Chapter 10 – Seojun
I could see the clouds gathering in the distance.
It was hanging on the ridge, so it would pass over the village in a few hours. Still, the color was clear and not muddy, so it didn’t seem like a rain cloud.
Widely-
Seo-joon was basking in the afternoon sun, shaking off the wet laundry and hanging it on the clothesline with Ian’s mother, Sophia.
A piece of sunlight fell on his broad shoulders.
The air was still cool, but a warm breeze was blowing day by day. It was proof that spring was coming in full swing.
Blankets and tunics, skirts and trousers, men’s undergarments and women’s were hanging neatly on the clothesline, their limbs wriggling.
The wind whistled from time to time, but not enough to blow away the laundry.
Rather, it was the weather that made wet clothes dry well.
“That’s why, Seo Jun-ah…”
Sophia, who had been thinking about something for a long time, got lucky, then shook her head saying that it was nothing.
Her long golden hair, in a plait, swayed here and there.
Seo-joon knew that Sophia was worried about last night.
Ian, Lily, and Monica’s tangled love triangle must have broken your head and hurt.
Sophia’s own experience was too small to give Ian any advice.
It was Sophia who met her husband, Jack, at a young age and soon married her.
If I gave advice hastily, it could have become nagging, let alone advice. I would have been anxious to leave it alone.
It was just frustrating from Sophia’s point of view. To the point where I couldn’t sleep all night last night…
But as if he knew everything about Seojun, he smiled and asked.
“What is it, Mother?”
Sophia wondered if it was a scratch or a sore, and she blurted it out because she didn’t want to tell her a secret about her son.
“Nothing. Anyway, I’m telling you not to call me mother…?”
The guy patted the laundry in his hand and hung it up on the clothesline. Then he grabbed the horse’s tail again.
“Oh, talk to me. After all, I have no one to talk to other than me.”
When Seo-joon said that, it was somehow hot and inviting.
Yeah, honestly, who else could I tell you this about? The town is small, so if you confide in a light-mouthed person, rumors will spread quickly.
Jack? Even though he was heavy-mouthed, he was a person who lacked notice, so it was clear that he would openly scold Ian. Because he really cared for Ian like his own son.
However, while Ian seemed to follow Jack and Sophia well, in a corner of his heart, he did not think of them as his real parents.
If that was the case, I wouldn’t have tried to stay in the village until I gave up on my dream of becoming a knight.
Jack and Sofia raised him like a real son, even though he wasn’t even their own, so it seemed like they owed him a huge debt.
“Ah, it’s frustrating… Okay, don’t hate to say it. What the···. I am not curious at all.”
Seo-joon turned his head to one side and pretended to be upset.
Sophia laughed out loud when he acted cute.
Still, the horse got caught at the end of the muzzle and did not come out. At least I think it’s something to think about after talking to Ian in person.
“Oh, Seojun-kun…!”
But, in front of Sophia’s yard, a woman in a stylish navy blue dress walked gracefully holding a black parasol.
In one hand she held a bouquet of flowers and a basket of fruit, and on her head was a hat with a black veil covering her face.
Under the veil, from the tip of the nose to the tip of the chin, only the lower part was exposed. That alone made it clear that she was a great beauty.
“Sophia was there too…? Hello?”
Her lips were smiling as she applied her rouge, but it was not her tone of welcome.
Sophia also responded in a rough tone.
“Hello. Madame Dumas.”
As the woman listened to Sophia’s greeting, she immediately turned her gaze to Seo-jun.
She then lifted the veil and looked at Seo-joon with charming eyes.
Her widow, Madame Dumas, ten years after she lost her husband.
Among men, she was known as ‘a woman who soothes loneliness’.
Even Robben, who is the original owner of Seo-jun’s body, had often visited Mrs. Dumas with her purse.
In this way Madame Dumas has secured her livelihood and luxury by receiving money from her dear men.
It was a kind of festivities. Madame Dumas pretended to be dignified and noble, but in reality she was nothing more than a courtesan.
Besides Robben, there were quite a few old bachelors who took care of her. Even among the men her wives were, she secretly went to visit Madame Dumas and got caught.
