Chapter 67
At the name I suddenly called out, the guard flinched.
“Where did you get off calling the Young Patriarch by his name so casually?”
“Where is Namgung Jeong, the Great Hero Thunder Emotion Sword? I must meet him. I have something important to tell him!”
“The Young Patriarch? Why…?”
As the burly man looked down at me dubiously, the guard beside him suddenly asked,
“You know the Young Patriarch?”
I instinctively realized. I had to choose my words carefully here.
“Yes, yes… Once, the Great Hero saved me from danger.”
“The Young Patriarch did?”
“It was when I was working as a shop assistant. I got into trouble while carrying some food. There was this local thug who was quite notorious around my neighborhood… When he was beating me up, the Great Hero came and saved me.”
“Hmm…”
“That was how incredible the Great Hero was! First, he threw a chopstick and pierced the fellow’s foot. Then, when the bastard charged at him with a sword, he dodged this way and that…!”
I gestured with my hands and feet, describing it as vividly as possible.
In reality, I had not been a shop assistant at all, but had merely been caught eavesdropping and nearly beaten up. Still, there was enough truth mixed into the story that if Namgung Jeong heard it, he would know who I was.
“…Then he stepped hard on the chopstick with his foot! And suddenly he turned his hand around, grabbed that fellow’s arm, twisted it behind him in an instant, and slammed him face-first onto the table…”
“Wait!”
The burly man suddenly shouted. With a stiff expression, he asked again,
“Do that part again.”
“Which part? When he slammed him onto the table…?”
“Not that. Starting from the part where he turned his hand!”
Looking bewildered, I repeated the movement I had just demonstrated.
To be honest, I only vaguely remembered Namgung Jeong’s movements from back then, so my own imitation was extremely awkward. Nevertheless, the burly man watched it seriously before speaking to the man beside him.
“Isn’t that Namgung’s Golden Claw Technique?”
“It’s a little hard to tell because his movements are clumsy… but it does look similar.”
“Listening to his explanation, it does sound like the Young Patriarch. Doesn’t the Young Patriarch like to wear a bamboo hat when he travels the martial world?”
“And throwing chopsticks to humiliate his opponent sounds like him too…”
I told you it was him! It was Namgung Jeong!
But they still seemed only half-convinced, so I suppressed my boiling frustration and hurriedly spoke with a forced smile.
“Um… if you still don’t believe me, could you at least pass along what I said to the Great Hero? It really happened, so he’ll know when he hears about it. I…”
“I’m sorry, but…”
Only then did the two men turn to look at me.
“We can’t tell the Young Patriarch.”
“What? Why…?”
“He isn’t here.”
I blinked blankly. Why? Had he gone somewhere?
“Then should I wait until he returns?”
“It’s not that simple…”
After thinking for a moment, the burly man finally confessed,
“He’s been gone for quite some time. To be precise, he disappeared without a trace at some point. He normally wanders the martial world alone, but this is the first time we haven’t even heard a word from him.”
Disappeared without a trace…?
Even as I stood there dumbfounded, their conversation continued.
“It does feel ominous this time, doesn’t it? He hasn’t been seen since right after that incident happened to the Xiao Family Estate…”
“I don’t know. I heard a rumor that the Young Patriarch stormed into the Demonic Cult’s headquarters alone to avenge his sworn brother. No one knows whether it’s true or not, though.”
“The Young Patriarch must be devastated. He cared so much for his sworn brother…”
“Still, maybe he’ll pull himself together and come back once some time passes? He’s always been like the wind. He might suddenly show his face again before long…”
What… what did all of this mean?
I couldn’t collect myself.
Why had Namgung Jeong disappeared? And why had he disappeared after the Xiao Family Estate was destroyed?
That couldn’t be.
Instead of rushing over upon hearing that the Xiao Family Estate had been destroyed, he had disappeared without a trace, without anyone knowing…
Could it be that Namgung Jeong had also fallen victim to the Demonic Cult?
Even if he hadn’t stormed into their headquarters as those men claimed, he surely would have at least pursued them.
Or perhaps the spy within the Namgung Family had made a move…
‘Really?’
Was that really all there was to it?
Had Namgung Jeong truly known nothing?
Could the Young Patriarch himself, the second-in-command of the great Namgung Family, really have failed to notice anything?
“Then!”
I hurriedly asked,
“You mean you have absolutely no idea when he’ll return? Not even an estimate? Like when he might come back…?”
The burly man obediently shook his head.
