Chapter 132
---------------
Brought to you by Valir Scans! To support our team and enjoy the latest releases, please read directly on our official site: valirscans.org
---------------
Chapter 132
San Ho stood facing the man who had come seeking Jeok Soya at the pavilion's entrance.
"I have something I must tell the child. Please, just let me see her once."
"Sir, everyone has gone out to the Archery Range. There's no one in the pavilion right now."
"I've already confirmed she's not there. So please...."
Despite San Ho's refusal, the man persisted with stubborn determination.
It was precisely when the household master and young master were absent that San Ho found herself in this predicament.
"San Ho."
At the sound of Jeok Soya's voice, both San Ho and the man turned to look at her simultaneously.
"Ah, Miss."
An expression of discomfort crossed San Ho's face.
"You've come looking for me, haven't you? I'll handle this, so please don't trouble yourself."
"But Miss, this person is...."
"It's alright, San Ho."
Jeok Soya approached the worried San Ho, offering a gentle smile as she spoke.
Her voice was soft yet resolute, and it reassured San Ho, who nodded and stepped back.
I lifted my gaze to examine the face of the man who had come seeking me.
He bore a striking resemblance to my Older Brother San Yu, who had visited me just yesterday.
Yet simultaneously, he stirred within me emotions entirely different from what my brother evoked.
For those three years I spent alone in the Cold Palace, holding my breath in the darkness, he never came to find me.
The man who never came, no matter how long I waited—now he sought me out even after I had drawn a line telling him not to return.
With Father and my older brothers absent, I received him as the proper head of the household, but he was the sort of man who would simply return again if I didn't face him myself.
It was only right that I settle matters with him cleanly this time, rather than trouble my other family members further.
"I thought we had concluded everything between us yesterday, but it seems I was mistaken."
Having gathered my thoughts, I asked in a measured voice.
"What brings the master of the Jujak Family to seek me out at this early hour?"
"Jeok Soya...."
From the moment I appeared, the man's gaze had fixed upon me, and now he called my name in a voice rough and fractured.
Merely speaking it seemed to pierce through his chest.
This morning, Jeok Hwayou had come to him with a report.
According to her investigation, it was indeed true that Jeok Soya had left the Joojak Residence five years ago and was adopted into that household.
Over the past five years, Jeok Soya had grown up in Baek Ho Palace as Baek Sayeon's youngest daughter.
The reasons behind Baek Sayeon's decision remained unclear, but it was said that Jeok Soya was the one who discovered Baekho's sacred relic.
Through that deed, she had earned recognition from the Baek Family's retainers and become a true young lady of the Baekho Family.
It was an unremarkable report in itself.
Though there were details he hadn't known, most of it could have been inferred from what he had seen and heard with his own eyes and ears yesterday.
Yet the words Jeok Hwayou had added at the end pierced his heart.
[Fortunately, it appears the child was neither abused nor oppressed there. It seems she grew up surrounded by the love of those in Baek Ho Palace.]
Love....
Why did that word hurt so deeply.
It was likely due to that love I had failed to give wholly to the child, yet had withdrawn.
The moment this realization struck me, Jeok Ahyun could not help but move to find the child.
There were words I absolutely had to say to her.
"...I came because there is something I must tell you, Jeok Soya."
Before the child who treated me like a stranger, Jeok Ahyun barely managed to open his mouth.
"I am sorry, Jeok Soya. I could not say this to you yesterday."
He apologized in a voice heavy with anguish.
"I regret every moment I neglected you when you were young, turned away from you, and wounded you."
"...."
Jeok Soya's lips sealed shut like a shell.
Perhaps I had waited so long for his apology, yet felt no stirring upon hearing it. Rather....
'Why does my heart feel so heavy?'
Unlike when I heard the same words from San Yu yesterday and my heart burned with warmth, I felt my heart grow cold and sink.
Jeok Soya stared at the man's face as he rambled his apologies, then opened her mouth.
"You said you were sorry to me, did you not? Then return to me the ornament Mother left me, the one Riri took from me."
"Jeok Soya...?"
At her sudden demand, a look of discomfort flickered across Jeok Ahyun's face.
"Mother left it for me. Yet Riri accused me of theft and took it from me."
"But that is...."
"I stole nothing. Yet since Riri appeared, I have had to live being called a thief by everyone."
"I... am sorry...."
"Not just words of apology. If you truly regret what you have done to me, return it to me. Then I will accept your apology, Lord Jeok Ahyun."
At her repeated demand, Jeok Ahyun's face turned ashen.
Riri cherished that ornament the Late Lady had left her dearly.
So much so that whenever the young maidservants so much as touched it, the entire estate would be thrown into an uproar.
Though I had not seen Riri wearing that object in recent years, Jeok Ahyun could not bring himself to ask her for it.
