By Zephyria 
At a gesture from the Document Taoist, several people immediately entered the room where the children were. They then took syringes out of small bags.
Starting a few years ago, Yeom Cheon-ryul decided he would no longer rely solely on the luck of the heavens. Finding rituals insufficient, he began to attempt other horrific experiments.
One by one, injections designed to forcibly induce the manifestation of Hwamyeong were plunged into the children’s bodies. Listening to the piercing screams, Yeom Cheon-ho clenched his fists until they nearly crushed. He prayed helplessly for these children to survive.
However, contrary to the High Priest’s words that blessings would dwell there because it was the birth date of the Nine Provinces, when he returned the next day, only about three children had survived. Two were barely one year old and could only toddle, and one appeared to be around four or five.
“Still, three survived this time.”
Yeom Cheon-ryul, who had come down to see the results, smiled with satisfaction. The injections that forced the manifestation of Hwamyeong had severe side effects. Most of the children who received the induction agent injections died. The three children who survived this time were no different; they suffered from high fevers, requiring ice packs to be applied every hour.
“Cheon-ho.”
“Yes, High Priest.”
Yeom Cheon-ryul affectionately stroked the head of Yeom Cheon-ho, who stood with his head bowed and a dark expression. Despite it being the fatherly attention he had longed for, Yeom Cheon-ho felt a desire to push Yeom Cheon-ryul’s arm away. At the same time, he felt guilt. It felt as if the children’s deaths were his own fault.
“You are my son, so you can do it, right? Are you not the child of this High Priest? You are different from those weak things.”
Yeom Cheon-ho looked up at Yeom Cheon-ryul. He wore the face of a father who loved his son more than anyone in the world. However, his eyes were utterly cold. Though he felt he should repay the grace of the man who raised him, he felt a terror that made him want to flee immediately.
“Seven baby bodhisattvas sacrificed themselves for you.”
Seven were already dead, and the three survivors could not even open their eyes due to the fever. Though he didn’t want to, Yeom Cheon-ho eventually answered, pretending to be a dutiful son.
“……Yes, Father.”
In truth, he knew that saying he hated it would be useless. If it mattered, those siblings wouldn’t have died before.
The injection with a 30% survival rate was plunged into Yeom Cheon-ho’s arm. The injection fluid, like poison, flowed into his body. After standing firm for a few minutes, Yeom Cheon-ho’s small body soon collapsed. Cold sweat poured off him like rain. Yeom Cheon-ryul let out a feigned sound of pity and pulled Yeom Cheon-ho into his arms, comforting him.
“It hurts a lot, doesn’t it? My son, stay strong. Be strong. You can do this.”
With those words, his consciousness drifted far away. In resignation, Yeom Cheon-ho quietly closed his eyes.
He woke up because of a very soft, tender hand fiddling with his face. Forcing his eyes open while his entire body felt heavy as lead, he met a pair of round eyes. A one-year-old baby was peering at him with a curious expression. The baby was lovely and cute.
“……Baby bodhisattva.”
Yeom Cheon-ho murmured unconsciously. Perhaps it was just a feeling, but as the baby’s hand touched him, he felt a bit less pain. Had he been one of the three out of ten? Had he truly survived as his father said? As he struggled to push himself up, the baby, who had been fiddling with him, suddenly clung to him. Reflexively, Yeom Cheon-ho held the baby in his arms. He could hear the sound of the small creature nestled against him sucking on its finger.
Mamma, the baby in his arms whimpered. It seemed hungry. Since there was no one around to call, Yeom Cheon-ho had no choice but to stand up while holding the baby. Dragging his feet, he rummaged through the refrigerator. There was only yogurt, so he put it in the baby’s mouth, and since he was severely thirsty, he opened one for himself.
“Where are the other kids…….”
His head was throbbing so much that he set the baby down. The baby, who had been clumsily holding onto his leg for a moment, waddled away. There, another child was sleeping, making soft breathing sounds. This was the oldest child. When the baby began fiddling with the child’s face just as he had done to him, the child opened his eyes and slowly sat up.
“A baby.”
With a dazed gaze due to the fever, the child only stared at the baby who had woken him. Feeling a bit better, Yeom Cheon-ho tried talking to him.
“Do you want something to drink too?”
Yeom Cheon-ho offered the yogurt, but the child turned his head away sharply, as if he hated it. He seemed to have a very prim and sensitive personality.
“Baby.”
