Chapter 13 — The Most Lowly and Noble One (3)
A carriage that had left Buwan Port entered a forest road heading south.
It was the carriage carrying the women of the Hae family.
As night fell, the forest became covered in pitch-black shadows of trees that seemed tall enough to pierce the sky.
The coachman cracked his whip against the horses, urging them to move even faster.
His desperate haste made them look like people fleeing somewhere while being chased.
Whispered voices came from inside the carriage.
“This place is seriously creepy. I never want to come here again.”
“Haemora-nim told us, remember? On the Gwido, we must never make eye contact with anything, and we must never be lured by any sound.”
“Right. She said this is a road where wandering spirits roam.”
The carriage passed between two sotdae poles standing on either side of the road.
At that moment, the sound of bells began ringing in their left ears, while the cries of a young child echoed in their right.
The Gwido—the Road of Ghosts—had opened.
At first glance, the Gwido looked no different from an ordinary road used by humans.
However, it was actually a space belonging to another dimension, invisible to ordinary people.
Because of that, traveling through the Gwido could allow someone to reach a faraway destination much faster or secretly meet someone without being noticed.
Of course, it was also an extremely dangerous place where everything from the gods of mountains and rivers to vicious hungry ghosts and yakshas wandered freely.
It was absolutely not a place ordinary humans should ever enter.
Before long, all kinds of ghosts appeared along the road through the thick fog.
Some carried lanterns, while others held enormous sickles as they hurried along on their own paths.
Torn pieces of cloth hung from dead, withered trees, fluttering in the wind with eerie rustling sounds.
That was when Hoyeon attacked the Hae family's carriage.
To the coachman's eyes, he probably looked like a crow descending straight from the heavens.
Without making the slightest sound, Hoyeon drove a sharp needle into the coachman's neck and kicked him away.
The man tumbled onto the road without even managing to scream.
Ghosts immediately began gathering around his fallen body.
“What happened?”
“What's going on?”
Startled by the heavy thud of something falling, the women of the Hae family asked in frightened voices.
But their new coachman gave no answer.
Even so, none of them dared to open the carriage door.
They had no idea what kind of evil presence outside might attack them the moment they did.
At last, the carriage stopped in front of a magnificent mansion at the end of the Gwido.
A crimson flag bearing the symbol of the Hae family fluttered above it, making it obvious that this was one of their strongholds.
The mansion looked as though someone had taken the royal palace in the capital, Hongyang, and recreated it here exactly.
Hoyeon was dumbfounded.
If this wasn't rebellion, then what was?
They had practically built a kingdom of their own inside another dimension.
Members of the Hae family, their faces covered with black cloth, began stepping out of the carriage one by one.
They formed a long procession and gathered in the courtyard before the mansion.
Hoyeon quietly followed behind them.
As expected of a major religious gathering for the clan, the atmosphere was solemn and majestic.
Braziers positioned according to the twelve directions burned with fierce flames.
In the center of the courtyard stood an enormous water basin.
Inside it, hundreds of turtles and snakes writhed and twisted around one another.
Atop the platform in front sat the family head, Haemora.
Among the Five Great Noble Families of Hui Kingdom, she was the only woman to hold the position of family head.
Naturally, her authority was immense.
It was said that she possessed supernatural powers and the ability to foresee the future.
Others claimed she had the ability to manipulate people's hearts and make them obey her.
Without her power, the Hae family might have already lost its position among the Five Great Noble Families during the previous generation.
Although she was already over forty years old, she looked exactly the same as when she had first become the family head in her teens.
Her red lips and the vivid crimson clothing tightly wrapped around her body gave her a bewitching air.
Several black spiders crawled over her clothes, constantly shifting positions to form different versions of the Hae family's emblem—a black sun.
“Young Master Nam Geumdo has arrived.”
At the attendant's announcement, a young boy walked up onto the platform surrounded by guards.
He looked around ten years old.
His features and mannerisms were charming, and his smiling eyes were especially adorable.
The boy casually took the seat of honor above even Haemora's position and gave everyone a bright smile.
Everyone immediately dropped to the ground and bowed their heads.
Nam Geumdo...
Hoyeon lowered his forehead to the ground along with the others while thinking over the name the attendant had announced.
Interesting.
So there was a boy carrying the Nam surname whom I knew nothing about.
Hoyeon carefully observed the child.
Then—
He froze on the spot.
To everyone else's eyes, the boy appeared to be an ordinary child.
But Hoyeon could tell.
That boy was not human.
“Family Head, there is something important I must tell you.”
Geumdo spoke to Haemora in the clear, bright voice unique to a young child.
“Please tell me anything you wish.”
Haemora replied with a smile.
Her expression was far gentler and softer than the venomous face Hoyeon had last seen.
“Last night, while I was walking around the residence, someone dressed in black appeared and chased after me, saying he would kill me.”
“Who would dare do such a thing to you, Young Master?”
Haemora pulled Geumdo into her arms and gently patted his back.
Geumdo buried himself against her with a frightened expression before continuing.
“After being chased for some time, I was struck by a sword and collapsed. But when I regained consciousness, I was lying on my bed.”
“……”
“But among the people who came to today's gathering, I saw someone who resembled that man. I'm terrified that he may have come here to harm me.”
Haemora's expression changed instantly.
She ordered her subordinates in an angry voice.
“How could an intruder possibly enter the Gwido...? Seal the entrance immediately and check whether anyone here does not bear the mark of the Black Sun!”
The private soldiers moved in perfect order and blocked the main gates.
The members of the Hae family began murmuring among themselves, unable to understand what was happening.
Hoyeon also looked around tensely for an escape route.
He was no different from a rat trapped inside a jar.
“Now that Geumdo's existence has been discovered, that person must never be allowed to leave here alive!”
Haemora's sharp voice rang throughout the courtyard.
A pitch-black shadow emerged from the breath leaving her lips.
It began flying around the gathering, examining people's faces one by one.
