Stigma Chapter 5 part1

“Mmm…”

SeoYoon woke up because he was incredibly thirsty.

He felt as if his head had cracked open. As he woke up in pain, he opened his eyes.

The first thing he saw was the unfamiliar ceiling.

Where was this place?

He recalled what had happened last night and realized that he was in EunSeo's room.

The room EunSeo used in the brothel.

The reason why the ceiling was so unfamiliar to him was because he only came here to slake his lust in EunSeo's body. He had never slept here before.

He had never fallen asleep on top of the bedding.

He had no reason to see the ceiling before.

However, today he woke up in this room.

‘Last night…'

He remembered that he had come here to EunSeo's room and had drunk a lot of liquor.

Because it was the 49th day after EunLib's passing, he had only drunk liquor last night.

And then he fell asleep.

A blanket was draped over his chest.

Had EunSeo done this?

He turned his head to the side and saw EunSeo's back. She was still asleep.

She wasn't wearing any clothing and was only covered by the blanket. She had fallen asleep on her side.

‘Stigma…'

SeoYoon gazed at the prostitute's stigma stamped onto her skin.

As long as her body had been burned with that stigma, there was no way she could find freedom.

He stretched out his hand and gently touched the stigma on her back.

She must have been exhausted. She didn't wake up at his touch.

SeoYoon turned towards her and stroked the stigma with the tips of his fingers.

He only had four bars of gold left in his possession.

Four bars of gold.

He would only be able to buy EunSeo four more times.

After receiving one bar of gold the first time, the madame would never lower her price.

Four times.

Twelve days.

Once those days were up, what would he do?

He couldn't tolerate another man touching her.

‘If you're going to have your revenge, do it quickly…'

SeoYoon held back a sigh.

He didn't know why she was so slow to have her revenge.

However, he also felt glad that it was taking so long.

He was scared that she would take her own life once her revenge had been completed.

‘What do I need to do…'

What did he have to do to save her?

What did he have to to in order to keep her alive after she had her revenge?

How could he free her from this brothel? And how could he make sure that she'd continue living?

SeoYoon had a few ideas.

‘I don't want to send her away… But I probably should…'

He tried to be a beast.

He tried to be a greedy beast and possess her. He wasn't going to let her go until he died.

He'd forget about their past and continue to fuel her hatred. He'd become a beast and mercilessly feed his desire through her. He wasn't going to think about anything but that.

However, it was only a short-lived plan.

He tried to be a beast, but he couldn't become a beast. He tried to become a man who lost his mind, but in the end, he couldn't do that either.

He had reached his limit.

SeoYoon took his fingers away and pulled her into his embrace.

He wrapped his arms around her and buried his head into her hair.

He felt as if he'd gone back in time.

Back to the day they had agreed to marry in the pavilion. He had embraced her just like this.

However, the stigma never vanished from her body, and he knew the stigma inside their heart remained as well.

Unless he gouged out that piece of skin, the stigma would stay.

He would have to cut out that piece of flesh to get rid of the stigma on her skin, and he would have to cut out her heart to get rid of the stigma inside.

He could cut her flesh, but he couldn't cut out her heart.

Even if the stigma disappeared from her body, the one in her heart would stay forever.

Happiness would never come.

“I love you…”

SeoYoon mumbled as he hugged her tight.

“I'm sorry that all I have to offer you is my heart…”

But this woman would never accept his heart.

Since she would never receive the heart he was offering her, it would forever be lost.

The woman who told him she'd be satisfied with only his heart was no longer here.

He had killed her.

He had killed her with his own hands. The woman who had smiled at him as she told him that his heart was all she needed.

And only the shell of the woman remained. Full of revenge and hatred for him.

It was all his fault.

“I… love you…”

I'll probably never be able to confess this again.

SeoYoon closed his eyes.

“SeoYoon-nim.”

SeoYoon was about to leave the brothel.

When he heard EunSeo's voice calling for him, he turned around.

This was the first time she had left her room to see him off at the entrance of the brothel.

“SeoYoon-nim, are you happy?”

When he heard her mysterious question, SeoYoon laughed quietly.

“Yes. What about you? Are you happy?”

“Yes, I'm happy.”

Only they knew what their words meant.

“I'll come in the evening.”

“I'll be waiting.”

As SeoYoon exited through the door, EunSeo bowed elegantly.

When she came back into her room, she realized that something had been dropped on the floor.

“This is…”

EunSeo crouched down and picked it up. Her eyes began to fill with tears.

It was a pouch.

I was the small pouch she had personally embroidered.

That man had probably dropped it here as he was leaving.

He had definitely kept it with him all this time and dropped it as he left.

Did he know that he had lost this?

“……”

EunSeo hesitated as she held the pouch in her hand.

What should she do with this?

Should she throw it away? Burn it?

She calmly gazed at the pouch as she remembered how she had felt when she made this.

Her heart had been racing inside her chest.

“I like him. I'd like for him to be my brother-in-law. What do you think, EunSeo?”

Her brother had liked SeoYoon a lot.

What had crossed her brother's mind as he lay dying in that man's arms?

What kind of expression did he have?

If it was her brother, he probably…

“Idiot… Stupid Brother…”

He probably laughed.

Her brother would never have dreamed of something like revenge. That was the kind of man her brother was. Therefore, he would have chosen a different path.

