1440 - Chapter 7

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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 7
Yeonsu laughed brightly, as if there truly was no problem at all.
“Yes, I spend a lot of time in prayer. When I feel someone moving about, my concentration breaks. It’s really fine.”
Only after refusing several more times and receiving repeated assurances that it was truly no trouble did the servant finally leave the Separate House. Even as he departed, he hesitated—clearly afraid of being scolded by Miju.
“I’ll speak to your mother about it. Please don’t worry.”
“Oh, young master. Yes, thank you.”
Only then did the servant’s face relax as he stepped outside the Separate House.
Yeonsu chased the servant out with a smile plastered on until the very end, then shut the door to the Separate House behind him. He locked it firmly from within.
“Sigh. I’m exhausted.”
Since yesterday, he’d been smiling through situations where he’d rather not smile at all, and now his face ached. He’d always thought himself confident in performance, yet within this space, things weren’t as easy as he’d imagined.
Just now, he’d nearly lost his composure and snapped at the servant for treating the man behind the closed door as something ominous.
He absolutely could not do that. The people of the Baek Family must never learn that he harbored special feelings for him.
Yeonsu paused before the closed door. After what Yeonhyung had done to him yesterday, he wanted to ask if he was alright now, to check on him.
But he’d be startled, wouldn’t he? The man had looked quite surprised when he saw Yeonsu earlier.
Yeonsu had only seen him a few times in childhood. Once his head grew past a certain point, he was no longer allowed in the Separate House, so the man likely wouldn’t recognize him. Yet despite this, his feet itched to go and pretend they were old acquaintances.
Yeonsu turned his feet instead toward the Kitchen. There, he washed and trimmed the ingredients the servant had left half-prepared. Remembering those thin, bony hands he’d glimpsed moments before, he resolved to ensure the man ate well from now on.
He rinsed the rice, set it to cook, and prepared some simple side dishes. By the time the rice finished cooking, there was still a little time to spare.
Having cooked for himself throughout his Cultivation practice, he had considerable skill in the kitchen. While he couldn’t prepare anything grand, he could certainly put together clean, well-balanced dishes to eat.
While waiting for the rice to finish, he tidied the first floor. The servant appeared to have put effort into cleaning, but upon closer inspection, dust had accumulated thickly in corners throughout the space.
I’ll need to set aside a day for a thorough cleaning.
He decided to sweep and wipe only the areas near the man’s room and turn the entire house inside out. There was much more to clean than just dust. Especially that room…
7
Yeonsu’s gaze turned once more toward the room where the man dwelt. The spiritual energy emanating from that space was so strange it left him bewildered.
Certainly the man’s own clear, distinctive energy lingered there, but woven through it were profane, twisted things rising up. It was undoubtedly the Karmic Debt and Murderous Intent that his half-brother had left behind.
“Filthy bastard.”
He cursed softly and walked toward the rice cooker, which gave a sharp whistle. As he stirred the fluffy, perfectly cooked rice, a sweet, warm steam rose up.
After the meal… would he be taken aback if asked to step out for a while?
Yeonsu wanted to clean the man’s room. But if he went in and rummaged about, the man might feel uncomfortable, so he couldn’t do as he pleased.
Thinking such things, Yeonsu spooned rice and side dishes onto a low table. Realizing this was the first time he was arranging a meal with his own hands to serve to someone, he found himself taking care to present even simple namul vegetables beautifully.
The cleanly prepared meat dish he piled deliberately higher. His hope was that the man would gain weight.
Carrying it to the door, he tapped the wooden frame of the paper sliding door lightly with his knuckles.
“May I come in?”
He waited for a moment, but there was no answer. Yeonsu, who had secretly hoped to hear again that mystical, resonant voice from childhood, suppressed his disappointment and knocked once more.
“It’s supper. May I enter?”
Then came the sound of rustling from within. Realizing it was the sound of fabric moving, Yeonsu reached for the door handle.
“I’m coming in.”
