Stolen Ch 1 part 2

The place where the man named Dochi lived was a few miles from the north gate of the city wall. There were thatched houses with thatched roofs spread out along the stream.

Among them, Dochi’s house was located on a small hill overlooking all the other houses nearby.

Even though it was called a hill, it was only slightly higher than the other houses.

There were two large persimmon trees in the yard. The shallow roof was covered with straw, and the walls were made of mud.

Yi-ryung had never lived in a house like this before.

The blanket was old and held no cotton inside. And most importantly, Yi-ryung had never slept on the floor before.

In Yi-un Palace where Yi-ryung lived, she had a sturdy bed made of paulownia wood, and the bed was covered with silk quilts imported from the West. In the winter, a silk quilt lined with cotton was always used to cover the bed to keep it warm.

There was also a brazier that burned bright red charcoal all day long, so Eunah, her servant, would always watch over the brazier’s fire, making sure it did not go out.

Therefore, until now, there had never been a single winter in Yi-ryung’s life that was cold.

Her shoes were always lined with thick cotton, and her winter clothes were made with new cotton so that they were not too heavy.

But now, there were no blazing hot braziers or silk quilts.

When she left Yi-un Palace, she put some quilted clothes in her bundle, but there were only two or three of them.

She could only bring two pairs of shoes.

But the most disconcerting thing was having to sleep on a thin blanket on a cold floor made up of planks laid on top of dirt.

The wind blew through the mud walls, so there was little difference in temperature between the inside and the outside.

Every time she breathed, white mist escaped from her lips.

‘How am I supposed to live in a place like this?’

As Yi-ryung warmed her frozen hands with her breaths, the door opened, and a man came inside.

The man was holding a brazier in his hand.

Yi-ryung couldn’t have been happier to see the brazier in his hand rather than the man himself.

The man set the brazier down. Rather than good quality charcoal, it was filled with burning pieces of wood.

It was a bit smokey, but now was not the time to be concerned about that.

As soon as the brazier was placed on the floor, Yi-ryung quickly sat down nearby and held out her hands.

‘It’s warm.’

Yi-ryung barely managed to warm herself with the heat of the burning flames.

But as her body warmed up, she began to feel hungry.

‘I’m hungry. Isn’t this guy going to give me anything to eat?’

Yi-ryung cautiously glanced at the man.

The man didn’t say a word while he carried her here.

Not only that, he still hadn’t even opened his mouth.

‘Why isn’t he saying anything?’

The man got up and went outside. She had just started to wonder if he was going to come back when he returned with a table in his hands.

There was a bowl of steaming soup on the small table.

If she hadn’t been hungry, Yi-ryung would never have touched that soup.

But she hadn’t eaten for two whole days.

She hadn’t eaten anything since she found out that she had been raped by a stranger.

She was so miserable that she didn’t even realize she was hungry, and now she was finally starting to feel famished.

Suddenly overcome by hunger, Yi-ryung didn’t even know what she was eating and hurriedly shoved it into her mouth.

Only after finishing her bowl did she realize that she had been eating greedily this whole time. Her cheeks turned red.

As the daughter of a prince and the niece of the Emperor, she forgot all about her dignity and ate the soup. And only after her stomach was full did she manage to feel ashamed.

After the man confirmed that Yi-ryung had finished eating the soup, he took the table and went out, leaving her all alone in the room.

Now that she was left alone, she slowly looked around the room.

There was nothing on the mud walls.

The room was simply plain and bleak.

‘My things…’

Yi-ryung unpacked the bundle she had brought.

The gold and silver jewelry were still inside.

However, Yi-ryung’s interest was not in gold and silver jewelry. She was more concerned about her mother’s belongings.

It was the comb her mother had used and the hair ribbon she had made for Yi-ryung before she passed away.

Her mother had made the red ribbon embroidered with yellow thread for her tenth birthday.

The ribbon and the comb had been carefully preserved by Yi-ryung until now.

‘What will happen to me now?’

Yi-ryung put the comb and the ribbon back into the bundle and softly bit her lip.

Her father told her to live as that man’s wife.

Yi-ryung, her father’s daughter, was dead.

Perhaps the funeral would take place soon, and she would be dead to everyone who knew her.

She was here, alive and well. And yet she was dead.

