Chapter 8

Time flies in the blink of an eye. I’ve felt it before, but now that my body is younger, I feel it even more intensely. Before I knew it, I was thirteen years old.

It feels like just yesterday I was eleven, but already two years have passed. To be exact, it’s been two years and a few more months.

Early spring, with remnants of the chilly winter still lingering. Lying down in the shaking carriage, I try to pass the boredom by sleeping, but the constant jolting makes it difficult.

“…Jang Sam-i, how much longer until we reach the Jiegal Family?”

“How should I know? It’s my first time going to the Jiegal Family too. I’m not sure.”

“If you don’t know, does that mean your military service is over? Have I been too nice to you lately? Want me to make things uncomfortable for you?”

At my pettiness, Jang Sam-i looks around helplessly and pulls out a book hidden in his belt.

“If you’re bored, want to read this?”

“What kind of ‘fun’ novel is this that you’d hide it in your clothes?”

Opening the book, illustrations of scantily clad men and women engaged in intimate acts unfold. It’s a spring painting book. Definitely something you wouldn’t want others to see.

“…Just asking, but you didn’t, uh, spill anything on this book, did you?”

“What do you take me for? Don’t you dare spill anything on it, Young Master.”

“Don’t worry. My standards are too high for this kind of stuff.”

I said that, but as I flipped through the book and admired the paintings, I couldn’t help but be genuinely impressed by the surprisingly high quality. I especially liked the romantic ones.

Who would’ve thought someone in the Martial Arts World could have this level of artistic skill? I thought it was just a cheap, smutty book, but I was pleasantly mistaken.

Having enjoyed comics in my past life, I felt a sense of nostalgia as I quietly flipped through the pages of this primitive comic book.

…Normally, this would be the time I’d sneakily train in martial arts at home, away from my parents. But according to my father’s philosophy, to grow, I needed to leave home and meet various people. So, I’ve been sent to study at the Jiegal Family, where one of my father’s acquaintances resides.

The Jiegal Family is famous as one of the Five Great Families, but unfortunately, I’m not going there to learn martial arts. I’m going to prepare for the civil service exam under the tutelage of Jiegal Hwi, a renowned genius tutor.

Originally, the Five Great Families are centered around blood relations, so unless you marry into the family, outsiders can’t learn their martial arts.

What stingy jerks. What’s the harm in teaching a little martial arts?

Oh, and also, my older brother, Sima Lang, got married. You might wonder what his marriage has to do with me going to study, but in a society that values lineage and continuing the family line, it’s a big deal.

In other words, to have children. To do the things depicted so vividly in the spring painting book I’m reading right now—stormy, passionate sex. But apparently, having a kid around makes it awkward.

Not that it matters. At thirteen, I already know everything there is to know.

As I pondered these random thoughts, my body grew tired, and my eyelids grew heavy. A child’s body falls asleep easily. Having suffered from insomnia in my past life, I consider this a blessing.

I returned the book to Jang Sam-i, wrapped myself in a blanket, curled up like a pill bug, and drifted off into the world of sleep.

Shake shake~ Shake shake~

How much time had passed? Someone’s voice calling me and the shaking of my body woke me up.

“…Young Master… Young Master. Wake up.”

“…Huh? Uh… What? Where am I?”

Coming to my senses, I realized I was being carried on Jang Sam-i’s back. Wiping the drool from my mouth and lifting my head, I saw a truly magnificent gate.

I thought my family lived well, but this was on a whole different level. The gate alone was overwhelming. The word “mansion” doesn’t do it justice. This was practically a fortress.

So this is what a great family is like. I thought it was just some family-run small business. I stand corrected. This is more like a massive mafia family cartel.

***


Ah~ I’m bored. So bored.

I thought being in a new environment away from home might bring some excitement, but no. It’s even more boring.

Study. Eat. Study. Eat. Study… It’s the same routine. I expected this since I came here to study, but it’s still too much.

I tried to get the other kids studying here to play a game of Yut, but they just treated me like a child. Disrespecting Yut… These guys don’t know the joys of life.

If you’re just going to lock yourself in a room and study all day, why even come here? Just study at home.

Tired of lying around and grumbling, I dragged my tingling legs and went out for a walk.

There are three classes in the Jiegal Family.

The highest class. This, of course, includes the elders of the family, the family head, and his direct family—essentially the main family.

