Book 21 Chapter 15

What is filial impiety?

―The Beginning of Deviation

The next morning. A hawk, white as snow, soared through the sky above the skyscrapers, cutting through the wind. Was it showing off the noble and dignified majesty only those who rule the sky possess? The white hawk circled once more, then folded its wings and descended to the ground. At the spot where the hawk landed, Nayerin, a person of no less nobility, extended her hand.

Nayerin took out a small letter tied to the hawk's leg and unfolded it. A faint shadow fell across her face for a moment.

"Is it bad news?"

Nayerin shook her head at Yeonbi's worried question.

"No. I'm just a little disappointed. It's the same news as always. That they still haven't found Dokgo Saja's whereabouts…"

Yeonbi nodded and patted Nayerin's shoulder.

"Don't worry, Rin! He'll surely be safe!"

"Thank you. By the way, Yeonbi, have you ever seen Dokgo Saja?"

Nayerin asked with a puzzled expression.

"Oh, me? Was that Dokgo Saja person also in Sichuan before?"

Yeonbi retorted without showing the slightest tremor. It was Nayerin who hesitated at the nonchalant reaction.

"No, it's not like that, but…"

"Heh heh, then why are you suddenly asking that?"

"You spoke just now as if you knew Dokgo Saja."

"Pfft, did I? Hmm, I would love to meet Rin's Saja soon. I believe he'll surely be safe."

It was a subtle remark, neither confirming nor denying. However, thanks to the natural flow of conversation, Nayerin didn't notice it at all.

"Thank you. It's comforting to hear you say that, Yeonbi. Yes. Dokgo Saja will surely be fine. No matter what anyone says, she's someone acknowledged by Geomhu."

Nayerin's trust in Dokgo Ryeong was deep and strong.

"To be trusted that much by Rin, I'm truly envious."

"I trust Yeonbi deeply too."

Then Yeonbi bowed slightly and replied respectfully.

"It's an honor, young lady! I too will pledge my lifelong loyalty!"

Nayerin let out a soft laugh, and the white hawk, which had settled on her shoulder, rubbed its head against her face. It was a playful gesture.

"Yeonbi! Do you remember this one?"

It was an elegantly shaped hawk with feathers as white as snow, without a single blemish.

"Of course. How could I forget this one? You've grown so much! It's really been a long time."

Yeonbi smiled and greeted the hawk. Baek-eung spread its white wings wide in a welcoming response. Yeonbi burst into laughter and said,

"This fellow has become remarkably valiant, hasn't he? Back then, he was so weak I thought he might die soon…"

"Right? I really thought he was going to die back then. This one too… and Yeonbi too…"

A wistful sentiment slowly filled the eyes of both as they looked at the white hawk.

* * *

"Lips, rouge, advanced braid, all accessories, clothing equipped, all complete! Makeup finished! Good, good. Shall we head to work then!"

Yeonbi, after checking herself in the mirror, jumped up and said.

"You seem happy lately?"

Yeonbi's head snapped around.

"Master…"

The old master stood leaning against the door, which had opened unnoticed.

"Don't you know the courtesy of announcing yourself before entering a lady's room? You drunken master!"

Yeonbi yelled.

"Who's a lady! You're a man, fundamentally!"

The old master pointed out as if hearing the most ridiculous thing.

"You shouldn't say such things. You told me to become a woman inside and out, and now you're changing your words. How can you be a role model as a teacher?"

Yeonbi's words were demure yet logically sound.

"Hmph! Your feigned speech indeed makes me want to clench my fist, but your ability to speak coherently has taken shape!"

The master sighed.

"Alright. I'll announce myself next time. But tell me, why were you still a man even after finishing your makeup? Those mutterings just now were truly unsightly."

"Ugh!"

There was no room for excuses on that point.

"It seems the glass mask you were wearing has cracked because I left it alone for a while. Disciple, shall we have another special training session? For repairs?"

He hinted at it. The history of torture disguised as special training flashed through Yeonbi's mind like a comet.

"No, I respectfully decline."

Yeonbi replied in a feminine voice.

"Really? That's a shame. But is something really good happening? You used to grumble about not wanting to go, but lately, you've been surprisingly proactive about selling your song and dance?"

'Ugh, he's so perceptive.'

As expected, he was someone not to be underestimated. Yeonbi summoned the maximum amount of shadow under her eyes and let out a feigned sigh.

"Something good… well, if you enjoy doing it, you get less annoyed. You can't keep crying like a pitiable lamb sold to a wicked master forever, can you?"

