Chapter 12
Trading Company's Youngest Son Chapter 12
Chapter 12. Continuing the Bond (3)
“Hyung! Wake up! Hyung!”
Kwak Joon-ha kept calling his brother, but Kwak Hyung-jin, who had lost consciousness, did not respond.
“Hyung! Don't die! Hyung!”
Then,
He heard someone approaching in the distance and saw a human-like figure.
Kwak Joon-ha cried out in desperation.
“Help! Please save my brother!”
As if his voice reached them, the figures gradually drew closer.
They were a handsome young man, a large man who looked like a bear, a warrior, and a physician carrying a medicine box.
Kwak Joon-ha cried loudly.
“My brother, my brother...”
The handsome boy held Kwak Joon-ha's hand and said warmly.
“Don't worry anymore.”
* *
I saw a child lying on the ground with his face covered in blood.
Was he twelve years old?
Come to think of it, he wasn't much older than me.
I'm fifteen now.
But since I died at the age of thirty-nine, I often forget how young I am.
Oh, I shouldn't do this.
Anyway, that's not important.
He's in serious condition.
“Is he going to be okay?”
The physician nodded in response to my question.
“Yes, I brought enough medicine, and it's not too late, so there's no problem.”
“Please help him.”
I breathed a sigh of relief.
Fortunately, I was able to save the child's life without being too late.
And I was glad that I remembered in time.
If I had been even a little late, I would not have been able to save my master's son.
I did not bring the physician with me to save the child because I wanted to repay my master's kindness and make him refuse my request to become my master.
Of course, I will ask him to be my master, but not in this way.
My master always drank with a sad expression on his face on his eldest son's birthday and death day.
I don't know how he feels, having buried his child in his heart.
I have never been married and have no children.
But every time I saw my master's expression, my heart ached so much.
Perhaps he cannot forget the image of his son dying covered in blood.
This time, I wanted to save my master's eldest son.
I wanted him to live in Hubei with good memories.
The physician who was examining the child said,
“He's out of danger. I think you should take him home and treat him.”
“Please do so. I will tell my father.”
Fortunately, there was paper and ink in the house.
I wrote a note saying that the child was injured and had been taken to the Eunhae Trading Company, and that they should come to the medical office, then took the two children back to the trading company.
.
.
.
After explaining the situation to my father, I headed back to the medical office.
Next to the sleeping child was another child holding his hand tightly.
“Brother...”
The younger brother was desperately hoping that his brother would wake up.
I knew the younger brother's name.
Kwak Joon-ha.
He was one of my bodyguards.
He died with me on the day I was attacked.
I smiled bitterly as I recalled his last moments.
“Young master, please escape. These are not ordinary people.”
“What do you mean? I have to go with you!”
“It has been an honor to serve you. And thank you for bringing joy to my father. He may not have said so, but he was very happy to meet you.”
“Gwak, guard!”
With those words, Kwak Joon-ha helped me escape and rushed toward the enemies.
In the end, I was also killed, but
And there is another memory he left behind during his lifetime.
“Well, if I had to choose the thing I regret the most, I would say it was that day when I was eight years old.”
“That day?”
“Yes, that was the day my brother died. If I hadn't insisted that he play with me, he wouldn't have died.”
As he said that, his eyes were the same as those of my Master.
If saving my Master's eldest son was my duty as his disciple, then this was his way of repaying me for saving his life.
While I was lost in thought, Kwak Joon-ha asked me.
“Excuse me, my brother is really going to be okay, right?”
I nodded.
“Yes. The physician said he would be fine.”
“Then why isn't he awake yet?”
“We put him to sleep on purpose. He won't feel any pain while he's asleep, right?”
Kwak Joon-ha nodded at my explanation.
“So don't be too impatient.”
“Yes, young master.”
The moment Kwak Joon-ha called me “young master,” I was reminded of what I had gone through.
My face froze without me realizing it.
Noticing my slightly stiff expression, Kwak Joon-ha said cautiously, “The people here all call you ‘young master’ because they think you are the son of the late lord.”
“Everyone here calls you ‘young master’ because they saw your brother.”
“Oh... I see.”
That was when it happened.
“Young master.”
Pal-gap entered the room and looked for me.
“The boy's father is here.”
“Oh, really?”
I turned my head and faced him without having time to prepare myself.
The man who was my master.
Kwak Myeong-hyun.
He had just returned from a trip and was wearing a sword at his waist. His face was unwashed and unshaven, and his clothes were shabby, but his eyes were sharp.
“Hyung-jin!”
He ran over, calling the name of the child lying on the bed, and looked at him.
My master looked exactly as I remembered him.
Perhaps it was because of his martial arts training, he gave off a somewhat cold impression, but there were few men as warm-hearted as my master.
Kwak Joon-ha replied, his voice trembling.
“Father, I was playing with my brother, and he fell and cut his stomach on a bamboo stick, and now he's crying…”
I patted Kwak Joon-ha on the back and explained the situation.
“I was taking a walk in the bamboo forest today when I found an injured child and treated him. Fortunately, he is out of danger and will be fine after a few days of rest.”
“Thank you. Thank you so much.”
My master bowed deeply to me in gratitude.
I couldn't believe my master was thanking me!
I quickly waved my hands in embarrassment.
