The Time-Limited Elixir of the Ruined Clan - Chapter 72

—————
This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
—————

The Declining Clan’s Limited Time Promise — Episode 72

* * *

The Flute lesson had petered out. Hwa Ryun couldn’t concentrate properly during her afternoon session with Dan Mok Cheon Gi either, and ended up being scolded by him.
Though Dan Mok Cheon Gi, understanding why she was distracted, didn’t scold her too harshly.
‘I’m fine now, so why does Uncle still…….’
It had been the same in her past life.
Until the last moment she remembered, Dan Mok Hyeon U had never managed to shake off the Heart Demon.
She understood that people’s hearts don’t bend to their will, but it still ached.
“……Um, I learned something new this time.”
Hwa Ryun, who had been lying face-down on the bed, lifted her head at the voice beside her. She spoke almost casually, holding a small feather ornament as she played with the cat Baek Ryeon.
Hwa Ryun realized that she was trying to redirect attention out of concern for her.
“Hm? Something new? Who taught you what?”
“There’s this man named Cho Il at Jae Gyeong Gak.”
Hwa Ryun let out a brief sigh. Cho Il, who handled all the miscellaneous duties of the senior steward, seemed to her like someone who might have just turned twenty.
‘He’s not really old enough to be called “mister”……’
“What did you learn from him? Don’t tell me you learned the Abacus or something?”
“……No.”
Hwa Ryun answered with tepid indifference at Hwa Ryun’s overly eager questioning.
“Oh? I just thought learning the Abacus might be useful someday. Someone said that Cho Il fellow at Jae Gyeong Gak is so skilled at flicking the Abacus that the senior steward brought him here for it. They say he’s practically a god at it, a god.”
Hwa Ryun made a motion with her fingertips as if plucking an abacus.
“So I figured that even a single skill like that might prove useful in an emergency.”
“……”
“What? Why aren’t you saying anything?”
Hwa Ryun stared at her quietly for a moment, then her expression grew serious. She heaved a deep sigh and ran her hand through her hair.
Then she spoke heavily.
“Are you trying to raise every servant who walks in here like they’re your own child?”
“What are you going on about?”
“You don’t even scold them when they act presumptuously?”
“Is that what people call it — ‘my younger sibling did this, my younger sibling did that’?”
“But you’re not even a real sibling.”
“I’m hurt, you…”
“Stop joking around.”
“I’m not joking. Why suddenly say you’re not a real sibling like that?”
“Is there blood between you and me? Or do you even know whose child I am?”
“Does family only exist through blood? If we decide to be family, then we’re family. Then are our mother and father strangers to each other too? Mother was an orphan, and there’s no blood tie between her and Father.”
“If there were blood between them, they couldn’t have married at all! That’s a different situation entirely!”
“Or else… Oh!”
Hwa Ryun, who had been speaking until that point, suddenly rose from her seat with a look of realization dawning on her face.
Her eyes sparkled so brightly that the light seemed to pour forth like starlight.
“Do you want to become part of the Dan Mok Clan? Do you? Good! Then let’s do it. I’m all for it.”
“W—what are you saying now? Where did your mind go!”
“You said you’re not a real sibling, right? So let’s be truly family now. Hwa Ryun is pretty, but Dan Mok Hwa Ryun sounds nice too. I shouldn’t just call you family in words—I should…”
“No! That won’t work! It won’t!”
Hwa Ryun kicked herself up from her seat and bolted halfway out the door.
The door swung open, and the fragrance of osmanthus flowers planted in the garden rushed in. Jeong Young, standing guard at the side gate in the residence wall, turned with a puzzled expression.
“It’s nothing! Sister—no, Miss, please come back inside, I’m begging you!”
Since Hwa Ryun was acting as though she might faint, Hwa Ryun calmed her racing heart and stepped back inside.
Hwa Ryun closed the door with hands that trembled from exasperation, then wiped her face with both palms.
“Where exactly were you trying to run off to…?”
“To Mother.”
“What were you going to tell her?”
“To have you adopted as an—”
“No!”
“Why—why are you screaming?”
“Please, stop it.”
“What’s wrong with it?”
Baek Ryeon stared at Hwa Ryun with an expression of utter bewilderment.
“Even if our clan fell on hard times before, you know we’ve made good money now. Your sister is kind, and Mother isn’t the type to discriminate. And to be honest, even if Mother did discriminate, she said she likes what you’re doing anyway.”
Baek Ryeon spoke in the cajoling tone of a merchant hawking wares. Hwa Ryun gasped.
“I’m going to die, seriously.”
“I’m saying all this because I want you to do well. You understand, right?”
“I understand, I do understand…….”
“It doesn’t matter to me whether you’re Hwa Ryun or a golden Hwa Ryun or…… well, actually the golden name is a bit much. A sacred one or a principal one, whatever—people will still treat you better if they hear the name Dan Mok Hwa Ryun.”
“I know that too. I understand what you’re saying, really.”
