Chapter 22 — The Name That Cannot Be Spoken (3)
Meanwhile, among the countless halls of the Jin family estate, packed closely together beneath rows of adjoining eaves, there was one place that felt especially full of human warmth.
It stood just inside the final gate leading from the estate toward the commoner village.
On a wide wooden platform in the courtyard, men drank alcohol with bowls of soup in front of them, laughing and talking loudly.
Most of them were ordinary people—couriers, errand runners, carriage drivers, and the like.
They had stopped by the Jin estate simply to get a meal and a place to sleep for the night.
This was thanks to the Jin family's custom of treating anyone who passed through their gates as a guest, regardless of rank or status.
And among them was one man who had been living there for ten years without any particular reason.
Even among the drunkards, he was always the loudest, easily mixing into one group after another.
A bottle of alcohol he had begged from someone always hung from his waist.
His filthy clothes, thick beard, and wild hair made him look almost like a savage living in the mountains.
Because his eyes were always half-open as though he were sleepy, and because he spent most of his time drunkenly rambling, it was hard to notice at first.
But if one looked carefully at his features, he had the handsome face of a bold and cheerful man.
“How can a person eat someone else's food for this many years? Do you have no shame at all?”
The older female attendants and kitchen workers of the Jin family often took turns scolding him.
Of course, he had heard the same thing so many times that the words no longer affected him.
“Oh, what are you talking about? Even if people call me a beggar for the rest of my life, living off the Jin family is still obviously better.”
The man continued shamelessly.
“Your storehouses are more than fifty paces long and filled with grain and weapons. Surely one or two lowly fellows like me living off you won't make much of a difference.”
“You've got all four limbs, and you're a strong, healthy man. You should go out and earn your own living, whether by farming or working as a blacksmith. Isn't that right?”
“Work is exhausting, taxes are heavy, and the world is a mess. What's the point of going outside?”
“……”
“All common people are naturally lazy and fond of taking things slowly. It's the duty of the prime minister to feed them properly and govern them well.”
“If only you weren't so good at talking... Tsk, tsk. The way you behave, you were born to make a living by swindling people with that mouth of yours.”
“Didn't you have any family before you came here? Parents? A wife and children?”
“I had an older sister quite a few years older than me. She had a child and died young.”
For once, the man's expression became unusually serious.
Perhaps he did not want to reveal what was going through his mind, because he simply fell silent and drank.
Following his sister's final words, he had once dug deep into the earth east of the royal palace.
There, he found a turtle.
Written across its shell in red blood were the words:
First Day — Sak.
In astronomy, sak referred to the moment when the moon moved between the sun and the earth, forming a straight line.
The curse placed for that day seemed to predict that darkness would cover the royal palace, like the pitch-black night of a moonless month-end.
The dead turtle's mouth hung open in agony, and an eerie aura clung to its body.
Judging from the sorcery that used turtles and snakes to perform black magic, it was obvious who was behind it.
But there was no one in the palace who would believe him.
And fearing that speaking out might bring harm to his young nephew, he had been forced to swallow all of his anger in silence.
At that moment, as though scattering those old memories—
A small stone came flying over the wall at high speed.
The man's eyes had already followed its movement.
But he deliberately let the stone hit him on the head and collapsed.
“Ow, that hurts! Those rude little servants of the Jin family. What kind of prank is this to play on an adult?”
The man clutched his head and groaned dramatically.
“Well, you've completely ruined the mood. I suppose I'll go to sleep early tonight.”
He set down his cup with a loud tak and stood.
“What? You're turning down alcohol and leaving early?”
“He may be the king of beggars, but no one can beat that fellow when it comes to having fun.”
He was easygoing and entertaining, so somehow, no one truly disliked him.
The others could only lament how dull the drinking gathering had become after he left.
Once the man reached the rear courtyard, he straightened the back he had been keeping hunched.
At once, the hard muscles and powerful build hidden beneath his filthy cotton clothes became obvious.
The moonlight felt especially bright tonight.
“Even when I want to get drunk, I can't.”
A deep night like this naturally stirred emotion in anyone.
It was the kind of night that made a person want to send their heart drifting somewhere far away, like an immortal wandering through the Milky Way.
Inside the Jin family's residence, Seongha sat beneath a lamp reading a book.
His appearance was calm and aloof.
By now, he should have been sitting with Cheongyeon at the administrative office, drinking tea together...
Without realizing it, Seongha found himself thinking about the empty place left by Cheongyeon's absence.
He could almost hear her soft laughter beside him.
Cheongyeon and Manwoo's group had departed before dawn because she had wanted the journey to the holy places kept unofficial.
Inside the carriage, Cheongyeon had not even shown her face to Seongha, who had come out to see them off.
Since then, Seongha had occasionally received reports sent by Manwoo...
But for some reason, Cheongyeon herself had not sent even a single letter written in her own hand.
It left him both puzzled and frustrated.
At that moment—
A long stick flew through the open window like a dagger.
Seongha closed the book he had been reading and caught the stick with a sharp tak.
“Did you just throw the chopstick you were eating with? How filthy...”
Seongha wiped both hands with a cloth, openly showing his displeasure.
A hearty laugh rang out.
The man jumped through the window.
Judging from the relaxed way he entered someone else's room, it seemed he had done this many times before.
“Haha, as though Young Master Jin's habits are any better. How long are you planning to summon people by shooting pebbles at them?”
“You're the one who taught me to call you that way, aren't you? Besides, you could have avoided it easily if you wanted to.”
“Let's just say I accepted your welcome in celebration of Young Master Jin finally returning to the Jin estate after so long.”
The moment he finished speaking, the man immediately held out his hand.
“More importantly, you brought alcohol and snacks, right?”
“Before that, I need to check what I asked you to find.”
Seongha clearly drew a line and stared at him.
