Chapter 34

The old woman’s lips parted slightly in disbelief.

“Now that neither of you has a weapon, I suppose it’s fine.”

“M-my… my 900-year-old lightning-struck jujube wood staff…”

“If it’s 900 years old, it was about time it broke.”

Hong Yeom-rang responded calmly, as if going along with her words. He said it casually, like it only made sense that after so much time, it would snap so easily. The old woman, left dumbfounded, loosened her grip on the broken handle. The staff slipped from her hand and sank straight into the medicinal spring.

“Where did you bring such a rotten brat into this sacred mountain!”

As the arrow of her anger turned back toward Hisa, Hong Yeom-rang frowned. She’d probably just smile foolishly again. The thought of Hisa’s weak smile made his nerves sharpen once more.

“Granny, he’s my sacrifice. I didn’t bring him here to have you say things like that to him.”

She, who used to laugh airily even when being criticized herself, stepped in front of Hong Yeom-rang and spoke. Her tone was still gentle, but there was no trace of a smile. He wanted to grab her shoulders and turn her around to see her expression.

If she really was a god, he expected thunderous anger to fall. But the old woman, facing Hisa, merely brushed off her clothes and stood up.

“You’ve made it so the mountain deity can’t even do his role, and yet the one who defies the natural order still has a sharp tongue.”

“That’s why I take the hits for it. But not Yeom-rang. Don’t say bad things about him.”

Granny Yaksa straightened her bent back without even needing her staff.

In the wrinkles around her eyes, an immeasurable passage of time could be felt. For some reason, Hong Yeom-rang knew that her last words had struck Hisa.

The old woman clicked her tongue.

Like someone high above watching the most foolish and pitiful behavior in the world.

At this moment, she really did seem like the being Hisa had described.

A god. As if everything was futile and meaningless, the old woman no longer grew angry. She simply turned her back, clasped her hands behind her, and vanished in an instant beyond the hazy medicinal spring.

“If you meet her again later, say you’re sorry.”

“Did you get hit because you didn’t apologize?”

“I didn’t say sorry because I wasn’t sorry.”

Hisa’s answer was unexpected. From someone who laughed carelessly everywhere, who was kind to everyone, and who even claimed to eat only five strands of her sacrifice’s hair a day, he hadn’t expected such a reply. When she turned to face him, she was smiling softly as usual.

“I’m not that sorry either.”

“The staff is fine. You think a 900-year-old tree would only yield a single staff? But the hwandan you took belongs to Granny, so you should thank her and apologize.”

“Hwandan?”

“There is. You ate it while you were sleeping.”

He had no memory of it at all. He didn’t even remember taking it, nor had he done so of his own will. Yet she told him to be sure to thank and apologize to the old woman later. He didn’t even bother to nod in acknowledgment.

Hisa let out a deep sigh.

He was stubborn.

Deep down, he was kind, but people rarely saw that side of Hong Yeom-rang.

Even earlier, knowing the old woman was a god, he had shielded his head and protected him.

Even while convinced she was a monster, he still offered up his hair without fail.

He needed honest people by his side. If he met such people, he would willingly let them stay close. From what Hisa had seen, he was the same as when he was young. Like an untamed beast, he bristled, yet he knew what was right and proper.

“Why don’t they know.”

Why didn’t people realize it.

“What.”

He replied indifferently as he slowly sank into the medicinal spring.

Hisa only shrugged and smiled without saying anything.

* * *

“Mmm…”

A low groan slipped out. It came from a man sitting with his back turned, naked. The skin on his back was blackened and dead, while the rest gaped open with raw red flesh. Yellow pus pooled between the torn flesh.

As she applied ointment over the wounds, Lee Hyang pressed her fingers down gently.

A groan escaped despite himself. The man didn’t turn around, nor did he show any sign of pain. Only that sound revealed it.

“It looks like the wound has gotten worse, brother.”

“Is that so?”

