When the Black Moon Rises - Chapter 2
Chapter 2
“Sister, Sister. I like you so much.”
“Marriage? No, thank you. I don't need anyone else as long as I have you, Sister.”
“I wish you wouldn't marry and just keep living with me.”
The voice that used to say such things now spoke completely different words.
“……What do you mean?”
Ju Sehwa, her face a mask of bewilderment, reached out her hand.
She tried to grab Sa Yeonju’s foot, but before she could, a crimson shoe stomped down on her hand, crushing it.
Ju Sehwa couldn't even properly feel the pain.
“Yeonju, what, what are you saying? It’s me, your sister Ju Sehwa.”
She stammered, looking up at Sa Yeonju's face.
“Yeonju. Yeonju. It’s me.”
Yet, at the same time, she was beginning to realize something.
From the ceremonial robe Sa Yeonju was wearing. From the words she spoke.
She was forced to acknowledge the unbelievable truth: who had endangered her entire family. Who had imprisoned her in this filthy dungeon for five long years.
Seeing her face contort, Sa Yeonju giggled.
Ju Sehwa stared at her cousin, who seemed to have become a completely different person, her eyes wide with disbelief.
Wasn’t her cousin always her most reliable ally? But now…
“You, ……it was you?”
“Yes.”
“All this time, you……?”
“Yes, it was me. But really, Sister, didn’t you know?”
“…….”
“Didn’t you ever suspect anything? Surely, you did.”
Sa Yeonju clicked her tongue as if in pity.
“You just didn't want to believe it. That I would betray you. So it's not really my fault. It’s because you’re foolish and pathetic that you ended up like this.”
“Yeon, ju……”
“Ah, I’m so happy. I couldn't stand you all this time.”
Long fingernails scratched across Ju Sehwa’s face. As the sharply filed nails cut into her skin, red blood welled up.
“I could never understand it. I’m more beautiful than you, and I’m more talented. So why are you the only one who gets to be a Ju, and why do I have to be a Sa? Why do you get to have everything, and not me?”
Just what makes this cousin of hers so different from her? What's so important about that bloodline?
Sa Yeonju, having always harbored resentment about her birth, whispered with the happiest and brightest smile she had ever given in her life.
“You just got lucky with your parents. And yet, you always lectured me about proper conduct, and told me not to attend those indecent banquets, putting on such an obnoxious and superior act, which is why you’ve ended up like this.”
“……”
“It’s because of you that they’re all dying. Your whole family.”
“……”
“But thanks to you, I got a lot of things, so I’m grateful.”
Sa Yeonju flaunted the power surging within her and manifested it.
“Do you see this spiritual power? If I just said that you asked for it, your parents, and your two brothers, would give me anything without hesitation. All this spiritual power overflowing in my body. This was all given by your parents and your brothers, too.”
A clear, bright crimson flame, unlike any lamp, spread around Sa Yeonju.
“There’s a limit to how stupid you can be. When I said you were asking for help, they even diminished their own life force to give me spiritual power.”
“……”
Even as her laughter echoed loudly in the cell, Ju Sehwa still couldn’t believe it.
Even with the undeniable evidence, she couldn’t fathom how those words could come from her cousin’s mouth.
“Yeonju.”
Ju Sehwa desperately continued, “I, I’m sorry for not understanding how you felt. I’m sorry for reprimanding you with my lectures. But that's all my fault, not my parents’. And my brothers, too. My brothers aren't even our blood relatives. But they're dying too.”
Her face as pale as a corpse, she cried and begged,
“It’s all my fault. So, just kill me and spare my family, please. They were good to you.”
“……”
“Please. I beg you. I can be accused of being a spy because I visited the Baek Clan, but they’ve diligently served the clan! They’ve worked hard to save people! Haven’t they?”
“That's not possible.”
Sa Yeonju shook her head as if regretting it.
“Your family has enjoyed too much for too long. We all have the blood of the Mystic Ruler, yet you alone are born with that blood that is just a little thicker, isn't that right?”
“Yeon, ju.”
“And anyway, it was me who fabricated the evidence of collusion with the Baek Clan, implicating your parents and two brothers.”
“……What?”
“No need to make that face. It was what the Clan Head wanted. You were someone who would do anything for the Clan Head, so you would understand, right?”
“……”
“Look at your face. Is it that shocking that the Clan Head ordered it?”
“……You.”
“Oh dear, how pitiful. But now you know, right? That there was never a place for you here from the beginning.”
