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Translator: Vine
Chapter: 20
Chapter Title: Chapter 20
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The moment he saw the child, Namgung Cheongun knew.
‘It’s Seolhwa.’
Eight years had passed since he lost his child, yet in the still-youthful face, the clear image of his daughter, whom he remembered so vividly, remained.
His earlier resolve to rush forward and embrace her the moment he found her felt meaningless; his steps were agonizingly slow.
‘Seolhwa...’
Tears welled up in Namgung Cheongun's eyes.
By the time he finally reached the bright light of the pavilion, he was already weeping.
"A man so careless."
He didn't even hear his father Namgung Mucheon's gruff chiding.
Cheongun knelt on one knee before the child and met her gaze.
Facing those clear, kind eyes, Ilhwa felt a tickle in her chest, and without realizing it, she raised the fingers of the hand she had placed on her chest.
Finding it strange, she eventually clenched her hand into a fist and lowered it.
‘Before dying, the last Namgung sword I killed.’
The man who, just before his death, had called her by the name 'Seolhwa'.
‘Namgung Cheongun.’
My... father....
As this thought struck her, something seemed to drop with a thud.
Her body kept thumping strangely, making Ilhwa subtly furrow her brow.
Namgung Cheongun's hand approached.
The hand that had reached for her shoulder hesitated, then lingered in the air, unable to touch her.
"Confirm it first."
At Namgung Mucheon's words, Namgung Cheongun lowered his hand and nodded.
He offered a gentle smile and spoke to Ilhwa.
"I need to examine your body for a moment. Is that alright?"
Ilhwa nodded.
Namgung Cheongun nodded back. A serious light briefly entered his eyes.
"On Seolhwa's body, there is a mark I personally engraved when she was born."
He spoke these words to everyone present.
"To others, they appear as five ordinary dots, but if you connect them, they form the shape of a dragon."
It was customary for members of prominent families to have their fathers personally engrave marks on their bodies when they were born.
The larger and more powerful the family, the more common this practice.
Being large and powerful meant having many enemies, and those who targeted prominent families were often petty.
Kidnapping weak children, who were essentially the family's vulnerability, or even swapping babies at birth, was quite common.
That's why the practice of engraving marks on newborns was often carried out discreetly.
"Behind the left ear, on the right collarbone, under the left index fingernail, on the right knee, and on the left heel."
Namgung Cheongun, having recited the five points, slowly examined Ilhwa's body as he had stated.
His hands were visibly trembling.
Each time a dot, precisely located at the point he indicated, was revealed, a low gasp escaped the lips of those gathered.
When viewed individually, they seemed like ordinary dots, but they were too small and inconspicuous for an unfamiliar person to pinpoint accurately.
Finally, when his hand touched the back of Ilhwa's small foot, only a profound silence filled the hall.
Namgung Cheongun carefully lowered her foot and raised his gaze to look at her.
Tears were now flowing ceaselessly from his eyes.
"She is my daughter, Seolhwa."
‘Namgung... Seolhwa....’
The moment Ilhwa, who had been herself, was recognized as 'Seolhwa', and facing those deeply moist, clear eyes, Seolhwa was seized by a strange feeling.
As if bound by something, she couldn't avert his gaze.
Her throat felt tight, and it was hard to breathe.
‘Is it because I confirmed that I killed my father with my own hands?’
Unconsciously, she tightened her clenched fist.
"Seolhwa. It's your father...."
Namgung Cheongun raised a trembling hand and gently stroked Seolhwa's cheek.
"I am your father...."
His voice, struggling as if choked with emotion, was filled with overwhelming joy.
Eight years.
A full eight years.
It had been eight years since he began searching for his child.
During that time, he had met countless children, but never had he felt such immediate certainty about any of them.
That overwhelmed Cheongun.
It felt as if his anxious heart, which had feared losing his child more and more as his memories of her faded, was now being rewarded.
It felt as if he was being affirmed that not giving up on his child had been the right thing to do.
"You've... grown so much..."
‘Daddy! Don't go! Don't leave Seora alone! Waaah—!’
The image of the child, who used to cry profusely, begging him not to leave when he departed from home for work, overlapped in his mind.
The child who used to fit perfectly in his arms had grown much taller, but the image in his memory hadn't completely vanished.
Namgung Cheongun finally pulled the child into a tight embrace.
Embraced in his arms, Seolhwa's eyes widened.
Over Cheongun's shoulder, she saw the chief steward, Seop Mugwang, Choryeon the Head of the Medical Hall, and the maidservant who had been attending them.
The chief steward, Choryeon, and the maidservant were also weeping, and Seop Mugwang was sniffling, his nose red.
