Clatter!

The wine jug tumbled to the floor at last. My skirt and the floor soaked through in an instant with the spilled poison. The murderous intent that had been boiling up inside me toward my enemies spilled out just the same.

This was not an accident. What did an old memory stripped of all meaning matter? I could not sever my feelings for the man who had abandoned me, and so I threw away the chance to wipe out my enemies with my own hands. I hated myself for it and did not know what to do.

“My goodness, why do you keep spilling the wine?”

Someone across the table scolded me, and the men at the foot of the table snickered without decorum. Every man’s gaze was now on me. I could feel on my skin that even the Minister of War, Kwon Ikseon, was watching me in silence.

They were all surely thinking the same thing.

That girl lost her wits the moment she laid eyes on her old flame.

Fine. Laugh all you like. Better to be seen as a foolish woman than to be caught having laced the wine with poison.

“I, I am so sorry.”

I deliberately trembled as I bowed my head low.

“I will go and have fresh wine brought at once.”

It was the perfect natural excuse to stand up and leave. But the Minister of War raised a hand to block me as I rose and gave an order to the man at the foot of the table instead.

“You go out and call someone to clean up this mess.”

I had no choice but to sit back down. The commotion had only drawn the attention of the one person I had wanted to avoid, Baek Seungjo. He looked me over with curious eyes and spoke to me for the first time.

“Looking at your hair, you must be a young courtesan still new to the trade. No wonder you are clumsy at serving.”

I am not young. I am twenty this year.

So he truly does not recognize me.

In a way, that was only natural. Five years of harsh living had stripped away my laughter and my spirit, leaving behind nothing but resentment and venom. And also…

I quietly shifted my gaze and stole a glance at the true culprit seated beside Baek Seungjo, Park Wonchul.

It is because of the false rumor that man spread that he must believe I am dead.

“In any case…”

Baek Seungjo’s head turned toward Park Wonchul, almost following my gaze.

“I had heard that the Pyongan Provincial Office was overflowing with government courtesans of outstanding beauty and talent, so I came with great expectations, and I find myself sorely disappointed. Governor, why is there only one courtesan for seven men?”

In an instant, an uncomfortable silence fell over the room, cold as a dousing of water. Park Wonchul, who had the obligation to answer, was just about to fumble out some excuse when Kwon Ikseon cut in.

“Tonight is the occasion of this girl’s coming-of-age ceremony.”

He laid bare the purpose of this banquet that everyone had been trying to conceal. As though he had not yet given up on that vile entertainment.

Surely he did not intend to violate me in front of my former bridegroom.

Park Wonchul looked just as flustered as I was by his father-in-law’s sudden move.

What was Kwon Ikseon after? My instinct told me he was testing Baek Seungjo.

Testing him for what, exactly? Whether he would recognize me?

I found myself wondering what Seungjo would do if he learned that this courtesan was me.

Would he feel sorry for me? Would he grow uncomfortable and flee the room?

Or would he join that pack of beasts and tear into me alongside them?

I was curious, but it was an answer I never wanted to know, even if it cost me my life.

Meanwhile, Baek Seungjo seemed not to notice Kwon Ikseon’s probing stare. He laughed with easy abandon, as though a long-standing question had finally been answered, then narrowed his eyes with an air of puzzlement.

“But then why are so many men gathered together just to take one courtesan?”

If they answered that question honestly too, I would truly bite through my tongue and die right here.

“It is… a twofold occasion. We called on one another since it has been a while, to catch up and enjoy each other’s company.”

But the Minister of War concealed the fact that seven men had intended to violate me one by one. Watching that pitiful display, I understood two things.

First, they did not fully trust Baek Seungjo. It was plain they were not close enough to expose their filthy secrets to him.

Second, even Baek Seungjo, who by all accounts had been drowning himself in wine and women in Hanyang, apparently did not sink to the same depths of depravity as those beasts.

“Seven men throwing a banquet just to perform one courtesan’s coming-of-age ceremony. She must be quite a remarkable girl?”

But he had seen through the revolting plan they had tried to hide, on his own. He was not condemning the grotesque behavior, though. If anything, he sounded closer to saying he wanted me for himself.

“She is rather pretty, I will grant that…”

He studied my face with a lingering gaze and ran the tip of his red tongue along his lower lip. That dissolute gesture left me frozen where I sat.