Yi-ryung, the daughter of the Seventh Prince, was dead. And now she must live here as a nameless woman.

As that strange man’s wife.

She had already been through the worst of it.

Compared to that, wouldn’t being that man’s wife be a little better?

Yi-ryung crouched down next to the brazier and closed her eyes.

It occurred to her that at any moment, the man might open the door, come inside, knock her down, and rape her.

There was no way a man like that would know any manners.

Since he had no manners, there was no rule that told him to refrain from treating her like an animal.

Even if that man raped her, there was no one around to grab and complain to.

Because she was the one who was sent to that man.

* * *

Thud-!

Thud-!

Yi-ryung opened her eyes to the harsh sound coming from outside.

‘I fell asleep…’

Yi-ryung had curled up next to the brazier and fallen asleep without realizing it. She rubbed her eyes and sat up.

An old blanket slipped down from her shoulders.

The man must have covered her with a blanket and left while she was sleeping.

Who else could have covered her with the blanket other than that man?

Thanks to the brazier, the room was quite warm.

But the floor was cold.

With the blanket wrapped around her body, Yi-ryung quietly approached the door and sat down.

Then she carefully opened the door a tiny bit.

She could see outside through the small gap.

Thud-! Thud-!

The harsh sound was the sound of the man chopping wood with an axe.

The man was chopping firewood with an axe in the yard.

There was already a pile of chopped firewood next to him, and the man was swinging an axe without any clothes on his upper body as if he weren’t cold at all.

The man had a thick beard on his face, and his hair was messy and tangled as if it had not been properly cut or combed. He looked like a wild animal.

The hands and arms holding the axe were bulging, and his shoulders and chest moved with each swing.

‘His name was Dochi, right?’

Why was his name Dochi?

‘Does he live here by himself?’

No matter how she looked at it, it didn’t seem like there were any other family members here.

‘How does Father know a man like this?’

Did he learn of this man’s existence through someone else?

Since he was a butcher, a man who slaughters livestock and sells meat, he may have been a man her father met through a servant or someone who takes care of the household chores.

‘What happened to Ja-in and Eunah?’

What happened to Ja-in, who was kicked out with his wrists cut off for failing to protect her, and Eunah, who was beaten dozens of times before being kicked out?

Yi-ryung had been so miserable that she hadn’t even thought about Ja-in and Eunah until now.

Those two people were not guilty.

And yet, because of her, they were punished.

Eunah was a servant who had been by her side as her companion for several years.

Now, she was more like a friend and sister than a servant.

Where could she have gone in this bitter cold?

And what about Ja-in?

Since that terrible incident a few years ago, her father had given her a bodyguard, Ja-in, who had never made a mistake before.

He protected her better than anyone else.

But now that both of his hands have been cut off, what will happen to him?

If a man who wields a sword loses his hands and can no longer hold his sword, his life is as good as over.

The assailant who broke into her room and raped her not only ruined her life but also the lives of Ja-in and Eunah.

In the end, three lives were ruined because of it.

Suddenly…

‘Ah…’

Yi-ryung, who had been peeking outside through the crack in the door, quickly closed the door.

The man’s eyes met hers.

‘Our eyes met.’

Her heart sank even though their eyes only met.

‘W-What if he comes in?’

This room belonged to that man.

It wouldn’t be strange for that man to come in, but Yi-ryung was worried and scared that the man would come into this small room.

But her worries were put to rest when the sound of chopping wood was heard outside once again.

Yi-ryung adjusted the blanket that was wrapped around her body as she listened to the sound of chopping wood.

The blanket was old, but it didn’t smell bad.

Rather, Yi-ryung thought it smelled like the pleasant sunlight, as if it had been well dried in the sun.

* * *

It was only that evening when Yi-ryung learned that the man named Dochi could not speak.

“Pardon?”

The man pointed to the bowl with his hand and gestured for her to drink it all.

As Yi-ryung watched the man make gestures without saying a word, she realized that it was not that the man wasn’t speaking but that he was unable to speak.

“You want me to drink that?”

The man nodded.

After Yi-ryung finished eating the dinner that the man had prepared for her, he handed her a bowl containing something black.

The black liquid inside the bowl was medicine.

However, since she didn’t know what kind of medicine it was, Yi-ryung didn’t move to take it.

“What kind of medicine is it?”

