According to So-hye, who later gathered up the clan gossip and reported it in high spirits, Father had been nothing less than the finest debater under heaven, a match for a hundred men.
With orderly, logical speech he had crushed dead the vixen act of Tang Yeo-jin as she poured out her grievances to the Clan Head and his wife, or something of the sort.
Even so, an order of confinement could not be avoided.
He had committed violence, and that was a fact.
The result was a ban from the Myriad Books Pavilion.
Considering the clan's strict order of rank, it was said to be an exceedingly light punishment.
At the sight of his mother, who had been worried sick all the while, finally easing, he even felt a little sorry.
But from that day onward, word was going around that he was 'a scum with no respect for rank who beats his own brother.'
'Those Tang people, honestly.'
Tang Yeo-jin had clearly spread it.
Her very face said as much.
'To fail to keep the rule of repaying evil with evil. I have grown much weaker.'
Repay good with good, and evil with evil greater and crueler still.
It was one of the rules of the great Demonic Cult, which he had held like a creed all his life.
By rights he should have pulped the mouth that insulted his mother and torn out its tongue, then severed the sinews of her limbs so she would crawl like a dog for the rest of her life.
But at So-hye's restraint he had gone and shown mercy.
Perhaps his nature had softened from growing up showered in his parents' love, or perhaps it came of going over the Precious Mirror of the Bright Mind again lately.
'Well, I got everything there was to get out of the Myriad Books Pavilion anyway.'
If anything it was fortunate; there was no longer any reason to go there.
What he had needed at once was a single strand of the Jaegal Clan's martial arts.
For now that was enough.
'Heh heh heh, an order of confinement. And just when I needed time to train.'
He had memorized the whole of the verse-formulas, so now he could throw himself into martial training in earnest.
If later on some bastard was astonished and said, "How on earth did you?" he need only answer, "I learned it in the Myriad Books Pavilion."
Above all, he had felt a great deal through his father.
Boundless trust, perhaps?
He had been deeply moved by the sight of a man who believed in his son without asking or weighing a thing.
Having never trusted anyone in his past life, he did not know what sort of heart that was.
His subordinates, and even his disciples, were all bastards trying to kill him, so how could he have trusted them?
If anything, he had been generous with praise for the ones who did their utmost at it.
Overwhelming strength, and loyalty won through fear.
That was the proper character for a ruler of the Demonic Cult.
But Father.......
'He was impressive. Quite.......'
Whatever it was, it had set his heart beating.
His father in that moment had looked far more upright and dependable than he himself had, standing alone and unbowed before hundreds of martial artists.
'Well, a man of that measure has the right to be my father.'
An unwanted reincarnation and an unwanted birth, but he was grateful to have gained a loving mother and a truly dependable father.
Be a filial son, then.
What of it.
There was love received, and he could manage that much.
But then.
"Mun-hyeon, greet him."
"Pardon?"
A few days after the business in the Myriad Books Pavilion, Father brought in some man.
A pale-faced scholar with a face that looked to be in his early thirties, without a single blemish on it and without a single callus on his hands.
"This is Section Chief Han Si-heon of the Military Stratagem Hall's Formations Division, who will be your letters master from now on."
"......."
"He studies formations under our house's patronage, but he is also a man who once took first place in the provincial examination and received the title of provincial graduate."
In short, the man was of outstanding learning.
And given that he was a formations section chief in the Military Stratagem Hall, that meant he was one of Father's subordinates.
But a teacher of letters, out of nowhere?
Just as he was firming his resolve to train in martial arts in earnest, what in the world is this, Father?
"Now then, you wretch. Greet him at once. Is your master not waiting?"
"Ah...... hello."
At his father's thundering, Jaegal Mun-hyeon made his greeting in a half-risen posture.
"Heh heh, you must understand. He is a child of outstanding manners as a rule, but he is a little flustered just now, hence this."
"It is quite all right. The light in his eyes is indeed as uncommon as I had heard."
"I am grateful you see him so."
