The Stolen Two Years

“Sarin has arrived.”

“How have you been, Great Master? This is my older brother. Brother, come say hello.”

I introduced Murin to them with great enthusiasm. Murin looked on with a dispassionate face, unaware of just how legendary these men were. Yet, even if he had known, I don’t think he could have truly felt the gravity of the meeting—his mind was consumed by the thought that he had to leave me here alone.

I noticed the high monks of Shaolin observing Murin intently. I could tell they recognized the young “Hidden Dragon” of Sichuan.

When the Clan Leader finally emerged and it was time for him and Murin to depart, we all wept. Even the Clan Leader, who always stood like a Great Mountain, could not hide his tears. Looking back, he had cried quite often in my presence. Had I not witnessed it myself, I would have found it impossible to imagine, but because of me, he had become a father prone to tears.

“I will come to fetch you in the spring, Sarin. Until then, stay healthy and hold on strong.”

“Yes, Father.”

He embraced me several times, looking as if he were about to let go, only to pull me back again. For the head of a martial family, showing such weakness could be seen as a flaw, but in that moment, he didn’t seem to care about any of it. I had no idea what the Abbot had told him to make him act this way.

“Sarin!”

Murin finally pushed past the Clan Leader, burst into a loud sob, and pulled me into a tight hug. It was a scene that would be unthinkable in Sichuan or even here in the temple, but for once, the Clan Leader did not rebuke him.

“Brother, come with Father to get me next spring. Promised?”

Murin couldn’t speak; he only nodded, his chiseled face glistening with tears. Though I was currently the one in a frail body receiving comfort, seeing a young child cry like that made my heart ache; I wanted to be the one consoling him.

They stayed like that for nearly fifteen minutes before they finally departed. As I watched their retreating figures, Great Master Won-hyun approached and stood beside me.

“Was it very painful, Sarin?” Won-hyun asked as he picked me up.

“No, Master. I had a good time.”

“I see. Well done.”

The monks nearby watched with wide eyes. To see a man of such celestial status doting on a young child like me seemed to strip them of their sense of reality.

Even to me—who in my past life as a member of the Hao Sect knew almost every prominent figure in the Murim—Great Master Won-hyun was a figure shrouded in mystery. He was said to be the Abbot’s Senior Uncle, but he rarely engaged in activities outside the temple.

He felt like a “Secret Weapon” of Shaolin, known to no one. Though he was kept hidden from the outside world, it was easy to see how much the Abbot relied on him.

“You haven’t been here in a while. Have you forgotten where you used to stay?”

“No, Master.”

“Did you miss me?”

“No, Master.”

Great Master Won-hyun looked at me, his smiling face momentarily faltering in embarrassment.

“You didn’t want to see me?”

“No. I liked being in Sichuan. I didn’t have time to miss you, Master.”

I spoke this way hoping he’d think I was a brat. I figured if I acted like this, it would be easier for him to let me go. I wanted him to click his tongue and think, ‘They say you shouldn’t take in a beast with black hair!’ and lose his affection for me so that my path back to Sichuan would be smooth. However, Won-hyun simply let out a hearty laugh and headed toward his quarters.

Since I was neither a formal disciple nor a secular disciple of Shaolin, I was not permitted to learn their martial arts. While there were novice monks my age at the temple, I couldn’t mingle with them. Instead, I lived alone with Great Master Won-hyun in a residence situated high up on Mount Sung.

Previously, other monks would come and go, delivering reports to Won-hyun or sharing a brief conversation, but for some reason, this time no one visited the residence.

The sessions where Great Master Won-hyun infused me with inner power grew longer and longer.

“Do you feel the inner power being injected?”

“I don’t know, Master. I feel nothing.”

“I see.”

“Have I become weaker than before, Master?”

“Why do you ask that? Does your body hurt, Sarin?”

“It’s not that, but the way Father treated me was strange. It felt like he thought I might never be able to return home.”

At that, he gave me a benevolent smile and stroked my head.

