The Youngest Prince of the Zhou Family - Chapter 12

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Team. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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Youngest Master of the Zhu Family (12)

Expectation

As soon as I returned to the Zhu Family Estate, I was summoned to the Sword Soul Hall, the Family Head Hall.

The atmosphere of the noble family was far from ordinary.

“…We received contact from the Yu Family.”

“….”

My heart sank at Father’s single sentence.

‘He already informed them.’

It seemed that as soon as I disappeared, Grandfather had requested help from the Zhu Family.

“What kind of trouble have you been causing this time?”

A voice that was beyond cold, practically freezing, pierced through me.

I quietly looked at Father’s face.

“Family Head.”

“Speak.”

“I apologize for acting on my own without informing you first.”

“….”

At those words, the Family Head Ju Tae-seong’s eyebrows twitched.

Not only had he come obediently when summoned to the Sword Soul Hall, but he was even admitting his wrongdoing?

Woo Jin’s change felt quite unfamiliar.

‘Father-in-law said Woo Jin had grown admirably.’

He recalled the contents of the letter Yu Jang-baek had personally written and sent.

Originally, he knew well that Yu Jang-baek was very fond of Woo Jin.

So he thought such a letter was sent with the intention of asking him not to scold too harshly….

“However, I had something I needed to do.”

Woo Jin was already showing an unyielding spirit before him.

“What was this thing you needed to do? Was it something that required you to act on your own without even reporting to the Family Head?”

Still, his opponent was Woo Jin.

How much trouble had Woo Jin caused over the years?

Getting drunk and beating servants like catching mice was commonplace, and he had even brought pleasure house courtesans into the family estate.

His mother was ill, and her only son was behaving like this.

Ju Tae-seong couldn’t help but feel deeply troubled.

“If the Family Head knew, the matter would escalate. If that happened, I would never be able to catch the target I’m pursuing.”

“The target you’re pursuing?”

His words were becoming increasingly absurd.

“Speak clearly. Wasn’t it you who killed a servant at the Yu Family?”

“That’s correct.”

From Ju Tae-seong’s entire body, an overwhelming martial aura that was difficult to resist could be felt.

However, I did not submit.

“Who are you to dare take another’s life so carelessly?”

Now beating wasn’t enough, so he was killing?

Ju Tae-seong’s fury was tremendous enough to shake the Sword Soul Hall.

As much as Father was enraged, his martial aura began to press down on me terrifyingly.

‘Incredible.’

Indeed, he was the Sword Master.

Wasn’t this the bearing befitting one of the Ten Supreme Masters?

My legs began trembling on their own, and my breathing became short as if suffocating.

However, I endured it all.

Though it was overwhelming power that made my mind reel, he wasn’t cold-hearted enough as a father to kill his son.

As expected, Ju Tae-seong’s martial aura gradually subsided.

“It had better be a convincing reason.”

“…Please give me just a little time. There’s someone I must catch.”

“….”

At the same repeated words, Father stared down at me intently.

His expression was terribly cold and frigid, unreadable in his thoughts.

“Ten days. If you cannot provide a reason that satisfies me within those ten days, I will throw you in prison. Do you understand?”

“Yes. I will keep that in mind.”

“Get out.”

I simply bowed my head and left the Sword Soul Hall.

Ten days’ time.

It was tight.

But there was no more room for negotiation.

In fact, considering Father’s personality, this was already showing considerable restraint.

‘Given Father’s personality, if I had told the truth….’

The Zhu Family’s warriors would have flooded the Gangxi Territory.

But that way, we could never catch the Blood Hand Poison Emperor.

Rather, at the slightest threat, he would quickly disappear without a trace.

“First….”

I needed to see Mother.

* * *

I entered the separate residence.

Along with the strong scent of medicine, the servants recognized me and nervously stepped far aside.

Their gazes toward me were still unkind.

“You’re back?”

Mother groggily rose from her seat.

Beside Mother was Hall Master Heo Su-kyung as well.

“How are you feeling?”

I asked while taking Mother’s hand.

“I seem to be feeling a bit better. By the way, you went to visit your maternal family?”

As expected.

She knew.

“Yes. There was an urgent matter….”

“Your maternal grandfather sent an urgent message. Because of that, your father was in quite an uproar.”

“The Family Head was?”

At my words, Mother smiled gently and nodded.

“When he heard you had disappeared, he immediately reached for his sword. He even summoned all the warriors.”

“He did…that much.”

Unexpected.

I hadn’t thought Father would go that far.

“Are you alright?”

“…Yes.”

Mother immediately grasped my hand tightly with both of hers.

Unlike Father, Mother immediately worried about me first.

I couldn’t bear to meet her concerned eyes.

‘Thank goodness.’

I was simply happy to feel the faint pulse transmitted through Mother’s hand.

I could no longer sense any poison qi.

Heo Su-kyung had probably immediately disposed of all the Heavy Relief Decoction.

“I told you, didn’t I? That I wouldn’t do anything to worry you anymore.”

“Then, this mother believes in our son.”

“Please rest, I’ll visit you often.”

I gave my final farewell and left the room.

Soon after, Heo Su-kyung followed me out.

“Young Master.”

“I was just about to ask you about that.”

“You mean Foster Mother’s condition, right?”

Heo Su-kyung watched my expression carefully.

She opened her mouth cautiously.

“I stopped the Heavy Relief Decoction and used medicinal herbs that could neutralize the poison qi as much as possible to suppress it. While I can’t say it’s been completely detoxified, I think we might be able to find materials to make an antidote.”

“Could you delay making the antidote for a bit? If it won’t cause major problems.”

The moment we search for those medicinal herbs, the Blood Hand Poison Emperor will definitely notice.

