The Fairies of Nakseongguan (2)
“…….”
“I heard someone from the imperial family is coming today?”
“Yes. He’s said to be the maternal brother-in-law of the Emperor’s half-nephew.”
“Half-nephew?”
“The younger brother of the wife of the son of His Majesty’s half-brother, so…”
“…Ha.”
Ridiculously high-ranking, then.
And ridiculously famous.
Famous in the worst possible way, that is.
Seo Hyeong-won.
A man called a lecher and a wastrel who outstripped even the current Emperor—yet whose status was absurdly lofty.
First, the Emperor’s half-brother.
Nanjing, the old capital beside Yangzhou, was every bit as vital as Beijing itself. And the man who ruled it was that half-brother of the Emperor.
Naturally his son was an untouchable power in Nanjing—and now that son’s brother-in-law was coming to Nakseongguan.
Among those who could spare the time to travel all the way to Yangzhou just for flower-viewing, he was the highest-ranking of all.
Well, of course. Only someone of that caliber could summon every last one of the Five Hees and throw a banquet.
While I turned the thought over, the room around me had gone quiet.
“What? Why’s everyone so silent?”
“Um… just now, Jin Yu, the way you were talking sounded exactly like Lady Cheonghwa…”
“Did it? How?”
“Well…”
When Geumryang couldn’t finish, Wolbaek answered in a chilly voice.
“You were calculating how much money it would bring in. Jewelry, animals, people—whatever.”
“Ah…”
“…So that ‘virgin’ would fetch quite a price, then?”
Turning the words over again, I realized how terrifying the remark truly was.
I had been treating Cheonsua’s first experience like merchandise.
Still…
“Mother said that?”
“Of course. They say in hell they weigh the weight of your greed and punish you accordingly. Cheonghwa—how deep a pit is she trying to fall into?”
“…Well, I’m sure she’ll find her own way to heaven.”
Venom spat out even with her own son sitting right there.
Wolbaek and my mother, Cheonghwa, had never gotten along, even in the old days. So the moment she opened her mouth she would tear into Mother…
But I’d lived a previous life, and this wasn’t my real mother anyway, so the barbs barely landed.
“Jin Yu, doesn’t it make you furious when people talk about your mother like that?”
“Not really. If all she can do is curse, maybe cursing is all she’s got left. When I think of it that way, I almost feel sorry for her.”
“A man being that wishy-washy—how is that okay?!”
Geumryang would take my side now and then, but always after Wolbaek had left, like gossip behind her back. She clearly didn’t want to ruffle the feathers of Nakseongguan’s great senior, the distant older sister figure that was Wolbaek.
…Still, something feels off.
As I remembered it, until Wolbaek became a Hee, she and Mother had been closer than mere employer and employee. The moment she became a Hee, though, she started looking down on both me and Mother.
Then one day Wolbaek crossed a serious line. Cheonghwa tore into her and publicly humiliated her. After that it had been cold war ever since.
But why the sudden contempt for the two of us in the first place?
“But… she’s not wrong, is she? I know losing one’s virginity matters. So to whom, and how, do you want to lose something that important? Don’t tell me you plan to stay a virgin until you die?”
“Heh heh. Asking that in a room with four women present—Young Master, you’re quite the little devil yourself.”
Mokhwa answered my thorny question with perfect calm.
Right after, Geumryang flushed crimson, pressed herself against my side, and whispered,
“T-to the person I love… I-I want to offer it…?”
“Someone who loves you?”
“Y-yeah.”
“Just by walking into tonight’s banquet you’ll have dozens of men falling for you. Which one are you planning to do it with?”
“D-d-dozens?! I-I can’t! I can’t do it with dozens!”
“Heh heh. If Geumryang is willing to take care of all the guests tonight… then perhaps I’ll stay behind with Young Master?”
“Mokhwa unnie?!”
I turned toward Mokhwa, wondering what she was on about.
But her gaze wasn’t on me. She was looking at Geumryang, who was flapping her hands in panic, and smiling softly.
“Don’t tease her.”
“Hmm? I’m perfectly serious, Young Master. If things go well I might even bear your son and take over Nakseongguan someday—that’s my wicked little scheme.”
“Hawah…”
“I meant don’t tease Geumryang, not me.”
“Tch. You’re sharp.”
Declaring right to the person’s face—and in front of the other three Hees—that she planned to snatch Nakseongguan by bearing my child could only be a lie. She was simply teasing Geumryang for still being a virgin.
“At the very least, wouldn’t it be better to share a bed with a man of her own choosing?”
“When does a gisaeng ever get to choose?”
Wolbaek closed her eyes slowly.
“I don’t like that the one who decides is that woman… but that’s just how the world works.”
She let out a sigh.
“Is there a better embrace than Lord Seo’s?”
