THWCS 12

Chapter 12

At Yeongwon’s helpless answer, Sorae first wore a worried expression—then suddenly clenched her fist.

“Miss, please stay here for now. You and I barely know anything about this Geom (黔) family, do we? You said so before—knowledge is strength. So I’ll go look around and gather some information.”

The word betrothal kept circling Yeongwon’s mind, suffocating her, and she slowly raised her head.

Sorae was astonishingly quick; by the time Yeongwon looked up, she had already crossed the courtyard and stepped through the side gate.

“So—…”

Yeongwon started to call her, but realized it would do no good. She turned back around.

She stepped up onto the stone threshold and lightly pushed open the door to the inner quarters, its papered screens glowing softly.

She had noticed it earlier in the Seonwon Hall when Elder Hwa guided her—the Geom family’s residence was unlike the houses of Hanseongbu that centered around ondol floors and wooden platforms. They used chairs and tables, a different custom entirely.

Her hand still on the door, Yeongwon looked in wonder at the high crossbeams, the eaves, the short corridor—then lifted one foot to step inside.

The first things that caught her eye were a table and chairs, and beyond them, a sliding door decorated with a dragon-slaying motif.

In the center, where the doors were open on both sides, a white curtain hung, faintly revealing the room beyond.

Yeongwon assumed there must be a high bed or ondol room behind it.

And just as she lifted the white curtain to confirm her guess—

“Ah!!”

Yeongwon let out a shriek before she realized it, her whole body going weak as she staggered.

She managed to catch herself against the doorframe, but she had no strength left to calm her shocked, frantic heart.

What startled her was the man leaning against the window frame on the left.

Hair as dark as night had fallen, skin pale as a snowy winter field, sharply drawn brows, alluring eyes shaped with a cold arrogance, and softly curved red lips…

A reaper!

It was the reaper she’d seen days ago within that eerie fog!

Yeongwon had promised herself that if she ever ran into him again, she would pretend to faint.

And since now was that moment—she immediately tried to collapse on purpose.

“I heard the head of the Geom family was here.”

Halfway bent and about to drop, Yeongwon accidentally opened her eyes.

The reaper—unlike last time, when he wore blood-dark martial robes—was now in a moon-white overcoat. His hair was half tied up and pinned with a jade hairpin, and the faint smile at his lips made him look strangely harmless.

The refreshing atmosphere completely unlike that day made her waver.

Then the corners of his lips curled slyly.

“You look like you’ve just seen a ghost.”

A faintly mischievous smirk touched his lips as he looked at the dazed Yeongwon.

“No—should I say you look like you’ve just seen a reaper?”

With a face that truly looked as though she had seen a ghost, Yeongwon steadied herself and slowly stood up.

“Aren’t… aren’t you a reaper?”

“Do you want me to be one? You seemed about to die of fright last time.”

He raised a brow, tilted his head slightly, and added casually,

“I’m the head of the Geom family you’re so desperate to meet.”

“…T—The… head? Did you just say head?”

“Geom I-shin.”

Yeongwon, still lost and overwhelmed, wondered whether she misheard and asked again.

“The head of this Geom household?”

He took out an obsidian jade token and held it toward her.

Still pressed close to the doorframe, unable to let down her guard, Yeongwon’s eyes widened at the strangely familiar token.

“This jade token… it’s a pair, isn’t it? With yours.”

I-shin’s voice carried a subtle resonance. Yeongwon slowly stepped closer to the table beside him.

She cautiously glanced at him, then down at the half-piece jade token.

Then she took out her own token and compared them.

The fierce goblin face, the matching border carvings—there was no denying they were a perfect pair.

As she examined them, I-shin spoke abruptly.

“What do you think? Do you agree?”

“…Excuse me?”

“With the betrothal. Do you plan to honor it? I don’t.”

Yeongwon stared blankly, caught off guard by the bluntness of his words.

The quiet arrogance beneath his half-smiling expression gave her déjà vu.

His face overlapped perfectly with the reaper she’d seen on that night.

Doubt turned into certainty.

“Even if you’ve changed your mind after seeing me—no. Your father agreed to cancel it anyway.”

“…What?”

The word father snapped her back.

“Ten years ago, your father and I agreed this engagement would not be upheld. So spare us both the talk and leave quietly, just as though you’d never come.”

Straightening from the doorframe, he tucked the jade token back into his robes and walked past her toward the exit.

“Wait—um—Master Geom?”

As his sleeve brushed her, Yeongwon turned toward him, a suspicion in her heart becoming conviction.

“About that night—the fog. Those ghosts… what were they? What were you doing?”

At her question, a sinister shadow tinted I-shin’s beautifully painted-ink face.

“What did it look like I was doing?”

He smirked at Yeongwon’s stunned face and exited the chamber.

Left alone, Yeongwon felt her head spinning.

She remembered the procession of ghosts drifting through the forest, and the man leading them—looking every bit the reaper.

The strange fog across the mountain, the unreal beauty of Jejado, and this mysterious Geom family at the heart of it all—

Everything fed her rising suspicion.

“…What on earth is going on? What… is this place? This Geom family—are they human? Ghosts? Or truly from the underworld…?”

A chill crept into her chest, her fingertips turning cold.

She felt she had stepped somewhere she should not have entered.

The eerie links between Mount Jeokbyeok, Jejado, and the Geom clan connected one by one, sending an unexplained shiver down her spine.

She had only wanted to return the jade token, persuade the Geom clan, and secure trade.

But the possibility that the clan head was neither human nor ghost—and that the jade token was a marriage contract—left her completely unsettled.

The elders clearly wanted her to fulfill the engagement.
But Geom I-shin told her to leave.

How could she leave?

She’d been so startled by the betrothal token that she hadn’t even mentioned what she came for.

If she left now, she would gain nothing.

In that case… perhaps marrying Geom I-shin and becoming the mistress of the Geom family would benefit her more.

Maybe she could negotiate something with the elders in exchange for agreeing to marry I-shin.

Or since I-shin didn’t want the marriage, maybe she could use that to gain something as well.

The more she thought, the deeper her frown grew.

Her head throbbed painfully.

In the end, she knew nothing about the Geom clan.

So she had no idea what choice would benefit her most.

Letting out a long sigh, Yeongwon glanced out the window at the sky that had grown dim and shadowy.

For now, she could only wait for whatever information Sorae could gather.

—Miss! I asked the maid in the next courtyard, the kitchen woman, and the man carrying firewood. They all said the Geom clan is the law, the rules—everything on Jejado. Because of the Geom clan, Jejado stays peaceful and safe.

“And?”

“…I’m sorry. That’s all. When I asked for more, it was like their mouths locked shut. They said knowing more would bring disaster, and that I shouldn’t ask questions like this anywhere. To pretend not to see, not to hear.”

Yeongwon recalled Sorae’s dejected words and sighed.

Pretend not to see, pretend not to hear…

As she mulled over those words, the memory of that ghostly procession surfaced.

Could it be that the Geom clan was doing something with those ghosts…?

Her heart thudded wildly at the thought, and she quickly shook her head.

“What am I thinking…?”

Frustrated, she sighed again and walked to the window.

She reached for the latch to close the window that had been open all day—

Then her hand froze.

A small girl, about seven, stood at the courtyard gate wearing a white jeogori.

Yeongwon stared in surprise.

The child sucked on her finger anxiously, glancing around as if she were lost.

“A child of the Geom clan…?”