The Eldest Daughter of the Sichuan Tang Clan Protects Her Family

“The moment he learns that a new sorcerer has been chosen, the Blood Demon will use any means to claim that person. Whatever Hani has planned, you will be the priority.”
Over the silent residence, birdsong spread in a faint ripple.
“Pack as soon as you return. I will send Inhwi to the Tang quarters; come back with the Divine Physician.”
“Alliance Leader.”
As the Alliance Leader was about to end the conversation, Sohwa caught the tail of his words.
“Please tell me more about the Blood Demon and the Blood Cult. Where they are, what their weaknesses are, what their structure is, and by what standard the ones who take the Blood Demon’s dokgo are chosen.”
Uncharacteristically, Sohwa asked in a hurried voice, but the Alliance Leader shook his head.
“As I said, I have no intention of involving myself in this any longer.”
“So you mean to sit by and watch? You and I both know the ending, don’t we?”
“Yes, that ending does not change. Only the road differs; the conclusion is always the same.”
“You need not go with me. Just help me to go.”
The Alliance Leader lifted his wrinkled hand and stroked his beard.
“Do you remember Inhwi’s death?”
Sohwa did not answer.
In her previous life, Zhuge Inhwi had been poisoned. The day he had met privately with the Head of the Anguk Merchant Group, he went to sleep as if nothing were wrong, but the next day he did not wake.
Arsenic was found in his body, so it was suspected to be poisoning, but the Lord of the Four Seasons Pavilion dying to mere arsenic made no sense; on the contrary, the Zhuge family defended the merchant head.
The Alliance Leader quietly looked at Sohwa.
As if watching her summon the memory.
After a long while, he opened his mouth again.
“That was the most peaceful, least painful death Inhwi ever met.”
“……”
“Not only Inhwi. The more I made other choices, the more a cruel and painful road unfolded.”
He was in a state of complete renunciation.
Seeing that Sohwa could not accept it, the Alliance Leader spoke firmly.
“I know who you are better than you do yourself. Even so, I have shown you favor. I told you everything about the sorcerer so you would not enter this cruel game of gods, and I said I would keep you by my side this life so the Blood Demon could not take you, did I not?”
The Alliance Leader’s voice was icy.
“To be frank, I do not like you.”
“……”
“But I owe much to my Heukcheon Amgui, so I cannot turn my face from you. Even that is not enough to make me let the people who trusted me meet another painful death.”
The Alliance Leader drew a line.
“The only counsel I can give is this: make that sorcerer take their own life as soon as possible. End this repetition of time and thus escape the punishment.”
Sohwa realized the Alliance Leader would never aid her. She also understood why.
Therefore, there was no need to continue speaking with this man.
Sohwa soon rose from her seat.
“I will pack and return.”
“I will send Inhwi in a quarter-hour.”
Sohwa dipped her head slightly, but there was no light in her eyes.
Leaving the Alliance Leader’s residence, she returned to the Tang quarters.
***
“Sohwa, the Alliance Leader asked that I send you and the Divine Physician to his residence. Do you know why?”
Sohwa answered the Clan Head’s question with silence.
The room prepared for the Clan Head by Headquarters was nowhere near the size of the one in Tanggatae. Because of that, facial expressions showed more clearly than usual.
Even on a face whose thoughts did not show easily, the Clan Head saw that his daughter’s face held worry.

On another day, he might have waited until she had arranged her answer, but not now.
“Sohwa, I asked why the Alliance Leader called you together with the Divine Physician.”
At that urging, Sohwa opened her mouth.
“I am not sure either. I paid my respects to the Alliance Leader during the day, but he only watched me in silence for about a quarter-hour and did not speak of anything else.”
“You went to the Alliance Leader’s residence?”
Tang Ji-ha frowned in surprise.
“Yes.”
The very person who had visited the Alliance Leader’s residence looked serenely calm.
Tang Ji-ha let out a dry laugh.
Keeping silent and observing the other was exactly the sort of thing the Alliance Leader would do.
‘Is this old man trying to bring Sohwa into Headquarters?’
Tang Ji-ha, too, had heard the rumors about Sohwa spreading through the Central Plains.
Entangled with the Divine Physician, Sohwa had been embellished into a physician chosen by heaven.
Since it was, in any case, favorable, Tang Ji-ha did not correct the rumors. If they could cover the bizarre talk about her birth and the scandal with the Namgung brothers, it was a story worth paying money to spread.
However, he did not like that the Alliance Leader coveted a Tang physician.
For a martial artist, entering Headquarters to build connections and experience would be an honor, but for a physician, it was hardly a good thing.
Headquarters’ core bodies were the Four Seasons Pavilion and the Four Directions Pavilion, which oversaw the fifteen Alliance members.
By contrast, the Headquarters Medical Hall was nothing special compared to the Tang. No, if one considered the Oral Transmission Hall, the Tang Medical Hall had far more to teach. On top of that, they had the Divine Physician.
Tang Ji-ha’s expression grew as unpleasant as if he had bitten into dung.
‘Come to think of it, he asked to have the Divine Physician sent as well. Is this a ploy to siphon off the Tang’s talent?’
His face darkened.
‘How could that desireless Daoist covet even the Divine Physician? Is it true that he is ill?’
It was hard for Tang Ji-ha to refuse the Alliance Leader’s request.
Since the Alliance Leader had not appeared in public for a long time, those who had suspected malingering were now beginning to worry that he might truly be sick. Yet refusing the Alliance Leader’s request, in this situation, to receive the Divine Physician’s diagnosis would be heartless.
The Alliance Leader had asked that he send the Divine Physician and Sohwa for about ten days.
There was a high chance the period would grow longer, but that could be dealt with when the time came.
In any case, since he himself was at Headquarters, even if a problem arose he could resolve it at once.
