Chapter: 04
Haena could only blink her eyes stupidly.
She was certain she had heard wrong. But she didn’t have the courage to ask him to say it again.
After turning over the words she had heard in her mind several times, Haena asked with wide eyes.
“Then, then…”
“……”
“Is Tamrang Seonggun… my older sister…?”
Seo Wan was at a loss for words for a moment as he met her sparkling sunset-colored eyes.
“Is that important?”
“Of course it is!”
For a moment, Haena shouted without even thinking about her fear.
Though her courage quickly faded afterward.
Seeing the child once again watching his expression carefully, Seo Wan let out a low sigh.
“You became a traitor as a member of the Yeon family because I abandoned you there.”
“……”
“If you had been discovered by someone other than me, you would have died.”
Even after hearing the cold reality repeated to her, Haena still had a calm expression.
In the end, Seo Wan asked directly.
“Then why don’t you resent me?”
He thought he would hear the same words from Haena that he had heard from his own mother.
Since it was an obvious fact, Seo Wan stood before the child, prepared to accept her resentment willingly.
“Uh, that’s…”
But those eyes were far too innocent.
Haena lowered her head hesitantly.
Fidgeting with her small hands clasped together, Haena raised her head again.
“Even so, you came to find me… and you saved me.”
“You might not have been saved.”
“B-but you did save me.”
Haena answered clearly despite her trembling voice. The child continued hesitantly.
“There was someone who gave me my name. He was the family steward until two years ago.”
Haena’s face became slightly clouded as she remembered him. She swallowed once before continuing.
“He always told me that I wasn’t abandoned. Because the first person who found me placed in front of the main gate was that man… that uncle.”
He was the man known as Chief Steward Seo.
He had cared for Haena, whom everyone else ignored, like a father.
“From the clothes I wore to the baby blanket I was wrapped in, they were all very, very expensive silk. The kind that only a child from a noble family would use.”
He said it was because she was a precious child, and that whoever left her there wanted her to be cared for properly.
The uncle had smiled brightly as he told her that.
“He said there must have been a reason they couldn’t raise me. But he said they left me there because they still wanted me to live well.”
The more Haena spoke, the more choked her voice became.
Chief Steward Seo had died two years ago.
When Haena was assigned to the basement, he discovered what was happening there while taking care of the child.
He desperately tried to stop the family head.
It was because of his affection for the young master he had served since childhood.
But Yeon Gi-mun was no longer the young master he once knew.
To prevent information from leaking out, he killed Chief Steward Seo and threw away his body without even holding a funeral.
After Chief Steward Seo’s death, Haena was left alone.
Whenever she felt lonely and sad, Haena remembered the words he had told her.
That she was a precious child.
That her family, who must still be somewhere in the world, would surely hope that she was living happily.
‘Never forget that I will always wish the same for you too, Haena.’
Those were the last words her uncle had given her.
A tear fell from Haena’s lowered eyes.
Seo Wan noticed the tear and slightly furrowed his brows.
Haena raised her head with her eyes red.
“Isn’t that right?”
Seo Wan did not answer. But he also could not immediately deny it.
“I think it’s true. You recognized me as soon as you saw me, and you brought me here…”
“……”
“If you thought it didn’t matter even if I died, you wouldn’t have done that.”
Haena continued while holding back her tears with her reddened eyes.
“My uncle always said that everything a person does eventually comes back to them. So that day, I thought I was receiving punishment for my sins.”
But then Seo Wan appeared.
Someone who wished for her to live well.
Someone who considered her a precious child.
“When you saved me back then, I was really happy.”
Haena lifted the corners of her mouth. But because she was smiling while holding back tears, her expression looked strange.
“Eight years ago, and this time too… thank you so much.”
The child bowed deeply.
Her already small body looked even smaller as she bent down.
Looking down at her, Seo Wan felt conflicted.
He had thought the child resembled him, but perhaps that was not true.
Neither he nor his mother possessed even the slightest bit of kindness. Yet this child was so gentle and innocent.
‘She must resemble her father.’