“Well… the Emperor’s, maybe?”
“The Emperor?”
Wolbaek snorted openly at my words, then sat down right in front of me.
The Hees who had been standing in a circle around me all turned their eyes to Wolbaek, who now sat on a chair as my equal.
Even after the thrashing she took years ago, she still hadn’t learned.
“What an amusing thing to say, Young Master. Nestled in the Emperor’s arms—a mere gisaeng?”
“Mere gisaeng? Do you know how many men want you?”
“And how many more look down on us? No matter how much His Majesty loves wine and women, that alone is no reason for him to form a bond with a gisaeng.”
I watched Wolbaek speak of herself that way.
She was far too emotional right now.
Among the things Mother had taught me was this: when someone starts getting angry, or crying, or laughing, dig into the reason. That’s where their deepest weakness lives.
“I may not like Cheonghwa, but even I have to admit her talent for using people like tools. Cheonsua will end up offering her first time to that Seo Hyeong-won. There’s no resisting a tongue as silver as his.”
Even while saying what she believed was right, her face looked irritated.
What was she angry about?
That Mother ran Nakseongguan?
That Cheonsua would have her first experience with a wastrel?
“Wolbaek.”
“Young Master?”
“Then should I put Geumryang in the room instead?”
“J-Jin Yu?!”
“Better to thoroughly charm one man than face dozens from the start, right?”
“What are you talking about?!”
A frantic flapping sound came from beside me.
Geumryang must have heard just how lecherous Seo Hyeong-won was. Of course she was worried.
She was the one debuting at tonight’s banquet; if Mother said “go in,” she would have to answer “yes.”
“…I don’t know. Wouldn’t that just be the same situation?”
She said the words, but her eyes had lost some of their venom.
As if Geumryang going in or not barely mattered to her.
“Wolbaek. You.”
At that blatant reaction, the corner of my mouth lifted.
“…You want to go into Seo Hyeong-won’s bedchamber yourself.”
“Huh?”
“…What do you mean by that.”
“No, that’s not quite it.”
Cheonsua was unacceptable, but Geumryang was fine.
If she truly believed serving Seo Hyeong-won was wrong on ethical or professional grounds, Wolbaek would never have drawn a line between the two.
So what was the real difference, in her eyes, between the two virgins Cheonsua and Geumryang?
“It’s that Cheonsua must not receive Seo Hyeong-won’s favor, isn’t it?”
“…Young Master.”
“Because you’d lose to her.”
“Watch your mouth.”
“Then shall I put you in instead?”
“…….”
Wolbaek’s eyes went round, then immediately narrowed again.
“No matter how dotingly Cheonghwa treats you, it’s still far too early for her to discuss Nakseongguan’s affairs with you.”
Dismissal. Suspicion.
Yet curiosity and hope she couldn’t quite hide.
“I may not tell Mother, but I can at least advise Cheonsua, can’t I? Tell her not to go in. Or would you rather say it yourself, Wolbaek? ‘I’m taking your place’?”
“What kind of—!!”
Wolbaek rose from her seat.
“…I have no intention of taking anything, and I’m not complaining about that either. Don’t get the wrong idea!”
She clicked away toward the tea-room door.
“U-unnie? Wolbaek unnie! If you’re going flower-viewing, let’s go together~”
Geumryang hurried after her, and the sliding door was yanked open with irritation.
“Jin Yu, bye…. See you again tonight!”
“Yeah, we’ll see each other while getting ready for the banquet.”
I corrected her provocative “see you tonight,” and the tea-room door closed carefully.
For a moment only silence filled the room.
The lively noise from outside the window barely reached the fifth floor; it arrived as little more than a gentle murmur.
Sss—
“The more I look at you, Young Master, the more you seem to take after your mother.”
Mokhwa settled her hips lightly onto the chair Wolbaek had just vacated.
Trickle…
Almost at the same time, Gyeonghwa brought the teapot and refilled my empty cup.
A life waited on by two peerless beauties.
For this privilege, Seo Hyeong-won and the officials would tonight pay sums I couldn’t even imagine.
…And I was getting it for free.
“I only learned what I saw…”
“Oh come now, saying that makes us feel unappreciated. Do you know how affectionately I’ve treated you since we were little? Hoping even a few crumbs might fall my way.”
Mokhwa couldn’t resist adding one more mischievous line.
At that moment Gyeonghwa spoke.
“Mokhwa.”
“Y-yes…?”
“Isn’t it Young Master who has been treating you affectionately? Looking at how you still live on the fifth floor even while teasing him like a little brother, I’d say so.”
“I-is that sooo…”
Mokhwa avoided her second sister Gyeonghwa’s eyes and looked at me instead.
A gaze that seemed to beg for rescue.
“Young Master.”
“Gyeonghwa.”
“…….”
“…?”
