“Elder brother! Wake up! Elder brother!”
Gwak Jun-ha kept calling out to his brother, but the unconscious Gwak Hyeong-jin didn’t respond.
“Elder brother! Don’t die! Please!”
Just then.
Footsteps could be heard approaching from afar, and human figures came into view.
With desperate eyes, Gwak Jun-ha shouted,
“Please help us! Please save my brother!”
Maybe his voice reached them, those figures drew closer.
An incredibly handsome boy, a burly man who looked like a bear, a warrior, and a physician carrying a medicine chest.
Through his sobs, Gwak Jun-ha managed to speak.
“My brother, my brother…”
The handsome boy gently held Gwak Jun-ha’s hand and said warmly,
“You don’t have to worry anymore.”
I looked at the boy lying pale, his face drained of color from blood loss.
Was he twelve?
Now that I thought about it, he wasn’t that much younger than me.
I was fifteen now.
But because I died at thirty-nine, I often forgot that I was still a kid.
Ugh, I really shouldn’t think like that.
Anyway, that wasn’t the point.
Just from a glance, the condition was serious.
“Will he be alright?”
At my question, the physician nodded.
“Yes, I’ve brought enough medicine, and we’re not too late. He’ll be fine.”
“Please take care of him.”
I let out a sigh of relief.
Thank goodness we weren’t too late to save the child’s life.
And thank goodness I remembered in time.
Even a little later and I wouldn’t have been able to save my master’s son.
Not that I brought a physician along just so I could save the kid and then pressure my master into taking me as his disciple.
Of course I would ask him to become my master, but not like this.
On his eldest son’s birthday and death anniversary, Master always drank with a sorrowful expression.
I can’t begin to understand the grief of burying your own child.
I’ve never been married. Never had children.
But seeing that expression on Master’s face, it broke my heart.
He must never have been able to forget the blood-covered body of his dead son.
This time, I wanted to save Master’s eldest son no matter what.
So he could live in Hubei with good memories, just that.
The physician, checking the child’s condition, spoke.
“He’s passed the critical point. We’ll need to bring him back and treat him properly.”
“Please do. I’ll inform my father myself.”
Luckily, there was brush and paper in the house.
I left a note explaining that the injured child was being taken to the Eunhae Merchant Group and that they should come to the group’s Medical Pavilion (醫閣).
Then I took the two boys and returned to the merchant group.
.
.
.
After explaining the situation to Father, I headed back to the Medical Pavilion.
By the boy’s bedside, another child sat clutching his hand.
“Elder brother…”
His little brother, praying desperately for him to wake up.
I knew that boy’s name.
Gwak Jun-ha.
He’d been one of my personal guards.
And on the day I was ambushed, he died with me.
I gave a bitter smile, recalling the last moment I saw him.
— Young Master, please flee. Those men aren’t ordinary.
— What’re you saying? We’re leaving together!
— It’s been an honor serving you, Young Master. And… thank you for being a source of joy for my father. He probably never said it, but I know he truly enjoyed your company.
— Gwak!
That was the last thing he said before he pushed me away and charged into the enemy.
In the end, I ended up dying too.
But he also left behind another memory.
— Well… if I had to say what I regret most, it’d be that day when I was eight.
— That day?
— Yes. My brother died that day. If I hadn’t begged him to play with me… he wouldn’t have died.
The look in his eyes then, was the same one I’d seen in Master’s.
If saving Master’s son was my duty as a disciple, then saving this boy now was my way of repaying the one who gave his life to protect me.
While I was lost in thought, Gwak Jun-ha asked me,
“Um, is my brother really going to be okay?”
I nodded.
“Yeah. The physician said he’ll be fine, didn’t he?”
“Then why hasn’t he opened his eyes yet?”
“He’s asleep on purpose. That way, he doesn’t feel pain while he rests.”
Hearing my explanation, Gwak Jun-ha gave a little nod.
“So let’s not be too impatient.”
“Yes, Young Master.”
The moment he called me “Young Master,” it overlapped with what I had experienced in the past.
And without realizing it, my face stiffened.
Noticing my expression, Gwak Jun-ha spoke hesitantly.
“Everyone here kept calling you ‘Young Master’… so I thought…”
“Ah… I see.”
Just then.
“Young Master.”
Palgap entered the Medical Pavilion and called for me.
“The child’s father has arrived.”
“Oh, really?”
I turned my head, and without a moment to prepare myself, I faced him.
The man who had once been my master.
Gwak Myeong-hyeon (郭銘賢).
He must have just returned from an escort mission. A sword was at his waist, his beard was overgrown, and his clothes were worn, his face unwashed, but his eyes were as sharp as ever.
“Hyeong-jin!”
He rushed to the child lying on the bed, calling his name, and checked his condition.
Master looked exactly the same as I remembered.
Perhaps because of the martial arts he’d cultivated, his presence always had a certain coldness, but few men had a heart as warm as his.
Gwak Jun-ha spoke through tears.
“F–Father, we were playing and… Elder brother fell… he got stabbed by bamboo… sniff…”
I gently patted Jun-ha’s back and added,
“By chance, we were walking through the bamboo grove today when we found him injured and treated him right away. Fortunately, he’s passed the worst of it, and he’ll be fine with a few days of rest.”
“Thank you. Truly, thank you.”
Master bowed deeply to me.
To be bowed to by him, my master!
Flustered, I quickly waved my hand.
“No, please! It was pure coincidence.”
“I don’t know how I’ll ever repay this kindness.”
“He was just meant to live. Please, raise your head.”
To lift him up, I placed my hand on his shoulder.
And in that moment, I felt him flinch.
He looked up at me, his eyes filled with something like bewilderment.
