TLSWF 02

Chapter: 02

Seowan took Haena to the Yul family’s residence.

The mansion, built with blue tiles and black wood, was antique and elegant.

Even the servants’ orderly movements were unusual, as if they were from no ordinary household.

Even if they had spared her life, a criminal was still a criminal. Haena thought she would be thrown into an abandoned warehouse or a prison.

However, contrary to Haena’s expectations, the servants guided the child to a room that seemed fit only for a precious young lady.

Haena looked around the room with a bewildered expression.

A bed covered with silk blankets, cabinets and tables made from fine-quality wood, and even the faint, pleasant fragrance drifting through the air.

‘Why did they bring me here……?’

She had spent a long time hiding inside the closet, and after climbing down from Seowan’s shoulder, she had been standing for quite a while, so her legs hurt.

But Haena couldn’t bring herself to sit even on the floor.

The room was so beautiful that she felt even the floor would be cleaner than she was.

“Do you like the room, young lady?”

At that moment, a kind-looking woman approached Haena.

She was Cheongyeon, the maid who had received the child from Seowan and personally guided her here.

“First, I think you should wash up. I have prepared bathwater, so would you come this way?”

“P-please don’t speak so politely to me. How could you speak that way to someone as lowly as me…….”

Startled by the gentle words, Haena waved her hands in panic. Cheongyeon tilted her head in confusion.

“Lowly? What do you mean? Since you are a guest brought here by the head of the household, you naturally deserve to be treated this way.”

“I, well, that is……. I am not a child who deserves such treatment.”

Haena lowered her head deeply and answered hesitantly. The cloud pattern embroidered on her worn-out collar was visible.

Cheongyeon stared quietly at Haena.

The person who had suddenly arrived at the Yul family’s residence, which rarely accepted guests, was a thin and frightened child.

Cheongyeon, who worked inside the mansion, knew little about what happened outside.

The Yeon family may have committed treason, but among such a heavy crime, how much wrongdoing could this small child possibly have committed?

The child’s small, round brown head trembled. She looked as though she had committed some enormous sin and was shrinking in fear.

Cheongyeon felt deeply sorry for her.

“Young lady. This place is the Yul family’s residence.”

Bending down to meet her eyes, Cheongyeon looked into the frightened green eyes.

“The master of this residence is Lord Seowan, and I, a servant here, only follow what my master commands.”

“……”

“What kind of person you are is not important. What matters is that Lord Seowan ordered me to take good care of you.”

A trace of confusion appeared in the orange eyes that had been filled with fear.

Cheongyeon smiled warmly.

“So it’s all right. If it truly bothers you, then help me make sure I don’t disobey my orders. Okay?”

Haena nodded without realizing it.

Then Cheongyeon gently picked Haena up and carried her toward the tub filled with bathwater.

The water gave off a faint fragrance. With quick yet gentle movements, Cheongyeon removed the child’s clothes and placed her into the bath.

“Now, I’ll wash you quickly.”

Cheongyeon carefully washed Haena, dried her body afterward, applied scented oil, and dried her hair.

After changing the child’s clothes as well, Cheongyeon left the room, saying she would bring her a meal.

In the blink of an eye, Haena had become clean and fragrant, and she was left alone in the room.

‘W-what is this…….’

It was far too generous of a treatment.

A servant helping her bathe and even scented oil? For Haena, who had been a maid of the Yeon family, even warm water had been a luxury.

‘And these clothes…….’

Haena carefully looked down at the clothes she was wearing.

The peach-colored jeogori had patterns embroidered with golden thread, and the hem of the pale green skirt shimmered softly.

Having worked in a merchant family, Haena could immediately recognize how precious and expensive the silk used in these clothes was.

‘Why are they going this far for me?’

Tamrangseong Lord Yul Seowan was not someone who showed mercy just because someone was young.

At least, that was what Haena had heard until now.

Four years ago, the illegitimate daughter of the former Tamrangseong Lord suddenly inherited the power of Tamrangseong.

No, she wasn’t even an illegitimate daughter.

She was the child born from an entertainer who had been the former Tamrangseong Lord’s companion for a single night.

