Boy Monster Chapter 49

The Hwelju above Hwelju, the Sa Hwelju, was a superior power that received the destiny of heaven and earth. It could never be possessed in a human body without a Yeonri. For the king to possess the power of the Sa Hwelju, a Sa Yeonri with outstanding empathy ability was essential.

Therefore, the family head had to create a Sa Yeonri who had no problems with physical union and connection.

He had even been considerate enough to tell him to choose anyone he wanted, as he had to learn the act of sex between men to become the king’s Yeonri. Thinking it might be because he didn’t know the pleasure of sexual acts, he even arranged for him to sleep with a beautiful woman.

The woman who had been on top of Jae Eunho said that while there was no problem with his sexual function, he was so cold and unaffectionate that he didn’t seem human. She said it was as if he deeply rejected the pleasure that comes from the union of bodies from his heart. It was consistent with what his friend who had just left had said. Nothing had changed in years!

Considering the family head’s impatient and violent temper, this was giving him special treatment, and his thin patience had now run out.

The family head called Jae Eunho to his room. Jae Eunho, who straightened his long robes and knelt, did not look like someone who had just spent the night with someone. The family head’s frustration grew because Eunho showed no agitation.

“Speak. Who should I pair you with so that you can open your body and let out a coquettish moan?”

Jae Eunho’s eyes were on the moon beyond the window. Jae Eunho liked the moon more than the pleasure of intercourse. The family head boasted and joked.

“If that happens to be me, what a pity. I detest pederasty.”

A bountiful harvest of self-praise. With that level of smugness, he would make the audience laugh the moment he appeared on a market-square mask-dance stage.

Unaware that Jae Eunho’s inner thoughts were full of cynicism, the family head waited for Eunho’s answer.

With which partner would you open your body well?

To answer that question, it would be: ‘No one. No one in this world can give me physical pleasure. I have no affection for people, no romance for the world, no desire. Not since you and the king killed my parents.’

Jae Eunho let his inner monologue drift far away. He fixed his gaze on the full moon shining in the distance and answered.

“When the time comes, I will do it myself. What need is there for practice?”

“Think of those who act coy under me as if they are about to faint. A man can’t help but fall head over heels for that. Even the king is a man with that thing, so it’s the same. Didn’t I tell you?”

“When the time comes, I will do so.”

“Eunho. Tsk….”

A liquor cup flew forcefully and shattered next to his knee. Eunho swallowed dryly. The family head threw down the spellbook, got up, and picked up the longsword that was placed in a corner of the room.

When the family head’s patience was exceeded, he would reveal his violent nature without filter. It never happened when dealing with the king and the royal family, but in other cases, he did not hesitate to display his cruelty. Jae Eunho was aware that his personality of not bothering to hide his violent nature was what induced fear of him.

“The one who never talked back must be feeling spirited on this moonlit night.”

“……”

“Your body is like this blade. Just as only a blade sharpened regularly can cut the enemy, so too must fornication and pederasty be practiced to be used. I’ve told you that several times. You’ve listened well until now, haven’t you? Huh?”

If anyone ran away or opposed the system, he would personally cut off their feet and execute them horribly in front of people. That was why being around him felt like walking on thin ice.

“Your parents, unlike you, didn’t know how to listen, so they were dismembered.”

The family head, continuing his words, even had an expression of being wronged.

“It was a royal command. I couldn’t help it either. Your parents were outstanding Hwelju and Yeonri, I didn’t want to execute your parents like that either….”

Jae Eunho’s parents were dismembered in front of the entire Sashimcheon family.

The reason was that they had raised a banner of rebellion, demanding improved treatment and freedom from the family head. They opposed the method of confining Hwelju and Yeonri in the mansion and controlling them strictly. It has been a long time since slavery was abolished, new civilization has arrived, all people are equal… The result of advocating for freedom was dismemberment.

He said it was a royal command, but if the family head had opposed it, they would not have been executed. It meant that the family head had at least agreed to it. No, it was more likely that he had actively pushed for the execution.

Jae Eunho, who had grown up believing other Hwelju and Yeonri were his parents, only heard that story years later. The family head had entrusted Jae Eunho to a servant and raised him well in his own way, but that was all because Jae Eunho was the only Sa Yeonri. If Jae Eunho had been an unremarkable child, he would have been abandoned on the street.

Growing up in such a family head’s mansion, Jae Eunho learned how to hide. How to hide hatred for a long time. How to hide killing intent under a clean face without a single trace.

“In a situation where we’re about to lose our country, what’s all this talk of freedom, Eunho! I had a really hard time back then, too!”

Jae Eunho hid the killing intent in his heart. It was a very sharp blade. In his imagination, he had beheaded the family head several times.