"Not at all. If anything, it is I who should be grateful, since you have entrusted me with the weighty charge of being your precious son's letters master."
At the sight of the two trading remarks back and forth, Jaegal Mun-hyeon could not contain his astonishment.
Hold on, what are these two doing?
The party concerned has not even agreed yet, so why are the two of them playing off each other like this?
"Father."
"Speak."
"A letters master, out of nowhere? What is this about?"
"Mun-hyeon, this is a decision your father reached after much deliberation."
"Deliberation?"
"Yes. How could I not know what was in your heart when you dealt with Mun-gi so? You must have been angry. Committing violence was wrong, yes, but you defended your mother's honor. I esteem that heart of yours highly."
"......."
"But because of it you received an order of confinement and can no longer enter the Myriad Books Pavilion, so how great must your grief be?"
"N-not especially......."
"It is all right. You may speak your true heart to your father. As a fellow scholar, how could I not understand? Your yearning for learning, frustrated before you could take the first step."
Father went so far as to furrow his face as he consoled him.
You do not seem to understand in the slightest.
"And so your father, setting shame aside, asked Section Chief Han for help. To teach you during your confinement."
"Pardon?"
"You rascal, no wonder you are surprised. Heh heh heh!"
That was not why he was surprised.
Who, exactly, was grieving, and when, and how?
He might at least have given some warning!
Earning the nickname of scum may have ruined his reputation, but he had thought it fortunate that he could finally train in martial arts.......
"From now on Section Chief Han will be your letters master and will teach you during the hours after your father leaves for his post."
"A-after...... surely not all day?"
"Yes."
It was a bolt from the blue and nothing less.
He felt as though his insides were crumbling to pieces.
Why would you deliberate alone and decide alone!
You should have discussed it, discussed it!
"Father, Section Chief Han has duties of his own, surely. Should he really leave his post for such a private matter?"
"It is fine."
"......."
"I have already reported the matter to the Clan Head."
"Th-the Clan Head approved it?"
"Of course. Who do you think your father is? I persuaded the Clan Head again and again that this matter was no fault of yours. The Clan Head holds that the order of confinement laid on you over the business with Mun-gi was excessive."
What a thoroughly pointless piece of persuasion.
There had been no need whatsoever.
"Honestly, the rascal...... Look at him. That is how he is. He furrows his face like that out of worry that his father may have overexerted himself for nothing."
"Indeed he does. I shall teach him all the harder, Hall Leader."
"Thank you. Truly, thank you."
Father even took Han Si-heon's hands in his to express his gratitude.
You are mistaken.
It is resentment.
I am in the middle of being furious.
Please stop misunderstanding as you please!
But he could not bring himself to say the word no.
Because his father's back that day kept hovering before his eyes.......
"I look forward to our work, Mun-hyeon. I am truly glad to become your master."
Watching the man smile brightly, he thought:
'A teacher of letters? Let us see how long you last. I happen to be something of an authority on needling of this sort.'
***
The next day, as agreed, Han Si-heon took over from Father, who left for his post after breakfast.
And the lesson began at once.
"I hear you have been reading the Precious Mirror of the Bright Mind."
"So I have."
A somewhat listless manner.
But his posture alone kept its courtesy.
Because he could hardly disappoint Mother, who was watching the lesson from a distance.
So outwardly he observed the courtesies while adopting a manner subtly calculated to grate.
A child behaving like this, and a grown man not getting angry?
He had dealt with ink-stained scribblers plenty in the old days.
"Open to the Chapter on Speech. I hear you have read that far."
"Yes."
"Liu Hui said: when words do not hit upon reason, they are not as good as left unsaid. What does that mean?"
"What does it mean?"
"Hm?"
"My learning is shallow, so I can read it but cannot grasp its meaning."
"......."
"Would my master teach it to me properly?"
At the question asked with wide, round eyes turned up at him, Han Si-heon smiled and kindly went on with his explanation.
Right, now the clever needling begins in earnest.
