Chapter 2

“Where am I?”

I blinked while staring at a ceiling that felt both familiar and strange.

Suddenly, a sharp shout rang out like thunder.

“Hey! I brought water for you to wash. Take off those rag-like clothes and throw them over there! I feel like lice will spread!”

A spiteful maid with a face full of freckles glared at me with an annoyed expression.

I recognized that face.

How could I forget it? She had tormented me endlessly.

Gyoa?

“Hey! Why are you just sitting there spacing out?”

Ignoring Gyoa’s glare, I ran straight out of the room.

“Ah… I really did come back. Everything looks exactly like before.”

The outer gate of the estate, which I remembered as collapsed into ashes, stood perfectly intact.

The wide garden that had once been stained with blood was spotless. Maids dressed in green hurried back and forth to greet visiting merchants.

The smell of herbal medicine boiling drifted through the spring breeze and filled my lungs.

The Tang family of Sichuan was famous not only as the martial clan with the greatest poison arts in the Jianghu but also as a prestigious family of physicians.

Just as life and death are not far apart, poison and medicine differ by only a thin line.

Even though the Tang family were a martial clan, they dealt with life.

While researching deadly poisons, they also created medicine.

The place where I stood now was Yakgawon, located between the outer and inner residences of the estate.

After merchants finished trading here, escorts from various escort agencies transported medicinal herbs and pills throughout the country.

Long lines of cargo wagons carried the banners of famous escorts. agencies:

The Tianxia Escort Agency, the Geumgang Escort Agency, and the First Escort Agency.

Formidable guards watched carefully to prevent wagons from cutting in line.

Above them, on the top of a tower covered with blue roof tiles, the flag of the Tang family fluttered proudly.

Tears suddenly burst from my eyes.

I had thought I would never see that flag again.

“Sniff… Everyone is safe, right? Everyone is still alive, right?”

As I tried to wipe away my tears, I noticed something.

My hands were small and filthy.

I let out a bitter smile.

Right. At this time, I was in a terrible state.

When I was born, the martial world was in chaos.

The Orthodox Martial Alliance and the Unorthodox Sado Union were locked in fierce conflict, pointing swords at each other’s throats.

My mother had been fleeing to her family home with my sister and me when we disappeared.

My father only learned about our disappearance later.

Considering that situation, it was easy to imagine how desperate things must have been.

They said it was a miracle that I survived at all as a newborn.

Somehow I survived and was taken in by a poor mountain couple who lived as slash-and-burn farmers.

They lived deep in the mountains to avoid bandits and corrupt officials.

Despite their difficult lives, they cherished me as if I were their own daughter.

The war lasted five years and ended with the victory of the Orthodox Martial Alliance.

But bandits who fled into the mountains attacked the farmers’ settlement.

First, my adoptive father died.

Then my adoptive mother.

“I wanted to take you to Sichuan… I’m sorry I’m leaving you behind alone… I’m so sorry…”

Even as she was dying, my adoptive mother worried about me.

She had raised me for five years and had grown deeply attached to me.

“Go to Sichuan. If you go there, you will find your real family. My poor child… please survive.”

During summer, herbal gatherers often climbed the mountains to collect mushrooms and catch snakes.

I waited along the paths they used and eventually came down from the mountains with them.

We traveled upstream along rivers and joined the caravans of escort agency wagons.

We crossed endless rugged mountain roads.

Countless days passed, and the seasons changed.

After half a year, I finally arrived in Sichuan.

“I came to find my family.”

I showed the guard at the gate the half-jade pendant hanging from my neck.

My adoptive mother had said it was hidden deep inside the cloth that wrapped me when I was a baby.

Only later did I learn that it was the identity token of the Tang family’s direct bloodline.

That explained why herbal gatherers and escort agency guards had suddenly changed their expressions and helped me whenever I showed it.

Just as expected.

When the guard saw the jade pendant, his eyes widened to their limit.

He told me to wait because he needed to report this.

After some time, the Outer Residence Overseer finally appeared.

“Hmm. You must have suffered a lot for someone so young. The clan leader and the young master will return in three days. They will confirm everything themselves. For now, come inside.”

