To shake off the mood threatening to turn sour, I decided to watch Harin, who looked happy and carefree.
Harin seemed pleased with my earlier answer; her expression had relaxed, and she was diligently munching on a piece of yakkwa.
I was thinking that watching a child eat something happily was always a pleasant sight, enjoying the moment with a light heart, when—
“Then when will Sister have a baby?”
“B-baby?”
“Mm. A baby.”
“W-well….”
It seemed the difficult questions aimed at me still hadn’t ended.
A child’s curiosity never ends, and no matter how relentless the questions, it is an adult’s duty to answer them patiently. But even so, I was at a loss for how to respond when asked when I would have a baby.
“Mommy said you get a baby after you get married.”
Thankfully, it seemed Harin wasn’t actually curious about when I would become pregnant.
She had been wondering when Ryu Sua’s indefinitely postponed wedding would be.
“It’s not settled yet, so even Sister doesn’t know. But once it’s decided, I’ll send Harin a letter right away.”
“Really? It’s a promise! Pinky promise!”
Pleased with my answer, Harin set down the yakkwa she had been eating on the table, scurried over, and held out her pinky finger to me.
I smiled and hooked my finger around her tiny one, and she broke into a beaming, joyful smile.
She must have been secretly looking forward to her close sister getting married.
That must have been why she had asked such a random question about when the baby would come.
“Wow! I’ll have a little sibling too!”
…Or not?
Her delighted reaction was a little different from what I had expected. Had she actually been curious about when I would get pregnant?
I had ended up like parents who promise their child a new sibling out of nowhere, but I probably didn’t need to worry too much.
After all, unless I was the one to bring up marriage first, there was no way I would suddenly get married.
And from everything I had seen of So Hwi so far, he didn’t seem like the type to force marriage upon me suddenly.
If I lived quietly like this until the possession was resolved, those two would get married on their own… probably.
If they were the two people I had heard about and sensed them to be, the promise I made with Harin would be no problem at… all.
Yeah. No problem at all.
But why did the tea I kept drinking taste so bitter?
“Madam Ho, have you been well?”
“Big sisters and brothers!”
As I was repeatedly wetting my parched lips with sips of tea, Harin sprang up from her seat and waved her hand.
Following Harin’s gaze, I saw tiger beastmen who had approached nearby coming toward me and bowing their heads.
It seemed things had roughly wrapped up, and they had come to greet me personally.
I had been in a difficult spot because she kept asking hard-to-answer questions with an innocent face.
Thanks to their arrival, Harin’s attention would be diverted, and I would be freed from those difficult questions.
“To think you really call me Madam Ho. I’m a bit disappointed.”
Breathing an inward sigh of relief, I calmly answered with the words I had prepared in advance.
This time, unlike Harin, who had suddenly hugged me earlier, these were people I had prepared for most thoroughly.
“We’re the ones who should be disappointed. You vanished with Harin without a word.”
“That’s right. We were so worried when we heard the news.”
The list I had received beforehand stated that they were people Ryu Sua had become close with by chance during her visit to Geuminsan.
As it happened, they were the only guests among today’s visitors who looked around my age, so they had been easy to remember.
And since they had apparently exchanged letters frequently, it had been easy to figure out roughly what kind of relationship they had by looking at the well-kept letters.
It was wrong of me to look through letters addressed to someone else, but—
thanks to that, it was the first time since the possession that I had made proper preparations.
“I’m sorry. I was so happy to see Harin after so long that I couldn’t help myself.”
“Come on, no need to apologize. Everyone knows how much Madam Ho loves children.”
Excluding So Hwi and Hwa-ya, this was the first time I had felt such a comfortable atmosphere that felt like an equal relationship.
It wasn’t a bond I had built, but still, it put my mind much more at ease than being treated as a superior in a situation that wasn’t even my destined role.
“Are you really going to keep calling me Madam Ho?”
“Of course. If we call you by name like we used to, the elders will rain down punishment on us.”
“We’re not at the age where we can roll around and play in the yard together anymore, either.”
Honestly, it was a relief.
Though I had spoken as if telling them not to call me Madam Ho, I truly hated being called by name.
Because every time I was called by Ryu Sua’s name, it felt like it would etch into my mind that I was arbitrarily taking what belonged to someone else.
“Still, we’re relieved you look healthy. Ah, right. This is a get-well gift.”
“We really were worried.”
One of them brought up gifts as if she had just remembered, pulling something small from her sleeve and offering it to me.
Without much thought, I set down my teacup and reached out to receive it.
Seeing that, the others also began placing the gifts they had brought on top of my hand.
