The Ignored Granddaughter of a Murim Family - Chapter 9

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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 9
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After Go Chong-gwan departed, Father’s expression grew remarkably bright as he examined each medicinal ingredient one by one.
In stark contrast, my heart felt heavy.
‘He gave me the Heavenly Fate Golden Soul Pill.’
It would be pointless to consume it anyway.
I couldn’t decide whether I should be pleased or displeased about this.
‘Is he testing me?’
Moreover, Father said nothing further about it. I had expected him to urge me to take it immediately, but this was unexpected.
Still, seeing him in such good spirits lifted my own mood.
‘Why is he so pleased?’
Though he tried not to show it, Father’s face was always clouded with worry and concern whenever he looked at me. Every time his eyes fell upon me, his brow would furrow deeply and his expression would turn grave—so much so that the old me had believed Father despised me greatly.
Moreover, the entire household spoke of nothing but how I had tarnished Father’s reputation and become a burden around his neck. They said he had brought me here out of necessity, but since I displeased him, he left me behind and did not return home.
At first, I had been grateful merely for being brought here.
But as time passed, I grew increasingly resentful of Father for leaving me in this place and showing his face so rarely.
Then a commotion broke through my reverie.
“Give that to me, will you?”
“No. I’m organizing it right now. Why are you like this? I said no!”
It was Dang-geum.
Dang-geum practically snatched something from the Female Servant who had been organizing the items. The Female Servant, flustered and uncertain, glanced nervously at my father.
Dang-geum spoke to the Female Servant in a commanding tone.
“What? Why? Can’t I even look? It’s fine, isn’t it, Miss?”
I glanced at Father. He was absorbed in organizing the medicinal ingredients and unaware of what was happening here. Since he appeared to be in good spirits, I didn’t want to cause unnecessary disturbance, so I simply nodded vaguely.
“Do as you wish.”
With so many people around, nothing serious would happen here.
Dang-geum let out a scornful laugh at the Female Servant as if to say “see?” and examined the item she had seized.
Of all people, Dang-geum was the one who had most often whispered to me that Father disliked me. She was the one who had contributed most to the rift between Father and me.
Dang-geum even had sticky fingers. For now, it didn’t matter since I possessed no valuables.
But as I grew older, Father began gifting me various items. They were things Father, the young master of the Baek Li Family, had specially chosen for me. Naturally, they held considerable value. Some were rare treasures difficult to obtain.
Yet Dang-geum would lie, saying they weren’t particularly fine items, and questioning how Father could disregard me so much as to send only such things.
All the while, she stole the valuables away.
But as the saying goes, a long tail gets caught—Father eventually discovered her theft. She was caught boasting about the stolen ornaments.
Right there before Father, Dang-geum made excuses, claiming I had given them to her.
Then she came to me, weeping and begging desperately for me to save her.
“He’ll kill me!”
“Wait… surely Father wouldn’t kill you over a single stolen ornament? You said yourself it wasn’t a particularly valuable item.”
“Does that matter now?”
“Ah, no… I meant that since it’s not valuable, Father wouldn’t be too angry…”
“This is a martial household! You don’t understand, Miss, but in a place like this, punishments are far more cruel.”
“…”
I now understand it was nonsense.
But back then, I believed Dang-geum’s words with absolute certainty—she had lived at the Baek Li Estate far longer than I had.
“Please, Miss. Please forgive me. I was wrong.”
“…What am I supposed to do?”
Dang-geum’s eyes gleamed as she rattled off her schemes as though she had never shed a tear. And I told Father, who had come to inquire about the facts of the matter.
“I gave it to Dang-geum as a gift, Father. That’s correct.”
“It seems your servant has sold not just one or two of your belongings. Are you saying you gave all of them to her?”
“Ah…”
Not just one or two?
This was the first I was hearing of it.
As I looked at Dang-geum in confusion, she glared at me as if to say I should corroborate her story.
“…Yes. I did give them to her.”
“…I see.”
The disappointment in his eyes at that moment remained vivid even now.
“If gifts don’t please you in the future, then perhaps… no. What I’ve given you is yours to do with as you wish.”
It was one of the reasons the distance between Father and me had grown.
After that, Dang-geum spread rumors that I had discarded Father’s gifts because they displeased me.
