“I-I think… you really dote on him.”

“Hey, you can’t just tell him that!”

Well, this is a disaster.

Cho Yoon pressed a hand to his forehead. Unsure what the children might learn from his reaction, he couldn’t even openly show his dismay. Forcing himself to remain composed, he stopped Sa-yeong from clapping a hand over Sa-hyeon’s mouth and spoke up.

“What do you mean, ‘favoring’ him?”

“W-well, you favor him! Y-you even pick the meat off the bone for him!” Sa-hyeon stammered.

“Don’t listen to him, Master! He’s just saying that because his belly is full! Hey, I told you to shut up!” Sa-yeong yelled.

“And you even… p-personally cook his meals for him!”

That was the original Cho Yoon. The martial artist who dumped the cooking onto a pair of eleven- and nine-year-olds.

When Hayoon had first seen those tiny kids hauling iron cauldrons bigger than their bodies back and forth in front of a roaring hearth at four in the morning, he’d nearly had a heart attack. He had frantically sent them back to bed and immediately taken over the cooking himself. Unfortunately, that sudden change in behavior had coincided perfectly with Cheon-oh’s arrival, leading to this massive misunderstanding.

Oblivious to Cho Yoon’s internal crisis, Sa-hyeon puffed out his lower lip and dropped his gaze, unable to hide how hurt he was. Sa-yeong, quick as ever, stepped in front of her younger brother, looking ready to bite someone’s head off. Either way, it was a disaster.

Choosing the simplest explanation that still covered everything, Cho Yoon began to coax and soothe his disciples.

“That child’s hands have not yet fully healed. If food were to get into his wounds, they would surely become infected. Furthermore, the silk bandages wrapped around his hands must be changed regularly, which only adds to the chores. It would be entirely unfair to make the two of you wait on him while you’re trying to eat your own meals, so I took it upon myself.”

“…Then, once his hands are fully healed, you won’t pick the meat off the bone for him anymore?”

“You speak of the obvious. If he does not know how to feed himself, I shall teach him. If he does, I shall ensure he eats with his own hands.”

The children’s expressions softened slightly. However, the most critical part was what came next.

“The reason I previously had you cook your own meals was so you would understand the arduous labor that goes into preparing food. I also wished to ensure you could live independently whenever I had to step away for brief periods. As you are well aware, I frequently leave the mountain to sell my medicine.”

“Ah…”

“As I believe that goal has been satisfactorily met, my focus has now shifted entirely to your physical growth, which is why I have resumed cooking your meals. After all, neither of you can infuse your meals with the precise medicinal herbs suited to your bodies, can you?”

“L-like this medicinal bath?”

“Precisely. Just like this medicinal bath.”

Beside Cho Yoon sat two wooden tubs filled to the brim with a translucent brown liquid. Steam wafted gently from the surface, filling the air with the rich, heavy scent of assorted herbs.

Dipping his hand into the bath to gauge the temperature, Cho Yoon continued.

“As I instructed earlier, starting today, the two of you will take a medicinal bath every night. You must keep your bodies fully submerged until the water cools. Once you step out of the tub, rinse yourselves with the clean water beside it, dry off thoroughly, and go straight to bed.”

“Y-yes, Master!”

“Yes!”

Watching the children strip off their martial arts uniforms with as much excitement as if they were headed out to play in a stream, Cho Yoon stepped out of the washroom. The “washroom” was nothing more than a space behind the cabin enclosed by a tall wooden fence, but he needed boundaries like this to teach the children the proper functions and concepts of different spaces.

I just made up an excuse on the fly, but thank goodness it worked. I need to be much more careful from now on.

Breathing a deep sigh of combined relief and exhaustion, Cho Yoon trudged back toward the front of the cabin. He was currently in a position where he couldn’t even sigh freely, terrified the kids might mimic him.

Still, I handled it well, right? Considering we might be living together for a very long time, it would be a huge problem if they started resenting him.

For Sa-yeong and Sa-hyeon, their entire world currently consisted solely of each other and Cho Yoon. He was their mother, father, friend, older brother, and master all rolled into one. While the original Cho Yoon’s aloof personality had naturally created some distance between them, Jeong Hayoon’s transmigration had drastically shifted the atmosphere and household policies, steering them toward a much softer, more natural relationship.

If the most important person in their lives suddenly showered a strange new child with attention, it was only natural for them to feel jealous. When a parent’s attention suddenly shifts to a newborn, it is a common pattern for the older child to act out to regain that attention.

Moreover, jealousy and envy were complex emotions that elementary-school-aged children couldn’t process maturely. As the only person capable of mediating between them, Cho Yoon had to scrutinize his every word and action.