There was no emotional reunion.

No one embraced me warmly.

The overseer did not have the authority to decide whether I was real or fake.

Only my grandfather and father could confirm that.

Since they were away, the only option was to send a messenger pigeon.

The overseer handed me over to the official in charge of the guest quarters and instructed them to let me wash in warm water and feed me well.

But instead, I was handed over to a particularly cruel maid.

And I was destined to suffer in a remote guest room near Yakgawon.

“Hey! Are you deaf?”

Gyoa stomped toward me and shoved my shoulder roughly.

Because I hadn’t eaten properly for days, I collapsed forward like a piece of straw.

“Ugh!”

Bile rose from my empty stomach.

“Ugh, disgusting! What did you even eat?”

Gyoa made a big fuss, calling me filthy.

Being treated like trash again, just like in the past… that’s unpleasant.

The insults Gyoa hurled were vicious enough to make my teeth grind.

“When it’s revealed that you’re fake, they’ll probably cut off your head. Or maybe they’ll poison you. Hehe.”

Gyoa tried to scare me away by inventing terrifying stories.

If I ran away, she would have less work to do.

After three days of her threats, when I finally faced my father, I turned pale and tried to find somewhere to hide.

Am I fake?

Will they cut off my head?

“…Gahye?”

When my father approached me, I did something ridiculous.

I hid behind Gyoa’s skirt.

Even though she treated me badly, her face was familiar, so my body moved instinctively.

Even after that, I only felt safe if I stayed just outside my father’s reach.

Barely two blocks away.

The physical distance between us was only two feet.

But the distance between our hearts felt as vast as heaven and earth.

Because of Gyoa, the very first step in my relationship with my father had gone wrong.

“Why are you staring like that? I need to wash you quickly so I can rest!”

Gyoa shoved me and dragged me to the guest bathhouse.

“Hurry up and take off those filthy rags. Quickly! The smell is killing me.”

While I quietly took off my clothes, several maids who usually followed Gyoa came to watch.

“Is she really six years old? I’d believe it if someone said she was four.”

“Doesn’t she look nothing like the young master?”

“She’s definitely fake again. How many beggar kids have we fed already? I’m sick of this.”

Smack.

Gyoa slapped my back and shouted at the maids.

“Hurry up and help! I’ll share some good food later. It looks like they’re planning to feed her well.”

At her words, the maids’ eyes gleamed like greedy wolves.

“Really? The last kid just got a bowl of soup and a silver coin.”

“Right. Do they think this one is real? Looks like they’re preparing a big meal anyway. What a waste.”

“What waste? We can just eat it ourselves! This is great!”

The maids crowded around me and started washing me.

Their rough hands tossed my small body around.

The bathwater gradually grew cold.

Yet they didn’t add any hot water.

By the end, I was shivering so hard my teeth chattered.

After the bath, Gyoa took me back to the guest room and threw me a cheap set of children’s clothes she had gotten from a merchant.

“A beggar enjoying luxury. I’m sick of this.”

She slammed a tray onto the floor and left, shutting the door with a bang.

On the tray were:

A bowl of hardened leftover rice.
A small dish of soy sauce.
And a cup of cold tea.

That was all.

“Finally finished with that job. I wish those beggars would stop coming.”

“Haha! But I heard the kitchen made a lot of food for her. What dishes are there? Gyoa, tell us!”

“They made lamb, fish marinated with five spices, and a bunch of other things. I’m starving. Let’s hurry and go eat.”

The laughter of Gyoa and the maids gradually faded until it disappeared.

Only then did I finally relax.

“Phew.”

To get rid of Gyoa quickly, the only option was to endure.

There was someone I needed to meet as soon as possible.

I put on the clothes Gyoa had thrown at me and left the guest room.

It was still early spring, and the night air was cold.

“Achoo!”

Shivering in my small body, I finally arrived at the kitchen.

The cooks were busy washing dishes after serving dinner to the guests.

When I spotted a familiar figure from behind, tears instantly filled my eyes.

Nanny!