Becoming the Tang Clan's Daughter
It was a viciously sweet cup of tea.
“Cough!”
The old man who drank it coughed up blood.
He looked like a frail old thing with death already at his heels.
And yet no one in this room would ever dare think lightly of him.
He was the very leader of Sapaelryeon, the colossal evil faction south of the Yangtze, a force so vast it could stand shoulder to shoulder with the righteous Murim Alliance.
“Leader!”
The room was opulent, and packed with the many chieftains of the evil factions.
They all stared at the old man with one feeling and one feeling only.
Greed.
Sticky, bottomless greed that seemed to fill the entire chamber and spill out into the world beyond.
How hollow this is…
The old man could feel it all.
Even if he had been weakened by poison, so weak that he could barely stand, and they would bare their teeth at him this quickly.
He might have wanted to punish them, but he could not.
The old man's life ended here.
He knew it himself.
“Father!”
A man seized the old man's hand.
A young, handsome fellow dressed with immaculate care.
“Soha…”
“Do you recognize me, Father?”
Yeon So-ha. The adopted son the old man had picked up off the street and raised from infancy.
Seeing Yeon So-ha looking at him with such worried eyes made the old man feel as if his strength were returning.
This bastard…!
That feeling was rage.
The one who had spent so long lacing his medicinal wine with poison was none other than Yeon So-ha.
But he had realized it too late.
The old man was already dying, and he did not even have the strength to lift one arm.
“Father, there’s no time. You must tell me before it’s too late!”
To anyone watching, Yeon So-ha looked exactly like a son worried sick over his father.
But the old man could see the greed hiding beneath those eyes.
“Tell us quickly where the manual for Hyeoncheon Jinwon Shingong is hidden.”
Yeon So-ha’s voice, steeped in greed, filled the room.
The noisy chamber fell silent in an instant.
Everyone waited for the old man's answer.
Hyeoncheon Jinwon Shingong.
The peerless art that had allowed the old man to unify the land south of the Yangtze and rise as the foremost power of all evil factions.
It was obvious that everyone in this room—and indeed everyone in the world—wanted its secret formula.
“Keuk-keuk-keuk…”
Laughter escaped him on its own.
No matter how dazzling a flower might be, it did not last ten days.
Who could have known that the old man who had made the world tremble in fear would meet such an end?
The old man motioned weakly to Yeon So-ha.
It meant for him to come closer and listen.
“......!”
Yeon So-ha leaned in with a face full of expectation.
Hyeoncheon Jinwon Shingong.
If he could get his hands on that manual, it would no longer be a dream to become the new master of Sapaelryeon himself.
But that dream would never come true.
“Then go on and work like a dog.”
With a mocking tone, the old man hurled an insult at his adopted son.
Yeon So-ha’s face twisted with shock.
“Wha… what! Father! What do you mean by that!?”
That was the last of it.
His dimming vision closed, and soon even the blue sky vanished.
Endless helplessness.
That was what death must be.
And so the life of a man who had once ruled the world came to an end.
***
“...I'm alive.”
And that was also the beginning of a new life.
The lion had become the living.
The old man had become a girl.
“Heh-heh-heh…”
A thin, shaky laugh slipped out.
She wasn't a Buddhist, but the meaning was obvious.
Reincarnation.
And revenge.
“Hahahahahahahahaha!!!”
The girl decided to follow the will of heaven.
She would take revenge on everyone who had betrayed her.
***
“Miss Soyeong… is something the matter?”
After laughing for what felt like forever, a maid cautiously opened the door to the girl's room.
She had hurried over because, after all the silence, she had suddenly heard a crazed burst of laughter from inside.
“Nothing happened.”
The girl called Soyeong smiled brightly.
She was so beautiful that the maid found herself staring before she even realized it.
No, in fact, this was the first time she had ever seen Soyeong smile at all.
Lady Tang Soyeong… smiling!?
That alone would have been enough to shock not just the Tang Clan, but all of Sichuan.
Tang Soyeong.
The daughter of the Tang Clan head, lord of the Sichuan Tang Clan, the foremost martial house in Sichuan, and his third wife.
The third wife had been a concubine with no real backing, and she had even died giving birth to Tang Soyeong.
Unable to withstand pressure from the family, the clan head had failed to properly look after Tang Soyeong.
In the end, Tang Soyeong lost both father and mother at a young age and grew into a foul-tempered daughter who had forgotten how to smile.
“If anything, it looks like something's wrong with you.”
And now that very Tang Soyeong was worrying over the dazed maid instead.
That was the second shock.
Tang Soyeong did not worry about other people. If she wasn't insulting or mocking them, that was already a blessing.
In the end, unable to believe what was happening, the maid blurted out something she should never have said.
“A-are you really Lady Soyeong?”
The moment the words left her mouth, she clapped a hand over her own lips.
It was not the sort of thing a mere maid should ever say to the child of a prestigious family.
She knew that much herself, but there was another, bigger reason her face had gone white.
Because the corners of Tang Soyeong’s mouth had curled upward with a twisted, predatory grace.
