Childhood Friend of the Zenith

༺ Omen (1) ༻

“You seem to have caused a lot of trouble.”

I gulped after hearing Father’s cold words.

In his calm voice, there was definitely some anger.

And considering how rare it was for Father to show emotion, I knew how serious this was.

‘I’m fucked.’

All the things I planned to deal with after returning to the clan piled up and were exploding right now.

Which meant that I was responsible for all of this and I couldn’t blame anyone else.

“…Jailbreak, huh.”

Flinch.

My shoulders flinched involuntarily after hearing Father’s words.

“The blood of Gu Clan, breaking out of jail?”

“…About that.”

“Before we get into that…”

Right as I was about to use the Marble of Celestial Captivation as an excuse, Father cut me off.

And his gaze fixed on me.

[…How terrifying, you look even more like him now.]

It was terrifying for me too.

Father’s eyes, that looked at me with emotion unlike his usual expressionless face, seemed more frightening than I could imagine.

“You killed the First Elder?”

“…Yes.”

I didn’t make any excuses.

Because it was something I really did.

“I heard that you killed the First Elder by using a different family member’s name.”

“Yes, that’s true.”

“Do you know what that means?”

“…I do.”

“Then, why did you do it?”

Despite his noticeable anger, Father didn’t raise his voice or yell at me.

He was only waiting for my explanations.

His red eyes were only on me.

Without letting me escape until I gave him a proper explanation.

‘Sigh.’

I didn’t want to run away either, so after letting out a breath, I explained to Father.

Why I killed the First Elder and why I escaped the jail.

Oh, I also told him about the Marble of Celestial Captivation without leaving anything out.

I explained that in more detail.

It didn’t take very long.

It wasn’t something I could drag on for long anyway.

“…”

After I finished talking, Father who heard my explanation stayed silent without saying anything.

One thing that changed was that his anger calmed down a bit and his sharp eyes returned to normal.

To me, that was enough.

Father, who stayed silent for a while, spoke again after letting out a light sigh.

“Answer truthfully. I won’t accept any lies.”

“Yes…”

“The secret room that’s in the First Elder’s place you mentioned, does it really exist?”

“Yes, it does.”

“Then, how do you know about that?”

I realized something as I looked into Father’s eyes.

‘He’s looking for a reason.’

Father was looking for a reason why I acted the way I did.

Rather than trying to find out if what I said was true or not, it seemed more like he was looking for a reason for all my actions.

‘But how do I explain that?’

I did it without thinking much, but I learned about it in my past life and I had no way to explain it to him otherwise.

But I couldn’t just tell him that and because I couldn’t give him an answer, Father looked away from me and changed the topic.

He dropped this topic as soon as he saw that I couldn’t answer.

“For the second topic, I might let you off since you played a big role in it.”

He was talking about the fact that I found Gu Huibi’s location through the Marble of Celestial Captivation and my role in helping her escape the jail.

Father hinted that he would let me off with this matter.

“First…”

But that didn’t mean that I would be off the hook completely.

“Even if we found the secret room you mentioned, killing the First Elder by yourself is way over the line. Do you realize that?”

“…I’m sorry.”

“I hope you understand that you don’t have that much power in the clan yet.”

I don’t have it yet.

I knew what those words meant, so I couldn’t take them as a good sign.

Because it meant that no matter what I did, I would become the Young Lord anyway.

“The Elder’s Meeting will open for this matter.”

I bit my tongue after hearing Father.

The Elder’s Meeting would open because of this even though it hadn’t happened for the past few years.

To be fair, it was understandable since I killed the First Elder with my own hands.

By the way, the last Elder’s Meeting was also because of me.

I think it was because of my rampage towards Peng Ah-hee and breaking our marriage engagement.

‘Now that I look at it, I really am a troublemaker huh?’

My past was one thing, but I caused more than one or two troubles after my regression.

I felt a bit ashamed.

‘Did I regress for this…’

Of course, I shook this off right away.

“Know this, the Second Elder won’t participate in this Elder’s Meeting.”

“…!”

“I won’t take your side either, so it means that you won’t have anyone on your side.”

‘Now that’s a big problem.’

