Yun Seol-hyeong had a plan of his own.
It was nothing particularly grand.
He intended to enter the martial academy, bask in the attention of those who recognized him, and fully display Yun Estate's prestige to the man beside him.
Then he would do as the man wished, discover what this stranger who had suddenly appeared in Taiyuan meant to scheme at this academy while flying Yun Estate's banner.......
And, based on that, decide what course he and Yun Estate should take.
But... a plan was only a plan.
The gazes that fell upon them the moment they entered the academy were familiar.
However.
‘...They are not looking at me?’
He sensed something amiss, and then!
People's gazes passed right over Yun Seol-hyeong and fixed upon the man beside him.
“Ah, that must be the man at Huaming Escort Bureau.......”
Murmurs of admiration and praise rose from all around.
The problem did not end there.
“Who is that young man beside him? He is not quite as striking as Huaming Escort Bureau's son-in-law, but does he not look passable enough?”
“I feel as though I have seen him somewhere....... Hmm, I truly have no idea.”
Like the light of a firefly before the sun.......
The moment people's attention reached Yun Seol-hyeong, it fizzled out all too easily.
‘This is bad.’
Yun Seol-hyeong, who had intended to draw attention naturally and find those who recognized him, hurriedly changed his strategy.
But that did not produce much of a result either.
‘Come to think of it... the people here must either be parents old enough to have children attending the academy or people connected to those parents, correct?’
Naturally, most of them would be based here in Taiyuan.
‘They have no connection to me at all!’
No wonder he did not recognize a single face!
Even so, he searched a little longer just in case.
“What backwater did that country bumpkin come from? Why does he keep glancing everywhere like that?”
“It must be fascinating to him. Ilho Martial Academy's competition is rather famous in Taiyuan, is it not?”
He heard nothing but such nonsense.
It was around then.
That the eyebrow of the man beside him began to rise.
And Yun Seol-hyeong's heart seemed to plummet just as far.
‘This will not do!’
In the end, even at the cost of appearances, he reached the point of introducing himself.
“Greetings. I am Yun Seol-hyeong, General Hall Master of Yun Estate.”
Who in Shanxi did not know Yun Estate's name?
But although Yun Seol-hyeong was young, his position was high despite not being Yun Gi-hyeong, the Estate Master of Yun Estate, or one of the prominent figures who had built reputations beneath him over many years.
In other words, he looked exactly like a swindler.
“Ah, yes, yes.”
Even when people roughly brushed him off and avoided him, Yun Seol-hyeong did not understand.
‘Do they dare treat me with such contempt when I am a power within Yun Estate whose face is normally so difficult to see? They may throw their weight around here in Taiyuan, but when Shanxi as a whole is considered, they would not dare even look up at Yun Estate. How dare they!’
His face twisted with anger, then his eyes widened.
Could it be?
‘Is that why they do not recognize me?’
Yun Seol-hyeong belatedly realized the truth, covered his face with his palm, and scrubbed hard.
‘That means there may be no one here who recognizes me at all!’
His confident demand that they trust only him now looked ridiculous.
As Yun Seol-hyeong broke into a cold sweat, the academy children's martial arts demonstration began.
Fortunately, everyone's attention focused there in an instant.
“Tsk.”
A displeased click of the tongue came from beside him.
The crisis was not over.
It had merely been postponed.
With A-ri in his arms, Wi So-baek watched the two boys waiting to spar atop a round stage half a jang high.
“It's Big Brother!”
When A-ri beamed and clapped her hands, Wi So-baek nodded.
“Indeed. That is Seon-woo.”
Seon-woo stood across from a boy who looked like a scrawny colt. Though he pretended otherwise, the way he subtly scanned the surroundings suggested he was looking for them.
“What do we do? Big Brother can't see us. We're too far back. Everyone who couldn't even get into the front row is a loser.”
Yun Seol-hyeong jumped, feeling as though the words had struck a strangely tender spot, but Wi So-baek snorted.
A loser.
Was there any word less suited to him?
Wi So-baek slipped his hands beneath A-ri's arms and lifted her high above him.
Since Wi So-baek stood a head taller than most, A-ri felt as though she was flying through the sky.
Nothing blocked her view, and she could clearly see her big brother's face on the other side!
“Well? What does it matter where you stand? What matters is what you see from above everyone else.”
A-ri nodded vigorously at the voice rising from below, then thrust her adorable little fists powerfully into the air and shouted to her big brother.
