Chapter 9 …
Even with his mother’s help, the task of dealing with the backlog of work seemed endless.
“Haahhhhaam.”
Tae-woo let out a languid yawn and rolled his stiff neck from side to side.
“It’s late, so stay and sleep here.”
“No, thank you. I really want to go home. Staying with my boss for too long is bad for my mental health.”
“That’s hurtful for the boss who’s hearing it.”
“Haha, what are you talking about? Well then, I’ll be going.”
Doha chuckled softly as he watched Tae-woo turn away without a hint of reluctance after his half-hearted farewell.
‘At this hour…’
He was probably already asleep.
Doha, who had considered going to see the child for a moment, shook his head. No need to wake a sleeping child.
After taking a few steps, he naturally decided on his destination.
The innermost room of the southern annex.
When Doha opened the door there, his eyes grew calm and still.
“Hello.”
His low voice resonated softly in the quiet.
It was a clean, tidy room. The dark, silent room had long been devoid of any human traces.
He thought about lighting a candle, but instead, he opened the window to let in some fresh air.
As the window opened, the gentle white moonlight softly illuminated the room.
“The moonlight is especially bright today.”
The infiltrating moonlight fell upon a painting hanging on one side of the room.
It was a portrait painted on fine silk.
It depicted a woman with a gentle smile.
Doha approached the portrait.
It was a portrait of his wife, Yeonhwa, from over ten years ago.
A person who had vanished so suddenly.
He scrutinized the eyes, nose, and mouth in the painting one by one, then narrowed his eyes and looked at it as if gazing at an annoying person. But soon, inevitably, a warmth seeped into his gaze.
When he came to his senses, he realized he had unknowingly lifted the corners of his mouth into a faint smile, mirroring the woman in the painting.
Realizing this, a profound longing surfaced in Doha’s dark eyes.
He stared blankly for a long while, then deeply bowed his head. Following his drooping head, his large body leaned against the wall and slowly slid down to sit.
“……”
For a while, only a quiet silence lingered in the room.
After some time had passed, he spoke.
“I went to Cheonsugwan this time. Well, one thing led to another… I unexpectedly met a child there. A girl.”
Doha’s voice grew a little lower.
It was somewhere between a soliloquy and a conversation. His words continued, occupying that ambiguous space.
“……That’s right. A girl. I brought a girl back.”
I never thought I’d be raising a girl in this lifetime. He let out a soft, wry laugh.
Simultaneously, he recalled the small hands that had stubbornly clung to him and the clear, brown eyes.
“She resembles you. Demanding to be taken away out of the blue, being subtly brazen yet honest… It’s like seeing a younger version of you. It’s amusing.”
It reminded me of when I first met you.
There was a time when we imagined, happily, about the child that would be born one day.
A time when we happily imagined what the child would be like if they took after you.
The more I see her, the more she resembles the child we pictured in our minds back then.
Of course, their actual child had long since left this world.
“……It would have been nice if you were here with us now.”
You would surely have been happy to see her.
It would have been truly wonderful if we could look at the child together and smile.
The moonlight alone embraced his shoulders as he spoke his disjointed words.
All my senses felt distant.
Tap. Tap.
I heard a tapping sound.
What is it? I wondered, looking around.
Tap. Tap.
Again, the sound of something tapping.
‘Ah, right. This sound…’
It was the sound of the kid in the room next to mine at the Cheonsugwan lodging tapping on the wall. The sound of them calling for me, away from the priests.
I tried to tap the wall in response.
‘Huh?’
But my body wouldn’t move. Not only that, but everything around me was just darkness.
I tried moving my body several times, trying to raise my hand, but it was useless.
Just as I was about to let out a sigh of frustration, it suddenly hit me.
‘Now that I think about it, that kid definitely…’
Had already left Cheonsugwan.
Lord Baekri had said the kid had found their parents and gone to a better place, but that wasn’t the truth.
I read it in the book.
That kid definitely,
‘…underwent the terrible training Baekri imposed and eventually…’
The moment that thought crossed my mind, the darkness lifted as if a blindfold had been removed.
And what came into view was Lord Baekri, the head of Cheonsugwan, with a very chilling expression.
His usual mask was off, revealing a cold face. His slender, soft eyes held a strange desire and madness. Those eyes were looking at me.
The face he showed every time during the so-called ‘training’ experiments.
The moment I saw that face, my whole body turned cold as if doused with icy water.
‘Then, right now…’
Am I in the middle of training?
Simultaneously, a sharp, piercing pain tore through me.
The pain was so suffocating I wanted to scream, but no sound came out. I couldn’t move my body either.
The pain I felt every time I underwent ‘training’—no, every time I was ‘experimented’ on by Lord Baekri.
It was an unpleasant sensation and pain, as if a foreign presence was forcing its way inside me, trying to arbitrarily take over my entire body.
I strained, trying to push away that familiar discomfort.
‘Someone save me!’
The terrible pain felt like it would make me lose consciousness.
My mind went blank, white, and then an inexplicable resignation began to creep in slowly.
