Slap to the Face
“Ah… young lady. Are you really all right? Please don’t overdo it….”
“I’m fine. Nobody knows my body better than I do.”
At Tang Soyeong’s answer, Ga-ryeong had nothing to say.
Her steps were unsteady, her breathing ragged—she looked as if she might stop breathing any second now. And yet…
This couldn’t feel any more refreshing.
Soyeong’s thoughts were a little different.
In her previous life, there had been a time when every breath had been a torment. Her final years had been spent with death looming at her throat, poisoned by an unknown toxin, while she endured the hungry, covetous gazes of her own subordinates.
Compared to that, this feels like I’m flying.
To be honest, Soyeong was enjoying the act of walking.
Following behind her, Ga-ryeong fidgeted anxiously until she finally spoke up.
“Um… young lady. Poison Hall isn’t that way.”
At Ga-ryeong’s words, Soyeong came to a stop.
Seeing that, Ga-ryeong hurriedly lowered her head and cried, “I-I’m sorry, young lady! I was presumptuous to speak out of turn!”
“...No. That was necessary.”
Soyeong scratched her cheek and didn’t scold her.
She’d apparently gotten so carried away by the novelty of walking again that she’d forgotten where she was going.
At this rate, wasn’t she really no different from a seventeen-year-old girl?
“How annoying.”
“I-I’m sorry again!”
“...I wasn’t talking to you.”
Soyeong let out a small sigh.
It was good that Ga-ryeong didn’t look down on her.
But if the girl got frightened by every little thing, how was Soyeong supposed to order her around?
She needed to ease her up a little.
“Ga-ryeong. Walk beside me. Guide me to Poison Hall.”
“Beside… you? I wouldn’t dare….”
“It doesn’t matter. I’m only asking you to walk beside me. Come here.”
Soyeong beckoned for Ga-ryeong to come to her side.
It looked less like she was calling a person over and more like she was summoning some beast.
Ga-ryeong trembled all over as she stood beside Soyeong.
Only then could Soyeong really look at her properly.
Ga-ryeong was a full head taller than her.
Am I just small, or is this girl huge?
Probably both. Soyeong clicked her tongue bitterly.
She stared at Ga-ryeong, and Ga-ryeong stared straight ahead, shaking like a leaf.
For a brief moment, the two of them stood there in silence.
That short silence ended as soon as Soyeong opened her mouth.
“Now lead the way.”
“Y-yes? Oh!”
“Take me to Poison Hall. I don’t know where it is.”
“A-ah, understood!”
At Soyeong’s words, Ga-ryeong slowly began walking.
She was a little puzzled that the Tang family’s young lady didn’t know where Poison Hall was, but she quickly came to terms with it.
She’d been told that after taking Heavenly Poison, her memories had become confused.
She must have forgotten Poison Hall’s location too.
Wait—then isn’t this a seriously dangerous situation right now?
Soyeong suddenly felt a chill run down her spine.
She didn’t even know the location of Poison Hall, something every member of the Tang Clan knew. Then what exactly did she know?
In a trembling voice, Soyeong asked, “Um… pardon me, but may I ask you something?”
“What?”
“Just how much do you remember?”
Ga-ryeong’s question sent Soyeong into thought for a moment.
How much should she say she remembered?
The answer came quickly.
There was no need to hide it. She was one of my people, after all.
“I don’t remember anything at all.”
“R-right. Not even a little…? Huh?”
“Nothing. I don’t know who I am, or even why I took Heavenly Poison.”
“Hiiiik—!”
At Soyeong’s words, Ga-ryeong let out a strange, strangled sound.
She realized, in that instant, that she was fucked.
It was no small matter for the master she served not even to know who she herself was.
Should I tell her everything now and beg for mercy?
Denied. No matter how she thought about it, the Tang Clan didn’t seem like the kind of place that would let this kind of disaster slide.
Ga-ryeong had only been in the Tang Clan for a short while, but in that brief time she had seen how many people had been dragged away and killed while burdened with unjust charges.
If she told the truth, she would almost certainly become one of them.
“What are you thinking about so hard?”
“Eep!”
Suddenly, Tang Soyeong thrust her face right up in front of Ga-ryeong’s.
With a weird little cry, Ga-ryeong toppled backward and landed hard on her rear.
“Ow….”
“How clumsy. Come on, get up.”
Soyeong clicked her tongue and held out her hand.
As if she were telling her to take it and stand.
Ga-ryeong only stared blankly at the hand Soyeong offered.
“What are you doing? Why aren’t you taking it?”
“A-ah… th-thank you!”
Ga-ryeong took Soyeong’s hand and got to her feet.
The truth was that Soyeong had almost no strength in her hand, so it was more like Ga-ryeong had risen on her own.
Even so, it was enough to shock Ga-ryeong.
Worse still, Soyeong even brushed the dirt from her backside herself.
“Hmm. You’ve got some meat on your hips. Your husband will love you.”
“H-Hik! W-what do you mean by that!?”
“I’m joking.”
When she said that and smiled a little, Soyeong looked every bit the peerless beauty, a face that could topple kingdoms.
Ga-ryeong thought to herself then:
Maybe this is what she was really like before she lost her memory.
“How long are you going to stand there? Hurry up and guide me to Poison Hall.”
“A-ah, yes!”
Let me correct that. She was only a little more human now, but she was still just as frightening.
The old Tang Soyeong had been more like a blade—sharp enough that touching her seemed like you’d get cut.
But now… she felt more like a weight pressing down on a person’s chest.
She’d been sharper before, yes, but somehow the thing inside her seemed even scarier now.
“Are we there yet?”
“I-I’m sorry. The young lady’s quarters are on the far outer edge of the Tang estate, so it’s a fair distance from Poison Hall in the main manor….”
