The Jegal Clan
It was suffocating.
When I’d heard I’d been invited to a meal by one of the great prestigious clans, I’d imagined something lavish and noisy. What I actually found was a quiet dining hall weighed down by a heavy, oppressive silence.
Only the faint clatter of tableware rang out here and there, while everyone at the table ate without a word, utterly focused on their meals.
I felt like I’d been dropped into the middle of one of those dramatic dinner scenes from a TV show—right in the home of some ironfisted chaebol family.
Even the clan head, Jegal Wi, who had greeted us with a gentle smile when we first sat down, now wore an expressionless face and moved his chopsticks without the slightest change in demeanor.
Honestly, experiencing it myself made it far more uncomfortable than I’d expected.
I genuinely admired the heroines in those dramas who had to survive while reading the room in atmospheres like this.
And the food? Not good, either.
The table was covered in nothing but greens.
I knew the Jegal Clan was upright and incorruptible, but if you’re inviting guests, couldn’t you at least serve one generous meat dish?
For someone like me, who’d been weaned on greasy, spicy tavern fare, this was the worst meal I’d had since coming down from the mountain.
“Um... does your house always feel like this?”
I couldn’t take it anymore, so I leaned toward Cheongha beside me and whispered into her ear.
She, too, seemed to be reading the room with as much caution as I was, and she answered in a voice so small it practically crawled out of her throat.
“It’s especially quiet today.”
Well, she’d only just run away from home and come back, so I supposed she had every reason to be cautious.
It seemed like the only people uncomfortable here were me and Cheongha.
Not only the two sons across from us, but even Dokgo Ryeon was moving her spoon and chopsticks with calm, measured motions as if nothing were wrong.
When we stopped eating and started whispering, the clan head set his chopsticks down and spoke in a low voice.
“Have you forgotten even table manners?”
At that one line, Cheongha shuddered and shrank in on herself, and then promptly started eating again like a proper mouse.
This wasn’t an invitation. It was a kidnapping.
I was so uncomfortable I could die.
I wanted to kick the chair back and leave right then and there, but I held myself in check for Cheongha’s sake.
Once the meal had more or less finished, the clan head rinsed his mouth with tea and finally spoke.
“Is the preparation proceeding without issue?”
“Yes, Father. It’s going smoothly.”
The topic of conversation had finally turned to the formation array.
I decided this was my moment and opened my mouth.
“Ah, but—”
My words never made it all the way out.
Cheongha hurriedly grabbed my sleeve and gave a tiny shake of her head.
Why? I told you, leave it to me.
“Miss Song Hyeon, did you have something to say?”
Jegal Hyeon looked at me with a puzzled expression.
I hesitated, then saw Cheongha’s pleading face and eventually shut my mouth again.
“No, nothing.”
Cheongha let out a tiny sigh.
Well, I could bring it up later.
I didn’t want to make things harder for her.
But then Jegal Yun, who had been watching my every move, cut in with a scoffing tone.
“This isn’t the time to say something so trivial. Can’t you see that?”
His eyes were brimming with blatant hostility.
What a rude bastard.
“Yun, mind your manners.”
“No, elder brother. The youngest sister returned with a group of outsiders after running away from home. What kind of—”
“She is my guest.”
Jegal Hyeon shot Jegal Yun a quiet warning.
Yun glared back, refusing to lose.
“Do not act rashly.”
But when even the clan head piled on and reprimanded him, Yun’s face twisted in frustration before he finally lowered his head.
The way he bit his lip, clearly furious, was deeply satisfying.
“That was an embarrassing display.”
Thanks to his sacrifice, the heavy atmosphere in the room finally eased a little.
Clan head or no, he didn’t seem nearly as hard to deal with as I’d expected, at least outside of mealtime.
He talked normally with his sons and even sent snacks my way when I was bored and looking around.
“Make sure both of you handle this carefully. This year’s gathering is an important one.”
“Understood.”
“You needn’t worry.”
When the conversation ended, the clan head rose and left the dining hall.
It had been a fairly long meal, but he had not once so much as glanced at Cheongha.
