Chapter 4

“Uuuh…”

The smell of medicinal herbs stirred me awake from my slumber. I raised my upper body from the mattress and looked around me.

“Medicinal Hall?”

As I looked around, trying to gather my thoughts, Physician Hong came into the room and saw me. His face lit up immediately.

“Young Master, you’re awake!”

Physician Hong ran toward me and started examining my condition. He held my hand, checked my pulse, and sent his inner energy into my body to examine me thoroughly before letting out a sigh of relief.

“Do you feel any pain, Young Master?”

“No, I feel fine.”

I looked over my body. The pain I had felt after my last attack was completely gone.

The last thing I remembered was feeling pain in my heart and vomiting blood. But now, let alone the pain, even the cuts from the duel were gone.

“How long was I passed out?”

“You were passed out for about six hours, Young Master.”

I looked out of the window and saw that the sun was about to set. I looked at Physician Hong again.

“What happened? The last thing I remembered was feeling pain in my heart. It felt like something popped in my chest, followed by pain all over my body. Then I vomited blood.”

Physician Hong was quiet for a while before he spoke.

“After you vomited and passed out, Young Master, everyone was in a panic. Elder Cheon Mu-Hyeok brought me directly from here to the arena, and I saw you already passed out in a pool of your own blood.”

Physician Hong paused for a moment, sighed, and continued.

“I immediately checked your condition, but your condition was so bad that I didn’t think I could save your life. Then, when we were just about to give up, a foreign-looking woman appeared, floating down from the sky.”

“A foreign-looking woman?”

I tilted my head. There weren’t many foreigners in Anhui, and she had floated down from the sky? If she could float, then she should at least be a master-level martial artist.

“How did that foreign-looking woman save me?”

Physician Hong shook his head.

“Unfortunately, I don’t understand either. She said something when she was checking your condition. She said that you used something before your body was ready, Young Master. What was it she said again? Mana? Anyway, after that, she somehow sent everyone in the area other than you, Young Master, outside the arena. Then she tapped her wooden staff against the ground and started chanting something as the gem on her staff shone with a blue light. A circle with patterns inside it appeared on the ground and began to glow. After the light gathered around you, the circle disappeared, and then you were already fully healed.”

“I see…”

I didn’t quite understand what really happened from Physician Hong’s explanation, but one thing was certain: that foreign-looking woman had saved my life.

“The woman who saved my life… Do you know her name? Where is she right now?”

“She introduced herself as Elara Veynes. Right now, she’s in the guest room. The Patriarch invited her to the banquet to thank her for saving your life, Young Master.”

Hearing about the banquet reminded me of the result of the duel. I looked at Physician Hong.

“Why are you still calling me ‘Young Master’? I lost, didn’t I?”

I chuckled for a bit and turned my head toward the window, watching the red sky.

“I’m not the heir of the clan anymore, so you should stop calling me ‘Young Master.’”

Physician Hong could only look at me without saying anything.

“Sorry, Physician Hong. Can you leave me alone for now?”

“I understand. Please call me if you need anything, Young Ma—Mister Hwi.”

With that, Physician Hong stood up, walked out of the room, and closed the door, leaving me alone in the room.

“Heuk… Heuk…”

Tears ran down my eyes. For a while, the only thing that could be heard in the room was my sobbing.

…

I got out of bed after letting out my frustration for a while. I looked out of the window and saw that the sky had turned dark. I could see the light and hear the sounds carried by the wind from the clan’s main hall. The banquet had begun, it seemed.

I looked myself over and saw that while my body was fully healed, my clothes were still dirty. All the sweat, grime, and blood from the duel made me feel sticky.

“I need to clean myself first.”

I made my way to the door of the treatment room in the Medicinal Hall. I slid the door open and walked a little before I saw that Physician Hong was still working at the table, relying on the dim light of a lantern.

“You’ll wreck your eyes if you keep working with only a dim light, Physician Hong.”

Physician Hong turned to me with a tired look on his face and smiled.

“Will you go to the banquet?”

Physician Hong didn’t respond to what I said and asked me a question of his own.

“Yes, I must go. I already lost the duel and lost my qualification as the heir. And worse, I worried everyone because I almost died after using an energy I don’t fully understand in my desperation. It would be very lame of me if I just skipped the banquet after all that. At the very least, I need to ease the worries of my parents and the guests.”

I gave a fist-and-palm salute and a slight bow to Physician Hong, then turned on my heel and walked out of the Medicinal Hall. I felt the cold air hit my body as I stepped outside and made my way to my room in the main hall. I went in through the back of the building so I wouldn’t be seen by the guests in the main hall, who were having a banquet while I still looked like a beggar. I entered my room through the window, slid open the door, and called a servant to ask them to prepare some warm water for me.

The servant looked surprised, but he immediately went on his way to prepare the warm water.

After a while, the servant came to my room to notify me that the warm water was ready, so I went straight to the bathing room and cleaned myself thoroughly. I scrubbed all the grime off as much as I could, then, after I was done, I dried myself, put on a clean set of clothes, a white robe with golden embroidery and black trim, applied some scented oil, and made my way to the banquet.

I climbed out of the window in my room and made my way to the main hall through the main entrance. As I got closer to the banquet, the sound of people talking and laughing became clearer, and my heart began beating faster.

I slowed down my steps and placed my right hand over my chest to feel my heartbeat.

Can’t believe I’m nervous right now.

I took a deep breath and exhaled slowly, attempting to calm myself down before continuing on my way to the banquet.

I could see the entrance to the main hall now. The guards stationed outside looked surprised to see me, and I just gave them a small nod before stepping inside the main hall.

Everyone was eating, drinking, talking, and laughing. The atmosphere was light and celebratory. The moment I stepped inside the main hall, everyone slowly fell quiet and looked at me.

Ah, I hate this. Awkward…

My mother immediately stood up from her seat and made her way toward me the moment she saw me entering the main hall.

“Hwi!”

I returned my mother’s embrace and patted her back, trying to calm her crying.

“Hwi, are you okay? Are you still in pain?”

My mother asked me while cupping both of my cheeks.

“I’m okay, Mother. Completely recovered, as you can see.”

My mother kept crying and telling me to go back to my room, just in case something went wrong again. I was grateful that she was worried about me, but it was pretty embarrassing being babied in front of the guests.

“That’s enough, dear. Can’t you see Hwi’s so embarrassed that his face has turned red?”

Before I realized it, my father had already appeared behind my mother, holding her shoulders.

My father looked at me and began to speak.

“You’ve completely recovered?”

Despite what he said to my mother, my father asked the same question.

“Yes, I have completely recovered.”

“I see. Then come, there’s someone you need to meet.”

My father led the way to the seat where the main family sat during a banquet like this. There, a foreign-looking woman was seated. Her face was beautiful and clearly didn’t look Chinese. Her skin was as fair as snow in winter, her red, wavy hair akin to flames, and her golden eyes shone as though she could see the truth of the world.

“Hwi, pay your respects. She is Lady Elara, the one who saved your life.”