Chapter 191 - The Outcast Writer of a Martial Arts Visual Novel

Chapter 191 - The Heroine of the Martial Arts Dating Sim, Dang Hwarin As expected. Dang Hwarin looked at Kang Yoonho with a troubled expression. Until their separation, he had deliberately avoided mentioning his childhood friend. She understood. He was already overwhelmed with his own issues involving poison. He didn't want to burden her further with his childhood friend's problem, especially when they were facing a sad farewell. Yoonho always acted with a smile, as if he was willing to take on everyone's problems and told others not to worry, but when it came to his childhood friend's situation, Dang Hwarin couldn’t just turn a blind eye. It wasn't right to dig into his wounds in front of him, but it was equally wrong to know of his pain and look away. “You haven’t told the head of the Dang family about that girl, have you?” The failed poisoner. The illegitimate child of the head of the Dang family. Yoonho's close confidant. To become the fake illegitimate son of the Dang family head, he had to hide her existence. “How could I possibly tell?” Kang Yoonho said with an expression that strained to hide his sorrow. In order to save Dang Hwarin, his close confidant had to become an existence that could not be revealed to anyone. It would be good if she could bitterly resent or get angry about it, but Dang Hwarin’s complexion darkened with guilt. “I'm sorry.” Dang Hwarin said earnestly, with a face full of remorse. “There’s no need to apologize. You don’t have to worry about it.” You will worry, though, won’t you? Dang Hwarin couldn't bring herself to say it out loud. His face was unperturbed. But no doubt, deep down, he was festering. He was a man adept at acting, probably pretending to be unaffected for the sake of comforting himself. Certainly, if he had deliberately avoided the topic, it was with the intention of burying it in the corner of his heart forever. Kang Yoonho's close confidant, his first love. While she desperately wished to take her place, she hadn’t wished for such an ending. The joy of promising a reunion with Kang Yoonho was as great as the guilt that now lingered heavily in her heart. That was until yesterday. Dang Hwarin resolved herself to confess a miraculous, albeit unbelievable, experience that would erase her guilt. “I had a dream yesterday.” “A dream?” “A dream about a girl who seemed mischievous yet upright.” A girl whose face she didn't know. A girl who, in just five years, seemed like she could make any man’s heart flutter. It was a face she had never seen before, and yet oddly familiar. It couldn’t be helped. Ever since she met Yoonho, she had always been mindful and imagining that person in a corner of her heart. “…….” Kang Yoonho's eyes widened in surprise, as if he understood who Dang Hwarin was talking about. She looked at her lover with affectionate eyes, as if transmitting the gaze she had received in her dream. “She said to tell you 'thank you,' and that she didn’t want to make you suffer like she did.” In front of her, Dang Hwarin had cried her heart out, apologizing. A heavy sense of guilt and debt pressed down on her. 'Are you happy that you survived because of me? Now that my father will never know I existed, do you feel joy? Don’t try to take my man. I will curse you for finding happiness through my death.' Despite being able to spit venom, she had thanked Dang Hwarin. Dang Hwarin couldn't bear her words. As Dang Hwarin wept, she smiled as if it was a relief and kept thanking her. Dang Hwarin cried even more, seeing that expression resembled the lover she had taken from her. “Hwarin-ah.” “If, by chance, you really want to make some girl yours at the Dasergak, don’t refuse her.” “Hwarin-ah. I told you.” Was he misunderstanding her again, thinking she was suggesting he marry another woman? Kang Yoonho spoke firmly. “What are you saying? I'm not telling you to marry another woman.” Dang Hwarin replied with a coy expression, assertively. “Then what?” “Because the spot beside you is mine. I’ll allow the seat beside you to be empty, that’s it.” Dang Hwarin smiled faintly, looking at a bemused Kang Yoonho. Was she really Kang Yoonho's childhood friend? Or perhaps it was her own guilt that had concocted that girl's dream. No, it wasn’t just a simple dream. That girl truly must have appeared in her night visions. Because she would have done the same. ‘You mean – don’t make things hard for Yoonho, right?' She could understand the girl's words. Yoonho suffered for over a decade after losing her. Now, Yoonho could spend another decade waiting for her, suffering just as much. Thanks to Kang Yoonho and that girl, she could stand here like this. She could hold him in her arms, feeling his warmth. She must mean that since she used her to have him, at least don't torment him the same way. She didn't like the idea of another woman by his side. But she disliked the idea of making him suffer even more. “What’s that about?” Kang Yoonho asked, not understanding. “It’s just something.” You’re not planning on approving just anyone. As Yoonho's lover and in her place, she would be strict. “I prepared some documents. Take them.” Dang Hwarin handed over the documents she had prepared. “The Dasergak property transfer document? Hwarin-ah, Dasergak is a property of your maternal grandfather.” “I'll be staying with the Dang family for my training, and if there's any dispute or issue about Dasergak’s ownership, it's a problem you, as a mere manager, couldn’t solve without this. You’ll need it when the time comes, so take it.” “But still, Hwarin-ah.” “In 10 years, it’ll be our shared property anyway. Think of it as me giving you a part of my dowry in advance.” Dang Hwarin said shyly, her head lowered. “Well, that's that, then.” “And Yoonho.” Dang Hwarin lifted her head to look at Kang Yoonho's side. The seat beside him will always belong to her. She could concede it temporarily. But she didn’t want it to be taken away. How to prevent it from being taken away? Continue to make him think of her. That was the reason for