Thanks to that, though they were small gifts, my hands became full, and I had to stack them up like a mountain.
“You didn’t have to prepare all this.”
Most of the gifts received were accessories made of cord, and though they all looked like similar cord ornaments to my eyes, they all had different names depending on what kind of accessory they were.
Naturally, I could get by with a knowing smile and a nod, expressing my gratitude.
“Then what is this one?”
Still, having dressed up a number of times, I had glanced at accessories before, and among them was one lone item that looked like a wallet.
“You’ll know when you open it.”
The only man among the visitors answered my question for the first time.
As his words suggested, I untied the knot attached to the side and unfolded it, revealing various kinds of needles neatly stored inside.
“It’s a needle case.”
“That punk made it by hand for Madam Ho, whose hobby is embroidery.”
“Shut up.”
Unlike the other gifts, which hadn’t particularly moved me, I couldn’t take my eyes off the unfolded needle case and needles.
I was grateful, but I had little interest in women’s accessories, and they had clearly felt like gifts meant for Ryu Sua.
“…Thank you. I really like it.”
Perhaps because I had started practicing embroidery in my spare time, both to pass the time while living as Ryu Sua so as not to seem strange… and to reclaim the ugly embroidery that So Hwi had arbitrarily taken.
This needle case and these needles felt, if only slightly, like a gift meant for me.
“Good for you?”
“…Stop poking.”
But the person introduced as having prepared the gift turned away the moment I thanked him.
And a woman beside him who had been chiming in poked his side with her finger.
Why?
They seemed to be on very intimate terms, but….
“Well then, we’ve given our gifts. Harin, we need to go get ready before the banquet.”
“Already? But I still want to stay with Sister….”
“After all, Madam Ho also needs to go get ready soon.”
I had been tilting my head, unable to understand their behavior.
One of them spoke up about leaving and held out a hand to Harin.
“Hmph….”
Harin pouted her lips, clearly disappointed, but obediently stood up and took the offered hand.
“Harin, come back looking pretty.”
“Yes! You too, Sister.”
Pleased by that sight, I waved and said something to cheer her up.
Since I also needed to go get ready again, I stood up from my seat.
“How long has it been since I’ve seen you? Our Hwasubun.”
A man’s voice rang out, strangely unpleasant.
Where the voice came from stood a man with hair of a brighter shade than the others, appearing yellow, and slightly tanned skin.
“U-Uncle….”
Harin clung behind the legs of the person holding her hand and hid.
The title “uncle” meant an elder uncle, but judging by Harin’s reaction, he didn’t seem to be a very good person.
“Your hair down is really pretty. It suits you well.”
Addressing me informally right off the bat and calling someone by a strange nickname as he pleased.
Seeing him comment on the appearance of a woman who already had a husband, he seemed to be exactly the kind of person my first impression had suggested.
I wanted to ignore him with all my heart, but—
“H-ha. Is that so?”
He was still a guest, so I had to answer.
The name I had seen on the list was… no. He wasn’t someone worth recalling the name of.
You’re yellow. From now on, you’re Yellow.
“But a woman is prettier with her hair neatly tied up.”
What was this Yellow going on about so out of the blue?
Who did he think he was to keep voicing such opinions? It was enough that So Hwi had said my hair down was stunning enough to make his heart race.
“I must go get ready now. Let us greet each other again at the banquet later.”
“It just so happens I have a hairpin, so take it. Consider it my get-well gift.”
Yellow smoothly ignored my attempt to end the conversation, pulled a hairpin from his sleeve, and held it out to me.
I had considered subtly ignoring him and passing by, but since he was standing squarely in the way where one descends from the pavilion, it was difficult to ignore him.
“Thank you. Then if you’ll excuse me…?”
With the intention of just taking it and ending things, I snatched the hairpin.
Harin seemed uncomfortable too, and I didn’t want to look at Yellow’s face any longer.
But then.
“Ah.”
“Sister…”
The reactions around me were strange.
An atmosphere of pity, as if they had seen someone who had made a terrible mistake.
Harin looked like she was about to cry, the other tiger beastmen wore shocked expressions, and the maid beside me had turned completely pale.
I had just received an accessory; why was everyone reacting like this?
“Wow. So it was true?”
I didn’t know the reason, but seeing only Yellow raising the corners of his lips in an unpleasant smirk, it seemed I had made some big mistake.
…But I had no idea.
Unable to guess the situation at all, I was just looking around.
“…Madam.”
The expression of So Hwi, who had come to fetch me without my knowing when—
“We should return now.”
I saw So Hwi, who would smile slyly no matter what happened, harden his expression for the first time.
What kind of trouble had I caused for So Hwi to make such an expression…?