WeTried Translations
Translator: ZERO_SUGAR
Editor: Abstract
Discord: https://dsc.gg/wetried
Episode 50: Southern Saber Imperial Uncle (2)
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As Hae Ha-rang watched Hong Hwa-yun, the Southern Blade Imperial Uncle, shed tears of blood, she was overcome with confusion.
Why was this man going so far?
Why would someone willing to gouge out his own eyes and offer up his life kill her child over some future threat?
The more he acted this way, the more it tormented her.
If he had simply killed her, she would never have suffered such pain.
After glaring at Hong Hwa-yun through her tears for a long while, she finally spoke.
[...Go. I don't need your eyes or your paltry life. Leave. Get out of my sight.]
[Madam...]
[Don't ask for forgiveness.]
All she wanted was for him to disappear from before her.
Once he did, she planned to quietly take her own life.
The person she had considered her husband was dead, and she had lost her only child. There was nothing left in this world for her to cling to.
[...Not yet. It is dangerous now. Somewhere safe...]
[I don't need it.]
[But...]
[I said I don't need it. The most helpful thing you can do is disappear from before me.]
[...]
Hong Hwa-yun silently covered his bleeding eyes and vanished.
Left alone after he was gone, she sobbed.
After weeping for half a day, she tried to end her life without hesitation.
Then Hong Hwa-yun appeared and stopped her.
[You cannot!]
Though he could no longer see, his martial prowess was high enough for him to stop her from taking her life with the dagger she carried.
She cursed him and struck him wildly.
Hong Hwa-yun silently endured her blows.
[Why? Why do you think you have the right to stop me from going to my beloved ones?]
She wailed as she blamed him.
This continued for days.
Hong Hwa-yun remained nearby, seemingly determined not to leave until she gave up on ending her life.
Even Hae Ha-rang, who kept trying to kill herself, gradually became exhausted.
Then Hong Hwa-yun spoke to her.
[You said you lost everything precious to you. Do you not even have family back home, Madam?]
‘!!!!!’
His words made her think of her family back home.
She had gone willingly to the Mighty Conqueror Council's fortress in exchange for a guarantee of her family's safety.
Her heart had grown weak enough for her to make countless attempts on her own life. Now, she missed her father, mother, and relatives.
She decided to return home one last time and settle everything.
After a journey of more than a month, she arrived in her hometown of Datong.
‘Father! Mother!’
She was drowning in sorrow, yet the thought of seeing her parents gave her strength.
But then...
[Ah...]
The Ha Family's Manor had become ruins.
More than twenty graves stood within the long-abandoned Manor.
Old wooden grave markers had been planted in the graves.
[Ahhhhhhh!]
Her family's names were written on them.
She had returned home carrying longing in her heart, only to fall into even deeper despair.
She had no idea what had happened.
As she wailed, unable to collect herself, someone spoke.
[Cough, cough... Who are you, weeping here?]
It was a familiar voice.
Hae Ha-rang turned, her eyes reddening.
Standing behind her was a woman with a gaunt face and a swollen belly, her older brother's wife, Mok Seon-hye.
[S-sister-in-law!]
[Young Lady?]
The two women, meeting again after several years, embraced and wept tears of reunion.
After crying together for a long time, they told each other what had happened in their lives.
As Mok Seon-hye spoke, Hae Ha-rang learned the truth.
[Not long after you and the second young lady left, we were attacked.]
They had been attacked by masked figures of unknown identity.
The family had been slaughtered.
By chance, only the eldest son and his wife, who had not been in Datong at the time, escaped the tragedy through extraordinary luck.
‘...’
Mok Seon-hye said she did not know which group was responsible, but Hae Ha-rang instinctively knew.
‘...In the end, was I no more than a womb as well?’
It had undoubtedly been the Mighty Conqueror Council's doing.
She had heard stories from the women at the Council's fortress who were called wombs.
The Overlord of Blood and Slaughter had erased everything related to the women who would become wombs from the world.
That was why she was certain he had done it.
‘Ah... Father... Mother...’
She wept again.
She had trusted that man, yet he had broken his promise in the end.
She had lost everything.
Hae Ha-rang no longer had any attachment to life and wanted to take her own life at once.
Yet she could not.
It was because of Mok Seon-hye.
[...My husband passed away.]
Hae Won-woo, Hae Ha-rang's older brother, had spent years searching for the enemy who killed his parents and family. In the end, illness claimed his life.
[I wanted to follow him too.]
