The Time-Limited Elixir of the Ruined Clan - Chapter 88

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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 Final Promise of a Fallen Great Family — Episode 88

“So… you did apologize to that Seo Geuk Rim?”
“Y-yes, but that was his fault!”
“His fault how?”
Dan Mok Jun cried out in a trembling voice.
“I gave him clothes, I gave him food, I was so good to him, but he did better than me……”
‘This kid’s going to drive me mad.’
“If you’re kind to someone, should they be worse than you?”
“That’s not it — he’s from an even lower cadet branch than me……”
“So if he’s from a lower cadet branch, he should be worse than you? If he’s better, should you poison him and have him killed?”
“But… but… Grandfather……”
Dan Mok Jun hunched his shoulders and let his words trail off as he glanced nervously at Baek Ui Myeong. Finally, Baek Ui Myeong exploded.
“That crazy old man abandoned the boy!”
“What?”
Dan Mok Jun’s eyes went wide. He had never heard — never even imagined — his grandfather, who loomed as vast as heaven itself, spoken of as a “crazy old man.”
Baek Ui Myeong, unaware that Dan Mok Jun was shocked for a different reason, pressed on.
“You did wrong. Do you understand? You can’t live your life killing every child who does better than you, every child born lower than you! You’re nothing special!”
‘Good lord, I’m actually teaching a child. What kind of fate is this?’
“Y-yes……”
“When someone else does better than you, just accept it. Think ‘Oh, so they’re good at that,’ and move on.”
And in that moment, Dan Mok Jun found himself recalling the last voice he’d heard at the Great Family.
— You’re not being sent away because you’re worse than Seo Geuk Rim, or because this was discovered, or for that reason.
A small girl, barely shorter than him, had met his eyes and spoken those words. Her cold voice made his body instinctively shrink.
The girl had stared at him with a complex expression for a long time, then taken a deep breath and left him with a cryptic statement.
— Someday I’ll have to break the blade inside you. The one that wounds others and wounds yourself.
Why did those words, to which she’d added ‘though they’ll mean nothing to you now, nor help you,’ come back to him now?
“Yes!”
Baek Ui Myeong, seeing Dan Mok Jun answer with such vigor, instead let his own shoulders sag.
He, who had boasted so proudly, had he not failed to do exactly that and ended up here? A baseless shame crept up his neck, flushing it red.
‘Damn it.’
“Later, when you see… what was his name again… apologize to him properly……”
“Yes!”
“And he stayed with the Great Family?”
“Yes……”
“Well, thank goodness for that much, at least.”
“Thank… goodness?”
Dan Mok Jun’s expression showed he didn’t understand. Baek Ui Myeong glared at him.
“If he’d failed because of what you did? If you’d ruined his life, how would you ever repay that?”
“Ah……”
“Thank goodness he passed, that’s all.”
“Yes… but do you think Geuk Rim will ever… forgive me?”
“That’s his decision, not something you can control.”
At Baek Ui Myeong’s rather cold words, Dan Mok Jun hung his head as though his spirit had been broken, yet he said nothing about going home.
Baek Ui Myeong knew in that moment with sudden clarity: he wouldn’t be able to abandon this foolish little boy.
‘Sigh… what am I going to tell the elder? Where am I supposed to find money to feed and raise one more child? Is this really all right?’
Everything seemed hopelessly uncertain. The Money Pouch that Dan Mok Jun’s mother had left behind felt heavy as a lead weight.

* * *

The dull, dark carp’s body had gradually turned white, and lately its crimson markings had returned, beautiful and vivid.
‘I haven’t even fed it, so I hope nothing goes wrong. Heuk Wol is the one I’ve been feeding regularly myself.’
An unfounded worry made her hesitant to approach, but the moment the carp sensed Dan Mok Ryeon’s presence, it flailed its tail with such enthusiasm that she couldn’t pretend not to notice.
So she drew near and watched as the revitalized carp danced eagerly through the Pond, splashing water onto Dan Mok Ryeon in greeting.
As Dan Mok Ryeon fanned the clear pond water once and rose to her feet, Dan Mok Hyeon U came rushing over from the distance, his robes billowing behind him.
“Ryeon! Have you arrived?”
“Uncle.”
“Oh dear, I’m late. My apologies.”
“No, not at all! I just got here myself.”
“Were you watching the carp?”
Ryeon nodded. Dan Mok Hyeon U gazed down at the Pond with an air of fascination, but the carp—which had once been his own pet for so long—merely swam about with indifferent, leisurely strokes beneath his gaze.
“Since you care for this creature so dearly, what if we gave it a name?”
“A… a name?”
The thought of Heuk Wol flickered in her mind, and she wanted to demur, but the carp flicked its tail vigorously once more.
“Look at that! This one approves too.”
She wanted to protest that it was surely coincidence—that if the fish truly understood and was consenting, that itself would be a problem—but the moment her eyes met Dan Mok Hyeon U’s gaze, brimming with joy and delight, such thoughts dissolved like watercolor in rain.
If naming a carp could bring her uncle such happiness, so be it.
“The thing is, I’m not very good at naming things. I called the black rooster ‘Blackie’ and then it became Heuk Wol, and the white cat I’m raising—I called it ‘Whitey’ at first, but…”
“Ah…”
That cat had eventually become Baek Ryeon.
“This one has red markings too, so maybe ‘Reddish’…?”
“Then—Hong Rin!”

