Crimson Petals ambw ( 18+)

2•

Choi Family Compound

The study doors slammed open, the guards entering and dropping into hasty bows. The servant met Lord Choi's gaze, lips pressed into a grim line.

"My lord, news regarding the slave girl Eolami."
Lord Choi Tae-jun looked up from the ledgers littering his desk, jaw clenched tight. With a terse nod, he bade the man continue.

The servant drew a fortifying breath. "After her...punishment, we left her in the forest as ordered. By morning, there were signs of a struggle. A great deal of blood."

He paused, letting the implication linger like a blackened cloud. "Any remains would've been quickly scattered and consumed by that point. The girl is assuredly dead."

A muscle flickered in Lord Choi's weathered cheek. Slowly, he rose from his seat, hanbok whispering around his imposing frame.

"So the demon met the wretched end she deserved," he stated darkly. "Good riddance to that murderous ingrate, once and for all."

A muffled sob cut through the heavy silence. The study door slid open to reveal Soo-yeon, Lord Choi's youngest daughter at only ten years old. Her cheeks were ruddy and eyes swollen from weeping.

"E-Eolami couldn't have killed Jae-hyun!" she cried, hurrying forward to fall into an awkward bow at her father's feet. "She didn't do it, father..."

Lord Choi recoiled from his daughter in disgust. Before the guards could react, his thick hand whipped out, cracking across Soo-yeon's cheek with a resounding slap. The force knocked the child sideways, sending her sprawling.

"Foolish, sniveling girl!" he thundered, spittle flecking his trembling jowls. "That murderous wretch took your own brother's life! Have you learned nothing?"

Soo-yeon cowered on the floor, cradling her rapidly swelling cheek as fresh sobs wracked her tiny frame. Yet she refused to recant her naive words.

"We were so mean... father we were so mean..." Soo-yeon whimpered brokenly.

"Agassi!" One of the maidservants hissed in a frantic bid to silence the young mistress.

With a guttural roar of rage, Lord Choi raised his arm to strike his daughter again. But another figure surged into the room, stealing his fury.

"Father, excuse her actions!" Min-seo cried, inserting herself between Soo-yeon and their enraged patriarch.

Choi Tae-jun drew himself up to his full towering height, lips peeling back from his teeth like a provoked wolf. He pointed an accusatory finger at his youngest, who continued weeping in Min-seo's arms.

"You dare take that murderous girl's side?" he snarled, advancing on his older daughter with balled fists. "After all she has stripped from this family?"

Min-seo shook her head before speaking: "It's my fault, Father. I will make Soo-yeon understand - the slave brought this upon herself with her bad ways. The fault lies with her and her kind alone."

Her father's face seemed to swell further, the vein in his neck pulsing. But Min-seo hurried on in a breathless rush.

"The servants gossip enough already, I will make sure it doesn't happen again." The twelve year old began. "I beg you, allow me to see to my sister. I did wrong for letting her remain so clueless."

Lord Choi's blustering rage seemed to deflate as swiftly as it had risen. Suddenly he looked every bit the weary, mourning parent, utterly drained in the wake of his outburst.

For a long moment, a fragile silence blanketed the study. Only the soft hitches of Soo-yeon's muffled sobs could be heard over the painful stillness.

With visible effort, he marshaled his dignity, smoothing his robes and features back into an inscrutable mask of noble poise. When he spoke again, his voice was dangerously soft.