By Zephyria 
When Young-pa sprang up, the woman gasped in surprise and fell back onto her backside. She dropped her basket, scattering the bracken inside across the ground.
“Goodness, you scared me! I thought you were that girl.”
The woman gathered the greens and stood up again. As she looked over Young-pa and Biryoo, her expression softened.
“Who are you young lords? What brings you here?”
“We’re just out for a stroll. Is there a problem?”
“A stroll… to a gravesite?”
Young-pa ignored her and asked what he was curious about.
“You said there’s someone who tends to this grave? Who is it?”
“There’s a maiden living in the next village. A poor soul with a tragic fate… She firmly believes this grave belongs to her ancestors. Thinking that sincere prayers will change her destiny, she comes tirelessly to pull the weeds.”
From what Young-pa heard, if that were true, the maiden was a descendant of Yeogo and Seolji.
“What is her name?”
“She’s called Dallae. Why, are you interested in her, young lord?”
The woman giggled, but seeing Young-pa’s cold expression, she turned her gaze back to her basket.
“Tragic fate? What do you mean by that?”
“Well, it’s a long story… Dallae lives with a stepmother. As for how it happened…”
In short, Dallae was the only daughter of a family that lived reasonably well. When her mother died of illness, her father fell into deep sorrow, and the family fortune declined. He lived immersed in alcohol until he met a compatible widow from the next village and remarried. From then on, the widow moved into Dallae’s house with her own daughter, Jjille, and they lived together.
“At first, the stepmother treated her well. She gave the tasty side dishes to Dallae and made sure she didn’t get a single drop of water on her hands. That daughter of hers acted affectionately, calling her ‘sister, sister’…”
However, once Dallae’s father died from a fall, the stepmother’s attitude shifted abruptly. It became commonplace for her to abuse Dallae for no reason; she gave Dallae’s room to Jjille and forced Dallae to sleep on the kitchen floor.
She treated Dallae cruelly, making her carry sacks of rice instead of a hired hand, ordering her to fetch water from a well at least fifty ri away, and demanding she collect and wash all the laundry in the village. Her daughter, Jjille, was no better, seizing all of Dallae’s silk clothes and accessories and forcing her to wear a cotton skirt instead.
“Living as a mistreated servant, she must have picked up a rumor somewhere that an ancestor lay in this graveyard. That’s why she prays until her hands are worn, begging for her situation to change. She doesn’t even look for her parents’ graves, but she comes here once every three or four days, no matter how busy she is.”
Young-pa asked where the maiden named Dallae lived, and the talkative woman told him everything.
“Another place to visit, Biryoo.”
As Young-pa grinned, Biryoo stood up, dusting off the hem of his robe.
“It seems Black Tortoise couldn’t strip the meddlesomeness out of you.”
“If there’s anything left of me, isn’t that a relief?”
Young-pa chuckled. His steps were as light as a feather as he walked down the hill.
≋ ≋ ≋
Bipung was a village located in the northwestern part of Hanbat. There were far more houses than there had been three hundred years ago, but the scenery of thatched-roof houses and huts clustered together had not changed much.
As he had been told, Young-pa turned left and sought the third house. A stone wall surrounded the thatched-roof house topped with rice straw. Looking around after entering, it seemed to be a house that was neither particularly poor nor wealthy.
“Is no one here?”
The house was utterly silent. Not just this house, but the entire village was quiet. According to the woman he met at the grave, today was the magistrate’s birthday feast, so most people would have gone.
“Look behind the storehouse.”
Going to the spot Biryoo mentioned, he found a scruffy girl curled up. When she lifted her head, Young-pa was startled. The maiden’s slanted eyebrows looked exactly like the Yeogo in his memories.
“Are you Dallae?”
When Young-pa asked, her mouth fell open and her tear-filled eyes widened.
“Who… who are you lords?”
Dallae asked in a trembling voice. Young-pa reached out his hand toward her.
“I am the one and only friend of your ancestral deity.”
Joy filled her round eyes. Dallae grabbed Young-pa’s hand and pulled herself up.