“Then why do you hate it so much!”
“You can lead a horse to water, but you can’t make it drink. It’s the horse’s will.”
“But why is the horse so unwilling to drink? Huh?”
“Maybe it isn’t thirsty.”
“I really don’t understand…….”
“What’s good for my sister isn’t good for everyone else.”
Baek Ryeon collapsed forward onto the table.
“Then why did you suddenly bring up something so strange?”
“Because I’m trying to tell you—don’t do this!”
“Do what?”
“Pick up every pitiful child you see on the road and raise them like sons!”
“I don’t pick them up.”
“But you picked me up!”
“You’re different, because you’re you…….”
Hwa Ryun suddenly looked at Baek Ryeon with breath caught in her throat.
Baek Ryeon hesitated before speaking.
“I actually…….”
……
“I can see talented children. I can recognize them.”
“What……? What did you say?”
“You have talent. Really. The moment I saw you, I just knew you’d make it.”
“So you brought me because I have talent? What—what kind of talent?”
“You have talent in Martial Arts. Seriously. Tremendous talent.”
Hwa Ryun sprang to his feet, then grabbed his own hair in frustration.
“Then why don’t you just command me to learn Martial Arts if I’m useful? Order me to do it…….”
“But you said you didn’t want to? What’s the point of making someone do what they don’t want to do?”
“So you kept encouraging me to keep learning Martial Arts, and lately you’ve been telling me to try other things instead?”
“Right. Through diverse pursuits of learning, you can find a path suited to your talents and inclinations…….”
“That’s the problem.”
“What—what is?”
A deep weariness, like the regret of someone worn down by the world, settled over Hwa Ryun’s young face. He spoke as if sighing.
“Giving children anything they want, showering them with attention—it ruins their character.”
“You were already a bit ruined when I found you, so you’re fine.”
“Not me! Not me!”
“Then who?”
“The next servant you hire. You can’t treat servants the way you treat me.”
“Do you realize I treat you well? I thought you didn’t know.”
“Not anymore, it seems. Please, can’t you just listen to what I’m saying?”
“I’m listening. And I’ve said it a thousand times—I won’t do that.”
“Right, yes. You said I was brought here because I have talent, correct? Then don’t bring in anyone who doesn’t have more talent than me.”
“What?”
Baek Ryeon’s brow furrowed.
‘Where would I find another child with enough talent to become a Minor Sect Leader of the Ma Cheon Gyo?’
“What are you saying? So I’ll have only you as my servant for the rest of my life?”
“……No…… I mean. No, anyway, if that’s the case, I’ll learn Pipa and Seven-Stringed Zither and the Abacus too.”
“……Really?”
“But teach me Martial Arts—just the basics—and do it yourself.”
“Huh? Grandfather or Father would teach you better than I could…….”
Hwa Ryun shook his head. His refusal was so vehement that Baek Ryeon decided not to press further.
“All right, all right. But then what did you learn from Cho Il?”
“…….”
“…….”
Hwa Ryun’s shoulders sagged, her face suddenly drained of vigor and spirit.
“Why are you slumping again all of a sudden?”
“I don’t know. My mood isn’t cooperating with me.”
“That’s just how people are sometimes.”
Hwa Ryun kept her shoulders drooped as she lit a candle and held her hands before a screen, moving them this way and that. A bird-shaped shadow flickered across it, rather listless in form.
“Ah—did you learn that? No, if it’s something like that, you should have come to me to study!”
“Pardon?”
“Let me show you exactly. Watch carefully.”
Then Baek Ryeon’s dazzling shadow procession unfolded. A barking dog morphed into a horse, and the horse transformed into a goat.
“Do you know what this is?”
Baek Ryeon brought both hands together, touching her index fingers tip to tip while extending only one thumb.
“A teapot!”
“Oh…….”
Until then Hwa Ryun had been somewhat unimpressed, but when Baek Ryeon presented in succession a bird perched on a perch, a running rabbit, a gracefully gliding swan, a deer with large antlers, and a creeping snail, her eyes widened in wonder.
“What do you think?”
“Wow. This is really something. I’ve never seen anything like this before.”
“Of course not. It’s an advanced technique that requires spatial perception and deductive reasoning. Where else would you ever see something like this?”
Baek Ryeon laughed heartily and formed a teapot with her hands again, tilting it as if pouring.
“Have a cup, Young Master Ryun~!”
“Yes, yes. I shall enjoy it.”
“You have to shape your hand into a cup to receive it.”
“Ah, I understand.”
“If you don’t drink it quickly, the teapot will become a bird and fly away!”
“Are you from Sichuan Province? Why are you in such a hurry?”
“Sichuan—my former betrothed lives in Sichuan Province. Ah, there it goes! It’s flying away. You’ve lost your tea now, Ryun.”
“You called me Young Master just moments ago. You had a betrothed too?”
“Would you like me to call you Young Master? Then I could make you my adopted son…….”
“No, no, no! Never mind. I don’t want you calling me that, so please stop.”

—————
This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
—————