Seated across from him, Father deliberated and deliberated without noticing his tea go cold, and at last managed to open his mouth.
"Do you truly mean that you wish to learn martial arts?"
"Yes."
"But why on earth?"
"Must there be a reason for liking something?"
"No, that is not what I......."
"The truth is that whatever book I read, my chest felt stifled, as though my blood would not circulate; but the moment I read the Lesser Heavenly Star Art in the Myriad Books Pavilion a thrill ran tingling through my whole body and I knew this was it."
A seven-year-old, saying his blood would not circulate.
Jaegal Do-yun wanted to say what dog-dung nonsense is that, but with Baek Su-hyeon sitting there with her embroidery hoop and glaring fiercely, all he could do was groan.
A talent for formations, no less.
Reported to the Clan Head, it was the sort of thing that would have him come running to hoist the boy on his shoulders in his joy.
A formations master.
Such a one was an exceedingly precious talent even within the Jaegal Clan.
From of old, formations are a difficult study requiring a full grasp of the principles of yin and yang, of the five elements and the eight trigrams besides, and mastery of the Book of Changes along with the patterns of the heavens and the lay of the earth.
And was that all?
If it were a thing one could perform merely by knowing it, it would be nothing at all to the Jaegal Clan, said to gather only the finest minds under heaven.
But the sense for it must be inborn. Which is to say it lies purely in the realm of talent.
And so even in the Military Stratagem Hall there were only a handful who handled formations.
And yet his son had broken the Fateless Formation, which he had never been taught, by applying nothing but the principles he had read in books.
This was a matter to be announced at once with a notice posted across the whole of the Jaegal Clan.
'Damn it...... and I even promised never to speak of it.'
Hence the groaning he could only do inwardly.
And in the middle of it, martial arts!
Born a descendant of the Jaegal Clan with such fine talents, how could he say so unsightly a thing?
A brush is what he ought to take up!
"Mun-hyeon, seven is still too young an age to learn martial arts."
"In other martial houses they begin learning footwork the moment they can tod......dle, so I have heard."
"Who told you that!"
"Some book in the Myriad Books Pavilion."
"Damn it all, why would the Myriad Books Pavilion have that sort of......."
At his son's answer, curses rose in Jaegal Do-yun of their own accord, and beyond that he went so far as to consider setting fire to the Myriad Books Pavilion.
"Son, your father says it once more, but have you no thought of becoming a formations master?"
"Resolutely none."
"......."
"I am going to learn martial arts."
"You wretch! Do you not know that our clan's martial learning has clear limits? And the Lesser Heavenly Star Art, of all things? Why in the world would you take up mar...... ahem."
Jaegal Do-yun, who had been scolding him as though he would die of frustration, cleared his throat at a chill he felt in that instant.
He had sensed the cold gaze of the one who truly held power.
There was nearly killing intent on the needle in her hand.
She is not even of the Tang Clan...... sound arts would be another matter.
'Hmm, this is going to start a quarrel between husband and wife for nothing.'
Unable to watch the bond between his affectionate parents be damaged on his account, Jaegal Mun-hyeon sighed.
The peace of my household is mine to protect.
A thing this precious.
"Father."
"What is it."
"Everything I am about to tell you is a secret."
"Bah! Secrets, secrets, how many of them there are!"
Father was losing his temper, but Jaegal Mun-hyeon paid it no mind and said,
"Give me your promise."
"......Understood. Let us hear it, then."
"The truth is that I have learned a breathing method."
"Yes, I am sure you have. A breathing met...... hm?"
Jaegal Do-yun, who had been shaking his head, looked at his son with a violently startled expression.
"A breathing...... what?"
"Would you care to check?"
When Jaegal Mun-hyeon rolled up his sleeve and thrust out his wrist, Jaegal Do-yun blinked with an expression of utter disbelief.
"Since you would not believe me on my word anyway, take hold of it."
"You, you wretch, are you mocking your father? Hey!"
"Honestly, and you said once that you believed me."
"That is...... are you in earnest?"
"Yes."
At the sight of his son without a flicker of change in his expression, Jaegal Do-yun, half in doubt, quietly took hold of the wrist.
Jaegal Do-yun was himself a martial artist of respectable skill, so had the boy let his presence show even faintly there would have been no need to grasp his wrist at all.
But he had only just formed the elixir, and with too little time he had not accumulated any qi, so there was nothing for it but to let the man experience it directly.
"Gah!"
Jaegal Do-yun, who had pushed his own qi inside to examine his son's body, pulled his hand away in violent shock.
"Th-the elixir is......."