Why call me “Young Master” and then go silent?
“Weren’t you about to say something?”
“I thought Young Master was about to say something after calling my name…”
“Ah, no. I just answered because you spoke to me.”
“I see. Then to continue…”
Gyeonghwa sat beside me and looked back and forth between Mokhwa and me.
“Young Master needs to carry more dignity. Wolbaek, Mokhwa, Geumryang—all of them have treated you since childhood like an enemy, a little brother, a friend.”
“Well… that’s true, isn’t it?”
And that was a good thing.
Lording over people wasn’t my style, and I doubted I could manage it even if I tried…
More than anything, when I could enjoy beauties of every different flavor, why would I force them all into one mold?
“Someday you will have to set the hierarchy properly. Nakseongguan needs a head, does it not?”
“Haha…”
“What is amusing?”
“Nothing… it just sounds exactly like something my mother would say.”
“Lady Cheonghwa…!”
The expression on Gyeonghwa’s face as she said that looked exactly like a child standing before her first love.
“I don’t understand it.”
Suddenly Mokhwa leaned in from my right and whispered.
“What?”
Leaving the momentarily stunned Gyeonghwa alone, I whispered back.
“Wolbaek unnie hates Lady Cheonghwa so much, yet Gyeonghwa unnie completely loses it the moment her name comes up.”
“True.”
“And they only became Hees a year apart.”
“That’s… also true.”
“Why such a difference?”
“How should I know?”
“Aww, boring. You’re the only son of Lady Cheonghwa, who knows every gisaeng in Nakseongguan inside out—how can you not know about the Hees?”
“Have you told me all your secrets?”
“…No.”
“Then what do you expect from me?”
“Still, a man in his prime—wouldn’t he have had one or two gisaengs he was interested in? Wouldn’t he go up to them, ask what they like, share secrets?”
“Well…”
Would he?
I had never been allowed outside Nakseongguan, so I had never even seen women from the outside world…
But I must have seen hundreds of gisaengs and apprentices working here, and still not a single one had ever stirred my heart.
“Maybe my standards got too high from only looking at beauties like you.”
“Hah…”
Mokhwa made a deflated sound and turned her head the other way.
I thought she might be angry from sheer disbelief, but looking closer I saw her ears had gone red.
“…Young Master, that’s unfair.”
“I mean it.”
“Hnn…”
Of course, the other truth was that I truly could not dare touch the gisaengs who were Nakseongguan’s “property.”
Mother had drilled that into my ears until they bled.
If you start touching them one by one out of greed, someday you’ll turn Nakseongguan into your own den of lust.
Anyone who thinks “that doesn’t sound so bad” needs to know how many men have died on the first floor of Nakseongguan.
Most of them were husbands or lovers who abandoned their women and treated brothels like dining halls. The women, tormented emotionally and financially, finally decided “you are a creature that should not exist,” and when the man was dead drunk with a gisaeng on his arm they ambushed him and stabbed him to death.
So what’s the lesson?
Play with your cock however you please and you’ll end up fucked.
Cheonsua closed the sliding door and dragged her heavy feet forward.
She had just finished several hours of discussion with Lady Cheonghwa and was only now leaving.
The content had been exactly as expected.
First a long explanation of how exalted today’s guests were, then a lecture on exactly what the highest among them—Seo Hyeong-won—was capable of.
After that came the praise directed at her.
A beauty who could topple a nation, a rare beauty even in the Central Plains.
Lately she had grown skilled in song and dance as well; a new seductive aura had bloomed, and from now on she would be the most fully opened peerless beauty…
Praise like that from Cheonghwa’s lips had not been heard since the day she first bought Cheonsua at the slave market and brought her to Yangzhou to wash her in warm water.
And after those honeyed words came Cheonghwa’s true intent.
Had that, too, been praise for Cheonsua?
Twenty-two years old.
A virgin.
“A virgin…”
If you wish it, in exchange for serving him in Seo Hyeong-won’s bedchamber, Nakseongguan will give you an enormous reward.
The reward simply for setting foot in the room.
If, through your own efforts, you also win Lord Seo’s favor, the reward he bestows may be so great you will forget mine entirely.
“Haa…”
Cheonsua leaned against the wall.
She slowly slid down until she was crouching, still leaning.
It was the posture she always took when she was alone in her room.
Hugging her knees, using her heavy breasts as a cushion until her shoulders ached—then she felt like the tiniest little pill bug, free from everyone’s attention, and that felt good.
“Have sex… they say…”
I don’t want to.
Simply, instinctively, I don’t want to.
It had been that way ever since she was born in the land of Liaodong.
She had sworn that in this life she would never again show her genitals to a man.
Why were these Central Plains men so desperate to hold women?
Why had she been dragged to a place like this, forced to dance and sing and flirt for them…
and in the end even offer up her virginity?
