Chapter 18
Chapter 18
-----------------------------------------------------------------
Translator: MadScientist
Chapter: 18
Chapter Title: I Spent the Night with the Murim Alliance Leader's Youngest Daughter
-----------------------------------------------------------------
'Why am I acting like this?'
Moyong Hye was a natural lightweight when it came to alcohol.
She didn't particularly enjoy drinking. To her, liquor was just a foul-tasting beverage. She had to down enough to make her stomach bloat before she felt even slightly tipsy, and she had no intention of going through that ordeal just to muddle her mind.
'This has never happened to me before.'
But tonight was different.
Chasing her father out and boldly starting a drinking contest with Yi Se-woong had been fine. Right up to that point.
Moyong Hye didn't know how to continue the conversation.
'What if he tells me to leave again?'
What had happened in the training hall was holding her back. Yi Se-woong had coldly rejected her. She didn't want to repeat that failure.
So Moyong Hye kept knocking back the drinks.
It was the only thing she could do.
Wasn't that what Jegal Yeong had said? Get him drunk first, and everything would fall into place.
'The buzz is coming on too fast.'
She hadn't drunk much, yet a hot flush was already creeping up her cheeks. For Moyong Hye, who prided herself on her tolerance, this was quite disconcerting. In truth, no one ever truly had an "absolute" limit.
'I'm dizzy.'
Moyong Hye wasn't in her right mind. Even sober, she had babbled incoherently, unsure of what to say. Now, with intoxication hitting her at an unprecedented speed, there was no way she could hold a proper conversation. In her wavering consciousness, the only thing she could lean on was Jegal Yeong's advice.
-Just pour him a ton of drinks first. No matter how stone-hearted a guy is, alcohol makes them all the same, right? It drowns out reason and brings out their true nature. And then? The table's set.
'Yeah, Unnie's the only one I can trust.'
Jegal Yeong was as renowned for her cunning as for her beauty.
A seductive woman who always claimed the men she set her sights on.
That's why so many sought her out to learn her techniques(?).
'Last time, it was because I was inexperienced.'
You had to try it to know.
No one gets full on their first sip.
Steeling herself like that, Moyong Hye threw everything she had into seducing Yi Se-woong.
Mobilizing every secret technique she'd heard from Jegal Yeong.
'Why isn't he budging at all?'
But the effect was minimal!
Yi Se-woong was beyond stoic—practically an iron wall worthy of a Buddhist monk.
She'd been told this would make his heart flutter?
Instead, it was Moyong Hye's own heart pounding away as she made her moves. She'd fallen into her own trap. The longer their eyes met, the more breathless she felt.
'Is Namgoong Yeonhui really that great?'
She'd even stooped to somewhat shameless acts, swallowing her shame. Why no reaction?
Yi Se-woong's response, as if he didn't see her as a woman at all, was utterly shocking.
Moyong Hye had never once been rejected by any man.
-If nothing works, there's only one way left. Pounce on him.
Normally, she'd dismiss it as nonsense and erase it from her mind.
But Moyong Hye wasn't herself.
Intoxication at a level she'd never experienced.
Yi Se-woong leaving without even listening to her.
The courage unique to the drunk pushed her forward.
-Crawl into his blankets. That's all it takes.
That was the whole story behind Moyong Hye storming into Yi Se-woong's bedroom.
◇◇◇◆◇◇◇ After reincarnating into the murim world, I'd thought my imagination had developed quite a bit in various ways. I'd prided myself on adapting to a society ruled by martial arts, which had only been fantasy in my previous life.
But this world had more mind-boggling people than I'd imagined.
"What the hell are you doing right now?"
"I heard... men like this sort of thing."
What the...?
I couldn't follow the train of thought at all.
"What did you say?"
"N-No, nothing?"
When I pressed her in sheer disbelief, Moyong Hye widened her eyes and replied.
"Ha, miss. Do you not know what it means for a grown woman to sneak into a strange man's bedroom?"
"I-It means something like that, right?"
She tried to brush it off vaguely, but that wouldn't fly.
I needed a proper answer.
"To be honest, I've suspected it since we first met. How you really feel about me."
"Pardon?"
"Let's not beat around the bush between people who know better. I hate it when people go in circles."
"Y-You knew?"
Moyong Hye's delicate face twisted in shock.
Yeah, must be disconcerting.
I've seen right through all your schemes!
"Of course. You made it so obvious—did you think I wouldn't notice?"
"That's not..."
She hung her head, her face flushing red. So she wasn't immune to embarrassment after all. If she answered honestly, I'd cut her some slack.
"You approached me from the start to get revenge for Moyong Cheon, didn't you!"
"Pardon?"
