Sowol Inn - Chapter 15

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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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Episode 15
5. The Child Without a Name
Splat.
A spoonful of rice gruel flew up and scattered across the table.
So Wol exhaled and reached for the cloth.
A fresh stain was spreading across the spot he’d just wiped clean.
“Baek Ya, you’re getting it everywhere. Be more careful when you feed her.”
So Wol chided her, but Baek Ya said nothing in return.
She was too absorbed in seating the child on her lap and spooning gruel into her mouth.
With the inn’s work piling up, he’d left the child’s feeding to Baek Ya, and half a double hour later, this was the result.
“Here, give it to me. I’ll just do it myself.”
When So Wol reached out, unable to bear it any longer, Baek Ya quickly hid the spoon behind her back.
“I want to do it!”
Faced with her stubborn defiance, So Wol finally withdrew his hand.
“…All right. Do it your way.”
He set down the cloth with resignation.
Meanwhile, gruel continued dripping steadily onto the floor.
“Here, eat some, little one.”
Baek Ya held out the spoon again, but the child took no notice and suddenly lurched forward.
Thump.
Her small face plunged straight into the bowl of gruel.
“Oh!”
So Wol cried out in alarm.
Baek Ya’s eyes widened too as she quickly lifted the child up.
The child’s face and the front of her clothes were smeared with gruel, and her eyes blinked.
The child tilted her head, looked up at Baek Ya, and burst into delighted laughter.
“Ehehe!”
Baek Ya laughed brightly in return.
The only one who couldn’t laugh was So Wol.
So Wol glanced back and forth between the ruined table and the two children, swallowing a sigh.
“Baek Ya. At least hold the bowl steady while you feed her.”
With a resigned tone, he gave this instruction before turning back to the kitchen to begin his preparations for service.
But there wasn’t much food left in stock.
The flour sack was nearly empty, and the salt was running low.
If he was going to make more gruel for the child to eat, he’d need to buy more rice.
It looked like he’d have to visit the marketplace before starting lunch service.
So Wol wiped his hands on his apron and stepped out into the main room.
“Baek Ya.”
Baek Ya looked up from feeding the child.
“I’m going to the marketplace for a bit. Stay here and watch the child—don’t go anywhere.”
“Okay!”
Baek Ya answered cheerfully.
Yet So Wol found it hard to feel reassured.
“If the child cries because she’s hungry…”
“Goat’s milk.”
“Not too hot…”
“Test it on my hand first.”
“And don’t go near the fire…”
“I won’t.”
Baek Ya added this last point.
“If anything seems wrong, call for Wang next door.”
“…All right.”
The answer was reliable, yet something about it still felt unsettling. So Wol repeated himself.
“If anything happens, you must call Wang next door. Do you understand?”
“Yes.”
So Wol glanced back several times as he left, his expression still doubtful, and departed from the inn.
* * *
The morning marketplace was crowded.
Merchants at their stalls raised their voices from every direction, and the haggling and calls tangled together in a din.
So Wol threaded his way through the crowd toward a familiar stall.
“A bushel of flour and a peck of salt, please. And five pecks of rice.”
The merchant arranging grain sacks looked up.
Recognition flickered across his face when he spotted So Wol—whether delight or curiosity, it was hard to say.
“So, business at your inn has been booming lately, I hear?”
“Well enough to get by.”
“They say guests came flooding in after you drove out that ghost. The talisman the Taoist gave you must’ve done wonders.”
The merchant chattered away as he scooped flour into a wooden measure.
“And congratulations on the child, by the way. You look well—happiness suits you.”
Instead of answering, So Wol fixed the merchant with a steady gaze.
The man flinched under that look and hastily glanced away.
“Right, then. A bushel of flour, a peck of salt, five pecks of rice—that’s what you said?”
The merchant hurried to pack the goods.
So Wol swallowed a sigh and drew out his coin purse.
If the rumor had already spread to the marketplace, it wouldn’t be long before all of Sacheon knew him as some widower with a complicated story.
