Youngest Daughter of the Ultimate Martial Master Namgung Family

Chapter 2

Hwi kept his mouth shut after that. There was a resolute look on his face.

A heavy silence fell.

As if in disbelief, the elders’ eyes widened and the statesmen contorted their faces. Amongst them, the First Elder was the first to come to his senses.

“What are you saying, Patriarch?!” he shouted. “This is for us! Why should we escalate what Miss Heeran did and have it affect the entire family? It’ll all be over if she’s just handed to the Steel Blood Alliance! How can you not know that this is for the good of the whole family?!”

“Silence! Namgung has never given up a child of Namgung! Those who wish to protect the name of Namgung, do not forget your duty!”

Hwi exuded a sense of brutal intimidation—it made everyone forget that he was so young. After suppressing the elders and statesmen with his force, he turned his attention to the Steel Blood Alliance’s Protector.

The man’s face hardened. “Why don’t you think about this again, Patriarch? It is by the goodwill of the Steel Blood Alliance that you only have to give up the shame of your family.”

“No negotiations, no deals. Namgung does not give up a child of Namgung.”

“Our side will not concede either. If you do not hand over Namgumg’s Shame, we will resort to force.”

Hwi just stared at him coldly.

“Are you really going to go to war with the Steel Blood Alliance?” asked the Protector.

“If needed.”

When Hwi answered without any hesitation, the Protector’s face twisted. “Let me ask you, Namgung Patriarch. Is Namgung’s Shame worth that much?”

Hwi fell silent.

“What a foolish choice. You will regret this decision.” After glaring at Hwi, the Steel Blood Alliance’s Protector let out a loud shout and left.

Heeran, who’d ended up being the root of all this, stared at Hwi in bewilderment.

But why?

This was Eldest Brother Hwi Namgung. Heeran was much younger than him, and he had always been indifferent and cold—he seemed to only live for the family’s honor.

Naturally, she had thought that he would choose the Namgung Family over her.

The Namgung Family might have been the overlords of Anhui, but waging a war against the Steel Blood Alliance was not something to treat lightly.

“Patriarch, why on earth...?!”

Before the elders and statesmen could rise up like wildfire, Hwi quickly took Heeran out. She looked at the large hand holding hers. Soon, she was dragged to an unfamiliar room.

“Don’t come out of here.”

Heeran rushed to grab the hem of Hwi’s clothes as he was about to turn and leave the room. Their eyes met.

“Why?! If you hand me over right now, this will be all over!”

Hwi’s eyes widened a little at her words.

She shouted, almost screeching. “If you just hand me over to the Steel Blood Alliance, you can protect the Namgung Family! So why are you—?!”

“I won’t hand you over.”

“But everything in Namgung will be safe and peaceful if you do! So why on earth won’t you?!”

As he looked at Heeran in her confused state, his lips parted slightly. “You too.”

“What?”

“You too are Namgung’s child that I must protect.”

At these unexpected words, Heeran nearly stopped breathing. He gazed down at her, then spoke again, as if making a promise.

“You also belong to the Namgung that I must protect.”

Heeran’s hand that clutched her brother’s clothes slowly loosened. She dropped to the floor and just blinked in a daze. Hwi hesitated for a moment at the sight, but eventually, he turned and left the room without saying another word.

As she stared at her brother’s back through the crack in the closing door, it looked different than usual. Regardless of the situation, he had never shown a disheveled appearance, but now, the hem of his clothing was wrinkled.

For some reason, she couldn’t get that sight out of her mind.

Heeran blankly mumbled, “The Namgung that you must protect... I belong to it too?”

While it was said that the Namgung Family were the overlords of the martial world, that was already an old story. Namgung, which had lost many warriors during the war with the Blood Church twenty years ago, did not enjoy the same prosperity as before.

The ones who had filled that vacuum and grown in size in Anhui were the current Steel Blood Alliance. The power of the Steel Blood Alliance, which had gradually increased through alliances with merchant groups and minor sects, was a threat. Heeran, who had been called a disgrace and the shame of the Namgung Family, also knew this.

As long as the Steel Blood Alliance was holding tight control over the current martial world, you had to be on their good side whether you liked them or not.

But that relationship had just been shattered. Because of her.

“N-no!”

After belatedly realizing the whole situation, Heeran hurriedly tried to open the door. But no matter how hard she tried, the tightly locked door wouldn’t budge.

So she started banging on the door.

“Open this door! Open it now!”

