The Youngest Son of the Nanyang Jin Family - Chapter 317
—————
This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
—————
The Youngest Son of the Jin Family of Luoyang – Chapter 317
* * *
On the path back to the Jin Family compound.
Namgung Baek’s appearance was pitiful as he struggled to walk with Jang Chuchyeong’s support.
Blood had dried on his lips and cheeks, and his clothes were torn in several places as if someone had ripped them apart.
Her wide eyes remained fixed on Namgung Baek for a long moment, and soon her hands trembled as a harsh voice poured out.
“Older brother!”
A thin cry burst forth.
Namgung Yeon’s eyes widened like lanterns as she rushed forward like the wind.
She approached with ragged breathing, lunging toward Namgung Baek and gripping his shoulders.
“What on earth has happened!”
Her grip on his shoulders tightened.
Though Namgung Baek frowned in pain at her grip, he must have seen the fierce light in Namgung Yeon’s unseeing eyes, for he managed a bitter smile.
As if calming his younger sister took priority over his own pain, his voice came with difficulty.
“It’s fine. It’s nothing serious.”
“Nothing serious?! Look at the state you’re in!”
Those words, exhaled like a sigh, were like pouring oil on fire.
Namgung Yeon’s eyes blazed fiercely as her gaze swept around.
However, seeing no one besides Namgung Baek and Jang Chuchyeong, she spoke with the momentum of someone ready to chase them down immediately.
“Where are they? I will settle this right now—.”
“First, calm down… calm yourself.”
“I must repay them with my own hands—.”
“Yeon-a.”
At that single word, Namgung Yeon’s breath caught.
Her older brother’s voice, which had always been so gentle, was now firm and heavy.
“It’s fine. Truly. There’s no need for you to get involved, so don’t worry.”
Namgung Baek’s eyes were different from before.
The man who always bowed and always seemed cowed was nowhere to be seen.
Each word carried resolve, and somehow his shoulders appeared broader than they had been.
That was the moment.
“Thinking about drawing your sword when you can’t see anything. Tsk tsk.”
Jang Chuchyeong watched her with arms crossed.
Unable to control her emotions and only gritting her teeth to release them, a mocking smile played at his lips as if it were rather amusing.
“The Young Master would be quite pleased to see this state of affairs.”
“What did you say?”
“It’s been resolved well, isn’t it? As long as he’s alive, that’s what matters. Why are you so eager to draw your sword?”
Despite his gentle tone, there was substance behind his words.
I understood her resentment, but my words were a sharp rebuke directed at her—one who harbored only thoughts of avenging her older brother rather than grasping the true situation.
“Your brother said he would obtain an apology himself. He said he would do it with his own strength, so why do you keep trying to interfere?”
“…!”
Namgung Yeon gazed at Namgung Baek with a peculiar expression upon hearing those words.
Her eyes held a question.
The words that had lodged in her ears, the resolute gleam in her brother’s eyes—both were so different from before that she found them difficult to believe.
“Is that… true?”
“Yes. Since it is my matter, I will resolve it with my own hands.”
“But—.”
“Yeon-a.”
That single word again.
This time, it was not gentle but resolute.
“I am no longer who I was before. I will resolve my own affairs, so you need not concern yourself.”
At those firm words, Namgung Yeon closed her mouth and stared blankly, until she perceived the determination etched in her brother’s gaze, and then she quietly nodded in agreement.
Only then did a smile bloom across Namgung Baek’s face.
“Ugh… I suppose I must go receive treatment. Jang Howei, I shall proceed alone from here. I am truly… grateful.”
“Ha ha! What are you thanking me for? It was only natural.”
As Chu Hyeongi thrust his thumb upward with a broad grin, Namgung Baek returned the same smile and began to move slowly forward.
Though he could not walk properly, as if refusing to collapse, he staggered yet strode forward with dignity into Sega.
“….”
Namgung Yeon watched her older brother’s figure gradually recede from view.