"Who's a wicked master? You brat, it's all for you."

"Calling me a brat! How can you say such insensitive things! Oh, boohoo!"

Yeonbi twisted her body and dabbed at her eyes with a handkerchief. She looked like a pathetic girl from any angle, but the old master waved his hand like he was chasing away flies, as if he'd seen something he shouldn't have.

"Stop the pointless talk and go already. Earn diligently today too."

"Ah, today too, this pitiful girl goes to the tavern to earn a living for her master… sniff sniff."

She wiped her tears with her sleeve again.

"You look so pathetic like that, disciple! Why don't you hurry and go? While this master's tenderness is calming my trembling fist."

"Alright. I'll go, I'll go!"

Yeonbi, slinging a gilded club larger than her body, left Chuok.

"And so, the girl, to attend to the incompetent, drunken old man, carried the heavy gold and walked down the mountain path with blistered feet."

She recited her tale in a dramatic voice.

*Thwack!*

"Ow!"

The master was a hundred steps away, so where did this knuckle rap come from?

"You never know what might hit you, so walk quietly and keep your mouth shut on the mountain path, disciple!"

The master, undoubtedly the culprit, spoke from a distance, pretending to be concerned.

'A hundred-step knuckle rap… As expected of the master!'

As expected, he was someone not to be underestimated.

*Charing, chararang.*

Listening to the beautiful voice, clearer than spring water, the young girl Rin rested her chin on the windowsill and looked out at the backyard. Clutching a red handkerchief that had been tucked into the window gap until just before, Rin let out a sigh-like exclamation.

Yeonbi's dance today felt just like that, like a playful swallow playing among the branches of the pear blossom tree, scattering white petals in the wind. It was cheerful but not frivolous, splendid but not chaotic. When the wind blew, the petals stirred, and when the wind subsided, the swallow perched on the flower branches.

Then, for a moment, a strong gust of wind blew, making the waves of petals shimmer like stars, and the swallow flew up into the sky, carried by the petals.

"Haa… Hmm, huh?"

Rin, who had just sighed again, suddenly became flustered. Just when the dance seemed to reach its climax, the flying swallow, no, Yeonbi, flew directly towards the window. While still airborne, Yeonbi bounced off the silver silk floor once more and lightly kicked off the protrusions of each floor, darting like a swallow.

"Be, be careful…!"

Her voice stammered, as if afraid she might fall. Yeonbi, who continued to leap, looked up at Rin and smiled brightly. The warm sunlight shimmered in Yeonbi's eyes, emitting a mysterious glow.

In the dark, they looked a deep, dark brown, but when the sunlight hit them, they shone with a cool, transparent golden hue, like tiger's eye. She hadn't known it at their first meeting, which was in the shade, but after meeting a few more times, she realized Yeonbi's eyes were peculiar.

"They look like tiger's eye…!"

When she first exclaimed in wonder, Yeonbi had said to Rin with a displeased face,

"Ah, these? Hmm… It's a side effect, a side effect. It's like this now, but it'll probably go back to normal someday."

"But… they're pretty?"

"Ah, ahaha, ha. Thank you for comforting me, Rin. Sob sob."

Seeing Yeonbi pretend to cry like that, Rin had avoided talking about her eyes as much as possible since then. It seemed Yeonbi herself was displeased with those tiger's eye-like eyes.

Rin didn't know it, but Yeonbi's eyes were in a transitional phase of side effects from mastering the Brain Spirit Heart Technique, where the light flickered. Of course, entering the transitional phase so early was not easy. It was thanks to taking doll-like silk, her self-proclaimed genius talent, and the old master's hellish training that such rapid achievement was possible.

However, like the master's habitual phrase "incomplete one," he already recognized those tiger's eye eyes as an obstacle to overcome. Even though strangers might find them beautiful, for him, a disciple of the Thunderclap Gate, those eyes were a brand that revealed his status as an "incomplete being." In any case, Rin, unaware of these inner workings, felt like she was being pulled in whenever she met Yeonbi's tiger's eye pupils.

*Tap tap.*

Yeonbi landed on the windowsill in an instant, with light footsteps. As she sat with the sunlight behind her, her eyes returned to a deep, dark brown, like an abyss. Yeonbi, who landed lightly in the room, greeted her with a cheerful voice.

"Yay! Practice ends here for today! Hmm, by the way, you've become prettier in a few days? Let me see, let me see your cheeks."

