🔊 TTS Settings
Chapter 21
Even though she wore an expression that seemed to say she had a plan and there was nothing to worry about, Ha Dowoon’s hardened expression did not ease.
“It’s gotten too late.”
“There’s no better time to meet while avoiding other people’s eyes.”
As if telling him not to worry, Geum Seolha lightly patted the back of his hand before pulling away. Ha Dowoon let out a sigh.
“If you do not return within one shijin, I will come looking for you.”
At the firm look in his eyes, one that clearly said he would not have let her go at all if he could help it, Geum Seolha paused and smiled softly.
“Alright.”
“Please be careful.”
Returning his smile, Geum Seolha followed the maid.
Passing through a pitch-black corridor untouched by torchlight and then along a maze-like dirt path, the maid walked without the slightest hesitation.
“Looks like you really did pass my message to Madam Baek?”
The maid had seemed less than pleased before, so Geum Seolha had thought there was a chance she might not deliver it.
“You said you were repaying a favor.”
A favor. An act of kindness. The maid slowly turned her head and met Geum Seolha’s eyes.
“This really is something that will help Madam Baek, right?”
There was a stubbornness in the maid’s gaze as she sought an answer.
Just like Yoo Eunsul.
Only then did Geum Seolha realize why the response had come so quickly.
“Were you planning to leave me here if you thought I wouldn’t be any help?”
“……”
“Seriously. You’re not even denying it.”
Though she grumbled, Geum Seolha looked entirely unsurprised.
“If I truly couldn’t help, Madam Baek wouldn’t have called for me in the first place.”
She smiled gently, telling the maid there was no need for such pointless worries.
This world still displeased her in many ways, but people who resembled those she cherished were not bad at all.
“This way.”
The maid stopped before an old stone wall completely covered in vines.
Geum Seolha blinked.
“There’s no path here.”
“Just a moment.”
As if she had done it countless times before, the maid carefully parted the vines wrapped around the wall. A small hole appeared, just large enough for an adult to crawl through if they bent over.
“So that’s why you suddenly asked such an out-of-character question.”
It seemed that had been the final inspection before reaching their destination.
Thanks to her child-sized body, passing through the hole was easy for Geum Seolha.
The maid who followed behind ended up covered in dust and dirt.
“Impressive.”
Following the maid’s hands as she rearranged the vines, the opening vanished without a trace.
“If you follow the path, you’ll find a pavilion beside a pond. Madam Baek is waiting there.”
“From here, I’m going alone?”
“Yes. I’ll wait here.”
“Thanks for guiding me.”
Giving the maid, who reminded her of Yoo Eunsul, a gentle smile, Geum Seolha strode away.
Considering the conversation they were about to have, it was better for her and Madam Baek to be alone anyway.
Just as the maid had said, after following the path for some time, a wide-open lake came into view.
Crunch.
The sound of a twig snapping underfoot echoed.
At the same moment, a figure turned around from within the pavilion.
“It has been a long time, Miss Seolha.”
“Madam Baek?”
Geum Seolha narrowed her eyes.
The woman’s face was hidden beneath a bamboo hat pulled low and a veil that draped down from it.
Madam Baek bowed politely.
“Yes. I heard you wished to speak with me.”
She was impeccably courteous, yet somehow carried herself with an unmistakable dignity.
Interest flickered across Geum Seolha’s eyes.
She’s no ordinary woman.
Unlike Madam Hong, she did not reveal her thoughts easily.
Though she lowered herself before others, she never lost her own sense of worth.
Geum Seolha’s eyes curved into crescents.
“That’s right. There are many things I want to say to you. Many things I want to ask.”
Which should she ask first?
Humming lightly to herself, Geum Seolha fixed her gaze on Madam Baek.
“Why do you keep turning a blind eye to Madam Hong’s arrogance?”
“Because Madam Moyong stands behind Madam Hong.”
Her voice was completely flat, as though she had anticipated the question.
Geum Seolha tilted her head.
“The Baek family has served the mistress of Geumrin and managed the household affairs for generations… and you stepped back for nothing more than that?”
Of course, it was possible.
But that upright bearing before her belonged to someone who would rather break than bend and lose her pride.
“I don’t think that’s the whole story.”
“That is all.”
“Or perhaps it simply has to be all?”
Geum Seolha snorted and suddenly reached out.
She lifted the veil hanging from Madam Baek’s hat.
Their eyes met.
The corners of Geum Seolha’s lips curled upward.
“You look pale, but you seem far too healthy for someone supposedly bedridden with a serious illness.”
“Miss.”
Madam Baek’s face stiffened.
Geum Seolha remained completely unbothered.
