STVS 48

Chapter 48

At the shout of the Master of the So family, the young lady started running.

I panicked. The Master—what about him? What was he going to do?

But there was no time to look back. As soon as we began to run, as if anticipating the situation, a masked figure holding a round fan threw a short sword.

Swish!

The blade flew swiftly toward me. At the same time, the young lady swung her hand and threw something.

Clang!

It was a golden token.

The token flew and struck the short sword precisely. Yet, it lacked enough force to drop the blade, only changing its direction. My skin crawled when the sword embedded itself at my feet.

Only then did I pull myself together and speed up. If I stopped here, it wouldn’t just be me in danger.

Huff… huff…

I ran like a madwoman.

Fortunately, no more blades came flying. Perhaps the Master, who had been chasing behind, interfered with the masked assailant.

Still, I couldn’t tell if I should feel relieved or afraid, and I bit my lip anxiously.

We ran deeper into the mountains.

The noise behind us grew fainter. In fact, I barely felt it at all. All I noticed were the bushes brushing past my body, my heart pounding like crazy, and the back of the young lady running ahead of me.

How long did we run like that?

Whoosh—

Suddenly, the surroundings fell silent.

Gasping for air, I looked around. The mountains, now cloaked in quiet darkness, had no people, no animals—no presence at all.

It was just the two of us.

Just the two of us.

“Even the Master…”

Would it have been different if I were stronger?

If I hadn’t settled for reality but had become a disciple of Namgung Jeong to learn martial arts… would something have changed?

Of course, learning for just a few days wouldn’t make me capable of fighting the masked figure. But maybe I could have helped. Maybe I could have given the Master enough support to escape.

Not just the Master—also the Chief Officer, Brother Im, Uncle Hwang, even Aso…

“Seodan!”

A sudden voice made me lift my head.

The young lady’s beautiful face appeared right in front of me. The gauze had disappeared.

“Focus! Don’t stop here!”

“Miss… you…”

“Regret comes later. For now, look ahead.”

“……”

“If we keep running like this, we’ll eventually get caught. Seeing the pursuers here… the path down the mountain might already be blocked. Let’s hide first and—”

But she couldn’t finish.

A presence came from behind us.

I turned with her. I had a faint hope it might be the Master.

But hope is just hope.

What awaited us was…

“…again.”

The masked figure in black.

Holding a sword dripping blood.

Clash!

The moment I realized, I blocked the young lady.

I didn’t want to think whose blood it was, or whether we could escape.

All I could think of was protecting her. This time, I had to—no, I would.

I kept my eyes on the approaching masked figure, twisting my body and reaching a hand back to prepare.

Just as I was about to push the young lady aside and charge—

Kahng!

Sparks flew in the darkness.

Someone had blocked our path. I recognized the familiar figure and shouted:

“Master…!”

It was him.

The Master, whom I thought I would never see again, was there.

Of course, he wasn’t in good condition.

His body was tattered from a fierce battle. His neatly tied hair was disheveled, his long coat ripped in several places. Blood even seeped through the torn seams.

Yet, despite everything, he didn’t back down. He stood silently, protecting us.

A brief silence fell.

The Master moved first.

Clang! Kahng!

In a blink, dozens of sword strikes flew.

Maybe because it was too dark, or maybe because the speed was so fast, I couldn’t tell how the battle was going.

But I could feel one thing—Master was in danger.

He was different from when I saw him before running. His breathing was uneven, and it seemed his right arm was injured, making his sword stance off balance.

The masked figure noticed it too, repeatedly attacking his right side. When the figure finally slashed Master’s right shoulder—

“Ah…!”

Master simultaneously stabbed the figure in the heart.

He sacrificed his shoulder to strike back.

Gah…

The masked figure spat blood violently. When Master pulled out the sword, the body collapsed to the ground.

The writhing figure soon died. Master quietly looked at the body and then turned. I tried to help him, but—

Thud.

Master dropped his sword.

And then I saw it.

The dagger lodged in his abdomen, the blood covering his mouth.