“Tch. Pointlessly huge, that’s all.”
Tang Soyeong was the Lord of the Tang Clan’s daughter, but the reason her quarters were in the outermost section was that her maternal backing was nearly nonexistent.
Not only that, even Tang Cheon-ak seemed to harbor some unspoken resentment toward Soyeong, the daughter born after her mother died giving birth to her, and that made the discrimination worse.
To the real Tang Soyeong, that fact had been a reverse scale.
The old Tang Soyeong would have exploded at the mere mention of it.
But now she didn’t get angry at all.
Instead, she seemed more bothered by the distance to Poison Hall than by that fact.
And honestly, that was probably the truth.
“We’ve got some time on the road, so let’s talk.”
“Huh…? Talk about what…?”
“Me.”
About who Tang Soyeong was. About what kind of person she had been.
Soyeong didn’t know herself.
Whether she liked it or not, she had to live as Tang Soyeong now.
So she needed to know who Tang Soyeong was.
For now, Ga-ryeong was the only person who could tell her, so that was why she asked.
“I-I… really have to tell you?”
“Yeah. Who else am I supposed to ask if not you? Don’t leave anything out. Tell me everything.”
“E-e-everything?”
Soyeong thought Ga-ryeong looked like a broken machine.
At the request to speak freely about her, Ga-ryeong hesitated for a long while before finally opening her mouth.
“Y-young lady Soyeong is, first of all, the daughter of the current Lord of the Sichuan Tang Clan, Tang Cheon-ak, and his third wife, Lady Hyeon Wol-myeong.”
“I see. So I’m the Tang Lord’s daughter… How many siblings do I have?”
“You have one older sister, two older brothers, and one younger sister.”
“All from the third wife… my mother?”
“...Not exactly. The First Young Master and Third Young Lady are children of the first wife, and the Second Young Master and First Young Lady are children of the second wife.”
“Then I’m the Second Young Lady.”
“Th-that’s right.”
Soyeong listened to her own story as though it belonged to someone else.
Watching her, Ga-ryeong said with fresh surprise, “You really have lost your memory….”
“Yeah. I take it you didn’t believe me?”
“S-sorry!”
“It’s fine. You know your mistake now. I won’t forgive you next time.”
So she’d even admitted, on her own, that she had dared doubt her master’s words.
Ga-ryeong cursed her own stupidity.
No matter the circumstances, for a subordinate not to believe their master was a sin.
The only reason she’d been forgiven was because she had confessed it herself, even if it had been by accident.
“Thank you for forgiving me….”
“Enough. Continue.”
“T-the next story?”
“I know Tang Soyeong is Tang Cheon-ak’s second daughter, fourth child, and the daughter of his third wife. So what kind of person was I?”
Ga-ryeong lost her words.
To ask what kind of person Soyeong had been…
Was it really all right to say it?
If she spoke honestly, wouldn’t that be insulting her mistress?
“Why are you hesitating? Just say it.”
At Soyeong’s insistence, Ga-ryeong thought for a moment, then shut her eyes tight and spoke.
“Y-young lady Soyeong is truly a fucking— no, no, I mean, she’s a dog— no, no! I mean…!”
“Enough. I think I get the point.”
From Ga-ryeong’s flailing, Soyeong could already guess what kind of situation this was.
In other words, Tang Soyeong had apparently possessed a personality so rotten that even low-ranking maids muttered curses without thinking.
But even trash came in different flavors.
“In what way was I like a dog? Were you rude with every other word? Or was I more like a tyrant?”
“W-well… if I had to choose, all of it, I suppose.”
“...Ha!”
Soyeong laughed in disbelief at Ga-ryeong’s answer.
From the way she described it, there had even been times when Soyeong had smashed all the maids’ jewelry simply because she disliked the hairpin one of them brought her that day.
There seemed to be more, too, but she’d clearly swallowed the rest for the sake of decency.
What an utter piece of trash this girl was.
As if gauging Soyeong’s mood, Ga-ryeong asked carefully, “D-did I upset you?”
“No? Not at all. In fact, thanks to you….”
“Hey, what are you doing here!?”
What the hell now?
At the shrill voice that cut off Soyeong’s words, both she and Ga-ryeong turned at once.
There stood a girl in the Tang Clan’s robe, looking a year or two younger than Soyeong.
She looked like a pain in the ass.
That was Tang Soyeong’s first impression.
“I-I greet Young Lady Tang So-seol!”
“Tang So-seol?”
Soyeong shifted her gaze to the flustered Ga-ryeong, who had hurriedly bowed.
Who’s that?
Reading the intent behind the look, Ga-ryeong whispered quickly into her ear.
“That’s Young Lady Tang So-seol… your half-sister, and the daughter of the first wife.”
“What are you two whispering about? Did you fall in love or something?”
For all they’d said, Tang So-seol was already irritated with the two of them.
She strode right up, jabbing Soyeong hard in the chest with her index finger.
“Listen here, lowborn bitch. What the hell are you crawling out for this time? I thought I smelled something disgusting. Guess it was because a worthless thing like you was wandering around.”
What a truly impressive mouth on the girl.
As Tang So-seol kept jabbing at Soyeong’s ample chest, Soyeong thought to herself:
What would the real Tang Soyeong have done?
She was said to have had an especially nasty, feral temper, so surely…
“Like this.”
“Eek—!”
With a sharp, crisp crack—
Soyeong grabbed Tang So-seol’s head and drove it straight into her knee.
“Aaaagh!”
“Y-young lady!!!”
Tang So-seol clutched the bridge of her nose and rolled across the floor.
The maids rushed over to check on her.
Through the blood leaking from her broken nose, Tang So-seol’s stunned eyes could be seen.
Soyeong met that gaze squarely and said, “You’ve got the manners of a dog, you little brat.”