Free Web NovelUntil now, Heukcheon Amgui had cut off all of the Tang Clan Head’s questions at his own level. Once Tang Min began to insist unreasonably, there was no one who could stop him. Not even the Tang Clan Head.
However, the atmosphere was different now.
Sohwa sensed that there was an emotion mixed into the Tang Clan Head’s face that was different in nature from anger. It did not seem as if he was merely furious because she had lied.
She was not foolish enough to lie when the Clan Head was giving her a final chance. In any case, she had moved within headquarters; if the Clan Head set his mind to it, it was only a matter of time before he found out where she had been.
In the end, Sohwa opened her mouth. free𝑤ebnovel.com
"In truth, I went to the Namgung pavilions."
It seemed to have been the right choice; the Tang Clan Head’s expression loosened slightly.
In contrast, at the words that she had gone to the Namgung pavilions, Tang Min’s eyes narrowed.
"So the fellow who would not listen was that Namgung brat?"
Sohwa sent a chilly look at Tang Min, who had cut in without reading the room. She meant they would speak of it later, but the Tang °• N 𝑜 v 𝑒 l i g h t •° Clan Head took Tang Min’s side.
"Did you go to see Namgung Jin?"
"No."
At that, Tang Ji-ha pressed his lips tightly together once, then asked, as if reluctant,
"Surely not, did you once again..."
"Did you go to see the Clan Head’s second son? That sickly white brat?"
Tang Min cut in once more.
Sohwa watched the Tang Clan Head’s expression. Tang Ji-ha was glaring at her with sharp eyes.
"...Yes, I went to see Young Hero Namgung Hyun."
Tang Min let out a hollow laugh, as if he was at his wits’ end.
"What in the world did you ask of him that such a weak-looking brat refused your request? Tell me. For someone like that, I can make it so that within one hour, he will be scrambling to accept whatever you asked."
Sohwa ignored Tang Min’s words.
However, this time as well, the Clan Head showed interest.
"Did you go to Namgung Hyun to ask a favor? What kind of favor?"
Sohwa wanted to be honest. She wanted to say that Namgung Hyun could design the formation for that Passage which had made the Martial Alliance recoil in horror.
By any means, she wanted to make Namgung Hyun draw a formation that connected directly to the Tang manor.
However, Sohwa could not open her mouth.
Revealing Namgung Hyun’s true nature was too enormous a matter.
She could not gauge the repercussions it would bring.
Right now she was relying on Namgung Hyun’s goodwill; if he felt betrayed and returned to the Blood Cult’s side, the Passages in the Northern Sea that they had managed to close would be opened again.
Just as young Namgung Hyun had opened his heart to her easily, he could just as easily shut it.
Things like the romantic feelings between men and women were not her field, so she could not gamble on them. All the more so when the Tang Clan was being held hostage by the Blood Cult.
A shadow fell over the Tang Clan Head’s face.
"Answer."
Sohwa knew the Clan Head would not let it pass. Whatever it was, she had to give him an answer.
"I cannot tell you. If you still command me to answer, then I will have to speak falsehood to you, Clan Head, and I do not wish to do that."
"Does this look to you like I am asking as a favor?"
"No. I know you gave me an opportunity, and I believe that since I have thrown that opportunity away, you will punish me."
For a moment, Tang Ji-ha could not continue speaking.
Tang Min asked, as if he were utterly dumbfounded,
"Are you now throwing a fit, telling the Clan Head that if he is annoyed he should proceed according to the Tang Clan’s laws?"
Hearing it come from someone else’s mouth, her attitude toward the Clan Head did sound insolent. Even so, Sohwa could not give the answer the Clan Head wanted.
"It is not that I mean to insult you, Clan Head. I mean to keep faith."
"Faith?"
At the Clan Head’s retort, Sohwa spoke.
"I owe Young Hero Namgung Hyun my life and more than that. If I open my mouth, Young Hero will be put in a difficult position because he helped me."
Debt, faith. They were at least expressions that the two martial artists before her could use to understand her choice.
It was the truth as well.
She did not wish to admit it, but she had received help from Namgung Hyun.
Thanks to the sorcerer’s Passage, she had been able to escape and discover the way to bring down the Blood Demon. If Namgung Hyun had dismissed her, she would be in Geumeunsan right now.
In that case, she might have had to watch the Tang Clan be annihilated alive. It was a future more dreadful than death.
To say she owed him more than her life was no exaggeration.
