Chapter 212

Tang Seho nagged me without pause the entire way to my quarters.

I should always take a guard whenever I went out. I should make sure the doors were properly locked before I slept at night...

The more I listened, the harder it was not to laugh.

“Brother, why are you suddenly acting like this? It’s creepy.”

When I finally said something, Tang Seho narrowed his eyes at me.

“Because I’m worried! I watched you get dragged away like a dog right in front of me, and then from the next day onward, not a hair of you was anywhere to be found. You think I was perfectly fine with that?”

“Yeah. You had such an easy time of it that you even grew a beard.”

“...”

Tang Seho’s mouth twitched, apparently unable to come up with a response.

I finally burst out laughing.

“Ahaha, I’m kidding. Just kidding. All right, Brother. I’ll be careful. Since you came all this way, come in for some tea.”

“No. You haven’t even unpacked yet. What tea? Besides, how am I supposed to enter the private quarters of a grown sister?”

“...What are you talking about?”

“You’re almost twenty, you know. A grown woman shouldn’t be inviting men into her quarters. Be more careful.”

“Oh, please. Since when do you count as a man?”

“Get some rest. I’m leaving.”

Tang Seho raised his chin as if he had just said something terribly impressive, gave me a lazy wave, and turned away.

Careful about what? He really had gotten weird.

I stared after him, then slowly opened the door to the detached residence.

Through the doorway, I saw Songji bustling around, busy putting things in order.

I deliberately made some noise. Songji looked up, and her eyes flew wide.

“Miss!”

She practically threw down the box she was holding, ran over, and wrapped me in a tight embrace.

“I’m back. Have you been well?”

Songji looked up at me as though I had just asked the stupidest question imaginable.

“How could I possibly be well when you weren’t here...?”

“Sorry.”

“Why... why did you take so long to come back...? I kept waiting for you...”

“I’m sorry. Things just turned out that way.”

Her voice trembled as she sniffled.

I smiled awkwardly and wiped the tears gathering around her eyes. That was apparently the last straw, because Songji finally burst into tears.

“Songji? Songji?”

...Oh, no. This was bad.

Sweating bullets, I started trying to calm her down.

Songji cried loudly enough to bring the house down and only stopped when her voice was nearly hoarse.

I didn’t need her to tell me what kind of hardships a maid without her mistress must have gone through.

Even if Tang Un and Uncle Geunmyeong had looked after her, there would have been limits to what they could do.

I should have thought more about Songji too...

Swallowing a bitter smile, I pressed a small bundle into her hands.

“Here. I brought you a present.”

“What is it?”

“Sweets.”

“Miss, how old do you think I am...?”

Songji looked dumbfounded, but she did not refuse. She immediately opened the bundle.

As she put one of the snow-white rice cakes into her mouth, tears as large as beans rolled down her cheeks.

After hiccupping for a while, she carefully tied the bundle back up and tucked it against her chest.

“Why aren’t you eating more? Don’t they taste good?”

“I’m saving them.”

“Don’t save them. I’ll buy you more.”

“I still want to save them.”

“Fine. Do whatever you want.”

Songji scrubbed at her face and nodded, then began looking me over from head to toe with worried eyes.

“You’ve lost so much weight, Miss. Didn’t you suffer terribly out there?”

“It’s just my cheeks that got thinner. What about Deokju? I heard the Black Cloud Unit Commander took her. Is she still with the Black Cloud Unit?”

“No. I heard she was transferred to the Soul-Slaying Unit as a deputy squad leader. I’m not sure which squad, though...”

Songji shook her head uncertainly.

It seemed she had not kept in touch with Deokju after I left.

Well, the transfer was probably better for Deokju.

They could hardly keep someone who was on bad terms with the young clan head in a unit directly under his command.

I nodded and listened as Songji filled me in on everything that had happened while I was gone.

According to her, Third Madam had become completely unmanageable after Tang Gak’s death.

Even servants who had stayed by her side for years had been unable to endure it and fled.

From Songji’s description, it sounded as though Third Madam might be suffering from some kind of nervous breakdown.

“That bad?”

“Yes... Bodies were being carried out of Third Madam’s residence every night. First Madam finally summoned her and gave her a severe reprimand, so things have quieted down somewhat lately. But now that you’re back...”

Songji trailed off, looking uneasy.

She was clearly worried that Third Madam might try to harm me again.

“It’s fine, Songji. Don’t worry.”

With the Clan Head in his current state, and Grandfather here, there was no one left who would move simply because Third Madam wished it.

And I was no longer weak enough to be helplessly victimized the way I had been before.

I had no intention of provoking Third Madam first.

But if she insisted on kicking the hornet’s nest, I intended to carve one lesson into her bones: if you aimed for someone else’s life, you had better be prepared to wager your own.