After paying, So Wol slung the flour sack over his shoulder.
“Do well in your business.”
“And you raise that little one well!”
Waving goodbye, So Wol turned toward the next vendor’s stall.
With leeks, cabbage, bok choy, and a few scraps of meat added to his load, both his hands grew pleasantly heavy.
This should see them through several days.
Just as So Wol was about to head back to the inn—
Thump. Thump.
The sound of a drum beating reached his ears.
Thump, thump-thump.
So Wol stopped and turned; the merchant, meeting his gaze, quickly shook the rattle drum’s handle.
The beads hanging on either side of the small drum struck the leather head, producing dull, rhythmic thumps.
“Buy a toy, sir. The little ones go mad for a rattle drum.”
So Wol studied the instrument.
The baby had nothing that could truly be called a toy.
She spent her days fingering a pinecone that Baek Ya had found, or grasping at her own toes.
But soon enough, she’d be old enough to want toys.
There’d be nothing wrong with having a small drum.
“How much?”
The merchant’s face brightened.
“Thirty cash, sir.”
“Thirty cash? That’s too dear.”
“This thing takes more work than it looks. The drum head is quality leather.”
“Ten cash.”
“Even a bandit wouldn’t haggle that hard!”
“Then we’re done.”
When So Wol turned to leave without hesitation, the merchant quickly grabbed his sleeve.
“Wait, wait! Twenty cash. What about twenty?”
“Fifteen.”
The merchant finally groaned and held out the rattle drum.
“Take it. Fifteen cash, and it’s yours.”
So Wol paid and accepted the drum.
He gave the handle a light spin, and a dull, mellow beat sounded.
Thump. Thump.
He couldn’t be sure if the baby would enjoy it.
But imagining her breaking into a smile made his mouth curl up of its own accord.
As So Wol tucked the drum into his breast, a cold stare pressed against his back.
He adjusted the flour sack as though he’d felt nothing at all.
“All the best to your trade.”
“Come again soon!”
After exchanging farewells with the merchant, So Wol began walking at an unhurried pace.
Even as he passed two or three more stalls, the gaze never left him.
If anything, it clung more persistently.
The shadow didn’t yet know it had been spotted.
In that case, there was only one thing to do: draw it to a deserted place and learn its purpose.
So Wol deliberately turned his steps toward a quiet alley.
But the moment he stepped into the alley, the gaze that had dogged his steps vanished.
So Wol seemed to have sensed the trap and pulled back.
So Wol’s brow furrowed.
He had a bad feeling about this.
He quickened his pace, unaware of how heavy his burden had become.
Beyond the surveillance itself, he was anxious—did Baek Ya have Baby safe?
He didn’t doubt Baek Ya’s affection for the child.
Not when she checked the cradle the moment she opened her eyes each morning, so tenderly did she regard the little one.
But Baek Ya was hopelessly unskilled at distinguishing what was dangerous for Baby and what was not.
Attempting to soothe the child’s cries, she often came up with wildly misguided remedies.
An hour should be fine.
Even as he thought this, his steps grew faster.
As the inn drew near, So Wol raised his voice deliberately.
“Baek Ya, I’m back!”
No answer came.
So Wol hurried across the courtyard and threw open the inn door.
Shards of broken pottery lay scattered everywhere, and tables and chairs lay overturned.
Yet So Wol’s eyes registered none of it.
The cradle.
The cradle was empty.
The blood drained from So Wol’s face.
He flung down his load carelessly and at once sharpened his senses.
No one in the kitchen.
No one in the storage room.
The second floor? Or…
Cold sweat trickled down his spine.
He felt no trace of the child anywhere.
So Wol’s mind tangled in confusion.
Who took him?
Did someone from the disguise house send people? Or did the gang catch our trail?
So Wol kicked through the door and searched every corner of the courtyard.
“Baby!”
His hollow cry scattered into the empty yard.
He tried to call again, then closed his mouth.
Baby.
That was a name anyone could give to any child.
It was not a name to call back the child So Wol sought.
The child had no name to turn back to.

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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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