“Ughhh!”
All the way home, I kept repeating to myself over and over:
I can do this.
Jeokigon hasn’t revealed his true nature yet.
It’s only two months.
If I just stay flat on my stomach and act dead, it’ll pass quickly.
But that resolve disappeared the moment I saw the sign of the noodle shop.
“Grandma!”
Seeing me sobbing as I ran into the shop, Madam Singeum threw down her ladle and ran over.
“What happened? Who made my child cry like this, hmm?”
Her thick hands cupped my cheeks.
She quickly scanned my entire body, probably wondering if someone had hurt me.
“You don’t seem to be injured anywhere.”
I nodded, signaling that I was fine, and a frown appeared between Madam Singeum’s brows.
“But then why are you crying? Did you lose money or something?”
If only it were that. That petty money could easily be earned back with work.
If only I could avoid being the personal maid, I’d be willing to give up all my wealth.
“If it’s not money, then what’s got you so upset?”
I shook my head, and Madam Singeum had me sit down in a chair and gave me some water.
“Calm down a bit first. Crying too much can be exhausting!”
I didn’t intend to cry this much. Strangely, the tears just came.
Was this what family felt like? Having grown up an orphan without parents or siblings, it was an unfamiliar feeling.
Even though she wasn’t my real grandmother, the relief of having the only ally in this world made me let my guard down and end up like this.
I was so drained from crying, just as Grandma said, that I had no energy left.
“Shall I make some noodles?”
“…No.”
“Dumplings?”
“I’m fine. I have no appetite.”
I sniffled and refused both. My stomach couldn’t handle food anyway, with my life possibly ending tomorrow.
“Then what is it? You’ll have to tell me now.”
Even if explaining wouldn’t change anything, there was no other way to avoid Grandma’s backhand.
I quietly confessed that I had become Gongja Lee’s personal maid.
“So you cried because you didn’t want to be a personal maid?”
“It’s not just that I don’t want to. If I make even a small mistake, they could kill me on the spot!”
“You fool! Do you think Gongja Lee is some cruel butcher? Even if you mess up, it’s nothing serious. Why would they chop your head off? Maybe if it were Il Gongja, I wouldn’t know!”
“Grandma, to them I’m not even human. They’d treat a maid’s life like a bug’s.”
“If it’s that scary, you shouldn’t have gone in in the first place! You never listen to me, and now you’re whining like this!”
“Well…!”
At that moment, I wasn’t myself.
“Sigh, who would believe me now? I’d only be wasting my breath.”
Later, when I understood Jeokigon’s true nature, everyone would tremble in fear, but for now, he was just the handsome second son of the Sect Leader.
“I thought something terrible had happened!”
Grandma tapped my forehead with her knuckles and went back into the kitchen.
I heard the sounds of cooking, and soon a steaming bowl of meat noodles was placed in front of me.
“You get strange thoughts when your stomach’s empty. Eat quickly.”
“Ah, I really have no appetite…”
“Hmph!”
Madam Singeum’s gaze was sharp. In moments like this, I had to at least pretend to eat to protect my precious backside.
Pouting my lips, I weakly picked up my chopsticks.
“By the way, why did the kid who worked here before you quit?”
Madam Singeum asked suddenly, while I was still slurping up noodles.
“The kid before me?”
It took me a moment to understand, lost in thought.
“Oh, my predecessor?”
“Yeah. Since they quit, it became your turn.”
“That’s right.”
I held my chopsticks in my mouth and tried to remember.
‘Was that mentioned in the original story?’
No, the novel didn’t even mention maids. But thinking logically…
“Of course, they must have died.”
“Died?”
“By this time, Il Gongja often played with poison. They must have fallen victim to one of his pranks and died.”
A miserable life. Caught in the useless fights of the brothers, losing their precious life.
There was no confirmed fact, but I was certain.
“Seolha, are you saying that just from guessing?”
“Huh?”
“Are you sure that maid really died?”
