THWCS 10

Chapter 10

Lee Shin’s sharp gaze fixed on the black jade token the elders were passing among themselves.

Suddenly, the incident from a few days prior—the one that had made him uneasy—surfaced in his mind.

Now he understood.

Even among a swarm of ghosts, that beggar had been able to stand there unharmed because of the Black Jade Token, one of the Gu Clan’s sacred relics.

And likewise, the reason she hadn’t fallen under the fog’s spell and managed to enter the market island.

“I should have gone to the cave that day. Should’ve kept her from even setting foot on the island.”

Eyes narrowing, Lee Shin muttered sharply. His voice was lazy and languid as always, but his face was cold, steeped in displeasure.

A betrothal?

By whose decision?

Not long after he became clan head, he had personally gone to the Ha household in Hanyang and ended the engagement for good.

He had made it clear: the betrothal tied to this Black Jade Token would not be honored in this lifetime.

He had struck a deal with Ha Soon-yang, the head of the Ha Trading Guild, and Ha Soon-yang had agreed.

A melon twisted off by force is never sweet—so the saying went.

If a father had no desire to cherish his own daughter, then even if she married, she would be unhappy. Ha Soon-yang had said he did not wish that for her.

And yet here the jade token had returned.

Along with the betrothed girl.

“Betrothed, my foot.”

A pale, round little face—one that had once looked at him with curious eyes ten years ago—rose faintly in his memory.

That small, odd girl had turned out to be that beggar?

—My daughter’s name is Ha Yeong-won. If someday she finds herself in trouble and comes seeking you, the Gu Clan head, protect her.

The promise Ha Soon-yang made in return for dissolving the engagement echoed clearly in his mind.

Regrettably, the man was still alive.

So the promise would have to be honored.

“Protect her, huh. That just means keeping her alive, doesn’t it? At least while she’s on the island.”

Lee Shin’s lips twisted coldly.

Gu Clan’s Main Hall

Following Elder Hwa into the Gu Clan estate, Yeong-won now sat facing eight elderly men seated on the upper dais.

The hall was wrapped in heavy silence. No one spoke first, each gauging the others.

After some time, a burly, ruddy-faced elder finally opened his mouth.

“So the young… lady has come to fulfill the Jade Token’s promise, is that right?”

Yeong-won slightly lifted a brow at the words Jade Token’s promise, but with her tangled hair and dirt-stained face, the reaction went unnoticed.

“Elder Mok, what’s there to discuss? She brought the token.”

“But this girl… is…”

Yeong-won pressed her lips together, trying to hide her poverty.

There was no mistaking the strange look on the elder’s face as he examined her.

“I checked on the way. She is the daughter of Ha Soon-yang, head of the Trading Guild.”

At Elder Hwa’s words, another elder asked in a puzzled tone:

“Then why does she look like this? Is the Trading Guild so destitute they’d send their daughter out looking like a beggar?”

“It’s not that. Word is that Head Ha passed away. So this young lady made her way here alone.”

“Head Ha? How did that happen?”

“Then what becomes of the affairs he oversaw?”

As one question followed another, a previously silent elder finally raised his voice.

“You lot—this isn’t what matters. What matters is that we can finally carry out the promise. The clan head is already twenty-five.”

“But didn’t the clan head clearly say back then that this betrothal—surely none of you have forgotten?”

“Perhaps there was a misunderstanding? The girl brought the token herself.”

Listening to the elders go back and forth, Yeong-won felt a strange sense of discord each time they mentioned the promise, and finally she spoke cautiously.

“Honored elders, forgive the interruption, but may I ask something? You said ‘the promise of the Jade Token’—what is that?”

At her question, all of their gazes snapped toward her.

Silence descended once more, though this time it didn’t last long.

“Young Lady Ha doesn’t know what that token is?”

The robust Elder Mok asked. Yeong-won looked down at the Black Jade Token in her hand.

“I understand it to be the Gu Clan’s heirloom.”