The moment he opened the door, he saw the man sitting at the edge of the room, his body tilted slightly in Yeonsu’s direction. Apparently startled by being suddenly spoken to, he seemed to have been awkwardly attempting to rise and open the door.
Yeonsu pretended not to notice his confusion and set the table in the middle of the room. The man then slowly walked over and sat before it.
Fortunately, he seemed accustomed to being served; receiving a meal itself didn’t look strange to him. He picked up his chopsticks. Yeonsu, matching his pace, poured warm water into his cup. Then the man stared intently at Yeonsu.
“What is it?”
Asking as if he didn’t notice the man’s piercing gaze, Yeonsu soon saw him shake his head. Instead, the man gazed at the meal as though seeing a dining table for the first time, studying the rice and vegetable sides at length. Oddly, his eyes glistened with a longing emotion.
Just as Yeonsu found this puzzling, the man lifted his chopsticks and cleanly picked up a spoonful of rice, a spoonful of vegetables, and brought them to his mouth.
Yeonsu sat watching the man eat. Seeing him chew and swallow the food he had made without any reluctance stirred an elated feeling in Yeonsu’s chest.
“Is the taste alright? I made it to suit my own palate, so I’m not sure how it is for you.”
When Yeonsu spoke, the man gave him that look of wonder again—as if he’d never seen anyone speak to him before. His slowly blinking eyes held such innocence that Yeonsu smiled. Though his heart ached, he smiled.
Fortunately, the man responded to his words with a small nod, allowing Yeonsu to quickly escape the thought of the man’s suffering, solitary and trapped for so long.
The man continued his meal slowly, with neat, precise chopstick work. Though he occasionally glanced up at Yeonsu with a look that seemed to ask “Why are you still looking at me and not leaving?”, he made no gesture to send him away, nor did he push him out.
Yeonsu found himself not bored at all by the man’s noticeably slower eating pace compared to others.
It was fascinating to watch him chew his rice; his fingers as they worked the chopsticks were elegant. Watching them, Yeonsu lost all sense of time. When the man lifted his final bite to his mouth, Yeonsu felt almost regretful that the meal was ending.
Setting down his chopsticks quietly, the man picked up the dish of meat he hadn’t touched at all. As Yeonsu watched, the man opened the back door and set the dish on the veranda. Small cats that had been lingering somewhere in the Inner Courtyard immediately scampered over and buried their noses in the plate.
He watched these small creatures with a faint smile. Had it not been for the moonlight shining at that very moment, even Yeonsu might not have noticed—it was such a small, delicate smile.
Yeonsu felt his soul slip away. This was the first time since entering middle school that he was seeing him. Though Yeonsu himself had grown so much in the meantime, this man seemed utterly unchanged.
His skin was as white as porcelain, as brilliant as snow—a mystical beauty that didn’t appear cold or hard like stone. Rather, it seemed it might melt so gently in one’s palm that it couldn’t be carelessly touched.
Yes, it resembled the heavy snow he had seen the first day they met.
In stark contrast to such skin was hair as perfectly black as the night itself, without a single flaw. Grown long enough to pass his waist, it nearly concealed the man’s profile. Yet it was beautiful. Nothing in the lines that composed him was not beautiful.
It was when the man reached his hand toward the small cats that Yeonsu saw it. Within the black robe that fell open, scars—deep, abraded marks—were visible on his arm.
The moment Yeonsu saw them, he came to his senses. Seeing the strangely uncertain way the cloth clung to the man’s body, he found his attention drawn less to the oddness the garment created and more to the man’s wounds faintly visible beneath it.
“Do you dislike fishy foods?”
Seeing the untouched meat dish despite the man’s thin frame, Yeonsu asked. The man gave no answer.
“Starting tomorrow morning, I will serve nothing with a fishy smell.”
Only then did he shake his head. He gave a short, dismissive gesture before turning back to the cats, this time not with an open palm but with a pointing hand. The meaning was clear—these young ones needed feeding, so there was nothing to spare.
Why wouldn’t he speak? Yeonsu frowned in confusion and asked again.
“Do you pity the little creatures?”

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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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