Atonement, About it's Cruelty - Chapter 24
In the flourishing Yongcheon, known for its active trade, there was an esteemed landowning family that had been revered for generations.
Whenever there was a famine, they would open their granaries to help the people, and if those who went out to sea went missing, they would send their own ships to retrieve even the bodies of the lost.
No one in Yongcheon had ever been without the help of the Han family, and thus no one could help but love them. The eyes of the people of Yongcheon were always drawn to the Han family’s main residence, Hoyunjae.
“Seo-ah.”
The kind voice, resonant and warm, felt like the gentle summer sunshine, not a trace of coldness to be found.
Seo-ah, as usual, looked at the shadow drawn on the ground. As she saw the shadow of her own petite frame and the broad shadow of someone else cast upon it, the warm voice gently patted her head.
“Child, lift your face. Why are you looking at the ground?”
Even after hearing this, she hesitated for a while. Then, slowly lifting her head, she saw her father—no, her grandfather—with his white beard. His dark eyes, hardened by years of enduring life’s storms, softened as they looked at her.
“Good. Lift your head like that.”
The hem of his garment fluttered in the breeze, covering her hand.
“The youngest Miss, you see, the more she grows up, the more different she is.”
“Shh!”
“No matter how you look at it, she seems like a Westerner. Her face is pale, and her eyebrows, hair, and eyes are all brown.”
“Be quiet.”
“Could it be that the Madam had an affair with a Westerner…”
“Crazy! Crazy! I told you to be quiet!”
“Oh, really! I’m not the only one who thinks this, you know? Everyone who has seen the youngest Miss whispers about it. That’s why she’s not allowed to leave the inner quarters, even bringing in a Westerner tutor!”
Even though she was young, Seo-ah understood what those words meant. However, she could not bring herself to share what she had overheard.
As the world seemed to waver and tears finally fell, her grandfather slowly raised his hand to wipe them away. After a long time spent silently wiping her tears, he gently called her, just as he always did.
“Child.”
“…Yes.”
With a gaze that seemed to see through everything, he spoke words that seemed never enough, no matter how many times they were spoken.
“You are my daughter.”
You are my youngest daughter I love more than anyone in the world.
“…Yes.”
Even knowing it wasn’t true, she lived in reliance on those words. If not for that incident, she would have lived her whole life that way.
The inner quarters of Hoyunjae, with its large main hall and two rooms, would have been her entire world.
Her grandfather would have taken pity on her and brought in a tutor, and she would have found joy in occasional night market visits with that tutor. She would have lived as the youngest daughter of Yongcheon’s landowner, Han Hong-heon.
But that false life shattered without warning.
Seo-ah.
Seo-ah. Wake up.
The gentle yet low voice made her heart sink and pound.
Seo-ah realized, for some unfathomable reason, that this was a dream. At the same time, she knew this scene was from that night.
She heard crying from afar and smelled the strong scent of blood. The paper doors were stained red by the rising flames.
Footsteps approached from a distance. Terrified, she recoiled, and the door was suddenly flung open.
The Elder Madam of Hoyunjae, with her white hair disheveled.
She stood there in a manner unseen before, having lost her precious daughter to a tragic fate. Behind her, tiles were burning fiercely in the flames.
Standing with her back to the fire, she looked like someone who had just emerged from hell. Or perhaps like a deity coming to punish a sinner.
“Get up.”
“……”
“Get up and see what your father has done.”
Her small voice, though quiet, sounded louder than thunder.
“That man who made my daughter suffer and die has even desecrated your grandfather’s grave, the one who couldn’t throw you out and took you in…”
Her clenched teeth and the way she spat out each word revealed an irrepressible rage.
“He took the remains. It must be the work of your father.”
The flames burning the tiles seemed to spread to her heart. The dark ashes and soot seeping from her burning heart choked her lungs and strangled her throat.
Grandfather’s grave, the remains.
Seo-ah shivered uncontrollably and pushed herself up from the floor. Even though she knew it was a dream, her mind turned blank. Unable to lift her head, she crouched as she crossed the threshold of the door, and a cold voice reached her.
“Seeing that you’re not even surprised, I guess you already knew.”
“……”
“If you know I’m not your mother, and that the person you’ve called your father all this time is actually your grandfather… then do you also know what your father did to my daughter?”
It was the beginning of summer, yet the wind biting into her skin felt like ice.
I’m sorry. I….
Without knowing what she was saying, she ran blindly, not even putting on her shoes. Behind her, she heard cries as if someone was choking.
“Go to your father and bring back your grandfather!”
She ran through the flames flickering into the air, pushing past the black soot and ashes darker than the night sky. The screams and cries of the people pulled at her ankles like a swamp, and their sharp gazes seemed to cut into her back repeatedly.
All that remained in the wake of the blackened inferno was sorrowful wailing and overflowing rage.
The world, tenuously held together, shattered like candy made of sugar. As the sky collapsed and the ground she stood on crumbled, there was only one person she could lean on.
“Master!”
But the so-called father had not only taken her grandfather.
In the silent attack that had come, only the master was able to respond effectively. Although she could not protect her grandfather’s grave, the fact that she was able to mitigate the damage was thanks to her sacrificing her own body to block the attackers.
The terrible dream continued, scenes shifting as it went on.
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