"Yes."
"H-how, how can such a thing......."
"Did I not say I had read the Lesser Heavenly Star Art?"
Jaegal Mun-hyeon's expression asked how many times a man needed to be told, but for Jaegal Do-yun it could only be stupefying.
"So you are telling me now...... this unbelievable thing, that you read a martial arts manual and formed the elixir by yourself?"
A nod.
"The Lesser Heavenly Star Art...... you say?"
"Yes."
"Hoh......."
Jaegal Do-yun could only let out a dry laugh.
How could he disbelieve it when he had taken hold of the boy himself?
The elixir had formed in his son's body.
He was telling him that without a single person's teaching, by reading a martial arts manual alone, he had formed it.
What a troubling...... no, what an astonishing matter is this?
It meant the boy was born with a talent for martial learning as well.
Gazing at his son, Jaegal Do-yun swallowed without meaning to.
However heaven-sent a talent, how many achieve it by themselves?
No, were there any at all?
'Ah, Heaven...... what exactly are you doing to me.'
By now it was even frightening.
This son was far too much for him.
Just one such gift would be called outstanding, and here were four.......
The Central Plains may overflow with eccentrics and extraordinary men, but he had never so much as heard of one born with talents like his son's. It would be far more correct to say that none existed.
"You, is there anything more you have hidden?"
"Pardon?"
"What on earth are all these secrets? Formations, martial arts...... and forming the elixir by yourself!"
Jaegal Mun-hyeon smiled faintly at that and once again made his intent perfectly clear.
"Father, I am going to learn martial arts."
"......."
Now there was nothing he could say.
How could he say no, say that it was not to be?
He had already seen it.......
Telling him to become a formations master had been partly for the clan's sake, but also because it would be a waste of that talent.
But if the boy's talent was outstanding enough to form the elixir alone, with no one teaching him.......
"Hmm."
Jaegal Do-yun gave no answer at all and rose from his seat with a heavy expression.
"Father!"
He called, but there was no answer.
The man simply left the room quietly with a grave look on his face.
Fucking he.......
Is a son taking up martial arts really something to turn that grave over?
I am saying I will live as a Jaegal for you.
I said I might become the world's best.
If the Jaegal Clan, which has only ever produced strategists, produced a man who rose to the summit of the world through martial learning, that would be the union of brush and blade.
It would mean one clan could have it all. How good is that?
Honestly, hand them a blessing and they do not know how to take it.
No wonder they are perpetual second place.
"Mun-hyeon."
"Yes, Mother."
"Do not be too disheartened. Your father is simply greatly shaken."
"Is this really something to be shaken by?"
"Your father is a man whose pride in being of the Jaegal Clan is stronger than anyone's."
For the first time, Jaegal Mun-hyeon pursed his lips at his mother's words.
Pride, goddamn it.......
It is nothing but a born second-placer's streak.
I may just run away from home the moment I come of age.
"Do not worry. Your mother will try to persuade your father. If you want it so, you must do it. Your mother is always on your side."
At the sight of her bright smile, the heart that had been full of sulking eased a little.
With her cheering her son on like this, how could I not be filial?
Just watch.
Father's permission?
He had never expected anything like help in the first place.
He had simply decided on it, and was telling the man out of the duty between father and son.
***
Having come out, Jaegal Do-yun left the pavilion with a face full of frustration.
'Martial learning.......'
A road the Jaegal do not walk.
Because their purpose lies in governing all under heaven through ghostly stratagems.
Is it not said that only the ignorant use their bodies, while the gentleman uses his head?
But look at the present world.
With no distinction among orthodox, unorthodox and demonic, all scattered to their own, warring heroes had risen in every region and long since begun contending to become the master of the world.
The Jaegal Clan, which had believed the brush stronger than the blade, had been pressed by the warring heroes carving out domains everywhere until its influence dwindled and its many rights and interests were stripped away on all sides.
The prosperity of being called one of the five, or the seven, great martial houses was a thing of the past; holding on to a single foothold of Mount Longzhong was about the whole of it.
An age that needed strength.
How could he not know?
But it was far too late to raise a martial force.
They had never striven beyond the basics in that direction, and whether the bloodline was simply so, no descendant was ever born with the talent.
"Ha ha, honestly...... that little thing."
His son's ambition was a truly strange matter.
To dismiss it as a child's bravado, the talents the boy had been born with were far too astonishing.
Was there a purpose in heaven?
But how is a man to know so high a purpose?
"Planning a matter rests with man; accomplishing it rests with heaven."
The planning and devising of an affair rest with man, but the bringing of it to pass is heaven's.
