Chapter 38
The place they arrived at was a study with a huge desk in the center and old books densely packed on the walls.
He sat diagonally on the edge of the desk. The soldier made Yuseol kneel in front of him and stood straight.
“Withdraw.”
Only after his command was given did the soldier release Yuseol’s arm that he had been gripping tightly and leave.
She couldn’t even cry out in pain and remained kneeling on one knee, staring only at the floor.
A quiet energy settled over the study where no human presence could be felt. She felt overwhelmed by the silence that had always been comfortable. Somehow feeling like her bursting heartbeat would resound, she caressed her chest area.
He who had been watching such Yuseol crossed his arms and spoke.
“No different from a thieving cat.”
There was absolutely no room for excuses in those words.
“I apologize.”
He stared at her intently.
“Entering the inner quarters without permission is punishable by imprisonment at minimum.”
Imprisonment was a punishment of confining someone in prison for a certain period and forcing hard labor. For her who had happened to enter during the soldiers’ brief absence, there was some injustice.
But since entering without permission was a clear fact, she couldn’t know how to make excuses. The thought that she’d rather be moved to prison right now flashed through her mind.
He asked slowly as if mocking that thought.
“How much did you overhear?”
Yuseol answered briefly.
“I came just before Lord Mu-yeong left the room.”
He seemed not to believe her words. Yet seeing that he didn’t interrogate her about what she heard, he seemed to enjoy treating Han Yuseol like a thieving cat more.
From his appearance, she read a strange emotion that couldn’t be described in words. Namely, malice that had accumulated and hardened solid over long years.
But it was clearly a different texture from the malice she had felt from Kim Seon and Meisa. It was colder and quieter but deeper. She had received similar feelings at the waterfall and when they conversed in his room. Yuseol’s vision became vaguely black as she couldn’t define what it was.
“Did I… do some great wrong?”
She looked up at him somehow trying to get an answer. He raised one corner of his mouth. A dimple appeared faintly on his cheek that wasn’t even smiling.
“You did wrong.”
That short answer was all.
“If you could explain so I can understand, I would also apologize—”
He cut off her words.
“Why did you come to this place?”
“I simply forgot it was a forbidden area because no one was restraining me.”
“I don’t like the way you keep skulking around.”
She closed her mouth again and looked at the floor. It was a type of conversation she had never had with anyone before, so it was overwhelming.
He uncrossed his arms, propped himself against the desk, and looked down at Yuseol. A calm voice was heard.
“If you’ve saved a precious life, you should live the rest of your days as if dead.”
Yuseol looked up at him again with an aggrieved face.
“But you took my dog!”
His answer was quite shameless.
“If you want to retrieve what was taken, shouldn’t you endure losing something too?”
“What I’d lose is—”
“Warm my bed.”
“…….”
“Give up the dog.”
“……”
“Or live as if dead.”
Yuseol couldn’t make any choice and closed her eyes in anguish.
***
She was imprisoned in the village jail below for several hours before being released.
Yuseol walked briskly through the village outskirts trying to warm her body temperature that had grown cold in the frigid prison. Even after considerable time had passed, his voice showed no sign of disappearing from her ears.
“Warm my bed. Give up the dog.”
“……”
“Or live as if dead.”
Yuseol could now be certain. He was a bad person. Yuseol took a deep breath trying to shake off his face that had smiled with particular dryness.
Before she knew it, she had arrived at the outer courtyard. Suddenly she noticed a rope stretched horizontally long under the eaves of her room.
It was a rope woven from straw. Five-colored cloth was tied between the strands of rope. It was a decoration she had seen at places where rituals were performed or ceremonies held.
…But what was this decoration for?
Yuseol, who was puzzled, sat on the wooden floor. Today she wanted to stop the thoughts that induced headaches.
Then suddenly a wolf’s howl was heard. Yuseol jumped up and looked around following the sound.
Where her gaze stopped was the lush forest beyond the low wall. The darkening scenery as the sun began to set was reflected in her black pupils. Though the spaces between the tall pine trees were emptily vacant, she felt a premonition that Geon might be somewhere in the forest.
He might have confined Geon in a sturdy house in the mountains.
Since the weather was nice, should she look around briefly and return?
At that moment, the wolf’s howl echoed again. As Geon appeared distantly in her mind’s eye, Yuseol began walking toward the forest.
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