Be the Sacrifice Chapter 15

His words somehow felt off. He was asking Heesa something no one had ever asked her before. 

 

Hong Yeomrang did not rise from his seat. He kept staring at Heesa’s feet. Her toenails had fallen off several times and grown back crooked and uneven. 

 

Even her toes were not pretty, no more than her fingers. 

 

Yet Hong Yeomrang kept deliberately searching out and looking at the ugly parts.

 

“Someone might have gotten lost or hurt. If I stop, they won’t know.”

 

“Why do you care about that? Who do you think you are? A monster like you.”

 

The last words were something Hong Yeomrang said to himself.

 

This is a monster. A being with no reason to get involved in human affairs.

 

Under the bright sunlight, Heesa looks around with a face full of vitality, her hair being eaten and giving her life. 

 

With gentle eyes, she checks whether the wildflowers survived the night, whether they were damaged by the wind, and whether enough acorns have fallen for the squirrels to last the winter.

 

The monsters he knows never have eyes like that.

 

She’s a monster. A monster. A monster that eats other people’s hair.

 

“I like humans.”

 

“Are they offerings sacrificing the nutrients you need to survive?”

 

At Heesa’s cheerful reply, Hong Yeomrang asked back with a sneer. He lifted his gaze and looked at her. His sharp eyes held heat, though it wasn’t clear why he was angry.

 

“Why are you suddenly mad? Because I didn’t take you to the village?”

 

Hearing “why are you suddenly mad,” Hong Yeomrang felt an odd sense of déjà vu. He narrowed his eyes.

 

“Stay here for a hundred days. Nothing will happen. It’ll pass quickly, very quickly.”

 

He spoke as though the hundred days of needing to absorb yang energy were not for Heesa herself, but for his sake. 

 

The absurdity of it made Hong Yeomrang grip her sore ankle tightly.

 

“Is that for me? It’s for you, isn’t it, miss?”

 

Within arm’s reach, Hong Yeomrang’s hair was right there. 

 

Unconsciously, Heesa reached out and gently stroked the tips of his hair. With the cloth wrapped around her hand, she couldn’t even feel the softness. 

 

The hand that had been painfully gripping her ankle loosened for a moment.

 

“…Is that so. Well, whatever.”

 

He gets angry and then gives her new clothes, gets angry and personally tears the cumbersome clothes to adjust the length for her, gets angry and then tightly wraps the torn fabric around her own ankle. 

 

Heesa bit her lip to hold back a laugh.

 

Where else in the world is there a man whose words and actions are so completely at odds? 

 

From the very first day, he gave up his own bed for her. But knowing that Hong Yeomrang would flare up like fire if she pointed out his behavior, Heesa kept her mouth shut.

 

“I’ve never walked with anyone before, so I completely forgot you were behind me.”

 

After firmly binding her legs in a way that made walking easier, Hong Yeomrang stood up. 

 

This time, it was she who first tugged on the string connecting their wrists.

 

“So what?”

 

“It would be nice if you walked beside me.”

 

“Just keep forgetting and go on your way, miss.”

 

He followed so silently that Heesa really had forgotten about him. She had always walked alone, so even now she naturally assumed she was alone. 

 

Hong Yeomrang had other intentions, intentions so obvious they were plain to see, but she pretended not to notice.

 

He doesn’t get close to offerings. Because the offerings find his presence uncomfortable and frightening. 

 

Occasionally, there were people like Hong Yeomrang who noticed his existence, but they desperately pretended not to, and in the end, they received wealth, gave thanks, and went back down to the village.

 

He says he doesn’t need wealth, so how is he supposed to receive thanks and go down to the village at the end?

 

Suddenly curious about that, Heesa turned to look at the one still behind her.

 

“Walk straight.”

 

To Heesa, who started walking backwards while looking at him, Hong Yeomrang frowned and said,

 

“I’ve got eyes in the back of my head, so it’s fine.”

 

“Yeah, sure.”

 

At Heesa’s ridiculous remark, he scoffed. 

 

Sure enough, while walking backwards staring at him, Heesa stepped on something and fell straight backward. 

 

Hong Yeomrang reflexively yanked the connecting string. 

 

A white hand floated in the air. Both knees slammed toward the ground. He barely managed to pull her and prevent her from falling completely backward.

 

“Ah….”

 

“Ah? You said you’ve got eyes in the back, too, ah?”

 

“…My knees hurt…”

 

“Fucking hell, you’re something else.”

 

The curse finally slipped out all the way. 

 

If she was going to show off, at least do it properly. She just twisted her ankle a moment ago, and now she’s fearlessly doing things that’ll get her hurt again. 