Yet if one neither plans nor devises, how can one hope for heaven to bring anything to pass?
The world was already moving. The warring heroes of every region were gathering strength in search of past glory.
The Jaegal Clan too had to begin preparing to soar.
"Shall a man be a father and stand as a stone in his son's road?"
The face that had been full of worry brightened before he knew it.
He would fulfill a father's duty.
When a child has been given a heaven-sent talent, how can one not cheer him on? And how should a child grow only as his parents wish?
"If a child means to unfold the talent he was born with, then helping him in it is also a parent's duty."
Once he set his mind so, a stone pressing heavy on his chest seemed to vanish; he felt unburdened and his step grew lighter than light.
"Very well. Try it, then. Let us see."
He resolved to cheer his son's dream on.
And if the boy came to feel the limits of his talent?
Opening a new road for him then would also be a thing a parent ought to do.
But just then.
"Hall Leader! How did it go?"
Han Si-heon, who had been disliked by Baek Su-hyeon and so could not come inside and had waited out front stamping his feet, came scurrying over.
"Man alive, have you been waiting for me all this while?"
"Ugh, I could hardly bear the suspense."
"Honestly, you...... anyone watching would think you were Mun-hyeon's father."
"Never mind changing the subject. Did you persuade him? Will he try learning formations?"
"Hmm."
Despite Han Si-heon's pressing, Jaegal Do-yun gave no answer and only quickened his step.
"Hall Leader! Say something, I beg you. He is a talent born with a gift for formations. You of all people know it is a gift precious beyond precious in this clan."
At the words pouring out of him as if he would die of frustration, Jaegal Do-yun finally opened his mouth.
"Now then, Section Chief Han."
"Yes!"
"You know the saying that a man's word is worth a thousand pieces of gold?"
"Who does not know it?"
"Then do you know what happens if one breaks it?"
"Pardon?"
"Your pepper falls off."
"......Pardon?"
What sort of out-of-nowhere remark was this?
When he put on a dumbfounded expression, Jaegal Do-yun burst into hearty laughter.
"Hah hah hah hah! A joke. But keep your promise. Do not so much as let a word about my son out of your mouth."
"Who said anything otherwise? Making odd remarks out of nowhere...... So what in the world happened? Did you persuade him?"
"No."
"Pardon?"
"I have decided simply not to have him do it."
"Not to have him do it?"
"My son does not even want it. Should I force it on him out of my own greed?"
Han Si-heon could only stop in his tracks.
Not have him do it?
After seeing that talent with his own eyes?
"Hall Leader, how can you say such a thing? That is indulgence. He might become the finest formations master under heaven."
"Enough. He need not do any such thing."
"Pardon?"
At the sight of Jaegal Do-yun saying it flatly and striding off, Han Si-heon was left dumbfounded.
Where had the shared resolve gone, when they had joined forces to persuade the son by any means?
"But where on earth are you going?"
"The Heavenly Star Pavilion."
The Heavenly Star Pavilion was where the young descendants of the Jaegal Clan learned martial arts from the age of ten until their coming-of-age ceremony.
However much it valued learning, the Jaegal Clan fell within the category of a martial house. Basic martial learning was taught.
After that, attainment differed according to one's own efforts.
"Why? Does the Pavilion Master of the Heavenly Star Pavilion want his formations seen to?"
"No."
"Then what?"
"I am going to put in a word for my son."
"Pardon?"
"Off you go now."
Watching Jaegal Do-yun's back recede swiftly, Han Si-heon stood blankly in place for some while.
His son...... he is going to what?
Hold on!
Surely he has not been taken in by that absurd talk about becoming the world's best?
Unless the Hall Leader has gone mad.......
***
The next day.
Knowing full well that the boy could not leave the pavilion while under confinement, Father nonetheless went ahead and took his son to the Heavenly Star Pavilion.
"Hah hah, Mun-hyeon."
"Yes?"
"Your father has arranged it all."
"Arranged what?"
"One is meant to attend from the age of ten, but I pleaded earnestly with the Pavilion Master of the Heavenly Star Pavilion and had you registered so that you may train in martial arts."
"Pardon?"
"Hah hah! Why so startled? Go and realize your dream. Your father will cheer your dream on."
Father laughed heartily and stroked my head.
So he is telling me now...... to train in martial arts together with a pack of brats?
Haa, why on earth do things no one asked for.......
At his father's loving kindness I could only press my throbbing head.
"You rascal, does it please you so? Tears, even."
"......."
Ah, honestly...... if only I had not seen that back of his that day.......