She was a girl whose height reached Young-pa’s shoulder. She looked to be about fifteen or sixteen, and her appearance was filthy. Though she looked aggrieved because of her slanted eyebrows, there was a cuteness to her cheeks. Young-pa stared at her eyebrows as if they were a curiosity.
“What did my ancestral deity say?”
“They didn’t tell me directly.”
“But you came to help me, didn’t you? Yes?”
Dallae looked back and forth between Young-pa and Biryoo with desperate eyes, and Young-pa instinctively answered that he had.
“What do I need to help with?”
“Let me see, there are three things in total… First, I must fetch water to fill the tubs, then weave cloth, and finally, I must finely hull the rice.”
Dallae listed her requests without hesitation, as if she had been waiting for this moment. Young-pa frowned.
“Why do you have to do such things? Is there nothing more important?”
“To me, this is more important than anything!”
“Why?”
“Because I can only go to the magistrate’s birthday feast once all the housework is done. Going there is my lifelong wish.”
Only then did Young-pa seem to understand the situation.
“Your stepmother says she’ll let you go to the feast only if you finish all the chores?”
“Yes. Every year, I’ve missed the once-a-year feast because of work. I really wanted to go this year… but… when I went to fetch water, I found a hole in the tub, so I couldn’t fill the water tubs at all…”
“That’s why you were crying.”
Dallae nodded with pitiful eyes.
“Give it here. I’ll do it for you.”
Dallae quickly brought the tub and handed it to Young-pa.
“Why don’t you help too? You’ve got nothing to do.”
Young-pa poked at Biryoo, who had settled himself on the wooden veranda. With his arms crossed, Biryoo seemed to be expecting an entertaining sight, but he showed no intention of lifting himself. Left with no choice, Young-pa trudged along after Dallae.
Upon reaching the well, Young-pa blocked the hole in the tub with spiritual energy and drew water. Seeing that not a single drop leaked, Dallae let out a happy scream.
Young-pa returned to Dallae’s house and filled the water tubs. However, the tubs were so large that it seemed he would have to go back and forth ten times.
He suppressed his irritation and did the task two more times. But on the way back for the fourth time, his hand slipped, and he dropped the tub.
“What am I supposed to do with something the size of a soy sauce dish!”
Losing his temper, he stepped on the tub and crushed it.
“No! What are you doing?!”
Dallae screamed as she saw the tub flattened against the ground. Biryoo, who had been lying idly, let out a wheezing laugh. Young-pa’s eccentricity seemed to have satisfied his expectations.
Young-pa spoke as if it were no big deal.
“Let’s fetch water later and try something else.”
“What does that mean? You’ve made the tub into this state…”
“You said you have to weave cloth?”
Avoiding Dallae’s gaze, he sat before the loom on the veranda. Dallae clung to his side, her eyes narrowing with suspicion.
“Do you even know how to weave?”
“How hard could it be?”
Since Biryoo lifted his upper body slightly as if to watch, Young-pa wanted to do it even better.
Without touching the loom, he moved the threads using wind sorcery. The weft and warp danced in a magnificent pattern. East to west, south to north, they brushed and crossed, and the weave grew denser. Dallae’s eyes, once full of doubt, widened in surprise, and Young-pa’s brow furrowed as he poured all his strength into the spellcasting technique.
“How is it?”
When Young-pa pointed to the finished product, Dallae screamed.
“What is this!”
The weft and warp were tangled in a complete mess on the loom. Biryoo was laughing in absurdity.
“Did Ji Seo-gu steal your weaving skills as well?”
In truth, this was Young-pa’s first time weaving. He had vaguely thought he would be good at it, but since the result was bizarre even to his own eyes, he had nothing to say to the mockery.
Dallae rushed at Young-pa, grabbing his shoulders and shaking him.
“Give it back! Turn it back to the beginning!”
“You don’t like it?”
“Oh, goodness… the ancestral deity is trying to ruin me!”