Regardless, with the siblings occupied in their bath, he would have at least an hour of peace. Steeling his resolve, Cho Yoon stepped back inside the Estate of Deep Mists. Instantly, he sensed a bizarre shift in the atmosphere.

“You are awake.”

When Cho Yoon had left to boil the water for the medicinal bath, Cheon-oh had been sound asleep after dinner. Now, he was sitting up. Had that been all, it wouldn’t have been unusual, but the child who had previously only ever stared blankly into space was now kneeling on the bed, his hands resting neatly on his thighs in a perfectly disciplined posture. It was undeniably strange.

Stepping lightly toward Cheon-oh, Cho Yoon spoke.

“Do not kneel. You are only overworking legs that are finally beginning to heal.”

“…”

“Unless, of course, your intention is to add to my workload. Hurry now.”

Before the boy could even form a protest, Cho Yoon’s swift rebuke forced him to break his posture. Not satisfied with that alone, Cho Yoon draped a quilt over the boy’s shoulders before sitting neatly opposite him. He broke the silence first.

“You must have something to say. Go ahead.”

“…”

Just as Cho Yoon was about to add, If it is difficult to vocalize, you may simply mouth the words, the hesitant child slowly placed his hands on the floor and bowed. Even in his awkward position, he pressed his forehead against the backs of his hands in a deep, respectful bow before straightening up. When the boy finally spoke, his voice, perhaps because he hadn’t used it in so long, was as low, desperate, and bleak as scraping the very bottom of the earth.

“…I thank you for the profound grace you have bestowed upon me, Immortal.”

I-Immortal? I’m not an immortal yet.

Cho Yoon forcibly swallowed the words that nearly burst from his lips. For some reason, it felt as though cold sweat were trickling down his spine. As expected of the world’s final boss, the aura radiating from this child, who wasn’t even ten, was no joke.

No, seriously, I’m not an actual immortal. Didn’t I tell him my name?

“It is only right that I repay you with everything I possess, yet to my bitter sorrow, I have absolutely nothing left. Even in such a pathetic state, I dare to ask a few questions of you, Immortal. If I offend you, I beg you to reprimand me.”

No, seriously, why is his speech pattern so incredibly formal? Who teaches a kid to talk like this so early?

Regardless of what Cho Yoon was thinking, Cheon-oh’s questions followed after a brief pause. Hearing them, Cho Yoon was momentarily rendered speechless.

“…Was my clan truly trampled into dust? The people of the Woonhan Seomun Clan… did they truly all die like that?”

The servants, who shared no blood, locked away and crushed to death. My blood relatives, impaled on wooden stakes and burned alive.

Asking whether the people he’d lived with his entire life were truly all dead, the boy’s eyes, as dead and pitch-black as his hair, remained fixed on the floor.

For a brief moment, Cho Yoon deliberated before finally parting his lips.

“…I heard that no one emerged from that place alive aside from you.”

“Surely one person… surely there could be at least one person? There were children in the estate who only did menial chores. My grandparents took in children wandering the streets, giving them a place to live as servants…”

“They said every last one of them was slaughtered, leaving absolutely nothing behind. Afterward, they poisoned the earth so that not even a single blade of grass could ever grow there again.”

“…”

The boy’s eyes sank deeper and deeper into an endless hell. As if to steady himself, Cho Yoon quietly closed his eyes, then opened them again.

As if intent on murdering every last shred of his own hope, Cheon-oh continued to interrogate Cho Yoon.

“I have heard the people of the estate speak of the White Chivalry Alliance. Was it truly the orthodox factions belonging to the White Chivalry Alliance who annihilated the Woonhan Seomun Clan?”

“The forces that stormed your estate were the Hidden Dragon Squad and the Crouching Tiger Squad, the execution branches of the White Chivalry Alliance. They are a direct military organization that can only be mobilized with the consent of more than half of the Nine Great Sects and the Five Great Clans of the Alliance.”

“…Why was my family killed?”

Just as the siblings had keenly sensed Cho Yoon’s attention shifting to Cheon-oh, children were perceptive beings who understood things instinctively. And among them, Cheon-oh was exceptionally brilliant and sharp. Even if Cho Yoon clumsily tried to hide or obscure the truth, it wouldn’t work, and even if it did, it would likely breed massive resentment later on.

If that’s the case, I should just tell him the truth honestly.

He had made the judgment and steeled his resolve, but when it actually came time to say it, his lips refused to part. How was he supposed to explain that adults, driven entirely by their own selfish greed, had deemed the very existence of an innocent, oblivious child a sin?

Especially when he knew it was nothing more than a thoughtless background setting thrown in by the author to give the villain a plausible motive.