Chapter 16
"Huh? An escort?"
Just then, Seol-yeong, who had been dozing off in a corner of the room, wiped his drool and stood up.
"Ugh... An escort? Does that mean Big Bro Ak is here?"
"Yeah, probably. But the timing sucks. We gotta get out of the clan for a bit."
Yeo-il, who had been quietly looking at a piece of paper, handed money to Chang-a and said,
"Go to the market and grab twenty tanghulus. If they ask why you're buying so many all of a sudden, tell them Soyo's heading to Hubei Province to find her mom, and she wants to pig out before she goes."
"Uh... Yeah! Got it!"
Chang-a looked like she had questions about 'Big Bro Ak,' but she just nodded and took off.
After the young servant girl left, Seol-yeong asked Yeo-il, a bit hesitantly,
"Are you going to call Big Bro Ak to Hubei? It'd be easier if he just came back to the clan and met up with us."
"Give him some free time, and he'll just mess around with any excuse he can find. He'll just take even longer to join up."
"It's not the end of the world if he's a little late, right?"
"Yeah, I guess, but it's been, like, over a hundred days since we've seen each other."
Seol-yeong scratched his chin, stretched out with a long yawn, and scoffed.
"Anyone listening would think you two are, like, super attached at the hip and can't stand being apart. Which is totally not the case."
Yeo-il tore the paper into small pieces instead of answering.
As always, the handwriting was so good it felt like a crime to just toss it. Even Yeo-il, who wasn't exactly book-smart, could tell it was some high-class calligraphy.
She first met the guy they called Big Bro Ak back when she was living with the old man.
She still remembers her first impression of him.
Some rich kid decked out in a fancy, shiny black robe – he definitely didn't look ordinary.
It was wild to think he even knew the old man, who was basically a bum.
[Yeo-il! Yeo-il, you little punk. Listen up, and listen good. Don't ever let that guy loose on the world. If you can't keep him in check, kill him. Seriously.]
After a series of events, they ended up living under the same roof, and the old man was wary of him, very wary.
[He's a born killer, a Heavenly Killer Star who never made it to Heavenly Noble. If he'd gone the right way, he could've been something special, but he's just not wired that way. That's all I'm gonna say. If things go south, take him out. Don't forget it.]
The old man kicked the bucket less than six months later, so you could say that was the first thing in his will to Yeo-il.
It was best to keep Ak where she could see him. It made things easier for Yeo-il, too. Of course, she didn't spill all the beans to Seol-yeong.
Around ten in the morning, Yeo-il grabbed Seol-yeong and Chang-a and headed out, following a servant sent by Namgung Jeok-myeong.
But it was all kind of hush-hush.
They couldn't even get in the carriage until they'd left the clan grounds and gotten near Giyeonnu.
"We're going incognito to Hubei, just in case something goes down. The young lord said it was for Soyo's safety, even if it's a bit of a pain."
"Safety? My ass."
Seol-yeong heard that and just gave a super annoyed smirk.
'So, incognito's the deal, huh?'
It wasn't as big a deal as she thought.
Yeo-il, who had boarded the carriage, asked the servant before the door closed,
"You said Hee-myeong was going to roll with me. What's the deal with that?"
"He'll leave half a day later and catch up with you guys halfway."
The servant handed Seol-yeong a piece of paper and vanished. It was a map showing the way to the meeting point.
"He's making me drive this thing? Seriously? And this dump calls itself one of the Five Great Families..."
With a grumble, the carriage started moving. Once they hit a quiet stretch of road, Seol-yeong spoke up.
"No matter how you slice it, this looks like a setup to off you, miss, while we're supposed to be incognito."
Chang-a, who had been busy embroidering, raised her head with a frightened face.
"Whoa! Sh-shouldn't we, like, ditch this thing and run?"
Yeo-il, leaning comfortably against the carriage wall, replied in an indifferent tone with her eyes closed.
"If they try to kill me, I'll just have to survive and come back."
"B-but, miss... what if the whole 'relatives in Hubei' thing is a lie, too...?"
"Chang-a."
Chang-a, who was fidgeting, answered Yeo-il's quiet call, looking glum.
"Yeah, miss..."
"When you look at me, who do you see?"
"Huh? Well... Y-you're Namgung Soyo, the daughter of the Great Namgung Clan, obviously."
"That's right, I'm Namgung Soyo. And my one and only wish is to find some clue about my mom."
"..."
"If there's even a tiny chance of finding my mom, I gotta check it out, no matter what. That's what Namgung Soyo has to do. Get it?"
Chang-a was quiet for a bit, then nodded, looking way more determined.
"Yeah, miss, you're right. I'll definitely remember that."
So, the carriage, cruising along to its destination, ran into some assassins at the base of Mount Cheonju the very next day.
"..."
[Get ready to die, Namgung Soyo! I'll come back from hell and find you, even if it takes me until next year!]
Late that night, after they buried the assassin who'd screamed that curse.
The carriage, which had been going non-stop, stopped in front of a pavilion lit up with red lanterns like plum blossoms, after they entered Hubei Province.
The pavilion, which kind of looked like a whorehouse at first with all the red lanterns, looked like a lotus leaf floating on a small lake. The sign said <Chwihyangwon (Drunken Fragrance Garden)>.
"It's been six months since we hit up Chwihyangwon. I think we made some good coin back then."
As Seol-yeong said, the first place they hit up after coming down the mountain was Chwihyangwon. The reason was obvious.
"Wonder if my sis is here."
Yeo-il, enjoying the night breeze with the carriage window wide open, replied leisurely.
"Beats me."
They were there to see Seol-yeong's older sister, Seol Seo-rin.
The carriage crept along, very slowly and quietly, probably because Chang-a was out cold.
She didn't even wake up when they ran into that assassin at Mount Cheonju, so the trip must've been wiping her out.
The pavilion's gate was wide open, but even after the carriage pulled in, nobody came to greet them for ages.
You could hear hazy laughter and pipa music nearby, but still no one came out. It was like the carriage was some uninvited guest crashing the party.
Then, Seol-yeong, hopped up from the driver's seat, lit a flare he'd prepared, and shot it into the night sky.
About fifteen minutes later, a girl came running over from behind a pillar and asked Seol-yeong,
"What's up?"
"Here to see the owner."
"The owner's not here. Do you have an appointment?"
"Just tell her Seol-yeong's here. She'll know."
"Seol-yeong, Seol-yeong... Hang on a sec."
After the girl repeated his name and took off.
Soon after, a woman in a red silk robe with gold embroidery came walking up, very quietly.
The woman, holding a red lantern, stopped in front of the carriage and stared hard at Seol-yeong's face, then gave a weird smile.
Seol-yeong, looking suspicious, raised an eyebrow and blurted out,
"Spit it out."
The woman then put her hand on her chest and bowed, apologizing.
"Sorry if I made you uncomfortable. I've only heard about you, but this is my first time seeing you face-to-face, so I kind of stared without realizing."
"You've heard about me?"
Seol-yeong looked even more suspicious.
"...Did the owner say something about me?"
The woman in red answered right away.
"Yep."
"What'd she say?"
"She said you're not used to being around women and you're shy, so we should bring a bunch of beautiful girls to freak you out and make you run off."
"What?!"
Seol-yeong turned bright red.
"Seol Seo-rin, that pain-in-the-ass sister of mine, eight years older, always pulling crap like this...!"
"But."
The woman tilted her head, looking at Yeo-il through the square window, and smiled sweetly, like a flower.
"Now that I see her... it looks like the owner was messing with us. With someone this gorgeous, what's the point of a bunch of other beauties? They'd be like throwing pebbles into a flower garden.”