Let us see you endure it.
"Liu Hui said, 'If words do not accord with reason, better not to speak them.' It is also said that words are the voice of the mind, meaning that one should think about what is contained in a word before letting it out."
"Ah, I see."
"From of old, speech is less a matter of using learned words or lofty expressions than of carrying the right manner. This shows a man's nature especially when he deals with those younger than himself or lower in rank, so you are to learn to think before you speak and to learn and practice respect for others."
Look at this fellow.
He is giving what seems to be a plausible teaching while going round the houses to rebuke the boy's present manner.
But would he lose?
I have lived far longer than you.
"Hmm, I cannot make out the meaning at all. Could you explain it a little more simply?"
"Hm?"
"My learning is lacking, you see......."
"Hmm."
Jaegal Mun-hyeon only blinked blankly with an expression that knew nothing.
I am a cow.
Read scripture at me for a hundred days.
All you will get is a 'Mooo.'
From that day on Jaegal Mun-hyeon refused the man's teaching outright.
I do not know. I do not understand.
Why must I read this?
Nyah-nyah-nyah!
Restlessness was the least of it; he writhed with the urge to go and play and otherwise did his utmost, within the bounds of a seven-year-old, to make his teacher boil over.
"Do you dislike studying letters?"
"Not at all. I like it immensely."
"Then why that manner? Is it perhaps that you dislike me?"
"Not in the least. I like you so much I could die."
"Hmm. Is that so?"
Han Si-heon, who had been gazing steadily at Jaegal Mun-hyeon, wore a meaningful expression.
Jaegal Do-yun had asked him to be his son's letters master not for his high learning alone.
He had been chosen out of many.
Experience in teaching.
He had already taught and raised any number of children in the Jaegal Clan.
So he knew.
The descendants of the Jaegal Clan, born with the gift of wisdom in a way that bloodline cannot be dismissed.
Among them, Jaegal Mun-hyeon was special.
He spoke at a hundred days, read the Thousand Character Classic and the Lesser Learning at three, and understood melody at five.
Rumor said he was a dullard who had glimmered briefly, but as a man who was to be his master he could not teach him carelessly, and so he had looked into the boy's seven years in advance.
The result...... a dullard, my arse.
This one is the real thing.
If he were not born with talent, how could a seven-year-old state his thoughts clearly and speak without a step out of place?
And on the day of the business in the Myriad Books Pavilion, Jaegal Mun-hyeon had faced Tang Yeo-jin and, by all accounts, declared his position boldly and even rebuked her.
A few days as his letters master was enough to tell, if only from how he treated his mother.
He never said or did anything that might displease his parents. He grumbled only at him.
Which is to say.
'Our Young Master means to try a contest of wills with me?'
That is the way those born with heaven-sent talent behave.
Are you fit to be my master?
I shall test you, and if not, be gone.
That would be the meaning of it.
'Breaking that stubbornness first would be the proper order of things.'
Han Si-heon had no intention of backing down either.
A child is a child in the end.
"Mun-hyeon."
"Yes, Master."
"It seems you must first cultivate the attitude of study."
"So it seems. I appear to fall well short of being taught by you."
"Therefore!"
"......?"
"I intend to change my method."
"Pardon?"
It was just as Jaegal Mun-hyeon wore a dubious expression at Han Si-heon's words.
CLATTER!
Han Si-heon picked up the go stones lying nearby and flicked his fingers lightly.
The stones flew around Jaegal Mun-hyeon and came to rest with light taps.
But the places where they settled were somehow.......
"This is a formation called the Fateless Terrace."
"......."
"Until you have read the Precious Mirror of the Bright Mind in full I shall never release you, so bear that in mind."
It was his trump card for breaking stubbornness.
He had used it a few times before.
Children who shook with fear and could not master their hunger would weep and wail.......
"Hm?"
But he saw that the corners of Jaegal Mun-hyeon's mouth were curling up to an uncanny degree.
So I cannot get out until I have read the whole thing?