Sa Yeonju’s long fingernails gently stroked Ju Sehwa’s damp face again.
She lowered her head to meet her gaze and whispered in a kind, worried voice.
“So, just give everything to me and leave. Go to a better place. There’s no need for you to suffer like this here.”
It was the same voice, the same tone that had seemed to genuinely worry about her safety when she lived far away from home.
The guards tied her up with ropes and dragged her out, her body barely able to move.
Humiliated, her arms bound and her body dragged across the floor, Ju Sehwa desperately wished this hellish situation was just a bad dream.
Maybe when she opened her eyes, she would be back to the way things were.
The Baek Clan would not have attacked the Ju Clan, her father and brothers wouldn’t have gone to war.
Her whole family would be sitting together, laughing and talking.
Her father would be a respected elder of the clan, her brothers promising young warriors. Her mother, a virtuous wife and mother.
And she would be there, proud of her family, enjoying another fulfilling day.
…Even though the horrifying reality was this.
The clan's warriors surrounded the Ju Clan's massive execution grounds, forming an impenetrable wall, preventing even a single insect from entering. The polished blades of their spears glinted ominously.
“Bring in the criminals!”
“Bring them in!”
Inside the execution grounds…
Ju Myoungyoon, Ju Sehwa’s father and an elder of the Ju Clan, and his wife, Cheon Sua, watched with reddened eyes as their daughter, nearly crippled, was dragged in.
“Commence the execution!”
“Commence!”
At the executioner’s command, the elders stamped their feet, chanting for the execution.
Kill them! Kill them! Kill!
The hands restraining Ju Myoungyoon and Cheon Sua dragged them to the Clan Head's seat, forcing them to kneel in a humiliating posture. Even surrounded by the clan lords glaring down at them from both sides, they held their heads high. But the executioner immediately approached, his rough hands gripping their necks.
Their heads were placed beneath the gleaming, sharpened blades.
“Mother! Father! No!! No!”
Despite her battered state, Ju Sehwa screamed, looking at her parents.
‘……Is this the result of a lifetime of unwavering loyalty to the clan?’
Ju Myoungyoon gritted his teeth, his gaze piercing the Clan Head in the distance.
The young Clan Head, Ju Kyunghyun, watched Myoungyoon’s family with an apathetic gaze, not even blinking.
His brazen attitude fueled Myoungyoon’s rage.
But Myoungyoon was a warrior well-versed in the tides of battle. He knew that all his efforts and anger were meaningless now.
‘Even so, my children who will be next…’
Instead of cursing at the Clan Head, Myoungyoon turned his gaze to his children, also bound, imprinting their faces in his memory.
He had to show them first that he wasn't afraid of death.
“My wife. I’m sorry.”
“Don’t say that. Every day with you has been a blessing.”
Myoungyoon’s wife, Cheon Sua, seemed to share his thoughts, maintaining a composed demeanor.
They both made one last, earnest wish for their children.
May their children follow them without pain, in a single instant…….
“Execute!”
“Execute!”
“Execute!”
“Behead them!”
“Behead the traitors of the clan!”
“Behead!”
The elders, lined up in the vast space, stomped their feet in unison, raising their voices.
Sharp, gleaming blades fell upon the two in an instant.
“No!!!”
Ju Sehwa wanted to throw herself forward to stop her parents’ execution, but her bound body was firmly pinned to the ground by the warriors guarding the execution grounds.
Her parents’ heads, their eyes not even closed, rolled across the floor, staining it with their blood.
“!!”
But there was no time to grieve. No time to compose herself. Next, it was her brothers’ turn.
“Ju Kyunghyun! They're not my blood brothers. You know that. They have nothing to do with this!”
Her two brothers were the sons of her father's deceased friend, taken in by their family.
The fabricated evidence of betrayal only implicated her father and herself, so she hoped her brothers would escape the repercussions of this hellish situation.
The clan members, seemingly determined to eliminate any future problems, did not react to her desperate cries.
Only her eldest brother, Ju Gahan, with a composed expression like their parents, stopped her.
“What are you saying? You’re our sister, and those two are our other parents! We'll gladly share this fate with them, so don't say such things!”
Her second brother, Ju Gayoon, his face streaked with tears, mouthed words to his sister.
‘If it's possible, please survive. Somehow. ……Even if it means conspiring with the Baek Clan.’
That was the last thing he said.
As soon as they were forced to kneel on the floor, soaked with the blood of their departed parents, their heads were swiftly severed by the executioner's blade.
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