Sowol Inn - Chapter 13

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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 13
So Wol regarded Seok Chonggwan in silence.
“The Master’s second daughter-in-law lost a child not long ago. I’m sure you’ve heard the physician say she cannot bear children again.”
“And?”
“The Master wishes to bring a child without family into our household and raise her as his own granddaughter.”
“You came all the way to this mountain village to find an adopted daughter?”
“Yes.”
Seok Chonggwan nodded, then glanced carefully toward the upper floor.
“Surely it’s not easy, running an inn alone and caring for an infant besides. Our household lacks neither hands to tend the child nor physicians to attend to her needs.”
……
“Should she become the Master’s granddaughter, she’ll want for nothing as she grows. She’ll study under the finest teachers, and never again need fear the judgment of others.”
At this polished proposal, So Wol’s mouth twisted.
The Mi Family House in Jung Gyeong wouldn’t send someone all the way to a mountain village just to find an adopted daughter.
And for them to name conditions before even seeing the child meant they’d already placed a price on her.
Chopsticks crossed before his eyes.
That gaze from earlier.
Whatever that eye had seen was something already valued and sold.
“For a rumor, it seems to have fetched a decent sum.”
“Pardon?”
“The story about the child.”
The smile faded from Seok Chonggwan’s face for the first time.
So Wol pressed forward, his words cutting like a blade.
“You wouldn’t have come all the way from Jung Gyeong with a carriage just on hearing there’s an infant at a mountain inn. What did you buy, and for how much?”
The weight of that gaze made Seok Chonggwan’s fingertips tremble faintly.
A brief silence stretched between them.
He took a moment to choose his words, then spoke slowly.
“After the child appeared, there were strange occurrences at this inn, or so I’ve heard.”
A sneer played at So Wol’s lips.
“After the child appeared?”
“Yes.”
“You’ve bought a poor rumor. Who said she wasn’t my child?”
So Wol leaned back against his chair with unhurried ease and continued.
“Are you suggesting I’ve taken someone else’s child to raise? That’s an offensive thing to say.”
Bewilderment crossed Seok Chonggwan’s features.
“I was told you’re caring for her temporarily…”
“I can hardly broadcast the child’s mother’s circumstances to every villager, can I?”
“Yet the child arrived at the inn only three months ago, according to—”
So Wol tilted his head at an angle and asked.
“Must I confess such details to your family?”
Seok Chonggwan fell silent for a moment, then, as if playing his final card, made a careful request.
“Would it be possible, then, to see the child’s face at least once?”
“Why would you need that?”
“I must report something to the Master…”
“I refuse.”
So Wol cut him off flatly.
“You said you’d take someone else’s child without even knowing her face—why do you suddenly want to see her now?”
Seok Chonggwan studied So Wol carefully, his eyes searching for truth or falsehood.
But there was no way to press further.
In the end, Seok Chonggwan lowered his head with care.
“It seems I’ve been rude.”
“Then you should leave.”
As So Wol rose from his seat, Seok Chonggwan looked up at him intently, then drew a small wooden tablet from his breast.
It bore the seal of the Mi Family House.
“Should you change your mind, send word to the Mi Family House in Jung Gyeong.”
“My mind won’t change.”
“A man’s heart can shift with his circumstances.”
Seok Chonggwan’s gaze traced across the worn table, the wooden bench, and the frayed sleeve of So Wol’s robe in turn.
“Especially when raising a child requires no small amount of money.”
So Wol’s mouth twisted sharply.
He picked up the tablet from the table and slid it back across toward Seok Chonggwan.
“I’m grateful for your concern.”
The Wooden Tablet slid across the table and came to rest at Seok Chonggwan’s fingertips.
“I’m not so poor that I can’t feed one child of my own.”
So Wol’s eyes grew cold and distant.
The air in the hall grew heavy with him.
The guards standing behind Seok Chonggwan placed their hands on their sword hilts in unison.
Yet none of them drew their blades.
Cold sweat beaded on their foreheads.
Their instincts screamed a warning.
This man before them must not become their enemy.
Seok Chonggwan slowly retrieved the Wooden Tablet.
“I’ll take my leave now.”
“I hope there won’t be a next time.”
Rising to his feet, Seok Chonggwan straightened his robes as he replied.
“Whether the matter ends simply because we withdraw, I cannot say.”
So Wol’s eyes narrowed to slits.
“What do you mean?”
