Our Peerless Dad in his misspent youth.
Noh Gajang was once a brash young troublemaker, being trained by a violent Old Master and leading a group of similarly purposeless youth to be bandits and general ne'er-do-wells. However, he fell in love with a civilian woman from a merchant family, and they both eloped to live a happy life. Noh gave up on his old group, and tried to earn a honest living to support her.
Unfortunately, tragedy struck - his beloved wife died while giving birth to triplets. Noh, now a middle-aged single father-of-three in a brutal world, tries to raise his children to the best of his ability while working as a common warrior.
His martial arts skill, however, attracts the attention of the various competing factions - as they all want to know who this otherwise simple man is, and why he has the skill to accomplish missions that no one else can...
Peerless Dad provides examples of:
- Action Dad: Noh. Most common warriors are nothing more than glorified gate guards and messengers, but he can kick ass on a level equal to the revered masters of the city.
- Always Someone Better: Noh tried to make a name for himself as a martial artist, but he had the misfortune to be faced with the strongest artists early in his journey, which caused him to give up. Ironically, Noh is also this to other people, unbeknownst to him.
- Almighty Janitor:
- Noh was this for a period when he first joins as he mainly worked as a common warrior and guard to not be away from his children. However, he defeats three squads of the Forgotten Pavilion - who are all elite warriors - barehanded within the span of two days to protect their target. Their leader is completely incredulous at the idea a common warrior could eliminate three squads on his own.
- "Gramps" plays this almost literally as he's a street sweeper in the city, but also one of the top five best martial artists in the world, although most tend to not believe his stories of past exploits. He takes a shine to Noh and his children (and even trains his daughter).
- Bodyguard Crush: The girl Noh rescued on one of his first missions grows up to be an extremely attractive, extremely wealthy young woman who is trying to spark a romantic relationship with him. Unfortunately for her, Noh is too dumb to realize it yet.
- Book Dumb: Noh, to the extreme. Growing up as he did, he was illiterate. He had to learn to read from his own ten-year old daughter.
- I Have Your Wife: Noh faces this when his twins are kidnapped to force him out.
- Happily Married: Noh and his wife despite hardships had a happy relationship that remained up until she passed away after giving birth to their children. Later on he marries one of the richest women in the world
- Mercy Kill: Noh when he sees a severely injured child and has to consider putting him out of misery. He imagines his children in this situation and nearly goes into a Heroic BSoD.
- Only in It for the Money: Downplayed. Noh joined the Heavenly Dragon Association because the Wise Dragon provided him family benefits on top of a wage unlike the Sword Sect. Likewise, he'll always refuse to do extra work unless he's properly compensated for it. He does it out of wanting to provide for his children than personal greed though.
- Overshadowed by Awesome: Noh. He was unlucky enough to run into the world's strongest martial artists at an early stage of his journey. This has caused him to severely doubt his own strength to where people question why Noh doesn't realize just how abnormally skilled and powerful he really is.
- Papa Wolf: Fatherhood turned Noh soft - mostly. He's friendly, easy to get along with, and loves his children to bits. But if you dare so much as touch his children (or even any other children in his presence) - he will tear apart an entire cult singlehandedly if he has to.
- Reasonable Authority Figure:
- Captain Ham, beloved captain of the city warrior squad. Short-tempered, but a caring and understanding leader to his men. When he is removed from his post for standing up to a noble, the warriors consider revolt.
- The Wise Dragon, master of the city. He cares for his people and will always do his best to ensure their wellbeing. However, he also believes in the Greater Good and will pragmatically sacrifice a few citizens (even if they include children) to avoid war.
- Lee Kangjin tries to be this for the empire, but as shown in his series—he is a Psychopathic Manchild at best and completly insane at his worst. Gwak Noh (his surrogate father and teacher) had to teach him how to understand others based on his own friends Evil Cannot Comprehend Good personality and even then his thought process are sometimes filled with Insane Troll Logic.
- Red Baron: Most top-tier martial artists have an official title which is normally used to address them. These include, "The Wise Dragon", "The Flying Dragon" etc.
- Noh has one which is perhaps not as impressive-sounding, but could well be equally intimidating - he is the "Special Problem-Solver". Later on he is called the "Brilliant Dragon"
- Uptown Girl: Noh's wife was the daughter of a well-off merchant family while Noh was a struggling martial artist and they eloped to get married.
- Would Hurt a Child:
- The Murim Alliance's henchmen have no qualms with kidnapping and threatening Noh's sons in their effort to kill him. It is heavily implied they would simply dispose of them once Noh surrendered.
- The Sword Clan mercilessly slaughter anyone associated with the Heavenly Dragon Association in disputed territory, even if it includes young trainees who were there through unfortunate circumstance.