He could not bring himself to disgrace Yeogo and Seolji. To make up for the mistake, Young-pa brought out a bowl full of rice from the kitchen. He placed the bowl neatly on the veranda and said,
“Don’t worry. If I can do just one of the three well, that’s something.”
“Forget it. It’s already ruined! When my stepmother returns, I’ll be beaten until late at night.”
“You live while being beaten?”
“Sometimes that happens, and sometimes I’m locked in the storehouse, but I’d rather be beaten. At least I don’t starve.”
“They starved you?”
Young-pa, overcome with anger, slammed his fist down. Unfortunately, the bowl of rice was right there, and the bowl shattered, sending the grains flying in all directions. Biryoo rolled over on the veranda, his back shaking with laughter.
Had he done something so ridiculous that the haughty man had collapsed in laughter, losing all his dignity? As Young-pa scratched the back of his head, he heard Dallae’s lament.
“Oh, goodness! Everything is ruined. Why is my life so miserable… Even the ancestral deity hates me, sending some madman to ruin my path… Oh, ugh-hu-hu-hu…”
Dallae lay down in the yard, weeping. When Young-pa crouched down and poked her shoulder with his finger, she snapped at him.
“You rascal! Do you think having a face as smooth as white jade is everything? You’ve ruined everything without doing a single thing right, and yet you act so brazenly! I’m the one who has to clean all this up… Wahhh, what a miserable fate.”
“Come to think of it, none of this is necessary. I can just grant your wish right now.”
Dallae stopped crying instantly. Young-pa looked into her eyes.
“Why do you want to go to the magistrate’s feast?”
“First of all… I want to eat chicken soup to my heart’s content…”
“Is that all?”
“I’ll marry the handsome magistrate and change my fate.”
In the end, the only thing this descendant resembled about Yeogo was her eyebrows. Still, could one say her bold personality was somewhat similar to Seolji’s? Young-pa placed a hand on Dallae’s shoulder with a serious expression.
“You can see my skills. Your stepmother or any other human is not even a handful for me.”
“C-can I trust you?”
“Yes. Let’s go to the feast together. From now on, call me Big Brother and that lazy fellow Little Brother. That way, others won’t find it suspicious.”
“Yes, Big Brother!”
Young-pa helped Dallae up and approached Biryoo, who was sprawled on the veranda.
“Biryoo, you’re good at coaxing men, aren’t you?”
“I am?”
“Yes. You have something that shakes a man’s heart. So, help this girl make a good impression on the magistrate.”
Biryoo clicked his tongue in disbelief and then examined Dallae’s attire.
“Are you going to the feast looking like that?”
“This is the only clothing I have, so what can I do?”
Dallae’s cotton jacket and skirt were covered in dirt and stained with grime. As if he had a great idea, Young-pa ripped off a door panel and entered the house.
Before long, clothes began pouring out through the gap in the door. Multi-colored jackets, green skirts, crimson ribbons, silk vests, headscarves, ramie undergarments, clothes adorned with danryeong and half-moon collars, traditional shoes, flower shoes, beaded ornaments, butterfly scent bags, and even a jokduri. Covered in a mountain of clothing in an instant, Dallae’s eyes widened, not knowing what to do.
“Blue would be good.”
Biryoo pulled out a deep blue skirt from the pile. Next, he picked a white jacket with a subtle violet tint. After selecting white socks, Biryoo handed the clothes to Dallae. Atop them sat a sparkling purple jokduri.
“Go change.”
“Yes.”
When Dallae emerged dressed up a short while later, she looked like a different person. Wrapped in the blue fabric, she looked like a violet, and as she composed herself with an excited expression, she looked like a maiden raised in a wealthy home.
“Um… how do I look? Is it strange?”
“It’s nothing compared to your ancestral deity, but you look quite lovely.”
“Pardon?”
“Now, hurry. I was just getting hungry, so let’s go feast.”
Young-pa stealthily picked up a broom made of woven straw from the corner of the wall. As Dallae led the way, Young-pa and Biryoo followed her down the road.
