How Dare You Touch My People?
Yi Yeok's tour was, in practice, useless. He had only just returned after years away, and even since coming back he had rarely set foot anywhere other than the Grand Madame's residence and his own quarters. A man like that couldn't exactly play host.
Fortunately, the garden was beautiful enough to stave off boredom. Rare, exotic flowers and gracefully twisting trees made for fine viewing.
Yi Yeok was indifferent, but An Eun-chae marveled at scenery that even a daughter of a great noble house like herself rarely got to lay eyes on. So Rim and Ju-ju trailed behind them as quiet as shadows.
"Sit down for a bit."
Yi Yeok spotted a long bench tucked away among the shrubs as if someone had tried to hide it, and plopped himself down. Then he called out to So Rim and Ju-ju, who stood at a distance with their heads bowed.
"You two find somewhere to sit as well. If standing's not more comfortable for you, that is."
So Rim sat down nearby without a word. She knew Yi Yeok's temperament well. Ju-ju, half-crouched in an awkward stoop, had no idea what to do with herself.
"Yi Yeok... I mean, go ahead and sit, Ju-ju, like the young master says. I'm fine with it."
Even after her mistress gave the word, Ju-ju hesitated for a long while before finally sitting — perched on the very edge of the seat in a way that looked even more anxious than standing.
An Eun-chae, meanwhile, kept up an endless chatter of pointless small talk that made Yi Yeok's head spin.
Since when was this girl such a chatterbox?
He'd never seen this side of her before. Then again, she'd spent her life as a sheltered noble daughter doing things a girl in her position would never have experienced in a hundred years. Maybe today's version of her was actually closer to the real one.
Just then, a group of people came strolling up from the far end of the garden.
"Who are they?"
"No idea."
At An Eun-chae's question, Yi Yeok answered with a bored shrug, not even bothering to look. She pouted her lips, but the truth was he genuinely had no clue who they were.
The group chattered loudly as they made an ostentatious show of admiring the garden's beauty. Probably a clan member showing guests around.
The lively, cheerful atmosphere — so utterly different from his own — made An Eun-chae pout again.
The group seemed about to pass right by them. Then one of them spotted So Rim sitting there and flew into a rage.
"The audacity! Does the lowborn wretch have any idea where she is, daring to sit down here?!"
The man leading the group bellowed.
So Rim shot to her feet, white as a sheet. Ju-ju was no better.
The man strode over in furious strides and planted himself in front of So Rim, who bowed her head low.
"Young Master Yi Hong, I beg your forgiveness. I will never let such a thing happen again—"
Crack!
Yi Hong slapped her across the face before she could even finish her apology — hard enough to send the sound echoing through the garden.
So Rim tumbled to the ground. Her lip had split and was bleeding.
"Report her to the head steward at once and have her dragged out by the tongue."
"Such a lowborn thing has no manners at all. Young Master, shall I teach her some myself?"
The noble maiden Yi Hong had been escorting added haughtily.
Ju Taek, who had been waiting outside the garden, heard the commotion and came running like the wind. One look at Yi Hong and So Rim told him everything.
Ju Taek frowned. Yi Hong was the son of Yi Jo's younger brother — Yi Yeok's cousin. Arrogant beyond all reason, he had been scheming to claim the position of next clan head by exploiting Yi Pyeong and Yi Yeok's absence.
A mere guard like himself had no standing to intervene. So Ju Taek held his position and studied Yi Yeok's expression instead.
Sure enough, Yi Yeok showed no intention of letting it slide.
"Hey, idiot."
Yi Hong finally noticed him. His face registered pure bewilderment — as if he couldn't even imagine being addressed with such a word.
"You're awfully full of yourself, aren't you?"
Only then did Yi Hong's face twist with fury.
"You... who the hell do you think you are?"
One of the servants behind him whispered.
"I believe that is the Second Young Master, sir."
"Who?"
"The Clan Head's second son, the one who ran off stealing and left home. Word is he came back recently."
That was when Yi Hong finally placed him. The rage still hadn't cooled, but part of him recognized this as a fine opportunity. For the sake of his secret ambitions, he needed to put this upstart in his place — and besides, he wanted to show the noble maiden he was escorting just how much influence he wielded in the clan.
"Look how far you've fallen. You used to be too proud to even sit at my feet."
Yi Hong strode closer. Yi Yeok didn't move from his seat. Yi Hong shoved his face right up to him and spat through gritted teeth.
"Turned to thieving, have you? A disgrace to the whole clan. And yet you still have the gall to come crawling back. Born into a great house, and you don't even know shame— urk!"
