Can You Leave?
It had been a week since Tang Soyeong had dragged the corpse of a demon across the Sichuan Tang Clan and caused a commotion in the household.
She woke in the clinic.
“How long was I out?”
“It’s been a full week as of today,” Jin-ha, who had been in charge of treating her the entire time, replied.
Ga-ryeong, who had helped nurse her as well, rushed over and threw her arms around Soyeong.
“I really thought you’d died!”
“As if. You could tell I was breathing.”
“I thought I was going to die!”
“I explained a dozen times that there was no danger to her life, and she still wouldn’t believe me.”
“Jin-ha is a quack physician!”
“...... A quack?”
At Ga-ryeong’s words, Jin-ha’s eyes narrowed just a little.
Ga-ryeong ignored the look entirely and, still teary-eyed, turned to Soyeong.
“Next time, please tell us before something like this happens! You scared us!”
“How am I supposed to warn you in advance that I’m going to collapse in the middle of a fight?”
“I don’t care!”
She seemed to have gotten a little bolder, didn’t she?
Soyeong watched Ga-ryeong sobbing into her waist and actually had to think about it.
She felt like scolding her was the right thing to do... but Ga-ryeong was also clearly worried, so there was nothing to say.
In her previous life, she had never known anyone like this.
After all, she had only started taking on subordinates after reaching the Peak Realm.
No one had ever worried about her sincerely. At best, they had offered empty words.
“You do realize you’re being pretty cheeky right now, don’t you?”
“...... Ah.”
She’d barely tried to scold her, keeping her voice cold, and only then did Ga-ryeong flinch and begin to panic.
Seeing that idiot’s face made even the urge to be angry vanish.
Soyeong let out a sigh.
“...Forget it. I won’t punish you, since it came from concern. Just don’t do it again.”
“Yes... Young Lady.”
She hadn’t even scolded her that hard, and yet Ga-ryeong instantly wilted again and stared at the floor.
She really was all or nothing.
Just then, Jin-ha casually handed something to Ga-ryeong.
It was a small piece of candy.
“Take it, Miss Baek.”
“Ah... thank you.”
Ga-ryeong accepted the candy naturally from Jin-ha and shoved it into her mouth.
Jin-ha watched her chewing for a moment, then returned to his work.
...Huh?
Watching that, Soyeong felt a strange, irritating twitch in her gut.
“What are you two doing...?”
Seeing the sour look on Soyeong’s face, Ga-ryeong answered, looking much brighter now.
“You were out for a week, Young Lady, so Jin-ha and I ended up working our tails off together. I think we got a little close in the meantime.”
Soyeong’s gaze slid to Jin-ha.
“...... That’s how it is.”
Jin-ha’s expression was flat, almost reluctant.
Apparently, he did not like the phrase a little close.
“Oh, I see.”
Only then did Soyeong understand what was going on.
Her playful expression turned toward Jin-ha.
Jin-ha quietly looked away.
So even that poison-obsessed lunatic had a human side to him.
“Ahem... Young Lady.”
For once, Jin-ha even broke into a cold sweat as he looked at her.
Soyeong just shrugged.
She had no hobby of making her own people uncomfortable.
At that, Jin-ha finally let out a breath of relief.
“...... What are you two doing?”
And only Ga-ryeong, caught in the middle, blinked stupidly at them both.
“May I come in?”
At that moment, an unfamiliar voice came from outside.
Ga-ryeong hurried to answer.
“The Young Lady is resting right now.”
“My name is Seon-hyeon.”
The man introduced himself without waiting to be asked.
But the moment Ga-ryeong heard the name, her eyes filled with alarm.
Jin-ha’s face also stiffened, so he clearly wasn’t an ordinary man.
“Who is it?”
“It’s Seon-hyeon, Young Lady...! He’s the Clan Lord’s right hand, his representative!”
At that, Soyeong nodded.
So the fact that this man had come here meant the Tang Clan Lord had come in person as well.
