[Don’t get involved more than necessary.]
And why Muksirok had added that warning — Muyeong now understood. It wasn’t something he would have said under normal circumstances.
Even in passing, Muyeong was not a warm person. To be precise, he was closer to the opposite. He had never, in all his life, felt anything resembling goodwill toward another. He simply moved within set rules and boundaries. Being faithful to his role and never crossing the line — that was his principle.
Muksirok knew that about Muyeong better than anyone.
And yet, it seemed he had thought that seeing Yeonwoo might unsettle him. He hadn’t understood it when he’d first heard it, but now he could vaguely guess at what Muksirok had been worried about.
Yeonwoo’s figure filled Muyeong’s dry, expressionless eyes completely. He had acted as though he was about to go wash up at any moment, yet here he was, shifting his weight from foot to foot in place. Yeonwoo’s gaze darted busily back and forth between the door and Muyeong.
He had a small frame — rare in the First Cluster. The features settled on that pale, washed-out face were clearly close to beautiful. It was the kind of face that could earn a stranger’s goodwill for nothing, simply by existing — and yet, watching him read the room so anxiously, it seemed unlikely he’d been raised with much love. That only made him all the more the type to stir something like pity or maternal instinct in others.
But still, Muyeong felt no stirring whatsoever. If he were the sort of man whose heart could be moved by something small and fragile, he would have stopped countless times already — every time new shoots pushed up through the earth. Muyeong decided he would no longer try to figure out why Muksirok had added that warning. He disliked variables. It was likely just a precautionary measure, so there seemed to be no need to attach any particular meaning to it.
[Act as you normally would.]
Just as he always did. He only had to follow orders.
[That body is to carry an heir, so when the time comes, feed him and make sure he sleeps. Protect him well, as befitting a guard.]
Protect.
That word meant more than simply keeping watch. He understood it was an instruction closer to surveillance — to prevent anyone from making unauthorized contact.
Yeonwoo was still only stealing glances outside. At this rate, the awkward standoff looked as though it would continue indefinitely. This was the moment where it became unclear just how far the order not to get involved more than necessary extended. Even so, he couldn’t let the schedule be delayed. Moving according to the fixed itinerary was the priority.
Muyeong asked evenly.
“Will you be heading to breakfast right away?”
“Ye — yes?”
Yeonwoo stopped in his tracks, blinking as he asked back.
“……I am assigned to accompany you for all daily activities. Please let me know and I will escort you.”
“I, I was just going to w — wash up……. I, I need to go out for that…….”
Muyeong’s gaze swept briefly toward the interior of the room.
“Is there a problem with the bathroom? I will request an inspection immediately. If there is anything that makes you uncomfortable, please feel free to say so.”
“Oh, n — no……. Th, that’s not it…….”
His already small voice grew fainter still. Yeonwoo’s lips moved several times before he finally managed to get the words out.
“I, I wasn’t sure if I was a — allowed to use it.”
“…….”
A brief silence passed. A moment later, Muyeong, who had been looking down at Yeonwoo without a single shift in expression, answered.
“This room has been assigned to Yeonwoo.”
“…….”
“That includes the bathroom.”
The no-frills explanation came across as blunt. It was the sort of thing that would make the listener feel embarrassed — but Yeonwoo didn’t feel that. It simply took him a moment to process what Muyeong had said.
This room has been assigned to me?
Yeonwoo, who had been blinking, asked in a halting voice, his expression one of pure disbelief.
“S, so — I, I can use the b — bathroom in this r — room?”
“Yes.”
A short answer came back.
The tone was as dry as before, but Yeonwoo felt oddly reassured by that very decisiveness. Though of course, the disbelief hadn’t fully gone away.
Not leftover bathwater — I can use the bathroom with fresh water directly……?
Hup!
He understood being allowed to stay in the room so he could carry the seed — but letting him use the bathroom too……. Yeonwoo felt something he couldn’t quite put into words.
“Th, thank you. Truly.”
“No, it is the young master’s orders.”
“St, still. Th, thank you. M — Muyeong. And of c — course I’m gra — grateful to the master as well.”
With no further response forthcoming from Muyeong, Yeonwoo bowed his head again and again.
“I’ll, I’ll go wash up qu — quickly and come right out.”
With one final bow so deep it looked as though his waist might snap, Yeonwoo headed for the bathroom in something close to a run. Even until the very last moment, his face held not embarrassment but sincere, heartfelt gratitude. Muyeong, left behind, quietly closed the door and turned away. He stood in a posture as though guarding the entrance.
His expression remained dry. His eyes — dark and flat as dried ink, devoid of any inner light — faced straight ahead. The well-tended garden was groomed daily without a single flaw to find. Below it, a small bird hopping along the ground caught his eye.
One of its legs appeared injured; the small bird couldn’t properly support its weight and hobbled along. It was no different from Yeonwoo moments ago.
Small, fragile, and wounded.
Though the creature itself seemed entirely unaware that it was wounded.
That was what abuse was, after all. It stripped away the ability to think for oneself, until in the end, even being beaten felt like a matter of course.
[Don’t get involved more than necessary.]
The words Muksirok had added now became clear. It seemed he had been worried that Muyeong might develop some useless sense of kinship with Yeonwoo — a fellow victim of abuse since childhood.
A needless concern.
He was, more than anyone, a person who despised weakness.
W — was he angry……?
Yeonwoo, walking behind Muyeong, stole glances at the back of his head — a head that hadn’t turned once. The sight of him walking forward in silence, eyes fixed ahead, felt somehow cold.
