“B-but you said I should get close to him first!”

“What kind of bastard becomes friends just because someone tells them to, taking it literally?”

“But Sister, in your letter…”

“Then should I write out every detail, saying ‘This place is practically the base of the Moyong Clan, and since their youngest son is suspicious, find out anything you can’?”

Cho Yoon, who had been nibbling on the mung bean pancake he brought as a snack, felt his throat clog up. Whether they noticed or not, the siblings sitting opposite each other at the table continued their bickering.

“B-But you didn’t tell me to do anything specific after that…”

“I thought you would contact me if there was anything suspicious! Did you think I expected you to become a blockhead who got so thoroughly swept up by that guy that you couldn’t even make a single contact properly?”

“Ah… you said you weren’t angry at me earlier.”

“Apart from not being angry, your handling of the matter was too clumsy! If interference came in, you should have thought of how to shake it off, not drag him here trudgingly like a fool! Can I trust you with other missions like this? Moyong Seo is a figure Master has been watching for a whopping eight years! Instead of stripping that bastard bare, you let him…”

Sa-yeong, pouring out her fervor, pointed her palm at Cho Yoon. If he had known such a conversation would take place, he wouldn’t have eaten the snack. Cho Yoon put down the pancake, drank tea, and barely forced the mung bean filling stuck in his throat down into his stomach.

It hadn’t been long since he learned Sa-hyeon was close with Moyong Seo, but hearing so much information at once was confusing.

So right now… Sa-hyeon couldn’t contact us while coming with the Moyong Clan people because of Moyong Seo’s interference? And what’s this about me watching him? Sure, I paid attention because he’s the protagonist, but I didn’t exactly look for him… More than that, he deliberately hid that Moyong Seo was coming this way? Why? Has something already happened where his destination shouldn’t be discovered?

Lost in thought, Cho Yoon lowered his eyes quietly. However, this was a period omitted even in the original novel, and there was no particular reason Cho Yoon, who lived stuck in the mountains, could deduce. Still, since he had left a message for Hui, he tried to reassure himself that he could meet him soon and ask properly, but Sa-yeong’s rebuke—thoroughly fed up with her brother’s indecisiveness—was getting longer and longer.

“Are you even really close in the first place? You said you don’t even know why those guys came here. Do you believe the words that the youngest young master and even the Young Clan Head came to see me all at once? How can you not be suspicious?”

“T-Then does Sister live suspecting everyone she meets? We are friends!”

“What kind of friend is he when you’ve been used thoroughly! Only you think that…”

“Stop.”

Coming to his senses, Cho Yoon saw the argument was becoming heated, so he hurriedly cut off Sa-yeong’s words. The siblings shut their mouths with heavy frowns, and Cheon-oh, sitting next to Sa-hyeon, only munched on the pancake and stared intently at Cho Yoon.

Surely it started harmoniously at first, but why did it turn out like this without even going around this angle? Although they fought often since they were little kids, it seemed largely due to not meeting for a long time.

Cho Yoon began to mediate calmly.

“I understand you are angry and upset because it seems your brother was taken lightly, but it was excessive. You should not blame Sa-hyeon who suffered, but criticize the other side who inflicted it. Giving a warning to Sa-hyeon can be done later; it is not too late.”

“…I understand, Master.”

“You must have felt something in your own way too. I am not saying you should understand and overlook all your senior sister’s cold remarks, but if you try to win by putting emotions first blindly, it will only be your loss. Ask for time to think and organize your head first.”

“…Y-Yes. Master.”

Sitting children who were turning twenty-three and twenty-one this year on both sides and treating them like children felt slightly incongruous. But can one suddenly become skilled in human relationships just by aging a bit? The closer and more precious the relationship, the more it could be twisted firmly by a moment’s friction, and Cho Yoon didn’t want to see the children he raised become estranged.

Unless they were completely hopeless people, most things could be resolved by talking with an honest heart. Putting down the teacup, Cho Yoon continued to encourage them.

“Sa-yeong, state again what you truly wish for from Sa-hyeon and what you are worried about.”

“…Moyong Seo is hiding something, and he might be a dangerous person. So I want you to be a bit more alert when dealing with him. …Sorry for saying harsh words.”

“Ah, no. Because I was complacent.”

The atmosphere, which had been turbulent like waves, settled awkwardly but amicably. In the brief silence, Sa-hyeon—stroking the back of his neck awkwardly—opened his mouth carefully.

“Th-That, Seo-ha is… definitely a bit strange.”

“Seo-ha?”

“Originally, he lived alone with his mother, but as he entered the Moyong Clan, he changed his name to a single character, becoming Moyong Seo. He told me to call him Seo-ha.”

