novelraw Chapter 24 : Chapter 24
Chapter 24 : Chapter 24
Chapter 24 - I just have to fix it again from now on
A stinging pain spread not only from the soles of his feet but also from the one hand that had held the staff.
A journey that was difficult even for a healthy person, he had made it with a limping body, so it was impossible for his body to be fine.
As the sun set, the travel fatigue gradually worsened.
Just a few years ago, he would be fine after resting for half a day, but now, he had to be bedridden for a whole day to barely recover.
“Keu-eung…….”
Jinbae laboriously raised his upper body.
‘I’m tired.’
It wasn't just physical strength, but the fatigue from repeating the same task for 10 years weighed down his entire body.
However.
There wasn't much of that left now.
Jinbae steeled his resolve, recalling the conversation he had with the people he met a few days ago.
“Are you awake?”
While Jinbae was lost in thought, Biyoung opened the door and came inside.
“How long was I asleep?”
“All day. You must have been very tired.”
“I see. Did you train hard at the martial arts hall today as well?”
“Of course. Actually, I have something to tell you, Grandfather.”
“Oh. What is it?”
“Your grandson. I think I have gained an enlightenment in martial arts.”
“Hoho. Is that so?”
Jinbae let out a hearty laugh with his characteristic good-natured smile.
It was something he often heard from children learning martial arts at this age.
The feeling that your movements are somehow going well, and your limbs feel lighter.
A common delusion that hot-blooded and aggressive children often have.
He didn't expect to hear such words from the timid and gentle Biyoung, but it was a cute statement nonetheless.
“Uh…… it’s not at the level you’re thinking of, Grandfather?”
“Hoho. You little rascal. I know everything. It must be a great state. Show this grandfather of yours sometime later.”
No matter what I say now, it won't get through.
Biyoung inwardly gave a bitter smile.
Even if he couldn't reveal everything to Jinbae, he couldn't keep acting like a bullied boy forever.
He was trying to pass it off (?) as having gained a moderate enlightenment, but it seemed the process would not be easy.
“Aish. Then I’ll have to talk about something else.”
“Something else?”
Biyoung took out a small pouch from his bosom.
“Your grandson. I want to eat something delicious with this again.”
“……?”
Something filled a cloth pouch to the brim.
Anyone would see it as a money pouch.
But Jinbae couldn't be sure about the item.
If everything inside was money, it meant they wouldn't have to worry about food for at least a year.
“What…… is this…….”
Jinbae blinked his eyes and opened the mouth of the pouch.
“!”
The item he thought would never be there.
Shiny silver coins were filled to the brim in the pouch.
“Wh-wh-wh-what is all this.”
“What do you mean. It’s money. Hehe.”
How long had it been since he held such a large sum of money in his hands?
Jinbae tried hard to calm his pounding heart.
Then, he asked with a deliberately stern expression.
“Biyoung.”
“Yes. Grandfather.”
“I had some suspicions before, but I trusted you and let it pass. However, I can no longer overlook it. What in the world are you doing outside. Do you think it is plausible for you to earn this much money on your own?”
‘And I only showed him a quarter of a quarter of it.’
If I had shown him the whole thing, he might have fainted again.
Biyoung bowed his head to hide the sneer blooming on his lips.
“There was a reason for it.”
“What is that reason?”
“I helped the Yi Family Clan’s merchant caravan.”
“The Yi Family Clan?”
“Yes. Your grandson helped the Yi Family Clan avoid danger from bandits. I happened to discover the bandits while passing by. The Head Manager of the Yi Merchant Caravan, Lord Jo Seom, gave me the silver coins as a reward.”
“So that’s…….”
It was truly a clever way of speaking.
He neatly omitted the fact that he had beaten up the bandits, guiding the conversation as if he had received a reward just for providing information.
“So that’s the connection. Isn’t the Yi Family Clan the family of that friend named Sedong you mentioned before?”
“Yes. Thinking about it again, it really seems like a strange connection.”
