Chapter 33: The Intersection of Truth and Debt

The largest man in the group brutally crumpled the medicinal pouch he had ripped from Han-wol. The boy had gone to immense trouble to steal those herbs right under Court Lady Cho’s nose; at this rate, he was going to lose them all on the dirty street.

Terrified by their threat not to let him leave, Han-wol fell to his knees, frantically scrambling to gather the scattered pieces of medicine from the dirt. But before his fingers could gather them, the brute’s heavy boot slammed down, pinning the boy’s hand directly against the hard earth.

“Let go…… please let go!”

“Give us a single coin, and we’ll let you crawl away.”

“I have nothing! Truly…… I do not possess any money.”

“You know, every rat we catch says the exact same thing. But once we beat them half to death, they magically find a way to make the coin appear.”

“Please, I beg of you, just let me go. I really have no money…… I have absolutely nothing.”

As Han-wol looked up, desperately pleading with tears in his eyes, the large brute simply stared down at him with a cold, evaluating gaze.

“Well, you certainly have a pretty face and a decent body.”

“……?”

“If you aren’t an errand boy for Yohwa-ru, we can just drag you over there and sell you ourselves. We’d make a very handsome profit.”

The sheer terror of being trapped here completely consumed Han-wol’s mind, turning his face a ghostly, pale white. He opened his mouth to shout that he was a servant of the Myeong estate, but his trembling lips felt as though they were locked tight, refusing to yield a single word.

He was entirely different from the other domestic servants at the estate. He was a commoner by birth, meaning he wasn’t bound as a s*ave, nor was he an official palace attendant. He had no papers to prove his position.

“I’ll give you a choice. Are you going to go fetch our money, or are you going to let us sell you off?”

The towering man puffed out his chest, looking down at him with a suffocating, arrogant weight that felt terrifyingly similar to Seol Ga-mook.

As Han-wol sat shivering violently on the ground, completely paralyzed by the traumatic ghosts of his past master, a sharp, violent crack echoed through the alley.

The brute who had been boasting about his massive size just a second ago instantly reeled forward, collapsing heavily onto his side like a felled tree. He fell right beside Han-wol, his head twisting awkwardly against the dirt as dark blood began to pool rapidly from the back of his skull.

“……Run!”

The other two thugs, who had been chuckling mockingly just moments before, took one look at their leader’s pathetic, bleeding form and instantly bolted down the street.

Dazed and terrified, Han-wol blinked away his panic, his eyes darting until they landed on a remarkably tall, lanky youth standing before him, firmly gripping a heavy stone block.

“Are you alright?”

The face was strangely familiar. As Han-wol desperately strained his memory to place where he had seen the youth before, the boy simply knelt down and began carefully gathering the scattered herbs from the dirt.

“These are all incredibly rare and expensive ingredients…… why on earth are they scattered on a street like this?”

Hearing the rough, cracking voice of a boy in the middle of his adolescent changes, Han-wol’s eyes went completely round.

“You’re the one from the market…… the seaweed!”

“What? Ah……”

Unless his eyes were playing tricks on him, this was the exact same young thief who had aggressively pushed Anok aside in his attempt to flee the market weeks ago. The thief who had desperately stolen seaweed just to brew a simple broth for his sister who had newly given birth.

Stunned by the sudden realization, Han-wol had let the words slip out completely unprompted. Noting his mistake, he watched as a deep, burning crimson flush crawled straight up the boy’s neck to the tips of his ears out of sheer embarrassment.

Han-wol offered a hurried, stumbling apology.

“I am so sorry. I didn’t mean to bring it up, it’s just that I haven’t seen you since that day……”

“No, it is fine. What happened that day was entirely my fault. But tell me, are these medicinal herbs meant for that person?”

“That person?”

“The one who stepped forward and paid my debt for me.”

He was clearly referring to Anok. Han-wol gave a slow nod, quietly amazed by the youth’s sharp memory.

“I owe that person a massive debt. I spent so long worrying because I had no idea how to find them to repay the favor, so this is truly a blessing. Could you please tell me their name or where they reside? These herbs are far too premium for me to replace exactly, but I newly secured employment at a local apothecary, so I could perhaps provide something on credit……”

“An apothecary?”

Han-wol, who had been deeply debating whether it was safe to reveal Anok’s true identity to a stranger, suddenly brightened up completely. He had just been wishing for a medical connection to help analyze the pouch, and now, the very boy who owed Anok a life-altering favor worked inside a pharmacy. The task ahead suddenly became vastly easier.

“Yes. It isn’t a massive or famous establishment, but it is located just around the corner.”

Having safely collected every piece of the scattered medicine, the youth didn’t offer so much as a passing glance to the unconscious brute bleeding out on the floorboards.

“This gang is notorious around these parts for extorting coin or dragging vulnerable people off to the pleasure houses. You must be exceptionally careful whenever you transit through this sector in the future.”

“Thank you. Tell me, where exactly is this apothecary?”

“Ah, please follow me.”

The youth seemed genuinely intent on providing equivalent medicinal herbs to clear the heavy burden of his conscience. Though Han-wol’s true objective was entirely different, he quietly fell into step behind the boy.