“Nothing will happen to you. When spring comes, you will regain your health and return to Sichuan. Believe in that. Do not give up, and do not lose.”

I wanted to believe him, but it wasn’t something that could be achieved through willpower alone. I did not fare well there. I fainted frequently, and once I collapsed, several days would slip away. At first, it was two or three days, but later, I would remain unconscious for nearly a week.

I had fainted in Sichuan before, but I had never lost consciousness for as long as I did here. Whenever I opened my eyes, Great Master Won-hyun was always there with an anxious face.

But the strange thing was his expression. It didn’t look like the face of someone worried about a sick child waking up; he looked as though he were on edge, under extreme tension. If I had been unconscious for so long, he should have asked if I was alright…

How should I put it? It was as if he felt relieved that I had woken up, but a sense of relief that carried a different meaning than what I expected.

“Master…”

“Yes… Yes, Sarin. Yes.”

I looked at him, thinking it was strange. But at the moment, I didn’t even have the strength to lift my eyelids, so I couldn’t ask anything and closed my eyes again. Having barely woken up from a long unconsciousness, I fell right back into a deep slumber.

I felt stifled, wondering how my time was slipping away or if it was okay to spend my life like this, but I had no way to resist the overwhelming sleep that washed over me.

The only way I could tell time was passing was by looking at Great Master Won-hyun. At some point, the clothes he wore grew thinner. He no longer told me how long I had been unconscious. And for some reason, I felt as though he was wary of me.

Even saying that felt strange. What did I mean by “wary”? I didn’t even know what I was thinking.

“Master, is it still far from spring? I want to go back to Sichuan.”

“It is impossible for now, Sarin. I have contacted the Tang family, so do not worry.”

“Is my health very bad? I don’t feel pain, but my strength won’t return. I’m so tired. I feel like I’ve been walking a long path for days without any rest. My whole body aches; it’s strange.”

“It will get better.”

Even as he spoke, he didn’t seem certain.

“Could you send a letter to the main house and call for my brother, Master? I miss him.”

“For the time being, it is better to focus on treatment rather than meeting people.”

He then fed me some porridge. Though I had no appetite, I forced it down.

“Can I go outside?”

He seemed reluctant, but after I begged several times, he finally nodded.

As I tried to put on my outer robe, I realized it had become too small for me. If the clothes had shrunk enough for me to notice, how much time had passed in the interim?

‘When did I grow this much?’

I spread my hands. Before, they looked like tiny maple leaves, but now they had grown quite large. I felt at least as big as Murin used to be.

‘What on earth is happening? Surely it hasn’t been several years. Or has it? Is that it?’

Murin and I were three years apart. If I was now the size Murin had been, it meant three years had passed. No matter how much Great Master Won-hyun tried to avoid it, I had to confirm the truth.

I jumped up to find a bronze mirror, only to remember there were none here.

“Master, how much time has passed since I last fainted? No—how long has it been since Father and Brother left me here?”

He looked as if he had known I would ask, yet he still didn’t answer. While questioning him, I looked for anything to see my reflection and confirmed that I had indeed grown taller. Things that used to look impossibly high were now well within my reach.

As I moved to go outside, thinking I would ask someone else if Won-hyun wouldn’t answer, he finally caught me.

“It has been two years. So do not make a fuss.”

“Two years?”

I had suspected it, but hearing it from him was a shock. Should I be relieved it wasn’t three?

I was speechless for a moment, stunned. I stared blankly into space before finally pulling myself together to ask.

“Did the family not worry even though I didn’t return?”

“I sent word. You likely don’t remember, but you crossed the threshold of death several times.”

“I did?”

I had no idea what he was talking about; I was simply bewildered. I had no memory of anything after I fainted. I had thought things were going so well, being born as the Young Master of the Sichuan Tang Clan.

In my previous life as a disciple of the Hao Sect, I had learned so much; I thought I could use that knowledge to make the Tang Clan wealthy and live a good life. But to think I had become eight years old while doing nothing but fainting…

To have aged so hollowly—it was beyond frustrating.