Seowan became the new Tamrangseong Lord after slaughtering the members of the Yul family who opposed serving someone of such lowly blood as their lord.

If someone carried the Yul surname, she would not have even spared a newborn baby.

After that, even when handling various political affairs as the king’s watchdog, she had never once shown mercy.

‘Or perhaps…… did she think I hadn’t done anything wrong?’

The moment she thought that, Haena’s small heart sank.

“……That’s not true.”

Her tiny mutter was filled with guilt.

Haena had been the only child servant working for the Yeon family.

The other servants, no matter how young, were all adults over eighteen.

The children were all underground. Trapped inside that prison.

‘She said she saved those children.’

The reason the royal soldiers stormed into the Yeon family must have been because what the family had done to those children was discovered.

So, did Seowan think she had been in the same situation as those children?

That she had been too young to understand anything. That she was merely a victim who had been used…….

‘No.’

Haena bit her lower lip tightly.

The children’s cries still echoed in her ears.

They had all cried so much.

They had reached out their hands, saying they were in pain, asking for help.

Haena couldn’t help those children. She was afraid she would end up in the same situation.

Then and now, Haena wanted to live, and she was happy that she was alive.

She did not have the courage to say now, “I did wrong, so please kill me.”

But if Seowan did not know about her sins, then she had to tell her.

No matter how shameless it was, she could not keep her mouth shut.

Even if it meant kneeling at her feet again and begging her to spare her life.

Just as Haena made up her mind and suddenly stood from the chair, the sliding door opened with a rattling sound.

The moment she saw Seowan appear beyond the door, Haena froze.

Despite the child’s reaction, Seowan walked toward her with steady steps.

Behind the opened door, Haena could see Cheongyeon looking over worriedly.

“Why are you standing?”

Seowan, who had been looking down at the child as still as a statue, casually asked.

Haena flinched and quickly sat back down on the chair.

Because she sat down too hurriedly, the hem of her skirt became badly wrinkled.

‘Ah.’

Startled, Haena hurriedly pulled at her skirt so it wouldn’t crease.

“I only asked why.”

Another sentence was added above the busy child’s head.

Haena, who had stiffened completely, slowly stood up from the chair.

“I-I, well. There is something…… I need to tell you.”

Haena forced herself to hurry the words that kept trailing off.

At the Yeon family, she had been scolded whenever she wasn’t quick enough.

Sometimes they made her eat spoiled food, or locked her away in a dark storage room for days.

If she angered the Tamrangseong Lord, it would not end with something as simple as that.

“Speak.”

A cold permission was given.

Haena clenched her trembling hands tightly and hid them inside her sleeves.

“Thank you so much for saving me. B-but, I don’t deserve this kind of treatment. Because…….”

Haena explained as calmly as she could what she had done all this time.

She wanted to make excuses for why she had acted that way, but she held herself back. She had no right to do so.

After finishing her story, Haena let out a deep breath. Her heart was pounding violently.

What would happen now?

Being thrown into prison or having her silk clothes taken away would be fine.

But she was afraid Seowan would become enraged and try to kill her immediately.

“I know you had no choice.”

At that moment, the calm voice cut through the worst thoughts continuing inside Haena’s mind.

“You belonged to the Yeon family from the moment you were born. That is why you acted that way. Your crime is something that should be asked of the person who abandoned you there.”

Just as Seowan said, Haena had been abandoned in front of the Yeon family’s gate when she was a newborn.

But rather than wondering how Seowan knew that fact, Haena felt relief.

“Your crime is not yours to bear.”

Haena lowered her head deeply because she felt like tears were about to fall.

From the moment she became old enough to understand right and wrong, a heavy burden of guilt had rested on the child’s small shoulders.

Whenever she ignored someone else’s death in order to survive, and whenever she survived because of it.

She had countless times thought that perhaps her very existence was something wrong.

No one had ever told Haena that it was not her fault.

Not even Haena herself believed that.

But Seowan told her otherwise.

Relief and gratitude surged through her, and she felt tears about to spill.

Haena bit her lips tightly so she would not ruin the expensive silk clothes.