NTH 36

The person who suddenly appeared from behind the pillar was Geodal, the one who had been scolded by Yunhyeong for hitting Makdongi yesterday. Yunhyeong was quite far away from them, but because his hearing was so exceptional, their voices were as clear as if they were speaking right beside him.

Startled for a moment, Makdongi soon put on a mocking expression.

“Why, were you not satisfied with hitting me yesterday?”

“Does this bastard son of a whore think that is something to be said?”

“Ah, please, just let it go today. My cheek is still throbbing.”

“What’s throbbing is probably your filthy backdoor. Do you think I don’t know what you did with that bastard Jang Geonung in the corner of the barn?”

“If you know, then get out of my way. To be honest, I feel like I’m going to die from exhaustion right now.”

“This whoring bastard is still all talk!”

As Geodal’s foot struck squarely into Makdongi’s stomach, Makdongi was thrown backward. Geodal immediately climbed on top of Makdongi’s body, grabbed him by the collar, and began to relentlessly punch him in the face. Thwack, thwack.

“This bastard, I’ll make sure you can never run that unlucky mouth of yours again today, I’ll absolutely….”

Just as Yunhyeong was about to rush over to stop him, he spotted a man sauntering out from the direction of the barn and his eyes widened. A tall, dark-skinned man dressed in Geodal’s attire was approaching the two with a chilling gaze.

“Ja, Jang Geonung….”

Geodal, who was on top of Makdongi, stuttered, and the man called Jang Geonung raised one corner of his mouth in a smirk and pulled something shiny from his bosom.

Before Yunhyeong could even identify what it was, he shouted in a thunderous, frost-like voice.

“Stop! What do you think you are doing!”

Jang Geonung quickly slipped what he had been holding in his hand back into his bosom and bowed his head to Yunhyeong. The moment Yunhyeong saw the man’s eyes, which looked like a snake’s with their unusually small black pupils and large whites, he felt a strong sense of déjà vu that was difficult to describe.

“This person was beating my close friend indiscriminately, so I was only trying to stop him.”

At Jang Geonung’s words, Geodal, who had been hitting Makdongi, hesitantly backed away while glancing at Yunhyeong. Makdongi, his face a bloody mess, gasped for breath. Each time he coughed, droplets of blood spewed from his mouth, dotting the dirt floor.

“You, take that person to the Horse Physician’s Office and have the physicians treat him. You, come with me.”

After entrusting Makdongi to Jang Geonung, Yunhyeong took Geodal, who had initiated the assault, to the administrative official and instructed that he be given a suitable punishment.

Even after that, Makdongi strangely weighed on his mind. Despite having done everything he could, he felt that something was lacking. He had no choice but to go to the Horse Physician’s Office and ask if an injured servant had come. However, the answer came back that no one had arrived.

Yunhyeong, just in case, headed for the Geodalcheong, the living quarters where the geodals stayed. When Yunhyeong, dressed in his official uniform, entered, the geodals who had been lounging around resting were startled and jumped to their feet.

“M-Mr. Vice Director, what brings you to this humble place….”

An elderly and dignified-looking geodal politely bowed his waist. Yunhyeong looked around once and asked him.

“Has a man named Makdongi come here by any chance?”

“Makdongi? He has not come here at all today.”

“Then what about the geodal named Jang Geonung?”

“I have not seen him either. May I ask why you are looking for them?”

Yunhyeong took only the elderly geodal outside.

“I have just handed over a geodal named Iboknam to the official. It’s because he severely assaulted Makdongi.”

“Ah, that person Boknam, he always picks a fight whenever he sees Makdongi, so he finally went and….”

“Did the two of them not get along before?”

“It was not like that. The horses followed Makdongi so well it was a wonder, so at first, Boknam also wanted to be friends with Makdongi.”

“Then why did their relationship turn sour?”

“Because Makdongi is a fellow who does not easily let others get close. Perhaps because he was abused a lot at his master’s house before coming here, he does not trust people and dislikes mingling. He even stays close to the horses during break times.”

“Hmm.”

“While being of the lowest class, he treated Boknam, who is a commoner, coldly and was even rude, so I think Boknam gradually became angry.”