Yeonbi lightly cupped Rin's cheeks with her hands. Rin remained still, feeling the soft warmth transmitted from her hands. Strangely, she didn't feel much resistance to Yeonbi's touch. Yeonbi's words also felt completely different from others. For example, the difference between saying 'You've become pretty?' with a beaming smile and saying 'Yes, you're pretty, hehehe…' with a creeping smile.

"Ho ho. It looks like all the wounds have healed, and seeing you like this, Rin, you are quite pretty too? Hehehe."

Yeonbi, who was delighted as if she had made a great discovery by saying things that would make those who knew Rin's true appearance scoff, suddenly became serious.

"But! There's still a long way to go."

And then she scrutinizes Rin's appearance with sharp eyes.

"A long way?"

"Yes. Still, those eyes, hair, and complexion are the problem."

Her clouded eyes, dull hair, and pale complexion remained unchanged. Especially the change in her pupils showed no signs of improvement since she lost her imperial visage.

"I think it's because Rin stays in her room all the time. Speaking of which, aren't you suffocated, Rin? If you told me to stay in my room, I wouldn't last three days."

"Well, not really."

It was an indifferent answer. Yeonbi tilted her head. It seemed she had been confined to her room for a long time, and now she was used to it and felt no discomfort? No, that couldn't be. After she visited and left, at most three days, or two days if it was fast, a red handkerchief would be hung on the window.

Then why was she looking at only the red handkerchief so pitifully in this corner of the room? As Yeonbi gazed at Rin's pale face, something struck her.

"Are you perhaps… afraid to go outside?"

"……"

Seeing her tightly close her lips, it seemed she had hit the mark.

"Oh dear, what a shame. There are so many fun and good things outside."

"But people… there are so many people outside."

Come to think of it, Rin suffered because people's thoughts flowed into her.

"Then how about places without people?"

"Are there… such places?"

It was a very skeptical question.

"There are a few places where there are almost no people to the point where Rin won't mind. Shall I guide you to a nearby place? Let's start with the back mountain. How about it?"

The closest mountain behind Cheonhyangru would definitely be Amisan. It's a quite high and rugged mountain for a backyard.

"But Father…"

Rin trailed off.

"Ah, you mean that elder."

From various circumstances, Yeonbi knew that Rin's father was the elder she had seen before. Although everyone was secretive about his status and age, so she couldn't ask properly, they were a suspicious pair.

This young girl has an elder who is at least a hundred years old as her father. Doesn't that give off a forbidden scent? Moreover, there's a feeling of domestic violence or child abuse around Rin. So, if she asked a wrong word, she was afraid of stirring up painful wounds, so she had to suppress her curiosity.

Still, the 'elder' Yeonbi met didn't seem like a bad person at all. He seemed like a doting father worried about his daughter.

"Indeed, I suppose Rin's father would worry."

Rin nodded silently.

"But I think Rin's father would worry even if she stayed cooped up in her room. Parents worry no matter what, don't they?"

"Is that so?"

Rin replied in a weak voice.

"Of course. So, Rin just needs to choose what's better for her. If you can't do anything just because 'my parents worry,' that's truly filial impiety. After all, a child's success is what parents truly wish for."

She had never thought about it, but as she listened, Yeonbi's words seemed correct.

"What's good for me…"

"Yes, here it would be whether to go to the back mountain or stay in the room."

"Are there no people there?"

She asked again, seemingly very anxious. Although her imperial visage's ability hadn't returned, so she wasn't as defenseless as before, she still found meeting people frightening and unpleasant.

"Well. Although the destination is near my house, I've hardly met anyone there. There will be many pedestrians before entering the mountain, and there will be people on the mountain path, but I have a clever plan to make sure Rin doesn't mind, so you can rest assured."

Rin asked with curiosity.

"Yeonbi's house? Then, are there parents or other family members?"

"Family…"

For a moment, Yeonbi's eyes seemed to deepen.

"My parents both passed away long ago. The only one at home is a lazy master, sigh."

It was a light sigh made in jest. However, Rin could sense a weight in that sigh that was different from usual. Rin was taken aback. For her, parents were the last sanctuary in this harsh world, the final bulwark. Especially without her father, Nabækcheon, she would have already been torn apart by the greed of the world.

But Yeonbi had no parents; it was a miserable situation that she couldn't even imagine.

"Let's, let's go to the mountain!"

Was it because that was all she could say, or was it because she wanted to comfort her like that? Either way, Yeonbi's eyes sparkled with life.

"Oh, really?"

A bright smile, brighter eyes. Rin thought that such a look suited Yeonbi much better.

"Great! Then conserve your energy until tomorrow morning, hehe."