Chapter: 16
“Unexpected.”
Yeonwoo, who was walking while sucking on a strip of jerky with one hand and holding Unhyeon’s hand with the other, looked up.
Unhyeon looked down at him as well.
Behind the black half-mask, his eyes were filled with a kindness that had never been seen back at the Gwan estate.
“What is?”
“That you shared your snack. You share meals, but you never share snacks.”
It was true.
Yeonwoo never shared his snacks with anyone.
Even when Unhyeon had lived off the meals Yeonwoo gave him, Yeonwoo had always shared his rice but never, not once, his snacks.
The child loved food more than anything. Sharing his meals alone had already been generous enough.
“Was there a reason?”
“Mmm… he reminded me of me.”
“He reminded you of yourself?”
Yeonwoo nodded.
“Yeah. The way he liked dried fruit… it was just like…”
After starving to death because there had been nothing to eat, he had been reborn as the child of a beggar.
Even then, he had lived every day hungry.
He had endured that endless hunger until the day he was sold away and tasted sweet fruit for the very first time.
The astonishment.
The overwhelming joy.
“He reminded me of me.”
Watching the servant tremble while eating such precious food, Yeonwoo saw his own past.
He remembered the days when he had been so hungry that his stomach hurt, when he had hugged his aching belly and forced himself to sleep.
“So I gave it to him. Because I know how badly someone can want something to eat.”
“Haha… Your love of food turned out to be a blessing for that child.”
In truth, it went beyond simply loving food.
It was because Yeonwoo understood the agony of not having anything to eat.
But Unhyeon did not know that.
He simply found it admirable that the child’s pure heart had revealed itself through such kindness.
“Yes. You did well. A good deed like this will surely return to you as virtue someday.”
Chuckling warmly, Unhyeon patted Yeonwoo on the head.
“You went too far today.”
The stern voice echoed through the family head’s study.
“Do you not understand what that child means to you?”
Already shrinking under his father’s reprimand, Gwan Hyeok clenched his fists tightly.
“I understand very well.”
“And yet you behaved that way? That child is here for your sake…!”
“He’s just…!”
Gwan Hyeok raised his head to look at his father.
His eyes had turned red.
“He doesn’t even know what a wooden sword is! He’s never learned martial arts! What could a child like him possibly do at the Dragon Martial Hall? That’s why I…!”
“Silence!”
Gwan Hyeok flinched violently.
“Didn’t I tell you no? How many times have I repeated myself?”
Gwan Yun slammed his palm onto the desk and rose to his feet.
“That is not a place for you! I told you never to bring it up again!”
The face that had widened in surprise at the loud bang slowly crumpled.
“Why? Why can my older brothers go, but not me?”
“I said no, and that is final! Our family will never return to the capital anyway, so what reason do you have to go to such a place?”
“But if I pass the examination there, our family could once again…!”
“Enough!”
Gwan Yun turned away.
“I don’t wish to hear another word! Do not ask about that place or mention it again! If you speak of this once more, I will confine you to your quarters!”
With his hands clasped behind his back, Gwan Yun faced away from him.
It was an unmistakable dismissal.
A declaration that he would neither listen nor entertain the conversation any further.
The fists resting on Gwan Hyeok’s knees trembled.
Normally, he would have given up and left the room.
But not today.
His father had brought Yeonwoo into the family nearly three months ago.
After three whole months, he had finally managed to bring this matter up.
He didn’t want it to end like this.
“Is it because you think I’ll die if I go?”
“…!”
“Like my brothers?”
Gwan Yun slowly turned around.
His expression had grown even colder than before.
“What… did you say?”
“I honestly don’t know what happened to my eldest brother. I wasn’t even born yet back then. But before my second brother left, he told me this.”
“Hyeok. I’ll uncover the truth behind our eldest brother’s death, no matter what.”
The reason for his death had never made sense.
No one had ever revealed the name of the one who killed him.
“My goal isn’t to earn the title of Divine Archer. I will expose the people who killed my brother and make them pay.”
“And my second brother never came back either.”
He too had died under mysterious circumstances.
Not even his body had been returned.
“Father… aren’t you angry?”
Gwan Hyeok’s fists shook violently.
The trembling spread from his hands to his arms…
Then to his shoulders…
Until finally his entire body was shaking.
“I am! I’m so angry that I can’t sleep at night because I keep seeing my brothers’ faces!”
