Chapter 10. Silver Moon Halo (6)
“You did well today.”
Cheongyeon looked surprised by Seongha’s words.
“Really? I was actually worried that I might have stepped in when I shouldn’t have.”
Through Beopsindang’s fundraising event, Cheongyeon had gotten a glimpse of the true faces of both Heeguk’s common people and its ruling class.
She decided that through them, she would also have to learn more about the village that had fallen into darkness, as well as the people who had oppressed Jeongilhoe.
It had been a day that left her with much to think about.
“For someone who was worried, you certainly didn’t lose a single argument.”
Seongha smiled faintly.
There had been no need for him to protect Cheongyeon.
She had stood proudly before those who tried to restrain and slander her.
If anything, Seongha had been the one who received help.
Because of Buhuk’s spell, Seongha had been suffering while trapped within the memories of his childhood.
Until someone entered those white walls and reached out a hand to him.
Cheongyeon cautiously asked,
“Why does your half-brother hate you so much?”
“He probably believes I stole the place that should have belonged to him. It’s a terribly ordinary and worn-out story.”
Unexpectedly, Seongha began speaking about himself without hesitation.
His tone was so detached that it almost sounded as though he were telling someone else’s story.
The head of the great Jin noble family, Jin Sangwon, had once made a mistake for a single night and become involved with a commoner woman.
Several years later, he brought Seongha, the illegitimate child who had been living in a common village, into the Jin family estate.
Up to that point, it was little more than one of the scandals whispered about within Heeguk society.
The real problem was what Jin Sangwon did afterward.
When Sangwon learned that Seongha’s mother had died tragically while away from home, he made an extraordinary decision.
He posthumously named her his legal wife and placed her memorial tablet in the ancestral hall where the Jin family’s ancestors were enshrined.
Then he officially registered Seongha as his eldest son.
It was completely unlike Sangwon, a man known for handling every matter without leaving a single loose end.
It was also an unprecedented act that ignored Heeguk’s established customs and procedures.
Lady In, Seopjun’s mother, screamed and collapsed from shock.
The In family, furious at the decision, even sent the Jin family a letter containing a formal warning.
Yet Sangwon did not so much as blink.
He knew that the In family could not afford to make an enemy of the Jin family, which possessed an overwhelmingly powerful private army.
Even with such a serious flaw in the marriage, he had predicted that they would have no choice but to maintain the political alliance.
Meanwhile, for Seopjun, who had spent his entire life as the untouchable young master of the Jin family, Seongha’s appearance had been like a bolt from the blue.
Every day, Seopjun carved that humiliation deeper into his heart.
Only one goal remained in his life.
To eliminate his half-brother and reclaim the position he believed belonged to him.
The ill-fated relationship between the two half-brothers that began then had continued until the present day.
Seongha spoke quietly.
“After going against everyone’s objections and placing me in the position of eldest son, it would have been nice if he had at least watched over me afterward.”
“……”
“But my father had no interest in what happened inside the family. Nor was he the kind of man who felt any special affection between father and son.”
Because of that, Seongha’s life in the Jin family was even more dangerous than walking across thin ice.
He had endured endless contempt and insults from his relatives simply because he was an illegitimate child.
There had even been attempts on his life.
A fragment of a blade hidden between books on a shelf.
Poison mixed into his food or tea.
Suspicious people following him through the streets…
From childhood onward, Seongha had been forced to remain constantly alert against those who wanted to harm him.
At night, he would wait until every light shining through the paper windows of the other rooms had gone dark before finally going to bed.
And even then, a sharpened sword always remained beneath his pillow.
One night, while tossing and turning in bed, young Seongha suddenly opened his eyes after sensing something pressing down upon him.
He had detected something in the darkness.
He instantly tried to sit up and reach for the sword beneath his pillow.
However, the masked intruder closed the distance half a step faster than Seongha.
The man quickly struck pressure points in the center of Seongha’s chest and face, preventing him from making even a sound.
His movements were highly skilled.
Before long, both of Seongha’s hands stiffened completely, leaving him unable to move them.
The intruder threw a rag over the fallen Seongha’s face.
But before the cloth blocked his sight, Seongha saw it clearly.
A large scar carved into the man’s left hand.
It was the same scar he had seen on Buhuk, Seopjun’s subordinate.
As Seongha’s consciousness began to fade, he heard strange words.
[Killed her.]
[I’ll kill everything… she left behind.]
Her…
And everything she had left behind.
Could those words have referred to Seongha’s mother…
And Seongha himself?
Was this man somehow connected to his mother’s death as well?
Sensing that Buhuk was about to deliver the final blow, Seongha squeezed his eyes shut beneath the rag.
[Whoooom—]
Then some unknown force stopped Buhuk and forced him backward.
A rich fragrance of flowers drifted through the air from somewhere.
[The Chancellor has returned! Hurry and prepare!]
At that moment, frantic noises broke through the silence of the middle of the night and spread across the entire estate.
Servants could be heard running across the wooden corridors as they hurried to welcome the returning head of the household.
Jin Sangwon, who had supposedly been away for several days, had returned home earlier than expected.
Buhuk immediately stopped what he was doing.
Then he quickly disappeared into the darkness.
Much later, Seongha was discovered inside a storage room with the rag still covering him.
He was barely alive.
When Seongha finally removed the cloth and regained consciousness, pale violet flower petals were scattered around him.
“Did no one see the intruder?”
Jin Sangwon had gathered the entire household in the front courtyard and questioned them.
“We don’t know anything. We saw nothing.”
Everyone repeated exactly the same answer.
Buhuk also stood expressionlessly behind Seopjun as though nothing at all had happened.
The Jin family estate was known as a fortress.
Yet an intruder had entered it and nearly killed the eldest son.
Despite that, everyone seemed far too calm.
Even the family head questioning them did not seem determined to catch the culprit.
It seemed as though he already knew everything and merely intended to silence the people beneath him so the incident could quietly disappear.
Seongha sneered.
The entire thing felt like a ridiculous play.
Disillusioned with the life of the nobility, he decided to sever his ties with the secular world and live in seclusion.
Becoming a priest of Beopsindang had been his way of escaping unnecessary political pressure and threats against his life.
“Even so, I secretly tried to investigate what kind of man Buhuk truly was.”
“But strangely enough, he had no history and left almost no traces behind.”
Buhuk was Seopjun’s most trusted subordinate, handling practically all of his affairs, both large and small.
He completed dangerous missions without hesitation, almost as if he had ten—or even a hundred—lives to spare.
His hidden support had also played a major role in allowing Seopjun to rise to a high government position at such a young age.
“But after that, the investigation went nowhere.”
Seongha gave a faint, bitter smile.
“Perhaps I simply gave up.”
“As long as I didn’t make a move, they wouldn’t bother touching me either.”
Cheongyeon had silently listened to everything until then.
At last, she spoke in a low but firm voice.
“You can’t stop.”
“You have to take revenge.”
“You need to uncover the truth about the people who tried to hurt you and whoever harmed your mother.”
“Then you have to make them pay for what they did.”
The moment the word revenge came from Cheongyeon’s lips, Seongha burst out laughing.
Somehow, the word sounded completely unsuitable for her.
And at the same time, strangely fitting.
Cheongyeon looked embarrassed.
Seeing Seongha smile so beautifully at the mention of revenge made her think that he had to be a rather strange person himself.
Seongha’s smile slowly faded.
“When I heard that my mother had passed away far from home, there was nothing I could do.”
