166 – Naughty Girl # 2

166 – Naughty Girl # 2

“Mom, Dad! I’m home!”

Baek Yeo-ul returned home after a long absence.

Her parents were in the yard, burying a large jar.

“What are you doing?”

Baek Yeo-ul’s father answered her question.

“Our daughter’s home. We’re hiding things, preparing for when we return from the moon. Look here. We’ve put bottle caps and gold bars in this jar, so many of them.”

“Wow.”

Baek Yeo-ul’s eyes sparkled, reflecting the colorful gleam of gold bars and bottle caps inside the jar. Apparently, her parents had already buried several such jars in the yard.

How long it would take to return from the moon to Earth was unknown, but surely, even in a restarted world, gold and bottle caps would hold considerable value.

The only worry was forgetting where the gold had been buried.

“What if so much time passes that our house and the buildings are all gone? So, I want to place a large rock nearby to remember the location. Daughter, you need to lift this rock for us.”

It was a huge rock, like a small hill.

It seemed like it would take several pieces of heavy equipment to move it, but Baek Yeo-ul lifted it up alone with a whoosh and placed it down in the yard with a thud.

Watching her, her mother exclaimed in admiration.

“Our daughter is so strong! A rock this size should stay here firmly for a hundred, even a thousand years. Then later, we can look for this rock and dig in the ground nearby!”

Baek Yeo-ul’s parents didn’t seem worried about moving to the moon. It almost seemed like they were looking forward to starting anew on Earth when they returned.

“Aren’t you scared, Mom? When we return from the moon to Earth, there won’t be hospitals or supermarkets, nothing at all.”

“That’s why it’s a good thing. People will still need to eat, won’t they? If our Baekdang Foods seizes the opportunity, we can rise to become a global corporation at once.”

Swish, swish, swish.

Her mother stroked Baek Yeo-ul’s hair.

She added, with an expression somewhere between pride and affection,

“And we have family. We have you, Dad, and little Mibbang. Having family is like having everything. So, if there’s anything you want to keep safe, put it in a jar.”

Likely, they intended to bury a few more earthenware jars in the yard.

Except, Baek Yeoul had no need to fill jars with possessions.

Because Baek Yeoul was far more likely to remain on this earth than journey to the moon.

“I…”

But the words caught in her throat.

To utter that she wouldn’t be joining them to the moon, that she wished to remain here with Ha Namjin, meant she might never see her parents again.

Jars buried deep in the earth could remain intact for a hundred, a thousand years. The stones Baek Yeoul had diligently moved, as well.

But whether Baek Yeoul, who chose to stay behind with Ha Namjin, would still be on this earth when her parents returned from the moon… no one could say.

And so, seeing Baek Yeoul hesitate, her mother, Madame Dang Hwayeon, spoke.

“Yeoul, you’re thinking of following that boy, aren’t you? Namjin. I don’t know what you intend to do with him , but it seems we won’t be seeing you for a good while.”

“I? I’m…”

Baek Yeoul was struck dumb, as if her mother had read her very mind. She fidgeted, lost for words, and Madame Dang Hwayeon let out a lilting laugh.

“I carried you for ten months in my belly. If it’s you I know what you crave to eat, who you harbor feelings for. And I, too, had such times.”

Madame Dang Hwayeon gazed at her husband, President Baek Jungwon.

Wrinkles now etched his face, and a paunch strained against his belt, yet in her eyes, he remained the dashing, virile man she had known in his youth.

“Do you know how grand and handsome your father was when he went abroad to China to learn to cook? Girls lined up to meet him when he walked in the city. So this mother of yours suffered greatly.”

The courtship of Madame Dang Hwayeon and President Baek Jungwon was not without strife.

Madame Dang Hwayeon’s family had vehemently opposed the union.

Baek Jungwon was a foreigner, and above all, a man of meager means.

The discord with her family escalated, and in the end, Madame Dang Hwayeon left home.

She had forsaken honor and wealth for the sake of love.

Settling in Korea, a land where she knew not a soul, was a consequence of that choice.

“You take after this mother of yours, Yeoul. Once you latch onto something, you become blind to all else. Even if it were the parents that bore you, or the sisters you grew up with.”

*Swish, swish, swish—.*

Madame Dang Hwayeon stroked Baek Yeoul’s hair.

“Still, you and I are different. I wasn’t blessed by my own mother, but I hope that you will be. Yeoul, I will support you no matter where you are, or with whom you choose to be.”

*A soft squeeze.*

A misty sheen filled Baek Yeoul’s eyes.

Her mother’s support brought her to the verge of tears.

Yet her father, President Baek Jungwon, maintained a stern expression.

“I’m against it. Though, as someone who ran away to Korea with another’s daughter, I suppose I have no right to speak. Yeoul-ah, your father only wants your happiness.”

“Papa! Mama!”

*Whump.*

Baek Yeoul embraced her father and mother.

The family held each other for a long time.

As if prepaying for all the time they wouldn’t see each other in the future.

When they finally pulled apart, Baek Yeoul’s eyes were swollen—puffy from crying. She looked just like a raccoon, which made Lady Dang Hwa-yeon laugh.