His voice was filled with grief and fury.
“I’ve been training harder than anyone! Baekgang himself said I have even greater talent than my brothers! So I should be allowed to…!”
“Enough.”
The icy, low voice cut him off.
Startled, Gwan Hyeok froze.
His desperate eyes searched his father’s face.
But Gwan Yun never looked back at him.
“That is enough.”
“…”
“I don’t wish to hear any more.”
Seeing his father coldly turn away without even facing him…
Gwan Hyeok broke.
The resolve he had forced himself to maintain shattered.
Gwan Yun gave no further order for him to leave.
Instead…
Gwan Hyeok left the room of his own accord.
“When you see that child again, apologize to him.”
Click.
Even after the door closed, Gwan Hyeok remained seated there for a long time.
Completely isolated before the wall his father had built from the deaths of his sons—a wall that refused to crumble.
Sniff…
Alone in the empty room his father had left behind, he silently swallowed his tears.
Rustle—
Late afternoon.
Halfway up the mountain.
Along the path connecting the Gwan estate and Yeonwoo’s house.
Beneath the shadow of a large tree, two masked figures silently appeared, completely concealing their presence.
Perched high among the branches, they looked down at the road below.
“This is the place? The brat passes through here?”
“Yeah. There’s only one path leading to and from the Gwan estate. He has to come this way.”
“So it’s only the Gwan family’s guards, right? Not that strange old man?”
“That’s right. Whenever he travels to the estate, only the family’s guards accompany him. That’s why we’re waiting for this opportunity.”
One of the masked men rubbed his chin thoughtfully.
That strange old man who always stayed by the child’s side…
No matter how much they investigated, they couldn’t determine who he was or how strong he was.
As far as they could tell, he wasn’t one of the Gwan family’s guards either.
So they had reached a simple conclusion.
Strike while the old man wasn’t with the child.
“You’re sure only that brat uses this road?”
“I told you, he’s the only one living on this mountain! Why are you worrying so much?”
“Just making sure we don’t screw up. You know how scary the boss is.”
“True enough.”
Their leader was terrifying.
He had confidently declared that this mission would succeed without fail…
Yet he was the one constantly breathing down their necks.
“Relax. It’s just one brat.”
The masked man casually tapped the side of his head while staring down at the road.
“All we need… is that kid’s head.”
“The Family Head actually agrees with the Young Master’s wishes. You know how furious he was that day.”
The day news arrived that the Gwan family’s second son had died.
The day they were told his body had been buried beneath collapsed ruins and could not be recovered.
Gwan Yun had flown into an uncontrollable rage.
He had nearly torn apart the messenger who delivered the news.
Only the servants had barely managed to stop him.
“The Family Head is simply trying to protect you, Young Master.”
“I know.”
Gwan Hyeok stopped walking and looked back.
The largest and grandest building in the estate—the residence of the Family Head.
His father, Gwan Yun, never came out.
No…
He had probably intended not to leave unless Gwan Hyeok himself did first.
“I know Father was angry. I know he brought that child here because of me.”
And…
He knew his father carried guilt toward that child as well.
“That’s exactly why I’m trying to help him. If he’d just send me instead of that kid, everything would be solved…!”
The servant looked at his master with pity.
Because he knew.
If the Young Master went there, he would die.
That was why the Family Head would never allow it.
Seeing his master cling to an impossible dream was heartbreaking.
“Ah, right.”
The servant took something from his robes and held it out.
It was the two pieces of dried fruit Yeonwoo had given him.
“Lord Yeonwoo asked me to give these to you. He said it was his way of making peace after what happened earlier.”
“Making peace…?”
But that had been entirely his own fault.
If anything, Yeonwoo should have been angry with him.
Or resented him.
Why would he talk about making peace?
Gwan Hyeok stared silently at the dried fruit resting in the servant’s hand.
He remembered Yeonwoo happily munching on the very same fruit in his father’s study.
“Ha…”
That idiot…
“Forget it. Just say I accepted it. You eat them.”
“…! Are you sure?”
“Yeah. Now let’s go.”
The servant beamed, clutching the dried fruit tightly as he hurried after Gwan Hyeok.
“Where are we going, Young Master?”
“To apologize.”
“Pardon?”
Gwan Hyeok scratched the back of his head awkwardly.
“About what happened earlier…”
The tips of his ears had turned faintly red.
“I’m going to give him a proper apology.”
