Chapter 56
Part 6: Father and Elder
“Elder Yeom…”
Fourth Young Master was in one corner, soothing his subordinates.
The boy looked at Elder Yeom, who was standing in line among the poor, and murmured,
“If he is someone of the rank of an elder of the main estate, he could even summon and meet a physician who once served as an imperial doctor of the palace. What an ironic thing.”
The boy’s eyes narrowed.
Elder Yeom had achieved countless merits through his individual martial strength and, through excellent conduct and judgment, had succeeded in securing a place in the internal politics of the Sword Clan, which were like a bloody battlefield.
In the end, he had risen to the position of elder within the Sword Clan.
Though he was not even a member of the Yeon family, he had started from the very bottom and proudly entered the Council of Elders.
Among the warriors of the Luoyang Sword Clan, he was often spoken of as a man whose life was a story of rising through sheer ambition.
“He is not even carrying the greatsword that is practically his symbol.”
It was the maid chief standing beside him who said that.
“And he did not even bring his subordinates.”
Even when the poor, frightened upon hearing that he was an elder of the Sword Clan, tried to leave the line, Elder Yeom had stopped them.
“And the one on his back must be that daughter of the Law Enforcement Hall.”
“Yes.”
At that moment, one young scholar carefully opened his mouth.
“My lord, would it be all right not to go greet him?”
Fourth Young Master shook his head.
“It is fine. If I acknowledge him here, it will only make him more uncomfortable.”
Fourth Young Master already knew what had happened between the Medicine King and Elder Yeom.
“More importantly…”
He withdrew his gaze and clapped his hands.
“Seeing how your mouths have come back to life and started flapping, it seems you have rested enough.”
Fierce glares poured from all around toward the scholar who had unnecessarily spoken and created trouble.
“Everyone, you heard Master, did you not?”
At the maid chief’s words, Fourth Young Master’s subordinates, who had been resting, all began moving toward the patients at once.
“A meeting between a representative elder of the neutral faction and my honored elder brother…”
Fourth Young Master smiled in anticipation.
“Yes, I’m keeping it in mind.”
The daughter murmured in a small voice.
“How many times has he told me that just today…”
***
The girl clung to her father’s back as quietly as possible so as not to make him uncomfortable.
“…To think I can meet the First Young Master in person like this. It feels like a dream.”
His frail daughter’s voice sounded as though she were walking through a dream.
‘How many times has she said that just today?’
Elder Yeom shook his head.
“You should know how to conduct yourself properly, but…”
She kept stealing glances at Yeon Sang-hyeon over her father’s shoulder.
“…He really is handsome. He looks exactly like he did in the portrait.”
Elder Yeom let out a small sigh at his daughter’s words.
“…Is Baekho behaving himself?”
At the sound of its name, a small white beast that had been sitting quietly in the girl’s arms poked out its face.
At the soft grumbling sound it made, the girl smiled.
“It says it feels good to be outside after so long.”
Elder Yeom adjusted his daughter on his back and reminded her,
“You must behave yourself.”
The girl tilted her head together with the white beast.
“Me? Or Baekho?”
Elder Yeom sighed again.
“All of you.”
He turned his gaze toward the First Young Master.
Aside from the first glance, the First Young Master had not looked at him again.
He swallowed a groan inwardly.
As an elder of none other than the Sword Clan, there was no way he could be ignorant of the First Young Master’s disposition.
Especially now, when talk regarding the matter of succession was gradually beginning to surface within the Luoyang Sword Clan.
A boy who shut himself inside Wongakjeong, said to be an earthly paradise, merely reading books and amusing himself by helping the poor as a pastime.
‘But…’
When he heard the information that such a First Young Master had driven out his servants, he had not paid it any attention.
But when that foolish steward had returned not long ago half-dead, he could not help being shocked.
And when he heard that the First Young Master had personally taken action, for an instant, he had even felt fear.
Now, that very First Young Master was sincerely tending to the poor.
He smiled at them, patted their shoulders, and administered medicine with practiced skill.
‘But why…’
His daughter wriggled, then poked her head out over his shoulder again.
“It really feels like I’m dreaming.”
He sighed and looked at the First Young Master again.
As his daughter said, the First Young Master was a beautiful young man one could not easily behold.
Even so, for some reason…
Why did that white, delicate face feel like a “mask”?
When their turn came, Yeon Sang-hyeon did not acknowledge him, and so he, too, merely remained silently by his daughter’s side.
Yeon Sang-hyeon was simply calmly taking his daughter’s pulse, just as he had done with the other patients.
What was being read by those half-open eyes of his?
As the pulse examination dragged on, Elder Yeom forcibly suppressed his anxiety.
“Please have a cup of this.”
Perhaps because she felt sorry for him.
The beautiful maid chief offered him a cup of tea.
“Thank you.”
He accepted the teacup, but only held it.
All his nerves were focused on the First Young Master, who showed no sign of moving.
After a long while, the First Young Master let out a deep sigh.
“Damn it…”
Elder Yeom felt as if his own heart had dropped.
“…This time, I wanted to prove that the old geezer’s diagnosis was wrong.”
At the First Young Master’s absurd mutter, a hollow laugh escaped Elder Yeom’s mouth.
He barely restrained the strength that was about to enter his pot-lid-sized fist.
“It seems proper conversation will be difficult here.”
Yeon Sang-hyeon spoke without giving his gaze to the girl, whose face was flushed as she kept stealing glances at him.
Elder Yeom stood in front of his daughter, blocking her with his enormous body, and answered.
“…Let us do that.”
***
The two moved elsewhere.
In the small room, tea and refreshments had already been prepared for them.
Yeon Sang-hyeon naturally sat in the seat of honor and gestured to him.
