Chapter 98
98
The Deposed Queen seemed to slowly savor the taste of the soup, then opened her mouth slightly in admiration.
“Excellent!”
“Does it suit your taste?”
“Even the delicacies I ate in the Imperial Palace didn’t taste like this. You have a great skill, Miss.”
Oh. Is it that good? This Yeon-ryang, he’s different from what I thought.
Surprised by the unexpected reaction, I waved my hand with a smile.
“It wasn’t me, but my brother who made it. I’m relieved it suits your taste.”
“Miss has a skilled brother. I would even want to hire him as my cook if possible.”
The Deposed Queen, who didn’t hold back her compliments, emptied the soup as if she had never stopped eating.
Is it really that delicious? I should go and get a bowl too.
I smiled brightly and cleared the Deposed Queen’s empty bowl.
“Shall I catch a pheasant tomorrow and slice it thinly for you? Do you like fruits? How about wild strawberries?”
“Wild strawberries… When I was in my father’s house, he often picked them for me. He would wipe them one by one and put them in my mouth…”
The Deposed Queen, with a wistful smile, was silent for a long time. She stared blankly into the air, as if savoring her memories.
It was more than a quarter of an hour before she replied.
“…Yes. I think I liked them.”
“Then I’ll bring some wild strawberries tomorrow. You must be tired, so I’ll take my leave now, Your Majesty.”
“Yes. Thank you for the meal, Miss.”
I bowed my head, gathered the dishes, and left the room.
The monks were the happiest to hear that the Deposed Queen had taken up her spoon.
Monk Seol-jae recited Buddhist scriptures with a pleased expression, and Monk Wolam sighed in relief, as if he had been holding his breath.
“Thank you, Benefactor.”
Monk Wolam grabbed my hand with a face full of emotion, as if he was about to cry.
It was a reaction that showed how worried everyone was about the Deposed Queen’s health.
“She ate all the meat soup I brought. Her stomach might be surprised to suddenly eat something greasy, so don’t give her anything more today. Instead, I’ll prepare a decoction for her in the evening.”
“I understand, Benefactor.”
“It’s not good for Her Majesty to stay in her room all day just because she’s weak. Please let her take a walk in the yard for at least a quarter of an hour when the sun is up.”
“But Her Majesty has trouble with her legs…”
“Ah, if Her Majesty says her legs hurt, I’ll put needles in her Zusanli acupoint, so let her take a walk first and then call me.”
“Yes, Benefactor. I will.”
“And is there a stream nearby where turtles live? I want to make turtle soup to nourish her body… Haha.”
I flinched at Monk Seol-jae’s strange gaze and closed my mouth.
Fortunately, the monk didn’t seem to be trying to scold me, and replied in a kind voice.
“If you walk half an hour to the west, there is a large stream.”
“Thank you, Monk. Then I’ll be going.”
I respectfully put my hands together and hurried out of the hermitage.
The Deposed Queen is important, but Yeon-ryang’s health is more important.
Since there’s no way to get an Elixir in these remote mountains, I have to help him recover by feeding him nourishing food.
It’s Yeon-ryang who’s going to eat it, so the fact that I’m making it myself is a minor issue, so I’ll skip over it.
What kind of nourishing ingredients can I find around here?
Turtles, crucian carp, loach… Catfish? If I’m lucky, I might even get deer antlers.
I listed the food ingredients that came to mind one by one and slung the basket in the yard over my shoulder.
It was the moment when a life as a natural person, which I never had in my destiny, began.
\ \ *
I searched the mountains every day as if I was picking lice.
I caught meat and fish alternately, dug up medicinal herbs as I saw them, and often picked fruits.
The fruits that formed where the flowers had fallen were mostly small and unripe, but there were often well-ripened fruits that I could use to refresh myself.
When I came back with various things in my basket, Yeon-ryang, who was leaning against a rock near the hermitage, waved his hand and greeted me.
“You’re back?”
I couldn’t help but smile at the sight of the man chewing on a blade of grass and giggling.
“Someone’s been climbing mountains all day, while someone else is basking in the sun.”
“Give me a few more days, Sister. When else would I enjoy the life of a loafer if not now?”
“Do you know that you’re like a loafer, Brother? Get up and take this. I got a beehive.”
“So that’s why that guy is so swollen?”
Yeon-ryang chuckled and pointed at Ju-ryeong.
The ferret hanging on the basket was making a fuss with a face full of anger, picking off the bees stuck to his fur.
“Ju-ryeong. Are you still sulking?”
“Kit!”
Ju-ryeong, annoyed, rolled around on the floor, expressing his sorrow.
It was a protest that he was the one who got the beehive, but he wasn’t allowed to eat the honey.
“Wait a little bit. Your brother will pick out only the honey from the beehive for you. Let’s eat that.”
“Kiee…?”
Then Ju-ryeong’s expression softened. He was a very easy ferret to understand.
Yeon-ryang, who received the basket from me, checked the contents and joked.
“Wow, it’s full again today. Sister, you could be a great head of the family.”