Just then, Gwak Jun-ha shouted.
“Huh? Elder brother! Are you awake?!”
Master immediately turned his head and asked urgently,
“Hyeong-jin. Are you awake?”
“F–Father…”
“Thank the heavens! Thank goodness!”
Watching Master repeat how relieved he was, and seeing Gwak Jun-ha rejoice that his brother had regained consciousness, stirred a strange feeling in me.
I might not know what Master felt, but I did understand Gwak Jun-ha. After all, I’d once experienced that same indescribable emotion when I saw my second eldest brother again, after he’d died with his head cut off.
But this was something different.
Because this was a child who should’ve died, yet I saved him.
Maybe that’s why?
Seeing Master and Gwak Jun-ha so overjoyed made my eyes sting.
That evening, a woman came to the Eunhae Merchant Group’s Medical Pavilion.
The mother of the boy I saved, Master’s wife.
And the woman who, in the future, would be known by the title Bamboo Grove Fairy (죽림선녀). (TL Note: Yes, the author changed her nickname from Weaver to Fairy)
Perhaps saving Hyeong-jin was my way of repaying the Bamboo Grove Fairy who once saved my life.
But, if I had to say the true reason I saved Hyeong-jin, setting all that aside, it was simple.
You don’t need a reason to save a dying child, especially when you can.
When I realized today was the very day the child had died, I didn’t even have the mind to calculate anything. I just rushed to the Medical Pavilion.
I dragged a physician with me to the bamboo grove, and luckily, we weren’t too late. I was able to save him.
I’d heard from Gwak Jun-ha that his brother had died from excessive bleeding, so I made sure to pack plenty of wound-closing medicine and blood-staunching powder.
“Thank you so much, Young Master.”
“You don’t need to do this. It was just fate.”
“I don’t know how I can ever repay you…”
At the Bamboo Grove Fairy’s words, I shook my head.
“I didn’t do it expecting anything in return. So please don’t feel that way.”
I barely managed to stop her from bowing.
That’s when Master, who had been quietly watching me, spoke.
“Young Master. May I have a private word?”
.
.
.
A short while later.
The place Master brought me was the bamboo grove where his house stood.
Palgap and the guards were keeping a distant watch.
“I’m sorry for bringing you all the way here.”
At Master’s words, I shook my head.
“No need. I figured you brought me here because you didn’t want others to overhear what you’re about to say.”
“…You noticed?”
“Yes. Isn’t the place you know best also the safest?”
“You’re sharp.”
“You flatter me.”
I answered politely.
Then Master’s expression changed.
“Do you know of the Black Dragon Star Body?”
“…!”
I couldn’t help but be shocked in that moment.
I never thought Master would mention the Black Dragon Star Body.
In the future I’d lived, he never once spoke to me about it.
But now he was bringing it up,
Which meant… he’d known all along.
Still, something didn’t add up.
Even now, he’d only just met me. Yet he brought up the Black Dragon Star Body.
So there’s no way he wouldn’t have mentioned it in the past, if he’d truly seen that same constitution in me as his disciple.
The only difference now was that I’d consumed the Icy Blue Snow Plum Fruit, accumulating fifty years’ worth of inner Qi in my dantian, and that the Black Dragon itself had acted to save me.
I stayed silent, just looking at him, and Master gave a faint smile.
“So you do know.”
He must’ve read it in my expression.
With a calm voice, he continued.
“When you placed your hand on my shoulder earlier, I sensed a massive amount of inner Qi in your body, and that it was Yin-natured Qi.”
“…”
“And from that, I realized your body possesses the Black Dragon Star Body.”
Truthfully, I didn’t know Master’s exact level.
He was certainly above Peak, but he’d never told me outright.
But for someone who could read this much, there was no point in hiding it.
Especially if he was going to be my master again.
“How did you know?”
“That your inner Qi had a Yin-nature? Because I’ve cultivated Ice-type martial arts.”
“And that my body is the Black Dragon Star Body?”
At my question, Master looked at me and smiled.
But for some reason, that smile felt faintly melancholic.
“Because I once met someone with the same body as you.”
“What? Someone else had this body too?”
“Yes. But… I can’t tell you who. I’m sorry.”
There seemed to be something he couldn’t speak about.
If that’s the case, I couldn’t press him.
If it’s something I need to know, he’ll tell me one day.
“That’s alright. If there’s a reason, I understand.”
Then Master spoke.
“The reason I’m telling you this is because someone with your constitution cannot train in Yang-type martial arts.”
“Probably not.”
“And so… may I teach you Ice-type martial arts?”
“What?”
I was so surprised I almost stumbled back.
I’d been planning to ask him to become my master, but he beat me to it.
“The physician told me… if you hadn’t found my son, he definitely would’ve died.”
“That was just coincidence, ”
“I believe that too.”
He continued.
“You saved my child, and through that I met you. And through meeting you, I came to know your body and inner Qi. All of this was fate. And so, following that fate, I’d like to pass down my Ice techniques to you.”
Then Master cupped his fists and bowed.
“Please allow me to do this.”
I was overwhelmed, to say the least.
I never imagined Master would be the one to ask to take me as his disciple.
But my answer was already decided.
“It would be my honor, Master.”
“You’re accepting?”
He looked slightly surprised, as if he didn’t expect me to agree so easily.
Smiling, I answered again.
“Yes.”
And just like that, Master became my master, again.
–TL Notes–
Tired of seeing Ads? Then please support me on Patreon! Any tier of subscription will make it so you won’t get any ads!
If you want to support me or give me feedback, you can do it at patreon.com/InsanityTheGame
Join my Discord! https://discord.gg/BWaP3AHHpt