Then Namgung took out a ring bearing the seal of the Emperor. And they should keep in mind, he said, that the Namgung family would give them protection. That was worth more than money.
At that very moment, Han reached the beggar headquarters. For a place belonging to beggars it looked extremely fancy. A guard called him fat and told him to leave, because there was an important guest inside.
Han ignored him and tried to go in. He said he was the son of the patriarch. The guard answered with a punch to the face.
That insult made Han truly angry. He came in and got ready to give it back, this time with his fist.
Inside, the nameless beggar had been given the ring, and had finally given up his information. He was about to read from it when the fight broke out in the yard. Han was brawling with the guard, and the man had to admit that he had underestimated the fat one. So heavy, and yet moving that fast. How? Han told him it was because he was using the Infinite Sky sword.
But it made no difference against the guard's lower-level skills. Han told him to simply apologise and he would leave. Instead the man insulted his clan, and Han grew angrier still. The guard drew his sword out and threatened him with it. Han dropped him in a single move, and straight after that a scream came out of the man.
Even so, Han pulled him back up and said he was going to teach him manners. Then he began slapping him, until someone above them shouted at him to stop.
That person landed quickly in the middle of them. Han fell back. But the newcomer had no plan of letting him go. Han sensed at once that the man was using a brutal martial art, and knew he had to stop him first. Against that style, a direct clash with this heavy body was risky. The brutal style boosted its explosive power through rotation, so Han wanted to use a reverse rotation to cancel it.
Then he realised that the person in front of him had been his master in his previous life, and his focus was gone.
That man had been a sword master, and Han knew those movements very well. He still got beaten. The man only realised this fat boy was not ordinary when Han scattered the force of the Explosive Lightning Mystic Fist. He was trying to get back up. Killing intent was burning in the man's eyes. He noticed, and he moved towards him.
But Han's people came running to protect him. Soon Han fainted again.
Then the beggar division chief came out of the building, and realised that the fat boy on the ground was the adopted son of the patriarch. He ran out and shouted. Who had dared to do this kind of harm to the chief's son?
In an instant, every eye in the yard filled with hatred and fell on young Namgung, who suddenly began to look very helpless.
He saw his father and understood everything in that moment. He tore up Han's information file. It was useless now, and he knew it. He was going to have to face his father's anger. If he had not been Han's future in-law, he would have been punished on the spot.
The beggar division chief got down on his knees to apologise, and the whole matter only got worse. Then the beggar told Namgung that he ought to kneel and apologise too. The man in front of him was someone whom even the Emperor respected. Hearing this, Namgung panicked at once and went down on his knees to beg for mercy.
But Han's Papa was still furious. Whoever had hurt his favourite son was going to pay with his life.
Just then Han came through the door.
It felt a little strange to him. His sister had forced that hairstyle on him so that he would look more handsome. The beggar division chief was stunned. Han had taken the blow of Namgung's son, and here he came walking in perfectly fine.
Han went straight to the head of the Namgung family and greeted him. Then he told the Namgung son that he was his uncle.
Even though the boy was only seventeen. Han had been waiting for this moment a long time, because this man had been his master in his past life. So he slapped him, again and again. It hurt, but Han did not care.
This man would one day become the Sword King, one of the six saints who had taken Han as a disciple.
Now Han finally had some revenge out of him. He pinched his cheek and made him call him uncle. Still, he was genuinely happy to see the man again. He became so emotional that he even cried, though there was a part of revenge in that happiness too. Why was he being bullied like this, the boy wanted to know.
Then everyone sat down and started talking.
The Namgung had still not found a way of rejecting the marriage. But Han refused it calmly himself. He said he was busy training to save the world, so there was no proper time to marry. He also pointed out that the engagement was a relationship made without the consent of either party, forced on them by an old promise. For him, marriage could wait.
Hearing this, his father was stunned.
Han talked about the evils of the martial world, about bandits and thieves and men who fought for money. He was clearly taking shots at the Namgung and at the beggars, and both of them could only sit quietly and take it. When nobody argued with him, Han stood up and said the marriage matter was closed. Both sides agreed.
Then he called the beggar chief over. He said he wanted to talk a little.
He needed information about the Virgin Ginseng now as well. He wanted to know the current state of Murim, and about those old masters who would one day be bound to him. He wanted his revenge. The plan was to give them exactly the trouble he had suffered in his past life, and the price of it was going to be very heavy.
A cruel look came into his eyes when he realised that the time had finally come to take disciples of his own.
He went back towards the pool. But the vassal told him to go to his room and rest. Han did not seem to mind much, until his sister came with her maid and told him the same thing, that rest was important.
Only then did his eyes fall on the wooden-faced woman who guarded his sister, and he fell in love with her instantly. To him she looked like a dream walking about on its own two feet.
His sister knew that he was planning to go out into the world of Murim. She asked him whether he had forgotten what had happened to their mother. She had died out there because of incomplete calculations.
Han simply asked her whether she really thought he was still weak and unreliable. She was surprised by the question. He promised that this would never happen to their clan again, because he would never allow it to.
The sister smiled when she heard that. She was happy that the little child was gone now. She rubbed her chubby young master's head lovingly and told him that he had grown a great deal. Mostly sideways.
Why was his sweet sister so kind to him? Everything about it seemed strange. Or perhaps this was simply what family felt like.
After that, a good deal of time passed.
Then the water of the pool churned, and it felt as though someone were coming up out of it. That person declared that the time had finally arrived, and the vassal came running with a warning for his master to be careful.
Had the transformation finally happened? Their hero had turned into a saggy, skinny man. Look at him.
Oh — no. Not really. It was only that winter had come.
They came back to his father's hall. The old man told him not to go out looking as thin as that, or the wind would blow him away. Still, he was going. He had a Namgung son to train.