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Translated By Arcane Translations
Translator: Vine
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“The accommodation is still as shitty as I remember.”
“Yeah.”
Even after returning, the inn still had a shabby look. It was like those old sayings about things improving with time just didn’t apply to a backwater place like this. Sanyeo was already sprawled out on the bed, and asked me while she was there,
“So, why did you give her time to think? I thought you were going to make her make a decision on the spot. You were putting mental pressure on her, so you could have gotten the answer you wanted right away.”
I shook my head at Sanyeo’s words.
“It’s a plan that could be ruined with a moment’s whim. I have to give her the time to think and make a careful decision. She is a woman who keeps ledgers, so her brain will be sharp when it comes to calculations.”
I tapped my temple and said that. Sanyeo unintentionally tried to follow my action, but she clicked her tongue when she realized that she couldn’t raise her hands because of the shackles. I lowered my hand and continued to speak.
“If she’s weighing her options between the leader, who doesn’t even treat her properly, and me, the choice she would make is obvious, right?”
Sanyeo blinked and asked,
“How can she trust you?”
I shook my head and laughed. Sanyeo shrugged her shoulders after seeing me laugh. She seemed to just throw out that question to test me.
“If she can’t trust me, then what can she do? She’s the only one who understands the flow of money in the Hongryun Sect, and if I just wanted money, I wouldn’t be investing in such a ridiculous act while her subordinates were having a drinking party. Does she have a better option other than trusting me? If she were to tell that crazy bastard, who cut her leg tendons just because he’s afraid that his daughter might leave, that a suspicious man came to her, he might just cut her legs off completely this time, right? That woman has no other choice. She either has to keep living like this, or she has to trust me and come with me. That’s it.”
Sanyeo was smiling silently. She looked like she was listening to my story seriously, but her expression was also like she was listening to her nephew’s exploits at the playground, so I didn’t like it. I stopped talking, looked at her and said,
“What? What’s with that expression?”
“It’s an expression where I’m thinking about destiny.”
Sanyeo stretched out her shackled hand to make it look like a flower pot. I scoffed because her actions were so ridiculous, and I kicked her foot while she was lying there and said,
“Move over. I want to sleep too.”
She moved her butt back and raised her body. And then, she widened her eyes and said in a mocking tone,
“Oh my, are you planning on sleeping in the same bed as a woman?”
Of course, I was not so gullible that I would fall for her obvious joke. I ignored her subtle gaze and pulled the blanket, saying,
“Then you sleep on the floor.”
Sanyeo seemed as if she was pressing the blanket with her body weight, but when I pulled at the blanket, she quickly released the strength in her body so that it would be easy for me to pull it away.
“How mean.”
I said while covering myself with the blanket,
“Let’s just go to sleep. We have to go again tomorrow night, right?”
“Yeah. Yeah.”
It seemed like Sanyeo had no intention of continuing this joke either. When I didn’t accept her joke, she fixed the remaining pillow and laid down side by side with me. I used the sound of her quiet breaths as a lullaby and closed my eyes.
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The woman’s name was Seon-go (仙姑).
The leader took Seon-go’s name from Ha Seon-go (何仙姑), one of the eight immortals. He wanted her to be like her, someone who brought miracles to the world and who was intelligent.
“Haa…”
But the old days where they had wished for each other’s well-being and a promising future were now as absurd as the immortals in the legends. Her father, who had been confident that she would become a good person, had transformed into an evil man who was the leader of the Hongryun Sect and who committed atrocities.
After his wife left, he had become paranoid and started suspecting his own family, so he cut the tendons in her feet, making her unable to walk. And the talent she had been praised for when she was young was now being dismissed and insulted, calling her incompetent.
At the moments when she had to bear the abuse and obsession while not even being able to move,
the one who would comfort her was Ja-yeong, a pure young man who worked in the sect.
Ja-yeong had grown up in this small village, and he had been working here ever since the Hongryun Sect had first been created. Ja-yeong, who had been a clumsy boy when he had first come to the sect, had grown up over the years and become a worker who could manage to do his part. His sturdy arms and pure personality had captured the hearts of the female servants.
Seon-go was always worried about Ja-yeong. Because of her insane father, she couldn’t show him that she cared about him openly, but Ja-yeong, who always showed her a smiling face and treated her so kindly, made Seon-go worried.
But Seon-go had never thought about a love story or marriage with Ja-yeong. That was impossible as long as her father was alive. If she was discovered to be close with Ja-yeong by the leader, then Ja-yeong would obviously be beaten to death, and the life that she had now, which had barely any room to breathe, would become even more hellish.
“Miss. Is there… something troubling you?”
