"Did you say the Imperial Palace?"
"That's right."
"What kind of incident is going to break out at the Imperial Palace?"
"Huh?"
Guangqushen tilted his head slightly.
"What do you mean by that? I said we're going to the Imperial Palace now."
"That's exactly what I mean."
Sagan replied as if it were obvious.
"When you say Wei Yan-ho is going to the Imperial Palace, doesn't that mean incidents are about to break out at the Imperial Palace from now on?"
"..."
Guangqushen looked at Sagan with moved eyes.
"Now I can call you a Wei Yan-ho expert."
"...The fact that doesn't sound like a compliment must be because I'm twisted, right?"
"Rather than twisted, well..."
Guangqushen grinned.
"You've come to realize Wei Yan-ho's true nature by learning the hidden history you wanted, just as you wished."
"Ugh..."
Sagan shook his head with a face that looked far from refreshed.
It certainly wasn't a pleasant matter.
"So that's why you departed for the Imperial Palace? What about the Green Forest King?"
"Opinions were divided."
Guangqushen said while picking his nose.
"Some said that since His Majesty's decree had been issued, we should go to the Imperial Palace immediately regardless of whether the Green Forest King lived or died. Others said that even so, it wouldn't be right morally to depart while leaving someone who was dying, so we should treat the Green Forest King first."
"Both sides certainly weren't wrong."
"What's interesting is that during all this, not a single person said they wanted to go home."
Sagan tilted his head.
What was so interesting about that?
"Think about it. How terrifying it would be for Wei Yan-ho to meet the Emperor."
"...A great disaster."
"Right. Just being alongside him could cost you your head. So with normal thinking, you should immediately cut ties with Wei Yan-ho and leave the group."
"That's right."
"But at the time, no one thought that way. Everyone naturally intended to follow Wei Yan-ho."
"Why was that?"
"That's what's really interesting."
Guangqushen chuckled with delight.
"Because while we fully recognized the danger of entering the Imperial Palace with Wei Yan-ho, we never once thought about separating from Wei Yan-ho to avoid that danger. We only thought about somehow shutting that bastard's mouth and preventing him from acting recklessly."
Guangqushen smiled somewhat wistfully.
"Looking back, we were quite taken with that Wei Yan-ho fellow back then. Even while saying we were dying of frustration because of him, we couldn't even imagine leaving his side. He was surprisingly charismatic."
"You can say such things even after receiving that treatment from him?"
"That's why I say it's interesting."
Guangqushen said, sprawling out on his back.
"It was difficult and irritating, but looking back, there was never a time as fun as then. Would such a period come again in life?"
"I'm not particularly interested in your personal history, so please just finish what you were saying."
"...Your way of speaking is starting to resemble his a bit."
When Sagan grimaced as if asking what kind of horrible thing he was saying, Guangqushen giggled and said:
"I'll tell you. Right, so we had to decide how to depart. But well, what did our opinions matter anyway, since it would ultimately be that bastard's decision. And for him, there was something more important than anything else, so he decided to treat the Green Forest King first."
"Something more important than anything else?"
"It's obvious."
Guangqushen made a circle with his fingers in front of his chest.
"Money."
"..."
***
"More! Give me more!"
"Oh my! Sir! If you take all this, we'll starve to death!"
"What do I care whether you starve to death or not! If you don't want to see that old man die, empty the warehouse right now and bring out all the emergency funds you've hidden in your underwear!"
"Oh my! There really isn't any more."
"What? There isn't any?"
The young man began kicking the furniture around.
"Oh noooo! There really isn't any, sir!"
"What will you do if I search myself and find more? What will happen if I find more after searching? Do these people take me lightly? Search? How? Should I search?"
"Actually, there's a little left..."
"What do you really take people for!"
"Aaaah! Oh my, sir! I was wrong! Oh noooo!"
Wei Jeong-han trembled as he watched the despicable act of a young man intimidating an older person and stealing money while causing mayhem.
The reason why he, called the Righteous Hero Sword and an unparalleled gentleman and hero in the martial world, couldn't step forward despite witnessing this unjust situation was because the one causing the mayhem was his own son.
'I'm confused.'
Wei Jeong-han clutched his head in anguish.
When told they had to leave for the Imperial Palace, Wei Yan-ho said he still had work to do and began pressuring the Great General. It was his own doing, if you could call it that. The Great General was the one who had originally lured the reluctant Wei Yan-ho here with money.
The problem was the way Wei Yan-ho was extracting money...
'This scene looks very familiar somehow.'
The fact that the bandit looked pitiful showed that his heart had become much softer. Either that, or Wei Yan-ho was more vicious than the bandits.
"Oh my, sir. If you take all that!"
"You said the main building has lots of money, right?"
"..."
"I'm warning you in advance. Pack it up properly and send it to our house."
"...S-sir?"
"Don't want to?"
"No sir..."
The Great General swallowed tears of blood.
'This disaster of a bastard.'
They had chosen Wei Yan-ho because he possessed martial prowess that didn't match his age. In other words, they thought he would be easy to handle because he was still young, and since he didn't belong to any particular faction, there would be ways to use him.
But who would have thought this bastard would be like this?
When strange rumors started circulating, they should have investigated more thoroughly!
'Who would have thought Wei Jeong-han's son would be this kind of person.'