To that extent, Madame Dumas’ reputation among women had fallen.
It made sense that Sophia’s gaze at Madame Dumas was not kind.
Perhaps, if the day came when Jack visited her Mrs. Dumas, her temperamental Sophia might pull out her cleaver from her kitchen and go looking for her.
I don’t know if I’ll stab Jack or Dumas’ wife with that knife…
“Seojun-kun, it’s been a long time since I haven’t seen you recently… How have you been?”
“I have a lot to worry about.”
After answering that, Seo-joon immediately started hanging out the laundry again.
Like the insipid answers, and the handling of gazes–.
Not feeling the slightest hint of self-consciousness in her, Madame Dumas looked at her Sophia with a contorted expression.
“Looks like someone cares…”
After she said that, she fluttered the hem of her dress and left. Sophia added, as she glanced at Madame Dumas walking away.
“Doesn’t it really seem like you’re not looking for it anymore…?”
Even Sophia had heard from all of her wives in her village that she knew that Seo-jun was no longer looking for Mrs. Dumas. The reason why she asked again and again was because she hated that foxy woman who would go around pretending to be all sorts of prettiness and messing with married men in the village.
In particular, every time I saw the gaze of the men subtly directed at Mrs. Dumas’ buttocks, I was furious. She likes a girl like that…
“Yeah, now someone else is in my eyes.”
“Really…? Who? Who?”
Sophia asked, her eyes shining.
She was just over thirty.
Since she was in an era where children were born quickly, Sophia’s age was enough to give birth to two or three children, but compared to modern women, she was not that old.
It was understandable to be interested in other people’s love stories.
Seojun smiled and shook his head.
I noticed that I didn’t really want to answer… Sophia snorted her snort. It’s as if she wasn’t interested in the first place. She brushed off the broken laundry and hung it out.
After hanging out the laundry, the two slowly tidied up the place.
Sofia was going to go into the kitchen and wash the herbs and make cold dishes.
Seo-joon will be out somewhere until Jack and Ian return from their field work.
“I am going. Mother. See you later.”
“So, don’t call me Mother…?”
No matter how many times she spoke, she never listened. Seo-joon laughed and giggled, then put on his coat and left the yard.
Sophia laughed for no reason. Cool guy…
It was an open fact that he liked Booker’s second daughter, Maria, who had been devastated.
Seeing that Maria died and the guy suffered for a while, Seo-joon said a lot that her guy really loved her Maria.
But when he woke up and said he was already in love with someone again, Sofia hated him for nothing.
Still, I was very curious about who it was.
“My main goal is… You know what to do…”
Sophia found wrinkles on Seo-jun’s laundry, brushed it off, and went into the kitchen.
The scorching sun dazzled my eyes. It was a day when the laundry seemed to dry well.
&
On top of a hill that looked like an overturned bowl of her rice, on a flat bed in a run-down hut, a tall man was sitting cross-legged over her.
The man, Seo-jun, suddenly opened his eyes and exhaled the breath he had been holding back.
Her whole body was covered with sweat.
Looking around, it was late afternoon.
In the 6th session, he was studying Nagigong and Taegeukgyeong, which he had learned from a woman who was his teacher.
Taegeukgyeong, which harmonizes yin and yang, was very suitable for Seo-jun because he was none other than a eunuch.
The eunuch, that is, impotence, was the same as saying that a man’s yang energy is not full.
As a result, his body was in a state of disequilibrium, and he could not build up proper mana with normal mana breathing or Naga Qigong.
Even if he brought the mana breathing method, the martial art of Dokmun, and even the divine art of the heavenly horse, Seo-joon had nothing like Taegeukkyung.
The Taegeukgyeong not only resolved the imbalance of Seo-joon’s betting, but was also effective in digesting the yin energy accumulated through all kinds of chewing.
After finishing Sojucheon, Seo-joon quietly contemplated the coin-sized power located in Hadanjeon.
I thought that if this was enough, I wouldn’t get beaten up in a fight with the local gangsters. Even if he didn’t have a drop of air power, it wasn’t even a job to deal with that bully.
