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Translated By Arcane Translations
Translator: Vine
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Revisiting a place that I had already pinpointed was as easy as twisting a child’s wrist. When I scaled the wall with the goal of heading straight to the leader’s daughter’s room, I landed right in the courtyard that we had been in yesterday.
There was no way there would be traps. The atmosphere in the sect hadn’t changed. I adjusted my clothes and then looked at Sanyeo. Sanyeo was perched on top of the wall and was tilting her head after seeing me look at her. I showed off the hem of my clothes and asked,
“How do I look? Am I a bit cool?”
“….Yeah.”
Sanyeo hesitated for a moment before nodding. It seemed that Sanyeo was a bit awkward at giving compliments. I ignored her absurd gaze and turned my body, and then I could see that a light had been turned on in the room where the leader’s daughter was staying.
I walked across the courtyard while intentionally stepping on the grass. A shadow was swaying at the loud sounds that were clearly audible, and a low voice flowed out through the crack in the door.
“Who is it?”
Her voice was filled with anxiety and tension. Her voice was as shaky as an aspen, without any sense of self-assurance. I lowered my voice and said,
“I came to get your answer.”
The woman didn’t respond. Instead, she opened the door and fully revealed herself to me. Like yesterday, she was wearing thin pajamas, and her fair feet were bare, languidly dangling over the edge of her bed.
I briefly fixed my gaze on her wiggling toes, and the leader’s daughter was startled by my action, and then she pulled on the hem of her skirt to hide her feet.
Her big toe that was slightly poking out and the uncontrollable wiggling made me even more excited. It felt as if her skin was touching mine as her feet rustled against the bedding.
The woman had her fingers intertwined while glancing at me. Even though she was neatly dressed, the vicious and untrustworthy aura of a brigand, which I had accumulated when I was robbing people in the camp, was faintly surrounding me.
“What’s your answer?”
The leader’s daughter trembled. And then, she mumbled and said in a low voice,
“…..I have a condition.”
“What is it?”
Since we would have to work together to run the sect from now on, I didn’t think I would have any problem with her conditions as long as they weren’t too unreasonable. She seemed a little flustered when I asked her about her conditions so readily, but she then hesitated and spoke.
“Among the servants here, there’s a man named Ja-yeong.”
I felt like I already knew who she was talking about just by hearing his name. If he was a servant she had a condition for, and she even memorized his name, then it was obvious.
“The guy who brought you food that time, right?”
She nodded. And then, she said this to me.
“After taking over the sect, promise that you’ll give Ja-yeong some money and help him become independent by leaving this village.”
I smiled. Even if it was just in name, I and her would now have to form a marriage. And yet, she was making such a bold request to support another man?
“We both know that we’re going to be married now, right? Is it something an owner of the house would ask for, for me to help another man? You should be faithful to your family.”
“…..That’s why I’m asking for this favor.”
Her condition immediately turned into a request after a single exchange. She understood her position very well. The leader’s daughter knew how to firmly state her claims while crawling on her knees, suited to her position.
“He was the only one who treated me well when this sect wouldn’t treat me properly, and he’s the only one who would make me smile. One has to pay their debts. Even if he’s someone that I have to get rid of, I need to repay the debt I owe him for helping me.”
I heard a whistling sound. When I turned my head, Sanyeo was winking and smiling with a delighted expression. Because the woman couldn’t see Sanyeo from where she was, she was trying hard to figure out what was there by looking at the direction I was turning.
I looked back at the woman. She had a determined face. Her hands were tightly clenched in a fist, and her eyes were trembling, but she showed a resolute will.
“What if I say no?”
“…..I was taught that one shouldn’t become a beast who doesn’t know gratitude. If you don’t promise me, then I won’t help you.”
She was trying to sacrifice herself for Ja-yeong, who would waste his life as a servant in this cursed sect. She was trying to overthrow everything in this sect by sacrificing herself.