Yi Hong clutched his groin and collapsed, curling up like a shrimp and rolling back and forth across the ground. Yi Yeok had kicked him square in the crotch.
Yi Yeok rose slowly to his feet.
"You dare lay hands on my people? You have no eyes in your head. Which part of you should I break first?"
Yi Hong, writhing in agony, shrieked in a voice that tore itself apart.
"Kill this bastard! Right now! Kill him!"
Yi Hong's servants exchanged glances. It was their master's order, true — but even if he was the Clan Head's least favorite kin, they couldn't be sure they'd survive carrying it out.
"You dare draw steel against a son of the clan's true bloodline? How many lives do you wretches think you have?"
Ju Taek didn't even need to draw his sword. That thunderous roar turned the servants pale, and they bowed their heads to the ground. The gap between lowly servants like them and the Clan Head's trusted right hand was not one that could even be measured.
Yi Yeok stomped down on Yi Hong's right hand. Crunch! The sound of shattering bone was followed by another deathly scream.
"AAAAAAGH!"
"Right hand first. What's next? Pick one. Or I'll pick for you."
Yi Yeok's foot hovered here and there over Yi Hong's body, poised to come down at any moment.
"Wait, wait, wait!"
Yi Hong, all ambition and no discipline, had never trained seriously enough to resist even if he'd wanted to.
"Stop! Please, let's stop this! I'm sorry!"
"Wrong. You don't apologize to me. You apologize to So Rim."
Yi Yeok raised his foot again.
Yi Hong thrashed in terror.
"I was wrong, I was wrong! So... So Rim! So Rim! I'm sorryyy! Please forgive meee!"
So Rim, every bit as terrified as Yi Hong, bowed her head to the ground.
"I... this handmaid is quite all right."
"All right, she says. Your cheek's swollen like a melon. Want to come over and break something of his too? Don't hold it in and end up losing sleep over it later."
So Rim waved her hands in frantic refusal.
"I am truly fine, Young Master. Please, let your anger go."
Yi Yeok nodded.
"Yi Hong... it's Yi Hong, right? Ah, thanks for confirming that, Ju Taek. Yi Hong, you'd better thank So Rim. If she hadn't forgiven you, you'd be dead right now."
Yi Hong ground his face into the dirt, gnashing his teeth.
"This humiliation... I will someday..."
Thud!
Yi Yeok stomped on the back of his head.
"Listen here, you miserable little bastard. Someday what?"
Thud! Thud! Thud!
Yi Yeok stomped Yi Hong's head into the ground again and again, until it was nearly buried in the soil.
"I'm allowed to throw away what's mine. But nobody else gets to harm it. Remember that in your next life."
Ju Taek hurried over and practically wrapped himself around Yi Yeok to pull him back.
"Young Master, please compose yourself. He'll die at this rate."
"Get off me! I can throw away what's mine, but no other bastard gets to take it—!"
"What are you all standing around for! Get your master out of here, now!"
Ju Taek's shout snapped the servants out of their daze. They hastily gathered up the unconscious Yi Hong and retreated.
Yi Yeok stood there heaving ragged breaths for a long while before he finally calmed down a little.
"Thanks for stopping me, Ju Taek."
Ju Taek bowed respectfully with cupped fists.
"I know how deep your grievances run. But please, I beg you, master your heart. It is the only path that serves you, Young Master."
"...I'll try."
Ju Taek discreetly pushed some dirt over with his foot, erasing the impression Yi Hong's head had left in the ground, and said,
"The Vice Clan Head — that is, the Young Master's uncle and Yi Hong's father — will hardly let this pass unanswered. Please return to the Grand Madame's residence. There, at least, even the Vice Clan Head cannot—"
"You're telling me to hide? Why would I?"
Ju Taek was about to reply when Yi Yeok's gaze snagged on something entirely unrelated. Where Yi Hong's servants had withdrawn, a lone woman stood frozen, utterly at a loss. The noble maiden who'd been on Yi Hong's arm.
"A daughter of the Song family, sir."
Yi Yeok nodded at Ju Taek's explanation and walked over, step by deliberate step. Then, with every trace of his earlier composure gone, he slapped the woman — who was trembling from head to toe — across the face.
Crack!
The woman, struck by another person for the first time in her life, was paralyzed — by shock, by humiliation, and above all by terror.
"You dare speak of teaching my people manners? You'd better fix your own attitude first. For the rest of your—"
Yi Yeok cleared his throat and corrected himself.
"No — for the rest of your life, remember it well."
Yi Yeok glanced back at Ju Taek with a look that said you saw that, right? Ju Taek, having no idea how he was supposed to react, could only smile weakly and let it go.