“Rumor is, by nature, a commodity that changes hands.”
…….
“There’s no guarantee that we alone have paid the price.”
It was something between a warning and a counsel.
Having bowed to So Wol, he turned his back without waiting for an answer.
The guards followed in his wake as one.
Just before mounting the carriage, Seok Chonggwan glanced up at the Inn’s second floor once more.
So Wol, his brow furrowed, stood in his line of sight.
“Don’t set your sights on my child.”
Their gazes collided.
Seok Chonggwan climbed into the carriage without a word.
The driver soon gathered the reins.
Clop. Clop.
The carriage began its slow descent down the slope.
Arms crossed, So Wol leaned against the doorframe, watching until the carriage vanished from sight.
‘There’s no guarantee that we alone have paid the price.’
The words left him deeply unsettled.
With a grim expression, he retraced each exchange with Seok Chonggwan.
Seok Chonggwan knew very little.
Only that a child had appeared at the Inn, and that Strange Occurrences had followed.
He could have hidden that much himself.
But if the next visitor knew more.
If those who came seeking the child were beyond what So Wol could handle alone.
What then?
“Beop Gong, you damned fool. How could you leave me with such a child…….”
So Wol hurled the curse toward Sungshan, then slammed the gate shut with a bang.
As he entered the hall, Baek Ya carefully poked his face over the stair railing.
“Brother.”
“What is it?”
“The baby—is she your baby?”
…….
So Wol’s words caught in his throat, and he busied himself brushing off his sleeves for no reason.
“That was what I meant to tell them.”
“It wasn’t?”
“……In front of others, call her my daughter.”
“And when we’re alone?”
“Baek Ya. Stop asking pointless questions and bring me the Cradle.”
“All right.”
As So Wol gestured, Baek Ya carefully lifted the Cradle and came down the stairs.
The baby inside lay sleeping soundly.
So Wol gazed down at her face, then rubbed his throbbing temples.
* * *
Rumor traveled fast.
Before the Mi Family House carriage had even crested the hill, the village children were already spreading word of what they’d seen.
“The horse was pitch black and this big!”
“The grandfather who got out of the carriage was wearing silk robes!”
“The innkeeper told me not to let that man’s eyes wander toward my child!”
As the story passed from the children’s mouths to the adults’, the rumor swelled with each telling.
Two black horses became four, and four guards became a dozen or more.
By the time it reached the laundry site, it had transformed into something altogether different.
“They say a wealthy man from Jung Gyeong came to buy the innkeeper’s child?”
“He supposedly brought a carriage full of silver.”
“So? Did So Wol hand the child over?”
“Hand her over? He shouted that he wouldn’t give up his own child and drove the man away.”
At those words, the women’s eyes gleamed.
“Is that true? Didn’t he say it was just a child he was keeping temporarily?”
“You believed that? There must be some shame he’s covering up—that’s why he said it was temporary.”
“Ah, so it was his hidden child all along.”
“No wonder he raised her so carefully.”
“Now that I think about it, their eyes do look a bit alike.”
Resemblances that never existed suddenly came into being.
The rumor circled the well and the marketplace, spreading to the neighboring villages beyond.
Only the subject of the rumor remained unaware.
So Wol discovered the rumor only when his guests’ manner of speech became strangely warm.
“So Wol, didn’t you trust us? If you have a child, you should have said so.”
“A child? Well, that is to say…….”
“It’s all right, it’s all right. You must have had your reasons.”
“No, it’s not like that…….”
“You don’t need to explain. We understand how hard it’s been for a man alone. We’ll help however we can, so there’s no need to hide anymore.”
The guest patted So Wol’s shoulder, speaking as though he understood everything, when he understood nothing at all.
So Wol could only gape, unable to protest.
There was nothing hidden.
There was certainly no hidden child.
From the very beginning, hadn’t he said the child was merely being kept temporarily?
Yet they had already come to see So Wol as a father belatedly doing his duty.
The lie he’d spat out to drive away the Mi Family House’s steward had become, in the villagers’ ears, a tardy confession.
So Wol pressed his forehead. The more he tried to explain, the deeper the mire became.
As So Wol let out nothing but heavy sighs in frustration, someone asked him a question.
“By the way, what’s the child’s name?”
…….
When So Wol didn’t answer promptly, the guest’s eyes widened in surprise.
“You mean you haven’t even given her a name yet?”

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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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