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Chapter 27
Unlike when they had entered Honghwaru, they were guided back along a secluded road with barely any people around.
“Hah, really. I thought you’d come crawling back and beg to return. Looks like playing nanny suits you pretty well?”
Standing in for the Jiangxi branch leader and guiding them, Jeokrang sneered.
“I’ve told you over and over that you should fix that habit of running your mouth carelessly.”
For the first time, Hado-un responded after ignoring the constant taunts throughout the walk.
“Hah? You’ve been running around taking care of a little kid, and now you’ve gone crazy too?”
Realizing what had finally provoked Hado-un, Jeokrang’s face twisted. Geum Seolha held her breath as she quietly watched Hado-un’s expression while he stared at Jeokrang without emotion.
“She isn’t someone you can speak carelessly about.”
“Hah, so I thought you were just playing nanny, but you’re actually being a loyal dog too?”
At the harsh insult, Geum Seolha’s face stiffened. She had stayed silent because she was curious about Jeokrang and Hado-un’s relationship, but this was hard to overlook.
However, Hado-un moved before she could.
“If you say one more thing, don’t expect to make it back in one piece.”
His deeply sunken eyes looked straight at Jeokrang with a stillness that genuinely promised exactly that.
“So I thought you’d finally become a dog with its leash off, but looks like you’re just acting like another dog tied to a leash.”
“Funny thing for you to say.”
“Hey, I’m repaying a debt of gratitude.”
“You think I’m any different?”
“You’ve completely lost your mind.”
Jeokrang raised his hand and spun a finger beside his head.
Geum Seolha suddenly flared up at the gesture.
“Why do you keep picking fights?”
“Hm?”
“Whether Hado-un acts as my nanny or my loyal subordinate, who are you to stick your nose into it?”
The irritation Geum Seolha had been suppressing finally burst out. It bothered her how he kept acting like he had the right to judge Hado-un’s life, and like he knew him so well.
“Oh? I thought you were just a quiet little kitten, but you’re not ordinary either.”
For the first time, Jeokrang seemed genuinely interested in Geum Seolha and leaned his face toward her.
Frowning, Geum Seolha raised her hand and smacked his forehead hard.
“Ah!”
“Get your face away from me! You’re annoying!”
“W-what the—!”
Jeokrang stood there dumbfounded, having never imagined he’d get hit in the forehead by such a tiny child.
“Don’t touch her, Young Miss. Stupidity is contagious.”
Hado-un vigorously rubbed Geum Seolha’s hand with his sleeve.
“Are you close with him, Hado-un?”
Hado-un paused at Geum Seolha’s straightforward question.
“Well. We have an old connection.”
The line he drew was clean and merciless, and Jeokrang’s face twisted.
“You usually don’t call someone you fought life-and-death battles with just an ‘old connection.’”
“Fought together?”
Geum Seolha looked back and forth between Jeokrang and Hado-un.
Her expression clearly said, No way, making Jeokrang shout irritably:
“I saved that bastard’s life before, and he fought side by side with me too! Now he wants to act all noble!”
“You and Hado-un were close?”
Her blatant disbelief made Jeokrang let out an incredulous laugh.
“What, because you’re some young lady from a noble family? You don’t know a thing about what kind of person he is, huh?”
“Shut your mouth.”
His low voice rumbled like a growl.
Startled, Geum Seolha looked at Hado-un.
She had never seen this side of him before.
“Shut up? I’m only answering your Young Miss’s questions. Is that a problem too?”
Jeokrang’s eyes flashed as he sneered at Hado-un.
Found it. That bastard’s weak spot.
A sticky grin spread across his lips.
“Hey, Young Miss. Do you know what kind of man the one holding you is?”
Curiosity made Geum Seolha slowly raise her head and stare at Jeokrang. She couldn’t trust everything he said, but it was true that he and Hado-un had crossed paths at some point.
“Wandering martial artists get paid according to their skill and reputation.”
Crossing his arms, Jeokrang tilted his head as if enjoying himself.
“That guy’s commission fee was among the highest in Jiangxi.”
“Hado-un’s commission fee?”
“If he’d kept doing that work, maybe he would’ve become one of the most expensive in all under heaven, not just Jiangxi.”
“Doun… was a wandering martial artist?”
Surprise and fascination filled Geum Seolha’s eyes. Because of his composed speech and behavior, she had never even considered that Hado-un might have once been a wandering martial artist.
“He was. The only one in Jiangxi with a special-grade badge.”
Regret briefly crossed Jeokrang’s face.
Memories of a time when they lived each day as if it were their last flashed through him.