handing over Dasergak. If he worked there, he would be reminded of her constantly. But that alone was insufficient. There's a saying that when bodies grow distant, so do hearts. She needed to engrave herself in his consciousness. If she gave him an experience that no other woman could, he would think of her, even in similar situations in the future. So... Dang Hwarin swallowed hard and then carefully began to lower the cloth on her shoulders. “Hwarin-ah?” Just like before, his eyes grew wide. Dang Hwarin briefly crossed his mind. She had truly been too oblivious until now. Despite gathering her courage several times, her attempts had all ended in failure. But what she was doing now was not a seduction. For she was already Yoonho’s woman. What she now sought was to imprint herself onto his mind, Dang Hwarin. Even the black fabric that separated her from him, she shed. “Yoonho. Would you like to touch... my chest?” Before the overwhelming sight that unfolded before him, Kang Yoonho harbored no thoughts of refusal whatsoever. ------------------------ “He's getting on the carriage. The Physician Master.” Dang Geo Ho, the head of the Dang family, spoke to the Physician Master who stood behind him as they watched Kang Yoonho boarding a carriage to leave the Sacheon Dang family estate from afar. “Yes.” “Isn’t it ironic? I gave up the one I loved to gain the family. But that boy is leaving everything behind for the sake of the one he loves.” His own son was forgoing the right to become the sub-family head and the chance to be a direct descendant of the Dang family as he prepared to leave the Dang house. “All you did was what needed to be done.” “All the more reason for it to remain a regret.” The Physician Master couldn’t continue speaking for a while, looking at the Dang family head with a melancholic expression as he gazed at the carriage. “Is it all right for you not to send him off?” The Physician Master tentatively asked the Dang family head, who wore a sorrowful expression. “There’s nothing left to say between father and son. How is the sub-family head?” While fully expecting punishment, there were those who had vehemently denounced Kang Yoonho, foaming at the mouth. To protect the eldest son’s safety and avoid discord within the Sacheon Dang family, such pain had to be endured. “Thanks to Hwarin’s treatment, the poison within the body was completely removed, and even the internal organs that were damaged by the poison mostly recovered. With a year of rest, there shouldn’t be any issue in resuming martial arts training.” “That is a relief.” “However, there is a point of concern.” “What concern?” “Due to prolonged exposure to poison, there could be issues with bearing offspring.” Most of the organs had been healed thanks to poisoner Dang Hwarin’s treatment. But the one who poisoned the sub-family head, wanting to take the Dang family head position, was Dang Geo Ho. Dang Geo Ho, even if the sub-family head recovered, had poisoned him meticulously to create grounds for disqualification in matters of succession. “Hmph. So Dang Geo Ho coveted the head position to such an extent.” The Dang family head let out a deep sigh. “We'll have to see how it goes, but if there are problems concerning heirs…” The Physician Master, thinking of another heir within the carriage, spoke up. “As long as I live, I have no intention of changing the sub-family head.” “My apologies for speaking out of turn.” The Physician Master immediately bowed his head, taking a deferential stance. The Dang family head looked at the Physician Master for a moment, then turned his gaze back toward the carriage outside the window and spoke quietly enough for the Physician Master to hear. “Things might change in the hands of my grandson.” “What do you mean by that?” “By that time, wouldn’t anyone in the Sacheon Dang family desire to lay eyes upon the child born between the full-fledged poisoner and my own bloodline?” A child born between the Dang family head's illegitimate child and the full-fledged poisoner. If the sub-family head could not provide an heir, someone in the Sacheon Dang family would surely take interest in that child. “I will leave the escort troops destined to accompany to remain.” The Physician Master replied with a smile. “Refuse them for now. If that boy needs help later on, be ready to provide it. The council of elders won't want the direct line of the Dang family to end in the event of a contingency, so they’ll have nothing to say then.” “Loyalty!” “My friend, no need to say 'loyalty' like it’s a word you fancy when it clearly doesn’t suit you.” The two of them, now ending a painful past event they had buried for over two decades, smiled at each other as old friends. ******** “Is there a problem with your hand? If you are in pain or anything, I will take a look.” While I stared blankly at my hand, a concerned voice from a Dang family attendant spoke. “There is no problem.” “Is that so? You have been looking at your hand and clenching and unclenching it repeatedly; I thought you might be in pain.” “I just had an experience that I could count on one hand as one of the most valuable in my life.” I did well to stay alive. “What?” “It’s just something.” I opened the carriage window and looked at the Sacheon Dang family estate growing distant. It had been a long journey. The poisoner Dang Hwarin. The failed poisoner, the damaged skin, a woman who would have lived her life in agony and died hating the world, is no more. Only a poisoner who will continue her training in anticipation of a reunion remains in the Dang family. ‘Is it a regrettable success? Or a precious failure?’ Regardless of how one sees it, there’s hope. The separation became one where a reunion could be promised, not an indefinite goodbye. However much one ponders, the sorrow and the regret of parting don’t easily subside. “I need to become more renowned.” For a quicker reunion with Hwarin. So that the women who come into my embrace never slip away again. To be able to save heroines from their tragic fates. Let’s return. To the Medical Pavilion Dasergak.