“Makdongi seemed to be with the geodal named Jang Geonung earlier, so is he only close with that person?”

“Ah…, Jang Geonung is….”

The elderly geodal hesitated, unable to continue his sentence. Yunhyeong took out a silver coin and placed it in his hand.

“I have heard you have a hard time working while managing the boisterous young geodals. We can only entrust the royal family’s horses to you with peace of mind if our subordinates are at ease, can we not. Use this for your health later, and do not worry, speak comfortably.”

“Oh, such a large sum of money…, thank you so much, my lord. The thing is, to Makdongi, Jang Geonung is no different from a savior of his life.”

“Savior of his life, you say?”

To summarize the elderly geodal’s story, it was this.

Makdongi was born to a female servant of a noble family infamous for being a corrupt official. He never knew who his father was, and his mother passed away early from an illness, so Makdongi grew up aimlessly among the slaves.

He was born with a weak constitution and could not properly perform the harsh tasks that male servants had to do, so he became a nuisance. After he grew up, because of his pale skin and delicate features, which were unbecoming of a slave, he caught the eye of the master’s eldest son and was forced to serve him in his pederastic pleasures.

The man, who was already married and had a wife, sought out only Makdongi day after day, so there was no time to produce an heir. Thus, all the women of the household despised Makdongi intensely, and the servants, for their part, ostracized and ignored him, calling him a male prostitute. Makdongi had no one to turn to and had no choice but to endure a life like hell.

At that time, the lives of the common people, except for a very small number of nobles, were mostly impoverished and difficult, but in years of severe famine, the misery reached its peak. The streets were overflowing with the corpses of those who had starved to death or died from epidemics because of landowners who seized every last grain of rice from the tenant farmers.

Unable to bear it any longer, the people became mounted bandits or started uprisings throughout the country, and signs of such a movement were also emerging in the village where Makdongi lived. The starved and cornered people thought that whether they died of starvation while patiently enduring, or died after failing in an uprising as righteous outlaws, they would die either way, and such people gradually gathered to form a large group.

Their very first target became the palace-like house of Makdongi’s master, the corrupt official. The servants of that house had already agreed to quietly open the gates when the band of righteous outlaws arrived and join them. However, because Makdongi was being ostracized, no one told him about the specific plan.

Then one day, Makdongi had his lunch stolen by another slave and was trudging toward the well to fill his stomach with water. At that moment, a tall, dark-skinned man with a sharp impression suddenly blocked his path.

He was Eoksoe, a slave from the wealthiest noble family in the neighboring village. Makdongi also knew Eoksoe. Because the master’s eldest son who coveted Makdongi every day and the son of the noble from the neighboring village were friends, they had run into each other a few times when they visited each other’s houses.

Even so, they had never had a long conversation, but Eoksoe suddenly grabbed Makdongi’s wrist, led him to a secluded place, and began to speak.

The gist of it was that he would expose the righteous outlaws’ plan to his master, and if he did, every single person who participated in the plan would be executed. Eoksoe told Makdongi that if he wanted to save his life, he should do exactly as he was told.

Fifteen days later, on the day of the uprising, Makdongi pretended to run an errand and secretly slipped out of the house. His destination was the noble’s house in the neighboring village, the home of Eoksoe’s master.

While Makdongi was in the neighboring village, the righteous outlaws stormed the corrupt official’s grand house. The servants opened the gates meekly as planned, and the righteous outlaws brutally stabbed to death the corrupt official and all the nobles of his family.

The eldest son was also beaten with clubs wielded by his own house slaves and passed into the afterlife without even being able to make a sound. However, just as the righteous outlaws were about to loot the storehouse where grain and treasures were kept and move them outside, the government troops arrived.

Every single person who participated in the uprising was bound and dragged away to be beheaded. The leaders who masterminded the plan could not escape the humiliation of having their heads impaled on stakes.

The one who had summoned the government troops was Eoksoe’s master. In fact, he had known about this entire plan in advance through Eoksoe, so he could have reported it sooner and prevented Makdongi’s master’s family from being annihilated. However, it was a golden opportunity to wipe out in one fell swoop the family he had been competing with for power for a long time, so he had deliberately reported it late.