“Ah… ah…”

I reached out.

Master’s body fell to the ground.

“Father—!”

The young lady’s scream echoed through the mountains.

The life of the So family heir, So Cheongja, had been relatively smooth.

Born as the eldest son of the So family, he was marked early as the successor, with no siblings to compete with.

This was because So Cheongja’s parents, the previous Master couple, didn’t get along.

They had been married through an arranged marriage between families and had clashing personalities from the start, often fighting.

The previous Master was rigid, while his wife was fiery. They argued whenever they met, with no respect or affection between them.

The previous Master even had a first love he could not forget after marriage. Knowing this, his wife despised him even more.

So Cheongja never expected to have a younger sister.

It was an accident. One night, the drunk previous Master mistook his wife for his first love while receiving a guest, and they slept together.

His wife became pregnant, giving birth to an unwanted child.

Naturally, the child wasn’t welcomed. The mother, already depressed during pregnancy, ignored the baby after birth. The father also avoided the child.

But So Cheongja was curious.

Curious about his first sibling, about what she looked like. He had heard that babies were no bigger than his arm and wanted to see for himself.

He sneaked into the nanny’s room and found her.

“A baby…”

Chubby and small, with eyes shining, waving her hands and feet.

So Cheongja approached, enchanted. He extended his finger toward the tiny hand. The baby grasped it.

At the same moment, So Cheongja felt a strange premonition.

The bright smile, as if she belonged to no one but him, the warmth on his finger—he would never forget it.

“Yeong-yeong (煐煐).”

He named the baby, using the character for “shine” (煐), for her eyes that sparkled like stars.

“From today, you are So Yeong-yeong, my little one.”

So Cheongja raised Yeong-yeong himself.

Although there was a twelve-year age gap, the previous Master couple never cared for her.

So Cheongja took care of her without complaint, even happily. The more affection he gave, the more she followed him with sparkling eyes, which he found adorable.

Under his care, Yeong-yeong grew quickly.

Her baby fat disappeared, limbs lengthened. Childhood faded, replaced by a mature aura, and she became unrecognizably beautiful.

Problems began around this time.

“Marry.”

One day, the previous Master ordered her to wed.

Yeong-yeong, who enjoyed boating, was playing on a boat with her attendants when an old man noticed her.

The man was Master Jong, a wealthy and respected figure in Cheongju, once serving in Beijing with ties to the royal court. He was sixty years old.

He fell in love at first sight with Yeong-yeong and immediately proposed marriage through the So family.

Yeong-yeong was only seventeen.

The previous Master was pleased—he had wanted connections to the royal family anyway. But Yeong-yeong was shocked, pleading desperately:

“Father, I can’t! I’m not ready! Please, not marriage!”

“Child, do you know where all your food, clothing, and shelter came from? If you understand that, obey your father!”

“Father! Father!”

No matter how much she begged, the previous Master was firm. Yeong-yeong ran to So Cheongja.

“Brother, stop Father. He listens to you. Please, ask him to cancel my marriage.”

“Yeong-a…”

So Cheongja felt sorry for her. Yet he was also conflicted.

He had never gone against his father. He had always been a good son and lacked the courage to rebel now.

But he refused to see himself as a coward. He thought Yeong-yeong was naive and tried to persuade her.

“Yeong-a, don’t think badly. Though Master Jong is old, he’s an excellent person. Good character, good nature. He will treat you well.”

“……”

“Moreover, his family is more influential than ours. Becoming the lady there would give you wealth and power beyond imagination. More than now…”

“Brother.”

So Cheongja flinched. Yeong-yeong had been staring at him intently. Her eyes held a darkness he had never seen.

She spoke quietly:

“…I never wanted wealth or power. All I wanted was… just…”

But she couldn’t finish. Bowing her head, tears fell.

She left So Cheongja’s room silently. He felt uneasy but didn’t take it seriously, thinking she would change her mind with time.

But he was wrong.

From that day on, Yeong-yeong vanished.

The next day, the day after that.

Yeong-yeong disappeared completely.