This wasn't the Great General's fault.
They knew Wei Jeong-han's character better than anyone. So naturally they thought his son would also be fair and just but actually soft-hearted like anyone else.
This was like a neighborhood hooligan who just happened to be strong!
"You'll definitely send it?"
"...Yes."
"Heh heh heh, good."
As Wei Yan-ho turned around with satisfaction, the Great General clung to his legs.
"W-wait a moment, sir! You need to treat the Green Forest King before you go!"
"Ah, I'll do it."
"Now! You must do it now!"
"I said I would!"
Wei Yan-ho kicked the Great General away irritably and trudged toward Jin So-ah.
"You heard?"
"Pardon?"
"He says I need to treat him."
"So I told you that's not something I can do."
"You worry about everything."
Wei Yan-ho grinned confidently and pointed to himself.
"Teach me. I'll show you what a genius is."
Looking at Wei Yan-ho smiling confidently, Jin So-ah squeezed his eyes shut.
'Should I just try to heal him myself?'
That seemed like it would be better.
"This shit-for-brains..."
"What?"
"Why can't you understand! Why!"
"No! It's not that I can't understand, it's that you're saying something that makes no sense! How can a person do that?"
"That's why we're asking an expert to do it since people can't!"
"Aren't experts people too? Are they not people?"
A heated debate about medicine was taking place. He must have been so frustrated that even Wei Yan-ho didn't mind shouting despite the annoyance.
"So! You need to suck in the qi that's blocking the meridians, but you can't suck in the poison qi mixed in with it, so you need to filter it appropriately in the middle and expel it outside."
Wei Yan-ho nodded and pulled over an inkstone that was nearby.
"Here."
"Pardon?"
"Drink this."
"...How can I drink this? It's ink."
"According to what you're saying, you should be able to drink this and spit out only the ink!"
"How can a person do that?"
"Am I not a person? How am I supposed to do that!"
"Aaaaah! I won't do it! I won't! Rather than teach medicine to Young Master Wei, I'd rather teach a monkey..."
Thud.
Thump!
Jin So-ah's pupils trembled.
Jin Ye-ran, who had entered the room carrying a tea tray, set it down loudly on the floor and straightened her back.
"...S-sister?"
"Young Master Wei."
"Yes?"
"Would you step outside for a moment?"
"It's annoying..."
"Just for a moment."
"Yes."
Jin So-ah tried desperately to stop Wei Yan-ho with his eyes, but Wei Yan-ho cleanly ignored Jin So-ah and shuffled out of the room.
"Sit down."
"...Yes."
Jin Ye-ran, who had returned to her frosty physician demeanor after a long time, began glaring at Jin So-ah with her old expression. Jin So-ah began to shrink.
"It's true that I acknowledged your path. I acknowledged that you have your own path, and that the physician's path you must walk may be different from mine. However!"
As Jin Ye-ran's voice grew louder, Jin So-ah's shoulders flinched.
"That was as a physician! What you're doing now is wrong not as a physician but as a person. How can one who doesn't know propriety understand righteousness! Your late father told me to make you into a true physician. Tell me with your own mouth. Can one who doesn't know propriety become a true physician?"
"...No."
"And yet! This brat who knows that!"
Wei Yan-ho stuck his tongue out at Jin So-ah from outside the door.
Then he made a couple of mocking gestures.
Seeing this scene, Jin So-ah's body began to twitch.
"This brat is having other thoughts even while I'm speaking like this! This won't do! Go get the switch!"
"S-sister! I'm the master of Sacred Hand Hall."
"So what?"
"A master doesn't get beaten with a switch!"
"I'm not a member of Sacred Hand Hall, am I?"
"...Huh?"
"I'm just your family and guardian. It's noisy, so go get the switch right now. If I can't instill in you today the proper manners for treating elders, I won't be qualified to face father even in death!"
"I was wrong."
"Kekekekeke."
Wei Yan-ho lay on the ground watching Jin So-ah prostrate himself and begging, cackling as if ten years of indigestion had been cured.
"You met your match."
"Go freeze to death!"
"Ow, ow! Ow ow ow ow ow!"
Wei Jeong-han grabbed Wei Yan-ho's ear and dragged him into the room.
"Ow ow ow ow ow! My ear's coming off! Ow ow ow ow!"
"If it were going to come off from that, it would have come off already, you damn brat!"
"Ow ow ow ow ow!"
Wei Jeong-han, who had finally made Wei Yan-ho kneel beside Jin So-ah, raised his voice.
"Tell me what the problem is. If I leave it to you two, nothing will get resolved!"
After hearing Jin So-ah and Wei Yan-ho's explanation, Jin Ye-ran's face became serious, and Wei Jeong-han's face changed strangely.
"So you're saying you need to suck out the turbid qi blocking the meridians, but since there's poison qi mixed in with it, you need to neutralize or expel the poison qi during the process of sucking it in?"
"Yes. However, simply expelling it risks re-poisoning. So it needs to be collected well in one place..."
"That's not an easy task."
Jin Ye-ran could realize how difficult this would be. Just sucking out the turbid qi alone required a supreme expert, and now there were more things to do on top of that.
But Wei Jeong-han didn't seem to think so.
"Well, you've been worrying over nothing much."
"Pardon?"
Wei Jeong-han grinned and looked at Wei Yan-ho.