“If you wanted everyone to fully believe that misunderstanding, you shouldn’t have been influencing the Medical Hall.”
“It seems you are mistaken about something. How could someone like me, who has already relinquished authority within the Geum family, exert any influence?”
Watching Madam Baek deny it, Geum Seolha laughed softly.
“No matter how fond I am of Eunsul, she’s only a maid. Yet she’s receiving care from Physician Yoo, someone trusted by Madam Baek, and she’s doing so here in the Central Plains rather than the lower regions.”
There was no way that was a coincidence.
“If you don’t want to admit it, I’ll just consider it an astonishing coincidence.”
Whether Madam Baek acknowledged it or not was irrelevant.
Geum Seolha cut her off.
“I came here to propose a deal.”
“……”
“I don’t know what method you’re using to delay the condition, but all you’re doing is keeping him barely alive. Full recovery is impossible with your current approach.”
Madam Baek stopped breathing.
The subject had not been spoken aloud, but she instantly understood who Geum Seolha was referring to.
“A vicious mix of fire qi and poison is circulating through his meridians. It may look as though you’re managing to hold it back somehow, but if this continues, his skin will eventually twist and warp as though it has been burned.”
Ha Dowoon had dismissed it as insignificant.
Geum Seolha knew better.
Among the forces under the Demonic Alliance was the Five Poison Sect’s Fire Blood Poison.
Even if someone managed to survive and remove the poison, it left horrific scars like severe burns across the entire body.
It appeared in The Heavenly Martial Emperor.
According to the original story, the man who suffered from it had a face and body covered in burn-like scars.
“Once those burn marks begin to appear, it’s already too late.”
Geum Seolha quietly looked at Madam Baek.
Madam Baek stared back with the face of a wax doll, as though she had forgotten how to breathe.
“Since it’s obvious you won’t even be able to maintain the current state forever, wouldn’t it be better to seek another solution?”
“M-Miss…”
Madam Baek’s voice trembled.
“Take my hand. I can return him, whole and unharmed, to the place where he belongs.”
Geum Seolha spoke firmly.
“What… what do you know?”
Though trembling with shock, Madam Baek still managed to ask the question she needed to ask.
“That he’s your weakness. That notices have been posted everywhere as if he were a criminal. And that those notices don’t reveal his true identity.”
At that moment, cracks appeared across Madam Baek’s composed expression.
Geum Seolha’s eyes widened slightly.
“What? You didn’t know?”
“……”
“You hid him this carefully without even knowing?”
For the first time, genuine astonishment entered Geum Seolha’s voice.
So that meant—
“You thought he might actually be a criminal, and you still hid and protected him.”
The realization struck Geum Seolha like lightning, and she voiced it aloud.
“No… was that something you simply didn’t care about?”
The truth exceeded even her expectations.
Madam Baek had protected and concealed the man without knowing who he really was.
“Just who is he to you?”
A cold wind swept between them.
The veil fluttered across Madam Baek’s face once more.
Over it flashed the image of the man coughing up blood.
“Ah.”
Only then did Geum Seolha realize something.
They look alike!
Ironically, Eun Seokho, who was supposedly Madam Baek’s nephew, looked nothing like her.
But that man bore a startling resemblance to the beautiful woman standing before her.
“Ha!”
A sharp laugh escaped Geum Seolha.
Now she understood.
She finally understood why Madam Baek had willingly endured humiliation and bowed her head despite the risks.
‘He said there were only two family members left in the world, Vice Leader Eun.’
There was another one right here.
Remembering Eun Seokho’s words, Geum Seolha let out a groan.
Judging from the situation, she was certain even Eun Seokho knew nothing about the man.
“You’d better keep that secret buried forever.”
“……”
“For his sake as well as yours.”
The truth was far greater than she had imagined, and her head began to ache.
This is no small matter.
That man was destined to become the future sky of the Demonic Alliance.
Like all those involved with the demonic factions, he would walk a path drenched in blood and schemes.
If it became known that he had living relatives, dark clouds would gather over them.
Madam Baek watched Geum Seolha’s openly troubled expression for a long time before finally moving her lips.
“I will not ask how you came to know.”
Geum Seolha shifted her weight casually onto one leg.
Of course she wouldn’t.
How Geum Seolha knew was no longer the important issue.
“Can you… save him?”
“Save him?”
Geum Seolha lifted her chin with a sigh.
“I can do more than that.”
Her eyes shone with certainty.
“I can return him to the place where he truly belongs.”
“Ah.”
Madam Baek’s expression changed.
A trace of lingering attachment and overwhelming relief coexisted upon her face.