Remembering it now, heat surged through me.
‘No, no—it hasn’t happened yet, so it doesn’t matter.’
I couldn’t cast her out as a future thief when she hadn’t stolen anything yet.
But I would not allow her to steal now.
“Wait, give me that jade pendant. Wow, this jade pendant really is beautiful.”
Its color was a lustrous pale white, uniform and gleaming—it appeared to be the finest quality yangji jade. Dang-geum, who had carelessly taken the pendant, examined it for a long while before suddenly turning to me. Her eyes glinted with undisguised greed.
“Miss, please give me this jade pendant.”
“…”
I was speechless.
Even the female servant organizing the items looked at Dang-geum as though she were mad. Yet Dang-geum stared at me with shameless audacity, as if she had done nothing wrong.
“You have so many—surely you can give me just one? I was beaten because of you, Miss!”
Grandfather’s proclamation seemed to mean nothing whatsoever to Dang-geum.
‘She even thinks the beating was my fault. How natural.’
In the past, left alone at the Baek Li Estate, I had been lonely.
I had naively trusted Dang-geum and kept my distance from Father.
‘I was nothing but an easy mark to exploit.’
I spoke with resignation.
“Wait a moment.”
Dang-geum wiped the jade pendant with her sleeve, grinning with delight.
Despite my telling her to wait, she already acted as though it were hers, her joy unmistakable.
The other servants too, sensing I might willingly hand it over, brightened their eyes with hope of obtaining something for themselves.
I turned away from their transparent desires and waited.
Moments later, Father, who had been examining the medicinal chest and ledgers in one corner of the courtyard, approached with an expression of great pleasure.
“Yeon-i, Yeon-i! The medicinal herbs Father sent are certainly superior. I should prepare your medicine with those ingredients. Would that be alright?”
“Of course. You need not ask my permission to use them.”
“But they were given to you, were they not?”
“There is no such formality between Father and me. But Father, there is something I wished to ask.”
Father looked at me as though wondering what the matter was.
I turned my gaze toward Dang-geum and spoke.
“Dang-geum has asked for that jade pendant. Would it be acceptable if I gave it to her?”
“What?”
Father’s expression flickered with confusion as he repeated the question.
And Dang-geum, who had been showing off the jade pendant to the other servants, suddenly startled and turned to look at me.
“She says she wishes to have the pendant because she received a beating on my account. However, all these gifts were given by Grandfather, were they not? I thought it improper for me to dispose of them without permission.”
“What are you saying? She received a beating because of you?”
Father regarded Dang-geum with an expression of disbelief, as though doubting his own ears.
Dang-geum’s complexion drained of all color. The servants who had been fawning over her moments before hastily withdrew with suffocated expressions.
“W-what are you saying, Young Miss! When did I ever say such a thing?”
I turned to Dang-geum with an expression of bewilderment.
“What? You said it yourself. That since there are so many, surely you could spare one. That you received a beating because of me… that your wounds have pained you terribly since morning and you needed rest…”
“Young Miss!”
The moment Dang-geum cried out, Father’s expression turned glacial.
Father quietly positioned himself before me, obscuring Dang-geum from view. Then he spoke in a voice as cold as frost settling upon the earth.
“Could you not lower your voice? Though Yeon-i is young, she is one you ought to serve with respect. How dare you raise your voice so carelessly?”
“Y-young master, th-that is…”
“And not content with harboring resentment toward Mother’s punishment, you brazenly covet your master’s possessions in such shameless fashion—I have never witnessed such conduct in all my days. Are you truly Yeon-i’s servant? One would think you were the master!”
At Father’s rebuke, Dang-geum flinched and bowed her head.
The servants, who had been watching Dang-geum’s insolence as though it were someone else’s affair, quickly assumed respectful postures, fearing the flames of his wrath might spread to them.
It was only natural that Father’s anger flared anew at their behavior.
“Your audacity is beyond tolerance. You shall kneel in that spot and reflect upon your conduct until sunset! And you—see that this child properly fulfills her punishment!”
Father, blazing with fury, lifted me into his arms with a single hand and turned sharply away.
Beyond Father’s shoulder, the courtyard had fallen into an icy silence.

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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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