Chapter 2

“……!!”
“……!”
“…….”
I woke up to a commotion that disturbed my deep sleep. I opened my eyes to see who was disturbing me, and saw a middle-aged woman yelling at her maids.
“The Grand Duke is said to be a disgrace to the family, but how can you be so unconcerned about him? I told you to serve him well, but you stole the lord’s horse and set out on your own, and then you fell off and had an accident, do you realize that this is impossible!”
Whoever this middle-aged woman was, she was truly remarkable.
The Grand Duke was still someone.
The next in line to lead the Changcheon Southern Palace family, the first in line to become the head of the family, she can speak like that even though she’s a blood relative of the patriarch. I should be flattered.
But what’s more.
“How arrogant, how tyrannical!”
“Greed knows no bounds, and he has no power!”
“An unredeemable and unworthy scum!”
The maids cried out in unison.
“How could he behave like that, my brother?
The middle-aged woman shook her head in disbelief as she listened to the maids, saying that they were right.
“That may all be true, but it would be a shame if my lord knew!”
I hadn’t realized it was that bad.
I clicked my tongue inwardly.
I couldn’t believe that the Grand Duke, or rather, my brother, who was so eager to save our ailing family, would have such a bad opinion of me.
That’s why you were the only one there, with no one else around, after the apology.
While I was thinking about that, I jumped up from my seat.
“What?!”
The Grand Duke and I were dead. I was the one who had just closed the eyes of the dying man who was spraying blood.
The Grand Duke is alive.
But before I could even open my mouth.
The middle-aged woman and her maids looked at me with wide eyes and shouted.
“……, the Grand Duke has opened his eyes!”
“……ber, already?”
The Grand Duke.
All eyes were on me as I gaped at the absurdity of it all.
* * *
Seven days and nights passed.
Gone were the feasts of male lovers that had darkened the already dark surroundings of the army barracks, a place that had been filled with rain every time I opened my eyes.
Instead, the smell of food and the stench of feuding brothers and sisters wafted through the air, as if to announce the presence of a prominent family. Oh, and the stench of sweat.
That’s right.
I had been reborn in the damned Southern Palace.
Not in the walls of the Southern Palace, where I was the fifth and youngest duke.
I was reborn as Namgungban, the First Duke and Grand Duke.
My death was unexpected.
Without knowing any reason.
They died together, and only I opened my eyes once again through Namgungban’s body.
At the same time, I was reversed in time and became younger.
It was not something I could easily understand or accept, but after seven days and nights of closing and opening my eyes, I would come to accept it, even if it was the most unbelievable thing.
The emotions and numbness that had been dried up in my previous life also played a part.
I also realized something new.
Even though I was rapidly adjusting to the amazing phenomenon of being a Namgungban instead of a Namgungwall, I realized that the younger version of Namgungban, the Grand Duke, had been a Gachaban.
It was quite refreshing to realize that the gaze of the people looking at me, the Grand Duke, was filled with emotions that were far from favorable.
A so-called wretch.
The Grand Duke, Namgungban, who had a reputation for being a rare wretch.
That was the current assessment of me.
When asked how I knew that, I said something like this.
“Confucius?”
It didn’t take long for my nanny’s expression to change.
It only took a moment for her to notice that I had begun to stop spilling my hot meal and to realize that the injury from my fall had not yet healed.
After two days, three days, four days, the nanny, seeing the Grand Duke eating in silence and meditating alone, called for the councilor as if she sensed something was amiss.
If he was so quiet that he had to call a lawmaker, it must mean that his past was not good.
“You seem to have a fragmentary memory loss.”
“……Are you injured anywhere else?”
He shook his head.
“You’re doing better than ever, but the fact that you can’t recall what happened before you were injured makes me wonder if you were hit on the head.”
“That’s impossible, Confucius?”
“Oh, no!”
“Oh, no.”
There was a lot of commotion, led by the fussing nanny, but for some reason, the majority of people seemed to welcome the sight.
“Grand Duke, do you remember how you were injured?”
“I do not remember a single thing.”
For the first time, an old voice came out of my mouth. At the same time, I inwardly regretted the way I sounded, young in body and old in mind.
“……, the tone.”
“Oh my God, you must be really badly hurt.”
“What the…….”
Each of them seemed surprised but also convinced of my amnesia.
I really didn’t know anything about the Grand Duke, and neither did he, for when I was born during the Namgung Byeok, I had never seen him in the family home, as everyone was too busy making a name for themselves.
Even the nannies and servants said they didn’t remember us, so there was nothing to say.
But for some reason, the nanny and the servants’ expressions became strange.
And then.
“The Patriarch has arrived!”
The councilors, nannies, and servants straightened themselves up as they lightly cleared the area around me. I bowed my head in deference to the House Master.
“Riding a horse, he disappeared, and now he can’t remember what he did.”
The middle-aged man, with his dull eyes, grave features, and even a long sword scar on his left cheek, seemed to embody the energy of a man whose devotion was beyond measure.
It was Namgung Mu Baek, the patriarch and master of the Changcheon Namgung Clan, a man who was considered to be the best with a sword. He looked at least a dozen years younger than I remembered.
A face that had been so rarely seen in his previous life as the Namgung Byeok.