“Big Brother! A-ri and Mister are here! Big Brother, be strong!”
At that, Seon-woo, who stood atop the sparring stage, quickly turned his head.
The boy's eyes widened when he spotted A-ri, then curved gently.
He looked down at his clothes, which remained stained with dust even after he had straightened and brushed them.
Hesitation entered his straight, dark eyes.
But the moment those eyes returned to his younger sister and met... his father, who was holding her aloft.
They shone with resolve.
Wi So-baek sensed that something had just become complete within the boy.
After the two atop the sparring stage showed each other due courtesy, their hands began to move.
Yes. Now, Seon-woo, you will display your dazzling talent and become the victor.......
THUD—!
Wi So-baek could not believe what he had just seen.
A single punch from the other boy left Seon-woo's chest wide open.
Every part of his body had become a weakness too blatant to be called an opening, and indiscriminate strikes rained down upon him.
THUMP—! THUD—! THUMP—!
“Cough!”
Seon-woo retreated as he coughed, but his opponent continued lashing out with hands and feet.
“Ha!”
Wi So-baek sighed in disbelief.
‘Like father, like son!’
Was it not truly a sight to behold how rigid and inflexible the boy was, enough to drive anyone watching out of their mind?!
Even though he had a father, even though he wanted to be a big brother his younger sister could take pride in, even though the guest his father had brought to act as his patron stood there with them and made him want to trust them just a little.......
Even so, that child—Seon-woo—did not want to cause the slightest problem.
He was trying not to forget that his father might vanish again at any time, just as he had left him and his mother before.
He believed that even if he looked ugly and craven, it was better to be a pathetic big brother who could keep bringing his younger sister food and medicine than one she could be proud of.
He must have clenched his teeth as he reminded himself that the seats had been assigned according to donations and power, that the guest his father had brought stood in the back row without even a chair, and that he could not bear the consequences if he rashly placed his trust in that man and something went wrong.
BOOM—!
The other boy stopped his hands and feet only once Seon-woo lay sprawled flat on the sparring stage.
“Heh!”
The sneering boy puffed out his chest and lifted his chin proudly before his father, who watched from the front row closest to the sparring stage.
There was no need to ask who that scrawny colt was.
“Ji Hye-won of the Dorim Merchant Guild is the best!”
Applause poured down. Ji Hye-won descended from the sparring stage proudly under his own power, while no one helped Seon-woo, forcing him to stagger to his feet alone.
“Is this your choice?”
Their time together had been too short for Wi So-baek to earn his trust, and he had shown the boy nothing.
Wi So-baek shook his head and lowered his arms, patting A-ri just before she burst into tears.
As this was a sparring tournament, losing once meant it ended here.
Had it truly ended that way, the day's event might have concluded ordinarily, with the academy student who took first place receiving a prize, some people laughing and others grieving.
But Jo Gang-jin was greedy.
As the sparring continued, of all people, Pyeon Su-yeop, who normally took first place, slipped and fell heavily. He was eliminated before anyone could intervene on his behalf.
“Losing does not mean it is all over. Among the defeated children, there may be one with jade-like potential, so I intend to grant them one more opportunity.”
Jo Gang-jin started a new round, saying the defeated children would spar among themselves and the winner would receive another chance.
And Lee Seon-woo was placed before Pyeon Su-yeop.
Watching the boy, his handsome face swollen and his clothes and hair a complete mess, struggle to hold a proper stance despite swaying on his feet twisted Wi So-baek's mood.
Pyeon Su-yeop widened his eyes fiercely and moved his lips.
The surroundings were noisy and the sparring stage was a considerable distance away, but there was no reason Wi So-baek would fail to hear him.
“Last longer than before. That way I can show all three forms. I have to show Father that I fell because I was unlucky, not because I lack ability?”
Wi So-baek repeated the words exactly as he had heard them, then chuckled.
Pyeon Su-yeop's hand moved toward Seon-woo.
Judging by how he sharpened the edge of his hand and chopped down diagonally, its momentum was anything but mild.
Wi So-baek silently watched the scene, then tilted his head to the side and whispered.
“Was it Yun Seol-hyeong?”
“...Yes.”
“Are you not curious who I am?”
At Wi So-baek's abrupt question, Yun Seol-hyeong, who had been worrying over how to assert his presence, grew flustered.
That man had asked the same question of his elder brother, the Estate Master, and his brother had shaken his head.
His elder brother said his instincts had warned that knowing might instead invite needless trouble.