She had told him to visit sometime, then brushed him off, and now he had apparently come himself.
“Tell him to come in.”
Ga-ryeong nodded immediately.
“Please come in.”
With that, the door to the clinic opened.
Standing there was a young man with a kind, gentle face.
From the fact that she couldn’t sense his presence, he had to be at least an expert of the Peak Realm.
He clearly had an overwhelming presence, but still not as much as the man behind him.
“You look well.”
“Clan Lord, I was about to—”
“Enough. The patient has no need to stand.”
The Tang Clan Lord cut off Soyeong as she rose from the bed and started to salute.
Soyeong immediately nodded and, still seated, gave a proper fist-and-palm salute.
“I greet the Tang Clan Lord.”
“Mm.”
Tang Clan Lord accepted her greeting.
Then silence settled over the room.
The Clan Lord stared at Soyeong with a fierce, wolfish gaze.
Soyeong stared right back, not yielding an inch.
And so the two of them simply faced each other in silence, father and daughter saying nothing at all.
This was absolutely not one of those moments where people could communicate with a glance.
What is wrong with you? Why do you keep glaring at me?
Soyeong’s expression sharpened a little.
Of course, compared to Tang Cheon-ak’s already terrifying face, she looked like a blooming flower.
Tang Cheon-ak was doing his best to check over Soyeong’s body.
He was making sure she wasn’t injured anywhere, making sure nothing looked off.
Good. Nothing seems to be seriously wrong.
After confirming her condition, Tang Cheon-ak finally felt some relief.
Even so, he still couldn’t speak.
He didn’t know what he was supposed to say.
Oh dear...
And only Seon-hyeon, standing beside him, fully understood the situation and pressed a hand to his forehead.
But the Clan Lord hadn’t spoken yet, so it would be absurd for his subordinate to speak first.
So Seon-hyeon could only look at him with a sympathetic expression.
“What brings you here?”
Long live the Young Lady!
When Soyeong asked curtly, Seon-hyeon silently cheered.
Finally, the conversation could move forward.
“This young lady need not know that.”
But the Clan Lord was a talent beyond imagination.
At that blunt answer, Soyeong jerked her head away, and Seon-hyeon screamed inwardly.
Tang Cheon-ak hadn’t meant to be this cold.
It was just that... this was the first time he had ever really spoken to Tang Soyeong, and he honestly didn’t know what to do.
A conversation on the martial platform? Could that even be called a conversation?
It had been closer to a one-sided declaration.
The atmosphere was already broken.
Since father and daughter were clearly unable to continue talking like this, they might as well finish the business at hand.
“The reason the Clan Lord has come in person today is to honor this young lady’s merit.”
Seon-hyeon spoke, pushing aside his pity.
Tang Cheon-ak shot him a slightly resentful look, but whatever.
What was he supposed to do about it?
You messed up yourself, so don’t glare at me too much, Clan Lord.
Seon-hyeon decided to ignore that look.
“Honor my merit... and the Clan Lord came himself for that?”
Fortunately, Soyeong responded to the idea of being rewarded.
Thanks to that, Seon-hyeon could continue.
“Yes. Thanks to this young lady, we were able to escape the Demon Cult’s trap much more quickly.”
It was the strange disappearance incident in Sichuan, and the Demon Cult’s scheme.
They were honoring her for having cut down two demons in the process.
“Thanks to this young lady, we were able to stop the damage before it became any worse.”
“I only acted because I had a reason of my own.”
“Ah! You mean that matter. That was...”
Seon-hyeon glanced at the Clan Lord’s expression.
He wondered if the man intended to bring it up himself, but it didn’t seem likely.
He probably hated the idea of even speaking about Soyeong’s marriage.
“Thanks to the Clan Lord and the Second Madam’s efforts, the marriage to the head of the Golden Heaven Society has been called off.”
“...... Thank you.”
Soyeong bowed her head politely to Tang Cheon-ak.
