Chapter 2
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Translator: penny
Chapter: 2
Chapter Title: Revenge
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So-hyang used stone ornaments and jade rings as whetstones to sharpen the blade of her makeup knife.
It was already well-maintained and didn't seem to need sharpening, but since the one wielding it was her small body, which hadn't fully grown, she needed to compensate for her lack of strength with a razor-sharp edge.
A blade as sharp as a razor could slice through flesh like tofu.
Even a edge honed to that degree would dull after just one or two uses, but for now, that one or two strikes were more than enough.
In the silence, only the scraping sound of the blade being whetted echoed—until one maid opened the door.
One of the two maids who had bathed So-hyang before.
She had come to relieve the maid who had already grown cold on the bed.
So-hyang's judgment was swift. She immediately hurled the sharpened makeup knife at the maid.
The knife spun swiftly through the air and embedded itself precisely in the maid's throat.
The maid collapsed without so much as a reaction.
"I've gained another weapon. That's good."
This maid also had a makeup knife hidden in her bosom.
So-hyang took it, sharpened its edge, and stepped out of the room.
This was the residence of the Imperial Scion, the Prince of Affection—but not in the imperial palace.
It was merely a temporary lodging for the night, an entire suitable pleasure house rented out nearby.
Even so, the security was tight as befitting an Imperial Scion, though most of it was focused outward.
So-hyang had been made the Imperial Scion's drunken plaything, so she was housed not far from the Prince of Affection's chambers.
This was neither complacency nor arrogance.
Common sense dictated that a girl of around ten years old, whom the Imperial Scion had taken a fancy to, posed no threat.
The concern should have been that she might bite her tongue and end her own life.
The child had spiritual talent.
And it had awakened through mental anguish.
Moreover, it had summoned the soul from a previous life.
And that soul was a freak who could take lives even in a child's body...
Who could have foreseen that?
Thus, So-hyang reached the door of the Prince of Affection's chambers without walking many steps or being stopped by any guards.
The only obstacle was the two guards at the door.
"Hm? Isn't that the kid His Highness brought?"
"Did she get lost or something?"
They didn't even suspect the midnight intruder, so they weren't exactly top-tier guards.
So-hyang looked up at the two guards with a tearful face and murmured softly.
"...Dog...gies."
No special deception or schemes were needed.
Beauty beyond a certain level was honey trap enough, so the two guards bowed their heads without a shred of doubt, bringing their ears close to the child.
"...Bend your heads down a bit more."
"What...?"
The distance closed.
To a range where even short arms and a makeup knife could reach.
So-hyang gripped the knife hidden in her sleeve and swung it.
A clean, straight line.
Even with her frail body, if she applied proper force to a razor-sharp blade—
"Guh, grk...!"
Human flesh would slice smoothly.
"Hm, worth all that whetting."
One swing took both guards' lives simultaneously.
Convinced her skills hadn't rusted much, So-hyang opened the chamber door.
"Snooore, zzzzzz..."
A snore loud enough to shake the room.
The stench of alcohol and powder assaulting her nose.
The space itself seemed to proclaim its occupant the world's biggest wastrel.
The man sprawled in a grand pose was, outwardly, a handsome youth.
A charming man with the golden hair typical of royalty and a well-muscled but not brutish build.
"Haa..."
Her heart pounded.
Her hands trembled, her eyes welled with red.
The rage and sorrow engraved in the child's body.
Even after the child had passed, the grudge lingered, screaming.
"...Right. As painfully as possible, got it."
To escape intact, dragging it out wasn't wise.
A clean kill and quick retreat was proper.
The old man's mind could overcome impulse, but it didn't.
This was like the child's dying wish; he had no intention of betraying it.
She sliced the bed curtains and blankets into ropes, binding his limbs.
Her movements were quiet and graceful, the pinnacle of stealth.
Even drunk and asleep, he didn't stir as his limbs were securely tied.
Then she climbed atop the Prince of Affection's body, leaned toward his face, and stroked his throat with small, slender fingers.
In the dead of night, climbing onto the bed, binding a man's limbs, mounting him, and gently caressing.
Paired with innate allure, it could almost look lascivious at a glance.
But the intent was far from it—
"Let's see... right about here."
She gripped the razor-edged makeup knife like a pencil and gently thrust it into his throat.
"Guh! Kek, graaak!"
Horrific pain in the dead of night.
He should have thrashed and screamed, but he couldn't.
"No big noises will come out."
Instead of severing the windpipe or artery for instant death, she made a small cut to the larynx, half-tearing the vocal cords.
Not enough to silence him completely, but preventing loud shouts, while avoiding major vessels to minimize bleeding.
No immediate threat to life.
This was less swordplay or assassination and more like surgery.
"Squeak—! Guhhek—!"
"Don't breathe so hard. You might actually die."
Unfamiliar agony, unknown threat. Bound limbs, whistling air from his throat.
The Prince of Affection's eyes filled with terror.
"Breathe slowly. If you want to live, calm down."
"Huu... huuuh..."
"Good. You want to live too."
"Wha... why are you... hek! You, you're...!"
Only now looking at the face atop him, the Prince recoiled in shock.
"Ha, haha! Right, a dream... kyaak!"
Rejecting reality in the face of the absurd, but the gracefully swung knife sliced his finger.
So-hyang held the cleanly severed finger before his eyes.
"Not a dream. You bastard, snap out of it."
"Gu, guuuh..."