His voice was flat, as if it wasn’t his own wound. A foul stench rose from the pus, enough to make one frown instinctively. It felt as though his body was rotting alive. Did living like this even have any meaning.

Lee Hyang liked this gentle brother of hers, but sometimes such thoughts crossed her mind.

“The hot spring here is famous as a medicinal spring. There are many rumors that a medicine god has protected it since long ago. They say the sick have been healed here.”

“I see.”

“But you need the will to recover too, brother.”

Lee Hyang spoke softly. Even she didn’t know if there was any sincerity in it. It was just words spoken out of habit, hiding her true thoughts, saying what a kind younger sister should say.

“Do you want me to get better?”

At her words, Lee Won asked gently.

“Of course. Hyang always wishes for your health, brother.”

She scooped up more ointment with her hand and spread it over the wound. The uneven flesh could be felt between her fingers. The sores that had started on the right side of his back had now spread across it entirely. This time, everyone whispered that the Crown Prince wouldn’t live much longer.

“You should see me get married too.”

There was no marriage arranged for a Crown Prince with so little time left anyway. No one was stepping forward to wed him. If he were to marry and leave descendants, it would become an extremely troublesome matter for Lee Hyang, who would later take the throne.

“So please get better soon.”

After covering the wound with a clean cloth that would soon be soaked in discharge and pus, and even dressing his outer robe for him, Lee Hyang leaned her face against his shoulder and spoke.

“Alright. I should see you ride in a flower palanquin.”

“In case you might not be able to, I’ve called that person here. Please take a look, brother. See what kind of man he is, and whether he suits me.”

Lee Won looked at his sister fondly as she spoke of his death so naturally. Today as well, he saw that faint sense of relief in her eyes. His smile deepened. His pale face and darkened under-eyes showed clear signs of illness. His lips were always bitten to endure pain, leaving no skin left to peel. Like the exposed flesh on his back, his lips too glistened constantly with blood.

When blood seeped from his lips again, Lee Hyang, who was leaning on his shoulder, wiped it away with the end of her sleeve. A red stain spread across the white fabric. The red soon turned into an ugly brown. It was as if life and death itself were all reflected on her sleeve.

“You must take a look, brother.”

Lee Hyang smiled brightly.

To Lee Won, it looked like the smile of one who survived. Following her, he smiled as well, his lips torn.

“I will.”

Having secured his promise, Lee Hyang stood up with a cheerful expression after even tidying his bedding.

This villa, far from the capital and built for royal retreats, was quiet. It was removed from any village, and aside from the hot spring, there was little to see. After briefly playing the role of a younger sister to Lee Won for the first time in a while, she left the room with a light expression.

“…They say the punishment falls on the descendants.”

“It’s like a penalty payment, isn’t it.”

“They say it was decided from birth…”

“Shh, shh.”

It was peak autumn, and the trees on the mountain were all dressed in colorful hues. Lee Hyang glanced between the bloodstain on her sleeve and the autumn leaves. Hearing the whispers, Hyoseon, the court lady following behind her, carefully watched her expression.

Her face was calm, giving no hint of what she was thinking.

Those were palace servants, but having lived their entire lives in this secluded villa, they hadn’t rid themselves of the habit of gossiping among themselves like those in the capital. Twisting their joints and wiping out three generations wouldn’t even be enough. Lee Hyang was never a lenient person.

Someone around the corner had tried to hush them, but it was already too late.

“Leave them.”

Lee Hyang continued comparing the bloodstain on her sleeve with the autumn leaves.

No matter how she looked at it, they were similar. Thinking about it, once winter came, all those leaves would fall.

“The color of things that are about to die all look like this.”

She murmured something Hyoseon couldn’t understand.

That same sense of relief Lee Won had seen flickered in her eyes again. Words like punishment and curse, she had heard them countless times. And every time she heard them, she felt relieved.

Relieved that it wasn’t about her.