But the man continued to make gestures, asking her to drink it.

‘What should I do?’

Yi-ryung hesitated, but in the end, she helplessly picked up the bowl and took a sip.

‘Bitter…’

The medicine was so bitter that it made her frown.

This was the first time Yi-ryung had taken such bitter medicine.

She originally couldn’t take bitter medicine very well, but now she couldn’t help but drink it.

How could she refuse when this man was staring right in front of her?

She squeezed her eyes shut and drank all the bitter medicine in the bowl. As soon as she put down the empty bowl, the man held something out to her.

Yi-ryung recognized it to be finely sliced taffy.

Since she drank the bitter medicine, he must have cut up some taffy and prepared it as a palate cleanser.

Yi-ryung hesitated before picking up the taffy from the man’s hand and putting it in her mouth.

“Can I ask what kind of medicine it is?”

But she knew that even if she asked him, he wouldn’t be able to answer.

After clearing the table, the man laid out a mat and a quilt on the floor and prepared a place to sleep.

He laid out an old but clean mat, placed the brazier next to it, and motioned for Yi-ryung to lie down.

The man’s sleeping area was on the other side of the brazier.

She ended up lying down next to the man with the brazier in between them.

She hadn’t expected this.

In all honesty, she was prepared for the man to rape her tonight.

Even though they hadn’t gotten married, she was to live as this man’s wife.

Since today was their first day, she naturally thought the man would take her. But judging from his actions, it was clear that he wanted to sleep alone.

Instead of two pillows on one mattress, each mattress was spread out separately so that they could sleep with the brazier between them and maintain some distance.

Of course, it was an unexpected stroke of luck for Yi-ryung.

Although she didn’t know why the man was doing this, Yi-ryung was relieved that she didn’t have to give her body to a man who was still a complete stranger to her.

Even though the lamp that had been illuminating the room went out and it was now dark inside, Yi-ryung could not easily fall asleep.

This was her first night in an unfamiliar place.

Besides, Yi-ryung was afraid of the dark.

There was no way she could sleep in a dark room like this with a strange man right next to her.

The man must have fallen asleep as soon as he laid down because she could hear his low, steady breaths.

All that man did today was work all day and prepare three meals for Yi-ryung.

He did not interact with Yi-ryung in any way except when he was setting the table for their meals.

At this point, she wondered what this guy thought of her.

Yi-ryung tossed and turned.

The room wasn’t too dark because of the flames from the brazier.

The firewood in the brazier burned, casting a fiery glow throughout the room.

Tick, snap.

The sound of the crackling wood, the man’s steady breaths, and the shadows of the firelight flickering on the wall.

Yi-ryung’s gaze rested on the man sleeping on the other side of the brazier.

‘Why was he entrusted with me?’

What a strange man.

What medicine did he give her, and why didn’t he touch her?

There must have been a reason why I was put in his charge.

Was it because he simply needed a woman? Or perhaps he got a pretty hefty sum of money from her father?

She could tell from the way he treated her that he was trying to treat her well.

She could tell that he was trying to treat her well, but that’s all.

He didn’t come near her.

‘Could it be that he doesn’t need a dirty woman?’

That might be the case.

Since he received money and was asked a favor by a high-ranking person, he couldn’t refuse. And since he received money, he needed to treat her well. But he had no desire to take a woman who was raped by a stranger as his wife. Maybe that’s why he was keeping his distance like this.

In the end, she wasn’t welcome here either.

She was just abandoned here, and to this man, she was just a burden.

Sadness surged up inside Yi-ryung as she thought that there was no place in the world that would willingly accept and cherish her.

Tears welled up in her eyes, and she bit her lips together.

Since she didn’t have the courage to die, she had to live like this. She had no other choice.

Yi-ryung squeezed her eyes shut.

The sound of the wind shaking the door brushed against her ears.

The night of the incident came to mind, and Yi-ryung pulled the blanket over her head.

Even though she tried not to think about it, she couldn’t stop remembering it.

She vividly remembered the strange man appearing in the darkness, the hands covering her mouth and forcibly tearing off her clothes, and even the feeling of him spreading her legs apart.

She wanted to forget, but she couldn’t.

The sound of his breaths. Even the feel of his palms.

The only silver lining was that she had no memory of being raped.