I liked her spirit, but….
“There’s something that I don’t like.”
I really didn’t like how she thought that getting married to me was a ‘sacrifice’. If I let this go on as it was, the future was obvious. No matter how well I treated her, this brazen woman would be longing for Ja-yeong in her heart and would be writing love poems while alone.
If she ever heard news from afar, she would put on a radiant expression, and if she had to talk about Ja-yeong, she would start in a tone that I didn’t know.
I approached her.
“I’ll listen to your wish.”
The woman pulled her waist back with a flustered expression. A man getting closer to her without keeping a distance was an unfamiliar sight for her. But because she couldn’t use her legs, it was faster for me to grab her hand than for her to escape.
“But, I’ve changed my mind a little too.”
When I pulled her hand tightly, the woman’s body slipped into my arms.
“I, I’m going to scream.”
“Go ahead and scream.”
The woman’s eyes trembled. Her face that was as red as a beet looked as if it was steaming. She couldn’t scream. Because a moment that would change her life was near, she couldn’t resist in any way.
Her wish and the things I had guaranteed were full of things that she couldn’t refuse.
“I don’t like how the mistress of the sect is thinking of other men. Even if you say that you’ll be loyal with your words, I don’t like that kind of floating and perfunctory relationship.”
And then, I slowly pulled my hand from her side. My hand brushed past the side of her chest and wrapped around her shoulder.
“So, I’ll start leaving my mark here. There’s still plenty of time left. And then, you’ll be able to understand what kind of relationship we have more clearly.”
I hugged her shoulder tightly and started talking. I infused my breath into her body and clearly foreshadowed what I would do.
“Th, that’s not right… I’m….”
The woman shook her head and tried to get away from me as if she were a loach. I pulled her even closer and asked,
“His name was Ja-yeong, right? The servant you asked me to take care of. He’s kind, pure… right?”
A clumsy servant.
Ja-yeong.
It was as if the woman and I were simultaneously thinking of the same person.
The woman bit her lips shyly and remained silent, and then I whispered in her ear.
I pulled her into my embrace, and she was like a mantle that I was wearing.
“What do you gain by having a relationship with that man? What do you gain by caring about him in this situation?”
He was just a clumsy and poor servant.
Other than his kindness, there was nothing else to him.
The moment I left, his strong points would become meaningless. He had neither the power nor the ability to protect her.
Ideals were always powerless in the face of violence.
Isn’t that the case right now?
When the woman first proposed the deal to me, she probably didn’t expect this situation.
“If I were to leave right now, could you and that guy even make a connection? Would you be able to continue your relationship peacefully? Even if you were to just make eye contact with some guy, everyone would say that you were being reckless and would scold you, right?”
The woman’s shoulders trembled. That meant I had hit a sore spot. I held her even more tightly. The woman’s resisting body was slowly losing its strength.
“The leader would beat you up and drag you back, and you wouldn’t even be able to run away.”
My hand pulled down her upper clothing. The thin undergarment faintly revealed her skin. She turned her head to avoid my gaze, but she didn’t resist me.
She was a very intelligent woman.
She understood that she could not push me away from here.
She understood that even if she refused our agreement, I would take her by force here. That the more strongly she resisted, the more beastly I would become. That I would definitely sleep with her here as proof of the contract.
“So, I’ll let you know who your husband is. We still have a lot of time. I’ll slowly show you who you should be thinking about, and who you should be giving all your heart to.”
I hugged her shoulder tightly and threw my body down onto the bedding. She, who had fallen down without resisting, used both of her arms to protect her body and said. Her tragic face was full of resignation and lingering regrets.
“…It won’t be as easy as you think it’ll be.”
Her arms, which were wrapping around me, and her determined expression were saying this:
That she would never give me her heart.
That no matter how much I took her body, I would never be able to truly possess her.
I smiled and said,
“You don’t know me.”
The night was too long until the leader would return.
