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Episode 09.
From beyond the thick brush on the western outskirts of the village, coarse voices rang out one after another, crying grievances.
“I was wrong, Lord! I’ll gouge out my own eyes if you wish—I’ll never again associate with that Kim fellow! He’s not even worth speaking to!”
“Lord! I’ve been wronged! It was that Kim bastard who slaughtered the pig in the marketplace, and it was him who suddenly swung his blade! I was struck by a bolt from the blue!”
“That one-eyed rat deserved death! If I had followed my heart, I would’ve cut off his head in one stroke like that pig—but I held back!”
Sitting on a rock, Lee Shin watched the two men—buried up to their necks in the ground—spitting at each other’s faces. With an expression that said unbelievable, he snorted.
“Lord! I’m innocent! Everything happened because that Yang fellow had a fit of madness and caused a ruckus in the marketplace!”
Not to be outdone, Yang spat as he shouted back.
“You filthy bastard! Did you or did you not make my sister cry? If you’ve knocked her up, take responsibility! How dare you toy with my sister! As if my sister would ever go for a one-eyed freak like you!”
“Yang, what’s so great about your sister anyway? When I look at her face, all I see are those buck teeth!”
As their shouting grew louder and louder, Lee Shin kicked the dirt at his feet and showered both of them with it.
Caught off guard, the two men fell silent as the dirt splattered across their heads and faces.
“Wow. Watching two idiots insult each other—what entertainment.”
Hearing Lee Shin’s deep, chilling tone, both Kim and Yang immediately shut their mouths.
“Whether you lot become in-laws or sworn enemies is none of my concern. The problem is that you disturbed my rest. What—life was too peaceful and you got bored?”
Narrowing his eyes, he gave them an icy look, then rose to his feet and glanced at the bearded man quietly standing behind him.
“Du-yeong, there won’t be a second warning. Anyone who starts a deadly brawl inside Jejado gets no mercy.”
“My apologies, Lord. I’ll remember that. Then… what shall we do with these two?”
“Dig them up when they’re about to die.”
Answering in a bored tone, Lee Shin turned and walked toward the village.
Soon, the massive manor came into view—a grand structure of layers upon layers of black-tiled roofs spread across the flat hill just below the rocky mountain.
This was the ancestral home where the bloodline of the Geom (黔) clan—over a thousand years old—had lived for generations.
The grounds alone, branching out from the tall main gate, contained nearly thirty courtyards, each with names like Yeongyeong Hall, Do-yeong Hall, Lotus Hall, and Early-Rise Hall.
Lee Shin lived in Yeongyeong Hall, the residence of the clan head. Barely half an hour earlier, he had been napping in the inner quarters.
But Kim and Yang had caused such an uproar in the marketplace—waving weapons around—that the elders of the Seonwon Hall had rushed straight to Yeongyeong Hall to fetch him.
—The prisoners you recklessly let into Jejado are brawling again. The streets are drenched in blood! Go at once and deal with it!
Seonwon Hall was the courtyard where the clan elders handled affairs. Whenever anything happened, their daily routine was to find him and lecture him.
For men in their sixties and seventies, their energy was remarkably abundant.
They spent all day staring at Yeongyeong Hall, waiting to pounce on any mistake Lee Shin made.
Originally, Jejado had been extremely closed off—up until the time of Lee Shin’s father, the previous clan head.
No outsiders were allowed inside.
A massive barrier of ghostly energy cloaked the island deep within the mountains, confusing and maddening anyone who tried to approach it.
Combined with the clan head’s ability to command spirits, Jejado had been an untouchable realm unless granted permission.
But once Lee Shin became clan head, everything changed.
If someone managed to reach Jejado and he judged them “not harmful,” he would give them a token and allow them to stay.
Because of this, the elders and the rest of the clan wailed day after day, claiming this sacred and beautiful Jejado was being ruined by Lee Shin’s hands.
—Criminals run rampant! Look what Jejado has become! Calling you ‘Lord, Lord’ as they chase after you—it looks no different from a bandit’s den! How dare you disgrace our noble Geom clan like this! Shame on you!
As Lee Shin reached the village entrance with a faint smirk, a servant from Seonwon Hall came running breathlessly toward him.
“L-Lord! H-huff, huff!”
Stopping short about four feet away, the servant bowed low, voice small and trembling.
“What is it?”
Startled by even that mild question, the servant flinched and lowered his head even further.
As always, Lee Shin didn’t care.
In the Geom clan, people either feared him, despised him, or dismissed him—nothing more.
“A g-guest, my lord… a guest has come to the manor.”
“A guest?”
Lee Shin stared. No one here came to see him except the prisoners he allowed to stay.
And those proud Geom clanspeople—who considered themselves scholarly, noble, and dignified—would never call a prisoner a guest.
So the guest must not be a prisoner.
“Who is it?”
Showing unusual patience, Lee Shin asked again.
Panicked, the servant quickly answered.
“From… from outside.”
“Outside? Who came from outside?”
“Elder Hwa said… the person carries the clan’s Black Jade Token…”
“The Black Jade…? What are you—”
Mid-sentence, something clicked in Lee Shin’s mind.
There was only one jade token the elders would call by that name.
The marriage pact jade.
“…Hah. And where did that suddenly crawl out from?”
The servant shivered as Lee Shin’s eerie, dark-tinged voice seeped out.
He remembered a story another servant had told him:
—Didn’t you know? The first thing the current clan head did upon taking his position ten years ago was massacre. In a single night, he killed three hundred people. The blood formed rivers. And he was only fifteen at the time.
The servant—himself fifteen this year—stole a terrified glance at Lee Shin.
—Can you imagine? Only fifteen! How vicious, cruel, and heartless must he be to do such a thing? With a madman like that as clan head, of course the elders fear for the clan’s future day and night.
Beneath the clan head’s bewitching, beautiful appearance lurked a blood-hungry demon—surely.
Three hundred people? The servant couldn’t even imagine it.
“Where is the guest?”
“Uh—yes, in… in the main hall of Seonwon Hall…”
The servant bowed deeply as he answered.
“Fine.”
As soon as Lee Shin walked ahead, the servant hurried after him.
Fortunately, Lee Shin was headed toward the Geom manor.
But when they reached the towering front gate, the servant froze in confusion.
Lee Shin was walking toward Yeongyeong Hall, not Seonwon Hall.
“L-Lord? The guest is in Seonwon Hall…”
His timid voice never reached Lee Shin.
The servant drooped and turned toward Seonwon Hall instead, dreading the scolding the elders would give him.
He had no idea.
Lee Shin, who had turned toward Yeongyeong Hall, had already leapt onto the tiled roofs and was perched atop the hallway roof overlooking the main hall of Seonwon Hall.
He looked down.
And when he saw the neatly seated beggar in the main hall, the back of his head tingled.
As if someone had just smacked him hard.
“…You’ve got to be kidding me.”
