Chapter 5
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Jegal Haesu’s eyes widened when he saw where Soso’s fine root was pointing.
“Don’t tell me you’re pointing at the paper, brush, and ink?”
Soso affirmed by shaking her body.
A cheerful little jig.
Her movements looked quite cheerful.
“Oho! Sami, you’re such a good dancer?”
Suddenly feeling shy, Soso stopped shaking her body. She didn’t want to show off her ridiculous dance moves any longer.
“The more I look, the more wondrous you are. Truly wondrous. It’s like you have a human consciousness.”
‘I *am* a person! I am!’
Instead of her body, Soso shook one of her fine roots again.
Though skeptical, Jegal Haesu placed the paper, brush, and ink on the table. Then, he placed Soso on it as well.
Soso chose the thickest and sturdiest of her protruding fine roots and dipped its tip in the ink.
“Ooh!”
Jegal Haesu, who had let out a surprised sound, spread the paper open as if possessed.
Soso prepared to write on it.
「Young Master.」
“So you’re not just a moving ginseng, but a talking one. Tell me more.”
「I was actually a woman named Baek Soso.」
“A ginseng that can not only talk but also claims to have a past life.”
「There is someone I must find.」
She couldn’t speak in detail about Young Master Eon-u.
*For now, I’ll watch him a little longer. Then, when I’m certain Jegal Haesu will help me, I’ll tell him about Young Master Eon-u.*
“There’s someone you’re looking for? Where is this person?”
「The person I’m looking for seems to have been abducted by the Demonic Cult.」
Jegal Haesu, who had been responding with a playful air, fell silent.
His gaze was fixed on the words ‘Demonic Cult’.
Jegal Haesu’s face darkened in an instant. His expression was filled with nothing but sorrow.
*Could it be that this man also has a story related to the Demonic Cult?*
“The Demonic Cult… I never thought I’d hear those words from a ginseng.”
Jegal Haesu couldn’t bring himself to readily offer help and let out a low groan.
“Is that all you have to say?”
「…So, could you please not eat me?」
Soso had something she absolutely had to do.
Even if she were to die again, even if she were reborn not as a divine herb but as a mere weed, she still wanted to find Young Master Eon-u.
Jegal Haesu simply smiled faintly and, once again, did not answer.
“Anything else?”
「I’m not an ordinary Ten-Thousand-Year Snow Ginseng, so I won’t taste good.」
At those serious words, Jegal Haesu burst out laughing.
“Hahaha. A ginseng that insists it tastes bad. I don’t eat things that don’t taste good. Alright, then. I won’t eat you.”
Although it was only a verbal promise, she was relieved that he had accepted so readily.
Soso breathed a sigh of relief.
“If you were a tasty ginseng, I might have gobbled you up in one bite… Haha!”
*Can I… really be relieved?*
“It’s a joke. In any case, I’m content that you didn’t fall into the hands of the Demonic Cult.”
*I… I’ll be okay, right?*
“Have you said everything now?”
Soso fluttered her fine roots to show she had nothing more to say. It seemed her ability to control her roots was more excellent than she thought.
“Stay still.”
Jegal Haesu took a handkerchief from his robes.
Then, he carefully wiped Soso’s ink-stained hand—no, her fine root.
Jegal Haesu’s face was quite serious as he gently stroked the fine root.
*He’s not as handsome as Young Master Eon-u, but he has the kind of looks that would make countless women’s hearts flutter.*
Soso suddenly became curious about what kind of life Jegal Haesu had lived.
But that curiosity didn’t last long.
It was because of Jegal Haesu, who spoke playfully as if he had never been serious.
“This is the first time I’ve wiped the hand of a divine herb, and not the delicate hand of my lady.”
Jegal Haesu gently rested his cheek against the cleaned root and spoke shyly, like a bride before her wedding night.
“Sami, you are my first.”
…Can I trust this man?
‘Young Master Eon-u… this man seems crazy. Was it the right thing to ask him for help?’
She was very, very worried about the days she would spend with this man.
* * *
Late at night, when everyone was asleep, Jegal Haesu was sewing with Heavenly Silkworm Silk.
He was making clothes for Sami.
He didn’t know how a Ten-Thousand-Year Snow Ginseng, which had no visible eyeholes, saw the world, but Sami seemed to find being tightly wrapped up uncomfortable.
