Chapter 4
2. What Has Changed, What Has Not
Euna cried herself out in my arms and then collapsed into sleep.
I laid her down on the bed and gently wiped the salt-stained corners of her eyes and her soft, tender cheeks with a damp cloth. When I stroked her soft reddish-brown hair, her lips twitched slightly, and I could see her chest rising and falling as she breathed.
Each time I confirmed that Euna was alive, I let out a breath of relief.
After that, I checked her pulse as a physician would and infused her with my inner energy.
Because of her severed meridians, the energy refused to circulate smoothly. Yin energy had pooled throughout her body, which had failed to achieve balance. Despite all of our parents’ efforts, Euna had only barely managed to cling to life.
In a state this weak, she wouldn’t have been able to properly absorb an elixir or even the core of a spiritual beast.
To heal Euna, the first priority was to build up her physical strength.
In my previous life, she couldn’t even endure the funeral and collapsed.
The funeral, which required receiving mourners for three days straight—twelve hours each day—was far too much for Euna. Every time she collapsed, her lifespan was shaved away bit by bit. If I wanted to prevent her from collapsing again like before, I had to act immediately.
As my initial agitation subsided, my mind turned cold and clear, like plunging from a boiling bath into icy water.
“Miss Seha.”
It was Madam Lee, Euna’s wet nurse.
“I will take care of the young miss, so please attend to the urgent matters, Miss Seha. …You must see the master and madam off properly, mustn’t you?”
Her voice was thick with tears. Having lived with us like family, she showed her grief over my parents’ death without restraint.
“You’re right. We have to send them off properly this time.”
“Pardon?”
“It’s nothing.”
In the past, I hadn’t been able to take charge of the funeral myself. Back then, I had been capable of nothing except grieving.
“Madam Lee, how is your burn?”
“…What?”
“You injured your right arm while saving Euna.”
Madam Lee tilted her head, then rolled up her sleeve. Her arm was perfectly fine.
“I think you may be mistaken, Miss.”
She gave an awkward smile and lowered her voice.
Huh? I thought Madam Lee’s burn happened around this time…
On second thought, it must have been after my parents’ funeral. I had spent so long as the Blood Yin Witch in my previous life that my memories of this period were blurred.
So many things happened…
Just as I was trying to organize my thoughts—
“Miss.”
Hong-a approached and whispered quietly.
“Young Master Baek Gyuho has arrived. He’s in the guest quarters right now… shall I bring him here?”
Young Master Baek Gyuho…?
In that instant, it came back to me.
I had a fiancé at this point in time.
“Seha! Are you all right?”
Hands so clean they had likely never held a sword even once.
The blue robes he wore and his overall bearing reminded me of a scholar. His pale skin and gentle-looking face were painfully familiar.
This was Baek Gyuho, the third son of the Baek family of the Dongbaek Merchant Guild, to whom I had been betrothed three years ago.
Three years older than me, twenty-one years of age, he was a promising talent of the Dongbaek Merchant Guild who had entered an academy in Hanam Province and was preparing for the Haeshi—the regional civil service examination.
His eyes, as he looked at me, were filled with concern.
I stared blankly at him in the guest room, then slowly returned to reality.
“Gyuho… oppa.”
Yes. That was what I used to call him.
“I set out as soon as I heard the news, but I only just arrived. When I heard you had collapsed, I was so shocked.”
He wrapped an arm around my shoulders, his expression full of pity.
Before my regression, I would have believed the words of my fiancé without question.
But now, after regressing, I could see things differently.
If he had truly rushed here from Hanam, he should have been exhausted from traveling for days without proper rest. Yet there wasn’t a speck of dust on him, and his complexion was healthy. There was no trace of someone who had hurried day and night.
“I’ll stay by your side now, so you can rest easy.”
Perhaps he thought I would burst into tears at any moment, because he pulled me closer.
I gently pushed Baek Gyuho away.
“I’m fine, oppa.”
“Don’t say that. You and I haven’t married yet, but we’re practically family already, aren’t we?”
He spoke softly, full of concern.
