Chapter 52. A Deal of Hatred and Sorrow (2)
While Eunseong suffered inside the barrier Mora had created, the rest of the Hae family left Pasa in a long procession to attend the Fifteenth Day Festival.
The Hae family’s sand sleds looked almost like enormous scorpions.
Their huge, thin legs creaked as they moved across the desert.
Tribute for the royal family was piled onto the sleds.
There were also mysterious sacks that smelled strongly of blood.
The lowest people of Pasa, prisoners and slaves, walked around the sleds.
Their entire bodies were wrapped in black cloth.
They moved with empty, lifeless motions.
Eventually, the desert ended.
An enormous grassland appeared before them.
The group changed from sand sleds to carriages and continued their journey.
At the center of the procession was an expensive carriage.
Hae Mora and Geumdo sat together inside.
Geumdo looked like a young nobleman wearing brilliant golden silk clothes.
His eyes looked unusually full beneath his dark eyelashes.
His small but perfectly shaped nose and lips made him beautiful in an almost unnatural way.
Mora remained beside him the entire journey.
She watched him with a gentle, loving expression.
Without thinking, she placed one hand over his.
Then she flinched.
“What are all of you doing?”
She turned toward the servants.
“Bring a heated stone pouch.”
Geumdo’s skin was cold as ice.
No matter how close they sat, Mora felt none of the warmth normally exchanged between living people.
She quickly shook away the thought.
This was a child she had believed dead.
Then he had returned.
His body had once become cold after death.
Of course there would be side effects after his soul returned.
That was what Mora told herself.
She ordered the servants to bring him a pouch filled with stones heated over a fire.
Geumdo politely accepted it from her.
His eyes curved into an innocent smile.
“Mother, I waited ten years in the mud without ever being allowed to enter this world.”
He hugged the warm pouch.
“You brought me back to life, so I will treasure this life even more.”
His words caused Mora to remember the past.
When she first discovered that she was pregnant with Nampyeong’s child, Mora had been deeply confused.
A rock mountain medium who had become head of the Hae family was not supposed to be capable of bearing children.
Unable to understand what kind of unnatural event had caused the pregnancy, she hid it for a long time.
She traveled through distant lands while keeping the truth secret.
But as she listened to the life growing inside her, Mora gradually began experiencing ordinary human emotions.
For the first time, she felt as if someone truly belonged to her.
Someone who would always stand on her side.
Someone more precious than anything else in the world.
For the first time, Mora understood how terrible her own sins were.
She became willing to surrender even her position as family head if it meant saving the child inside her.
But immediately after the pain of childbirth ended...
The consequences of Mora’s sins returned to her without mercy.
The newborn baby was sacrificed to an evil spirit before it could even cry for the first time.
Both its body and soul were torn apart.
The old rule had proven true.
The head of the Hae family could not bear children.
Mora collapsed from shock.
For a long time afterward, she lived like a broken person.
Ten years passed.
Then came a strange day.
Black clouds covered the sky.
Crying sounds came from the fir trees.
While walking past a pond, Mora suddenly entered the muddy water like someone under a spell.
Deep beneath the surface, a child’s body was tangled among lotus roots.
The moment she saw it...
She knew.
My child.
Her child had never entered the afterlife.
He had been waiting for Mora at the bottom of the pond.
Mora carried him out of the water.
And she made a vow.
She would never lose him again.
She would do anything for him.
“Mother.”
Geumdo suddenly raised his tiny hand.
“I have a request.”
He leaned close to Mora’s ear and whispered.
It was a terrible, cruel request.
Mora nevertheless nodded.
“Do whatever you want with the servants.”
Her expression remained gentle.
“Your mother does not care.”
Geumdo smiled.
“Then I’ll begin immediately.”
At his gesture, the entire procession stopped.
Several servants with their hands and feet tied were dragged in front of the carriage.
Geumdo gave his order in a cheerful voice.
“Tie them to the carriage with ropes.”
He smiled brightly.
“Then drag them behind us.”
The carriage started moving again.
The tied people immediately lost their balance and fell.
Their bodies scraped across the ground.
They struck the wheels.
They were thrown violently from side to side.
Screams of pain continued for a long time.
It did not take long for human bodies to lose their shape completely.
The road toward Hongyang turned into a blood-covered hell.
Geumdo clapped happily.
He seemed satisfied with the new punishment.
Then his eyes began moving again.
There was still someone else he needed to remove.
Someone who stood in the way of completely controlling Mora.
Geumdo moved his lips.
“Mother...”
His voice became sweet and pitiful.
“Eunseong has been spreading terrible rumors about me.”
Mora looked at him.
“The servants punished today looked down on me because of her.”
He lowered his eyes.
“She says I am manipulating you.”
Geumdo continued slandering Eunseong in an endlessly flattering voice.
“She refuses to accept her duty as a rock mountain medium.”
“She denies everything you created.”
He looked up innocently.
“Wouldn’t it be better to punish her publicly and restore the authority of the family head?”
But Mora’s answer surprised him.
“You are still young.”
She spoke gently but firmly.
“You do not understand people properly yet.”
Geumdo blinked.
“That child is not someone who would intentionally hurt others.”
Mora looked out the window.
“More importantly, she is necessary for the future prosperity of the Hae family.”
She had rejected his request.
Geumdo stared at her.
Why?
Why isn’t she changing?
He had heard that Mora had already tied Eunseong’s legs with snakes and trapped her behind a barrier.
He had been certain that this time he could turn Mora completely against her.
Manipulating human emotions was easier than eating rice porridge.
Until now, Geumdo had obtained almost everything he wanted simply by using his red tongue.