Whether it was my past life or this one, I knew that the Third and the Fourth Elder didn’t like me.

And because I killed the First Elder, it didn’t seem like anything good would happen.

‘But also, the Second Elder is not taking part huh.’

Was this Father’s order?

Excluding an Elder from an Elder’s Meeting, what kind of nonsense is this?

As I made a sour expression, Father said one more thing.

“I expect that you will take responsibility for all the things you caused at this point of your life.”

The words of expectation from a parent still felt as heavy as ever.

Even if our relationship wasn’t the best.

“Understood.”

I hid my sigh and answered.

I had nothing to argue against him and him telling me to take responsibility also meant that he was involved as well.

When the room became quiet again, Father moved his gaze to the letters again, and spoke to me softly.

“The deal with Gu Sunmoon and your punishment will be decided after the Elder’s Meeting.”

“…”

“I ask that you don’t do anything in that timeframe.”

“…Yes, understood.”

He was telling me to stay put until the Elder’s Meeting happened and the matter was settled.

‘There is no way that another problem will pop up during that time frame though.’

And even if it does, I’ll just do nothing.

Because if I caused another thing right now, then there was no solution.

I wouldn’t be killed by my Father, but I guessed that he would burn all my hair.

[But it seems that you never get beaten up.]

‘True.’

No matter what trouble I caused in my past life, Father never touched me.

I wouldn’t be beaten up this time either,

‘…But I can’t let my hair burn away.’

I’d rather get beaten up.

I couldn’t let that happen.

Moreover, Gu Sunmoon had lost its leader and the only successor, Gu Jeolyub, was still young.

And because the Second Elder wasn’t a swordsman, I assumed the position would be given to someone else.

Or it was possible that Gu Jeolyub would become the junior successor of Gu Sunmoon, running it with my Father.

‘And about Jeolyub…’

It was a name that I’ve been thinking about for a while.

It was because I never saw him again since I sent him to a medic room.

‘Not like I’m in a situation where I can anyway.’

After the matter with the secret room in the First Elder’s place ends, I would find it necessary to see him.

Because I couldn’t just ignore him.

As I comforted my emotion in my mind, Father looked at me and spoke of a strange topic.

“I heard that you earned a title. The True Dragon, was it?”

“Pardon?”

Because he brought up that stupid title, I gave him a dumbfounded response.

Why did he bring that up?

Furthermore, it felt shitty every time I heard that name.

What the hell is a True Dragon?

I didn’t know before, but after getting the Dragon title for myself, it felt too grand for a Young Prodigy.

Also, it was more like I was the real snake of all snakes rather than a dragon.

“Not bad.”

“…Pardon?”

I was dumbfounded for a moment after hearing Father’s response.

What did he say just now?

“Good work.”

He spoke and nodded, as if he was really complimenting me.

As I looked at that, it felt super awkward and I felt a bit nauseous inside.

‘What’s up with him. Did he get hurt when he fought with the Palace Lord?’

That’s not it, I saw him destroying everything without getting injured.

Or maybe the food he ate recently was bad.

I put this aside for now, and asked Father.

“…If you have nothing else to say, then could I ask you a question?”

As I rubbed my stomach that felt full, Father looked at me.

“It seemed like there was something happening with the Moyong Clan. What is the meaning of that?”

“Moyong… Oh.”

I assumed that he had a short conversation with the Moyong Clan’s elder, but his reaction showed as if he forgot about it already.

“A business.”

“…Yes, it would be that. Obviously.”

Do you think I asked because I didn’t know that?

“It means that you don’t need to know about it.”

I gave up right away after hearing Father’s response.

Because I knew that he wouldn’t tell me anything if he said those words.

[Aren’t you too quick on giving up?]

‘Experience in my past life helps in times like these.’

[What a pointless type of help that is…]

Flutter-

“If you have nothing else to say, then you may leave.”

After hearing Father, I turned around and walked out of the Lord’s room.

When I stepped outside, I saw that the sun was slowly setting.

‘I guess he doesn’t intend to put me back in jail.’

That’s probably because Father has returned to the clan.

Honestly, going back to the clan didn’t sound that bad either.