“She’s my daughter, but she’s so ugly when she cries. Don’t cry in front of Namjin. He might dislike you. There are so many pretty girls around him; you always have to look your best just to keep up.”

“That’s too much! I’m your daughter, you should say I look pretty even when I cry!”

“For the record, Mibbangie is coming with Mama and Papa. We’ve sent off our eldest daughter to marriage, so we need our youngest daughter to have some fun with.”

Baek Yeoul thought of Mibbangie.

Mibbangie loved her parents.

It would be good for Mibbangie to go to the Moon with them.

In any case, thanks to her parents, she made up her mind.

Baek Yeoul would find Dang Dalgi, who was committing terrible deeds, and put an end to the generations-long feud.

“Keongkeong-ah, now track down Dang Dalgi’s scent!”

*Woof…!*

# # #

Seo Gaeul was shocked that the “Gi” dwelling within her was actually Namjin, or rather, “Kore.”

Kore’s thoughts, imbued in the concept of “Miracle,” that was her true identity.

*I have been watching you both from within you all along.*

“Wait, does that mean…”

*Yes, I even saw you kissing Namjin’s face while he was asleep—.*

“Awaawaawaawaaak! I never did that!”

Seo Gaeul’s face burned bright red.

Kore knew all the embarrassing things Seo Gaeul had done. It was as if the most secret pages of her diary had been exposed, and she couldn’t collect herself.

“This is a nightmare!”

Seo Gaeul clutched her head and howled like a fox caught in a trap.

“Aooo! Aooo!”

*Don’t be so hard on yourself. When I was your age, I did far more embarrassing things. Compared to me, you’re quite well-behaved and demure.*

“Awoo! Awooo!”

After thrashing about for what felt like an eternity, Seo Gaeul finally managed to calm down. Kore spoke, her voice gentle.

—With the power of the “Miracle” you possess, there might still be a chance. However, you’ll have to make a choice both complicated and difficult.

“What is this chance?”

Seo Gaeul asked Kore cautiously.

Kore, in her small and delicate voice, then revealed something astonishing.

—As an owner of the “Miracle”, you may be able to control the dark allure within the concept of “Immortality.” If you were to swallow the Concept Stone of Immortality and succeed to the throne of the Red King, you would gain tremendous power.

“I…?”

—When everyone else has departed for the moon, you alone will remain on this planet, waiting for the spring that will one day return. Whether it takes ten years, or a hundred, if you can control the power of “Immortality”…

Control “Immortality” with the power of “Miracle” and remain on Earth alone, waiting for others to return— If she could wield the power of immortality, reuniting with those who had gone to the moon wouldn’t be impossible.

But it wouldn’t be easy.

Seo Gaeul recalled the time when she’d been kidnapped by Ha Namjin.

The time spent alone in that dark basement was more painful than anything, simply because it was so profoundly boring.

How much greater would the loneliness and solitude be, if she had to spend nearly a hundred years alone, without any human contact?

Just imagining herself left alone on Earth sent shivers down Seo Gaeul’s spine.

Kore, dwelling within her, truly understood her feelings.

—I won’t force you. Truthfully, if I had succeeded to the throne of the Red King when I should have, none of this would have happened. It’s all my fault in the first place.

Originally, Kore should have left her son, Ha Namjin, and her husband when Ha Namjin turned ten, to inherit the throne of the Red King.

However, Kore wanted to watch her son grow up just a little longer.

She knew that her own father, the Fairy King Vala, was suffering from the concepts of “Immortality” and “Darkness,” but she couldn’t bear to leave her family’s side, her eyes clinging to the sight of her son growing.

Seo Gaeul didn’t blame Kore for that.

The truth was, much of what went wrong was her fault too.

If she had acted a little more wisely when she visited Yoo Yeoreum’s orphanage as a child—

If she hadn’t pushed Baek Yeoul away pointlessly after her mother died—

If she hadn’t acted like such a fool at that Christmas party—

If she had listened to Ha Namjin’s story a little more closely when she was kidnapped—

There had been so many chances to set things right.

What if Seo Gaeul had acted a little more honestly and sincerely back then?

And so, Seo Gaeul felt responsible, and wanted to do what she could for the people whose lives she had messed up.

Maybe, from a long time ago, she had been hoping for an opportunity like this to come along.

“I shall attempt to consume the concept of ‘Immortality’.”

Seo Gaeul, her resolve hardened.

Kore felt a surge of both profound admiration and tenderness toward Seo Gaeul.

For a girl, barely twenty years of age, to shoulder such a weighty burden.

The trials and thorny paths that lay before her felt like a piece of her own heart, almost bringing tears to her eyes.

The truth was, Seo Gaeul was just as afraid, but rather than simply tremble, she chose to focus on what needed to be done.

“…But, do you think Ha Namjin will readily agree? That rascal will surely oppose my taking on this responsibility.”

━That is likely. But if we use the secret technique passed down among our fairies, persuading my son, Namjin, will be as easy as pie.

“A secret technique?”

━It’s called 「Nymph’s Secret, Soft and Supple」.

Soft and supple─!

The phrase sent a jolt through Seo Gaeul’s mind, like an electric current.