Dagadak- Dagadak-

After leaving the Sado Union’s stronghold and riding for a time, two people were waiting for Seolhwa’s party in the distance.

Seolhwa recognized one of them.

It was the man named Yu Gang who had come to see her a few days prior.

‘And the other....’

A middle-aged man in dark-ink martial robes with his long coat thrown open in a sloppy way.

From the way he stood askew, he looked like the sort whose temperament would be bad.

The two men spotted Seolhwa’s group and came forward.

Seolhwa, Ryeong, and the Hao Sect Lord likewise dismounted.

The two parties faced one another.

As the Hao Sect Lord stepped toward Seolhwa to explain who the middle-aged man was, the man lifted a hand and blocked her.

Then he strode—step, step—to stand before Seolhwa and pointed at himself.

“Who am I.”

Seolhwa faintly knit her brows.

As expected, a rude man.

When Seolhwa only frowned without answering, the man glanced back at the Hao Sect Lord.

The Hao Sect Lord shook her head.

“Tsk.”

Clicking his tongue, the man raked his hair into a mess.

He shot a sidelong look at Seolhwa’s sullen face and spoke curtly.

“Feels like you’ve gone back to when you were a runt.”

Look at those sharp eyes.

He clicked his tongue again and began to turn away when a low voice caught his ankles.

“...Seop Mugwang?”

“!”

“...!”

Seop Mugwang whipped around.

Shock flooded his face.

It wasn’t only Seop Mugwang.

The Hao Sect Lord, Ryeong, and Yu Gang all stared at Seolhwa with startled faces.

“...?”

Seolhwa touched her lips.

Why was that.

The moment she heard “runt,” that name sprang to mind.

A name she hadn’t been able to recall at all, and yet it slipped out as if by a lie, to her own surprise.

“Do you remember?!”

Seop Mugwang, flushed, seized Seolhwa by the shoulders.

But it was only the name that suddenly surfaced; of course she did not remember.

When Seolhwa shook her head, Seop Mugwang’s bright face dimmed at once, as if wilted.

Even so, more satisfied than before, he nodded vigorously.

“Right. Well! You bring it back one by one like this! Yeah!”

Seop Mugwang patted both her shoulders—thunk, thunk.

“Good girl, good. You little rascal.”

Chuckling, he mussed Seolhwa’s hair.

Seolhwa thought that rough touch felt strangely familiar.

****

Seolhwa’s head tilted back, her lips parting slightly.

The Namgoong Clan’s great gate, carved with dragons and clouds, was larger and more imposing than she had imagined.

“Is it really here?”

At Seolhwa’s question—the third already—Ryeong smiled faintly and nodded.

“It is.”

“....”

So I’m one of the people of this house.

‘It’s much bigger than I expected.’

This was tens, hundreds... no, beyond comparison to the house in the village.

The place she’d lived in at the village was likely smaller than the privy of this house.

“Come on, let’s go in. If we linger, people will gather.”

As Seop Mugwang said, onlookers were already trickling in, one by one, around Seolhwa’s party.

Seolhwa wore a bamboo hat, so it seemed they could not easily recognize her, but there was no good in delaying.

Screee—

With a majestic sound, the vast gate swung open, and at last Seolhwa stepped into the Namgoong Clan.

Beyond the gate, a group had come out to meet her.

Crunch. Crunch.

As the door opened and Seolhwa’s figure came into view, faces of the Namgoong Clan people waiting inside filled with rapture and tension.

‘You must never call her “young lady,” nor bring up her memories. Until Seolhwa herself realizes who she is, guard your words and actions.’

Hold your tongue until the young lady recognizes her place and recalls her memories on her own.

Do not provoke the young lady under any circumstances.

Such was the order of Clan Lord Namgoong Cheongun to every member of the Namgoong Clan.

“Come in.”

All eyes turned to Namgoong Cheongun, who stood foremost to receive Seolhwa.

A daughter he was meeting after six months.

Unable to know whether she lived or hear a word, and then she returned without her memories.

How much ➤ NоvеⅠight ➤ (Read more on our source) must he want to seize her and weep.

To say, you did well to come home.

To say, you suffered.

How fiercely must he want to welcome her.

But as they watched Cheongun suppress every feeling and extend his hand as if greeting a guest, the clan members swallowed their sobs into their chests.

“....”

Seolhwa looked down for a moment at the hand Cheongun held out, then awkwardly took it.

Even as she hesitated, Cheongun did not press her and simply waited.

