Chapter 8
Sa-yeol leaned close to Lady Seo’s shoulder and whispered right into her ear, her voice cold enough to raise goosebumps.
“Hongryun was the one who failed to recognize her superior and blocked the path. So why have you come to beat me?”
“W–What…?”
“Since Hongryun behaved rudely first, it is proper according to the family rules that she should be punished first. After that, I will accept my punishment gladly.”
Nothing she said was wrong.
Hongryun had clearly been the rude one, and according to the Namgung household rules,
If Sa-yeol were to be punished, so should Hongryun.
Lady Seo clenched her teeth.
Normally, she would have snatched the whip and beaten Sa-yeol immediately.
But the atmosphere around Sa-yeol now made it feel like she would not even blink at it.
Like someone possessed by a ghost…
“I must report this to the mistress,” Lady Seo thought nervously.
She stepped back, putting distance between them, wiped the bite-marked lip she had been gnawing in anger, and answered with an authoritative face:
“After hearing the story, it seems Hongryun made a mistake first. So I will overlook this matter. But no matter how much of an elder you are, you should at least show the capacity to guide those under you—”
“Ah-hah!”
Sa-yeol suddenly burst out laughing.
“W—What is this?!”
“Ahaha—ahahah!”
“How dare you laugh while an adult is speaking?!”
“A vessel, you say…?”
Sa-yeol doubled over laughing, then slowly raised her head.
Her thick golden eyes gleamed like a tiger’s.
“A vessel…?”
She straightened her waist with a slow, snakelike smile.
“Mother.”
“……”
Lady Seo froze.
Sa-yeol had never called her “Mother” before.
She wasn’t permitted to, and it wasn’t a name that should be used.
But the way Sa-yeol said it now—
It was the tone one used to refer to an object, not a person.
“If a vessel is so small it can’t hold anything… What is it used for?”
“…A soy sauce dish, perhaps,” Lady Seo answered stiffly.
“And if it can’t even hold soy sauce?”
“Then… it should be thrown away.”
Sa-yeol’s smile deepened.
Lady Seo finally realized something was terribly wrong.
“It should be broken, shouldn’t it?”
Sa-yeol lifted her right hand into the air—
and a wooden rod flew up from the floor straight into her grasp with a loud snap.
Recognizing the technique, Lady Seo turned as pale as a corpse.
SMACK!
“Aaagh!”
Sa-yeol struck Lady Seo’s cheek with the punishment stick.
Her shriek rang through the room—
and Sa-yeol’s delighted laughter washed over her like crashing waves.
The delicate white cheek immediately swelled into a bright red welt.
just like the countless wounds once carved into Sa-yeol’s own body.
“Tch tch,” Sa-yeol clicked her tongue.
“A vessel smaller than a soy sauce dish is useless, so it should be smashed—
Thank you for the lesson, Mother.”
SMACK!
“Aaaagh!”
She struck her again.
A senior maid hurled herself forward to shield Lady Seo ,
taking the blow across her back.
Judging from Lady Seo’s cheek, the maid’s injury must have been deep.
“What—what are you all doing?! Help the madam!”
Even in chaos, the loyal maid protected her lady.
Seeing it, Sa-yeol realized Lady Seo must have had some genuine affection from her servants.
Meanwhile, So-hwa was already wrestling the rod out of Sa-yeol’s hand.
“What are you doing?” Sa-yeol asked.
“Destroying evidence.”
“You’ll become a great vessel someday.”
“I think I’m going to die first.”
“Don’t be dramatic.”
So-hwa sighed so deeply she seemed to expel her soul.
***
Later—Chaos in the Namgung Household
The estate was completely overturned.
The former head was half-dead.
Je-gal Hwangho was still on the brink of death.
and Sa-yeol sat calmly thinking how this must count as “two disasters, not just one.”
Lady Seo knelt in the head’s room.
cheek bandaged with medicinal cloth,
crying to her husband, Namgung Hyeon-won.
“She’s clearly possessed by something!”
“…”
Hyeon-won, who understood more than anyone what might be possessing Sa-yeol, stayed silent.
Lady Seo believed the silence meant he was defending Sa-yeol and burst into louder sobs.
“I may not be her birth mother, but I am her mother! And she struck my face like this!
Is that something a sane person does?!
Has the Namgung family’s discipline fallen so low?!”
The entire household had gathered.
Hyeon-won and Lady Seo sat at the top.
To the left were the direct Namgung children.
To the right, the elders residing in the estate.
“What were you thinking?” Hyeon-won asked calmly.
Sa-yeol used a finger to tap her lips thoughtfully, then tilted her head prettily.
But for some reason, that innocent gesture sent chills across the room.
“I tried to break her.”
“……”
The lack of hesitation in her voice silenced everyone.
Sa-yeol smiled faintly as she looked around.
Sitting in the center with people on both sides,
she looked less like a guest facing judgment
and more like the one about to give punishment.
“My mother said so.”
“Mother?” Hyeon-won asked.
“My mother, Lady Seo, told me that a vessel too small to hold even soy sauce should be smashed.”
Her words made Lady Seo’s cheek tremble.
Anger flared in the eyes of the second son and youngest son as they glared at Sa-yeol.
She met their eyes one by one, smiling sweetly—
and they both stiffened in surprise.
“She tried to scare me with her tiny vessel,
so I acted according to the lesson and tried to break the most breakable vessel first.”
Her voice was utterly calm.
She truly spoke as if Lady Seo were nothing more than pottery.
“She’s possessed! She’s a ghost!” Hongryun suddenly screamed.
“She’s not human! She said she would eat me!”
“Hongryun.”
The second son, Namgung Je-ha, scolded firmly, seating her down.
Yes, Sa-yeol had done something insane—
But this was not something childish like Hongryun was imagining.
It had been 100 years since the Blood Palace closed
and the Heavenly Demon vanished.
Ghost sightings were nearly nonexistent for 50 years.
Only under very special conditions could a ghost even form.
Je-ha looked at Sa-yeol again.
Her face was pale, yes—but it always had been.
In fact, her lips now had a strange flush of red.
as if life had been breathed into her.
A person possessed by a wandering ghost does not look like this, he thought.
True ghost-possessed bodies turned corpse-like—
ashen skin, blackened eye circles, rolled-back eyes.
They couldn’t speak properly.
only wailed and convulsed.
And they didn’t speak with logic as Sa-yeol did—
They muttered unknown voices to confuse and frighten others.
That was what lesser ghosts did.
But if it wasn’t a lesser ghost…
Je-ha suddenly shook his head violently.
Hongryun’s whining must be messing with his thoughts.
Ghosts—what nonsense.
He was already 17!
“…Has there been any word from Do-wi?”
“We haven’t even contacted him yet!
He is at a critical stage of training!
How could we summon him for something as trivial as a bastard child’s tantrum!”
The elders nodded.
Namgung Do-wi, the eldest son—a true genius—
was away training under the clan’s official scholars.
He was approaching the gate of Absolute Mastery.
No one could call him back for something like this.
“Is that all you have to say?” one elder asked Sa-yeol dryly.
He had no interest in the girl.
To him, she looked fragile and insignificant.
“I have more.”
Sa-yeol answered sweetly.
