Hongryun Sect (5)
Hongryun Sect (5)
Finding a place once you've already pinpointed its location was as easy as twisting a child's wrist. I deliberately circled wide, aiming for the Sect Leader's daughter's quarters from the start, and climbing the wall landed me right in the same courtyard we'd been in the night before.
There couldn't possibly be any traps. The atmosphere of the sect hadn't changed at all. I straightened my clothes, then looked at Sannyeo. When I looked her way, Sannyeo, still perched on top of the wall, tilted her head. I lifted the hem of my robe once and asked.
"How do I look? Am I handsome?"
"....Yeah."
Sannyeo hesitated for a moment, then nodded. Sannyeo, by nature, seemed not very good at giving compliments. I ignored her dumbfounded gaze and turned around. I could see that a light had been lit in the room where the Sect Leader's daughter was staying.
I deliberately walked across the courtyard, making my footsteps audible on the grass. The sound carried clearly even from a distance. A shadow flickered, and a low voice, directed straight ahead, seeped through the gap in the door.
"Who is it?"
That voice was saturated with anxiety and tension. It trembled like an aspen leaf, utterly devoid of self-assurance. I lowered my voice and said.
"I came to hear your answer."
The woman did not answer. Instead, she opened the door, revealing herself entirely to me. Just like yesterday, she was dressed in thin nightclothes, her pale bare feet fully exposed, restlessly shifting on her bedding.
My gaze briefly fixed on her wriggling toes, and the Sect Leader's daughter flinched at my action, then pulled her skirt hem down to cover her feet.
Her big toe, poking out and wriggling involuntarily, excited me even more. Because the subtle rustling against the bedding gave a sensation as if flesh was rubbing against flesh.
In that state, the woman crossed her fingers and glanced at me sideways. Though I had dressed neatly, the old days of banditry in the mountain stronghold hadn't completely left me; a faint aura, untrustworthy and thuggish, still lingered around my body.
"Your answer?"
The Sect Leader's daughter's shoulders trembled. Then, chewing her lip, she spoke in a low voice.
".....I have a condition."
"What is it?"
Since we would be building the sect together going forward, I could grant it as long as it wasn't unreasonable. She seemed a bit flustered when I readily asked about the condition, then hesitated again and said.
"Among the servants working here, there's a man named Jayoung."
Just hearing the name, I felt like I knew exactly who he was. Because a servant whose name she'd even memorized and felt was worth bringing up as a condition at this moment could only be one person.
"The one who brought the food that time, right?"
She nodded. Then she said this to me.
"After you take over the sect, promise me you'll give Jayoung money and help him leave this village so he can stand on his own."
I laughed. Even if it was just a formality, she and I were now supposed to form the bond of husband and wife. And yet she had the audacity to ask me to support another man so brazenly?
"You do know we're about to become husband and wife, right? Is asking me to look after another man a request befitting the mistress of a household? You should be devoted to your family."
".....That's exactly why I'm asking this of you."
The condition changed into a request after just one exchange. She understood her situation perfectly. The Sect Leader's daughter knew how to assert herself calmly, even while groveling in a way that suited her position.
"When this sect wouldn't even treat me properly, he was the only one who treated me with respect and made me smile. Grudges and favors must be settled properly. Even if he's someone I must cut ties with now, I should repay the kindness of helping me, shouldn't I?"
I heard a whistling sound. When I turned to look back, Sannyeo was blinking her eyes with an amused expression. Since Sannyeo wasn't visible from the woman's position, she strained to figure out what was there, following my gaze.
I looked back at the woman. Her face was resolute. Her hands were clenched tightly into fists, and her eyes, though wavering, revealed a determined will.
"What if I say no?"
".....I was taught not to become a beast who doesn't even know gratitude after being born human. If you won't give me your word, then I won't help you either."
She was trying to 'sacrifice' herself not only for herself but also for Jayoung, who was wasting his life away as a servant in this cursed sect. She was trying to stake her own body to overturn everything in this sect.
