Chapter 134

“Are you feeling well?”
“I’m fine.”
Namgung Hyuk looked at the man who spoke to him. The fact that they were brothers was suddenly realized.
The flowing aura, the strange look in his eyes, the vague resemblance.
Everything about him is subtly similar to himself.
In this moment of discomfort, the Grand Duke of the Southern Palace facing him smiled.
“I see.”
“It’s a pity, Hana, but you will be next.”
“So be it.”
The Grand Duke’s aura of calmness in the face of such subtle provocation made me feel unnecessarily steamed. The Grand Duke smiled as if it didn’t matter.
“Thank you.”
“…….”
“And for the trouble.”
Thank you for what.
What was the trouble.
The Grand Duke didn’t attach any subject or object, but Nam Gung-hyeok understood. The last image he saw of his mother came to mind.
“Mother. Please help me become a person who can be more dignified. ”
Nam Gung-hyeok spoke with conviction and trust. Hearing that, his mother made up her mind, and by leaving, she was following her own choice.
“I just did what I had to do.”
Nam Goong-hyeok respects his mother, and so he is able to approach the situation with a lighter heart. However, the Grand Duke feels differently.
He gives Nam Gung-hyeok a look that he’s never seen before, one that’s both wistful and poignant.
“That’s why I’m grateful. Your brother would have been happy to see you protect the family.”
It’s a strange look, and the words are unintelligible.
I was about to tell her the Moorish story,
“The youngest is sick and dying, and the two older brothers are so innocent.”
The words came from nowhere.
Namgung-gal, who had already established himself as a trusted confidant, pulled back the curtain and smiled.
“You bastard, if you’re healed, you should get up and get moving. Didn’t you hear everyone clamoring for labor?”
At Namgung-hyeok’s words, Namgung-gal shows a side of him she’s never seen before, a sternness unbecoming of his age, and his attempts to act like a man.
“Let’s have a little fun. I didn’t realize how hard I’ve worked to get to this age until I was lying here. Alas, I didn’t realize it was spring until afterward.”
That’s not a word for that.
Namgung Hyuk was about to say something else when he realized that the Grand Duke was laughing.
“Well, well. Brother, my youngest is already trying to play a trick on me.”
“Really?”
The Grand Duke made a stern face.
“You can’t do that, and the youngest is separate, the youngest!”
He shouted, and Namgung Hyuk and Namgung Gal’s heads snapped around. There stood another Confucius from the Namgung family.
“Are you…….”
“Are you not a wall?”
Nam Gung-hyeok and Nam Gung-gal looked at the boy standing there, the boy they hadn’t seen for more than a year, the boy they hadn’t seen for more than a year, the boy they hadn’t seen because their lives had gotten in the way of each other.
Of course, that wasn’t the only excuse. The existence of family in the context of competition is based on the need to be vigilant, so naturally, the relationship between them was more like love and hate than friendship.
The frozen boy also looked at his three brothers, all of whom were much larger than him, with trembling eyes that rolled and trembled.
His face paled as he realized how difficult it was.
‘This is a very difficult position. I’ll avoid it for now…….’
“I’ll come back next time…….”
With that thought, Namgungwall turned and was about to walk out of the barracks. At that moment,
“Brother.”
Not a familiar voice, but the voice of the brother he had always found difficult.
“Don’t go.”
My body stiffened. My heart was pounding, and the blood in my body felt like it was draining out of my veins. As if he couldn’t muster up enough courage to go on, he stopped breathing.
“I’m sorry, boy. I’m sorry your ugly brothers didn’t take care of you.”
A simple but honest statement.
Words that made him look at himself for the first time.
The warmth contained in those words instantly wrapped around the boy’s back.
Before I knew it, the corners of his eyes moistened.
I wonder if that was the end of it,
“Wall.”
Another brother’s voice called out. The aura followed the designation with a name. It’s a name he’s never heard before, except from the Grand Duke, his eldest brother, and his mother, Mrs. Bai.
“I’m sorry I drove a stake into your heart. I won’t make excuses anymore. So please look back.”
The brothers had been cold and unkind to him for years. Not only had he not been treated well, but even his mother, Mrs. Baek, had not been treated well. Perhaps if it weren’t for the Grand Duke, Namgungban.
It’s a meek apology for such a thing, but what could be so meek about it?
The walls of the Southern Palace could not wipe away the tears that never ceased to flow.
He feared that if he made any attempt to wipe away the now invisible tears, the brothers who had finally called him by name would revert back to their old selves, and they would be disappointed once again to see him so ugly.
I lifted my sleeve to wipe them away.
“Wall.”
