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Seokgyeongjang’s guesthouse.
As the night deepened her granddaughter Lee Seol-ah got up from her seat first saying she was tired.
When her father and her were alone she said Yeon Jian.
She said “Do you know what your mother said before she did fables?”
“What did she say?”
She said “You said I had to let her father go.”
“Tsk! I said that to you too. I told your mom but I was the one holding your mom. So we concluded that we were holding each other.”
“And he also said this. This world cannot handle my father. “That’s why my father is more lonely and lonely.”
“The Absolute is lonely in any era.”
“In front of the Father even the absolutes are like dust. “You can’t compare your father to those in power created by institutions.”
“Well anyway the feelings I felt there were probably no different from mine.”
“But they live with absolute power in the world. “My father was afraid that the world would be ruined so he stayed away in Seokgyeongjang.”
“I? That’s a misunderstanding. “I am a person who makes a living doing what I want.”
“My father is excluded from this world. My father wanted it that way and the world eventually followed his will. The fact that the martial people call my father a immortal… if you think about it it means that he belongs to another world.”
“You might think so but….”
I couldn’t continue talking.
As her daughter said the only time she lived according to her own will was when she was a police patrol officer.
Since he went to the upper world ‘Heaven of Kings’ he has lived at a distance from this world.
This was because as his daughter said this world was so fragile that it felt like it would crumble at the slightest carelessness.
“My mother said that my father’s eyes were on another world. Nevertheless the reason I stay in this world is because of my mother.”
“….”
Yeon Jeok-ha did not refute.
This is because she did not feel the need to make excuses when Namgung-yeon was not there.
Besides Namgoongyeon was always right.
He could only look back on his life so far and nod his head.
“I know that my father has been wandering around the world in recent years.”
“Because it’s frustrating to stay at home.”
“If you can’t do what you want because of me and Seol-ah… I want to say the same thing as your mother. “Please don’t be captured by us.”
“Jian. You are a daughter who does not hurt even if I look at you and Seol-ah is the granddaughter you gave birth to. And the name of the era….”
“I am the great-grandson of your father’s granddaughter. “But father.”
Yeon Ji-an paused for a moment and stared at her father who looked much younger than her.
It was his father who looked younger than himself who had mastered the Cheonji Sect’s Juan technique taught to him by his mother.
Even though he is over 70 years old he looks like he is in his 40s making his daughter Seol-ah jealous.
However my father still looks like he is in his twenties.
If you hang around with his great-grandson Seop Yeon-ho you’ll think he’s a friend.
“Compared to my mother I have a lot of skill. Soon when your internal strength begins to dissipate… you will noticeably age.”
That is the disadvantage of the magic spell.
As you age and your skin loses its elasticity your skin gradually loses its elasticity.
In the end she ends up looking like any other ordinary old woman.
She looked at her daughter with tender sad eyes.
A lump of blood that was smaller than her forearm had grown old enough to say something like that.
It is true that when a person looks at his child he realizes that he is old.
Although he appears to be in his twenties his tone of voice changes to a solemn tone in front of his daughter.
He realizes his age in front of his daughter.
“Unlike my mother I will grow old and die as an ordinary person. “I want to show Seol-ah and her grandson the natural human life of birth old age illness and death.”
“….”
“Seol-ah asked her father ‘Why don’t you tell me to go to monks?’ When she asked ‘Oops!’ I wanted to. “I hope Seol-ah and her grandson look at their father who is younger than them… and don’t dream in vain like the famous religious leader.”
At that moment her heart fluttered ‘Hell!’ I sat down.
As she remembered the famous religious leader she seemed to understand why her daughter hated her.
Maybe she is the temptation of eternal life for her granddaughter and great-grandson.
She had nothing to say about that part.
Looking at her perplexed father Yeon Ji-an spoke firmly.
“Now go to a world worthy of your father. “Not a world that only fears my father but a world that needs my father’s help.”
Yeon Ji-an did not necessarily mention the ‘fourth sky’.
This is because he was happy wherever his father could live freely.
“I am….”
Yeon Jeok-ha tried to say something but soon shut her mouth.
Because she knew her daughter’s wishes better than anyone else the words just became thoughts and lingered in her mouth.
The next morning.
Her daughter and her granddaughter’s family returned and Seok-gyeongjang regained her previous tranquility.
After looking around the Seogak where I live for a long time around lunchtime I walked to Yakjedang.
Seogak and Yakjedang which had been deserted for a long time looked old-fashioned just by looking at them.
While I was still studying I looked around every corner of Seokgyeongjang.
The events with Namgung-yeon her daughter Shim-tong Wol-ah Geum-ah Dang Woon-mang Han Chae-yeon Ha So-baek Lee Yeon-ji Pung Yeon-cho and their families came to mind as vividly as if it were yesterday.
It seems like if you shout and call they will come running at any moment but that is unlikely.
Lastly Yeonjeokha visited Gasan where Namgungyeon’s tomb is located.
Yeon Jeok-ha who was looking at the grave and tombstone with lonely eyes suddenly thought.
He takes care of the graves of his ancestors for at most three generations.
Right now you don’t even know anyone other than your parents.
His great-grandson Nie Yeon Hoya himself met every holiday so he would remember but what about next?
To Nie Yeon-hao’s children Nangong-yeon would be just one of their very distant ancestors.
Will she take good care of the graves of distant faceless ancestors?
That can’t be possible.
To make matters worse the tomb of Namgung-yeon who is alone looks somewhat lonely.