The five-year-old, despite being a baby himself, hugged the smaller child tightly and beamed. Meanwhile, the last child woke up. With a face that stood out for being exceptionally pretty, the child looked around and burst into tears out of fear. Then, the other two, who had been quiet, also began to cry sorrowfully. It was enough to give him a headache, so Yeom Cheon-ho had no choice but to move. A certain part of his back throbbed intensely, making it difficult.
He comforted the children who cried because they were in pain, cried because they were hungry, and just cried. Eventually, exhausted, he collapsed and fell asleep. Fortunately, perhaps they weren’t hungry for food but for affection, the children fell asleep quickly once Yeom Cheon-ho gathered them all and hugged them. When Yeom Cheon-ho opened his eyes again, a familiar person was tending to him.
“Daemo.”
Heat still lingered in his body, so Yeom Cheon-ho called out in a cracked, dry voice. Daemo, whose eyes were swollen from how much she had cried, stroked his head and wept again.
“Poor thing. What am I to do with you, you poor thing, really…….”
Yeom Cheon-ho simply found that touch welcoming and pleasant. Soon, with a face of firm determination, Daemo stood up. Seeing her scoop up the one-year-old baby, Yeom Cheon-ho also held a baby in his arms. He took the hand of the other one and led him. Daemo placed a finger over her lips.
“Shh. From now on, you must be quiet.”
Daemo led them. She hurried along, choosing corridors that were strangely devoid of people. Though his body was in such poor condition that he felt he might collapse at any moment, Yeom Cheon-ho gritted his teeth and followed. Fortunately, the children also followed well without crying or fussing.
Even though he was merely a child himself, Yeom Cheon-ho felt a strong sense of responsibility looking at the children smaller than him. A complex mixture of kinship over their shared luck in surviving and guilt surged within him. Throughout the walk, Yeom Cheon-ho carefully engraved the innocent faces of the three in his mind. Where Daemo led them, there was a car with the engine running. Daemo looked back at Yeom Cheon-ho and asked.
“How about you leave with us?”
He felt a strong temptation at the offer, but he soon shook his head. He knew well that the weight of the sin of smuggling out three children who knew nothing was different from smuggling out Yeom Cheon-ryul’s son, who knew much about the Order.
“Then what about you, Daemo? I’ll be fine.”
“Cheon-ho…….”
Her voice sounded heartbroken. Daemo was a good person. That was why Yeom Cheon-ho did not want to leave Daemo alone to suffer the cruelty of Yeom Cheon-ryul. Perhaps because she was the only person Yeom Cheon-ryul loved, he might not be that cruel, but still.
“Just tell me these children’s names.”
If he knew their names, he would be able to meet them again someday. Yeom Cheon-ho had seen several times how Yeom Cheon-ryul could find a person with just a name. As if she had been waiting for the question, Daemo told him the names in a clear voice.
“Lee Yeon-rok. Choi Hwan. Moon Gyeon-woo.”
Watching the car drive away, Yeom Cheon-ho repeated the names of the three children over and over, determined never to forget them.
Because he survived even after receiving the injection to induce name manifestation, Yeom Cheon-ryul actually grew to hate Yeom Cheon-ho. Because of the incident where the three children were smuggled out, Daemo had to be imprisoned for nearly a year in a place where the sun never reached. If she hadn’t been a woman Yeom Cheon-ryul favored, she would have died long ago. Yeom Cheon-ho also became a target of hatred and underwent education that bordered on abuse for a long time.
However, no matter the circumstances, he never imagined that the man would actually push him—his own son—from such a height. By a stroke of luck, he survived because his body caught on a tree. Even in a daze, bleeding, Yeom Cheon-ho had to climb back up to where Yeom Cheon-ryul was.
Yeom Cheon-ryul was not flustered even upon seeing his injured son. He packaged his actions by saying that lions naturally push their cubs off cliffs. The depravity of trying to kill one’s own child was disguised as a hardship and trial sternly bestowed by the High Priest.
Yeom Cheon-ho engraved in his heart the look in his father’s eyes as he declared him the successor before the believers for miraculously surviving. It was a look of utter boredom and disgust that something so annoying and troublesome had survived.
From the moment he saw those eyes, Yeom Cheon-ryul became Yeom Cheon-ho’s complete enemy. Only then did he realize that Yeom Cheon-ryul had never once considered him a son. To Yeom Cheon-ryul, he was merely one of the many children born from so-called ‘concubines.’