“The country is in turmoil now. Prince Yeongchin is on the throne, but his body cannot receive the power of the Sa Hwelju, so we have sealed it in a folding screen. We still don’t know who the next king will be, and one misstep could lead to a non-Korean taking over the country. It is a time when our Hwelju’s existence could be revealed to the Japanese! Do you know how important the power of the Sa Hwelju is?”

The family head lifted Jae Eunho’s chin with the tip of his longsword. His eyes, drunk on madness, looked down at Jae Eunho.

“You know what I’ve accomplished by receiving the king’s command and leading the Hwelju and Yeonri to help the army, right…?”

“Yes, I know.”

“We must believe in the one who will sort out this turmoil and save our Joseon. You all must follow me, dedicating everything. If I gain greater military power soon… in a few years, Joseon will shed its humiliation.”

An outstanding Hwelju and a shaman. A real power who could even move the king. The master who led a great family while ruling over the divine power of Joseon. The family head was intoxicated by the responsibility and the power of his position.

“For that, the power of the Sa Hwelju is needed, and a Sa Yeonri with no problems in union is absolutely necessary.”

“Yes. I am well aware.”

“Until then, practice sexual union once a month on the moon.”

“I understand.”

Having finished speaking, the family head tapped Jae Eunho’s waist with the blade of the sword as if to pat it. Jae Eunho bowed his head, thinking that one day he would kill the man before him and escape this fate.

Before leaving the room, Jae Eunho left one request for the family head.

“Please designate the day for union to avoid the day when the full moon is bright.”

“Why?”

“I enjoy watching the moon.”

The family head seemed to find Eunho’s words impertinent. The door closed without an answer.

Jae Eunho’s long hair and robes were dyed in the white moonlight as he left the main building and walked to his room. A thin trickle of blood, a trace of the brief affair, flowed down his white ankle. From outside the wall, the boisterous laughter from a restaurant and the sound of rickshaw wheels echoed faintly.

:･⚜️⊹.️

The family head, after marking his sixth son whom he had all but abandoned as his successor, often summoned him to the mansion. It was after his outstanding abilities as a Hwelju had manifested. It was a procedure to formally register the child, who was not born between him and a Yeonri, into the Sashimcheon family.

On the day of the Lotus Lantern Festival in April of the following year, Jae Eunho encountered Jang Hwonwoo for the second time. As they had already ignored each other as if the other didn’t exist, Jae Eunho simply passed the boy that day as well.

It rained quite heavily during their second meeting as well. Jae Eunho’s empathy ability was being controlled by talismans and pills. That day, perhaps because the pill was a bit strong, Eunho couldn’t keep his mind clear.

The pill muddled Eunho’s mind. He didn’t even realize he had forgotten his undergarments worn inside his dopo. When he had looked in the grandfather clock, it had seemed fine enough.

He didn’t know for how long the boy had been watching Jae Eunho, who was nearly naked under his rain-soaked, see-through dopo. Jae Eunho, stumbling as he walked, spotted the nine-year-old boy sitting under the opposite eaves. It was Jang Hwonwoo, the son the family head boasted about. Jae Eunho averted his gaze without interest.

The effect of the medicine was too strong. He was on his way to ask for a doctor. As Jae Eunho rounded the veranda and passed the boy, a low voice was heard.

“A pleasure to meet you for the first time, Lord Sa Yeonri.”

“……”

“Your hands are exceptionally beautiful.”

It was the first time he had heard such words from Jang Hwonwoo. Jae Eunho inwardly snorted and cursed.

‘Of all the things to say. Just like his father who spreads his seed everywhere.’

Eunho glanced back with a displeased expression, but gave the boy no further response, gaze, or interest. He left the courtyard leaving only a cold disregard. He was not using an umbrella.

His hands are beautiful. That was Jang Hwonwoo’s first assessment of Jae Eunho.

Jang Hwonwoo, sitting on the veranda of the inner building, watched the man walking unsteadily, practically naked. Jang Hwonwoo knew that his father, the family head, dominated the Hwelju and Yeonri and used them as he pleased. He also knew that the man received special management and treatment because he was a Sa Yeonri, whose abilities surpassed those of other Yeonri.

The young boy, after a silence, muttered.

“They said he was wicked. It’s true.”

He was as ill-mannered as the rumors said. The only Sa Yeonri the family had secured. He had heard that the one to be offered to the king as the next Sa Yeonri was a man, but that it was fortunate he was beautiful. He was a striking person even when he had seen him briefly last year. The boy had no objection to the fact that he was a presence that drew the eye, as he hadn’t found such a sight within the grand mansion.

But, as if to live up to his face, he was said to have a very cold and heartless nature. He had no objection to that either.