The Time-Limited Elixir of the Ruined Clan - Chapter 78

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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 Falling Great House’s Time-Limited Young Master — Episode 78

“People can’t give endlessly. They can only give what they have. Naturally, once you start giving like that, it runs dry. So superiors must cherish their subordinates, subordinates must respect their superiors, and… it has to be that way between family, between friends too.”
“It didn’t have to be that way.”
“What did you say?”
He’d muttered it so quietly that Hwa Ryun nearly missed it.
Hwa Ryun stared at him in surprise, then shook his shoulder.
“You didn’t actually go to some weird temple, did you? Is that the kind of place where someone called an abbot exploits people?”
“No, no, that’s not it!”
“Then what do you mean it didn’t have to be that way? You… wait! Now that I think about it, when I first met you, didn’t you say you go to a temple? That temple! Where is it?”
“I was just joking around!”
“On a first meeting? The moment you see someone’s face and start talking about pseudo-religion, that’s supposed to be joking around?”

Hwa Ryun gripped his shoulders with a serious expression.
“Listen, I… I’d really prefer it if you kept your distance from religion. I’d rather you didn’t get involved with Taoism, Buddhism, any of that……”
“……”
“Of course, if you want to believe in the Buddha, the Buddha is fine, maybe even the Primordial Lord Laozi would be acceptable……”
“What about the Celestial Maiden of the Nine Heavens?”
What little appetite he had vanished entirely.
‘That’s what the Ma Cheon Gyo worships!’
“Do you… need religion? Is your heart feeling a bit… empty? Not that religion is something you believe in just because you feel spiritually hollow. But— then, would you believe in me instead?”
“……”
“Was I too much?”
“A little.”
“I was just trying. And come to think of it, you do something strange — what you do and what you say don’t quite match.”
“Excuse me?”
Hwa Ryun looked at him in confusion.
“Even when you receive just one thing, you absolutely, absolutely, positively insist on returning it.”
“That’s……”
He wasn’t particularly averse to snacks; the reason he wouldn’t eat what others gave him and would hand them to Hwa Ryun instead was that he saw receiving such things as creating a debt.
This was also why he showed no interest when Hwa Ryun suggested trying to learn various things.
Learning something actually required a great price to repay. The moment he thought of repaying it, he refused to learn.
As Hwa Ryun’s lips began to move, he shook his head.
“You don’t have to repay things like that.”
“Don’t have to repay? What does that even mean?”
“I give to you because I find you adorable, so just accept it and say thank you. That’s all.”
“What use is being adorable? I still don’t understand what you want me to do.”
“You do realize you’re adorable, right?”
“I just learned what this feeling is like — answering a question with a question.”
“Right? So I shouldn’t do that, should I?”
Hwa Ryun glared at him briefly, then pouted.
Hwa Ryun tried to say something more but stopped himself. He’d spoken as if he were the righteous one, but he couldn’t honestly swear he’d kept every word he’d ever spoken.
And beyond the stone wall, a short distance away, another boy was watching the two of them bicker intently.
Since branches obscured his face, Hwa Ryun lifted his fan slightly toward where he sensed the presence.

Dan Mok Jun
Characteristic Trait: A bruised tangerine / One who kicks over rice bowls / Beneath dark shadows / An overgrown branch
Twelve Stars Falling Blade: 1st Star
Aptitude and Five-Star Rating: Middle-Lower
Worry: How can I seize that position?

The moment words blazed across the fan’s surface, Hwa Ryun’s expression darkened.
‘This bastard, Dan Mok Jun!’
Dan Mok Jun.
Truth be told, the moment I saw this name, I wanted nothing more than to burn the documents on the spot, boot him out, and be done with it.
Dan Mok Seong had stayed behind alone to protect Dan Mok Bi—the wretched situation that necessitated such a sacrifice was Dan Mok Jun’s doing.
By the time I had passed, the direct line consisted of Dan Mok Hyeon Yo, who could hardly be called a master of supreme skill, Dan Mok Hyeon U, who hadn’t shed his lingering attachments, and Dan Mok Seong and Dan Mok Bi—that was all.
So Dan Mok Jun thought that if he could just remove Dan Mok Seong and Dan Mok Bi, he could become whatever he wished, and while Blood Coral Valley churned in turmoil, he schemed within the clan.
Though the calamity of Blood Coral Valley shook the entire martial world with impartial ferocity, the Dan Mok Clan bore a particularly heavy blow—in part because the number of direct-line blood relatives was so few.
‘And yet he was close to Seong…’
Though Dan Mok Seong appeared cold and aloof on the surface, his inner nature was not the same. His characteristic trait of “inner discord with outer harmony” existed for a reason.
Being one who cherished his kinfolk dearly, Dan Mok Seong dreamed of developing the clan to meet everyone’s expectations.
He had spoken earnestly of working hard together, and Dan Mok Seong too had treasured and felt intimacy toward Dan Mok Jun.
‘No. Casting that bastard out can wait.’
Part of me wanted to rush straight to the stone wall, grab him by the hair, shake him, and throw him out—but I held back.
I couldn’t do that to a child who had yet to commit any actual crime.
Ryun didn’t want to look in that direction anymore, so he turned his head sharply—and in that moment came a tremendous clatter, followed by the sound of hurried footsteps fleeing.
‘Hmph, he wasn’t even approached, yet he startled and fell all the same.’
Ryun scoffed at him once more in silence, then deliberately made his footsteps click and clack as he made his way toward the residence. Hwa Ryun, who stood beside him, matched his leisurely pace.
Behind them, the sunset deepened. And so the final trial drew near.