It’s perfect, isn’t it? Since it has red markings, your name is exactly the same as the one you came up with!”
Dan Mok Hyeon U spoke in urgent haste, and there was such earnestness in his voice that Ryeon quickly nodded.
“Hong Rin! I love it. It’s perfect. I hope the carp likes it too.”
The moment Ryeon said “I love it,” the carp that had been swimming lazily suddenly darted about with brisk, nimble strokes.
“Ha! It seems the creature is delighted!”
Ryeon gazed down at Hong Rin and smiled softly.
‘At least the name doesn’t contain the character for blue or verdant,’

she thought with relief.
Both were characters meaning shades of blue or green.
Though Heuk Wol had become something mystical—a phoenix or vermillion bird, perhaps—without so much as a single character meaning red in its name, still, there was no need to invite further trouble by naming the carp with such characters as well.
‘Should I ask about changing Baek Ryeon’s name too? To Green Lotus or Water Lotus instead?’
But that thought crumbled as quickly as it arose. Hwa Ryun would surely protest that changing a child’s name like that would confuse her and hurt her feelings.
“Very well, then! Today let’s play some music for Hong Rin as well.”
Dan Mok Hyeon U, having changed out of his sweat-soaked clothes, quickly took his seat across from Ryeon and lifted the Pipa into his hands.
As Ryeon’s health improved and her lung capacity strengthened, her proficiency with the Flute had grown at a remarkable pace.
Her tone was still soft and delicate, but these days half her time was spent in lessons and the other half in enjoying performances alongside Dan Mok Hyeon U.
“These children nowadays have such excellent enthusiasm.”
Dan Mok Hyeon U plucked at the Pipa’s strings, adjusting the pitch as he spoke.
“I was quite taken aback at first…”
Until now, Dan Mok Hyeon U had taught only Dan Mok Ryeon.
Though it was characters rather than martial arts that he had instructed, he had taught a child who grasped everything in a single demonstration, digested it completely, and then showed him entirely new depths of understanding—and now, for the first time, he was teaching other children.
At first, Dan Mok Hyeon U thought he must be doing something terribly wrong, and he spent sleepless nights in distress.
When he explained once, the children didn’t understand; explaining twice didn’t help either; he had to explain three times before they grasped it. Was this simply how children were, or was he truly teaching so poorly?
It was Dan Mok Han So who eased his worries. She would observe his lessons and afterward burst into hearty laughter.
“My goodness, you’re doing wonderfully!”
“Are you certain? But why don’t the children understand even after I explain?”
The unspoken thought—’Ryeon just understood right away’—hung in the air between them both.
“Young Miss Ryeon is rather special, after all. Think back to when the Young Master was a boy. Did he grasp your older brother’s words immediately?”
Only then did Dan Mok Hyeon U regain his composure. His brother had sometimes offered to teach him willingly enough, but the process itself had been anything but gentle.
Dan Mok Hyeon Seong could never understand why Dan Mok Hyeon U failed to comprehend something, and Dan Mok Hyeon U could never fathom why his brother spoke so cryptically.
And so their lessons always ended in disaster. After each quarrel, Dan Mok Hyeon Seong would make him Bing Tang Hu Lu—a sweet and sour confection with no pleasant flavor to speak of.
As a boy, Dan Mok Hyeon U had thought this was his brother tormenting him, and he had thrown it away and wept.
“Now that I think of it that way, it makes sense.”
At Dan Mok Hyeon U’s words, Dan Mok Han So finally laughed in earnest.
“Are you finding it enjoyable, teaching the children?”
Dan Mok Hyeon U nodded with a satisfied expression.
“Sometimes it feels as though nothing has changed, and other times it seems they grow by leaps and bounds each day. They’re so remarkable.”
Dan Mok Hyeon U spoke thus and unfolded the new Sheet Music he had procured today.
“It’s said to be popular at the Marketplace these days. I heard it’s quite a refined melody and many seek it out, so I thought I’d obtain a copy.”

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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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