"That has already become Riri's. I do not even know if she brought it here. Ask for something else, anything else. If there is something you desire, whatever it may be...."
In an instant, Jeok Soya's expression froze with icy coldness.
Now I understood why this man's apology felt so repugnant, unlike San Yu's.
"What exactly are you trying to apologize for?"
Jeok Soya was somewhat startled by her own capacity for such a frigid tone.
"Are you apologizing for stripping me of my position and sending me to the Cold Palace? For making me live as a non-person for three years? Or for making me watch as I became Riri's servant, seeing the affection you once gave me transferred to her?"
"...."
With each wrong I enumerated from my past, Jeok Ahyun's face grew increasingly pallid.
"I... regret all of it...."
It was then that Jeok Ahyun attempted to atone for everything.
"A lie."
Jeok Soya cut off his words with a single stroke.
"If you truly believed that everything you did to me was wrong, you should be able to say the same to Riri."
"That is not it, Jeok Soya. Riri is...."
"You should be able to say that it was her fault for framing me as a thief and taking my belongings, and that we should return those things to their rightful owner."
Jeok Ahyun attempted to offer some excuse, but Jeok Soya cut him off coldly.
"You still don't believe what you did to me was wrong."
"No, Soya...!"
"Riri remains your sanctuary, and I am still an unforgivable impostor who stole her place. That's why you think it's only natural that I be framed as a thief, assaulted, and have my things taken from me by her."
"That's not it, I would never...!"
"Then why can't you do it?"
"...."
His mouth clamped shut at her question.
"That day too, you were the same. Even when Riri screamed and pushed me down, you only pitied and worried about Riri, not about me lying on the ground."
I remember that moment when Riri pushed me and I fell.
[Riri...!]
The anguished faces of the Patriarch and the Young Master as they ran toward her calling her name.
When I limped to apologize to Riri, the Patriarch's indifferent gaze I met in that corridor.
The desolate air as he passed right by me and entered Riri's chamber.
"And even now. You still think Riri is the most pitiful, the most precious person in the world."
If his words of apology to me were sincere, he should not be this way.
He should have shown genuine action, not merely words of apology.
"Nothing has changed from five years ago to now."
"No, Soya. I... to you... sincerely...."
Jeok Ahyun stammered and trailed off.
"This isn't an apology for me—it's an apology for yourself. Your own desire to apologize still matters more to you than my feelings."
From the beginning, what I wanted was not a plaything. I had already taken that three years ago.
What she wanted was only one thing.
For this man to show that his words of reflection on the past—by pointing out Riri's wrongdoing—were sincere.
But he ultimately failed to seize the final chance I offered him.
"So from now on, I hope you won't come looking for me or apologize to me like this."
With that, this relationship was over for good.
"Here, I too am the most precious daughter in the world. Just like your Riri."
Jeok Soya drove the final nail into the coffin as she looked at the man frozen in place, then slowly turned away.
With this, it was a complete severance.
* * *
Since meeting Dochul the previous night, Riri's heart had grown considerably lighter, and her sharp nerves had dulled.
Had good things not happened in abundance after she fulfilled her dealings with him long ago?
This time would surely be no different.
For instance, finally disposing of Soya, that wretched girl, once and for all.
Or meeting the beautiful His Majesty and falling into a fateful love.
Riri hummed a little tune as she stepped outside.
She looked for her father, but only heard from the servants that he hadn't been seen since morning.
As she tilted her head in confusion and turned to leave, Riri's steps suddenly halted at the sound of the elderly maidservants whispering to each other.
"But you know, that child—Jeok Soya. When I saw her yesterday, doesn't she look like the Late Lady who passed away?"
"Oh, what nonsense. Why would that child resemble the Late Lady? The Late Lady's daughter is our dear Riri...."
"Now that you mention it, Miss Riri doesn't resemble the Master or the Late Lady at all. I thought it was because she was still too young back then to show their features, but now that she's grown...."
"Heavens, what dangerous talk! Miss has the proof of direct lineage, no matter what anyone says!"
Riri, who had been secretly eavesdropping on the maidservants' conversation, felt her previously cheerful mood plummet in an instant.
"...."
Had she been her usual self, she would have rushed over to them immediately, vented her anger, and struck them.
But today, for some reason, she could not bring herself to do so, and instead found herself biting her lower lip as she noticed San Yu approaching from the opposite direction.
She froze.
He too had noticed Riri and stopped in his tracks.
"Ah, good morning, Older Brother."
Riri greeted him with an awkward smile.
She instinctively knew that her eldest Older Brother harbored some aversion to her, so she could not help but feel tense.
But at that moment, San Yu's eyes grew languid as they widened....
"Yes. Good morning to you, Riri."
He greeted her in a gentle voice.
---------------
Brought to you by Valir Scans! To support our team and enjoy the latest releases, please read directly on our official site: valirscans.org
---------------