“You look gaunt. Have you eaten?”
“Yes. There’s no need for you to worry.”
Even as I looked at his worried face, I felt nothing.
As I stared at him, fragments of my chaotic past memories began to resurface.
At the time, Baek Gyuho had comforted me in my weakened state and taken care of Euna as well. He had attended my parents’ funeral in person and even helped receive guests.
That’s right. Back then, I thought he would make a good life partner.
Watching him devote himself as my fiancé had only deepened my trust in him.
After my parents’ sudden deaths turned my life upside down and my position within the escort guild weakened, I believed that marrying Baek Gyuho was my only hope.
In truth, he had once comforted my fragile heart.
“Seha, once the mourning period is over, let’s get married as soon as possible. I don’t want you to be lonely.”
However, once my parents’ funeral ended, Baek Gyuho’s words changed.
With my father’s death weakening my standing within the Eunri Escort Guild, the Dongbaek Merchant Guild went back on their word.
“My parents say it would be better to postpone the marriage until I pass the Haeshi. If I later pass the Gonggeo and become an official, it will be far better for you as well.”
Foolishly, I believed him.
Since the marriage had been arranged for the interests of our families, his decision seemed understandable.
If only it had ended there.
“Seha, are you really all right?”
At his words, I returned from the fragments of the past to the present.
“I’ll stay by your side today, at least—”
“There’s no need.”
I cut him off firmly.
“You came straight from the academy, didn’t you? You probably haven’t even paid your respects at the Dongbaek Merchant Guild yet. You should return and greet them properly. Madam Shim must be worried.”
“Well, that is…”
“There are grandfather and uncles here at the Eunri Escort Guild. You don’t need to worry.”
When I spoke bluntly, he lowered his brows apologetically.
“All right. As you say, I’ll greet my mother first and come right back.”
“Just attending the funeral as my fiancé will be more than enough. Thank you.”
“I understand. Then take good care of yourself.”
Only after confirming that I was fine did he withdraw, seemingly reassured.
Without realizing it, I let out a sigh.
Back then, I trusted that man far too much—without knowing I would be betrayed later.
From the jumbled memories of the past, I pulled out what came next.
It was what happened shortly after my parents’ funeral.
At dawn on an unusually windless day, a fire broke out in Euna’s residence.
Fortunately, Madam Lee woke up quickly and was able to save Euna in time. Madam Lee was burned, and Euna inhaled a great deal of smoke and coughed incessantly for quite a while afterward.
Because of that fire, Madam Lee was driven out, and Euna, stricken with grief, refused food and drink for some time.
Immediately after, vicious rumors about Euna and me began to spread.
“How could there have been a fire when the family residences are managed so strictly?”
“Even if they’re all the guild master’s grandchildren, is it because their mother was of the Black Path’s bloodline? The eldest son of the Azure Dragon Hall sure seems lucky…”
People of the escort guild hated the Black Path. My grandmother had lost her life after being swept up in conflicts between orthodox and unorthodox factions.
Yet my father, the third son, had taken a woman from the Black Path as his wife instead of his betrothed, and from that union, Euna and I were born.
Because of that, people treated us with thinly veiled disdain—and after our parents’ deaths, it only grew worse.
“They say the eldest daughter neglects her martial training and has no interest in guild affairs.”
“I heard from the maids that she’s nothing but a vain girl obsessed with music and her looks. They even say she doesn’t care about her sick younger sister.”
“And what about the second daughter? She was born with severed meridians and eats elixirs like meals. Even then, they say she won’t live past twenty.”
“They say the White Tiger Hall’s finances are collapsing because of that child’s medicine.”
“In the end, the youngest daughter even devoured her own parents.”
Bringers of misfortune to the escort guild.
That was how the people of the guild labeled Euna and me.
A few days later, my uncles—the hall masters of the Four Guardian Halls—came to So-hyang Pavilion, where Euna and I were staying.
“Seha, you’ve just turned eighteen and come of age, haven’t you?”
“Yes…”
“I’m afraid you girls will have to leave the escort guild.”
It was like a bolt from the blue.