If he had not stopped the righteous outlaws, the next victim would have been Eoksoe’s master’s house, so Eoksoe was recognized for his contribution in reporting them, was freed from servitude, and became a commoner with the name Jang Geonung.

Makdongi, who had gone to the neighboring village, suddenly lost his master. Since he had not conspired with the righteous outlaws, he avoided disaster and became a government slave, a gwanno, working at the Office of Royal Stables.

A short time after that, Jang Geonung also came to the government office, saying he wanted to become a geodal. And so, Makdongi came to live with Jang Geonung, the savior of his life.

“If it were not for Jang Geonung, Makdongi would have had his head cut off long ago along with the servants of that house. So he has no choice but to listen meekly to whatever Jang Geonung says.”

“I see.”

“No matter what he demands…, that is.”

How could one possibly fathom the feelings of someone who had to accept another man, Jang Geonung, to stay alive, after barely enduring all the scorn and contempt from those around him while being tormented by the master’s eldest son.

Yunhyeong could not bring himself to say anything. Leaving the Geodalcheong, he walked for a while in the courtyard of the Office of Royal Stables with a somewhat troubled heart.

Makdongi must have been hurt quite badly, but Jang Geonung had not taken him to the Horse Physician’s Office, the only place within the Office of Royal Stables with a physician, nor to their living quarters, the Geodalcheong. Then where on earth could they be now? Makdongi, being a government slave, was in a position where he could not leave the Office of Royal Stables without permission.

When he reached the vicinity of the barn, the place where the fight had occurred, Yunhyeong heard very faint sounds leaking out from the storage shed.

Rough breathing, groans of someone unable to bear the pain, and strange moans. They were sounds so faint that an ordinary person would not have heard them at all.

Approaching the barn and peering inside through the gap between the wall and the thatched roof, Yunhyeong frowned deeply in bewilderment. In a dark corner of the storage shed, a person who appeared to be Makdongi was lying down, and on top of him, a large-bodied man was mounted, as if lying prone.

The man was engaged in the bizarre act of frantically licking and sucking the blood that flowed freely on Makdongi’s face and the nape of his neck. Makdongi, while groaning, was letting out pained moans, perhaps due to the sensation of the soft tongue on his skin.

“S-stop, it feels strange. Heut….”

“Stay still. Before I put it in again.”

“Haah…, euung….”

The one licking the blood was undoubtedly Jang Geonung. In the dim surroundings, his sanpaku eyes glinted with madness. Then, as if he sensed a presence, Jang Geonung suddenly turned his head and looked up.

When Yunhyeong met his gaze without looking away, Jang Geonung smiled a chilling smile and, like a snake, stuck out his long tongue and swept it up Makdongi’s cheek.

Unable to hold back, Yunhyeong strode toward the entrance of the storage shed. As he threw the barn door wide open, Jang Geonung slowly rose from his position as if nothing had happened.

“What were you doing to an injured person.”

To Yunhyeong, who spoke in an angry voice, Jang Geonung answered nonchalantly.

“I was wiping off the blood.”

“You could have wiped it off with a cloth, so why did you lick it off with your tongue like a beast!”

“It would be a waste to just wipe it off, would it not.”

“What did you say?”

“Is there not a story about a filial son who saved his father by cutting his own finger and feeding him the blood when the father was deathly ill. I ate it because it seemed a waste to just throw away something as important as blood.”

“Where did you learn to spout such ridiculous sophistry! Why did you not take him to the physician!”

“I did so because I knew no one would treat Makdongi even if we went.”

“What do you mean by that?”

“Because that boy has a bad personality and is disliked by many here, I am the only one who is close to him. Besides, there is no particular medicine for wounds from being beaten up.”

“……”

“Nothing is broken or fractured, so it will heal on its own with time, so you do not need to worry, my lord.”

“You are telling me to turn a blind eye when a person is hurt like that?”

“Why do you concern yourself with something as trivial as a servant getting beaten up? It is something that happens several times a day here.”