Return to a Changed Home
On the fifth day after leaving Uiseon Suga, Yoo Eunhyeon and his companions finally reached the foot of Mount Taesan.
"Let's buy what we need here."
Before heading up the mountain, the three of them stopped in Doryeonhyeon. It was the largest of the villages near Yoo Eunhyeon's home, a place he had visited often enough that it felt nearly as familiar as his own hometown. The region around Taesan was so remote that most settlements barely deserved the name of village, yet this one at least had everything a traveler might require.
"Oh? What's this? I figured any village stuck out by Taesan would be a complete nowhere with nothing going on, but it's not like that at all. It's pretty big!"
As they stepped into Doryeonhyeon, Ju Yu-ryeon looked this way and that, letting out an impressed whistle. The place was bustling with life. Crowds thronged the streets, everyone moving with the hurried energy of people who had far too much to do. The village itself was surprisingly large—almost too large for a settlement nestled at the base of such a mountain.
"Huh? What's going on here?"
Yoo Eunhyeon was just as stunned. The moment he voiced his confusion at the sight of Doryeonhyeon, Ju Yu-ryeon turned on him with a scolding look.
"Why are you surprised? You said this was your hometown."
"No… this is nothing like the place I remember. Can a village change this much in a single year?"
"What was it like before?"
"A quiet little place. Only a few people wandering around… and about half the size it is now."
"Really?"
Ju Yu-ryeon gave him a look of genuine surprise and swept her gaze across the streets again. Su Hwa-seon seemed to share her son's impression; as she surveyed the village she gave the faintest frown.
"You're right. And nearly everyone walking around is an outsider."
Of the Yoo family, Su Hwa-seon had made the most trips to Doryeonhyeon, and her judgment was sharper for it. Once she pointed it out, Yoo Eunhyeon realized she was correct.
"We should look around a bit first. We'll stock up mainly on food for now, and if anything else is missing we can always come back down later."
At Su Hwa-seon's suggestion the three of them began making their way through Doryeonhyeon in search of supplies. Because so many of the people were strangers, no one paid the slightest attention to the newcomers—just as she had predicted.
"There are a lot of new shops."
"Looks like entire merchant houses have moved in. Most of them are catering to travelers, too. Looking at the people going by, there are plenty of laborers among them…"
"Ah—now that you mention it, Grandfather said something about a mineral vein being discovered on Taesan, didn't he?"
"The clan head said that? Then there's nothing more to wonder about. That's why everyone poured in and the village turned into this."
"Wait—it was actually found? For the village to change this much, it can't be a small deposit."
Yoo Eunhyeon was about to turn and ask his mother something further when he stopped short. Su Hwa-seon had halted in front of a particular shop. It sold dried goods—provisions, dried fish, and the like—and it was a place Yoo Eunhyeon knew well. The Yoo family had been regulars for years.
"Mrs. Gong. How have you been?"
Su Hwa-seon smiled warmly at the middle-aged woman arranging strips of jerky.
The shopkeeper looked up, recognized her, and her face lit with delight.
"My word! Who do we have here? Eunhyeon's mother? Is that really you?"
"Heehee. It is. Don't tell me you've forgotten my face already?"
"Oh my, oh my! How long has it been? More than a year, right? I was half-convinced something terrible had happened!"
"It wasn't entirely free of trouble."
"My husband went up to check on your place and said the fields were completely wrecked and not a soul in sight. After Eunhyeon's father passed, I figured you'd taken the boy and gone back to your family home."
"You're not far off. I did take Eunhyeon to my parents' house for a while so I could rest and recover. I never imagined we'd come back to find things like that, though."
"I knew it! Heehee. Still, your family home must have done you good. You look better."
Su Hwa-seon and Mrs. Gong traded small talk for a while, catching up on the little details of each other's lives. Mixed into that casual chatter, however, were scraps of information that proved unexpectedly useful to a family that had been gone for a full year.
"Hello."
As longtime customers, Yoo Eunhyeon knew Mrs. Gong well. He bowed politely in greeting, and she immediately made a fuss over him.
"Oh my, Eunhyeon! Look at you—practically a grown man. And who's this behind you?"
"Hello. Just a friend who came along for the trip."
"Heehee. You don't have to pretend. I can tell. Eunhyeon, you've got good taste. Where did you find such a lovely young lady?"
Even though they insisted otherwise, Mrs. Gong carried on as if the answer were already settled. Su Hwa-seon played along with good-natured amusement while she began selecting what they needed.
"But what on earth happened to the village? How did it change so much in a single year?"
"Don't even get me started. About a year ago they found a gold vein in one of the peaks nearby. People flooded in wanting to dig for gold, and in one year it turned into this."
"For all that, you look pretty cheerful."
"Well, for people like us business is booming. Nothing to lose, is there?"
"You've certainly stocked a lot more goods. And it all sells?"
"I can barely keep up. The money's nice, but I'm worn out."
Even as she complained, Mrs. Gong's face was beaming. Once Su Hwa-seon had finished choosing their purchases and paid, she asked one last question.
"Where exactly was that gold mine found?"
"Well… not all that close. They said it's near the valley between the seventh and eighth peaks to the east… Oh! Wait a moment. Isn't that near your place?"
Mrs. Gong frowned slightly as she tried to recall. Su Hwa-seon only laughed as if it were nothing of consequence.
"It's nearby, yes, but I doubt it'll be a problem."
