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Translated By Arcane Translations
Translator: Teottry
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“It might be none of my business, but just standing there and taking it is foolish. If your legs worked, you could at least run away.”
At my needless meddling, Jegal Nobody mumbled inarticulately, her small mouth twitching.
“My… legs… slow…”
Chirp~! Chirp, chirp~!
A sparrow poked its head out from Jegal Nobody’s carefully clasped hands. One of its wings was injured.
It seemed she’d huddled to protect the sparrow, likely afraid it would be taken if she tried to escape. What a foolish child.
Beaten to a pulp just to protect a single sparrow. If I hadn’t intervened, she would’ve been seriously injured, or even killed, by having her head smashed against a rock. Truly a foolish child.
“Then if you can’t just stand there and take it, you should at least cry out for help.”
Looking down at the sparrow, which chirped happily as if enjoying the gentle touch of the child’s hands, Jegal Nobody quietly shook her head.
“I… no one… helps… me… Chippy too… no one… so… I… help…”
I was speechless at those innocent blue eyes.
A child disliked by the Clan Leader. Anyone who helped her might face unknown consequences later. That’s why no one helped.
A small, frail body compared to her peers. Clothes tattered and worn, like rags. She looked nothing like the child of a prestigious family.
Although it was the first time I had witnessed her being bullied, I could roughly sense what kind of life she must have lived.
If I were in the same situation, I wouldn’t have even considered saving an injured sparrow. I would have probably snuck into the storage room while everyone was asleep, grabbed a can of oil, and set fire to everything.
“Hahahaha! Burns nicely like the Forest of Yiling!!” …That’s what I would have done.
Jegal Nobody’s eyes met mine. She looked at me as if I were something incredibly strange. …Finding someone who helps you strange, huh? What a pitiful life.
“You protected it today, but what will you do if those kids come after the sparrow again? It looks like its wing is injured and it can’t even fly.”
“…”
Jegal Nobody pressed her lips together and protectively cradled the sparrow at my teasing question. For some reason, Master’s words came to mind.
‘After learning, you teach… or something like that…’
I looked into the clear, beautiful blue eyes, like the morning sea. They were truly beautiful, innocent eyes.
Right. What’s the big deal about teaching some martial arts? I was bored anyway, and this could be a bit of fun.
Once I made up my mind, there was no point in hesitating. It was a waste of time. I asked Jegal Nobody, who was fidgeting nervously, in a casual voice.
“Want to learn some martial arts?”
The girl called Jegal Nobody found the boy fascinating. He wasn’t old, yet he walked with a staff. Unlike others, he didn’t ignore, hit, yell at, or fear her. This was a first.
It was the first time someone had helped her. People gave her food, but it always felt like they were doing it reluctantly, on someone else’s orders. But the boy was different. It didn’t feel like he was helping her because he was forced to.
The girl was curious about the boy’s name. Although her knowledge was limited, she knew that everything in the world, except for herself, had a name.
That shining thing up high was the sun. The thing the boy held was a staff. And the “Chippy,” who had been her only companion until the boy appeared, was named Chippy because it chirped, “Chirp~ Chirp~.”
So, even though she didn’t know what “martial arts” the boy offered to teach her were, she nodded, wanting to know more about him. Come to think of it, this was also the first time someone had offered to teach her anything.
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First, I ordered the maids to wash Jegal Nobody and dress her in proper clothes. They initially refused with shocked expressions, but after I slipped them some money, they reluctantly did as I asked. Money truly was the best.
I waited in the room, and soon a clean Jegal Nobody entered. I had thought she was quite cute even when dirty, but after being washed, she was undeniably adorable.
Fair skin, and smooth black hair like the dark night sea. It didn’t seem like it had been styled, so how could her hair be so beautiful? Amazing.
Jegal Nobody fidgeted with her new, soft clothes and looked around the room curiously. She resembled a wild animal that had been brought indoors.
Hmm~ But I’d noticed earlier that calling her Jegal Nobody was cumbersome. I needed to think of a suitable nickname.
A strange child born from the sea, with a complicated and now unknowable birth secret.
“Oversea.”
The word slipped out unintentionally as my eyes met Jegal Nobody’s. It was a fitting nickname, considering it had popped into my head without much thought.
“The character ‘gwa’ (過) means ‘to pass,’ and ‘hae’ (海) means ‘sea,’ like your blue eyes. Gwahae (過海), to cross the sea. Jegal Gwahae (諸葛過海).”
Perhaps sensing that I was addressing her, Jegal Gwahae’s gaze fixed on me.
“My… name?”
“Calling you Nobody is inconvenient, isn’t it? It’s a pretty good name, don’t you think?”
“How… write…?”
She couldn’t read or write? What were her parents doing, not teaching her even basic literacy? There was no helping it. I’d have to teach her how to read and write along with martial arts.
Literacy was crucial for living a decent life. Far more important than martial arts. Martial arts were a bonus, but literacy was essential. So, I took out some paper and slowly wrote down the name, explaining its meaning.
“The character ‘gwa’ (過) means ‘to pass,’ ‘hae’ (海) means ‘sea,’ like your blue eyes. Gwahae (過海) means ‘to cross the sea.'”