Yet Mok Seon-hye could not.
It was because of the child in her womb.
The child was proof of the love she had shared with her husband. If the child died as well, the Ha Family's bloodline would truly end.
So she endured her grief and held on.
Still, for a woman who had never learned Martial Arts, surviving alone in the world was far too difficult.
[I... I'll stay with you, sister-in-law.]
Hae Ha-rang decided to stay with her.
She had lost her purpose in life, but for Mok Seon-hye and her unborn nephew, the last male heir of the Ha Family, she resolved to keep living.
* * *
The beautiful white-haired woman, no, Hae Ha-rang, recalled the past as she watched Mu-a wash his back with cool water from the well.
Whenever she looked at Mu-a, the memories of that day still felt vivid.
[Haa... Haa... Young Lady... Mu-a... Mu-a...]
[Sister! Sister! How can you leave Mu-a behind and go like this? You have to watch him grow up!]
[Mu-a... Please... take care of Mu-a...]
[Sisteeeer!]
Not long after giving birth to Mu-a, Mok Seon-hye passed away.
She had cared for her sick husband alone and forced herself onward for the child in her womb, but she had become too weak.
Hae Ha-rang resented the world beyond measure.
It had taken everything from her.
Her grief-stained life was unbearably tragic, and she hated even the heavens, yet she had to endure and carry that pain.
If she died too, this tiny life would have no way to survive alone in the world.
For the sake of rebuilding the Ha Family, she had to steel herself.
More than seventeen years passed like that.
[I have come to keep my promise.]
A few months ago, Hong Hwa-yun, the Southern Blade Imperial Uncle, had appeared.
Saying he would keep his promise, he placed a blade in her hand and asked her to take his life.
Time had passed, but her resentment had not vanished.
Of course, she desperately wanted to kill him.
Yet...
[What about your child?]
[That child will never learn of this.]
[...]
Hong Hwa-yun said his child had already gained enough strength to live alone in the world.
But after raising Mu-a through sixteen harsh years of hardship, Hae Ha-rang could not bring herself to kill someone who also had an only child.
She could have had her revenge, but it would mean taking away someone else's only precious person.
[...Go. Never show yourself again.]
In the end, she gave up her revenge.
Hong Hwa-yun did not leave.
[I cannot. I must pay the price.]
[Then live like that. Live in pain for the rest of your life. That is my revenge.]
Hae Ha-rang said she would not kill him.
Still, Hong Hwa-yun said he could not break the promise he had made. He had lingered nearby for months, saying she could kill him whenever she changed her mind.
Without being asked, he did many things for her and Mu-a.
She had rejected his help at first, but when Mu-a nearly died, Hong Hwa-yun saved his life.
After that, she left him alone.
“Mother. I don't know what happened between you two, but can't you forgive Uncle now?”
Knowing nothing, Mu-a had begun to follow Hong Hwa-yun like a father over the past few months.
Once Hong Hwa-yun learned that Mu-a was not a blood relative of the Overlord of Blood and Slaughter but the Ha Family's last descendant, he even began teaching Mu-a Martial Arts.
As time passed, her resolve gradually weakened.
‘Forgive him...’
She still could not forgive the person who had thrown her child from a cliff.
Yet whenever she saw Mu-a growing brighter and healthier than when she had struggled just to keep him fed, she could not help but waver.
Then she shook her head.
‘No!’
For the child who must have fallen from that cliff and died in agony, she could never do that.
She would devote the rest of her life to the Ha Family and Mu-a, whom she had adopted, but Mumu was the only child she had borne herself.
‘...My baby.’
* * *
In the middle of a nearby village.
“Here you are. I paid you generously for it.”
“Thank you.”
Hong Hwa-yun accepted payment for the firewood he had sold and tucked it into his robes.
He had earned a good amount today, enough to stop by the butcher's shop and buy pork.
Mu-a had said he wanted meat a few days ago, so Hong Hwa-yun had gathered plenty of firewood.
Leaning on his cane, he headed toward the butcher's shop at the edge of the village.
Then a faint voice reached his ears.
‘!?’
Hong Hwa-yun frowned and walked toward it.
It was a dark, deserted alley on the village outskirts.
As he entered the alley...
-Step!
“Greetings, Imperial Uncle.”
Someone clasped his hands and bowed to Hong Hwa-yun while speaking quietly.
The man appeared to be in his mid-fifties and had a long beard. His silk robes and the saber sheath at his waist made it clear that he was no ordinary person.