She hated it, but since he had apparently gone to the trouble for her, she lowered her head out of courtesy.
“Mm.”
At that response, Tang Cheon-ak gave a vague, dismissive sound.
But Seon-hyeon, who had served under him all his life, could tell.
The Clan Lord was extremely pleased right now.
“So, if this young lady has anything she wants, please say so.”
The implication was that they would grant her anything she asked for.
Usually, anything was a pretty narrow promise, but if the one making it was the Lord of the Sichuan Tang Clan, that was a different matter.
If she wanted it, even the Great Elixir of Shaolin or a divine sword forged from pure iron might be possible.
Even if she wanted both at once, it would probably not be impossible.
“There’s one thing I want.”
Soyeong’s eyes and hand pointed behind the Clan Lord.
There stood Jin-ha, quietly beside Ga-ryeong.
“The Poison Hall man, So Jin-ha. I want him as mine.”
At that, everyone in the room was thrown into confusion.
But the most stunned of all was So Jin-ha himself.
He had known Soyeong wanted to make him one of her own, but he never expected it to happen this way.
Jin-ha thought he knew his place.
No matter how he looked at it, he did not think he was more valuable to Soyeong than an elixir or a divine blade.
“What is your name?”
It was Tang Cheon-ak’s heavy voice that pulled Jin-ha out of his shock.
Jin-ha dropped to one knee at once and replied, “I am So Jin-ha of the Poison Hall.”
“From this moment on, you belong to this young lady.”
The Clan Lord’s declaration.
From now on, So Jin-ha was officially this young lady’s subordinate.
It was the moment his life’s master had been decided.
So Jin-ha knelt before Soyeong once more and cried, “I greet my new master.”
“From now on, take good care of me, Jin-ha.”
Soyeong smiled at him.
The reason she had asked the Clan Lord for him directly was simple.
She could obtain elixirs or divine blades anytime she wanted, but people were different.
Even if Jin-ha truly chose to follow her, he was still a member of the Poison Hall.
No matter how much his heart leaned this way, he still wasn’t someone she could command freely at will.
Only now had Jin-ha truly become her man.
A loyal subordinate is worth more than treasure.
That was something she had learned painfully well in her previous life.
She had never been able to make even one subordinate like this back then.
Now she already had two in this life.
She couldn’t have been more satisfied.
“That’s still a bit lacking.”
It was Tang Cheon-ak’s single sentence that shattered Soyeong’s satisfaction.
With that one line, the touching atmosphere collapsed instantly.
Strictly speaking, only Soyeong’s mood was ruined, while Seon-hyeon was practically rejoicing inwardly.
At last, his master had mustered the courage to speak first.
“This young lady may ask for one more thing.”
Tang Cheon-ak had grown unusually bold.
When Soyeong named a person as what she wanted, he had felt an indescribable swell of pride.
It was something like a father seeing his daughter, who had never really received anything from him, finally grow into a proper person.
But at the same time, he felt guilty.
He thought the reason Soyeong wanted a person was because she had never received enough parental affection.
So he had steeled himself and offered to give her one more thing.
It was a generous offer.
If Soyeong asked for the whole world, he was even prepared to find some way to give it to her.
“...... Then can you leave this room?”
I’d like to rest a little.
At her words, heavy silence fell over the room.
It was a clear request to get out.
And she had said it to the Tang Clan Lord.
Seon-hyeon, of course, but even Ga-ryeong and Jin-ha, who had been listening from behind, had their mouths open.
Only the Clan Lord continued to glare at Soyeong with an expressionless face.
“...... Let’s go.”
“Yes... yes? Understood!”
Then Tang Cheon-ak turned and walked out in a strangely drained voice.
Seon-hyeon, still reeling, hurried after him and followed the Clan Lord outside.
Only then did Soyeong finally let out a long sigh.
“Haah... finally gone. Ga-ryeong, throw some salt.”
No matter what, that seemed a little much.
For once, Ga-ryeong did not obey Soyeong’s words.