1440 - Chapter 34

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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Chapter 34
But what could he do about the way his heart moved? Even when he saw women or men who claimed to like him, he couldn’t bring himself to find them endearing. The moment he received a confession, only one thing echoed in his mind.
He wanted to hear that voice again. That thought alone consumed him.
While Yeon-su was lost in his thoughts about the man, Deok-u asked again.
“That man you like—he’s human, right?”
Yeon-su had no answer to give. He’d thought it impossible.
An appearance unchanged for twenty years. According to the records, he had looked exactly the same fourteen hundred years ago.
A body that absorbs others’ curses. A mysterious voice that resonates through his mind. And divine power, faint though it was.
It was a small force, but precisely because it was small, he could feel it all the more clearly—a sacred power entirely different from what ordinary divine practitioners possessed.
As Yeon-su remained silent, Deok-u carefully broached the subject.
“Does it not matter? Do you desire him as a man and woman desire each other?”
At this question, Yeon-su smiled. He closed his eyes gently, remembering the smooth, porcelain-like cheek that had brushed his lips moments before.
“Yes. To think I’d dare harbor such filthy feelings.”
The happiness in the face of someone calling his own emotions filthy was so radiant that Deok-u closed his mouth, suppressing the nagging he’d been about to unleash.
A person with a truly corrupt heart wouldn’t make that expression. Yet if he said as much, the lips of that beautiful divine brother would curl upward endlessly. Then he’d really find it both detestable and laughable—he’d burst into hollow laughter.
***
Shortly after his brief meeting with Deok-u, Yeon-su returned home, his hand holding a small dessert box. He had had it packed from the Cafe where they’d met.
The moment he saw the introduction written on the cafe’s display case—”Vegan Bakery”—the man who ate nothing but grains and vegetables came to mind.
When he asked if there were products with no egg in them, the clerk showed him small cupcakes like finger food.
The delicate way they fit inside the small box, like miniatures, was adorable. They were sized so that one could pick them up with a single finger and pop them right into one’s mouth. Yeon-su didn’t hesitate—he asked them to pack six of them.
Holding the beautifully decorated butter-colored box tied with a crimson ribbon, his steps toward the Separate Building were light and eager.
What reaction would the man show when he saw this pretty thing? Would he even realize it was something to eat?
He hoped the man would like it. Since he seemed to favor small, cute things, Yeon-su hoped he’d smile at these cupcakes the way one smiles at a kitten.
But his excitement at the thought of introducing something new to the man and letting him taste it was short-lived. The moment he saw the Separate Building’s door standing open, the blood drained from his face.
His feet, which had been treading lightly on the ground, suddenly bolted into the Separate Building. He passed down the corridor without even pausing to remove his shoes, and he saw the inner room’s sliding door left ajar.
“…Brother!”
He barely stifled a curse as he called out to Yeon-hyeong, who was in the process of forcibly removing the man’s robe and was loosening his own trousers above him.
At Yeon-su’s call, the man startled and turned, then snapped irritably.
“Damn it, pay attention, Baek Yeon-su!”
“What are you doing?”
Yeon-su asked in an icy tone, unbothered by Yeon-hyeong’s shouts and curses.
Yeon-hyeong seemed to find his question amusing and pointed at his own loosened trousers with his finger. Not a trace of shame clung to that gesture.
“I came to drain the curse. Why?”
“I was under the impression there were no curses requiring drainage.”
He’d been handling all the recent work himself.
Since Yeon-hyeong hadn’t yet returned from his travels, Yeon-su had felt comfortable leaving the Separate Building unattended. Yet somehow, Yeon-hyeong had appeared the instant Yeon-su stepped away and was now causing this scene.
Yeon-su’s eyes burned with fury. But he struggled not to appear irrational. The last thing he wanted was for anyone to discover that he held the Curse Receiver in such regard, let alone that he harbored romantic feelings. Yet his resolve crumbled.
“Stop!”
In the brief moment Yeon-hyeong paused, the man squirmed free from beneath him. Yeon-hyeong didn’t let him escape—he slapped the man’s face roughly.