“Chief Steward Bae.”
He was Bae Sang-won, the chief steward and confidant who managed Hong Hwa-yun's Manor.
Recognizing him, Hong Hwa-yun let out a faint sigh.
“How did you find this place?”
“My apologies. I remembered what you said then, Imperial Uncle, about having to repay a debt.”
“...I see.”
Hong Hwa-yun had said those words to Chief Steward Bae on the day he left his Manor.
Remembering them, Bae Sang-won mobilized people to search all of northern Shanxi Province. After several months, he had found Hong Hwa-yun.
“Go back. I intend to spend the rest of my life here.”
“Imperial Uncle... If you do that, what will become of the young lady?”
“She has gained the strength to live alone now. I taught her everything I know, and you will remain by her side, so there is no need to worry.”
At Hong Hwa-yun's words, Chief Steward Bae spoke with a bitter expression.
“Imperial Uncle. Though you broke the principles you held to your entire life, everything you did was for the greater cause. How can you say you owe an unpayable debt to that man's woman? That man killed countless people as well. If she is connected to him, then she deserves the karma she must bear...”
“Enough.”
“Imperial Uncle!”
“There is a saying in the martial world that women and children must be excluded from the grudges of martial artists. I upheld it until the War Between Justice and Evil.”
Yet for the greater cause, and to eliminate future threats, Hong Hwa-yun had cast aside that conviction.
With his own hands, he had killed countless women, children, and children born deformed in the Mighty Conqueror Council's fortress.
Hong Hwa-yun was called the Unfeeling Blade, but every killing had caused him unbearable pain.
When he went so far as to throw a newborn baby from a cliff to its death, unbearable guilt consumed him.
The images of every woman and child he had killed in the fortress were engraved in his mind. They tormented him until he wanted to die.
“The greater cause... Yes, I did it for the greater cause. But what difference is there between what the Overlord of Blood and Slaughter did for his tyrant's road, and what I and the force of justice members did while claiming we were eliminating future threats?”
“But Imperial Uncle, wasn't all of it for peace in the martial world? If the remnants and descendants of that vile man had risen to seek blood revenge, the martial world would have fallen into the mire of war again.”
“Even so, what I did remains unchanged.”
Hong Hwa-yun clenched his fist.
He was not offering his eyes and going this far to repay his debt to that woman because she alone was special.
All the guilt inside him had erupted when he threw that newborn infant from the cliff.
Chief Steward Bae let out a bitter sigh at the sight.
‘Imperial Uncle...’
Hong Hwa-yun was far too different from other members of the imperial family.
He had even been qualified to become Emperor, yet gave it up and walked the path of Martial Arts because he wanted to dedicate himself to the righteous path and become a righteous hero.
He became a martial artist and saved the martial world, no, the Central Plains.
‘When justice and evil stand opposed, sacrifices are inevitable. Why can he not put down his guilt?’
Chief Steward Bae felt pity for Hong Hwa-yun.
If Hong Hwa-yun and the Four Immortal Masters had not eliminated future threats, more people would have suffered.
Even if Hong Hwa-yun felt guilty, it could not be helped.
“Imperial Uncle... Even if it pains you, you did the right thing. If you had not killed that man's blood relatives, many more people would have been sacrificed.”
“Enough.”
If Hong Hwa-yun believed that, he would not have come here.
Resolved to endure Hong Hwa-yun's anger, Chief Steward Bae continued.
“If Imperial Uncle had not thrown that child off the cliff and had let him live, he would surely have appeared someday, vowing revenge for his father. Then, in the end, you would have had to act to stop that revenge. He was destined to die one way or another. Please cast aside your guilt. Imperial Uncle, you did the right thing...”
-Flinch!
At that very moment, Hong Hwa-yun pricked up his ears and shouted at Chief Steward Bae.
“Move away at once...”
Before he could finish...
-Bang!
“Gasp!”
Something crashed down behind Chief Steward Bae, and the impact shoved him forward, nearly making him fall.
Startled, he hurriedly turned around.
A strikingly handsome youth with exceptionally pronounced muscles stood there.
-Shing!
Caught off guard by the sudden appearance, Chief Steward Bae tried to draw his saber.
Before he could...
-Grip!
“Urk!”
The youth seized his head and lifted him into the air.
“I was wondering where to begin looking since all I knew was Datong, but you were having quite an interesting conversation.”
“W-what?”
“Didn't you just say that I was destined to die one way or another?”
‘!?’
Footnotes:
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