Wandering Through Vol. 2 Chapter 35 - Karma 🔞

The dragon responded to Yiseo’s call.  

 

However, it did not descend upon her body. Though her body, which bore no divine presence, was wide open, the dragon ultimately stopped before her.  

 

“You said I wouldn’t die….”  

 

Despite her feeble muttering, the deity did not open her body.  

 

“I never wished for life. Why did you tie my fate to another?”  

 

What he desired was irrelevant. Do all human wishes come true? If so, how could there be any suffering in the world?  

 

No matter how much he wished, if the dragon god had not responded, he would not have remembered his past life, nor would his fate have been intertwined with Yiseo’s.  

 

Everyone prays for their deceased loved ones, children, or friends to return to life, to meet them again.  

 

Leegwang’s first life, the Crown Prince, must have been the same.  

 

But the affairs of one life must end within that life. They should not carry over to the next. That would only destroy a person.  

 

‘Who does Leegwang think he is now? The Crown Prince? A lowly shaman? Or Warlord, the great general?’

 

All three bore different names and lived different lives.  

 

Yet, Leegwang now considers all three lives as his own.  

 

It was as if one body had three heads. Seeing one, he would think of three different things. 

 

‘How could anyone endure this without going mad?’

  

Remembering past lives was a punishment.  

 

Repeated lives make one lose their sense of self.  

 

To avoid madness, one had no choice but to deny their past selves. If one body had three heads, the other two had to be killed to remain sane.  

 

But Leegwang denied none of his lives, nor would he ever.  

 

It was already too late to deny them.  

 

His three lives were all entangled with her, intertwined beyond unraveling. If he denied even one, the twenty-two years of Leegwang’s life would make no sense.  

 

All the days he abandoned, violated, and blamed Yiseo would not have happened had he not remembered his past lives.  

 

There was no way to untangle the already tangled thread.  

 

From the beginning, the crown prince should not have prayed for a reunion, and the dragon should not have answered.  

 

Yiseo wanted to blame the dragon, but she eventually realized it all began with the Crown Prince.  

 

‘…You should have forgotten me when I died. You should not have prayed to meet me again.’

 

If the dragon had known it would exploit her heart for the sake of her life, Yiseo would have ended her own life before meeting him. 

 

Before the crown prince saw her and gave her his heart.  

 

The first life ruined the three lives.  

 

If the tangled thread cannot be unraveled, it must be cut.  

 

Yiseo quietly moved her lips. A soundless murmur reached the dragon. It was a ritual offered by a shaman after a long time.  

 

‘What is a ritual, after all?’  

 

It doesn’t need to be grand. Offering sacrifices to the deity and seeking a reward—that is a ritual.  

 

💫

 

A familiar energy filled the room.  

 

At the clear sign that the dragon god had responded to Yiseo’s call, the water bowl slipped from Leegwang’s hand.  

 

The bowl rolled noisily across the shrine floor, splashing water that wet the tips of Yiseo’s feet. 

 

Yiseo, who had been leaning against the wall, lifted her head and looked at him.  

 

His stiff lips and shadowed eyes under the backlight. He stepped carelessly into the puddle on the floor, splashing water, and approached her without hesitation.  

 

“As expected, I can’t leave you alone. The moment I take my eyes off you, you cause trouble.”  

 

He took Yiseo’s hand off the wall and lifted her as if handling a child. 

 

Yiseo obediently nestled into his arms. No, rather, she spread both arms to embrace his neck and rested her head on his shoulder.  

 

Holding Leegwang’s momentarily stiffened body tightly with all her strength, Yiseo began to cry quietly.  

 

Even if she made no sound, it was impossible not to notice her crying with her body clinging so closely to his. 

 

Hesitating, he slowly stroked her back. He had no intention of letting her go just because she was crying, but he could at least comfort her.  

 

After all, he was the reason she was crying, so he didn’t expect her to stop just because he comforted her.  

 

Still, it was good that she wasn’t avoiding or rejecting him, but instead clinging tightly to him while crying. 

 

It almost seemed as if she knew he would become more lenient if she acted this way.  

 

He had intended to scold her, but seeing her like this, he couldn’t bring himself to crush her.  

 

As her quiet crying turned into hiccups, he patted her back and asked,  

 

“What were you thinking, seeking the deity again?”  

 

Yiseo had probably cried more after turning twenty-one than she had in all the years before. 

 

It was pitiful to see someone who rarely cried become like this, but the fact that his satisfaction outweighed his pity showed that he was clearly already broken somewhere.

 

Was it because of a life spent being tossed around in the lowly depths, never having held anything whole in my hands before dying? Or was it my original nature to be like this?