But before I can even feel it, a shadowy figure steps forward and speaks. The voice was familiar. A voice that had looked at him and embraced him more warmly than anyone else.
Perhaps even more than his own mother, Mrs. Baek, who had given him blind love.
“I won’t force you to open a heart that won’t open. But I don’t want you to be hurt. I want you to heal. You have to try and try and try, but I don’t want it to be too late. So.”
The stiffened body loosened. The blood that had been dried up returns. The pounding of my heart slows to a crawl.
“If you don’t want to forgive, don’t forgive. If you want to hate, hate. I will stand behind you. Whatever you choose to do, follow your heart.”
No false coercion, no subtle pressure.
No pretense, no subtle pressure, just a declaration that I would be the one to support the boy’s heart.
He turns his head, feeling more at ease. The boy’s heart is strengthened, and all his troubles are gone.
The other two brothers, the Second Confucius Namgung-hyeok and the Third Confucius Namgung-gal, were now in front of him. At the sight of them, Namgungal’s heart began to thump once again.
“I will not give you any excuse or defense. I will accept any treatment until you forgive me.”
“So am I. I swear by my name, Namgungal, the name of the Three Kings.”
Their eyes are not cold, nor are they lying to deceive you. They’re actually warming toward you.
Why.
I wonder why.
“I’m…….”
I wonder if I should burst out and scream at the top of my lungs.
Or maybe I’ll ask them why they did it.
In my mind, I can’t decide.
The nodding Grand Duke, Namgungban, melts into the smile and warmth of his big brother, and I feel like I can finally say the words I’ve been wanting to say, the words I’ve always wanted to say.
“Tongue, big brother.”
I squeeze my eyes shut, wondering if I’m wrong to call them brothers instead of brothers-in-law. Even as I spoke through trembling lips, I wondered if it was wrong, but the damage I had already done was done.
“I, I want you to play with me!”
The courageous words, uttered by a small, white boy of thirteen, clasping his hands together, filled the barracks.
The way he spoke, with tears dripping down his cheeks, elicited different reactions from each listener.
Wadadadadada.
The Third Confucius, who had been sitting on his bed and wanted to rest, rushed over and picked the boy up, telling him to tell him anything and how he wanted to play.
The second Confucius forgot his dignity and called his henchmen and ordered them to prepare all sorts of delicacies that he had never touched before.
Thus was born the youngest member of the Southern Palace family, a thug loved by all.
Seeing this, the Grand Duke, Namgungban, merely smiled and quietly left the barracks. As if he had done his job.
* * *
Time passed quickly. Four days passed without a moment to look back.
“So you’re going to train in the wall, all of a sudden?”
“There is no wall training center in the South Palace.”
“The place is…….”
For the first time, Mu Bai saw the Grand Duke of the Southern Palace come to him and ask for a favor, not a suggestion or a bet.
He wanted to clear up a long-standing misunderstanding, but now was not a good time to do it: the Fengyun Jie meeting was not over, and the finals were just around the corner.
“I need space to think.”
Space to think.
I’m sure there’s plenty of room for that.
“I don’t want to be disturbed by anyone, not even anyone who knows me. I want only you and me to know. It will only take four days.”
With such a request, even the Prince of the Southern Palace had no choice but to grant it.
“Go to Xishan Mountain. From the stele at the top, go fifty li to the left, exactly in the direction of Anhui, and you will see the marker of the Southern Palace. You won’t be able to see it unless you maximize your eyesight.”
“Thank you.”
Still the same stiff tone.
The cold expression didn’t return.
It was difficult after all.
Nangong Mu Bai sighed inwardly. Just as he was about to do so, the Grand Duke grabbed the doorknob and opened his mouth.
“I’ve been away.”
Nangong Mu Baek looked up.
“After the Fengyun Sect.”
The Grand Duke’s words paused for a few seconds, and the world seemed to fall into silence.
“At that time, I would like to have a drink.”
At those words, Nangong Mu Bai’s pupils fluttered countless times.
“Nangong Mu Bai, Chang Tian Divine Sword, not as the head of the Nangong family and the Grand Duke, but as father and son.”
The Grand Duke stretched out his hand first. He stretched out his hand to Nangong Mu Baek, overcoming his cold reaction.
He was mute and tried to open his mouth. He was about to say thank you, but the Grand Duke threw the door wide open, as if it wasn’t time to listen yet.
“Did …… abandon you?”
But I could wait. How much time had been spent in misunderstanding.
Only then would the family be able to return to its rightful place, and only then would she be able to tell the Grand Duke that she, too, was sorry.
I am truly sorry.
I’m sorry again.