“No, I didn’t see it myself, but poison is like that. Even a small dose can be fatal if mishandled…”
Under Grandma’s terrifying gaze, I answered in a timid voice.
“But Grandma, are you only worrying about me now? Afraid I might have to attend the funeral of the only granddaughter?”
“You won’t be attending any funeral! Poison can be countered if treated with antidotes!”
“…Huh?”
“If it’s Jeokwi Baek, he could do that to his younger brother and still feel nothing. Tch, you can’t treat poison carelessly.”
Until I finished the noodles, Madam Singeum seemed ready to stand guard, but suddenly she got up and climbed the stairs.
Why go to that floor while talking to me?
Up there were only Grandma and my bedroom, plus a small storage-like room.
The toilet was in the downstairs building, so it wasn’t urgent.
“I’ll steam a batch of dumplings too.”
I grumbled while lifting a big bite of noodles.
If something happened to me, this bowl would have been the last food Madam Singeum ever made me.
So I ate every last drop, including the broth.
“Though you said you didn’t want to, you’re drinking the broth too!”
When I finished the bowl, Grandma came back downstairs, carrying a box.
“What’s that?”
“Seolha, have you heard of Pidokju?”
Of course, I had. Pidokju was a pearl-shaped type of antidote.
If poisoned, holding Pidokju in your mouth while using internal energy techniques could neutralize the poison.
In other words, with the pearl in your mouth, poisons couldn’t affect you.
Depending on the quality, Pidokju could cost a fortune.
Since it was so rare, you couldn’t just buy it even if you had money.
What martial artists fear most in their dangerous world is poison.
Even a strong fighter could be taken down by poison.
That’s why every martial artist coveted Pidokju.
“Are you telling me that this box contains Pidokju?”
“Yes. Just in case something like this happened, I prepared it in advance.”
“You expect me to believe that?”
As mentioned, Pidokju was hard to come by. Even with money, not just anyone could get it.
Unless Madam Singeum had secretly saved a huge amount, there was no way.
“When have I ever lied?”
No, our Madam Singeum wasn’t that type.
“So this is really Pidokju? How much did Grandma stash away?”
I shouted in betrayal. If she had told me about the money earlier, I wouldn’t have ended up working as a maid!
“Why shout so suddenly! This grandma has no money. A customer left this box behind.”
Here’s the story:
A few years ago, a middle-aged man came to the noodle shop and left a box.
When running the shop, customers often left things behind.
Most returned to claim them, but some never did. This Pidokju was one of those cases.
“I didn’t even know it was here. Last month, I found it while cleaning the cupboard. At first, I thought of throwing it away, but curiosity got the better of me. That’s how I struck gold.”
“Does that make sense? What kind of lunatic would leave Pidokju at a noodle shop?”
It must have cost a fortune, yet no one came back for it?
“It’s a crazy world, Seolha. And this isn’t top-tier Pidokju. It’s useless against extreme poisons like Muhyeongjidok or Eunhyeongdoksah.”
Madam Singeum opened the box to show me the contents.
“It’ll still be useful for you. For the kind of poison Il Gongja might use, this should suffice. Even the boldest poisons require guts; anyone can’t touch them.”
Is our grandma a genius?
How does she know Jeokigon so well?
Compared to his greed, he’s timid. To rise to the small sect leader, he torments his half-brother in many ways, but because he fears their father’s wrath, he never escalates fully.
Knowing this, Jeokigon also played along, risking minor poisoning without revealing his true nature.
He’s not invincible to poisons himself.
Anyway, for these guys, it’s all like child’s play.
Realizing that I was about to be caught in this mess gave me a splitting headache.
Could I survive?
With Pidokju, I should be able to last two months safely, right?
“Grandma, thank you. You really are the only one I have!”
At least now there was no risk of dying from a minor dose.
The original purpose of today’s visit was to say goodbye to Grandma, but I got an unexpected bonus.
I’ll come back alive.
Then we’ll go far away together.
I murmured the words I couldn’t speak aloud and hugged Grandma tightly.