Hearing it, it seemed there was such a setting. Cho Yoon, recalling the protagonist’s origin belatedly, nodded slightly. It was one of the clichés that would feel empty if he didn’t tell his real name to a close friend or heroine.

“Seo-ha is… incredibly strong.”

“Strong? He looked ordinary when I saw him earlier.”

“No, Sister. Seo-ha is stronger than me. There were more than one or two times I overcame a wall with Seo-ha’s help.”

As Sa-hyeon shook his head, Sa-yeong frowned as if she couldn’t believe it and asked back.

“Are you saying a brat only fourteen years old surpassed the Unrestrained Realm and reached Returning to Simplicity?”

“Maybe… that might be the case. There aren’t many people who know he is strong. Since it doesn’t show at all on the outside, the elders of the Moyong Clan don’t know either.”

Well, since he’s the protagonist, that’s plausible enough. Cho Yoon nodded vigorously inside. The Unrestrained Realm, one of the realms of martial arts, was a position where one could use the technique called ‘Sword Aura’, strong and rare enough to be on the level of a sect leader. However, at the same time, if it was a protagonist in a mass-produced wuxia novel, it was a stage achieved as a basic before reaching adulthood.

Thanks to that, the Unrestrained Realm was now practically a device for the protagonist’s rebirth. Since four more years had passed since meeting Cheon-oh in an unexpected place, it seemed he had become stronger even faster.

While Cho Yoon, accustomed to munchkin wuxia novels, accepted this fact easily as if it were natural, Sa-yeong, who knew exactly what the Unrestrained Realm was, looked back at her master as if finding it hard to believe.

“It makes no sense that the Hao Sect didn’t know this. Master, is it true? Is that why you told the Sect Leader to watch Moyong Seo?”

“…I tell you this, but I never said to watch him.”

“Pardon? No way. Didn’t you say that when you first met the Sect Leader in Sichuan? Four years ago, you removed the poison that was about to spread in Shaanxi Province before Moyong Seo could.”

“If it was four years ago… isn’t that the Th-Three Treasures Tournament? I was in Shaanxi then too, but there… there was poison?”

“…Were you also in Shaanxi, Senior Brother?”

“If you say ‘Senior Brother too’… were you also in Shaanxi? You couldn’t have gone there alone from the Estate of Deep Mists, so surely you went with Master? I thought it was all resolved there since I heard the poison about to spread through the river of the Point of No Return Mountain Range was removed.”

“M-Master was in Shaanxi too?”

“…….”

Cho Yoon always acted improvisationally to escape immediate crises. Because the medicine to treat Moyong Dan seemed likely to remain useless like a chicken rib, he hinted at Moyong Seo’s existence, and he merely moved to prevent a massacre while clearing away the dead Zhenniao in the back mountain. He couldn’t understand at all how such simple responses could be distorted to become this mess.

It seems Hui heard my words strangely again… well, still, there shouldn’t be a big problem.

As soon as he thought this, the conversation exchanged by the children reached his ears. Perhaps having learned only to pick and ask the core points while they hadn’t seen each other, Sa-yeong’s voice digging sharply into the main point was the clearest among them.

“The Zhenniao was in the river of the Point of No Return Mountain Range, right?”

“At the bottom of the Yeonpa River that appears after crossing Mount Wonik, a Human-Faced Water Snake and a Zhenniao were dead. Master entered the water himself, took out the Zhenniao, and disposed of it.”

“How far had the poison spread at the time?”

“It had spread beyond the Point of No Return Mountain Range to below the Qinling Mountains. We were able to finish purification before it leaked into the villages.”

“Then why did you go all the way to Shaanxi?”

Cheon-oh’s gaze, which had been quietly looking at Sa-yeong, moved smoothly to the side. At the end was Cho Yoon sitting in a proper posture and contemplating, and the siblings who came to look at their master following their junior brother tilted their heads as if bewildered.

Cheon-oh stared piercingly at Cho Yoon for a while with a subtle face that was hard to read.

Cho Yoon, meeting his eyes blankly, opened his mouth with a feeling of surely not. Before he could say anything, Cheon-oh beat him to it. Cho Yoon learned for the first time the expression full of grudges Cheon-oh made when tattling.

“Master said there was not enough time to process it and consumed the Zhenniao possessing extreme poison raw, and due to the aftermath, he eventually fainted. I merely headed to Shaanxi escorting Master, relying on the words Master said before losing consciousness.”

“What?”

“C-Consumed?”

Only now hearing the detailed inside story, the siblings couldn’t hide their shock and looked back at Cho Yoon. Cheon-oh’s face as he looked at Cho Yoon seemed ostensibly calm, as if he had been waiting for this for a long time. Cold sweat flowed down the back of Cho Yoon, caught without even a gap to stop the choice that even he thought was foolish.

I’m going to be scolded severely for this.