Chapter 69. The Man from The Palace (1/2)

Chapter 69. The Man from The Palace

ED: Chrysanthemum

It rained that day. It signified that it was the last day of summer.

Someone got off of a carriage in the road and soaked himself in the rain.

It was a man in a black robe. He stared forward with an extremely sad expression.

There was a funeral in front of him. The man looked at it for a moment, then quietly opened his mouth.

“Is this teacher Jo Gi Chun’s house?”

“Yes.”

The man didn’t say anything for a moment, then opened his mouth again.

“I’ll go in alone.”

“…….Yes sir.”

The bodyguard thought for a moment, then gave the man permission to enter alone. The man entered the house with a serious face.

“You must be Jo Min Gyu, am I correct?”

“Y, yes. But…….”

“It must’ve been hard for you. I’m here now, so you don’t have to worry anymore.”

“……What?”

The man who seemed to be the head of the house, Jo Gi Chun’s eldest son, Jo Min Gyu, looked at the young man in front of him with a confused expression.

A man who seemed to be at least ten years younger than him just grabbed his hand and told him to not worry.

It was surprising, but since all kinds of things happen in a funeral, he just let it pass.

“Jo Gi Chun truly was an amazing man.”

“Right…….”

Jo Min Gyu made a complicated face when he heard the young man’s words.

He didn’t know what his father did outside, but he knew for sure that his father never took care of the family.

It wasn’t that his father never earned money.

When he thought about it, they weren’t that lacking in money. Their life might’ve been a little hard, but it wasn’t to the point of them actually lacking in money or anything.

But that was it. His father just came to see his family once every few years.

Jo Min Gyu only felt more and more complicated whenever he saw a packet of money come to his house every month.

It was almost as if the packet of money was the substitute for his father.

In other words, Jo Gi Chun, his father, never did his job as a father.

‘That damn mathematics…….’

Whenever he thought of that, he automatically would ground his teeth in anger.

His father, Jo Gi Chun, devoted his life to that useless thing called mathematics.

That was why he never paid attention to his own family.

That was why he always felt a little heavy in his heart whenever people complimented his father.

Just how much did he hate his father?

When he first heard that his father died a few days ago, he didn’t get very sad. No, he thought he wasn’t sad.

But when he saw his father’s corpse lying down in the coffin, something just shot up from his heart.

He cried without knowing in front of his father’s coffin.

He realized for the first time that he could cry like this. His mother must’ve felt the same.

While the whole family was drowning in sadness, the man in black, who handed them Jo Gi Chun’s corpse, took out something from his clothes and handed it to them.

“This is a small gift from the church. We hope this helps.”

The martial artist who brought his father’s corpse. He was handing them a small packet.

It seemed to be a packet of money. Jo Min Gyu didn’t expect much from it though.

That was why he didn’t open it until the martial artist left. Without even knowing about what was inside the packet…….

‘One thousand gold coins.’

There was a check for one thousand gold coins inside the packet.

A family of four could live well for an entire year off of a single gold coin. There was a thousand of it. Wasn’t this too much money?

Just what was father doing outside? Wasn’t he just a mathematician? Jo Min Gyu began to feel even more complicated than before.

The young man who had been holding onto his hand let go slowly and lit the incense sticks in front of him. He was grieving for Jo Gi Chun.

“In mathematics alone, he was like my teacher. Studying mathematics together in the palace was probably one of the greatest moments in my life. …….How regrettable. If he had waited a little longer, he would’ve witnessed me creating a better world for all of us……. To think he’d leave like this…….”

The man’s sobbing just grew louder and soon turned into a full fledged cry of pain.

“Kuh, uaaaa!”

The young man soon started to beat the ground with a sorrowful cry.

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Jo Min Gyu, the eldest son of Jo Gi Chun, felt troubled when he saw this.

The man who seemed fine just a moment ago started to cry extremely sorrowfully.

He was also muttering something under his breath, but it was hard to tell just what he was saying.

‘Just what did father do outside?’

Jo Min Gyu’s face just kept on getting more and complicated, as he realized that he was only learning more about his father after death.

* * *

The young man cried for quite a long time. He lifted his head and looked at Jo Min Gyu with swollen eyes.

Jo Min Gyu felt quite guilty when he saw the young man covered in snot and tears.

He became ashamed at himself because of the young man who grieved more than he ever did for his father.

“…….Who was it?”

The young man’s voice was cracked, due to crying so much.

“What?”

The young man opened his mouth again when he realized that Jo Min Gyu didn’t understand him properly.

“Do you know who made teacher like this?”

“I, I don’t.”

Come to think of it, the man who handed over the corpse said something about where he came from, but he couldn’t remember too clearly.

At the time, Jo Min Gyu was in too much of a shock to take in anything.

Although his father never did anything for the family, the existence of a father itself had always given Jo Min Gyu something to rely on.

“Other than the fact that it was a martial artist……. I can’t really remember.”

“Martial artist!!”

The young man shouted out loudly when he heard Jo Min Gyu’s answer. He then ground his teeth in pure rage. He beat the ground again out of frustration.