My Husband Is The Emperor: I Woke Up With A Husband - Volume 1 Chapter 404 385

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.

Suddenly, the Old Master was caught by surprise when he heard a loud thud from the floor. Kei kneeled in front of the bed, holding his hands above his thighs while his head looked down on the wooden floor.

“What are you doing?!” The Old Master raised his voice in shock. While Kei was someone not related to his family, the man felt as though Kei had become his own son. He had seen how Kei grew up from middle school, when he brought him to the Ryouma Clan to now. Unless it was something unredeemable or unforgivable, the Old Master had never told Kei to kneel, and seeing him doing it now, almost scared the man’s life. “I never told you to kneel-” before the Old Master could continue further, Kei spoke with a weaker voice,

“Please, don’t do this to yourself. Master, for whose sake are you working for? For Li Lian? Shin? Shun? Or all of them? But you should know this better than yourself, after all it is your body. The doctor said the best you could live for another two years, but what you are doing will only make you live for the next six months! Shin is not ready to take your position and Akasaka Haruhi wouldn’t die if you do. I know that you have been working in silence, finding people to help and dissolve this contract that Haruhi made, but you will be doing the opposite if you keep this up…” Kei breathed out a quivering breath. Likewise, Kei also have seen the Old Master nothing less than his own father, the person he admired and love as a family. “Please for their sake and ours, don’t push yourself.”

The Old Master was at lost of words and his eyes seemed as though it didn’t work well. Kei had spoken perhaps three sentences more than he did in a year, and he had done it in a way as though he was begging for a forgiveness. Could the old man refused any longer of his words?

Therefore, the Old Master only sighed, “Alright,” he answered but Kei didn’t seem the least convince by it. “I said alright. Rest it is, rest. Here is my bed and all I need is eat, drink the medicine and sleep. Even I know what rest is.”

“I’m surprised that you do,” murmured Kei under his breath that the Old Master didn’t miss because the man had spoken in a way his sound would ring well to be heard by him.

Not wanting to dwell on the problem of his illness, the Old Master hurriedly ask to change the flow of the conversation away from him, “How is Shun and Shin? I remember that they were punished. How long have I’ve been out?”

“Two days,” and the Old Master’s eyes widened. He thought he had been asleep no less than seven hours, this explain the deep worry Kei showed earlier.

“Then Shun and Shin is still kneeling outside there?”

“I don’t dare to,” Kei answered, “If they know about their illness, the first word they would say is to ask whether or not they could transplant their lungs to you. I’ve said it before but the twins are still young, they are immature.”

“But the least they could do is protect themselves. We all have been young Kei. Like you when you tried to burry your damned narcotic father alive after seeking your older sister to the prostitution,” The Old Master closed his eyes to remember what happened and a faint smile appeared as he seemed to recollect the past, “But not everyone shed their immaturity and childishness before gaining the position. Some times they had to have the position and the responsibility that come with it to be mature. I was like that before, and Shin is someone who would become like that too. He is my grandson, I know what he would do.”

“Still, they are unprepared,” Shin answered.

“Anyway, it is best if the twins do not learn of my illness,” the Old Master went to take the glass to his hand, “I don’t fear their big mouth as they know what to say and not. But we don’t know how many eyes are kept with us. And if any members know about our illness, our member’s morality and confidence would decrease especially at this time when Haruhi is running wild, biting and killing groups after groups left and right. That wouldn’t be desirable.”

“I understand it would be even worse if there are a spy in our member who would like to spread the news to Haruhi’s ears, making one more weakness for him to abuse…” Kei’s voice continue to ring out, however, his voice had faded out for the person who was standing near the sliding door the entire time during their early conversation. The person’s eyes widened and in haste, they left the place, making their way out as though they had seen a monster.