The Snake, the Flower, and the Tiger - Chapter 80

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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 80

For Hee-seo to return to the Estate and search for traces of Hae-jeong and her parents, she first had to avoid Kim Jong-hyeop’s suspicion. With a viper of an old man, the safest approach was to give him exactly what he wanted most.
Fortunately, Kim Je-eon proved remarkably skilled at mimicking Je-seon’s reckless behavior.
‘If we’re exposed deceiving Kim Jong-hyeop, there won’t be another chance.’
If she possessed the Iron Cloud Stone that A-seon had given her, Je-seon wouldn’t be able to manifest as freely as he did now. And even if he did appear, if Kim Je-eon’s will remained resolute, Je-seon wouldn’t find it easy to seize his body entirely.
Hee-seo observed Kim Jong-hyeop quietly. He didn’t seem inclined to believe her words outright, but he’d reacted unmistakably at the mention of Je-seon’s name.
“…You heard this from Je-seon?”
“Yes. He told me quite a few interesting things beyond just the Parasitization of his brother’s body. We had quite a deep conversation, actually. Though there are some stories too embarrassing to mention to you.”
“Hm. Embarrassing stories?”
“Well, it’s not uncommon for brothers to have similar tastes in women.”
“What?”
At Hee-seo’s playful remark, the mask of calm that Kim Jong-hyeop had worn grew precarious, as if it might shatter at any moment. Yet instead of anger, he lowered his voice and pressed her.
“Je-seon spoke to you first? That boy? How am I supposed to believe that?”
It had been a deliberate jab, but not without truth. Je-seon had coveted Hee-seo’s body without her consent. And even if Je-seon were Sealed, what had already happened wouldn’t simply vanish.
‘He won’t bite easily. The old fool.’
But Hee-seo intended to turn even this suspicion to her advantage. Of course, Kim Jong-hyeop didn’t yield as readily as she’d anticipated.
“As I said, we had many conversations. Your grandson is surprisingly talkative, you know. You didn’t realize that?”
“Right now I’m wondering if you’re just being chatty in front of me while trying to deceive me.”
“Is that so?”
Hee-seo fell silent for a moment, her fingers brushing absently against the teacup she held. Then, sensing the presence outside without letting it show, she asked him:
“It’s because of my mother, isn’t it? The reason it had to be me?”
“…What are you talking about?”
Hee-seo studied the old man’s face. In features that bore no resemblance to Kim Je-eon’s, she found not a trace of guilt.
There. That’s how it should be. A laugh escaped her without warning, slipping past her defenses.
“You planted that man in Kim Je-eon’s body because my mother did. I know it. Don’t play ignorant.”
In that moment, Kim Jong-hyeop’s poker face crumbled for the first time before her. But in the flicker of his wavering eyes, Hee-seo found not triumph—only a small, quiet despair. The hope that had wished it wasn’t true shattered mercilessly.
Yet Hee-seo swallowed the lump of despair and guilt, and forced her heavy tongue to continue.
“That’s why, Grandfather—no, Chairman, it had to be me. Because only I could finish what my mother couldn’t. It doesn’t matter to you that I’m called a half-baked shaman behind closed doors. I’m simply Wol-cheon’s daughter, and that’s enough.”
Kim Jong-hyeop could not deny her words.
Though she had imagined this scene countless times in her mind, Hee-seo felt her throat tighten at the reality of his silence—his refusal to deny.
The fact that the person who prevented Kim Je-eon from living as Kim Je-eon was her own parents—this was unbearable, a weight that nearly crushed her.
And yet, because of this, Hee-seo had to find her parents. Even if it meant exposing their sins and bearing their punishment in their stead, she had to find them and find Hae-jeong.
And for Kim Je-eon as well.
‘I have to give it back.’
Everything he should have had. Everything he should have lived. Everything he should have desired—she had to restore it to him.
This feeling was less love for him than a vow to herself.
For his sake, and for her own. So that Hee-seo could live as her parents’ daughter without shame.
But if, even after that moment came, Kim Je-eon chose to abandon life—could she keep her promise?
Hee-seo swallowed the rising anxiety and asked:
“My mother tried to save your daughter, Kim Je-seon’s mother. But in the end she died, and all that was left to you were two brothers—Kim Je-seon and Kim Je-eon, is that right?”