* * *

The vast Training Grounds were packed with people, but since the confrontation with Geum Ga Jang the last time had been more nerve-wracking, Ryun sat down before the table prepared on the upper platform without the slightest concern.
The other adults had apparently not yet arrived. As the young girl took her seat above, a murmur rippled through the Training Grounds.
— She’s being examined too?
— Who is she? She looks even younger than me.
— Isn’t she direct line?
— The primary heir, wasn’t she? Why’s that corpse…
— They say she made Clear Lotus Water. Is it really true?
— Genius is genius, I suppose.
— If she were a genius, would she be sitting there? She’s sitting because she’s direct line. You’re here because you’re branch line.
Ryun caught Dan Mok Jun’s words at the end and listened carefully, though she found herself glancing toward Hwa Ryun.
‘I hope he didn’t hear that.’
Hwa Ryun was outwardly indifferent but possessed a quiet depth of affection—though Ryun didn’t know exactly what lengths he had gone to in order to retrieve that pouch containing the jade fragment, she knew he had made the effort—and he could not bear to see Ryun suffer insult.
There had been times when he spoke of going to beat someone up for no greater offense than Dan Mok Seong treating him with a touch of coldness.
Yet the Hwa Ryun standing beside her now showed no sign of having heard. As Ryun internally sighed with relief, Hwa Ryun leaned in slightly to whisper.
“Sister, may I step out for a moment?”
“Why? Does your leg hurt? Would you like to sit in a chair?”
“No, it’s not that. Sister Dan Mok Bi asked me to bring fish food for the carp, and I forgot.”
“You don’t have to do things like that.”
These days, Dan Mok Bi was throwing all her effort into taming the carp that lived in the pond at Dan Mok Hyeon U’s residence.
She had been charmed at first sight when the carp swam toward her at the mere sight of Ryun and splashed its tail in the water.
Hwa Ryun shook his head and shrugged his shoulders.
“If I bring that, she said she’d let me have one whole day where I don’t have to play with her.”
“That sounds like a lie.”
Dan Mok Bi was desperate to play with Ryun and Hwa Ryun. There was no way she would leave Hwa Ryun to his own devices for an entire day.
Yet since Hwa Ryun continued to want to leave, and standing here seemed as though it might grow tedious, Ryun nodded silently in assent.
Hwa Ryun simply drew the teacup that sat by Ryun’s place a little closer to her, then departed the Training Grounds.
The moment Ryun’s eyes left Hwa Ryun’s retreating figure, Dan Mok Hyeon U and Dan Mok Hyeon Yo entered, followed lastly by Dan Mok Cheon Gi.
At once, the Training Grounds grew taut with tension.
The violent scar Dan Mok Cheon Gi had borne since Dong Jung Hyul Sa evoked both glory and dread in equal measure.
It was Ryun who broke the silence first. She rose quickly from her seat to greet the adults.
“The weather’s grown chill—why have you dressed so lightly?”
Dan Mok Cheon Gi, who had been entering at a leisurely pace, caught sight of Ryun and immediately furrowed his brow, quickening his step.
Ryun looked down at her own attire and felt embarrassed. She was wearing a vest fitted for the autumn temperature, yet it seemed to Dan Mok Cheon Gi that she wore nothing but a thin linen tunic.
“It’s not that cold, and my clothes are quite warm!”
Dan Mok Hyeon Yo let out a short snort, but she refrained from saying something like, “Surely she’s dressed warmly enough, Father—why make such a fuss?” to Dan Mok Cheon Gi, the family head.
She was not the sort of person who could allow herself to be seen slighting her father, the head of the household, or her niece before all these people.
“Your grandmother knew nothing of cold, either…”
Dan Mok Cheon Gi murmured with a hint of longing, then took the seat beside Ryun.
Dan Mok Hyeon Yo could not cry out, “You ought to sit in the center, Father!” and merely swallowed a sigh.
Instead, Dan Mok Han So etched the sight into her memory, then with a slouching gait carried a table over herself and set it down with a thud on Ryun’s opposite side.
With Dan Mok Hyeon Yo and Hyeon U seated in line beside Dan Mok Cheon Gi, the arrangement contrived to keep Dan Mok Cheon Gi in the center position.
Once the murmur in the hall had subsided somewhat, Dan Mok Cheon Gi opened his mouth to speak.

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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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