“Yes…… I have heard that the Yi Family Clan is a family that is certain about its rewards and punishments, but even so, this reward seems quite excessive.”
Jinbae took Biyoung's words at face value.
Was it because he was simple-hearted by nature and listened well to others?
Or did he think that his grandson would never lie?
Perhaps it was both.
“Excessive? For that merchant caravan, this amount of silver is nothing. With this much, we can eat delicious meals every day, right, Grandfather?”
“Not just meals. I should also buy you a few new sets of clothes that suit you while we’re at it.”
Jinbae said so and looked at Biyoung with renewed eyes.
His grandson was growing day by day, to the point where the word ‘dazzling’ was fitting.
Seeing the once fragile-looking newborn grow up so splendidly, he felt full even without eating after being served a sumptuous feast.
Moreover, recently, his body's frame had changed so much that it seemed he had really shed a layer.
‘Children at this age grow day by day, but…….’
The frame of his body had become firmly solid, his temples had developed distinctly, and yet his skin had become fairer and more transparent.
Above all, those blue and deep eyes.
Those eyes, so intelligent that they seemed to emanate profound insight, made Jinbae's heart feel immensely proud.
Don't they say the eyes are the window to the soul?
It was a part where he could infer how upright Biyoung's heart was.
He just didn't know the fact that when Biyoung got angry, his eyes would go completely crazy.
“I’ll have to go down to the village as soon as the sun rises tomorrow. I’ll cook you a much more splendid dish than the one I made before.”
“Ooh!”
This time, Biyoung's true feelings burst out.
He had already experienced how excellent Jinbae's cooking skills were.
In the small room, the grandfather and grandson continued their heartwarming conversation.
Then, suddenly, Biyoung made a request.
“Grandfather.”
“Yes.”
“Next time you go peddling, I want to go with you.”
“……!”
As if Biyoung's request was unexpected, Jinbae's face stiffened slightly.
“I cannot allow it. You are not yet of an age to earn money, and you are not someone who will be a merchant in the future.”
Biyoung stared intently at Jinbae's face and then opened his mouth heavily.
“The same goes for you, Grandfather.”
“……!”
“Your grandson is not that unobservant. I thought it didn't make sense that someone who goes peddling doesn't seem to have any goods to sell, and yet still brings back money. I don't know what you are keeping secret from your grandson, but I felt that it is time for me to know. As I said before……”
“?”
Biyoung continued with a refreshing smile on his face.
“Now that I have gained an enlightenment in martial arts, I can protect you, Grandfather.”
“Hoho…… you rascal…….”
Jinbae looked at Biyoung with an indescribable expression.
It was a place he had to take Biyoung to someday.
But he thought it was not yet time.
Perhaps he wanted to maintain the current happy daily life for just a little longer.
‘Is it really the right thing to do to take this child…….’
He couldn't be sure.
But it was not something he could keep secret forever.
Jinbae, who had been in deep thought for a not-so-short time, soon nodded his head heavily.
“Alright. I will be sure to take you with me on the next peddling trip.”
“Hehe. You promised.”
“I need to rest now. The night is late, so let’s go to sleep.”
“Yes. Grandfather.”
Perhaps because of the great mental exhaustion, Jinbae fell asleep again not long after.
And a while later.
In the dark room, Biyoung carefully raised his body.
***
Papat!
On a night with a dark new moon.
A black shadow was dashing through the jet-black forest.
‘We don’t look alike at all, I wonder what he’s hiding so much.’
Would the secret of his birth finally be revealed when they go to ‘that place’ Jinbae mentioned?
His snow-white teeth, a contrast to the darkness, appeared for a moment and then disappeared.
Jinbae and Biyoung were not real blood relatives.
There was no resemblance in their appearance or temperament.
The past Biyoung might have been shocked.
But for Biyoung, who had been reincarnated into his current body, his birth was not something worth caring about at all.
Even if they were not connected by blood, Jinbae was Biyoung's grandfather.