In truth, the Clan Head had already promised the Alliance Leader he would send them. Even so, he felt oddly ill at ease.
A feeling of having something taken.
Was it because he had saved face at the Families’ Alliance thanks to the Divine Physician?
Because the elders of each family—starting with the Namgung Clan Head and the Pang Clan Head—had come to him with regretful words and watched his eyes, Tang Ji-ha had newly grasped the importance of physicians.
‘Heh heh, it was quite a sight.’
About to smile without knowing it, Tang Ji-ha quickly set his mouth.
It was a dilemma, but Headquarters was still Headquarters.
Even if she would not gain much in connections or experience compared to the martial men of Headquarters, it seemed it would help Sohwa’s reputation.
As for the Divine Physician, his fame could hardly rise higher than it already was, but if a rumor spread that Sohwa, together with the Divine Physician, had treated the Alliance Leader, she would gain a good name.
‘Even those who ignore the rumors tying her to the Namgung wretches will start sending letters of proposal.’
The more he thought, the better it seemed, and there was no reason to refuse… yet he still felt uneasy.
A nameless anxiety swelled in a corner of his awareness.
Swallowing a sigh, Tang Ji-ha spoke.
“I do not know what the Alliance Leader intends, but for now it looks like a good opportunity for you.”
Sohwa, who had kept silence with an unreadable face, answered after a long moment.
“Yes, I think so as well.”
“Good. He said to come as soon as your preparations are finished, so get yourself ready.”
“I have already finished preparing. The Divine Physician departed first, and I remained to pay my respects to Father.”
“Heh heh, seems you ◈ Nоvеlіgһт ◈ (Continue reading) wanted to go quickly. You’ve already finished all your preparations.”
As the Clan Head gave a helpless laugh, Sohwa slipped a hand into her sleeve.
The eldest daughter, whose thoughts were unusual even on ordinary days, did something strange.
Tak.
She set a small bottle on the table.
“I tried making a tracking fragrance that can be used like perfumed oil. It is not as good as the Ten-Thousand Li Following Incense, but if the weather is fine it can track a thousand li, and if it rains, up to a hundred li.”
“Hm?”
“If anything happens to me, please use this fragrance to find me.”
Saying so, Sohwa pushed the small bottle toward the Clan Head.
Blinking for a moment, the Clan Head spoke again.
“……The Alliance Leader’s residence is within ten li, and you were not abducted by him, so why a tracking fragrance?”
He had just been thinking the faint scent that had been spreading through the room was curious; it seemed to be the tracking fragrance Sohwa had made.
She had always been thorough in her preparations, but this—
‘……Isn’t this too much?’
When Tang Ji-ha knit his brows, Sohwa answered serenely.
“The future is unknown, so I intend to prepare.”
“The Alliance Leader’s residence is…… no.”
The Alliance Leader’s residence was not a place anyone could enter, and if there was someone who could force their way into it, then caution would be useless anyway.
‘Right. She might have gotten frightened after a private audience with the Alliance Leader. I shouldn’t unsettle her for nothing.’
Misreading Sohwa’s anxiety, the Clan Head closed his mouth.
Besides, it was not a bad thing that the child who always went about scentless had applied fragrance. The girl who had seemed a wooden block with no desire whatsoever now felt like a maiden. A few days ago she had even insisted they go to Baekgeumgak because she wanted to buy ornaments.
A faint smile crept to Tang Ji-ha’s lips.
“Father.”
At Sohwa’s call, Tang Ji-ha’s gaze, which had been fixed on the tracking fragrance, lifted. But his eldest daughter, having called him, said nothing.
“Why is that?”
As if swallowing the words she had, Sohwa suddenly smiled. Then she set a wooden token on the table with a tap.
“This is a token of gratitude (boeun pae) I received from Master Wu So. I wanted to transfer it to Hak—no, to the Little Clan Head—but now does not seem the time. Later, when the Little Clan Head’s heart is firm, please hand Master Wu So’s token of gratitude to him.”
“……Sohwa, the Alliance Leader may be a man whose insides are hard to read and who looks frightening, but his residence is not a tiger’s den. You’re leaving for only ten days—what is all this? You make even me uneasy.”
Tang Ji-ha clicked his tongue with a frown.
“There is no other meaning. Ten days from now I may forget, so I am telling you in advance.”
Speaking calmly, the Clan Head’s daughter rose from her seat.
But as she was about to leave the room, Sohwa hesitated, then finally turned back. The Clan Head, who had been watching her every move, met her eyes at once.
Silently, he waited for Sohwa to bring out the words she had swallowed.
However, whether she swallowed them to the end, his eldest daughter merely brought her two hands together properly, bowed, and turned away.
After Sohwa left the room, Tang Ji-ha let out a wry laugh.
“They say a woman’s nature changes when she becomes a woman, but…….”
Had time already flowed this far?
Swallowing a bitter taste, the Clan Head lowered his gaze. He smelled the tracking fragrance Sohwa had left.
“……I might well have taught her perfumery.”
As the thought that she was admirable made him smirk, a fluttering sound came from the window.
Maehwa, the hawk who came and went from its cage as it pleased, had perched there. Perhaps intoxicated by the strange scent, the hawk’s bright yellow eyes were fixed on Tang Ji-ha’s hand.
Smiling, Tang Ji-ha held the fragrance out the window.
“Would you like a sniff?”
Maehwa thrust its head in and put its beak to the bottle, then soon shuddered all over.
“Keck, keck.”
Perhaps the scent was harsh to a beast—Maehwa edged back and flew away.
“It’s nothing but pleasant……”
Clicking his tongue, Tang Ji-ha chided the hawk.
Left alone, he put away the tracking fragrance and the boeun pae in the safe, a smile lingering on his face.