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Translator: Vine
Chapter: 2
Chapter Title: The Seonwoo Family (2)
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After hearing me say that I had intentionally gotten myself framed to go to the front lines, Yeon-ha left with a somewhat bewildered expression.
Her reaction felt different from my memory, leaving me with an uneasy feeling.
*What is it? What's different?*
Back then, Yeon-ha had only comforted me as I wept endlessly...
Was it because I didn't cry this time that it felt different?
I was lost in thought when it happened.
The second visitor I had been waiting for arrived.
Tap!
The visit came much sooner than I'd expected.
Startled by the figure who had landed silently from the roof, I cried out.
"Father?!"
The second visitor was my father, Seonwoo Jung.
He was looking at me with a grave expression.
*What? Even Father feels different from before?*
Was it because I had changed?
The time of his visit, the look on his face—everything was so different from my memories that I was flustered.
Back then, he had come with a look of resignation and asked if I had any last requests.
I had made the pathetic request to just let me run away, and Father had simply sighed, shaken his head, and left.
That grave expression, the way he just stood there looking at me without a word—it was completely different from the past.
As I stared at him with a tense expression, my father finally opened his mouth, his voice heavy.
"Is it true that you were framed?"
My eyes widened in shock.
It seemed he had overheard my conversation with Yeon-ha.
Does that mean he was here the whole time?
Then... in the past, too?
But why?
When I failed to answer, merely staring at his face, he spoke again, his voice grave.
"Jin... I knew you were hiding your talent and playing the fool. But I never knew you wanted to leave the family. If only I had known sooner..."
My father's face was filled with deep regret as he spoke.
His expression was so unexpected that I was taken aback.
And then, from his lips came words I had never imagined I would hear from him.
"I'm sorry, Jin. Your life has become a mess because of your incompetent father."
My mind was a tangled mess.
What? What is all this?
Until now, my father had completely neglected me.
He never interfered with what I did, but he also never stopped my brothers and their mothers from tormenting me.
As a result, I was completely isolated within the family, and I had deeply resented the father who had allowed it to happen.
But what was this situation?
Could it be?
A picture I had never once considered in my past life was beginning to form in my mind.
Within the Seonwoo Family, the maternal families of my three brothers held immense influence.
So much so that even my father, the Family Head, had to constantly coordinate with them.
So if my father had shown favor to any one of us, would he have lost control over the other maternal families?
Did he have to neglect everyone, and as a result, with no maternal family of my own, there was no one to protect me?
No, was neglecting me his way of protecting me?
*In that case, could it be?!*
The face of the father I had always resented, and thus never missed, looked different to me today.
Of course, my thoughts were merely a hypothesis, and the resentment I had harbored for so long didn't vanish in an instant.
But the deep regret on my father's face was an all-too-vivid reality.
My father asked.
"Is there anything you wish to ask of me?"
I snapped back to my senses.
Whatever my father's true feelings were, I couldn't miss this opportunity I had been waiting for.
I swallowed hard and asked in a serious tone.
"Would you allow me access to the Family Head's private archives? One day is all I need."
My father looked surprised as he asked back.
"The archives? For just one day?"
I carefully chose my words and spoke slowly and deliberately.
I had to convince him to let me into the archives, no matter what.
"Your son, to my shame, has neglected his training and knows nothing of our family's martial arts. Before I am sent to the front lines, I wish to learn even a little of them."
That was right. This was one of my biggest regrets from my past life.
In my past life, after all my direct-line brothers died or went missing, I was pushed into the role of Family Head. But because of my dissolute past, I knew nothing of the Seonwoo family's martial arts.
So when I went to the front lines in Yunnan, I had to learn martial arts from the very bottom, the hard way.
*And I had to do it by stealing and learning other people's techniques.*
Memories of those difficult and sordid times flooded back.
Memories of being treated as a non-combatant, ignored and ostracized even by my comrades on the front lines.
Therefore, if I could learn the Thirteen Swords of Seonwoo—the ultimate art of the Seonwoo Family, which has long been one of the top five clans in Guizhou, a province with none of the Nine Great Sects—I would be able to rise through the ranks much faster than before.