“No, it's nothing! It was just fate.”
“I don't know how I can ever repay you.”
“The child was meant to live. Now, please stand up.”
I put my hands on Master's shoulders to help him up.
At that moment, I felt Master flinch.
He looked up at me, and his eyes seemed confused.
At that moment, Kwak Joon-ha shouted, as if the child had opened his eyes.
“Huh? Hyung-nim! Are you awake?”
My master quickly turned his head and asked urgently.
“Hyung-jin, are you awake?”
“Father...”
“Thank God! Thank God!”
Seeing Master and Hyung-nim repeating the words “thank God” and Kwak Joon-ha rejoicing at the fact that Hyung-nim had woken up, I felt a strange emotion.
I don't know what Master was feeling, but I think I understand Kwak Joon-ha's feelings. When I saw my second brother, who had been killed with his throat cut, again, I felt an emotion that I couldn't express.
However, my feelings were a little different now.
I had saved a child who should have died.
Was that why?
Seeing my master and Kwak Joon-ha rejoicing, my eyes suddenly filled with tears.
That evening,
a woman came to the Eunhae Trading Company.
She was the mother of the child I had saved and my master's wife.
She was also the woman who would be known as Jukrim Seonhye in the future.
In a way, saving the boy Hyung-jin could be considered my way of repaying Jukrim Seonhye for saving my life.
However,
putting all of that aside, there was no real reason why I saved Hyung-jin.
What reason is needed to save a child who can be saved?
In fact, the moment I realized that today was the day the child died, I rushed to the bamboo forest without even thinking about it.
I forced a physician to come with me and rushed to the bamboo forest, and fortunately, I found the child in time and was able to save him.
I had heard from Kwak Joon-ha that his brother had died from excessive bleeding, so I made sure to bring plenty of medicine for bleeding and hemostatic agents.
“Thank you so much, young master.”
“There's no need to thank me. We just happened to cross paths.”
“How can I ever repay you?”
I shook my head at her words.
“I didn't do it for anything in return. Don't think that way.”
I barely managed to stop her.
At that moment, my master, who had been watching me, said to me.
“Young master. May I speak with you in private for a moment?”
.
.
.
A moment later.
I followed my master to a bamboo forest where his house was located.
Pal-gap and the bodyguards were watching me from a distance.
“I'm sorry to have brought you here.”
I shook my head at my Master's words.
“No, I'm sure you brought me here so that what you are about to say would not be overheard.”
“...You noticed?”
“Yes. I think the place you know best is the safest place, don't you?”
“You are very perceptive.”
“You flatter me.”
I replied politely.
At that moment, my Master's expression changed.
“Do you know anything about the Dragon's Body?”
“...!”
I couldn't help but be surprised.
I never thought my Master would mention the Dragon's Body.
In the future I had experienced, my Master had never mentioned the Hyunryong Seongche to me.
But now that he was saying this...
It meant that he had known about it all along.
However, there was something I didn't understand.
Even though we had just met, he mentioned the Hyunryong Seongche to me.
If so, there was no way that Master would not have mentioned my constitution as his disciple in the future I had experienced.
The difference between then and now was that this time, I had eaten the Qingbing Shuimei, so I had fifty years of inner arts accumulated in my qi center, and the Dragon had moved directly to save me.
I silently looked at Master, and he smiled faintly and said.
“You know.”
He must have noticed from my expression.
Master continued in a calm voice.
“Actually, when you touched me earlier, I realized that you have tremendous inner arts, and that the nature of those inner arts is yin.”
“...”
“I also realized that you have the body of a dragon.”
To be honest, even I don't know the exact level of my Master's abilities.
I know he is a master beyond the peak of his art, but he has never told me.
Now that he knew so much, there was no point in hiding it anymore.
Especially since he was my master.
“How did you know?”
“You mean that my inner arts are yin? That must be because the martial arts I have mastered are ice arts.”
“You mean my constitution is that of a hidden dragon?”
My master looked at me and smiled.
But there was something vague about that smile.
“It's because I once met someone with the constitution of a hidden dragon.”
“What? There is someone else with the same constitution as me?”
“Yes, but I cannot tell you who it is. I'm sorry.”
It seemed like there was something he couldn't tell me.
In that case, I couldn't press him.
If it was important, he would tell me someday.
“It's fine. If you have your reasons, I understand.”
My master opened his mouth.
“The reason I am telling you this is because you cannot learn the martial arts of Yanggang.”
“That is probably true.”
“That being the case, would you allow me to teach you Bing Gong?”
“What?”
I was taken aback by his unexpected proposal.
I was planning to ask him to be my master, but he proposed it first.
“I heard from the physician that if you hadn't found my eldest son, he would have surely died.”
“That was fate...”
“I think so too.”
My master continued.
"You saved my child, and that led me to meet you. And I came to understand your constitution and inner arts. It is all fate. And because of that fate, I would like to teach you the art of ice magic.“
My master clasped his hands together and bowed to me.
”Please allow me."
I was very confused.
I never imagined that my master would ask me to become his disciple.
And my answer was already decided.
“I would be honored, Master.”
“You accept?”
He seemed a little surprised that I accepted so easily.
I smiled and replied again.
“Yes.”
And so, my master became my master once again.