His tattered clothes and blood-stained hands, yet his unwavering gait.
Namgung Baek’s back seemed larger and heavier than ever before.
In that moment, as she unconsciously steadied her breathing and calmed her heart, Chu Hyeongi beside her also gazed upon the departing Namgung Baek with a smile playing at his lips.
“He’s a fine one. He’s grown far more solid than when he went north to the Beihai. I think the Young Master will be quite pleased.”
“….”
Even at Chu Hyeongi’s words, Namgung Yeon remained motionless in that spot.
Complex emotions flickered across her eyes.
Pride, relief, and a strange unfamiliarity.
Why did her older brother’s back, which she had watched her entire life, feel so unfamiliar now?
“But as much as your brother has grown stronger, you still have far to go.”
“…What did you say?”
At those words, Namgung Yeon’s sharp eyes turned toward Chu Hyeongi, and he wore an especially deep smile as he tapped his own head lightly.
“Here, I mean. In that regard, you’re still just a child.”
“I am better than you.”
“Uh ha ha! Live thinking that way.”
Crack—!
“Ow?!”
Namgung Yeon’s body trembled with a start.
Chu Hyeongi, who had struck her back, turned around with brazen nonchalance.
“I’m going! I should at least clean before the Young Master returns.”
He hummed a cheerful tune as he strode away with long steps.
Namgung Yeon kept her lips firmly pressed together, watching his receding figure.
A back completely different from Namgung Baek’s.
Massive shoulders, rippling forearms, and a terribly off-key humming melody.
Anyone could see he was a martial artist, yet there was nothing strange about the way he walked along humming while holding a broom.
As she watched, she let out an involuntary laugh at the absurdity, but then her gaze froze as the wind swept through her hair, revealing his profile.
In that instant, her face burned hot.
Whoosh—!
“Get a grip, you fool!”
Slap—
Namgung Yeon struck both her cheeks hard with her palms.
“I’m losing it, seriously….”
Her face flushed crimson, she glared at the empty air,
then she strode away with long steps.
The sound of her sword hilt clattering against her side echoed out.
* * *
“Sigh— why is there never a quiet day in this house?”
Chaeseoha sighed as she looked at Namgung Baek, who had been beaten to a pulp. In such a short time, he’d been struck and cut so many times that there wasn’t a single spot on his body without a wound.
“…I’m sorry, physician. It’s because I’m lacking….”
“Why should the injured person apologize? The one who hit you should be sorry. Do you know who did this?”
She asked while moving her hands busily.
She dampened a dry cloth, wiped away the blood caked all over him, and carefully applied wound salve with a gentle touch.
“I do. But… whenever the time comes, I intend to receive an apology through my own strength.”
“That’s admirable, but why choose the hard way when an easier path is right in front of you?”
“Haha, I’ve realized that if I only rely on the Young Master’s strength, I’ll remain stagnant and never advance. This is the martial world, after all.”
At his resolute words, Chaeseoha nodded her head.
But rather than truly convinced, she seemed to be listening halfheartedly. Like someone who harbored the question of “why bother?” but chose not to voice it.
Then her hands moved toward his abdomen, checking the sword wound there.
It wasn’t deep, but the torn area was quite large.
It would heal faster if stitched.
Chaeseoha’s hands fumbled as if searching for something, but when she couldn’t find what she wanted, she finally turned her eyes to check.
There was no needle and thread.
“Could you bring me a needle and thread? Ah— and some hot water too, please.”
“…Me?”
Namgung Baek was flustered by her sudden request.
While receiving treatment, he was being asked to heat water and fetch needle and thread?
But since it was Chaeseoha’s request, he couldn’t ignore it, so he quietly began to rise from his seat.
In that instant, Chaeseoha’s sharp voice pierced my ears.
“Wait a moment.”
“But you asked me to bring warm water….”
“Ah— I wasn’t speaking to Namgung So-hyeop. Don’t worry.”
“Pardon?”
Again, I heard words that made no sense.