Seungjo… how have you changed so much?

The upright man who had been my husband-to-be, the one who had cited the rule that boys and girls must not sit together after age seven and had been reluctant even to brush sleeves with his future wife, was nowhere to be found. What stood before me now was nothing more than a male creature starved of carnal desire.

Baek Seungjo finished praising my looks with no apparent regard for the color that had drained from my face, then withdrew his gaze from me and looked around the room.

“Who paid the price for this girl’s coming-of-age ceremony?”

“I did.”

Park Wonchul answered quickly. The man who had been waiting for the day he could have me was visibly on edge, terrified of having me snatched away right before his eyes.

“That’s right, Governor Park paid for it. For me.”

But the Minister of War, who had declined for reasons I now understood, abruptly reversed course and stepped forward, claiming the right to perform my coming-of-age ceremony belonged to him after all.

“But on reflection, this aging body of mine finds it no small burden to pluck a flower. Would it not be better for this girl to share her first night with someone young? So I yield her to you.”

He clearly broke the promise he had made to hand me to his son-in-law, and pushed me instead into Baek Seungjo’s arms.

What on earth was he scheming?

Everyone, myself included, was thrown off by that unpredictable change of heart.

Park Wonchul was on the verge of losing his composure entirely. But he could not bring himself to openly object out of pride, and could only stare at his father-in-law with a desperate, uncomprehending look.

The Minister of War, however, did not spare his son-in-law a single glance.

Even with the elder’s will made so plainly clear, Park Wonchul apparently could not bring himself to give me up.

“Now see here, Chief Royal Secretary. You…”

He seemed to be scheming to talk the younger man into giving me back, but Baek Seungjo paid him no mind and accepted the Minister of War’s gift without hesitation.

“As it happens, the long journey has felt rather lonely. How could I refuse when you show me such consideration, my lord?”

And before the words were even out of his mouth, he took hold of my wrist and stood up.

“Then please enjoy the rest of the banquet. I will take my leave now to rest from the road.”

What was happening. I could not keep up with the situation shifting so rapidly, and I followed after Baek Seungjo in a daze.

But just as he reached out to open the door to the corridor, the Minister of War’s voice caught us from behind.

“No need to go far.”

I could already guess what came next. Cold sweat ran down my spine.

“I have prepared a room right next door. Go in there.”

Since they apparently did not share their debauchery with outsiders, I had fully expected Baek Seungjo to decline this uncomfortable suggestion.

“Thank you, my lord.”

But he pulled me without hesitation into the room next door.

Slide.

The paper door I had barely managed to close slid open again. The room with its shameless silk bedding spread out on the floor opened its mouth wide once more.

“My lord, hm.”

My struggle not to cross the threshold lasted only a moment. His strong hand dragged me into that beast’s room all the same.

Thud.

Baek Seungjo closed the door. A moment later, every light that had been shining through the paper door bright as midday went out.

“Tsk…”

The men who had been staring at the closed door and swallowing their eager anticipation clicked their tongues. With the light out, even poking a hole through the paper would show them nothing.

It was not only the sight of a highborn young woman, fallen to government courtesan, being broken that they were sorry to miss.

Baek Seungjo. That man rode the king’s favor and knew no end of arrogance. He did not even know that this courtesan was his teacher’s precious daughter and the woman who had nearly become his wife. When he trampled her and she could no longer bear it and exposed everything, what kind of face would the great Baek Seungjo make?

The eyes of the men who had been flushed red in anticipation of that rare spectacle cooled in an instant.

Wonchul’s reason for feeling cheated was different from the others. His face twisted red and blue in turns, like a man who had bitten into a fly, and was a sight to behold.

“My lord, to hand Han Sangheon’s daughter over to that man. What is the meaning of…”

“Shh. Keep your voice down.”

The Minister of War’s cold, sharp presence silenced everyone, and they held their breath. In that stillness, the sounds leaking through the paper door now shrouded in darkness came through clearly.

“Take it off.”

At Baek Seungjo’s low, firm voice, the men swallowed hard in unison. Ikseon, for his part, only narrowed his eyes all the more sharply.

“Shall I take it off for you?”

The woman’s voice did not come through, but from what Baek Seungjo said, she was holding out and refusing to undress. Well, of course. Who would want to give their body to the traitor who had destroyed their family?