Chapter 44

“An Daehyeop.”
“Nanny.”
“Ahn Dae-hyeop!”
“Nanny!”
The middle-aged man’s eyes fluttered when he saw the middle-aged woman who had rushed over. Although she hadn’t been able to stop the passage of time, her wise eyes, wistful expression, and neat and dignified demeanor caught the middle-aged man’s eye.
“……Stir.”
“Tell me.”
“It’s none other than…….”
The worn-out middle-aged man looked at the middle-aged woman’s lips in frustration, but he managed to endure it. These are the words he’s been waiting for all this time.
“If you don’t mind, I’d like to…….”
Pounding.
Pounding.
“Can you go with me to that place?”
“……ah?”
The middle-aged man’s shoulders instantly shrunk and sagged, as if the air had been deflated.
“Hehe! Don’t say no. What did you expect? You’re offended that I asked an expensive man to go to the mall with me. No thanks, I’m going alone!”
“……Ah, no. That’s not it. That’s not it, that’s…….”
“Get out!”
The middle-aged woman who shouted at the top of her lungs rushed past him. The middle-aged man who looked at such a woman in a puzzled manner sighed.
She was the nanny of the Grand Duke’s Southern Palace,
She had become such an accomplished cook that she had surpassed all the cooks in the Southern Palace of the Shandong Branch, and her skill in cooking and preparing food for the weary and exhausted from the battlefield had become well known throughout Shandong.
So much so that the Grand Duke of the Southern Palace no longer wished to call her Nanny, but rather to call her by her first name, or whatever she wished.
He named her Mimi, after her family name. It’s actually a Chinese word for beauty that expresses flavor, but it’s not polite to add flavor to the end of a person’s name, and everyone marvels at the Grand Duke’s wit in using beauty twice.
Especially the nanny, Yumimi, was thrilled.
A middle-aged man, who had been watching Yumimi from behind, suddenly approached her.
It was me, who watched everything. Seeing my awkward expression, the uncle changed the subject with an already awkward expression.
“……I’m hungry.”
“On this fictitious day, I am hungry.”
“It’s natural to fight well when you eat well.”
“Isn’t that why nannies are good, Hagi?”
Of course, I still called my nanny a nanny. That’s what she wanted me to do.
In response to my response that she deserved it, she coughed in vain.
“What are you talking about!”
“It’s no big deal if a grown man likes a grown man. Now be honest with yourself.”
“…….”
I giggled and held my stomach as I looked at the tight-lipped aunt. Normally, he wouldn’t be so open, but at this moment, he looked as emotional as a ten-year-old boy.
It was enough to make me wonder if his emotions had been dulled by the wear and tear of his sword.
On the other hand, I smiled at him, thinking that I couldn’t be more fortunate.
And then.
“You have nothing to fear.”
“…….”
Both men were hurting, having lost their respective spouses for different reasons and now spending more than a decade alone.
There was nothing wrong with what I was saying, but my aunt just smiled wryly and followed my lead.
“It’s a life of hard knocks. You can’t repeat it three times, can you?”
“I’m scared.”
“…….”
“Do you think it will happen again?”
Ahn Baek, an iron-blooded man, was a man who could turn sadness into brightness. He had lost his sister, and he had lost people he loved.
Perhaps it was impossible to find someone again.
To love and give love again.
I know how he feels, but I stare blankly into space and say.
“I understand, but don’t let that stop your heart from flowing. It will only make your heart ache more. You know, have you ever seen a stream blocked by a boulder or two? I have not. One minute it’s choked, the next it’s overflowing, and the rocks are washed down the stream with the water.”
“You talk like an old man.”
“That’s because I’ve had a hard life, too.”
He laughed heartily at the sight of my jaw hitting the floor. Over the past five years, he has become indispensable to me.
So I said.
“You need to stop living for yourself.”
“What do you mean?”
“I mean, stop living the life of an uncle who dedicates his life to me.”
“…….”
“You think I’m an idiot. Because of me and my mother, my uncle didn’t give up his life to live solely for me. Like a sinner paying for his own sins.”
I vowed to make my uncle’s life right. Moreover, I wanted him to be happy.
I saw myself in my previous life, unable to survive as myself and dying, overlapping with him. I didn’t want that life to be projected onto him.
Iron-black eyes.
The life of a great warrior, and the life of a strong man.
I didn’t want that to be my life.
I wanted to be more than that for my family,
and the honor of being a member of the esteemed White Sword Clan.
“If you continue, I will not stay with you.”
“Are you threatening me?”
“I will do anything, not just threaten.”
“Ha…….”
Anbaek made a face of ridiculousness, but there was also complexity in his eyes. No, it was more confusion than complexity.