The fact that he’s here in person means he’s planning to properly conquer the Zhu Family.

In such a situation, if the Zhu Family starts procuring the key ingredients for an antidote to the Heavy Relief Decoction he created?

‘That bastard would definitely flee. He can’t handle the Zhu Family yet.’

Heo Su-kyung, reading my expression, nodded carefully.

“It won’t be a major problem for the time being. However, the drug in the Heavy Relief Decoction is the issue… Since she’s been taking it for about three months, even now she’s actually… enduring it with tremendous willpower. Foster Mother is.”

“I understand.”

I know.

That Mother is barely enduring it.

Even if it’s difficult, she must hold on until the end.

Because that was the only way to save Mother.

I stared blankly at the separate residence where Mother was staying for a long time, then quietly left that place.

​

* * *

​

Mu Ying’s gaze was somewhat strange.

He was following Woo Jin’s retreating figure as he left the separate residence with a serious expression.

‘That guy… and the corpses.’

He recalled what had happened in Shaanxi.

He had blocked a single strike from an opponent whose life couldn’t even be easily guaranteed.

And he definitely seemed to have fainted in Woo Jin’s arms.

But when he opened his eyes, the situation was already over.

‘Even those corpses…’

They had been dealt with too horribly to look at.

Traces as if limbs had been forcibly torn off by hand and roughly trampled.

In the midst of all that, Woo Jin was smiling far too calmly.

Normally fifteen years old.

Moreover, Woo Jin, who was born as a son of a prestigious family and raised under protection, was smiling peacefully in the middle of that terrible carnage?

This wasn’t ordinary.

“Mu Ying.”

Then Woo Jin’s voice awakened Mu Ying from his thoughts.

“Yes, Young Master.”

“Let’s have a talk.”

“…Yes.”

Woo Jin and Mu Ying soon moved to a quiet place where no one was walking.

I saw the suspicious look in Mu Ying’s eyes.

Rather than suspicion… yes, it was confusion.

‘He must be confused. Having seen that scene.’

I had completely destroyed the Black Blood Group raised by the Blood Hand Poison Emperor.

It was true that I had used somewhat more drastic methods to prevent each of them from escaping.

I had ripped off heads and roughly torn apart whatever my hands could reach.

I soon confirmed that no one was around, then stopped walking and turned around.

Mu Ying stopped at a certain distance in front of me.

“You must have many questions. What I did there, whether that was really the Young Master you knew.”

“…”

Mu Ying didn’t deny it.

Now I needed to put that confusion to rest for a while.

But that didn’t mean I could tell Mu Ying about the Demonic Cult.

Even if he believed me, there was always the possibility of that one-in-ten-thousand chance.

“What was that cruel technique? That definitely… wasn’t the Zhu Family’s martial arts at all.”

“It is the Zhu Family’s martial arts. It’s just that the method has changed.”

“The method?”

“The enemy we’re… no, that I’m going to face… we can never win if we fight like the Orthodox Faction.”

Like the Orthodox Faction, or more precisely, like the methods the Orthodox Faction pursues.

In the end, the beliefs and spirit that the Orthodox Faction pursued had to surrender before the powerful force of the Demonic Path.

“In the end, beliefs and the values we pursue… require power to maintain them.”

To protect that power, I chose a different method.

More certainly, faster and more lethally.

I must cut off those bastards’ breath for certain.

Even if I receive all kinds of curses for it… there was no other way.

“Mu Ying.”

I called to Mu Ying, whose eyes were wavering.

Mu Ying stared directly at me from where he stood.

“You just stay by my side. That the lord you believe in… isn’t just foolish and pathetic.”

“…!”

“I’ll prove it to you.”

For the first time, I had spoken my true feelings.

The pathetic one who always considered others beneath him and habitually ignored them was me.

But what did I experience because of that?

Miserably, I had barely survived through their sacrifice.

I regretted it belatedly, blamed myself, cried, and felt lonely.

Only after losing everything did I belatedly realize their preciousness.

“Young Master.”

Mu Ying’s wavering gaze settled quietly.

He was looking at me.

Firm conviction.

Mutual trust that would never be broken.

“I have never once thought of Young Master as pathetic.”

His tone was calm.

“Whatever Young Master does, I may have had questions, but I have never once doubted your intentions.”

And he would protect it to the end again.

As he always had.

“Young Master is my first lord and my last lord.”

“Haha.”

For the first time in a long while, truly a long while, laughter came out.

Was that so?

Had Mu Ying really been thinking that way?

Rather, had I been looking at the world that way with a twisted perspective and collapsed inferiority complex?

What I had vaguely realized in my previous life, Mu Ying’s single remark brought back as self-reproach and reflection.

“That’s right, you were always like that.”

That’s why, even as the family was destroyed and everyone died, you endured to the end to protect me.

But then, what on earth was I doubting?

“It’s reassuring. This feeling… it’s my first time.”

I lightly tapped Mu Ying’s shoulder.

Then, Mu Ying finally gave me a small smile.

“Didn’t you save Foster Mother? Even though you may have been scolded by the Family Head. That’s enough. How dare I harbor doubts about Young Master?”

His smile.

I had never seen it before.

I felt incredibly good.

“Aren’t you curious? About who I’m dealing with?”

“I know you couldn’t even tell the Family Head. How could I presume to judge?”

Mu Ying was a true warrior who walked the path of a martial artist.

He was trusting and following me as he always had.

“Good, you’re giving me tremendous strength.”

“Well, that’s fortunate.”

Mu Ying bowed his head toward me.

“Whatever Young Master’s methods may be, I will protect you to the end.”

“…”

He is someone precious to me.

That’s why I must protect them without fail.

Blood Hand Poison Emperor, I will definitely kill that bastard.

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