Chapter 103
Chapter 103
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Translator: True Detective
Chapter: 103
Chapter Title: Jade-Faced Yin Witch
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“Excuse me for a moment.”
I sought permission from everyone before stepping out into the corridor.
I opened the window on the corridor side, climbed outside, and carefully made my way across the tiled roof toward the office window.
“Uung, but….”
There, a little kid was crouched down, eavesdropping on the conversation inside the office while muttering to themselves.
“What are you doing here?”
“Eek!?”
I approached stealthily and spoke from behind, startling the kid into a shriek.
“Wha-what!?”
The kid scrambled to stand up in a panic, missed their footing, and tumbled backward.
If I left them be, they’d roll right off the roof.
I swiftly grabbed their small body just in time.
“Th-thank you….”
I brought the kid, who looked a decade older from the fright, back inside through the window with a grateful bow.
The kid froze solid upon seeing Branch Chief Jo’s face, which was stiff to the point of iciness.
“D-Daddy…!”
…Daddy? Didn’t Siwoo call Branch Chief Jo “Father” too?
Could this kid be Siwoo’s little sister?
“…What in the world were you doing up there?”
“W-Well… hehe.”
The kid tried to defuse the situation with a cute laugh, but it fell completely flat on Branch Chief Jo.
In the end, the kid ended up kneeling in the corridor, punished without escape.
“Who’s this child?”
Meanwhile, the rest of the group had come out into the corridor and approached us.
When Hwaryeon asked about the kid’s identity, Branch Chief Jo answered with evident embarrassment.
“This is my daughter, Jo Seoyeon. She’s such a wild filly, it’s a real headache.”
“Pi….”
Jo Seoyeon pouted her lips at being called a filly.
But as soon as her father’s gaze returned to her, she pulled a straight face and shot her arm up high like nothing happened.
I couldn’t help but chuckle at her brazen display and said to Branch Chief Jo,
“Go easy on her. We weren’t discussing anything too serious.”
“No, this isn’t the first or second time. If I don’t correct her behavior now…”
“It’s not a bad thing for a child to be lively.”
I stepped forward to Seoyeon.
Her eyes sparkled as she looked up at me, her defender.
I knelt on one knee to meet her eye level and continued,
“Of course, you have to promise never to climb onto the roof like that again.”
“I absolutely won’t do it again! I promise!”
The rest of the group—even Hwaryeon, just a little—burst into laughter at Seoyeon’s immediate, shrill response.
Unable to resist the mood, Branch Chief Jo let out a small sigh and ended her punishment.
Seoyeon sprang up and bounded excitedly down the stairs.
“It doesn’t seem like we have more to discuss, so shall we wrap this up?”
Somehow, the meeting had fizzled out, and we followed suit, heading down to the lower floor.
Branch Chief Jo personally escorted us to our rooms.
“I’ve prepared rooms for you all to stay in. You must still be weary from your travels, so rest up for today.”
“Thank you for your consideration.”
Guest rooms on this floor were assigned one per person.
The others went straight into their rooms, but I headed outside instead.
What Seoyeon had been muttering while eavesdropping earlier nagged at me.
The fact that she had the guts to sneak onto the tiled roof to listen in made me even more concerned.
I expanded my qi sense to scan the surroundings and picked up Seoyeon’s presence, heading toward the rear garden.
But there was more than one presence.
-Soso said it. That big sister was staggering like she was sick, but he dragged her off anyway.
-What nonsense is that? You gonna keep making stuff up?
-Ugh, it really happened!?
Siwoo and Seoyeon were chattering away in the rear garden.
Seeing them together confirmed it—they had the same features, unmistakably siblings.
“Hey, handsome big brother!”
Seoyeon, her tiny face scrunched in a frown, lit up at the sight of me and came toddling over.
“Thanks for helping me earlier! I would’ve been stuck punished in the corridor for an hour otherwise.”
Her grin, flashing her teeth, was so adorable that I smiled back, but Siwoo followed and approached me.
“This filly caused trouble again, huh? Allow me to apologize on her behalf.”
Seoyeon snorted at her brother, who bowed solemnly and took responsibility for her.
“Hmph, why should you apologize for my stuff?”
“I’m a full-fledged adult now. It’s only right that I shoulder my little sister’s faults.”
Judging by the adult talk, he’d probably just turned sixteen.