Wouldn’t it stop hurting if I just gave it all up, relaxed, and let go?
If I just release my strength like this, it seems like I could become comfortable…
As that thought arose, my consciousness grew distant.
As the strength I was desperately holding onto loosened, the unfamiliar presence, tearing through my insides, tried to swallow my body whole.
At that very moment when the last shred of reason was about to disappear,
[Snap out of it!]
A voice, neither a boy’s nor a girl’s, both familiar and unfamiliar.
The voice that changed my destiny echoed in my head, as if striking the back of my skull.
.
.
.
“Huh… Uhk!”
At that voice, my eyes snapped open and I bolted upright.
In my field of vision were blankets embroidered with elaborate patterns and a room door carved with the figure of a dragon.
It was inside my room in the Geum-a-seong, where I had arrived a few days ago.
“Haa, haa…”
It was a dream.
My heart was pounding rapidly, as if sprinting.
I quickly stretched out my arms here and there and wiggled my fingers. Unlike in the dream, they moved freely.
[What, what’s going on?]
Having sensed my state, Duria asked.
“…I had a nightmare. I think I might have had sleep paralysis too.”
[Nightmare? What was it about?]
“A dream about receiving training at Cheonsugwan. It was the day I first heard your voice.”
[Ah, that day? If I had been just a little later, it would have been dangerous.]
“I woke up to your voice at the end. The sound of you shouting at me.”
I shuddered after saying that.
“Ugh, it feels awful!”
The unpleasant sensation of being torn apart still felt vivid.
Just as I was getting goosebumps from the feeling, suddenly, tap, tap, there was a knock on the door. You startled me!
“Young Mistress, may I come in?”
It was Sibi’s voice. I quickly answered.
“Yes! You can come in!”
With a drrrrk— the door opened and Sibi entered.
“Did you sleep well…… Oh my, why does your complexion look so pale?”
“Huh?”
“Did you have a bad dream? It seems like you’re sweating a cold sweat…”
Her face was filled with concern as she looked at me.
“Ah, no… Maybe I wrapped the blanket too tightly?”
I made an excuse.
“Well, I’m glad if it’s not that… Please let me know anytime if something is uncomfortable.”
“Yes, yes!”
After examining my face a few more times, Sibi brought up the main point.
“Actually, there is someone who wishes to meet you, Young Mistress.”
“Me?”
“Yes. Lady Woon-yeom, the Grand Madam… that is, the Family Head’s mother, wishes to see you.”
“Gulp.”
I swallowed hard without realizing it. What could it be about…?
“If it’s alright with you, may we begin preparing now?”
“…Yes!”
The memory of the expressionless face I saw a few days ago came to mind, making me tense, but I steeled my heart and nodded solemnly.
Lady Woon-yeom.
The wife of the previous Family Head and the mother of the Young Master, Grand Madam Woon-yeom.
She had a noble appearance. Her eyes, with their deep-set eyelids, looked cold and haughty, and her largely expressionless face was still beautiful despite its wrinkles.
She was tall and slender. Her white hair added to her uniquely aloof and mysterious aura.
She was a character not described in the original story. That made me even more nervous.
‘I don’t know what kind of person she is.’
Lady Woon-yeom, who showed almost no expression or words, was hard to read.
Was that why? Even this current situation was hard to figure out.
“……”
“……”
I blankly stared at the hand Lady Woon-yeom had extended.
What was resting on that long, white hand was…
‘…Yakgwa?’ (Korean honey cookies)
Suddenly?
Lady Woon-yeom, who hadn’t said much in response to my greetings, suddenly reached out her hand and offered me yakgwa without a word.
“…Yakgwa.”
And she spoke in a very small voice.
Wow. This is the first time I’m hearing her voice.
‘Somehow, it’s quite different from the atmosphere I imagined.’
Somehow, both Lady Woon-yeom and I seemed to be awkwardly malfunctioning.
The current situation was reminiscent of the first day of a new semester in my past life—that strangely awkward feeling tinged with excitement and nervousness.
That kind of atmosphere flowed between Lady Woon-yeom and me. And in those situations, there’s always…
“…Will you eat it?”
“? Ah, yes, yes! Wow. Thank you!”
That’s right. This is how you break the ice.
Just like mustering the courage to ask someone you want to befriend, ‘Want some candy?’, Lady Woon-yeom had given me yakgwa.
As I accepted the yakgwa, our hands brushed slightly, and Lady Woon-yeom’s hand flinched a little.
‘This reaction, could it be…’
[…I think she’s just the type who is very shy around strangers.]
Right. That seems to be it, doesn’t it?
Her cold, expressionless face. But her pupils kept shifting back and forth within it.
Now that I looked, her other hand was fidgeting subtly, as if secretly nervous.
‘So that’s why you were so quiet!’
Lady Woon-yeom was simply a person who was very shy around strangers…
Once I realized that, the tension that had been constricting me crumbled like a sandcastle.
In its place…
“…There is more. Eat plenty.”
“Ah, thank you…”
Somehow, I ended up feeling shy along with her…