"Mm. That whole area is vast, after all. Still, be careful. Given the work, they say there are a lot of rough men around. Eunhyeon's grown now, so he can look after himself, but if anything comes up, just stay out of the way."
"I understand. Heehee. We both seem busy today, so I'll drop by again when things are quieter."
"All right. Take care on the way home."
They were already as good as home. Yoo Eunhyeon gathered the provisions they had bought and set off along the familiar path, casually putting a question to his mother as they walked.
"Was there really a gold vein near the house?"
"I only ever heard about it from your father. There was some stir decades ago, apparently, but I always believed there was nothing there."
"Well, if there had been a gold vein, we wouldn't have been living as farmers in the first place."
"Exactly. Of course, no one can be certain about what lies underground, so I can't give a definite answer…"
Both Yoo Eunhyeon and Su Hwa-seon muttered under a strange sense of unease. Only Ju Yu-ryeon, who still hadn't fully grasped the situation, spoke as if she couldn't see what the worry was about.
"We'll know once we get there, won't we?"
"That's true enough. Even if there's a fuss, as long as they don't bother us it's none of our business."
Ju Yu-ryeon had a point. They headed straight for home, yet their steps quickened of their own accord.
Then, at the approach to the house, the peach orchard that marked the edge of the Yoo family's land came into view. The moment Yoo Eunhyeon saw it he stopped dead.
"It's… been tended?"
Behind him Ju Yu-ryeon sounded equally puzzled. The peach orchard that had been left in utter ruin had somehow been replanted. When the Cheonhwang Paeundae had come to raze the farm, their battle with the Jeongeumdae had only completely cut down about half the trees; the rest had simply been hacked back like a crude pruning. Yet someone had pulled out what needed pulling and restored what could be restored, returning the orchard to a rough semblance of its former self.
"It's a little clumsy, but someone definitely put work into it."
Yoo Eunhyeon murmured as he looked over the field. The trees had been stuck in the ground with no sense of order whatsoever—clearly not a farmer's handiwork.
"I agree. This is the work of someone who only ever learned from books."
Su Hwa-seon nodded in agreement. There was nothing else they could do about it, however. With a heavier sense of unease settling in their chests, they hurried on toward the house.
"At least the house itself looks intact."
Yoo Eunhyeon let out a breath of relief at the distant sight of their home. It looked a little weathered from disuse, but it still stood exactly where it always had.
Or maybe living at Mother's family estate has just raised my standards.
"For a place left empty this long, it looks like it's been used."
Ju Yu-ryeon followed him up and tilted her head in confusion. Leave a house untended for a year in the middle of these mountains and weeds and spiders would overrun it in no time. Yet just as she said, the area around the house was clean. Yoo Eunhyeon noted the cart tracks leading to the entrance and the neatly kept path, his expression hardening once more as he reached for the door.
Rattle. Rattle.
The door refused to open. Yoo Eunhyeon's face twisted in bewilderment. They had never put a lock on the house. When he looked down, however, he found a padlock that had never been there before. He stared at it with pure disbelief.
"What is this?"
"A lock. Don't you have the key?"
Ju Yu-ryeon peered over his shoulder and asked as if it were the most obvious thing in the world. Yoo Eunhyeon only shook his head, as if her question were the absurd one.
"There was no key, and there was never a lock either. Who put this on?"
"If there's a lock, that probably means no one's inside right now. So what do we do?"
"What do you mean, what do we do? I don't care who did it—hanging something like this on someone else's house? We tear it off."
Crack!
Even as he spoke, Yoo Eunhyeon drew up his inner energy, channeled it into his hand, seized the lock, and ripped it free. An ordinary person would have been terrified at the sight, but for Yoo Eunhyeon—now long accustomed to using internal energy—it was a simple matter.
He flung the lock aside in irritation and shoved the door wide open. The scene that greeted them only made his expression more incredulous.
"This doesn't look like a place people live."
Still peering over his shoulder, Ju Yu-ryeon tilted her head. Just as she said, a musty mix of dust and earth drifted out from inside. Broken pickaxes and shovels lay scattered everywhere, while every trace of the Yoo family's life had been shoved into the corners. A few less conspicuous belongings could still be seen among the mess.
"What a disaster."
Su Hwa-seon stepped in behind him. In her hands she carried simple utensils—bowls and chopsticks she had apparently gathered outside—each of them caked with dirt.
"They shoved the large pieces aside and tossed the small ones outdoors. Luckily the soil around here is soft, so we should be able to salvage whatever we can."
"Who would do something like this?"
"Isn't it obvious? Look at the shovels and pickaxes. The laborers have been using the place as a warehouse. To them it was an empty house—they couldn't have asked for better."
"But when I left, I fled in such a hurry that there must still have been signs someone lived here."
"A week is more than enough time to decide no one is coming back to a house like this. And with the fields ruined, they must have assumed we'd simply left. For now, let's get all of this out and put the house in order."
Realizing it was time to act rather than stand around talking, Yoo Eunhyeon followed his mother's lead and began hauling the useless clutter outside. While they were gathering any usable tools that remained outdoors, Ju Yu-ryeon spoke up with a faintly puzzled look.
"Doesn't something feel off, though?"
"What does?"
Yoo Eunhyeon looked up from sorting the tools that still had some life left in them.
"For a place where they supposedly found a gold vein, the village is far too quiet."