Not even during the moment he’d scolded her.
“Then I also have work to attend to, so I’ll take my leave.”
Not long after, Jegal Yun hurried away as well.
Even as he stepped out of the dining hall, he kept glaring at me.
What was his problem?
Was he still that bitter about losing our argument yesterday?
Only after those two uncomfortable people were gone did Cheongha finally look like she could breathe again, her expression easing with visible relief.
“How was the meal?”
“Terrible.”
Dokgo Ryeon answered coldly to Jegal Hyeon’s question.
Of all of us, she’d eaten the best.
“You call yourselves guests, and yet the hospitality is lacking. For one of the six great Murim clans, this is pitiful.”
She savagely cut them down and sipped her tea with complete indifference.
I more or less agreed with every word, but the casual, matter-of-fact way she said it was still astonishing.
“Haha, it seems we have indeed been discourteous.”
“Very much so.”
Surprisingly, Jegal Hyeon didn’t puff himself up with pride. Instead, he calmly agreed with her.
He lowered his head slightly and apologized to us.
“The timing has made everyone rather sharp around the edges. I’m so accustomed to it that I didn’t notice. Please forgive us.”
See? I told you he had a good personality.
I chuckled and waved him off.
“It’s fine. It was a good experience.”
“I’m glad. By the time the gathering is over, I’ll treat you to another meal somewhere much better.”
Oh? A natural follow-up invitation?
I had no reason to turn down free food.
Impressed by his smooth technique, I nodded, and his expression brightened noticeably.
As expected, he had fallen for me.
I could tell from the friendly looks he’d been slipping me throughout the meal. This would be the right time, wouldn’t it?
This would be just the right time, wouldn’t it?
“More importantly, there’s something I wanted to tell you.”
“Go on.”
“The formation you’ve been checking... I think there’s something strange about it.”
The moment I began, his gentle expression hardened in an instant.
“You needn’t concern yourself with that.”
“Excuse me? But—”
“It is not something a young lady should trouble herself over. It is our family’s business, so we will handle it ourselves.”
His resolute attitude somehow made me stubborn in return.
“I’m going to be participating in the gathering too. If there’s a problem, that’s not good, right?”
“There won’t be one. Please don’t worry.”
“Really? Couldn’t you at least hear what it is?”
“It’s fine.”
I glared at him for a moment at how instantly he’d replied, without the slightest hesitation.
He’d erased the soft smile he’d worn until now and was looking down at me with a condescending air.
Cheongha was right.
He, too, was a Jegal by blood—pride made flesh.
When it came to matters in his area of expertise, he wouldn’t yield an inch.
“Fine. Then if something goes wrong later, I’m not helping.”
“Miss Song Hyeon. Aren’t you underestimating the Jegal Clan a little too much?”
Good heavens, so firm. Are you some kind of stubborn pumpkin or what?
I sprang to my feet.
Jegal Hyeon merely looked up at me, calm and unreadable.
“Then I have nothing more to say.”
“I’m busy, so I won’t be able to see you out.”
“I wasn’t expecting it.”
I was the one who’d tried to warn him, and this was the thanks I got?
I’m leaving.
This is absolutely not because I’m offended.
I was one hundred percent trying to stop a problem before it happened, and now I was justifiably angry that he hadn’t listened.
Go on, then. Suffer a little.
Just as I was giving Jegal Hyeon a narrow-eyed glare and turning to leave the dining hall, an unexpected voice hooked my ankle.
“Ah, sis. I’m going to stay at the main house for the night.”
“What?”
“I mean, I did just come back after a long time. Sorry... I should’ve told you sooner.”
Cheongha didn’t follow me out.
I reflexively asked again, but when I thought about it, it made sense.
She’d returned home, so of course she’d want to stay for at least a day.
Still, hearing it at the exact moment I stood up in a huff made it feel suspiciously like I’d been dumped.
If I refused here, the whole picture would look strange, wouldn’t it?
I had no choice but to nod.
“All right, then. Ryeon, let’s go.”
Thankfully, Dokgo Ryeon rose obediently and came to my side.
And just like that, we left the Jegal Clan estate.