The middle class. Distant relatives, illegitimate children, and guests.

Guests, as the name suggests, include martial artists invited by the Jiegal Family, doctors, wealthy merchants, and skilled artisans.

Thanks to my father, who’s friends with one of the Jiegal Family’s direct descendants, I belong to this class.

The lowest class. As expected, this includes servants who do various odd jobs and low-level martial artists.

And now, right before my eyes, was a scruffy little kid who didn’t belong to any of these classes, curled up like a turtle, being beaten by some of the Jiegal Family’s distant relatives.

He was probably Jiegal What’s-his-name. I’m not forgetting his name—he literally doesn’t have one. He was given the family name but not a personal name.

Curious, I had Jang Sam-i ask the servants, and it turned out there was a complicated story behind it.

It all started when Jiegal Gyu-geun, the current head of the Jiegal Family, lost his beloved youngest daughter, Jiegal So-wol, who went missing after being swept away by a wave while boating.

Originally, she was a delicate child, the apple of her father’s eye, so Jiegal Gyu-geun mobilized the entire family’s resources, even pulling in other families, to search for her. They searched, but most believed she was already dead.

She disappeared in the ocean, after all. Out of respect for Jiegal Gyu-geun, no one said it out loud, but they thought her body had become fish food. The family’s resources were being wasted, and resentment grew among the relatives.

Then, suddenly, Jiegal So-wol reappeared. Not as a corpse, but alive.

The fisherman who first found her said this: At dawn, a small boat filled with rare treasures arrived on shore, escorted by fish, with the sun at its back.

Secretly, they thought their daughter, whom they believed dead, had returned with treasures. Nothing could be happier. That’s what they thought—until they saw So-wol’s swelling belly.

Their beloved daughter, who had gone missing, was now pregnant with a child whose father they didn’t know. For parents of a daughter, this was a situation that would drive anyone mad.

Jiegal Gyu-geun, furious, demanded to know who the father was, who had done this to her. So-wol, with a smile that didn’t seem human, replied:

“This child is the son of the North Sea Dragon King, Ao Shun.”

Whether that was true or false, no one knows now. Because So-wol died giving birth to Jiegal What’s-his-name. So, perhaps this child, who looks like this, really is the son of the Dragon King.

As the only thing left behind by his beloved daughter, Jiegal Gyu-geun gave him the family name but essentially left him nameless, allowing him to be abused by those around him.

In his grief over losing his daughter, he needed someone to blame, but taking it out on a child who knows nothing… What a pathetic human.

“Give it! Give it to me now!”

Despite the punches and kicks from the distant relatives who had learned martial arts, Jiegal What’s-his-name didn’t cry or get angry. He just silently took the beating, curled up.

His calm demeanor only made his attackers angrier.

“Let’s just hit him with a rock. Let’s see if he still doesn’t move.”

I wasn’t planning to intervene, but hearing that, I turned my steps toward the distant relatives.

“Hey, take it easy. You’re going to kill him.”

Hearing my voice, they hesitated and trembled, but soon realized I was just a cripple hobbling with a cane, and their expressions turned ugly.

“You cripple, scaring people like that. Get lost while I’m still being nice.”

Calling me a cripple right off the bat? What kind of upbringing did you have? Then again, if you had a proper upbringing, you wouldn’t be trying to hit a defenseless kid with a rock.

After confirming no one else was around, I held up three fingers.

“Three seconds. Bow your heads. The first one to bow gets only nine lashes.”

“What are you talking about! You cripple! You wanna die?!”

A moment later.

I didn’t even need to use the Dog Chasing Stick Technique. The arrogant distant relatives ran away crying after I swung my cane, their butts and thighs bruised.

Serves you right, you brats who ask for trouble.

As the kids who had been tormenting him disappeared, Jiegal What’s-his-name, who had been curled up silently, stood up.

This was the first time I’d seen Jiegal What’s-his-name up close. Honestly, he didn’t look like the son of the North Sea Dragon King. He was just an ordinary kid.

Not some monster that crawled out of the sea, not an omen of the Jiegal Family’s downfall, not the viper that killed his mother.

Through his messy, tangled black hair, I could see eyes as clear and beautiful as the morning sea. Despite his scruffy appearance, his eyes were strikingly beautiful.