hyeon Yo had managed to step out of the shadow cast by the former clan head Dan Mok Hyeon Seong.

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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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