Gwahae’s eyes, which I had previously considered pretty but dull and lifeless, now sparkled.
“Gwahae (過海).”
She clutched the paper with her small hand, her eyes glued to her written name. I was glad she liked it.
It was just a temporary name until her status within the Jegal Clan was restored and she received her real name, but seeing her so happy made me feel a sense of accomplishment.
Gwahae mumbled her name for a while, then, as if remembering something, looked around before picking up a blank sheet of paper and offering it to me.
“Name… tell me… write…”
Oh, right… I hadn’t told her my name. I’d completely forgotten. I took the paper Gwahae offered and slowly wrote down my name, explaining its meaning.
“‘Man’ (瞞) means ‘to deceive’ or ‘to conceal,’ and ‘cheon’ (天) means ‘heaven,’ that thing you see when you look up outside. Mancheon (瞞天), to deceive the heavens.”
Gwahae, once again, clutched the paper with my name on it as if it were a treasure, her eyes sparkling as she stared at the characters, trying to memorize them.
“Man… cheon… Man… cheon… Mancheon…”
After repeating my name a few times, she picked up a brush and started writing her name and mine on a blank sheet of paper. Honestly, her writing was at the level of a child drawing worms with ink, so it was a waste of paper.
However, it didn’t matter. The most important thing when teaching a child something new was to make it fun. If Gwahae was enjoying learning to write, then a few wasted sheets of paper were a small price to pay.
And besides, it wasn’t even my paper. It belonged to the Jegal Clan, provided for their studies.
I watched with amusement as Gwahae, excited by the newly learned words and the novelty of using a brush, relentlessly smeared ink across the paper with no regard for its condition.
Good job, Jegal Gwahae. Don’t worry about the cost of the paper. Bankrupt the Jegal Clan for neglecting their educational duties.
After sacrificing dozens of sheets of paper, Gwahae seemed satisfied with her work and abruptly presented me with one. On it, my name and hers were written in crooked characters.
“Mancheon… Gwahae…!”
Her usually expressionless face had a faint blush, suggesting she was quite pleased.
Mancheon and Gwahae (瞞天過海). To deceive the heavens and cross the sea.
It made me chuckle. Putting the names together like that sounded unnecessarily grandiose.
When I laughed quietly, Gwahae looked at me expectantly, like a child showing their parents a prized creation.
Hmm~ To be honest, the handwriting was messy, the characters were uneven, ink splattered everywhere, and the paper was crumpled and nearly torn.
But for a first attempt, it wasn’t bad.
I took a yakgwa (traditional Korean confection) from my snack pouch and popped it into Gwahae’s small mouth. Then, I gently stroked her hair.
“You’re talented. With a little more practice, you might become a famous calligrapher. Or maybe not.”
Gwahae didn’t reply to my praise, but simply lowered her head and munched on the yakgwa like a squirrel.
Was she shy? I thought she was stoic and expressionless, but she had a cute side too.
The sight of her happily enjoying a sweet treat, pleased by the praise and embarrassed by it, was the picture of a normal child.
Perhaps her father wasn’t from around here? A foreigner, or in martial arts terms, a “saekmokin” (색목인 – a term for people with different colored eyes and hair).
My reasoning went something like this: Sowol, lost at sea, drifted until she was rescued by a foreign trading vessel. Surrounded by unfamiliar faces and strange goods, she mistook it for the Dragon Palace.
There were old records of people mistaking foreigners for goblins due to their unfamiliar appearance. It was probably something similar.
And if my guess was correct, Gwahae’s father was at least the captain of that ship, or someone of very high rank.
Anyway, ignoring all the details, Sowol and the captain fell in love. However, the captain was already betrothed, and Sowol couldn’t leave her family to go to a foreign land. So, the captain gave her gold and jewels acquired through trade and sent her back to shore.
“Keuh…Keuh…Heuheuheu…”
I couldn’t help but laugh at the absurdity of my own imagination. I’d been reading too much manhwa in my past life. Even for a fictional story, it lacked plausibility.
Well, the fun of these kinds of stories wasn’t about right or wrong answers, but the enjoyment of imagining the possibilities.
As I was lost in my amusing thoughts, Gwahae tilted her head, looking at me strangely. What was that…?
I couldn’t believe my eyes, so I moved closer to Gwahae and pinched her cheek. Her soft, supple cheek stretched under my fingers, revealing a row of pearly white teeth. Straight and evenly spaced, beautiful teeth.
But… but… they were pointed. Sharp and pointed like a shark’s teeth.
When I stared at her teeth in surprise, Gwahae’s eyes darkened, and she quickly covered her mouth. It seemed to be a complex.
I felt bad for unintentionally hurting her feelings, but I was more surprised by the existence of those shark-like teeth.
Was it genetic? Even if some canines or individual teeth were pointed, could a human have such uniformly pointed teeth?
I carefully observed Gwahae, who was now quietly nibbling on the yakgwa with her mouth closed, looking dejected.
Could her father actually be a dragon?
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Oho a half dragon then?😏
