[CYM] 1 – Ki Clan

There was one young man with whom she could talk to.

When she was young, an epidemic swept the village. The number of bodies increased day by day, to the point that not naming a child became common – should that child pass without a name.

The same went true for him. He didn’t have a name, and so, people came up with them. The boy didn’t just have one; like the rat hitchhiking on the back of an ox*, they gave him random names, ‘Samnom’, ‘Dushik’, ‘Meoksoe’, and the like.**

*An allusion to the oriental zodiac story, in which the rat came first in the race of the twelve animals by riding on the ox’s back.

**Random names with no meaning like ‘Number 3’.

There, sixteen years passed.

At some point, his cute nickname as the youngest, because he had older brothers and sisters, changed to young master of the Ki clan. However, there was still no cemented name.

The young master had always lived with minor illnesses, so he was constantly on edge.

Was he skinny? The child’s mother passed without even once being able to breastfeed.

At any rate, the youngest master in the house was confined in his room due to an illness, so no one knew how he looked.

She, too, was among them.

However, a noble painter articulated with his brush, and the young master was painted in the calligraphy painting depicted as pale, with eyebrows of a strikingly beautiful arch. One could only guess that he must indeed look handsome and fair.

But there was no mouth in the portrait. It was like a ghost, a white egg with only eyes, a nose, and ears.

There must be a reason.

Apart from that, no matter how one saw it, it was a picture that was too delusional and exaggerated.

The young master embroidered in black ink on white paper was so remarkably beautiful that it was hard to tell whether it was a mystical being or a human.

The aura that he gave off didn’t appear to be sick. Besides, what about those blue irises that looked like they had been gouged from the eyes of a mythical beast*? If one looked from the left, they were black; from the right, they shone blue.

*The word here is 금수의, I believe 禽獸 is the hanja for beast.

Did someone pay extra? Unless the painter worked without receiving a handsome reward. It was undoubtedly an outstanding painting.

The portrait of the young master occupied the corner of the gallery, and those who passed by, glanced at the painting, enthralled. Everyone seemed to be fascinated about the owner of the colorful painting – the young master who had been in hiding for seventeen years like a pear blossom in spring.

Moreover, the painter, who showed off his dazzling brush skills, suddenly disappeared without a trace, and no one could trace his origin.

“It’s baffling.” *

*The literal translation is ‘the ghost howls’, 귀신이 곡할 노릇일세. Meaning that it is mysterious and extremely strange, impossible to understand the meaning/how it came to be.

So, people covered their mouths and trembled, saying, “Isn’t the painting of the young master by a ghost?”

The Ki clan were most honored in Muritmaegol. It was not a house that had deep roots, their lineage came from a humble nobleman who in his later years, became a man of fortune when luck struck, selling water.

Even the scholars who immersed themselves in books refrained from showing themselves in front of the Ki clan. Behind closed doors, they would sneer, saying he had scrapped and saved wealth like an uneducated merchant. The dignity and honor of a nobleman – sold for a bucket of water. They would gossip so.

Still, they would stoop and borrow coins and household items from the Ki family. It was a time when the country was rife with turmoil, and they could not afford to be proud of their status.

In front of the Ki family’s gate, there was always a long line of people coming to borrow something or other. Therefore, if the Master became angry at the disingenuity of those brazen borrowers, he would not have the authority he had now.

They didn’t know if he was pretending to be ignorant or if he was scheming behind his smiling face. But the shrewd nobles generously scooped rice in the seed jars their his wives sent, in return for a coin.

He was also very generous to the widows and the beggars who ate the soup, soaked in sweat and grime. He gave and gave, so even if people cursed behind his back, who they have face to do so to his face? Would there even be anyone who would refuse if pumpkin seeds were placed in front of you? The villagers of Muritmaegol followed the name of the Ki clan more than the village chief.

“Mother, is he still fighting?”

She often followed her mother to take care of the sickly youngest son of the Ki house.

Her mother was a powerful shaman, and there was no greater person who was on par with spiritual abilities. Her appearance was that of a great beauty, that even Chang’e* of the moon palace would hide under her skirt.

*’월궁항아도’ means ‘Moon Palace’s Hanga’, but in mythology, she is known as the moon goddess, Chang’e. The daughter of an ancient king and deity, whose beauty as a goddess cannot be compared, ate a medicine of immortality and flew to the moon, where she resides. In countries that celebrate the mid-Autumn Festival, people eat mooncake and remember the fairy on the moon.

Due to circumstances, she had been reduced to being a shaman who casted fortunes and performed rituals for neighbors.

However, why did they call for a shaman instead of doctor? It because the young master’s chronic illness was beyond the help of medicinal herbs. With no other solution, they had called her mother to pray to the land deity.