There were only two people in this place.
Chaeseoha and myself.
Wondering if perhaps another person was hiding somewhere, I continued scanning my surroundings, but I detected neither sight nor presence of anyone.
So I turned to look at her with a puzzled expression, but she was already focused on another wound and paid me no attention whatsoever.
“What grudge could possibly drive someone to beat you like this?”
“Well….”
What followed was the same story as before.
Unable to understand what I should be responding to, the moment I swallowed a groan—
“Ow?!”
“Did that hurt? But that’s not even the worst of your wounds….”
I squeezed my eyes shut against the pain I felt.
Perhaps because of that, Chaeseoha’s touch grew even gentler, and as I felt the pain gradually subside, I opened my eyes once more.
That was when it happened.
“Thank you.”
“What?”
Was she thanking me for the pain?
Another nonsensical remark, and as I turned my gaze toward her, she had already soaked cloth in hot water, placed a needle and thread upon it, and covered them.
In that moment, I couldn’t comprehend it.
No, something that hadn’t existed moments before had suddenly appeared.
“Physician, what are you——”
“Bare your abdomen properly.”
*Gulp*
I tried to resolve my confusion, but soon closed my mouth.
As I carefully moved my hand and fully lifted the upper garment from my wounded abdomen, a groan escaped Chaeseoha’s lips as she watched.
“This will hurt quite a bit.”
“Ha ha… I’m used to… Gaaahhhhh!”
Before I could finish speaking, Chaeseoha, who had already grasped the needle, moved her hand. I felt the sensation of the needle piercing flesh, and the pain from the cleaned wound penetrated to my very marrow.
I wanted to thrash about.
“I told you it would hurt a lot….”
“Huff, huff… I… I think I’m dying.”
“Sigh— how can a man not endure even this?”
Chaeseoha exhaled a long sigh and shook her head.
Soon, as if resigned, she clicked her tongue lightly before speaking again.
“There’s medicinal wine on that shelf over there. Would you bring it to me?”
“Ah, yes.”
“The patient must remain still!”
“Hiek?!”
Namgung Baek flinched and shrank back at the sharp, piercing voice and gaze directed at him.
What on earth was she trying to tell him to do?
His spirit dampened by the utterly bizarre situation, he lowered his eyes, only to find a rice bowl beside him brimming with alcohol.
“This… what is this?”
“Can’t you see? It’s medicinal liquor. There’s nothing better for enduring pain.”
No, that wasn’t what he was asking about at all.
Namgung Baek couldn’t gather his wits.
Chaeseoha hadn’t moved, yet heated water, needles, and thread had appeared, and alongside the medicinal liquor came a cup for drinking it.
Ohhh—
Namgung Baek felt his entire body break out in goosebumps.
A ghost.
There was definitely a ghost in this place.
As he began to tremble with a sickly pallor, Chaeseoha tilted her head in confusion before him.
Then, she carefully extended her hand to his forehead.
“…!”
In that instant, he saw it.
The face of a person revealed behind Chaeseoha.
It was grotesque, as though buried in darkness, and the eyes gazing at him steadily emanated not merely coldness but an eerie, spectral aura.
“Gack?!”
His breath caught sharply, and his complexion turned deathly pale.
“What’s wrong?”
“Gaaaaaah—.”
“Hey?! What’s the matter?!”
Unable to bear the shock, Namgung Baek’s eyes rolled back as foam flecked his lips, prompting a startled, sharp cry from Chaeseoha.
She quickly retrieved a needle and began treatment.
“Goodness, why does this keep happening these days?”
Bewildered by the incomprehensible situation, Chaeseoha’s brow furrowed as she swiftly inserted the needle, opening his blocked airways.
Soon, as Namgung Baek’s unconscious face regained its natural color, she released a relieved sigh and picked up the needle in her hand.
“Well, at least he won’t feel pain anymore, so that’s fortunate.”
With a slight smile, her hand began to move without further hesitation.
—————
This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
—————