 

Hong Yeomrang felt his petty insides boil uncontrollably and was at a loss for words.

 

Really fucking annoying, what the hell is this?

 

If his father had found Heesa and entrusted her to him instead of sending him to a master in the capital, perhaps Hong Yeomrang would have grown into the patient man his father wished for. 

 

The capital was the center of all pleasure and violence, and it wasn’t the quiet, obedient Hong Yeomrang who had stayed under his master’s wing. 

 

Having seen all kinds of human nature, his personality grew more ferocious day by day.

 

Even with his rough speech, Heesa’s face showed almost no change.

 

When their eyes met, she gave an awkward smile. 

 

Every time she smiled in a way that turned people’s stomachs inside out, but seeing her smile like that now, Hong Yeomrang absurdly realized that Heesa was actually in quite a bit of pain.

 

“Look.”

 

Still kneeling, with one hand awkwardly held by Hong Yeomrang and sitting in a half-raised position, Heesa bit down hard on her upper lip. 

 

She had boasted about having eyes in the back and then immediately fallen, clearly embarrassed.

 

“It’s okay!”

 

Heesa put all her strength into her legs and sprang to her feet. 

 

Because of that, Hong Yeomrang, who had just bent his head toward her, saying “let me see”, nearly had his jaw sent flying if he had been even a fraction slower to step back.

 

“This is really…”

 

Heesa couldn’t understand why he was angry again. She stood up and walked briskly forward. She could feel blood trickling down her knees, but it was fine. 

 

After taking only a couple of steps, though, she couldn’t go any farther and stopped. 

 

It was because Hong Yeomrang wasn’t following her. 

 

Heesa tilted her head to the side. Then she stared straight at him with eyes that clearly said she had no idea what was going on.

 

Blood was flowing down beneath his yellow durumagi. The part where he had knelt already had a bright red bloodstain bigger than his fist. 

 

Even so, seeing Heesa stubbornly trying to keep walking as if it were nothing left Hong Yeomrang dumbfounded.

 

What the hell was he even doing here right now? 

 

He had just bound her ankle a moment ago, and now she was dripping blood from her knees.

 

“Ha…”

 

He drew a deep breath into his lungs and let it out slowly. If he didn’t, he felt like he would end up shouting at Heesa, who was looking right at him. 

 

Arguing with her was pointless; she just kept talking back. 

 

And somehow he kept getting strangely caught up in it, so he couldn’t even say what he really wanted to say properly.

 

He had thought she was on the level of the village idiot, but she might actually be smarter than that fool Baksu.

 

“Is there a stream nearby?”

 

“Yeah.”

 

It seemed faster to just carry her than to follow her slow, leisurely pace. 

 

Hong Yeomrang scooped Heesa up in his arms without another word. 

 

One hand slid under her knees, the other wrapped around her back. He could feel her gaze staring straight up at him from below again. 

 

But Hong Yeomrang never once looked down.

 

“Where is it?”

 

“Over there…”

 

Heesa’s ugly finger pointed somewhere. As he carried her and moved forward, the forest parted to make way. It wasn’t long before the sound of water could be heard. 

 

It wasn’t just a stream; it was a place with a small waterfall.

 

Swoosh—

 

The water poured coolly down onto the deep pool below, called Yongso. 

 

From there, the stream stretched out long into the distance. Hong Yeomrang set Heesa down on a rock at the edge of the Yongso pool.

 

Since the clothes were already torn, he tore the bottom of Heesa’s durumagi even more, soaked it thoroughly in the water, then wrung it out.

 

“Lift your clothes.”

 

Without a word, Heesa quietly lifted her clothes. Her two knees, torn open to the point of bursting, came together. He placed the coldly soaked silk over them. 

 

Perhaps feeling the pain, her eyes squeezed shut for a moment, but Heesa didn’t make a sound of complaint. 

 

Even when he deliberately pressed hard on the wounded area, she endured it.

 

“Just look straight ahead and walk. You can’t even walk properly. Don’t go around pissing people off.”

 

“Are you mad because of me? Why?”

 

“Because Miss here was stupid enough to fall flat on her face in front of a lowly servant.”

 

Hong Yeomrang sneered. 

 

Even so, Heesa, who liked hearing the word “miss”, bit back the laughter that threatened to burst out. He was such a stubbornly honest man. 

 

Even when he was being sarcastic, he still considered himself defeated and willingly took on the role of a lowly servant.

 

He doesn’t go back on his word.

 

Even if that servant is utterly insolent, ill-mannered, and ungrateful.

 

“So you should’ve come when I told you to walk beside me.”

 

“How could a lowly servant walk side by side with Miss?”