At the very least, it would be better than my past life, where I had to steal glances at my squadmates' techniques over their shoulders.
My father asked, his expression complicated.
"You intend to learn martial arts in a single day, and from a book at that?"
"I believe it is better than doing nothing."
After a moment of thought, my father nodded.
"Very well. I will grant your request."
Yes!
For a moment, I almost clenched my fist and let out a cheer.
I could finally make up for the regrets of my past life.
But my father wasn't finished.
"However!"
"Yes?"
I tensed slightly at my father's sudden word, but what came from his lips was, once again, completely unexpected.
"Learning an internal energy cultivation method on your own is very dangerous, so I will teach you myself. Sit in the lotus position, now."
"What? Y-Yes! I understand, Father!"
Though startled, I immediately sat in the lotus position.
A warm energy flowed from my father's palm as it touched my back, and began to guide me.
"I will pass on to you the Primordial Infinite Art. I will recite the incantations a few times, so listen carefully and memorize them all. In the beginning, there was yin, yang, and chaos."
The Primordial Infinite Art?!
I was so stunned I nearly cried out.
The Primordial Infinite Art was a cultivation method that only the Head and Young Head of the Seonwoo Family could learn.
This meant my father was passing down the Seonwoo Family's greatest secret art to me.
It should have been an incredibly surprising and joyous moment, but for some reason, I felt a little strange.
I should have been overcome with excitement and joy for this new art, but strangely, the warmth from my father's palm on my back felt more moving.
It was so... warm.
It was the warmest I had ever felt from my family in my entire life.
***
The next day, I was allowed into the Family Head's private archives.
My brothers protested that it was absolutely forbidden, but Father dismissed their objections, saying that it would bring more shame to the family if I were killed by the Demonic Humans without being able to do anything.
And so, for the first time in two lifetimes, I entered the family's private repository. I cracked my knuckles and grinned slyly.
"Hehehe."
Just one day?
More than enough!
My plan for today wasn't to learn the martial arts, but simply to memorize them.
To cram it all into my head. That was the one ability I was most confident in.
As a child, I had been called a prodigy for my memory alone. After being sent to the front lines, I had to develop that memory even further just to survive.
Since I knew no martial arts, I had to learn by watching my comrades' techniques for a moment and then mimicking them.
Later, Squad Leader Seol Pung, marveling at my ability, had given it a name.
"Scene Memorization Technique."
I was a human copy machine, able to recall and draw the exact number of leaves on the trees in a forest after just a single glance.
So I could say with confidence.
*All of you here today are destined to enter my mind. So give up quietly and come on in. I promise I'll put you to good use, hehehe!*
The Family Head's private archives was a small room with bookshelves lining all four walls. Most of the books within were martial arts manuals.
The thought that all these martial arts would soon be in my head made me feel full even without eating.
Of course, I didn't expect all of them to be useful. They included everything from basic manuals like the Three Talents Sword Art and the Six Harmonies Fist, to health exercises like the Five Animals Frolics.
*But so what? It's a million times better than not being able to learn anything because I had nothing, like in my past life.*
First, I took out the manuals for the Primordial Infinite Art I had learned from Father yesterday and the family's ultimate art, the Thirteen Swords of Seonwoo, and began to read each one carefully three times to avoid mixing up the order.
My memorization was perfect, but the difference in comprehension between the Primordial Infinite Art, which I had already been taught, and the Thirteen Swords of Seonwoo, which I knew nothing about, was stark.
To be honest, I couldn't understand a single thing about the Thirteen Swords of Seonwoo.
*So learning martial arts just from crude drawings and text is nonsense after all. In martial arts novels, people become masters just by reading secret manuals on their own.*
It seemed martial arts novels were just that—novels.
Nevertheless, I continued to shove the techniques into my head.
I didn't understand any of it, but I believed it would be helpful someday.
Time flowed like water.
By the time I had carefully read about half the books in the archives three times each, it was already afternoon.
By then, my head was throbbing uncontrollably, and my body was completely exhausted.