The Grand Duke came to see me because he had fallen.
I couldn’t help but laugh. At the same time, I felt it was unfair.
I was only fourteen years old, and I was running for my life.
Something about the fact that this human being, who hadn’t even turned up his nose at me when my mother was languishing and dying, and who I’d fought so desperately to make a difference, was showing his face so easily, made me sick.
When my fiery gaze met his, the Southern Palace Master also met my gaze and let out a short, hmm, sound.
“You still want the eldest son to take over, huh?”
After clicking his tongue and turning his head away, Namgung Mu Bai turned around with a cold, tasteless expression.
“You can’t lead the Southern Palace with less talent than my brothers. Know your place.”
The countless martial artists who rushed in behind the Southern Palace’s Mu Bai were each as sharp as a well-honed blade.
I watched them disappear into the distance, my eyes blank.
What is momentum like a blade, and what is a great man who is considered the best of the sword?
I never thought they would see the meaning in my eyes as if they were coveting a place in the household.
I made all but the nanny leave the room. The nanny could only grunt and mutter under her breath as she looked at me.
She must be at a loss as to what to do with the strange sight of the Grand Duke she serves, now showing signs of amnesia.
The sight of him gave her the answer.
After staring at the door that led out of the Southern Palace for a long time, I let out the breath I had been holding.
There was nothing I could do right now. But I realized that it must have been meant for me to return in the body of such a grand duke and brother.
I organized my thoughts.
I’m a fourteen-year-old Namgungban.
At least as long as I keep my appearance as a namgungban in the proper line, I can be free from the prying eyes of others, free from the wary gazes of the surrounding people.
“Get out.”
The first thing I did when I finished thinking was to call out to the nanny.
“Yes?”
“Get out.”
With that, the nanny took a few steps backward with a look that said, “Of course.
“……Yes, Mr. Confucius, I’ll be back shortly with your request.”
“Leave it at the door and don’t come in until I ask you to.”
“……Yes.”
As soon as the nanny was gone, I turned in my seat, my rippling biceps and thick belly giving me a look that belied the fact that I was the Grand Duke of the Southern Palace Clan, the ruler of the Six Great Houses.
What kind of life did you lead when you were younger, big brother.
The words were in his throat, but he couldn’t bring himself to say them. Then I remembered Namgung Mu Baek’s words about my lack of talent and decided to check my physical condition first.
“I hope it’s not worse than in my previous life.”
The moment that I, a fifth-ranked Southern Palace Master, began to be scorned, despised, and persecuted was when it was discovered that my body was indeed too talented to be a scion of the Southern Palace.
Dozens of times, when I tried to gather even a handful of my inner gong, it would scatter.
One of the elders of the Southern Palace even sneered at me, saying, “You’re born with the blood of a lowly mother, how can you have such little talent?”
However, despite such adversity, I was able to form a troupe, and I devoted myself to the swordsmanship of the Southern Palace, and soon succeeded in practicing it to the point where I was called a sword master.
I had already traveled this road once, and there was nothing more miserable.
So be it, so be it.
I turned in my chair and closed my eyes to let the seeds of my danjutsu blossom. I opened up all my senses to accept my history.
If you have a lot of talent, the seed will bloom in less than two hours.
If she was not overly talented, she could do it in a day.
In the past, I had to settle for three days, not two, to get the seeds to settle.
I braced myself for four days, or even seven days and nights if my talents were lesser than those of the South Palace Wall.
Whoosh.
The fresh air tickled the tip of my nose.
……Cool energy flowed through my veins. Like a tiny stream, the energy flowed through my veins, soothing and soothing my delicate veins, moving toward my breakthrough. At the same time, I was unable to stop working toward my goal of breaking through.
It happened in less than a minute (15 minutes).
The tiny seeds that had accumulated in my mind had germinated without my guidance.
I was also a great master, considered to be the basic master of the Southern Palace School. It was my own Great Kung Fu that I had cultivated over and over again without blaming myself for my uneven talent.
In the midst of the piercing feeling of fullness, I realized something else thanks to him.
I realized something else, too.
The feeling of being able to take on anyone, and the sense of transcendent control.
The short amount of time it takes to form a pulsating dantian.
I let out a weak laugh at such a moment that would have been unthinkable during my time in the Southern Palace.
I turned away from him as simmering anger at the sight of him, and a gut-wrenching sadness at the memory of my lesser self, took over my body.
I could see the nannies and servants cowering in the open doorway, but I didn’t care.
Past them, I needed to find an outlet for these bitter feelings.
I was a rare asshole.
I’ll have to give him a beating to match.
The Southern Palace is falling ill? I’ll be the one to bring it on.
In that moment, all sorts of troubles flashed through my mind.
“Brother.”
He stood tall in his place.
“Brother.”
I couldn’t help but freeze in place at the sound of his voice.
The light and anxious footsteps of a runner came from behind me, and In-young, who was barely up to my waist, rushed over.
“Hehe. It’s you. Hyung.”
So bright.
More transparent than anyone else.
The moment I saw his crystal-clear smile, the waves of emotions that had been ruling my entire body dispersed.
A child who resembled Namgung Mu Baek, and who resembled the woman I longed for so deeply.
The child was no one else but Namgung Wan.
It was me.