In a low voice, Tang Ji-ha asked,
"Do you not know the Tang Clan’s law?"
Sohwa could not answer.
The law he spoke of was most likely the punishment for one who defied the Clan Head’s command.
The punishment was death, and the method was decided by the Clan Head. Among their ancestors were those who had ordered beheadings, and, horribly, those who had carried out dismemberment by slow slicing.
What pain to inflict on the criminal was entirely the Clan Head’s freedom.
"Are you defying the Clan Head now because you were born into a strange body?"
However, the Tang Clan Head could not kill her. More precisely, he knew that he could not.
Calmly, Sohwa removed one of her earrings.
When she turned the ruby, a pill the size of a grain of millet came out from inside. Sohwa carried it over to the table in front of the Clan Head.
Not understanding her intention, Tang Ji-ha furrowed his brow.
"What is this?"
"It is the way I can die."
At her words, silence fell.
Even the killing intent the Clan Head had been letting spill in a threatening way vanished completely.
The one who had spoken such shocking words, however, looked relieved.
"I was thinking of submitting the manufacturing method to the Oral Transmission Pavilion, but it seemed dangerous if word spread outside that the Tang Clan could make something like this, so I had postponed it."
As she looked at the small pill, Sohwa’s gaze rose toward the Clan Head. The emotion in her black eyes was strange. Her voice, darker than that gaze, tickled the Clan Head’s eardrums.
"I know you have always been worried because I am in a body that is hard to kill."
"..."
"I wanted to tell you sooner, but I am sorry it is in this way that I inform you. From now on, I hope you can ease the anxiety in your heart."
Tang Ji-ha could not say a single word. The usually talkative Tang Min was the same. The two of them could not make a sound, as if someone had glued their lips together.
Paying no heed to that silence, Sohwa continued speaking.
"Among the Tang Clan’s precepts, there is the saying that we must repay kindness twice over and repay grudges tenfold. Within the Tang Clan itself, it is not a rule that is particularly emphasized, but as I understand it, outside, it is known as a peculiar precept that symbolizes the Tang Clan."
Before one of the longest-lived elders of the Tang Clan and the Clan Head who presided over its laws, a young dependent of the household brought up the Tang Clan’s precepts. ƒreewebɳovel.com
"It seems our ancestors wanted the outside world to see the Tang Clan as that kind of group. As something burdensome, not to be provoked lightly, and as something that would bring fortune if aided."
Sohwa’s voice was calm.
"If I, having received help from Young Hero Namgung Hyun, betray him, then the protective shell our ancestors tried to place around the Tang Clan will be damaged. Therefore, I intend to keep both of the Tang Clan’s precepts."
"..."
"I will gladly bear the sin of disobeying the Clan Head’s order, and I will not forsake the kindness I received from an outsider."
Tang Ji-ha and Tang Min opened their mouths and then closed them again.
The two of them realized that when something was truly absurd, no words came out.
It was not normal. No, they already knew she was not in her right mind, but this child’s way of thinking was so abnormal that even among eccentrics she would be segregated.
"Are you asking me now to kill you?"
She was handing over, with her own hands, the weapon that could kill her and asking to be killed. And she was doing it before Tang Ji-ha, who was her father before he was the Clan Head.
To call it madness was far too mild.
Sohwa bowed her head without a word. She meant that she would wait for the Clan Head’s decision.
Tang Ji-ha’s insides burned black. He believed she was doing this because she knew he would not kill her. Even so, he could not respond with his own show of bravado. If he went further, it would truly be a death sentence.
The muscles in Tang Ji-ha’s jaw twitched violently. One could hear his teeth grinding. For the first time, he felt the urge to beat Sohwa.
Meanwhile, his eldest daughter received his killing intent without wavering. Even her breathing was even.
'...At least in boldness, you are fit to be Clan Head.'
Surely, what was going on inside that child could not be normal either, yet outwardly she seemed calm.
Tang Ji-ha’s head ached, but he suppressed the urge to press his temples and kept his expression emotionless.
Suddenly, it was as if an obstruction in his ears cleared, and the sounds of nature filled the room.
The sound of leaves rubbing against each other in the night wind was eerie. The Clan Head’s heavy voice crushed that cold noise.
"Are you out there."
A black shadow fell across the Clan Head’s door.
When a warrior of the White Tiger Unit revealed himself, Tang Ji-ha’s black eyes fell upon Sohwa.
"You say you will keep faith, so you ask for punishment?"