‘Because I think hell is waiting for me at my place’

If my first hell was meeting with Father, the second hell I had to face was something even more difficult.

So much that I preferred to go back to the jail instead.

“Welcome back, Young Master.”

When I stepped into my place for the first time in a while, Hongwa was the first one to greet me.

‘…Hmm… that’s a big problem.’

The problem started here.

The fact that it was Hongwa who greeted me first and not anyone else.

Usually, a certain someone would run towards me to greet me, but I couldn’t see her anywhere.

I had cold sweat at this point.

I hid my panic and asked Hongwa carefully.

“Where are the girls?”

“…”

When I asked her, I saw Hongwa flinch for a moment, and her pupils shook slightly.

From her reaction, I smiled and nodded.

‘Yeah, I’m fucked.’

I realized that I was fucked after seeing Hongwa’s reaction.

“Lady Namgung went into the room when she arrived. She seemed tired.”

“Is that room mine?”

“Oh, yes.”

Why did you answer as if that was obvious, huh?

Why is it obvious for her to sleep in my room…?

“Lady Tang said that she had something to do in the streets.”

“…I guess that’s one fortunate thing out of all the misfortunes.”

“Huh?”

“Nothing.”

Tang Soyeol having something to do in the streets, huh.

It was strange enough that a blood relative of Sichuan had a business in Shanxi, but that wasn’t what was on my mind right now.

“What about Wi Seol-Ah?”

It was the first time.

The first time I said her full name with my own mouth.

I might never have done it in my past life either.

Because I always called her the Celestial Sword, or whatever title she had.

“Oh, Seol-Ah is…”

Hongwa hesitated for a bit, and then told me about Wi Seol-Ah.

-Seol-Ah should be in the mountain at the back.

My steps headed towards the mountain.

The sun would set soon, so why did Wi Seol-Ah go to the mountain?

Even though she knew that I returned to the clan.

[Isn’t it obvious, she doesn’t want to see your face.]

When Elder Shin spoke as if he confirmed my worries, I bit my lips.

Why did my heart feel so frustrated?

It was a feeling that I had many times, but it always felt like a heavy burden.

I climbed the mountain after hearing that she was somewhere in the mountain, but I felt like I knew where Wi Seol-Ah would be.

I couldn’t feel her presence.

Wi Seol-Ah’s presence was always light, so I wouldn’t find her even with me reaching Peak Realm, but Wi Seol-Ah was probably in a place where she could see the sunset.

If I was right, that place could be a cliff or the peak of the mountain, but in the mountain behind Gu Clan, there was only one place like that.

As I expected, on a hill where the sunset was visible, I saw someone.

Swish- Swoosh!

With the sound of a sword cutting through wind, a wooden sword swung in the air.

It looked like a swordplay, but to a martial artist, it was a poor swordplay that lacked any basics.

It was hard to call it a swordplay.

‘I heard that she was sword training.’

But I didn’t expect that she would swing a wooden sword.

Pause-

She noticed my presence.

Her movement, that seemed unstoppable, paused and her gaze met mine.

‘Huh?’

The one standing there was Wi Seol-Ah…

And the one staring at me was Wi Seol-Ah…

But it felt harder to breathe for some reason.

‘Why is that?’

Wi Seol-Ah had black hair with a hint of brown.

She didn’t have the shining golden hair I saw in my past life and her eyes were obsidian-like black and not the golden eyes from my past life, but for some reason, I thought of Wi Seol-Ah in the past as I stared at her now.

Was it because the sun made her black hair brighter?

Yes, that must be why I was mistaken.

“Uh, hi?”

I greeted Wi Seol-Ah carefully.

Even waving my hand slightly.

It was a very loser-like greeting, but I couldn’t think of another way to greet her.

“Hello.”

Thankfully, Wi Seol-Ah responded.

Her voice was deeper than before, but she responded.

“It’s been a while.”

“Yeah. About last time, I was in a hurry-”

She didn’t seem mad, so I used the excuse that I prepared.

“Young Master Gu.”

“…And couldn’t… what?”

I looked at Wi Seol-Ah without finishing my sentence.

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