Chapter 12
For a moment, I couldn’t get the words out.
W-What? What did I just hear?
“Uh… Young lady? Did I hear that correctly? You definitely told me to come in, right? Or did you tell me to get lost? There’s no way our young lady would obediently tell me to come in, is there? Ah! I guess I haven’t fully recovered yet. Now I’m even hearing things…”
“I said come in!”
Only after hearing that vicious shout again did I finally open my mouth wide.
The young lady had told me to come in.
The young lady had told me to come in!
At the same time, words brushed past my ears…
“Rest easy and get plenty of sleep. This won’t happen again.”
It really must be true. Our young lady had changed!
“Yes, yes, yes! Young lady, I’m coming in. I’m coming in right now!”
I answered in a voice full of delight and grabbed the doorknob. Then, because my heart was pounding so hard, I took a deep breath before energetically opening the door.
“Young lady, it’s been so long since I’ve seen!”
At the same time, I froze.
‘W-What?’
The scene before me was very different from what I had imagined. Standing in the dim room was… a sack ghost.
Not a person, but a sack ghost.
…Why is that here?
“Young lady?”
When I asked in disbelief, the sack ghost turned around. Shockingly, an innocent young voice came from inside the sack.
“Yes.”
“No, but, um, why…”
Why are you dressed like that?
Are we playing a ghost game together?
The words rose all the way to the tip of my tongue, but I held them back. Looking more closely, it wasn’t a sack after all. The young lady was wearing a ‘mengni’, a veil made of opaque cloth.
A ‘mengni’ inside a room?
Even more absurdly, the white cloth hung all the way down to her toes, covering her entire body. Judging from how thick the cloth was, it didn’t seem to be only a single layer.
‘Is that a sack, or a human-sized curtain?’
It was utterly ridiculous, but I forced myself to calm down. Then, like a professional, I opened my mouth.
“I was wondering why you called me… Do you need anything? Or are you finally going to take your medicine…?”
“I heard you like money.”
Before I could answer, something came flying.
Thump.
I looked down at the object that had landed by my feet. It was an elegant money pouch.
“Open it.”
As if possessed, I picked up the money pouch. Then I carefully untied the cord and looked inside. There was a horseshoe-shaped lump of silver… a silver ‘syce’.
A silver syce? A silver syce?
“What, what is this…?”
My voice trembled involuntarily.
What was a silver syce? Wasn’t it a huge sum worth fifty nyang of silver?
With one ‘nyang’ and a half of silver, a poor commoner could afford to live for an entire year. Then what about fifty ‘nyang’? For a poor commoner, in other words, Mother and me, that was enough money to live on for roughly fifteen years…!
“That should be enough, right?”
Yes!
No, that’s not what I meant.
“Pardon? No, yes?”
“I’m telling you to take it and get lost.”
“Pardon?”
My eyes widened.
“How else could you ever get your hands on this much money? Frankly, considering what you’ve done until now, it wouldn’t be unreasonable to throw you out with nothing but the clothes on your back. But for the sake of Chief Steward Jeok’s face, I’ll at least show you this much sincerity.”
“…….”
“Take it and disappear while I’m still being nice. Don’t loiter around in front of me anymore. I mean, get lost. Understand?”
I couldn’t answer at all. At my silence, the young lady’s tone became even sharper.
“What, is it not enough? I’m giving you money that you might not be able to save even if you worked your entire life, and it’s still not enough? Are you staging a protest because you want more? Ha, they say people act according to how they look. Your character is as disgusting as your ugly appearance.”
‘Please stop the factual violence.’
“Looks like your father taught you that way, huh? Like father, like son. As expected, there’s no helping lowborn people. If you weren’t educated properly, you should at least know some humility. If you don’t know your place and become too greedy, you’ll bring disaster upon yourself.”
‘I don’t have a father.’
“Didn’t you learn after what happened last time? Did getting your head hurt make you completely lose your mind? Or were you born stupid and simply incapable of distinguishing right from wrong? I’m giving you a chance right now. A chance to leave quietly. You’re already foolish, and now you can’t even understand what you’re being told. Why do you even carry that head around?”
‘So I can listen to you.’
I was secretly impressed. I hadn’t known the young lady could talk this much. How had someone this chatty managed to remain silent all this time…?
“Fine, I understand!”
Understand what?
