Chapter 404 - 385: Who is at The Door?-I
The incident happened the second day after The Old Master found out about Shun’s and Shin’s reckless behavior. The Old Master was quite old in age, but he was still known for his robust appearance and energetic behavior. But the truth was different. Far from anyone’s thought, the Old Master had been in pain after suppressing the seven years worth of pain from the lung illness he had.
Apart from Kei, no one else know of his health. If not for the accident happened six years ago, where he caught the truth about the Old Master’s illness, Kei wouldn’t notice how bad the Old Master’s health was deteriorating either.
There are many things that human could not handle and one of it was illness. So far for the worse, the Old Master’s illness do not have any cure. And worse, his body wasn’t able to keep up with the illness and he began to faint two days ago. Until now, the Old Master haven’t woke up much to Kei’s deepest worry.
Earlier during his conversation with Shin, Kei didn’t meant to shout at him or Shun. The twins were precious people to him and because he knows how much hardship and difficulty the twins had to overcome for being the next heir to Ryouma Clan and after their parent’s sudden death, he would sometimes spoil them and in the end, helped them from their punishment.
Yet this time he didn’t helped them out of the worry that he kept inside his mind. For the future, he had to be strict with the twins. The Old Master’s conditions had turned for the worse, while Kei prayed that he was wrong, he had heard from the doctors that at best the Old Master could withstood the illness for another two or one year. Kei didn’t want to admit it, but the door to death was close for the Old Master.
He could not let the immaturity inside Shin and Shin to grow any larger, and knows that he needs to bring them into a proper heir that could protect the clan and most importantly, themselves.
"What’s the time?" came a voice from the bed that was hoarse and gruffly as though the person hadn’t drink for the past few days.
"Master!" Kei saw the Old Master pushing himself out of the bed and stopped him with an agonized expression, "Please stop forcing yourself. If you keep doing this, what about Li Lian, Shun, and Shin? You know that what you are doing is the opposite of making yourself any healthier. The illness would spread faster if you are tired and haggard all the time."
"Oh, God, be quiet! My wife died twenty years ago, are you here to speak like her, blasting my ears off? It’s enough to hear her ringing of words sometimes playing again in the back of my head here and there. Don’t make my headache even worse!" The Old Master shouted that only worsen the soreness of his throat, and he coughed up a few more times that made Kei to panic.
Once Kei had given him a glass full of water, the Old Master who thought that his eyes were clouded by hazy dogs felt a bit clearer.
"Don’t worry," The Old Master raised his hand, "Look there are no blood on it."
The Old Master saw the wrinkle on Kei’s fine forehead only crumpled even more when seeing his hand. The elderly man didn’t know that it wasn’t the blood that worried Kei, but the wrinkles of skin on his hand that proved how age has never went easy on him.