THWCS 20

Chapter 20

Startled, Yeong-won looked urgently at I-shin.

He was still sitting loosely slouched in the chair just as before, lips crooked in a sardonic curve as he asked,

“Do they both die? Regardless of whether one is the head of the clan?”

Elder Mok silently turned another page of the book.

Yeong-won curled the hands she had neatly placed on her skirt and clenched them tightly into fists.

“The curse is fair. If the covenant is not honored, both the clan head and the lady bound by the curse will have their lives in danger.”

Elder Mok’s heavy words rang in Yeong-won’s ears like a buzzing echo.

Their lives in danger?

They die?

Because I fitted the jade pendants together… I die in a year?

The tips of Yeong-won’s fingers trembled violently.

What on earth have I done?

As she sat in stunned panic, a low laugh reached her ears.

It was I-shin.

“Well, that works out just fine. If I die, the Ghost Register will simply choose another clan head.”

His laughter-tinged remark cast a strange silence over the hall.

Even the elders who had only half-listened from below shifted in expression.

I-shin looked slowly at each elder, then added,

“But don’t be too pleased yet. This is a matter for a year from now, isn’t it?”

A chill spread across Yeong-won’s chest, and she turned her eyes to the elders below.

The elders who had, the entire time, turned half their bodies away from I-shin in open displeasure and stared outside the hall now wore rigid, peculiar expressions.

They looked… angry? Or startled?

Whatever it meant, Yeong-won could clearly tell it was not regret or concern.

How can they be like this?

Yeong-won was not oblivious.

From the elders’ attitude toward I-shin the day before, and from what the disciples muttered along the way here, she already realized these people greatly resented him.

Even though he was the head of the Geom (黔) Clan.

She did not know what had happened between I-shin and the clan.

But surely, regardless of circumstances, this was no way to treat the one who should uphold the clan.

Not even simply on a human-to-human level.

He may not have been kind to her—he was even hostile—but he still saved her from the Eoduksini.

His tone had been rough, but he told her not to wander at night, not to follow anyone who offered candy.

He might not have been a noble gentleman of lofty elegance, but he was not so vile as to deserve this kind of reaction at the mention of his death.

Why did the elders—no, the entire Geom Clan—harbor such animosity toward him?

“Is that everything regarding the curse?”

“Yes, that is all.”

Yeong-won swallowed her rising suspicions and came back to her senses at I-shin’s voice.

“Then do I suffer delirium for a year and die, or do I just drop dead on the exact day the year is up?”

Lowering his eyes, I-shin smirked again and repeated the question.

Elder Mok flipped through the book once more and shook his head.

“That part is not written.”

“Of course not. I’m sure no one has ever defied this practice. Even if they didn’t want to, they still followed it—burdened by tradition, custom, and ritual.”

Before he even finished speaking, Elder Myeong’s goat-like beard trembled furiously as he snapped,

“Clan Head! That is precisely the foundation and spirit of our Geom Clan! Such blasphemous words—stop them at once! Everyone here follows those traditions willingly! Everyone except you, the outsider!”

“Well, yes. Perhaps because I am an outsider, I don’t feel like following them.”

Lifting his eyes lightly toward Elder Myeong, I-shin rose to his feet.

Yeong-won hurried to stand as well.

Seeing them about to leave, Elder Mok spoke again.

“Clan Head, the wedding date must be written into the marriage letter. And it must be carried out. Otherwise, you will die. Even if you were chosen by the Ghost Register.”

At the repeated mention of death, Yeong-won pressed a hand to her thudding chest.

“What is so wrong with dying? People all die eventually.”

His icy, cutting remark silenced the hall instantly.

I-shin, who had frozen the elders in place, crossed the hall with a calm expression and stepped down into the courtyard.

Yeong-won wanted to speak with him and hurried to follow, but stopped short.

Elder Mok still had the jade pendant.

“Elder… may I have the pendant back?”

“…Lady Ha, what do you think?”

He handed her the pendant and asked,

“What will you do about this marriage?”

“I…”

Meeting the deeply weathered eyes of Elder Mok, Yeong-won suddenly felt suffocated.

Did she even have a choice?

Yes, the pendants had come together because of her.

But that didn’t mean she wanted the rest of her life mortgaged by someone else’s will.

Choosing something on her own and being forced because there was no alternative were entirely different things.

The more she thought of it, the more she understood why I-shin had spoken so sharply.

Just obey without question because it is tradition and custom?

The more she pondered it, the more her own resentment smoldered—but she could not display that openly.

— In the end, like a withered leaf, even that soul will dry up and be brought to death.

She could not die.

She still had things to do.

But she also did not want to give an easy, compliant answer.

“…A marriage cannot be done alone, can it? I will take my leave for now.”

After bowing to the other elders as well, Yeong-won stepped down from the hall.

Truly, she bore much of the responsibility.

Had she not matched the pendants, I-shin’s life would not have been bound to this curse.

The thought extinguished whatever pointless resentment she had been harboring.

Stepping outside the side gate, Yeong-won looked left and right down the path.

Where had I-shin gone?

She didn’t know the grounds well enough to just run around.

She sighed and finally gave up on chasing him, instead turning back toward the path she’d taken earlier.

But she had only taken a few steps when she stopped.

Originally, she had wanted his ability to control ghosts at any cost.

Yet she had not borrowed that ability—rather, she had caused him to fall under the curse of delirium.

She had no face left to ask him for help.

How did everything become such a mess?

Back when she lived with her parents in the Hanseong residence, everyone always praised her.

They said she was well-read from countless books, learned in poetry, calligraphy, and painting, gifted and wise, clear in reasoning.

They said that once she inherited the merchant guild, it would prosper even more.

But the girl tossed alone into this vast world called Ha Yeong-won was useless, lacking, a burden to others.

What good were the ten thousand books she’d read?

She couldn’t even light a fire properly in the mountains.

What use were poetry and painting?

They didn’t earn money or fill an empty stomach.

Clear-minded and clever? Who?

She had been fooled by an Eoduksini and managed to curse herself in the process—how foolish could she be?

The more she reflected on her uselessness, the more strength drained from her body.

“Haah… I really am pathetic… pitiful.”

Her head sank, and her eyes reddened.

How was she supposed to resolve her parents’ unjust deaths like this?

How could she rebuild her family business when she was so lacking?

Overwhelmed, Yeong-won squatted down and hid her face in her arms.

Her helplessness made her tremble.

It was frustrating, pathetic—infuriating.

She didn’t even have the right to cry.

Even if she cried, there were no parents left to wipe her tears and comfort her.

She could no longer live like a frog in a well.

Yeong-won, you must become strong.

Become unshakable.

Grow until no storm can make you flinch.

And before anything else—you must survive.

Live, no matter what.

Endure.

Yeong-won clenched her teeth and vowed to herself again and again.