*I feel like I'm dying. I can't take any more of this.*
Unable to endure the mental overload, I decided to step outside the archives for some fresh air.
When I stood up, the world felt like it was spinning.
I staggered outside and ended up collapsing on the grass in front of the archives.
"Ugh, I'm dying!"
I lay sprawled out, staring blankly at the sky.
I felt a little better, but then the thought that I still had half to go made my head throb again.
Temptation suddenly washed over me.
*Should I just stop here?*
It wasn't like reading them would help me right away. I couldn't even understand half of it.
Wasn't learning the Primordial Infinite Art and knowing the forms of the Thirteen Swords of Seonwoo enough of an achievement?
Such temptations swirled in my mind.
It was then.
I heard voices.
"Hmph! What did you expect? As if someone like him could learn martial arts!"
"Indeed. It seems his pig-like nature, lazing about anywhere, is incurable."
I lifted my head and saw my three brothers.
They were escorting two beautiful young ladies through the garden.
My gaze naturally drifted toward them.
Both seemed to be great beauties.
But while one had her eyes hidden deep under her bangs, giving her a slightly gloomy feel, the other was so stunningly beautiful that just a glimpse of her made my eyes widen.
I swallowed hard and instinctively compared her to the most beautiful woman I knew.
*At that level, she could probably hold her own against Young Lady Dang.*
Dang Yeo-eun, one of the squad leaders of the Flying Dragon 13th Squad, was a direct descendant of the Sichuan Tang Clan.
Of course, even as a direct descendant, she was one of the youngest of the many Tang siblings and had been sent to the front lines. There, she had displayed not only outstanding assassination, movement, and poison techniques, but also swordsmanship unheard of for a Tang, earning her the title "Sword Phoenix of the Tang Clan."
She had received the title of Phoenix, given only to women recognized for their combination of martial skill and beauty, who were expected to lead the future of the Murim.
To think this woman's beauty was comparable to Young Lady Dang's—I couldn't help but be captivated for a moment.
But it seemed my brothers found my gaze offensive.
My eldest brother, Seonwoo Seong, glared at me and shouted.
"How dare a filthy pig like you lay your eyes on Young Lady Jegal?! My apologies for making you uncomfortable, Young Lady Jegal."
Young Lady Jegal?
Could he mean the Heavenly Grace Sword Phoenix, Jegal Seo-yul?
I had heard rumors that a sword genius had appeared in the Jegal Family, which had never been particularly recognized for its martial prowess despite its influence and wisdom.
*I heard the Jegal Family was sending her on a tour of various martial families to gain experience... Is that why she's here at our family estate?*
I vaguely recalled hearing that visitors from the Jegal Family were supposed to arrive around this time.
I suppose I hadn't paid any attention since I thought it had nothing to do with me.
In any case, I quickly averted my gaze.
I knew all too well what men become in front of a beautiful woman.
Especially ill-natured fools like my brothers—there was no telling what they would do to look good in front of a beauty.
It seemed wise to hurry back to the archives.
Just then, the woman who was likely Jegal Seo-yul asked.
"Who is that?"
My heart sank.
Please, Young Lady!
Are you trying to get me killed?
Don't pay any attention to me!
My brothers rushed to answer.
"He is my shameful third brother."
"As you can see, he's more pig than person."
"He has to go to the Great Demonic Cult Front tomorrow, so Father gave him special permission to learn some martial arts, yet there he is, slacking off."
She asked back, her expression surprised.
"He's going to the Great Demonic Cult Front?"
Then, she looked at me again with curious eyes.
*Oh, no! Please, Young Lady!*
I squeezed my eyes shut.
Sure enough, my brothers' gazes turned vicious as they began to glare at me as if they wanted to eat me alive.
"He is not someone worthy of your attention, Young Lady."
"That's right. As you can see, he's just a pig."
"He's only going to the front lines to pay for a crime he committed."
"Ah."
But even as they nodded in understanding, their gazes remained fixed on me.
Annoyed by this, the youngest, Seonwoo Gi, scowled for a moment before a sly smile spread across his face as he started walking toward me.
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