CNC 251

Special Side Story: Come Back To Its Original Owner Episode 5

“H-hello… is anyone here…?”

Hong-seo poked his head through the open middle gate and cautiously looked around for someone. The small middle gate, used primarily by servants rather than the main grand gate, led into the servants’ courtyard.

To think the servants’ courtyard alone was this spacious…

This was undoubtedly the ‘Residence of Lord Lee’ that everyone had spoken of in unison.

There seemed to be at least a hundred crocks lined up in sight, and several hearths with cauldrons atop them were scattered across the yard. Furthermore, the courtyard even had its own well. To not have to walk far to fetch water… Even looking only at the servants’ quarters, it was a magnificent household.

Yet, in that vast courtyard, there wasn’t a single shadow of a person to be found.

“Is no one here?”

He cautiously raised his voice as he stepped further into the yard.

“I’ve come hoping to find some work.”

Seeing a wide-open door next to the crock terrace, he approached it. Inside was the kitchen. My goodness, he had never seen a kitchen this large.

There were six or seven hearths, polished bowls neatly arranged, and a mountain of dry, sturdy firewood piled high on one side.

However, there was no one there either. Only one cauldron atop a hearth was boiling vigorously, emitting plumes of white steam.

Sniff, sniff. It was the smell of boiling meat. Judging by the clean scent, it seemed to be chicken. Rumble, rumble. His stomach, which had been empty for three days, churned violently.

As if possessed, Hong-seo approached and gripped the handle of the pot lid, pulling it aside.

“……”

After a momentary cloud of white steam blurred his vision and vanished, a milky broth and a chicken appeared. Hong-seo stared at it, entranced, as if he were looking at a beautiful piece of jewelry or fine silk fabric.

Rumble, rumble. His throat, which had done nothing but gulp water while starving for three consecutive days, screamed at him to put that in his mouth immediately. Survival and instinct took precedence over morality. He had to survive first.

Using a large bowl placed on the kitchen counter, he scooped the chicken out of the pot. Without even realizing it was hot, he began to tear into the meat greedily while standing. His life had consisted of more days spent tossing and turning in sleep while clutching a hungry belly than days of eating his fill, but this was his first time stealing. However, as the tender, cooked meat slid down his throat, Hong-seo didn’t even consciously realize he was stealing.

“Who is it?”

By the time someone appeared at the kitchen entrance and called out in a puzzled voice, Hong-seo had already nearly finished the entire chicken in less than a quarter-hour. With grease glistening on his lips and wide, startled eyes, he whipped his head toward the kitchen door. A woman who looked to be in her thirties looked at Hong-seo’s face, then at the chicken bones in his hand, and then slapped her knee and shrieked.

“Oh my! The chicken soup for our Baby! Thief! Thief!”

“N-no! That’s not it…”

Hong-seo tried to urgently explain that he [unauthorized copy]wasn’t a [unauthorized copy]thief, but what he held in his hand was unmistakably someone else’s food.

The male servants, who had been nowhere to be found, came rushing in from somewhere upon hearing the woman’s screams. In an instant, Hong-seo was seized by them and forced to kneel in the courtyard.

“I’ve never seen this brat before.”

“Where the hell did you come from?”

“I… I’ve been wandering here and there… and arrived in this village yesterday evening.”

Someone grabbed Hong-seo’s disheveled hair and yanked it back.

“Tell us which village you’re from! If you were a servant, whose house did you serve? State your origin!”

Hong-seo swallowed hard. He couldn’t state his origin. He never wanted to return to the place he had left. He had fled with the firm resolve that he would never go back.

“I have never been a servant. I’ve just lived a wandering life…”

“He’s a suspicious brat, which is why he can’t state his origin!”

“Just look at that hair—no ribbon, no topknot. It’s obvious!”

“He must have drifted into our village to steal!”

“No! I didn’t intend to steal!”

Clutching the trouser leg of the burly, rugged man who was leading the scolding, Hong-seo pleaded, shaking his head.

“Not intend to?! What you’ve already done is theft!”

The man shoved Hong-seo’s head away, detaching him from his leg. He possessed immense strength.