It all felt strangely half-baked.
So what now?
As I stood there thinking it over after stepping out through the gate, Dokgo Ryeon, who had been quietly following beside me, spoke up.
“Then, Teacher. I have some business of my own today, so I’ll be going separately.”
“Huh?”
That was another surprise.
When I looked back at her, her face was as expressionless as ever, but her eyes were different.
“I’m sorry, Teacher. You’re sulking, and I still haven’t managed to cheer you up.”
“I’m not sulking.”
She quietly reached out and patted my shoulder.
“It may take me until late, so don’t wait up.”
“Why are you patting my shoulder? I told you, I’m not sulking.”
She gave me a faint smile, then walked past me and disappeared into the darkness.
What was that supposed to mean?
What a miserable day this was turning out to be.
Dinner had been uncomfortable, then I’d been treated like some sulky girl, and in the end I was left alone.
“This is annoying.”
At this rate, I might as well go back to the tavern and stuff myself full of sweet snacks to make up for the vegetable-filled meal that had worn my stomach down.
Honestly, did somebody think I couldn’t have fun on my own?
Hmph.
Hmph. I trudged off alone toward the tavern, forlorn and miserable.
**
Watching Song Hyeon and Dokgo Ryeon leave, Cheongha quietly patted a hand to her chest, trying to settle her racing heart.
That elder brother, so proud and prickly—he actually listened to an outsider point out a flaw in the formation and reacted this calmly?
If it had been any other day, he would have flown into a rage and tried every trick he knew to put her in a bind.
Left alone in the empty dining hall, Cheongha found the sight of her brother’s profile, silently staring at the door where Song Hyeon had disappeared, strangely unfamiliar.
The silence was broken by Jegal Hyeon.
“You were surprised, weren’t you?”
His voice had already softened again.
“A little.”
“I was surprised too.”
As Cheongha mulled over those words, Jegal Hyeon was also reflecting on his own behavior.
So I still had feelings like that, did I?
As he grew into the strategist who would one day effectively lead the Jegal Clan—and, by extension, the Murim Alliance—he had forgotten such human emotions. Yet they had risen abruptly to the surface.
He gave a wry smile and lifted his teacup.
Cheongha watched him for a moment, then asked quietly, “You knew, didn’t you?”
“Of course.”
It was hardly something he needed to be told.
If Cheongha had noticed the change, there was no way Jegal Hyeon, the young master of the Jegal Clan, would have missed it.
“Then why...?”
“Cheongha.”
Jegal Hyeon set down his cup and looked at her with that same gentle expression.
“Do you intend to return to the family?”
It was a sudden question, but the meaning behind it was clear.
This is family business.
To prove it, his gaze flashed sharp for an instant.
Cheongha lowered her head without a word.
That answer was enough.
“Don’t trouble yourself too much. It won’t amount to anything serious.”
With that, Jegal Hyeon rose quietly to his feet.
As he left the dining hall, he glanced for a moment at the crown of his youngest sister’s bowed head.
She still has no intention of coming back.
He had expected as much, but the thought still left him with a lingering regret.
She had a purity that did not suit the name Jegal.
And yet, as her brother, there was also no denying that he wanted her here beside them.
Leaving that disappointment behind, Jegal Hyeon moved on.
There’s something strange about the formation.
Had Cheongha told her that?
No, if it were Cheongha, who knew his nature so well, she wouldn’t have poked a sleeping tiger for the sake of it.
Then had it been the other companion, that expressionless young woman, Dokgo Ryeon?
Her eye for detail was sharp, and she carried a grim, oppressive aura she could never quite hide, but she didn’t seem like someone who would stick her nose into other people’s affairs.
She really is no ordinary girl.
So she must have noticed it herself.
Jegal Hyeon’s mind conjured the face of the bold, beautiful girl.
And the plan—there’s no problem with it?
An unexpected variable had entered the board.
Still, it likely wouldn’t matter much.
If everything proceeded exactly according to plan, things would be dull, wouldn’t they?
A faint smile touched his lips.
Meanwhile, left alone in the dining hall, Cheongha fell into deep thought.