"Good. First question: what's your name?"
"Ju... Ju Yeong-in...!"
"Right, Yeong-in."
"Guu, huuuh."
"Yeong-in."
"Uuh..."
So-hyang sliced another finger.
"Gu, guaa...!"
"Yeong-in, answer me. Yeong-in."
"Y-yes...!"
"If you wanted me, you could've just taken me. Why kill the people of Bright Mystery Pavilion too?"
"Bri... Mystery...?"
"Ah, that's where it started?"
Another finger gone, a muffled scream leaking out with the air.
"The pleasure house that brought me to you."
"Th-that was... just...!"
"Yeah, I figured."
The child had sought reason in her misfortune, but the old man knew some misfortunes had none.
Dared disagree with him, so he killed them in displeasure.
Or maybe just in a bad mood that day.
Just because. No reason at all.
"I-I'm sorry... spare...!"
"Shut up."
No more need for talk with this filth.
She fully tore Ju Yeong-in's half-sliced vocal cords. Now, not even a word.
"Gu... guaa..."
"Begged to live... fine, I'll let you."
Her knife turned to his bound hand.
"But I'll make you wish for death instead."
She started with fingernails, then toenails, ripping them all out.
Excised his testicles and penis.
Pulled teeth and scraped the nerves beneath.
"Hm, blade's dulling."
She took time to re-sharpen, then flayed his skin.
Avoiding major vessels and peeling only the subcutaneous fat, bleeding was minimal.
Beneath the skin lay fat and muscle—and nerve bundles between.
So-hyang precisely inserted the knife and began slicing them.
A bizarre scene, like surgery or butchering livestock.
After mincing his right arm completely and switching the knife to his left, Ju Yeong-in's heart gave out from the pain.
"Ha, where do you think you're escaping to?"
So-hyang wouldn't even allow that.
With practiced skill, she compressed his heart and tilted his head back to breathe into him.
"Guhk!"
Ju Yeong-in's heart beat again, breathing resumed.
"Let's continue. Left arm now."
After mincing the left arm, right leg, left leg, slashing his back open, and ripping his belly wide—
Only then could Ju Yeong-in finally meet death.
"Hoo... satisfied now, So-hyang?"
She felt the lingering child consciousness in her body recoil in horror, but who knew if it was real.
She'd tortured so long that rooster crows echoed outside.
Dawn hadn't broken or sunlight pierced yet, but it was only a matter of time.
"You held out a long time."
A young man raised on fine food and fond of hunting was naturally healthy—but
"...Even so, too long."
No signs of training, yet muscles like a wild horse's, bones like steel.
Dissecting his body like this made the unnaturalness vivid.
"Innate sturdy frame doesn't even cover how superb this body is..."
Well, not important now.
A maid entered with wash water.
"Y-Your Highness, Prince of Affection...? Kyaaaaah!!!"
So-hyang startled and flung her knife into the maid's head, but the scream had already echoed through the halls.
"Damn, wash water? For a wastrel bastard to rise this early..."
Hundreds of guards swarmed in.
Captured, she'd face horrors.
A clean death would be lucky; torture worse than what she inflicted likely awaited.
No better torturer than her, but they'd have tools and drugs aplenty.
"Shit. This is bad."
Priority: survival.
She had a way.
Prepared in spare moments during the all-night torment.
So-hyang smashed the oil lamp on the floor and lit the oil-soaked cloth.
She'd primed the room's rotten wood and cracks with oil, creating paths for flames.
The old man was a skilled bladesman, killer, and master of destroying evidence.
Arson was, historically, one of the surest ways to erase traces.
The old man was a seasoned arsonist too.
Flames spread instantly, filling the room and soon licking outside the door.
The raging fire would block the room like a wall.
Forcing guards to fight flames and rescue their lord instead of chasing, ideally burning away traces on the corpse.
"...Hope it holds."
If luck held, evidence gone; if not, at least time bought.
Then, to escape the flame-filled room, So-hyang hurled herself out the window.
From the fourth-floor hall.
Toward a cart full of fodder she'd eyed yesterday, arms spread like an eagle's wings as she fell—
Landing with a practiced roll to absorb the impact.
"Hoo, light body helps; less shock than expected."
So-hyang swiftly darted into the back alleys.
The child's body remembered the local layout well, and the old man's mind was adept at evading pursuers.
Quiet steps, fluid movements, above all, masking the instinctive presence people sense.
Not just avoiding detection by people, but skilled enough to dodge the surveillance everywhere in the old man's world.
Through maze-like alleys, sometimes over rooftops, So-hyang quietly left the city.
After diligently trekking away from her lifelong hometown to the neighboring province the steward mentioned, what greeted her was:
Wanted posters plastered thickly along the main street.
Crime: Fled after assassinating royalty.
Gold 100 kin for the head of the vicious criminal.
Gold 500 kin and a prefect position for capture alive.
Name: So-hyang.
Girl around ten.
Black hair, white eyes.
Outstanding beauty... etc.
Descriptions of features, personal details, and a portrait of the child.
"...Damn, they drew it well."
Skilled artist's work; the girl in the picture was the spitting image of So-hyang.
"Heh, such a pretty kid doing something so horrific...?"
"Gotta be a Demonic Cult pawn, right?"
"Could be a Rejuvenation master in disguise?"
"But it says brothel-born here..."
The tiny vicious criminal amid the murmuring crowd clicked her tongue.
"Tsk, what now."