Chapter 267: Confession (5)
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Hwiiiiiiiing!
A blizzard raged.
Judging by the momentum, it seemed it would continue until tomorrow. The snowfall grew fiercer as time passed, to the point where it was hard to even see ahead.
Tak! Tak!
The window rattled continuously.
Thinking that sleep was completely ruined for today, Yeon Ho-jeong stroked the body of the Crazy Dragon Axe.
Wuuuuung.
As if knowing its master’s heart, the Crazy Dragon Axe let out a bizarre cry.
How much time had passed like that?
“Are you sleeping?”
Yeon Ho-jeong put down the Crazy Dragon Axe and stood up.
“I am not.”
“Then, I will come in.”
“Yes.”
The door opened, and Yeon Wi came in.
Looking around the room for a moment, he spoke in a quite sunken voice.
“It doesn’t seem like you dropped by the dining hall. Nor does it seem like you ate a meal inside.”
“Yes.”
Yeon Wi raised his hand. A heavy bundle was held in his hand.
“I thought as much, so I packed some food.”
Yeon Ho-jeong smiled.
“I only have you, Father.”
“What about Bi-ah?”
“It seems she has no appetite for food. She said she would sleep right away.”
“Is that so?”
Yeon Wi nodded.
“Then let’s just eat among ourselves. I am also feeling hungry.”
He untied the bundle on the table.
Boiled pork and well-deboned chicken revealed themselves. Because the weather was cold, it had all cooled down, but a subtle scent still rose from it.
“Do you have alcohol?”
“Yes.”
Yeon Ho-jeong brought liquor and two cups from the corner shelf.
Yeon Wi held out his cup.
“Try pouring a cup.”
Yeon Ho-jeong politely filled the cup.
Yeon Wi, who had been quietly looking down at the cup, emptied it just like that.
There were few cases where Yeon Wi emptied a cup in one gulp. Unless he was in a good mood, he always drank it in two divided sips.
“It is quite strong.”
“Because it’s white liquor.”
“You have a cup too.”
“Thank you.”
Yeon Wi filled Yeon Ho-jeong’s cup. Yeon Ho-jeong, who received the cup, similarly emptied it in one gulp.
Drinking alcohol on an empty stomach, his esophagus and stomach quickly became hot. For an instant, intoxication rose with a whoosh, and then soon returned to normal.
“…”
The two people looked at each other without a word.
Yeon Wi, who had been quietly looking at Yeon Ho-jeong, opened his mouth.
“Strategist Zhuge seemed to be greatly surprised.”
“He must have been.”
“To think such a force existed outside the Great Wall, it is truly a surprising matter. Furthermore, even just one of them is equipped with enough power to overthrow the Central Plains… Just thinking about it is a terrifying thing.”
“Being equipped with power itself is not a problem. The important thing is how they use that power.”
“How they use it… Yes, that is correct.”
The existence of the Three Cults of Fanaticism was an immense shock to Yeon Wi as well.
The Evil Lust Cult, the Divine Fire Cult, and the Mad Blood Cult.
To think that the Evil Lust Cult among them had been supporting the Black Dragon Manor; this is why one must never let go of tension even with good intelligence gathering. Who could have imagined that they would be bypassing the northern part of the Central Plains from outside the Great Wall and reaching out to the southern part?
Furthermore, their financial power.
If it was a financial power capable of supporting an ultra-massive organization like the Black Dragon Manor, it would be no exaggeration to say it rivaled the financial power of the Murim Alliance.
“I already knew, but.”
Yeon Wi spoke with a bitter smile.
“Seeing things like this makes me newly realize that eternal peace will never come in the future either.”
“It depends on what extent you consider as peace.”
“Of course it would.”
Yeon Ho-jeong could tell. That what his father truly wanted to say wasn’t about the Three Cults of Fanaticism.
It was about himself.
“I could tell it wasn’t a joke.”
Yeon Wi’s eyes deepened.
His pupils dyed with confusion and passion were, nevertheless, clear and profound.
“Those words you confessed… those words that you lived a long life and returned.”
“…”
“At the very least, no falsehood was felt in those words. You were not lying to this father, and to Bi-ah.”
“…”
“Nevertheless, I couldn’t help but worry. Whether my son had hurt his head somewhere, or… whether he was making a cruel joke.”
“I understand.”
Yeon Ho-jeong smiled bitterly.
“It is also one of the reasons why I tried not to tell you until now.”
Yeon Wi momentarily felt his speech become blocked.
His heart tore at that bitter smile of his son and his voice where emptiness could be felt.
‘I was not ready.’
Yeon Wi looked up at the ceiling.
‘I was not ready. I hurt my child again with useless words.’
His eldest child is narrow-minded. At least toward his enemies.
His eldest child is broad-minded. At least toward his own people.
It wouldn’t happen, but even if he, the father, betrayed him, he would never hate him. Rather, he would try to understand him, and in the end, he would definitely end up understanding him.
Yeon Wi let out a sigh.
‘Is my trust in Ho-jeong still lacking?’
That was not it.
He trusted his eldest son. He trusted not only his eldest son but also his second son, and Muk Bi as well.
If there were a degree to that trust, he trusted his eldest child more strongly. He wouldn’t give as much trust to anyone else in the world as he gave to his eldest child.
However…
‘How on earth.’
Honestly, he still couldn’t believe it.
To think this current era, this vivid reality, was the past for his son? To think the world originally wasn’t going to flow like this?
According to original history, the Nine States Myeong Clan and the Murong Clan united to annihilate the Yeon Clan?
It was truly an unbelievable story. It was a mysterious story hard to find even in unofficial historical tales.
‘No matter how much I trust my child, this kind of story is…’
It was not easy to handle.
‘Thinking about it.’