Did the eldest brother plan this? Or was it Father?
The formation was definitely strange.
It held a current unlike the protective array usually used for the Dragon-Phoenix Gathering, at least as far as she knew.
They were surely using the formation to do something.
But what on earth?
What was especially suspicious was her second brother, Jegal Yun.
The eldest brother was the one in charge, yet the second brother, who had always envied and resented him, was behaving himself?
Absurd.
And... I smelled it.
A thick, ominous scent she hadn’t noticed yesterday.
Ever since she had become a fallen angel of justice, there were times when she could detect malice this clearly.
And at the end of it, without fail, there was always some incident tied to an evil bigeup.
More than anything, from that second brother.
He had been the one who, in the past, had shown the strongest disgust when Cheongha trained through a bigeup.
And yet there was such a heavy odor of bigeup coming from him now.
It was to confirm that strange feeling that Cheongha had decided to remain at the estate and spend the day there.
That night, without hesitation, Cheongha made her way to Jegal Yun’s chambers.
When she opened the door and stepped inside, he greeted her with a casual expression, as though he’d been expecting her.
“You really aren’t going to surprise me, are you?”
Even after seeing his younger sister arrive carrying a sword, there wasn’t a trace of intimidation in him—only the same old arrogance, looking down on her as he always had.
The moment Cheongha entered the chamber, she became even more certain from the dense aura hanging in the air.
He had a bigeup with him right now.
“What exactly are you trying to do?”
“Something for the good of the family.”
“By tampering with the formation? That’s impossible.”
At Cheongha’s accusation, a cold smirk curled around Jegal Yun’s mouth.
“I didn’t realize you still remembered the Jegal formation. Did you study while playing at being a sword-swinging brute?”
“Thanks to my fine family, my memory isn’t bad.”
Cheongha quietly tightened her grip on the scabbard.
Seeing the movement, Jegal Yun simply shrugged one shoulder.
“Yes, our bloodline is great. Even someone like you gets to benefit from it.”
“What are you planning?”
“A great many figures are participating in this year’s Dragon-Phoenix Gathering.”
Jegal Yun didn’t answer her directly. Instead, he shifted the topic.
He propped himself up on the bed and leaned his head back.
“From the leader of the righteous sects to the head of a fallen demonic faction. This time, I hear even a few from the Heavenly Demon Cult are participating.”
Even as Cheongha listened to him, she kept her focus on her sword.
“What if those people could be brought together to voice the same opinion? By someone, that is. With that kind of influence, one might be able to move all of Murim.”
“That’s delusion.”
“And yet, what if one had the power to turn delusion into reality?”
Jegal Yun lifted his head and met Cheongha’s eyes.
His pupils were glowing red.
Cheongha reflexively tried to draw her sword, but her body wouldn’t move.
What—this is... I let my guard down.
No matter what, this was Jegal Yun.
She hadn’t imagined he’d use something so wicked and alien.
Jegal Yun rose slowly, his red eyes shining, and approached her.
“It’s a fascinating power.”
“Tch. Have you thrown away your pride, too?”
“I never had any to begin with. I was only acting to deceive that so-called magnificent elder brother of mine, who lives to show off.”
He seized her chin with a cruel smile.
“I didn’t expect you to reveal yourself as the culprit so quickly.”
“It doesn’t matter.”
“Aren’t you underestimating me a little too much? I’m a member of the Jegal family too, you know.”
At her sharp reply, Jegal Yun gave a snort and let go of her chin.
“Yes, you’re a Jegal too. If you use that tiny head of yours and think hard enough, maybe you’ll find a way to oppose me.”
He circled around her with relaxed steps, tapping her head mockingly.
“But listen, little sister. That doesn’t matter.”
Jegal Yun leaned in until he was level with her eyes.
His red pupils stared straight through her.
“Because you... won’t remember any of this anyway.”
With that, Cheongha’s vision went dark.
As her consciousness drifted farther and farther away, she thought of only one face.
Older sister... I have to tell older sister...
The sensation of her body collapsing weakly onto the floor.
That was her final memory.
---