At that moment, someone’s cackling voice drifted through my memory.

Just crush them with force first. Crush them so thoroughly they can’t even think about revenge, and everything works itself out.

...Damn it.

I never thought the day would come when I started thinking like Monk Beopgong.

Realizing I had begun to resemble that man, whose very existence seemed far removed from common sense, filled me with self-loathing.

And yet...

I could faintly understand his way of thinking now.

The martial world was not a place where ordinary common sense always applied.

Songji nodded, then cautiously brought something up.

“Miss, without Gyeonga here, I think we should bring someone else in. You need someone to attend to you when I’m away...”

“No. I can handle little things myself. Let’s leave it as it is. I don’t like having too many people around.”

“Are you sure you’ll be all right?”

“When have I ever needed people waiting on me? I’ll be fine... Ah. Wait. Not me—you’ll be the one having a hard time. Should we at least hire one maid to help with the cleaning?”

At my question, Songji shook her head vigorously.

“If she’s only coming in occasionally to clean instead of living here at the detached residence, it would be better not to hire anyone at all, Miss. Third Madam would use someone like that to try something suspicious.”

“Then let’s just—”

“It’s all right, Miss. I’m used to cleaning by myself, so don’t worry about me. It’s more important that you can rest comfortably.”

Songji waved her hands, refusing the idea, then hurriedly changed the subject.

I felt bad for her, but I had secretly disliked the thought of bringing another person in anyway, so I pretended not to notice.

It seemed adjusting to life in the Tang Clan again was going to take quite some time.

*******

News of my return to the Tang Clan spread in no time.

The first visitors to arrive were Tang Juhee and Tang Chohee.

“Little Sister!”

Tang Juhee kicked the door open without warning, sprang through the air in a single bound, and reached for me.

Startled by the gleaming metal guards on her hands, I kicked her incoming arm aside. Tang Juhee slid backward, then immediately charged back in and seized my shoulders.

“It really is you! You didn’t die! You’re alive!”

What kind of greeting was that?

Tang Chohee, who had been watching, seemed just as exasperated and let out a sigh.

“Yes, yes. I’m perfectly alive.”

Even my utterly unenthusiastic answer did nothing to dampen Tang Juhee’s delight.

Her eyes gleamed as she inspected my clothes from every angle.

“You’re still wearing the earrings. Let me see. Nothing’s torn, is it?”

“I’m not so disgraceful that I’d wander around outside in ripped green robes.”

“Not your clothes. Your flesh.”

What the hell was she talking about? If my flesh was torn, that would be a problem.

Tang Juhee spent a good while patting and prodding me all over before finally looking relieved.

“You really are fine. I heard you’d been reduced to an invalid, so...”

“Sister.”

Tang Chohee sharply cut her off while pinching her in the side.

Tang Juhee flinched and glanced at me nervously.

Ah.

So this was why Grandfather had been in such a hurry to bring me back.

I swallowed a bitter smile and pretended I had not heard, asking after her instead.

“Have you been well? Sister, your hair ornaments look even more elaborate than before.”

Her neck is going to snap at this rate.

Her hair was packed with brilliant red jewels dangling like clusters of ripe persimmons in autumn. They looked so heavy that merely seeing them made me want to clutch my own neck.

Tang Juhee apparently took my words as a compliment. She lowered her head to show me the ornaments more closely.

“Pretty, aren’t they? They’re garnets from the Western Regions. My uncle said he’d just imported some, so he brought me a few pieces.”

“I see.”

I had not actually been asking, but since she volunteered the explanation, she seemed to be making an effort to be nice to me in her own way.

So I played along.

“And the silk? I don’t think I’ve seen that embroidery before.”

“They say this kind of silk is fashionable in Luoyang these days. This just came in too.”

“Oh. It’s pretty.”

I had always wondered why a martial artist obsessed with sparring went around draped in so many ornaments...

Now that I thought about it, the people at the White Wind Merchant Guild seemed to be using Tang Juhee as a walking advertisement for their newest products.

“Right? And this came from Persia...”

But seeing how happily Tang Juhee showed off her jewelry, I decided there was no harm in it.

As long as she was happy.

Eventually, Tang Chohee could no longer stand her chatter and stepped between us.

“Sister. Little Sister needs to rest. She hasn’t even recovered from the journey yet.”

“Oh, come on. I haven’t even seen what she can do now. Her movements were so fast I could barely see them. Just one spar—”

“That’s enough. I said she needs to rest.”

The boisterous Tang Juhee was soon dragged bodily out of the room by Tang Chohee.

Thank you, Sister.

I mouthed the words to Tang Chohee and gave her a feeble wave.