Chapter 153
As soon as the word “father” left my lips, the place instantly plunged into a crucible of chaos.
“Whaaaaat?!”
“The Great Hero’s father…?!!!”
“…The Leader’s Esteemed Father?!!”
“The Leader had parents…?!!”
“Which Bastard just said that.”
There was only one Bastard who would take advantage of the chaos to launch such a Surprise Attack on my parents.
“No…, Leader. I didn’t mean it like that… Urgh-!”
This Ungrateful Bastard is forgetting the grace of having his dantian fixed.
Smack-!
I smacked Bang Sam-i’s head once and turned back toward my father.
“Yeon-A…, it really is you…”
“And you…, you really are my father.”
He looked exactly the same as I remembered from my childhood.
A rugged body full of muscles and a beard growing like weeds all over his chin.
A middle-aged man who was the very epitome of a Bandit.
“No matter how I look at it, my looks definitely came from my late mother.”
In the past, I had even doubted the secret of my birth by comparing my father’s appearance with mine.
But people around me said that wasn’t the case.
This man was definitely my biological father.
“Huu…”
Meeting after such a long time…, I couldn’t help but feel awkward, and as a Leader and a Subordinate at that.
“For now…, shall we go inside? There are a lot of eyes watching.”
“L…, let’s do that…”
My father must have felt the same, as he awkwardly rolled his eyes and simply followed behind me.
* * *
My father, Wi Gong-Myeong.
He was a veteran who had been living the Bandit Life since before I was born.
From what I heard, our Family had been bandits since my grandfather’s time.
Anyway, perhaps because he had lived the Bandit Life for so long, my father had many Subordinates and a decent income when I was young.
Because of that, I remember growing up quite comfortably as the son of a Bandit Leader.
But back then, I didn’t know that was considered comfortable.
Intoxicated by the thrill of having transmigrated into a novel, my younger self hated the idea of living as a Bandit like my father, and eventually left my father’s Mountain Stronghold at the age of ten.
I hadn’t seen my father for over ten years and just assumed he had died…, to think we would have such a dramatic reunion…
Sip-.
I briefly brought the teacup in front of me to my lips and asked my father.
“Actually, when I turned twenty…, I went back to your Mountain Stronghold. But there was nothing there, so I just thought you had died…”
Having nowhere to go after turning twenty, I had returned to my Hometown once.
It wasn’t exactly out of affection for my father. I just genuinely had nowhere else to go…
“Ah…, you came to the Mountain Stronghold. The thing is…”
My father scratched his head awkwardly and replied.
“Originally, didn’t I only pick on the weak ones to rob? But back then, I was blinded by greed and recklessly charged in without realizing they were a Master of the Righteous Faction, and well…”
In the end, he didn’t know his place and tried to pick the pockets of someone strong, only to get robbed himself.
“Then what have you been doing since then?”
“After that, well…, it’s obvious. Having lost all my Subordinates and the Mountain Stronghold, what could I do? I wandered here and there Under Heaven, selling my Sword.”
“I see.”
“I’m actually more curious about how you’ve been living all this time. To think a kid who left empty-handed at ten would become the Leader of the Great Green Forest in just over a decade… What happened during that time?”
“…During that time.”
At my father’s words, I recalled everything that had happened since I was ten.
It wasn’t something I could list out in just a few seconds.
“…A lot of things happened.”
“…I see. Could you perhaps tell me in detail?”
“You seem quite curious about my past?”
“…!”
When I casually slipped that in, my father flinched. Then he answered evasively.
“O-of course I’m curious about my one and only son’s story! If you don’t want to tell me, then forget it…!”
“…”
Sip-.
When I didn’t reply to my father’s words, a gap formed in the conversation, and the atmosphere grew awkward for a moment.
To break this awkward situation, I brought up something from the past.
“In the past, when you saw that I didn’t want to live as a Bandit, you told me that living an Ordinary life is the best.”
“Ah, I did.”
“I still think so now. Even though there have been a few times over the years where things were far from Ordinary, I believe that not going against the flow and living ordinarily is the best.”
“I-is that so?”
“Therefore.”
Clack.
I set down the teacup and smiled at my father as I spoke.
He was still my father, so I had to keep my manners.
“You should live here ordinarily too, father. Don’t do anything unnecessary.”
“…”
“Since you’re my father, I’ll take care of you.”
“…Thank you.”
Upon hearing my words, my father turned pale, his face draining of color.
I left my father like that, giving a brief farewell before heading outside.
* * *
“…Huu.”
He had always thought the boy was extraordinary.
A pint-sized little kid, he was far too smart for a kid who lived cooped up in the mountains following his Bandit father.
But the son he met after more than a decade was piercing through people’s hearts as if a thousand-year-old fox had taken residence inside him.
Wi Gong-Myeong recalled the words his son had just spoken.
‘You should live ordinarily here too, father. Don’t do anything unnecessary.’
C-could it be…
“…Did he notice that the Murim Alliance sent me?”
In truth, there was something he had just lied to his son about.
He had told his son that he had been wandering Under Heaven selling his Sword for the past few years.
But this was not true.
Because…, he has been locked up in the Murim Alliance’s Dungeon for the past few years.
The truth was that Wi Gong-Myeong had also been caught when all his Subordinates were captured.