The woman who had discovered Hong-seo in the kitchen sighed deeply with a distressed face.

“To think he’s made a mess of the chicken intended for the Baby’s table… How dare he touch the soup, knowing whose it was!”

“I’m sorry. I’m so sorry.”

Knowing full well his mistake, Hong-seo simply prostrated himself, pressing his forehead to the ground to beg for forgiveness.

“I had been starving for three days, and when I smelled the meat, I lost my mind. I will work to pay you back. I’ll pay you back several times over. Please, just give me any task.”

“What work could you possibly do with such a scrawny body?”

The rugged man grabbed Hong-seo’s arm and hauled him up, only to fling him back down.

“You look like you couldn’t even lift a single axe properly!”

“My body may be like this, but I have plenty of grit! I can clean the whole house, and I’m good at starting fires. Since I lack strength, I will work two or three times Read on Read BL Novelsharder than Read on Read BL Novelsothers. I… I can read and write Hangeul too!”

“Hmph, Hangeul? How is such a trivial talent useful for a servant’s work?”

Hong-seo’s pleas seemed to fall on deaf ears.

“Look at him, not even wearing a headband! Who knows what kind of low-life he is. For all we know, he might have run away after stealing from wherever he lived before!”

“A brat like this shouldn’t be allowed to set foot in our village in the first place!”

The crowd’s anger was growing more menacing. They looked as if they were about to rain kicks down on him. Preparing to be beaten, Hong-seo instinctively covered his head with both arms.

However, even as he closed his eyes tight and waited, no kicks or fists flew his way.

“What is all this commotion?”

Instead, a refined voice was heard.

“Oh, Young Master.”

Hong-seo peeked out from between his arms. The men surrounding him instantly bowed their heads and stepped back.

“Should you let your chaos spill over into the guest courtyard?”

The voice was low and somewhat cold, but the tone was not harsh. The way he scolded them was familiar, like an older brother reprimanding a beloved younger sibling.

Hong-seo looked up while keeping his upper body pressed flat against the ground.

A well-dressed young nobleman was walking from the direction of the inner gate toward the center of the yard.

Accompanied by a steward and wearing a dopo overcoat, it seemed he was on his way back from an outing.

Due to the strong sunlight behind him and the brim of his unauthorized copyhat, Read on Read BL Novelshis face wasn’t clearly visible, but his visit our sitetall stature—which seemed to easily exceed six ja—was the first thing that caught the eye.

Wearing a stylish wide-brimmed gat and a silk dopo, and shod in leather shoes, he looked so polished and elegant that, in Hong-seo’s eyes, he didn’t seem like a person of this world.

His attire was magnificent, incomparable to any lord or young master of a great family Hong-seo had seen until now. The colors and luster were so exquisite that it felt as if the fabrics had been woven by heavenly maidens and bestowed by god; it was dazzling. He wondered how men’s clothing could be so beautiful.

“How dare a thief stare so boldly at the Young Master?”

Someone struck the back of Hong-seo’s head with a fist. Then, they reported proudly to their master.

“We caught this brat, who we don’t know from anywhere, tearing into the chicken meant for the Baby’s table!”

“Do you recognize him?”

The one called Young Master asked in a calm voice.

Judging by the fact that the slaves called him Young Master, he was clearly the son of Lord Lee.

“No, Young Master. He won’t open his mouth even when told to state his origin. That alone proves he is a suspicious character.”

“Hmm.” The Young Master let out something like a sigh. He then approached Hong-seo. Beneath Hong-seo’s bowed head, the leather shoes entered his field of vision.

“Do you make a habit of petty theft while prowling from village to village?”

Hong-seo lowered his posture even further, as if trying to bury his forehead in the earth.

“No, no, My Lord! I was… I was just looking for work…”

“I doubt that chicken was the ‘work’ you were looking for.”

“Everyone I asked told me that this household is the most prosperous and that the master here is the most generous. They said there would be work if I came here. So, I looked around and saw the side gate was open, so I entered… I saw no one, and then, as if possessed by the smell of chicken, I opened the cauldron… because I had been starving for three days, I just…”