“Sit.”
After looking at Yeon Sang-hyeon for a moment, Elder Yeom sat down on a chair.
Confusion flashed through his eyes.
The person sitting before him was certainly the First Young Master he knew.
And yet, for some reason, he felt like someone other than that First Young Master.
“The old geezer… the Medicine King’s diagnosis was accurate. For now, it seems this is all I can do for her.”
After finishing his words, Yeon Sang-hyeon lifted his teacup and enjoyed the aroma.
Elder Yeom set down the teacup he had brought all the way here onto the table.
It was the cup he had received from the maid outside.
“…I suppose it would be difficult for the Medicine King to examine my daughter again?”
Yeon Sang-hyeon’s eyebrow twitched.
“You know better than anyone that the old geezer cannot do that, do you not, Elder Yeom?”
Elder Yeom sighed.
He knew it too.
The moment his own steward had applied pressure in an attempt to move the Medicine King, seeing the Medicine King again had become impossible.
It was not a matter of the Medicine King himself.
It was an unspoken rule.
A rule meant to prevent the numerous powerful figures who wished to see the Medicine King, who desperately waited for him, from using “the same method.”
As an elder of the Luoyang Sword Clan, Elder Yeom was a great power who could ignore most powerful people.
However, among those waiting for the Medicine King’s visit were even elders of the imperial family, and so this was no longer merely a matter of power.
‘That steward, that utterly stupid fool in all the world…’
Seeing his fist tremble, Yeon Sang-hyeon leisurely opened his mouth.
“Here and now, I can prescribe something to prevent the seizures that will occur in your daughter, just as the old geezer did before.”
Elder Yeom’s gaze, which had been glaring at the table, turned toward Yeon Sang-hyeon.
The First Young Master continued with a bitter smile.
“But considering your position, even that would not be easy, would it?”
“That is…”
Elder Yeom could not finish his sentence.
That would shake the political standing Elder Yeom had maintained as part of the neutral faction.
“As you know from the beginning, the old geezer could have completely cured your daughter. But…”
Elder Yeom took over Yeon Sang-hyeon’s words.
“But to do so, he would have had to treat my daughter at the exact moment a seizure occurred.”
He sighed.
“But the Medicine King is someone who wanders the entire continent, and my daughter is not in a state where she can accompany him on such a rough journey.”
Yeon Sang-hyeon leaned back comfortably and crossed his legs.
“As you know, I could cure her completely using the same method. I do live in the Sword Clan, after all.”
At his words, Elder Yeom’s movement stopped.
His sharp gaze flew toward Yeon Sang-hyeon and fixed itself on him.
“You are saying you would cure the daughter of a neutral-faction elder who does not support you and has no intention of supporting you? People will point fingers at you and call you a man with no pride.”
Yeon Sang-hyeon lightly swung his foot.
“The me who is here is only a mere physician.”
Then he snorted.
“And if I had been afraid of nothing more than other people’s gazes, do you think I would have lived as I pleased until now?”
“…”
His gaze fixed on Elder Yeom.
“Besides, this is not the time for you to worry about me, is it?”
He was right.
Elder Yeom had merely tried to turn the arrow toward Yeon Sang-hyeon and avoid the question he himself had to answer.
The moment he received treatment from Yeon Sang-hyeon, and moreover, the moment he entrusted his daughter to Yeon Sang-hyeon and had her cured, he would lose the political position he had maintained until now.
Some might say his decision had been for the sake of his family, but at least those who wanted to take his power would not say so.
“That is likewise not something the First Young Master need concern himself with, is it not? The matter of my political standing is, in the end—”
Yeon Sang-hyeon rose and struck the table.
“That way of speaking!”
The sound was not particularly loud, and Yeon Sang-hyeon had not struck the table especially hard.
Even so, Elder Yeom barely restrained himself from jumping in place.
“Throw away that way of speaking, the kind used in the Sword Clan’s pathetic political games.”
Elder Yeom managed not to avoid Yeon Sang-hyeon’s gaze through the experience and courage he had built over many years.
“There is no need for political rhetoric or decorative phrasing in front of me.”
Yeon Sang-hyeon leaned his face forward across the table.
“Do not evade my question.”
His voice was low.
Not even a trace of emotion could be felt in his gaze.
Elder Yeom swallowed dryly.
“I am only a mere physician and Swordless. What about you?”
Before him, the First Young Master he had never known until now revealed his teeth and smiled.
“Can you simply be one child’s father?”
Elder Yeom could feel the backrest against his back.
Without realizing it, he had leaned away.
He tried not to turn his eyes away from Yeon Sang-hyeon’s gaze, but even that was not easy.
He had reached this place by stepping over countless battles and the corpses of powerful enemies.
He had accomplished what everyone said was impossible, and he had endured and endured again until his political enemies collapsed.
“…”
And yet such a man as he was being miserably suppressed by a boy of barely seventeen.
A boy he had until moments ago been trying hard to ignore deep in his heart.
A boy who merely shut himself in his mother’s residence, read books, painted pictures, and liked helping the poor.
“Ha.”
A smile appeared on the boy’s lips.
It was unmistakable mockery.
Yeon Sang-hyeon moved his steps toward the outside.
“Of course, I understand your position, so there is no need to decide hastily.”
On his way out, he patted Elder Yeom’s shoulder, which had stiffened flatly.
“That tea is too precious to waste, so make sure you drink it all.”
Yeon Sang-hyeon stepped outside the door.
His voice came from behind Elder Yeom.
“It has a rich fragrance and a clean astringency. It is excellent.”
Elder Yeom’s gaze turned to the table.
Yeon Sang-hyeon’s cup had already been empty for quite some time.
Before him, two cups of untouched tea sat there, abandoned.