≋ ≋ ≋
The magistrate’s birthday feast was in full swing. Delicious food was laid out on the tables, and on one side, drummers and gong players heightened the festive mood. The magistrate, who was still a bachelor, was widely praised as the most handsome man in the village. Maidens who admired him were each dressed in colorful clothes, showing off their beauty.
When the gate opened and three people entered, everyone’s gaze turned toward them. The woman in the center was like a blue bird on a fresh spring day. Beside her stood two handsome men who naturally drew the eye; one had half his face covered by a bamboo hat, and the other held a broom in a slouching posture.
“Were there people like that in our village? Who are they?”
“I’ve never seen them before… Did they come from another village?”
As Dallae, Young-pa, and Biryoo walked in, people whispered while glancing at them.
They took seats at an empty table. Young-pa quickly finished a plate of sliced boiled pork from the spread and watched with satisfaction as Dallae devoured the samgyetang.
“It’s truly delicious, brothers… It’s been so long since I’ve had such tasty chicken soup.”
“It’s not much, but eat plenty.”
The simple feast didn’t satisfy Young-pa, who had already eaten at Wudam’s house since morning, but Dallae moved her spoon with tears in her eyes. In the midst of this, a sharp voice rang out.
“Brothers? Since when did you have brothers?”
The moment Dallae heard that voice, the food got stuck in her throat, and she began to choke. When Young-pa turned his head, he saw a person with a malicious expression standing there, holding a maiden’s hand.
As Young-pa stood up holding the broom, the woman put on a fake smile.
“Who are you, lord?”
“I am Dallae’s brother.”
“It seems this girl has used her silver tongue to deceive an innocent lord. She has no brothers. She is a complete orphan.”
“Is that so?”
“In truth, she is a servant employed by our house and does not belong at such a gathering. I will take her back and discipline her, so would you please step aside?”
Instead of answering, Young-pa whipped the woman’s back with the broom.
“Step aside? You’re the one who should step aside.”
“Aaaah! What is the meaning of this!”
Though he had barely used any strength, she screamed and shrieked. Young-pa then struck the back of the daughter, who was watching from the side, with the broom.
“Aaaaah! Why are you doing this to me too!”
“You’ve done plenty of wicked things, so you deserve to be hit.”
The people only whispered; no one stepped forward. Even the magistrate sat with his mouth agape, having stopped eating.
“You wretched things! What did the child do to deserve such abuse!”
Even after shaming them thoroughly, Young-pa stomped his feet as if his anger had not yet subsided. Then, a hand grabbed Young-pa’s shoulder—it was Dallae. Thinking she was trying to stop him, Young-pa shook his head.
“It’s not enough. They need to be shamed more to come to their senses.”
“It’s not that… please let me do it, Big Brother.”
Young-pa was speechless when he saw the fire poker Dallae was gripping tightly.
“Are you planning to kill them with that?”
“No, just until they’re almost dead… just a little.”
Young-pa saw the deep-seated resentment in Dallae’s eyes. Thus, he took the fire poker and handed her the broom. As soon as Dallae gripped the broom, she rushed toward the stepmother and struck her over the head.
“Aaaaah!”
“What did I do so wrong… what did I do wrong!”
As Dallae screamed and swung her arms, the broom mercilessly whipped their shoulders, heads, and waists.
“My miserable life… doing nothing but chores my whole life… not even being able to eat my fill!”
“Dallae… let’s talk, let’s talk it out… let’s—aaah!”
The beating continued for some time. By the time the stepmother and daughter collapsed powerlessly and gave up resisting, Young-pa took the broom from Dallae’s hand.
“This should be enough.”
At Young-pa’s words, the mother and daughter pulled themselves up and knelt. Their silk clothes were covered in dirt, and their hair was a disheveled mess.
“Lord, I was wrong.”
“Then confess exactly what you did wrong and apologize to Dallae.”
“I, I…”
As the stepmother lowered her head miserably, a streak of blood flowed from her nose.
“I intentionally mistreated Dallae and forced her to do the hardest work.”
“And?”
“I occasionally beat her and locked her in the storehouse.”
“And so?”
“I-I’m sorry, Dallae. I… I was wrong.”