“Brothers? Ha! Stop spouting such nonsense!”
Before Hee-seo could finish, Kim Jong-hyeop’s voice rose sharply. At his sudden fury, she glanced past the closed door, though he didn’t notice.
Unable to contain himself, Kim Jong-hyeop struck the floor with his cane, his voice cracking with rage.
“That ungrateful wretch, that fool, that arrogant little thing—I took in a bastard born out of wedlock, registered him in the Kim family register, and he should be grateful for that alone. Brothers? My blood doesn’t run through that thing’s veins! For him to serve as a vessel for my Je-seon is his glory. Ha! That wretched boy should have stayed in the orphanage!”
The old man trembled with rage, his fury pouring forth. And there was reason behind it.
“If not for that viper Kim Je-eon, my daughter wouldn’t have died so young! A Curse? That pathetic Curse, my daughter had overcome it. If not for that Kim Je-eon…!”
Tears of anguish glinted in his clouded eyes. Most of Kim Jong-hyeop’s bloodline had died before their time, yet his daughter alone had been able to escape death.
If not for that filthy son-in-law’s bastard, brought into the world from the outside, his daughter would still be at his side.
“So there was indeed a Curse.”
But Hee-seo had found the most crucial clue in Kim Jong-hyeop’s fury.
Though he had denied and hidden the Curse all this time, the old man, lost to reason at the memory of his daughter’s death, couldn’t hold back the words he should have kept.
“Yes. That accursed serpent’s Curse—because of it, I gained all this wealth, yet my bloodline died one after another! But my daughter, my only daughter, my Su-yeon—she could have lived! That woman, your mother, promised she would save her!”
The corpse of his daughter, stiffening even now, flashed vividly before his eyes. Kim Jong-hyeop cried out her name as if coughing blood.
“My daughter, my precious flesh and blood…. She said she would embrace that filthy bastard born even by killing his own mother, that viper born of a serpent. She buried herself in caring for him, and the sickness deepened. That’s why she couldn’t recover. That’s why she was devoured by the snake….”
The old man, overcome with rage, trembled and collapsed onto the sofa. Then, as if suppressing a wail, he wrapped his weathered hands around his face and breathed harshly. But as Hee-seo watched the fallen old man, her expression held only coldness.
“So Kim Je-eon is a viper? Because he killed your daughter and his own mother? Is all of that Kim Je-eon’s fault? Is being born itself a crime?”
“Yes, yes! Yes! That bastard is a snake. He was born under the Curse of the serpent. To destroy our entire house! That viper!”
The old man, breathing in ragged gasps like someone seized by madness, suddenly blazed his eyes and shrieked.
“So I’ll repay him. Using that snake’s body as a vessel… I’ll bring our Je-seon back to life. Then I’ll have my revenge on that serpent. I’ll win. I’ll… I’ll finally win.”
The old man’s eyes gleamed red and bloodshot as he bared his teeth in a smile—grotesque, terrible to behold.
“I’ll help you with that.”
His bloodshot eyes flashed as they fixed on Hee-seo. Unbridled distrust lay bare across his face.
“Didn’t you leave this place of your own accord? And now you come to help me? How am I supposed to believe that?”
Hee-seo had already anticipated Kim Jong-hyeop’s sharp response, so she answered without hesitation.
“Do you really need to trust me? We’re using each other anyway, aren’t we? You never trusted me from the start. That’s why you didn’t tell me that the thing I had to drive out of Kim Je-eon’s body was Kim Je-eon himself. You didn’t just withhold that—you deceived me so thoroughly I might as well have been possessed by a ghost. Can you deny it?”
Kim Jong-hyeop let out a sharp breath through his nose, fighting back his anger at Hee-seo’s words that struck home. She set down the cold teacup on the table and fixed the old man with her gaze.
Before entering the Estate, she and Kim Je-eon had gone over every scenario and aligned their story, but this question came from Hee-seo’s genuine curiosity alone.
“There’s one thing I’d like to ask. You don’t have to answer honestly, but I’m really curious.”

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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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