When at last their hands met, Seolhwa felt his hand trembling in fine shivers.

“Welcome home.”

Seolhwa looked up at Cheongun.

Perhaps because his eyes were so clear.

A smile hung on his lips, and yet his eyes looked as if they were crying.

“Was the road here rough?”

Seolhwa nodded.

“A little.”

“It took longer than I expected. I was worried.”

“I came back. From far away.”

“What matters is this. You are here now, and that is enough.”

“...Yes.”

Cheongun smiled gently.

“Let’s go in. Your quarters have been put in order. First, ease your fatigue in hot water.”

Cheongun led Seolhwa to her quarters.

Crossing the outer quarters into the inner, and on toward the residence, Seolhwa realized he had not let go of her hand.

Who was this man.

Whose hand could be this warm.

And this feeling....

Seolhwa laid a hand over her chest.

It was a peculiar sensation—as if her heart ached, as if it trembled.

What was this feeling.

Holding her hand, Seolhwa looked at Cheongun walking ahead.

She thought the blue-jade hue of his long coat matched well with the azure sky.

****

“Big sis!!”

“Hwarin, you’ll fall like that!!”

As always, the clamor continued without pause.

Receiving guests who had come first, Seolhwa let out a low sigh.

“Haha, if you’re tired, shall I send them back?”

Seolhwa looked at Woong, who was smiling brightly across from her.

“No. It’s fine.”

At that very moment, Hwarin’s shout came from beyond the door.

“Big sis! Can I come in?! They said Brother Woong is in there! I’m coming in too!”

The door flew open.

“Hwarin, not yet...!”

A flustered boy’s voice followed.

Presently two figures appeared.

Hwarin and Soyak.

“Big sis! Did you hear the news?”

“Hwarin, you should greet her properly first.”

“Ah.”

Hwarin and Soyak bowed their heads to Seolhwa.

“Did you sleep well last night, big sis?”

“Greetings, Sister Seolhwa.”

Smiling at Hwarin’s goofy grin, Seolhwa invited them both to sit.

“Thanks to you. Sit. You too, Soyak.”

“Thanks, big sis!”

“Thank you.”

Woong exhaled a deep sigh and shook his head.

“Sister, you are too lenient.”

“Am I?”

“At times like this you should give a sharp word. As you did to me.”

“I did that to you?”

Woong, with an ‘oops’ face, hastily waved his hands.

“Ah, not you, Sister—I mean the way my father speaks to me. You know, my father is a strict man.”

“He did seem a bit that way.”

Seolhwa recalled Namgoong Cheonghae, who had come by the day before.

The man said to be Namgoong Cheongun’s younger brother and Woong’s father walked with a limp in one leg, and unlike Cheongun, he gave a hard impression.

She’d heard he served as the Deputy Strategist of the Martial Alliance.

“But he was a bit unusual.”

“In what way?”

“Well....”

He had suddenly come, claimed he made them, and showed her strange mechanical devices.

This worked on such-and-such principle, this meshed here and thus did so-and-so....

He talked only about himself and then left.

“But my dad’s a step above, isn’t he?”

Hwarin giggled.

“When it comes to weird things.”

Seolhwa agreed.

“Ah... mm... your father was a bit rough.”

He had suddenly barged in with a gigantic candied hawthorn and shouted, “Eat!”

As if he had just come straight from making the candied hawthorn himself, he wore a waist cloth, and white powder dusted his hands and face.

The pieces were so big that when she only stared, he shouted at her for not eating, and in the end his wife pinched his cheek and dragged him out.

“Your mother seems a little scary too.”

If she could subdue that huge frame with those slender hands.

Hwarin snickered and nodded.

“Agreed! I’m most scared of my mom. Yesterday, when Soyak and I were making firecrackers, I got smacked on the back!”

“That’s because we nearly set the storage on fire, Hwarin.... But you’re right. Hwarin’s mother is scary.”

Soyak gave a shiver.

Though Soyak was a big lad himself, his nature was unexpectedly gentle.

“Oh right, what rumor?”

“Hm?”

“Just now, you asked if we’d heard the rumor.”

“Ah, right!”

Hwarin slammed the table—thang!—and leaned in.

Her eyes sparkled.

“The Alliance Lord is coming this evening!”

“...The Alliance Lord?”

Hwarin nodded.

Expectation filled her gaze.

Woong and Soyak were also looking at her with slightly tense expressions.

Seolhwa tilted her head.

“Is it someone I know?”