The answer came immediately. Something else dropped by my feet while I had been quietly listening.
Thump.
I lowered my trembling gaze. It was another elegant money pouch, similar to the one before. Just in case, I picked it up and checked inside, and sure enough, there was another silver syce.
‘Just how many of these does she have?’
If I held out a little longer, maybe another one would come flying?
But the young lady mercilessly crushed my budding greed. A voice as cold as a death sentence came flying at me.
“Now decide. Whether you’ll take that too and get lost, or be thrown out with nothing.”
I swallowed hard.
This time, I really had to decide.
‘What should I do…?’
It would be a lie to say I wasn’t conflicted. Two silver syce, one hundred ‘nyang’ of silver. It was an enormous fortune.
With that much money, I wouldn’t have to worry for the time being. Was it only that I wouldn’t have to worry? I could wear good clothes, eat delicious food, and buy as much medicine for Mother as I wanted.
Anyone would be tempted by that kind of money. It was money worth being tempted by, but…
“I’m fine.”
I swallowed a sigh and said,
“I don’t need this kind of money.”
“What?”
“Ah, of course, if you’re asking whether I don’t need money at all, that’s not true. I do need money. But taking money like this feels uncomfortable, I suppose. Somehow, I don’t think this is right…”
“You…!”
“Anyway, you don’t need to give me such a large sum. Even if I had this much money…”
It wouldn’t be much use.
What had been the first thing I intended to ask for once I earned the young lady’s trust?
A renowned physician who could treat Mother, and rare medicinal herbs.
Neither of those things could be obtained with one hundred ‘nyang’ of silver.
It wasn’t only about the price, either. Such precious resources required not merely wealth, but connections and access to information as well.
There was even a mysterious physician known as the Medical Immortal who couldn’t be seen even with money, let alone ordinary connections. That alone said everything.
‘But if it’s the Xiao Family Estate, it might be possible.’
With the Xiao Family Estate’s information network, connections, and wealth, which had searched throughout the Central Plains for a cure for the young lady who had been sick since childhood…
“…Would I even be able to use it properly? If I suddenly came into a huge amount of money, there’s a good chance I’d squander it gambling or spend it recklessly. And I know my own station, too. Who knows what might happen if I carelessly accept something like this? What if I were to meet an untimely death at the hands of some blind blade?”
But I had no intention of telling the young lady all of this outright. Even if I told someone who was desperate to get rid of me the truth, would she really help me?
‘I need to build trust first.’
To do that, I had to stubbornly remain by the young lady’s side, but I couldn’t think of a plausible reason.
Who would refuse two silver syce and still insist on staying?
Unless they had some ulterior motive…
“Then I’ll write you a bank draft. If you carry it inside your clothes…”
“I don’t know any martial arts, so how am I supposed to carry around a bank draft? If I run into some street thugs, they’ll probably take it from me nine times out of ten.”
An ulterior motive…
“Th-Then. If I send you a little money every month…”
“Then what’s the difference between that and working here? And for how long would you send it? What if I go somewhere else?”
“That…!”
An ulterior motive…
“Young lady, do you really want to give me that much money? Actually, there is something I need more than money…”
“Something you need?”
When I deliberately let my voice trail off, the human curtain shook violently. She was clearly flustered. Realizing that, I don’t know why my heart began to waver.
After hesitating for quite some time, the young lady finally asked in a small voice.
“…What is it?”
“The young lady’s……”
My mouth moved on its own.
“Love.”
The curtain froze.
“Now is finally the time for me to confess my feelings. I… have actually been watching you all this time.”
“W-What…”
“The way you quietly listened to me from behind the door, the way you threw things at me, the way you waited for a moment whenever I got hurt, and that gentle and affectionate way you spoke to me for the first time…”
“…….”
“All of it has piled up little by little inside my heart. Before I knew it, I realized I was only looking toward wherever you were. When I ate, when I went to the latrine, when I slept, I only looked toward you…”
“Stop…”
“And during the seven weeks and days when I couldn’t see you, I finally realized it. I can’t live without you. I can’t live without seeing you! I, I…!”
I saw a hand shoot out from behind the curtain and pick up a nearby teacup, but I didn’t stop. The brakes on my mouth had broken a long time ago.
The instant the teacup came flying, I shouted at the top of my lungs.
“I love you, young lady!”
Crash!
I passed out again.
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