Yeon-su, who had taken care not even to kiss that precious cheek, seized Yeon-hyeong’s long hair and yanked it toward him with force.
“Can’t you keep still?!”
“Brother!”
Yeon-su dropped the box he’d been holding and charged into the room. He could no longer pretend at composure. His hand seized Yeon-hyeong’s wrist.
Crack.
“Aaaah! Ah…! You bastard, my hand!”
In that instant, Yeon-su lost control and failed to modulate his strength—Yeon-hyeong’s wrist bone slipped out of joint.
33
Leaving Yeon-hyeong to writhe on the floor in pain, Yeon-su lifted the man into his arms and settled him on the bedding spread across one corner of the room. As he hurriedly fastened the man’s disheveled clothes, a harsh command rang out from the Separate Building’s entrance.
“What in God’s name is going on here?!”
It was In-eum.
The two men who’d caused such a commotion in the middle of the night were ultimately summoned to the Main Residence by In-eum.
Throughout it all, Baek Yeon-hyeong clutched his wrist and played the victim, wailing as if he were at death’s door. While an attendant was hastily summoned to examine and immobilize his wrist, he continued his dramatics as if someone had died.
In-eum was prepared to punish Yeon-su for daring to interfere with his elder brother’s actions and for injuring him. But Yeon-su spoke first.
“Father. I believe that sharing one’s body with someone other than one’s spouse for reasons unrelated to Curse Drainage constitutes spiritual defilement.”
At those words, Yeon-hyeong’s wife, who’d been tending to his injury, flinched visibly. She’d known all along—why her husband had rushed to the Separate Building the moment he returned from his travels.
As Mi-ju entered behind him, her eyes turned cold.
Mi-ju had never viewed the Curse Receiver’s existence favorably.
She harbored an intense fixation on In-eum. So it was no wonder that Yeon-su’s own mother, who’d been forced to give her body to In-eum, had suffered harshly at her hands.
Yeon-su, aware that both women were now attending to his words, deliberately feigned concern for Yeon-hyeong.
“The men of the Baek Family are often exposed to spiritual defilement due to curse-related afflictions. Therefore, they must maintain a disciplined lifestyle. Yet repeatedly entangling bodies with a Curse Receiver of unknown identity out of mere lust hardly seems appropriate.”
“Ahem, well, the excess curse does need to be drained…….”
Yeon-su turned away from In-eum’s words as though he hadn’t heard them, pivoting his body toward Yeon-hyeong and lowering his head.
“I apologize for what happened to your hand, sir. When I realized you were about to touch something spiritually defiled, I was startled and reacted without thinking. Lately, I’ve been the only one taking on curses after exertion, while you’ve been resting well, haven’t you? I was afraid of what might happen if a curse receiver touched your newly cleansed body, so my hand moved on its own. I’m truly sorry.”
“Sorry? You did that on purpose just now!”
“Ahem! Cough, cough!”
In-eum stifled Yeon-hyeong’s excited and crude outburst with a discreet cough, and Yeon-su quickly added to the conversation.
“I believe in the old days, even a curse receiver like that man was treated with reverence.”
“……So they say, in very ancient times. And your point?”
When In-eum pressed him further, Yeon-su bowed his head in apparent deference.
“I was thinking—might it not be better to find another way to drain curses going forward? The Baek Family relying on something of unknown nature just because we can’t manage a single curse on our own seems rather……. If word got out, it wouldn’t look good.”
Yeon-su let his words trail off as though uncertain, and In-eum leaned forward with alarm.
“Word’s already getting out?”
“……Yes. In fact, I received an inquiry just a moment ago from another priest asking whether the Baek Family truly possessed such a thing as a curse receiver.”
Yeon-su had fabricated the entire claim.
Fortunately, In-eum seemed intrigued by what he’d said, his ears perking up with interest. Mi-ju and Yeon-hyeong’s wife sat quietly behind him as well, neither of them leaving their seats. Yeon-hyeong massaged his firmly bound wrist and shot Yeon-su a sharp, sideways glance.

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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