But that was all in the past.
“If you’re going to keep someone as your subordinate, shouldn’t you first find out what kind of bastard he was? Whether he was sane or not?”
Jeokrang suddenly lowered his head close to Geum Seolha’s face.
“You should be careful, little one.”
“……”
“He acts tame, but he’s a completely different breed from some obedient little puppy.”
Unlike his usual mocking tone, his voice was calm and dry.
There was self-mockery mixed into it.
“I told you not to talk nonsense.”
“I’m not making things up. Shouldn’t a young lady know these things?”
“Jeokrang.”
“Better to hear it from me than from somewhere else later.”
The gazes of Jeokrang and Hado-un collided fiercely.
Watching them, Geum Seolha tugged at Hado-un’s clothes.
“That’s enough. Let’s go, Hado-un.”
Jeokrang looked at her in surprise.
He thought she’d start asking Hado-un questions after being provoked this much.
“We’ll be late.”
There was still nothing in her clear eyes besides trust.
“No way. That wasn’t part of the calculation.”
Jeokrang tilted his head.
He didn’t like it.
He had stirred things enough for trouble to happen.
“Just in case, Young Miss—you should know why he came to Geumrin.”
The atmosphere that had begun to soften instantly froze.
A chilling cold seemed to brush across their skin.
“Why? Is that something even you can’t bring yourself to say?”
“……”
“Anyone would find it uncomfortable. But if you really decided to make this little girl your master, shouldn’t you tell her that much?”
Geum Seolha’s eyes turned cold.
Her brows furrowed deeply.
“Hey. What exactly are you trying to do?”
“Hm?”
“Who are you to keep speaking carelessly about Hado-un?”
“I meant it as a kindness.”
Geum Seolha let out a cold laugh.
Kindness, my foot.
It was obvious he was only trying to hurt and provoke Hado-un.
“We don’t need you to guide us. Stop your nonsense and get lost.”
“You catch on quickly.”
“Are you leaving or not?”
“And such a foul mouth too.”
Jeokrang looked Geum Seolha over with a strange expression.
“I used to know a little kid exactly like this.”
“Shut up and leave.”
Watching her growl at him, Jeokrang chuckled.
“You’re raising a kid exactly like yourself.”
“I told you she isn’t someone you can judge.”
“Did you raise her this way? Her temper seems pretty terrible.”
Now that the arrows were aimed at her instead of Hado-un, Geum Seolha narrowed her eyes.
The person with the worst personality here has the nerve to say that?
“Here, consider this generosity.”
“What?”
“You shouldn’t trust the branch leader too much, little one.”
Geum Seolha stared silently at his face.
The mood in his expression was strangely different from before.
“Why are you saying that?”
“Little one, this is where you just think, What a crazy bastard suddenly changing moods, and accept it.”
Muttering that she really wasn’t cute at all, Jeokrang clicked his tongue.
“You kept telling me to get lost, so this troublesome uninvited guest should get going.”
Shrugging his shoulders, Jeokrang casually walked away.
Unlike before, when he had clung stubbornly and kept provoking Hado-un, his departure was unexpectedly clean.
Geum Seolha looked awkwardly at his retreating figure.
“He’s impossible to figure out.”
“It’s best not to get close to him, Young Miss.”
“Who exactly is he? Why are you so bad at hiding your expression around him?”
Geum Seolha poked Hado-un’s cheek repeatedly.
Judging from the emotions she had seen flash across Jeokrang’s face earlier, they had clearly been more than just comrades.
“So you weren’t just companions. Was he your friend?”
“For a time, yes.”
A bitter smile crossed Hado-un’s lips.
Geum Seolha nodded as if she understood, but then froze at his next words.
“If I had not made a different choice, perhaps we would still be friends.”
“Do you miss those days?”
She asked carefully.
From what she had seen at the Geumrin Merchant Group and now this, it was obvious Hado-un was far from an ordinary martial artist.
Someone of his caliber would be valuable anywhere.
Merchant groups, escort agencies, noble clans—it didn’t matter.
Yet now he was merely her bodyguard.
Looking down at her complicated expression, Hado-un smiled faintly.
“No.”
“……”
“I like things better now.”
The warmth of the small child in his arms felt nice.
He preferred being a sword that protected rather than a sword that harmed.
His rough hand, covered in calluses and scars, gently brushed her cheek.
“So you can ignore that fool’s words.”
Looking at his eyes curved softly as he gazed at her, Geum Seolha slowly nodded.
“Okay.”
Hado-un would not leave her.
Only then did Geum Seolha finally feel at ease.
