The place where Yeon Minha’s raven led me was the main house, separated from the annex and hallway.
A place that only the direct descendants of Jeokhwa could enter with permission.
I hid my body among the garden trees and bushes and surveyed the surroundings.
On both sides of the corridor leading to the main house, soldiers were lined up, keeping a strict watch around.
They were fully armed, wearing helmets covered by visors, not to mention the physical intrusion detection devices surrounding them.
Unless one had completely lost their mind, no one would dare leap right into the middle of that.
A raven perched high on a branch looked at me as if asking why I wasn’t moving.
It silently spread its wings and flew away toward the sheer cliff opposite the standing soldiers.
That area was precisely connected to the domain of the main house.
Don’t tell me it wants me to go up there. Does it think I’m a bird?
However, the truth was that I couldn’t think of any sharp methods. Time was not on my side.
I hadn’t fully recovered, and the backlash from overexerting myself was starting to hit me. My limbs felt heavy and sluggish as if weighted down.
Plus, the poison was spreading throughout my body from the wound inflicted by the demon’s claws.
The blood that wouldn’t stop flowing and the fever that coursed through my body made me feel as if I was about to melt away onto the ground.
I had no choice but to move my body and stand at the bottom of the cliff where the raven had vanished.
The cliff was unfathomably high, almost vertical, even a few adult men stacked on top of one another wouldn’t reach the top.
With a sigh, I knew I had to move. My priority was to take Yeon Minha and escape this den of evil.
It’s better this way than provoking unnecessary clashes with the soldiers and escalating the situation.
Hoo…
I climbed the cliff, gripping the gnarled roots of an old tree and the jutting rocks.
After struggling for quite some time, I finally stepped into the domain of Jeokhwa’s main house, revealing an open landscape that felt completely isolated from the outside world.
I found myself in the midst of a well-maintained garden. Mysterious flowers glowing in shades of blue bloomed on the rolling hills, creating a dreamy atmosphere.
I hid among the exotic trees with shells that split like a turtle’s back and pointed leaves.
Then, I moved deeper in search of the raven and Yeon Minha.
At first, I wondered if Yeon Minha had intentionally drawn me in, but that didn’t logically add up.
The demon’s use of the servants to infiltrate happened after she left her family for treatment, and the magical formation I saw earlier seemed far from complete.
She was not foolish enough to take the risk of being exposed and summon an outsider.
Then, from somewhere nearby, I heard a loud voice, a woman’s voice, seemingly arguing.
It struck me as quite familiar, even from a distance. I immediately narrowed the distance toward its source.
—Father…! Just a moment, just a moment…!
Soon, I caught sight of the head of the Jeokhwa family, seemingly trying to leave, being held back by Yeon Minha, along a side path next to the main house’s garden.
Her expression was desperate, yet her eyes appeared hollow. Tears were glistening in the corners of her eyes.
—I just heard something strange from my mother… She must have said something wrong while drunk…
She was pleading with her father about something with fervor. It felt rather unsettling.
What on earth happened in that brief moment?
They seemed completely unaware of my presence, hidden among the exotic trees and the night’s shadows.
However, before I could decide on my next course of action amid this sudden encounter.
The words that burst forth from Yeon Minha’s mouth froze my thoughts in an instant.
“Well, they say I’m the child born between my father and aunt…?”
*
A weak sense of guilty betrayal crept into his mind, as if he had overheard something he shouldn’t have. He wanted to wash out the words that entered his ears.
At the same time, he instinctively recalled the woman from the photo he saw yesterday. The twin sister of the current head of Jeokhwa, who looked remarkably like Yeon Minha, except for their eye colors.
“That’s why my heart settled down… I just wished my father would check it once for me…”
Yeon Minha earnestly and pitifully begged her father again.
Yet, he maintained a dry, emotionless face and showed no reaction at all. As if he couldn’t hear his daughter’s voice.
After standing silent for a long while, he merely flapped his lips nonchalantly as if it didn’t matter.
“The woman ended up talking after all, huh…”
“Yes…?”
His response leaned more towards affirmation than denial about his wife. Yeon Minha’s eyes grew wide with disbelief upon hearing this.
She barely managed to steady herself, nearly collapsing.
Regardless, the man continued on without any concern.
“Tsk. Very well. But you must know the truth. I didn’t think I could hide it forever. The timing is quite right for this…”
“Father…! What do you mean…? No matter what, referring to her as ‘that woman’…”
“What’s with the panic? You said you just heard it, didn’t you? From the looks of it, you seemed to be fairly certain, right? There wasn’t anything wrong with what she said, was there?”
The head of Jeokhwa’s host, whose appearance bore no resemblance to his daughter, displayed an almost hostile indifference toward her.
This was all accumulating in a way that gave his words more weight.
However, he couldn’t quite wrap his head around the extremely absurd background.