“Of course. If I'm not Soyeong, then who would I be?”
Tang Soyeong rose and staggered toward the maid.
It was only an unsteady step, yet for some reason the maid felt a chill of terror.
Her eyes shifted about.
Then she saw a vial lying on the floor.
She knew exactly what that vial was.
Thousand Poison!
The Tang Clan was a house of poison.
To say they handled every poison in the world would not have been an exaggeration.
And among those poisons, the one handled with the greatest care was Thousand Poison.
She was only a lowly maid, and had never even dared to touch it—she had only sniffed its scent once.
But the fragrance coming from the bottle sprawled on the floor was unmistakably Thousand Poison.
A vial of Thousand Poison on the floor, and Tang Soyeong acting strangely on top of that.
The conclusion was obvious.
“M-Miss, did you drink the Thousand Poison!?”
At the maid’s cry, Tang Soyeong tilted her head.
Thousand Poison.
She knew it. In the days when she had been an old man, it had been one of the poisons that had given her more than enough trouble.
Soyeong followed the maid's gaze and glanced at the bottle lying on the floor.
A familiar scent reached her nose. Thousand Poison.
“...Ah.”
Tang Soyeong grasped the situation in an instant.
Apparently, this body had already died once.
The girl who had once owned it had, for some reason, swallowed Thousand Poison and died as fate dictated.
And then she had entered that body.
In that case, how would she look to the maid standing here now?
“Yeah. I drank it.”
“Hiiiieeeek!!”
Smiling sweetly, Tang Soyeong answered.
The maid nearly jumped out of her skin and clawed at her own hair.
No matter how much of a discarded child she might be treated like, she was still the Clan Head’s daughter in name.
If the young lady had tried to kill herself, the blame would fall squarely on her.
The Tang Clan was righteous in name only; in temperament, it was no different from an evil sect, and when it came to punishment, there was only one answer.
If she were lucky, it would be a beating with a club. If she were unlucky, they would test the Tang Clan’s poison on her whole body.
“Should I save you?”
“......Pardon?”
“I asked if you wanted to be saved.”
Then a rope was lowered to her.
Looking down at the maid clutching her own head, Tang Soyeong said, “I’ve got a little fog in my head from the poison. So you’re going to help me.”
“Help you with…?”
“It means you become mine.”
Tang Soyeong understood better than anyone the power of a faction.
Even in her youth, when she had believed she could rule the world alone, she had eventually built a power base.
You can’t beat the many by yourself.
That had been true even when she could seriously aim for first place in the world, and it was even more so now that she had become a miserable little girl.
What she needed most now was a faction. People.
People who would never betray her, no matter what happened.
And to make that happen, what she needed was not trust.
It was weakness.
“If you become mine, I won't say a word about what happened today. So you stay by my side and help me. Don’t let anyone get suspicious.”
“......You mean…”
“From today on, you’re my personal maid.”
Tang Soyeong had never had a personal maid.
No one had ever wanted to take that role on, thanks to her notoriously rotten personality.
So they took turns on duty. Why, then, did something like this have to happen on her shift?
Teary-eyed, the maid swallowed hard.
But she had no choice.
“I-I understand…”
“Good. You're my first person.”
Tang Soyeong held out her hand.
Then she gave the maid, who had lowered her head, a light tap on the crown.
“Now that I think about it, I don't even know your name. Tell me.”
“B-Baek Ga-ryeong.”
“Good. Ga-ryeong. I’ve got my first favor to ask you.”
“J-just say the word.”
“I like that you don’t waste words. So, what’s your position in the Tang Clan?”
“My…? I’m just a low-ranking maid. Pretty much at the very bottom.”
Hmm.
At Baek Ga-ryeong’s answer, Tang Soyeong let out a small sigh.
It would have been better if she could get someone with a higher position, but there was nothing to be done.
She’d just have to start from the bottom and work upward.
“Good. Then what level of poison can you access?”
“Poison…? Among the Tang Clan’s common poisons, I can only access the lower-grade ones.”
“Really? Then how far can I access?”
“Since you are the direct bloodline of the Clan Head, Miss… I imagine you can access everything except the very highest-grade poisons.”
Baek Ga-ryeong wondered why Soyeong was asking about poison.
But she did not dare ask.
By now, her leash was already in Soyeong’s hands.
After a moment’s thought, Soyeong straightened at once and said, “Good. Get ready. We’re going somewhere.”
“Pardon? Somewhere all of a sudden…?”
“The Poison Hall.”
At Soyeong’s unilateral declaration, Baek Ga-ryeong had no choice but to follow with a dejected expression.
Soyeong’s steps toward Poison Hall were as light as could be.
A smile curved at the corners of her mouth.
They say all the poisons of the world are gathered in the Sichuan Tang Clan’s Poison Hall.
Then the poison that had killed her would surely be there too.
How was she going to find it?
Well… if I taste them, I’ll know.
Surely a Tang Clan daughter wouldn't die just from eating poison, would she?