I liked that spirit.
But there was a part I didn't like.
What I really didn't like was her viewing marrying me as a 'sacrifice'. If I let it slide like this, the future was obvious. No matter how well I treated her, this insolent woman would be writing love poems on her own, secretly pining for Jayoung in a corner of her heart.
She would brighten up at news carried by the wind someday, and if the time came to talk about Jayoung, she would open her mouth with a tone I didn't recognize.
I approached her.
"Your wish will be granted."
The woman leaned her waist back with a bewildered face. A man striding close without any sense of distance was an unfamiliar sight to her. But with her useless legs unable to flee, it was faster for me to seize her hand than for her to escape.
"However, my own mind has changed somewhat."
As I pulled her hand forcefully, the woman's body slid right into my embrace.
"I-I'll scream."
"Go ahead."
The woman's eyes trembled. Her face, flushed red like a carrot, seemed about to steam. She couldn't scream. The moment that would change her entire life was right before her, so she couldn't offer any resistance.
Her wishes, and the things I had guaranteed, were filled with offers she couldn't refuse.
"A sect's mistress thinking about another man doesn't sit well with me. Even if you say you'll be devoted with your mouth, I don't like that sort of vague, businesslike relationship."
And I slowly slid my hand upward from her flank. The hand, lightly brushing past the side of her chest, wrapped around her shoulder.
"So, I'd better stamp my seal on you here in advance. There's still plenty of time left, after all. Once that's done, you'll be able to understand a little more clearly just what kind of relationship we have, won't you?"
I put strength into my arm to hug her shoulders tighter and said those words. I breathed onto her body, clearly foreshadowing what I was about to do.
"N-no, this isn't right.... I'm...."
The woman shook her head, trying to squirm out of my body like an eel. I pulled her even tighter and asked.
"Was his name Jayoung? The servant you asked me to look after. So kind, so innocent.... Isn't that right?"
The simple-minded servant.
Jayoung.
The woman and I seemed to recall the same face at the same time.
The woman shyly bit her lip and kept silent, and I whispered into her ear.
I pulled her into my arms, so that she wore me almost like a cloak.
"If you end up tied to that man, what can you possibly gain? In this situation, what do you gain by caring about that man?"
He was nothing more than a simple-minded, poor servant.
A man with nothing to offer but a kind heart.
The moment I left, his strengths became meaningless. Because he had neither the power nor the ability to protect her.
Ideals were always powerless in the face of violence.
Was that not the case right now?
When she first proposed the deal to me, she certainly hadn't anticipated a situation like this.
"If I leave now, could you and that bastard even end up together? Could you carry on with your relationship safely? The moment you so much as lock eyes with another man, don't they all foam at the mouth and scream at you not to act recklessly?"
The woman's shoulders trembled. It meant I had hit the nail on the head. I hugged her even tighter. The woman's resisting body was gradually, little by little, losing its strength.
"That Sect Leader bastard will beat the guy to death, and then drag you right back. And you won't even be able to run away."
My hand pulled down her upper garment. The thin underclothes faintly silhouetted her skin. She turned her head away from me, but no longer resisted me.
She was a very smart woman.
She understood that she couldn't push me away here.
That even if she refused this union right now, I would take it by force here anyway. That the more she resisted, the more I would pounce like a beast. That as proof of our contract, I absolutely had to cover her body with mine on this very spot.
"So, let me show you who your husband is. There's still plenty of time left. I'll slowly teach you who to think about, and who to give your heart to."
I grabbed her shoulders and pushed her body down onto the blanket. As she fell without resistance, she covered herself with both arms and spoke. Her sorrowful face was filled with resignation and lingering attachment.
".....It won't be as easy as you think."
Her arms wrapped around herself and her resolute expression seemed to say this.
That she would never give me her heart.
That no matter how I took her body, I could never completely possess her.
I said with a smile.
"You don't know me."
Until the Sect Leader returned, the night was far too long.