“What? Are you telling your younger sister, who’s not even twenty yet, to be the head of the family? You have no conscience. Give it here. Brother has no dinner.”
When I snorted and tried to snatch the basket, Yeon-ryang nimbly dodged and hugged the basket tightly.
“Oh, no way.”
I frowned at his clean and neat movements.
…Somehow, it seems like it’s a lie that it’s hard for him to walk for a long time. Is his back all healed?
Yeon-ryang, who had moved away from me, shook the basket to check today’s harvest.
“Wow, you caught a lot of snails? If you stir-fry them with seasoning and add a bottle of Huaju, it’ll be amazing.”
“This is a temple, Brother. And what kind of patient drinks alcohol? Stop talking nonsense and split the beehive. Ju-ryeong is waiting.”
As I nagged and sat down next to him, Yeon-ryang skillfully split the beehive and transferred the honey to a new jar.
Ju-ryeong also sparkled his eyes and circled around Yeon-ryang, then ate a mouthful of honey and looked happy.
I didn’t know, but Yeon-ryang had a talent for housekeeping.
He was good at preparing food ingredients, cooking, and he could fix the hermitage’s broken doors and furniture with just a hammer.
When a hole appeared in the basket he was carrying around, he even wove a new basket that fit my body. He was a very talented person.
“How do you do this?”
“Haha, you’ll do it all as you live. Sister, can you go to the kitchen and bring the basket with the wild strawberries and a small jar? I’ll marinate them in honey.”
“Okay.”
Yeon-ryang, who replied as if it was nothing, drew well water and began to scrub the snails.
When I came back with the wild strawberries, he had already finished preparing them and was shaking the soil off the medicinal herbs.
“Give me the medicinal herbs, Brother. The roots will be damaged.”
“I was going to do that without you telling me. You’ll get scolded if you touch them carelessly.”
Yeon-ryang chuckled and put down the medicinal herbs. He lightly rinsed his hands and picked out the ripe wild strawberries and put them in a jar.
The red and beautiful color made my mouth water.
“Brother. Can you freeze the wild strawberries with your Inner Energy just a little bit? I want to eat them cold.”
“So-hye. Your brother can’t even circulate his Inner Energy.”
“Tch, what a waste. My grandfather could freeze a cup just by touching it.”
When I grumbled, Yeon-ryang shook his head as if telling me to say something that made sense.
“What? You have to compare him to someone you can compare him to. The Poison King is beyond the heavens. Sister. Someone like me is not even as good as the dirt stuck in the Poison King’s toenails.”
I was puzzled by his bewildered voice.
“Is our grandfather that great?”
“Yes. If you were to pick the Orthodox Faction Martial Artist whom the Divine Sect… I mean, the Demonic Sect fears and hates the most, it would be your grandfather. If you were to gather only the Sect members whom the Poison King turned into corpses, it would form a mountain of corpses and a sea of blood.”
Come to think of it, Peng Ji-yoon seemed to have said something similar.
‘The Poison King’s disciple colluded with the Demonic Sect? What kind of nonsense is this? Even if you search the entire Jianghu, you won’t find anyone who hates the Demonic Sect as much as him!’
That’s right. Grandfather hated the Demonic Sect. Is there a story behind it?
When I showed no sign of knowing, Yeon-ryang scratched his head.
“So-hye, you’re the granddaughter who learned the Poison King’s unique Martial Arts Technique, but you didn’t even know what kind of person your grandfather was?”
“Of course I don’t know. Would our grandfather have treated me like a Demonic Sect guy?”
“I guess not. He would have just given you Candied fruit.”
Yeon-ryang nodded as if he understood. I decided not to mention that the Candied fruit my grandfather gave me was poisoned.
He poured honey into the jar and continued slowly.
“Your grandfather lost his lover during a battle with the Divine Sect. His resentment was so deep that the Poison King single-handedly destroyed six Sect districts over five years, slaughtered the Sect members, and then stopped his revenge.”
“…Huh?”
“It’s become a distant old story now, but the Sect still shudders at the name of the Poison King. There was no Orthodox Faction person who would stick swords all over his body and rush in like a demon except for the Poison King.”
“Uh? Grandfather?”
“Yes. It wasn’t even the time when he was called the Poison King like now. The Murim novice, who had barely passed the age of thirty, was so crazy that even the Alliance couldn’t control him. I only heard the story, though.”
I covered my mouth in disbelief at the unbelievable story.
Oh my god. I expected something bad to have happened because he missed the time to get married, but…
As I rolled my eyes, speechless, Yeon-ryang shrugged his shoulders as if he was surprised.
“You really don’t know the Moonlight Fairy Ok-hwan? She’s famous in the Sect. The Tang Clan must have been good at keeping it a secret. Well, she’s a person from over a hundred years ago, so she might be forgotten.”
I wanted to scream at the name that came out of Yeon-ryang’s mouth.
Ok-hwan?
The owner of the wooden plaque that the Murim Alliance Leader brought was Grandfather’s lover?