Perhaps, just as he truly was Tamrang Seonggun’s child, the promise Haena’s father had made to his mother might have also been true.
Would it have been better to find the child’s father instead of leaving her in front of the Yeon family?
But regret could not change the past.
“You don’t need to thank me.”
Seo Wan spoke stiffly.
“Like the man who cared for you said, I am only taking responsibility for what I have done. So tell me what you want. What compensation do you desire?”
At those words, the child raised her head with a confused expression.
Seo Wan, unusually kind, added an explanation.
“Compensation for the suffering you endured in the Yeon family. Say anything. As long as it is within my ability, I will grant it.”
Haena’s eyes widened.
She looked uneasy, but Seo Wan did not take back his words.
“Then, um… can I stay here? I’ll do whatever work you tell me to do. It’s okay if you don’t pay me either.”
Seo Wan’s face frowned at the answer she finally gave after thinking carefully.
“Are you asking me to employ you as a servant in this mansion?”
At his cold response, Haena’s shoulders drooped.
“I-I’m sorry. I made a mistake. Please pretend you didn’t hear that.”
Haena had nowhere to go.
If she was thrown out onto the streets alone like this, she had no idea what might happen to her.
It seemed that even using a child who had worked for a traitor’s family as a servant was uncomfortable.
‘Then what do I do now…?’
As Haena began worrying gloomily about her future, Seo Wan’s voice reached her.
“I will naturally arrange a place for you to stay.”
Haena, who had been staring only at her toes, lifted her head in surprise.
“The compensation I mentioned is not something as insignificant as that. So tell me something proper.”
Gulp.
Haena swallowed in surprise.
Even allowing her to live here as a young lady instead of a servant was already far beyond what she deserved, and yet even that was not considered compensation.
‘What am I supposed to ask for?’
She could not simply say that she needed nothing. Seo Wan’s gaze was far too intimidating.
After struggling for a long time over what she could possibly request, Haena finally brought up the biggest thing she could ask for.
“Then, um… can I call you older sister?”
Seo Wan accepted Haena’s request.
Although immediately after hearing those words, he frowned as if he had heard something he should not have heard, and asked twice if that was really all she wanted.
However, Haena firmly nodded her head, and in the end, Seo Wan reluctantly agreed.
She muttered that she would have to add this as another debt she owed her, but Haena, who was too happy that her request had been accepted, did not hear her.
Before they knew it, the sun had begun to set.
After Seo Wan returned to her quarters, Cheongyeon prepared dinner and helped Haena change into sleeping clothes.
It had been a day filled with countless events.
She thought she was going to die, but she lived.
And she learned that the older sister whose life or death she had never known about actually existed.
As soon as she lay down on the bed, perhaps because the tension had finally disappeared, sleep rushed over her.
“Sleep well, miss.”
With Cheongyeon’s gentle words as the last thing she heard, Haena fell asleep as if she had fainted.
How long had she slept like that?
Haena felt a bright light piercing her eyes.
“Mm…”
Frowning, Haena pulled the blanket over her head.
But even then, the light was still strong.
‘It’s so bright…’
Just as Haena, whose peaceful sleep had been interrupted, turned over,
‘What time is it now?’
The thought suddenly came to her, and her eyes snapped open.
Haena jumped up in surprise. Looking outside the window, she saw that the sun was already high in the sky.
Even though it was only early summer, it looked like it was at least Sasi (9–11 a.m.).
‘This is crazy!’
Haena hurriedly got out of bed.
Normally, Haena woke up at the beginning of Myosi (around 5 a.m.).
Taking care of the children in the basement and cleaning the place had been her responsibility.
The morning had already passed by. How hungry must they be?
As she moved about hurriedly, Haena looked around the room.
This was not the cramped room with an old bed where she had stayed in the Yeon family.
The room, filled with sunlight pouring through tightly fitted windows, was elegant and clean.
“Ah…”
Right. That’s how it was.
Even though she understood with her mind that her situation had changed, perhaps her body had not realized it yet.
After finally feeling relieved, Haena sat back down on the bed.
Then, she heard someone’s presence outside the door.
“Miss, are you awake?”