Suddenly, Yeon Wi recalled a scene from the past.
Back when they were holding an ancestral rite, the image of his eldest embracing his younger brother with whom he had such a bad relationship.
And the image of his eldest approaching step by step while looking at him with trembling eyes.
Suddenly, his heart choked up.
The image of his eldest he saw back then was still vivid now. Probably, a surprising moment like that would be hard to find in Yeon Wi’s life.
‘I didn’t know my eldest, who always avoided me, would look at me with such eyes.’
Every imaginable emotion resided in his eldest’s trembling eyes.
Joy, sadness, anger, despair, sympathy, love, and so on.
The emotions residing in his eyes were the sum of all imaginable emotions, but an experience capable of containing such emotions all at once was hard to imagine.
His son was saying that he had broken through that very unimaginable experience and returned to the past again.
‘And even then.’
After the ancestral rite, his eldest showed an appearance completely different from before.
He was no longer afraid of him, and rather showed understanding similar to his dead wife. His martial arts achievements increased exponentially, and he began to read the overall situation with an amazing discernment that was hard to learn anywhere.
‘That kind of discernment is not something you can learn from books.’
Naturally. Even the discernment of an old Jianghu veteran who had rolled around in the Jianghu his whole life would be hard-pressed to be that deep and sharp.
Thinking about it, it was truly strange.
The discernment of a young man who hadn’t even reached the age of twenty (yakgwan) was that sharp?
Naturally, it was a suspicious matter. However, he did not doubt his son.
If it was comfortable to just believe it, why would he necessarily have to doubt it? Doubting the other party is also a very tiring thing. Yeon Wi did not want to feel tired against his son, nor did he want to doubt, nor did he want to analyze.
That’s right. He did not want to treat his son like a stranger.
He just wanted to trust his son. So he just believed it.
Brushing past the fact that it was an extremely unnatural matter.
Yeon Wi closed his eyes.
“Your achievements in the Flying Swallow Cultivation Method increased explosively.”
“…Yes.”
“You also said you had memorized all the oral formulas of the main family’s Five Great Divine Arts since you were young.”
“I did.”
“Chief Steward Tae-gyeong, while catching that traitor, you also said you would shake the Myeong Clan first. And you actually did so.”
Yeon Wi opened his eyes again and looked at Yeon Ho-jeong.
“Was it because you knew the Myeong Clan would attack the main family?”
“I knew they would attack, and furthermore, they were also the target of my revenge.”
“…”
“Looking at it from a different perspective, to me, the Myeong Clan are bastards who deserve to die even more than the Three Cults of Fanaticism. Because of those bastards… I lost everything.”
Yeon Wi let out a sigh once again.
His son said he had lost everything. And that everything would certainly refer to his family.
‘This guy.’
Yeon Wi blamed himself.
‘Was that one thing so hard to believe?’
His son was speaking the truth, speaking his true feelings.
Of all things, wasn’t he bringing up the lives of his family? The son he knew was not such a rude kid to make jokes even mentioning his family.
But why could he himself not understand the true feelings his son had difficulty spitting out?
Like before, like when he saw his son’s god-like discernment and explosively grown martial arts and believed his possessed talents were finally blooming.
He just had to believe like back then, so why was he interrogating his son like this?
“…Hohoho.”
Yeon Wi burst into a hollow laugh.
“I’ve lived in vain. I have truly lived in vain.”
Yeon Ho-jeong bowed his head.
“I’m sorry.”
“Sorry? What is there for you to be sorry to me about?”
“…I always wanted to tell you. But thinking about it now, the one who couldn’t trust you, Father, was me. That’s why I’m only telling you this now.”
“…”
“It is not your problem, Father, but my problem. There is nothing for you to blame yourself so much…”
“No, I lived in vain.”
A great trembling arose in the father’s eyes looking at his son.
“I did live in vain. Like before, I just had to believe the words you just said as I believe in you, so what on earth was that to be agonizing over like this.”
Yeon Ho-jeong looked at Yeon Wi with surprised eyes.
“Father.”
“Thinking about it… Yes, thinking about your appearance all this time, I should have understood you even more. The martial arts and discernment you showed are truly not a realm one could show at your age.”
“…”
“And the fact that you lived a long life and returned, in truth, wasn’t something to nitpick over believing or not.”
“Father.”
Yeon Wi grabbed Yeon Ho-jeong’s hand.
“Ho-jeong-ah.”
“…Yes.”
“You’ve suffered a lot.”
Yeon Ho-jeong’s eyes shook greatly.
“How much suffering must you have gone through, going out into the world alone after the main family was annihilated, gritting your teeth and enduring amidst those vicious ruffians of the Unorthodox. It must certainly have been a continuous series of hardships that this father cannot even imagine.”
“…!”
“The me in your memories must have been a hopeless bastard under heaven that could not possibly be called a parent. Returning to the past and trying to understand such a father one by one must truly not have been an easy task.”
Yeon Ho-jeong bowed his head. For some reason, it was hard to meet his father’s eyes.
“When I think of how much you must have agonized and struggled until you could say these words, I truly feel like plucking out my two eyes. I thought I finally understood my child, yet I still couldn’t see what I needed to see.”
“It’s not like that.”
“Ho-jeong-ah.”
Yeon Ho-jeong raised his head.
A look of pride surfaced on Yeon Wi’s face.
“Welcome back. You truly worked hard.”
Yeon Ho-jeong’s eyes shook greatly.
Even the strongest master in the history of the Unorthodox, who made even the most wicked person under heaven tremble in fear, was ultimately just a weak human before the affection of flesh and blood.
Yeon Ho-jeong bowed his head again.
A single transparent water drop fell onto the table.
“I’m back, Father.”
“Yeah.”