 

He stared at the spot where the dragon from the mural he had torn out with his own hands once was. Now, there was nothing that dragon could do.

 

“Do you think that god will help you?”

 

After all, the only things that matter to that being are life and death.

 

As long as Yiseo’s lifespan is tied to his, that thing will always side with him.

 

“It’s meaningless. That god abandoned you and chose me.”

 

“…”

 

“If you want to beg, beg me. Though I can’t promise I’ll listen.”

 

Yiseo buried her face in his shoulder and thrashed. She lifted her head with tear-filled eyes and quietly met his gaze. Her eyes, glistening with tears, made his lower abdomen tighten.

 

As he was caught in indecent thoughts—should he push her down or let it be—Yiseo’s face suddenly drew closer.

 

Their lips met with a soft ‘smooch’.

 

Caught off guard, he froze in place.

 

Yiseo wrapped her arms around his neck and gently licked his lips with her tongue. 

It was as cautious as a mother licking her young. 

 

Awkwardly moving her tongue, she parted his lips and intertwined her tongue with his. It was so tender that it was hard to tell whether she was sucking or licking his tongue.

While he stood there dazed and stiff, Yiseo pulled her lips away and buried her face in his shoulder again.

 

“…Are you trying to flirt with me now, of all times?”

 

“Is that not allowed?”

 

“Why suddenly?”

 

“Because I’m scared of you, my lord.”

 

Yiseo rubbed her cheek against the nape of his neck. Her muttering, devoid of any coquetry and instead clearly tinged with exhaustion, followed.

 

“If you’re not going to kill me, please treat me a little more kindly…”

 

“…”

 

“If you treat me kindly, who knows… I might even come to love you again…”

 

Though Yiseo’s words were sweet, he had been through too much to easily fall for them. She had not proven herself.

 

Leegwang muttered resolutely, as if making a vow.

 

“Even so, I won’t believe it.”

 

💫

 

“So, does that mean our young lady is here or not? Madam, please, just give me an answer to that!”

 

Old Lady Shanggung wanted to cover her ears at the old woman’s persistent pleading. 

 

Normally, she would have scolded and dismissed a servant from another household for being so impertinent, but the problem was that the prince she served had kidnapped the very person this old woman served. She couldn’t just shoo her away like a beggar.

 

“Our lady couldn’t sleep at night, grieving for her daughter, who returned after being humiliated. And now that daughter has disappeared without a trace, our lady has collapsed from the shock.”

 

The tearful explanation exasperated Old Lady Shanggung. 

 

‘Collapsed from shock? What nonsense. Everyone in the marketplace knew how that household’s lady treated her disgraced daughter as if she were already dead.’

 

They had locked her away in a secluded back room, not even giving her a spoonful of rice. 

 

It was already widely rumored that the servants had been sneaking her food from their meals. 

 

Then, at some point, even the servants stopped bringing her food, and people assumed she had died.

 

How could Old Lady Shanggung have known that the girl hadn’t died, but had been kidnapped by the prince she served? 

 

The prince she served was like a ghost—no one ever saw him stay in the palace, and no one had any idea where he wandered or how he lived.

 

He was more elusive than a ghost.  

 

“Who on earth dared to kidnap our precious young lady? We’ve scoured the capital until our feet were raw…”

 

Tears dripped down her wrinkled face.  

 

No matter how distant their relationship had been, seeing someone she had known for ten years cry so pitifully made Old Lady Shanggung unable to bear it any longer. She turned her head away.  

 

“Madam, our young lady never once complained, even after being humiliated by the prince. She only said that you had suffered greatly serving her these past ten years, and never spoke a single harsh word. I’m not asking you to hand her over right now. I’m just asking if she’s here or not. Is that so difficult to say?”  

 

“Enough, Nanny Yeongseon,” Old Lady Shanggung sighed.  

 

“If it were something I could speak of, I would have told you already. I’m sorry, but there’s nothing more I can say.”  

 

Nanny Yeongseon grabbed the hem of Old Lady Shanggung’s skirt as she turned to leave and knelt. Her trembling hands were desperate.  

 

“Our young lady, our young lady, is gone… We searched every corner of the house, fearing she might have hanged herself after the humiliation. Every time I opened a door, I was terrified I’d find her hanging from the rafters. If I don’t look for her, who will?”  

 

The hem of Old Lady Shanggung’s skirt crumpled mercilessly in the old woman’s wrinkled hands.  

 

“If you can’t speak, just nod, Madam. I heard that on the first day of the month, at dawn, the prince kidnapped a small, petite woman. Was that our young lady?”