The Time-Limited Elixir of the Ruined Clan - Chapter 62

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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 Fading Clan’s Designated Heir — Episode 62

“Hmm…….”
Dan Mok Seong spread the Blade Manual back and forth, wrestling with the problem. After some time had passed, he seemed to grasp something and shot up from his seat.
“Ah! I’ve got it! It’s to slip out of the opponent’s attack range!”
“At the same time, there’s an intent to gain attacking distance too. The blade needs some space to swing through, after all…….”
Dan Mok Seong took Hwa Ryun’s subtle addition to heart and began repeating the motion of turning the manual forward and backward multiple times.

[Dan Mok Seong’s Learning]
[Fortune Value: 23/120 (2▲)]

‘Impressive.’
As the intelligent and gifted Dan Mok Seong immersed himself, his learning was steadily climbing.
After lingering briefly in the joy of the profound enlightenment he had discovered, Dan Mok Seong finally composed himself and turned to an earlier page in the manual.
“I, I had a question about this. The third form. I can’t move the blade smoothly there — how do you manage it?”
“Ah! That form looks like it was designed to counter a sword. When they thrust in, you sidestep one pace to the side, and using that momentum you strike their weapon downward. So that means…….”
Hwa Ryun picked up a pair of chopsticks she had been using for snacks and demonstrated simply.
Dan Mok Seong’s eyes sparkled as he watched, but soon his expression dimmed slightly.
“Then it won’t be useful in the upcoming spar. Geum Ga Jang uses a blade…….”
Hwa Ryun quickly shook her head.
From where she sat, she could see clearly that Dan Mok Seong’s talent was blossoming as he learned the blade.
And quite apart from whether he had talent, it was obvious how much joy it brought him.
“In any case, what you’ve learned now — if you just remember it, won’t there be a use for it someday?”
Hwa Ryun murmured softly. Her words seemed to suggest he would continue wielding the blade, and Dan Mok Seong almost smiled without thinking, then caught himself and hurriedly urged her to ask another question instead.
Looking at Dan Mok Seong’s eyes, Hwa Ryun found herself thinking of Dan Mok Hyeon Yo’s face, and a bitter smile crossed her lips.
‘My aunt…….’
No one in this household had ever escaped the shadow of Dan Mok Hyeon Seong.
Dan Mok Seong’s name was taken from Dan Mok Hyeon Seong — a man who had once been trustworthy above all others, but who grew weaker with each passing year. A name given in hope for his eventual recovery.
Dan Mok Hyeon Yo wanted her daughter to stand at the summit with the sword, just as her brother once had.
She believed it was possible.
Hwa Ryun felt an inexplicable heaviness settle over her, and she quietly set down the cake she had been eating.
Dan Mok Seong, absorbed in the manual before him, missed Hwa Ryun’s mood entirely.
Unable to wait for Hwa Ryun to ask questions, Dan Mok Seong began asking her various things instead, and she answered each one with sincerity.
Thanks to this, his Fortune Value increased by one more point, but Hwa Ryun could not smile as easily as before.