However, he couldn’t just carry around a Ten-Thousand-Year Snow Ginseng that was exuding such strong spiritual energy.
Jegal Haesu decided to make a small robe out of the Heavenly Silkworm Silk.
Heavenly Silkworm Silk was a special silk obtained from a spiritual creature, a silkworm called the Heavenly Silkworm. It was an all-purpose silk that was extremely durable and could even be stretched to any desired length.
Jegal Haesu had secretly brought it with him from the Jegal Clan.
While it was a bit of a waste to use the Heavenly Silkworm Silk, he could always steal a few more from the clan.
Rather than lamenting the immediate use of a resource, he didn't want to create regrets by failing to use it in the right place at the right time.
“Hoo.”
But sewing the all-purpose silk was not easy. He had to imbue the needle with his internal energy.
For Jegal Haesu, who didn’t have much internal energy due to his illness, it was an incredibly difficult task.
Of course, he didn’t resent the Ten-Thousand-Year Snow Ginseng for causing him such trouble. Jegal Haesu was quite fond of this strange encounter.
‘I was only trying to find a Ten-Thousand-Year Snow Ginseng that could help treat my illness, but for something like this to happen…’
Sami had been peculiar from the moment he first met it in that cave.
A Ten-Thousand-Year Snow Ginseng that moved as if it were dancing.
At first, Jegal Haesu thought he was seeing things.
How utterly bizarre.
Sami even had a past life, could think, and could even write.
The strangeness of it all was so overwhelming that Jegal Haesu briefly suspected he was dreaming.
But the existence of the soundly sleeping Sami was no illusion or remnant of a dream. Sami was real.
Jegal Haesu then recalled that the person Sami wanted to find had been abducted by the Demonic Cult.
The Demonic Cult was also deeply connected to the reason why Jegal Haesu, who had never left his clan, had ventured out into the martial world.
‘Perhaps this is fate.’
Having finally finished sewing, Jegal Haesu looked at Sami, who was wrapped in the unsewn Heavenly Silkworm Silk.
“Sami, are you asleep?”
Jegal Haesu waited for Sami to give a cute flutter of its fine roots, but there was no response.
“To think it even sleeps like a person…”
Jegal Haesu carefully dressed the sleeping Sami’s body in the robe he had made.
The sight of Sami, with only the top part that he assumed was its face peeking out, was quite comical and cute.
Jegal Haesu chuckled to himself without realizing it.
“Sami, just what kind of story do you have?”
As if he had never laughed, Jegal Haesu let out a sigh.
“The Demonic Cult… It’s already been five years since my brother was abducted.”
He quietly recalled events from the distant past.
The Lazy Young Master (懶怠公子), Jegal Haesu.
He was the second son of the Jegal Clan, one of the five great clans.
Jegal Haesu was born with an incurable disease called Turbid Meridian Sickness (濁脈症) and was unable to properly learn martial arts.
Turbid Meridian Sickness was, as the name suggests, a disease where an unnatural, turbid energy formed within the body, blocking every corner of the meridians and even adversely affecting the dantian.
As a result, not only could he not accumulate more than a certain amount of internal energy, but even using the energy he did have was a struggle due to the turbid energy.
In contrast, Jegal Haesu’s older brother and the eldest son of the Jegal Clan, Jegal Sagun, was a natural-born martial artist.
Not only was he skilled in martial arts, but he was also brilliant, making him proficient in the Jegal Clan’s formation arts.
From a very young age, Jegal Haesu was compared to his brother.
“The Young Lord is so remarkable… I worry that Young Master Haesu might bring a bad influence upon the family.”
“Young Master Haesu must be kept within the clan estate. His shortcomings must not become known to the world.”
The one who would tarnish the Jegal Clan’s prestige, the foreign body of the family…
Jegal Haesu grew up hearing such words.
Even though he was the son of the clan head, the Jegal Clan was a family that valued ability. It was considered natural to look down on someone who lacked outstanding talent.
Of course, it wasn’t that Jegal Haesu didn’t try.
He consistently took medicine to help treat his illness, trained diligently in martial arts, and even learned miscellaneous skills that didn’t require much internal energy or studied academic subjects.
But his illness showed little sign of improving. Nor did his martial arts…
The perception of him also showed no signs of getting better.
Realizing that nothing changed no matter how hard he tried, Jegal Haesu decided to give up on everything.
Trying to become a better person, struggling to be acknowledged by his family… all of it.
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