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Chapter 19
There were four elders in Seonwondang.
One tended to flowers, another played janggi (Korean chess), and yet another fanned himself while humming an old tune.
Among them, Elder Mok, who had been seated before an open inner room with a brush in hand, suddenly found the outside growing eerily quiet and stepped out to the main hall in puzzlement.
The elders were all staring at the courtyard, and Elder Mok also looked out.
There, walking toward Seonwondang—where he only ever showed himself after relentless nagging—was I-shin.
And he was not alone.
Following behind him like a graceful tail was a beautiful woman.
Who is that?
While the elders exchanged looks of puzzlement, I-shin stepped onto the main hall.
Then he sat down in the seat of honor.
Youngeon, who had impulsively followed him up, placed her hands together politely and bowed under the elders’ sharp gazes.
“Honored elders, I hope you have been well. Thanks to your kindness, I was able to rest comfortably last night.”
Elder Myeong, who had been the one playing janggi and was still bewildered by the situation, asked,
“And the young lady is…? Surely not…?”
He stared carefully at Youngeon—dressed now in a hydrangea-blue jeogori and a spiderwort-colored skirt—and suddenly his eyes widened in surprise.
Feeling awkward and shy at his reaction, Youngeon simply gave a small smile.
Yesterday, she had looked like a beggar.
Realizing belatedly that the elders had not recognized her, she bowed once more.
“I greeted you yesterday, elders. I am Ha Soo-ja, daughter of Ha Yang-ja of the Daesang Trading House.”
“So you were that Miss Ha from yesterday! Seeing you like this, I didn’t recognize you at all. Hoho!”
Elder Myeong kept staring as though still astonished.
“Elder Myeong, come sit. The head of the house has come all this way—this is no trivial matter.”
Elder Mok, now seated in the chair to I-shin’s left, called over Elder Myeong and the other two elders to sit.
“Miss Ha, you may sit as well.”
Youngeon bowed again and then went to sit in the empty seat to I-shin’s lower right.
A heavy silence fell over the main hall.
Youngeon felt a strange, indescribable sense of wrongness.
Unlike I-shin, who was calm to the point of indifference, the faces of the two elders—excluding Elder Myeong—clearly showed discomfort.
The only elder who seemed at ease was Elder Mok.
“What brings the head of the house here today?”
Elder Mok was the one to break the silence.
Instead of answering, I-shin looked at Youngeon.
Feeling the oppressive air, Youngeon quickly held out the jade plaque she had been clutching so that the elders could see it clearly.
“This… Don’t tell me you matched the plaques? Did the head of the house give Miss Ha his half?”
Elder Mok lifted his brows as he examined the fully completed black jade plaque, looking back and forth between Youngeon and I-shin.
Youngeon recalled matching the plaques together without much thought in that ruined shrine—and her heart plummeted.
“Is… is that a problem?”
“Not exactly a problem….”
Elder Mok trailed off, stroking his white beard.
His deep eyes beneath drooping, wrinkled lids fixed upon I-shin, seated at the head.
“Please stop circling around the point and just speak.”
Youngeon, anxious that she might have caused some irreparable trouble, flinched and looked at I-shin, who had answered curtly.
Elder Mok was clearly well over seventy—an age apparent at a glance.
So it was only natural that someone as young as I-shin should speak respectfully to him.
Yet somehow, to Youngeon, the fact that I-shin was capable of speaking politely at all felt strangely astonishing.
When she stared at him in surprise, I-shin shot her an irritated glare before turning back to Elder Mok.
“So this is what happens when the plaques are matched. Is that all?”
Elder Mok flipped the jade over several times, examining it closely, then spoke again with a low hum.
“Not quite. When will the head of the house set the wedding date with Miss Ha?”
The sudden question made Youngeon’s eyes round with shock.
What did matching the plaques have to do with choosing a wedding date?
And I-shin seemed to have the same thought.
His face twisted, and he looked sharply at Elder Mok.
“Why would we set a wedding date?”
This time, Elder Mok was the one startled by their reactions.
“Were the plaques not matched by mutual consent between the two of you?”
“No.”
Youngeon answered unintentionally in a small voice, shrinking her neck.
A creeping sense of dread crawled up her spine.
Her palms grew damp—she felt she had done something irreversible.
She looked at Elder Mok with growing anxiety.
“As the head well knows, this jade plaque is one of several spiritual relics owned by the Geom family.”
He stroked the plaque as he spoke.
A spiritual relic?
The unfamiliar term made Youngeon perk up her ears.
“This plaque has, for generations, served as the betrothal token that determines the spouse of the family head. When the time comes and the destined bride chosen by the former head arrives on Jejado Island, the two plaques are matched as a ritual to confirm the betrothal. That has always been the custom.”
His tone carried a faint rebuke—as if saying you failed to appear yesterday to perform this custom.
Elder Mok shot I-shin a stern look and rose to retrieve a wooden case from a shelf in the inner room.
It was the same one holding the marriage document Youngeon had seen the day before.
He opened the case, took out the document, and spread it before I-shin and Youngeon.
“Do you see this?”
His wrinkled finger pointed to a section of the document.
“The two houses shall use the Geom family’s heirloom black jade plaque as the token of betrothal, and once the two halves come together, the wedding shall be held within one year.”
“Exactly as written.”
Once both I-shin and Youngeon had finished reading, Elder Mok added,
“Within one year of the plaques being united, the marriage must be held. All that remains is to choose the date.”
Youngeon stared blankly at the plaque in Elder Mok’s hand.
I-shin also looked between the jade plaque and the document in disbelief.
“And if we don’t choose a date?”
At I-shin’s question, Elder Mok fell silent for a moment.
Of course. This rascal would never agree to marriage so easily!
Though frustration boiled within him, he kept his stern expression and rose.
He went into the study, where the written history of the Geom family was kept, and returned with a very old, fragile-looking book.
“In the four hundred years since the Geom family settled on Mount Jeokbyeok, the betrothal oath has never once been broken. However…”
He flipped through the book and stopped at a particular page.
“According to the record, if the contents of the betrothal document are not fulfilled after the plaques are united, the Curse of Honmong (昏懜) will befall them.”
“The… Curse of Honmong?”
Youngeon, who had been listening quietly, repeated the words.
She did not know what it meant, but the word curse alone made her chest clench with cold fear.
“One who is struck by the Curse of Honmong endlessly relives, in dreams, the most terrifying and horrific moment they have ever experienced. The suffering and fear gnaw at their flesh and blood, and like a withered leaf, even their soul dries up until death.”
Elder Mok recited the passage from the book in a low, cracked voice.
Youngeon’s face drained completely of color.
Die?