“And nothing more?”

As Elder Hwa pressed impatiently, Yeong-won blinked, confused as to what else there should be.

“Good heavens, this girl! Lady Ha, that is the Gu Clan head’s betrothal token!”

“…What did you just say?”

Unconsciously gripping the token tighter, Yeong-won stared at Elder Hwa in bewilderment.

“A symbol of engagement. Did you not come all this way to marry the clan head as promised?”

A symbol of engagement?

Marriage?

Yeong-won stared blankly at Elder Hwa’s gaunt face.

She was eighteen this year.

Most young women in Hanyang became betrothed at fifteen and married by seventeen or eighteen.

After her fifteenth birthday, she too had received many marriage proposals, yet her father had rejected them all.

She had assumed it was because he wasn’t ready to let her go yet—or perhaps he wanted to bring in a son-in-law to their household.

But now she was hearing of a betrothal from a place she had never even imagined.

Her father had told her to go to the Gu Clan on Market Island if anything ever happened… Was that because of this betrothal?

If so, why had he never said a word until now?

Collecting what composure she could, Yeong-won looked around at the elders watching her curiously and spoke again.

“I… truly have never heard of this engagement from my father. He never mentioned it. If it were real, why would he hide it from me?”

The elders exchanged silent glances but did not immediately answer.

They clearly had a reason, but were reluctant to say it.

She waited, hoping someone would speak, but the strange silence only stretched further.

“You said this token is proof of the engagement—then is there anything that can confirm it?”

She tried again, but the answer was no quicker in coming.

“Well….”

One elder began hesitantly, but another raised a hand, signaling him to hold his tongue.

“Head Ha never mentioned it to you?”

“Never.”

Once again the elders exchanged glances.

Yeong-won did not know, but they knew the reason.

Five years ago, when they mentioned the engagement to Lee Shin, he had declared it void long ago and said the token would never return unless he died.

To prove it, he had shown them a letter from Ha Soon-yang, head of the Ha household. The elders had been helpless.

The Black Jade Token had been the Gu Clan’s sacred relic, passed down since ancient times as the betrothal token.
Never once in their entire history had an engagement backed by the token failed to result in marriage.

Until the strange boy called Geom Yi-shin appeared.

Lee Shin had claimed that the betrothal token, which he returned to Ha Soon-yang, had mysteriously disappeared on its way back—only to later be reported by the Ha family as having somehow returned to them on its own.

Ha Soon-yang then stated he would never again bring the token to Market Island for the sake of the engagement.

The elders had assumed vaguely that one of the two—either the girl or Lee Shin—would have to die for the halves of the token to reunite.

But now the girl herself had arrived, token in hand.

“Honored elders?”

As the silence grew long, Yeong-won asked uncertainly. Elder Mok cleared his throat and spoke.

“If the young lady requires proof, we do have something to show.”

He stood, entered the inner room at the left of the hall, and soon returned holding a wooden box.

“You can recognize your father’s handwriting, yes?”

Opening the box, he drew out a neatly folded sheet of paper and handed it to her.

Yeong-won glanced at Elder Mok, tucked the token into her clothing, and accepted the paper with both hands.

**“Year 471 of Jo-won.
The Gu Clan and the Ha Clan agree to the following marriage contract:
Groom: the 108th successor of the Gu Clan
Bride: Ha Yeong-won, daughter of Ha Soon-yang, master of the Eastern Branch Trading Guild

Both families designate the Gu Clan’s heirloom, the Black Jade Token, as the symbol of the betrothal.
Within one year from the day the two halves of the token are reunited, the marriage shall be held.”**

Yeong-won read the marriage contract over and over again.

The handwriting was unmistakably her father’s.
At the bottom was his personal seal.

Her mouth went dry; she licked her lips without thinking.

Year 471 of Jo-won—she had been only three years old.

A betrothal arranged when she was three.

Her mind was in too much turmoil for her to speak.