Chapter 121
Translator: RaidenTL
Chapter 121
To think he would say she did well, even though she had hidden like a child.
As So-ya looked at him with a bewildered expression, Ga-ya spoke with a satisfied look on his face.
“In the future, if any of those impure bastards approach you, just hide behind your brother like that.”
“Impure…?”
“Yes. That guy just now is an incredibly impure fellow.”
Ga-ya’s face turned grim again as he thought of Jeok San-yu. It was because the memory of their first meeting had resurfaced.
“Brother?”
At So-ya’s call, he quickly relaxed his expression. Then, he flashed a smile that was uncharacteristically gentle and said, “The woman you saw earlier is the same. Aside from your brother, the world is full of nothing but impure bastards. That’s why I have to protect our Som-som.”
Though Ga-ya’s face as he said those words looked somehow like the most impure thing in the world…
“Yes, Brother,” So-ya replied with a bright smile.
Until a moment ago, she had been sighing at her own behavior for hiding behind him, but her heart melted at her brother’s single word telling her she had done well. The fact that there was always a back for her to hide behind made her feel immensely secure.
“Let’s go inside now. We have to wake up early for the celebration tomorrow.”
“Good idea, Som-som. But about the banquet tomorrow…”
The harmonious voices of the two siblings echoed through the night air.
* * *
Meanwhile, San-yu’s footsteps were light as he left Baek Ga-ya behind and headed toward his quarters.
For the first time in a long while, a proper smile bloomed on his face, which had always been cast in dark shadows. It was because he had just witnessed Baek Ga-ya’s face contorted in immense displeasure.
Watching Baek Ga-ya’s face crumple was one of his small pleasures amidst the grueling battlefield. Recalling how the man had rushed to block him the moment he tried to greet his sister made San-yu feel refreshed.
That beast of the battlefield actually makes faces like that in front of his sister, Jeok San-yu thought with a smirk.
Come to think of it, it was the same back then. Claiming some baby bird was his…
He faltered.
The smile on San-yu’s face faded, then vanished entirely.
Baek Ga-ya’s younger sister, with her soft, snow-white hair. And the tiny baby bird with pure white down he had seen in the distant North.
Thinking of them brought back memories of his own younger sister, whom he had been trying not to think about. His light footsteps slowed.
It was as he was walking through the night with a hollow expression that he heard a voice.
“You’re too much, Father! You promised Ri-ri!”
Turning his head at the shrill voice, he saw Ri-ri in a fit of temper and their father looking at a loss for what to do.
“I am sorry, Ri-ri. Instead, Father has prepared something else…”
“I don’t want it! I must have the one set with jade from the East—”
“Why are you raising your voice at Father at this late hour?”
Unable to watch any longer, San-yu cut Ri-ri off and spoke up.
“Sa-San-yu, Brother…?”
Ri-ri, who had been shouting at the top of her lungs, looked at him in surprise. However, her face soon flushed with indignation.
“What does it matter to you, Brother! This is between Ri-ri and Father!”
In an instant, San-yu’s face hardened into a mask.
“Have you no shame, raising your voice even at me, your elder brother?”
His low rebuke chilled the night air.
“A-Are you getting angry at Ri-ri right now?”
Ri-ri’s eyes trembled as she looked at San-yu with an expression of disbelief.
For the past five years, as the princess of the Vermilion Bird Clan, Ri-ri had never heard a harsh word from anyone. She was already dissatisfied because her eldest brother, whom she met for the first time today, didn’t seem to show much interest in her. On top of that, she had been deeply shocked by the sharp attitude the Young Lords of the White Tiger Clan had shown her, and now even her eldest brother was angry with her!
Of course, Jeok San-yu hadn’t raised his voice or scolded her terrifyingly. However, to Ri-ri, who was accustomed to everyone treating her with kind, smiling faces, San-yu’s stern, humorless tone felt exactly like he was raging at her.
Thick teardrops began to well in Ri-ri’s eyes, and then…
“You’re mean! How can you do this to Ri-ri! Ugh, hic, waaaaaah!”
Soon, Ri-ri burst into loud sobs.
“Oh dear, don’t cry, Ri-ri. It seems your brother has misunderstood something.”
A startled Jeok Ah-yun pulled the child into an embrace, patting her as he spoke to San-yu.
“San-yu. You have misunderstood. Your sister is only upset because I broke a promise to her, so do not speak to her like that.”
“…”
Instead of answering, San-yu silently watched the scene.
Just then, Hwa-yu, who happened to be passing by, spotted Ri-ri sobbing in their father’s arms. With his usual exaggerated reaction, he took his sister and led her into the pavilion.
Finally, after Ri-ri’s crying faded and the surroundings grew quiet, San-yu spoke to his father.