‘Why... are they all crying?’
Seolhwa couldn't understand.
Shouldn't one laugh when happy?
Why were they all crying?
But what she understood even less was the strange ache in her chest, a feeling that even if she knew how to express emotion, she wouldn't have laughed either.
‘Strange.’
They had searched for eight long years to find a lost child, only to cry.
Of course, it was natural for her to feel uncomfortable, given the karma she had accumulated in her previous life.
‘Truly strange.’
Listening to Namgung Cheongun's sobs, which flowed into her ears, Seolhwa lowered her gaze.
In Cheongun's embrace, filled with warm comfort, Seolhwa remained stiff, her fists tightly clenched.
It was the first time in thirty years she had been embraced by someone, so she didn't know how to react.
The sniffling continued for a long time, and Seolhwa stood still until it subsided.
It was the moment she was finally recognized as a child of the Namgung.
* * *
After finishing their meal, Seolhwa returned to Cheongaekwon with Namgung Cheongun.
Namgung Mucheon and Cheongun had told her to go to Cheongun's residence in the inner quarters, but she had expressed a desire to stay in Cheongaekwon until she received formal recognition.
While Namgung Cheongun briefly conversed with Namgung Mucheon, Seolhwa, who had returned to Cheongaekwon first, sat cross-legged on the bed and circulated her internal energy.
Although she hadn't formally learned the Namgung's internal cultivation method yet, she needed to examine her acupoints.
‘A little bit should be fine.’
Conveniently, traces of the energy Namgung Mucheon had circulated while examining her body remained, so there would be no cause for suspicion.
Seolhwa cautiously circulated her internal energy.
"..."
A clear, white energy shimmered in her dantian.
It was the pure internal energy of the Daehwandan, which had not yet fully settled in her body.
This colorless and formless energy would gradually transform into the clear, blue energy of the sky through the Namgung's internal cultivation method.
‘Just a little.’
The energy, starting from her dantian, slowly circulated through her meridians via the Huiyin acupoint.
Past Janggang, Myeongmun, Jungchu, all the way to Baekhoe.
The energy that began in her Lower Dantian circulated through her Upper Dantian and returned to Qihai.
After completing the Small Heavenly Circulation, Seolhwa opened her eyes.
A blue light shimmered in her eyes, then slowly faded.
‘Indeed... it's quite messy.’
She had thought she had properly expelled the stagnant energy, but circulating her internal energy after a long time made her realize.
Residues of the stagnant energy clung to various acupoints, damaging them like leeches.
‘I thought I had completely expelled it.’
No wonder she was treated like a patient.
"It's true that you've cultivated martial arts."
The door opened, and Namgung Cheongun entered.
In his hands were a basin of water and a towel.
He walked straight to the bed where Seolhwa was sitting and placed the basin on the floor. Then, with a very happy expression, he rolled up his sleeves.
"What are you doing?"
"I'm going to wash your feet."
Seolhwa's eyebrows arched.
"Why my feet?"
"Just because. I want to. Will you let me have your feet?"
Although she didn't understand why he suddenly wanted to wash her feet, Seolhwa readily offered them.
He faced Seolhwa, grinned, and gently held both of Seolhwa's small feet in his hands, giving them a slight shake.
After his small, playful gesture, Cheongun carefully removed Seolhwa's socks.
"Your feet are still small. When you were little, both feet fit in one hand—"
Cheongun's face, as he peeled off her socks, hardened.
Still small feet that fit perfectly in his hand.
On her feet, smaller than those of an ordinary thirteen-year-old, were calluses and the scars of healed wounds.
Could the feet of a martial artist who had endured countless hardships look like this? Even for a child who had trained in martial arts, the traces on Seolhwa's feet were too deep and too numerous.
Cheongun couldn't smile at the child's feet, which bore witness to how arduous the past eight years had been, and how she had endured injuries without proper treatment.
"Why?"
"No... it's nothing."
At the innocent question, Cheongun forced his hands to move.
He slowly moistened the child's feet with warm water.
While continuing a motion that seemed neither washing nor merely wetting her feet, Cheongun finally lowered his head.
Because his own hands, caressing the child's scarred feet, were flawlessly smooth.
Smooth, unlike the child's rough feet.
"Ugh..."
Tears splattered into the basin.
The small ripples caused by his tears gently lapped against Seolhwa's legs.
"I'm sorry... I'm so sorry...."
Cheongun pulled the child's feet into his embrace.
He didn't care that his chest was getting wet from the dampness.
"This father... is truly sorry...."
His tears fell onto the child's instep.
Seolhwa watched Namgung Cheongun's shaking shoulders for a long, long time.