My unprompted words, my nephew, who had been jovial and playful until yesterday, now spewing out my thoughts, seemed to be at a loss for words.
“I wanted to say something, and I did.”
I wanted to be more proactive, more energized.
“I thought you were a man of sense.”
“What do you mean?”
At his puzzled expression, I let out a deep sigh.
“Don’t you realize why I brought a nanny?”
“Of course…….”
“If you don’t know that, then you’re an idiot.”
Five years ago, I brought a nanny myself. There were many other reasons, but the main reason was that I saw the concern in her eyes.
Otherwise, there would have been no reason to bring her to this dangerous place.
In a way, she was the second half of this life, my mother.
“Who the hell are you?”
“Do you look a little pompous now?”
“No work, you bastard!”
I clicked my tongue as I watched my aunt’s cheeks twitch as she disappeared.
How disingenuous. Tsk.
I smirked as I watched the back of his head as he walked past.
* * *
“You’re extra fresh today, huh?”
“Yes-yeah, we’re picking them after nearly dying, and it’s all thanks to the protection we received from the Southern Palace.”
Yumimi, the Nanny of the Southern Palace, picks vegetables from the stalls on the street and puts them in her bag with admiration.
She doesn’t forget to thank the samurai who is with her.
“You don’t have to follow me.”
“……No! Yumi-sama’s meal is our happiness!”
The sword at his waist and the mark of the Southern Palace on his chest seemed to make him proud, even though he was the son of the Southern Palace and had not yet shed his youthful appearance.
Yumimi’s eyes widened at the sight of the Southern Palace family name, and she opened her mouth as if she knew everything.
“Didn’t Daekyo tell you to say that?”
“What?! ……Ah, no. That, that’s me…….”
The Namgung family name was already responding to Yumimi’s question with a flustered expression. He was about to deny it by gesturing this way and that, when he saw the look in Yumimi’s eyes.
“Yes…… that’s right.”
“Hoho, don’t worry, I won’t say anything. I’ll take this, I’ll take that, I’ll take this, I’ll take that.”
Yumimi put the ingredients in the dish with a cheerful expression on her face.
Her next stop was her favorite butcher shop, where she was determined to outdo herself today.
“Hello?”
There was no pretense in her voice. She shook her head at the lack of response.
Normally, she would have had a lot of fun bargaining with the lady.
Her curiosity was piqued when she realized that neither the woman nor her son, who usually kept the butcher’s stall open even when the horns were on, were in sight.
Yumimi approached the stall opposite and asked.
“Excuse me, but where is the lady here, Mrs. Zhu?”
“Oh, it’s Yu Suksuguman.”
The vendor shrugged, recognizing Yumimi only as the famous Su Su Su of the Southern Palace.
“She hasn’t come out since yesterday.”
“What? Since yesterday?”
Something was off.
Yumimi, feeling more disturbed by the sullen expression on the vendor’s face than by the fact that he hadn’t come out since yesterday, finally asked.
“I wonder what’s wrong.”
Someone left.
Someone is sick.
Someone is sick.
It’s an everyday occurrence. That’s what life is all about.
But to see a neighbor who has been there longer than you and look dejected.
“There’s …….”
It’s something to be suspicious of. Yumimi’s grim expression and words made her stomach turn.
“……Have you ever heard of Shandong’s Bumgee Bad Tales?”
“The Bum Gui Tale? What’s that?”
Yumimi scratched her head, then turned to see the nervous Namgung family name next to her.
“There’s a proverb in Shandong, ……, and on the day it starts to spread, children and people in private homes disappear.”
Yumimi was puzzled by the explanation.
“What? What’s that…….”
I haven’t heard of it in the past five years. People from private homes being kidnapped.
Yumimi looked around and realized that the atmosphere was different than usual. The atmosphere was strangely darker than usual, and she sensed something was wrong.
Everyone seemed to be on edge.
Yumimi bit her lower lip. It had been five years since she had come to the Southern Palace with the Grand Duke, struggled here, and put down roots in Shandong. It had been five years since she had come here with the Grand Duke, struggling to establish roots in Shandong.
Although she hadn’t fought with a spear herself, she had done her best as a member of the Southern Palace Family, and that made it all the more painful.
The warriors of the Southern Palace did not approach her for fear of disturbing her and her family. They were afraid that the men with swords at their waists would be unnecessarily intimidating.
It was Yumimi who had said so, and it was a big setback.
It shouldn’t be like this.
“Sohyo.”
“……Yes.”
“Move with me.”
“……?”
Namgung could only nod, his eyes fixed on Yumimi’s determined words. This was the first time he had ever been asked to do a favor by the man he respected most, Anbaek.
To him, protecting Yumimi was the greatest duty in the world.
“Understood.”