Seolyeong Na of the Steel Blood Alliance had been poisoned, and everything that had happened since had been unbelievable. Heeran understood none of it, but one thing was certain—things couldn’t continue this way. If this situation was left as it was, the Namgung Family would have no choice but to go to war against the Steel Blood Alliance.

Just send me instead! Why are you doing something so unlike you?! Since when have you been like this?!

Heeran knew just how much Hwi cherished the Namgung Family. Hwi had become the head of the family at the young age of fifteen. At first, he’d received looks of distrust from everyone. But those gazes had soon morphed into looks of respect.

He’d broken everyone’s expectations and had led the Namgung Family to a revival.

Some members had expected a young patriarch to be a pushover. They didn’t just get their fingers nearly burned off, but their heads nearly blown away.

Everyone who had looked at Hwi with uneasiness had gradually begun to trust and follow him as the head of the family. They’d all pledged their loyalty.

Unlike Heeran, who was Namgung’s Shame, Hwi was the beloved patriarch who was respected by everyone in the family. And he fully deserved that reverence. From then until now, he had never once neglected his duties as the head of the family.

That was all the more reason Heeran couldn’t understand—she was angry about his actions.

“I know just how you’ve cared for the Namgung Family all this time, so why are you doing this?! When given the choice between the Namgung Family and me, why did you choose me?! Just what on earth are you thinking?!”

Perhaps no one could hear her shouting—she couldn’t sense anybody’s presence outside. She wanted to break down the door, so Heeran knocked on it desperately.

Since she had not mastered martial arts, her soft hands quickly became red and bruised. As soon as blood started to spread on the white paper covering the door, someone grabbed Heeran’s hand tightly.

“That’s enough. No matter how much you knock, it won’t open.”

The sudden scent of medicinal herbs and the low voice that cracked at the ends of sentences seemed strangely familiar.

When she turned her head, Heeran’s eyes wavered at the face she saw.

“Uncheon Namgung?”

She saw a face pale from illness and a birthmark underneath his left eye. The contrast between his red lips and his sheet-white skin had a breathtaking charm that drew people’s attention.

“Yes.”

Uncheon dragged Heeran to a seat. Then, with slow steps, he sat down in the seat across from her.

Heeran stared at him, not able to hide her shock. She couldn’t remember the last time they had sat across from each other like this, but she felt a strange sense of déjà vu.

I must be deluding myself.

There was no way something like this could’ve happened before.

Each time we meet, I only ever hear harsh words from him.

He was the Heavenly Brain, Uncheon Namgung—an eternal prodigy that Namgung had produced. Since he had a weak constitution, he couldn’t master martial arts. However, he could sit and foresee events coming a thousand miles away.

His “Heavenly Brain” nickname meant that he was a genius sent from heaven. To earn it, he had solved countless problems in the martial world. Furthermore, he was famous throughout the martial world for his biting words that pierced through the hearts of those who heard them—he was often truthful to a fault.

A bitter smile crossed Heeran’s lips. She too had experienced his vitriol and was very familiar with how it felt.

Am I going to hear those same kinds of words now?

Heeran lowered her eyes to prepare herself for the harsh words that would soon come. But what followed was completely different than what she had expected.

“This was why I didn’t want to temporarily leave my spot empty.”

“What?”

“I shouldn’t have left it to idiots who don’t even know who they’re supposed to protect and serve.”

Hearing Uncheon’s cutting words, Heeran suddenly raised her head.

Idiots? And who are those idiots supposed to protect and serve?

“I knew that the Eldest Brother had business away from the family. However, I had no idea that Eldest Sister and Youngest Brother would also be gone.”

She just stared at him.

“That’s why it’s too late to do anything.”

Heeran frowned at his unintelligible words. “What on earth are you talking about?”

“The attempted poisoning of Seolyeong Na, the daughter of the Steel Blood Alliance’s leader.”

Heeran nearly stopped breathing when those words came out of Uncheon’s mouth. Her gaze, which was churning violently like ocean waves in a storm, met Uncheon’s eyes.

“I know you didn’t do it.”

Heeran just blinked dazedly. What did I just hear?

He continued speaking quietly while looking at Heeran, who still didn’t understand what was going on. “But it was already too late to reveal that it was a false accusation. From the beginning, this investigation only focused on determining the culprit and confirming it, so this is the natural outcome.”

Heeran just stared at him.

“We missed the timing. Even if we present contrary evidence now, the Steel Blood Alliance won’t believe us.”

Just as Uncheon was about to say something else to the bewildered Heeran, he suddenly started coughing. As he urgently covered his mouth with his hand, blood flowed through the gaps between his fingers.

Shocked, Heeran hurriedly approached him.