“I told you, we don’t know. The Young Patriarch is famous for never telling others about his plans. No one can even guess when he’ll return.”
“But if I wait here, if I wait until he comes back…”
“How do you know when the Young Patriarch will return? What will you do if he doesn’t come back for several months? Give up and go home.”
“But, still…”
“I said go home!”
The burly man shouted, but I couldn’t back down.
As I merely bit my lip and fidgeted anxiously, the guard beside him suddenly asked,
“Is this because of the person you were looking for earlier? You said you were looking for some young lady…”
I immediately raised my head.
“…! Yes, yes! Do you perhaps know her…?”
“I don’t know.”
But the answer left me dumbfounded.
“I have no idea who you’re looking for, but no young lady around fourteen or fifteen has visited the Namgung Family for the past few months. And you said she’s an extraordinary beauty, right? If she were that beautiful, rumors would be spreading throughout all of Hefei, not just among us. Since there hasn’t been a word about her, it seems she never came at all… Hey, kid. Are you all right?”
***
I couldn’t find the young lady anywhere.
Not anywhere at all.
“Have you perhaps seen a young lady around fourteen or fifteen? Even somewhere around here…”
“She’s short and thin, so she might look even younger. Maybe around twelve or thirteen…”
“There’s a good chance she’ll be covering her face. If she isn’t, she has an exceptionally beautiful face… Yes. With a face like that, everyone would remember her.”
“Have you perhaps seen a young girl…”
I spent several more days wandering around looking for the young lady.
For a while, I camped out beside the Namgung Family Estate, asking everyone who went in and out about her.
But no one knew the young lady.
At one point, I nearly got beaten up after getting on the wrong side of someone important, but the burly guard at the gate, who had become familiar with me from our previous conversations, intervened and allowed me to escape with my life.
Afterward, the guard threatened me, saying I’d really get in trouble if I did this again…
But even after that, whenever I saw a maidservant or servant of the Namgung Family, I would follow them around and question them.
Yet no one knew the young lady.
In the end, I began searching all across Hefei.
I looked through every alley in Hefei, going from house to house to see if the young lady might be there.
Sometimes I would sit by the roadside for hours, scrutinizing every person’s face one by one.
But the young lady wasn’t there.
No matter where I went, the young lady wasn’t there.
Only then did I realize.
‘She’s not here.’
The young lady wasn’t in Hefei.
Why?
Why hadn’t she come to Hefei? She was supposed to go to the Namgung Family, wasn’t she? She was supposed to ask Namgung Jeong for help, wasn’t she?
Then why wasn’t she in Hefei?
Why?
Could it be… that the young lady had also heard that Namgung Jeong had disappeared?
Had she come to Hefei and then gone somewhere else?
Then where had she gone?
Where could she possibly go now?
Could she perhaps have had a hiding place she never told me about?
If that wasn’t it, then perhaps…
‘What if she failed to escape?’
I stood there blankly before hurriedly shaking my head.
‘No. That can’t be.’
The young lady must have escaped.
I had personally lured the masked men away. Not only the masked men, but even Namgung Jeong’s subordinates had mistaken me for the young lady until I revealed myself.
Everyone had been there, so the young lady must have escaped.
She must have safely gotten out of the mountains.
If that wasn’t the case, then I…
‘No.’
I shook my head several times.
First, let’s find the young lady.
Let’s go find her.
The young lady must be waiting for me.
The young lady must be looking for me too.
“Haa… haa…”
Before I knew it, I was walking aimlessly.
I didn’t know where I was going.
I didn’t even know where I should be heading.
The sensation in my body was gradually growing numb.
I couldn’t feel the scenery around me, nor anything else.
All that remained was the instinct telling me that I had to keep moving.
And then, as I took one more step…
Thud.
I collapsed onto the road.
It seemed my foot had caught on a stone and I had fallen.
Suddenly, my cheek felt wet.
At some point, it had begun to rain.
I lay there blankly in the rain.
I needed to get up right away.
I needed to get out of the rain.
But strangely, I couldn’t even move a finger.
Only then did I realize.
In the end, I had exhausted all my strength.
‘This can’t happen.’
I couldn’t run out of strength here.
I still hadn’t found the young lady.
I still hadn’t done anything…
“……”
My vision gradually darkened.
My breathing grew faint.
The strength drained from my body, and I grew colder.
The end felt a little lonely.
Just as I vaguely realized that…
“Don’t!”
I fell into sleep just like that.
Thinking that, somehow, the voice I heard at the very end sounded familiar.
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