She held a funeral and did what everyone else told her to do so she even built a grave but now she regrets it.
‘Isn’t it?’
When she thinks of her daughter who wanted to live a normal life she feels it is necessary.
Even if she wasn’t a distant descendant the daughter needed a place to commemorate her parents.
After thinking for a moment Yeonjeokha created a burial mound of the same shape next to Namgungyeon’s grave.
When it looked quite plausible he pulled out Namgung-yeon’s tombstone and erected it again in the middle of it.
And the words engraved on the tombstone were changed to read ‘Yeonjeokha and Namgungyeon rest here.’
Anyone can see that the handwriting is an odd one but her daughter will actually like it.
After looking at the pair of tombs with happy eyes Yeon Jeok-ha returned to the main house.
The next day.
While cleaning the main house the husband and wife found Yeon Jeok-ha’s will on the desk.
Afterwards the manager who checked the ‘Tomb of Yeon Jeok-ha and Namgung-yeon’ which had been created without the knowledge of the Seokgyeongjang workers hurriedly rushed to Seopungpyoguk.
Unlike Lee Man-yang who was shocked by the shocking news Yeon Ji-an accepted it calmly.
She told her family that ‘her father seems to have followed in her mother’s footsteps and been good.’
When Yeon Ji-an said ‘This Lunar New Year my father expressed his intention to be like my mother’ there was no longer any doubt about Yeon Jeok-ha’s fate.
In this way Namcheon Yeonjeok officially became a person who left this world.
Many people said that he died of old age but there were also people who believed in his fables.
Whatever the truth Yan Zhexia’s descendants have not seen him since that day.
According to the will Yeon Ji-an inherited Seokgyeongjang.
That year Yeon Ji-an and former Seopung Pyo Gukju Lee Man-yang moved to Seokgyeongjang.
The following year Man-Yang Lee passed away suddenly.
From then on Yeon Ji-an who looked like she was in her forties also got older day by day.
Rep. Yeo Kang-hyeon diagnosed that ‘it happened because of the shock of losing my spouse.’
Whether it was a shock or a natural phenomenon that could not be helped even by the magic of the Heaven and Earth Sect Yeon Ji-an became an old woman.
‘He knows when he will die’
Yeon Ji-an was like that.
One day even though it was not a holiday she called her daughter and her grandson to Seokgyeongjang.
Yeon-ji’s expression was bright surrounded by her daughter who was over her 60th birthday her middle-aged grandson and her grandson’s family.
This was the last thing she had hoped for.
Her father happened to be on the path to immortality and her mother said that she did not want her father to see her as she is now so she became a hermit.
As night fell her daughter and her grandchildren’s family returned to the guesthouse.
Under her hazy oil lantern Yeon Jian recalled her father whose whereabouts she did not know.
You are probably enjoying your adventure in the ‘Fourth Heaven’ by now.
My father is a natural traveler.
He says you’re not but he’s curious and likes to get involved in other people’s business.
When I think about it now general patrolling of the green forest was something that suited my father’s nature.
Since such a person had been secluded in Seokgyeongjang for seventy years my mother must have felt uncomfortable seeing him.
Her father’s love for her mother was that great.
‘father….’
It’s time for Yeonji-an to call his father’s name in his heart.
The lantern shook lightly.
In her mind Yeonji An turned her head towards the door while lying down.
The face I missed was there.
“father?”
“okay. grow.”
“Why is my father here? “Is it possible that he hasn’t left yet?”
Yeonjeokha said as he brought a chair to sit next to his old daughter’s bed.
“Didn’t I tell you? “I have always done what I wanted to do.”
“Hehe….”
Yeon Ji-an laughed helplessly.
No matter how much he is like that I would never have thought that someone who even built a tomb and then disappeared would remain in this world.
“Where have you been and what have you been doing all this time?”
“He went around looking for Baekdu demon soldiers who might still be there. Because I don’t want my descendants to be harmed by them. “I didn’t want to leave behind the remains of King Yeomma in this world.”
I had no intention of letting a being from another dimension whom I was pursuing cause trouble in this world.
“Did things go well?”
“okay.”
Yeonjeokha nodded.
There are no longer the Baekdu Demon Army or the Twelve Horse Troops. The masters of this world were humans.
“I said I didn’t want to see myself dying but actually I wanted to see my father.”
“embrace.”
“father.”
“huh.”
“I am fortunate to have been born as my father’s daughter. My father is a demigod but he is more human than anyone else. “He is much more than my mother who became a hermit.”
“Thank you for saying that. But it was your mother not me who raised you properly and well like you are now. “If I had raised him he would have become a dog that no one could stop.”
“Hehe. Don’t say that. “Half of what I have comes from my father.”
“Yes your hair definitely resembles mine not your mother’s.”
“Fuhuhuhu!”
Yeon Ji-an laughed so hard that his heart was pounding at Yeon Jeok-ha’s joke-like seriousness.
Yeon Ji-an who laughed for a while then spoke in a calm tone.
“You can go now.”
“….”
Yeonjeokha who was looking at his daughter with a disapproving expression reluctantly stood up.
He also knew that her daughter was on her deathbed.
He looked down for a long time tracing his daughter’s face for what was sure to be the last time.
“Are you really going?”
“Please.”
In an instant Yeon Jeok-ha bent down and kissed her daughter’s forehead then disappeared like a ghost.
Only then did Yeon Ji-an close her eyes with a satisfied face.
The lantern that was burning faintly around dawn was extinguished by me alone even though there was no wind.