He had experienced since his past life that the people who live together and struggle together are closer to family than the people who give birth to them.
So Biyoung even found his grandfather's worries rather cute.
Pababak!
Black.
From head to toe.
The black martial arts uniform and black shoes he bought from the fabric shop, the black scabbard covering the blade, and the black mask covering his entire face.
If it weren't for the sound of tearing through the air that pierced his ears, it would have been impossible to even discern that something was moving in the darkness.
To summarize briefly…….
A thief.
Biyoung's current appearance was, no matter what anyone said, that of a thief.
‘Committing banditry against bandits, committing thievery against bandits, what will I become next.’
Biyoung gave a self-deprecating laugh and widened the stride of his feet that touched the ground.
At the same time, he lifted his heels and transformed his footwork to be even lighter.
Sreureut!
A body method so elusive that it was called Ghostly Shadowless among the people of Jianghu.
Biyoung, who executed the Vast Sky Eagle Body Method, raced through the mountains like a hawk.
“Shh-shh!!”
There was no one climbing the mountain at this late hour, but the animals active at night raised their fur all over their bodies and made threatening noises.
That was all the sound that could be heard in the mountains.
Diancang Mountain was quite a distance from Yiliang County, but for Biyoung who had deployed the Vast Sky Eagle Body Method, it was no problem at all.
Less than four hours after leaving the house, a familiar scenery began to appear to Biyoung.
‘It’s familiar.’
Biyoung's eyes gradually became filled with sentiment.
Fifteen years had passed, but Mother Nature had not lost its original grand framework.
The steeply rising peaks and the cliffs that seemed to have been carved.
And the cool sound of the valley that felt like it washed away one's heart.
This space, where ordinary people could only see darkness, was as clear as day to Biyoung.
It was partly because his vision had opened up after clearing the Conception and Governor Vessels, but basically, it was a place that was very familiar to Biyoung.
‘A little further and it’s the main gate.’
After going through all the trouble of climbing the rugged Diancang Mountain, the main gate bearing the sect's name appears.
Three characters written in Dragon-and-Snake Soaring strokes.
But now, it was doubtful whether that name remained, or even if the main gate was still standing.
Kkuuk.
As his thoughts reached that point, strength entered Biyoung's hands.
The Diancang Sect, made up of a small elite, was bound to suffer the most bloodshed in the war against the Demonic Cult.
They had literally pulled out their roots to fight for the Murim Alliance, but all that was left was the tragedy of the sect's annihilation and the insult of having their place taken by bandits.
“I will definitely find you, and I will definitely make you pay.”
Biyoung, who had ground his teeth once, soon raised his internal energy to its limit.
It goes without saying, but the main gate was at the very front of the Diancang Sect's headquarters.
That meant it could also be used as the stronghold's guard post.
From Biyoung's perspective, who needed to handle things quietly, there was no need to break through from the front.
He just had to fly into the sky.
Sreureureut!
An even higher level of speed was added to Biyoung's already fast body.
The process of taking a step was so light and nimble that it felt like he could even step on air and climb up.
Instead of air, Biyoung stepped on the surrounding tree branches one by one and raised his altitude.
Tak!
By the time he kicked off the last tree and soared into the sky, the lit-up mountain gate of the Diancang Sect was far below his feet.
‘As expected, there’s no place like that for guarding the main mountain.’
Passing over the heads of the guards, Biyoung nodded his head.
Hwiriririk!
Biyoung, who had jumped over the main gate in a single breath, soon rotated his body and landed softly on the ground.
“………….”
He had successfully infiltrated, but Biyoung's expression was not bright.
The training ground floor, which should have been made of Bluestone, had turned into a miserable dirt field.
Jang Pae's words about having sold the Bluestone were indeed not a lie.
A flash of lightning flickered in Biyoung's eyes for a moment, but he soon composed himself.
“I just have to fix it again from now on.”
Biyoung, muttering as if making a promise to himself, quickly leaped towards his destination, the Martial Arts Hall.