“…Get a grip, Cheonsua.”
You decided to survive.
And you decided to live well.
This is an opportunity.
A chance to stamp your face into the memory of one of the highest powers.
Is virginity the problem?
You almost lost it in the chaos of war anyway.
Compared to being raped by barbarians, how extraordinary is the offer Lady Cheonghwa made today?
Think coldly.
Are you confident you can lose your virginity more expensively than today?
“…But……”
Cheonsua hung her head low.
When she buried her face in the circle of her arms, the uselessly large breasts resting on her thighs came right up to her nose.
The scent from Lady Cheonghwa’s room seemed to have clung to her clothes; it rose faintly.
She hated it.
She hated that she was seeping into Nakseongguan whether she wanted to or not.
That was the moment.
“Cheonsua.”
“…Hup?!”
She already knew whose voice had come from above.
Cheonsua sprang up as if launched, straightened her clothes, and answered with elegant formality.
“Third Hee Cheonsua greets the Young Master.”
“What are you doing here?”
“This girl was merely… a little dizzy, so she sat for a moment.”
“You can’t start like that already. Today is an important day.”
“Yes…”
You’re the same, aren’t you.
You’re not looking at me—you’re looking at the Cheonsua who will entertain at tonight’s banquet and offer her virginity in the night.
For some reason her mood sank even further.
Yet she also thought his coldness was only natural.
When he was little, she was the one who had caused him to be beaten by his own mother.
From that day on, this Cheonsua must have been an eyesore to the Young Master.
“Eat this and pull yourself together.”
“…?”
A man’s hand suddenly appeared before the lowered eyes of Cheonsua.
On it lay something like a pure-white ball of thread.
“It’s called Dragon’s Beard Candy. You always shut yourself in your room except when working, so you wouldn’t know, but it’s a famous dessert—no, snack—in the marketplace.”
“Is it… like candy?”
“Yeah. When you’re depressed, sugar is the best medicine.”
Cheonsua raised her head and looked at him.
“Depressed? Ah, no. It’s nothing.”
“You think I don’t know you’ve been with my mother until just now?”
“…….”
“What are you waiting for? The Dragon’s Beard is melting—hurry and eat.”
Sss—
“Do I have to feed it to you myself?”
Watching Jin Yu pick up the candy with his other hand and lift it to the height of her mouth, Cheonsua could not help but panic.
“Y-Young Master! I’ll eat it myself…!”
“Ah-ah. Too late. Open your mouth.”
“Th-this girl is not someone who deserves to receive such a thing!”
“I know. So just quietly open your mouth. Are you planning to resist right now?”
“Thaat…”
Cheonsua’s eyes trembled, then squeezed tightly shut.
Ahh……
And carefully, she parted her lips.
Even, model-like teeth.
Snow-white enamel.
Slightly protruding, cute canines.
Pink oral mucosa.
Clear saliva pooled inside, and resting lightly atop it, a soft, pliant-looking tongue.
Upon that tongue, the Young Master’s white gift settled.
Chew, chew…
“…!!”
In an instant Cheonsua’s eyes flew open.
So sweet…!
That was the first impression.
And as the sugar mixed with her saliva and seeped into every corner of her mouth, she felt anew the reason human beings keep living.
Carbohydrates and refined sugar.
The primal happiness they gave filled her mouth.
As if mocking the girl who moments earlier had been agonizing over whether to offer her virginity, the soft, airy lump of sugar gently smoothed her expression.
“Like it?”
Cheonsua’s head nodded at once.
At that childlike reaction, Jin Yu laughed.
“Whatever it is, I want you to act the way you want.”
“The way I want…?”
“No need to rush. Whatever you choose, Nakseongguan has the ability to handle it.”
“…….”
When Cheonsua said nothing to that, Jin Yu felt a little awkward.
Truthfully the ability belonged to Mother, not him.
And that very person was insisting Cheonsua must offer her virginity tonight.
“…There’s one thing I’m curious about.”
“Ask.”
“…Young Master can’t leave Nakseongguan, so how did you buy the Dragon’s Beard Candy?”
“Ah, that…”
He scratched his head while looking elsewhere.
“Geumryang gave it to me, but I wasn’t really interested.”
“…….”
Just as Cheonsua was about to think, So you dumped another woman’s gift on me?
“But then I thought of you. From the rumors, it seemed you were the one who’d be in the worst mood before the banquet.”
“Young Master…”
“Ahem…. So prepare well so the banquet goes smoothly, all right?”
With that, Jin Yu casually turned and walked the other way.
Cheonsua watched his back while savoring the sweetness still left in her mouth.
Perhaps.
Perhaps the most valuable way to lose my virginity is different from the most expensive way.
Thinking that, she smacked her lips with a touch of regret.