* * *

Once Hwa Ryun had finished writing a reply to the short letter Dan Mok Bi had sent her, she carefully set down her brush.
“Sigh. It’s hard writing a reply using only the characters she’s learned…….”
“Did she bother you?”
Hwa Ryun, who had been standing beside her stroking a white-furred cat while watching her write the letter, suddenly spoke.
Hwa Ryun’s eyes widened in surprise.
“What? Dan Mok Bi?”
“No, what are you saying…… I meant Dan Mok Seong.”
“W, why my cousin all of a sudden? What did he say to you?”
“He didn’t say anything to me — didn’t he say something to your sister? Why did your mood turn worse after playing with Dan Mok Seong?”
“No…… No, me? My mood turned worse?”
Hwa Ryun kept responding in bewildered tones, but Hwa Ryun simply looked at her as if to ask why she kept stating the obvious.
Fearing that if she did nothing, Hwa Ryun really would rush off to find Dan Mok Seong, Hwa Ryun quickly grabbed her hand.
“No! Ryun, it’s not like that.”
“Then what is it?”
“It’s not that my mood turned worse.”
Hwa Ryun gave her a look that said she shouldn’t lie. Hwa Ryun let out a short, heavy sigh.
“Hmm. It didn’t get worse — it’s just gotten a little strange.”
“Because of him?”
“No, that’s not really Seong’s fault either……”
“Then Dan Mok Hyeon……”
Baek Ryeon quickly covered Hwa Ryun’s mouth. This little one had no sense of propriety or hierarchy. Though, to be fair, she only behaved that way in front of her.
“The thing is, Seong’s name comes from the last syllable of our father’s name.”
“And…?”
“Our father is already gone, but Seong……”
Baek Ryeon trailed off, smoothing down a strand of her fallen hair.
“I thought it might be a burden for him. Suddenly thinking about our father who’s no longer here…and worrying about Seong too, so my mood just became a bit……”
“Hmm, I don’t even know who my parents are.”
Suddenly thrown with those words from Hwa Ryun, Baek Ryeon found herself without a reply.
Even after a Lightning Bomb exploded, the silence wouldn’t be quite this heavy.
Even Hwa Ryun, the one who’d spoken, was taken aback by that terrible quiet.
“No, what I meant was—um, since there are cases like mine too, I just thought you might feel better, sister.”
“You have no parents at all, and I still have my mother, so if you’re telling me to cheer up, then I’d be……”
This isn’t your average kind of awful.
At Baek Ryeon’s bewildered murmur, Hwa Ryun even coughed before breaking into laughter.
“Don’t say things like that.”
“That’s what I should be saying. Why are you talking like that?”
“Well, having one missing doesn’t make it better, and having two doesn’t make it worse, does it?”
“You’re not a baby anymore.”
“N-no?”
Hwa Ryun’s head snapped up.
“From what I can see, you’re…too clever to be just a seven-year-old child. Really. Whatever you set your mind to, you’ll achieve great things.”
“Ugh, really! What now……You already agreed I’d learn martial arts.”
Baek Ryeon’s eyes narrowed, and she smiled slyly.
“How about the pipa?”
“I’ll learn the pipa too. There—happy?”
“Then the Seven-String Zither as well……”
“Wouldn’t it be better to learn just one of the two?”
Baek Ryeon thought seriously for a moment before speaking.
“Then the pipa.”
“Why did you choose the pipa?”
“The zither’s too large to carry around. Later, when you travel the martial world with me, you won’t be able to bring it along.”
“Ah.”
Baek Ryeon and Hwa Ryun went back and forth on that non-topic a bit longer, only stopping when the ink in Baek Ryeon’s inkstone ran low.
“Setting aside the pipa, but there’s no real need for sister to be studying that Blade Technique either, is there?”
Hwa Ryun picked up a few sticks of ink, speaking as she did.
Right now, Baek Ryeon was organizing the Sword Manual precisely because she wanted to find techniques that could be applied to the Black Wind Single Heaven Blade.
It wasn’t something people focused on learning swordsmanship typically did.
Baek Ryeon rubbed her sore arms and shook her head.
“Still, if you learn it, everything finds its use later, doesn’t it?”
Baek Ryeon, who had been dozing softly on Hwa Ryun’s lap, suddenly opened her eyes wide and sprang up, nestling into Baek Ryeon’s arms. The inkstone nearly tipped over, but Hwa Ryun deftly caught it.
“Baek Ryeon…you’ve grown quite a bit?”
When she first found her, the white kitten had been about the size of an adult’s fist, but now her front paws seemed thicker and her tail fluffier, and something about it was starting to feel distinctly strange.
‘Surely not……”
Baek Ryeon briefly recalled the Phoenix incident, then deliberately scattered her thoughts. Such things couldn’t happen multiple times like clockwork, could they?
“By the way, what do you think, Hwa Ryun……”
She was just about to ask whether this pretty, white kitten might look like it could become a white tiger.

Dan Mok Han So’s Enlightenment 5
Current Fortune/Luck Value: 28/120 (4▲)
You have partially repaid the help you received. Through repaying kindness, you gain additional Fortune/Luck Value.

‘What? She just glared at me so much, and now she’s gained enlightenment on her own?’
Dan Mok Han So felt that she owed a great debt, so she wanted to repay it if possible.
But how did she gain enlightenment so suddenly?
‘What did she hear in my words to achieve this?’
Given that her Fortune/Luck Value had increased, it seemed she’d gained this inspiration while being with her, but Dan Mok Han So couldn’t tell where exactly the spark had come from. Not that she was complaining, though.
“Sister?”
“Ah…no. I mean, the cat. Maybe I should adjust her diet?”
As she reached over and gently stretched the white cat’s belly, Hwa Ryun’s expression turned serious.
“That’s not Baek Ryeon’s real body, you know.”
“No, what I meant was—”
“Even if she eats, it’s not like she eats much. Why would you try to keep her from eating?”
“Ryun, that’s not what I—”
Hwa Ryun plucked Baek Ryeon from Ryeon’s arms with a swift motion. The white cat dangled her limbs in the air, her confused gaze flickering between the two of them.
Hwa Ryun fixed Ryeon with an aggrieved expression before hurrying from the room. Left behind, Ryeon reached out, then burst into laughter and followed after her.
“Ryun!”
“Does my sister want to keep this little thing from eating what she wants to eat?”
“No, of course not. Of course not. It’s just that I heard cats can get joint pain if they gain weight, so—”
“She’s still growing, so it’s fine. You have to eat a lot during this time to grow strong.”
“You’re right, you’re right. I was wrong.”
As Ryeon spoke in a soothing tone, Hwa Ryun raised her eyebrows and looked at her, her expression tinged with lingering offense. She seemed to think she’d been won over by Ryeon’s persuasion.
Ryeon reached over and ruffled Hwa Ryun’s hair in a gentle, playful way. Hwa Ryun let out a deep sigh, then gathered Baek Ryeon into her arms, settling her properly.
Baek Ryeon gave a small meow, still looking thoroughly bewildered.
“Didn’t you think Baek Ryeon’s cry sounded a bit odd just now? Wasn’t there something like a purr in it?”
“Now you’re even finding fault with her meow? You want to keep her from speaking as she pleases?”
“No, that’s not what I meant—”

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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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