“I may be your father, but that woman is not your mother.”
“Father…”
The dry and indifferent demeanor of the man sent Yeon Minha straight into despair.
“You are… my beloved sister’s own child.”
“A- ah…”
Yeon Minha could no longer hold herself up and fell to her knees.
Her hands trembled—shiver—as she clenched the dirt beneath her.
“But… my aunt died in an accident…”
“It was an accident. She died giving birth to you.”
Even in a hesitant tone, she questioned again, desperate not to release her last thread of hope, but the man’s response only dragged her deeper into despair.
“Why, why would my aunt and you…”
“We loved each other more than anyone else. We were each other’s everything.”
A slight moisture returned to the man’s long-dry words.
“We were always together. In our youth, during the time we were in the cradle, even when dealing with the trash of Paecheon. With her, I feared nothing. Even if it was a trial sent by the gods.”
There was a pure affection akin to madness there.
“At that time… I thought so.”
Yet, his words rapidly lost their strength and crumbled.
“I was too young. I was naive. I thought that if there was love between us, we could overcome anything. How could I have known? That such a consequence would take everything away from me. How could I have realized it so late…”
It was one of the basic teachings learned in Biology class in the cradle.
Inbreeding among those with sorcerer’s aptitude carried dire risks.
While the chance of birthing a child with great talent was definitively increased, the survival chance for the mother or fetus dwindled drastically.
Yeon Minha trembled like someone thrown into a winter snowfield, filled with regret at those words.
After standing in a daze for a while, the man lifted his head again.
“It was a painful and lonely time. But now, that is over. The time is near. Soon, that child will be with me again.”
“The time? What does that mean…”
Before she could fully process her father’s words, he suddenly turned his head sharply with a grim expression.
His gaze fixed on the center of the garden filled with the luminescent flowers and bushes.
“However… it seems a rat has snuck in.”
Boom!
In an instant, a fierce wind condensed in one point, almost blinding my eyes. A tornado erupted, beautifully shredding the luminescent flowers and bushes.
As the dust settled, a figure staggering appeared in that place.
Cough… cough!
A white, sleek mask weakly reflected the light of the luminescent flowers.
Perhaps due to the shock from that earlier strike, the crack running along the right side of the mask looked precariously larger now.
*
Yeon Minha, having turned her head, immediately recognized me. She recoiled in shock, wearing a fearful expression as if she was the guilty one.
I had no choice but to step out and stand before the kneeling Yeon Minha.
“How dare you dirty your feet in a place meant only for direct descendants. Did you eavesdrop on confidential conversations as well?”
Then, the head of Jeokhwa spat at me with a chilling voice.
“The recommended student from Heukryeon is truly a rude and insolent child. Have you been influenced by that reckless subfamily? Huh?”
I ignored his words and turned my gaze back to Yeon Minha.
She looked down, unable to articulate her words properly.
“The…the earlier discussion… I mean…”
“Cough…! It’s alright. No need to elaborate on that.”
Truth be told, it would be a lie to say I wasn’t shocked, but it didn’t concern me. My only focus was on getting Yeon Minha out of here.
I wished that everything would have taken the course that I initially planned, waiting until the conversation ended. Did they spread spirits around?
“More importantly, can you get up? We need to leave here quickly.”
“You are… you’re hurt… and your wounds…”
I grabbed Yeon Minha’s hand and helped her up. The icy touch sent shivers through my body.
In contrast, as she staggered to her feet, she appeared shocked at the sight of me.
The poison from the demon’s claws had not healed, and crimson blood continued to flow from various wounds on her body.
“You’re so presumptuous. Do you think I would allow him?”
The head of Jeokhwa, Jeong Mun, no longer concealed his hostile demeanor.
“I cannot let a thief who dared step into Jeokhwa’s main house and eavesdropped on confidential discussions go unpunished.”
His words conveyed a distinct sense of discomfort.
“You will receive a fitting punishment for your insolence. And that punishment can only be paid with your life.”
“Father…! What…!”
I moved forward again, blocking Yeon Minha, though I didn’t want to condemn her father in front of her…
What he had done was far too great and horrific a wrong to cover with the palm of my hand.
“The one who deserves punishment is you. Head of Jeokhwa.”
“What kind of nonsense…?”
“The plague’s magical formation.”
He seemed completely taken aback by what I said, and the malevolent aura he had been emitting paused like a wax figure standing still.
His expression twisted into that of a monstrous demon, as if the most hidden secret had just been revealed.
My site has received a lot of DMCA notices, lol. From now on, I will update the MTL on https://darkmtl.com/.
The site is fast and lightweight because there are no ads yet. However, the theme is different from Cybor-TL, so take some time to familiarize yourself.
Support me by donating at least $10, and you'll have the right to request any novel from Novelpia (excluding 19+ content) using a newly developed tool.