While Seon-go was sighing, Ja-yeong, who was in the middle of carrying luggage, carefully asked a question. There was sweat on his forehead, and his clothes were dirty. Seon-go looked around once and then said to Ja-yeong,
“No. I’m okay.”
“If anything happens, please tell me. I’ll help you with all my strength.”
Ja-yeong said that and then patted his chest. If it was before, I would have admired his confident appearance. I would have been drawn to it. Ja-yeong was like a patch of shade that she had found in the highlands. She would be able to rely on him for a moment and regain stability, but she couldn’t just settle there.
In front of the wall of reality, Seon-go couldn’t reveal her feelings to him, and she also couldn’t ask for his help. Because she knew that Ja-yeong was incapable of doing anything. She knew that a man who had never learned martial arts, who had never learned to read, and who had never even left this village couldn’t support her, who was unable to walk.
She knew that even escaping this village was impossible.
“It’s nothing. I was just lost in thought for a moment.”
“Miss, it always seems like you’re thinking about something that I don’t understand, so it’s amazing, and it’s amazing. I don’t even know how to read, so my head spins just by looking at the books that you’re writing.”
Ja-yeong said that while scratching his head. It wasn’t just Ja-yeong. If they were poor people in the countryside, it was common for everyone to live like Ja-yeong and then die as a farmer or a laborer.
In Seon-go’s mind, Ja-yeong’s figure was overlapping with that of the unknown man who had appeared last night.
[I need this sect’s building and influence. And you’re someone who understands the flow of money and who knows what kind of deals you’ve made so far by recording the sect’s ledgers. And no matter how the leader treats you, you’re the rightful and only heir to the sect.]
He had spoken about the future in a strong voice, and he was confident that he would make her life better than it was now. His arms had noticeable muscles, and his relaxed demeanor and the energy that emanated from his body let her know that he was someone who had learned a few things.
But he was also a suspicious man whose identity she couldn’t tell.
“Ah, then I’ll go since I have to work.”
While Seon-go was worrying, Ja-yeong turned his body, saying that he had to work again. Seon-go called out to Ja-yeong without realizing it.
“Hey, Ja-yeong.”
“Yes, yes! Miss!”
Ja-yeong’s eyes were shining when Seon-go called out to him. Seon-go thought that Ja-yeong’s figure was like a puppy who had just been called by its name.
And then, she had a sudden thought.
Perhaps.
Even if that was not as tempting as that suspicious request, maybe she could live a different life if she was with Ja-yeong. Maybe she would see a different option if she held out just a little longer?
Even if her life was hard now, wouldn’t they be able to head in another direction if they just relied on each other and held on with Ja-yeong?
It was the moment when she was about to say something to Ja-yeong.
A shadow passed by in front of her eyes.
In the moment where she thought she had seen a hallucination, the shadow took a human form, becoming a large man wearing a uniform.
The man wearing the uniform cut in between them, kicked Ja-yeong’s side, and shouted,
“What are you doing, you bastard! Did you not hear that you had to go to work?”
“Ack!”
Ja-yeong, who had never learned martial arts, was sent flying powerlessly with a simple kick. Seon-go could only blink and couldn’t even scream at the sight of him rolling on the ground. The man, who was a head taller than Ja-yeong, looked down at Ja-yeong and said,
“This guy, I thought he was good at his work, but it’s like he’s just goofing off… Do you think that you’ll become the owner of this place after working here for a few years? Huh?”
“N, no…”
The man kicked Ja-yeong’s head a few times with his foot, and Seon-go couldn’t stand seeing the man’s actions, so she shouted,
“Stop it! That’s enough!”
The man kicked Ja-yeong, who was coughing, again.
“Keuk…!”
The man saw Ja-yeong get up with an awkward posture, and then turn around with his ears red. He didn’t even look at Seon-go and said,
“Miss. Can’t you see that I’m training a servant right now? It’s not something you should interfere in.”
Seon-go closed her mouth. Ja-yeong grabbed his side and stood up with an awkward posture, and then the man gestured for Ja-yeong to come closer and said,
“Hey, get lost.”
Ja-yeong bowed his head to the man. The man shook his head because he had received a greeting that he thought was obvious, and then, only then was Ja-yeong able to run away.
After seeing Ja-yeong limping away, the man said. His attitude was like facing a troublesome burden rather than the leader’s daughter.
“Miss. Don’t act like a flirtatious woman. Why don’t you just accept the fact that you only need to write ledgers? Okay?”
Seon-go didn’t curse at the insulting language, and she didn’t get angry.
Her heart had instead turned cold.
The words of the man she had met last night echoed in her silent heart.
[I understand why you can’t trust me, but are you really going to continue living like this?]
She couldn’t live like this anymore.
It was foolish to have held on to a shred of hope.
This place was hell.