He hadn’t been the type to show his feelings from the start. Even so, there was a subtly different air about him now compared to before.
[I — I kept you w — waiting, didn’t I? I’m s — sorry. I tried to come out quickly, but…….]
[I will escort you to the dining area.]
So he was upset after all — because he’d taken too long.
Yeonwoo recalled the exchange from moments ago, anxiety getting the better of him as he gnawed at his lower lip.
It had taken a long time in the bathroom. He’d wandered around because he couldn’t find the soap he normally used. He’d eventually realized he was supposed to wash with the contents of the bottles, but he couldn’t read the labels on the containers, so he didn’t know which one to use. Smelling them hadn’t helped either, so in the end Yeonwoo had to pick one out of three and wash with it.
The beastmen of the Ninth Cluster were all illiterate, but the First Cluster seemed to be different. He’d gathered as much when he saw those precious things lying around so casually. Or perhaps it was just the beastmen living in this house who were unusually remarkable. They were men who radiated an overwhelming presence just at first glance — come to think of it, that seemed more likely.
“…….”
Still gnawing at his lip, lost in thought as he walked, Yeonwoo didn’t even notice that Muyeong had stopped ahead of him. Just as he was about to walk straight into his back, Muyeong wordlessly opened a door. Then he stepped aside as if to say, go in.
Yeonwoo snuck a glance and stepped over the threshold, and Muyeong followed behind at a measured distance.
“……!”
The moment he stepped inside, the attendants waiting there bowed all at once. Reflexively, Yeonwoo also bent into a deep bow. Not quite certain who was bowing to whom.
Just then, from inside, came the sound of a chair being pulled out.
Muyeong had pulled a chair out without a word and was looking at Yeonwoo. Caught off guard, Yeonwoo sat down in the spot Muyeong had pulled out for him, only to feel flustered after the fact.
I sat down before the masters arrived……!
Yeonwoo tried to stand back up but couldn’t. The moment he shifted his weight, the attendants had already wheeled a trolley over.
Oh, wait……?
In front of the empty place where Yeonwoo sat, warm dishes of food were set down one after another alongside cutlery. The attendants’ movements were swift and efficient, without a single wasted motion.
Flustered, Yeonwoo’s gaze quickly searched for Muyeong — but he was already standing against the wall to Yeonwoo’s right.
“We have prepared broccoli porridge, cod fillet steak, and tofu egg soup.”
“Oh! Y — yes…… Th, thank you.”
Once again, a bow slipped out without thinking.
Yeonwoo reflexively dipped his head, then looked up at Muyeong like a baby bird searching for its mother. But Muyeong stood with the air of someone entirely uninvolved in all of this.
They haven’t arrived yet…… why did they bring the food first?
To anyone watching, this was clearly a meal set out for Yeonwoo. But Yeonwoo’s thoughts ran in an entirely different direction.
Ah…… is it because if you’re serving at the table, you have to describe the food too?
Thinking of it that way, it made sense that he had arrived before the men. A flash of Kang Sihyeon’s indifferent reaction passed through Yeonwoo’s mind.
[M — master. Th, this……]
[What, so what.]
He’d been right, then.
Yeonwoo began to fumble over the menu the attendant had just listed.
“Broc — broccoli porridge. Cod — cod fillet…….”
He murmured, small but deliberate in his pronunciation.
Yeonwoo’s head dipped down. He knew it would look ridiculous — practicing words he should already know how to say. He was bound to be laughed at for stuttering.
Still, he didn’t want to make a mistake in front of the masters. These were men who had given him an absurdly generous room and let him use clean water. Beyond wanting to impress them, Yeonwoo simply wanted to do well — genuinely. Being bullied by fellow beastmen was something he was used to by now, so that was fine.
“Cod, cod fillet…….”
The problem was that he’d heard it while caught off guard and unprepared, so he couldn’t remember what the attendant had recited. It didn’t help that everything except the egg was something he’d never heard of before.
“…….”
No matter how many times he went back over it, it wouldn’t come to him. He had been about to ask again even if it meant getting scolded, but the attendants had disappeared, and only Muyeong remained, standing there alone.
“……M — Muyeong…… do you h — happen to know the names of the f — food……? I’m s — sorry. I’m so s — stupid…… if you could just tell me one m — more time…….”
After a long hesitation, Yeonwoo finally managed to get the words out.
“Cod fillet steak, and tofu egg soup.”
Muyeong looked at him for a moment, then answered dryly. No mockery, no irritation — yet the coldness in his voice was still there.
“Th, thank you. St — steak. So it was steak……. And t, tofu egg soup.”
Yeonwoo, unbothered, immediately began to murmur the words to himself. He couldn’t afford to forget again.
“Broc — coli porridge. Cod fillet st — eak. Tofu egg soup.”
After repeating it several more times, Yeonwoo let out a relieved breath. Saying it slowly seemed to help with the stuttering, at least a little.
After one final run-through, Yeonwoo fixed his gaze on the door. So he could stand and bow the moment the men arrived. He lowered his feet to the floor and placed his hands neatly on his knees. Kneeling felt like it would slow him down when rising. With his ears tuned toward the door, he ran through the scenario in his head again and again.
But the door he had expected to open at any moment didn’t budge. The food that had been steaming just minutes ago had long since gone cold. Waiting was fine — but the food going cold was a different problem. With no sign of anyone coming, Yeonwoo’s restlessness got the better of him and he turned to Muyeong once more.
“Muyeong…… do you know when the m — masters might arr — rive……?”