His voice was so cold it was frightening as it bored into Sohwa’s eardrums. Before he even heard her answer, he issued an order to the White Tiger Unit member.
"Come in and take Tang Sohwa to the dungeon."
Creak.
With not a trace of hesitation, the White Tiger Unit member opened the door and moved to Sohwa’s side. There was no need to bind her. Tang Sohwa sat up of her own accord, revealing her intent to go along quietly.
With icy eyes fixed on Sohwa, Tang Ji-ha spoke to the White Tiger Unit member.
"Do not give her so much as a sip of water, and keep watch. As long as she does not escape the dungeon, there is no need to report any situation to me."
"By your command."
Only then did the White Tiger Unit martial artist take hold of Sohwa’s arm. Sohwa did not shake him off. She simply followed the White Tiger Unit martial artist meekly out of the room.
Tak.
When the door closed, the Clan Head covered his eyes with both hands.
"How can something like that..."
Unable to finish, Tang Ji-ha let out a breath full of fury.
"Something like what? Why do you stop halfway when you speak?"
When Tang Min asked, Tang Ji-ha finally exploded and let the words pour out.
"She dares to invoke the Tang Clan’s precepts and the ancestors before the Clan Head and defy his order! And this pill...! To pull a stunt like this! There is nothing she will not say before her own father! How dare she threaten, saying ‘kill me if you will kill me’ to someone like that!"
"I am not taking that impudent child’s side, but I do not think she meant to threaten the Clan Head. Considering Sohwa’s bizarre temperament, I suspect she really told you about such a poison to put your mind at ease."
Tang Ji-ha pressed his forehead. He himself thought so as well. That child was heartless enough to consider that sort of thing a kindness.
"I truly cannot understand that child’s thoughts. There is not a single corner of her that resembles me..."
Since he could not grasp her mind, he had no idea how to handle her.
But then Tang Min spoke in a reluctant voice.
"She does not resemble you?"
Tang Ji-ha lowered his hand and looked at him. Heukcheon Amgui’s gaze was murky.
"Right now, I am thinking, ‘Indeed, blood cannot be deceived.’"
"Grand Elder, I have a terrible headache right now. Save the jokes for later."
Tang Min let out a hollow laugh.
"You are exactly the same, both of you..."
"How are we the same!"
Tang Ji-ha, suddenly riled, shouted. In response, Tang Min answered as if wronged.
"The Former Clan Head warned you again and again that, as Young Clan Head, you must not provoke quarrels. Did you listen? You went and conceived a child anyway, making the Former Clan Head clutch the back of his neck. And then, when you were told to cast out the troublemaker and throw the child away, you flipped your eyes and raged that you would abandon the position of Young Clan Head."
Tang Min clicked his tongue.
"At that time, the Former Clan Head said the same thing. He asked if, as Young Clan Head, you did not know the Tang Clan’s law. No, thinking back on it now gives me chills. How can you say exactly the same words as the Former Clan Head, not a single syllable different?"
Tang Ji-ha remembered that day as well. As the buried memory came back vividly, the Tang Clan Head’s complexion changed.
Tang Min let out a small chuckle.
"You also told me that day that I could kill you. And as soon as you left, the Former Clan Head said something similar. That there was no way he could entrust the Tang Clan to a man like you. That he lamented having such a spineless fellow as his son."
"..."
"My, blood is a frightening thing. This must be why the same history repeats itself in a single dynasty."
Shaking his head, Tang Min walked over to the edge of the desk. Carefully, he picked up the small pill.
"I will return this to Sohwa when the time seems right."
"Have you lost your mind? Why would you give that back?"
"There is nothing good in letting the method for making something like this become known, and for Sohwa, it is something she needs. Tell her not to submit it to the Oral Transmission Pavilion and to keep it to herself. If you are not going to kill that child today, then the moment she comes out of the dungeon, she will make another pill like this."
"..."
"What good is there in letting her do such a thing again, making a poison with which she can cut off her own breath?"
Tang Ji-ha could not say anything.
"She has a natural talent for cutting off other people’s breath, so do not let her waste her strength on useless things. Let her do that work alone for the rest of her life."
Tang Min added,
"Of course, it is your choice, Clan Head."
Tang Ji-ha did not answer. However, as if he had read the Clan Head’s heart, Tang Min quietly left the room. Though he held the poison in his hand, Tang Ji-ha did not tell him to bring it back and let him go.