Since then, he had been imprisoned in the Murim Alliance’s Dungeon until he was recently released after receiving a secret order from the Murim Alliance.
And the contents of that secret order were…, to enter under his son, who had become the General Stronghold Master of the Murim World, monitor his every move, and report back secretly.
Stabbing his one and only son in the back felt repulsive, but it couldn’t be helped.
If he hadn’t accepted it, he would have had to live in the Murim Alliance’s Dungeon for the rest of his life.
“Haa…, but it seems like I’ve already been completely found out…”
If he didn’t report regularly, he ran the risk of being pursued by the Murim Alliance once again.
“Should I just trust Yeon-i and stay quiet…? Will that guy protect me…?”
With that, Wi Gong-Myeong sighed and went outside.
It was then.
Step.
“…?”
A shadow approached him, and when he raised his head to look…
“Hello?”
“…Gasp-!”
…An incredibly beautiful woman was greeting him.
Upon closer inspection, it was the woman who had been next to his son earlier. If so, she was definitely one of Green Forest’s leaders.
“W-what business do you have with me…”
At the elegance deeply ingrained in his body, Wi Gong-Myeong immediately bowed his head. Prostrating himself flat like this was his way of surviving among strong experts.
However,…
“Please raise your head.”
“…Pardon?”
“I am Wolhwa, working under Great Hero Muyeon after receiving his Life-Saving Grace. Since you are Great Hero Muyeon’s father, you are also a benefactor to me, so please feel at ease with me.”
“Ah…”
At her words, Wi Gong-Myeong hesitantly raised his head. She then smiled and offered him a suggestion.
“Instead of standing here like this, how about we move to another location?”
“…Pardon?”
And so, Wi Gong-Myeong followed behind her without knowing why.
* * *
“Uahaha-!”
The place the Haomun Leader took him to was lined with all sorts of alcohol and food.
At first, Wi Gong-Myeong couldn’t bring himself to touch the alcohol and food, but soon unable to Resist the temptation, he hurriedly worked his chopsticks.
Especially the alcohol.
After being released from the Murim Alliance’s Dungeon, he had come straight to Hunan Province.
During his years in the Dungeon, he naturally hadn’t been able to let a drop of alcohol touch his lips, so there was no way he could Resist the fine liquors right in front of him.
Glug, glug.
As he frantically downed the alcohol placed before him, a flush of intoxication rose hotly to his face.
“Haha-! Thanks to having a good son, I get to enjoy such luxury-!”
“Please eat your fill.”
There was no particular price to pay for eating such Delicacies from Mountains and Seas.
He just had to answer when Wolhwa asked a few simple questions.
“So, which Sect did you say you have been selling your Sword to over the past few years?”
“Uh…, w-where was it again…”
They were only simple questions, but perhaps due to the intoxication, Wi Gong-Myeong couldn’t easily fabricate an answer.
“W-was I always this much of a lightweight…?”
No matter how long it had been since he last drank, he ended up Unconscious after consuming an amount that fell far short of his old tolerance.
He was completely unaware that the alcohol had been laced with drugs.
“…”
Meanwhile, the Haomun Leader observed Wi Gong-Myeong with a cold gaze.
She did not believe in coincidences.
Was he meeting a Family member he had lost in the past so dramatically?
It was highly likely that this was not a coincidence, but someone’s scheme.
And…, that someone…
‘There’s a mark on his neck.’
…She was certain it was the Murim Alliance.
When the Murim Alliance imprisoned convicts, it left a mark on the back of the convicts' necks that only it could recognize.
And that mark was also on Wi Gong-Myeong’s neck, and judging by what he said while drugged, she could deduce that he had been locked in the Murim Alliance’s Dungeon for several years before recently being released for some reason.
“Should I inform Great Hero Muyeon of this fact…”
No…, perhaps the wise man already knew that his father was involved with the Murim Alliance.
At this, a bitter taste filled the Haomun Leader’s mouth.
The pain of being betrayed and used by Family…, she knew it all too well.
“Uahahaha-! Young Lady Wol! If you have anything else you’re curious about, just say it-! I’ll tell you everything!”
“…”
Feeling good from the drugs, Wi Gong-Myeong couldn’t even read the Haomun Leader’s expression and belted out loudly.
The Haomun Leader had already secured almost all the information.
She was about to send him back to his Lodging but paused for a moment.
‘Wait…, come to think of it, isn’t this man someone who knows Great Hero Muyeon’s childhood?’
She suddenly became curious about the childhood of the man she loved.
“In that case…, could I perhaps hear what Great Hero Muyeon’s childhood was like?”
When she asked this, very unexpected words flowed out of Wi Gong-Myeong.
“…No, but I’ve been wondering for a while now, why everyone is calling that kid Muyeon?”
“…Pardon?”
No…, calling Muyeon by the name Muyeon, what else would they…, huh?
In that moment, the Haomun Leader realized something from his words and flinched.
“That guy is my son! And I’m from the 'Wi' Clan, not the 'Mu' Clan, so why do people keep calling him Muyeon…, seriously…!”
“…!”
At Wi Gong-Myeong’s bombshell of a statement, the Haomun Leader’s face was dyed with a rare look of panic.