Having been hit in the stomach and passing out as a result, her only comfort was that it was over and she had no memory of the moment it happened.

Otherwise, if the memories from that time were still vivid, she really wouldn’t have been able to bear it.

She might have been unable to endure it and hanged herself.

How much time had passed since she covered herself with the blanket?

‘What should I do?’

Yi-ryung suddenly felt the need to go to the bathroom and began to worry inside the blanket.

She hadn’t gone to the bathroom all day today.

Now, for the first time, she felt the need to urinate.

In Yi-un Palace where she lived before, instead of going to the outhouse, she would do her business in the chamber pot that a servant had brought her.

But there wouldn’t be a chamber pot here.

But she’d never been to an outhouse before.

She hadn’t even been to the outhouse that the servants used while she lived in Yi-un Palace. There was no way she’d be able to go to one in a thatched-roof house like this one.

‘What should I do?’

As she tried to hold it in, the urge grew even stronger.

At this rate, she might end up soiling her clothes.

‘What should I do? What should I do?’

Finally, Yi-ryung carefully pushed the blanket away and got up.

The man was still asleep.

She looked around the room. As expected, she didn’t see a chamber pot.

‘It’s nighttime, so if no one is watching…’

In the end, Yi-ryung’s solution was to sneak out to the corner of the yard and do her business without anyone noticing.

With that in mind, Yi-ryung carefully opened the door without making a sound and went out.

The yard was dark.

When Yi-ryung saw the yard covered in pitch-black darkness, she suddenly felt scared.

From a distance, she heard something that sounded similar to the howling of a wild animal.

She could have taken care of her business under the fence, but she was too scared to go there.

She finally mustered up her courage and went down to the yard, her hair standing on end.

‘I-I’m scared…’

She was already easily scared, so how could she not be scared in this darkness?

Just as she stepped towards the fence…

Rustle.

“Kyaaa!”

At the small rustling sound, Yi-ryung screamed and collapsed on the spot.

It was just the sound of crunching leaves as a mouse moved across the ground, but Yi-ryung was already so startled that she covered her head as she crouched down, trembling in fear.

Suddenly…

A hand tapped Yi-ryung’s shoulder.

“Kyaaa! Kyaa!”

As Yi-ryung screamed louder at the touch, the hand fell from her shoulder.

Yi-ryung, who had been screaming, finally mustered up the courage to lift her head.

Then she noticed the face of the man who was watching her as he sat next to her.

It was him.

The man who had been sleeping in the room just a moment ago. He was now looking at her.

The man looked like he had something to say.

He raised his hand and pointed under the persimmon tree.

“Over there… under the tree…”

Yi-ryung followed the man’s hand and soon realized what he was trying to say.

He was telling her to do her business under the persimmon tree.

The man hit his chest with his hand and tapped the ground again.

He was saying he’d stay here.

The man was telling her to do her business under the persimmon tree and to not be afraid since he was going to stay here. She awkwardly stood up.

She walked to the persimmon tree and lifted the hem of her skirt.

She glanced at the man and saw that he had turned around and was standing with his back to her.

It was clear that he did not plan on looking at her while she was doing her business.

Yi-ryung squatted under the persimmon tree and carefully did her business.

The man was standing with his back to her, but he would still be able to hear the sound. She grew embarrassed.

Whoosh, drip-drip, the sound rang out in the air, causing Yi-ryung’s cheeks and ears to turn red.

She wished it would end soon, but it lasted a while because she had been holding it in all day.

After a while, Yi-ryung quickly got up and lowered her skirt.

Then she approached the man who had been standing with his back to her and patted him on the back.

“Thank you…”

Yi-ryung managed to draw out the words of gratitude in a quiet voice.

She was just grateful.

If someone were to ask her to list all the things she was grateful for, she wouldn’t know what to say other than the fact that she was just grateful.

She was just so grateful that he waited for her as he turned his back in this yard on this dark night.

“Thank you… so much.”

As she gently poked his back with her fingertips, the man glanced back at her.

The eyes that could be seen through his thick beard were neither scary nor fierce.

At least, that’s what Yi-ryung thought.

She had been raped by a stranger and abandoned by her trusted father, so she never thought she’d find comfort in a man who seemed strange and scary in a place like this.

Today was her first day here, a day that should have been terrifying and full of fear. But thanks to this man, the first day passed like this.