"Don't play dumb. It didn't make sense from the beginning—trashing your own brother to an outsider like that. You were just pretending to hate him!"
"?"
"Yi Se-woong is a beast who pounces on Moyong Family daughters despite having a fiancée. I know all about your plot to spread that scandal!"
A razor-sharp truth.
Moyong Hye couldn't even muster a response.
"I was willing to tolerate a certain degree of resentment. But barging into my bedroom? Aren't you trying to ruin me socially? Was that the only way to satisfy your grudge?"
Was that too blunt?
She just trembled all over.
Still, I had to say what needed saying.
"...No."
"?"
"That's not it!"
Moyong Hye shrieked like a wronged child, her face full of injustice. What a reversal.
"What kind of person do you think I am, Young Master? I hate Moyong Cheon! Should I go out to the street right now and shout it? Or write you an affidavit!"
"Pardon?"
"You think I was framing you? Ha, unbelievable. How can you not know my feelings!"
Moyong Hye cried out in frustration.
"Then why did you come into my bedroom?"
"That's..."
See? Can't answer, can you?
Act angry all you want.
It won't work on me.
No choice but to provoke her into revealing her true intentions.
"Or what, you fell for me at first sight? After barely a day? What exactly did you see in me?"
"!"
"Really. Sneaking into a guy's room to seduce your crush at first sight? You think that makes sense, miss? Haven't you read too many novels? I won't believe you'd come up with something not even fit for a third-rate clown."
It might sound insulting.
Rude, but to draw out her true feelings, I had to spout utter nonsense!
But her reaction was off.
"Sob, huuuh."
Moyong Hye started sobbing, her shoulders shaking.
'She's suddenly crying?'
I expected anger.
Why cry?
"...I don't even know why I'm acting like this."
"Pardon?"
"This feeling is all new to me—what am I supposed to do!"
Her unexpected reply short-circuited my brain for a moment.
"I've never felt my heart flutter before. Never even held a guy's hand. Trying to act coquettish like my sisters—this is all new."
"?"
"Is that so bad? Wanting to talk to you, getting more and more curious about you."
What am I hearing right now?
"I didn't know any better, so I just did what I heard from my sisters. If it bothered you that much, I'm sorry."
My attack to grate on her nerves had backfired into a confession.
I had no idea how to comfort the sobbing girl and just clawed at the air.
◇◇◇◆◇◇◇ Even after that, it took a while for Moyong Hye to stop crying.
The air was heavy.
Neither the one who'd confessed her heart nor the one who'd heard it could easily speak.
Of course, Yi Se-woong, who'd branded a woman in the throes of first love as a scheming villain.
And Moyong Hye, realizing that what she'd dismissed as childish impatience—waiting for him to give in—was deeper than she'd thought.
Despite the spacious room, it felt suffocating.
"Miss."
Enduring his burning face, Yi Se-woong spoke first.
"I'm sorry for misunderstanding. I never imagined that... I judged you on my own assumptions. I apologize."
He had to choose every word carefully.
Moyong Hye seemed to have no resistance to such things.
"But I can't accept your feelings. You know that, right? I have a fiancée, and I... seem to care for her more than I thought."
She knew.
No need to guess from his unchanging expression no matter what she did.
Moyong Hye finally faced the fact she'd been avoiding.
Yet why did her chest ache?
"I don't know."
"Pardon?"
"Take responsibility."
Responsibility.
Few words make a man's heart sink like that.
"What...?"
"You're the first one to treat me like this. You know that?"
It was true.
"Am I that unattractive?"
"No, miss. It's not about that..."
"That's enough."
Her tearful appearance from moments ago was gone.
Moyong Hye declared with a strange resolve.
"I heard the wedding hasn't happened yet."
"It'll be soon after I return."
"Either way, doesn't that mean I still have a chance?"
Moyong Hye looked as if she'd let something go.
She'd already shown her worst— what did it matter.
That poignant audacity felt ominous to Yi Se-woong.
"Get ready. While you're here, if you show even the slightest opening, I'll slip right in."
It was a kind of awakening.
Moyong Hye, who'd always hidden her true feelings even from family.
Having her heart laid bare and brutally torn apart had twisted her at her core.
'Just watch. I'll make you beg for me.'
An emotional declaration of war.
Feeling a belated twinge of shame, Moyong Hye hurriedly left.
"Just watch!"
Leaving Yi Se-woong standing there dazed, as if his soul had fled.
Feeling her steps quicken, Moyong Hye recalled Jegal Yeong's final words.
-Hye-ya. But what if, even when you throw yourself at him, he doesn't lay a finger on you?
Jegal Yeong had been with her.
Yet gazing somewhere far away.
-Hold on tight to him. Unnie's never met a man like that.
In her memory, Jegal Yeong had looked utterly lonely.