Chapter 8

​”I need to go to the market.”

​”Yeah.”

​”……Hwi, I said I need to go to the market.”

​”I heard you.”

​Yoo-ha sighed inwardly, preparing to explain that he intended for Hwi to follow him. However, Yong-rae, returning from the perimeter wall after finishing the laundry, was a step faster.

​”You half-wit bastard! What do you mean ‘I heard you’?! Obviously, you’re supposed to escort the Young Master there and back! And who lies sprawled out like that in front of their master? Get up this instant!”

​Only after Yong-rae’s shouting did Ye-hwi, looking thoroughly annoyed, slowly sit up and stretch. From this servant Yong-rae to the nanny lying inside, they all showed unwavering loyalty to Seong Yoo-ha.

​To think a man abandoned by his own family commands such devotion.

​As Yoo-ha stepped down from the veranda and began to walk, Ye-hwi fell into step behind him. Yong-rae continued to mutter under his breath at Ye-hwi’s back.

​”And didn’t I tell you to fix that nasty habit of yours? Stop speaking so casually!”

​Yong-rae had repeated it enough to make anyone’s ears bleed, but Ye-hwi simply ignored the nagging.

​”Yong-rae, it’s fine. Stop scolding him and come here a moment.”

​”Do you have a task for me, sir?”

​”Go to the apothecary tomorrow at noon. The owner will give you some medicinal herbs and a sum of money.”

​”Pardon? Oh, no, sir. You’ve already given me more than enough. I’ll be receiving my wages from the main house soon, so you don’t need to worry about—”

​Yoo-ha watched quietly as Yong-rae waved his hands in frantic refusal, then offered a small smile and continued.

​”As I told you before, I’m not giving it to you; I’m lending it. You have to pay every bit of it back later. Your younger sibling needs to get well quickly so I can badger both of you to repay the debt, right? It’s better for everyone. So don’t be stubborn—make sure you go to the apothecary tomorrow. If you give them my name, they’ll hand everything over.”

​”……Thank you. I will never forget this kindness for as long as I live.”

​Yong-rae bowed his head deeply, his voice thick with emotion. His sibling was gravely ill, and the cost of the medicine was astronomical. The doctor had said consistent treatment would lead to a cure, but the pittance he received from the main house each month was never enough. Somehow, Yoo-ha had discovered Yong-rae’s predicament and had been quietly providing the medicine and a small stipend ever since.

​”You say the strangest things,” Yoo-ha teased gently. He smiled at Yong-rae one last time before heading toward the main gate.

​A master who truly looks after his own. This was a man who didn’t act like a lord, yet fulfilled every duty of one. A man who extended his hand to strangers he didn’t even know. Hwi glanced back at Yong-rae, who was wiping his eyes with the back of his hand, and then followed Yoo-ha.

​He was an interesting man. An intriguing person indeed.

​Step, step. Along with the crisp sound of his footsteps, Yoo-ha’s worn silk robes fluttered. They were a pale, sky-blue—the same shade he had been wearing when Hwi first met him. Or was it the exact same outfit?

​”You must be fond of that color.”

​”Color? Oh, you mean my clothes?”

​”You seem to wear that pale sky-blue silk quite often.”

​”Well, I don’t dislike it.”

​”It isn’t your favorite?”

​”Not particularly. But it isn’t bad.”

​Hwi took note of the fact that Yoo-ha frequently wore a color he didn’t even love; it likely meant he had no other clothes to choose from. He asked no further questions, content to watch Yoo-ha’s back as he walked in silence.

​The boy’s frame was larger than a girl’s but smaller than a man’s. He was sturdy compared to a woman, yet thin-boned and frail compared to a Mir. Attempting to find a name of it, Hwi simply concluded that Yoo-ha’s appearance was, uniquely, “Yoo-ha-like.”

​As they left the annex and reached the main house, the atmosphere shifted entirely. Unlike the shadowed corner where Yoo-ha resided, the primary estate was bathed in constant sunlight and polished to a mirror-shine by a small army of servants. Furthermore, as a residence bestowed by the Emperor of the Mir Kingdom himself, it lacked nothing in scale or ornamentation.

​”So, this is the home of a family that produced a Mir Imperial Consort.”

​”Who told you that?”

​Hwi pointed to the base of a pillar near the stepping stones of the main house. Carved into the stone was the silhouette of a dragon, the sacred symbol of the Mir Kingdom. In Mir, it was customary to carve the dragon into the foundation of any family home belonging to a Maru selected as an Imperial Consort.

​Yoo-ha glanced at Hwi—who spoke of such things with total ease—and nodded. My suspicion was correct. A man who knows the intimate customs of the Mir Imperial Court cannot be a mere servant or slave.

​”Do you happen to know her name?”

​”Well… I remember the character ‘Eun’ was in it.”

​”Eun… Eun…”

​Hwi searched his memory for any Mir Imperial Consorts with ‘Eun’ in their names. To receive that title meant she had borne the Emperor’s child, and that child would be a Mir. Did that mean he and the man walking before him were distant kin? He had never heard of any relatives with the surname Seong.

​Usually, those who bore the Emperor’s children were relentless, crawling to the palace to beg for favors or government posts for their descendants the moment they feared being forgotten. It happened to a sickening degree. Even if they birthed a princess rather than a prince—even if that princess died in infancy—they were frantic to use that connection to extract every possible coin.

​”Oops!”

​Just as a very fake exclamation rang out, Yong-rae suddenly lurched forward, blocking their path.

​Splash! The sound of liquid hitting a surface was followed by the spray of filthy water splattering across the stones.

​”Young Master, are you all right?”

​”……”

​”Are you insane?! Can’t you keep your eyes open?!”

​Yong-rae, now drenched in foul slop, checked Yoo-ha’s condition while simultaneously screaming at the man who had hurled the water toward them. From a few steps back, Hwi watched the spectacle unfold, his eyes sparkling with a dark, entertained light.