The man inspired that much more fear than curiosity or practical judgment over the need to know his identity.
But Yun Seol-hyeong was different from his brother.
Things kept growing worse precisely because he did not know.
Only precise facts could produce the proper answer.
“Yes.”
When Yun Seol-hyeong answered, Wi So-baek's gaze turned toward the sparring stage ahead.
Just as Yun Seol-hyeong wondered why the man had looked away when he had expected an answer.
-I am the Demon Alliance Leader.
The man's voice rang through his mind.
He swiftly looked around, but everyone remained as they were.
Even the little girl in the man's arms seemed not to have heard a thing.
Only he had heard it. Only he had been told... that identity.
The Demon Alliance Leader?
Yun Seol-hyeong's mind went blank, and darkness fell before his eyes.
But.......
-I am the Demon Alliance Leader, and those bastards over there are beating my son. Why? Do I look like an impostor to you?
When Wi So-baek smiled at Yun Seol-hyeong with those words, Yun Seol-hyeong's breath caught as though a serpent had constricted his entire body.
Then, with an uncomfortable series of cracks, he turned his head toward the sparring stage.
“Eek!”
That little bastard from Pyeon Estate!
Was he trying to kill them all?!
This was no longer the time to worry about whether other people recognized him.
“Stop!”
Yun Seol-hyeong shoved people aside and charged toward the sparring stage.
“How dare you try to harm him?!”
Yun Seol-hyeong's booming voice rang throughout the training ground.
Wi So-baek strolled leisurely down the path Yun Seol-hyeong had opened.
“Seon-woo, do as you wish. I have decided to be a good father, so I will act as a father in my own way.”
What did trifles like Pyeon Estate and the Dorim Merchant Guild matter?
You are a precious child who has me, the Demon Alliance Leader, as your adoptive father and my younger brother, the former Martial Alliance Leader, as your birth father.
Therefore, Seon-woo.
The one who needed to show them exactly what it meant to borrow a tiger's might was you, not them.
Your tiger was the greatest under heaven. Why were you being knocked about by something beneath even a wild dog's notice and the rats beneath it?
Wi So-baek had already climbed onto the sparring stage. He pulled Seon-woo behind him and looked at Yun Seol-hyeong, who had twisted Pyeon Su-yeop's arm, forced him to his knees, and pinned him to the ground.
“You are not as capable as you boasted, but you are not incompetent.”
At least in decisiveness, he was better than his elder brother, the Estate Master of Yun Estate.
Yun Seol-hyeong had realized the truth when Wi So-baek revealed his identity.
If Yun Seol-hyeong failed to perform properly and the moment came when Wi So-baek had to reveal his true identity, which side would be placed in danger then?
“What is the meaning of this?! Release my son at once and state your name!”
When Estate Master Pyeon shot to his feet and roared, Yun Seol-hyeong felt ready to burst.
The man did not even realize Yun Seol-hyeong was saving them!
But how should he reveal his own identity?
Would they believe him even if he did?
Just as his head began to throb.
-Behind you!
He turned at the sudden voice.
“Huh?”
When a huge black shape bore down upon him, Yun Seol-hyeong kicked the attacker in the stomach and drove his knee up into the chin that dropped sharply from the pain!
CRACK—!
The attacker's chin snapped up, and his body toppled backward onto the ground.
“He subdued Academy Master Jo, one of the Ten Heroes of Shanxi, in a single move!”
“And Academy Master Jo even attacked him dishonorably from behind!”
“Who in the world is he? That rising master?”
Shocked murmurs reached him, but Yun Seol-hyeong's attention was elsewhere.
‘He did not warn me when the ambush came. He warned me first, and only then did the ambush happen!’
Moreover, Jo Gang-jin looked far too bewildered to be the person who had initiated the ambush.
It looked as though he had not meant to do it at all.
...In that case?
Yun Seol-hyeong looked up at the shadow falling across the collapsed Jo Gang-jin.
...Someone had pushed him.
And if anyone here could have done such a thing without anyone noticing.......
It could only have been that man.
“What are you doing? They are asking about you.”
At Wi So-baek's utterly composed words, Yun Seol-hyeong straightened with a resolute expression.
‘Today, I will save Shanxi!’
He shouted heroically.
“I am Yun Seol-hyeong. Anyone who hit our young master, step forward!”
He had already shown his face everywhere by coming with the Demon Alliance Leader.
If trouble arose, he would insist that Yun Estate had expelled him and dirty himself for the sake of his clan!
He had no way out now.