“Indulging a child’s stubbornness without limit is not good for her character, Father.”
“Is Ri-ri not a child with many scars?”
However, Jeok Ah-yun shook his head, speaking in a calm voice.
“It is you who are being too cold to Ri-ri. She is the younger sister your mother left behind with her final breath.”
“…”
“Try to be a little kinder to your sister.”
“…”
At those words, San-yu clamped his mouth shut.
Was it because he had been away from the mansion for so long and only met the girl now that she was grown? He felt a subtle discomfort around Ri-ri, despite the fact that she was clearly his own flesh and blood.
A heavy silence flowed between the father and son for a while. After a moment, San-yu looked out into the darkness and spoke.
“…When I left for the campaign eight years ago, I made a promise to that child here in this Imperial Palace. That I would return in good health.”
Realizing that he was talking about So-ya, Jeok Ah-yun’s expression gradually stiffened.
“I have kept my promise and returned in health, but that child is nowhere to be seen.”
“…”
“Perhaps that is why. When I look at Ri-ri, I think of So-ya—how she would have grown to be just that size if she were alive—and I find I cannot smile comfortably.”
“…”
“But as you said, Father, I should be the first to open my heart and approach the sister Mother left us.”
San-yu smiled bitterly as he said this. His Adam’s apple bobbed painfully as he swallowed the agony he had suppressed for years.
“But Father. Just a little, just a little longer, I wish to mourn her death.”
“…”
“Even though I commemorated her every day on that tedious battlefield for years, now that the war is over and I have met my family, I find myself thinking of her once again.”
“…”
While Jeok Ah-yun stood unable to say a word, another voice cut in.
“Never bring up that story in front of Ri-ri.”
Jeok Hwa-yu, who had come back outside after soothing Ri-ri, spoke to his older brother.
“She is a child with many scars. She already had a hard enough time because that girl stole her place.”
“That girl…?”
San-yu frowned, failing to understand the words for a brief moment.
“Surely, by ‘that girl,’ you aren’t referring to So-ya?”
“It is not my place to comment on you remembering and mourning her, Brother. However, please be careful in front of Ri-ri. I hope our sister is never hurt by that girl again.”
San-yu, who had been listening quietly, countered in a hard voice.
“What on earth are you talking about? You make it sound as if So-ya intentionally stole Ri-ri’s place.”
“…”
Hwa-yu faltered.
At that sharp point, Jeok Hwa-yu’s expression was momentarily stained with embarrassment. However, he soon composed himself and replied.
“Is it not the truth? While Ri-ri was wandering the streets, that girl enjoyed everything Ri-ri should have had.”
“And are you saying that was So-ya’s fault!”
San-yu, who hadn’t even raised his voice in front of the disrespectful Ri-ri, roared at his younger brother.
“That child was a victim too! How shocked do you think she must have been, young as she was, to find out she had been swapped!”
“B-Brother…?”
Since San-yu rarely raised his voice like that, Hwa-yu flinched.
“Don’t tell me you spoke to So-ya in that manner as well?”
“…”
In the face of his enraged brother, Hwa-yu couldn’t answer for a long time before finally managing to speak.
“I only wish for Ri-ri to never be hurt again.”
He still held his ground as if he weren’t wrong, but his voice was considerably smaller than before.
“Ri-ri is… such a precious child. She is the child Mother gave her life to leave to us.”
“Yes. She is precious.”
Jeok San-yu’s cold, level voice immediately struck back.
“However, to me, So-ya was a sister no less precious. So do not ever insult the dead child again.”
San-yu snapped with a frigid face, gave a short nod to his father, and left first. Hwa-yu also stared at his brother’s retreating back with a stubborn expression before bowing to his father and leaving as well.
And in the place where his sons had left, Jeok Ah-yun remained alone.
His entire face had turned deathly pale, and he stood frozen in a daze, unable to even respond as his two sons bid him goodnight.
It was because of what Hwa-yu had just said.
[Is it not the truth? While Ri-ri was wandering the streets, that girl enjoyed everything Ri-ri should have had.]
[I only wish for Ri-ri to never be hurt again.]
Those words…
[Because of your mother’s greed, Ri-ri had to wander the streets at a young age before she could even awaken her Spirit Core. While the daughter of a maid stole everything that child rightfully deserved.]
[So, make sure Ri-ri never finds out who you are. If Ri-ri is ever hurt because of you, I will not forgive you.]
They were the same as the words he had once said to So-ya.
But even though they were words that had once come from his own mouth, hearing them from someone else, why did they…
“Why do they… sound so strange…”
As the hollow murmur escaped his lips, goosebumps broke out over his skin.
A sense of dread—that something had been terribly wrong all this time—violently shook his heart, which had been thumping uneasily for a while now.