I chuckled inwardly.
My brother had strutted around like that too after his coming-of-age ceremony at that age.
I remembered my big sister mocking him for making a fool of himself.
Siwoo puffing out his chest proudly and Seoyeon eyeing him with disdain overlapped with memories of my brother and sister.
I wondered if they were doing well.
While I drifted into sentiment, Seoyeon turned her head away from Siwoo with a huff and said to me,
“You helped me out, so I’ll share some super important info just with you, big brother.”
“Important info?”
“Yeah. Info that’ll totally catch that Lust Demon.”
Her words brimmed with confidence, tilting my head, but Siwoo cut in.
“If you’re gonna spout more nonsense, just stop.”
“What’s nonsense!? Soso really saw it!”
“No, that’s clearly a mistake no matter how you look at it…!”
“Wait, let’s hear the story first.”
I stopped the bickering siblings and asked for details.
Thinking I was on her side again, Seoyeon happily chattered on.
“So, I have this friend I play with named Soso? And she…”
Seoyeon’s tale, starting with her friend, turned out surprisingly intriguing.
Her friend Soso had seen victims staggering, leaning on some man, as they vanished into alleys at night.
“And not just once or twice—she said she’s seen it five times already!”
“Hey, come on, that make sense? On a dark night like that, no way a kid like her could make out faces.”
“Why not? She can! Soso’s night vision is amazing!”
“Hmph, even if it is.”
“Tch…!”
Were real siblings doomed to endless squabbles?
I stepped back from the pair, who were about to fight again, and pondered Seoyeon’s story.
I’d sought her out because I worried she might dive into something beyond her, as I’d said.
I’d only meant to give her a gentle warning, not hear something like this.
Truth be told, like Siwoo said, it strained belief that a child Seoyeon’s age could accurately identify faces in the dead of night.
However,
“…We don’t have much else to go on anyway.”
It wouldn’t hurt to check it out, even if it meant falling for a kid’s tale.
If Soso was right, we might snag an unexpected clue.
If wrong? Just a short stroll.
“Alright, shall we go take a look?”
“Really!?”
And so, I ended up going with Seoyeon to find this Soso.
“I’ll come too. Who knows what trouble this filly will stir up next.”
Along with Siwoo, intent on keeping an eye on her.
*
Soso’s house wasn’t far from the Cheoncheon Merchant Guild’s Wuhuan branch.
Soso, appearing at Seoyeon’s call, eyed me—the stranger—with heavy suspicion.
But when I pulled out some tanghulu from my pouch and handed it over, her face lit up instantly.
“Munch munch… gulp. You know, when asking someone for a favor, it’s important to show some sincerity first.”
Seoyeon munched on tanghulu alongside Soso, preaching sagely.
It looked more like she just wanted some herself, but I didn’t call her on it.
“Alright, tell me then. About those big sisters you saw being dragged away.”
“Munch munch… gulp. Okay.”
After finishing one stick, Soso elaborated on the story Seoyeon had shared, filling in more details.
She even pointed out exactly which alley they’d gone into.
“Here?”
“Yeah. He took the sisters into this alley.”
The alley Soso indicated felt eerie even in broad daylight, sunlight barely penetrating.
The two little girls, spooked by it, hung back and devoured a third stick of tanghulu.
“Know anything about this alley?”
“No, not really. But it doesn’t look like a path people use much.”
Siwoo, who’d stepped back a pace or two, answered my question.
His voice sounded stiff with tension—he was scared but playing it cool for his sister.
I smirked, turned from Siwoo, and stared into the alley.
I expanded my qi sense to its limit, probing for presences inside, but felt nothing.
Looks like it’s empty now.
I tilted my head, told the kids to wait, and stepped into the alley.
“Be careful!”
I waved vaguely at the shrill voice behind me and ventured deeper, deeper in.
Before long, I hit a dead end wall.
“…What?”
I turned and retraced my steps, checking both sides, but there were only high walls—no passages for people anywhere.
“…Could this be one of those hidden mechanism arrays you only hear about?”
The kind where touching a spot makes a secret door slide open?
With curious anticipation, I tapped around, but the walls didn’t budge an inch—solid as could be.
Thinking it over, even if there were mechanisms, they wouldn’t be so crudely opened by random prodding.
In the end, I emerged from the alley empty-handed.