The apothecary was tucked away remarkably close by. Han-wol had assumed he had already mapped every prominent clinic and medicine house across the capital, yet this hidden, out-of-the-way shop had escaped his radar completely.

“You little rascal, Gyeok! If you are going to wander off, the absolute baseline of your employment demands that you inform me first.”

“My apologies, Elder.”

The elderly physician, his eyes narrowed into thin slits, addressed the boy as Gyeok. Han-wol offered a quiet look, prompting the youth to quickly introduce himself as Yun Gyeok.

Yun Gyeok immediately opened his mouth to explain the alleyway rescue, but Han-wol quickly cut in to redirect the conversation.

“We are not here to request a fresh prescription, doctor. I simply have a critical question regarding these specific herbs. Would you be willing to evaluate their components for me?”

The old physician shifted his gaze between Yun Gyeok and Han-wol before giving a slow, compliant nod.

After days of failing to get a single door open, he was finally presenting the herbs to a doctor. Deeply moved, Han-wol bowed repeatedly, murmuring endless thank-yous as he carefully laid out the medicine Yun Gyeok had rescued from the mud.

The physician spent a long time turning the herbs over, analyzing their properties, before his brow furrowed in confusion.

“These ingredients are all exceptionally rare and high-quality.”

“Is that so?”

“And you claim the master you serve has been actively ingesting this mixture?”

“Yes, Elder.”

“Allow me to ask a delicate question. Has your master struggled heavily to conceive a child in the past? Or perhaps, despite being a realized Sub-gender, their regular heat cycles failed to manifest for multiple years?”

Having only served Anok for a handful of months, Han-wol possessed zero historical data regarding his master’s past cycles. However, he knew with absolute certainty that a newly wedded couple wouldn’t be desperately stressing over fertility issues within their first days of marriage.

Sensing that it was critical to gather every shred of data from the doctor first, Han-wol kept his lips firmly sealed. Taking the boy’s heavy silence as a confirmation, the old physician shook his head and began to explain freely.

“Mixed directly into these standard restorative herbs is a powerful stimulant engineered to artificially accelerate an Omega’s heat cycle. In wealthy families desperate for an heir, the masters will sometimes slip out to secretly request such mixtures before introducing a new spouse to the bridal chamber. It uses exceptionally rare ingredients, so it is not a concoction you see often.”

Noticing that Han-wol was straining with all his might to suppress his utter shock, the physician cleared his throat awkwardly and carefully folded the paper wrapper shut.

“Regardless of the intent behind it, if an Omega ingests this mixture over a prolonged duration, it will violently disrupt their natural cycle. It forces a massive, dangerous strain upon the biological system.”

At that final revelation, Han-wol’s eyes brimmed with heavy tears. His thoughts raced with a singular, desperate urgency: I must deliver this news to Master Anok right this second.

Stumbling blindly to his feet, he rushed toward the exit so frantically that his boot caught on a stone in the courtyard. Before he could crash against the ground, Yun Gyeok lunged forward and caught his frame securely.

Seeing that Han-wol was completely in a daze and barely cognizant of his surroundings, Yun Gyeok kindly guided him through the chaotic maze of the bustling market streets until they reached clear ground.

“Where are you heading now?”

“I must return to the Myeong estate.”

“What?”

“The question you asked earlier…… about who it is I serve. The master who paid your debt that day is Her Highness, the Grand Consort of Myeong.”

Leaving Yun Gyeok standing completely frozen and pale-faced outside the grand gates of the Myeong estate, Han-wol offered a quick, polite bow of gratitude and hurried through the threshold.

For a long time afterward, Yun Gyeok remained anchored to the dirt before the massive estate doors, his mouth hanging slightly open as he shook his head in absolute disbelief before finally walking away.

By the time Han-wol transited back to the inner quarters, the sun had fully dipped beneath the horizon, plunging the world into darkness. He rushed straight to the bedchambers, but Anok was nowhere to be found. Instead, he discovered his master inside a small adjoining pavilion, completely surrounded by stacks of formal formal letters and intricately carved wooden gift boxes.

“What is all of this, Your Highness?”

“I am personally auditing the wedding gifts delivered to the estate.”

“But your body has barely recovered, why on earth are you forcing yourself to handle such administrative stress……”

In his past life, Anok had completely neglected these minor details, which had ended up costing him dearly. Coupled with the scathing rumors that he had been abandoned on his wedding night, news that the new Grand Consort had hoarded countless gifts without sending a single formal letter of gratitude had utterly destroyed his reputation from the very beginning. He was determined to alter that timeline.

“Grand Consort, Eunuch Im requests an audience.”

“Enter.”

Eunuch Im stepped into the room, his face lined with absolute exhaustion, but Anok hardly registered it. His mind was entirely trapped in a loop.

Ever since he had spotted those fresh, crescent-shaped wounds on Yeo Jae-won’s palms, he had been desperately debating whether it was his place to ask if he had caused them, or if such a question would be deemed an arrogant, uninvited intrusion. In his hesitation, he hadn’t managed to utter a single word. Mistaking his heavy silence for a desire to be left alone, Yeo Jae-won had simply turned around and vanished into the night.

📚 Also on NHV Novels

The Villain Caught Between Two Magical Girls

DramaFantasy

Read Now →
Not interested