Her brother would have definitely scolded her if he saw her now.

But… He was dead, so he couldn't even scold her.

“So who told you… to go and die…”

EunSeo clenched the pouch and spoke reproachfully.

She blamed her brother as she closed her eyes.

She could no longer turn back now. It was too late.

After leaving the brothel, SeoYoon headed for the palace.

It had been a while since SeoYoon had been here, so everything felt strange to him.

No, the palace was always strange to him.

He crossed through the wide garden and was just about to reach the king's room when he suddenly stopped.

This was the place EunLib had died.

Although there was no trace of it, this was the place where he had cut off EunLib's head that night.

Drowning in those memories, SeoYoon stood still. He barely managed to break free and began to walk again.

He had come to meet with the king.

It hadn't been difficult to obtain an audience with the king as he thought.

To the new king, SeoYoon was a valuable contributor to his reclamation of the throne. Therefore, the king was very considerate towards him.

The king was a benevolent ruler. He didn't purge those that opposed him as other rulers had done.

General Oh had wanted to purge the government of those that opposed the king, but the king had blocked him. Everyone knew this.

General Oh had tried to act as Prime Minister Chae had done in the past, but the king had wisely blocked it.

If the current king had been as foolish as the previous king, he would have been thoroughly controlled by General Oh, just as the previous king had been controlled by Prime Minister Chae.

“I have a request.”

SeoYoon bowed his head in front of the king.

He had tried to talk to General Oh, but it was no use. Therefore, he had come to see the king.

“What is your request? I will do anything I can to make it happen.”

“According to your royal command, Yoo EunSeo, the sister of Yoo EunLib, who had been a guard of the previous king, has been sent as a prostitute to a brothel. I sincerely ask you to give her back her freedom.”

SeoYoon didn't care if he was laughed at for asking for a favor on behalf of a woman instead of accepting a government post.

He didn't care if people called him a fool.

However, if he was rejected, he planned on staying here and begging over and over again until the king accepted his request.

If it came down to it, he would even sacrifice his life in order for EunSeo to gain her freedom.

Even though the stigma would remain on her skin, as long as she didn't show it to anyone, she would be no different from anyone else.

He decided on this as he gazed at her sleeping figure this morning.

Even though his savage desire for her remained… Even though he didn't want to send her away… When he thought about how her heart had been racing against his back as he carried her in the mountain, he realized that he had to let her go.

Of course, he didn't think she'd go away once she was free to leave the brothel.

Therefore, SeoYoon knew that he had to disappear.

As long as he disappeared, she wouldn't be able to die and would continue living.

Even if she felt like dying, the fact that she had been unable to kill him with her own hands would fill her with remorse. Because of this remorse, she would be too angry to die. And she'd continue to survive.

Her hatred ran that deep, so this would definitely be the case.

This was the best he could do.

For his sake, and for hers.

He should have done this from the start.

From the beginning, he shouldn't acted like a selfish beast that wanted to keep her close to his side. He should have done this sooner.

Even though it was a bit late, this was how he would atone for his sins.

How he would repent to the dead EunLib. And how he would repent to the living EunSeo.

“Brothel? What are you talking about?”

“Excuse me?”

SeoYoon lifted his head in disbelief.

It was incredibly improper for one to raise their head to the king. Even though he knew this, SeoYoon couldn't stop himself.

“A royal command sent her to the brothel? I don't know what you're talking about. I've never commanded something like that.”

“After the restoration of the throne, the male family members of those that opposed you were beheaded, and the women were sent to brothels…?”

SeoYoon felt dizzy.

What was going on?

Why was the king acting as if he didn't know about this?

Did he not order this?

Then who dared to impersonate the king and…

‘General Oh!'

Only one person came to mind.

He had gone to General Oh multiple times to beg for help when it came to EunSeo. However, he had told him that it was a royal command, and that he couldn't do anything about it.

General Oh had falsified a royal command and lied.

But why did he lie about something like this?

What reason did he have?

“How strange. I'll call for General Oh and ask him what is going on. You may leave and wait for further orders.”

The king tilted his head and called out to the eunuch waiting outside. Before exiting the room, SeoYoon heard the king order, ‘Call for General Oh.'

After going outside, SeoYoon didn't move for a long time.

Something strange was happening.

General Oh.

He was the one who had dragged him into all this.

After the rebellion's success, he had advised SeoYoon many times to accept the government post.

Did he have some kind of personal grudge? Why did he send EunSeo to a brothel?

SeoYoon stumbled as he walked.

Even though he didn't know General Oh's reasoning, now that the king had lifted the command, there was still hope.

If the king gave his permission, EunSeo would be freed from the brothel.

“EunSeo…”

SeoYoon staggered as he called out her name.

The sun hadn't set yet, but he wanted to see her already.

His feet automatically began to walk towards her.

TN: Umm, why didn't you go to the king earlier, SY??? You could have avoided all this if you'd only gone sooner!!! But… to his defense, I think going to the king was his last resort. This whole time, SY believed that the king had ordered all this to happen because that's what General Oh had told him. And SY had no reason not to believe General Oh, the king's right-hand man. He went to the king as a last resort, expecting a rejection, and was ready to kneel in front of the king's room as he begged for ES's freedom… But something fishy is going on here. WTF, General Oh?!

Chapter end